Crap, thought there's be at least one more turn, but Utgard didn't have enough left to keep the walls up. Oh well, not like the relief force I was putting together really had any chance anyway.
Anyhow, I was Pythium. Went with an awake E5 Cyclops (the only effective way to handle Indies-9, I mean, even Order-3 didn't give enough Hydras to expand well), so my scales were pretty spotty.
But I got off to a good start. As Calahan noted, I had somewhat of a break in the border arrangements regarding Man, and had my flanks secure by being in the corner. But then again, I was saddled with lots of Wastelands and other crummy real-estate.
Even without using Hydras, I had the military strength and magical diversity to overpower Jomon. As Mictlan and Gath were busy fighting over more Wastelands, Man seemed like a logical target (no recruitable SCs and such to worry about, a secure flank, ease of patrolling for infiltrators, etc.).
There were some big battles, but things slowly went my way (Flaming Arrows were still fairly effective at that point), perhaps aided by Calahan turning over the rains to another player. And while that was going on, I found a magic site that allowed recruitment of Circle Masters, and another for Sorcerers, so was beginning to get into Blood in a respectable way (although suitable Blood-Hunting provinces were few).
And right when I was besieging the last Man fortress (AI at this point), Midgard hit me hard, taking advantage of Sailing at first to rout me from the southern Man lands, and then sending in the Raiders. Sorry for casting Eyes of God (your scouts probably missed out on watching some interesting action in Pythium lands), but I thought it might help me catch his Vanadrotts - it didn't
All I could do was use flying demons and such (once I found the proper commanders - w/ Astral - and gave them flying gear) to retake lost ground, and try to kill his raiders with Mind Hunt (had some success, but S income was low, and I only had a few capable commanders - and only one after a big defeat). Meanwhile, I was slowly getting ground down.
Rain of Stones was a big killer. Pythium's human mages do not hold up well to those kind of battle spells. Even using Mass Protection was no help, not when Midgard cast Army of Lead on its own troops, and dropped 3-4 RoSes in a row
And having to commit many mages to battle meant I slowly started to fall behind in research, so my own Army of Lead (and only my pretender could cast it) was a long way off.
So basically, I was outnumbered, outspent, outreaserched, and outfought. Kudos to Midgard on the masterly take-down!
I'd be interested in a YARG 2 (especially with CBM 1.6 - I think that would really have helped Pythium a lot, with Dragon Master and whatnot). Not having to engage in diplomacy early in the game certainly made things a heck of a lot earlier. But then again, I really wish I could have cried for help when Midgard was administering its beating to me
