MP: Wombat - LA team game. Game on.

[Baalz]

Originally Posted by AdmiralZhao

Wow, what horrid turn. Baalz, could you send me my Tome of High Power back? It belongs with Caelum, not with your invincible army of ice armored toads.

Man I love arssartuts. For some reason they always seem to be underestimated, but they're completely top of the line sacreds IMO, particularly when you consider their deployment mobility from being amphibious and sailing....plus partial darkvision along with mages who can cast darkness. If it's any consolation Gath is sharing the pain. Those guys just hit like a mac truck and don't go down.

Anyway, on to new business. I've been a bit surprised at the apparent lack of concern among most of the nations of the world at Caelum's amazing power concentration. Despite Atlantis' modest success at drawing some blood defending herself, overall Caelum is apparently the only nation not being ground down in the current fighting. For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, Caelum is using the ankh (and their ally) to transform many of their mages and priests into soulless. This has two benefits - 1) Their now undead priests can reanimate free longdead (you've no doubt noticed Caelum's army graph) 2) Their mages no longer have upkeep.

Just think about that for a moment. Caelum has nearly triple the size and income of the next largest nation *AND QUICKLY DISAPPEARING UPKEEP*. Now further realize that there is currently no significant offensive action against Caelum in the foreseeable future of the current fighting. By the time the current fighting resolves Caelum will have 5 times as much income as anyone else (after accounting for upkeep), 10 times as many mages, and 100 times as many troops.

This is not posturing, this is easily verifiable by just looking at the score graph. If the current fighting continues there is only one way this game will end, it's beyond doubt that everyone else is too evenly matched for a quick victory....it's going to be a long, drawn out war with lots of casualties on every side while Caelum's power grows exponentially. I propose an immediate ceasefire for everyone except Caelum and Pythium. Everyone is engaged in fighting now, and I expect there will be significant reluctance on every side to just leave borders where they are right now ("He just took that province!", "I've got an army about to attack!", "My stealth troops are just about to hamstring!", "He took out my ally...it's payback time!" "I just equipped a bunch of guys to teleport in") but realize that what I'm saying is the game is about to be effectively over and all that stuff doesn't matter unless you're willing to just say "screw it, I'm not playing for a win anymore". Realize there is no possible way other than "freeze everything as it is immediately" can be successfully negotiated by all. If your answer is "I'll stop fighting if I get..." then realize that your answer is really "no".

This is what Atlanis proposes, anyone else have a thought?

[Revolution]

Originally Posted by Baalz

For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, Caelum is using the ankh (and their ally) to transform many of their mages and priests into soulless. This has two benefits - 1) Their now undead priests can reanimate free longdead (you've no doubt noticed Caelum's army graph) 2) Their mages no longer have upkeep.

Originally Posted by Baalz

I propose an immediate ceasefire for everyone except Caelum and Pythium.

This is what Atlanis proposes, anyone else have a thought?

Utgarde would agree to this

[Unoptimized]

I agree to this proposition, not only as a...loyal ally...but also to get revenge for the winged one's raiding. Pious will dispense with you creatures.

[AdmiralZhao]

It is clear that Atlantis' thinking has been warped by too much time spent laying siege to Ryleh. Unless the aggressors return all captured provinces to Patala, Argatha, and Gath, and pay restitution for the immense damage their attacks have caused, then Atlantis is simply asking their opponents to wait patiently for their own turn at the guillotine. Once Caelum and Pythium are destroyed, Atlantis and Utgard will continue partitioning the other nations exactly where they left off. I would also point out that it is somewhat laughable for the owners of the Forge and The Chalice to claim that other nations will only get stronger over time. I know that I would want Atlantis' waves of Angok thugs or Utgard's endless Tartarians over my own legions of incompetent Longdeads.

[Baalz]

Heh, I pity the fool who has to fight arssartuts underwater. Getting pretty expensive trying to get wet Admiral, ready to surrender?

[Revolution]

2 stales in a row...are things ok/are you still with us AdmiralZhao?

[klagrok]

Darn--I missed my turn as well--weather too nice to stay in the house---got mountains to hike with the wife. Hopefully Admiral is ok.

[Baalz]

I propose we pause the game until a sub is found for Caelum (or the Admiral surfaces!)

[Revolution]

I'll delay hosting for an additional 48 hours...hopefully zhao shows up

[Revolution]

Still no sign of admiralzhao, he was last active on the forums a week ago. I have delayed the game another 48hrs. The way I see it we have a few options...we can keep on delaying for a little while longer hoping the zhao shows up again or we hear something about his disappearance. We could try to find a sub/see if Pythium has any suggestions for a caelum sub.

The third option would be to call the game and declare caelum/pythium the winner. Before he started to stale, caelum had this game in the bag. Even now after a couple turns he still looks pretty good...but the way zhao was able to build up and come into his dominant position and somehow gain the support of gath and midgard...pretty much the end result of the game was sealed no matter how hard we fought. Now things have changed, many of caelums leaderless thugs/SC's are dead, and the Utgarde/Tien/Atlantis/Marignon pact is looking somewhat competitive...but it feels a bit unearned.

Throw some opinions out there.