Sovarinthy - an EA game for somewhat busy people (in progress)

[BesucherXia]

Check the Hall of Fame, and you will find Pangaea is not so great. I guess its because I have taken more lands and found some really nice sites in the early turns that granted me chance.

Monstor boar is ok. I had calculated its effect and made a detail plan before sending them, also combined with toad rains to ensure your capitol with 100+ unrests. But they are not cheap. As I saw you have found the best solution - Watchers, I just decided to enter next phase and save gems for thugs/GE/items. Beileve me I once planned to capture your lands, and I did not want them fully ruined either- thats why I did not send them everywhere.

We all know its hard to capture a capitol, but the reward pays off. I beileve Hinnom should have sent more armys conquering the indy provinces when the victory is ensured. You do not need an elite army to fight the walls.

Another lesson learnt from this game: do not waste too much time "manipulating the balance". If you really have enough power, hide it and get more. I think hinnom had not learnt too much from the first Hinnom-Pangaea war. Using archer against maenads is feasible, but you had also seen my Air mages long before. Like what Fomoria had done to block my advance, you need multiple armys strong enough to destory the maenads, and you need to control the lost in each battle. After all, you were too late to summon your angels, and the GE you casted is not very useful against maenads at all. The summoned assassins are also a great waste, why not save them for your SCs and Faerie Queen?

[Bananadine]

Originally Posted by BesucherXia

Check the Hall of Fame, and you will find Pangaea is not so great. I guess its because I have taken more lands and found some really nice sites in the early turns that granted me chance.

Yes, this map is full of nice sites! Almost too full... I had two libraries for a long while--without those I might have done very badly. I also made lots of owl feather things and skull mentors though.

Originally Posted by BesucherXia

Monstor boar is ok. I had calculated its effect and made a detail plan before sending them, also combined with toad rains to ensure your capitol with 100+ unrests. But they are not cheap.

That's good to know! I would be especially afraid of a spell that strong, if it were cheap!

Originally Posted by BesucherXia

As I saw you have found the best solution - Watchers, I just decided to enter next phase and save gems for thugs/GE/items. Beileve me I once planned to capture your lands, and I did not want them fully ruined either- thats why I did not send them everywhere.

Haha I did a pretty good job of ruining my own lands, with my death scales and bad luck and blood hunting and man-eating. I remember that just before you entered one of those highly populous provinces near Egypt--I think it was Memphis or something? (my game isn't open right now)--there was a random plague there that killed half the people. Many thousands died!

Originally Posted by BesucherXia

We all know its hard to capture a capitol, but the reward pays off. I beileve Hinnom should have sent more armys conquering the indy provinces when the victory is ensured. You do not need an elite army to fight the walls.

Yeah. I thought the Rephaim would only need to hang out there for a little while--I recruited horn-blowers as fast as I could, to help bring down the walls, but my income was low and I needed the money for more Rephaim, too, since I only had one fortress for recruiting both kinds of units. (Even after that, I never built a single fortress!)

Originally Posted by BesucherXia

Like what Fomoria had done to block my advance, you need multiple armys strong enough to destory the maenads, and you need to control the lost in each battle. After all, you were too late to summon your angels, and the GE you casted is not very useful against maenads at all. The summoned assassins are also a great waste, why not save them for your SCs and Faerie Queen?

Yes, I wasn't well prepared to fight you--the whole time I'd been expecting Fomoria to eventually become our main foe. Also I was intending to use fire magic, assassins, and high-level blood spells against you, but I mostly didn't quite manage to use the fire, and as you point out, the assassins and blood spells weren't as useful as I'd planned. And I still haven't used the expensive ether warriors I summoned. (This was the first time I'd gotten so far into a game, so I hadn't cast most of these spells before!) I'd expected to give shrouds of the battle saint to my assassins, but then they turned out to be unable to wear armor, due to their wings! A disappointment.

I also hadn't realized the Grigori would be so strong. Several of those would have been great!

[Gregstrom]

Originally Posted by Bananadine

Yes, I wasn't well prepared to fight you--the whole time I'd been expecting Fomoria to eventually become our main foe.

Obviously I had privileged information about my own status, but there were a couple of giveaways that Pan were stronger than I was - they had about twice the territory I had (therefore ~2x the gem income), and 4 out of 5 globals.

Also I was intending to use fire magic, assassins, and high-level blood spells against you, but I mostly didn't quite manage to use the fire, and as you point out, the assassins and blood spells weren't as useful as I'd planned. And I still haven't used the expensive ether warriors I summoned. (This was the first time I'd gotten so far into a game, so I hadn't cast most of these spells before!) I'd expected to give shrouds of the battle saint to my assassins, but then they turned out to be unable to wear armor, due to their wings! A disappointment.

Assassins are generally considered not so good, it's true. And against Pan, who get some very useful patrollers...

Ether Warriors are decent thug-equivalents, and their leader can get you useful diversity.

[BesucherXia]

Originally Posted by Bananadine

Yes, this map is full of nice sites! Almost too full... I had two libraries for a long while--without those I might have done very badly. I also made lots of owl feather things and skull mentors though.

Those two sites are placed by default. Its shamed to see Lanka quit so early, becuase one of them is just beside his capitel. But I agree this map is really full of interesting sites. I got 2 sites of AS mages, agar got the wizard, fom got the DSB guys, and the enchantness/magus is almost everywhere. My most favorite is a Blood-40 bonus. You could have guessed why I could afford almost every blood unique summons.

Originally Posted by Bananadine

Haha I did a pretty good job of ruining my own lands, with my death scales and bad luck and blood hunting and man-eating. I remember that just before you entered one of those highly populous provinces near Egypt--I think it was Memphis or something? (my game isn't open right now)--there was a random plague there that killed half the people. Many thousands died!

Thats expected. So I did not continue the first war, otherwise I would be the target too obviously.

Originally Posted by Bananadine

I'd expected to give shrouds of the battle saint to my assassins, but then they turned out to be unable to wear armor, due to their wings! A disappointment.

They need to be nude to seduce, thats my opinion. Assassin with uber bless is a good idea though. Not sure if the S9 bless is useful against Mind Hunts.

Originally Posted by Bananadine

I also hadn't realized the Grigori would be so strong. Several of those would have been great!

If they had appeared about 10 turns earlier, I would have not too much resources to deal with them. Most of my SCs were busy in the Formoria/Sauromatia and I could not afford teleporting squads yet.
After the situation was stable, even air queens are no more important for me.