[Avari]

Thank you very much for your praise :) Although I'm not sure that I would credit my campaign strategy as much as my admittedly huge lead in resources. I do agree that after the events of the last couple of turns, the outcome seems pretty clear.

As we have agreed here and in private correspondence that the game is over, I suppose Valerius can end the game on the server unless Ragnoff has second thoughts in the near future. Thank you very much to everyone for playing and to Valerius for hosting. This was an excellent intro for Dominions MP, and of course the outcome is a huge positive surprise for me :)

I think I'll write a bit about my game in case someone is interested. I struggled with my start, with poor neighbouring provinces and one of them held by independents that I couldn't figure out how to beat at that stage (blood vine druids). When Bandar Log rushed me early on, I was almost sure that I would be the first to fall. Indeed his elephants advanced all the way to my capital before I managed to research Blade Wind and destroy his army. He also killed the blood druids for me, which was nice of him.

At that time I also entered into the Ulm-Shinuyama alliance that was to last for almost the entire game. With Shinu assistance I conquered the Bandar lands relatively easily. After that it was smooth sailing for me. When C'tis attacked Shinuyama, I harassed C'tis for a bit but otherwise I had a long stretch of peace in which to build up.

I had decided to attack Pangaea, as he was big but seemed to rely on maenad hordes which I anticipated would be a soft target. Just as I was about to attack, Pangaea switched hands in the infamous AI-going scandal. I delayed my attack a bit but went ahead with it anyway. To my surprise Pangaea could not put up any resistance at all and I conquered all of the Pan lands in a very short time. Only in the very end did the new Pangaea ruler inflict a serious loss on me. His last marauding stealthy army of Pans managed to paralyze and soul slay my Earth King with Ember, Barrier and other assorted expensive gear.

After that Caelum attacked me, no doubt realizing that I would attack him anyway. His icy mountain lands fell quite rapidly as well, as he had been fighting Pan for the whole game as far as I can tell, and I was much stronger.

By this time I knew that the game would end up with me and Shinuyama duking it out, just as we had planned in the beginning ;) The only other nation left was Jotunheim, who to my relief decided to attack Shinuyama instead of me. I agree with Ragnoff that Jotun's choice quite possibly decided the game, giving me time to build up while causing great attrition to Shinuyama.

When I finally decided to break the NAP with Shinu and attack, I had a considerable lead in gem income and was summoning and equipping tartarians consistently. I had much difficulty at first with my conventional armies, but then I realized that SCs are the definite way to go. As the game now stands - and as it will end, it seems - I have snatched Gift of Health with a huge number of gems, killed the Shinuyama god and have 10+ tartarians who are making their way into Shinu territory when they are not freaking out in various ways.

In summary, I would guess that I managed to come out top in this game because of diplomacy first and a good pretender second. I had read many people say that MA Ulm has to take an awake SC pretender to survive early rushes. Despite that I chose a rainbow pretender with moderately high astral. My rainbow pretender helped in early research, and later on it made possible for me via boosters to forge and cast almost anything in the game. I reached Const8 first and got all the good artifacts. In the midgame I also conquered a site from Pan that allowed me to recruit A2S2?1 mages, which was a godsend as I was most lacking in just those paths. In the end they weren't game-changing but did help against Shinuyama with mind hunts, arrow fend and assorted other A/S goodness.

I also think I made relatively good use of Ulm's only real strength (forging). In the end I had about 15 hammers and the Hammer of the Forge Lord in constant use, although it didn't seem to me to be nearly enough at times. I also had two pairs of Rings of Wizardry and Sorcery, the +3D artifact sceptre, the Chalice, Magebane and Aegis (which were never used), a ton of assorted boosters; and of course a crapton of Lightless Lanterns, which coupled with dozens and dozens of smiths gave me a big research lead in the crucial midgame. I didn't get to cast Forge of the Ancients at any time though, as I always had more pressing needs for earth gems. I suppose putting that up would have been much more cost-effective, but such is the way of the newbie.

Well that's my perspective of this great game. It was really fun and I didn't get too worn out at any point, but I never thought it would take this long for me, and I am happy that it is over. Thanks to everyone again for a great intro into Dominions MP!