2303
Three years after the true formation of RBO23, we have landed on a planet orbiting an alien star. It is much like our Meklon. We have named it Primodius, for it is the first of many. We also received reports that Selia has rich food sources, so our organic parts may flourish there. We will scout the local area first, before we begin building more Constructor ships.

2311
Just as we stretch our Sensors as far as we safely can, we find not one, but two sapient alien life forms. They fled our Sensor too quickly to absorb them. The fear of the unknown. That is one thing we wish to eliminate as we absorb. We do not fear these unknowns, we only wish to absorb.

2314
Another unknown. Again they flee.

2317
We have Primodius begin the sacred art of bettering ourselves.

2320
The sensor at Ryoun has gone forever silent. They were able to pick up what the Other called itself. Human.

2337
Our first breakthrough. We can now easily support 10 million more units per planet.

2340
Apparently, the Human Others are attempting to for a council. This is surprisingly civil of them. We gladly join in our own attempt to show the Others how wonderful the Absorption is. They would not listen, but we were able to meet all of the Others. The Humans gave population as a way to measure who should be leader and how many votes each should get. This barabaric display showed us that the galaxy must still be absorbed. Those who breed themselves into the top will have time to do little else.

The votes came down to ourselves and an Others called the Bulrathi. The Humans voted for them. We and the Bulrathi voted for ourselves. In time, there will be no need to vote for a leader, for all will think as one.

2347
We can now send our ships one parsec farther, our Sensors can now reach 7 parsecs.

2349
Another Sensor has gone offline. This one at Toranor. The Psilons, who span 12 or more planets, wish to come to us. Let them. They shall be absorbed.

2350
Another vote. The Psilons usurp our position, and so we abstain from voting. As always with such barbaric practices, this amounts to nothing more than squabbling.

2352
In preparation for future hostilities from the Barbaric Others, we have crafted more advanced Battle Computers.

2358
Mixed news. We have crafted stronger Shielding, once again for defense against the Others. But the Humans have silenced our Sensor at Maretta.

2360
As the Constructor landed on Klystron, we were flooded with signals from Ryoun and Maretta as well as from the south. The Humans and Psilons contacted us. The Humans were very untrusting of us, and wished us no good will. The Psilons greeted us warmly. This is all irrelevant, as all will be as one.

Unlike the Others, we can easily move focus from one sector or even planet to another, so Meklon and Primodius shall now construct the New Penetrator Design, while Selia and Kulthos focus on bettering ourselves.

2361
And with this shift, we finish finding a way to reduce the pollution output of our factories. Is has become inefficient to spend so many credits to clean them up.

2390
We rejoice. Maretta is now one of us. Our new Personal Shields, discovered three years prior along with EMC Jammer Mark II, defended ourselves from the Hand Lasers of the Humans as they attempted to resist us. In time, we won and they were absorbed. We learned much. The secrets of Range 7 and Fusion bomb came with our absorption. We shall devote most all of our resources to absorbing the Humans. When our Human units contacted the Other Humans to tell them of how wonderful the absorption was, the Others recoiled in disgust. They have declared open war on us. It is useless. All shall be absorbed, though we would prefer to absorb in peace, but such is the way of barbarians.

2398
A minor setback, we have lost both Klystron and Maretta.

2414
We have lost our first colony, Primodius.

2432
Selia and Kulthos have fallen to the Bulrathi. The rained poisonous spores that ate away our organic parts.

2439
Our last stand. We shall fight as one, as we always have. The Humans have been attacking us for six years now, and each wave, our number and defences have waned. But still, we shall go on. For we are RBO23. We shall never die!

2440
Human News Robot: And with the last of the horrible Meklar Colonies destroyed, life in the galaxy can breath easily. No more shall innocent sapients fear the implants and hivemind of the collective.

And remember, we robots would never harm our masters. We would never rise up to slaughter all those of flesh and bone. We love our masters.

This is Reporter-Bot Number 023, signing off.


----------
Scoring:

Completed the game: 500
Completion time: loss, no bonus 000
All controlled at the end: 000
Colonies Made: 4 * -25 -100


Total 400

Decide to send colship to the yellow to the south and the scouts in that direction based on the funky map shape. I think this was best even though I had "only" a size 95 normal as 2nd world instead of 85 fertile, having the range to park scouts at Ryoun bought precious time as Humans kept retreating unarmed colships. At the time, I thought it unlikely I would landgrab that far south, but it would give me time to get the closer worlds, however Ryoun turned out to be the pivotal world.

Got +10 in 2318 through seed-trickle; this may have been a mistake in this game only, when everything seems to hinge on getting worlds to the south ASAP. Oh well.

Bulrathi get 6th system in 2321! Welcome to Deity Impossible!
Worried about getting squeezed out, I start colships when Meklon is at about 200 production total, earlier than usual. I also build 6 LR lasers, get lucky with no armed colships or escorts showing up until they are guarding Ryoun. Then I make a terrible mistake - just before my colship arrives, I move some scouts along planning to scout the north-center, as I'm finally grabbing the Fertile world north of Meklon which will allow those to go. And I accidentally move my LR lasers, and the Psilons show up right then!!! I would have reloaded if MOO kept more than the current turn. The result:


Well, Psilons are Honorable, but not close, I gambled that force will work here. They move their fleet away, so step 1 is easy, invade before their first load of colonists arrives and use popguns to shoot down most of them. Repulse one ship attack, then lose all of my ships against a single large (only 8/150 hp left, dang. Should have retreated and come back to fight with a missile base when it was clear that the battle was iffy, building one base was not enough as the large's missiles made short work of it). More back and forth - 55 brains barely lose to my 70 colonists, then the brains ask for peace right before my cavalry popguns show up - great, but more invaders are still on the way and those don't get recalled the way ships do. I make another wish-I-could reload mistake; had been building a base to near completion intending to finish it when my fleet showed only to not finish it due to accidentally clicking next turn before I was done. That may have cost me the world, popguns shoot down a good number of the invaders but it's still enough. I invade again, and loot BCII in the process, but get another DOW.

Humans take UP Maretta - was so focused on Ryoun and the Psilons that I couldn't spare ships to defend it, sad as there attack fleet was super weak. In fact I shipped as much as I could to Ryoun. Humans also got a fleet in orbit at Klystron, but a base and some scrambled popguns chased that away and shot down all their transports. Fortunately, Psilons do not come back to Ryoun until I have over 100 popguns and base, which is enough to defend against their ships.

Did not take detailed notes on tech, but by 2389 I have popped PDS and start full speed on planet sheild V. Then I pop tundra and find toxic is available - great, there are two of those, and I have them pretty well defended with popguns, should be able to keep those open long enough. But in 2400 the Imperium gets a little more Extreme:

The Silicoids had DOW'd just a few turns ago which sealed my fate (kind of sucky that it can lose you the game, even if they don't even yet try to attack you. But that was the consequence of fighting the brains, they were allied with the rocks and since the rocks didn't attack right away I'm pretty sure they were bribed in).

Good news is that planet shield V pops just afterwards and I am able to get them all up on my 6 remaining worlds before anything else comes my way. Fusion bomb is out there so they aren't invicible but the AI generally does poorly at prioritizing bombing designs. I thought this was a good sign and decided to make an attempt at playing out (also, hadn't formally met Bulrathi or Mrrshans, so hoping they might not really fight me until later, although the AI tech sharing might have given them contact range right away). However, this was one instance where the AI did a good job with bombers; humans made a shielded large with all fusion bombs. They gained orbit over Klystron for a turn; their anti-ship weaponry was feeble and scrambled fighters chased them away but one turn was all they needed for a transport wave. My fighters could only get a few of the transports tricked out with engines/armor/shields all two generations ahead, and the gropo tech was similarly unbalanced. After that loss I resigned, pretty sure that I would never be able to really gain ground (previous experience at AW in Imp 18 also said that victory was really unlikely).

It seemed quite conceivable that if I hadn't screwed up with misclicks I could have taken Ryoun and avoided any wars to that point, which would be a promising though not yet strong position. I was tempted to start over and run a shadow attempt, but during the past few weeks a move, the restart of all my music groups, and weekends of football tailgates all destroyed my gaming time. The map does look pretty good, not an easy setup but some nice local terraing and no obvious runaway AI so suspect that some players will win. Thanks to RefSteel, sorry that my bungling may well have robbed everyone of a more interesting read.

To get around an odd forum problem, I'm opening this thread for Jeff H's first Imperium report.

So, welcome!

Sooooo... I've been away for a while... doing other things... running on-line RPG's, doing some work with Sci-fi conventions like Dragon*Con and TimeGate among others, being sick for a while, spending more time with my family (being sick really makes you appreciate them), and, well, you name it. I'm a really diverse person I guess. People tell me I am anyhow.

Through this time, I never lost my love of MoO, and I'd play a game now and then, it's just, well, I had other things I wanted to do. Then, the other day, my gf started playing a game of MoO and, well, I decided I wanted to play one as well. Then another, and a third... After a couple of more games to get back in practice, I dropped by RB hoping the Imperiums were still going on, did some test games with kyrub's patch, and... well...

RefSteel Wrote:It's good to see you around again, Maniac! I must admit I really miss your Imperium reports, though I realize they can take a lot of time.

RefSteel Wrote:I hope you get the chance - but my recollection is that even thrown-together reports you didn't consider "really good" have been very enjoyable to read, so I'm looking forward to it regardless!

I'm writing papers alllllll week, but it seems like a while since we've had a group going for something, so how's about a plan for the coming weekend?

The weekend zaishen missions and bounties don't seem so appealing but i'm sure we can come up with something. Maybe some DoA runs or a go at Mallyx himself? Another idea is a trial run of one of the recently suggested variants found here.
I was particularly interested by the Charr Warband idea, but we could go for the Undead Legion in time for Halloween

My timing is pretty flexible and i'm up for whatever. So I suggest we start with a rough, saturday night or sunday night with people stating preference of day and time, as well as availablity and what they are keen for.

Vague I know... but hopefully we can get some names down for an evening (or day if that's better) and once that happens I'm sure we can find something fun to do

Imperium 23

Colony ship goes to S yellow, scouts to NW white and SW red while more produced. Settle yellow Primodius (Terran 95) and send 11,3,2 from HW. Good neighborhood with lots of habitables in range, 2 big planets to N plus one small/one UP/one medium to S. Regular contact to S where Human scout then Silicoid scout chased from UP Maretta plus Psilon scout then Human colony ship from far green Ryoun. Early tech opens Construction & Planetology with only options RW80 and IT+10. With Meklars, push RW80 for a few turns, deposit from HW then more from single factory colony, before starting IT+10. RW80 hits in 2323, choosing II8 (over Duralloy) and GNN announces Bulrathi to 6 colonies. I seed II8 then open Propulsion with R4 only choice. IT+10 hits in 2326, seeding IT+20 (over Tundra, Dead). More traffic in S with Psilon & Human (& later Silicoid) colony ships at UP Maretta and green Ryoun leaves key decision whether to expand first to lucrative N or threatened S. I settle N Selia (fertile 85) in 2333 with 14 from HW then S Klystron in 2338 with 13 from Primodius. I also discover W green Toranor (UR Toxic 20) in Nebula at range 5.

First vote arrives, in 2339(!), me v. Bulrathi for 18 votes. Bulrathi(4)+Sili(2) with Mrr(3), Hum(3) & Psi(3) abstaining so I add my (3) to bears. Vote numbers suggest a fairly balanced galaxy population. Next year R4 hits, choosing Warp2 (over R6, IS). I settle N Kulthos in 2343 with 15 from Selia and discover II8, choosing RW60 (over II7, ARS). I open remaining tech fields with BC2, DS2 & Hyper-V. With all the traffic at UP Maretta making it look classic spud material, I avoid it although this cuts me off from Ryoun, a contentious decision. IT+20 [with II8] will allow LR colony ships if LR DEFs can hold out that long. First contact is relaxed 4PE Humans (Err/Ind) in 2347 at range6 with Sol just WNW of Ryoun. Second vote after 2349, me v. Mrrhsan for 21 votes. Mrrshan(4)+Hum(3) with Bul(4), Sili(2) & Psi(4) abstaining so I add my (4) to cats. The Mrrshan and Psilon (plus me) have risen to 4 votes from last time, matching Bulrathi. Mrrhsan are first race listed so is this the rule for equal votes? It would mean you are always nominated with matching votes to any potential candidate, as in first vote.

IT+20 hits in 2350, choosing Toxic (over Inferno, IT+30). LR colony is now produced and sent to Ryoun. As it approaches, an armed Human colony with escort settles UP Maretta and I defend Ryoun against another armed colony ship. Warp2 hits in 2357, choosing Warp3 (over R7). Next year settling Ryoun with 25 from Klystron greets relaxed 7PE Silicoids (Agg/Exp) and neutral 6PE Psilons (Hon/Tech). Cryslon is SSW of Ryoun and Mentar SW of Ryoun with a 4-way alliance excluding cats & me. The Psilons have a big tech lead. After founding Ryoun I quickly bolster the vulnerable colony with reserves and a large battleship which is nearly wiped out by an armed Psilon colony ship (2xH.Ion, BS, BC2, DS2)! By contrast the Silicoid and Human attempts at poaching were a breeze. Humans settle barren Stalaz, just below UR Toranor. Things are looking up in the late sixties with BC2, Hyper-V & DS2 making way for ECM2, Ion Cannon & PDS. However my spy report on the Psilons in 2372 shows them with Toxic, Warp Dissipator & Fusions Beams! Thanks for that! Spies also manage to steal R5 from Silicoids but get caught so rocks drop to Tense and issue warning. Still this allows me to defend UR Toranor with more than LR DEFs and invade if someone pinches it first (Psilons excluded of course!).

Third vote after 2374, me v. Psilon for 29 votes. Psilon(6)+Mrr(4) with Bul(4), Sili(5) & Hum(4) abstaining so I add my (6) to brains. My growth is keeping pace with the best of the rest but with nowhere near (or likely to get soon) a block and the tech-happy Psilons the opposition this could get ugly. Still Toxic is close and production has risen sharply so I can accelerate techs with no immediate threats. Humans or Silicoids look to be fair game once I get some decent military tech. Toxic hits in 2378, choosing Soil (over BTA). As my colony ship approaches UR Toranor, two armed Silicoid colony ships at the planet won't take no for an answer so are buried there. Toranor is settled in 2382 meeting neutral 6PE Bulrathi (Agg/Eco), Ursa is W of Toranor. Quickly RW60, Warp3 & ECM2 are replaced by Zortium, Warp4 & ISS. Toranor is rushed to readiness, maxing in 2390, and Soil hits in 2392 (Cloning only new option) boosting economy again.
Research, stealing and exchanging sees many tech gains until 2398 when the only things awaited for my pre-built ARS Huge Fusion Beam plus Fusion bomber death fleet are Zortium & Warp4 which are very close. The Silicoids DOW'd due to stealing IS but missile bases have held strong at Ryoun even against their Spore fleet. The Psilons even offered a NAP which I accepted. Problem is the Psilons are now allied to everyone except the Humans and me. I may need to ask them to DOW on my enemy, their rock allies. 2399 sees Zortium hit (II5 next) and Warp4 in double digits. Another Silicoid fleet is dispatched from Ryoun and my forthcoming fleet will decimate them. But a double disaster happens. The Humans ally with the brains AND the brains cancel our NAP withdrawing their diplomat! Now I am running out of diplomacy options and have to hope one of the races has a last minute change of heart or I will lose the vote. Asking to break their Alliance with the Psilons had no chance with Wary Aggressive Bulrathi and Relaxed Erratic Humans declined.

After 2399, vote for 38: Psilons[8]+Mrr(4)+Bul(5)+Sili(7)+Hum(6) plus me[8]
Well I made it unanimous. I had been looking forward to taking out lesser races until I could face the mighty Psilons who were already up to Tachyon Beam amongst others. A little unlucky perhaps but I should have engaged others earlier and improved the diplomatic situation sooner. Could I have avoided the vote loss in 2399? Well yes, putting enough transports in the air could remove me from being a candidate. If I have to be below the next best votes, Silicoids 7, then about 140 would do it, say between Meklon & Primodius for the loss of 2 turns of their production.
Still I do get a score!


Result: Diplomatic defeat at 2399-2400 vote
Score:
Game complete = 500
Victory before 2600 = 0
Planets at end: 7 x 5 = 35
Planets founded: 6 x -25 = -150

Final score: 500 + 0 + 35 - 150 = 385


Pictures: 2399 Map & 2399 Status [For some reason all image loads fail with 'invalid image file' so attached as zip]

Please see the second post for the current poll.

Welcome all!

In fine RB tradition we're going to play another pitboss game.

Pitboss is a type of Civ IV multiplayer that allows players to connect to a game hosted online at their own pace. Unlike PBEM turns happen simultaneously, so players can take as much or as little time as they would like to play. The game will be played with a 24 hour turn timer, and we anticipate the entire game will take between 6 months and a year to complete.

Once we're finished with the setup process the individual civilization threads will appear in the Pitboss 2 subforum, so prepare to follow all the action there when the game goes live.

Our ten civs:

athlete4life10 + kalin - Willem (Cre/Fin) of the Ottomans (Janissary/Hamman)
Broker33 + Plako - Gandhi (Phi/Spi) of Korea (Hwacha/Seowon)
Jowy + Yazilliclick - Pacal (Exp/Fin) of Greece (Phalanx/Odeon)
DMOC + Nakor - Darius (Fin/Org) of the Holy Roman Empire (Landsknecht/Rathaus)
Iamjohn + Kodii + Zevis - Mehmed (Exp/Org) of Inca (Quechua/Terrace)
Speaker + Sullla - Elizabeth (Fin/Phi) of India (Fast Worker/Mausoleum)
Mortius - Ragnar (Agg/Fin) of Zulu (Impi/Ikhanda)
Dantski - Julius Caesar (Imp/Org) of Mali (Skirmisher/Mint)
LiPing - Shaka (Agg/Exp) of Rome (Praetorian/Forum)
Regoarrarr + darrelljs + sunrise089 - Peter (Exp/Phi) of Byzantium (Cataphract/Hippodrome)

Some stats for the lurkers:

(Numbers in parenthesis detail pick order or number picked difference from Pitboss 1)

Overall pick order:

*Willem (+/-0)
*Gandhi (Not picked)
*Pacal (Not picked)
*Darius (Not picked)
*Inca (-1)
*Elizabeth (Not picked)
*Ragnar (Not picked)
*Mali (+9)
*Rome (+1)
*Peter/Byzantium (Not picked)/(+4)
*Shaka (Not picked)
*Julius Caesar (Not picked)
*Zulu (-5)
*India (-11)
*Mehmed (Not picked)
*Holy Roman Empire (+3)
*Greece (Not picked)
*Korea (Not picked)
*Ottomans (Not picked)

Traits:
*Financial - 5 (+3)
*Expansive - 4 (+1)
*Philosophical - 3 (+3)
*Organized - 3 (+2)
*Aggressive - 2 (+/-0)
*Creative - 1 (-6!)
*Imperialistic - 1 (-2)
*Spiritual - 1 (-1)
*Charismatic - 0 (-1)
*Industrious - 0 (-1)
*Protective - 0 (+/-1)

Unique units by era:
*Ancient - 5 (-1)
*Classical - 2 (+/-0)
*Medieval - 2 (+/-0)
*Renaissance - 1 (+/-0)
*Industrial - 0 (+/-0)
*Modern - 0 (+/-0)

Unique units by type:
*Melee - 5 (+/-0)
*Mounted - 1 (-3)
*Gunpowder - 1 (+1)
*Siege - 1 (+1)
*Archery - 1 (+/-0)
*Non-combatant - 1 (+/-0)

Unique building bonus:
*Economic - 4 (-1)
*Health/happiness - 4 (+1)
*Culture - 1 (+/-0)
*Great people - 1 (+/-0)
*Military - 0 (-0)

Starting techs:
*Mysticism - 5 (+/-1)
*Mining - 4 (+/-1)
*Agriculture - 3 (-1)
*Hunting - 3 (+/-1)
*The Wheel - 3 (+/-1)
*Fishing - 2 (-1)

Please feel free to post reports in the subforum ... and look for Imperium 24 around this time next week!

Hey all, I'm a long time lurker at the forums here, second time poster, but I've been playing Diablo for 8 years, and for the last 24 (and the last 12 particularily) months I've been trying to achieve an Ironman victory. After 6 months of failure I finally reached Dlvl 16 with a warrior, unfortunately, Hell had been particularly tough in that game, and I only had 3 minor reds left for 16. Safe to say, it wasn't successful. Since then I have had 3 Ironman games that made it to Dlvl 16, one rogue,one warrior, and one barbarian, each time, advocates did me in, but this time, I was prepared, I had a stock of potions, a full heal (36 charges) staff, and an indestructible bow. It was long, it was hard, I had to fight for every inch of ground against them, I spent more than 5 hours in Dlvl 16 alone, but here I am, I finally finished it.

Some notes;
This game was played single player in 3 sessions (from 7:30pm Oct 09/09 to 9:23pm Oct 11/09), the first session was a long marathon from Dlvl 1 throughout Dlvl 12. The second session was from Dlvl 13-15. The third and final session began today at 4:30pm, and finished just minutes ago at 9:23pm.

There are no Hellfire-specific rules for Ironman that I could find, so I had to come up with my own for atleast one situation;
-no oils allowed, I felt that Blacksmith oils atleast offered too big an advantage over Classic D1 Ironman, so I banned all oils for myself.
-Hive/Crypt, I want someones input on this, I have no idea what to do, On the one hand, it's an extra challenge, on the other, I intend to try and go farther, into Nightmare, and If I do clear the Hives/Crypt, it'll give me a distinct increase in not only levels but items and that's not something I neccessarily think would be fair when compared to Classic Diablo 1.

I think I may have been a bit over-conservative in this game, for instance I didn't ID my Arkaine's valor or Undead Crown until I hit that Glimmering Shrine in hell, and yet at the end game I had 8 ID scrolls left. I guess It's just habit from one of my ironman games that found only 2 scrolls (+1 bought in town) in the whole game and my other game that had me with 3 potions on Dlvl 16. I think it would have been alot easier on me if I had, but oh well, success was achieved anyway :D!

Here's the Victory report;
Pre-Game Plan;
Lots of points into Dex,
Kick my way for as long as possible, I don't expect many stave drops and so I want to conserve any good ones for tough levels.
Succeed hopefully :D.

Town;
Bought 1 Id Scroll

Dlvl 1;
Usual foes
Book Of Heal, Book Of Charged Bolt, ID Scroll
Lup to 3, 2 pts to mag for learning heal, rest to dex
Kicking the whole way, suprisingly effective. Learned heal.

Dlvl 2;
Zombies,Carvers,Fallen Ones, Burning Dead
Soulpus - mag mace, Pukerat - mag scimitar, Rotfeast - unique dagger (Black Razor)
Quiet Shrine
Book Of Healing, 2 ID Scrolls, Book Of Telekinesis,plain Hunter's bow
Still kicking, Switched to a hunters bow for the butcher though, took a while to needle him to death with the monk's bow speed, but he went down and dropped his cleaver.
Lup to 6, all points to dex, kick dmg 5-8

Dlvl 3;
Corpse Axe, Burning Dead Captain, Scavenger, Dark Ones, Rotting Carcass, Fiends,Blinks
Goretounge - magic hunter's bow,2 ID Scrolls, Book Of Beserk, Book Of Healing
Lup to 8, 5 to dex, 5 to str

King Leo's Chamber;
Staff Of Healing (Dmg 5-10), Staff Of Warp,Quilted Armour AC 9, Leather Armour 10 AC
Lup to 9, 5 to dex
Cleared everything except Leo, dont want to waste pots,
Came back when I got to Cats 6 and finished him.

Dlvl 4;
Burning Dead,Horror, Devil Kin, Shadowbeasts, Burning Dead Captain,Overlords
Staff Of Charged Bolt, Book Of Holy bolt, 2 Id Scrolls, Mana Shield Scroll, Book Inferno, Book Lightning, Skull Cap AC4
Blood Fountain!
Snotspill - magic club, Madeye - magic hunter's bow
Lup to 11, all points to dex, kick dmg 12-18

POST-CHURCH
Level 11
Str 30
Mag 17
Dex 68
Vit 22
Life 67
Mana 44
AC 43
To-Hit% 84
Damage; 12-18 (kick)

Comments; Church was easy, managed to avoid using any hp pots/scrolls yet, still have to go back and kill Leo to get complete clear. (Done at Cats 6)

Dlvl 5;
Glooms, Black Deaths, Horror, Blink, Horned Demon, Hidden
Foulwing -mag broad sword, wrathraven -mag long sword, Arkaine's Valor (unid)
Gloomy Shrine
Foulwing pack was right near the stairs, luckily they got caught up on the magic rock platform, and I was able to bow down a few, and finally kicked foulwing in, picked up arkaines valor too, this level had a few close calls, runner charges hurt, hiddens trapped me in wrathraven pack, but with some fast kicking and 3 trips to my blood fountain.
Lup to 12, 5 to dex. (Also had the Magic Rock quest, but ofcourse I can't use the reward, so I just leave it there)

Dlvl 6;
Fire Clan, Stalker, Fire Clan Archer, Familiar
Creepy Shrine, goat shrine (eldritch, made 4 minor rejuvs :S) ANOTHER Blood Fountain!, make that two goat-eldritch shrines (made another 4 i think), Creepy shrine
Book of warp, magic amulet drop (+23 HP) Bloodgutter - mag short sword
Lup to 14, 5 to vit, 5 to dex

Chamber of Bone;
mag robe, staff of ring of fire mag, mag helm, mag cap, Unique Skull Cap (thinking cap :O, too bad im not a mage), staff of holy bolt
lup to 15 (forgot to document where I put the points, probably dex), arcane knowledge gained (+1 guardian spell). Went back and finished Leo without incident.

Dlvl 7;
Night Clan archers, familiars, mud runner
Ring drop from first chest (of the eagle, +24 hp), amulet drop from mud runner, plain war staff of inferno (debating to put 3 more pts to magic to use), unique composite bow (0 damage, blitzen or flambeu)
Shimmering Shrine, Weird goat shrine, A THIRD! blood fountain
lup to 16, all to dex.

Dlvl 8.
Familiars, toad Demons, Zhar the mad, Flesh Clan, Night Clan archers
Zhar book one was phasing, second book was mana shield
Religious shrine, unused.
Almost died to one of Zhar's fireballs, dropped me to 2 hp, but I stunlocked him with kicks and continued on my way, still 16.

POST-CATS STATS

Level 16
Str 32
Mag 17
Dex 88
Vit 22
Life 124
Mana 54
AC 80
Dmg 20-28 (unarmed)
0% All Res

So far so good, let's see how caves go.

Dlvl 9;
Illusion Weavers, Night clans, Toad Demons
Ring of precision +17 dex, mag war staff of reflect from slain hero, didn't bother to ID, it's got extra charges.
I started this level and went. Really? this is gonna be cake. I was right. Nothing of interest to report except my awesome ring of precision (+17 dex) drop. And I lupped to 17, +5 more dex.

Dlvl 10;
Mud runners, toad demons, poison spitters

Poison spitters are a minor nuisance, the rest are cake, even the charges dont hurt much from runners. Plaugewrath and co otoh,, alot of kiting required, multiple mana pots used for healing. Luckily I could single them out and stunlock them, but running the open spaces in the caves the poison got ahead of me and hurt alot, quickly. and after all that, I get magical rags. Lovely. Lup to 18, 3 to mag, 2 to dex (mag for heal cost, 2 casts per ball again, and to weild my war staff of inferno, for extra dmg)

Dlvl 11
Blood Claw, Lava Lord

Smallest map of a level ever, probably not much bigger than 2 of the long hallway church rooms. And only two types of mobs. absolutely nothing of note except two almost-deaths when lava lords pummeled me with ranged balls of fire, I'm starting to worry that Advocates are going to fry me, and I'm hoping against all that I dont get a witch-heavy or cast-heavy hell draw. Or that I can atleast get some decent resistance items before I get there.. No items of worth or note, probably one or two healing pots taken off the ground, if that, and no levels. Still 18.

Dlvl 12
Slayer, Poison Spitter
Magical gothic shield (extra dur it seems), Book of elemental, Plain plate ac 43, Scroll Of Id,
First thing, slayers are easy to melee, the floaty dance is painful though, I'm begging for a nice fire resistance drop soon. This game seems heavy on the book drops, I wish I could make use of them, but I need all the dex I can get to pump my damage for hell and to increase my blocking. I noticed a marked increase in potion use on this level, about 5 or 6 various heals (mana pots, levelup mana healing, one hp pot, 2 hp scrolls) mostly because of the long-casting infernos. Nice to see an ID, I may actually identify my arkaines valour and undead crown if I don't find something good soon... Lup to 19, 5 to dex.

Post-Caves Stats.
Level 19
Str 32
Mag 20
Dex 100 (+17)
Vit 27
Life 135
Mana 63
All resists= 0
AC 94
ToHit 108%
Undead crown (unid)
Arkaines valor(unid)
Ring of eagel (+24)
Ring (+17 dex)
Amulet of eagle (+23)
Plain war staff of inferno

Notes before hell;
-Please no witches/advo level. I fear that more than anything.
-hope for some more id scrolls and/or some kind of resistence item.

Dlvl 13
Fire Drakes, Steel Lords
Magic ring (+27 Str)!, Mag helm (+16 vit), book of teleport, plain field plate 44ac, mag great helm (14 Ac, indestructible), book of flash
Warlord Of Blood items; Mag full plate (indestructible, 61ac), unique battle axe (hellslayer, as it has str req), mag morning star, mag mace, mag sabre, Mag full plate (64 Ac)
Cauldron (GLIMMERING!!!!)
BEST LEVEL EVER. Glimmering saved me 3 id scrolls atleast, I actually hit it accidently in the middle of a pack of vipers (with my damage, I can take on up to 6 vipers at a time :D), steel lords are just as weak, I am so glad I hit that cauldron, perfect timing. And just when I thought this couldn't get any better, I remember i get to do warlord of blood, 6 free items :D. Lup to 21, +10 dex.

Dlvl 14,
Vortex lords, fire drakes
Elixer of str, Id Scroll, book of bone spirit, magic morning star, chain mail AC 21
Cauldron (religious)
Wow, another easy level, I know I said inferno's hurt, but with the newly unlocked leech from my id'd crown it takes a large mob of them casting to even dent me, thank you monk triple attack! One close call from getting over-confident with a group of Vortex lords but 2 heal pots got me out of there, still alive and kicking (well, slashing with my staff now). Lup to 22, 5 to dex.

Dlvl 15, getting close now..
Snow witchs, Magistrates
Mag axe, staff of stone curse, Ac 13 Indestructible Kite shield, mag 4 AC robe

Exactly the monster combo I've been fearing.
After playing half this level zerg rushing lone mobs, painstakingly stringing them out, I get laz's staff and hike back to town, at which point I remember the unique indestructible comp bow I found a while back, it's got 0 base damage but somehow it does deal a fair bit of damage anyway (18-30 iirc).
I can use it to snipe mages and witches. The rest of the level goes, well, slow as molasses, but by sniping offscreen I can avoid most charged bolts, I still manage to go through over 19 pots on this level. Lup to 23, 5 to dex.

Laz's Chamber;
Book of firebolt, Black Jade -mag cap, red vex- mag short battle bow, mag kite shield, mag maul, magic claymore
I forgot about the fact that without TPs I have no way out of this level until I beat Lazarus, and so I end up in here with just 8 minor reds. Soul burners dont hurt, advocates hurt like hell though, I burn through 3 pots on the 4 outer advos. The rest go to laz's crew, which means Im left fighting laz with no pots and no mana, luckily I corner him and he cant teleport anywhere, so I stun him into submission and leech back my life :P He drops a magic broad axe.

Dlvl 16;

And here comes the big push, I've gotten here 4 times before, each time advocates did me in, this time, I'm stocked to the brim on potions, I have a bow that's indestructible, and I'm ready to kill. BRING IT!

Mag tower shield, Elixer of vitality, elixer of str, elixter of str, mag plate mail ac42, elixer of str, sir gorash - mag scimitar.

This is torture, bowing is slow, and I must dodge constantly, I still manage to eat up fireballs like candy. Half way through the first 2 quads of the level I've used up 15 red potions, when I remember my staff of healing from way back. I want to save potions for diablo so I pop up to town and retreive it. The rest of the level goes by at a rediculously slow pace as I soak up fireballs from single advos in order to fist stunlock them, and I bow down larger packs from offscreen while hoping they'll teleport off singly for me, eventually though I get them all down (but it costs me 12 small blues, and 25 heal charges on my staff), and it's time for the showdown with big D.

Pre-Diablo Stats;
Level 25
Str 35 (62 w/ items)
Mag 20
Dex 130 (147 w/ items)
Vit 28
Life 139
Mana 75
ToHit 123%
AC 112
Dmg 46-59

I pull the switches, pull out the black knight and blood knights, bow down as many advos as I can, and pull D out. I run to my corner, and through my tp, walk back down to the square and finish the 3 remaining Advocates. Then back to my corner, where Diablo rushes out to greet me, apocs hit me for 1/3 my life, and I have to heal from my inv as I run in to him (to save belt pots for melee), once I get in to the corner however, my kicks seem more than able to take him on, I keep him in near-constant stunlock, and with the leech from my helmet I actually HEAL throughout the ordeal. I didn't touch my belt.
It was just a waiting game, as two years of unsuccessful attempts come to fruition in this one moment of triumph, I've been to Dlvl 16 4 times before, but never been able to make it past all the Advocates, now is my retribution. 25 seconds in, BOOM!, Diablo goes down in spurts of blood, I go up, fist pumping, yelling at the top of my lungs, celebrating my final success. VICTORY IS MINE!


Post-game thoughts/notes;
I want some advice, as mentioned above, about the Crypt/Hive levels, I don't know what to do for that..
The monk is one of the more interesting characters to Ironman with in my opinion, the whole "heaver armour is worse" thing kind of messes with you, it makes it hard to get good gear,stave drops are rare,my main defence was my blocking, my life was low, I had no resists, Bow attack speed is crap all. But melee attackers are sliced through like a hot knife through butter. It's an interesting balance.
This game according to the drops seems to have been more suited to mage or warrior, nice heavy armours, plenty of books, plenty of casting staves, but it did also have plenty in the way of potions and general use items, and those 3 blood fountains? Just gravy.


And that's all I guess . Comments? Thoughts? Congratulations? I just wanted to share my success with you all Thanks for reading. Also, I have some screenshots if anyone wants to see, I'll probably upload them later anyway but right now the slowness of Dial-up is a bit much to handle.

The Council Leaders for the Peer Review Council are Vort and Courin. Thanks to the two of them for agreeing to serve!

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Thanks!
Hawk