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user:records-of-failure [2021/11/10 15:12]
naaira [Expansion Phase] 		user:records-of-failure [2021/11/14 14:29] (current)
naaira [Records of Failure]
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 I hope to give an honest account of a game that I failed. As people come to lavish every detail of my failure I will incorporate any useful feedback I receive into this AAR. Happy reading. I hope to give an honest account of a game that I failed. As people come to lavish every detail of my failure I will incorporate any useful feedback I receive into this AAR. Happy reading.
  
-<WRAP box 800px center>+<WRAP box 670px>
 ==== Records_of_drainage on Immersion ==== ==== Records_of_drainage on Immersion ====
-<WRAP column 140px> {{ :nations:flags:ma_vanarus.png |}}</WRAP><WRAP column right 140px> {{ :nations:flags:ma_vanarus.png |}}</WRAP>**Author:** Naaira \\+<WRAP column 100px> {{ :nations:flags:ma_vanarus.png |}}</WRAP><WRAP column right 100px> {{ :nations:flags:ma_vanarus.png |}}</WRAP>**Author:** Naaira \\
 **Nation:** MA Vanarus \\ **Nation:** MA Vanarus \\
 **No. of players:** 12 \\ **No. of players:** 12 \\
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 ===== Pretender Design ===== ===== Pretender Design =====
 +When I joined the game I had a few goals in mind:
 +  * I wanted to practice being more aggressive in the early game. My goal was to be in a war around turn 14, using my ??Vyedma?? to pointbuff with Alteration 3 magic.
 +  * I did not want to do a lot of diplomacy, favoring loose understandings above NAPs. I would try to go for 1v1s preferably.
 +  * I wanted a decent bless and not only rely on scales troops.
 +
 Going into the game I wanted to use the ??Oath-Bound?? to carry my early game. I thought (and still think) that it's a very solid unit. 35g for a 14 hp, 16 Prot sacred with good stats and glamour is a bargain in my opinion. I also wanted to practice being more aggressive early. So I decided early that I wanted to build a bless around the ??Oath-bound??. After extensive debate with some of the mentors in my mentee channel on Immersion I settled on this god: Going into the game I wanted to use the ??Oath-Bound?? to carry my early game. I thought (and still think) that it's a very solid unit. 35g for a 14 hp, 16 Prot sacred with good stats and glamour is a bargain in my opinion. I also wanted to practice being more aggressive early. So I decided early that I wanted to build a bless around the ??Oath-bound??. After extensive debate with some of the mentors in my mentee channel on Immersion I settled on this god:
  
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 </WRAP> </WRAP>
 <WRAP box 800px center> ==== Failure #2: No Magic Weapons ==== <WRAP box 800px center> ==== Failure #2: No Magic Weapons ====
-With the dual-wielding berserkers magic weapons is not mandatory on Vanarus, since the berserkers will have an attack density of 6 per square so they can bypass ??Body Ethereal?? more easily than most. However, missing both Fire Resistance //and// Magic Weapons meant that one spell, ??Summon Fire Elementals?? essentially countered three cornerstones of my army: The Oath-Bound, the berserkers and mages casting ??Summon Air Elemental??. Fire Elementals are the natural counter to Air Elementals who like to attack the big blobs of fire and kill themselves on their fire shields.+With the dual-wielding berserkers magic weapons is not mandatory on Vanarus, since the berserkers will have an attack density of 6 per square so they can bypass ??Body Ethereal?? more easily than most. However, missing both Fire Resistance **and** Magic Weapons meant that one spell, ??Summon Fire Elementals?? essentially countered three cornerstones of my army: The Oath-Bound, the berserkers and mages casting ??Summon Air Elemental??. Fire Elementals are the natural counter to Air Elementals who like to attack the big blobs of fire and kill themselves on their fire shields.
 </WRAP> </WRAP>
 In hindsight I should have realized what the Oath-Bound are - really high-value blockers - and built around that. I should have picked up Fire Resistance, Magic Weapons and maybe even more Defense. Johnny's excellent guide features a sample pretender for Vanarus that, given my choice of first war target, would have been much better for this game. In hindsight I should have realized what the Oath-Bound are - really high-value blockers - and built around that. I should have picked up Fire Resistance, Magic Weapons and maybe even more Defense. Johnny's excellent guide features a sample pretender for Vanarus that, given my choice of first war target, would have been much better for this game.
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 ===== Early diplomacy and picking my first war ===== ===== Early diplomacy and picking my first war =====
 +As my scouts gave me more information of the world I began to get a picture of who my neighbors were. My coastal position meant that I was faced with three choices:
 +<WRAP group 800px center centeralign>
 +<WRAP column third>{{ :nations:flags:ma_asphodel.png?nolink&64 |}}Asphodel to my south-west.</WRAP>
 +<WRAP column third>{{ :nations:flags:ma_naba.png?nolink&64 |}}Na'ba to my west</WRAP>
 +<WRAP column third>{{ :nations:flags:ma_pythium.png?nolink&64 |}}Pythium to my north.</WRAP></WRAP>
  
 +My scouting suggested that Pythium had had a rough expansion phase and was significantly smaller than me. Asphodel had not done spectacularly either, but on the other hand the prospect of taking control of his population-depleted lands was not an attractive prospect. In the end I decided to attack Na'Ba. My reasoning was three-fold:
 +  * Na'Ba just gets more and more cancerous with time. With excellent high-path mages, good magic diversity, decent summons and the potential for ??Shaytan??s in the late game I felt it would be better to deal with Na'Ba early.
 +  * I had fought the player before and knew I would be in for a challenge. It just seemed more fun.
 +  * The Thrones placement in the game meant that any contender would have to go to the belt of land north of Na'Ba where Ashdod resides. I could approach that land either from the north through Pythium or west through Na'Ba.
 +
 +With that in mind I reached out to Asphodel and Pythium and declared my intention of not attacking them at this stage. When Na'Ba reached out to settle borders and asked for a NAP I answered ambiguously. The stage was set for a war with Na'Ba....... What a mistake!
 +
 +
 +<WRAP box 800px center> ==== Mistake #4: Picking First War Target ====
 +While there were plenty of reasons to go to war with Na'Ba I missed some key reasons **not** to go to war with them.
 +  * Remember my bless? No fire resistance was a fatal vulnerability in my lineup that Na'Ba's fire mages could easily exploit.
 +  * Na'Ba's lands were located far away from my capital which meant that it took longer to amass troops on the border.
 +  * Geography was awkward with a mountain range that meant that my initial movement would be very predictable.
 +  * The delay in infrastructure meant that I did not have the research advantage I was banking on to win my first war. As I discovered much too soon, Na'Ba was never behind in research to any significant degree. They might even have had the lead.
 +
 +What I should have done is attack Pythium instead. They looked weaker with a much smaller expansion, were closer to my cap, had fewer answers to what I could bring. Had I set out to win the game at any cost I should have accepted the NAP from Na'Ba and gone north, researched the Fire resistance buffing spells and my midgame suit of magic like Wailing Winds.
 +
 +.... or I should have played the diplo game and formed a coalition against Na'Ba. 
 +</WRAP>
 +
 +===== Analyzing my opponent =====
 +So let's have a look at my opponent nation. Na'Ba is one of the more powerful nations in MA with some amazing tricks up its sleeve once it gets its research online. I have played it two times before using a build similar to [[150-proof-guide-to-na-ba-by-baalz|Baalz' Na'Ba guide]] but adapted to vanilla with the help of Txoumin. Let us have a quick look at what I think are Na'Ba's strengths and weaknesses:
 +<WRAP box 800px center>
 +==== Na'Ba Strength and Weaknessess ====
 +<WRAP column half>**Strengths**
 +  * **Amazing mages with high paths:** 
 +    * ??Malikah??, 
 +    * ??Sahir??, 
 +    * ??Hermit Sahir??
 +  * Decent half-giant scales troops:
 +    * ??'Adite Archer??
 +    * ??'Adite Elite Warrior??
 +  * Foreign recruit options:
 +  * Great mobility and lots of stealth
 +  * Vision: ??Nabaean Scout??
 +  * Scaling
 +  * Blood potential
 +  * Decent summons
 +</WRAP>
 +<WRAP column half>
 +**Weaknesses**
 +  * Research-reliant
 +    * Mages need to "come online"
 +  * Weak early game
 +  * Mediocre sacreds:
 +  * {{path>N1}} only on cap-only malikah
 +</WRAP></WRAP>
user/records-of-failure.1636557134.txt.gz · Last modified: 2021/11/10 15:12 by naaira

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