Re: Silent Island, small game, started
 

As I suspected I am so totally outclassed by Man that there was almost no point turning up other than to let Man look good busting some cool moves on the battlefield :-)

I could make some excuses about being boxed in to the corner of the map etc, but the truth of the matter is that earcaraxe has clearly outplayed me.

While I am happy to keep playing, IMO there is nothing now that I can really do to affect the outcome of the game. My preference would be to concede, unless Ghoul thinks he can still win in which case I will stick around for the ride :-)

Re: Silent Island, small game, started
 

ok, lets end it then. grats to earcaraxe.

Re: Silent Island, small game, started
 

many thanks guys, and thanks jimbo for the compliment. I also thank u very much for playing!

I'm curious about ur planned strategy, and i like to share mine, in case someone is interested.:

my pretender was a dormant great serpent, with fantastic scales O3P3M1 and N7, dom 10. my plan was to put mother oak up asap, then gift of nature. with dom10 and man's cheap temples i had my soldiers hp pumped up by 50% on my borders, and kept my witches alive (without growth, transformation or forest of the ever young).

I managed to pull a good early game with knights (prod3) and some longbowmen, i was surprised to discover that i had about twice as many provinces by year 1 as any of the other pretenders, so i was expecting an early attack from then on. Not soon after my armies arrived at the border of shinuyama, the bakemonos launched an offensive, knowing they had no choice: stop their already powerful neighbor now or never. Because of the devastating evocations and rust mists of those old beardy sorcerers I had to reform my army, employing lighter amrored troops, and more archery. I think i have won the war mainly on the economical level, with bards inciting revolts in rich shinuyama provinces, and with my superior gold income from the many conquered lands. I had some fruitful tactical moves as well, and an ill-fated one (attacking the capitol of shinuyama too early, when he had a still-potent army: my borderguard really was longing for a skirmish. well, they got it). The goblin's early offense - after some early successes - got exhausted and retreated, but the rearguard got encircled in the western swamps near the river by my troops.

Before the end of the bakemono wars (but the goblins defeat in sight), Ermor went on the offense. My generals were hoping that the frost giants wont join them too soon, just as it happened. That huge number of skeleton cavalry nearly got me with my pants down - or at least i thought. In retrospect it seems that both of us were perhaps afraid to engage the other's main force.

Soon the easter front got opened when the giants decided to intervene. Fortunately this mild climate made them lazy and slothful enough to have only a smaller, altho elite expeditionary force. This opening of the new front was handed nearly entirely by the citzens of easternmost city in Scytha, plus all the mercenaries my gold could by. And two of my faery trodding witches.:)

As time passed, the eastern war commenced very favorably, conquering most of the giants homelands, while the bulk of my forces still remained around shinuyama, where despite of declining faith and even more declining supplies, the bakemono leader, the Great Sage still held his position over the city and its immediate surroundings.

My main army was given the orders of allowing the ermorian legion only till the border of the western swamp, called Fever Fens, and retreated when it seemed that the theurgs 600-man undead horde could break thru at the Pass of Many tomatoes, OR could take an evasion and march eastward, taking shinuyama in the process, and then threatening either by breaking thru the Pass of Etheral Squirrels, or at Scytha. None of this happened.

With the northward marching of the main army of Ermor every thread got tangled up in the battle what is now remembered as the Clash at Southern Fever Fens. Truth to be told, i was sure about the victory, but the decisiveness came as a surprise: i was really afraid of those 500+ ud cavalry.

With the capitulation of Ermor and Jotunheim, and the eventual defeat of the Sage, all the children of the Spine of the World got to live under the rule of the one and only Great Serpent and its Gift of Nature.

Re: Silent Island, small game, ended. Earcaraxe - Man won.
 

nice arr earcaraxe, congrats on the victory. It seems that, on such a small map, great scales with good troops or an awake combat pretender is the way to go. I obviously went with the awake great sage + a minor earth-bless for my sorcerers. My goal was to hit the crucial early evo and then crush someone with a huge army + battlefield spells.

This may be a strategy more suited to a larger game/map, since Man could comfortably focus his full (higher quality) army on mine without worrying about any other front, indeed I had to give Ermor my territory just to allow him to attack Man. And you're quite right earcaraxe, I totally attacked you cause I had no choice! :)

In any case, Man's army was much stronger than my own, our early war became an attrition contest that I generally lost, though my mage-support did win me a few battles.

The spies disabling my capital was really the final blow in a war that wasn't going well already; I had no choice but to return my army to desperately try to quell the unrest and try to nab those nasty spies. Without any money to build new armies and my existing forces stricken by desertion and drawn back to the capital, it basically became a last stand for me at that point.

Also, my early expansion was hampered by my faith in banakono warriors, who duly disappointed me :(