That was very useful, thank you.

The Council would like to throw a feast at the occasion of the 65th birthday of the honored scholar and independent researcher Dagan, who unfortunately lost his voice due to a prolonged illness. Although mute, he keeps on writing tirelessly despite his advancing years, and his books like "Evocations and Invocations", "Demonology for dummies", and "Astral travel in three simple steps" remain influential in academic circles of Gehenna.

Furthermore, a new castle with museum of the Yomi culture will be opened in the Yomi province to commemorate the heroic last stand of the Yomi people. As previously stated, the Council spares no expense in an effort to preserve the cultural diversity of our ever-growing empire, though the building costs are expected to be at least partially covered by the admittance fees and castle inns and taverns offering the finest longing to pilgrims from far and near. Tours are available daily (except on Sabbaths, of course), with four-colored papyrus informational leaflets available for purchase onsite. 

I have not used communions. I would expect the info card you get when you click on the mage on the battle screen to show the increased magic paths.

Kamazura, that's hilarious.

We last few men of Abysia can only hope that Marverni will be so kind as to do the same for us as you have done for Yomi.  But I have a feeling that the informational leaflets will be in black and white, at best.

Emerson - yeah, my scouts have spotted the elephant stacked at your gates. What can I say - unless you have a Mad Elephant Disease vial stashed somewhere, you have a hard battle ahead of you.

I know Abyssia has their Salamander Trainer who has animal awe and I've heard of him being used against elephants, but I never personally tried that myself.

Now you tell me!  I pretty much assumed those guys were overpriced and mostly worthless, since they can only command a small number of magical beings, and they're neither magical themselves (like mages, who can also command magical beings) nor are they as good fighters as Abysia's normal commanders and/or assassins.  I guess I didn't look closely enough at their other abilities.  That said, the Salamanders themselves - who those guys are supposed to "train" - cost 60 gold each and have little (no?) protection, making them paper cannons.  They're not useless, but in the early game they're a bit of a luxury for a nation that struggles to afford its rank-and-file troops to begin with.

So actually, I don't know that trying to recruit more salamander trainers would have made that much of a difference, in the end.  Couldn't have hurt, but defeat was probably inevitable once Marverni deployed his elephants-overruning-province-defense strategy.  Either way, you live and learn... Next time I'm Abysia-ing against elephants, a different tactic will be tried.

Well, elephants are really effective early troops, with two major weaknesses - low morale, and vulnerability to arrows - they have low protection and are really hard to miss. Also elemental magic does wonders.

And their only strength comes from the trample ability. But when you have units of their size, and fight them normally, their stats really suck. They are just scared, oversized meatballs.

Yeah, their low morale is why I think the Salamander trainer can be useful.  They have Animal Awe +4 and an elephant has 9 morale (8 morale if fighting in your dominion)

So, with that in mind, the trainer has a 85.8% chance to awe an elephant in your dominion.  If it's in enemy dominion, it's down to 76.3%, and finally, if it's been sermon of couraged (h2 priest spell) in enemy dominion, 62.4%.  

Either way, on paper it should be quite effective, but the big downside is that you're using those limited commander recruitment slots for a very specialized purpose.

Hey all, In two days I'm leaving for a few weeks of vacation, so I may need a replacement for Arcoscephale. I may not though, as it looks like I only have a few turns left before Ti'en Ch'i wipes me out.

Would anyone reading be interested in taking over Arco, if needed? You would be playing what seems to be a losing position. As such, your task might be to inflict as much damage on Arco's enemies as possible before dying, unless things can be somehow turned around.

I will create a post in the official forums asking for a substitute.

However, with all respect, two days is not a whole lot of time to find a replacement, louist. It's also good to mention such thing before the game (like "I have only 2 weeks and then I have to leave"). You must have known the game will be longer.

Going by the score table, I wouldn't call it a losing position.

http://www.llamaserver.net/showScores.cgi?game=Elementalists

Only six territories, but three of them are fortresses. More research than most of us combined. Middling income, dominion and army size.

At the very least, it does not seem like they will be destroyed in the next two days... so a replacement is definitely going to be needed.

I am interested.

I think Michael has volunteered.....

Heh, considering I've been sending my few remaining gems Arcos's way, I'd be willing to go into exile there, so to speak.

Of course, Michael (or anyone else, really), should have first dibs on replacing Louist, but if all else fails, the once proud rulers of Abysia are experienced in defeat.

I will let you guys handle it over PMs. Louist can choose who he wants for a sub, if it does come to that. He can fill that person in on the situation.

With the research, it does seem like he might be able to turn things around. I do not know the total situation, though.

Your short notice is also my short notice, I'm afraid. The vacation was sprung on me last night. Our engaged friends have now become our eloping friends, and I couldn't turn down a trip to Los Vegas.

I do apologize, however.

Micheal spoke first, and he's free to take over. That said, Ti'en Ch'i has already taken half my territory, and I'm scrambling hard to raise some sort of resistance. I can't promise it will be a long substitution.

Edit: Research is my only strong point left. I have a large army score, which actually surprises me as I've lost 2/3rd of my men. I wonder if my philosopher horde is inflated somewhat? Otherwise, I'm last or second to last in all other areas. My magic heavy strategy necessitated securing a lot of gems, and I had a team searching all paths but death on turn 3 (or 4?). I just never lucked out. I hit on a few gem producing sites, but not nearly enough to implement any strategy. And sloth 3 means I couldn't switch gears to a martial strategy. I gambled and lost.

Your big flaw was attacking me when you didn't have to.  I took a bless strategy which makes me strong at the beginning of the game. 

Certainly true. You looked weak, and I needed new sources of gems. It really backfired on me.

I take it back about elephants. I sent one of my one-man-armies into an elephantized independent province, and they swarmed him real bad, and after several rounds of misses from both sides, he got tired and fell. Annoying little buggers, as chaff goes, elephants are most annoying of them all!

BTW Arco, IMO your greatest weakness was marching across half the world only to throw a punch at me for destroying our beloved Lady Yomi. That brought you into conflict with Tien Chi, who wanted to do the same. White knights tripping over each other So in a sense, you saved me quite a lot of trouble. Thank you!

Yomi shall still be avenged!

So er... do I need a password or something? Give somebody my email?

I would need you to PM me your email address for the switch. 

Louist, what would be your last day?