Newbie Questions

[Ry Vor]

Like I said, of the hundreds of things in Alamaze, Dome of Invulnerability is about the most contentious, but wizard kingdom players would argue if you take that away, you disarm us.  Or close to it. 

Again, in Maelstrom with the potential of castles and other defensive improvements, I don't think Dome is as critical.

[WARMASTER]

How about players just learn to work around them.  The DW above starts with more emmies than any of the mages.   Use them.  Split the military up as a distraction for your emissaries.  If he has lots of wizard in one region attack another one.  DW can also take a town in two turns with a siege.  
I just do not get why it is all Domes fault.  Dome is a great spell and has its place.  Maelstrom raising max magic levels should allow any kingdom the ability to dispell if they invest enough into magics.  I would say make sure every kingdom has dispell dome at least at level 5.

This is the answer.... [what John Doe wrote above.]

Dome is a spell that ties up wizards from other important actions.

Without Dome, the kingdoms with 5, or 6, or 7 groups would run amok like a snowball that turns into an avalanche.  It is magic that makes Alamaze a fantasy world.

RD just won a Confederation game on turn 40 without dispelling a single Dome the entire contest. (If I had kept a single wizard in Oakendale to Dome the city I would have won instead of the RD.)

P.S. Sleep that little bugger that seeks to flip the pc you parley.  You are getting recon information from myriad sources in the present iteration of Alamaze.

P.S.S. Why are you removing Locate Character spell?  Does Ward no longer function? Does every kingdom not have a chance on turn 1 to select an artifact that disguises their king?  Are we looking to reinvent Candyland?

[Ry Vor]

Any discussion on eliminating (presently I have it as a Power 7 spell, sort of like eliminating it) Locate Character or Group?

It seems like one of my bug-a-boos that it is ripe for abuse. 

Candyland?  Not familiar.  Kid's game, I know. 

If we eliminate Locate Character, how does that change the game?  Can't find the enemy capital as easily?  Doesn't make changing the name of the ruler as important?

[JonDoe]

Any discussion on eliminating (presently I have it as a Power 7 spell, sort of like eliminating it) Locate Character or Group?

It seems like one of my bug-a-boos that it is ripe for abuse. 

Candyland?  Not familiar.  Kid's game, I know. 

If we eliminate Locate Character, how does that change the game?  Can't find the enemy capital as easily?  Doesn't make changing the name of the ruler as important?

before I stopped using the locate I would use agent names not ruler.  Locate 3 agent names and likely two would be in the capital.

[Ry Vor]

Any discussion on eliminating (presently I have it as a Power 7 spell, sort of like eliminating it) Locate Character or Group?

It seems like one of my bug-a-boos that it is ripe for abuse. 

Candyland?  Not familiar.  Kid's game, I know. 

If we eliminate Locate Character, how does that change the game?  Can't find the enemy capital as easily?  Doesn't make changing the name of the ruler as important?

before I stopped using the locate I would use agent names not ruler.  Locate 3 agent names and likely two would be in the capital.

Thanks for the insight and the honesty.  I'd love to stamp out all abuses to make the game longer, more atmospheric if you will, and more fair to players that don't know the various tricks.

[Mad Hatter]

Warmaster....PLEASE!!!! That sounds like bad wizard management to me. If the RD didn't have to dispel a dome, then a lot of people handed him the game. In my 3 most recent games, I've run into a dome every time and I never have the wizard levels to dispel, due to kingdom limitations. So, for someone who doesn't care for the wizard kingdoms, and prefers military ones, you have to become a diplomatic one instead, because this isn't the game for you?

And how is the DOME any different than the Ancient Intervention? If the AN suffers a penalty for using it, then the wizard kingdoms should too, it's preventing a battle from taking place. It definitely would cause a player to reconsider casting it every turn or on multiple pc's.

As for recons: Not all kingdoms have the luxury of setting next to a pc and know everything about it and who's in it...so, you have to spend the order to get someone to recon it, who might die doing it or you use a palantir or 888. And why would I waste an order to recon a pc that I'm going to attack anyway? Either I'm going to capture what's in it or the emmy is going to escape.

So....the DW is not a military kingdom but a diplomatic one? So scrap the military, because you have an extra Baron and Ambassador?....good thing to know, because I've been playing them all wrong.

Anyway....my point about the Dome is that either it becomes a Lvl 8 or 9 spell or their is a penalty for using it....or kingdoms like the DW or CI get dispel at P3...the other option is that if you have a group that is 3, 4, 5 times the defenses, dome or no dome they are smacking the heck out of it.

Playing in a game now, same turn, 2 groups went to attack 2 separate towns in the same region and they are both domed and I can't do anything about it....I'm not the kingdom with the extra emmies and if I were, I'd have to raise my regional reaction there and move the emmys and send my military back to my region to wait and hope that the extra Baron and Ambassador is living up to their full potential.

You don't need Locate Character to find a hidden pc, 2 of my games the 'hidden' pc was found by turn 8....not sure what the trick is to find it, but some people are very proficient at it, making my game experience a real challenge

....ok, it's been a long day and I'm starting to ramble.

[PTRILEY]

I would think a unit with elite troops and a warlord would have the knowledge, in game terms, to defeat the Dome?

[PTRILEY]

Also I know I'm a return player from long ago, but it would make common sense, that if a Dome keeps everything out, then it should in turn keep everything in, no political action for any emmies in the population center under a Dome, and production is halted as the ability to harvest the stores of goods can't leave the population center.... That would cause some negative results for the usage of such a big spell?

[WARMASTER]

Warmaster....PLEASE!!!! That sounds like bad wizard management to me. If the RD didn't have to dispel a dome, then a lot of people handed him the game. In my 3 most recent games, I've run into a dome every time and I never have the wizard levels to dispel, due to kingdom limitations. So, for someone who doesn't care for the wizard kingdoms, and prefers military ones,  you have to become a diplomatic one instead, because this isn't the game for you?

And how is the DOME any different than the Ancient Intervention? If the AN suffers a penalty for using it, then the wizard kingdoms should too, it's preventing a battle from taking place. It definitely would cause a player to reconsider casting it every turn or on multiple pc's.

As for recons: Not all kingdoms have the luxury of setting next to a pc and know everything about it and who's in it...so, you have to spend the order to get someone to recon it, who might die doing it or you use a palantir or 888. And why would I waste an order to recon a pc that I'm going to attack anyway? Either I'm going to capture what's in it or the emmy is going to escape.

So....the DW is not a military kingdom but a diplomatic one? So scrap the military, because you have an extra Baron and Ambassador?....good thing to know, because I've been playing them all wrong.

Anyway....my point about the Dome is that either it becomes a Lvl 8 or 9 spell or their is a penalty for using it....or kingdoms like the DW or CI get dispel at P3...the other option is that if you have a group that is 3, 4, 5 times the defenses, dome or no dome they are smacking the heck out of it.

Playing in a game now, same turn, 2 groups went to attack 2 separate towns in the same region and they are both domed and I can't do anything about it....I'm not the kingdom with the extra emmies and if I were, I'd have to raise my regional reaction there and move the emmys and send my military back to my region to wait and hope that the extra Baron and Ambassador is living up to their full potential.

You don't need Locate Character to find a hidden pc, 2 of my games the 'hidden' pc was found by turn 8....not sure what the trick is to find it, but some people are very proficient at it, making my game experience a real challenge

....ok, it's been a long day and I'm starting to ramble.

Bad wizard management?  An astute player might have suggested bad group management.

Anyhow, the next time you are just one single order short of controlling six regions against some of the best current players then comment on my "wizard management."

When a player like JohnDoe prints his thoughts on how to utilize Alamaze resources, I suggest write it all down somewhere and review it repeatedly while entering your own orders.

[Diws]

Teleport brigade, division etc happens after movement, correct? Can I teleport 2 divisions to the same location and transfer troops postmove? Seems that the turn parser doesn't like it.