Dragons

The dragons were both very fun and efficient during half of the game. They are great raiders, especially given their very high movement ability (30 MP flying). Of course, they firepower and survivability is a strong advantage, but :
– against a lot of enemies dealing a decent amount of damage (15+), their low protection (18) makes them very vulnerable, even with regeneration
– if the enemy has cold resistance, their efficiency really drops : that breath attack can wreak havoc whereas the 3 melee attacks are good, but nothing better than a brand
– they can’t wear shields, nor armor, nor many things that could really make them better. Sure, there is that national misc item that adds 11 armor on body and head, as well as that national crown that add 5 more armor on body and 26 in the head. But, they are quite expensive (10W/5A for one, 10W/5D for the other), and you need those W gems to summon more dragons. Also, using these items meant sacrificing 1 slot of misc item and the combo Flask of Holy water + Amulet of antimagic was the best I could think of.
– even though on paper they have good sieging ability, the gold/gem ratio compared to their siege value is just abysmal

All in all they can be fantastic early game, but, depending on what your opponent can field, can quickly fall into an average asset, certainly good but not anymore decisive. In the end, I felt them too expensive for what they were : I prefered 13 dragenheim warriors and some good artifacts/summons for the same price.

So, when all of them had died I was sad, but I was pretty convinced that summoning more would be a waste of gems (given my final enemies were for one an astral spammer and for the other a skelespammer with astral abilities too).

Now, with more experience, I think that for the end game Broodmaster/Bluewing thugs are probably better.

Site searching

This is a game where I didn’t do site searching as I usually do. In my other MP games I often have one of the top gem economy, but here things didn’t go that way. Indeed, I was under pressure most of the time, constantly at war from turn 15 to turn 68 and I didn’t want to lose one of my precious mage from a random raid.

I also didn’t want to lose precious gems to site searching spells with the gems I needed the most. So the less the income, the less likely I would do site searching, particularly for earth for which my income was so low. And when I started to conquer lands from other players, I first considered they had already been site searched (which was very true for Swarmhive, not as much for Abolethive, and sometimes not at all for Ochreil).

The last lands of Ochreil I took, I was very disappointed by the lack of magic sites … but I could uncover several sites with my spells, to my surprise and delight … Ermor also told me he found many sites in Ochreil and Drakonia lands through site searching.

So my magical power was probably not what it could have been. But even when I think about it, given the constant threats from raidings, and the pressure of war, this was perhaps as good as I could get.

Artifacts

This was the first time in a multiplayer game that I reached Construction 8, and in that particular game, it was the first level 8 school I reached, so I better had to use it well. Here’s the list of all the items I built as I did 1 per turn during 18 turns (and the last ones later when the end was closing). So I list them below and comment about why I got them and how they fared.

The Chalice : With all my dragons around, a number of them riddled with afflictions, I wanted to have a mean to get them back in their best shape to use them at their best potential. It served its purpose well, and even more when I got bane venom charmed and had all my troops blinded by Solar Brillance.
The Horror Harmonica : I had heard of it, I wanted to try it. Superbe tool to delete raiders and armies without mage support. Also very convenient in battle for the free Wailing Winds … One of the best Artifacts out there.

The Sword of Many Colours : I couldn’t craft a Staff of Elemental Mastery and really needed an elemental booster. Came in perfectly for that.

Soulstone of the Wolves : I wanted to increase my free raiding with the built-in spell “Call of the Wild”. I’m surprised I never used it in battle for the turn-1 Howl. Nowadays I tend to consider this item only for that, either in battle or assassinations.

Igor Könhelm’s Tome : At some point I started to use my single A income (yes, only 1 A per turn for so many turns) to summon Corpse Constructs. So why not summon more … helped build my sieging forces, even though I often wasted them.

The Crown of Despair : It was cheap, it gave 1 free D income, and I could use it on a Mound Fiend to summon free longdeads, so why not. Good for its price if you have nothing better to get.

Armor of Virtue : I wanted to give a Life Long Protection to my horror harmonica golem, so this item was perfect to free the slot of my ring of returning. Worth for that. Additionnaly I’m pretty sure you can use the free bless and the Awe for other purposes.

Rod of Death : With Ermor around, I would probably have found a use for it sooner or later … I never really used it, I think it should be an anti-thug weapon and give it to a mundane commander.

The Black Book of Secrets : More D and more B. Good path booster, in particular for B as it only requires B2.

The Green Eye : I wanted more Penetration for Mind Hunting, and later for Unraveling. I think the Autosleep can be useful in other cases, say on thugs with Soul Vortex (given the Pen would improve the Soul Vortex).

The Sword of Aurgelmer : After I had my ass beaten by Abolethive, I saw this item and understood its value. Turn 1 Will of The Fates is no joke. Expensive, but worth the price, especially if you can’t really cast that spell.

Ardmon’s Soul Trap : I used it for bodyguarding my prophet. Don’t remember seeing it in action.

Sword of Injustice : To get another Holy 3. Came in handy for the final throne rush.

Amulet of the Doppelganger : I got it only for the free stealth. However I now see the Seduction ability as a pretty powerful addition.

Ember : I love this weapon, even if it’s not game breaking. I had to get it… I just had.

Dawn Fang : Cheap good weapon for thugs. Awe + MR + Affliction resistance + more damage against undeads & demons. The only “drawback” are the average stats. But no reason not to take  it.

Twin Spear (B variant) : I saw I could call lesser horrors, and wanted to try it as an horror harmonica. Very, very far to be as powerful as the harmonica …

The Ankh : At some point I understood this was free Life After Death. No reason not to build it.

Tome of the Lower Planes : More path boosting (+1B).

Tome of High Power : Even more path boosting (+2A, +2S). Now I also see the +2 spell range that could be really useful in many situations (but may be not on such a small map, though in combat +50% could be interesting too).

Diplomatic victory

I really feel this victory was a diplomatic victory. I ensured my 2 worst opponents would kill each other, I ensured the downfall of a potential contender, and even if in the end I failed against Abolethive, I could muster a 2vs1 against him when he was the strongest.

The risk I took at the beginning paid off beyond measure, and I can owe my victory to that bold move.