Nations - MA, CBM 1.6, max lvl 6, NI, Assimilation - Olm/Man and Louist/Ulm win!

[buzzsaw]

Originally Posted by Olm

Wow, Eriu is fielding a really dangerous looking army.
Nice battle in Griphons Spire, so we have to take them into account after all.

Thanks! After not playing for awhile, it was good to see a battle go the way you intended. Though I`m sure your raiding party attack directly behind the battle was no accident.

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by Olm

Well, flying units cannot fly over waterprovinces, so I thought they cannot enter them. So with the right magic item they can enter and probably even fly over them.

As far as I know the only way to move over a water province is to have the sailing ability or forge a pocket ship. What you can do, if you are already in a water province and have the sailing ability, is sail over another water province onto the land.

Originally Posted by Olm

Btw. is there a way to get full control of a merc?
I am quite sure I had a game in SP where a merc commander was suddenly a member of my own forces. but I don't know if that was some intended effect, or a bug.

I ran some tests and had no luck doing so. Had a merc cast transformation and charmed another one. In both cases they remained mercs. Enslave mind removed their commander status but they disappeared after the fight.

[Olm]

Ouch!
So slingers are good at sieging a castle but bad at storming it.
Especially if the opponent has earthquake and arrow fend.
But I wonder why my supporting cavalry came late to the battle. I expected them to move from friendly province to friendly province and thus take part in the battle. Or did they arrive in time but did not take part? Then there should be an order like "move and storm" as it is with "move and patrol".

[buzzsaw]

I`ve got a game question for you guys.
I had a small raiding party attack Ulm. Did okay and routed his army. As my guy was rushing up to get the last of the army, he routed and of course died since he had nowhere to go.

What the heck would cause that? I thought after a route, that was pretty much it, you won the battle. Can both armies route in the same battle?

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by Olm

Ouch!
So slingers are good at sieging a castle but bad at storming it.
Especially if the opponent has earthquake and arrow fend.

Yes, that was almost an ideal situation for earthquake. I've always found the spell underwhelming and if your cavalry had already been part of the sieging force, and therefore expected to participate in the storming attempt, I would have just ceded that fort to you without a fight. As it was, the low to middling defense on the slingers and your mages was about as good a target as you can get for earthquake. Still, I only bought some time and killed some low value units and a few mages and in return lost two mages and their gear so I'm not sure if it was worth it. One of the problems with earthquake (as well as the far more effective rain of stones) is that when using human HP mages the fatigue will often result in them being killed by your own castings. I gave them pendants of luck to improve their chances (and hoped that their higher than human HP would also help) but still lost two of three (ethereal robes would have been ideal but there was no way I could get those forged - even the pendants are only thanks to my one Arco mystic).

Originally Posted by Olm

But I wonder why my supporting cavalry came late to the battle. I expected them to move from friendly province to friendly province and thus take part in the battle. Or did they arrive in time but did not take part? Then there should be an order like "move and storm" as it is with "move and patrol".

That's correct; you can't move and storm in the same turn. I don't think it would be good for SCs especially to be able to participate in any storming attempt that was within flight range. This way the defender knows roughly what they're facing (aside from stealthy troops that only show up for the storming attempt) and can choose how much they want to spend to teleport in reinforcements. Of course the besieging army can count on them doing that and move on to another fort, causing the defender to have spent those gems to no purpose (all this assumes the province is undomed as otherwise your own dome will prevent reinforcements from arriving).

Originally Posted by buzzsaw

I`ve got a game question for you guys.
I had a small raiding party attack Ulm. Did okay and routed his army. As my guy was rushing up to get the last of the army, he routed and of course died since he had nowhere to go.

What the heck would cause that? I thought after a route, that was pretty much it, you won the battle. Can both armies route in the same battle?

Yes, both sides can rout and in that case having slow units can be useful as they may be the last ones on the field and thus win the battle. Berserking units are also helpful as once berserk they won't rout and can win the battle for you after your forces have routed. I'm guessing the turn limit probably ran out and caused an autorout. This is of course particularly dangerous if you don't have a province to retreat to. Actually, one of the ways to defeat glamoured thugs is to tie them up with something like skellie spam long enough to force an autorout. You can give yourself some protection by raiding two or more neighboring provinces, figuring you'll likely win enough battles to provide provinces to escape to.

[buzzsaw]

Ahhh, it was a very long turn, so that is probably what happened.

[Olm]

And Arco was again the place to be, except for trolls.
Those Glamorous guys are starting to make me nervous.

I just wondered, if there are some quiet places in our world. Backyard Ulm and Eriu perhaps.
Of Pans country I know that it has been ploughed through and drenched in blood from near to far.
My own provinces suffered disease after disease.
I fear we leave a quite desolate place to the God to be. And that with 3 nature loving nations....

[buzzsaw]

Truth be known, it was not a good time if you were a troll or undead.

[Valerius]

Sounds like I missed a good fight. I don't know what I was thinking not leaving a scout on Arco's cap.

However Olm, I'm not sure just how nervous you are given how my forts are beginning to fall at an alarming pace. I of course wasn't going to say anything, but what you're doing now was exactly the approach to take to my piling troops into a handful of forts. Since I don't have enough troops to make all of them impervious to siege you can keep switching around to target the weak ones. Even if the walls aren't breached the first turn, I'll still have trouble getting reinforcements there.

[Olm]

Originally Posted by Valerius

Sounds like I missed a good fight. I don't know what I was thinking not leaving a scout on Arco's cap.

However Olm, I'm not sure just how nervous you are given how my forts are beginning to fall at an alarming pace. I of course wasn't going to say anything, but what you're doing now was exactly the approach to take to my piling troops into a handful of forts. Since I don't have enough troops to make all of them impervious to siege you can keep switching around to target the weak ones. Even if the walls aren't breached the first turn, I'll still have trouble getting reinforcements there.

As you started to disease my large sieging party I panicked a little bit and retreated to rethink the situation.
My playstyle is rather defensive and the diseases (your charms and the stream in Retha) discouraged me. I still don't like to leave that large force behind me, but I see no other way to achieve something.
And remember, its essentially my first MP game, so perhaps I need a little bit longer to figure things out.

Your Bane Venom Charms are very effective, they diseased lots and lots of my mages. I would even go as far as to call them overpowered for the price especially thinking what a strong death nation can do with them. But on the other hand my bards are probably equally effective, if I look at your income. And the everywhere-build wardens also give you hell. MA Man is described as a rather weak nation in the tactics guides. I cannot agree with that.