Post your abandoned games here

[Anskiy]

Here's another abandoned game. This one's pretty bleak, every other enemy wizard is ahead and my wizard has been constantly losing territory. But that was to be expected, my wizard was rather suboptimal and relying too much on land grabs and lair rewards.

Save file: https://www.mediafire.com/file/t13midqmm...3.sav/file

[GMBarak]

Here's another abandoned game. This one's pretty bleak, every other enemy wizard is ahead and my wizard has been constantly losing territory. But that was to be expected, my wizard was rather suboptimal and relying too much on land grabs and lair rewards.

Save file: https://www.mediafire.com/file/t13midqmm...3.sav/file

One thing I see:

you have the tower above your capital with 1 efreet and 5 chimeras:
you could have sent 2 spearmen a number of time to confusion kill the efreet and then other spearman or cavalry with flight  to kill the other 5 chimera with confusion, so you could have taken that tower by 1504 -> about 6 years before and invaded Myrror. from this tower you could have earned a good artifact to be used by a hero. also you need hero, you are in 1510 and have 0 heroes and 0 artifacts. save 250 gold by June 1502. hero are well over worth the gold they ask for.
also, rush colosseum to get 10 fame and save 500 gold or go for 20 fame and save 600 gold.

each artifact+hero opens a world of possibilities. if you show me which hero you got (preferably high fame hero) by 1503-1505 and which artifacts you have. I can show you how you can get more nodes/towers/lairs and more aritifacst/heroes which will help you snowball for a win.

The growth is exponential (snowball) so it is extremely important what you do at the start of the game. each 1 gold you earn in 1503 will be worth about 2 gold in 1504 and a 1000 gold in 1513 so playing in this map like this even for me will be hard so late in the game.

[GMBarak]

Also, I think taking 10 sorcery book is just too weak. if you are playing for a win, I suggest taking at last 1-3 life and 1-3 nature books. my personal opinion is that taking more than 4 books in any certain realm does not help you to win. if you are looking for more spells, you can:
1. Trade for these spells.
2. Find them in ruins/towers
3. banish a wizard and loot his spells

[Anskiy]

Thanks for the tips! Yeah, Sorcery definitely leans heavily on underhanded trickery like that, and needs it to stand any chance on higher difficulties. But it can at least pull that off reliably. Usually.

Also, I think taking 10 sorcery book is just too weak. if you are playing for a win, I suggest taking at last 1-3 life and 1-3 nature books. my personal opinion is that taking more than 4 books in any certain realm does not help you to win. if you are looking for more spells, you can:
1. Trade for these spells.
2. Find them in ruins/towers
3. banish a wizard and loot his spells

Well, I was explicitly trying to acclimatize myself to the school by trying as many of its spells as possible. But I agree that in general, going heavy on any one school is extremely risky and unreliable. Sorcery stands the best chance to pull it off though, if I recall right.

[WhiteMage]

Well, I was explicitly trying to acclimatize myself to the school by trying as many of its spells as possible. But I agree that in general, going heavy on any one school is extremely risky and unreliable. Sorcery stands the best chance to pull it off though, if I recall right.

I think Life books alone are better than Sorcery books alone.

[Anskiy]

Another abandoned Sorcery game: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6di3gbgg...5.sav/file

I feel like the game is largely in an unwinnable state, I have no good way to weather Sss'ra's skirmishes, and my empire is quite small, with wizards starting to surge ahead. My heroes all have pathetic defense and none of my cities are equipped to make any good units, nor can I summon anything good - I'm far too behind in research. I have a decent power base at least, but with nothing much to protect them, it's only a matter of time before it's gone. I think I messed up by wasting too much time on lairs with low rewards(Phantom Beast lairs and the like) as well as picking a suboptimal retort, Spellweaver. Ah well.

[GMBarak]

Another abandoned Sorcery game: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6di3gbgg...5.sav/file

I feel like the game is largely in an unwinnable state, I have no good way to weather Sss'ra's skirmishes, and my empire is quite small, with wizards starting to surge ahead. My heroes all have pathetic defense and none of my cities are equipped to make any good units, nor can I summon anything good - I'm far too behind in research. I have a decent power base at least, but with nothing much to protect them, it's only a matter of time before it's gone. I think I messed up by wasting too much time on lairs with low rewards(Phantom Beast lairs and the like) as well as picking a suboptimal retort, Spellweaver. Ah well.

Yes, starting next to chaos aggressive wizard is hard... I still suggest you take at least 1-3 life/nature books, maybe artificer to create a 1 movement or 1 movement + pathfinding to your heroes.
You have that gorgons tower, I would investigate if you can use confusion to kill that gorgons. and kill off all level 1 heroes, build colosseum and wait for a 10-20 fame hero.
with the artifacts you already have and if you have heroism and +1movement artifacts, you can take out many more nodes I think. you need to look for combinations like flight + earth to mud, 
or create 1 movement/pathfinding artifacts with artificer to get strong heroes dedicated to clear nodes and towers IMO. with this wizard build, I think you can only rely on lower difficulty levels or luck to win.

[Anskiy]

Well, I made this and the previous few wizards to experiment with, not necessarily to win. But I agree that they are overall weak, and that switching to a combination of colors would be better.

[WhiteMage]

I went back to my original PC and found my last save.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/wdcknnj8o...7.sav/file
Here is my current game in progress. I made my last move on Jan 20, 2023. Then I temporarily stopped playing this game due to 3 reasons:
1.       I made a minor mistake that resulted in heavy losses in this game. I did not see a 1 figure dark green enemy magician hiding in forest. I could have easily killed it. As a result, I lost my best army of 9 units effectively setting me back about 2 year in my game progress.
2.       Suddenly I had to work a lot for my job.
3.       I wanted to work on my own software development projects instead of just playing game.
For 9 months I have not played any game, which is the longest period in my life in the past 48 years without playing. Then since October, I played several other 4X TBS games and an RPG: Wizardry 7, Civilization 6, Civilization, C-Evo, Interstellar Space: Genesis, Master of Magic 2022, Sword of the Stars, and I found them all unsatisfying with numerous problems with them each.
As of today I am not yet decided if I will come back to continue this particular COM II game, or come back to start a new COM II game. 50% I will abandon it. 50% that I will continue. Steam shows I spent 571 hours on this game so far.
My settings were:
I must play the first game rolled. All events must be accepted including real life events, bad luck, mouse slip, game bugs, I made unintended move, etc. Save is required before quitting game.
Load only allowed to continue last save.
On: Random events, More Random Items, Show Enemy Moves, Show Neutral Node Auras, Show Enemy Spells, Show Fog of War, Unit Counter
Difficulty: Lunatic
Opponents: Random (probably rolled 8)
Game size: Random
Continents: Random
Magic: Random
Climate: Random
Minerals: Random
Wizard: Random (picture Tlaloc)
Picks: Random: 4 Nature, 6 Chaos, Omniscient, Archmage
Starting Spells: Random: Earth to Mud, Web, Water Walking, Animate Ammo, Wall of Fire, Warp Creature, Hell Hounds, Fire Elemental: Mystic Surge, Fire Storm
My Race: Random: Barbarian
Score Modifiers: Undeveloped Start, Plane of Water, No Trading, Monsters Gone Wild, Final War
My estimated chances to win:
Before game 15% I lost last game. I play by same rules
1500Jan 7% Random rolled huge map, Barbarian, 6 Chaos books, 4 nature Books. Start on peninsula. Max pop 13, Prod 30%, Gold 10%
1501Mar 11% captured neutral Klackon town. I see gold, orihalcon, and 3 coal tiles ready for settlers.
1505Jun 19% Strong start. I control an island with 8 towns so far. 6 more are on the way to be settled. No contact with AI or raiders yet. I have 3 nodes. Other lairs are surrounded. About to start to leave my island. Plenty of special resources
1513Nov 43% Captured 6 towns from 3 AIs. Pushing borders and able to defend myself.
1518Jan 48% Pushing borders and able to defend myself. Not enough mana + gold income. Not enough skill. I only have 1 war. Strongest AI on my plane has 3 wars. All towers still sealed. 2 AIs in Myrror. I have 34 settlements
My game starting moves were: Hell Hounds, Magic Market, Hell Hounds, Settlers, Hell Hounds, Research Summoning Circle, Hell Hounds, Marketplace
Main reasons for result: AI4 only had 1 Chaos book. With no trading AI4 was very lucky to have Raise Volcano spell. Only 1 uncommon chaos spell allowed for 1 chaos spell book. 10% chance or found it in lair. This crossed my strategy forcing me to fight their first wave of attack on water, in which I failed miserably. I got surprised that AI2 attacked my 9 Galleys with 1 Spider and 7 Cockatrices. AIs lost at least 3 towns to rampaging monsters.
My Major Mistakes: I did not check battle prediction. I could have attacked 2 Klackon Spearmen with 1 Hell Hounds. I waited to get reinforcements before my attack. I settled in wrong place. I denied settling place for another city trying to take advantage of a resource. I attacked Nagas on Sorcery node with Hell Hounds. I allowed them to First strike my Hounds. I should have forced more attacks with my Fire Breath even with <4 figures. I assumed they will chase my hero, but they were smart and attacked my hounds in reach. I was pumping spearmen from all towns, but I did not see that one of them was not going to complete it by next turn. I stayed up the whole night. I was tired. I made mistake not surrounding lair when I moved away. They spawned, it caused me delays and resources to kill them. I accidentally moved 2 units out of town instead of 1, causing rebels. I must watch what I select carefully. I started war, but did not build navy. I still pushed for economy. It was predictable that after I start war they will attack me over water. AI I attacked had 1 chaos book and was lucky to have Raise Volcano uncommon spell (~11% chance). It had 7 nature books and Earthquake was very likely. I should have fought early not to allow that AI to discover my cities. I attacked 6 sprites with 1 Trireme, 2 war bears with Water walking, and 2 Hell Hounds with Water Walking. AI killed them all without taking loss. It successfully cast 2 dispel magic on my 2 bears. I did not know AI has Dispel Magic in 1507Dec. Next time estimate that AI has Dispel Magic by that time. I started war too early. I was not ready. I had small military. The town I captured was next to a node and a Tower that kept attacking me very often. I did not have plan to contain them. It drained me to fight them. I accidentally sent 6 units out of city to far away place by misclick due to poor UI. I chased high armor heroes with my triremes in battle. I should have fought the Javelineers directly next to me. I lost everything without killing anyone. I pressed end turn with too high extra food production. I went too close to AI city with navy. It summoned new spider outside of its city due to being full then cast water walking on it. It sneaked out fast that I could not chase it down. I did not scout ahead with 1 out of 8 units moving together. I attacked Amazon hero with 7 Gladiators and lost. I attacked Javelineers with an injured Pegasi. AI cast Fairy Dust on it then Javelineers killed it. I intentionally allowed an enemy settler to pass through my land to build city on the other side. I did not allow it to discover new town, but allowed it to discover more land within my town. As a result it cast more Raise Volcanos on my land. I missed a node in my area possibly generating new monsters due to Call of the Wild spell. I did not respond for a long time. I cast Land Linking on wrong unit at the beginning of a turn not paying attention due to being eager to attack. I missed opportunity to heal with my Crusaders in battle. I killed enemy too soon. I stopped surrounding enemy city by forgetting about it: they produced new unit that was placed outside. I attacked a solo caster hero with 3 my Lizardmen spearmen. The hero and the wizard together were able to heal the hero all the way up. I forgot to use galley's melee instead of ranged attack and missed opportunity to kill enemy sooner. I cast Fireball on wrong target due to not watching the label. I brought in a wrong unit into battle. I did not follow my plan to send it to city. I moved my injured unit to wrong city without Animist. I was too fast to melee attack enemy unit and forgot to make place for others to attack. I attacked 2 Water Walking Gorgons and casted max Dispel Magic twice. They resisted both. I should have attacked with individual units and not 4 strong units. I had heavy losses. When an opponent wizard was eliminated, I did not notice that their units also disappeared that were blocking Nodes from spawning. I should have replaced them quickly. I made good plan how to move my units far in the same turn, but did not follow the plan and failed to reach destination. I must watch every step. I did not plan for future rebels due to city growth: I built University instead of Oracle. Screen saver made screen dark. I pressed mouse to wake it up. It moved my units to wrong place: never use left mouse button to wake up screen saver, never leave computer screen saver on active game. I cast Web on NonCorporeal unit. Spellserkers had spell, I wrongly assumed it was Chaos Channels. I was surprised in battle that AI cast Possession on it. I did not see 1 figure Green Magicians survived my attack hiding under tree. I got shocked by Mana leak spell. I casted Fire Storm on Stream of Life town: it was ineffective.
Personal fun score and Notes: 99%. First monsters appeared early. I was lucky they spawned away from my city tile. Could have spawned directly next to my town. This way I had time to react.
Devastating Enemy Spells and positions: How I could have prevented and responded to them:
Night Stalkers in Cave: Warp Creature + Cockatrices; 
AI solo Giant Spiders with Water Walking: 9 Galleys, Web, Dispel Magic; 
Captured AI town on new Island, but 2 nearby lairs spam monsters: Surround lairs immediately when taking AI town; 
Black Prayer + Terror + Invulnerability: Shadow Demons + Mind Storm
My strong strategies that worked well: Fire Storm on cities with 8 magicians. Then I attacked them immediately to take city.

[GMBarak]

about the save, the heroes are not great, I think if you had built 2 colosseums, and killed these two off to remain at the 1 to 6 chance of getting a hero a turn you could have gotten better heroes.
BUT, even with the heroes you have, you could have used the two movement artifact, create bow for 1 more movement to send the beastmaster to clear the 3 archangels, 1 angel tower, by also using web and lighting bolt to first kill the angel and then the beachmaster will have 6 movement and can clear the archangels in a few more turns. then, you could have gotten more artifacts and more options will open for you in Myrror.