a complete AAR starting from turn 1, with pictures and may be videos, will be made during the next weeks/months
As it stands I devised this plan as early as turn 55, just before attacking Therodos. Indeed, thanks to the Eyes of God, I had been studying the map again and again and noticed that Therodos had 3 inland thrones worth 7 ascension points, all the 3 of them quite close one to the other and all pretty close too to my border. So I made the calculation : at that time I already controlled 8 ascension points. That meant that if I took those 7 points, only 5 more would be needed for me to achieve victory.
So I studied the map a bit more. I knew very well that Tien'Chi held a key with the Throne of Moon, a 2 points throne, just on my northern border. He also held the throne of Winter, also close to my border, but it was the old Ur throne with the Steel Ovens and Tien'Chi had gathered all of his armies and mages there, so not a good target ... So I looked further west. Marverni had one throne not so far from my territory but ... with so many forteresses and boars in-between, it didn't look like an easy target. So the only thrones left for a surprise attack not too far from my lands were owned either by Ulm or Niefelheim. One of them was adjacent to a Therodos province, but also to Ulm capital herself. And, it had a fortress to defend it. So a potential target, but not an easy one. The 2 others didn't have any fortresses at the time, and as the war between Ulm and Niefelheim raged, never had any altogether. So rather easy targets. Also, having witnessed both Ulm and Niefelheim in combat, I knew that I had all the means to easily defeat their current armies if they didn't change anything to their battle plans.
So here was the plan : first, attack Therodos and take the 3 thrones. On paper it looked really doable, though he was quite ahead in research and more experienced than I was to draw battle plans. Second, and that wasn't the easiest part, take a sea province with a lab and summon 5 bishop fishes. Indeed, to ensure my victory I had 7 different thrones to claim at once, and if I sent in my prophet and my pretender it meant that I needed 5 additional level 3 priests to take all of these thrones at the same time. Third, when the thrones from Therodos were secured and the Bishop fishes deployed on their thrones (either already possessed or to be taken), attack simultaneously the 4 remaining thrones of Tien'Chi/Ulm/Niefelheim. And hope everything goes according to the plan.
As it stands, the war against Therodos went rather well. One big victory and many small ones, some luck (as always during that game ...) and only a few setbacks. Also, thanks to my newly summoned Wraithlords I could take a sea province with a lab ajacent to my territory. So while I was taking the 3rd and last throne, I could summon the bishop fishes. One sea king, one Kokythiad and later on a Sea queen (had luck mind hunting her to therodos, and luck summoning her back ...). In 3 turns all my expected bishops were there. That's were my lead in gems and my Banefire Forge came in handy. I needed a lot of items for them : air breathing, mobility (magic carpets), Gate cleavers to breach the fortresses and most importantly : stealth (either Shademail haubergeons or Cauldrons of the Elven halls). This operation HAD to be 100% invisible so that nobody could figure out what was about to happen, so everything had to be done with this in mind.
So by turn 72, everything was ready :
- In the north to take the throne of Moon from Tien'Chi, 40 Jotun wolves, 25 Crystal sorceresses, 6 enchanters, 20 mounted hirdmen and 43 hirdmen, with one Hangadrott, some Dis and some Vanjarls. The hangadrott, as every one of them involved in these operations had one single goal : cast "Wailing winds" during the decisive battle to ensure the ennemy would rout. All were invisible to the enemy thanks to Cauldrons of the elven hall.
- In the south-east, I had gathered 10 vanjarls, 4 stealthy wraithlords, 1 Dis and 1 Hangadrott. Not enough to siege a fortress ? Well with 6 x Gate cleavers things are a bit different. And with a cast of Crumble, I knew there would be no surprise : I'd breach the fortress immediatly.
- In the south :
-- 1 army made of 69 x Pegasus, 22 x Wyverns and 15 x Fiends of Darkness, along with Lord Kall himself and 3 x Dis. All were invisible to the enemy thanks to Cauldrons of the elven hall.
-- 1 other army led by Skaljv, my prophet from the very beginning and in the Hall of fame also from very early in the game. And as during all this war, he had an army of beloved Valkyries, 101 of them accompanied by a fellow Dis. Here glamour was enough to hide them from any eyes. Also, some Hellhirding elite riders sneaked into enemy territory to be in position to help, in case of.
--> Both of these armies had to fly sneakily over ennemy territory and get the thrones at once.
- Finally, I had been worried Therodos would counter attack to take back the Shattered Throne. Indeed, he had been gathering a huge army just 2 provinces away from it. More than 1000 units, including lots of Green lions, at least a Queen of water, an Air Queen, an Earth king, and I believe also one Fire king. Had he moved against me, it would have been a huge battle that I wasn't sure at all to win. That's why I did cast Iron walls on the fortress and gathered as much siege defense as possible. However, as it stood out, he, thankfully, never made the move.
The assault itself involved a LOT of could trapezing vanjarls/hangadrotts (about 15 of them). On each of the thrones, a Vanjarl was sent to take the territory BEFORE the main troops arrived. Why ? Simply because I didn't want my ennemy to know anything about my armies and devise a counter when I assaulted the fortresses and/or if they tried to counter attack. In fact, before the assault my item treasury was loaded with items. When I had finished giving my orders, well, there was not much left ... for the last units sent in I had to use unexpected setups with items I had almost never used before ...
So, turn 73 was THE decisive turn. If people understood what I was doing, there was a real risk things could go wrong. So, when a few turns earlier Tien'Chi did cast Arcane Nexus, I was really worried this would thwart my plans because he would have then the means to defend his throne. But as it turned out, even though it proved a real challenge during the final battle, it had one advantage : I had a very legitimate reason to attack him and no one would suspect my attack there had another purpose.
Also, the war between Niefelheim and Ulm had them really focused on the immediate consequences of their actions and I believe (?) that thanks to it they didn't have the proper mindset to see the real purpose of my attacks.
So my first attacks went well, though with a few errors that gave me a bit of a worry (my vanjarl attacking Ulm was set to cast spells, cruel mistake as he killed himself casting shockwaves where if he had been properly set to attack, he would have easily beaten the PD - and so I was afraid the troops in Ulm would try to defeat my small army besieging the throne of Stability - thankfully it wasn't the case). Otherwise everything occured according to the plan : the fortress of Tien'Chi was breached, along with the one close to Ulm, and the 2 open thrones were easily taken from weak PD, and all of these places were surrounded by my thugs that did cut any mean for nearby armies to counter attack (except, again, the mistake that could have allowed Ulm to try a counter-attack on the throne of Stability).
Seeing that no one seemed to react on the discord server, I knew that I was almost there. The 2 open thrones could only be threatened by teleporting units : indeed, I had 2 mages casting Wizard's tower on each of them. So I wasn't too worried about that (but I would have been if C'ti had known what was at stake). About the battle for the throne of Stability against the Ulm fortress, my scryers had told me that there were only a bunch a reasearch mages defending, something like 15 warrior smiths. With my 4 wraith lords skelespamming and the other Vanjarls thunderstriking, I believed it would not be that much to worry (Apart from that potential counter attack from Ulm). What was more of a problem was the Tien'Chi fortress. I knew from scrying that it was only defended by about 15 mages and a few troops. But Tien'Chi had been summoning plenty of golems ... and I wasn't sure at all my army would stand up to a lot of them. By chance, I had taken 1 x moonblade and 1 x gate cleaver in this army and I gave each of them to 2 x Dis scripted to attack Large Monsters, a good idea that would prove decisive. Also, and I believe it was too decisive, I did cast on the fortress 4 times "Fires from afar" and 1 time "Murdering winter", killing a total of 9 units, most of them I believe being mages ...
So there was turn 74. The battle near Ulm went very well. The fortress was taken without any losses, my hordes of skeletons doing their job as expected. The 2 open thrones got under their wizard's tower and no battle occured. However, the battle for the throne of Moon was another story altogether. I opened the battle view before knowing the result, and I was afraid I would lose from the beginning to the end ! He had sent there 9 x fully kitted golems. Each of them had a prot of at least 26, fire brands, charcoal shields, shields of gleaming gold, vine shields, scuttata volturnus, enhanced MR, reinvigoration ... and boots of the behemot. I knew my Jotun wolves could hurt them hard, but I had only 40 of them. Hopefully, 2 things helped me a lot : first I had my girls with the Moonblade and the Gate cleaver roaming around. Second mistform + ethereal + very high defense are one of the best defense against trample : if the trample is evaded, the mandatory 1 pt of damage is negated either by mistform or ethereal, and if not evaded ... well the damage is still negated by mistform/ethereal ! This saved my Gate cleaver girl countless times during the battle (especially ethereal when the mistform vanished ... and I hadn't scripted this at all, my mages did this on their own). The Dis with the Moonblade retreated early in the battle and just dealt something like 30 dmg to one golem. However, the other one with the Gate cleaver ... oh my ! Even though the Jotun wolves made the hell of a work and killed 3 golems by themselves, the Dis gave the killing blow on the 6 remaining ones. I think she inflicted something like 40+% of all the damage against them by herself ! So I'm really not sure what would have happened if she had not been there, it's very possible that I'd have lost either to HP rout or time limit ... especially given that at the end of the battle my communion slaves were starting to be afflicted and that there were only 13 wolves left out of 40. However, despite my Dis taking 3 afflictions, she saved the day and is now to be knowned as "Hleida the Golem Slayer". I believe that her "Mute" affliction is more of a vow that she took while appealing to her god than a real injury sustained during the battle ...
And so, even though I still had to claim all of the thrones ... it was over. The turn sequence is simple : claiming thrones occurs before spell casting. So you can claim one throne and be mind-hunted just after, it doesn't matter : the throne is claimed. So given that ALL of my priests/prophet/pretender were hiding behind a non-breached fortress, it was over. Turn 75 is here to prove it.