[Dom3] Ancient's Game

[Avoraciopoctules]

Turn 5

Expansion attack goes well. Again, only minimal casualties, and the death scales in the province make me hope something will come out of a D2 site search.

Someone outbid me on the militia. It's Agartha, so they might not have even made a terrible decision.

This turn, I find myself with almost enough gold to purchase a Forest Ramparts, but I opt to recruit a mage and bid on some sailing mercs instead.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Hello, Ashdod. Care to discuss borders?

Turns 6-7

Thanks to being outbid on several mercenaries, I have just enough money to buy a fort and a second military commander at the same time, so I don't waste capital turns as much as might otherwise be the case. My Lizard Lord can lead expansion to the southwest and south.

This is kind of terrible for my mid and late game, but I wasn't that great at those parts of the game anyways.


Turn 7
Oh boy. The moment I spend a capital recruitment slot on a military commander, I get a hero that does the same thing, but with half the leadership points. Oh well, it's a free thug.

It turns out that my neighbor to the southeast is Ashdod. I stand a chance of losing my prophet and fort to a bless rush next turn. If so, I will probably concede my shot at victory and spend the rest of my game trying to mess them up. Skeletons might wear down their giants, and I can always give my gems to another player willing to declare war on them.

I boost the PD in my fort province. It's a natural chokepoint, so if I repel an attack, I might be able to hold off Ashdod by concentrating my forces. It would be ideal if we could come to some sort of truce for the moment, but I'm not sure what the chances for that might be. Will contact them and ask about short or long term peace terms.

EDIT: Completed turn write-ups

[Avoraciopoctules]

PMed the following offer to Ashdod:

[Dom3] Ancient's Game: Border Negotiations

Yo, I'm C'tis in the Dominions 3 game we both joined, and I see that our nations are neighbors. Your Ashdod giants are in a position to really mess up my first fort construction right now, so I'd like to make you an offer:

- I agree not to invade Ashdod unless it's the last nation left or it attacks me first. I won't weasel around this by declaring the agreement void because you blocked my expansion or something. If I do invade, I will give 3 turns advance notice. In addition, I agree to make a 1-time tribute of gold equal to 10 times the turn number you ask for it (so if you decide to ask for gold in turn 7, then I'll give you 70 gold once I put the funds together).

- You agree to give me 3 turns advance notice if you do invade C'tis.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Border Negotiations, Phase 2:

I receive this PM (which I later ask permission to post)

Subject: Regarding the establishment of borders
Greetings to Kasna, Pretender God of the Nation of C'tis,

We of Abysia are glad to discuss the establishment of borders with your fine nation. We recognize your claim by conquest of the formerly independent province of Hesperia, and have no intention of contesting that claim; we consider province 110 to be necessary to the continued security of the people of Ashdod. We thus have neither access nor claim to the northernmost tip of the eastern continent, nor to the lands beneath the inner sea.

We expect to parallel the coast in our eventual holdings and pretend no claim to the lands under the waters.

If you wish to discuss establishment of a peace treaty we would also be glad to do so, for the continued prosperity of both our peoples and the eventual blanketing of the earth in blazing heat incomprehensible to the pitiful humans.

~ Barnaby Jones, Lord of Ashdod, King of Rock

I conclude that Ashdod seems like a pretty nice neighbor to have, worth collaborating with if possible. The deal I extended in my first PM is accepted. My second research priority is going to be Construction so I can come up with items Ashdod's giants might find useful. Still going to put skeleton armies first so C'tis can expand effectively and defend itself from more aggressive neighbors.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Turn 8

Now that I am at peace with my 1st known neighbor, I can direct my attention southwest. Skelespam is online and I may want to consider taking some provinces. My site searcher has a hall of fame ability that boosts leadership, so I have 4 decent commanders right now. 2 lead the army south, and 1 will lead a mixed heavy infantry and carnivore lizard force after it. I bid on some Barbarian mercenaries. They'll show up in the 3-site province selected in the screenshot. The second site search to really pay off.

I start to name my mages after their magic paths.

[Ancient History]

At this point, Agartha aspires to become a third-world nation of gentle but poor amphibians. Also, anyone want to trade Astral pearls or Death gems? Have earth, water, air.

[Avoraciopoctules]

I would be willing to exchange Death gems for Earth gems.

Also, hello Machaka. Do we want to discuss the diplomatic situation? Depending on the areas to your north you are willing to refrain from conquering, I might be willing to consider peace.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Turns 9-10

I recruit barbarian mercenaries to speed my acquisition of a province that looks easy to conquer. I had my prophet site search so I could keep him on the fort without wasting his time.


The fort is complete, and currently producing basic troops along with Taskmasters, my cheapest military commanders.


Turn 10

All 3 of my expansion attacks go well, even the mercenary barbarians. I set my prophet to build a temple on the eastern front so I can churn out priest/generals instead of cheap lizard commanders. A mage is dispatched as well.


I have a new neighbor, and they look weaker than Ashdod, but I'm not going to do anything to them without making some diplomatic overtures first.


I post, talking to Ashdod, which might cause a shift in orders if they respond.

[Winnah]

Shinuyama has cast off the horde of undead beseiging it's capital and seeks to rid rid the barren lands under it's dominion of barbarians and heavy cavalry.

The world should fear our economic and military might! No really...you should fear us. Please.

[angelfromanotherpin]

So... is Quantum still playing? Ashdod's expansion has stalled hard, and his last post on the forum is from before Christmas.

[Quantumboost]

Vampires randomly deciding to attack your my capital will do that. :/

[angelfromanotherpin]

Ah, okay. My condolences.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Turns 11-14

One of my expansion attacks failed, partially due to not bothering looking at my unit placement and losing a commander. A setback, but not a huge one, and my prophet made it out alive.



I'm pushing into the northwest, hoping to set up a distinct border with Machaka. Since they want conditional peace, I probably won't invade them. Being that aggressive generally feels too jerky for me to want to do it.



My scales seem to have paid a major dividend.



I channel much of the event gold into a new fort.



Turn 12

This time, the barbarian attack doesn't work out as well. I sent the remnants of my mercs north and decide on this as the border I will defend.



Turn 13

The mercenaries are successful in taking the province, and from this point on I will focus on taking the 3-4 provinces I've blocked off from other players. After that, my turns should be pretty simple, as I just set my tiny men to research and wait for someone else to attack me, maybe experimenting with thug designs if I survive to year 3.



I traded a bunch of death gems to Agartha, so now I should be able to make some Dwarven Hammers with my pretender once I research a bit more.



Turn 14

Now I launch another attack on the eastern provinces and try and shore up my border defenses on the west.



Researching Construction at this point, hoping to get what I need to kit out some thugs to defend important provinces.

EDIT: finished turn text.

[Username17]

Llamaserver just told me it received two .2h files when I only sent in one. I assume that's some sort of minor processing blip based on the new year, but there is a very real chance that it is going to fuck up one or more people's turns this turn. Be prepared for a potential rollback if it ends up running the turn incorrectly.

-Username17

[Zinegata]

[in progress]
Turns 11-14

Since your turns are public info anyway... you should probably consider starting to mass-produce clams. You can get the Water 3/Nature 1 needed to make them, and you have Water/Nature gems.

[tenuki]

[in progress]
Turns 11-14

Since your turns are public info anyway...

I had no idea Bradley Manning played Dominions.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Since your turns are public info anyway... you should probably consider starting to mass-produce clams. You can get the Water 3/Nature 1 needed to make them, and you have Water/Nature gems.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. There was a moderately amusing moment in another game where I boosted a Marshmaster to water 4 and only realized clamming potential a couple turns later when I was considering another Robe of the Sea. Maybe I should switch research priorities over to Construction.

[Zinegata]

Since your turns are public info anyway... you should probably consider starting to mass-produce clams. You can get the Water 3/Nature 1 needed to make them, and you have Water/Nature gems.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. There was a moderately amusing moment in another game where I boosted a Marshmaster to water 4 and only realized clamming potential a couple turns later when I was considering another Robe of the Sea. Maybe I should switch research priorities over to Construction.

As long as you're at peace and therefore don't need any combat magics immediately, getting Construction 2 should be a good move for any potential clamming power.

(The end goal being having so many clams by the end game that you can cast Wish every turn).

[Winnah]

There appears to be a slight hosting issue.

The game score tables page has not updated from turn 15.

However the game status page shows turn 16.

I did not receive my turn file. I clicked the Resend Turn File option and received it a few minutes later. Assuming everyone else has the same issue, I took the liberty of 'resending' the turn file to everyone.

I played out my turn, then sent it. The server appears to receive completed turns just fine. I hope I have not overstepped any bounds here, but I did not see the sense in reporting a potential issue without taking any action, especially as I took the same action for my own benefit.

[angelfromanotherpin]

So, I had to prompt the server to 're'-send my turn since it seemed not to when the turn flipped, but it's otherwise good. Before I spend the time on playing it, did anyone's turn go loopy from server madness?

[Avoraciopoctules]

Turns 15-16

Turn 15

Making decent progress on Construction, shooting for 4 at least. Conjuration is now at 2, enough to remotely search for Death sites.


Oh boy, free plaguebearers. They might be useful in the west, so I don't suicide them against the adjacent lancers right away.


Found a free lab in this new province. Kinda cool since 2 mages were used taking it.


Turn 16

Shuffling a mage back to build a lab in the fort next turn.


I decide to build another fort, since I have the gold and the only thing else I could have my commander do as he waits would be search for Holy sites or preach.

[Zinegata]

If I'm not at war and I have the gold after making all other essential purchases (mainly researchers), I would always build a fort. They increase your money production over time, improve your defenses, and give you another recruitment center to build more researchers (for peacetime) and troops (for wartime).

[Username17]

So, I had to prompt the server to 're'-send my turn since it seemed not to when the turn flipped, but it's otherwise good. Before I spend the time on playing it, did anyone's turn go loopy from server madness?

My turn came out fine.

-Username17

[Username17]

The turns didn't seem to go out again, so i had turn 17 "resent" and mine came in. I assume other people got theirs as well.

Atlantis needs Death and Nature Gems. Will Trade Water or Fire Gems.

-Atlantis

[Orion]

is sad that I missed this one