Re: The game, from Caelum\'s viewpoint
At this point in the game, I've got the most territories by far--I think I owned over 50% more than the second guy. Which, I discovered, is *not* a good position for the guy in the middle of the map. And my research sucked; I might have been at the lowest in the game. My Dominion was only below average, at best. My gem income was piddling. Etc etc.
But I had the most provinces, and so the biggest target painted on my forehead. *sigh*
Tien-Chi and Oceania, for the last little while, had been busily two-teaming Lanka and gobbling up his territories. Something I wasn't unhappy about, since Lanka and I had the worst non-war relationship of all my neighbours (*cough* can't imagine why *cough*). I was also a bit nervous about C'tis, who was sitting pretty in a corner, and quietly never fighting anyone at all.
In all honesty, I wasn't surprised that Hellheim attacked me, cuz I was his only land neighbour. I was just surprised at the *timing*. My war with Marverni was just winding down, after all, allowing me to concentrate on him exclusively--and he was *much* smaller than me, on pretty much *all* the graphs. It was like a five-year-old challenging me to a wrestling match. I offer Hellheim a chance to withdraw his forces and resume a NAP (I don't *want* another war, dammit!!! : ) but he just tells me I should retreat north.
Yeah, right. *sigh*
Shift gears. Again. (Research? Vhat iss diss ting, 'research'?) Start moving my mini-armies down south, and use my fliers' mobility to gobble up a bunch of his provinces guerilla-style, hopping about everywhere like frogs on steroids. I notice he's had even *more* of a barbarian-uprising problem than I have--and then, finally, take a look at his scales. Good gods. Turmoil, Sloth, Death, Misfortune, and Drain. ALL at 3! Wow.
I start pressuring Yomi to take out Marverni once and for all, saying I'll have to do it if he doesn't just to close up that front. Finally, Yomi tells me he's got "one last thing" to try that "should do it". Next turn he slaughters Marverni's defenders. The turn after he takes the castle. Wow. Good tactic, whatever it was...: )
Eventually, I get a large army moving down to Hellheim's castle and besiege it. Then promptly get booted out by his army and sooper-dooper 600-point-buy-or-something SC Pretender. (And yes, contrary to forum posturing, I got my butt handed to me.) Nervous again. Hellheim starts moving north. Oceania and Yomi declare an end to our NAPs.
Oh, come on! Will I *ever* get a break?!?
At this point, I would probably have been ready to throw in the towel--except for C'tis. The puppet master. The evil vizier, hiding behind the king's curtain and whispering in everyone's ears. He had been my best, quietest neighbour--not even taking advantage of no less than THREE barbarian uprisings on our common border, and entering into a lucrative trade with me over a number of turns. He messages me to say that everyone's conspiring to attack me, but he wants to enter an alliance with me. Together we can take out our enemies one by one, and only then turn on each other. All I have to do, is attack Yomi first, and he will join in. Then, I 'only' fend off everyone else attacking me while we both attack Yomi, then the others one by one. --Oh, and that I give him a 'one-time gift' of 60 gems to help solidify the agreement.
Uh huh.
I'm more than a little skeptical of a 'plan' that has me being everyone's focus while C'tis cherry-picks foes and gobbles up provinces in relative safety--but I don't have many options by this point, his plan is plausible--and just might work. Certainly, without his help I'm going down. So I agree. And then start firing dozens of private messages, to every remaining player. Feeling like I'm tapdancing over a sea of spearpoints, desperately holding the slavering wolves at bay just beyond the firelight, I try my best to carrot-and-stick discourage Yomi and Oceania in particular from attacking me. I even get Oceania to renew our 3-turn NAP--only to have him break it again. And I eye C'tis suspiciously, noting that Oceania broke it shortly after I informed my 'ally', C'tis, that we had renewed it.
Hrm.
Meanwhile, back to Hellheim. I Hurricaned his home province no less than FOUR times. Then I did the exact same thing to Hellheim that I did to Marverni: I figured he would be making a bee-line for my home province--and if so he would then attack this province here, next. I move all (and I do mean, all) of my forces to that spot, ratchet up the PD to 50(!!), change my casters' spell selection to better handle undead, and gamble a small force on attacking the one province he controls neighbouring it--so that if he routs, all die. And I *still* lose. (Did I mention how much I *DESPISE* Caelum's laughably pathetic army units?!?)
--But! I killed all but about 15 of Hellheim's units, while retaining roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of my own army and most of my leaders. Hellheim's army was kaput, at least--although he still had his mega-powerful Pretender. I knew he couldn't continue to move forward, and I was about to move the remainder of my army into that province to try to wipe him out for good...when I stopped. And considered. And realized what *I* would do in his situation--which was sneak back through a province I control, under glamour, to his home province and turtle up. So I gambled. Instead of moving to attack, I set my army in that particular province to 'Patrol', increased its PD to 20, and moved the rest of my army to that province. And sure enough, I catch one of his three remaining leaders there, destroying the remainder of his army--and, as an added bonus, catch his pretender, and slay him as well! Hellheim was finally, finally out of the game; all I had to do was mop up the remaining pieces. And it only took nearly all of my military strength to do--
Oceania attacks.
*sigh*
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