Priori - New MA Game (Draw)

[Lingchih]

We of R'lyeh declare war on C'tis, for the unlawful imprisoning of the water queen Limne. C'tis can end this war at any time, by handing over Limne. But until then, we are at war.

[Lingchih]

Through scrying and other means, we have just noticed that C'tis is probably the second most powerful nation in the world, and greatly overpowers us.

We hereby rescind the declaration of war. You can keep her. Limne seems quite happy where she is, after all.

The councilors who urged war have been mind-flayed.

-R'lyeh

[Foodstamp]

R'lyeh,

You flatter us with such a title. If we are the "second most powerful" nation in these lands, than surely we are neck and neck with other "second most powerful" nations.

Limne will be honored this month. She shall become the new voice of the Thing of Eternity. She misses her sisters greatly and hopes to act as a liaison to the peoples of R'lyeh in the future, on more peaceful terms than were proposed.

For the months to come, no harm shall come to R'lyeh from our hands unless it is an act of retaliation. We respect your dominion over the seas as long as you respect our claim to the humid air, the tepid waters and the lands that buffer them.

So say the High Priests of C'tis speaking as regent to the queen soon to be crowned, she who would speak for the living symbol of our people, the Thing of Eternity.

[thejeff]

Well, that went badly. Man is pretty much beaten now. My god is dead, and probably still feeble minded if I manage to call him back. I lost my only real army and a lot of mages, plus some booster items I really couldn't afford to lose.
Fog Warriors, Mass protect and Regen, with Lightning spam and storm of Thorns just doesn't stand up to Fog Warriors, Army of Gold, Darkness and Nether Dart spam. At least I prolonged the battle long enough to kill off a lot of communion slaves.

Since I've never had the money to castle everywhere, I've got no real defense against Ghost riders. (Is there any other defense? Small forces wandering around retaking the provinces works, or huge amounts of PD, backed up by a couple mages everywhere. But that just begs for multiple castings to wipe out the investment.)

Good work, Amhazair. I suspect a lot of my earlier success were due to Indy not being interested.

I'm not giving up yet. I've still got a couple of surprises up my sleeve, but the writing is definitely on the wall.

C'tis: If you're not second most powerful, it's between you and Pangaea. Who else do you think might qualify?

[Amhazair]

thejeff said:
Well, that went badly.

I agree.

I stupidly managed not to notice there was a forest dome up over that province, and the nice surprise I had prepared to teleport in got blocked by it. I nearly fainted when I read the 'spell got cancelled by dome' message. As a result part of my scripting was un-optimized, since I was counting on the unspecified surprise party.

Luckily I happened to have just enough force on the field to carry the day, but I was worried there at times. Perhaps if your pretender had survived for a longer time, drawing fire and killing stuff things could have been different. (Did you swap his equipment around? I seem to remember him having a higher MR in previous battles. )

And loosing 32 communion slaves hurts a lot. I would call that battle more of a draw than a win for me, actually. But you're probably right that I can replace my army easier than you can.

Re: second most powerful nation: I'm curious about how strong Ulm is, actually. According to my sources they've been at peace the entire game, their graphs are decent enough, and I've seen a couple of nasties walking around in their lands. No idea if they managed to build up their magical diversity though, or how strong they will turn out to be once they go to war. As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

[thejeff]

Great, so I was supposed to be even more overwhelmed. Was it your Oracle? Or some other Master Enslaver?

He didn't last long enough to cast Resist Magic, which I can't script early because the AI will override it with Astral Shield. You got lucky and feebleminded him, then he couldn't shrug off the Soul slays.

You lost 32 Thaumaturges and a bunch of replaceable undead. I lost my god, a kitted out Banelord (closest thing to an SC I've been able to muster), most of my troops and battle mages (such as they are). This isn't a draw, it's a disaster.

I'm curious about Ulm, too. He's been uncommunicative since early on. It would be interesting to see how much he's been able to build up and diversify. Unless he's got a serious master plan, he should probably intervene pretty soon. I think things will be shaking out fairly shortly.

[thejeff]

As I hinted at earlier, I'm going to be away this weekend. Depending on when this turn hosts, I may or may not need an extension, but I'm going to ask for an extra 24 hours just to be safe.

[Foodstamp]

thejeff said:

C'tis: If you're not second most powerful, it's between you and Pangaea. Who else do you think might qualify?

Machaka and Ulm just to name a couple.

[thejeff]

Hmmm, as suggested above, Ulm is an unknown and could be quite a surprise. My feeling is he's not going to be that impressive, but I don't have a lot to base that on.

As for Machaka, you rolled over a nice chunk of his territory with little real opposition. That seems to have stalled, but not reversed, you'd know better than I why, but unless he actually starts taking back territory, I'm leaving you ranked above him. Losing the Earth gem global will hurt him too.

[Lingchih]

Well, 3/4 of the way till host time, and only two nations have taken their turn. And two nations staled again last turn. It would seem that interest in this game has waned. Shall we call it a draw?