Yeah, sorry about that, Steerpike.
I had summoned a bunch of mech men just to inflict as much damage upon your army as I could before I lost. I expected to retreat most or all of my mages, which I did (lost only 2). But, just in case, I also took the castle behind you since you had only one avenue of retreat. I did that for the longshot odds in case I might win the battle or at least cause some retreats from your side.
Of course, I never expected to actually win the battle. And I truly didn't win. Killed only 24 guys while I lost nearly everything of my own. But it took the worms like 40 turns to get past the mech men through the narrow passage way to the castle interior. And in a few more turns after that, the victorius army turned and ran just when they had it won. I have heard many complaints about the 50 turn battle limit and I can see firsthand why it is an abysimally bad thing indeed. Flying is very important in a castle siege for this reason.
Perhaps the oddest thing of all is that Steerpike built that castle as Jontunheim. Had it been one of my Abysian paper towers, the tomb worms would have overrun my meager army so quick it would not have mattered about the 50 turn thing.
Oh well, live and learn, I suppose. 190 tomb worms and 10 fully-equipped bane lords just went poof because of the odd battle mechanics in the game.
I have had this happen to me before so I now make DARN sure I always have some sure retreat paths from any major fight.
I suppose I no longer have to spring my special trap that I had planned against that army. I will always wonder how it would have worked. Maybe I can entice Aku onto land so I can try it against him instead...
Panther