[Micah]

Thanks for the complements Wraith...What battles did you think I was taking large risks in? I don't recall being in doubt of the outcome of most of the pitched battles during the game.

I think the only battles I lost before turn 45 or so was the one against Marverni's 40-PD province, the wholesale slaughter of my fomorian giants against Jurri's gargoyle (bound to happen after 2 or 3 forts fell in a row) and the attempt on Arco's first army (which did take out about 40 mages in return for my kitted out king, so more of a draw really) There was the fear-induced fleeing from Ctis, but I didn't lose anything there aside from the teleport and Wrathful gems. A few kings died off over the turns as well, but you gotta crack a few eggs and all...I had over 30 at the end of the game.

I'm also surprised that I'm the most aggressive player you've seen...I think I was playing nearly as aggressively as possible within the bounds of a winning strategy, but I'm sure there are some players out there that are more aggressive (though ultimately less effective). In fact I just met one in Swarm...he attacked me, ignored my efforts at diplomacy, and took me out of the game...however, I did enough damage to himself in the process that he's pretty much doomed now...especially since he just lost over 60 high-end units to the 63 PD I have in my last stand province.

I also felt my hand was forced into some of the aggression, since the map left me precious little room to expand (and offered a tasty morsel up in the form of early-game research focused Marverni). After Marverni went down Mictlan started in on Tir, who was to be my next target, so I capitalized on their war and took out Mictlan while his forces were split...Tir was then a breeze, since Mictlan had already crippled them. Ulm was next, as the FotA was a ticking time bomb and I knew I couldn't let it stay in play...I was fairly confident I could win out against them with the shadow seer support and my superior income, and I proved correct (I lucked out that Jurri hadn't found any astral indies, luck and MR items would have made things a lot more painful)...and after that it was just a cap-grab for the win before TC could really engage with me (I think I could have held off Oceania and limited the damage Arco could do while I slowly killed Sauro off, but I knew I was done for once TC entered into the mix...there would have been too many fronts to deal with, especially with Calmon's superb raiding).

As a side note I was really happy with the E/N bless for the kings, I wouldn't consider playing them without it...The astral was a safety net in case I didn't find any astral indies, as was the point of fire. I wish I'd gotten to see Dance of the Morrigans in action, sadly the AI decided to spend tons of gems killing off a bishop fish/mermage combo from Oceania and a wraithlord from Sauro (all of which died from soul slays before they moved) and left all of my BEs uncast for the final assault on Lanka =(