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Game #119 | PBEM 16 - Beginners

Eskild vs  MARKYMARK vs  xlnt vs  speckbretzel


Match Details

Played:2016-01-16
Savegame
Rating 2 - Nice Game
Amount of Humans:4
Kind of game:   PBEM
Game-value: 56
Result Player Classes Races Team Points Extra Points Missed Points Quitter Rate
1 EskildRogueDwarves345220here
2 MARKYMARKTheocratHalflings152-40here
3 xlntTheocratOrcs200-98here
4 speckbretzelNecromancerElves400-98here
Posts to the game:

Finally my keyboard is not bugging me my not wanting to let me use the "space", "b" and "v" keys - so time to report this one. This was a very nice game for me, even though I think it got lucky by being offered peace from Melenis (Marky) at around the time when we first met around a naga dwelling in the middleeastern part of the map. At the same time I was suddenly getting heavily pressed from the western side of my realm by Gorbalok (xlnt), and I had to quit my marching plans in the middle(north)eastern region of the map to rush home to defend my capitol. At the same time I had an unlucky fight in the underground, where I had a solid aspiring necro hero who lost his life afterwards against independent undead roamers. I got quite lucky early on as my leader gained a flying mount, so I was able to rush home, both with my leader and my two other heroes in time to make the siege of my capitol a hard nut to crash for Gorbalok. Due to hampered income, I had to charge into the fight (probably wisely) with Gorbalok instead of letting him call in extra reenforcement and being able to attack me with 4 stacks. So my heretically marked troops went into the long shot fight and came out victorious. From then on, I was able to take his cities (which included my former dwarven vassal neighbors) one by one, and used the rouge war of attrition to make his troops unhappy. So, well played xlnt - I should probably have charged you earlier, but how the outcome would have been of that is uncertain, probably you would have had the upper hand, as is shown from your screens of the score early midgame. Thanks for the game to all of you, would certainly like to meet again on the fields of battle. Cheers, Eskild. Download

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Confirmed by xlnt
My 1st ever pbem game - i played conservatively (due to fear - haha) and ignored a Silver medaled FirstBorn when we 1st met with Esk. That is how he got his vassal town to stick around. I traveled north to find my 2nd neibghor (elf necro). I only saw 1 underdeveloped town and decided to let the player enjoy the game and i started getting towns, units and scouts. After clearing every single unit/dungeon on "my" part of the map - i started to make my advance towards Esk. Turn 29 i was infront of his capitol with superior forces and i had captured 2 important towns from him (well - one was a very nice outpost really). Then there was my time to learn a lesson in tactics: the AI said i'll lose any attempted battle ):

i got my army killed and i retreated and kept on playing, but i only managed to slow Esk down to turn 45, when i lost my capitol and leader. I should have just gotten my tier4 (9 turns left at turn 29) and let Esk deal with gold/mana issues. Next time!


user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Confirmed by MARKYMARK
Was a very good game. Nice Players, fast and an excellent winner.
So i use top Rating to this game!

In the naga City (near Center) i have found eskild and we maked diplomacy, Money against Mission. So we had not maked two-front war.
He maked war against XINT, i look to the other side of the map.

In this game i had some Problems with indepedents, lost some cities,
so i was not so strong in the end of the game. had only two heroes stacks and no t4 unit. So i was too weak against Eskild.

Before i have tried the defense of speckbrezel and won it with my hero stack. Lost only 2-3 units.
After I see, he has not many Units and took his capitol too. So i got second place.




user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Confirmed by Eskild
Confirmed by Eskild

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Confirmed by Eskild
Confirmed by Eskild

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

119 | Age of Wonders 3
Match has been reported, please confirm!
Back to the game page

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

119 | Age of Wonders 3
Finally my keyboard is not bugging me my not wanting to let me use the "space", "b" and "v" keys - so time to report this one.

This was a very nice game for me, even though I think it got lucky by being offered peace from Melenis (Marky) at around the time when I first met "her" around a naga dwelling in the middleeastern part of the map. At the same time I was suddenly getting heavily pressed from the western side of my realm by Gorbalok (xlnt), and I had to quit my marching plans in the middle(north)eastern region of the map to rush home to defend my capitol. At the same time I had an unlucky fight in the underground, where I had a solid aspiring necro hero who lost his life afterwards against independent undead roamers.

I got quite lucky early on as my leader gained a flying mount, so I was able to rush home, both with my leader and my two other heroes in time to make the siege of my capitol a hard nut to crash for Gorbalok. Due to hampered income, I had to charge into the fight (probably wisely) with Gorbalok instead of letting him call in extra reenforcement and being able to attack me with 4 stacks. So my heretically marked troops went into the long shot fight and came out victorious. From then on, I was able to take his cities (which included my former dwarven vassal neighbors) one by one, and used the rouge war of attrition to make his troops unhappy.

So, well played xlnt - I should probably have charged you earlier, but how the outcome would have been of that is uncertain, probably you would have had the upper hand, as is shown from your screens of the score early midgame.

Thanks for the game to all of you, would certainly like to meet again on the fields of battle.

Cheers, Eskild.

Download
Back to the game page

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Eskild Units were too strong. Congratulations, please not forgot to Report this game!

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

GG xInt.

Hope we find us again in a game.

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Esk - it was my pleasure to play this game and i learned a lot from you - good luck and hope to have a re-match some time around (;

my screenshot: http://imgur.com/k1tytpn />
i clearly had no idea how to use my advantage (;

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Sorry for being an a**hole. Xlnt - I couldn´t resist attacking your last standing stack and taking your capital, impressive play you managed, I was very lucky on several occasions against you. Especially in the big battle just out of my capitol, where I think I easily could have lost to you, and several circumstances allowed me to get back into place... Thank you for a good game. Now we´re down to a duel...

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

This game served it's purpose and i'm thankful to all! If you 2 (Esk and MM) want to keep playing i suggest you both attack me - it will not be ok if only one of you takes all the 10-ish camps/towns i made

i make over 300 gold and 120 knowledge and i don't care how much mana per turn (;

Esk managed to reach my army last turn so i'm beaten anyway - i have defenseless towns, 1 hero left and may be 1 stack and a half of troops );

IF you both decide to let me get my Tier4 (2 turns!) and try some end-game battles - i'm in!

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Beated speckbrezel on his capitol. Lost some troops and some heroes. But i has conviced a not-buyed hero from him, so i was stronger than normal. My other troops had convinced a neutral cities with Mission so i get some troops more.

@speckbretzel: are you interested in further games? Some games are still open and we Need some Players.


Now i'm in a Position to go in war with xint or with eskild. But they have war, maybe it is then like 2vs1.
Maybe using some diplomatic channel.

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

xlnt has written at 16/12/2015, 11:58 AM >>
thanks for the comments guys - i'll try to be more patient in future games (; i just love rush-ing and fighting with middle-tier units/spells/skills ect.

maybe my expectations are plain wrong and i should adjust or just come-up with new tactics - hehe

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Hiliadan has written at 16/12/2015, 06:24 AM >>
It's difficult to comment without seeing the force from Eskild.
However, I think you can trust it that you will lose when it's 4 vs 3 and Probable defeat. I had a Probable defeat vs cbower in our game on a siege and I won it but there were not that many units involved and I had 40% resistance to lightning and he had mostly that kind of damage. Also, I was able to do some (limited because it's a siege) positioning to split his units somehow.

What I learnt in my latest PBEM game is that you should rather be prudent!

Bleeding your enemy out of gold is definitely a good strategy. I did that against Olop in the round 1 of the tournament and it worked. His army was equivalent to mine, even possibly better, but he had only his capital and I had 3 cities + a dwelling, and I had just to wait 5-10 turns before his units started rebelling.

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

xlnt has written at 15/12/2015, 09:19 PM >>
it's a learning game so i'll leave the screenshot if it's ok with the rest

not sure how i was supposed to play this in order to win - maybe just limit the opponent's gold sources and win the economic war or just wait for someone else to fight first and beat both their remaining forces?

i get bored when the games turn into economy wars and defensive stand-outs );

my lesson so far is that when you feel you have the upper hand - you stop attacking and start bleeding them of gold so they can't make new armies and only attack with double armies or sm.th. like that

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

cbower >> AI battle chances
I am not sure how these are calculated exactly, but I think it has more t do with the the tier of troops involved. Also I think calculation can overstate the benefit of walls and heroes. Heroes in my opinion are very powerful in the hands of a player, but often not used well by the AI. Or at least I am have trouble building the right kind of hero for auto maybe.

The battle calculations does not seem to take into effect abilities. A t3 Sphinx vs a t2 sun guard will read very likely victory for the sphinx even though the sphinx has almost not shot of winning. For that matter I don't think the calculation takes into account medals. It appears to me to treat a champ 2 the same as a regular unit. 

For me  these are the things I consider

calc  
Medals
abilities
status effects
position

If I am losing the auto calc fight the other factors need to be shading to my side. Still I tend to push it, because this game rewards aggression. 

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

xlnt has written at 15/12/2015, 06:40 PM >>
this is the reason why i didn't attack:

http://imgur.com/rZxrcmW

i'm not sad or mad - i just want to know why (; Also - thanks for the comment Esk!

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Eskild >> I will probably get destroyed...
Edited - and new comment...

New comment: Thank you for the screenshot, I guess you might remove it before the game is over so you don´t give anything away (regarding your own troops) to the other players in this match - thanks for hiding mine. I had a similar screen on my turn before I decided to attack. If you want genuine comments on the screen you posted, I guess you have to show my troops as well, but maybe we should wait for that till after the game?

Old edited comment: I was surprised to see your post xlnt.

I think you have played very solid, not that I know much about the solid game in PBEM. I didn´t get why you didn´t attack me last turn, you could have wiped everything, taken my capitol with my leader in it and thus eliminating me. So the surprise of the turn was that I was still standing. I didn´t know that you did not attack before starting my turn. I think you should have attacked, but that is just an opinion and as said it might not be a solid/valid/wise statement.

The only comment I can give is that sometimes you have to do the autocombat fights the computer tries to "talk" you out of by stating "probable defeat" or even "very likely defeat". I had to do that sometimes.

Nevertheless, I´d like to hear the other players comments to your question as I could also learn something from that.

Cheers.

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

xlnt has written at 15/12/2015, 11:11 AM >>
I'm sure i know nothing about the game now - i managed to get into a fight with 4x6 units vs 3x6 units, i have more T3, more Heroes, all i could have done is more and better and the AI said i'll lose the battle terribly );

Eskild will destroy me (and i don't care about that - just saying) and i don't know what i did wrong or how to be sure i'll win the auto-combat (;

if i'm playing the battle - i'm sure i can win, but the AI is not as ...mean (;

please comment on final battles and the end game - i need to learn from this game

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

cbower >> xint
I think you will enjoy and do well at PBEM. Mostly they are quicker games and clearing effectively plays a large role.

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

xlnt has written at 01/12/2015, 01:49 AM >>
Thanks for the replays!
I now feel good about taking Dungeons early on, this is turn6: http://imgur.com/w4M5BgR
i'll move on learning how to take some legendary sites like the sphinx..whatwasthename
i'm also ok with NOT researching combat tricks BUT some are just so great... stiffen libs is nutts!
About possitioning - i hate it when curse succeeds and i needed it to miss(-50%mp) - hehe

in all my 765h. (according to Steam) with the game i have never gone into a Mystic Tower - games never last that long - haven't seen most tier4 units too and i'm afraid i don't know how to play the long game at all!

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

cbower >> Combat Spells
I mostly agree with Hiliadan on combat spells, I almost never research them. I usually just try to make do with what I start with. Though the start spells really do impact my specialization selection. I will say I do often get them on heroes to help in clearing. I know clearing will run out, but I find winning the clearing race to be both important to the game on a resource level as well as psychologically. 

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

cbower >> buffs vs debuffs
I think your focus might be wrong. Debuff's like Slayers doubt still do give an effect 100% of the time. The fights are more about positioning then anything else. Even if Slayers doubt fails you 1/2 the units movement. The rest of the enemies move in, allowing you to split the fight on turns. I use shout constantly, Panic is just cherry, what I am after is the split. It is always important to think of the secondary effect and how that plays. In my humble opinion against the AI I will always take any effect that will allow me to manipulate the battle position. Wizard towers are actually not that bad when the have Chthonic Guardians. The Angel always screams 1st in 1st position, the horror charges in, 1/2 the angels movement, your tank or other method drains the Horror movement. The team beats on him. The Angel still can't reach. You get a free round to finish the horror, and work on the allies. The Angel comes in and defensive strikes and you repeat. All easy because the AI gives you an assist by splitting it's forces.

Reading through the comments, I now realize Hiliadan brought up the same point. So just second that.

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

cbower >> to Xint
I don't know the particulars of your game. Personally I will often pay the extra cost for units at inn, even before t3's are available. In PBEM early I usually have a good amount of gold. It depends on settings, but most PBEM games get fought early, and even if you have a better leader stack you can be overwhelmed by numbers. The AI can do some silly things when faced by overwhelming numbers, like split your force two to sides. So paying a little gold deep in enemy territory can pay off. Yes it is overpriced but your paying for the map position, which can be worth it.

Yes doing Dungeon 5-10 is achievable. You have outlined some good measures below. There are many ways to do it. For no losses, I will tell you twisted roots is fantastic in that fight. Easy to get a druid to 3-4 early too. You buff, trigger the attack, cast twisted roots. Give the manticore something to hit with this charge. You have have him all to yourself for like a turn. Drain him flank him whatever you like. He goes down. Now you can outrange everyone left. Heroes have enough to move and fire and keep out of Beserkers range. Just handle the monster hunters and the positioning correct and its a cake walk.

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

xlnt has written at 30/11/2015, 10:55 AM >>
This is my biggest problem - that there comes a time when fast combat and rush-ing is not an advantage.. i can't play well when there is no research edge and everyone has 40 units ); i'll revise my strategy about spells in pbem - thanks.

- in this.our game there was this situation: i have 700+ gold and a tavern between me and a player. Just having the money is not helpful AT the moment, so i decided to get 1 cavalry and 2 archers for 400 gold - can someone please comment on the + and - of such decision?

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Hiliadan has written at 27/11/2015, 03:56 PM >>
Each class / race is playable but you need to play them differently. The most important to me is that I like the way I play a class / race.

Yes, Blight Doctors are very potent. 2 or 3 Blight Doctor can inflict huge damages through 1 weaken and flanking with the other.

Regarding buffs, you need to keep in mind that combat spells may be very good for clearing but the AI may use them badly in auto-combat against humans. Overall, I consider that combat spells are not that good in PBEM. At some points, everything will be cleared (in maps other than 1 vs 1) and some combat spells may become useless.

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

xlnt has written at 27/11/2015, 01:26 PM >>
i'll try gobos tonight then - i just needed some HoMM3 feel chain of events. Like open this conservatory to get one angel on turn 3 and than use it to open another and get 2 angels and finish the game on turn 14-15 : Pp~

the trick is i'm a tester ); it's a lonely world
anyway - i'll do a list of race/class that can do this, but my feel is there are even better combos out there.

The important thing is that buffs are more reliable, like:
sorc/elf or human (star blades on cav + elf sisters shooting with 40% dmg, because of the de-buff)
necro should be super-great at this, but i haven't played a lot with them
theo is nice - instant wrath and slayer's doubt are very potent
last is WarLord - IMO this should be the best - a good mele race like dwarf/draco/orc/tigran might be the best here.

as for the gobos - their doctor has one of the best de-buffs, maybe try to one-shot with rogue after debuff? but still i expect a lot of problems with gobos );

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Hiliadan has written at 27/11/2015, 05:53 AM >>
You may actually be better than me if you can do that turn 5-10. But clearly it depends on the units and class / race. Orc priests do a lot of damage, especially when flanking. Most of my recent games have been played as Goblin Theocrat and Goblins tend to die very quickly when engaged, so I cannot take the risk of attacking a Dungeon before I get more HP from medals.

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

xlnt has written at 26/11/2015, 11:58 PM >>
http://imgur.com/D6rZRCr - think i got it, heroes were lvl 4 and lvl 3 - sorc uses 3 buffs while support curses, then just tank with the 2 cavalry while the 4 shooters flank. 2 berserkers die of shooters and 2 are tanked by cavalry - only the manticore moves, but if you crowd control it - it only gets 2-3 hits in (;

so turn 5-10 it's do-able to get 400 gold and 2 tier 3 units (; will try it in the pbem game

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Hiliadan has written at 26/11/2015, 05:24 PM >>
Not being ganged by 3 units is mainly an issue of tactical movement: use the map's obstacles to avoid that, put your units at the edge of where your opponent can go, so that only 1 of his unit attack you, then the next turn you can flank him and kill him without taking damage (but then you need to deal with the one guarding that haven't attacked the previous turn).

Slayer's doubt is excellent and used the turn just before impact, it can keep 1 opponent behind while you deal with the rest. Cast on low res unit, it has good chances of success.
Otherwise Stiffen Limb.

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

xlnt has written at 26/11/2015, 04:28 PM >>
I didn't want to spoil race/class, but let's use some example:

say 1 manticore, 3 berserkers (mostly they are the problem..) 2 monster hunters

so let's try this with 2 lvl 5-7 heroes, 2 gold medal tier2 cavalry and 2 support

so we cast whatever buffs we have and one hero now has 15-17 def. and the other one is staying behind.

2 gold medal cavalry should be able to kill/block 1 unit each and stay alive at ~40%hp
2 supports would cast curse/stun or just heal/shoot and may be kill 1 unit
the tank hero should be able to get the manticore

what i need is a way to secure no one gets ganged by 3 units... so maybe i need phoenix warrior? or if there is a sorc with protection sphere? Slayer's doubt is great if it hits, but i'm more inclined to buff, because it hits 100%. I haven't tried any static shield tricks.
The other 'trick' could be having some swordsmen / pike-men to use as retaliation fodder and just live with the lose, but if they're not gold medal - they're not useful at all and if they are - i still don't want to lose them for 2 ogres.

it will be great to see a video on this (; Also - thanks for the replay

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

Hiliadan has written at 26/11/2015, 03:16 PM >>
xlnt, though I don't play your game, I can answer your questions.

I currently play 3 PBEM games at the same time. I played 4-5 earlier but it takes too much time compared to what I want to commit. Clearly, at later stages (turn 30 and later), it takes more time.

You should clear roaming unit sites as soon as possible as there is basically no advantage to wait (a bit more XP possibilities but not that much) and you take risk by waiting (they can attack your lonely units or your empty cities).

For Dungeon, I don't do them before I have at least 2-3 good tanks, usually T3.
I plan to do a video of the later stages of the tournament but I didn't plan it for round 2. Maybe I can consider it.
How to deal with Dungeons really depend on your class / race.

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

MARKYMARK schreibt am 26/11/2015, 03:02 PM >>
think it is Feeling.
First Run: Mines/Nodes/Camps
Second Run with lvl3 units, when the game give you the time: shrines, all-others buildings
Third run with lvl4 unites, when the game give you the time: dungeons, tombs

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

xlnt has written at 26/11/2015, 12:44 PM >>
mm.. i kinda mastered the library and ruins sites and i added the Tomb to the do-able on turn 1 sites, but i'm having issues to figure out when to try a Dungeon. It gives 2x tier 3 units which is so nice to do before turn 15, so i tried to rush them - not easy. Sometimes you get 2 manticores in them.. 2-3 berserkers, 1-2 monster hunters

so which Dungeons you try to get, how early and can i get a video or some tips on how to tackle them (;

what i try to do is get a tank-hero (lvl5-7) and boost it and try to use it as a tank and pull/aground with spells/abilities that do de-buff on move points. Then hope i can kill 2-3 units and have 1 or 2 that can't hit me much and somehow not lose a unit on the next round.

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

MARKYMARK schreibt am 17/11/2015, 11:00 AM >>
I think it is better to destroy it, when it is near to your cities.
 You get a penalty, when enemy Units are into your border. when not near, maybe not, it can be a protection against enemies Scouts and stacks and can do more experience for your stacks (when they are strong enough).

Play at time 5-7 games. think i will not go to the Limit of 10.

Can not Play now since wednesday evening (10 pm gmt1)

Regards, Mark

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

xlnt has written at 17/11/2015, 10:17 AM >>
Hey guys,

so much silence here.. anyway - i have a question about the start strategy

Q1: so there are the bandits and necro-pentagrams (love the art and design!) and i decided to take them down before they spawn. Now there is merit in letting them spawn and getting some xp, or let them roam and intercept enemy scouts (should look out if they go for the capital) .. what do you prefer?

Q2: how many PBEM games do you play at the same time? seems like i could handle 3-4 at a time (; but maybe this is true only for the 1st 10-ish turns and later on i'll have to play >30 min per turn and 3-4 games would mean 2-3 hours per session...

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

xlnt has written at 13/11/2015, 02:52 PM >>
started with 2 nice tier 2 units, managed 3 battles with no (major) loss of HP/units and all-in-all did a pretty good start. can't wait for the next turns (;

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

MARKYMARK schreibt am 13/11/2015, 01:01 PM >>
i talk with my Partner about new Projects.
But firstly are only small improvisations possible and maybe more explanations.

Next round is here, perfect.

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

xlnt has written at 12/11/2015, 01:05 PM >>
i'm a QA, so i prefer stating obvious things, call them mistakes and being sarcastic (;
i'm also somewhat good with mvc, web-forms and c# , so i could help a bit if needed - i might be an OK product owner and try to refine user stories too :p~

The best sites are those that are used a lot (;

user
Published on Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100

MARKYMARK schreibt am 11/11/2015, 11:02 PM >>
Heh xInt,
thank you for using this ugly site (hope it will be better, maybe you are a designer and can make new)

Will start game soon. When we have Problems with map / Settings:
Say it -> we make a restart.

Regards, Mark