[SPOILERS] Iskender and the Sidar

[Mardoc]

I like that circle of horse archers .

[DaveV]

I like that circle of horse archers .

+1. How much fiddling around did it take you to get them all facing in the right direction?

[Iskender]

I put them in a circle and then figuring that each HA has move left I moved them counter-clockwise and voila

[Tasunke]

By the way. Did you wane the Aeron's Chosen unit? What happened to that guy.

[Iskender]

Still alive and kicking. He's in the main stack with some 40xp.

[Iskender]

T195:

SL can attack me next turn. He moved Chalid & Co a couple of tiles west. I withdrew my stack and divided it in two:



The idea is to let one half of the stack absorb Pillar of Fire and make a counterattack with the other. Though getting Chalid close enough to either half-stack will be tricky due to some pillaging and scorching I've done and also several 85% withdraw HA left along the way.


SL might decide to hit this little grup instead:



That's a Shade that couldn't make it in time to Sidarland along with its entourage.


There are also the guerilla DS:



They can reach Steinvik with some effort.


Military advisor:

[Iskender]

I don't like Rathas.

SL blinded my DS stack. This includes its eyes and legs - the hawk and the haste casting adept. I killed both rathas that did the blinding (losing one DS) and then used DS to scout around (leaving their souls at home).




There weren't enough unblinded DSs to hit Hexam so I attacked the two warriors to the west. One withdrew and the other won (my odds about 70%). I promoted one DS with C1+guerilla (should've done it a turn ago) and left the stack there.


In the great grass sea SL killed a couple of my Horse Archers and withdrawn to Ithralia. I hate Rathas. Even though I have 2-3 times more military than SL I can't use it. If I moved a stack anywhere near Chalid it'd be immediately blinded and PoF'd. This is what I did:



The 10 HA and 4 HA have all Flanking II (85% withdraw). Even if SL hits the main stack with PoF he might find it difficult to make follow-up hits, having to wade through the HA first. PoF damage (w/o a followup) should be absorbed nicely - I've cast Regenerate and Courage on both the stack and the HA, making them regenerate 40% (or 50%) health at the beginning of my next turn. The worst thing SL can do is either somehow get through the 10 HA and hit the stack, or PoF the Horse Archers and try to finish them off with Rathas (won't be easy though - they'll keep withdrawing even if blinded).

If the stack survives, Ithralia will be in range of its 4-movers (HA, Assassins including Rathus and the Aeron's Chosen. Though if it comes to attacking Luchuirp cities I have a better idea:



The stack in Oop Be Gone consists mainly of low-xp Ghosts, Ritualists and some tigers. Still, If SL doesn't reinforce Earthsea he might lose the city.

[Iskender]

T197:

All 10 meatshield HA were killed by SL's Rathas. I thought at least some of HA would withdraw. Gotta check if being blinded doesn't actually prevent withdrawal. SL got through and blinded the stack leaving only Rathus Denmora mobile.

It was enough. Rathus Denmora rejoined with his blade and:



Chalid fell. We agreed with Square Leg on chat that [SIZE="6"]this ends PBEM5[/SIZE]


Thank you guys. It's been an awesome game, almost 200-turn long but I enjoyed every single turn of it (especially at war, which for the Sidar was almost the entire second half of the game).

Some screenshots from the last turn:


The forces of Darkness triumph:

Sidar one-city economy:

Screw gold mining - these 29 specialists trade derivatives with a three-figure leverage ratio. That made the cash flow!


Graphs:

It' most visible on the power graph - the three eras: first the Balseraph, then the Clan's and finally the Sidar.


Demographics:

Top 5 cities:

Units killed:

Units lost:

And the bird's eye view of mutilated Erebus:

Once again, GG. Thank you Sareln, Bob, Serdoa, Tredje, Mardoc and Square Leg for playing, my ded lurkers Mr. Yellow and TheBagelProblem for words of advice and the lurkers for commenting and lurking.

Now off to get myself spoiled.

[Mardoc]

Congratulations! Thanks for the good show.

[Mr. Yellow]

Congratulations on your victory Iskender!

Sorry if i couldn't be of any help in the latter half of the game (well most of it), but you seemed to do pretty well and i had nothing to really say/add about it.

Again, congratulations!