Hey, thank you for the game, everyone! (Especially Pasha!) I thoroughly enjoyed both not having to spend time on diplomacy (I find it almost a chore nowadays: you can't succeed without heavy investment in diplomacy in regular games but it's also a totally independent aspect from the game. The game is more... what's a good word... pure an experience without.) as well as the added thrill of not knowing who's who. I did tentatively place Izaqyos as Ermor when he asked a question on the forum about the assassins I'd been utilizing, and Panther as either Pythium or Ulm when he posted those oh so biased graphs
(Since they were the nations that had the most interest in getting a unified front against me.) Other than that I sure was without a clue as to who's who [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Teddy.gif[/img]
Kudos to both Pythium and Ermor for the resistance; had I not had such an overwhelming logistical advantage I wouldn't have stood a chance against your tactics. Where did I get that advantage? There was little in the way of leet skillz involved, I'm afraid: the balance mods totally unbalanced Diabolical Faith (making the forced turmoil and extra heat of little consequence, and strengthening the demon jesters beyond any reason) and I found a 40% blood discount site fairly early on. (Didn't affect the wars with T'ien C'hi and Man, but afterwards...) Thus I switched gears from my initial spam jesters like crazy strategy to fill the world with Hordes from hell and unique devils; I could cast, like, ten hordes from hell each turn so taking large areas of land, castled or otherwise, was easy.
I had some other exit strategies in mind, but when Ron left his capital unprotected it all fell into place
Otherwise I would probably have flown in to capture Pangaea, which was within flying distance from my hunting grounds.
So, if you have any lingering doubts on whether you could have done something better, take a look at my last turn and see how hopeless a situation you actually were in
A better player than I would have finished this by turn 60, I'm sure, given the advantages I had. All in all, a supremely pleasant game; to think I hadn't played Marignon even in SP before...