Game #70 | cbower vs Hiliadan

For the 2 giants, was it charm or quests? I guess charm because I never saw quests giving giants. Now I understand because I was wondering how you did that! It's interesting!
Did you use oil skin to debuff them?

It's my first PBEM game as a Dwarf Dreadnought and my 2nd game (3rd or more if you count the campaign) in total, so I am not yet very familiar with the class and made some research mistakes - the biggest, that may have influenced the outcome was probably to fail to go to 30 CP to be able to cast the spy drones in 1 turn, combined with the choice of a capital site without mana source, which left me with a drought of mana -. I also made a mistake by over-estimating my troops against a site which got my Necro hero killed. :S

When I saw that cbower had already a dwelling, I decided I had to take it down before he could build giants. Then I discovered his leader stack already had 2 giants... -_-b I was not in a good position and decided to try it anyway. So I assembled my 2 stacks and went for a fight. As mentioned above, I over-estimated my strength and got my Necro killed, but it was too late and I moved forward. cbower was moving to reinforce his dwelling and I lost track of his leader (because of the lack of mana and drones + attacks from his crows). When I took the dwelling, I discovered the leader was already closing on me (I had expected to have a bit more time before he came back). I calculated he could not reach me but I actually did not see him, I just saw the ogre and thought the leader must be next [I read your report just after and it appears you were not adjacent to the ogre then? so 1 hex closer than I thought]. That + I apparently mistook 1 arctic plain for 1 artic swamp and my calculation was wrong: the next turn after an epic battle, my leader was dead with all my army.

2 turns later, his leader should be at a few hexes from my Throne. So I rushed Golem productions. As expected, he appeared 2 turns later. I tried a last fight but the Golems got played very badly by the AI and anyway, it was lost.

Well played cbower! And very interesting game report, it shows how much I ignored!

Match has been reported, please confirm!

This was a tough game. So this is my 2nd game on tournament settings. On these small maps, far start doesn't seem to give much space. Hiliadan pressured almost immediately. About turn 5 he sniped my throne. I had just hit found some scrolls and gold and was rushing a bard. I wanted to see if I could charm up an army with bards. Luckily my units were close by and I reclaimed it that turn, but the move move cost me 120 gold and 10 mana. My starting lands was surrounded by wetlands, slowing my movement, but fortunately there was a giant dwelling nearby. So I stayed close, built bards. Through quest and charms, I was able to get an ogre and 2 giants. I was pretty excited, but the early t4's put my economy in trouble, just as I got them lost souls took my throne. I had to split my army and I was losing 60 gold per turn. I had to take back my throne, guard the giant dwelling, and clear for money. So I put my leader stack on the move, the only sites were a couple turns away. I was forced to sell items to stay afloat. So I crossed the bridge and went for a wizards tower. Hiliadan saw leader stack coming. I was hoping this would buy me time. However Hiliadan was not deterred by my giants. In retrospect not only was this a bold move it was the correct one. Hilliadan did not need to defeat my giants in battle, my economy was weak if he could raid my home base I would fold. He didn't even need to pull off razing cities. Just taking my dwelling and throne for a turn, forcing me to chance, would have crippled me, if he could just prolong the chase.

He pressed on with his own leader stack. Now He had position between my leader stack and my dwelling and throne. My reserve forces were not enough to deal with him. His champion boar rider's were strong enough stack fresh off the wizard tower fight were too injured to rush into an engagement. In short we were stuck in this wierd triangle. I had to stay close enough to respond to his movement, but not so close as to get caught. I distances were just far enough that I couldn't find a way to join my two armies. It felt like Hiliadan had the upper hand. My whole game came to a stop while I tried to heal and position.  I was losing gold, and I couldn't clear. Unfortunately I had decided to abosrb the dwelling instead of making it a vassal. At the time I was so confident that I could push Hiliadan back with the giants that I wanted the extra income and production source, that was a rather large mistake. I could not push past his leader stack, I could now only deal with it with my own. 

Finally Hiliadan crossed the bridge, and we were locked in. There was no going back for either of us. He was now in position to hit the giants dwelling. I evacuated the garrison but kept them close by. I move all I could with my leader to the bridge. I don't know if Hiliadan knew I was on the bridge. But he could hit two targets now. The giant dwelling with no garrison or my leader stack on the bridge. He couldn't stay put because I could join my armies if he did. The bridge would have been a tough fight his 2 level 6 heroes and gold boar riders vs my 2 level 6 heroes, 2 giants, mammoth rider, pikeman, Knight, and crow. My units had some injuries still, the frost giant was 1/2 health, and very few medals on my units. Hiliadan choose the giant dwelling. He said he counted hexes and thought I could not join with my leader stack. I am assuming he had counted from a turn or so out, since I had destroyed his scout and he did not cast one on the turn he took the giants. He could not see me on the bridge without pulling off course. So That is my guess. It turned out to be a game deciding thing. I was able to join my armies from opposite sides. The poor positioning meant my reserves got destroyed put it mostly kept my leader stacks intack. I outnumbered him 14 to 7, and was left only with 5 units, my heroes, my giants, and the mammoth rider. Even split it was an impressive, showing just how strong his stack was. I had the ogre trailing. So I had enough leftover to go straight on the offensive, and the lose of units righted my economy. Hilliadan was able to pull together some golems but it was just not enough. Still that convinces me if his offensive was able to buy more time, I think he would have been able to out class and out produce me.

good game

Response to Hiliadan. I got an ogre and from a quest. We were at peace. They had 1 ogre to the left 3 ogre on the center and 2 giants and an ogre to the right. I was able to hit the left and face ogres first. I they split and charged. I had 3 bards and my leader so I had 4 charms. It took couple charms but I got the first ogre. I used him on the front vs the oncoming 3 I got a second ogre. Lost one of the ogres in that fight other one badly injured. The result left the giants and single ogre together. I used my ogre's to take the first hits to get the giants off gaurd Frost Giant was 35% and the Stone Giant 40%. With 4 shots and being able to out number them and use the ogres as blockers it's not that risky. At that point I had a 70% chance to get one, getting 2 was lucky, not sure what the exact chane was but I would guess some where around 30%. I wish I had some debuffs though, just didn' work out that way this game. The bigger thing honestly is being able to get the right positioning to split them. Much too risky if they have all 7 together. But honestly I don't play rogue too much, and I think it showed in the fact I didn't handle my economy well enough to bring in the charmed units. Honeslty I am starting to wonder how cost efficient getting those Giants is. They are a difference maker if you can clear and level them, but you need time space , and money, even then it limits what else you can do. They are not exactly Dragon or Angel good. Not sure what I think in the end, I almost think one is good, and two might be too much that soon. 1 will help you get a jump on big sites and you can feed them experience. Just not sure that early if you can really afford 2 for it to be worth it. I don't know.

This has been a tough game. So much time these last few turns spent on checking movement. Artic lands look very similar. Glad to be done with that awkward triangle. In order to get there I had to give you a shot to hit my leader. There was 6 v 9 on the bridge. (Maybe 7/8 if you could cast a scout or research seafaring) Which I think was my favor, but both sides would bleed for sure. Honestly those boar riders had great stats and fought well. For all my plotting I think I was hasty I should have put the weak stack on the mountains. Poor placement caused more losses. Not that I am complaining it was a good fight and overall I was fortunate to have the opportunity . I'm out for the rest of the day, looking forward to this game though.

Looks like I mistook an artic plain for an artic swamp... Had it been a swamp, you should have lacked 2 movement points to move your leader stack next to me. :'(
Nice fight on this dwelling!

No worries it happens.

Game just crashed at the beginning of my turn, so I need to reload. I have screenshots if needed.

Clearly there is no problem with the tournament as you said, olschenstein had the screenshots. Just try to pay more attention next time.

For this game, it's ok for me as I said. Just have to go to bed now (sorry, I'm afraid I cannot play as fast as olschenstein). I shall crush you in due time (hopefully!)!

So I believe my first game was firmly covered under your 2nd rule in anycase. If you are concerned with it I still have the screenshots. If you want the settings different, I can re host and repost the links settings used. I posted them so you could verify before the start. I try to be responsive to post here, so if you need a change I will try to do so quickly. Or just host it yourself with the settings. I have no problem with restarting in either scenario. Those settings don't make much difference to me so whatever you want is fine. 

The screenshots were posted and he reviewed them and agreed to the match. I don't think he has any issues with it. 

It's few cities and few dwelling. But let's play like this.
I hope olschenstein checked for your tournament game.

I have rehosted with the below settings. Same password. Sorry for the setup issues. Please verify and let me know if there needs to be any changes. Additionally if you want to host, I have no problems with that.

Map Setup
Map Geo

No worries, it only takes like 5 minutes to rehost better to have it right. The game is back up with the same password "battle".

Sorry, as I said, I was on business trip and got home only today. I started to join but I found 2 errors in the setting: one is not a big deal - no beacon instead of 2 - but the other one is more problematic: you put auto resurgence on.
So I suggest you recreate again. Sorry! But I'll be quicker to join now.

Sorry Someone joined the open one, So I have rehosted it with a password. The password is "battle". Please join when you get a chance. Let me know if you have any issues.

PBEm 2015 Settings game.

Hiliadan joined !!