"But seriously, though, I intentionally didn't use said army against Pan for a good length of time to have it in place for your attack, and to prevent you from knowing I had one. Guess it worked, seeing how you hadn't lightning-proofed your army "
Yes, that was definitely an awesome move on your part. I really had no idea you had an air queen. I was thinking I was going to be fighting Tartarians and/or your god (and was ready to stomp them).
"What I mean by how it should have gone is, there was no freakish outlier in the random rolls - at least not one I could see."
Well, I agree with that, except maybe I routed a little early. But, early or late they would have, sure. Because I had no mech. men in there.
"The Barrier guy alone, well, I can't say. It would have taken him at least 3 dozen turns to carve every one of my guys, though, maybe more"
You know there is something seriously wrong with this game when it's better to go in alone than bring an army along.
Okay, now I'm just venting. But, really... I hope they do something about that for Dom III.
If, as you say, there was no way I was going to win that battle, how does one -ever- beat an AQ in that sort of set-up? You said it was my army's lack of versatility, but come on.. Without an AQ of my own or Storm Demons, nothing's able to fly in that storm, am I right? I'd have needed to completely lightning-proof my army.
Barring having an AQ, Storm Demons, or complete lightning-proofing (none of which are likely to have happened), how would you suggest defeating that sort of set-up in the future? I'd try the mechanical men route, but you seem to think that wouldn't work. It doesn't seem like there's much else out there that would have stood up to what you had in that case.
"And, well, it's pretty depressing to hear the tactic I planned thoroughly and executed pretty nicely was lame"
I don't want you to misunderstand me, the planning and execution were excellent, it's just I can't believe that the game would allow 1 SC and a few elementals to take down and much larger and better-equipped force, including roughly 10 SCs. And it was even lamer when the larger and superior force -didn't even fight- but decided to run for no reason. Sure they lost a few guys, but nothing major. These are trained soliders, dammit! Stand and f*cking fight you freaks! I say it's lame just because it's illogical. The better force should have won that fight. But I guess that's the way it goes sometimes.