MoM tournament #1: Barbarian Hordes

[Catwalk]

As described in the other thread, here is a small but challenging tournament for you all to enjoy. Rules are as follows:

Setup
- Impossible
- Large land mass
- Powerful magic
- 4 enemies
- Latest version of Insecticide
- Victory condition: Control 10 nodes (must be melded)
- Bonus points: Defeat enemy wizards (2 years subtracted from final score for each dead wizard)

Starting conditions
- Channeler + Archmage + Node Mastery + Nature Mastery + 4x Nature + 1x Chaos + 1x Sorcery
- Starting spells: Resist Elements, Giant Strength, Earth Lore
- Barbarians
- 100 gold, 50 mana, 10 fame, size 6 capital with Granary added

Restrictions
- Max one hero per stack
- Must raze non-Barbarian cities
- May not use cavalry and berserkers (or flying warships)

Starting save may be downloaded here

Games must be submitted for scoring by October 30th. You're allowed to keep playing after controlling 10 nodes, if you think you can improve your score by rapidly killing one or more wizards. If you accidentally kill off all wizards without controlling at least 10 nodes, you lose. You're encouraged to write a game report with as much detail as you care to provide.

In addition, all participants are asked to provide the following summary every 4 years on January:
- list of cities and their sizes
- list of units (feel free to note down how many elite, mithril and adamantium units you have)
- list of heroes, including experience and items
- gold, mana and casting skill

I won't be scoring in the game as I've seen the map, but I'll play and submit a report anyway. Let me know if you encounter any problems or errors with the setup and I'll fix them as soon as possible. Hope we'll have a good turnout, happy nerding everyone :hat:

[Oso]

Ok, I guess we are supposed to update in this thread.

January 1404

• Cities:
  • Frieburg(*) - Pop 10
    
  • Bamburg - Pop:3
    

• Units:
  • Spearmen:02
    
  • Swordsmen:04
    
  • --------
    
  • Total:06

• Heroes:
  • NONE

• Miscellaneous:
  • Gold:284
    
  • Mana:66
    
  • CS:27(27)

Narrative: Nothing to speak of. Phantom Warriors was researched. No attack by either Raiders or Monsters yet. Taxes at 2.0. Mana Wand at 0, diverted to Skill. Using gold to both hurry production where feasible (and by feasible, I'm using a fairly conservative strategy at this point:at least 50% construction already completed through normal means) and to get mana.

[Oso]

January 1408

Throwing in the towel sorry. With the liberal use of Earth Lore, I can see I am already so outclassed that continuing serves no purpose

[Catwalk]

Thanks for playing Oso, but I think you should have a go at seeing how far you last before succumbing

A note about rushing production: You should rush as much as possible whenever you have the gold. We're allowed to ladder rush in this format (buy spearmen, buy swordsmen, buy settlers, buy stables, let remaining 20 hammers for Marketplace finish through production) and it pays off immensely. I usually restrict myself from using it.

What was your general strategy? Early expansion, then massing up an army?

[Catwalk]

I've finished my first two years, and I think this map looks really interesting. One thing I'd do different is to allow capture of alien cities, it's no fun to have this aspect of the game removed entirely. I'm tempted to restart the tournament with full visibility on, letting me sign up fully. Would you be up for that Oso? Is anyone else interested? I definitely think the challenge can be beaten if you just go for 10 nodes. Maybe Archmage and Nature Mastery should be swapped for Warlord to give the player a fighting chance. With a Fighter's Guild you just need 40 XP for a new unit to reach elite, making it realistic to build up large stacks of elite units for node conquest. Elite Barbarian Spearmen and Swordsmen with magic weapons and Giant Strength should be fully capable of clearing monsters like phantom beasts, gargoyles and basilisks.

[Oso]

What was your general strategy? Early expansion, then massing up an army?

Pretty much.

I was trying to balance building/unit production and expansion. I think I haven't quite gotten my head around playing on Impossible. I think I am still playing a bit too conservatively in the early game. I'm coming to the conclusion that early game, if I have any sort of reserve mana or gold then I'm doing it wrong. Both should be pretty close to zero. Either through buying production, spells or gold conversion to mana.

My first report should have had mana and gold both at <50. Some unused potential there at least with the gold.

[Catwalk]

I'm coming to the conclusion that early game, if I have any sort of reserve mana or gold then I'm doing it wrong. Both should be pretty close to zero. Either through buying production, spells or gold conversion to mana.

For the most part, yes. Keeping a cash buffer to pick up heroes is good (once you can afford it), but reserves really should be as low as possible. Would you be up for having a go at it again, with slightly improved conditions and the entire map known at the start?

[Oso]

Sure.

Not right away though. There probably will be some folks (b0rsuk and I think VM mentioned interest, there may be others) who are going to give this one a try. From what I understand of MoM, AI things (like how they explore and move) can change from one turn to the next.

Some of the things I mentioned in my PM to you, may not happen to other players simply because of some the randomness I have seen in the AI (although I don't know if that applies to Insecticide). What was going to be pretty much an an auto-lose to me, might turn out different for another player.

[VM]

Yes, id like to try this with the original setup first. Stay tuned for my report

[Catwalk]

VM, we're changing the rules a tiny bit to allow for capture of alien cities. Also, you're allowed to use mercenary units. Reason being that I just picked up some Rangers that I just can't part with