MP: Giants and Dwarves [MA; CBM ; Noob friendly] [Full 12/12]

[Zywack]

I'm honestly a bit tired myself of having to deal with the Dominion... It's been a sword hanging over my head with no solution.

Do you know what Dominion score my inherited god have? 2.

Two. I have TWO points in Dominion. This means that I had to spend an inordinate amount of time dedicated to priests instead of mages and troops. My war with Bandar Log was motivated by their big pile of temples (around 10 right on my borders): Even if I were to build as many, I'd have gotten wiped out soon. My war objectives were not territories, but just to blow up temples (The actual trying to win the war came a few turns later when I decided to risk it by combining my two armies to march north and just harass Bandar Log main army to hold it down by threatening it with a cut path of retreat and other perceived threats).

And then T'ien Ch'i dominion started creeping in beside temples and priests on the border. I'm pretty sure that wasn't intentional at all, but just a by-product of my utterly attrocious dominion score. So even though I killed around 50 mages in the last two turns, a tartarian and a Zmey, I'm still doomed by something I can do absolutely nothing about: Even if I beat Bandar Log before dying a dominion death, it's only going to buy me a tiny bit more time. It's not as if the war is going perfectly anyway: My storm staff anti-tartarian group failed pathetically mostly due to the storm staff itself last turn, and the multiple Ghost Riders cast each turn do put a strain, alongside with the southern front probably going back to it's locked front, and the mass-luck artefact sword still being in Bandar Log's hands despite our best attempt.

I knew the 2 points in dominion made a win impossible, but I never expected to reach that late in the game... Reaching turn 25 was my goal. My win over Machaka was simply a last-ditch defense by doing a lure and using the militia mercs and slime spam. It surprisingly worked, and my guesses regarding his movements were spot-on so I managed to get a castle for free by cutting his path with small armies with a bit of decoy help from Bandar Log. The war went flawlessly beside the actual "finish off their capital" which turned out be pretty painful.

For Bandar Log, I expected an early loss but I thought I'd bring down some temples at least. I expected massive amount of Mind Hunts from the first turn: If you are wondering, the reason why I've been trading for hundred of nature gems is because Kitsunes were my only potential source of Astral magic as a counter to it. Well, also because the entire Shinuyama lands produced a meager 5 nature a turn, despite it fully Haruspeced and having Machaka's capital...

Oh, quick question: can Bandar Log actually blood sacrifice? I thought they couldn't, but I've assassinated a Daikini that had a Jade Knife last turn so I'm not so sure now...

As a side note, I'm simply amazed at my three musketeer squad: It's a trio of Ghost Generals equiped with nothing else but a gold shield and a brand (depending on which). They've taken down piles of PD early on, fought in three big battles, sieged the castle housing Bandar Log's god... And all three are still alive somehow. Those were the best gem investment I've ever made in Dominion beside the "anti-60 mage communion" squad. That was a Master Enslave communion I assume?