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* Round C Prizes and Awards, Part 1: *
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* THE WARLORDS OSCARS - BEST PICTURE AWARD - ROUND C *
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* "Honoring the Greatest overall group role-plays." *
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Warlords and Gentlemen!
We apologize for the delay in bringing you the Round C Prizes and
Awards. Tournament Headquarters vanished mysteriously from the
internet for over a month. When he resurfaced (with a new degree,
new residence, and new job) it took him some time to catch up with
the world of Warlords. In the meantime, however, the Prize
Committee was not idle! In fact, the Prize Process started
well before the end of Round C, and another immense effort
has finally borne fruit. We hope you find that it was worth
the wait!
As with previous Rounds, at least one member of the committee
read each Round C game history in its entirety.
As we mined out this vast mountain of roleplaying and
adventure, we selected the greatest gems of wit, wisdom,
and achievement, and we identified the veins of ore that
were the best games of the round for role-playing.
The first order of business was to decide which game would
receive the first and greatest of the Tournament Prizes:
The Best Picture Award! The criteria (and committee)
were much the same as in previous rounds, so this time we
will spare you the preliminaries and go straight to the
nominations!
In the end, four games of Round C were nominated for Best Picture.
(Other games were no doubt worthy of mention as well, but these
were the ones that most caught the eye of their official readers...)
Those members of the Prize Committee who were not involved
in any of the nominated games then read all four games.
After a period of discussion about the merits and liabilities of
different games and the judging criteria, the decisions were made!
Alas, though it was a worthy roleplay in many respects,
and might have taken first or second place except for one fatal flaw,
the game C08 was disqualified because one of the players
used language that was considered offensive by the judges.
(The forces of the Black side were repeatedly referred to with
a word historically used as an ethnic slur.)
Third place for Best Picture in Round C goes to...
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* C09! *
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Before we begin summarizing the PC-Classic game C09 proper, we must
honor the *moderator*, Louis Shirley, who deserves a comment for his
amusing mockery of the older version of warlords with which this
game was played. His standard turn message read:
Turn (#), game C09 was driven over and hand delivered to (player's name)
on (date). Please submit your completed turn on (date), or else you risk
becoming a fossil you old dinosaur! Classic indeed! :P
This had the markings of an uneven game, judging by the Round B rankings:
Name Color Round B WW2L Ranking
-----------------------------------------------------
The Prophet Red 9
Professor Patrick Green 43
Dark Lord Pi Blue 47
KlownKiller Black 50
How would it turn out in reality? Here's the official Reader's summary...
* * *
In the Red lands, a prophet appears to lead the land of Aerolandia away
from sin and toward both religious and military salvation. The land is
currently dominated by masters and their slaves and monsters. The Prophet
hoped to change that.
Green's war rooms are those of academia, as indicated by his professorial
nature. A typical report:
> Connie insists on a mate: Jackie arrives at the OU campus (5) and wastes
> no time planting Griffins at Griff Hall (12) and then raising funds at
> the nearby ruin. Connie frees The Demon and then settles in at FSU (8)
> while her unholy ally sets up shop at MidNorthern (5). Slow stodgy
> infantry guys are enrolled as freshmen at these two institutions.
>
> Academia is not getting much prettier. Perhaps the inevitable visit of
> the nearby prosesters will soon spice up the land?
Blue's roleplay will live up to what we have come to expect from Dark Lord
Pi. It is absolutely impossible not to love a roleplay by DLPi (as
groupies on the prize committee have taken to calling him). It can be
neither shortened nor excerpted. Therefore, we will only refer to this
roleplay when DLPi interacts with others, avoiding all comments about the
giant silver "G", the reappearance of the Ninja Assassin, the fact that
items of DOOM! are not even mentioned until turn 16, or the quirky grammar
and spelling that are the sign of a true cult hero. (I can't help but
point out that even Microsoft Word was uniquely affected by DLPi's report,
giving an error that I've never seen before -- by turn 8, no less: "There
are too many spelling or grammatical errors in C09 to continue displaying
them." Clearly MS Word does not appreciate the subtlety of DLPi's style!)
The evil BlackAdder rises in the northwest for the KillerKlowns. He says
little but fights valiantly, and with good sportsmanship when the winds of
war shift.
Red develops his tale:
> The events that took place last time, became news to the masters that
> control the land. Some that were present at the sermon of The Prophet
> in the now taken and renamed town of The Temple, mocked and rejected The
> Prophet and his message. Those damned ones, are the slaves that are
> spared from the Carnage Feast, in return, they serve the masters and
> their lives are spared.
>
> In the Carnage Feast, the masters gather to drink and feast for
> amusement. There in a field of broken terrain, people
> of the land which the masters invaded their land with their powerful
> monsters, are put in this field and told to run for their lives, for the
> monsters are to be left loose in the field to feed on whatever they can
> find. This feast always eliminates any resistance from the people, and
> it keeps the monsters fed for another invation of more land.
The masters and their monsters challenge the new faith to prove itself,
and the Messenger arrives just in time with the holy Datil's Sword to
utterly defeat the foes.
On turn 4, when the Red Messenger frees the devil Yinni, he learns that
Yinni had been in the place of The Prophet hundreds of years ago. Yinni
reveals that he refused to follow the gods of Aerolandia because they
insisted that he kill for them. Upon his refusal, they changed him into a
beast that could not survive but through killing. Yinni agrees to join
the Messenger, however, since the Messenger holds Datil's Sword and so
argues quite persuasively.
Soon, Red attacks Blue, even though the two had exchanged words of
agreement. It was inevitable, as the two dueling religions could not be
expected to coexist. Red kills Politician A, also known as Mr. A and
Esiwald Ocama, in what may be one of the best hero-slaying roleplays of
the round.
Green then suggests a three-way alliance against Red, and builds a second
griffin city. Blue and Red both have their say, but in the end Black
rejects the treaty proposal and agrees to terms with Red. His fear is
that he will be caught between Green and Blue at the end of the game.
Instead he will be caught between Green, Blue, and Red in the middle of
the game!
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the holy war between Red and Blue
is that, although Blue loses militarily, Red begins to talk more and more
like him as time went on. One has to wonder whether the magic of the
Master is working even upon Gods of Aerolandia.
By Turn 9, Blue is down to 2 cities, and Red has 23. The rest are split
fairly evenly by Green and Black. Black, however, has killed Green's last
hero, and the Red/Black union begins to look invincible.
But then Red does something unexpected. He declares a civil war upon
himself and adopts a split personality! As the demon Yinni dies, The
Messenger discovers that the gods had, in fact, acted as cruelly as Yinni
had claimed so long ago. He vows to avenge the unjust treatment. This is
one of the few games where roleplaying becomes meaningful militarily, with
maneuvering going on between the two Red sides. In fact, a blue
infantryman befriends the Red hero and they go off walking and
talking together for some time. Red distinguishes between forces of the
two sides by leaving a movement trail pointing in the direction of the
enemies so that the other players can click on a unit and see whether it
is friend or foe.
Disappointingly, after a brief standoff between the Red forces, the
Prophet and the Messenger decide to reunite the kingdom once again, this
time under the military guidance of the Messenger. Red now joins in a
3-on-1 battle against Black, who must surely be wondering now why he did
not join in the anti-Red alliance not too many turns ago. He is still
fighting well, however, sacking one of Green's griffin cities and taking
other Green cities every turn. But then on Turn 14, Green deals him a
devastating blow, taking the Black capital and three other cities. After
this, and a losing battle of attrition to both the Green and Red forces in
Black's strongest city, it becomes clear that Black cannot hold.
On Turn 17, The Messenger (Red) is greeted by one of the gods he so
hates, and they explain to him the immense power of the items of DOOM!
that the blue hero ne Bob is now searching for. The Messenger,
who controls two (the silver G and Datil's sword), unifies them into the
Silver Sword, and makes it his quest to unify the five items himself. He
does not have time to get the two items held by the hero of the KillerKlowns,
but he decides to meet ne Bob at the rocky dragon's spire where the fifth
item of DOOM! is said to reside. Professor Patrick, however, destroys
Black's final stronghold on turn 20, and gives the final two items of DOOM!
to Red's Messenger as a tribute, though he admits to not understanding the
purpose of his actions. Clearly, he is being led by forces beyond his
control.
And what transpired on that dragon's rock? For the answer, you will have
to read the game, but it is well worth the look!!!
Militarily, C09 was an odd game, as the only player eliminated had fought
extremely well throughout the war. But as roleplaying it was spectacular,
with much interaction between Red and Blue -- so much so that the two
became good at mimicking the other's style!
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Second place for Best Picture in Round C goes to...
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* C06! *
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C06 was destined to be an intense and hard-fought game, with 3 players
in contention for a spot in the Round of 16.
Avenger, ranked #4 through Round B, starts the game off as Red,
leading Locutus of Borg into battle with the cry: "Resistance is futile."
The Wall, listed at #25, takes control of Green. His explorer-hero, Sir Jean,
sends his turn reports back to his "Dearest" in his distant homeland.
Blue is taken by Gem, who holds the #20 ranking and sends the Knight of Ice
to lead the Crystal Kingdom into battle once more.
Gandalf the White exchanges his cloak for the Black garb of the northwest,
and tries to improve his #69 ranking, marching forth himself
to lead the Hobbits and continue his trademark Tolkien theme.
The Wall (Green) makes an interesting Turn 1 production choice,
and kicks off the air war by building Pegasi immediately - but surrenders
any chance of a second hero! The other players build typical light units.
On Turn 2 the Borg's second hero, "Drone", is hired.
Gem brings forth a heroine "Crystal Cloud" *and* matches the Wall
with a pegasus factory. Gandalf is joined by Bilbo the Wise, and
chooses elephants for his heavy build, but in a fateful decision,
installs them in a border city.
At the dawn of diplomacy on Turn 3, the Borg reaches 9 cities,
joins the race for air power with a griffin factory, and in terrifyingly
rational Borg fashion immediately declares peace with Gem and
war with The Wall, not waiting for any other diplomacy to take place.
"The Borg, merciless and direct, had stated their intentions,
and would wait for responses." The game is clearly off to a
very interesting start, strategically and diplomatically as well
as in the roleplaying arena! The Wall sends another great letter
back home, but is off to a slow expansion (8 cities) with only 1 hero.
Gem is off to a faster start with 10 cities, and takes advantage of the
Borg peace offer by claiming a spare city that the Borg had claimed,
yet accepting the treaty anyway. Gem thus gains a foothold on the island
between Red and Blue, muscling in on Red's natural territory.
Perhaps it was a fateful moment of opportunism, though, for the peace
that followed would be uneasy at best...
The Wall is thus forced to ask Gandalf for an alliance. Gandalf is off
to the fastest start, finishing Turn 3 with 13 cities, but short
on cash. He accepts a treaty with The Wall, but in a bizarre twist also
asks Gem for peace too, and even speaks alound the idea of building up their
respective forces while the Borg and The Wall beat on each other, so that
later they can turn on their current allies. Needless to say, The Wall
is displeased by this! But it was to prove a prophetic thought...
The military action heats up on Turn 4 as the Borg (with 10 cities) takes
advantage of The Wall's lack of a second hero, and steals The Wall's
second gold ruin, financing another griffin factory and taking the
lead in high-powered production! The Wall kills off the second Red hero
"Drone" in return, and is up to 11 cities, but the damage is done,
his position is weak, and his alliance is strained. Will he survive?
Gem revs up to 14 cities and builds griffins himself, matching The Borg again.
Gandalf's expansion stops at 13. It is clear that this game will be fought as
hard in diplomacy as in battle, as tensions rise between Gandalf and Gem...
This phase continues in Turn 5, as The Wall scrambles for defense and
Gem continues to have minor border disputes with The Borg while preparing
for war with Gandalf and the Hobbits.
By Turn 6 it appears The Borg underestimated The Wall, as they comment:
> In the north, the Borg drones retreat from the overwhelming force that
> threatens it. The Borg are learning new words every day - yesterday they
> learned the word 'compromise', and today they learn the words 'tactical
> withdrawal'. Perhaps tomorrow they will learn the word 'reinforcements'!
The roleplaying begins to slack off among the others, but the
diplomacy continues, as Gandalf keeps pushing for a three-on-one war
against the highly-ranked Avenger (to whom, we will find out later,
Gandalf lost in Round B). While much is being said, where is the bloodshed?
The action arrives on Turn 7, with naval battles between The Borg and The Wall,
and Gem's heroine Crystal Cloud makes a spectacular aerial pillaging
raid on 3 of Gandalf's cities simultaneously, before vanishing into vapor.
Stunned, the cash-strapped Gandalf is forced to regroup. But just when you
thought a north-south war was imminent, on Turn 8 The Borg takes offense at
some production installed by Gem, and sends threatening diplomacy to his ally!
Gem objects, and the Borg sends a very Borg-like but not entirely diplomatic
message to back up his point. The Wall continues to surprise The Borg
with a solid defensive effort. In reaction to The Borg, Gem switches
to neutrality with Gandalf (conveniently *after* disrupting much of
Gandalf's production) and prepares for a possible conflict in the east
with the Borg! Gandalf holds back and frees Gem up to fight The Borg.
Chastened, the Borg apologizes to Gem, while continuing his naval
skirmishes with The Wall. The Wall continues to fight back, though,
and no cities change hands. Gem captures a city from the Borg "to ensure
border peace". [ Yeah, sure... :) ] And Gandalf continues to lay low,
giving Avenger a chance to feel the pain of being on the wrong end of
Gandalf's own "No-Front War"!
By mid-game, not much has happened on the surface, but time and conflict
are taking their toll. How will the Borg survive a two-front war with
only 9 cities? The Wall picks up on this and picks up some slack in the
roleplay - writing to "my love", he says in an unforgettable style:
> I believe that blue's attack startled red. We should both
> profit from this and use this time of weakness to crush the vile
> wretched plague infested rodents that are the red army.
But the peace between Green and Black also grows more strained,
as Gandalf requests an alliance with Gem! However, Gem accepts peace
with the Borg again, after "crystallizing" another Borg city, to reach 16!
Turn 11 sees continued fighting between the Borg and the Wall, as Gem
moves against Gandalf once more. Outmaneuvered by Gem,
Gandalf is forced to take advantage of a Mac Warlords feature and
overbuild his vulnerable elephant factory. He even considers
withdrawing from the game!!
On Turn 12 the Borg (8 cities) continues to assail The Wall (11 cities),
but The Wall lives up to his name, holds off The Borg again - and starts
to go after Gandalf too! The plot of this war has more twists and tangles
to it than a bag of pretzels! Gem again gets the better of his neighbors,
taking 4 cities from Gandalf with only one battle - and warning The Wall
to stay away! But Gandalf, stuck in a two-front war of his own now,
trades Gem city for city, regaining 3 cities he just lost. Yet Gandalf
cannot recover the lost production or the income...
The Wall continues to fend off The Borg, while seeking peace with them so
he can fight Gandalf - and prevent Gem from getting all the spoils of war.
Gem's economic warfare continues to whittle away at Gandalf, who no longer
has any powerful production. But Gandalf turns around and declares his
intent to stay in the game after all, and kicks off a new kamikaze strategy!
Just when you thought you understood what was going on,
Gem sends a truce offer to Gandalf, looking for a peace so that they can
both fight The Wall. [ Or rather, looking to get Gandalf and The Wall
to kill each other off... :) ] Gandalf accepts, and receives a safe city
in the south so that his armies can maneuver without fear of elimination.
Conflict then breaks out between Gem and The Borg again, as suddenly the
north-south war becomes an east-west war! But with every switch in strategy,
Gem has gained in power, and by Turn 14 he has just over half the map under
his control, though no one else appears to notice. With Gandalf down
to 4 cities, Gem puts some muscle behind him and achieves a significant
tactical victory on Turn 15 by sending in a commando raid to sack
The Wall's pegasus factory. And by Turn 16, it is no longer a question of
who will win, but rather, whether Gem's victory can be contained!
Turns 17 and 18 are the high points of an already eventful game. On Turn 17,
Gem avenges the loss of many navies by defeating Locutus of Borg himself,
capturing a key city, and finally achieving a decisive advantage in the east!
The Borg reports that Locutus has been "broken down into component parts",
presumably to be recycled after the Borg transit through the closest
wormhole: "A Borg escape module was being readied for the
remaining drones, and would be ready very soon." The Borg predict
that they will hold 3-4 cities at the end. Will they?
Meanwhile, a small voice in the north, Gandalf, wants to know why Gem's
forces are sitting on their shared island, and not going after The Wall?
Before we find out about Gem's response, though, The Wall comes out of his
tactical torpor, and both the Green and Black heroes die in battle!
Gandalf chimes in with a hilarious comment to The Wall:
> Good job Denis, but should I say I was looking for
> this hero exchange? Maybe I shouldn't because I presently forgot why
> I was loocking for this heroes exchange..."
Even more funny, Gandalf then requests that Gem return the three cities
that had been loaned to the Crystal Kingdom when Gem agreed to support
Gandalf against The Wall! Needless to say, given his need for a
Top 16 ranking, Gem's response to all this is to step up his
offensives on all fronts! With 3 heroes dead within 3 moves, Gem is left
with the only surviving hero, and he proceeds to go on a massive rampage
in an attempt to "unify the kingdom". He picks up 5 cities in one turn
and betrays his ally Gandalf at just the moment when Gandalf expected
generous favors! But Gem's only favor is to leave Gandalf with 1 city
and a chance to survive the round! In the quote of the game,
Gandalf laments his repeated fate:
> I think I'm cursed... [Hegemon], my ally at the beginning of Round A, started
> unexpectedly to attack me when we were officially discussing if and how
> we could extend our alliance. [Avenger], with whom I had a non-aggression
> pact in Round B, attacked me and killed my hero I left in a city after
> reflexion being sure he wouldn't break his words. And now in Round C
> [Gem], which whom I was OFFICIALLY allied until the end of the game, broke
> his honnor in attacking me and taking cities that he wasn't diplomatically
> allowed to... Could someone tell me what I did to get a such terrible
> curse? Please, I want to know why...
Gandalf will receive his answer later, but for now Gem's forces are
unstoppable, and everyone else scrambles to hold off the inevitable for
as long as possible. In the end, Avenger's Borg Collective gets their
4 cities, The Wall keeps 11, Gem finishes with 32 of 48, and Gandalf
finally survives an entire game, with 1.
This game features a sharp, though not entirely tactful, postgame analysis
by the three main survivors. The Wall learns that building Pegasi on Turn 1
and forgoing a second hero can be a difficult mistake to recover from.
Avenger / The Borg seems to have made a wrong turn in going after the distant
Green before securing his border with Blue, ending up with a two-front war
and a big risk of losing his spot in the Round of 16. Gem, coming off a
difficult defensive struggle in Round B, needed a big win, and got it!
He emerged victorious by first taking advantage of Red's slow start and
early war with Green, and then by picking on first one, then the other
of his neighbors, until he had the strength to take them all on...
And as for Gandalf... well, none were able to fault Gandalf's tactics,
and at least this reader feels that if Gandalf can finally learn never
to trust his allies to the point of letting down his own defenses,
he will be a formidable player indeed!
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With regard to the Round C Awards - This was a *very* interesting game
to read. The action is largely on the diplomatic/tactical side,
rather than in the roleplaying as such, so one must do a little
reading between the lines to get the story out of it. Each player
had an interesting and unique character, although none quite clicked
into the sort of form that would get a Best Actor award. Nonetheless,
it is a very worthy game for Best Picture!
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And finally, first place for Best Picture in Round C is awarded to...
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* C04! *
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Yes, the Winner for Best Picture in Round C is the game C04!
Congratulations to Rorqual, Rhonda, Iceman and Beyaryn!
The game had a great story, with involvement by everybody, and some fun
twists and turns. The only complaint the readers had -- which could have
cost it the prize -- was the sheer verbiage of the Black side.
Indeed, this game had the longest archive history (and longest query log)
of any game in the Tournament! This "Little Puppy Effect", however, wasn't
enough to sink the game, as you will see if you read it...
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C04 had one player who had done very well in both of his first Rounds,
and three players who had been successful in at least one of their first two
games. Would the one player be successful a third time, or would the other
three stop his streak of success? The players were:
Rorqual was in 43rd place overall after Round B. His heroes were Elend and
Luvadea.
Rhonda-B (also known as Mr. Zak and Lord Gumby) was in 26th place after the
first two rounds, and had the happy happy Bubbles and the nice nice Bunny as his
two Heroes.
Iceman fell to 57th after the second Round, but he hoped his Heroes Deitech
and The Lonely One would reverse his fortunes!
Beyaryn (also known as Hegemon in Round A and the Untouchables in Round B)
was almost at the top of the ladder - in second place!
The Heroes Beyaryn and Beyarson would be powerful indeed!
In the beginning of the game, each Warlord established their characters.
Rorqual didn't create very compelling characters, but his writing style was
infused with a dry wit that was entertaining to read.
> - The communications system is at last fixed, proudly announced the
> Telecommunications and Networks Officer.
> - Really fixed ? Would you swear there isn't any bug left in this
> overwhelmingly complicated piece of equipment ?
>
> DEAR WARLORDS. STOP. I'D LIKE ONE OF YOU TO ACCEPT TO BECOME MY TRUSTY ALLY,
> WITH NON-AGGRESSION PACT AND EVERYTHING THAT ENSUES FROM. THIS WORKED FOR ME
> BEFORE. STOP. AND WORKED EVEN BETTER FOR MY ALLY. STOP. OF COURSE DETAILS
> MUST STILL BE NEGOTIATED. STOP. ANYONE WILLING TO ASSOCIATE ?
>
> - What the hell ? I requested a state-of-the-art, full-fledged modern
> telecommunications system, and you can only deliver telegrams ? Return to
> work immediately ! What do you think I pay you (liberally, would say some)
> for ? And while you're at it, summon one of your programmers, we'll have to
> rely on his legs one more time..."
Rhonda-B, the "goddess of dark and smelly", was annoyed and sickened at her
Heroes, who turned out to be sweet and nice and joyful, everything that
Rhonda hated.
> Bubbles prances South, to see if she can find some more friends.
> "Hallooo, City 12. Won't you be my friend?"
>
> The once sad sad sad people of City 12 see how happy and nice and cute
> Bubbles is, and immediately decide that they, too, want to be happy and nice
> and cute. They join up with her toot-sweet, and quickly change their name to
> Doggy 12. "That's so neat!"
>
> Cupid also skips down to the south to City 11, where he shoots all the nice
> people with Looove arrows. They swoon with ecstasy, and are soon more than
> happy to be one with the Greens as well. They're so happy, they decide to
> call their city Love 11. "How cute!", squeels Bubbles.
>
> All the cities are so happy and lovely and joyous, that they give Bubbles 175
> gp each. "Neat! How nice!"
>
> *** New City Builds and End-of-Turn Declarations:
>
> Bubbles asks all the cities to make even more friends for her. "But only if
> they're cute," she giggles.
>
> Love 11 creates Orcish Mobs, over whom Bubbles waves her pixie dust, so that
> they're well behaved Orcish Mobs. "How nice!"
>
> Doggy 12 breeds Wolfhounds. "Nice doggies! Good doggies! Woof-woof!!!"
Iceman did not create very much roleplaying of his own in the beginning of
the game, but as the game progressed he became more involved in participating
in Beyaryn's roleplaying. Iceman's hallmark in this game was constant
diplomacy!
Beyaryn had the most elaborate roleplay, explaining his skull-ornamented
castles as follows:
> But if there must be a war, there is no reason we may not honor the last
> one even as we fight, and prepare ourselves for the glories of the coming
> war. Let us march forth, then, in mourning! We shall drape our city walls in
> black, and set up memorial sculptures in each city, town, and fortification.
> Let us carve the skulls of our ancestors upon our very shields, and embroider
> them into our standards, for at each battle, we carry forth with us the honor
> of all those who have fallen in wars past. We must do the best we can to
> bring glory to our kingdom once more, whether it be glorious victories, or
> glorious death!
All four Warlords began their expansion quickly. The first minor
conflicts were between Iceman and Rorqual in the south, and then Rhonda's
Hero Bubbles captured a spider-producing city of Rorqual's. This put a major
crimp into Rorqual's production, and the subsequent slaying of Bubbles was a
hollow victory at best for the Red-clad forces. The Black forces of Beyaryn
began moving in earnest against the Blue cities to the south - and of course,
the two sides had vastly different perspectives on the reasons for the
invasion! Iceman believed that he was protecting his borders against a
possible Black invasion, while Beyaryn felt that Iceman was building
alliances against him and building forces against his Black armies.
Could the two sides come to a peaceful coexistence? No, there was
too much bad blood between them! Iceman's Druids had taken the
Elven artifact of the "Orb of Wisdom", and the half-elf tribes of
Beyaryn could not let that affront go unanswered.
Eventually, using metaphors of pawns, kings, and chess, Iceman
was forced to reluctantly 'tip his king' in a gesture of submission to
Beyaryn - but he did not retreat his Hero towards homeland. Rightly or
wrongly, Beyaryn took this as a sign of further aggression (and Iceman going
back on Iceman's own proposal), so Beyaryn chose to pursue a final campaign
designed to eradicate Iceman from the land. As the campaign progressed,
the war of words between the two sides grew even more heated than the
actual combat, with each side accusing the other of treachery,
aggressionist expansion, and black-hearted evil in general.
There was little diplomacy from Rhonda or Rorqual during this time,
as they seemed content to focus on their own conflict without
too much extraneous discussion about who was more evil - it
was fairly well established that Rhonda was the aggressor, for all her Hero's
sunny sunny happy happy ways!
On Turn 13, Beyaryn assaulted Iceman's last remaining stronghold with
eight seperate waves of attackers, the last being led by Beyaryn himself,
resulting in final victory over the Blue-clad Druids.
But the victory was not complete! The mortal enemy of Beyaryn, Tylonol,
who was expected to be found lying among the scattered dead in Iceman's last
stronghold, was not there, but instead rumored to be entrenched with the
forces of Rhonda! Beyaryn immediately declares war on his ally Rhonda,
much to Rhonda's surprise, thus creating an entirely new dynamic in
the war of C04! At the start of Turn 15, Rhonda had 20 cities, Beyaryn
had 24, and Rorqual had 4 left. How would this all unfold? Eventually, in
the almost total collapse of Rhonda's empire!
On Turns 19 and 20, one of the most surprising and unusual things ever seen in
the Warlords tournament took place. Two turn reports, titled "From the Diary
Of Beyaryn..." were sent out, and "revealed" Beyaryn to in fact be leading the
Green forces and deliberately allowing them to come to ruin against the Black
forces led by the elusive and evil Tylonol. But was that truly the case?
The prose was in the style of Beyaryn, but could one Warlord really have been
controlling two sides in a war like that? In the past, some Warlords had
been accused of directing other sides' actions as if they were in charge of
both sides, but could it be that one Warlord actually DID control two
separate sides?
No! It was Rhonda's descent into madness! The diary entries were actually
from Rhonda, leaving the rest of the field even more confused by contradictory
diplomacy coming from (apparently) the same source! This was a truly
remarkable and unique development in what was already an exciting game to
read.
On the last turn, Beyaryn let drop the hammer that he had been setting up
for the last few turns. In a magnificent crushing blow, Beyaryn not only
destroyed almost all remnants of Rhonda's army, but also demolished the
hopes of his newest faithful ally, Rorqual. Rorqual had trusted Beyaryn's
pledges of good will, only to find in the end that Beyaryn's armies had
been led not so much by Beyaryn, but by the machinations of the evil
Tylonol. Thus Black, through military skill and diplomatic wiles,
captured an unprecedented 10 cities in a single turn, finishing the game
with 44 out of 48. In the finale, Beyaryn himself realized that all
this had been Tylonol's design, and he had been only a tool of the Evil One.
According to Beyaryn's final statement, Tylonol, when defeated long ago
by Beyaryn's grandfather, had conjured his spirit into the magic artifacts
of the lands, and through them he used an insidious form of mind control
to get all four sides to fight one another, rather than live together
in peace. Too late, Beyaryn realized this, as he thought "When the good ones
fight the good ones, the evil ones can prevail...," an inverse of Falcon's
Round A maxim that "When the evil ones fight the evil ones, the good ones
prevail." In Beyaryn's last act of defiance against the evil Tylonol,
the four Standards and four Battle Items were dropped into the
seas, and the captured cities were returned in spirit (if not actual
possession!) to their original owners.....
It is clear that Beyaryn will advance to the Round of 16, and must be
considered a top prospect to be hailed as The Greatest Warlord in the land.
Iceman's early exit in this game helped to prevent him from advancing,
and Rhonda's collapse might have been a major obstacle to overcome
in the quest to have a chance at the final game, except few Green players
did well this round. Rorqual also was unable to stem the black tide
at the end, and will not be advancing to the next round.
However, Iceman's roleplay was very entertaining to read, as was Rhonda's,
particularly when Rhonda assumed the personality of Beyaryn! Hopefully those
two will continue on through the Warlords Ladder, providing challenges and
entertainment for all to fight! Rorqual's good sportsmanship and continued
efforts -- long after all hope of victory had been abandoned -- is a great
example of how to play with honor and dignity in the League, and we certainly
hope to see him on the Ladder as well.
Now if somebody could only find and kill the evil spirit of Tylonol.....
* * *
Or, according to one of the judges:
I thought C04 excelled at its player interaction while maintaining the
roleplaying. I noticed that this kept getting better for all games as the
tournament progressed, and was the best thing about this group of nominated
games. Practice does seem to make this much better and easier. C04 had a nice
mix of roleplaying styles and contributions.
The participants:
Rorqual made a good straight man and had some funny things to say. He fit in
perfectly with Zak and Bob. Not everyone can write a 20K turn report every
turn (thank goodness they don't!). I really enjoyed his contribution
especially as I had played with Rorqual in three straight games, and he had
never roleplayed before. I don't think he is a native English speaker,
which is a plus for him.
Ivan got off to a slow start, and hasn't seemed that interested in
roleplaying in the tournament, but he loves arguing with Bob! (I sided with
Ivan btw) That argument grew old after a while as it seemed they were just
rehashing old disagreements, but Ivan's best contribution to the game was
creating and developing new roleplaying ideas. I believe he came up with the
ideas for Tylonol and the Orb of Wisdom among others. A nice touch was that
he competed with Bob every turn to control the history of his ideas. For
example what was the secret history, what was the real nature of the orb and
so on.
Bob's theme of Beyaryn and the elves dominated the game. That was positive as
it focused everyone's roleplay into one area and connected everyone. I really
liked Bob's roleplay until he started arguing with Ivan. Zak and Rorqual
indicated they'd read enough as well after a turn or so too. At this point I
thought the roleplay became just too overwhelming and repetitive. It started
to drown out the others and didn't advance the story that much given its
extrodinary length. Bob's strengths are his attention to detail, obvious
enthusiasm for his story, and continuous effort. In sum I found Bob's story
to be half great, half maddening. With some serious editing, this roleplay
could have been one of the very best in the tournament, and that's why I am
critiquing it so heavily. It's on the verge of greatness, but not quite there
yet.
Zak's roleplay is a masterpiece.
There is nothing more difficult than doing a short roleplay and still be
effective both within the game diplomatically and tell a good story. It's
easy to just start writing and writing and just put everything in that comes
to mind. Zak's roleplay being so focused and so funny reminds me of Bottom
Burp's roleplay in Round A. There isn't a wasted or excess word in either
one. Everything is relevant either for the game, story, or humor. I've read
all Zak's previous games, and Zak's weakness in his roleplays in every one of
those previous games has been that he lost interest in the latter stages of
his game and let the story slide often skipping turns. Probably because of
the excellent interaction in C04, he roleplayed right to the end despite
coming to a bad end with a "friend's" treacherizing. Zak also did a better
"Beyaryn" than Beyaryn did in his impersonation of Bob. If he could have
changed the sender line, I don't think anyone would have realized it wasn't
Bob. To a degree I'm being unfair to the others and Bob here because Zak is
a professional writer, and he'd better do a really good job (or get another
one). But I smiled and laughed my way through his whole story.
Once again congratulations to all four participants. I think the tournament
group will really enjoy reading this game and its rivalries!
MGW
*****************************************************************
And now, on to the Best Actor Award!!!
-- The Tournament Round C Prize Committee
(Keiran Downie, David Hauri, Dirk Pellett, Alex Vickers,
Matthew Wellens, Ivan Baird and Bob Heeter)