Quote:
Originally Posted by Executor
The army lost in BL's lands was of no importance, I expected as much, doe I hoped he wouldn't rush in blindly, or at least try to invade former Ulms lands.
The raiding Yaksha or whatever that was is what's annoying me. That one turn set back really hurts me, and I almost lost all those mages and a Tart who retreated from the battle cause of it.
You have indeed secured that one fort, yes, however there are still 4-5 forts around that one and an immense army on the border, while you have no back up.
In any case, the suicide run achieved what is was supposed to do, I only lost half a K of useless chaff.
As for the water fort, I can't even count that as a loss, water forts represent nothing to land nations. I had hoped to kill those SC's of yours with my Tartarian, however that Troll King proved more than I could chew. I'm still not sure how he managed to almost kill the Tartarian, he did have very high defense but that shouldn't have mattered that much with the 12 attacks from the gloves, and stone bird I think?
The north does worry me a bit, but I don't think your forces are sufficient to win you that front, hopefully. 
As for the central front, I do not need the fort to overrun your lands.
Perhaps I should have sent more troops but I couldn't risk my forces retreating due to chaff again. I wanted to be sure your SC's would get dealt with if they decided to make yet another stand.
And I like it this way, if you go in this turn you go in blind, you can't teleport on top of me, I have the first round so I'm rather confident, doe I welcome any attempt to storm, it would be much easier than for me to try and squeeze trough a bottle neck castle gate.
I guess you didn't try to make the Tartarian Chains, 
So far you are clearly winning and have a much greater lead on me, but perhaps things can still change.  |
I see. You are right, BL did screw your plans there. But as you said, I have no incoming reinforcements in the south, so one turn delay would not make much difference. And unfortunately 1 turn is not enough for me to break your lightly defended castles there, before your next undead wave would arrive from the south-west.
However I can and will teleport in whatever troops are needed to meet your huge approaching army, as I've been doing there for the last few turns, to replaces losses your continuous attacks have been dealing to my forces there. Without these replacements you would certainly break through on that front by now. And indirectly it contributed to your major victory on our central front last turn, since I've decided back then that my central front with all its artifacts and SCs will hold, and I've diverted some of the resources to the south. The bonecrashing blow from you there last turn has proven that I have underestimated your forces and your tactic on the central military theater.
Man, with total war such as ours it's as much about global strategy and managing various resources between multiple fronts as it is about tactics and troops.
It can be quite time consuming but it is a lot of fun, especially against great opponent such as yourself.
As for our water front - I understand that you are not counting it as real loss. I would probably feel the same in your shoes.
For me however it's a important step to solidify my tentative hold on the water realm, since now I finally control my first underwater castle. (I do not have nature gems to spare to conjure it underwater like you did with dozen of your castles, not since you have overwritten my Oak global long time ago)
I can use this castle as a base for my further UW operations, or as a defensive stronghold should Sea of Ice melts and seas would be crawling once again with your hordes of undeads.
I think your tartarian with all its crazy attack would have a decent chance of killing my Sea King on 1 vs 1 battle. But he was distracted by all my other troops, and my Sea King had support of nearby Water Queen who has joined the battle a bit later, IIRC. Perhaps next time?
About central front - I understand your reasoning, it makes sense. Still I am glad I have one more turn to prepare for the tidal wave of your main army, before it breaches the walls of my castle. Trust me, I would love to make another stand under the castle walls this turn, but I simply didn't have enough troops and SCs available to meet you at the walls, your "loss" there last turn has obliterated or scattered my defenses I couldn't afford another defeat or another Pyrrhic victory, should you've decide to send forward all your legions this turn, as I thought you are very likely to do. So instead I have chosen to let you regain initiative and besiege my castle, while bringing in more troops and resources from across my realm. That tiny army of undead and mortal chaff backed by 5 tartarians and various mages that you have send forward this turn is clearly not enough to break through my nearby eastern army, especially not with all nearby flying and teleporting SCs that I have been scrambling to bring there since your last turn attack, and that will be arriving this turn. Although you are welcome to try.
And with castle walls barely scratched, it looks like I will have another turn there to prepare my defenses, before major showdown with your forces. (I only hope that dom3 engine will be able to handle the load of your 4-5K undeads, once you'll decide to send them forth. Will it? )
BTW your most recent communions seem to come in significantly less numbers than they have been showing in the beginning of the war. I can only hope we are approaching the bottom of the almost endless barrel from which you pulled these scary half-hundred strong communions, are we?
My own communions have suffered badly as well in our battles but I had less communion mages to begin with. But then again you can rebuild your communions faster since you have managed to castle your entire realm and you have shorter lines of cummunications.
Oh, and btw it was nice move intercepting some of my reinforcements by teleporting your carefully equipped tartarian on the heads of my approaching communion and their troops. Didn't think you had guts to attack it blindly, but you did and you have managed to pull it off. Fortunately no mages were lost, and almost half of them have retreated to the castle where they were heading before attack, but it was very annoying and it will certainly delay some of my reinforcements. Congratulations, well planned and executed. From now on I will make sure to protect all my magical convoys against your protected-vs-all-elements teleporting tartarians.
Oh, and damn you for suddenly deciding to raise PD on all your lands to significant level!
It cost me two provinces and bunch of wolves and principles. Someone has way too much money on his hands...
All in all - I agree with you, I do seem to have an upper hand in this war so far. But as you've said it can certainly change and change quickly. Both gains and losses on both sides have been relatively limited so far. And the largest and tides-changing battles are yet to come.