Guys, it looks like I won't be able to continue the game anymore. My project at work has been taking increasengly large ammount of time, I have been barely making my turns for the last few turns without stalling - sometimes uploading turns few minutes before the host.
Another major factor is that frankly I think Giants have won this game. I can play cat and mouse game with them for the next 50 turns, but time is working for them due to their Forge of Ancients. According to R'leyh it was casted with 500+ earth gems, so it can't realistically be dispelled - not with my earth income at least.
Giants also have Chalice and they have at least 4 times more SCs that my nation has. And their Tartarians can be equiped almost for free. Those thay I have encountered so far routinely spot things like Rings of Wizardly, et cetera.
Last but not least, Giants have at least 2 Serpahs that they have wished for, and these things eat regular tartarians for breakfast. Finally Giants have all best battle artifacts, including Gate Stone, Mage Bane, Astral Boots, et cetera.
I have enough power to stall Giants for a very long time, but stalling will only work to their advantage. I knew I had to attack or abandon any hope of wining this war. Last turn I have thrown many of my best troops against 3 Giants castles, demolishing their walls in one turn, while blocking nearby castles to prevent non-teleporting reinforcements. I was hoping that when facing 3 sudden storms at the same time Giants will have to split their forces,so I would be able to get least one of these castle
It was not the case. Giants have repelled all three atempts, killing a lot of my troops and SCs in the process.
Perhaps there is a chance that giants could still be stopped, if all other nations would act together against them and do it in good coordination.
I did my best to form such coalition, but while the relults looked good on paper (3 major races against Giants), in reality I don't think R'leyh and Tine Chi were very active in this war, for whatever reasons. They have distructed Giants a little, but not much. I have expected R'lyeh to at least kick Giants out of the water by now, but alas, it did not happen.
I am not sure what Pangeya up to, I was hoping they will join the coalition, as they have hinted they might, but I haven't seen them fighing giants. TNN is just silent, he has not replied to any of my messages.
All in all, considering that I am in severe time crunch, and considering the situation in the game, I think the future of this game is determined - Giants have won.
They have played well, I commend their leader. Forge and "turtling" is not very exciting tactic but it is very efficient, I give them that. And Tuidji have proven to be a very good tactician and strategist, my compliments.
I have not lost a Dom3 game in a long time, but I have do admit my defeat in this one, even though I have only been playing it as a sub for the last 10 turns. I wish I would have been in this game from the beginning, I can't help but think that I would have planned things differently.
Oh well...
Anyway, that's just my personal vision of the situation in the game. If you guys feel that there is still some hope left you may put the game on pause and look for another sub. Fomoria still has enough forces left to repell any Giants attmepts to take my castles and raid my lands for a very long time. But I don't think anything I can do at this point will affect the final outcome.