Maelstrom Test Game

[Calidor]

As the Druid, you get Fertile Fields at 2nd level to help with the food situation. That's an extra 2500 food per pc and you can start casting that spell on turn 1 with 4 of your wizards. If you did that with all 4 of your wizards on turn 1, that's an extra 10,000 food per turn. Do that for the first two turns and that's an extra 20,000 food per turn. No more food problem. Even though there may be other uses for those wizards in the early going, if you do this, you'll be getting an extra 20,000 food every turn which is pretty strong just by itself. Also, consider leveling your pwr-3 to pwr-5. Once you do, cast Bounty a few turns. That's an extra +20% food increase at every pc in the region which is also nice.

In my opinion, with Maelstrom, everyone needs to consider that games won't be the over-indulged, over-abundant style of play like The Choosing. In 3rd Cycle, players really didn't have to consider what to purchase or not. With so many pc's in the region especially after gaining a 2nd region, you could have just about everything that you wanted in the game: raise wizards, build troops, level agents, etc. It was a Monty-Hall style game with not much strategy because players could just about afford everything that they wanted. Sure it's fun at times to have everything that you want and go at it in the game but there really wasn't an emphasis on strategy in the purest sense requiring players to make careful strategic decisions on how to build their kingdoms because everything was done at the same time without much sacrifice elsewhere.

Maelstrom isn't like that by design. It's more challenging in the sense that players will have to decide what they want to develop. They won't be able to do everything as before and the game will be more selective in that respect. It'll make Maelstrom a better strategic game overall but players are currently used to the over-indulgence of The Choosing version so some may think not being able to do everything is a disadvantage but it really isn't.

With that being said, also consider that you chose region 1 which is a smaller sized region so don't expect to generate a lot of food/gold every turn. Much like the earlier question about Pirates being in a region with little water, some kingdom/region combinations won't work that well while others will excel. Take the DW or GN in Zantha and enjoy that mountain bonus (rock golems provide a solid defensive bonus in the mtns). Some combos will work well while others not so much. That's part of the enjoyment of the Maelstrom version of the game.

I won’t argue with you but I did say that I think it would be very rough for a non-Druid kingdom to take R1. The DU can survive, but not thrive. As you mentioned there is a trade off. I could certainly have sit my wizards in their starting PCs and cast fertile fields as opposed to moving the groups to explore and cast eagle. The trade off would be that I’d be starting to look for PCs (except for a patrol) on turn 2 or 3... And God help a non-Druid. And as always...Winter Is Coming.

But I’m not trying to debate, just point out what I see as it’s a test game. I think R-1 will end up being the red-headed stepchild of Maelstrom. But maybe I’m wrong.

[Calidor]

Yeah the PI has a group on my town there

He has troops?  Or fleets, my regional intel shows EL and two of yours no PI unless he is invisible?

It was masked. But elsewhere as the DU gets an auto-recon it shows patrol.

[PTRILEY]

Yeah the PI has a group on my town there

He has troops?  Or fleets, my regional intel shows EL and two of yours no PI unless he is invisible?

It was masked. But elsewhere as the DU gets an auto-recon it shows patrol.

Gotcha   Good to know that masked patrols can’t be seen at all.

[gkmetty]

LI, group 2 added weapons. The group is in marsh and gets a 30% bonus. When the weapons were added the group value in terrain went from 23,401 to 23,840 and I believe that gain was from a morale boost due to being in a friendly region. Should we see an increase in stats when we add weapons or armor? We wont really get a good feel for the strength of our groups if these bonuses are not reflected on the report.

DA the LI are friendly in your region. Make me an ally when you have a free order.

@UM, I know you indicated that PC placement is random now. I noticed that a PC ended up on the volcano square at ZV. Will this hinder the dragon kingdoms from acquiring Phoenix?

[Draugr]

LI, group 2 added weapons.  The group is in marsh and gets a 30% bonus.  When the weapons were added the group value in terrain went from 23,401 to 23,840 and I believe that gain was from a morale boost due to being in a friendly region.  Should we see an increase in stats when we add weapons or armor?  We wont really get a good feel for the strength of our groups if these bonuses are not reflected on the report.

DA the LI are friendly in your region.  Make me an ally when you have a free order.

@UM, I know you indicated that PC placement is random now.  I noticed that a PC ended up on the volcano square at ZV.  Will this hinder the dragon kingdoms from acquiring Phoenix?

Being loyal you get a 3% boost each turn to moral.   For artifact weapons it has been my experience they do next to nothing in combat even the big 25% epic weapons do not seem to do much.   For sure do not look at a weapon and think the group is that % better.


The Dragon could just plunder Pompeii and then recruit PHoenix I suppose.

[gkmetty]

LI, group 2 added weapons.  The group is in marsh and gets a 30% bonus.  When the weapons were added the group value in terrain went from 23,401 to 23,840 and I believe that gain was from a morale boost due to being in a friendly region.  Should we see an increase in stats when we add weapons or armor?  We wont really get a good feel for the strength of our groups if these bonuses are not reflected on the report.

DA the LI are friendly in your region.  Make me an ally when you have a free order.

@UM, I know you indicated that PC placement is random now.  I noticed that a PC ended up on the volcano square at ZV.  Will this hinder the dragon kingdoms from acquiring Phoenix?

Being loyal you get a 3% boost each turn to moral.   For artifact weapons it has been my experience they do next to nothing in combat even the big 25% epic weapons do not seem to do much.   For sure do not look at a weapon and think the group is that % better.


The Dragon could just plunder Pompeii and then recruit PHoenix I suppose.

Thanks Draugr, the weapons I was referring to were from the forge.  I should have explained better.

[Dominion]

So I think I have the prerequisites to recruit Uak Hai in my 1st group the troop time is not an option in companion pull down menu.

[unclemike]

So I think I have the prerequisites to recruit Uak Hai in my 1st group the troop time is not an option in companion pull down menu.

Clear browser cache to pick up this fix.

[Dominion]

Thanks

[Calidor]

Trying to transfer Wildlings from the 1DU to 3DU and get the following:

ERROR MESSAGES:
ORDER #700: MUST BE A BRIGADE TYPE VALID FOR THE KINGDOM (700 1DU 3DU DU 0 ALL WL 0 AL)

Looks like I should not have Wildlings according to the setup.