DaveV talks like a pirate, me hearties!

[DaveV]

Still nothing happening on the Ellimist front. I'm keeping a close eye on his tech; I'm guessing Priesthood or Sorcery will be his trigger to attack.



I met Bob, but not Aurorarcher. I should meet him and fill up my dance card next turn.

[DaveV]

Turn 108, wherein I am disgusted with my fellow players.

Ellimist has pretty much his whole army lined up against me:



While three people are feeding him commerce:



In their efforts to box me in, they've left so much empty space that the barbs are still building cities:



Oh, and Ellimist just finished Sorcery. Good bye, cruel world. And good riddance.

[DaveV]

Turn 109, in which I go for broke.



Ellimist had rolled a couple adepts into his fort. I figured I'd never get a better chance to do some damage, so:




Leaving this situation:



I had very bad luck with the catapults (lost four out of seven despite 80+% retreat odds), but quite good luck with the hitters (as you can tell from the high XP on some of the units). Ellimist has at least four more adepts/mages and may well wipe me out now, but that was going to happen anyway if I sat around waiting for it.

[Old Harry]

I was going to say until I saw what he has in reserve. let's hope you get a chance to use all those xp you just earned...

[DaveV]

As feared, Ellimist wiped my stack.






And is now poised to sweep into my territory.

[Brian Shanahan]

Bill Paxton moment then?

Sorry I didn't contribute more to the game, your strategy seemed to be sound enough until everybody forgot to realise how strong Ellimist was getting.

[Old Harry]

Confused - what are all those spells?

[DaveV]

Confused - what are all those spells?

Rust, almost certainly. Rolls twice against each unit, once to remove metal weapon promotion, once to add the Rusted promotion which gives -10% strength. Each unit may receive one, both, or neither effect.

[DaveV]

Turn 111 opens with Ellimist offering, in succession, a peace treaty and a cease fire. No, thanks.

Once I'm past the diplo screens, I see my first lost city:



He's obviously confident enough of rolling over me to keep the city. And why not? He has a mage now, and is working on promoting some more of them. I count 12 skeletons, so he's pretty well stocked with casters.





And my guys celebrate the first defensive kill of an actual Balseraph unit   .

Ellimist has lost most of his trading partners. Except Bob. Come on, Bob, I know you and Ellimist are buddies, but .

[DaveV]

Here's what I perceive my role to be in this game: