Dominions 3 MP: Azimuthal

I actually need permanent subs for two of the games I'm currently playing.

In one, I've got a good position on turn 25 as MA Mictlan, currently in the top three or four. F9W9 bless on Jags and Eagle Warriors.

In the second, this game, I'm not in a great position with EA Sauromatia, but it's still early (turn 15), so you can turn it around! This would be a great pick-up for a newb player wanting to get some experience.

Please PM me if you're interested in taking over for me.

I'm wondering if we should we just scrap this game then and start over?

I wouldn't do that to you guys. I'll get my turn in tomorrow and then game on.

Great to have you back in Nate.

Heh. Heh. Heh.

I totally forgot to place my Witch Kings further back.

Hmm, so we have to update to the new version of Dom3? My game crashed when I tried to view my turn.

Yes. Patch is available at the illwinter site.

Scroll down to the Updates section.

Also, it seems that this patch moves where saved games are saved (instead of local/virtualstore etc.), so you may have to shuffle files around.

Thanks, Nate. Yeah, it moved mine also so I had to copy the Azimuthal folder over.

Also, on my Win7 machine I now have to run Dom3 as Administrator so that I can save my turn when I am done. I just finished my turn and went to save and it crashed. Ran it again as administrator, and it saved fine. I seem to remember having the same issue with CoE3.

I would dislike this post if I could :(

I hope it is a good fight at least, my money is on hydra spam(or my priests never actually blessing).

EDIT: nope, line of undead keeping my yavs at bay until they die from horse archer pepper/exhaustion, did not see that coming. It was a long enough fight that I feel I did okay though.



I could mos def use some tips on early expansion against archers, that really creamed me when my first 20 man yav army died to 20 independent horse archers. They did so well in practice against even heavy infantry.

There's an arrow catcher idea that people use. Set some infantry with shields off in front and to one side of your expansion army. Set them on hold-attack or guard commander (though you'll have to keep a commander nearby, and one that might die to arrows). Then put what you don't want hit by the arrows slightly back and towards the other side of the battlefield. Indies continue to fire on what they chose to fire round one until they're dead; at least, that's been my experience. Your Yavs can close without being peppered by arrows.

And that skelli-spam poison arrow combo works rather well against you, especially since I could bottleneck you through the river crossing chokepoint. Most of what you saw was PD. Sauro seems to have some damn good PD.

As Nate mentions, arrow-decoys are pretty useful. You want 6-8 units (to prevent easy routing) with shields and a cheap throw away commander (indy commanders are perfect). with a shield. You stick the shields up front with orders to Guard Commander and put commander in back, out of the way corner. and Script him as Hold X5, Stay Behind.

It works best when attacking. It can be done on defense, but is quite a bit more difficult. It takes some practice and can still go wrong. I might be able to find/make a save with a good example. If I do, I will upload to look at it.. that usually helps.

ahhh stick them to commander. I was using about 10 of my mini bandar heavy infantry and had them on hold and then attack, which only bought me 2 or 3 turns.

Thanks for the extension, Nate. I had my turn all ready to go last night, but our internet went out. The technician is coming out after lunch to get it taken care of for us so I should be all set. It sounds like my modem went kaput.

Looks like we all got our turns in close to on time :)

Oh, also, an amazing run Austen. I'm thoroughly impressed with your province grabs, your forts, your gem income, etc. Even your research is starting to catch up. If the whole world doesn't band against you, we're all doomed.

I'm going to publicly announce that I'm giving warning on the NAP-4 that exists between Hinnom and Sauromatia. It's currently turn 17, so hostile orders can be issued on turn 21 without violating the treaty. Best of luck on the battlefield! I know I'm going to need it.

If anyone else out there wants to join me against the soon-to-be dominating victor, PM me.

ThornFalconeye, I'd like to end the hostilities between our two peoples. If Kailasa is willing to forego any further incursions, you can keep the swamps south of the river. Unless your other neighbors get land-grabby. I haven't seen the new turn, so who knows what heinous acts have been committed?

That was all I had, I am going to go down in about one turn- I am under siege in my capital and I own zero provinces.

"Sir, all sections reporting in - your grand army is awaiting orders!"

It was cramped in the command tent - it always was. The tent was designed for humans, by humans, for the comfort of humans. Even exchanging the central pole for a 17ft high sapling didn't do much because, while it raised the height of the tent, it made it all the more narrower as no one had thought to extend the fabric. Still, at least the 16 foot high monstrosity that lead the armies of fomoria could stand up straight - and turn a bit on his central axis. Really, Rudurol, sub-commander of the Nemedian armies thought, he could just cinch the tent around his waist with a belt and we could meet under his 'dress' and have about the same room. But you don't dare say that. And Rudurol, good sub-commander that he was, didn't as he stood at rapt, and perfect, military attention.

"My orders, Ruds, were given a fortnight ago. They're in the folder on the table."

Ruds. Rudurol repressed a sneer. His Nemedian ancestors were unparalleled warriors - masters of blade and air, undefeated despite a century-long conflict with seven powerful nations. And it was only the addition of an eighth, who crawled out unexpectedly from the drudges of sea and swamp, with clubfeet, one eye and the intelligence of a rock, which forced his proud nation to humbly choose an ally or be destroyed. His name had been passed down from generations of accomplished and skilled warriors and was a badge or pride for him, as were the names of most Nemedians. Ruds? Fuck you, clubbrain.

"Sir, we upgraded the folder order system to 3.28 last month. The new folder for orders sits on the left side of the table, and it is empty."

"WHAT?"

Rudurol continued, "You can plainly tell the difference sir, the new folder has a very pretty little icon on it. See? Right there. Looks like a little demon, or something, with wings. The artist was very proud of it."

The silence could crush a lesser being.

"Sir", Rudurol started, "how about if I take the orders you posted last month, over here in the old folder, and I put them into the new folder and go get them out to the grand army?"

There really isn't a word in any language that could describe the dark, deep, silence that somehow conveyed the very near presence of violence and rage, that permeated through the command tent.

Rudurol decided it best if he didn't await a response, and neatly picked up the folder on the right side of the table, and placed it in the folder on the left, before picking up said folder. If he did it in two steps, to somehow imply how stupid and easy it was, it was a move that was clearly (and luckily) lost on the principal audience. Rudurol, folder in hand, turned and saluted sharply before turning again and leaving the tent.

Walking outside, Rudurol turned a sardonic smile. Perhaps he should be a little more careful. Yes, he was a powerful, decorated and well-acclaimed warrior. But all his tricks and skills would be hard pressed to succeed against a literal ton of rage. Wonder if they really do rut with elephants when they can't find their own kind. Rudurol suppressed a shudder, and went about his business of ensuring the army got their orders properly this month.

We don't have an NAP. Feel free to come at me any time you like. Though why you'd want to hand the victory to Austen is baffling to me.

It's the pie of course. We make _really_ good pie.

Blood pie?

Uhh.. we uhhh... we don't really make a habit of listing the ingredients... we sort of abolished the FDA here a while back..

Heh. I was hoping he'd attack me. :)

Whoops, somehow I let that turn get by me. New turn's in at least. Apologies for the stale.

New turn and what do I see? Invaders to the east, south, west and north! This seems fitting. Bring on the corpses!

I've got to delay the game for at least 24 hours. Sorry, guys.

Strange little things...I saw your iron maiden vid josho, and tried to watch it, but it's "not available in your country", so i'm like fine, i'll go find a version i can watch - it's been a long time since i listened to maiden (i loved them in high school, but stopped listening after about seventh son)....so I'm looking for number of the beast, and stumble upon fear of the dark, which i'd never heard before and have been listening to pretty incessantly since...

And with that, here on turn 21, we bring you another DOMINIONS HOT ACTION UPDATE! If it sounds like there's a chanting, clapping, crowd in the background and a particular cadence to the update, it's probably just your imagination. But we'll also say that it's fine to read it that way too.

Overview:
As easy space becomes harder and harder to find, nations are making friends, provoking enemies and conflicts look set to alight. Hinnom has emerged as the clear leader, leading or contending for the lead, in all major categories. Still, apart from Sauro, all nations are still healthy and strong - and the time between now and the next update will likely be a critical time for all nations.

Provinces:
On turn 11, Hinnom was leading by 5 provinces over both Fomoria and TC, with 20 independents left. Turn 21 finds Hinnom's lead increased even further, broadened by an aggressive naval campaign. Now Hinnom leads by 11 provinces, with 28 to TC, Fomoria and Mictlan's 17. Only 3 indy provinces remain, though one of them is apparently being utilized by Bogus for a picnic of sorts. Of the 17 provinces that disappeared, unsurprisingly Hinnom took most, but also notable was Mictlan's successful conclusion to what we call here in the office 'Operation poop and scoop' and destroyed Kailasa. Oh, monkey people, your brand of irreverent opinion sharing, which also substituted as your principal missle weapon, will not be soon forgotten. Around the world, this absence of lebensraum is apparently behind what we'll call isolated skirmishes reported on the Ermorian border. Rumors run amok, but at least one credible source claimed that a xenomorph may be involved.

Forts:
Operating under the assumption that if 'one fort is good, five is better', Mictlan 'the Maginot Line' now has one third of its territory forted up and leads the field in this regard. All other nations are in the 1:5 ratio range, with the exception of Lanka who apparently has adopted a 'free-range' demon philosophy and still has only one fort (the astute would note this is a 1:14 ratio)

Income:
Unsurprising - maybe because it has lead this metric for the entire game - Hinnom is still in the lead. What is perhaps more surprising, is that Hinnom has managed to increase income at a higher rate than it's increased provinces - growing income by 66% over the past 10 turns, as opposed to only 40% province growth. Mictlan also deserves mention, as it has had substantial increase in income too - up 47%, but like all the other nations, this is relatively inline with its province growth. In absolute terms, Hinnom's lead over its nearest competitor(TC) is about 5000g, with Fomoria and Mictlan trailing TC by one to two thousand. Rumors abound as to what Hinnom does with all this excess cash, but sources close to Fomoria report a notable spike in the price of female elephants recently.

Gem Income:
TC has just barely squeaked ahead in the gem income department - gaining 5 gems last month to lead Hinnom 40-39. Though the race between the two has been neck and neck, in absolute terms, Hinnom still has a substantial lead of about 50 gems - meaning that if nothing else changed, TC wouldn't be leading in gems for like 5 years. Maybe more interesting is the absolute dearth of gems in the some nations - Lanka, Fomoria and Ermor, combined, do not make as much as either of the leaders.

Research:
As in the last update, Ermor still leads this vital category. But unlike last update, its hold on this position is threadbare, with about 130 points above Fomoria, Hinnom and TC - and at current rates of full research, is likely one turn or less. Also, at these levels of research, 130 points becomes less and less significant. Mictlan and Sauro trail, and of these two Sauro is in the biggest hole - not because of the research, but because of the absence of forts and labs - recovering lost ground in this position is very difficult - but we salute our scaly, cold, and somewhat sinister snakepeople - shine on, you crazy diamonds.

Dominion:
Hinnom holds the lead here still, but the field has pretty much stabilized - no one is running away with dominion at this point. Of note, perhaps, is Mictlan's attempt to reach out to its young people with it's new religious slogan: "Believe in us, or we'll paint our houses with your blood." Gotta admit - not only is it catchy, but it somehow it just makes me glad to live in Fomoria.

Army Size:
Hinnom has displace Mictlan as owner of the largest armies, but all nations, save for Sauro are now fielding significant, and similarly sized armies. We'd say more, but we're kinda tired and our wife wants us to get up and do something today. So we're going to.

And that's your DOMINIONS HOT ACTION UPDATE for December 15th, on turn 21.

These reports are always awesome! Tell me though do you track these numbers manually? I always think the insight into the raw totals on things like gem count is interesting, but I don't know where to get it. Is there a resource I don't know about, or do you just track them?

I'm assuming pyrhic has copied and pasted old llamaserver numbers from the scores page for analysis.

so, who needs nature gems, cause santa brought me an early christmas gift

So, for any of you still sitting on the sidelines - the fact that hinnom can shrug off three full nations at once, and still move ahead, should convince you that you need to act now while you still can.

So.. time for me to do what I do worst... diplomacy! :)

I'm new to the games on here, but I am really bad at diplo... I tend to treat that part of the game as a series of tedious facts and fact checks and not as a propaganda war (which is what it really is). So here's the view from Hinnom:

• I'm not in a full on war with three nations. Or at least if I am, I honestly don't know who the third is (as I said.. I'm bad at diplo). I'm _am_ very much in full scale war with Fomoria and Ermor.
• I am not shrugging it off, and I am certainly not moving ahead. I am down on provinces and down significantly on income.
• Fomoria is likely asking for extra help because I have managed to win some fights against him. Ermor meanwhile is sitting squarely in the middle of my kitchen with two very large armies that I'm not sure what I can do about.

Also, in the interests of clarity, I am the defender here. I'm not looking to go after anyone. I would love if this war ended and we all went back about our merry lives, but no one ever seems to like that idea.
It's probably worth noting that Fomoria and Ermor have most/all of their teams in and around my kitchen. If anyone were to attack them, they would prob be able to get a nice run of provinces pretty easily. I should prob also point out that if there is more piling on, then I will really just be reduced to being king-maker and that won't really make the game any better either. :(

The fact is Hinnom is the strongest nation in the game. I managed to leverage an early advantage in the war by positioning and taking down undefended provinces but how long that lasts is uncertain. If anyone wants a real shot at winning this, there are provinces up for grabs. The graphs I'll admit are open to interpretation, but with 4 fortresses and a huge income and supply capacity behind it, Hinnom has a chance to develop some very strong armies, as well as a capacity to strike from multiple fronts with the dominance in the water. This combination of facts and inferences should not to be taken lightly.

It should also be mentioned that Hinnom fired the first salvos in this war with Ermor with 2 sea invasions and 1 land invasion. Defender? Yes, that may be the case now, but we will never forget the corpses you left behind.

In Austen's defence, our diplomatic discussions were fair and reasonable.