O'Brien Day 1 of the War Campaign.
Big Brother has ordered me to wage war against the new continent. Having landed my troops on a small island and taken a village, it could be said that I am now in-continent, but I had to kill the brute that made that quip as an example to others...
Today a nearly fatal move was made in just my first day in command, showing that my troops are not nearly so smart as I thought they were. A djinn managed to stun my dragon flyer and them the fool let himself get trampled by the on rushing elephant. Stupid creature. I should have let it die just for that, but since we need it for tomorrow, then a timely intervention by my healer saved it sorry wings.
We some how doubt how well it will fare against knights...
TS

Goldie,

He saddled his horse and accompanied by a throng of mighty flying knights he rushed westward towards the Capitol of that intruder named Oībrian the ugly.
And then he woke up suddenly...
and started to make plans...

TS

O'Brien Day 2 of the new order.
Big Brother seems to have disappeared..! Here I was expecting a rush of friendly reinforcements and all I get is empty ether... I send my telepathic messages and nothing... Not that they have worked before, so I also send some pigeons. They simply flew off to the closest trees. Hmm, maybe I should train them first.
What next then?? I dont know. I fluked a victory against a village by sending a couple of brutes and then we simply scout elsewhere. Come out huu-mmaaan!!
TS

O'Brien Day 3
In a frantic day, we send Goldstein to the void - we hope he likes it there.
However, the more likely outcome is that I overextended my thrust and this will probably be the end of my ill fated mission...
My reinforcements crossed the river but were slain by some nearby water creatures in the damndest luck! This war does not bode well for the dragon-kind...
TS

Goldie,

Well, while his main forces were enjoying a sightseeing tour through the royal orchard where they were finding plenty oī coin and beautiful artifacts, Goldstein was a bit surprised by the sheer ferociousness - yes, even boldness - of OīBrian!
He did send his general supported by a troll and a flyer directly towards Goldstein and voided him instantly.
Poor OīBrian couldnīt have guessed that Goldstein was as lucky as Fortuna herself when a silly Ponyrider placed himself DIRECTLY onto a guarding stack of a nearby nomad-town one day earlier which led to the fact, that the nomads offered to join for FREE rather then charging a fortune.
This nice circumastance brought him 4 units, a village and a quest which was instantly solved as well.

From the gold-streams, he bought the next nearby village with itīs soldiers which he used to bring down OīBrianīs General and troll.

If nothing extremly bold/clever of OīBrian would follow then he had brought himself into what could be described as dire situation but Goldstein had lived long enough to always be on his guard and always expect the worst - as unlikely it might seem...

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O'Brien Day 4 - the end of Hope.
Today saw our surrender. After losing our general to the luck of the Gods that gave our enemy armies in the right place at the right time, our one true hope of victory has fled. The position you ask and why?
Well, three towns to one (already). I am stranded on an island with no troops to cross and no easy targets with my two troops remaining. Goldstein on the rampage with his general still in tact and support armies enough to progress easily through surrounding villages.
I have been around long enough to see death coming from a distance. I take my leave and my armies back to Big Brother and will return one day you can be sure.
TS

Goldie, day 4

'Now what was that?' Goldstein said, visibly shaken.
A blizzard?
The enemy came as unexpected like Aliīs right fist but instead of knocking the enemy out he knocked himself out.
He withdrew his armies.
From now on they would tend to Godlsteins many gardens...

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Thanks for the game, Ibobs.
It was a very bold move from yourself and I have to draw my hat. It was really due to a combination of good luck that brought this fast end and I agree that you wouldnīt have had any chance now after this loss since Goldstein had the saintly aura spell since the very beginning and in 3-4 days OīBrian would have been crushed.

Wow, that was fast.

Congrats Morgul! But i don't quite understand how a pony rider can cause a whole city garrison to join you for free. Don't they normally charge you a lot of gold?

The fastest defeat ever! (I don't dare say: victory.) - I wonder if the game should be repeated though as it was all just good luck and a game bug!

I'm a bit confused, too, about the logic of this event as Halflings are normally not even "Friendly" to Mr. Goldstein (but just Neutral). So even assuming it was a game bug, it has been rather an obscure one!

[This message has been edited by Bluebaby (edited 09-14-2010 @ 11:14 AM).]

well - Iīm not sure whether itīs a game bug since I obviously donīt know whether the defenders would have charged money at all... I didnīt have the time to check it because when I arrived at the village in day 2, I saw the pony rider which I knew was set to patrol in the map moved on the town so I first thought, damn, now itīs one more defender but instead of fighting, the NOMADS (not halflings! )(not the pony) offered to join for free while all other cities defenders charged money.
apart from that, I had Saintly aura from the very beginning which would have brought an advantage when I had arrived at his island and I had a lot of money from the many tombs and enough mana to summon many frogs.

[This message has been edited by morgul666 (edited 09-14-2010 @ 11:17 AM).]

Which city was it? - As I understand not defender of a city is set to refugee behaviour, so it clearly is not in the intent of the game.

What is "Saintly Aura"? Never heard of it (shame on me!).

well - it provides water walking
Oh - mabye the naming changed due to dwiggs being installed on my PC now that I give it a 2nd thought - that changed a lot. Halflings are called Fey Folk in my game as well since I installed Dwiggs.
So it probably is simply the spell water walking
And it was the town directly to the left of Goldsteins starting town - no idea how itīs called but it was set to Nomad in our game.

- wrong thread, deleted -

[This message has been edited by Bluebaby (edited 09-14-2010 @ 11:40 AM).]

Yes, that bug is unfortunate for iBobs! Sometimes wandering indies can mess up city morale (ps, cities are not set to guard, btw).


Ladies and gentlemen, live at the scene where iBobs surrendered his forces in a brave attempt to kill Goldstein! It seems, with some luck for Morgul, that the tides were turned swiftly.

Morgul666, this is your first victory in this tournament. How do you feel, and do you think you would have been able to retaliate as strongly without the game bug?

iBobs, that is a rough start to the tournament! And you must feel crushed, even though your strategy seemed to work at first! Is this going to affect your other games?

thanks. Well, I think I pretty much said everything already. I believe the chances would have been equal due to the fact that both of us had several positive aspects like him having haste spell so early and myself having the important water walk spell instantly.
I found much money so I could buy a town in turn 3 and after another crypt, I couldīve bought another one in turn 4 (provided that his hasted troops wouldnīt have catched up goldstein but he owned a haste-ring so maybe he could have fled together with a swashbuckler or so on a water hex.

honestly, I donīt feel anything special after this victory because it was so fast and I donīt think the Oceania is a good tourney map. Not at all imho.
My personal opinion is, that the whole map is purely luck and random-driven so the winner is rarely the better player but the luckier one (examples: What finds OīBrien in the Circus, which spells do bnoth have in the beginning, which races have the towns etc...)
a bit random factor here and there is totally okay but - and now comes the most important point - not in fast map!
In a map like hopeīs end (my favourite by far!) it would be okey because this map is not fast at all - Iīd say itīs almost impossible to finish it before day 10 and I doubt weīll see many games that end before day 15 while we wonīt see any game on oceania that ends after day 10 probably.

Please nobody take it as citicism but simply as my humble opinion...

anyhow - Iīm feeling a bit relaxed to have achieved at least one victory although it seems that my other two games are also going pretty good till now and I hope this wonīt change

Yes I am a little bitter as this seemed the only way to win this map for the draconians. As stated in other threads, it seems biased towards the humans so I figured a straight charge, hope that the humans get greedy (which they did) and go for the throat. This worked until all the gold and a fluke gave Goldstein enough forces to retaliate easily. Without the extra troops, I would have had one turn to attack his capital. Maybe he would have run, but I had no chance to find out. It was a brave but ultimately foolish move.

Regarding the map, the draconian have little choice but to head over the water with limited troops. I took the circus in turn 1 and then could take a city in turn 2, but then the humans had gained two extra towns by then and much gold from tombs. I had no tombs or money. My extra troops were slain by indies on the way to backup... Doh.

Basically, you have to win quick or the humans win by greater resources. The defensive option of the island is a nice one, but actually this counts against you in the first few turns as you cannot get over either. Only when on the back foot does this make an advantage, but then it is too late.

Happened in my game, too, but I think it is designed this way - exactly on the opposite side of the map there is another rider - DE Executioner - who I guessed can position himelf in garnison as well for the same effect.
I never playtested this map so I can't tell how often it happens to any side, but it is better to ask Puncturebox it can be rather a feature than a bug.