Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Greetings,
I wish to study the ways of nature, and perhaps gain a better understanding on it's dwellers, the Panii. I wish to trade give water or death gems in exchange for NATURE gems. I would buy nature gems for gold too. Thanks a lot for your interest, and please private message or e-mail me. You offer the price!!!

I think the last events that lead to the attack of my port by the Kingdom of Pangaea from an another continent where part of a missunderstanding. I state again to the world and to the panii, that I do NOT wish war with them. "My numbers were drastically depleted", as Pangaea's king (or thane or warchief or despot... ) said earlier. I bring the world of peace to their capital with 3 chosen priests (who made their name know in the field of negociations and peace making). Their escort will consist only a few servants, not more then a few giants and a handfull amazon horseman to lead the way in the lands, since my giants tend to loose the road in those lands. I hope you will not attack them, and our peace negotiations can start.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Neifelheim indeed attacked our province and took it from us. They have told that army was only escorting their diplomat to Pangaean land. Everyone can believe if they will.

Now we have settled things with Neifelheim again to a such degree that we dont have to open hotilities against them. As their diplomatic convoy advanced - we took the province Eldercate back to our hands. But still we do declare now that all non agression pacts we have must be nullified as this world seems to be too full of greedy opportunists that Vanheim must take preventive actions against any such a foe that might even thing of attacking us in the future!

-Jörund, prophet of the True God

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

I will send 25 death gems to Pangaea this turn, and after the 50 nature gems have arrived I will send the remaining 25. I hope you will honour trade. Until we are officially in peace I will not cease fire, and not stop the war effort. If you are ready to negociate the terms of peace, don't hesitate to send me a message.

To Vanheim... I'm sorry, that you don't trust me any more. I told you (and everyone else) that the convoy NOT intended to stay on your lands, and it was meant only as a peacekeeping force in the Niefel-Pan border. In the other hand I hope that your sneaking troups are not in my lands preparing for an attack. If that's the case, then I wish you a fair fight and hounourable death. I declare that the alliance with Vanheim is invalid, but we are not in war.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Just checking in on the games to make sure everything is going smoothly. Glad to see that war is raging across the face of the world. As it should be http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Carry on.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

OOC

to WszaboPeter, give me a break. I am going to send 25 nature gems to compensate for the death gems, but I refuse to flatter you or any other cheese ball *heim build with negotiations, because that would insenuate there was more cunning to your playstyles than "Build sacred units, build 1 commander, wipe out 10 times your number". 357 varied units versus 33 of one unit type?


I tested the multiplayer waters and it was too cold for my liking. Maybe I will try again when the Balance mod comes out. I WILL finish this game out, so don't worry about stale turns.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

All this talk about the Heims has got me curious. I hope i survive long enough to be crushed by them. I would like to see what the hubub is all about.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

I think it is possible to beat them, but I think it will require MASSED damage casters (Which my nation lacks) and upper end summons with solid morale (Still a bit early in the game for that).

Its a bit early for me to do a Post Mortem of this game, but I made a few mistakes when dealing with the *heims. But I honestly do not feel if these mistakes were rectified, I would have stood much of a chance. I could have shaped my nation from the start to deal with double bless heims and I think I would still be in the exact same situation I am facing at the moment.

I am not mad at all, I don't blame these players for choosing strategies that are known game winners, rather than rolling the dice with their own strategies. Lack of originality is hardly an offence in online games, especially when your primary focus is winning at all costs. Some veterans talk about how you can beat them with this and this, if that were the case, most nations would be built in that fashion and the heims would be a non issue.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

The hubub about the EA 'heims is pretty simple, they have very powerful (multiple attacks, glamour, high defence, berserk/mounted, good other stats) sacred troops (regular for van, flying or mounted for hel), access to good earth magic (and therefore bladewind, the EA army destroyed), access to very strong commanders who can be easily made into thugs (can cast air buffs, only missing foot slots, great stats ect) and, of course, they have amazing regular troops because, almost all of their units have above average stats and glamour (therefore they are extremely hard to hit and have stealth+25).

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

I actually investigated the power of the Helheim bless strategy last night and I do have to admit that it is overpowered in dom3. Not massively so but still, overpowered. I did find several counters that I felt would work very well against a strategy of this kind but I would not expect a new player to come up with them when a Heim army was knocking at thier door.

That said, I think it would be premature to give up on this game, or MP games in the near future. First because bless strategies run out of steam as the game goes on. And second because, in the next newbie game I host I believe I will just make it a house rule that the Heims are not allowed to use a bless strategy. Or just not allow those nations in the game at all.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

It definitely is possible to beat a 'heim bless but to do so you have to devote your nation just to doing that. So, if you prepare for the bless, you will lose, because other nations will outgrow you or out-research you; if you don't prepare, you will lose, because you will get overrun by the bless-heims. I won't guarantee every nation has a good defense against them, but all the few that I've looked at so far do.

Basically I think Glamour is just too good to have on a recruitable unit, and the defense 19 on the Helhirdings is pretty huge. Normal troops will simply not hit them. You *must* use magic. Neifelheim bless works a little differently, of course.

One of the things that makes Heim blesses so strong is the relative lack of constraint on the Holy resource. Compare a Helhirding or Vanhere to a C'Tis serpent dancer or sacred serpent. The bless is the same, and C'tis has plenty of priests, but you are just not going to make the bulk of your army out of sacreds with C'Tis because you will not have enough holy points. With the heims, and their high-quality, high-cost sacreds, you can make almost your entire army sacred.

I do think the 'heims are a little too strong but they are obviously not the only way you can build a strong nation, Tien Chi is dominating this game magically for instance. But then, they were also fortunate enough to not have a starting position right next to a bless rusher.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Uhhh.... our first war was with Helheim. They paid us 200 gold for a cease fire when we killed 20 of their Helhirdings.

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Never mind, I was right the first time http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

I must point out that I, as Helheim, have not used a dual bless strategy unlike *cough T'ien Ch'i and *cough Ulm who are *cough allies *cough. Excuse me, I seem to have a tickle.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Let's not forget that even without glamour, Neifelheim is also using a bless rush to devastating effect.

Ironhawk. I'd enjoy playing another newbie game if the 'heims were disallowed or neutered, but also I think for a newbie game, a bigger map with some more breathing space would be nice, too. I never expanded enough to get comfortable, and it was just my bad luck to land in the middle of the map surrounded by other nations. Not to say a bigger map would guarantee more space and time for buildup, due to random placement, but it would hopefully give newbies like me who don't know bless strategy from greek and who need some living space to get the ball rolling.

I have considered that playing some "blitz" games with experienced players would build up my strategies and knowledge base in a hurry, but I don't even know how to get involved in one of those or how it works.

Just an OT and random idea, too: Ermor has sacred units that are heavy cavalry and recruitable non prophet priests who (iirc) have the three candles to mass bless, so maybe a dual bless would work for NF Ermor. Has anyone tried this? I assume since no one has mentioned it before that there is probably some reason why it wouldn't work. I kinda like Ermor as a nation and would prefer to learn how to make them great, at least for MP, then switch to an easier nation.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

One reason the 'heims bless so well is free points from cold scale which can go right into pretender magic, and low resource to gold ratio on their sacreds so they can take sloth too.

For the same reason, Ermor's not an ideal bless nation because it needs to buy expensive scales. The sacred heavy cavalry will be resource limited if you take sloth, plus Ermor likes neutral temp so can't take a bunch of temperature points, leaving the points for a bless in short supply.

Niefelheim bless works differently, but all the ingredients are there: Plenty of design points and high-cost, high-quality sacred troops that don't take a lot of losses in combat.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

We have a what? You've seen our troops, and we've seen yours. Your units have a larger bless bonus in two categories than ours...

-Finger Pointing is Hilarious

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

The server will be down for a few minutes while I monkey around with it. If you happen to be caelum and are trying to play your turn, just sit tight.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Server is back up. Even though the server says 24 hours remaining, I may force-host the turn at 11:30 AM Pacific time if Caelum hasn't played by then (this is when the timer would normally expire on the quickhost). Caelum hasn't staled a turn yet AFAIK so no worries but I want to be up front about things.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Yeah... well my bless is larger than yours anyhow... oh wait what kinda bless are we talking about? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Really this is a Newbie game and I and most others are probably playing our first MP games. I never knew using bless strategy would seem gamey. I have myself with my Agarthan nation choosed to use a bless strategy (although quite unsuccesful since I seriously suck at this game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif ) as I had no idea blessing is a gamey tactic.

Anyhow I agree with Stryke11 and I hope a new Newbie game on a larger map will start after 3.02 is released.

Oh and even though my Agarthan nation is among the smallest in provinces that still is alive I have the largest army... atleast something to be proud about. Yeah and I also whopped some Maverni Eponi Knights this turn.... ahhh that was sooo sweet. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

First of all, you started a war, by attacking me. A war that you can't win. Since I wanted peace I offered you one. You refused. I wanted to trade. You refused it again. Even if I trusted you and sent half the PAYMENT before getting the gems. Now please tell me how could I offer you peace once more.
But I do it again, for the very last time. If you don't agree it, then I will crush you, and we both know you can't stop me.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Maybe, Pangaea, you should accept peace, build up your strength, and if you really want war with the 'Heims attack them later in the game when their advantages won't count for so much. So long as they don't see that coming...

Thanks!
 

Thanks to Ironhawk for hosting this game, it is a ton of fun!

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Wise idea. I offered peace to C'Tis and he accepted it. The case was very similar. Someone shed Jotun blood, then I hit back, and hit hard. The difference was the mentality of the two leaders, and the fact that C'Tis will survive and Pangaea will not if they don't accept that very last chance I gave him. (I gave him something too many alread, while C'Tis accepted peace at the first offers, and thus they reduced their casualties both in manpower and in land.)

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

I explicitly chose a tight map for your first game so that you all could get experience. If you all had had 20 provinces to yourselves, wars would have taken forever (if they started at all). Whereas here, pretty much every player has fought one war, if not two. This will be invaluable experience, going forward.

This said, I had already planned on making the 2nd newbie game on a larger map. So you could take your combat knowledge and add long-term magic and strategy to it.

Its pretty simple to get involved in a blitz game. You just go to the dominions IRC channel and ask if anyone there wants to blitz. Look at this thread for more details

The Dominions IRC Channel

In particular, DominionsFan gives a link to a web client which you can use for free and instructions on how to use it towards the bottom.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

As ironhawk said, just go to the dominions IRC channel (its simply called dominons) and, if there are any players there some-one will probably be up for a blitz. They can also give helpful advice for playing and making strategies.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Thanks! I'll definitely check the IRC site out!

An Open Letter to Sauromatia
 

OK, I'm going to offer you a riddle, and an answer.

Here is the riddle: Now that your forward army is completely stranded deep in Tien Chi teritory, surrounded by armies which can crush it in the field, with no possible line of supply back to your home, how are you going to avoid having it be destroyed, along with the hopes and dreams of empire of Sauromatian children for generations to come?

For surely it can't possibly have escaped your notice that the armies to the East and West of you are capable of slaying (or at least hamstringing) gods, and your witch kings are not gods. The armies of Sauromatia cannot stand against the hammer and annvil of Tien Chi and there is no line of escape.

What may have escaped your notice, however, is the presence of a third army whose purpose was to be to bring to bare against Helheim should they retain their current stance of intractibility, but which in this case is quite likely to be repositioned merely to cut off any potential marching deeper into Tien Chi lands. Indeed, like a bird in a cage there is nowhere for Sauromatia to fly.

And so I propose instead an answer for you: like the bird in a cage you should sing.

Having been captured by your enemies of the Middle Kingdom it is only fitting that you should take this as an opportunity - to amuse them.

And here is what I would find amusing: join us. Your base treachery will be forgiven, ironically if you perform more treachery. If you turn on your allies in Arcocephale, we will allow you to escape into their lands, where we will even allow you to keep the lands that you conquer. If instead you choose to send your soldiers into Helheim, we will allow your men and your lands to stay in your hands.

We are willing to catch and release the Sauromatian army. Of course, we're also willing to serve it for dinner. If you wish to negotiate the release of your witch kings, you can email us:

ftrollma@ucsc.edu

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

Re: An Open Letter to Sauromatia
 

To Tien'Chi

For reasons I can not fathom our god Nagash was thourghly ammused by your letter. He kept on saying things like "cool" and "neat"(when you hear a lich say these things while laughing you will be unnerved to). Needless to say your letter has prompted Oceania to offer you an alliance, which is also funny because I do not think I have ever seen a flag of Tien'Chi before...

Well, that is what I was supposed to deliver.

Messages of prosperity to Tien Chi and R\'yleh
 

I send you my greetings and warmest salutations, wise rulers of Tien Chi and R'yleh. I'm interested in peace and open trade with your nation. Our armies have not met in the field of battle, but this may change in the future. To prevent that unfortunate event, I suggest an open peace and open trade treaty. If you don't accept I will not take it as an offensive act, it will NOT mean war, but if you accept it, it will benefit you. I beg your pardon for not addressing you separatelly, but my position with both of your nations is similar, since I recently found your borders, and we had no hostility in the past. If you wish to keep it this way in the future, please let me know.
Thanks a lot, I will be honoured beyond measure by your reply,
Dream Slayer, God of the Sons of Winter

Re: An Open Letter to Sauromatia
 

Hahhaha, funny stuff man

Re: An Open Letter to Sauromatia
 

WszaboPeter, You offered peace and trade and attacked me the next turn. Obviously, being drunk with power has blurred your perception of what peace is.

Your offer of peace was declined because we don't consider steps towards peace to include taking the province next to our capital, even after we ceased to attack you and ALLOWED your troops completely surrounded to find a way out of that situation.

As I have said before, you chose a cheeseball way to play this game, just like vanheim did (Versus noobies no less), and I am not going to flatter your ego with negotiations. You opted out of the diplomacy part of the game whenever you chose an overpowered strategy.

So sit back and talk about crushing people and being powerful. We both know it is a hollow victory, about as hollow as both of you guys ganging up on ermor.

As far as the gem trade goes, don't lie, we traded you 1 to 1. It would have been 50 for 50 if you were not blazing a trail into Pangaea lands. Instead, because of YOUR lack of diplomacy, you get 25 for the 25 you sent us.

You can try to discredit me all you want, but ALL of the nations that have dealt with me know I deal on an honorable basis.

If Neifelheim wants peace, it is very simple, they must move back to the southern continent. The place that I told you I would not venture into as part of our peace.

Re: An Open Letter to Sauromatia
 

Neifelheim,

I am truly embarrassed for you. I cannot believe the lows you are having to stoop to, just to beat my nation which you said you could do alone without any problem.

Wiping out Ermor in such a manner was not boring enough for the two of you?

Well if you must bring your girlfriend (Vanheim) to the dance, then so be it.

Re: An Open Letter to Sauromatia
 

Since you did not accepted the peace. If you don't accept the peace, that means the very fact that you wish war. And if you wish war I went with the war as far as near as the province next to your capital, and I took it. Next turn I may siege it. Then perhaps you will listen to the words of wisdom. If not, then you will suffer Ermor's fate. Then again: Why do you insist fighting wars you can't win? I offered peace, and asked nothing in exchange, and the situation was absolutelly at my favour. I could have asked gold or gems or provinces, but I asked nothing. I offered the peace simply to show my goodwill and fairness in a war started by you.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

The more players in the game, the smaller the map has to be relative to the number of players. You have to accept that several of the players will be eliminated before the game gets to the end phase and the game should be sized so that there are enough provinces for the remaining players. Otherwise, the game is too big and bogs down toward the end as there are just too many provinces and things going on to deal with efficiently.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

To the nation of Niefelheim:
R'lyeh is a peace-loving nation bearing you no ill will. We have no interest in the military affairs going on in the lands east of our aquatic realm and, as long as you do not attack our holdings, we are happy to accept a peace and trade arrangement.

-- Sheap-Niggurath

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

We accepted your peace, even to the point that we were initiating trade with you. Although it was roleplaying, I said I was not going to attack Neifelheim again. You made out like you wanted peace and you know very well I accepted it, then you realized... LAWLZ, I GOT 30 GIANTS AT HIS BORDER, TO HECK WITH PEACE, WE WILL SAY HE LIED ABOUT TRADING AND WANTS TO WARZ LAWLZ.

It's one thing to roleplay, it's another to try to spin a person's OOC actions. This is just a game, so I refuse to criticize your character, but please quit trying to discredit the OOC player by saying I told you this, and then did that.

Here is the bottom line as displayed by your actions...

You are open to peace and negotiations until you realize you can take people's provinces, then all that you have said is void.

You spin it with the other players by saying "He did this, he did that".

To ensure that the 1% chance that you could lose does not happen, you hold hands with vanheim.

The above is your playstyle in a nutshell.


Now so the players do not have to go through the posts to see what I am talking about...

I said:

To the peoples of Neifelheim,

A battle to the south of the Kingdom of Pangaea was fought, and it is worth noting that this battle has made us a stronger kingdom although many centaur were lost. The battle prowess of the giants is simply incredible, and although their numbers were drastically depleted, we will not be invading the old Ermor lands again. These wounded Giants will be allowed to return home to their Mountain Kingdom if they can find a way through the surrounding Vanheim lands. This Decision has been made by the Centaur Cohort of Pangaea, and the Pan will not go against us on this for they respect our decisions most of all in times of war.

Amphious, Heirophant and Cohort leader.


You said:

I think the last events that lead to the attack of my port by the Kingdom of Pangaea from an another continent where part of a missunderstanding. I state again to the world and to the panii, that I do NOT wish war with them. "My numbers were drastically depleted", as Pangaea's king (or thane or warchief or despot... ) said earlier. I bring the world of peace to their capital with 3 chosen priests (who made their name know in the field of negociations and peace making). Their escort will consist only a few servants, not more then a few giants and a handfull amazon horseman to lead the way in the lands, since my giants tend to loose the road in those lands. I hope you will not attack them, and our peace negotiations can start.

Then in a private message that I will not repeat here, we initiated a trade agreement.

Then the very next turn you attacked me, and brought a friend to ensure victory.

So cut the crap and lets get this over with. Try to keep the rest of the spin and discrediting in character, which I absolutely don't mind.

If you want peace like you say you do, I will reiterate, remove your forces from Pangaea lands. If you do not want peace, keep your diplomacy in character to the rest of the players, not OOC lies.

We have already offered you peace, and we even thought we were at peace until you realized what kind of military advantage you had.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

First off, you are right, you do not have a dual bless. I am in another EA game against T'ien Ch'i, and their sacreds do have the 9f9w bless. So I got confused. It was an honest mistake, and I apologize.

As far as finger pointing goes, if you would bother to pay attention, several here have talked about the Heims uberblessed units. While Helheim was not specifically mentioned, it was not discounted either. I felt I had a right to defend myself by saying that I, in fact, am not using a dual bless strategy. That is unless you consider a 4e5a bless a dual bless strategy. I also pointed out Ulm, who is using one, to show that in EA the Heims are not the only ones using it. If you have a problem with the "finger pointing" then that is your problem, not mine.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Helheim is performing competitively against the other nations without using the played out bless strategy. /salute you for that.

As far as other nations using a double bless, I don't really think it has as big of an impact on the game than when used in conjunction with glamour or neifel giants. Some players have suggested it is insanely powerful with Mictlan but I have no experience with that nation whatsoever.

I hope maybe in a future patch instead of nerfing these bless strategies, Illwinter gives certain nations counters to the double blesses on these particular nations (The heims and possible mictlan?).

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

You told me "I am willing to trade 50 nature gems for 50 death gems." in private message, recieved 11/13/06 09:49 PM, with topic GEM trade. I sent you the first 25 death gems, but I had not the remaining 25 more, but I was sure that I will have that amount within 2 turns. So I told you that the rest of the payment will be sent after I recieve the nature gems. Then when you saw that your forces where no match for the giants you said, that only 25 nature gems was agreed. I said that that WAS NOT the agreement. But newer told anyone, nor wrote that you where dishonouring the trade.

This means peace with Pangaea. But I hope this is not a trick to gather forces or assassins or something similar. If we make peace we make it for at least 6 mounts. I ask no monetary (or magical) compensation for my lost troups. I even offer you the province of Anodyr (103), one of the provinces next to your capital. I remove all my forces from it in this order. In exchange for that province, I ask the province of Starko (93). (I think it is logical that I wish to keep those 2940 gold worth giants, that would be useless without Starko under my control.)

Finally you will agree, that you will NOT attack any of my provinces, (except 103) and you DO NOT join any alliance that has members who are in war with me. Moreover, you will not attack R'lyeh or C'Tis, only if they attack you first, or if they state in the forum that the peace and trade agreement with them is invalid.

Thanks again for accepting the peace.
DreamSlayer

We, the Sons of Winter are glad to greet our aquatic friends.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

The trade was initiated as part of our forging a peace between our two nations. You cannot expect a nation to send you 50 gems on the turn that you break the peace and you have only sent 25.

Most nations in my position would not have even honored a 1 to 1 trade after you attacked them, much less send you 50 for 25 and expect you to live up to your end of the bargain.

Pangaea cannot have peace until the forces of Neifelheim and the forces of Vanheim are moved out of our territory. This territory includes all our former holdings on the northern continent.

I want to make this clear to Neifelheim...

When you are dispelled from our lands or move out on your own accord, we will not venture south to the southern continent. At this time we will discuss NAPs or other agreements.

To Vanheim, this statement holds true for you as well. When Vanheim is removed from Pangaean lands, we will discuss the possibilities of a NAP if your even interested in such talks .

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Um, now that I am banished, do I have to keep playing my turns? I know that sounds stupid, but the game didn't actually say "thanks for playing, you're done now" or anything like that, and it still gave me a view of what was in my castle province.

Also, my army routed before the battle even began. I've never seen anything like that before and have no idea why. How can armies even rout when they are inside a fortress? What, is there some kind of back door they can run out? I think fortresses should be defended to the death. No routing. They are giant stone buildings enclosed by walls that are currently being sieged by an enemy. Where do they rout to?

Finally, thanks for the info on the blitzes. I'd try it tonight but I just got Medieval II: Total War yesterday and, well, y'know. I'm bummed I can't play the Byzantines though. That's like 90% why I bought the game. I'm sure I'll be spending equal time with DomIII in a week or so http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

To Pangaea,
As you see our troops fare rather well behind your lines - opposite to your troops which originally sneaked into our lands in attempt to spread ill. So this party is doing just justice as you were the third nation to attack Vanheim.

First attacker the Ermor we dealt swiftly and Niefelheim helped us without invitation. They even took the Ermorean capital before we could attack the province. This forced us to give Niefelheim the port from which they now efficiently maul Pangaea.

Second attacker, the Atlantis has managed to flee under the waves after they had done considerable harm to our plans retaliating the Ermors attack. Atlantis should consider repaying the damages but we have heard nothing from them.

Fourth attacker was Niefelheim but we decided to negotiate with them instead of force and luckily this way we avoided bloodshed between us two.

Fift attacker against Vanheim is surprisingly Caleum. They now plunder our provinces. This attack came as surprisingly as all four before. But furthermore we thought we had rather warm relations with them.

Now the situation is this: Vanheim has never been the first to attack anyone and Vanheim never will. Right Now we have plenty to do with dealing with Caleum.

Cheers,
Jörund, the Slayer of Infidels and the prophet of the True God

P.S. Lore of Vanheim does not remember as ruthless time as it is now. Never have been so many nations attacking us.

P.P.S. Archives of Eldergate do tell of more turbulent times and Vanir scholars are eager to learn from those archives as the nation we conquered seems to have knowledge. It was an old civilization before the turmoil and decadency of the Pangaea corrupted its leaders.

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

Once you are defeated you don't play any more turns. You get the final turn so you can see your final battle (or whatever happened that eliminated you). But, there is nothing for you to do, and the game will not wait for you any more. Many players set themselves to AI rather than wait to be vanquished, but I guess Gaius Julius Carulus really did stay to defend the city to the death.

It's too bad he wasn't a commander, though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif Your troops will rout if you have no commanders in the fort to lead them. Otherwise, they can't rout until something happens to them. On a related note, if you try to break siege and fail, any troops that routed will go into neighboring provinces if possible and die if not possible. They won't go back into the fort, and if you didn't leave someone behind inside the fort, it will be immediately captured.

Troops routing defending a fort is silly, but that's how the game works. It's actually possible for them to rout into neighboring provinces, or at least it was in dom2 - talk about frustrating for the sieging player. Of course, in your case, that won't matter.

One other note - and this is for everyone - if you happen to be the last one to take your turn, the host will generate a new turn immediately, and it's good form to stick around and play your new turn too. You'll see this happening from the network screen right after you upload. (Anyone who's played Dom2 with me knows I'm not exactly a golden example of this principle... but still...) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Final Correspondence Smuggled out of Ermor.
 

To Vanheim,

We never attacked you. You uncovered an exploration force meant for other lands with your patrolling forces. If we declared war on every nation we uncovered in our lands, we would be at odds with several nations.

^^ This gave me a good laugh.

Re: An Open Letter to Sauromatia
 

T'ien Ch'i,

The proud Sauromatian peoples laugh at your empty threats. If you can crush our army, do so. We are not so sure you can succeed, and if you do our warriors will have died with honour.

Ours is a noble nation, and we will not be toyed with or manipulated, nor even consider betraying our allies.

Let the war be a fair one,

Sauromatia.

Re: An Open Letter to Sauromatia
 

To Pangaea:
While we appreciate that Niefelheim has asked you for a peace treaty on our behalf, you should not consider the nation of R'lyeh to be allied with Niefelheim in your conflict, however it turns out. Everything we said above to them applies to you as well. We simply have no interest in the land in your part of the world and are happy to make peace and trade arrangements with any nation in that area. Given how long we have shared a border without incident I doubt these words will come as a surprise to you.

Wettest regards,
Sheap-Niggurath

Re: An Open Letter to Sauromatia
 

LESS COMPLAININ MORE FIGHTIN!

Re: An Open Letter to Sauromatia
 

We are waiting for Caelum, as in the last turn. I hope they will not drop. Any news?

Ha. Ha. Ha.
 

OK, we crushed your army. Ha ha?

We offered you a way out, you chose not to accept it, and now your army has been destroyed. We see you have another one, do you honestly believe the outcome will be any different?

The Great Catsby has Spoken.

Re: To Mictlan
 

Yucky: See the PM I sent you today.