DW
Since I obtained the DW position out of default (I had never even played the DW before), I was just hoping not to embarrass myself in Valley of the Gods! I had HH as the WI and JF as the GI with Lord Alz as the RD. The DW were quite stout in the initial set-up; potent in many ways but two big problems for the end game, low magic potential and a slow moving military (with no real teleport ability).
Being an Anon game with all 15 kingdoms in play, my first real issue was the split R3 region with the RD. I went for the city and declared the RD as an ally on T1. Thankfully, Lord Alz was extremely gracious and vacated the region declaring me an ally on T2. I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief as I kept finding Neutral PCs and took my region in a fair amount of time (considering how slow these DWs are). I was hoping to just sit in my mountains for quite awhile before moving on someone. While I REALLY wanted to take back those 3 PCs the RD held in R3, I didn't want to annoy him but it kept me from hitting the 100k food and 150k gold bonuses.
Got my Axe (but lost a my Marshall taking it... I would lose 3 Marshals taking artifacts during the game even though I came loaded!) and checked to see where the Portal came out in R7. Turns out there were artifacts all over the place so I just became an artifact hunter (my lone 4th level Wizard was a teleporting patrol fool!). Picked up the WI as an ally since I had no interest in picking a fight there. Also gambled on gaining the UN as an ally when his "winter" months kicked in and I sent him food 3 turns in a row and allied with him. Thankfully LT reciprocated during my winter with an alliance and food. He had parked a patrol in R3 and it just sat there... making me really nervous, turn after turn; but it finally left.
Got the Crystal of Seeing earlier which is an awesome artifact. Lots of recons later, I realized that R6 had become a quagmire between RD, SO, and DA (the latter two with water capitals). This created a huge problem. I had a big military, nobody was messing with me, and I had 6 artifacts (including the Ring of Power...score a 5th level DW wizard!, Staff of the Great Orator, Armor of Anon, and the Troll Slayer sword). But I had no where to go!!!! I thought about going into R5 with my advantage against the GI, but once I cleared the mountains in the P column, I'd be getting a long way from home. I also thought about going into Synisvania but again, far away from home and putting 3 kingdoms between R3 and my groups. And of course I had allied with the UN so using the portal to go to R7 was out (plus he'd just kill me!). So I just built up and waited for an opening.... which never came.
Than all of a sudden the Elf of all people suddenly dropped emmys into R3. 4 the first time, and then 2 more the next turn. But he didn't send any groups and apparently didn't scout his locations as I caught two of his emmys right off the bat with #310 orders (getting a Skeleton and booting him from the HC). I was using my groups to try and trap his emmys and then take the PC. His effort was not overly effective, had the game played out, I would have had them all caught or sent back to his capital. On the last turn, my King was assassinated. I suspect the Elf but the DA had started to get hostile by taking my 2 PCs in R6 so may have been him. But who knows?! Maybe one of them will fess up
I knew the BL was getting close to a SV when he hit 3 regions but my slow military was not going to find him in time. My mighty military never engaged in a single battle! Still managed a respectable 5th place which was far better than my expectation of being the first to get squashed in the field of 15.
Buddy/Ignore List
