[ywl]

Originally posted by 1000yd_stare:
In our mp game, my peace loving Ashen Empire, which never attacks first, will soon be attacked by jotun, abysia, and maybe mariginon.

Attempts at negotiation have fallen on deaf ears, (or could it be the mere fact that my troops are all muttering "brains.." in the background? nah.), so some advice on who to atta- er, 'defensively advance' on would be appreciated. My limited intel puts abysia and then jotun as the stronger of the 3, with marigion a bit back.

Right now I have the usual massive armies of fodder, and death gem income of about 12 a turn.

Sorry to discourage you - but you're probably doomed . There is no peace-loving Ashen Empire while your dominions is killing the world .

You shouldn't attack Marignon. Rather, you should bribe him and lure him into a false sense of security, saying that he has nothing to fear from you - beacuse he's Marignon. Concentrate on Jotun or Abysia. But I suspect that he might not listen and would just join in the fun.

Marignon has powerful priests but versus Ermor Ashen Empire, there is nothing that can't be done by 10+ cheapo holy 2 priests. So, both Jotun or Abysia is equally deadly versus your force.

You only advantage is defensive. You land is hard to attack because of the lack of supply. So, you should go after Jotun or any one with decent access to nature magic, e.g. druids. Ghouls are your friends as they make your fortress virtually unbreachable. Use Bane Venome Charm and Black Servant. The charm can poison your attackers while it has no effect on the undeads. It's especially bad for seiging army as they have no where to dodge.

I don't think any diplomatic tricks would be too useful as they're not hard to see through. The only card on your hand is that you can drag any one of them down to dirt by pillaging, poison. Pick the one who initiated the alliance and make sure that he fears you in the next game. If you get lucky enough, the maneuver might be painful enough for him to back off and let you survive for a longer time.