Warlords of Garcadia [Forum Game] *A king is crowned*

[Jenuall]

I think the most important takeaway is that we all saw what lurks beneath jawas friendly surface

Dark Souls has turned Jawa into a ruthless, finely honed killing machine!

[Hexx]

Thanks for running OR!

[DarkRula]

Great game.

I have to admit, I did feel I knew where the Forces of Darkness came from, but felt it would be better for me to follow them instead of being honorable when that PM came. I should have seen the dark side as the losing team.

[OrangeRKN]

I didn’t want to defect but I didn’t have the foresight to see the darkness thing

So the intention of giving every player the option to accept or refuse was:

1) To give less active people an out on death, rather than putting any onus on them to keep playing
2) To avoid players feeling like they were "forced" into switching sides, because they would have actively made the choice (even if it wasn't clear what choice they were making)

I didn't want to make it an explicit choice mostly for flavour, to reflect the player character being corrupted by an offer to live again that's pretty tropey. The players then become unwitting pawns which is a bit more sinister. I also though wanted to maximise the chance that players would accept - which seemed to work very well!

I wasn't sure if anyone would actually get killed at the start of the game - there is little mechanical reason to do so other than to reduce the target on yourself for having lots of captives without the risk of releasing them. In general I thought the appeal of extra recruits would encourage people to keep captives rather than execute them.

If that had been the case, I was going to try and persuade players with captives to execute them by offering them a deal with a jester-like character in-game. He would offer troops in return for an execution, player-dependent but probably around 300. Obviously though I never had to do this!

I think the most important takeaway is that we all saw what lurks beneath jawas friendly surface

Also this

[Herdanos]

Would be cool if anyone wants to roughly summarise the alliances/factions that were in play, not seeing any of the PMs between players I was trying to figure it out from the thread alone

Here's things from my perspective then:

So on day one Moggy and I joined up with Karl and Hexx's public faction, and decided to target Oblomov Boblomov, the self assigned leader of the centrists. We didn't know how many he'd won onside though, and in hindsight we committed far too few troops to make a difference on that first night. Unfortunately for us, the centrists, Falsey AND the DarkRula / IronHide combo (I assume these three joined forces later on) all targeted Karl and he was taken captive, but remained part of our planning circle.

The second night, we were more careful and our plan was good - we realised from the first night's actions that there were times your troops were safer in attack than defence (because their losses are more likely to be diluted by other attackers) and the only downside was the vulnerability by not having troops in defence - something we'd work around by capturing each other, by committing enough troops to guarantee we'd be the attacking player to capture our ally, allowing us to release them. So we committed enough troops to ensure Hexx would capture Falsey (releasing Karl) and then Moggy would capture Hexx...

With jawa having used 60% of his army day one and only having 500 troops coming into night two, we failed to anticipate that he might commit all his armies at any of us. So when he attacked Hexx too with all his armies, outflanking Moggy and taking Hexx captive, he took control of the game at that point.

Our biggest mistake was not sending one token troop to attack jawa, which would have meant we'd have taken him captive (given that he had no defence!) and given that Falsey also captured mic, it would have meant we'd have ended the day as a faction with six captives, two of whom we'd free. The really silly part was that we'd sent one troop to most other active players, so as to reduce their even troop numbers, which we figured might help in the future when trying to capture them (as even a 999 strong army loses to a 1000 strong one!), but we deliberately didn't attack jawa (or Dual) in the hope that others would interpret this as them working alongside us. D'oh.

(IMO, jawa was the MVP of this game, even though IronHide won; some of his plays were so gutsy and outright unexpected, and considering he basically acted alone throughout he did superbly to get himself in such a position of strength.)

On night three we targeted jawa, but again he made the right play - I attacked jawa with full force (in case he defended), Moggy captured me, but jawa captured Moggy, triggering the cross capture rule and freeing us all. We got Karl free, but Hexx remained jawa's prisoner.

Moggy, Karl and I then indulged in some in-thread bickering to try and make it seem like we weren't a faction (overshadowed by jawa's brutal Hexxecution), but the plan all along was to release Karl as late as possible and use him to attack - the theory being that others would assume he's still captive and therefore not a viable target, meaning Karl wouldn't have to worry about leaving troops in defence.

At this point Falsey also came onside and we were able to use his info to plan our attacks.

Ob Bob saw our late prisoner releases and I assume reacted accordingly, sending one troop to attack Karl, but fortunately Falsey captured OB. We gambled that Moggy and I, in such an outwardly visible position of strength, wouldn't be targeted, but jawa captured me and Jenuall captured him. The remaining players in my faction were in a decent position, with good player numbers but poorer troop numbers, so I thought we ended that evening in a decent position, all things considered. My game ended (or so I thought) when Jenuall executed jawa and I.

I can post some thoughts on the undead game experience later if I've time.

[Moggy]

Would be cool if anyone wants to roughly summarise the alliances/factions that were in play, not seeing any of the PMs between players I was trying to figure it out from the thread alone

Here's things from my perspective then:

So on day one Moggy and I joined up with Karl and Hexx's public faction, and decided to target Oblomov Boblomov, the self assigned leader of the centrists. We didn't know how many he'd won onside though, and in hindsight we committed far too few troops to make a difference on that first night. Unfortunately for us, the centrists, Falsey AND the DarkRula / IronHide combo (I assume these three joined forces later on) all targeted Karl and he was taken captive, but remained part of our planning circle.

The second night, we were more careful and our plan was good - we realised from the first night's actions that there were times your troops were safer in attack than defence (because their losses are more likely to be diluted by other attackers) and the only downside was the vulnerability by not having troops in defence - something we'd work around by capturing each other, by committing enough troops to guarantee we'd be the attacking player to capture our ally, allowing us to release them. So we committed enough troops to ensure Hexx would capture Falsey (releasing Karl) and then Moggy would capture Hexx...

With jawa having used 60% of his army day one and only having 500 troops coming into night two, we failed to anticipate that he might commit all his armies at any of us. So when he attacked Hexx too with all his armies, outflanking Moggy and taking Hexx captive, he took control of the game at that point.

Our biggest mistake was not sending one token troop to attack jawa, which would have meant we'd have taken him captive (given that he had no defence!) and given that Falsey also captured mic, it would have meant we'd have ended the day as a faction with six captives, two of whom we'd free. The really silly part was that we'd sent one troop to most other active players, so as to reduce their even troop numbers, which we figured might help in the future when trying to capture them (as even a 999 strong army loses to a 1000 strong one!), but we deliberately didn't attack jawa (or Dual) in the hope that others would interpret this as them working alongside us. D'oh.

(IMO, jawa was the MVP of this game, even though IronHide won; some of his plays were so gutsy and outright unexpected, and considering he basically acted alone throughout he did superbly to get himself in such a position of strength.)

On night three we targeted jawa, but again he made the right play - I attacked jawa with full force (in case he defended), Moggy captured me, but jawa captured Moggy, triggering the cross capture rule and freeing us all. We got Karl free, but Hexx remained jawa's prisoner.

Moggy, Karl and I then indulged in some in-thread bickering to try and make it seem like we weren't a faction (overshadowed by jawa's brutal Hexxecution), but the plan all along was to release Karl as late as possible and use him to attack - the theory being that others would assume he's still captive and therefore not a viable target, meaning Karl wouldn't have to worry about leaving troops in defence.

At this point Falsey also came onside and we were able to use his info to plan our attacks.

Ob Bob saw our late prisoner releases and I assume reacted accordingly, sending one troop to attack Karl, but fortunately Falsey captured OB. We gambled that Moggy and I, in such an outwardly visible position of strength, wouldn't be targeted, but jawa captured me and Jenuall captured him. The remaining players in my faction were in a decent position, with good player numbers but poorer troop numbers, so I thought we ended that evening in a decent position, all things considered. My game ended (or so I thought) when Jenuall executed jawa and I.

I can post some thoughts on the undead game experience later if I've time.

What he said.

[Hexx]

I agreed some NAPs on night one.
Most of them weren't honored

[OrangeRKN]

[writeup]

This is really cool to read, thanks! I didn't realise quite how spanner-in-the-works jawa had been

[That]

I still don't know why Jawa wanted to kill us so badly.

[Hexx]

[writeup]

This is really cool to read, thanks! I didn't realise quite how spanner-in-the-works jawa had been

Yep. I followed Dan's stupid dumb plan (I think I even described it to you as this, although maybe not naming him, when I sent instructions) and got utterly shafted

[Jenuall]

I agreed some NAPs on night one.
Most of them weren't honored

Someone's in the bitter barn still

I made contact with a few players on Day 1 but people were, for obvious reasons, playing it quite cagey and it was hard to tell who to trust. I was in contact with Dual, Hexx and Preezy fairly on and was planning to play it cool on Day 1 and see how things played out, but it became clear that the ABCD faction was going to be sizable even at that point so I joined in with them and that pushed me into our agreed action of taking down Hexx (sorry ) and Karl!

I'll see if someone more senior in the ranks of the ABCD's wants to give a full run down of our game plan and actions across each Day, if no-one chimes in I'll post my rundown of it - I think we made some really good plays for the most part!

[Ironhide]

Great game OR, I really enjoyed taking part.

I was quite surprised when Qikz and Mini E suggested the election, I was fully expected a 3 way standoff which would in hindsight probably resulted in the 'bad' ending.

I will admit that my capture of Karl, Moggy and False was pure luck rather than a grand strategic manouver, I was originally only going to attack Moggy and Karl (as bizarrely suggested by Karl himself via PM) but at the last minute had a mad idea to attack False as well despite it leaving me with 1/4 of my troops .

Also, the Karl being a catgirl thing is probably one of the most surreal moments in a forum game I've ever been involved in, I wasn't too sure how far to take it without things getting too weird.

[Jenuall]

Also, the Karl being a catgirl thing is probably one of the most surreal moments in a forum game I've ever been involved in, I wasn't too sure how far to take it without things getting too weird.

It was definitely weird.

But that's no reason not to take it further!

[That]

I will admit that my capture of Karl, Moggy and False was pure luck rather than a grand strategic manouver, I was originally only going to attack Moggy and Karl (as bizarrely suggested by Karl himself via PM) but at the last minute had a mad idea to attack False as well despite it leaving me with 1/4 of my troops .

Also, the Karl being a catgirl thing is probably one of the most surreal moments in a forum game I've ever been involved in, I wasn't too sure how far to take it without things getting too weird.

Both of these probably bear some explanation.

1. I have no idea what happened on this turn, but I was absolutely convinced that not only were your living faction going to hammer us, but that the forces of darkness were going to come out in force and literally slaughter us. (At this point I had worked out that they were dead players.) As you seemed the most corruptible I tried to forge some kind of relationship by suggesting I wanted to end up with you and work with you. I of course thought you would have already been told to attack anyway, because, like... why wouldn't you?

The fact that your teammates apparently weren't attacking at all was just, like, mindblowing? Were you actually not going to attack at all??? Like, what were you doing?????

2. Uh, catgirls aren't weird, what are you talking about

[DarkRula]

I wasn't fully committed to the ABCD, having only accepted the non-aggression pact from Ob Bob and then suddenly finding myself a part of the group. I'd also already accepted the non-agression pact that Hexx had sent my way, so while the rest of the ABCD were all-in on going for both Karl and Hexx, I avoided attacking Hexx in the hopes it could lead to greater things and maybe I could sell information to either side.

That never really took off, so I was kind of stuck with the ABCD, though I remained quite clear I wasn't officially a member to them. Remembering the non-aggression pact made with Hexx, I avoided future attacks planned, instead helping with a major boost to those who needed it instead.

Really, though, the ABCD would have seen a faster result had there not been turncoats among it.

[Ironhide]

Also, the Karl being a catgirl thing is probably one of the most surreal moments in a forum game I've ever been involved in, I wasn't too sure how far to take it without things getting too weird.

It was definitely weird.

But that's no reason not to take it further!

"The erotic adventures of Karl(a) the catgirl"

[Hexx]

I wasn't fully committed to the ABCD, having only accepted the non-aggression pact from Ob Bob and then suddenly finding myself a part of the group. I'd also already accepted the non-agression pact that Hexx had sent my way, so while the rest of the ABCD were all-in on going for both Karl and Hexx, I avoided attacking Hexx in the hopes it could lead to greater things and maybe I could sell information to either side.

That never really took off, so I was kind of stuck with the ABCD, though I remained quite clear I wasn't officially a member to them. Remembering the non-aggression pact made with Hexx, I avoided future attacks planned, instead helping with a major boost to those who needed it instead.

Really, though, the ABCD would have seen a faster result had there not been turncoats among it.

See! Some people are honest and true

[Preezy]

I wanted to screw over Hexx as soon as I could.

[That]

(EDIT: I posted a meme screenshot of an article about anime catgirls but people went and looked up the author and I feel bad now. I don't want to be a bully, I wanted you lot to make fun of me, not random internet people. Let's delete a couple of posts and forget this happened, OK? )

[Herdanos]

So long, page 22!