First turn played. Log later when I think of a new motif. Good luck Morgul. But not too much luck, I hope.

james.

The bwitch, day 1

OK OK... a quest, some cryptas... strange artifacts... and worst of all - a lion!
Guess well need to sort out how to tackle things now in the most economical way before this Steppe-barbarians cross our ways!
It was a good start with several goodies and unfortunatetly also one loss that could have been avoided with a slightly better planning...
Weīll see what the future brings!

TS

good game James! I wish you a sensational outstanding second place

Aslan, Day 1

From the diary of Phineas Barnes, Second Adjunct to the High Temple of Aslan.

Aslan. People from all corners of Narnia revere the name. Hah, if only they knew the truth. A fat, bloated maniac in a lion costume. Thinks he’s a God. Bah, its all a scam, an excuse for him and his thugs to take anything they want and rule all according to his ‘divine’ will. Never mind the Halflings that go missing all the time. Do you want to know where they went? He ATE them! He’s a glutton. He sits on his throne day in, day out, prophesising, laying out decrees, and an army of toadies laps it all up like it was cream. From purely self-serving laws (thou shalt not question the disappearance of hobbits) to insane drivel (the emperor of the sacred isle shall deliver us a fleet of maroon swans), he rambles on.

Except now that’s all changed. Because SHE is back. The witch. We are forbidden from speaking of it, but she leads a resistance to this theocracy. It has begun in the east, where his hold is weakest. So important is it, that he himself has taken up the command of his armies. Squeezed his fat, tawny hide into some armour. Quite a sight he is. My hope is that the witch will deliver us. She uses the magic of ice to freeze his soldiers.

But we cannot be certain. Already, the reports come in to the temple. Mines, resources, items taken in his ‘holy’ name. Aslan has a plan, that is sure. For behind the madness lies an unquenchable lust for power and a determination to preserve it at all costs. He will shake these lands from sleep, conscript an army. Some will be happy to join for the opportunity war affords for loot. Or blood. Not all creatures of Narnia are cute, friendly beavers and fauns. The dwarves certainly will follow him. Always his staunchest allies, provided there was gold to be had, of course. Yes, it seems certain that the days shall darken before they brighten. The only question is, how long until the light comes through?

Witch, day 2

some battles were fought - nothing specials so.
not sure yet which hex Iīm gonna put on that darn Lion but it will be nasty!!
heheheheeeeeeeeeeeeee

TS

Rich witch, day 3

so much gold and so little to buy
Maybe we should keep the gold to buy an appropriate cage for our cute lion after we caught, froze and finally defrosted it again...

Today he sent me a note, saying: 'roar'.
Iīm impressed.
I subsequently doubled my virtually non-exiting defenses - clever mathematicians can estimate how many those are now.

On various fronts my innumerable forces took out many towns, gold mountains, mana-pools and production resources will soon follow.

Iīll take a swim now! first in ice-water, then in mana and afterwards in gold (who knows how long I have it...?)

TS

Aslan, Days 2-3

Yeah, yeah yeah. Hail the divine Aslan, conquering lion of the lands of Narnia. Listen, the reason I chose to meet in the holy archives is cuz noone ever comes down here. I don't know why you come to listen to all the dirt on ol' Mr Kitty, but feel the need to use formal religious greetings like that.

Anyways, as I was saying before, I work as an assistant in the copy room. Bunch of us junior monks copy out decrees, messages, etc. Ever since the war started, most of our work is in transcribing communiques between his holiness and that mouse of his that's second in command. Can't remember his name. Kokor Mendess, or something like that. Anyways, no good news yet. The war goes in the old cat's favour. The local lands are being conscripted into the war effort. That doesn't just mean troops, either. The 'great and holy' Aslan puts the whole population to work. Mills, mines, towns, all have special new priests installed to monitor the people's devotion. Incidentally, devotion these days is measured by how much gold, grain, weapons and able bodied fighters you supply to the war priests.

Word is that the mouse recruited a powerful dwarven ally the other day. Where else but Narnia could the command of an entire army be given over to a mouse with a rapier and a serious chip on his shoulder. Anyways, word is, he's doing good and has already secured the allegiance of the elves, picking up a ton of apparently unwanted gold, mana and resources along the way. Unwanted were his own words, but you can bet blood was shed for such contributions to the war.

One thing you've got to say about Narnia, we put together interesting armies. No masses all of elves or humans, marching in formation. No, we're much more multicultural. A few dwarves here, some hobbits there, and of course, talking mice and other animals sprinkled liberally throughout. Ours is such a diverse population, Aslan has used this to pit various groups against one another. Like he'll get the pixies all riled up about Satyr grazing rights and let slip to the Satyrs how much of the holy collection money goes to supplies of pixie dust. Distracts them all from the theocratic dictatorship we all live under. Oh please, Ms. Witch, liberate us from this madman!

PS. if anyone is reading this, I'd like to point out that noone has yet attempted to answer the latest Fantasy Trivia question in my signature line. C'mon, its like a game within a game! Or maybe my questions are just too hard...

[This message has been edited by JamesEde (edited 11-13-2009 @ 01:13 AM).]

big hulking stitched up brute

Anyhow, keep up those logs, jamesede, keep up those logs!

argh - made a silly mistake today - pressed wrong button, autocombat, the worst thing that can happen in pbem fortunately it happened only in a minor battle but anyway stupid, damn!

witch, day 4

things are going fine generally apart from the a cerain loss today that I canīt really explain how it happened ...
At least all other things went as planned and we even saw the first flying and swimming lion-armies approaching us, without doubt carrying banners of peace or capitulation.
(they wonīt try to steal our resources eventually, will they?? no, that canīt be an option!)

whatever the case, precautions have been taken and more will follow.

TS

Aslan, Day 4

Shhh, keep it down. That was the Chief Bishop of the Inquisition that just passed by. You DO NOT want him to know we have these little 'chats'. They have a different name for them. Heresy. And heretics don't just get killed, you know. They must be purified by pain first.

Anyways, little to report today. The cat himself took a dwarf town. I was surprised the beardlings put up a fight, given how willing to join him in the past they've been. Perhaps Aslan's hold is slipping now that the Witch has returned. The mouse cleared a magical garden, slaughtering the inhabitants. But I guess they put a curse on the treasure, because the item he picked up that supposedly granted healing, defense and resistance bonuses, only gives the healing. Obviously defective.

Meanwhile, the infidels that the church soldiers were dispatched to kill remain firmly entrenched on a water node, allied with the local water elemental. And there is insufficient troops in the area to take them out. Some humans guarding a shipyard were killed. I even heard that they sacrificed one to Aslan. That kind of thing hasn't been done in years, not since the early days when the cat was establishing his rule. He promised he would show mercy after Narnia accepted him. I guess he sees the return of the resistance as a betrayal, so all manner of horrors can be inflicted upon the people again. How many more will feel the knife and fire before we are rid of this tyrant?

Congratulations to Albaron, who guessed correctly that the defining feature of an Athach is its third arm.

Witch, day 5

We switched of the lionīs light today - saving energy canīt be a bad thing in times like these...(think about our climate...!)
thereīs still that Zephir Bird of his but we canīt do much against it right now.

moneyīs becoming a problem already but solutions are at hand.
what is not at hand, is a plan yet.
as always.
Good thing that thereīs nothing like a plan to be expected from a silly lion either
sooner or later the beastīll get hungry and go out for a hunt.
But then beware of the prey Lion! Sometimes the hunter becomes the hunted...

TS

FANTASY TRIVIA!
I believe the answer for question 5 is Hawk the Slayer.
Never seen it, but the cover is awesome...

Aslan, Days 5-6

Psst. Come take a look at this. See this? Its a personal communique from the fat old cat himself. To his generals. Yeah, he's got two now. Prince Caspian, aka the Bloody Prince rode out of the south today with a company of riders, pledging allegiance to his holiness. Bad news for the witch, I fear. He cleared a crypt and some resources in his first day of service.

Anyways, listen to this:

(reads) "From his supreme Holiness, the Petrarch Aslan, to Prince Caspian and Kokor Heddes.

Be it advised that the foul goblin scum of that witch across the water have reached the island castle. We have dispatched them, but undoubtedly more shall return. A transportation infrastructure has been completed to rush our troops to the front, but we find that the morale (and volunteers) of some of our allies is waning. You are hereby authorised, either personally or by agents chosen by yourselves, to reinstate the ritual of the bloody claw. To demonstrate the seriousness of the situation, you are advised to begin with inmates from the local jails, but after that, begin selection of impious inhabitants of both the halfling and elven villages. Note that this rule is not to be applied to the dwarven village in the caverns, as we cannot risk alienating their support.

All glory to Aslan, and the Emperor of the Holy Isle." (finishes reading)

Pretty grim stuff, eh? Copied that from the scribery before it went out. Anyways, don't know what he's worried about. The war goes well over the past couple days. Between the three of them, Caspian, Kokor and the old cat himself, they've cleared nodes, mills, catalysts and lord knows what else. They finally hunted down those infidels. Got a pretty dwarf shirt out of the bargain. Loot is getting pretty scarce on this side of the river by now, so he'll be consolidating his armies for a push into the Witch's territory any day now. I think we should be extremely cautious about displaying our allegiances until we're sure how the situation will fall. Got to keep up appearances, especially now that they're looking for sacrificial victims. It's entirely possible that the Witch will fail, and we'll have to endure the old cat for the rest of his unnatural life. Gotta go now. No, I think I'll hold on to this copy until I can burn it. (sarcastically) All glory to Aslan!

Witch, day 6+7,

The witch was upset!
'Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!' she cried loud with a piercing terrible sound, making icicles drop from various roofs...(one hit a snow-trollīs head straight and broke the fools skull - good for him there was no brain anyway so the damage done was just physical...
But what made the witch so angry??
well, it seems that she had accumulted some agression during the past days due to several unbearable bad-luck happenstances...
some of her units were lost in unbelievable battles that went ultimately bad...
In addition to that, she saw today that this Lion obviously stole her portion of luck and his damned ranger took control of a powerful polar-bear with his last strength (one more little stroke of the beast and the darn fool would be history now but obvisouly, the bear was sick of guarding that magic vault and decided it was the better option to follow this human instead.
How unfortunate...
Fortunately for those around her, also some good news were reported today!
Another great hero joind the cause with 4 mighty riders and they were greeted by Aslanīs Zephir bird. They didnīt care much about the creature knowing that it would not last much longer anyway and watched it flying to the village with a huge sack of gold to buy the two riders guarding it...

But there was one special thing calmed her down mostly...
At least one of her many plans worked out well!
She relaxed somewhat, gave new instructions and smiled afterwards for the first time in several days.

The only thing left now was how to most efficiently turn on the lights again that the Lion switched off the day berfore..?!

TS

[This message has been edited by morgul666 (edited 11-17-2009 @ 04:10 AM).]

His Holiness, the God-King Aslan, Days 7-8

Its ok, you don't have to look so worried. This place is safe. The inquisitors are all out at the villages, anyways, intimidating the elves and hobbits into submission.

You were asking the other day about the four children? Well, there's a number of myths concerning them, so you might as well hear it from me. They try to keep it under wraps, but the older monks here at the Temple have passed it down to us. First of all, they weren't kids. They were all at least in their 30s. They weren't sent to help restore Aslan to power from another world, through a wardrobe, of all things! They were mercenaries hired by the old cat to engineer a coup against the Witch, who had temporarily managed to defeat the Lion cult and restore freedom to the many peoples of these lands. They gave the free peoples and animals of Narnia quite a reign of terror, as I understand. They especially went after the beavers, and would often use their pelts to make fancy hats. And they didn't magically return to their world after they were done driving off the witch. Aslan had them all assassinated. Then he started killing historians and scribes until they all got the picture and wrote a very beautiful story glorifying Aslan and setting these four up as mythical demi-gods. Then of course, there was a long period of violence and sacrifice to soften the people of Narnia up to Aslan's restored theocracy.

The fact that Aslan has considered resurrecting these four warriors should be a clear indication that even though he claims to practice only the life and fire magics, he is in fact allied with the dark arts, and is planning to raise their dead bodies as horrible wraiths in his war against the witch.

But it may not come to that, because from what I hear, the war is going very well. Just the other day, a ranger in his holy army, managed to gain control of not one, but two bears guarding spell vaults. Nearly killed himself in the process, I wonder if he would have done the same had he known that the inquisition now stalks the streets of his home village, dragging away to be sacrificed those deemed insufficiently devout to the church. In addition to the bears, the one vault contained Stone Skin, a very useful spell. Now, I fear, the holy armies will become unstoppable. And today, the news is that the bloody Prince Caspian has acquired the ability to trap and enslave all manner of living things. These are dark omens, for the old cat may now build a vast army for free. The invasion of the Witches lands has already begun...

[This message has been edited by JamesEde (edited 11-18-2009 @ 02:42 AM).]

Witch, day 10

(hurray, at least we made it till day ten - probably not much further... )

Well, the witch was clever enough to understand her situation which was all but dire.

It hit her hard to realize, that destiny seemed to have favored the Lionīs cause...and cursed some of her earlier battles with terrible, unbearable losses
But the witch had not yet abandoned all hope.
There was little hope left without doubt, especially after the most recent continuing of bad luck in battles and it was hard to fight the battle against resignation.

Then the one simple factor hit her hard again and gave her new hope: It was just a lion.
A lion...
How could she ever dare to think about a resignation when a lion was behind everything!
She prepared a seance.
The runes would show her the way now...

TS

Aslan, Days 9-10

Back again, eh? More dirt on the God-King of Narnia you want? Or perhaps info on the movement of his holy armies?

Well, you won't hear any good news from me. Which is to say that the news isn't bad, if you know what I mean. The old cat is squeezing in on the Witch, from both the south and the north. And the Witch herself has been spotted in a balloon looking to cross the center of the river. Caspian has taken the human town in the south, while Kokor has captured an orc town from the Witch in the north. The money that pours in from these settlements has gone into increasing the holy armies. The sighting of the witch in the balloon leads the bishops running the war to conclude she may be attempting a desperate invasion, so they've thrown new energy into securing the west side of the river.

Biggest news, however, and this is all strictly hearsay, but the biggest news is that Kokor found a second item belonging to the former mercenary known as Susan. Susan the impaler was known for her deadly accuracy with a bow, from what I've been told. As soon as Kokor picked it up, he made contact with the cat, who then ordered his ranger to perform the spell. The ranger sent one of his minions, however, perhaps being fearful of the death magics involved in such a resurrection. In any case, they say that the wraith has boarded the ship and will return to our side here to organize the defense against the witch. I only pray that she does not come to the temple, for I have no wish to look upon such a damned and undead creature.

witch, day 11

the end is drawing near...

TS

Aslan, Day 11

(Descending into the Temple dungeon):

Its OK, the guard knows me. We grew up in the same village, you know. I wanted you to see this. Come look through this slot.

Yeah, know who that is? Hard to tell, cuz the years of imprisonment have not been kind to him. His clothes aren't very red anymore. He's skinny as a rail, and is certainly not jolly anymore, but once upon a time, he could be found driving his sleigh around and handing out presents. Its Father Christmas. He was a noble elf, inspired by the liberation of Narnia under the Witch to give presents to all the children of Narnia. They say they were happy times then. But although he did not fight in the war against Aslan, he was nevertheless deemed an enemy of the Church. He has been in here ever since.

Anywasy, lets leave this place, its too depressing. He won't find freedom anytime soon, either. The war goes in the old cat's favour, or so go the reports. The holy armies advance slowly, and all resources are being poured into defence of our holdings on this side of the river. But today an impressive blow was landed against the Witch. The lowly dragonfly sent by the ranger to resurrect the mercernary Susan, left behind, neglected and overlooked by all, flew out of the crypt and sabotaged the Witch's baloon. Fortunately, or rather unfortunately for his holiness, she possesses the ability to freeze the water and cross that way. But certainly, this setback will seriously impair her invasion, should she still attempt it.

We shall not have many more of these meetings, I fear. The inquisition returns to the temple. The villages are no longer squeezed. They have been squeezed enough, it seems, and the old cat feels the war is soon to be won. Keep your head down, observe the rituals.

Hail the God-Emperor Aslan, conquering lion of Narnia!

ts

playing hide & seek

ts

Aslan, Days 12-13

Hail His Holiness Aslan, Conquering Lion of Narnia.

Yeah, I know, I said we didn't have to make such greetings. But things have changed. After this war is done, his grip will be even tighter on these lands. So best to get into the practice of devotion now, rather than risk a slip up later.

Here, read this. This is a copy of a message that just came through to Aslan himself.

"From his eminence the Prince Caspian to his Supreme Holiness Aslan,

My lord, we continue to advance into the Witch's territory, meeting no resistance. Today we sighted the ice city she has been using as a base. What we saw was important enough that I felt You must be told. The city appears almost entirely deserted. We spotted only one hero, which strangely enough is a large black humanoid cat, not unlike yourself. Obviously some form of demon conjured up by the foul witch to wreak confusion in the people's minds. I leave it to your supreme judgment, but I recommend that such a matter be kept under wraps for now. Of more importance strategically is the absence of the foul Miraz and his riders. We expected to see them defending the witch's capital. This, coupled with the absence of any of the witch's troops in her lands leads me to suspect they have gone underground and are preparing a sneak attack either on ourselves or on our homelands. I therefore respectfully advise defenses in the Dwarven town be strengthened. We shall proceed towards the capital and capture it. The ice vermin that serve the witch are capable of hiding in the snow, so I do not expect the city to be wholly defenseless, but am confident that we can defeat them. Kokor is nearby, traveling over the mountains by balloon, and will rendez-vous if necessary.

I remain, your most devout servant,

Caspian."

OK, now read this:

"From his Supreme Holiness, The God-King Aslan, Conquering Lion of Narnia.

To my blessed general Unnapu,

It is with divine pleasure that I read your last message detailing how the witch has taken refuge in the crypt of the Kings and Queens of Old. Though it displeases me to have her unholy presence defile the graves of my greatest servants, I take it as a sign that our war is almost over, that soon Narnia shall know peace and faith again. Though I would like nothing better than to retake the island, I must command you not to engage the followers she has left behind. Let that beast Maugrim and his followers pace their island prison. Let their foul witch rot in the tomb. She may crawl into Susan's grave if she wishes. No, you will instead travel back to our lands to assist the defense of the underground from what I feel to be an imminent attack. Take Susan with you, and all that can keep up. Travel fast. We must not let them break through.

Death to the infidels! Death to the heretics!"

Not good signs, eh? Reports are that the witch entered the crypts and had her minions stay behind to raze the teleporter entrance. A desperate move. Unless her forces can break through the cat's defenses, I fear she will be entombed there. So let us take a care to burn any incriminating scrolls. Noone must know that we ever supported her cause. We may continue to meet for a while longer, but at the conclusion of the war, I am going to request a transfer to the human village in the south. I want to be as far from this temple as possible.

Farewell, and be careful.

sigh, mistakes over mistakes

TS

Aslan, Days 14-15

Hello. This is Malik. I believe you knew a friend of mine, name of Phineas? He was a scribe here at the temple. Yeah, I haven't seen him either. (whispering) I'm somewhat worried, but I'm keeping it cool because I suspect the Inquisition may have nabbed him. Terrible, just terrible, I know.

(speaking more loudly) But I trust that Aslan's holy judgment will be fair and just. Well, yes, I suppose it is rather the priests who judge in such matters, isn't it? But they have been appointed by Aslan, and he would only select qualified people, I'm sure.

How goes the war you ask? Well, I hear things from the other scribes. Aslan is displeased. The heretics that follow the witch continue to fight even after she cowardly fled the battle. Just yesterday they captured our dwarven town, and killed not only a new general, but the fair Susan, who had so recently returned to us from the city of War Drobe in the land of Spar Oom. Of course, since Aslan is a god, such resistance is doomed to fail, and the guilty shall meet their justice in this world or the next. Already, armies converge on what remains of the insurrection, while others work to cut off these rebels from all income, so as to starve them into desertion.

Consider the following favourable reports: The transport that was attempting to deliver the beast Maugrim and his cohorts to our lands was sunk by the courageous daring of a flameboat crew, themselves deployed by an exhausted Kokor who rushed to the river. Yesterday a new hero in the form of an eagle joined the Holy Army, and now, only a day later, he has tasted first blood on one of his deluded species that had taken up arms against His Holiness.

Aslan shall not let the war go on much longer, I suspect, but does so only as a punishment to these lands, for their lack of faith and rebelliousness. We must all be sure to offer loudly our praises to Aslan, so that he shall see our devotion and deliver us from all harm! (just the teeniest hint of sarcasm, not enough to be detected by the dimwitted dwarven Inquisitorial guards nearby).

All hail the coming of the Third Glorious Holy Republic!

ts

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

THIS CANNOT BE TRUE !!!

Everything went acording to plan overnight, Kokor Hekes came down into the cavern, and then THIS!!!

4 units rebelled overnight!!

a spider queen, a beetle rider and two veteran blade-dancers that were concealed on the surface next to the cave...

Together with the new produced Mole we would have had a fair chance to kill Kokor and thus, possibly turn the tables with two super-UBER-heroes afterwards (with all of Kokorīs items) ...

DAMN IT!

So, with the 4 units not being available for the battle, Kokor survived our desperate attack wounded with two heavily wounded bears and one other unit left on his side...
Iīm wondering would the outcome would have been with the a.m. 4 units, damn it again!

-----------------------------
Game over – Obviously, thereīs ne resistance left – I surrender ...
Good game James Ede! Congratulations, you always had the upper hand in this game! You deserved the victory although the game was (at least to me) more exciting throughout the whole time as it might have appeared to the audience (well, I couldnīt write any logs anymore due to the high level of secrecy I had to keep in the end...)
------------------------------

Allow me to summarize a few things about this game, Iīll feel better afterwards after I wrote them down

First of all, it was pretty clear to me that James must have been quite well prepared for this match, itīs obvious, that he must have planned his early moves till day 6 or so given how perfectly his two generals stood suddenly in the north and south of my area with strong stacks.

Good plan. But I had also a plan (yes this time I had one!)
And believe it or not – it was quite similar to Timelords plan with the exception that he executed it successful...(and a bit different)

Let me summarize as short as possible what my strategy was and why I think it didnīt work in the end (although James worked PERFECTLY!! into this plan...

I sent my three starting Concealment units (Spy, blade-dancer and Mahartisdfkjaskjhai (the female warrior with double strike and throwing knife ) straight and fast to the north to the recruitment site beside the northern bride which held many more nice concealment units.
I picked up three more concealment units in the refuge camp in between so on day 3, five Powerful concealment units arrived at the rec-site (the 6th unit - the Mahartisdfkjaskjhai - was a bit behind).
The plan was to recruit two more powerful conceal-units and then swiftly move in the underground with a deadly concealment 8-stack moving straight forward to the lionīs capitol while the rest of my army was mere entertainment for his merauding armies (and of course they had to take structures and find the artifacts...)

Then it happend...

I built the fight against the Recruitment-site-guards in the map-editor, saved the new map and started a game on it, doing this vital fight 5 times! I never lost one unit..
Confident, I loaded the turn ...
AND PRESSED AUTOCOMBAT BY MISTAKE !!!!!

With one moment of carelessness, I baffled my own plan!
I lost in autocombat the spy and the little paralyze-poison-dart-goblin...
But even worse was that my assassination-stack was now too small to be effective.
It took me now 4 days instead of 2 to have a full 8-stack which was much to long in such a brutal fast game.

Without this error, I could have sent a fully concealed 8-stack in turn 5 into the caves. They would have approached the tunnel exit next to Lionīs Capitol arround day 12 or so at the latest.
I had another squad which made sure to get the underground town as fast as possible to be able to produce beetle riders.
(I forgot that one was spawned on day 6 )

I had indeed the town very soon (day 4 or 5) and produced the first beetle rider on day 6 when the other was spawned. Thus, the way would have been open for the assassin-stack.

In addition to that horrible mistake, I made other silly mistakes in the early game which cost me valuable powerful Level 3īs and the northern glow.

I soon felt that I made too many mistakes against such a strong opponent and that only a miracle would help me now...

Then the game became again a bit exciting for me, because James didnīt move many of his strong units back. Probably he guessed I had strong defence in my capitol.
I had none

The plan had always been to make him believe I was defending but I was not – I sold many many buildings throughout the game in all towns and had always loads of money.

Later, I sent Maugrim, the Queen and all her strong units in the balloon on the island, luring his strong stacks to the island.
He came as anticipated and when he was close enough, the queen stepped through the teleport and her consorts razed the teleporter behind her, sealing the entry to the tomb.
The ballon was placed a bait on the island without defenses – and the lion took the bait and destroyed it, feeling save that my (all not-swimming) units were doomed on the island.
A mistake which might had cost him dearly had I not done my second silliest mistake in this game. I made a surprising clever move by sending a beetle rider on the surface to buy a boat,
Sent the boat to the island, Maugrim and consorts embarged and sailed north to the lions lands.
Had they arrived, then the Lion would have been in dire trouble. But my silly mistake was, to forget that he could also reach the recruitment site and buy a simply flame boat to sink my vessel and thus, destroy Maugrim and all the Level 3īs ...
I should have sent them on my own shores instead. There they wouldnīt have helped invading his lands but could have kept him busy on my side...


I was nonetheless quite sucessful to act in the underground and put him a bit under pressure because he had simply still too many of his armies in my deserted area – useless.

Miraz – whom I had teleported all artifacts of (apparently) doomed Maugrim, killed the Queen of old and another hero and some units and thus, James had just one and a half powerful stacks left in his lands to prevent me from moving against his capitol with all I had left...
(which was not as little as he might have thought...)

I donīt know what would have awaited me in the capitol then. Maybe he had meanwhile build up so strong defences that I would have never had a chance to beat him but with two Uber-heros with both having double strike, extra strike, first strike, huge defense and other values thanks to Kokorīs items ...
I donīt know...

I doesnīt matter anymore.

The game is over and James has earned to win!

I wish all contestants a nice ongoing tourney and I hope to be able to participate next year again and to maybe reach again the quarter finals

Final note:
Now that he has beaten me anyway I hope, JamesEde will win the tourney for one simple reason: I love it when underdogs win
With three Titans left - none of which would be a surprisingly winner - it would be great to see an underdog (and I believe the James is a bit of an underdog compared to the the other three...) being victorious in the end!

Weīll see!

Finally, those desertions kicked in. I always try to cut off my enemy's income and trigger desertion, but it always takes so friggin long!

Probably from the logs people couldn't tell just how tense this game became for me at the end. I was too busy storytelling, and my story had progressed to one where noone on the lion's side was going to question the inevitability of the victory of the God for fear of the inquisition (always when a regime is tottering, the state will crack down all the harder). And of course, as Morgul said, he had to keep his plans secret.

Incidentally, I could see the bladedancers and spider/beetle stacks on my last turn, but was actually more concerned that the two of them combined would be enough to take my capital with my wizard in it. So i did a funny move. I cast water walking on him and sent him to stand in a puddle, knowing there was no way for you to dispell it with your wizard locked up. I was sort of hoping that Kokor and his stack would be pull through.

Thanks Morgul, you gave me the most fearful game of the tournament so far, especially when I realized those stacks weren't defending your capital and were in fact coming at me through the underground and elsewhere. It was sheer luck that I was able to sink your boat, and admittedly, when your wizard hid in the crypts, I got overconfident. I won this by the skin of my teeth. Funny, everyone was so sure I was going to win, even after two of the other games had incredible sneaky comeback strategies. Almost a third, but I got lucky.

Good game.

Ladies and gentlemen, TNS reporting live from the scene! We seemed to have been misled by this game, that appeared to be a thriller until the very end!

Gentlemen, can we expect some screenshots?

Morgul666, its seems you must have quite a headache by now! How do you look back at the tournament as a whole?
And also, what characteristics would an 'improved' Morgul666 have in a subsequent tournament?

JamesEde, congratulations with your victory, and magnificent logs! It seems there was quite some sweating involved behind the scenes... Are there things you have learned from this game you will take to your next? Also, do you look forward to your match against Costa?

the desertions came completely as a surprise
I had still positive income and all units had high moral the day before
something must have happened overnight - possibly an alignment change to good which led to the disastrous desertions

The Wizard on the water would indeed have been a problem for the first instant. Donīt know how I would have approached this problem - maybe somehow trying to get my Queen there with her path of frost feature...

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Man yes, thereīs quite a headache indeed
knowing now that there werenīt any defenses in his capitol makes it even worse but fortunately, painkillers help
The tourney was great for me obviously. I had quite an easy walkthrough in the first round with three newbys and unfortunately I could only play one of these games to the end, one disappeared and one had to be decided by judges.
The game against Oleg was a tough one because I concentrated too much on one single town and he put me under pressure there, luckily making some vital mistakes leading to my victory.

This game here was by far the most exciting one for I love it to play unpredictable.

If I have the time to participate next year you probably wonīt see a much changed Morgul apart from one thing: Iīll take my time when it comes to pushing buttons ...

congratulations with your victory, jamesede!

What have I learned from this game? Keep things more balanced between defense and offense, especially if its a map that has multiple ways to get to the other side. I really should look into the editor more thoroughly than I've been doing. Both Caspian and the Mole units joining surprised me. I pumped alot of money and time into that dwarf city to build a champ guild and get a mole, when I could have sat back and waited. Above all, be prepared for a rush.

Do I look forward to my game with costa? No. I don't like stressful situations. I have so far been lucky. Only the last few turns from this past game have been stressful for me. But since this is the semi-finals, I am sure that the difficulty will be much harder than before. So its going to be one of those situations where I cringe as I open the latest turn, expecting to see "Costa won against JamesEde" and watch a replay where my units fall all over each other in their rush to die. I'm sweating right now just thinking about it.

On the other hand, its a chance to develop a new story. I've impersonated Conrad Black, an old nomad woman, gangsters and now done a revisionist reading of Narnia. I hope I don't have writers block, gotta come up with a new motif.

Almost forgot to congratulate costa for his correct answer to fantasy trivia. The cover may look good, but trust me, this is one bad movie.

Question #6: Name all Narnia books in chronological order according to the events in them.

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The Magician's Nephew
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
The Horse and His Boy*
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle

* The Horse and His Boy occurs after the main events of The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe, but before the end where the children go home.