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[PrimusRibbus]

FYI to folks playing on LlamaServer, this notice is now appearing at the top of the page:

8th March: The LlamaServer hard drive became full last night, leading to some confusing "no 2h file found" emails and to all the games briefly disappearing from the website. I think I've restored everything now, but if you still have any problems please drop me an e-mail.
It might be wise to double check the next hosting time for your game, as I just restored them from the last overnight backup and added 24 hours, which might or might not be appropriate.

[EuchreJack]

Promised Nationgen guide, Glorious Kundorf!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Kundorf is bascially Iceland - A land of Fire and Ice.

Primarily a nation of cold monkey mages, specializing in water and air, there also exists a blood influence and Fire/Astral capital only mages.

Perhaps the most interesting development is their Sacred Warmechas, the Frost Destroyers.  Put these bad boys at the front and let 'em go wild, 'cause they're going to die from exhaustion.

Boski is the previous liege of this realm.  While Boski has abandoned these charges, I have often found Boski to be quite eager to discuss strategy and tactics, so any future sovern would do wise to counsult Kundorf's former master.

Archer spam is a valid tactic, what with them being so cheap and all.  Wind Guide will make their short bows better, and the Ether Consorts, with Jars of Flame, would be able to cast Flaming Arrows.

A solid line of Naginata Infantry should be able to hold off attackers while the Archers use the above.  They're also the cheapest resource infantry and use equivalent armor.  They should be reinforced with shielded indy soldiers as provencial recruitment permit.

I strongly advise reinforcing these little folk with Frost Fiends, Storm Demons and lesser blood summons.  At least some Mercurial Bringers will be able to Call Lesser Horrors.  Empowerment with Blood will almost certainly be necessary, so get your blood economy up and running.  Hire some horse tribe units to help with patrolling.

Good luck, young neophyte!

Also:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yes, of course the guide is garbage, but it's no worse than at least a few of the guides out there.  Why would you want to follow strategies that are readily-available to your opponents to read anyways?!

[PrimusRibbus]

Promised Nationgen guide, Glorious Kundorf!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Kundorf is bascially Iceland - A land of Fire and Ice.

Primarily a nation of cold monkey mages, specializing in water and air, there also exists a blood influence and Fire/Astral capital only mages.

Perhaps the most interesting development is their Sacred Warmechas, the Frost Destroyers.  Put these bad boys at the front and let 'em go wild, 'cause they're going to die from exhaustion.

Boski is the previous liege of this realm.  While Boski has abandoned these charges, I have often found Boski to be quite eager to discuss strategy and tactics, so any future sovern would do wise to counsult Kundorf's former master.

Archer spam is a valid tactic, what with them being so cheap and all.  Wind Guide will make their short bows better, and the Ether Consorts, with Jars of Flame, would be able to cast Flaming Arrows.

A solid line of Naginata Infantry should be able to hold off attackers while the Archers use the above.  They're also the cheapest resource infantry and use equivalent armor.  They should be reinforced with shielded indy soldiers as provencial recruitment permit.

I strongly advise reinforcing these little folk with Frost Fiends, Storm Demons and lesser blood summons.  At least some Mercurial Bringers will be able to Call Lesser Horrors.  Empowerment with Blood will almost certainly be necessary, so get your blood economy up and running.  Hire some horse tribe units to help with patrolling.

Good luck, young neophyte!

Also:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yes, of course the guide is garbage, but it's no worse than at least a few of the guides out there.  Why would you want to follow strategies that are readily-available to your opponents to read anyways?!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Re: Frost Destroyers. You don't know Boksi's bless, do you?

[EuchreJack]

Promised Nationgen guide, Glorious Kundorf!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Kundorf is bascially Iceland - A land of Fire and Ice.

Primarily a nation of cold monkey mages, specializing in water and air, there also exists a blood influence and Fire/Astral capital only mages.

Perhaps the most interesting development is their Sacred Warmechas, the Frost Destroyers.  Put these bad boys at the front and let 'em go wild, 'cause they're going to die from exhaustion.

Boski is the previous liege of this realm.  While Boski has abandoned these charges, I have often found Boski to be quite eager to discuss strategy and tactics, so any future sovern would do wise to counsult Kundorf's former master.

Archer spam is a valid tactic, what with them being so cheap and all.  Wind Guide will make their short bows better, and the Ether Consorts, with Jars of Flame, would be able to cast Flaming Arrows.

A solid line of Naginata Infantry should be able to hold off attackers while the Archers use the above.  They're also the cheapest resource infantry and use equivalent armor.  They should be reinforced with shielded indy soldiers as provencial recruitment permit.

I strongly advise reinforcing these little folk with Frost Fiends, Storm Demons and lesser blood summons.  At least some Mercurial Bringers will be able to Call Lesser Horrors.  Empowerment with Blood will almost certainly be necessary, so get your blood economy up and running.  Hire some horse tribe units to help with patrolling.

Good luck, young neophyte!

Also:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yes, of course the guide is garbage, but it's no worse than at least a few of the guides out there.  Why would you want to follow strategies that are readily-available to your opponents to read anyways?!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Re: Frost Destroyers. You don't know Boksi's bless, do you?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Have not a clue.  I don't even know what Boski is using for a pretender.  Although, I'm guessing Boski is using an Earth bless, based on your specifying Frost Destroyers.  Logical, really, as fatigue is what kills them, not anything else.  Although, their hitpoints are a bit puny, they would benefit from either a Death or Nature bless.  Strongly advise whomever uses them to cast Flight on them: They should tear up the rear areas and they're most vulnerable at range.

[Cruxador]

Great stuff thanks! You going to blog your next game by any chance?

Yep. There'll be posts ever Sunday starting with the upcoming, though the first turns aren't until the third post.

I'd start out with a generic human MA nation like Marignon and learn some basic magic like buffing, blowing things up, or spamming undead.

I would say the best choice of nation is whichever one seems cool to you. Games last months, so one of the worst things that can happen is you play your nation and get all read-up and settled, but in the back of your mind it's just a second-best as you prepare for that nation you really want to play. That kind of situation is how MA Ulm, which is commonly recommended as good to learn with, got a reputation for staling and going AI in the first year. Simplicity is nice if it's literally your first game and you're learning the ropes against AI, but when you get into multiplayer you'll find that complexity hinders you far less than you'd previously expected.

Also I'd focus on learning each spell school in vacuum, its simpler and while crosspaths are great most mages that know multiple paths aren't terribly cost efficient anyway.  Just knowing what you can do with, for example, 2 earth and nothing else, can get you pretty far into the midgame.

2 earth is especially great because it lets you cast earth power, which brings you to 3 earth and that has a lot of good spells in Alteration and also Blade Wind, which is a great evocation for shredding unarmored enemies (and is passable against lightly armored).

[Cruxador]

(double post)

[EuchreJack]

Great stuff thanks! You going to blog your next game by any chance?

Yep. There'll be posts ever Sunday starting with the upcoming, though the first turns aren't until the third post.

I'd start out with a generic human MA nation like Marignon and learn some basic magic like buffing, blowing things up, or spamming undead.

I would say the best choice of nation is whichever one seems cool to you. Games last months, so one of the worst things that can happen is you play your nation and get all read-up and settled, but in the back of your mind it's just a second-best as you prepare for that nation you really want to play. That kind of situation is how MA Ulm, which is commonly recommended as good to learn with, got a reputation for staling and going AI in the first year. Simplicity is nice if it's literally your first game and you're learning the ropes against AI, but when you get into multiplayer you'll find that complexity hinders you far less than you'd previously expected.

Also I'd focus on learning each spell school in vacuum, its simpler and while crosspaths are great most mages that know multiple paths aren't terribly cost efficient anyway.  Just knowing what you can do with, for example, 2 earth and nothing else, can get you pretty far into the midgame.

2 earth is especially great because it lets you cast earth power, which brings you to 3 earth and that has a lot of good spells in Alteration and also Blade Wind, which is a great evocation for shredding unarmored enemies (and is passable against lightly armored).

I absolutely must disagree HARD with the strategy of learning anything in isolation.  You end up unable to comprehend how Blade Wind + Strength of Giants + Berserkers can win battles.  Just put it all together from the beginning and muddle through.  If I had seen that advice from the original poster, I would have said something then.  Multi-path mages are GREAT in multiplayer, as your opponent has a harder time figuring out what you're going to do, and you can change magic strategies without changing your mages.

I also agree with the idea of picking a nation that seems cool.  After months of play, learning will occur, lol.

[Cruxador]

I absolutely must disagree HARD with the strategy of learning anything in isolation.

There are stages to learning. Taking one thing at a time first and then putting them together is much easier than putting everything together at once.

Multi-path mages are GREAT in multiplayer, as your opponent has a harder time figuring out what you're going to do, and you can change magic strategies without changing your mages.

This is true in the abstract but depends a lot on specifics of what's available to your nation. If you have mages with two levels* in one path for a good price, they can overwhelm your enemies with such volume that it doesn't matter that they're not as versatile, and be powerful in a quite narrow usage paradigm for the entire midgame. You do ALSO need bigger multi-path mages, but generally you're fine with only a couple of them per army, adding versatility and a wider array of key spells (mostly army buffs) to an otherwise less versatile setup.

*Or even just one, if it's Astral

[Kagus]

I remember trying to play a solo match as EA Atlantis and thugging out the basalt kings.  Wound up doing most of my work with acid storm rather than any thuggery.

Also, losing a 400 gold cap-only StR commander hurts. I'm not doing that again.

[symonthewise]

Started an early age Ur game utilizing all the suggested resources here.

It's going pretty well! Have to figure out what to do about these bat guys that I'm adjacent too now...

Thanks to everyone who offered advice, the game seems to attract helpful people.

For anyone who is just getting started, I have enjoyed cruxadors blogs and also this guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=532t2cQ8gQk&list=PLM7yEwbhGUooISDlRy9rcQ0__senFxmHc&index=1

[Kagus]

Ur... I still haven't figured out Ur. From what little I've read, nobody really has.

Love 'em to bits though. The whole enkidu groove and their recruit-everywhere everythings is great.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Nah, Ur isn't that difficult to figure out. Your units are basically big bags of HP to lavish buffs upon and wade through damage, though besides the Hunter/Reaver_/MaybeArcher you should recruit only your fort stuff since they get the best equipent. Your Shamans should be recruited sparingly since they're only useful fighting, while your priest-mages run support by researching, banishing, performing basic earth buffs and some evocations. Your Ensis lead troops around thanks to their great leadership while 25% of your Entus call down Rain of Stones. Your cap-mages aren't the heavy lifters in the nation, that's what the Shamans are for. Use them to throw down the big spells that you need out instead of the Enfoos. Get some good scales, a good mage bless and some nice path diversity and you'll do fine. EA Ur is kinda like Order Pangea but with giants instead of halfmen after all. I absolutely love them.

[ThtblovesDF]

So how do  story events work?

[AlStar]

So how do  story events work?

Have you ever thought "I need more chaos in my life," or "these independents just aren't causing enough trouble"?

Well, story events are a good way to accomplish both!

Basically, they're high-risk, high reward events/chains of events that are unleashed on your world. A lot of them are tied to thrones - for instance, when someone claims the throne of beasts, the entire world randomly gets groups of werewolves and giant dogs attacking it. Or the throne of death, which causes undead to attack everyone.

"But why would I want random indies causing chaos everywhere?" Well, first, it's fun, but secondly, if you're the one who actually set off the chain (or if you can capture the throne quickly enough) you'll get a bunch of free troops. I forget what the beast throne gives you (probably a bunch of werewolves), but the bones throne gives you some undead commanders and several hundred chaff undead troops.

Other events include unleashing a daemonic portal which will then throw demons at everything until someone manages to make it stop (if I remember correctly, if your mages discover a heavily runed, locked door - leave it alone), and getting a bunch of greater otherness' by sacrificing some population (was related to some fishing village who your mages discover is worshipping Cthulhu.)

[Kagus]

Basically, they're random events that are linked to each other over a certain amount of time/player interaction. A kind of "mega-event".

Which brings me back to Ur, and the special event they can get which says they're gearing up for a fertility festival, so they need a priest-king and priest-queen available in the capital for when it does happen.

If you don't have them both there when the time runs out, there's a big spike in unrest and you get a couple death scales for a while. Fun times!