Since this thread fell off the first page, I think it's a good time to post my last turns.
TURN 40 :
Construction 3 researched. I got people who immigrated to Pangaea, a nasty blizzard in Silver Fangs, and good harvests in Pirenna.
I also conquered the last R'lyeh province on the island. There was but 1 PD there. The net result of the random events is that I have not much money.
Arco and R'lyeh both lost quite a few provinces to Fomoria this turn. Caelum built another fort and still doesn't seem to be doing anything. What is he doing????
I still don't do anything special. Preaching and blood sacrificing. I bring more preachers, and will use my prophet to blood sac next turn.
TURN 41 :
Still 4 abysian candles. I'm not achieving anything and yet I preach as much as I can and sacrifice all I can. This is frustrating. But then I have a lot of candles in my forts, and my prophet will start sacrificing instead of just a H2 dryad...
Nothing interesting otherwise, war rages everywhere except for Caelum. I'll get construction 4 next turn and go back to Alteration.
TURN 42 :
Fomoria cast Gift of Health. I got 3 events: some water gems (twice), and a free H2 priest with some usless and expensive militia from an event.
R'lyeh is sending Zmeys at Fomoria for the moment. I can't even begin to contemplate such spells myself.
The good news is Abysia is fown to TWO candles. With a bit of luck, he's dead next turn as I have 2 more preachers in his province this turn.
Arco is falling quickly now. Helheim is still alive but hiding in his lone fortress. R'lyeh is stable and Caelum is still waiting for Fomoria to win.
TURN 43 :
Some astral gems found.
Fomoria is using some Morrigans against Arco. I bet he will explain them in detail at some point, so I won't spoil.
Maybe I should have taken more notes and some screenshots actually. I doubt anyone else will write their aar now, but please prove me wrong? Basically, strong, tough, flying, sacred glamorous undead with life drain and deacy... And Abysia is back to 5 candles
Still, my dominion is growing on the graphs and I now have the second army in numbers. Seriously, maenads vs. morrigans is laughable, but still.
I decide to send my militia to attack Abysia. I suppose he's got no unit left but his commanders and a few henchmen, I shall see. Anyway, they should make short work of the militia which are just 37 units worth nothing so they just eat a dozen gold or more each turn in upkeep, I'd rather have them die.
TURN 44 :
400 gold worth of events. I use these to build a lab in my lab-less fort.
Helheim is now dead.
I managed to kill 33 of my 37 militia. This lets me see that Abysia has 11 wizards and 13 infantry to defend its province. They also have but ONE candle left. I have 2 more preachers on their province this turn, so I hope it will suffice.
TURN 45 :
Alt 5 reeached.
The Arco capital has fallen. Other players want to stop the game. That's bad because I'm jsut starting to get back into it. I can cast Mother Oak next turn. My dominion is growing. there's jsut 1 candle left in the last abysian province. I have tons of maenads to defend my forts. All is going well. I will attack Abysia this turn, hoping to take the province or kill some priests in case I don't dom-kill him next turn.
TURN 46 :
FINALLY!
Two noteworthy things happen this turn:
1/ Caelum attacks a Fomorian province. This was long awaited.
2/ I get rid of Abysia.
I manage to kill Burning Ones only by polymorphing them into swines, but eventually I do kill them all and rout the few remaining priests. My maenads die in droves. I lose 350 troops + 20 vinemen + 2 commanders and kill 7 out of 10 commanders and 13 units. Not a brilliant result. Maenads do kill Burning Ones when their armor has been Destroy'ed, but the ai would rather cast Wooden Warriors than Destruction when there are a few remaining heavy soldiers backed with fire mages in front of me. Oh well, it's not like I didn't know it. I had planned to kill a few priests and that it would be enough to dom-kill abysia. I still wish I had managed to dom-kill him. I have 3 candles, but I don't know how many I would have had if Abysians had kept preaching.
Where a Burning One is turned into a swine, and other one, with broken armor, gets cut to pieces by maenads.
I cast a 110-gem Mother Oak. Not sure if it's enough to beat Fomoria's but I can try.
I task 20 dryads with "Call God". This should bring me back immediately.
TURN 47 :
Mother Oak cast successfully. Of course, Fomoria might overcast it back, but it doesn't matter much. I have events for water gems, gold, more gold and some faith boost.
I lose my scout in Arcoscephale lands, but I can see Caelum's attacks against Fomoria. He just ran into PD so far but Fomoria's province count has lowered a lot after Caelum and R'lyeh grew a little.
My god is back but mute, limping and with a never-healing wound. Luckily, being immortal will heal all that over time. Still, it sucks.
I will finish Evo 2 and start on Alteration 6 in order to try and get alt 7 for transformation to get rid of my Pans' ridiculous upkeep costs.
All of this will take forever of course.
TURN 48 :
Played from a hotel at work (
busy week this one). Lost the comments in the process. too bad.
TURN 49 :
Someone scryed my capital and got fried. Fomoria cast Well of Misery. Nothing really interesting here.
TURN 50 :
I staled the next turns because I thought I could play my turns from a cybercafe while on holidays, but I couldn't. Apologies to my fellow players. It didn't change much to my turtling, though.
Staled. Too bad. R'lyeh attacked this turn. Random event brought 1000 gold.
TURN 51 :
Staled. Again, R'lyeh keeps attacking. Got some magic item through random event.
TURN 52 :
R'lyeh keeps trying to take out my provinces. He also attacks with astral spells my commanders. I don't know what R'lyeh is trying to achieve by fighting me instad of Fomoria. I'll just try to get rid of him. Some Calls of the wild, an army of crap to test the ground, and I bring back my god just in case. I'll have Alt 7 (transformation, mass protection, marble warriors) researched this turn so I'm starting blood.
Anyway, despite taking 3 provinces from me in 3 turns, R'lyeh is still losing in the number of provinces to Fomoria. I saw his god come by but he moved on somewhere.
I had some militia randomly raised in the last Tir na n'Og province, but it's crap. I add some PD though, it might hurt R'lyeh a bit. I will also add some mermen there jsut to show him I can get underwater troops if I so want. It really doesn't serve much, but his invasion is just a way for him to hide far from the giants anyway and it's not going to gain either of us much.
TURN 53 :
I get attacked by a R'lyeh poison golem
It has a copper plate and a standard of the damned, boots of quickness and eye of the void. That's interesting but really what on earth is R'lyeh doing against me with that thing? Sure, I can't get past 23 protection with maenads. But targetting me won't do him any good, he's just postponing death at this point I suppose to get the game finished faster, crowning Fomoria in the process. Not that Fomoria needs much help. He's also taking some territory from Caelum, or what remains of Caelum. I note there's unrest in the two provinces I took back, so I bet he raised taxes there as he put only token PD, so he planned only to raid, except maybe in the NE province where he might want a fort? He's bringing hundreds ofchaff too, but they are likely not enough to take down Pangaea's walls, since he only has 300 or so while I have 600 troops in my castle.
I have 9 Pans cast transformation. That should save me something like 9 * 320 / 15 = 184 gold worth of upkeep. Probably more depending on rounding.
Anyhow, I ask R'lyeh what he's doing. Looks like he's juste fleeing, at which point we might as well end the game anyway without fighting silly one-sided battles.
TURN 54 :
I'll get Blood 4 next turn (demon knights). I start Ench for ench 5 / GoH...
2 transformations killed my Pan, 1 made him feebleminded.
My probe into water provinces shows a PD of 1 in Smallsea.
I got 1 great lion, 1 giant spider, 1 fire drake, 1 cave drake and 1 great eagle. My upkeep is back below my income.
The loss of so many Pans makes the move questionable. Sure, I get a nice upkeep cut, but really, is it worth it? In games where the Pangaean player doesn't suck as much as I do, I strongly doubt it. Still, Pans are the best targets for transformation out of the whole game, except maybe some capricorns?
And Caelum is indeed attacked by R'lyeh. Dogpiling the weakest in order to crown Fomoria? I don't get it. Why not simply ask the game to be finished then? Or doess he think he needs one of Caelum's forts to have a land fort that he can use somehow?
TURN 55 :
R'lyeh answers my in-game message by saying Snakey has won, so he's basically Crowning. I think we should end the game instead if a majority believes the game to be won by Fomoria, as these were the victory conditions expressed. I had asked for a delay in order to get rid of Abysia but there's no point keeping playing if other players play to lose.
Anyway, R'lyeh has a nice army in Tirr na n'Og:
'Tis not his god there, just another great kraken. My poor maenads and a few minotaurs don't stand a chance against that. R'lyeh also uses a zmey to take one of my provinces, I take one with my pretender, so I decide to take out some of his land provinces with Calls of the Wild this turn.
TURN 56 :
R'lyeh and Arco agree that Fomoria is winner. I think the game should end.
I got Ench 3 researched. My Calls of the Wild took both targeted R'lyeh provinces.
I also sent my god underwater, and that gave me one province too :
I send the militia I got to suicide against R'lyeh in Tir na n'Og. My god moves out of the water.
It turns out Arco didn't even bother to put up province defense in one of his last two provinces.
I cast a Rain of Toads on the province where R'lyeh is massively besieging Arco. I don't really know who gets diseased, I hope the besieger or maybe both. I also send a dryad and some minotaurs to strike R'lyeh's fort in my dominion, just to teach him a lesson that I can raid too.
TURN 57 :
Ench 4 researched. Ench 5 gives ettins and GoH.
I empower my siren in more Water (she's A2W1 on land, A1W2 underwater).
I took some undefended R'lyeh province, pillage its water province and make a mess of his fort. I also got rid of all my militia as expected.
So I now have as many provinces as R'lyeh, which doesn't mean much. He's got a lot more gem income than I, though. Not that it matters. I mean, I'm not ever going to be able to bring zmeys to the battlefield, and the game should be over.
TURN 58 (LAST TURN) :
We agree to have Fomoria declared winner.
i got to Ench 5 this turn.
Yeah, pitiful, isn't it?
No battle or anything worth saying this turn.
Finally, an animated picture of my knowledge of the map, as promised:
