[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Well... I'll have something to share about Consecrated Ground - 200+ shade beasts at the start of year four, but we'll have to wait and see how that turns out. With six of them to a battlesquare and Niefelheims expensive units (cheapest priest 130 gold OR indep), I think I may be able to swamp their units with poision. I've seen some pesky hydra skin armor, sadly.

In Doom Chicken I was not able to survive because a). I attacked too early and b). I spread out my efforts way too much.

There are a few tantilizing ideas I botched by spreading out to thin.

I equipped Black Servants with a rod of the leper king, bane venom charm, and 8 Shades. I also summoned Wights in a seperate army. My half-strength wights got slaughtered by priests- even under darkness. As Ctis, I could have (with missing research) and should have cast Anti-Magic. The combination of Darkness and Anti-Magic would have made them merciless. Unfortunately, while quite safe in melee, they fell to banishment.

The Black Servants failed because I had too few doing too many things. They didn't serve as a stealth force because the Venom Charm left an obvious trail of disease. The eight shades the Rod of the Leper King let me lead would have done a nice job against the province defense if I hadn't advertised my presence and attacked in one fell swoop, not in dribbles. The disease was practically a memo saying: buy pd here! I think Abysia gets a priest-mage at 20, which is even worse.

From one early battle I can say I could have easily taken out typical pre-war PD with eight shades. Say 10 teams (200 death gems?! Well, I did have 15 wights...) I could have cannibalized from my other incomes), enough minor provinces siezed and taxed and I could have done something. Leaving out the Bane Venom Charm frees up 10 gems and stops advertising my presence.

On the other hand, I could have just given Black Servants Bane Venom Charms, and nothing else. (Or thugged them out, but that I didn't try). At a total cost of 15 apiece, I could have diseased every single one of their armies- much cheaper than leprosy.

But I did none of this hypothetical. Instead I did everything piecemeal. I learned a lot - but I lost.