Ascendant - Game On!

[Renojustin]

Bloody, shrunken demons hissed at each other and licked at their wounds. The Lankan army, or what was left of it, crawled, limped, and dragged itself back to its own lands.

The Sauromatian ambush had crippled their forces, destroyed their military, crushed their spirits. The vampire queen Celes, mostly oblivious to her mortal followers, had blundered about the westlands with their forces, playing at being a military leader, and fumbled right into the worst situation imaginable.

Now she rode ahead of the broken column, silent, a cold glare her only communication with the shattered remnants of her people.

[Shigure]

There was a battle in Nardago.

Our forces defeated the attacking force from T'ien Ch'i.

Friendly Combatants
commanders 12, killed 3.
regular units 13, killed 2
magic units 8, killed 2

Enemy Combatants
commanders 8, killed 2
regular units 113, killed 77

Oh, T'ien Ch'i, T'ien Ch'i. I understand now why you are so reluctant to give Sauromatia the stab in the side they so rightly deserve. That is the third T'ien Ch'inese army the people of Kailasa have faced -- this time you sent celestial masters! -- with similar casualty rates every time. You should surrender to Sauromatia now, if you haven't already; your army obviously does not stand a chance.

[Wrana]

Well, he has enough Celestial Masters trying to kill me.
You can expect them 2-3 turns after he does that - if he will. Another nice trick he has is a good bunch of Demons of Celestial Rivers (he loves to Etherealize them) - but these will take more time to move to you - unless he is already summoning another bunch.
As for his chances against Sauromatia I think you are quite right - he is trying just to get the honorable second place now...

[Renojustin]

Why would Sauromatia deserve a stab in the side? So far, we've fought a Who's Who of Ascendant, and won much honor on the field of battle; nobody has had to deal with more hardship than us... except for our enemies!

[kasnavada]

Claire says that : because if we don't stab you enough (until you stay dead) you'll become the next pantokrator ?

Claire has been saying so for ages, and it would seem that what Claire says comes true.

[Darkwind]

Say, why is Arcoscephale computer controlled? I only just noticed it now, have I been missing out on something?

[secretperson]

He's basically dead and only has two provinces left. He had been staling too.

[Zenzei]

Well, it seems Sauromatia's greed has no end as this turn they attacked Caelum with an army of 200+ troops/commanders. Wisdom of this new assault will be evaluated soon when people of the sky flock together to face the abomination that is Sauromatia.

To Tien Chi: Now would be the time for your people to act against Sauro as you still have possible allies left to fight alongside with. If you side with Caelum, together we would be roughly equal to Sauro in every aspect except that Tien has better(and I have worse) research than Sauro. So our chances to end Frannabelle's rampage would be pretty good. If Tien stays neutral and worst case scenario happens(Caelum falls), the people of Spring & Autumn will be completely surrounded by foul Sauromatians and at that point the extermination of your nation is rather easy. If you side with Sauro, you may get some territory from Caelum but ultimately this option only leads to Tien Chi getting surrounded by Sauro as mentioned above and Caelum will make sure to inflict maximum possible damage against Tien before going down.

[Renojustin]

We offered you the Pax Sauromatia. Those who accepted our peace have prospered, while those who have scorned our offer have suffered.

You made your bed, Caelum... now your lands and your women are ours!

[Zenzei]

Ha! Pax Sauromatia is the most worthless piece of agreement* ever offered to us as it basically read: let's have 12 turns of "peace" so Sauromatia is safe from possible war acts from Caelum and as soon as our borders touch or that 12 turns has passed Sauro will attack anyway.

But enough of that, let's fight you and I. The eagle kings are awaiting the Sauromatian horde.

-----

*In general I consider making pacts with significantly stronger nations extremely bad strategy as there's absolutely no benefit in them for the weaker nation.