Ffh Leaders Battle

[azatol]

I like to do hotseat games of Ffh where I control all the sides, because a matchup between me, myself and I is more likely to be balanced than the pummeling I'd get playing with skilled people. I haven't played FFH in about 3 months, so I decided recently to start my hotseat games again.

I had previously made a little tournament between all the FFH civs. Hippus won it all. So now I'm back and I'm doing a similar bracket tournament battle between all 34 leaders, which is excluding the summoned ones. This time, I'm going to give a story & synopsis of each of the 5 bracket battles and then the finale as they happen.

I've got 5 brackets for the first round, I don't have the sheet in front of me, so I'll post the full list of matchups later. I allowed Decius to decide what civ to play for, he only counts once and he's going Calabim.

Rules:
Hot Seat
Standard / Pangaea Map (for a good intense fight)
Compact Enforced (no summoning of Basium or Hyborem)
All leaders at Warlord diff. (my usual wimpy playing level)
All victories enabled (but I doubt anything but Conquest will matter.)
Flat maps (no east-west connection. Seemed more fantasyish)

Bracket #1

Good
Varn Gosam
Capria
Arendel Phaedra

Bad
Decius - Calabim

Neutral
Falamar
Charadon
Dain Caswallan


Comments

A pretty Good-biased selection of civs. I picked all the bracket matchups using Random.org. That has created some interesting matchups later on.

 

[azatol]

Bracket #1 Update

Capria, 7th place
Decius, 6th place
Varn Gosam, 5th place
Dain Caswallan, 4th place
Falamar, 3rd place

After the very early game, with a couple of civ's having two cities, but most still at one, a unique barbarian spawned. I'm not sure if it came from the Pyre of the Sephrific, which Varn Gosam settled near, or elsewhere, but its unit stats were something like the following:

Named Barb Spectre (don't remember the name)
6 + 3 death
Death affinity
Strength II
Exp: 15 ish

This big bad arrived before Orthus might arrive in a normal game. Orthus himself, arrived later than I've seen usually.

The Named Spectre took out Capria / Bannor who were up north, first, without much fanfare. This gave him more experience and more power. They he wandered off the visible map of all players. Later he showed up at Decius' doorstep in the east. Decius lasted slightly longer, but he was out soon.

Down to 5 civs in a real hurry. Orthus spawned soon after, and headed for Varn Gosam. Varn was focussed on building settlers and only had 2 warriors in his capital, so Varn was wiped out, on like turn 100, by Orthus.

4 civs left. Those who were still alive were building cities and units. Arendel Phaedra and Falamar got in the first actual war. Falamar was south of Arendel, and seperated by a huge gulf. He had sent a settler across the gulf and settled just south of Arendel, which caused Arendel to declare war.

Arendel took Falamar's city of her side of the gulf. Then soon after, Named Spectre arrived at Dain Caswallan's location. She defended a bit better, but she couldn't stop the now extremely experienced named spectre. I believe he had something like 55 experience points by then.

3 civs left. Falamar got hit hard by the Barbs, and lost some cities. Orthus took one city, but was stopped by a group of Hunters. Then the Named Spectre showed up. Falamar lost all his cities except his capital.

In the capital, Falamar had a group of hunters and warriors. The capital was very large, fed by pirate coves and other water resources. Its cultural defense was good. Falamar got lucky and defeated the Named Spectre on defense.

Now the normal game could start, since the crazy power barbarian was gone. Surviving was Charadon in the far east, and Arendel Phaedra and Falamar on the west coast. World wrap was off, which would make the distance between the West Coast and Charadon a lot greater than otherwise.

Arendel and Falamar were in a significant conflagration, but Falamar had needed to rebuild his cities after the barbarian wars, and Arendel had been unaffected, by the barbs, for the most part. She had far more cities than Falamar, and was a bit ahead of Charadon in cities as well.

Her production power was great with all the forests. Falamar held out pretty well considering the circumstances. All his other cities fell, but his capital repulsed a first wave of Elves. He had enough time to follow through on a crazy plan. He had built the Black Wind earlier, and he decided to build a settler, and look for an island where he could protect his last city with naval power.

Top two civs make it to the final, so he knew if he could get Charadon and Arendel fighting, he had a chance.

Unfortunately, once his capital fell, all he had was his new one-tile island city, and his production was atrocious. Arendel researched and then built 9 privateers with her massive production power. The black wind held out for a few battles but then was sunk. Two hunters landed on the island and wiped out Falamar in 3rd place.

Arendel Phaedra and Charadon were fighting just to see who could win. They'd both be in the leader battle final. They were extremely far apart. Arendel gathered up an army and filled up the privateers, which were not set to hidden nationality, to make things easier. After rebuilding, she had 9 ships and 12 units onboard, including Gildin Silveric.

Much later on, they had completed the lengthy journey around the north coast and to the other side where Charadon was. They captured a couple cities, but then they faced off against Charadon's Rangers and his new hero Baron Duin Halfmorn which he had just finished building.

There was a ton of fighting between recon units in this game, and Arendel's expedition was mostly hunters with a few axemen. However, she was starting to build champions.

Gildin Silveric and the Baron clashed, and the Baron won, but not before the Elves had taken three cities and killed plenty of rangers.

Now, while the sailing ships headed home, Arendel prepared to send her next invasion by land. It was mostly champions, but she built a group of Horsemen for mobility.

This new force was able to Charadon's border towns, but his rangers and Baron stopped their progress. There was an epic battle between the Baron and his rangers and all the Elven champions. Unfortunately, the Baron died attacked a newly conquered city held by the Elves.

The Elves were weakened enough that they retreated, waiting for the next wave of reinforcements from the west. Arendel's workers were building more and more of the roadway headed straight to Charadon's lands. They also used the roads of Varn Gosan and Decius' old cities, and it was becoming a bit shorter trip to get reinforcements east.

Currently, in game, Charadon is hanging on by a thread. He's researching Commune from Nature, for druids. And gathering a significant force of Rangers. He's lost a lot of cities, and really only has two good production cities left. The capital, and a city just to the west of it.

Meanwhile, forces are streaming east from Elven lands. Arendel is researching War Horses for mobility AND power, and she will have it before Charadon has druids. She's gathering up champions as they arrive in the east, and she will make another push soon. This one is almost guaranteed to be an Elven victory unless something strange happens.

 

[azatol]

Bracket #1 Finale

The middle phase of the Ljosalfar - Doviello war was filled with lots of waiting, lots of strengthening and recruiting, and not much else.

Once Arendel had a stack of about 8 champions, she decided to weaken Charadon by taking out his mines and other important lands. Unfortunately, Charadon had two squads of very experienced rangers. The rest of his ranger forces were no match for the champions, but these two groups proceeded to carve the rampaging champions to bits until once again the Elves were forced to retreat.

They did manage to destroy a copper mine, and a wheat farm, but at the loss of 6 champions. Arendel decided then, that going for small gains wasn't worth it. She was going for the big gain.

More champions were streaming across the plains and the tundras of the continent's midlands. Rangers were much slower in coming, and that was the problem. Charadon decided that he wouldn't be able to get druids in time to be any good. It would take over 60 turns to finish commune with nature, so he switched to researching advanced Runes of Kilmorph theology. Bambur would make a fine captain for his forces.

Charadon's rangers attacked a nearby barb city, hoping to get another city, and another base of production. Unfortunately, at the same time, Arendel had discovered the secrets of war horses. She was sending the first two of her knights east.

Charadon captured the barb city, but then the knights arrived, and they organized the champions at tried to retake the barb city for themselves. Charadon made a mistake here. He was out of position, with the bulk of his forces at the barb city, not at his more important cities.

He decided to hit the Elven forces hard. His most elite rangers took out a Knight and a Champion, but one of the ranger squads was out of position and was wiped out. The rest of the rangers headed back to the east, and Arendel sent her forces to wipe out Charadon's two cities in the west.

Both were weak and small cities, with barely any defenders. They were razed. Next, Arendel headed north, bypassing the heavily defended Rangers HQ. More rangers were produced there than even in the capital.

Charadon was busy recruiting Bambur in the capital. His northernmost city fell, because his rangers couldn't stand up to the Elves, so they stayed in their city.

After taking out all but the last two enemy cities, the elves waiting for more knights and more champions, to make a final push. They gathered up about 20 champions and 2 knights, and a short while later, headed in.

Bambur was unable to reach the ranger city in time. He was just outside of its walls when it was attacked by the Elves. All of Charadon's rangers were ready to fight, however.

Both knights went after Charadon's elite Ranger squad. One of the knights was killed, but the other wiped them out. After that it was just a war of time and attrition. A stonewarden managed to hold the line for a short while, but it wasn't enough. Lastly, the old fashioned sons of Asena were crushed, with forces to spare. Bambur, watching the city fall before his very eyes, was attacked and killed by even more champions.

However, Armageddon was coming. A sickness broke out in the camps of the Elven champions. Many were ill, few were in top form. Charadon's few remaining beastmen, huddled in their city, infected by the ills of the Armageddon. The elves, though weakened, had no trouble finished off the beastmen, and Charadon was finished.


Bracket #1 Results

Arendel Phaedra - Ljosalfar, Victory, Qualifies for Finals
Charadon - Doviello, 2nd Place, Qualifies for Finals

 

[azatol]

Bracket #2

Good
Cardith Lorda
Garrim Gyr

Neutral
Valledia the Even
Arturus Thorne
Sandalphon
Hannah the Irin

Evil
Auric Ulvin

Comments
Haven't started this one yet, it should be fun. Both factions of dwarves are involved, plus a lot of other economically powerful factions. We'll see what the barbarians decided to bring to the game this time

 

[azatol]

Bracket #2 Turn 100 update

Pretty uneventful, especially compared to bracket #1. There's been some barb fighting, all pretty minor except for Orthus' appearance. Someone (can't remember the civ) explored a lair near the Illians to try to spawn something that would hurt Auric. An Ogre spawned, but he decided to chill out by an Orc encampment. Auric Ulvin also got attacked by Orthus, but Orthus killed one warrior and then was wiped out.

Everyone has either 2 or 3 cities at this point. Cardith Lorda has his 3 cities, but I accidentally built the first too close to the capital. Auric should have 3 cities by turn 101, he's got a settler in position.

Arturus has been in a tough position, surrounded by a couple barb camps. He took down one and guarded the camp spot, but there's been lots of animals to deal with as well. He's established three cities, but the whole Khazad gold mechanic means he's a bit behind in tech.

Techwise, the resource techs are covered for almost everyone, and the tech leaders are pushing forward towards their focus areas. Cardith has researched Animal Husbandry and is pushing towards Horseback Riding and Centaurs. Hannah is going for bronze working for the triremes and the axemen. Valledia just started mysticism.

There are some borders pushing up against each other, but mostly easy space is lacking because of the need to fight swarms of animals and barbs to get to a new city spot.

The animals seem to be out in WAY more force this time around. Gryphons have been a major pest, killing 2 of Arturus' workers. I'll give another update for T200.

 

[ClasuSiosa]

You have my rapt attention.

 

[azatol]

I will try to post an update tommorrow. Been busy with other stuff lately, but I have played some more turns in bracket 2.

 

[azatol]

I'm up to turn 127. Its been slower going than in the 1st bracket, cause all of the civs are in the game and thriving.

Having more civs alive has created more opportunity for coalitions however. Hannah and Cardith Lorde are both Octopus Overloads followers after the religion spread into Cardith's lands, that's resulted in a open borders agreement.

Arturus is pressing against Hannah's borders, as is Auric Ulvin, so those two signed an open borders agreement, but Arturus was the most effected by barbs, and he hasn't built a decent military yet, while Cardith has 6 centaurs, and Hannah is starting to build a decent stack of axemen.

Pretty much every civ has borders pressing against each other, and war should definitely be breaking out by the next update.

Scorewise it goes: Cardith, Hannah, Auric, Garrim, Sandalphon, Valledia, Arturus. Cardith is #1 on the demographics screen in Production, Food, Population, Soldiers and Land area which is a bit surprising. But the others will soon surpass Cardith in land area at least.

Tech wise, I would consider Auric to be the leader, he is researching Necromancy and starting to build Mage Academies. No one else can build them yet. Culture wise, Cardith is actually behind Valledia and Hannah.

Also, I forgot to mention in the setup post, that for all brackets, I have disabled world spells. I despise the Elohim and a few other world spells. They have never been fun to play with, so I figured it would be more interesting to play without any world spells. Also I've been playing without world wrap to make it more end of the earth, fall of the edge fantasyish.

My prediction is that Auric wins this bracket, with a ton of magic, but this one should have a ton of good wars no matter what.

 

[azatol]

Turn 149 update

Finally, the first war. Cardith continued to stockpile Centaurs and then went to war, together with Hannah the Irin, against Arturus Thorne, who was on the western borders of the Lanun nation.

Cardith had 8 centaurs, and more were pouring out of the capital pretty quickly. He was also researching his way towards Centaur Archers, but that was still a ways away.

Arturus had, unfortunately, used up many of his defenders a few turns earlier, in defeating a goblin archer settlement. He only had two Axedwarves on his front lines.

Hannah's forces were Axemen and Drown, and none of her forces fought in the war, they couldn't keep up with the much faster Centaurs. Hannah also had a force of 4 warriors that was a reserve in case more troops were needed, they were way behind the main push however.

Arturus had only three cities, and yet his coffers were fairly empty. He had a border city near the Lanun capital, then his capital was to the west, and a new city was down south. He had stopped settling in order to fill up his coffers, but the struggle with all the barbarians had killed off many workers, and slowed down his progress in developing his lands into rich ones.

The border city fell quickly, and only one Centaur was lost. Two more were on their way already, however.

Arturus' capital ate three Centaurs for lunch, but the others finished off his axedwarves and warriors. With the capital down, it looked like Hannah would reach the southern city in time to take that for herself, but the Centaurs were too fast once again, and they finished off Arturus, losing three more centaurs in the process.

Cardith kept the capital, but razed the other two cities. The Dwarf capital was quite a distance from his own capital, but there were a lot of health resources within its borders, and Cardith didn't have bronzeworking, so he couldn't shop down the jungle in his western city yet.

As for the rest of the civs. The Illians finished three mage academies, and were busily building a few adepts. The Amurites were building their own academies, and heading for Elementalism.

Sandalphon had a rather backward empire, his cities were not that developed, and Auric Ulvin was considering going to war to take his southern neighbor's cities.

Garrim was also struggling, he didn't have that many cities, and he needed more workers, but he was starting to build a few wood golems. Valledia was building up a decent number of axemen and thinking about taking Garrim on.

Hannah and Cardith were in position to attack Auric or Valledia. Hannah still had all of her forces, but Cardith had only 3-4 centaurs left.

I think there's going to be a lot more wars in the near future.

 

[azatol]

First the Amurites declared war on Garrim Gyr of the Luchuirp, sending in their axemen, with their three adepts on reserve. One of the adepts had Fire 1 and was making smokey forests in hope that fire would spread into Luchuirp territory.

There was a lot of forested lands on the border between Amurites and Luchuirp territory, and the Luchuirp cities were winning the cultural border war.

The first round of battle resulted in the loss of a golem worker and a few warriors, with Valledia's forces on the doorstop of Garrim's western city.

Garrim has three cities, much like Arturus did. He is caught between Valledia, to the west, and Cardith Lorda, a ways to the north. Cardith's borders are quite a ways north, but his Centaurs have the speed to get their quickly.

With Valledia's declaration of war, and Cardith's forces returned from the battle with Arturus, the centaurs were ready to strike again. A number of the centaurs were upgraded to Centaur archers, and new Centaur Archers were built as well.

Cardith was now researching his way towards Centaur Chargers, and was clearing planning on a very aggressive strategy. A strange plan for the Kurios, but with the momentum of veteran centaur units, it was worthwhile.

His centaurs arrived at Garrim's northern borders, and the two front war was on. Valledia's axemen assaulted the western city, capturing it at a heavy cost. Valledia didn't have that large of an army, and his forces were now mostly spent, but Garrim had only built about 3 warriors per city, and now he had one Wood golem in the capital. Not enough to defend against the combined offensive.

The centaurs ripped through Garrim's northern city with no losses. The experienced, fast and powerful units utterly dominated Garrim's warriors. They then moved towards the capital.

Meanwhile, Cardith Lorda had decided that Arturus' old capital was too far away from his cities, and not worth much as a settlement, so he gifted it to Hannah the Irin. Hannah was sending units to protect the city, but unfortunately, barbarians arrived and captured it, before she could get her units close.

The centaurs fought a more fierce battle in Garrim's capital, but ultimately, Garrim was wiped out, making it two for two deaths to the Dwarven civs.

7th place, Arturus Thorne
6th place, Garrim Gyr

Hannah attacked and retook Arturus' old capital. Hannah had plenty of room to expand, but was busy building other stuff at the moment, especially axemen.

Auric Ulvin was now the second greatest military threat, after Cardith, with a death node built, and a growing army of summoned skeletons, he was busy building adepts, and planning an attack on Sandalphon. Sandalphon was building defenders, but slowly.

Cardith could go after either Hannah or Valledia next, but since Valledia was weakened from the war, and Hannah was really no threat at all, it was likely that a war between the two conquerers of Garrim's territory would be up next.

With Trading, which gives Chargers, Cardith would also be able to trade techs with Hannah and any other Civs that weren't on the chopping block yet.

My prediction for the final ranking of civs in bracket 2:

Cardith Lorda, 1st
Auric Ulvin, 2nd
Hannah, 3rd
Sandalphon, 4th
Valledia, 5th

 

[ClasuSiosa]

Interesting, but in tearms of a "Who's Better" match, the No World Spells, and the ganging up is kinda throwing off the results.
Still interesting though.
Ill keep watch for more.

 

[azatol]

I don't think I'm good enough at Ffh to do the definitive battle to see whose the best. This is just for fun, really.

I did an all Civ battle and Hippus won, so that's why I figured I'd do a All leaders battle, and this time post about it here.

 

[ClasuSiosa]

Yah, its good fun, i was just saying it wasnt a difinitive (not that its possible) comparison.

 

[Diamondeye]

I love hearing stories about FfH games Keep it up!

My money's probably on Auric or Lorda as well. It seems cynical of Cardith to consider going to war against Hannah already, in my opinion. Aren't they war allies and so on?

 

[azatol]

I love hearing stories about FfH games Keep it up!

My money's probably on Auric or Lorda as well. It seems cynical of Cardith to consider going to war against Hannah already, in my opinion. Aren't they war allies and so on?

Cardith went to war against Valledia instead of Hannah, although Hannah is next on the chopping block. The alliance between Cardith and Hannah is pretty much done. Hannah tagged teamed Garrim with Valledia's help last update, but that wasn't an agreement to work together, it was just two sides trying to grab what they could.


Two wars in this update.

Cardith healed up his army of Centaurs, and upgraded some of them from Centaurs to chargers. In the mean time, Sandalphon and Auric were in a cold war standoff / build up. Sandalphon had axemen, Auric had those plus adepts that could be mages in the near future, and death magic.

It seemed new wars were brewing up, getting ready to go, but also a new alliance was brewing. Hannah turned to Auric, figuring that she didn't want to help uber-powerful Cardith anymore, plus Auric had a lot of magical knowledge. Hannah had unlocked adepts, and was heading towards elementalism.

Auric's first proposal for a tech swap was Alteration for a bunch of resource and useful techs. Since Hannah was only 2 turns from getting elementalism, she turned that trade down, but there would be trading later, and it established the connection between the two leaders.

Valledia had noticed the turn before that he had two paths into her civilization. There was a lake in the middle of the two nations, and there were routes around the lake either way, but Valledia's latest eyeball magic had revealed Cardith's western city, which was more undeveloped than the other two metropolises.

Valledia moved half of her defenders west, trying to get them in position to defend either path. She had a mix of axemen, warriors and three adepts, but she had no mana nodes, and the most useful thing they could do was enchant the soldiers' blades.

With Valledia's forces split, Cardith launched his attack. He sent all his forces via the east path, because he had one of Garrim's old cities to act as a fall back position.

Valledia had 4 cities. A city in the east that was captured from Garrim, a city in the north directly across the lake from Cardith's empire, a capital in the southwest, and a fourth frontier city in the northwest. Valledia's capital had been on a pennisula which had isolated her position, and slowed down her expansion to the north.

The axemen in the east, even in defensive positions, where no match for the elite Centaur forces. The centaurs rolled over them, taking only a few wounds.

Valledia's other axemen and warriors joined the adepts in the northern city. With plenty of mobility left over, Cardith moved most of his forces out of the newly captured city, and sent them towards the north.

Valledia considered attacking, but the chances were grim. She head her defenses and enchanted axes and clubs. Cardith overwhelmed the Northern city as well, but not without taking a few losses, and many injuries.

Valledia had only three warriors combined between her last two cities, but the centaurs were severely weakened. Cardith backed off on his initial push towards the capital to wait and heal up. He didn't wait long, once the Centaurs were no longer in critical condition, he rushed them against the walls of Valledia's castle. Only one of the Centaur squads was killed, but it could have gone much worse. The pathetic frontier city, last of the Amurites, was destroyed shortly after.

Cardith held on to the Amurite capital, and the eastern city, both which had many resources within their borders. The other cities were razed, which put the Armageddon counter into play. (AC:19).

The Centaur Chargers held the two cities, while the Centaur archers headed north to the Lanun border, to heal up and scare Hannah into holding back her forces for now. Officially, the two nations still held open borders. But unofficially, Hannah was building up her magical and metallurgical forces as fast as possible.

Hannah and Auric Ulvin had made a monster trade, giving Hannah Sorcery and Necromancy in exchange for a bunch of resource and trade techs that Hannah had, as well as World maps and open borders.

Auric wouldn't have much time to chat, however, as the cold war against Sandalphon had just got hot. After years of standoffs, Auric sent his adepts back to the capital to see if any of them could become mages.

Sandalphon knew he had to strike quickly. If Auric could get more advanced magics in play, the eventual war would go very badly. He had a sizeable force of Axemen, and launched an attack on Auric's southern border city.

Auric had a legendary warrior hero, who had fought off an Ogre and lead many efforts against the barbarians. At first, Sandalphon's attacks were thwarted by this man of Ice, but once he fell in battle, the city soon fell.

Auric is down one city, but he has his first mage. It will be a race against time and momentum. If Sandalphon's now experienced force of Axemen can attack quickly and have a little luck, they could squish Auric's magical forces before they have a chance to really bloom.

Cardith Lorda and Hannah the Irin are certain to join forces soon, and if Cardith can make contact with Sandalphon, he would have a natural ally. Unfortunately, Sandalphon's empire is rather isolated, and he is only in contact with Auric at the moment.

Valledia, 5th place

I think this fight just got a lot more interesting. Cardith Lorda obviously is in a good position, but Sandalphon's experienced Axemen could pose a threat if he topples Auric, or Auric's magic would be a major threat Cardith if he survives.

Hannah is working on magic and melee units, but doesn't have a big enough force, I don't think it looks good for Hannah, but if she can get fireball in play, things could change quickly.

Cardith is researching towards Warhorses for the unique hero and the other mobile units. he's going all mobile war machine, at least until he finds someone that can stop that strategy.

 

[azatol]

I've been playing this alot so I have another update already. Bracket #2 is almost over, I doubt I'll have more than one update after this before I get a winner.


They had been stopped. The Centaurs of Freedom had been stopped cold for the first time in their history. Cardith Lorda was not pleased. These days the child seemed to be possessed by the dragon more than ever before, and the fury was terrifying even to the high military command.

The centaurs had been forced to turn back. The early reports were good, as the most elite Centaurs, who attacked the fortified city first, were able to slaughter the defending axemen. But this was a foe who had numbers, in the same way that the Centaurs were numerous. Countless axemen and warriors held the line, and as the Eldest centaurs passed the torch of battle on to their younger brethren, they saw the charge break and fail.

The Centaurs had pulled out, and now Cardith Lorda was leading a new effort, to build the weapons of siege warfare that would end this stubborn resistance.

But wait, before we discuss the next phase of the siege, first let's go back twenty years, to discuss what led up to these events, and who was able to stand up against Cardith's forces.


With Valledia out of the picture, Cardith once again took time to rest and prepare to attack Hannah. Hannah was building up two heroes, which was taking up a lot of her production power. Guybrush Threepwood and Saverous were both on their way, the strange Lanun barb was first to arrive, and he immediately headed south towards the border.

Several of Hannah's axemen had been tied up taking out some bears in the east that were preventing her eastern city from developing. A few axemen were lost in the effort, but there were now more experienced, and they, too were headed south.

Unfortunately, Cardith Lorda now had 18 centaur units, most of them archers. The vanguard of these forces were heavily promoted, elite units [upwards of 50 xp]. Once his centaurs were healed up, he attacked Hannah. Threepwood was not yet an experienced fighter, and Saverous was still being built in Hannah's southern border city.

Perhaps if she had focussed on axemen instead of heroes, things would have gone better, but unfortunately it was an utter rout. The centaurs were too strong and too numerous, and they took the southern city without a loss. Next, they headed to the east where Guybrush and the Axemen dealing with bears were at. Guybrush did take down one centaur, but then he was slain by the next, and the axemen were wiped out, along with the city in the east. The centaurs then headed west, and Hannah had almost no forces to stop them.

The battle between Auric Ulvin and Sandalphon was much more evenly matched. Sandalphon had the early momentum with his axemen, but Auric had two mages, 5 magic users capable of summoning skeletons, and a decent force of axemen himself. One of Auric's axemen was very well promoted from barbarian wars early on, and he was critical in the war against Sandalphon.

Sandalphon's axemen were not experienced enough, and they didn't even try to take on Auric's elite, it was so lopsided. Instead, they went around, while Auric took shots at the horde, weakening them and reducing their numbers with combined attacks from skeletons, ice elementals and axemen. Sandalphon was getting closer but his axemen had were all heavily wounded, and he was trapped between the Auric's elites, and his capital.

Sandalphon's initial push had failed. He withdrew his new reinforcements from Auric's borders. Keeping them on defense, for Auric's inevitable assault. But it never came.

Cardith's centaurs had taken all cities but one. Arturus' old city that Cardith himself had given to Hannah was all that she had left. Cardith's forces went by north of Auric's cities, and were headed toward's Hannah's last outpost. Auric frantically withdrew his forces from a planned assault on Sandalphon, and put them in defensive positions, in case Cardith attacked.

He had three mages now, and three adepts, as well as a small force of axemen, including the elite.

Cardith rolled up to Hannah's last city, and wiped it out.

Hannah the Irin, 4th place

Cardith's centaurs were wounded from all the fighting, and he didn't want to risk losing his damaged units to Auric's magic and defenses, so he withdrew to rest up.

Auric continued to fortify his position and recruit new adepts and axemen. Before long, Cardith was on his doorstep again. Auric had used his skeletons as sentries, to find out where the Centaurs were, and which cities they would take on first. He retreated his mages, and watched as his axemen were wiped out, and his first city was gone

His mages attacked with ice elementals and spectres, which did basically nothing against the veteran centaurs. His mages, and his second city, were wiped out before long. Cardith had a very effective production base, and he continued to pump out Centaur Archers, as well as a few catapults.

Auric's skeletons and spectres had wiped out the few catapults Cardith had in the west, however.

Sandalphon knew he would be in second place, and move on to the finals, however, he also had a strategy to hold on. He had a lot of axemen, having rebuilt their numbers since the war with Auric. After Cardith Lorda, he had the next best production base, with lots of mines and lumbermills.

Also, his capital was on a hill, surrounded on three sides by a river. A perfect place for a last stand. He abandoned all his other cities, and sent all units to the capital. He built walls in the capital, and the palisades were already built. He started chopping the few forests left, to frantically build more defenders. He also switched to building warriors in the capital instead of axemen, they could be built 1 each turn.

When Auric's capital fell, Sandalphon already had 20 defenders in his capital. While Cardith Lorda's Centaurs were healing up, Sandalphon was building more and more warriors. Soon, Cardith sent a few centaurs to take each of his other cities, and the capital was all that was left.

Auric Ulvin, 3rd place

Cardith sent his Centaur war party up against Sandalphon's walls, and at first it looked grim. Cardith's more elite Centaurs were so strong, they could take on the Axemen even behind hilly city walls. However, the elite centaurs could only reduce Sandalphon's numbers, and there weren't enough elites to really weaken him.

Sandalphon's quantity over quality approach was paying off. Four centaur archers were killed by his defenders before Cardith backed off. Cardith Lorda was going to bring siege to wipe out his cities.

But Sandalphon was also building a siegecraft building. He hoped to get some of his own catapults before Cardith's arrived. Realistically, Cardith Lorda's 3 very powerful cities vs. Sandalphon's one was hardly a matchup that would go his way, but it was at least a good last stand.

 

[azatol]

With Cardith's first push against Sandalphon repulsed, he sent out teams of workers to establish roads from Kuriotates land to the staging area where the centaurs were healing up.

Catapults were quickly flowing on the road, even before it was complete, and it wasn't long before 8 catapults were staged with the Centaurs, and a new phase of the invasion was ready to begin.

A few Centaurs were also hand picked to be the first Centaur Lancers, and the army of Lancers, Archers and Chargers, as well as Catapults, marched on Sandalphon's fortified city.

Sandalphon had built a siege workshop and would complete two catapults by the time the slower more forces had arrived at his doorstep. The Centaurs were not pleased to have to travel at the speed of the catapults, and they called the devices "turtlepults" in scorn.

Since Cardith's forces had to move around the city to get across the river and into a better position to attack, Sandalphon's catapults struck first. The incredible power of the machines was evidenced in the results. Some of Cardith's most elite Centaurs were injured by the bombarbment. However, Cardith had much more firepower, enough to attack the city for days with a constant stream of projectiles.

The Sidar Axemen and Warriors withered under the assault. They were a veritable horde, arrayed in defense of the city. In total, Cardith had 23 Centaurs of various kinds, 8 catapults, while Sandalphon had a mix of Axemen and Warriors comprising about 28 units in total, as well as two catapults, although one of the catapults had been destroy from a Centaur Archer's return fire.

Cardith couldn't wipe out the defenders in one push, but as weakened as the defenders were, his Centaurs suffered no casualties in the first wave. Sandalphon's last catapult attacked again, and was destroyed by return first. He only had a few defenders left.

They were brutally wiped out by the lancers and elite archers, who rushed into the city, slaying all who resisted. It would be an age of Centaurs to come. Their military might had been unmatched by men and dwarves.


Bracket #2 results

Sandalphon, 2nd place (qualifies for finals)
Cardith Lorda, 1st place!! (qualifies for finals)

I'll start Bracket #3 probably on Monday. I do plan on playing all the brackets and the finals, but I will be playing some Civ 5 during that time as well.

 

[azatol]

Bracket #3

Good
Sabathiel - Bannor
Beeri Brawl - Luchuirp
Einion Logos - Elohim


Neutral
Tasunke - Hippus


Evil
Mahala - Doviello
Tebryn - Sheaim
Keelyn - Balseraphs


A good mix of civs. When I played this same kind of challenge with all civs instead of all leaders, the Tasunke won, so they should be powerful here as well.

Tebryn and Keelyn should make for 2 magic focussed leaders. I've barely played Keelyn, but after reading about the puppets strategy for her, I will have to try that. And Pyre Zombies will definitely be a big impact. Lots of power in this matchup.

 

[Diamondeye]

Looks grim for the Good side in this matchup. All three Evil civs are very powerful ones, and so is Tasunke..

Then again, the Bannor and Luichirp can both grow to significant military power if they have some time to develop in...

 

[azatol]

Pretty exciting update compared to a normal first update. And perhaps a bit disappointing. One Civ went down already (on turn 41).

War!

Earliest war yet. It officially started a few turns before it ended, but Mahala was planning it for quite a while. Early on, a scout had found a friendly worker, but there wasn't much use for him until he was converted to a beastman. With Lucian and a group of four beastmen, Mahala attacked Tebryn.

Tebryn had four warriors defending his city. Surprisingly, that wasn't enough. One of the beastmen had fought some goblins earlier, and had a bit of experience, and Lucian was no slouch. Three of the beastmen were killed in the first attack, but Lucian and one surviving beastmen both took out warriors. They both got two promotions cause of the risky attacks they won. With anti-melee promotions and getting healed up by the promotions, they shredded the surviving warriors.

No more Tebryn, as of turn 41. I have a feeling this will be a very bloody game. Tebryn had no chance to build Pyre Zombies, he was researching them.

The rest of the first session was pretty dull. Sabathiel lost three warriors and a worker because of lizardmen. They took out all three warriors defending the worker at a gold mine without being weak enough to be counterattacked. Kinda a bummer that Tebryn won't be around, but Mahala got lucky, getting the worker early and winning a few tough fights.

Tasunke has horses again in his capital. I've never played him and not seen him get horses in the capital or very close by. He's another potentially big threat.

Tebryn - 7th place