Re: news of the world
 

Counts with skull staffs casting wither bones would work well if you have the research (and the casters and items). Solar rays from members of the third tier and astral random fortune tellers. Dust to dust from revenants and death random fortune tellers. And of course plain old priests.

strategic/diplomatic considerations
 

I, Bwoo the Enlightened One, would just like to point out that with Team Man and Machaka defeated, then if Team Ulm and Tien Chi is defeated, the Ascension War is over and victory goes to Team Pangaea and Arcoscephale.

public service announcement
 

Go Machaka! Never surrender! Punish the heretic invaders!

--Bwoo the Gentle

Re: public service announcement
 

Machaka has a 350 defense hill fort and the seiging of the Machaka capitol is going rather slow, to say the least. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

By the way, when is your team going to help us kill the C'tis/Ermor team? We have captured the C'tis capitol and surely you could help us eliminate the remaining lizard provinces, right? The C'tis Lich is no longer immortal, so feel free to kill her for good.

Also, I am not sure how much longer I can last against the endless undead hordes. I have killed about 800 undead troops (more than half of those were horsemen) and still they come. I sure hope they fix this little problem of unlimited free undead troops in Dominions 3, for I never want to start next to Ermor again. The only way to prevent Ermor from going nonlinear with troops is to gang up on them early. This being the very first time I have ever fought against Ermor in MP,I have discovered why it is so beneficial to put together an anti-Ermor coalition on the first couple of turns before the free troops start rolling off the assembly lines.

I know of 2 MP games where the Ermor player won the game when it was his very first MP game, so it probably is not balanced as a nation, especially against newbies. It also looks like Ermor is going to win the First Step game too, which would be the third time a rookie won playing Ermor. I recall back to the old days when Norfleet was unbeatable as Ermor, though he did likely cheat in lots of those games.

With the remarkable recovery of TC, it does not look quite so clear anymore that the Arco/Pan team has it wrapped up. Unfortunately, there is little hope of elimination Ermor anymore, even if everybody ganged up on them. The free troops are rolling off too fast now, so our team can't win at this point even if we eliminate C'tis.

I sure wish I knew how to effectively fight Ermor, but, unfortunately, I do not. I am learning as I go, which is clearly not a good plan. I even have a great anti-Ermor nation in Marignon, but it is still not enough. All those early stales did not help either...

That's e'nuff whining Panther!!! Fight to the death!

global strategy
 

Well, uh, I hate to admit that while TC remarkably revived from the edge of death, her sister Ulm has suddenly reached the edge of death herself.

So Arco/Pan is sitting in a pretty good position to win at this time. Maybe if you hold out against Ermor for long enough you can have an honorable Second Place in the final and eternal Pantheon.

explanation sought
 

Um, I hate to sound like a confused newbie, but could anyone explain why all of my troops which attacked the Medusa disappeared instantly? She didn't have a longer weapon, so she couldn't have repelled them, right? And she didn't have a Fire Shield or such. She did have a Charged Body, but that should have (a) included her taking a hit, (b) made a sound and light show, (c) killed only the first attacker, not all of them.

Please help, as it doesn't seem like much fun to try fighting her again at this point...

Re: explanation sought
 

Medusa will turn opponents to stone (ie. kill them) if they fail some sort of magic check.

Re: explanation sought
 

They turned to stone, which cheered me up http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif .

To further explain, the medusa has an aegis-like effect built in. If the attackers fail a MR roll, they die.

Re: explanation sought
 

Thanks for the explanation. Too bad there isn't an icon explaining that in the Medusa's list of attribute icons.

news of the world
 

Bravely fought, Ioticus! Better luck in the next war.