Re: Exterminatus - And the world will burn!
 

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/5951/gornaa5.jpg

It'd be rude not to add something: you know, provide some closure. I'd like to go over the game from my viewpoint; that is, not talk about strategy, but why I did what I did.

My northern expansion encountered Pangea before anyone else, and naturally we quickly made a NAP. To my south, I found Ashdod. We didn't start off on the right foot: he took a province I had already sent three parties of mercenaries to die in. I felt bitter about that, obviously.

I began expanding west in a thin, one-province wide tunnel between Pangea and Ermor. This was a surprisingly effective expansion, considering how vunerable it was.

When I learned that Ashdod was at war with Pythium (south of Ashdod), I jumped on the chance to attack Ashdod. I apparently jumped a bit too soon, because I found myself facing what I believe to be majority of Ashdod's army. It all cumulated in a do-or-die battle on top of my capital against Ashdod's uber-giant army. But we all know the problem with uber-giant armies: you only really get one. When I defeated that army, I was relatively free to invade his lands.

Pythium, for whatever reason, was slow to invade Ashdod even after he went AI. I can't really comment on this, but obviously I did take some advantage of it. After Ashdod was well and truly finished, I began regarding Pythium with great suspicion.

Earlier, when the war against Ashdod was first starting, I learned that Pythium had a NAP with Jotunheim. My scouts reported that neither of them had built a single point of province defense on their shared border. So Pythium had Jotunheim to the west, and me to the north. I felt like I was the cork in Pythium's bottle, and that it was only a matter of time before he turned against me.

Needless to say, I had first-strike advantage against Pythium. It was a bit of an odd war though. My armies pushed-in and captured a castle, but then held their position to wait for a counter-attack that never came.

When I went to war against Pythium, I was careful to note that Jotunheim's defense along their shared border went from none to "exceptionally strong." Hardly an act of war, but I have a suspicious mind. Large giant armies started to form very close to my borders, and Jotunheim did not reply to my request for a NAP (my inbox remains empty), but that may have been a misunderstanding.

Jumping ahead a bit, the war against Jotunheim was well on it's way, and once again I had first-strike advantage. I read the talk on the forums and realized that the game really only needed a bit of a push to end in my favour, so in the last turn I simultaneously attacked Ermor and Machaka, basically flexing my gem-induced muscles to pad the score graph.

So there you have it. Sorry if I missed any important, interesting details (like the skirmishes we had, Atlantis), but if I tried to cover it all, I'd be writing all night.

Good game everyone!

Re: Exterminatus - And the world will burn!
 

*chuckle*

I don't think you really needed to pad the score graph...

Re: Exterminatus - And the world will burn!
 

Impressive, I didn't know you went so far north. I got the game started well, and my reign over Ulm's lands only strengthened my positions. I was contacted by Abysia (who went AI at some point then) who was content to just start a war with Ermor. Maybe he saw that there was no point in heat3 land to try to wage a war against a cold3 nation, at least I did. I had very low pd in most of my provinces by the time c'tis decided to attack - If I had gotten those two turns out, his raiding capability would've went far better on my behalf - It would've meant that his arouse hungers wouldn't have worked and I would've gotten at least 8 more werewolves to the fray, which worked exceptionally well against most what c'tis threw at me. Although he had an army of mostly shades roaming around our northern border, they never encountered my werewolves - perhaps a good thing for my part. I'm curious, how much income did you have at the end? And I should've given my pretender something to fight of those vengeful souls - I knew one would eventually break through. And it did, and that turn I lost my gift of health. So many things I should have and could have done differently, but congratulations :)

Re: Exterminatus - And the world will burn!
 

To enlighten on my (Ashdod) early conflict with Pythium:

Pythium presumably thought I'd be a better target for war than the Jotuns - it's a bit hard to argue that one way or the other, but they were pretty securely bottled in so I can't really blame them.

Sadly for them, they tried attacking me with a vast horde of Hydras. They didn't last very long against slings and spammed Fire Flies. Losing that army must have been a huge economic drain on Pythium, and probably explains why they didn't follow up my devastating defeat by C'tis' forces. Summon Swarm is a bit of a killer against giant thugs, it appears.

Re: Exterminatus - And the world will burn!
 

My income at the end was about 5500. The initial attack, ghouls and armies, were supposed to gain me time to equip my tartarians (I thought your attack against me was sure to come soon). On this last turn, these are what were available to me:

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/4641/sokoszz1.jpghttp://img91.imageshack.us/img91/5905/plakosgu5.jpg
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/1660/neleusfl6.jpghttp://img150.imageshack.us/img150/5354/hectorpm1.jpg
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/2892/restpv1.jpg

50 death gems a month let you make a lot of tartarians :)

That battle was definitely one of the most exciting of the game for me: it really was do-or-die for both of us. It's a good thing for me that those swarms did the job! I must have had about a dozen mages casting it twice each.

I've never seen anything quite like that battle. Gift of Health did make those giants nigh invincible, but I anticipate the tartarians would have been the answer.

Re: Exterminatus - And the world will burn!
 

A true god has ascended!

Starting in a corner with minimal landmass, and being neighboured by not only one, but two giant nations, made expansion extremely difficult for my "land of little red men."

I had a dormant cyclops, who was supposed to mount an amphibious assault on Ashdod, but some lucky triton stuck a coral spear into his only eye, penetrating his +30 protection and regeneration and effectively blinding him. He died in that battle. :doh:

Re: Exterminatus - And the world will burn!
 

I saw that missing eye, and I wondered.

Redherring, Lord of the Gates. Offline, I tested to see if he would be affected by C'tis' miasma: 10 turns went past with no ill effect. This game? He got diseased in the first turn. Never-healing wound + limp + blind + mute + ... . Fortunately, he kept generating his freespawn, those shades Quitti saw on his northern border. Oh, and I didn't realize the Dimensional Rod was cursed until it was too late, so he's insane. I think the people of this world are screwed.