Armageddon was held in Zemike

[Tuidjy]

Yvelina and I decided to resolve a game by throwing a big battle in
a predetermined province, with winner takes all. The province was
left neutral before the deciding turn. The results of the battle were...
interesting.

Broadly speaking, Pythium had about 150 astral mages, two of them
wished quite a bit, half a dozen doom horrors, a few supercombatants,
and about 500 mind enslaved troops of all nations and kinds, which
included most archdevils. The pretender was a ghost king, and was
used strictly as support.

Vanheim had the Allfather and all Air Queens, empowered and decked out
beyong belief, about a hundred assorted dwarves and vans, and about 400
devils and storms demons.

Both nations had dozens of matrices and path boosters, but otherwise
Vanheim had an overwhelming advantage in gems and equipment. I guess
wishing is, just as the great Norfleet taught, under-optimal.

Pythium sent more forces into the magic phase battle, and won easily.
Vanheim was the attacker of the movement phase battle. The battle's
main points were:

1. In the first turn, Master/Mind enslave turned a sizable portion of
Vanheims demons and even a few MR 20+ commanders to Pythium.

2. Both sides cast a number of elemental resistance and general
protection spells spells, followed by mass damage spells. By the end,
Wrathful skies, Fire Storm, Stelar Brilliance, you name it, were
active on the battlefield.

3. The Allfather and the three Air Queens were untouchable. Everyone
getting near them was easily dispatched. At some point five quickened,
regenerating, equipped doom horrors were attacking the Allfather. If
they hurt him, I did not notice. Basically, Pythium's forces and all the
demon turncoats broke on the Allfather without leaving a mark.

4. Vanheim's storm demons were obviously set on hold and attack rear.
Only a few of them got through, but they massacred Pythiums mages.
Pythium had the Soulstone, and Howl active. The Dwarves were decimated,
the Vans all got Wolf furs.

5. Pythium's supercombatants weren't. Demons ate them.

6. Both sides were creating elementals as if they had infinite gems. The
storm demons proved to Pythium that they should have brought infinite
mages instead.

7. Left without orders Pythium's pretender started summoning undead. Some
puny death mage started turning them to Vanheim, until he ran out of gems.

8. At that point, Pyhtium had its pretender, a wished Ether Lord and some
insanely lucky Arch-theurg left... oh, and a few puny skeletons, as well.
Vanheim had more than a hundred demons, dozens of elementals, four untouchable
supercombatants, and a number of vans happily casting stuff.

9. Turn 50. Vanheim routs. Game to Pythium.

I think that this battle really shows why the turn limit of 50 is kinda low.
But you can see for yourself. The server Version is 2.12. The password
is 'best'.

Of course, no other game of mine uses this password. Any suggestion that the
file was hacked to change the password will be met with disdain. Any suggestion
that I am dumb enough to use a password like that in a tournament game will be
met with innuendo hinting that the file was hacked.

I hope that someone enjoys watching the battle... while I enjoy having won
the tournament on a technicality... twice in a row.

Luck before skill, any day!