Turn 01

Nestalawe - First turn in and everything is fairly simple, though it seems many of the other players did not get as many neutrals as they would have liked. Tomb Raider got into a few scuffles to the north of me, taking a province away from Skarn, but having one of hers taken away by Brykovian. I had a bit of fun and tried using some spies to steal some population from provinces #29 and #30, in case Allister Fiend took either of them. So I succeeded in taking 30 POP from #30. I have a few dilemmas because I ended up splitting my army into two, so am not sure if I will be able to take the two next neutrals I have targeted - #35 and #24.

Nemesis - I take 21, 22 and 23 this turn and convert 36 armies from my POP. I split my armies between 20 and 23. If I am going to get 3 neutrals again then I have to split them so some of them can get 19 and the rest can go for 17 and 16. As part of my agreement with Vanchaser I can take 19 and 17 without fear of being attacked but I do not know about 16. Using the spy information I have decided to go for 16 next turn as Allister only has 5 armies that can take it and Vanchaser has his hands full with Styphon. I have also set all of my workers to produce missiles. I am getting ready for the battles ahead.

Turn 02

Nestalawe - Another turn goes smoothly, I get my two neutrals, and Nemesis gets his. I tried to steal more POP and sabotage some missiles. of Allister Fiend's (in case there were any in #30) but failed in both attempts. Meanwhile someone spies out most of my eastern Provinces, most likely The Dane. Ecrivian and Vanchaser have some fun up in the north west and dig into Styphon, while Brykovian has another go at Tomb Raider and takes her down to one province as well. Allister Fiend doesn't do too much, and so Nemesis and I plan to make our move.

Nemesis - I get my three neutrals and Allister Fiend and Vanchaser leave 16 alone. I have moved my armies into 16 and 23 ready to launch our attack on Allister Fiend. My NAP with Vanchaser means he will not be able to help his ally. I also have 13 missiles ready but my spy information shows that I can save my missiles to use on a bigger opponent. Everything is looking rosy with me topping the scores and Nestalawe in second.

Turn 03

Nestalawe - Now things started to get interesting. Brykovian didn't seem to be able to finish off Tomb Raider, and loses a few provinces to Skarn, though he may have just let him move through. Brykovian does take one of The Dane's provinces though. Over in the west Styphon has been a sneaky beast and snuck through Vanchaser into Nemesis, which makes us a bit worried. But the main excitement (for me) was the attack Nemesis and I made on Allister Fiend. I started with 52 armies, at a fairly low EFF of 79%. I lost 16 armies against 11 of Allister Fiend's in #29, then I lost another 24 armies against 7 of Allister Fiend's in #31, then I suicide the remaining 12 against 8 of Allister Fiend's in #59. I thought it was great! I was just lucky I had the weight of numbers. So I had lost all of my forces, but lucky for me, I had set orders to create another 36 in #31. Fortunately there was enough POP there so I had some fresh (if somewhat green) forces to keep moving with next turn. Alongside my attack was Nemesis, who took #30 and #10 from Allister.

Nemesis - The first thing that happens to me this turn is and attack from ... Styphon?! He has gone through Vanchaser into my province 17. That has hit me hard as I had 96 POP there. My attacks on Allister Fiend worked, but only just! I had expected more armies to get through so I could take the neutral province 09. I had planned to move all of my spies to province 17 but Styphon had taken it, this meant all of my spy attacks failed. At least Styphon has no spy attacks on me. I feel that he can hurt me if he attacks through 16 but I expect him to attack 23, I am hoping that he attacks 23 as I have 21 armies to defend with.

Turn 04

Nestalawe - I had found 6 missiles in #31, so threw them at #58, killing 1 army, but not making me very excited about missiles. Allister Fiend threw some at me and knocked off some TECH points. After that Allister Fiend tried taking #31 back with 7 armies he had left over from taking the neutral province #32. But since I had 32 fresh armies there, he got knocked back, and I was free to take out #58 and #59. Now here is where there was a major move was made by me which determined my future of the game. I could have moved my armies into either #58 or #59. If I put them in #58 I would have to move against Skarn, if I put them in #59 I would have to move west into Vanchaser or Ecrivian. I ended up putting them in #59, so my course of action for the next stage of the game was set. Also, the other major move I made this turn, was to recruit 36 armies in #24, and put 125 WOK there set on LEV. I had been moving POP and WOK to #24 over the last couple of turns, which The Dane was busy spying my easternmost provinces which I was slowly emptying in anticipation of when our NAP would be over, and he would move against me. The rest of the world was having a bit of fun this turn as well. Styphon moved further into Nemesis, mucking him around, and taking a neutral. Things were looking a bit grim for Nemesis there, as Styphon was changing any POP he fond into armies. Vanchaser was helping out, and retaking provinces from Styphon. Meanwhile Ecrivian filled the gaps between himself and I, and we now had a border. Skarn also kept moving west, and so I was pinched in between the two of them. Brykovian finally finished off Tomb Raider, and our NAP was up, but when contacting him about extending the NAP, he assured me that he had little of anything left, and didn't have much hope of lasting much longer. It was time to work out what to do next.

Nemesis - I use my missiles this turn. Firstly I hit province 17 and then 59 and 60. I really need this neutral (60) because I am low on POP. I have used the missiles. because the neutrals are getting stronger now. My attacks should be enough to take it. My missiles. didn't stop Styphon who takes two of my provinces and provinces 18 which will be full of POP by now. I do not get province 60 either. My missiles. weakened the province for Ecrivian. If I had not bombed it then I could have got it because Ecrivian would have used more armies to get it in the first place. Nestalawe discussed with me last turn who he will attack next. He decided to go for Ecrivian as that would help me to. Because of this I spy on four of Ecrivian's provinces so Nestalawe can plan his attack route for the next turn. After sharing my information with Vanchaser we know that Styphon's armies are in either 18 or 20. One of use will be attacked by all of Styphon's forces next turn. I extend my NAP with Vanchaser for another 8 turns with the condition that spy attacks are not allowed.

Turn 05

Nestalawe - A gamble paid off. I still had 32 armies in #59, so thought I would put them to good use. Nemesis had a long-term NAP with Vanchaser, and he was busy playing with Styphon, so there was no need to move against him, but Ecrivian was right on my doorstep, so, throwing some missile at #57 in case Skarn decided to attack me, I moved my forces through Ecrivian's lands. The missiles hit nothing, but there were no armies in #57 anyway. Ecrivian went before me in the OOP, and had attacked #59 anyway. So there was a vicious wee battle where his 24 armies lost against my 32, but I got beaten down to 14 armies by the end of the fight. My EFF was on 78% so not that great, but I struggled through. So after his attempt to invade my lands, it was my turn, so did a nice run through 6 of his provinces (my TECH level was on 185) I was greatly chuffed at this ;) Meanwhile The Dane had made his move ad wiped out Brykovian, Allister Fiend had survived another turn by taking a neutral (I was a bit worried about him making a romp through my unprotected lands) and Skarn hadn't done much at all. Ecrivian had taken one of Nemesis's provinces, so he might last a little longer. Nemesis had had some luck and had taken Styphon down to one province. Allister Fiend also got in touch with me, and we decided to enter a NAP, with my condition to him that he would attack Skarn. I also said that I would like a NAP with Vanchaser as well, and I assumed that we had made one, through discussions with Nemesis. It turned out that I hadn't.

Nemesis - I fire all the missiles. I can at province 20 (a massive 9!!!). But even though I only had those few missiles what a result! 9 missiles killed 30 armies. This is my first game but will I ever see that much luck again? That leaves Styphon with 4 armies and my armies find no problem with that. I get my provinces back but the are completely drained of POP as Styphon converted everything. My spies find that province 18 is empty of armies and so Styphon is virtually out of the game. I help Nestalawe with my spying again and take a look at three of Skarn's provinces.

Turn 06

Nestalawe - Now I was thinking I was in a desperate situation from last turn, and was just hanging out to see when Skarn would rampage through the lands I had taken from Ecrivian. I only had 14 armies over in province #05, and even though they had a LEV of 2.064, my EFF was down to 65%! This turn Skarn did do a bit of a romp, but not as far as I thought he would, only taking three provinces, so I wasn't too worried (yet). Allister Fiend lived up to his agreement and took two of Skarn's provinces, beautiful! But the big surprise was Vanchaser doing a bit of a runner through my lands. I had made a nice killing off of Ecrivian, moving through #09 unmolested, and then faced 16 armies at LEV 1.139 with 14 of mine at level 2.164, but my EFF was at 65%. Anyway, I bet him, and had 4 armies left over. But then Vanchaser comes in and ruins the party with 40 armies at LEV 1.031! Not one to be pushed around, my 4 defenders fight valiantly, and take his force down to 18 before succumbing. This was a major surprise though, as I had thought we were at peace, but my misunderstanding, and I suffered for it. Not to worry though, I was having fun. I recruited another 36 armies into #05 to hang out and hopefully be able to hold these north west lands against Skarn and Vanchaser. My NAP with The Dane also ran out this turn, and though I was keen to extend it (I had enough enemies) he didn't, and so I knew I would get attacked this turn. I just hoped the armies I was holding back in #24 would be able to stand and defend themselves.

Nemesis - I use this turn to regroup after the attacks from Styphon. I have low POP and 18 armies. I am going to have to get the most out of them to stay in the game. I get them in one province with workers on LEV so that when I do attack my armies should be able to beat the opposition. I also fired missiles at province 10 to help Nestalawe kill off Ecrivian as he is before him in the OOP. Vanchaser ended up taking the province but that was fine by me as long as Ecrivian was out of the way.

Turn 07

Nestalawe - And yes, The Dane did attack! Mowing through my unprotected provinces with two forces - one of 58 armies, one of 16. There was not much I could do, I was just lucky that he didn't push into #24, if he had and had beaten my troops there it would have been the end for me. But I had 36 armies at LEV 2.250 against his 58 at level 1.443, but then again my EFF was at 61% so I wasn't gonna put much faith in their survival. Meanwhile Allister Fiend had been beaten back to one province by Skarn, which may have been why Skarn didn't do much against me. But my workers had been busy wee things in this turn. I recruited another 36 armies into #24, which halved their LEV, but it meant I now had 72 armies at LEV 1.938 in #24 at the end of the turn, and I had made 104 WOK in province #05 set to LEV as well, so the 36 armies I had there (which I was always worried would get slaughtered by an attack by Vanchaser or Skarn) would turn into a mean fighting force as well... if only I could get my EFF back up. By the end of the turn it was down to 51%. I'd be damned if I'd be attacking anyone with at kinda success. But hey! I had 293 TECH points! I could trade 250 of them in and then the turn after I could attack with a grunty EFF again! Meanwhile, as I rejoiced at finding a way out of my EFF problem, Nemesis (who by the way, is the most luckiest spy ever and who constantly has 99% EFF) is having troubles finishing off Styphon.

Nemesis - I just slept this turn. I move 1 army across next to Styphon's empty province to take it next turn and got all of my missiles in to province 23. I let my POP grow and started to scout for places to attack. I found 42 missiles. in one province and 68 WOK in another but I needed POP and I did not see any. I would not be able to attack anyway as I was surrounded by Nestalawe and Vanchaser, who I still had a NAP with for 5 turns and so I just had to wait and watch The Dane attack Nestalawe.

Turn 08

Nestalawe - Ok, first up, I got bombed. I was expecting it, you know, its not like I was surprised. So alright I lose 9 armies in province #24, big deal, I've got lots. But what hurt, what really got down and tweaked my nipples was that I also lost 112 TECH points, my days of rampaging glory were over, as I no longer had the requisite 250 TECH points to trade in to get my EFF up. After the bombing The Dane also attacked #24 with 21 armies. After a fairly even battle, I ended up with 48 armies left. Even grimmer was that Skarn had finally made his way through Allister Fiend and now he and The Dane had province #24 surrounded, ooh they must have liked that, and I was quite worried, even if my troops were now up to LEV 2.680. I now realised that they must not know about my 56 armies I now had up in #02. I had been doing some reshuffling of resources up there, and had made myself a little hideaway. Finally Nemesis finished off Styphon, but he was pretty beat, the scuffles had taken it out of him, and it was around this turn when he turned to me and said "Nestalawe my good friend, we've been through a lot, but ya know, I think you might have a better chance with teaming up with The Dane and leaving me for the vultures. I've had it man, I'm a sinking ship." But I said "Hey matey, that's not how us Circler's do things, if you go down, I go down, I'll be damned if I'm gonna let some pink pretty boy break us apart." So he got back up into the saddle, and prepared for the next phase of action. Knocked back by the fact that I now did not have enough TECH points to get my EFF back up, I was lucky in that I had changed province #02 to produce TECH points instead of LEV for the armies there. It was a hard decision last turn, but damn lucky. Since production comes before TECH trade in's, I would have enough to get my EFF back up and finally attack someone. At the end of this turn it was down to 47%. I was gonna have a bit of fun this next turn anyway.

Nemesis - I used my 41 missiles. to help out Nestalawe. The Dane was closing in on him and Nestalawe's EFF was dropping lower and lower making him less and less likely every turn to win a battle. I got 19 armies from him. Earlier I got 30 armies with 9 missiles and now I get 19 armies with 41 missiles!?! I took the last province from Styphon. My spies were busy working for Nestalawe again and found that The Dane did not have any armies anywhere near Nestalawe. Skarn had also attacked right next to my province 23. This was my chance and next turn I would be attack Skarn. Can I have my 41 missiles. back?

Turn 09

Nestalawe - Righty, so yeah, OK, I get bombed again, all over the place. Province #24 loses another 21 armies, but ya know, that's cool, I am left with 27 or so. But hey, I lose some more TECH points, and guess how many I am left with, 245. Five points away from trading them in to get my EFF back up! Gads is that frustrating. I take out my frustrating by sending a sole army out to play with The Dane, taking 4 provinces off him. And it seemed like my talk with Nemesis worked, as he also does a bit of a runner, plowing through both Skarn and The Dane. Two turns ago The Dane was way up top of the score rankings at over 3500 points. Now he is at the bottom with 1421. Mighty stuff.

Nemesis - I did not need my 41 missiles. I attacked 5 provinces and never saw 1 army from Skarn or The Dane. I had 4 missiles and they killed Skarn's 1 army in province 25. Using my spy information from an earlier turn, and hoping that The Dane did not move anything, I targeted the provinces with the missiles and the WOK in. I got those 2 provinces and picked up 68 WOK and I did get 41 missiles. back!!!! I spied on 5 of The Dane's provinces and found 0 armies. I would have to use my missiles. on the provinces that I did not spy on and hope for the best.

Turn 10

Nestalawe - This turn its time to play with Skarn. I send a single army through his lands and take four provinces off him, just to be a bugger really. Meanwhile I let Nemesis romp through some of the lands I had taken from The Dane last turn, to pick up some LEV, and then take out #34. It works well and Nemesis starts picking away at our enemies. Meanwhile up north I had moved my armies from #02 down to #05, which is damn lucky. First Skarn tries to attack #05 with 9 armies against my 50 (my EFF level is currently at 32%, which ain't really that hot...) but I beat him off, with 36 armies remaining. But then Vanchaser comes to the party and attacks province #09 and then #05. Now his EFF must have been about as low as mine, because it was a pretty even fight. Luckily my 36 armies beat of his 31 and I survive with 4 left over. Glory to me. Best of all, I finally get enough TECH points to bring my EFF back up to speed. I end the turn with an EFF level of 83% - Time to go rampaging.

Nemesis - After seen Nestalawe's turn 9 we figured that province 27 was where The Dane had all of his armies and so we had to bomb that. I also bombed province 34 to get rid of the armies in there. In the last turn Nestalawe sent 1 army on the rampage and the army lost to province 42 against 8 armies so I aimed at that province as well. Our plan was for me to go through 3 of Nestalawe's provinces and pick up a 0.300 level increase and then take two of The Dane's provinces. The plan did not work as I was bombed and only had for attacks because I lost Tech points in the attack. After the attack I moved my 20 armies to province 39 to attack Skarn as most of The Dane's provinces were empty and he seemed to be in a bit of trouble. While this is happening I have been building a second force to come into play if needed. My spies find that province 55 has 80 WOK and 32 missiles. A good place for my next attack I think. I am on top at the leaderboard again with Nestalawe in second.

Nestalawe - Well OK, I didn't really do much rampaging this turn, Just letting Nemesis have all the fun. As a matter of fact, I do believe I actually miss my turn... So OK, not to worry, my 26 armies down in #24 now have a LEV of 4.555! Nemesis has some fun with Skarn and The Dane, taking three provinces from Skarn, and one from The Dane. My turn for some fun, but I'm gonna head west, to Vanchaser.

Nemesis - I fire missiles everywhere again this turn trying to kill off the others armies. I take the attack route of 40, 57, 56, 55 so that I can again get a 0.300 level increase for my armies. I find a nice surprise in province 57 and get into provinces 55. I think this was a turning point against Skarn. I felt he would struggle from now on. My ever dependable spies fail miserably this turn. Just what I didn't need with such a big empire draining away my EFF. I had now got the two new provinces from Skarn to make sure that my EFF stays up.

Turn 12

Nestalawe - And yeah baby I finally get to see my armies in action, I plow through Vanchaser having a hell of a time on the way and Nemesis is doing glorious things over in the east, claiming five of The Dane's provinces, and one off Skarn. This was the turn when the GM (Pat) asked for a vote to end the game, as the two of us seem to have the situation under control. I would like to be able to finish off Vanchaser, and Skarn votes to continue, so we do. I suddenly get a bit of a panic attack, as I realise that with some lucky missiles, Vanchaser could wipe out my armies in #12 (25 armies at LEV 5.090) and I would have nothing left, but what the hell, lets go for it.

Nemesis - As I think I have hurt Skarn pretty bad I decide to go for The Dane while Nestalawe goes for Vanchaser. I need to attack province 42 as I know The Dane has been trying to build up there for a while. I get 5 provinces from him and I get 1 from Skarn. I move some armies into province 16 as this is my last turn for the NAP with Vanchaser just in case Nestalawe needs any help. My spies are working again and I find that there are a lot of empty provinces, the most important being 46 as it means that The Dane is out of the game. Skarn has spied out all of my province data which is worrying me as it means he knows where everything is but I should be OK, especially when Nestalawe brings his forces over.

Turn 13

Nestalawe - My fears prove unfounded, I smash through and finish off Vanchaser, my 25 armies killing 40 of his with the loss of only a single army to me. Meanwhile over in the east, our last enemy, Skarn, toys with Nemesis and bit and wins back four provinces. But not for long.

Nemesis - I firstly use some missiles. on Vanchaser just to make sure Nestalawe gets the job done. It doesn't matter anyway as my missiles. do not hit anything but Nestalawe still finishes off Vanchaser. I mix up the OOP and so my attacks do not work but I would not have been able to attack anything anyway. Skarn heads south for province 42 because of the WOK, missiles. and spies.

Turn 14

Nestalawe - I still have some armies in #24, so use them to claim back some lands to the east, while bringing my killer force over from their recent conquests with Vanchaser.

Nemesis - Nestalawe's armies come across to help me out and my attacks fail because Skarn's missiles. killed my armies. I bring the second force of armies across that I have been building as Vanchaser is now dead. Nestalawe also gets his armies ready in province 32.

Turn 15

Nestalawe - And there we go, Nemesis takes the flanks while I charge up the middle and rip out the guts of what was Skarn. Both Skarn and The Dane have a province left, but I wouldn't bet on them having much left.

Nemesis - The OOP comes out and I go first with Skarn second and Nestalawe third. I come up with a plan to attack the provinces that Skarn can attack me from because I go before him in the OOP. Nestalawe will then send his armies after me to take the rest of Skarn's provinces and it works a treat.