Galadriel, day 18

Our feeble conquests are already recovered, the undead have quite the sizeable army back home. When word of the size of the army reaches my lines my proud halflings scatter through the woods trying to avoid my magical lense. Oh well, at least they grow good weed. Pufff, puff... My other troops keep up with their seduction shopping spree.

It's just making the game even more luck based than it already is, if you get say 3 warlords - not impossible with their lowish resistance - your army is pretty much unstoppable until a lot later in the game. But even swordsmen kill the balance, with armies that grow instead of have losses right on the frontlines - those without this trick are bound to be slower. It's exactly like starting with many times more the initial units than the others. Need a priest following you? Just raze a healing site...

I have to make an account of the units I've stolen in this map, you guys are going to be disgusted.

Well, I feel better now about my sluggish start. I got no free units at all and Archon resurrection is limited to my own fallen units per PBEM rules anyway. Not that I had freaking resurrection to start the game. What I did have was multiple shooters guarding every damn indie site near the starting spot on the map and very limited healing ability. Oh well, bitterness passes quickly and there is always the next map. :)

All good. I've been playing by the "usual" etiquette rules: Link.

But no one has posted them for a long time for whatever reason...

Archons, Day 18

Perhaps we shall never leave our shipwreck island. I've heard that ostriches have a wonderful view of the sand down under.

TS

Ah thanks, I read that when I started but I forgot about it. They're quite outdated, maybe that's the reason? Some of the rules have in the meanwhile been fixed by patches or MPE.
No resurrection is listed as optional, I wouldn't mind if seduction/domination were also tackled... See my comments above. As it is the rule would just give elves and undead another boost by removing a race that can try to keep up. Well and azracs I guess although the sphynx comes a lot later. The listed reasoning is 'resurr is without save' but that doesn't really matter, elves have entangle and vampires have lifeleech, and you can always bring the targets' MPs down to 0 with retaliations... Plus s/d potentially give you a full unit not one at 1hp... I much prefer s/d to resurrection. In our previous game we started with the special building, I built a saint early, after some swordsmen, but I don't even think I've managed to resurrect anything as far as I remember for example.

Undead Day 19

Dude, where's my invasion? Perhaps all the halflings are hiding in the bushes? Perhaps the elves are just waiting until they can bring in more powerful units. Not sure but the absence of their army makes me just as nervous as its presence.

TS

Galadriel, day 19

This old dog learns a new trick as two independents surprisingly attack each other!

In the meanwhile, we discover that skimmers are apparently females. Who would have guessed? Apart from this minor setback we keep shopping for units, while birds be birds...

Archons Day 19 TS

If you use the wrapper, then save your progress mid-turn periodically by returning to the main menu and reloading the save.

Especially do this before messing around with loading/unloading a boat. :-/

Undead Day 20

A cold war seems to have ensued, with each side in an arms race. My forces are spread thin, trying to hold onto our income structures from those annoying birds. We are BROKE, and can't spare a single gold piece.

TS

Oh yeah, the boat bug, I remember that. I wonder if the MPE mod fixed that? I haven't used boats in a while but it was a real hazard back in the day. Also, I think seduction may be more of an issue under MPE with its multiple levels. I have a bunch of elite vampires and Seduce III seems to work almost every time. It was more hit and miss in the old days.

Archons, TS

Small misstep and not enough move to undo said misstep. Oops.

Galadriel, day 20

We spot a strange formation in the archon forces, is that a trap or a honest mistake? After much consideration we go for it and a great battle ensues, fought exclusively with seduced units, barring summons and heroes. Our dark elves were starting to be too many to control. The south front seems stable once the dust settles.

In the centre, the birds controlled by the druid keep scouting the enemy rear lines while the druid helps seducing some bigger, more exotic birds...

Undead Turn 21

I spy with my hollow eye
A little green elf that must die
Near my town it tried to hide
But in the end it surely died

Still no sign of the halfling hordes, perhaps they are waiting for the hay to dry.

TS

Galadriel, day 21

I load troops on a transport and they crash on each other so much, that the world ends.

Apologies for the restart. Yes, I have a transport, and it bugged out. Luckily there were no combats. I did capture a city without combat, if that is against etiquette I'll send the missing gold back.

Archons 21 - TS