MP: MP YARG4, non newb LA RAND game. WL wins

[fungalreason]

From Utgard's perspective:

This game didn't work out at all like I thought. Early on I realized that I was in a tough spot caught between two heavy bless nations, Mictlan and Atlantis. I likely had a poor build for Utgard, but had difficulty balancing wanting some diversity and finding something that could expand fast enough on Indies-9. Fortunately Atlantis was discovered early. Bogarus was to my north, and I would have much rather gone after them (lost SC god very early), but couldn't do so with the two threats to my sides. My entire early game plan was devoted to trying to rush Atlantis early on. They could sail directly to my cap from theirs, which had me very concerned. Just as I was about a turn away from attacking, Mictlan invaded from the other direction.

I was really caught by surprise by this. Midgard (who had a substantial lead at this point) bordered them on the other side, so it left them pretty vulnerable as long as I could defend my cap. I still had to delay a bit to finish getting skratti online. Incidentally I had the worst luck. Out of 15-20 recruited only a single W3 one As expected, Midgard swooped in, and Mictlan fell. I assumed I would be next in line for Midgard, so had to keep some forces on the western front to them honest, and potentially invade if it seemed that Gath or Caelum was likely to join in. I didn't see any indication of this, so finally resumed my scheme to jump on the now weakened Atlantis (they had been at a stalemate with Ulm all this time).

By the time I was finally able to move (this is why early wars usually are terrible for both parties), Caelum had already basically begun conquering the world, and I was too income starved to do much more than defend the VP. I don't understand why everyone waited so late to do something about the obvious threat. It seemed nation after nation was caught by complete surprise, and and/or staled at critical moments. This was my first YARG though, maybe that's just how it always plays out? At the very least Wraithlord deserves major props for striking at the most opportune moments.

Most amusing moment - tricking Bogarus into trying to seduce with 5 or so Sirin and losing them all. Biggest disaster - failed storming of Atlantis. I didn't account for the monolith, and simply couldn't quite take it down. I had a few ethereal x-bows, but they died to archers or something in the siege, and my decked out Skratti got caught behind it, and didn't retreat. I think Caelum struck the very next turn, and recovery was hopeless at this point.