Hi all. After communing with the ancestor spirits, I've decided that the only way to cleanse the MoD taint from my family's honor is to withdraw from the game. This decision is in no way related to the fact that turns are taking me 6+ hours to complete, and can no longer be reasonably combined with work and the other demands of real life. If you want, I can try to find a sub, though I think that at this point Corwin has earned his victory.
And now, here is the AAR I mentioned up stream:
Corwin's AAR is spot on; this has been the most hard fought and even game I have played. My past games have been anti-climactic, with one nation having a clear advantage in skill and material. They quickly steamroll their way to victory, their graphs shoot upwards, and the remaining players cede. Because of that, I've never fought real wars past turn 60 or so, and haven't really seen the mass tartarians that they always talk about on the forums.
This game has definitely been different, and is the first time I've seen the *real* late game. At least in the southwest quarter of the map, every province is regularly attacked by hordes of imps, troops of undead calvary, sky-covering swarms of demonic bats, Lords of Hell, unspeakable Horrors, and insane, nigh-unkillable dead Gods who wield fiery swords and awesome magics. Mortals now survive only behind the walls of their keeps, and beneath the magical domes which (mostly) keep the raining fire at bay.. It certainly captures the feel of the End Times.
In more detail, Mictlan continues to press south, though we have been badly defeated in two major battles over the last months. The formerly pristine lands around Sauromatia are now a ruin, but the strong points guarding his capitol have held out, as their SC defenders proved slightly more super than the SC attackers I have thrown at them. Many brave beast bats lay stricken on the ground, echo-locating their last cries as they expire from the various injuries suffered from sword, stinger, claw, lightning, poison, fire, ice, exhaustion, banishment, and cleansing water. Even the survivors have PTSD, and face chronic nightmares where they are slowed to a crawl by fierce storms, while trying to escape from legions of buffed undead. Still, new beast bats are always showing up at the swampy recruitment centers, and we are moving more of them south. The bat's H3 priest-commanders tend to survive, so they at least can head back and pick up fresh troops to shuttle to the front lines. We will be making another push soon, and in the mean time our raiders continue to pillage his un-castled provinces, and are slowly expanding their area of desolation.
So, that's the general situation as of last turn. If no one is taking over Mictlan, then tomorrow I'll make a more detailed post about what went on in this game (from the Mictlan perspective), what strategies I was bringing against Sauromatia, and how I expected things to go.
Cheers,
Zhao