Everything goes black, I feel my mind flowing into a never ending spiral
of time....
So starts my journey in the latest virtual reality game of Dino
Wars. The year is 2001. My name is Albert. I'm a micocard subsystems
auto-mechanic half way though 12 years of my first uni degree. Nine of
my friends have pressured me into playing Dino Wars to get a break
from the mind bending sessions of auto-learning ramsleep. I welcome the
break.
The game itself is quite simple, ten people enter a virtual world set
in the age of the dinosaurs. You take over the mind of a dinosaur and from
there attempt to expand your "empire" or "clan" by
taking control of land and other dinosaurs. Following is a summary of my
actions during the game.
The Start
I wake up to find myself in control of a Corythosaurus (a "duckbilled"
dinosaur with a spectacular semicircular crest decorated its head, weighing
almost 4 1/2 tonnes), in the middle of large grassland. Although the "Cory"
is my "main" dinosaur, I also have control of two "sub"
dinosaurs, a Pteranodon (one of the longest-winged flying reptiles which
evolved in the late Triassic times with a wingspan of 7 meters) and a Albertosaurus
(a "small" tyrannosaur which shows all the features common to
it's much larger cousin, although it only stands 8 meters tall). I hope
having started with my name-sake is a good omen.
Turn 1 plans
A quick look around shows nearby terrain of Jungle, Peaks and a
Volcano. My current mental power or "prestige" is at 65, enough
to "dominate" most dinosaurs.
My first decision is wherever to keep the Cory as my main dinosaur
or not (keeping your main dinosaur safe is very important). A quick look
reveals he is the largest of the three with 42 hit points, whereas "Albert"
has 36 and "Penny" has 27. So I decide to keep Cory as holder
of my only psyche ring (at the beginning of the game each player starts
with one psyche ring - holding rings gives you the maximum victory points).
Albert has a very high attack rate of 14, so he will be used to battle
any smaller or slower dinosaurs I come across. I feel it's best to attack
as many NPC dinosaurs as possible before meeting any other players in an
attempt to gain more bonus points (during battles bonus points that enhance
one of your skill areas, attack rate, agility, armour rating etc can be
gained) to give Albert the edge (all players start with the same dinosaur
types).
Penny, being a flier, is one of the few dinosaurs that can survive
in mountain peaks, so she will be used to take over the nearby peaks and
the volcano.
My plans are:
Cory: In the first phase (each turn consist of 4 phases) Cory will
Dominate a Torosarus (a horned dinosaur, whose name means "bull lizard".
Looks a bit like a rhino wearing a sunshade). This one I will call Troy.
In the second phase I will move Cory into one of the Jungle areas where
he can "rest" for the final two phases.
Albert: Being carnivorous, Albert has negative "terrain modifies"
in most terrain types so he must therefore continue to attack others to
survive. As the only NPC in the starting hex is Troy, who I wish to add
to my clan, I will move Albert into the only adjacent grassland where he
will attack a Sordes (the small species in the game, with only 1 hit point)
in phase 2. Not the biggest meal around but he is sure to win.
In phase 3 Albert will move into a Jungle area where, in phase 4, he
will attack one of the biggest species in the game, a Apatosaurus. This
battle should be much more even, although I assume the Apatosaurus will
have very low agility, so the outcome should not be in doubt.
Penny: Penny's first task will be her hardest. I order her to move
into the volcano hex and take control. Although my map shows there will
be no opposition, Penny's terrain chart shows that she will lose half of
her hit points at the end of the phase.
In phase 2, I will quickly order Penny to move into the peaks near
the volcano (I doubt if she could survive two phases in the volcano). As
peaks will regain her about 5 hit points per phases, she will move into
more peaks in phase 3.
This will leave her in 1506 for phase 5, where I see there is another
Pteranodon. Having groups of the same species join together can be a great
bonus in the game. So I therefore order Penny to dominate her new friend.
I only hope my prestige points will allow this (each domination takes away
a set number of points depending on the species of the dinosaur).
Troy: Having (I hope) dominated Troy in phase 1 will allow me to command
him in the remaining 3 phases.
In phase 2 he will move into the same grassland as Albert so that he
can regain any lost hit points. As all of the hexes adjacent to my starting
location have been accounted for, I will chance my luck and move Troy into
unknown territory in phases 3 and 4.
Just for safe measure I will finally treat with all other players.
Turn 1 results
The first thing you look at when you get your turn back is the
picture of your current main dinosaur printed on the front page. If the
picture is different it means that your old main dinosaur most likely got
killed - not a good sign. Luckily, Cory's smiling face (see picture below)
beams out at me. The good news is that I have 176 victory points, 10 more
then the next highest player. The only bad news is that now I have -1 prestige
points which means it may be a while before I can dominate more dinosaurs.
Phase 1: Everything worked as plan.
Phase 2: Albert only takes 4 rounds to "eat" the Sordes.
The Sordes being much faster got the first 3 bites in, but these Albert
hardly felt and with his first bite he swallowed the Sordes whole. Everything
still going as plan.
Phase 3: Everything still working fine. At the end of the phase Albert,
who's aggression is set to "ferocious", takes on the Apatosaurus,
which starts with a whooping 71 hit points. As planned, this time Albert
is the quickest of the two and does serious damage before his opponent
runs away. Troy finds (much to his liking) new forest, grassland and jungle
areas. This turn he moves into a forest hex.
Phase 4: Albert catches up with the Apatosaurus and takes a couple
of more bites out of it. This turn Albert has gained 5 prestige (to be
added to the clan's total) for winning his battles. Penny dominates her
friend in the final phase while Troy continues his travels and ends up
in a jungle.
No one treats with me and player 10 "Virtual Jurassica" has
declared war. No doubt he has declared war on everyone.
Clearly defined pie graphs show that I now own 17% (the highest) of
the provinces on the map and 10% of the rings (as yet no new ones have
entered the game, which they do every third turn). I also notice that one
player has already lost a ring to an NPC - most likely his main dinosaur
got killed.
At this early stage, my nearest rivals are "Apopoa Vakiyis",
"Lister's Game" and "Dinomight". "Lister's Game"
is a close ally, so I will just have to watch out for the other two.
In some aspects a very unusual turn, in that, everything went as planned.
I hope the good fortune can last, but Dino Wars is one of those games that
seems to throw unusual things at you every turn.
Turn 2 plans
First thing to do is treat with my buddy Lister's Game. This will
mean that I can move through his territory without fear of being attack
by his dinosaurs.
Next, make my main dinosaur safe, while the others are out grabbing
more territory.
Cory: Cory's best terrain is grassland with his second best being jungle.
I can see one new jungle area next to Cory so he will move and take control
of it first phase. In an effort to protect him as much as possible I will
then order Cory to move back into the heart of my territory and into the
grassland where I started the game.
The biggest loss in victory points can come about with the loss of
your main dinosaur. Also losing the ring Cory is holding will cost major
points. I have enough sub dinosaurs to cover all the new terrain, so Cory
is best tucked away safe and sound where no one can hurt him.
Albert: To continue Albert's quest for titles I order him to attack
a nice big and juicy Rhoetosaurus in the first phase. He should have little
trouble here and hopefully any lost defence points will be regained by
eating the loser of the battle - "to the winner goes the spoils".
Once he has fed, Albert will continue his march into new territory,
taking a jungle province and a grassland province. Just in case he is damaged
by any battles on the way, he will rest in the final phase.
Troy: A quick look at the map shows that Troy is next to four unowned
provinces made up of his two favourite terrains, grassland and forest.
No question what to do here, Troy will attempt to take control of all four
provinces. As a result he will end his turn in the far right lower corner,
hex 1609.
Penny: On the first phase, Penny's new found friend will join with
her to form my first group. For ease of writing I will continue to call
this group "Penny".
Like Troy, Penny too can see new provinces made up of her favour terrains,
peaks and desert. In the first three phases she will take control of two
new peak areas and one desert province. In the final phase she will rest.
Thus ends our orders for phase 2. As we haven't come in contact with
any other players at this stage the main objective was to take new provinces.
No doubt will have some borders with other players at the end of this turn.
Turn 2 results
The first page of my results shows that Cory is still with us and
fit and healthy. The second page shows that the alliance with Lister's
Game as work and now new players have treat, or broken treaty, with us.
We now control 20.5% of the provinces (the next highest is 16.9%) and
10% (ie. 1) of the rings.
But wait! Why didn't my victory points increase, the victory points
graph shows us as maintaining our current level while someone else as leap-frogged
us into the lead.
We no longer appear in the list of the top five on 180 points, while
the top player as 216. What went wrong!
A quick scan of the "known dinosaurs" list fails to local
Albert. Oh No! Albert has been killed! And even worst, he was killed by
the Albertosaurus belonging to Lister's Game.
In a "one-chance-in-a-million" both Ablertosaurus ended phase
4 in the same province (until now I didn't realise just how close our two
territories were). Because both have their "aggression" set high,
and the treaty didn't take affect to phase 5, the two knuckle-heads decided
to fight it out. Although they should have being evenly matched. Albert
(that's my Albert) failed to get one bite in and was killed in 3 rounds.
So much for the great plans I had for him!
What do I do now, do I trust Lister? Not only has he killed Albert
but he has also closed off my southern area to the west. A hurried phone
call, and Lister ensures me that it was a accident and he apologises for
the death of Albert. All good and well, but it won't bring Albert back!
One major lesson we learned here was to work together and advise each
other just where and when we are moving. Although, now that we have officially
formed an alliance, our dinosaurs will no longer attack each other.
Now that the bad news is over, we can look at that turn in more detail.
Cory: No problems at all, everything goes as planned (thank God!).
Cory ends the turn in province 1507 all on his own. No NPCs in the same
province means that he should be safe from attacks next turn by just sitting
there resting.
Albert: The bad luck for Albert started right from the beginning. He
failed to get a bite in with his battle with the Rhoetosaurs, as a result
retreated in the third round. Not at all what I expected.
Phase 2 went as planned. At the end of phase 3, Albert decided to attack
a Iguanodon. Once again I would not have expected any problems here, but
again Albert doesn't get a bite in and retreats in the 2nd round. Just
how slow was Albert anyway?
Alberts final indignity come in phase 4 when once again he was too
slow in battle and this time it resulted in his loss of life.
Penny: I made a mistake with terrain modifiers with Penny. I was assuming
that she would gain points in desert, but I was sadly mistaken. Lucky the
two peak provinces enabled her to regain the defence points she lost in
the desert. Thus enabling her to complete her mission successfully.
Troy: No trouble at all here. Troy ends the turn deep inside my territory
and surrounded by other herbivore including a herd of Efrassia.
So much for the great start. We now have a boarder with Lister's Game
and player 3 "Dr Livingstone". My plans are to ally with my nearest
neighbours and use them as a buffer to attack other players. An alliance
has already be formed with Lister, so next turn I will attempt to ally
with the good doctor.
Turn 3 plans
As mentioned above the treaty request with player 3 is recorded.
All I can see of the good doctor at this stage is a frail Bactrosaurus
(a duckbilled dinosaur which looks a bit like Cory but only half his size).
I doubt if it can do much damage to any of my dinosaurs if it happens to
run into my territory, but just in case I will ask Lister to move his Albert
into it's path. You never know the doctor's Bacty may just be accidentally
eaten like my poor Albert. And offcourse there can be no "come-back"
on me.
Cory: Cory is quite happy to stay just where he is. Not only will this
protect him, but it gives me a dinosaur in the middle of my territory in
case anyone should creep through my outer defences.
Troy: First phase Troy will take a dip in a lake. The lake looks out
of place on my map, being the only province in the far right corner that
I don't control. Also lakes, like volcanoes, give you extra prestige points
at the end of each turn. As Troy is not the best of swimmers, he will move
into grasslands to recuperate. I order him to end the turn in grasslands
on the border with Lister.
Penny: Now surrounded by deserts and volcanos, whatever she does will
result in lose of defence points. So I order her into another volcano province
and then back into peaks to recover for the final three phases.
Not many interesting NPCs to dominate this turn, even if I could with
only 8 prestige points. The how purpose of this turn seems to be to take
the final unowned provinces in my corner and get ready for a possible attack
from Dr. Livingstone.
Hopefully, next turn will see my luck turn around for the better......