Re: On the same topic . . .
 

These items and summons still exist. If you want to price the value of the fight in gold, I'd be happy to.

1250g = 25% of my turn's income,
vs
930g = 70% of your turns' income

So, keep em coming! T'ien Ch'i is eyeing your properties now that it is finishing up with Ulm.

Re: On the same topic . . .
 

Yes, just as I said. Having more territory, Sauromatian empire can safely invest more into each fight than any one other country. Taken together, though... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif
As for Tien Chi 'finishing' Ulm, it isn't quite as close as some may think.. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif In any case, Tien Chi will probably HAVE to attack Sauromatia soon, though Sauromatia doesn't have to attack Tien Chi - it can win without fighting them at all! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif Though it may require some surprise attack on those Giboleths who think they are so unbeatable... or just Dominion-killing them.
To Abysia:
Unfortunately, your winning in diplomacy becomes meaningless as soon as you are crushed with brute force. That's one of reasons I said that attacking before alliance was formed was probably your mistake - Tien Chi, for example, formed an alliance before attacking me...

Re: On the same topic . . .
 

So your prophet managed to pick up the mace after the fight, that's unfortunate. If we go this way and deduct the gem value of your still alive summons(11/17*25gems=16gems) and thistle mace(10 gems) from the cost of getting them, you lost 26 gems, which is significantly less than 52 but still a lot for a single battle I think.

This is a fair point actually but relative amounts are just, well, relative. As long as the price of rebuilding those 79 units doesn't prevent me from recruiting mages, it doesn't matter how big of a percentage of my one turn income they represent and in this particular case it doesn't prevent mage recruitment.

Oh, I will come for you Sauromatia! It sounds like you are the defender already in our war. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Tien Chi is a bit of a black horse as they have been quite silent in this game(at least towards Caelum). It'll be interesting to see what is their course of action. Attacking Caelum instead of Sauromatia would be rather unwise though if Tien plans to win this game.

Re: On the same topic . . .
 

T'ien Ch'i would be very wise to attack Sauromatia while his forces are split on 4-5 fronts.

Re: On the same topic . . .
 

He will probably wait for some time, though - he seems to me a methodical person.

Re: On the same topic . . .
 

Seems to me that's just pure foolishness. He can wait in which time Sauromatia will be even stronger after having wiped out his other opposition, or he can strike now or really soon and face a more spread out Sauromatia. Then again, if he waits chances are Sauromatia will simply will by having enough capitals. lol.

On T\'ien Ch\'i
 

Yoth'Shothogg does not believe T'ien Ch'i will attack Sauromatia. She has been kind enough to provide a list of reasons why she believes so.

-T'ien Ch'i has not, to R'lyeh's knowledge, accepted or even replied to any offer to attack Sauromatia
-T'ien Ch'i has not, to R'lyeh's knowledge, replied to any messages sent to it, at least by R'lyeh
-T'ien Ch'i has done nothing so far against Sauromatia, and may even be helping Sauromatia

Re: On T\'ien Ch\'i
 

T'ien C'hi has not replied to any of R'lyeh's messages because R'lyeh has, from the beginning of the game, been a blowhard without any power. You have been a drunken peasant fresh from the rice paddies barking empty howls in the presence of generals.

To be quite honest you have not been worth responding to because you have not said anything I did not already know, and because your threats and calls for alliance have been meaningless because you yourself have no power.

Also it does not help that your messages are flowery and egotistical. T'ien C'hi prefers its lessers to acknowledge the fact rather than continue belaboring the false notion of their divinity. Why should we entertain your preenings when the ancestral masters have read in the stars the fall of your race a thousand years before the birth of the oldest aboleth?

Re: On T\'ien Ch\'i
 

Has Tien'chi has not foreseen the fall of their own race at the hand of Sauromantia, as a direct result of their lack of action against them ? That makes Claire wonder how much "acknowledge the facts rather than continue belaboring the false notion of their divinity" they really have. Claire adds : unless, of course, they have a plan to counter it. Claire has seen that wasting their armies against Ulm's has not really been that successful up to now, and Claire wonders now how much of a "blowhard without any power" Tien'Chi really is, and who the "generals" really are.

Maybe the "celestial" masters should before speaking about hypothetical futures of other races, even before checking their own futures, checking the present reality of the world.

Claire has. Claire acted in consequence. Claire asks again : will you join the crusade or remain a peasant that beat up other peasants when bandits are at their back clearing up the backyard instead of striking them when they are vulnerable ?

Claire disagrees. Claire's mistake that would cost her victory was to die during the second month after the pantokrator died. That prevented her from taking the territory that forced a pointless war against Ryleh, prevented most of the firepriest from researching the spells needed to repel an invasion for a year, and left the north side open to a double invasion since Claire could not secure the land that could have blocked Sauromantia's advance to the south.

Claire however, has not attacked too soon, but too late. You forget why the diplomatic victory was scored. Part of it is as I said in the few last topic : Sauromantia's openly shown greed and arrogance has made it the "enemy". Another part is because in a war, your allies move because you move. Sauromantia had diplomacy in his hands with secrets dealings with most nation and at that time organised wars with others. The only way to grasp that control was not using the same methods, since, basically, Claire had nothing to offer but a promise to attack that could be : a lie or a diplomatic standstill. With no one daring taking a risk (since the first one to attack would undoubtly take the wrath of the defender). Getting enough allies could get months of undoing and there was no just months to spare.

What Claire did then was setting a precedent. Risked accelerating the rise of Sauromantia in order to break the forementioned alliances, making them realize that even by swallowing their neighbour as fast as they could, without an alliance, they stood no chance because Sauromantia already had made that alliance and that it's own individual power was not only stronger than their own, but growing faster than their own as well.

By setting this precedent, by attacking that soon in plain sight, Claire has scored that diplomatic victory at the cost of her future. Claire risked her lands in exchange of a chance of victory for all other nations in the world, including Claire's. Finally, by doing so, since Claire's lands are so far from the Sauromantia homeland, it helped spreading out the lizard armies and make them much more vulnerable. That's the reason why Claire provoked Sauromantia that much and it worked really well.

Now, Claire hopes that the last of the remaining border nations around Sauromantia come to their senses and manage to make Sauromantia back into something manageable again instead of the juggernaut it currently is. That's about what is needed to put the oversized ambitions of Sauromantia in place : to strike into the vulnerable belly of the beast. Claire therefore needed to attack first, since a side attack could only happen after Sauromantia's armies were stretched

To put the plan into simpler words : to kill a beast, you need to make it vulnerable, to anger him so it reacts with feelings instead of with a cool head, and then finish it when it's vulnerable with a spear in its belly, and that the hide of the beast is strong enough to repulse the attackers.

Claire believe that plan was good, and so far it worked rather well. The only problem is that the baits (myself and Ryleh) are falling too fast, soon needing Lanka's help) and that the spear didn't hurt enough, and hopes the only reason is that it is because some of the spearwielders didn't even move yet, and that it is not due to the tactical strength of Sauromantia overwhelming.

Otherwise, the world is doomed to be under Sauromantia's rule.

Re: On T\'ien Ch\'i
 

That's a nice way of saying you panicked and bleated for help from nations with their own problems as your culture was destroyed. You got greedy, and launched an invasion on the rich nation that had earned their place, and you failed. You have been counterinvaded. Deal with it.