MoM comparison game

[DaveV]

The idea: several people play out the game from the same start, and compare results. This is meant as a learning experience, not a race for highest score, fastest finish, or coolest hero. I've noticed from peoples' posts that there seems to be a lot of difference in styles, and I'd like some ideas on how to play differently and improve my game.

I've played this game to the end of 1405, and so far it looks very winnable. Difficulty is impossible, race halflings, alchemist, myrran, LLLLCSN.

Unzip the save game (it will overwrite your current game, SAVE9.GAM), and run. Save every 5 years, keep a log of significant events (conquering/founding cities, new techs, taking towers, nodes, etc.).

[DaveV]

And here's a picture of the yummy start position.

[Father Beast]

allright, I'm in. that adamantium looks sweeeeet.

Hey, aren't you the Lord of ICS? do you use that at all in MOM? seems like it would be hard with the building restrictions.

Warning, I've never even won a hard game, much less impossible. I probably won't be much value...

[DaveV]

I have to continually suppress the urge to build cities in MoM. My experience indicates that it's much more cost-effective to capture cities than to build them from scratch.

I'm not yet convinced I'll be able to win this game (as of 1410), even though the start was nearly ideal, by my standards.

Spoiler:

...of course, it hasn't helped that I've had to deal with a metor shower which Freya cast in 1407! I'm spending half my production replacing destroyed buildings, and my slingers are mostly cowering in cities and trying to heal.

[Father Beast]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose this game, I'm in about 1427, and I can't make any headway against my neighbor, plus I have the same problem your spoiler pointed out, except from at least 2 wizards.

If I can do your spoiler trick, I'll post my problem.

[Father Beast]

OK, I guess that's pretty simple

Spoiler:

I have both Freya and Sss'ra taking turns casting meteor shower, plus Freya also casts great wasting, and Sss'ra casts armageddon for a few turns now and then. I got disjunction a while back, but I can't cast it often enough to keep those off my back, much less the herb mastery and zombie mastery being cast.

[Rex Little]

I'll try this when I get a chance; won't be until at least Labor Day weekend as I have to go out of town. I'm curious: why did you start with halflings? Was it just to increase the challenge? Half the point of picking Myrran is to use one of the more powerful Myrran races.

[DaveV]

Rex - Halflings are my favorite early-game race, and they can rule the Myrran races with little or no unrest penalty. I figured I could build some super-powerful hand-to-hand units in captured Myrran cities to back up my adamantium slingers. And I'll be lucky to finish by Labor Day weekend at the rate I play...

(now, could you do your Richard Nixon impression?)

[Father Beast]

I'm almost up to 1440, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose this game. should I still post my results up here?

Although my loss is almost assured, I feel like I've made some progress I never would have envisioned earlier on (I've knocked out a wizard), and I think it may be useful.

[Rex Little]

I got well into the game yesterday and today. As of the early 1420's I was doing pretty well. I'd banished the other wizard on Myrror and taken most of his cities; he came back, but I was a turn or two away from banishing him again. I'd gotten a few units over to Arcanus and met a couple of the neighbors. I had such a rich stream of slingers, hammerhands and minotaurs in production that my biggest problem was moving them all around.

And then the game crashed.

I'm going to restart from my last save, and save every turn from now on, but I'm afraid that I may never finish.

BTW, I never before realized how powerful adamantium slingers are. Awesome! One of them took out two sprites and an earth elemental single-handed.

[bakalov]

I'll try this game too :-) Sounds interesting ... I should have done it earlier if I was not on a vacation ;-)

[Father Beast]

I'm into the 1450's in this game, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to win. a result I would have found hard to believe even 10 years of game time before.

I may not be done by the end of labor day. but I'll see about posting my results as soon as I can.

the save every five years has meant that I have now saved over my original 1405 and 1410 saves. the 1415 too, I think.

[Rex Little]

Restarting the game worked; I've had one more crash since, but I restarted and played past it. I also had a stretch where some data corruption gave one of my heros a movement allowance of over 50 and attack and defense factors over 100, but he went back to normal on the next save.

It's 1428, and the game could go either way. I've wiped out the wizard who shared Myrror with me, and taken a few cities on Arcanus, but the wizards there are powerful enough that it's difficult to take the fight to them. Those stacks of slingers which were so devastating earlier don't do so well when they get hit with Flame Strike the first turn. Most likely it's going to be a long grind in any case.

[bakalov]

I played only a little till now but there was a dwarven city with adamantium just north of my starting one. I plan to use their adamantium hammerhands too - everything that cannot be beatean by slingers can be beaten by hammerhands.

[Father Beast]

I noticed later on that there is a dwarven city with adamantium to the east and south, also.