MP: Giants and Dwarves [MA; CBM ; Noob friendly] [Full 12/12]

[Zywack]

I'm honestly a bit tired myself of having to deal with the Dominion... It's been a sword hanging over my head with no solution.

Do you know what Dominion score my inherited god have? 2.

Two. I have TWO points in Dominion. This means that I had to spend an inordinate amount of time dedicated to priests instead of mages and troops. My war with Bandar Log was motivated by their big pile of temples (around 10 right on my borders): Even if I were to build as many, I'd have gotten wiped out soon. My war objectives were not territories, but just to blow up temples (The actual trying to win the war came a few turns later when I decided to risk it by combining my two armies to march north and just harass Bandar Log main army to hold it down by threatening it with a cut path of retreat and other perceived threats).

And then T'ien Ch'i dominion started creeping in beside temples and priests on the border. I'm pretty sure that wasn't intentional at all, but just a by-product of my utterly attrocious dominion score. So even though I killed around 50 mages in the last two turns, a tartarian and a Zmey, I'm still doomed by something I can do absolutely nothing about: Even if I beat Bandar Log before dying a dominion death, it's only going to buy me a tiny bit more time. It's not as if the war is going perfectly anyway: My storm staff anti-tartarian group failed pathetically mostly due to the storm staff itself last turn, and the multiple Ghost Riders cast each turn do put a strain, alongside with the southern front probably going back to it's locked front, and the mass-luck artefact sword still being in Bandar Log's hands despite our best attempt.

I knew the 2 points in dominion made a win impossible, but I never expected to reach that late in the game... Reaching turn 25 was my goal. My win over Machaka was simply a last-ditch defense by doing a lure and using the militia mercs and slime spam. It surprisingly worked, and my guesses regarding his movements were spot-on so I managed to get a castle for free by cutting his path with small armies with a bit of decoy help from Bandar Log. The war went flawlessly beside the actual "finish off their capital" which turned out be pretty painful.

For Bandar Log, I expected an early loss but I thought I'd bring down some temples at least. I expected massive amount of Mind Hunts from the first turn: If you are wondering, the reason why I've been trading for hundred of nature gems is because Kitsunes were my only potential source of Astral magic as a counter to it. Well, also because the entire Shinuyama lands produced a meager 5 nature a turn, despite it fully Haruspeced and having Machaka's capital...

Oh, quick question: can Bandar Log actually blood sacrifice? I thought they couldn't, but I've assassinated a Daikini that had a Jade Knife last turn so I'm not so sure now...

As a side note, I'm simply amazed at my three musketeer squad: It's a trio of Ghost Generals equiped with nothing else but a gold shield and a brand (depending on which). They've taken down piles of PD early on, fought in three big battles, sieged the castle housing Bandar Log's god... And all three are still alive somehow. Those were the best gem investment I've ever made in Dominion beside the "anti-60 mage communion" squad. That was a Master Enslave communion I assume?

[Groundworm]

Sorry, long post incoming.

Regarding the game in general: I didn't know Oceania was that big either. My spy network really never made it to the south. Or the west. Or anywhere outside Shinuyama's lands, for that matter. And, as Zywack has stated, neither him nor I are contenders for victory after our war. So if T'ien Ch'i feels that he's out of the running, then I'm fine with giving the game to earcaraxe.

Regarding the war with Shinuyama: I don't feel the need to continue the game just for fighting this war, as I'm now rather confident that you'll win, in the end. It will still be a long war and hard-fought, but you've been playing *far* better than I have, and your superior strategies have allowed you to do vast amounts of damage to me. I've done far less to you with better gem production. The ghost rider spam is inconvenient, I'm sure, but you're dealing with it just fine... it's not actually gaining me any provinces. And you'd get the Sword of Aurgelmer next turn, because it's trapped on one of my Yogis with no adjacent friendly province to retreat to. All of my armies are smashed; I'm down to just raiders. Your overwhelming victory last turn killed well over half of the mages I've recruited this entire game. I couldn't Mind Hunt you until this last turn, as I never researched evocation heavily because Bandar is not an evocation nation. I also spent most of my early astral pearls on Gandharvas (useless), and my later ones on artifacts and Rudras (much better, but very expensive).

Bandar can't blood sacrifice. You didn't assassinate a Daikini with a jade knife- you assassinated an Asrapa with a blood thorn.

No, it wasn't a master enslave communion- see above re: evocation research. I did research enough evo eventually to communion my E and W Rishis, and that was a mass-evocation spam communion.

In sum, I have no objection to ending the game. In fact, I'm not really sad to see it go. Shinuyama and I had an excellent war and you've all been great to play with, but I made numerous major mistakes, several serious tactical and strategic blunders, and I'm not sure I like Bandar Log after having played with them.