AAR two biologicals vs three silicones

[Mauxe]

Super write-up so far, thanks
I'm Man btw and I appreciate being able to look at the game from this perspective. I am very new to the game and some concepts still elude me.

For instance: Atlantis definitely has not done much. He is sitting down in the corner with ~150 troops and a pretender. I feel like I should be more worried but I just swept through the independents in the SE and left the water alone for now. I did start building more temples in that area as his dominion keeps rising. It has spread to the NW a bit and is getting stronger. Is this something I should be worried about? I keep meaning to pull out the manual and look closer at the dominion section.

[LDiCesare]

You should not build temples in the open without a fort to protect them, even against the AI, when they border an AI province. If he invades there, you'll lose the temple. Pumping up PD there will make him look elsewhere, though.
Atlantis has a hard time getting out of water, however, and is not very efficient there, so you shouldn't worry too much.

You only need enough temples to stay in your own dominion if you've got good scales, and to make sure you are not completely overrun with black candles. The ai will not dominion-kill you. Since Man has very little in the way of sacreds, I'd probably avoid temples altogether, unless you find a fancy province like something with amazons ans want the priestesses or sacred cavalry or fliers.

[Doo]

Turn 26:



Machaka's fort is ready to be taken, the army is set to storm the fort.

On turn 27 I watch the battle to see this:



I forgot about the dominion effect on prophet hit points

But on the bright side....



Crap magic and only 1 hit point before the battle begins?!

Lets look at the hit point summery:



Well he should have 60 hit points.

What about the afflictions:



Mute explains the crap magic (somewhat). No idea at all why he started the battle with only 1 hit point. It didn't matter as the Machaka army retreated and he was trampled by an elephant.



Who see's red? Anyway.....



Woo!

And on the same turn...



So I'm trapped in my new fort by a bunch of raging barbarians. No I'm not, next turn they are removed.

Turn 29 Machaka fights back:



Have at you Machaka!



vs



Among Machaka's army is this guy:



Sorry, I mean this guy:



At least he doesn't have the One Ring, not that it would save him anyway, Ethereality only stops three hits in four

Machaka is pretty much done, turns are spent taking their last provinces and preparing for the next invasion target, Atlantis.

On turn the barbarians return to the province of Machaka



And breach the walls on turn 37. I've had the few Guru's who are stuck in the fort casting Summon Apsaras and the barbarians seem content to starve the guru's out.

On turn 36 my underwater attack squad is ready:



My thug who is actually a Nagaraja:



and his body guards:



Underwater indies and Atlantis are no match.

Finally, on turn 37 Granny Rainbow casts:



From here my plans are....

1) To take over Atlantis's fort. My attack squad would have to starve them out so I'll need some chaff to bring the walls down.

2) To support Man in their war against Marignon if they need it.