It'd be rude not to add something: you know, provide some closure. I'd like to go over the game from my viewpoint; that is, not talk about strategy, but why I did what I did.
My northern expansion encountered Pangea before anyone else, and naturally we quickly made a NAP. To my south, I found Ashdod. We didn't start off on the right foot: he took a province I had already sent three parties of mercenaries to die in. I felt bitter about that, obviously.
I began expanding west in a thin, one-province wide tunnel between Pangea and Ermor. This was a surprisingly effective expansion, considering how vunerable it was.
When I learned that Ashdod was at war with Pythium (south of Ashdod), I jumped on the chance to attack Ashdod. I apparently jumped a bit too soon, because I found myself facing what I believe to be majority of Ashdod's army. It all cumulated in a do-or-die battle on top of my capital against Ashdod's uber-giant army. But we all know the problem with uber-giant armies: you only really get one. When I defeated that army, I was relatively free to invade his lands.
Pythium, for whatever reason, was slow to invade Ashdod even after he went AI. I can't really comment on this, but obviously I did take some advantage of it. After Ashdod was well and truly finished, I began regarding Pythium with great suspicion.
Earlier, when the war against Ashdod was first starting, I learned that Pythium had a NAP with Jotunheim. My scouts reported that neither of them had built a single point of province defense on their shared border. So Pythium had Jotunheim to the west, and me to the north. I felt like I was the cork in Pythium's bottle, and that it was only a matter of time before he turned against me.
Needless to say, I had first-strike advantage against Pythium. It was a bit of an odd war though. My armies pushed-in and captured a castle, but then held their position to wait for a counter-attack that never came.
When I went to war against Pythium, I was careful to note that Jotunheim's defense along their shared border went from none to "exceptionally strong." Hardly an act of war, but I have a suspicious mind. Large giant armies started to form very close to my borders, and Jotunheim did not reply to my request for a NAP (my inbox remains empty), but that may have been a misunderstanding.
Jumping ahead a bit, the war against Jotunheim was well on it's way, and once again I had first-strike advantage. I read the talk on the forums and realized that the game really only needed a bit of a push to end in my favour, so in the last turn I simultaneously attacked Ermor and Machaka, basically flexing my gem-induced muscles to pad the score graph.
So there you have it. Sorry if I missed any important, interesting details (like the skirmishes we had, Atlantis), but if I tried to cover it all, I'd be writing all night.
Good game everyone!
Re: Exterminatus - And the world will burn!
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