ok, so this game is over. here we go for my first AAR:
first of all I gotta say that playing Kailasa under CBM leads to a very rough ride. without clams all those nice summons are just unaffordable, maybe a few Rudras here and there if it comes to that, but not much else. also without death at all they have no edge over any other nations as far as the Tartarian game goes, so it's a choice between the standard death bootstrapping Tartarian game or carefully hording enough pearls to get a few Rudras going, and using them to maximum efficiency while also being extra careful to not lose them.
with that said, the strategy I planned for in this game was to get some gem generating globals, mainly the Maelstrom and Stellar Focus to help provide a solid pearl income. I went for a bless strat, which lead to my imprisoned Oracle with S9W4N4 and Dom9, with the S9 bless my sacreds had just enough time for their awe to kick in, and W4N4 gave them that little extra in defense and regeneration to keep them on their feet longer. the Oracle, with S9, was planned to be a powerful astral caster for late game, so it was also useful besides giving me the bless.
so anyway, game begun very well for me, as expected with my chosen strategy. I was leading the province graph and later the forts and gem graphs. my main issue was that my starting location was right in the middle, not leaving too much room to expand, and being surrounded by potential enemies on all sides. so I quickly crossed the river to the south, hoping to grab some territory before those who started at the southern island took everything for themselves. I had partial success in it, but later on it gave me a lot of trouble. still I don't think I would have done anything different as I didn't have a better alternative.
than when indies were almost all gone I decided to wage war on Marverni, hoping to catch him still without many of those devastating Druids who would have certainly ruined my day. however I grossly underestimated the sheer size of his standard armies, and was stopped cold in my tracks after conquering just 1 province and later losing it and another. this move proved to be a total catastrophe as it led Caelum to declare war on me. from that point onwards my game plan went down the drain and I was put on the path of damnation. to bolster my armies I started going for drakes, mostly cave but also some ice, all cast by Dragon Mastered mages for maximum efficiency. I also put up the Mother Oak for good measure, and because nature gems are always useful, be it Vine Shields and other items, GoRs, Dragon Master, etc.
Caelum was the main nation I didn't want to have an early war with, due to their Eagle Kings, fliers and archers, all solid counters to my small sacred armies. Sauromatia was another enemy I feared due to their poison archers and very strong cavalry. also, due to very bad luck both of them happened to be on the southern island, along with Arco who honestly stood no chance in that position and with those 2 as neighbors. so anyway, as expected Caelum raided me heavily with his Eagle Riders, conquering a fort or 2 but otherwise not being able to hold onto any of my lands for more than a turn or 2, nor did he have a real army to really break me down. it was just raiding and a war of attrition. I Mind Hunted a few Eagle Kings, while looking for counters. eventually I had enough air gems to empower a single Yaksha in air, which gave me access to Enliven Gargoyles. I chose Gargoyles for a few reasons:
1. they cost earth gems, which I had in abundance. also had no problems with nature gems for GoRs, especially after I put up the Mother Oak.
2. they're solid thugs(or even magicless SCs) on their own, and can counter eagle kings.
3. they're flying, so they too have great mobility.
the Gargoyles proved themselves and repelled the Eagle Kings, nonetheless the damage was still done. my gem income was heavily damaged and my gold income wasn't doing too well either due to my provinces constantly exchanging hands. than at some point, after Marverni and Arco ceased to exist, the rest of the players finally realized that Sauromatia was starting to run away with the game. Sauromatia, in his 1 mistake that I could see, put up the Well of Misery to add insult to injury(leading most of the graphs, and by a good margin, as well as killing both Marverni and Arco). this helped the rest of us unite against Sauromatia, which eventually led to me using my now awakened Oracle to Dispel the Well of Misery with pearls I received from the other players. than Caelum and I were close to agreeing on a ceasefire and uniting our efforts against Sauromatia, however Caelum was too stubborn and prideful to withdraw from all the provinces and forts that he conquered from me, so I decided to keep our attrition war as it was clear that he couldn't push any further into me, and now with the 2 Kings of Elemental Earth and a good number of Gargoyles I was starting to push him back, and he still didn't really adapt and only used his Eagle Kings, and in the same manner. another reason for my decision was that leaving the situation as it was meant that I was doomed, cause even if we did succeed in pushing back Sauromatia, my position wouldn't be any better as Caelum and Pangaea would be the ones gaining most of the territories. so either way I was screwed, might as well stand up for my own pride like an honorable Japanese Samurai of old
so, our efforts to coordinate an attack against Sauromatia crumbled. Pangaea tried pushing into Sauromatia, and had a decent success, but nothing that really impressed him nor deal any real damage. eventually I offered Sauromatia a temporary alliance against Caelum, after seeing that the mutual efforts against Sauromatia were going nowhere. so we started pushing hard into him and than he started staling.
at that point Calahan subbed in for Caelum and found a still pretty functioning nation, it's just that we didn't see the resistance due to all the previous player's lack of adaptability, giving up prematurely and starting to stale. than the game pretty much ended because most players, myself included lost interest in the game.
it's hard to draw conclusions from this game. on the 1 hand I think I used diplomacy very well, on the other my situation was seemingly hopeless right from the beginning, and my attempt to make up for it failed miserably. also the game didn't last long enough for me to really get into my Rudras, but the fact that we were playing more than 50 turns did reinforce my opinion that Kailasa's late game comes in very late and is generally inferior to many other nations under CBM as it was a very clam dependent nation in vanilla.
congratulations earcaraxe for using the very powerful Sauromatia properly, and not tripping on your path to victory. now that the game is over, I can finally admit it. yes it was I who mind hunted those 2 mages of yours(I think it was just 2) at first I wanted to anonymously try to keep you relatively in check by taking out key mages. but than I saw that my war with Caelum was going nowhere and the mutual efforts against you were also mute. so I gave up on that idea and just used it diplomatically to turn you against the other players in a desperate attempt to finally get the others to unite against you. good game everyone, and hope to see you guys in future games.