[boltcutter]

Turns 25-31: Quagmire.

Second Army strikes deeply and effectively. First Army gets thrown back to their base province with severe losses. I need to work on impatience and lack of focus. T'ien Chi breaks out with a small army and rampages through the former Mictlanese provinces. I do not have the resources to start a Third Army; eventually they run up against my northern bottleneck and are repulsed.

I start besieging the Dark Citadel where the TC Pretender, a lich, is locked up with less than 10 troops.

Unfortunately, TC's main army was out on campaign to the west. I go Myself with a few troops to intercept at the obvious blocking point.

I am destroyed. Ten Celestial Warriors come in and clean house. Looking at what went wrong:

1. I didn't bring enough troops. Two half-armies are no good. One Smith, a handful of troops [fled from the last wreck of First Army]- not enough.
2. I didn't concentrate on building up the province defense, despite knowing where the enemy would strike.
3. My physical form was not equal to the challenges. I was fighting in Dominion -8 [!] and so, instead of the 70+ HP I should have had, I had about. . .20.

This is the beginning of the end. There are three really large enemies- C'Tis, Pythium, and Jotunheim- remaining. Jotunheim's armies are starving, diseased, and miserable [my spies report] but still crushing Pangaea. I have very few priests, fewer temples, and many months before I can return as even a shadow of my old Self. I do not have the forces, I suspect, to hold TC against the armies coming home- never mind actually taking the Dark Citadel. [Can I wipe out an immortal Lich with multiple Blade Winds? I think that's what the question comes down to.]

The next on my decreasingly-plausible To Conquer list is Caelum. Their research has been spectacular and, even if their troops can only peck vainly at my armored masses, they undoubtedly have horrifying magical calamities waiting for me.

I suspect at this point my only option is stubborn, doomed resistance.