"A Song of Ice and Fire", veterans-only game, MA. In progress, midgame...

[Corwin]

Originally Posted by Lingchih

Nice job taking out that castle Dimaz. I hope I made it a little harder than you thought, but you lost little.

Whatever shall I do now? I've lost all those mages, and that nice army. Surely I am done for now.

Ling of Pan

18 hours left folks. Let's get this one in on time. The holidays are coming up, with lots of delays.

I have to say that the whole campaign on the Vanheim/TC front has not been going very well for TC. Considering that they only have to face a small portion of Van forces, frankly I have expected ex-Pangeya territory to be conquered by TC forces by now. Instead Vans are on tactical offensive there, have won few large battles, and TC just lost their own castle. TC will almost certainly win this war eventually, but Van's southern expedition force has proven to be much harder challenge for TC then expected.

[Lingchih]

Originally Posted by Corwin

I have to say that the whole campaign on the Vanheim/TC front has not been going very well for TC. Considering that they only have to face a small portion of Van forces, frankly I have expected ex-Pangeya territory to be conquered by TC forces by now. Instead Vans are on tactical offensive there, have won few large battles, and TC just lost their own castle. TC will almost certainly win this war eventually, but Van's southern expedition force has proven to be much harder challenge for TC then expected.

Meh. Yeah, He's taken a castle, and raided me a bit. Honestly, I expected most of his forces to go for you. It appears he is going for my cap now. If he takes it, then yes, the rest of you rip me apart. You can even forgo the NAPs. I doubt he takes my cap though. He'll probably just keep raiding, which I can deal with.

If he dies trying to take my cap, then all those provs (and that castle) will be re-taken within a few turns. He just has a single expeditionary force going for my cap. Looks like a revenge force.

You forgot to mention that I also have the ex-Pan cap under siege, and he seems to be doing little to defend it.

[Corwin]

Originally Posted by Lingchih

Meh. Yeah, He's taken a castle, and raided me a bit. Honestly, I expected most of his forces to go for you.

Indeed, most of his forces did. More then 80% of his total forces I would say, including even all those from the northern ex-Pangeya territory. For the first 3-4 turns of this war there were anywhere from 20 to 40 battles each turn between my troops and those of Van.

By now I've killed and mindhunted large part of his raiders and won all major army battles, although several times it was a close call. All and all the Vans have fought back hard - so far the war has costed me at least half dozen of good SCs in additions to 20-30 mages and a lot of troops. (And BTW two of my well-equiped SCs died fighing his damned seakings. "Non-SC" my ***... > )

Nevertheless despite heavy losses I've suceeded in breaking the back of Van's military machine and have managed to break through to his capital. Last turn I gave orders the battered remains of my main army to storm Vans capital. Haven't checked the recently hosted turn yet.

[Dimaz]

Corwin, you lost another tart (somehow he again was lacking LR) and took the cap. My Sea King performance surprised me too as I said.
Other than that, in general, perhaps the better strategy for me was to take more defensive approach and try to deal with your raiders first without raiding as much myself. With Vans invisible for your scouts all over the place, it might've been harder for you to take all my lands so fast. And with Van thugs support I had better chances in big battles.
Lingchih, I tried to fight with Pythium while there was at least some reason in it. Now I absolutely cannot do anything there, so prepare yourself.
BTW the original plan was to gateway everythin to cap from the captured castle to make final stand there. However I somehow messed with forging so there was no crystal coin available.

[Lingchih]

A note to all those who think TC appears weak. Yes, Van raided the hell out of us. But several of those raiders are dead now (and got some nice booty off of them as well). Yes, my cap is under siege, but there are strong forces to defend it. It appears that Van has thrown everything he has at me, (including his Crone pretender, who has transported nearby, well out of her dom, I might add). It took me six hours to do this last turn (totally sober, btw). If it takes as long to do the next ones, I will be fine with it, as long as it drives Van out of my lands.

[Aethyr]

Ling, I'm glad to see you handing in there. I've never thought that TC as weak, just a nation requring a more deft hand in order to excel.

[Dimaz]

I'm glad you finally decided to give some resistance Of course my forces on your cap are not enough...

[Executor]

Damn Aethyr, you did some hurting this turn...
Those Asynjas were scripted rather badly I might say given that I 'took into consideration' you might attack me there. A foolish way to lose that one to fire drakes no doubt.

Would Pythium please stop mind hunting our scouts? How are we to watch the war? We have lost 3 just this turn!

[Corwin]

Originally Posted by Executor

Damn Aethyr, you did some hurting this turn...
Those Asynjas were scripted rather badly I might say given that I 'took into consideration' you might attack me there. A foolish way to lose that one to fire drakes no doubt.

Would Pythium please stop mind hunting our scouts? How are we to watch the war? We have lost 3 just this turn!

Sorry. I don't care much about scouts at this point, I am mindhunting remaining Vans raiders. Your damned scouts keep getting in the way.

Perhaps you should consider using Stone Spheres. That's what I've been using to watch your war with Ulm for the last 10 turns or so - 6 stone spheres stored away in a small far away castle. Too many of my scouts die on various nations patrols before I can get them to the opposite corner of the map where you and Ulm have been fighting.

And by the way - I would like to express my gratitude to both Ulm and Ermor, as well as TC and Van in the south, for some large battles - both for entertainment and intel purposes as well as for the steady income of death gems from my ravens sent to your battlefields. It's an important addition to my meager natural death income.

And to whoever casted bunch of plague spells on my high-pop provinces this turn (Was it you Van? Or was it Ermor?) - the avalanche of free death gems I'll get from each of the affected provinces this turn are much more important for my empire then money at this point. So please be my guest and continue this spell barrage - I can always use more tartarians.

[Executor]

Well heck, now I feel ashamed! I'll have to put up a better show up for you Corwin! I am always glad to entertain.

And that's 60 gold you owe me for just this turn btw, don't make me demand a percentage of the gems from raven feast. (that spell totally sucks btw, I waste more gems that I gain with it)