Another wimpy rainbow mage has ascended to true godhood, this time from the world curiously known as “Jeff”. Euneos the archdruid led the sneaky hordes of Tir na N’og to world domination through a cleverly contrived combination of good planning and dumb luck.
Early on, he exploited the ability of Sorceresses to spam Thunderstrike, especially when they are surrounded by several N1 mages singing Soothing Song and screened from the bad guys by a handful of Sidhe Warriors. He was excited to discover Niefelheim (GreatAtlantic) among his early neighbors, thinking of ancient texts and racial memories about marauding bands of Neifel giants - if anything could stand up to a pack of giants rushing towards one’s home province, it would be thunderstrike spammers.
The other early neighbor was Pan (Jeff himself). Upon seeing how Tir, Pan, and Niefel were relatively closely packed while TC (Idar) and Van (Hetzer) had acres of space, Euneos proposed an early alliance among the eastern powers. Niefel never responded, as he apparently realized how badly the first few turns had gone for Pan. Indeed, Niefel was able to take Pan without a real fight. So early a second capital gave Niefel an advantage (and land) at least equal to that enjoyed by TC and Van. Shortly thereafter Niefel made a public pronouncement, unilaterally declaring the location of the Tir/Niefel border. That act was strike 2 against the giants in Euneos’ eye (strike 1 being simply the fact that Niefel was Niefelheim). And in the version of baseball played in Tir na N’og, the batter gets only 2 strikes. Preparations were made. Squads of Sidhe Warriors, each lead by a Sidhe Lord, snuck into the giants homeland. Mages at home researched the ability to swing from province to province by hanging from clouds (you should have seen some of the early attempts). TC was contacted.
Zero day arrived, and something like 16 provinces changed hands from Neifel to Tir at a stroke of Euneos’ quill. Niefel responded by offering the world to all who would join him in opposing Euneos. Still the first war ended many months later as a draw. Euneos’ plan was to gather the stealthed armies together with the Cloud-traveling Sorceresses to make a couple of thunderstrike-spamming armies. Euneos’ plan was stupid. Niefel responded not with an army of giants, but with lightning-immune Jarl SCs.
Eventually, Euneos learned how to dispatch the Jarls. Early on, he used Sidhe Lords with vine shields, but it was only after learning to leave the shield at home and attack with two weapons that he truly mastered the art of Jarl butchery. 3 teleporting Sidhe Lords. 1 given a vine bow and ordered “Attack one turn, Vine Arrowx4, fire closest”. The other two equipped with 2 fire brands (or axes of sharpness), plus extra goodies to add defense-reducing attacks (Gore helmet, stone bird), and ordered Mistform, attack. If he had used that formula from the early days of the war, it would have resulted in the quick victory Euneos dreamed of. But by the time the effective tactics were invented, there were simply too many Jarls to effectively defeat, and we had a stalemate and therefore a truce.
Despite the truce, the stealthed armies were never recalled home. Indeed, their number was more than doubled over the years of the truce. Meanwhile, hard research work and good fortune prevailed. A province along the Niefel border contained the “Steel Ovens” - a 20% discount on all forging. It was also the site of the only truly massive battle of the first war - the only time Niefel tried to bring a large army of giants to bear. That encounter went solidly in Tir’s favor, and the remaining giants spent the rest of their lives hiding like sissies, never again leaving their home province.
Good planning created good luck when Euneos discovered that he was the first to research the ability to forge artifacts. His whole strategy took a substantial turn. The Scepter of Dark Regency and The Chalice allowed Euneos to build a Tartarian Factory. And it was good. 4 of the first 6 summoned elder gods were air/earth cyclopses.
By that time, Niefel had begun a war against TC, using a couple of squads of Jarl heroes with his own Tartarians in support. His problem was that the Niefel SCs had to walk out in the open, while Euneos’ could teleport. Neifel’s two main SC stacks went down with no significant losses on the good guys side. The rest of War II was merely a mopping-up operation.
Finally, TC and Tir turned against each other. TC had on his side several armies each with hundreds upon hundreds of troops and boatloads of mages. Euneos had on his side Leprosy, Flames From the Sky and teleporting Tartarian Cyclopses casting multiple Rain of Stones, among other big late-game tricks. Big armies of basic troops and mages still don’t survive worth a darn in the later stages of a Dominions war.
Thanks to Nick for playing and hosting (even if his nation choice plus some supreme bad luck caused him to play only a trivial role in the wars), and thanks to Idar, Hetzer, and GreatAtlantic for a fun game.
