Gandalf's bl_nuances blitz

[RamsHead]

OK, here is the bl_nuances map. The game was in EA.


The dots represent the four nations' capitals. Sky blue indicates Acroscephale (PAR), bright green for Pangaea (Ramshead), black for Agartha (Saint_Dude), and yellow with a tint of green for C'tis (Foodstamp).

As you can see C'tis had the worst starting location. They were stuck on the end of a peninsula with only Agartha to expand into. Agartha's position was not much better. With C'tis so close, they were guaranteed an early war. Agartha at least could take advantage of the coastline and could expand elsewhere. Pangaea had the second best location in this game. With Agartha and C'tis sucked into an almost immediate war, they could expand without too much worry. Pangaea started next to some farmland as well as some wasteland, which evened things out. Since Pangaea focused heavily on the White Centaurs early in the game, the mediocre income for them stunted their growth slightly. Arcoscephale had the best location. They were at the opposite end of the map all by themselves with nary a wasteland around them. Now this is not to say that a nation's starting position decides a game, just that it is a good indicator.

War broke out between C'tis and Agartha early on, just as expected. Some fierce battles no doubt took place between them, but Pangaea didn't see them.

Pangaea, after some initial expansion, snuck a White Centaur army into an independent buffer province between Pangaea and Agartha. An attack was about to be launched, but a Black Harpy spotted C'tis on the peninsula as well. At that point, Pangaea decided to search out Arcoscephale. They were expanding as a good pace, and if Pangaea got itself involved in a three way war, Arcoscephale would have lots of time to themselves.

Pangaea quickly found Arcoscephale and attacked them. Numerous battles took place and Pangaea won them all. Acroscephale's armies were fairly large, but they could do nothing to stop the blessed White Centaurs, who had an E9 N6 blessing. Pangaea's Dryad Prophet and her army made it to the Acroscephalian capital, but after several months of sieging, the gate simply could not be damaged.

Around this time Grock, Agartha's Risen Oracle God skilled in Earth, Death, and Astral, was killed by C'tis. Without him, Agartha's troops would be massacred by the C'tissian forces. Agartha retreated most of their forces into the nearby sea.

With the loss of Agartha's God, Pangaea knew that C'tis would soon be at its doorstep. Pangaea's armies withdrew from Acroscephale to deal with C'tis. At this point, Pangaea said it would get Agartha's capital back for them and return it to them once C'tis was either destroyed or sufficiently weakened if Agartha distracted Arcoscephale for awhile. Agartha agreed.

Pangaea battled C'tis around the coastal provinces close to the Pangaean capital. With the Pangaean God, Vega, a Gorgon, leading an army against the C'tissian forces, Zu, C'tis's Shedu God, a powerful Astral magic with some skill in Earth magic, was killed in a large battle when he was petrified by Vega. C'tis's power reduced significantly with the death of their God. The Pangaean forces pushed forward.

Around this time, Agartha had invaded Arcoscphale in the north. This caused Arcoscephale to halt the steady taking of Pangaea's land and deal with Agartha. The Agarthan forces managed to build a lab and fort at the red number one on the map. From there, Agartha quickly smashed the opposition and took Arcoscephale's capital. At this point, Arcoscephale lost its remaining territories to the Pangaean and Agarthan forces, though it would be awhile before Arcoscepahle would be officially destroyed.

Pangaea had anticipated a skelly spamming tactic by C'tis, so the Dryads feverishly researched evocation. At the Agarthan capital, Vega unleashed a mighty earthquake that shatter the C'tissian army and their commander's morale. C'tis went AI. Pangaea would take the Agarthan capital and push forward into C'tis. The army could not put a dent in the Tel City's gate, so the Pangaean army returned to Agartha. From that point on, the Dryad Prophet, the various famous Dryads, and a large Centaur army (many had four experience stars) would remain at the Agarthan capital to keep C'tis bottled up and to keep the capital out of enemy hands.
(more later)

[RamsHead]

Arcoscephale was finished off, and Agartha summoned back the mighty Grock. The God fled into the sea before Pangaean forces could kill him. Agartha declared war on Pangaea and vice versa. The Agartha capital would remain in Pangaean hands till the end of the game.

In a battle at the Arcoscephalian capital, a huge number of various Agarthan troops, some Earth Elementals, and Troglodytes went up against a large, but greatly outnumbered, Pangaean army of Centaurs (both white and brown). Agartha lost the battle and many of their troops were killed. The Pangaean army was decimated though, and the only troops left on the battlefield were either those who went berserk or were too exhausted to retreat. The battle was no doubt eyeopening for both nations. Pangaea's Centaurs, who had carried the nation to countless victories over Arcoscephale and C'tis, were suddenly dying in large numbers. Agartha, whose forces had little trouble against Arcoscephale, were also being killed in large numbers, and with only Earth Readers and Grock for mages, Agartha had little in the way of tricks up its sleeve.

Pangaea had accrued a decent number of death gems at this time and empowered one of its Dryads in Death magic. From then on, the Dryad would summon up one Carrion Lady every month. This was made possible by the Mother Oak spell that was put up earlier in the game. The Carrion Ladies would immediately be assigned to reanimation duty. Every now and then, a Carrion Lady would take a bunch of Carrion and join up with a Pangaean army or defend a nearby fort.

Agartha started replacing its losses fairly quickly, and launched an attack against a new Pangaean army, which was lead by Vega and had Pangaea's secret weapon. The Pangaean army consisted of primarily White Centaurs, while Agartha brought in a huge number of its Agarthan troops as well as some more Troglodytes, Earth Elementals, and Magma Children. Even some Umbrals were brought along. This time Pangaea won with minimal casualties. Pangaea had Crystal Mages in its ranks. They had communioned up and casted Will of the Fates. Pangaea had only searched a few sites for magic and most of them were by Arcane Probing. The province with the four was revealed to have a Crystal Citadel. As the war drew closer between Pangaea and Agartha, Pangaea had recruited more Crystal Mages and was now putting them to good use.

Shortly after this heavy blow, Agartha launched another attack on the now approaching Pangaean army (the army was heading toward the red one where Agartha was summoning up many of its forces). The Agarthan army was even bigger consisting of even more Umbrals and Magma Children and was being lead by Grock. Grock had been feebleminded though from a prior engagement and had not healed yet, so he could not use his magic. The Pangaeans lost the battle but won the war in this altercation. Agartha had been utilizing Black Bows and got a lucky shot off on the Crystal Mage. The mage was not killed because the global Gift of Health had been put up, but he was feebleminded. The worst thing was that he was the one who was supposed to cast Will of the Fates. That was a sad day for Pangaea. Unfortunately for Agartha, several Crystal Mages managed to Horror Mark Grock during the battle. Grock was a famous God and thus was very likely going to be attacked by a Doom Horror in the future. Both this battle and the previous one took place around the red number two. This area saw some of the fieriest battles in the game.

Pangaea retreated to the number three, which had a fort and lab since the Pangaea-Arcoscephale War. While Agartha started taking provinces, Vega put up the Earth Blood Deep Well and starting summoning Enlivened Statues. Centaurs were expensive and with the frequent raiding and overtaxing that both sides were doing, Pangaea needed a cheaper and more easily replaced front line unit. Enlivened Statues were perfect for the job. Soon, with a solid line of Statues and a large number of Carrion Beasts, the new Pangaean army marched forward. They did not get far until the army came across Agarthan forces. The largest battle in the game took place on the coastline around the number two. The Pangaean forces had a decent number of units while the Agarthan army practically filled up its side of the battlefield! With the spell Will of the Fates successfully cast and the newly researched Army of Gold thrown out, Pangaea massacred the Agarthan army.

Not long after this battle, Grock, who had avoided the large conflict, was finally tracked down by Umor and quickly taken out. Agartha's God was killed, its mages were weak, and the largest army they could gather was slaughtered. For the Agarthan's, all hope was lost, and they realized that Vega was the true God. A lot of time and lives could have been saved if everyone would have just agreed to that in the beginning.

[Gandalf Parker]

Nice writeup.
Interesting game.

Of course Im also prejudiced. I love it when Pangaea wins