Merlin :

The enemy Unicorn was trying to escape from Jasfar, but thanks to his new Ring of Haste, he could kill it!
Belendor has now joined friendly Orcs. Now he's ready to fight that Steam Tank!

Ts

Merlin, Day 29 :

Arthur is sending and producing lots of units to his western villages, in order to protect them.
In the east, I think the fight between Belendor and the Steam Tank is for soon.

Ts

Your mailbox is anavailable.
I've sent you the turn a few times, but it keeps bouncing back.

This is strange, because it's almost empty!
Try again, and if it still doesn't work, try the second mail adress.

I'll try this evening.

Merlin, Day 30 :

I thought the enemy made a mistake, but it was a trap!
He placed his 2 Manticores in Mountains near a Watch Tower. I moved some shooters there and then attacked with an Air Elemental. But of course ... only the Air Elemental could attack! He fought bravely ... and killed one ... but 2 was too many.
Anyway, the last Manticore was seriously wounded, so I decided to try again with a Yeti! Only 1 hit would have killed the animal ... but the Manticore hit my unit twice and avoided my 2 strikes before I fled. Really lucky Manticore today.
Not so bad, after all ... that Manticore will have to heal itself for several days before coming back again, while my Yeti has regeneration!

But the other surprise was about the Steam Tank : He didn't attack Belendor, as I think he could have won that fight.
This gives me the time to produce more troops in that area.

Ts

Merlin, Day 31 :

Imprudence!
The enemy surely thought I was too far to attack his Halfling village! But I was just close enough!
Now the Steam Tank has a important decision to take.

Also ... it seems that Arthur is producing a lot of Manticores in his capital! And at top speed!
Anyway, that wounded manticore stayed near my Yeti, so I attacked again today. But luck is definitely with that animal, as it survived again, with 1 hit point! I don't understand why my unit fled before my wizard cast at least 1 spell...

Ts

Merlin, Day 32 :

In the north, Jafsar is now near the human village of Lorderon. Some of Arthur's troops are garrison there.
So Jafsar gives them an ultimatum : stay in the village and burn, or surrender!

The lucky Manticore has decided to move away to get healed, while the Steam Tank comes back to the Halfling village. As he is too strong for my larvae, I raze the village before moving away.

Ts

Merlin, Day 32 :

Ho-hoo... The Steam Tank is moving West, while the Manticores have disappeared!
I'm sure Arthur is planning something.

In the north, it seems they prefer stay and burn.
Well ... soon, we will free them from that hell!

Ts

Merlin, Day 34 :

Jafsar couldn't wait anymore!
A few reinforcement arrived, so he decided to attack the burning human village.

We can say this is a total victory!
Almost no losses!

In the south, the Steam Tank was too greedy : he attacked the 3 indies, but the Balista and the 2 crossbowmen had the initiative : Artur didn't lose any unit, but his canon was heavily damaged and one Mystic almost dead.
I couldn't let Artur gather all his forces in that area, so I took my chance and attacked the Steam Tank.
Victory for my troops, but I think they will pay for that...

Ts

Merlin, Day 35 :

Another productive day for my army. Belendor sees that the human village is defended by some little weak units. So he decides to attack!
Victory and another village is now mine, but the defenders concentrate on my Air Elemental and manage to kill it during the first round.

In the north, Jafsar continues his way. He now sees 2 villages : a Frostling one, and a Nomad one. He smiles as he knows he's probably going to set fire to those Frosties!

I wonder what my enemy is planning ?
In order to prevent some nasty surprise attack directly against my capital, I've decided to produce a stronger defense there.

ts

Merlin, Day 36 :

The village of Taheyra resisted to Arthur!
My Doom Bats were wonderful!
So today, fast units were sent to kill the lasts units of Arthur in that area.

The raid was a real succes!

Meanwhile, in the north, Jafsar is moving slowly. Indeed, 5 silver medal Manticores are waiting in the Nomad town!
And I can see 6 little Frostlings in the north village, but maybe there are a lot more concealed units in the center of the village.
Moving closer.

Ts.

Merlin, Day 37 :

Jafsar and his party attacked the 5 Manticores! 3 little frosties and 1 priest tried to help them, but my army was really too strong for them.

Ts

Well, I played rather poorly this game.
And you played very well
You have a achieved a just victory.
To save us time I will surrender.

Thanks for the game.
Would you like a rematch?

Hi,

Thanks for your surrender.
I was afraid that maybe a strong stack with concealment was somewhere near my capital. Because having units with True Seeing doesn't mean you always see them! But if not, well, I think there was nothing to do : I own 3/4 of the map.

You said you played poorly ... well ... I would say I was really lucky on this one : just look at the number of Heroes that offered to join me!
And about the spells! Not so lucky about "unit enchantment spells", but with that Air Elemental spell. That unit has been nerfed ... but with its physical protection, it's still a really valuable level3!

Something I never understood : it's about our first big battle, Taberu's army against Jafsar's army. Before the battle, when they were facing each other, something that I was afraid of was being forced to attack. And I thought that with your explorer skill, you could outrun most of the units that were with my Hero and then destroy everything in my realm. Because in the game, it seemed you were waiting for me to attack you ... and I did, but after more strong units (Brain, Mystic,...) arrived!

This was probably "the" mistake. On the other hand, you didn't use your Steam Tank quite well : it did nothing at all...

Another thing was about the skills. I chose Scholar and Summoner. Well, I don't know if being a summoner may force the summon spells to come quickly in the research spell book, but I had the possibility to learn Air Elemental really soon in the game. But I think Explorer is a skill that you should always have on this map. And indeed, I researched it. About the negative skill ... well ... Anarchist is clearly a wrong decision, and I didn't want to kill lots of enemies to get a silver medal. But I don't know if this was a really good idea, althought I think I was never low on gold. But if you chose Pacifist, you almost have to build shrines of war ... and on duels, I always think it's a waste of time. But this map is not small ... so maybe it's the best choice.

Anyway, yes, I agree we play a rematch.
On the same map ? If so, I would probably chose another race.

[This message has been edited by Chascal (edited 01-22-2004 @ 09:35 AM).]

Well,

thanks for the summary ( and kind words...).
I made some poor decisions and half hearted moves.
I'll try and give a better run for it at our rematch

Would you mind setting up the rematch?
If it's a problem for you, I can do that sometime next week.

Yes I can set up the rematch, probably this week-end.

This time, I won't forget to give us the right starting units! And to set the first town on the same race we choose!

On this map, I think the best races are the neutral ones. Because with them, you can have good and evil units, and they won't desert if you build stacks of "Evil + Neutral units" or "Good + Neutral units".

But you may want to pick a good race or an evil one. If so, I shouldn't take a neutral one.

Because I want to try the Nomads this time. And probably take Scholar, Pacifist and Explorer. Also being an Earth Specialist.

BTW, you didn't tell me what you did to have your Steam Tank. Quest Reward ?

What do you choose ?
And do we switch sides ?

I would like to take the Dark elves, explorer, summoner, pacifist and a 3 air 3 death spheres.

If you prefer neutral races I'll take dracos, explorer, summoner, pacifist and air specialist.

I do not car either way about starting position, your call.
The steam tank?- guess I was just lucky. It was for hire at some merc recruit location.

It's not really that I prefer neutral vs neutral.

If it's okay for you to play Dark Elves vs Nomads, then I will set up the game with these races. But I want to be sure that you know you'll probably have a disadvantage.
If you meet a Dwarven Town, they will never be happy if you have the Dark Elves. While with the Nomads, I can meet both Evil and Good races and have them "content".

Just tell me you're fine with that.
Then I will set the game : we will have as starting army the 3 differents level 1 units, the 2 different level 2 units and the first level 3 unit of our race.
The closest city will also be of our race.

I propose that we switch sides, and that you play first this time.

As soon as you've answered if you agree with the races, I will send you the first turn.

On this map neutrals have too much of an advantage so if you take nomads I'll take dracos, explorer, summoner, pacifist and air specialist.