[The Panther]

Now that Machaka has been officially eliminated, I would like to ask Turms to sub for me in this game while I am on vacation in France. I leave June 17 and return June 28. I would even be amenable to have him take over permanently and I will just watch from the sidelines after I return home.

I hate to go AI because I am doing pretty decent so far and the comp would really mess things up. While I am not leading in anything other than forts, I am definitely holding my own with Broken Empire. I have to admit that I really like that theme, for it does not have the severe micro-management troop-shuffling problem inherent in the SG/AE themes. Also, having cheap mages who can all cast Nether Bolt & Nether Darts is quite powerful. People are hesitant to attack with SCs because of the Feeble Minded problem. The cheap mages can even do a mass mind duel when needed to kill an Astral commander! And with a couple of artifacts, they can do the more powerful Astral or Death spells. Plus the better mages all can do many good astral/death spells. The random school on those mages is especially sweet.

Broken Empire is certainly not as bad as people seem to think.