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

[Valerius]

Diplomacy is tricky and things are changing a lot in this game. And again, with so few nations options are limited.

My concern was that Man and Arco together would overwhelm Ulm, leaving me in a bad position. 1 vs 1 I think Ulm and Man would have a fun and fair fight.

I'm going to simplify things. Ghoul, Arco worries me a lot. I'm going to kill you (or die trying). I think I can keep Arco busy enough to keep him off Ulm's back, in which case I have no objection to Ulm and Man fighting it out 1 vs 1. So, everyone can decide their course of action based on that. Man and Ulm can face off 1 vs 1 while I fight Arco, or you can all dogpile me if I get to be too big a threat.

[ghoul31]

I rank last in just about every category. But I'm some big threat. Yea right. You are so full of it.

[Louist]

Originally Posted by ghoul31

I rank last in just about every category. But I'm some big threat. Yea right. You are so full of it.

You have several distinct advantages, even at last place. First, you have the aforementioned monopoly in Astral, which gives you the most powerful remote attack spell, and access to communions which opens up, for you, almost every battlefield spell in the game.

Second, and most dangerous, I think, is that you have ready access to trampling units that (as I painfully learned) you can field in great numbers, despite having only two forts, last I checked. Even my cavalry is small enough for your chariots to squash! I'm not sure I can field anything immune to the effect, besides the behemoth, but I can't create those in enough numbers to actually get a return on that investment.

In a game without any indy elephants and no high-level summons, that's huge.

But credit where it is due: You did a fantastic job in the battle over Arco. I'd love to end this war now, but I obviously cannot blame you if you want to continue!

[Olm]

Well, perhaps its because I've never seen an astral nation on the rampage, but to me these threats seem rather dim and distant. And anyway the situation does not improve with Pan having access to th Astral Mages of Arco.
So my reaction to recent development:

We, Igraine, Mistress of Avalon, propose to the nation of Arcoscephale an alliance against all and every enemy of Our two great nations, until either all those enemies are vanquished or one of Our nations has perished for good.