[Folket]

I started at a really good position in the south sea. Most of my provinces were onland (4 out of 5), which hampered my expansion for two turns.

In the west I early got a good foothold on land ut tot he west Then Chi had mercinaries walking in my ocean. This was unacceptable and I attacked without warning. After two turns of fighting Then Chi surrendered and messaged me that I could have the ocean and the south-eastern island.

At that time Man attacked me on my western provinces and destroyed a temple of mine. This was intorable and as my income was still fine I raise massive armies and started to battle Man back. At first Man got some minor victories but as the bulk of my army arrived Man was turned to dust. At this time my armies first started to starve. While haveing no wineskins I decieded it was better to reroute some of my armies through Abysia. The gained provinces and destroyed temples was just a bonus. I had planed to take more provinces from Abysia but when Man was finaly defeated Abysia was no more.

At this point I knew that I had a good position. My intellegence told me that C'tis was regrouping thier armies north, possibly to wage war against Mictlan or Agartha. Mictlan would probably not fight alone against me exposing thier throat to the lizards. Most likly C'tis and Mictlan would attack Agartha together. Ulm was allready fighting Agartha and they had a long exposed coast against me so they would probably not want to break our NAP. Both Ermor and Then Chi had agreed not to enter the ocean.

Next I looked at my opponents. LA is probably the worst nation possible in a research game. They are not likly to afford enough mages. Ulm and Mictlan are blood nations. Blood magic is very wizzard intensive and it also lowers the income. Ulm, C'tis and Mictlan had all fought wars which should have cost them plenty. So I considered all my friends exept Then Chi and Agartha.

Since I only bordered Then Chi my choice was clear. When I first started to fight Then Chi I noticed that he had drain scales. This probably put him out of the running for victory. Next I hear reports of Agartha having lvl in many magic paths. Now I started to puit my resources into research. Increasing my potential with 60-100 rp a turn. At the same time I continued to send swarm after swarm against the defences of Then Chi.

The last turns was real killers, knowing that Agartha could win at any time and just hoping that I would make it to the finish line first.