RAND Game - Fomoria Wins!

[Amhazair]

Nicely done Micah. I managed to only own one scout province during the entire game, so I saw a lot less of the action than I usually do, but what I saw (and I managed to catch a few big battles) certainly looked frightening.

I was unfamiliar with Yomi, and I worried about the early expansion before the game, but after much doubting, in this no-trade game I decided not to forego the magic diversity of a rainbow pretender. In the end expansion went moderately okay, though not stellar, and my early war with Agartha went okay too, though again not stellar, and T'ien Chi managed to swoop in and claim the VP from under my nose.

With Dai Oni and a rainbow pretender at my disposal I had allways felt confident I had all the tools I needed for a strong end game (and I still do), but somewhere along the way I forgot about the midgame, and before I realised it I had run incredibly behind in my research and I never managed to recover from it.

Then Abysia decided to be a royal pain in the *** (that'll teach me to try and take advantage of a wounded oponent without having the intention of following through with it) and T'ien Chi's invasion meant that once more I wouldn't be able to finish them off. (2 of the blinded mages later did manage to end up in the hall of fame though, thanks to rain of stones. That was fun. In fact this was the first time ever I had the opportunity to use this spell, and it worked even better than I expected. Several hundred troops and a couple dozen mages can no longer testify to that)

Finally T'ien Chi defeated me comprehensively. I wasn't afraid of the individual armies he sent at me, but he outguessed me and I didn't manage to catch them in the beginning, was totally and utterly outraided and my lands just melted away around me.

Lessons learned:
* Don't mess with someone unless you intend to make sure he never recovers.
* Do not forget to monitor your research closely, even for a little while. Before you know it it's too late to recover.
* Raiding, raiding, raiding! I knew this already obviously, but Wraithlord forcefully reminded me of it, and took it to a whole new level.
* Dai Oni's rock! Once you get some research going they're amazingly versatile.
* Some people's reputations seem justified. Somehow, without ever playing with them, I guessed Jurri to be Ulm, and Micah to be Fomoria.
* Meglobob still thinks I'm awesome.
* I still have a lot to learn before I'm as awesome as he thinks I am.
* RAND games are fun, playing games whit the top-notch oposition I encountered is fun, Pasha is a great host, and this was a great game. Thanks to everyone involved.

Edit: this

he was giving a hell of a fight , valiant and crafty, costing me great resources.

is obviously good to hear. Though my hope of defeating you vanished quickly, I definitely had great fun trying to make things as painful as possible for you.