Wales (empError) - Brandenburg (xilix) - Muscovy (kaze)
vs.
Grenada (Malakira) - Roma (Lancelot) - Nicaea (Bumba..)

I had a nice +2 in England, although Mala had two, in Leon and Morocco. Lance got the advantage in center. By taking a fort in Burg, I took off some steam, urging Lance to leave behind armies in Genoa. Kaze got the upper hand in the east, and could threaten Venetia while staying in control. Lance managed to take Burgundy, but I could breach Mala's lines several times, delaying his progress. Lance was basically fighting three opponents, and although xilix's development appeared a bit slow, in the end this cost him dearly. I think Mala was slowly gaining on me, but I was still in firm control, while kaze was gaining in strength. In turn 33, Nicaea was about to fall, and south conceded.

Wales (LeRes) - Denmark (ArtOfBingo) - Lithuania (hst)
vs.
Grenada (empError) -Roma (Iger) - Nicaea (Malakira)

We started this game thinking that north would have a tough time.

Res quickly moved to developed Luxembourg, instigating a fight between Iger and ArtOfBingo, a few turns later, around this land. I took Ile to threaten Res's supply line through Normandy to Lux. AoB seemed to have more reserves for developing than Iger, and he grew fat really fast. From developed France I got two armies per turn, enough to trouble Res, but Res managed to get the land now and then. Hst got the upper hand against Mala in the east, and he got to Macedonia. Pressure from Bingo on Iger was intense, and I needed to provide quite some support to keep Iger alive. Mala also did his best to contribute. But Bingo was too strong. A few more turns, and Res would have free play against me. In turn 35/36, south conceded.

Ulster (ghost) - Saxony (shotz) - Ukraine (empError)
vs.
Grenada (LeRes) - Roma (d4vej) - Nicaea (MalaKira/ArtOfBingo)

I had a fabulous start, taking many neutral lands with fewer armies than there were defending. Mala had a 30k dev Greece and a 10k dev Byz for opposition. Greece revolted on him, though, and when we both went for a fort in Bulgaria, I had first turn. Malakira left, and was replaced by AoB. The battle in the center seemed to go back and forth, depending on the luck, as far as I could see. In the west, ghost gave good opposition to LeRes, who had trouble getting on top.

My advantage in the east was huge, and south conceded in turn 20/21.

Ulster (Squeegie/madman) - Hanover (myopia) - Muscovy (kaze)
vs.
Grenada (KeyserSoze) - Roma (LeRes/gun) - Nicaea (empError)

This turned out to be an exciting, long, stressful game. Squeegie started out well versus Soze. Myopia exerted some pressure on Res, but I believe the battle was pretty balanced there in the end. I confronted kaze at Trans-Moldavia, hoping that he wouldn't take Bulgaria, as that would give access to many of my lands. Luckily, he didn't, so I could advance Macedonia in peace, and develop Byzantium. Only after that, I took Bulgaria myself, but this seemed like a mistake, as kaze's pressure on the Balcans now increased, and I was pushed back. In the west and center, the battle remained in balance. Madman replaced Squeegie, and gun replaced LeRes. I was stressed to survive, but I was generally able to retain Macedonia and Nicaea, and to keep developing, and later farming. The score looked pretty bad for me, but when I captured some more Balcan-lands, my population appeared not so much lower than kaze's, so I kept faith. KeyserSoze slowly gained the advantage in the west, and in turn 64 or so, gun cut off a large force in Helvetica. kaze made a mistake by moving a large force into Byzantium in winter. The turn order saved him from being cut off, but he lost many armies because he could not afford them. North seemed to be losing then, but kaze got a chance at my cap in turn 74 or so. I asked gun to attack Macedonia from Napoli. Luckily gun's 3rd move was before kaze's first, and saved my cap. By this time, England was under Soze's control, and gun ruled in center. North conceded in turn 74/75.

Just for the stats:

Ulster (shell5) - Bohemia (fucker/Oz) - Muscovy (empError)
vs.
Aragon (Williams) - Tunis (hst) - Nicaea (Aurelian)

fucker had a nicely developed land in Rhineland, and +2 Helvetica was also likely to be his. My expansion was faster than Aurelian's, and he didn't develop while we were contesting Bulgaria and Macedonia. Hst was doing well, and helped out Aurelian by taking Macedonia and Serbia. Fucker left or d/c'd and Oz replaced. Oz d/c'd but came back, losing one turn. Then shell5 left or d/c'd, and wasn't replaced for two turns. Williams was in England then, and Oz conceded and left too. This was in turn 28. I played on for two turns to take Nicaea, before conceding as the last north player.

I think this game was hardly played seriously. Maybe it shouldn't count in the stats.

Ulster (Schwing) - Saxony (LeRes/Squeegie) - Muscovy (Aurelius)
vs.
Grenada (Williams) - Corsica (empError) - Nicaea (borze)

LeRes was replaced after only a few turns.
Provence and Genoa were developed, which was very nice for me, letting me advance Corsica early. Squeegie attacked, however, and I tried to make him pay by retreating in winter, which gave him both of these developed lands. This was a bit worrying, as he still had money left. But borze assisted from the east, attacking Austria. Squeegie also attacked Williams, so that gave me space to move north and develop. Aurelius wasn't developing much, and Schwing did, but I think not efficiently (judging by Squeegie's comments, I didn't take the trouble of checking, but I saw +2 Wales was advanced pretty early).

By turn 38, Saxony was under pressure, and Williams had control of England , so north conceded.

A game yesterday:

Ulster (Keyser_Soze) - Hanover (Squeegie) - Muscovy (cleaner)
vs.
Grenada (LeRes) - Rome (kaze) - Nicaea (empError)

Kaze was quickly under pressure from Squeegie. I helped kaze out, but at the expense of my own expansion and development. Res had trouble getting Soze under control. Cleaner took Bulgaria, urging me to focus on him, and Squeegie reinstated his pressure on kaze. By turn 24, pressure on Rome was unrelenting, and south conceded.

Squeeg map!

Norway (myopia) - Aragon (Williams) - Nicaea (master)
vs.
Flanders (MrScientist) - Tunis (Zenn-Lavian) - Ukraine (empError)

myopia moved into UK, while Williams moved up in France. Together, they were squeezing MrScientist. After being pushed back to only Flanders, Holland, and Lux or so, Scientist managed to release himself from the heaviest pressure. Zenn-Lavian had moved west to confront Williams at Grenada, and he also took Italy, for another confrontation around Provence. Meanwhile, I confronted master, helped by a developed+2 Crimea that I soon advanced. Master played a cunning trick on me, however, that I'd like to elaborate on here:


The situation is this: It is winter. I have 11 armies in Moldavia, and 6 in Crimea. Master has 6 in Byz, another 6 in Bulgaria, and 2 in Wallachia. I consider taking Bulgaria first move, but I see the danger of a counter after reinforcing from Byz. So I reinforce Mold with the 6 from Crimea, so that I can move 10 to Bulg in safety, and use the remaining army (out of the 11) to attack Wallachia, which I hope to be empty in the last move. Now what do you think master does? He attacks Moldavia with his 6 armies in the first move. I reinforce with 6, and attack empty Bulgaria with 10. I have one army left in Moldavia now, which master takes with Wallachia. Hereby he manoeuvres himself next to my cap, which had just started advancing, and he made me pay for 10 armies in 10k Bulgaria, which are now at 5 steps from my cap, instead of 2. He took my cap. I could recover, thanks to Crimea and my other lands, but this was a really unexpected event to me, in a situation where I felt completely secure.

To continue the story of the game:
Zenn-Lavian moved into Macedonia, to confront master too. I confronted myopia at Finland. Williams advanced his cap, but at the cost of losing many of his lands, mostly to Zenn-Lavian. A little later, Zenn-Lavian took Aragon, and team Norway-Aragon-Nicaea conceded.

Wales (dannyray) - Denmark (Iconnu) - Lithuania (borze)
vs.
Grenada (Williams) - Roma (Zenn-Lavian) - Nicaea (empError)

Borze came down strong, and contested Bulgaria with me, while advancing his Lithuania before I even started. Zenn-Lavian we stronger than Iconnu in the center, and borze spent about 10 armies on Zenn-Lavian, which gave me enough leverage to get on top, or at least even, in the east. Mainly Iconnu appeared to be a weak factor, possibly due to playing with Denmark, and north conceded in turn 22/23.

Ulster (sirbela) - Saxony (empError) - Muscovy (Squeegie)
vs.
Castile (Rex) - Tunis (hst) - Nicaea (Zenn-Lavian)

Rex had a tough start, giving sirbela a good advantage. As Saxony versus Tunis, I experienced little trouble, despite some troop-building lands in Central Europe. The battle was most even in the east, where Zenn could intrude into Moldavia several times, and he could control the Balcans quite well. I simply held on to the good lands in Central Europe, and assisted my flanks a bit. Hst forgot about winter twice. I also lost some armies in winter, just because the bell sounded only after the turn was over, but this didn't hurt much. Castile stayed under pressure, in part because Rex kept bumping into forts that sirbela held in Brittany and Gascony. Also, the advantage of Saxony over Tunis was too big. In turn 29, south conceded.

Ulster (altviro) - Saxony (Rex) - Lithuania (KeyserSoze)
vs.
Grenada (Zenn-Lavian) - Roma (empError) - Nicaea (LeRes)

There were many developed lands for Rex (Hanover, Rhineland) and me (Corsica, Sardinia). Because of a 10k primitive Venetia, I decided to grant Rex 40k Austria, and focus on developing my backlands. Nevertheless, Rex came in Venetia with 9 armies, in turn 11 or so, while I had only 5 in Rome. Rex took Rome just when it was advancing. Res ruled in the east, however, and Zenn-Lavian was also doing well in the west, so we decided to carry on, as I had good hopes of recovering with my developed lands.

Zenn-Lavian was helping me in the west, and Soze was asking for help from Rex, so basically Rex was fighting 3 players then. I could advance Rome, and got on top in the middle.

Although altviro advanced England pretty early, and the other UK lands soon afterwards, he was unable to raise enough troops to hold England. At this point, altviro's situation was bad, and the other northern players were also in a weaker position, so north conceded in turn 29.

Ulster (Musashi) - Brandenburg (MrScientist) - Muscovy (KeyserSoze)
vs.
Leon (two-worlds) - Corsica (tonkietjai) - Nicaea (empError)

Musashi reached France earlier than two-worlds, and was able to assist MrScientist significantly by taking Genoa a few times. MrScientist then helped KeyserSoze, and I was rapidly pushed out of the Balcans. Two-worlds remained kind of powerless against Musashi, and Corsica came under pressure. In turn 25, south conceded.

A game that should not count:

Ulster (master) - Brandenburg (Dean) - Muscovy (KeyserSoze)
vs.
Grenada (MrScientist) - Roma (LNO) - Nicaea (empError)

This looked like it could be a nice game, but Dean appeared to be a noob, and his capital remained at 30 until turn 10, when we quit.

it was my amazingness that won the game! :) yeah right

A game in which I substituted, but which I consider to be of epic proportions.

Ulster (myopia) - Hanover (hst) - Ukraine (Demon-King)
vs.
Grenada (Zarathustra/reefer) - Roma (?/empError) - Nicaea (MrScientist)

I entered the game in turn 17 or so. Demon-King had Bulgaria and a fort in Macedonia, that caused Scientist a lot of trouble. I helped out by taking Macedonia and Serbia, at the cost of letting hst get advantage in the center. Myopia had developed faster than Zarathustra, and sent a large army towards Roma. A bit later, Roma was taken by hst, and now it was Scientist's turn to help me out. He had a good advantage in the east now, and intruded into Austria and beyond. darkmonkey also helped a bit. Then, myopia gathered another large army, and sent it out to take Grenada. Grenada could have been held by buying all the troops that money allowed, but this did not happen, and it fell. In the mean time, it took about 8 turns for me to get my capital back, and the situation looked bad for south. darkmonkey left and was replaced by reefer, and being two caps down I would have conceded too. But MrScientist still had faith, as Ukraine was very late to advance. I thought even that did not weigh up to a strong myopia and hst. Hst had to invest much of his energy in saving Demon-King, and even with that, Ukraine fell. Myopia kept pressure on me and on reefer, but in one winter he had 98 armies in Corsica, which he could afford, but it cost him dearly. He had to release the pressure on Grenada, which could recover, while I could also expand a bit to take Italy at least. MrScientist totally ruled in the east, controlling Ukraine amongst others, and now, a bit to my surprise, north conceded.
Turn 60/61.

Not before have I seen a team lose two different caps, even at the same time, I think, and still win the game.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2010 06:26PM by empError.

Turn 46 was when ukraine's capital advanced. And that's because HST bought it. :)

Above, I mention darkmonkey once. But that should be Zarathustra.

Ulster (Squeegie) - Hanover (airmidlein) - Lithuania (mmmattt)
vs.
Grenada (altviro) - Roma (Demon-King) - Nicaea (empError)

altviro had developed lands in Leon and Gascony, while all lands in UK were primitive. I believe both airmidlein and Demon had some good lands (not sure though), and mattt had a +2 developed Ukraine and +1 developed Crimea, which he took instantly, and advanced behind a troop-building Moldavia. Demon-King had the advantage in the center. Altviro advanced Leon, but in the mean time Squeegie took control of northern France. He put pressure on Altviro, while assisting airmidlein in getting the advantage in the center. By turn 34, all of south was under pressure, and south conceded.

A Squeeg map:

Ulster (mmmattt) - Leon (Squeegie) - Nicaea (LeRes/Lancelot)
vs.
Normandy (empError) - Tunis (reefer) - Lithuania (Zarathustra)

I had a fast expansion in central Europe, and Zarathustra did likewise. Squeegie developed a bit, then tried to pressure reefer, while skirmishing with me in sourthern France. Zarathustra put pressure on mmmattt, who developed Denmark and Sweden before taking any more lands. Zarathustra could also pressure Res for a while, and had a chance for Nicaea 7-3 armies, but he took down only one of those. After that, Res recovered, and could pressure Zara a bit. Reefer moved a force to Napoli, to threaten Macedonia, and I moved up to Saxony/Hanover and Northumberland, to put some more pressure on mmmattt. Squeegie's attempts to pressure Tunis did not do him much good, and he didn't look strong. LeRes got tired of the game, and was replaced by Lancelot. Lancelot did pretty well, pushing reefer out of Cyrenaica and Napoli, while also moving a party through my lands. Pressure on mmmattt increased, and he was left with only three lands or so. In turn 33, team Norway-Leon-Nicaea conceded.

Ulster (empError) - Saxony (LeRes) - Muscovy (KeyserSoze)
vs.
Castile (ArtOfBingo) - Tunis (Zenn-Lavian) - Nicaea (Rex)

Res expanded rapidly in central Europe, and after a while started assisting his flanks. With some early pressure on England, I claimed Norway-Sweden-Denmark, while granting developed Flanders to Res, so that this did not interfere with his population's happiness. Soze was doing well in the east, and had the upper hand there. ArtOfBingo raised many armies, causing some despair to Res. But in one winter, we had a nice coordinated move, with Res taking Gascony from Ile de France, me moving from Normandy into Ile, while Bingo moved his troops from Gascony to Brittany, and not wasting his 80 or 90 armies there. This cutoff gave us considerable relief, and a year later I had a party roaming through Bingo's lands. Over time, Bingo got stronger again, however, and Res had to support me quite a bit to keep me alive. He also supported Soze, who was now clearly getting the upper hand there. He could not raise enough troops to take Nicaea, but sent a party to Sicilia, and kept banging on Byz and Macedonia. In turn 51, south conceded.