MP: Noobs vs. Vets II: Mysterio's Revenge, EA, CBM, Game Over. Vets defeat Noobs.

[TheDemon]

Not sure why you guys didn't go for more cap shutdown than you did. Had you shut down the Caelum cap for more than 5 turns it would have put me out of the game. I was pretty much exclusively using EKs and summons, next to zero troops and very few non-cap mages. That also meant that my expenses were basically a static 400/turn. I mean, I'd spend extra if I had it, but raiding me wasn't going to accomplish much I'm afraid. Niefel, Hinnom and Helheim are all somewhat cap-vulnerable too, but they have good troops they can recruit in their other forts. Not so with Caelum.

Once I realized I wasn't an immediate target I wasn't too worried as I had beelined it to Enchant 4 pretty early and from there it's only a few RP to level 5 and Dome of Solid Air.

On PD - it has its uses, but more than 10 is the exception not the rule, and divining what those uses are is pretty tricky. Often, too much PD in a defensive battle can be a liability rather than an asset as when they get mowed down they can accidentally cause a rout, or they can get caught in your AoE spells and effects (like Hydras, for example). One of the big reasons why I stuck with between 5 to 10 PD for all my lands was because if I ever had to deploy an EK group defensively, I would end up killing all my PD by accident, and they would cause a premature rout even if all that killed them was my own thunder strike spam.

[Illuminated One]

Well, I thought about locking down three caps, had the mages for that. Rdonj put Caelum high on the priority list but I used them against whoever was most scary at the moment, but Caelum would have been next.
But I lacked the bloodslaves through almost all of the game.
When I started it I had two bloodhunting provinces, and with the continous rituals I had trouble expanding it. By the time I could have thought about the third the casts were ineffective against Hinnom and Abysia and Lanka were going down so I focused on blood summons instead.
Kind of surprising that Niefel almost despaired, he seemed never to run out of Jarls.

[LumenPlacidum]

I have high hopes for being able to devote more attention to Noobs vs. Vets III over the summer when I'm not in final exams crunch mode. In the latter half of this game, I ended up staling a few turns and not being able to devote myself to planning and talking to my team. Sorry about that, all.

One of the biggest things I learned: I really don't like Agartha.