Jaguar - finished, Szumo declared winner

[sum1lost]

Commentary on the war-

Pythium's position was about the same as Man's was. The one difference was that I had a scout telling me where most of his troops were (Three-four moves south), so I decided to launch a strike while they were out of position. So i raided for some time, in an attempt to split up his forces to a manageable size. I then scripted my spellcasters to negate what I felt to be Man's largest threats- longbows and heavy armored units (Heavy infantry and knights). Storm and thunderstrike worked better than I expected, or I probably would have lost the battle- as it was, I lost around half to a third of my troops. Double and triple experienced knights (mostly of avalon) slice right through unsupported principes.

I found, in the end, that this is not a game where one can be cautious about attacking- human opponents will be just as efficient at army building as you, so it is not always possible to wait until one has the superior position before committing to the assault. If you don't take serious risks against human players, someone else will expand more quickly than you.

[Loren]

sum1won said:
Commentary on the war-

Pythium's position was about the same as Man's was. The one difference was that I had a scout telling me where most of his troops were (Three-four moves south), so I decided to launch a strike while they were out of position. So i raided for some time, in an attempt to split up his forces to a manageable size. I then scripted my spellcasters to negate what I felt to be Man's largest threats- longbows and heavy armored units (Heavy infantry and knights). Storm and thunderstrike worked better than I expected, or I probably would have lost the battle- as it was, I lost around half to a third of my troops. Double and triple experienced knights (mostly of avalon) slice right through unsupported principes.

I found, in the end, that this is not a game where one can be cautious about attacking- human opponents will be just as efficient at army building as you, so it is not always possible to wait until one has the superior position before committing to the assault. If you don't take serious risks against human players, someone else will expand more quickly than you.

What you also didn't know is that you got about 1/5 of my army without a battle--I lost a bunch of troops to desertion because I couldn't pay them because you had too many of my provinces.

[Starshine_Monarch]

I think now would be a nice time to post the Siege of Eldregate. Here is the .trn file if you wish to see.

[lch]

Starshine_Monarch said:
I actually have a battle I am willing to share now, it is the climactic showdown between Avika, Voice of the Divine Spring and Osiria, Lich Queen of Ermor (F4D9) at the gates of the capital city of Eldregate. [...] Somehow I managed to win

Not here. The battle replay shows Ermor as the clear winner, with his mage battery [censored] up your units at his entrance.

[Starshine_Monarch]

What? I clearly captured that fortress. I have the Death Gems to prove it. The battle must have gone differently on your end. I know I just barely won there...So it's possible.

[sum1lost]

I think Ich is referring to unit loss. You took more casualties, and lost more gold in that battle.

[lch]

No, I was referring to the battle report. It shows Bandar log fleeing with few remaining archers for me while the Theurgs burn their hides. You do own the fort now, nonetheless. Must be another case of different battle reports depending on OS.

[Dedas]

Sorry for interrupting, I looked at the battle and I see Bandar Log clearly loosing. I'm running linux, but maybe it won't matter as the turn is already generated.

Nice with those Soul Slays. Oh and Terror wouldn't have been very effective because of his troops fighting in his own Dominion (+1 morale) and their high experience (+1-2 to morale).
The elephants in the battle had 11 morale (normally 9) and Terror causes a Fear attack of +10, that means that they have to beat 12 with 11 DRN, which is not very very hard. If they instead had been fighting in your dominion (-1) they would have had 9 morale (9 in base +1 experience - 1 dominion) making it difficult for them to beat the morale check (24%).

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

I've learned some hard lessons about gem use... Despite having read that section, it hadn't quite hit home, and I don't really understand the mechanics to this day.

E3 Oracles without any boosters can't cast Earthquake, right? (Guess) Even if they use one gem to case E4, they'll be short one gem.

With Earthboots, I can cast the spell, and get 112 fatigue points (observed). I'm not quite sure how that tallies up. 3 magic scales in province, if that matters. Spell casting encumberance of 7.

So rather than chain quakes, I slept. I'd forgotten about the gem use limit. If I'd gone earthboots, earthpower, ironskin, earthquake, earthquake, I could have wiped out all their commanders. Instead, six...

On top of that, sloppy formation work (read- none) resulted in my Oracles of the Pincushions taking on arrows and dying early. One guy stuck in the back avoided any unnecessary arrows, but the other...

Well, 50 earth gems down the drain. Over

Well... its time for me to go AI. I've got some forces remaining, but I expect the AI could use them better than I have.

Shall I attempt to later do some sort of AAR report detailing my painful mistakes? I haven't been nearly religious enough about keeping track, unfortunately, even deleting some of my old turn emails.
I've learned several important lessons from this game. Most of them painfully. It's been a pleasure playing, though.

By the way, what turn was it me and R'lyeh had the epic battle. You know, Blade Wind spammo? I'm ready to post it now, if I can find it.

Found. Zipping.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

There we go. I've switched to AI, and here's that really good battle.