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Wookie for the steal. Congratulations on another win!
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Congratz Wookie, I was sure this was going to go 40 turns.
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Thanks friends. I will write something soon. I think this is the first game with AN to finish since the rules changed for the plow and bounty.
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I'll add a few comments on playing the AN again and this is the first time with what I will call AN "diminished". I say diminished because the plow has gone from being a 3 modifier on a pc for food down to 2. Bounty was also reduced to 10% multiplier for regional food, down from 20 %. The plow was still in play for the kingdom and this might be the last game where that is the case.
AN was in Triumvia which had no water towns. The capital was north on the border of Darkover, which was controlled by the very capable DE player. Seeking to build an economic base and make use of the plow I moved the capital to the major city of Imiril (coastal) fairly early and fortified it. The down side was that someone started trying to steal the plow. This was later revealed to be P.T. Riley with his U.N. position even though he was in Zamora. The theft attempts were unsuccessful but cost several mid level agents for me. I finally put an end to it by basing the best agents at my hidden capital and covering the city from there as well as beefing up the c.e. at the city with fortifications and a thieves guild. Several of U.N.'s highest level agents were wounded.
While the economy never set any records with food at the city falling short of 200k, with bounty spells the region got strong enough to develop the wizards and an army and lots of politicians. Taking Stormgate and parking a group there recruiting the veteran Stormgate Troops quickly provided another strong group.
AN divine intervention spells proved to be the key to the position. I have used them before but in this game when it got down to the last 5 turns or so I was taking pc's with both emissaries and groups and then trying to figure where the enemy, in this case a strong DA, would show up with his groups. My strongest group was only 19 brigades but very good quality while DA had 31 in his big group. I thought I could get the best in a battle but the cost would be high. So why even bother if I could use intervention instead? With total immunity to death spells AN can park a single brigade on a pc and block the strongest group in the game with intervention. By doing this with 4 groups and adding a dome here and there it's tough to beat.
The AN is also strong politically and then of course you have the 3 consuls and all that they can do. The best counter to AN is their natural enemy, the DE. Being able to gate through the military groups offsets the divine intervention until AN has the resources to build greater castles which cannot be taken politically.
Even diminished, AN is still a powerhouse. It may take a bit longer to develop now but they are still the only kingdom with what is arguably the strongest spell in the game, divine intervention.
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Very nice Wookie. I'll have to give the AN a try some time. I think if I had been paying better attention to the game, I might have had a shot at grabbing it at some point. I attacked the DE without looking for his hidden capitol, I attacked the GN without taking his very nice castle on the water, which my group could have, had I the patience. But I was getting burned out on this game, and didn't even notice I was under attack until my influence dropped to about 9 through skeletons and high council issues, winning was pretty much impossible at that point so I gave up trying.
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