Turn 19

I as TC managed to destroy two turn's worth of Dawn guards (13) with minimal losses will attack the castle he has.

One Melqart with 7 or so afflictions manages to elude the armies with mages, hopefully not too long.

I need to coordinate with Agartha on that other Army of his.

Got one stone sphere to scry, if anyone has a request.

Haha, I saw that guy. He's still nasty with all these afflictions.


Well, general breakdown of Mictlan so far:

I have con-2 const-4 blood-4. I've enough money and not to much uses for the gems I get. On the other hand I'm really short on mage turns on the good ones and the other can forge ... uh ... Flesh Eaters.
I'll lock down Hinnom and Niefel next turn, so hopefully this will drop the pressure a bit.
Other than that I have two armies (35 jaguars in 164, 40 eagles in my cap).

I don't know exactly where to go from there, economically and military, so any input would be appreciated.
I think I'll head for the blood scs. I can start with the ice devils in about three turns, if someone can send me a water booster. The fire devils could follow a short time after. If Lanka can get them now I could also supply the blood slaves. Would really wish that Sauro would say something about his actions.



And may I suggest that we delay this or next turn and work out a counter-offensive for the south with Agartha, Sauro, Lanka, Abysia and me. It looks like Abysia is overrun and if he falls, we will have to reorganize there.

Laveare, you have to be doing good against Caelum and not good against Niefel?
If we could somehow manage that you keep Caelum from my back and I Niefel from yours this might work well. On the other hand I don't know if Niefel isn't well prepared to beat my sacreds now.
I've got two armies (34 Eagles, 35 Jaguars), ready to head south. I wish I could help more but at the end of the turn I have noone to move my armies and the one province corridor is just a deathtrap.
If viccio thinks that the hope is lost I might attack him instead and let you retake the corridor.

Septimius Severus wrote:

rdonj wrote:
He means generate enough unrest that they can't produce units from it. Of course when the rain of toads starts hinnom will probably start patrolling his capitol, so more than 1 a turn perpetually will probably be needed at some point.

That's what I thought. I know some units are capable of instigating unrest via a command such as Bogarus' (five fold angel) I believe. Do scouts, cloaked prophets, assassins, and other stealthed units also contribute to unrest if they are hiding in a given province?

Always wanted to know.

Generally not. There are some units that generate unrest just by existing, but those are rare. For the most part it is only units that have the spy tag that are capable of increasing unrest in a province, with the "instill uprising" command.

Do you really have 6 casters with B3N1 to shot down both capitals in one turn?

The Southern flank is at least contained, and very crowded with 3 noob players having access to Caelum there and 2 to Hinnom.

Honestly, spend the blood you have on Rain of Toads.

What is Vanheim doing BTW?

Illuminated One wrote:


And may I suggest that we delay this or next turn and work out a counter-offensive for the south with Agartha, Sauro, Lanka, Abysia and me. It looks like Abysia is overrun and if he falls, we will have to reorganize there.

It would be a good idea to take stock of where we are, hence my suggestion for sitreps from everyone at turn 20 or so. So I take it you don't have a corridor for your armies to the south? Deathtrap? Have you tried contacting Sauro in game?

We could use some of the unrest guys up north, not just in the caps, but in the immediate provinces to be attacked, such as Niefel in 14. Darloth suspects a castle is going up there. I guess massive unrest in every enemy held castle would be nice too.

If someone is on the edge, rather than lose a player, Mictlan could exchange an equal amount of provinces with that player, incorporate them (sort of like an Ameoba) and the player can continue to play on in the heart of Mictlan with stealthed units, spies, magic, etc, with a break from the action while Mictlan manages the front. Even if your sacreds don't pack the punch they used to, it might by us some time.

It is my hope that, in the event we can't win the game, at least we can hold out till turn 30 or so, maybe longer, and give them a hell of a fight.
T'ien Chi's and Agartha's victories brings great hope and promise.

Fear not, though "Times look grim", there is hope. I hope.

I was deluged with seeking arrows that got hits on both my site-searching pretender and a fighter building a castle, killing them both and not bothering any other leaders in the province. Guess I learned a few things there... ugh. My pretender's use was limited anyway but that was a tough one. I still have good income, strong armies, and decent mages.

Atlantis' pretender (wyrm) is in 212, either about to attack Fomoria or ganging up on me. I'm guessing Fomoria as I can't even tell if he's playing at this point... Caelum took one of his provinces but I took it back. I'll probably dance around with Caelum a bit now (making amulet of luck and missile prot to help with my next castle) and not push him too much unless you need me to.

Good news and bad news.

First the good news: I took Aluvia (7) from Atlantis.

The bad news: Niefel took 11 from me, wiped out 44 troops, I killed 0.

Darloth feel free to counter this turn in 11 or 14 if you can.

I will counter the following turn in 11. Try out my sacreds, and retarius may be useful with their nets for short term imoblization. I'm bring in some nature mages for tangle vines, and whatever mages I've got.

I've got a choice of attacking Hinnom in 44 or Atlantis in 257, I think I'll go with the latter. Unless I hear otherwise. Though they may meet the Wyrm.

Stretch wrote:I was deluged with seeking arrows that got hits on both my site-searching pretender and a fighter building a castle, killing them both and not bothering any other leaders in the province. Guess I learned a few things there... ugh. My pretender's use was limited anyway but that was a tough one. I still have good income, strong armies, and decent mages.

Atlantis' pretender (wyrm) is in 212, either about to attack Fomoria or ganging up on me. I'm guessing Fomoria as I can't even tell if he's playing at this point... Caelum took one of his provinces but I took it back. I'll probably dance around with Caelum a bit now (making amulet of luck and missile prot to help with my next castle) and not push him too much unless you need me to.

Make sure to check if you can give the continue construction order on that fort you were building, because I think as long as you don't lose the province it's still there and you don't lose the money.

P3D wrote:Do you really have 6 casters with B3N1 to shot down both capitals in one turn?

No, I have 3 now and 4 next turn.
Hinnom is already down so there's only one casting required.
I won't make more because 4 should be enough to keep down 3 caps if someone can cast a blight or something once on the 3rd.

Septimus Severus wrote:If someone is on the edge, rather than lose a player, Mictlan could exchange an equal amount of provinces with that player, incorporate them (sort of like an Ameoba) and the player can continue to play on in the heart of Mictlan with stealthed units, spies, magic, etc, with a break from the action while Mictlan manages the front. Even if your sacreds don't pack the punch they used to, it might by us some time.

I don't think that's a good idea a nation is always crippled without it's cap and iirc for Abysia that's especially the case. I wouldn't mind to give some provinces away where he can wait until we retake his cap, but I can't reorganize sensibly (move from the save magic+2 lab to the close to the front drain+3 lab).
Maybe I'm speculating to much, he's not dead yet.

It would be a good idea to take stock of where we are, hence my suggestion for sitreps from everyone at turn 20 or so. So I take it you don't have a corridor for your armies to the south? Deathtrap? Have you tried contacting Sauro in game?

No, Lanka has given me three of his cap-adjecent provs for a corridor. I just don't have any mobility there and that's exploitable.

Okay, situation report:

Both Neifel and Helheim are pushing me hard. I got hit with 4 murdering winters this turn and I'm sure they've got more where that came from. Two, thankfully, hit the province I thought they were going to, and I gave it up without a fight, although I did curse his Jarl on the way out. Wasted gems for him and hopefully I can take him out next turn.

The other two, a MASSIVE sneak attack by Helheim, were somewhat worse, they took out one of my armies I was about to attack him with.

I also learned, the hard way, that Helheim has Purgatory active. That means Helheim has Thaumaturgy 7. As it takes F5 to cast and they have a flaming weapons bless, I'm pretty sure it's their pretender that cast it. If someone can find him and kill him (hah!) that would be quite handy .

It puts paid to my sneak attacks with undead though. I'll try it on Neifel instead.

I'm going to try splitting my attack force and causing as much trouble for Hel as possible before losing my forces, but I doubt it'll really pan out past a distraction. Meanwhile, most of my focus will be on anti-SCs to take down these damn Jarls and such that are stomping all over me.

I have a moderate death and nature income, a small astral income now much reduced, and I just spent all of my stockpiles on equipment. Charcoal shields would be useful but rings of Fire Resistance are possibly more important right now, as I can drop them on a Bane and have a slightly Jarlproof commander who might actually do some damage. On the other hand, Charcoal Shields are 50% and it's a big help, plus some damage. Send whichever are the best use of mageturns. I'm going to try mostly eye shields, until I get the Con to get to vine shields. I'm also going to try a Vine Whip + Bane Blade combo, as I think that might work quite effectively as long as they can both survive the enemy fire shield.

Septimus - I have no forces within reach of 11 or 14, I am essentially pinned down on the eastern flank and defending what I -do- have. Or not defending it, as the case usually is.

I should have a force vaguely capable of defeating a couple of jarls next turn, it remains to be seen just how effective it'll all be.

I'm pretty sure that Helheim can't have purgatory active as his research is among the lowest. He probably just got a province with the magic province that smites undead.

Rdonj, thanks for the tip! Fort construction is continuing again... once that fort is up, I'll have elephants to stymie his little mammoths while I blast them.

Stretch wrote:I'm pretty sure that Helheim can't have purgatory active as his research is among the lowest. He probably just got a province with the magic province that smites undead.

Rdonj, thanks for the tip! Fort construction is continuing again... once that fort is up, I'll have elephants to stymie his little mammoths while I blast them.

Glad to hear it

Murdering winter is expensive. If they throw too many more any time soon, I'd have to imagine they're cannibalizing other gems to do it.

Well, I tried to take on what I thought were unsupported troops of Hinnom's, but it suddenly turned into their biggest army. I lost over a hundred troops to that, which was MY biggest army. However, it did give me time to complete a fortress that they were threatening. So, that was bad. I'm moving another army to try to reclaim a different province taken by Hinnom, who is sort of overwhelming me now. My sacred cap-only seal guards are the only things with anything close to the attack skill needed to reliably kill his troops which are recruited anywhere.

Well, now I'm summoning tons of fire guys with Rhuax Pact. Hopefully that'll help a lot.

I scried the Hinnom capital:

Unrest: 144, Income 42, Resources 197, Defence 25, Tax 50

"The province contains 51 hostile units. The army consists of mainly Dawn Guards and Ammis. The army appears to be commanded by Bileth the Melqart who radiates power. THe local defence of this province appears to be exceptionally strong and well organized. There is a Tel City located here. The Tel City must be sieged and conquered if we are to take full control of this province."

Talking of Murdering Winter, can anyone cast Heat from Hell yet? ^_^

Murdering Winter was cast by Atlantis, no one else has that much of water gems.
And they are casting it for 20% less as one of the spec sites on the map (ISTR which one) is such.

OTOH Fomoria and Sauromatia ignoring this forum hurts a lot.
Got beaten by a PD of 30 from Hinnom and 3 Melqarts. His diseased one is finally dead at last though.

That 100-ish Caelum army in 170, I will try spoiling attack on them with an indie commander.