That was very useful, thank you.

I have not used communions. I would expect the info card you get when you click on the mage on the battle screen to show the increased magic paths.

Emerson - yeah, my scouts have spotted the elephant stacked at your gates. What can I say - unless you have a Mad Elephant Disease vial stashed somewhere, you have a hard battle ahead of you.

Now you tell me!  I pretty much assumed those guys were overpriced and mostly worthless, since they can only command a small number of magical beings, and they're neither magical themselves (like mages, who can also command magical beings) nor are they as good fighters as Abysia's normal commanders and/or assassins.  I guess I didn't look closely enough at their other abilities.  That said, the Salamanders themselves - who those guys are supposed to "train" - cost 60 gold each and have little (no?) protection, making them paper cannons.  They're not useless, but in the early game they're a bit of a luxury for a nation that struggles to afford its rank-and-file troops to begin with.

So actually, I don't know that trying to recruit more salamander trainers would have made that much of a difference, in the end.  Couldn't have hurt, but defeat was probably inevitable once Marverni deployed his elephants-overruning-province-defense strategy.  Either way, you live and learn... Next time I'm Abysia-ing against elephants, a different tactic will be tried.

Yeah, their low morale is why I think the Salamander trainer can be useful.  They have Animal Awe +4 and an elephant has 9 morale (8 morale if fighting in your dominion)

So, with that in mind, the trainer has a 85.8% chance to awe an elephant in your dominion.  If it's in enemy dominion, it's down to 76.3%, and finally, if it's been sermon of couraged (h2 priest spell) in enemy dominion, 62.4%.  

Either way, on paper it should be quite effective, but the big downside is that you're using those limited commander recruitment slots for a very specialized purpose.

Would anyone reading be interested in taking over Arco, if needed? You would be playing what seems to be a losing position. As such, your task might be to inflict as much damage on Arco's enemies as possible before dying, unless things can be somehow turned around.

Going by the score table, I wouldn't call it a losing position.

http://www.llamaserver.net/showScores.cgi?game=Elementalists

Only six territories, but three of them are fortresses. More research than most of us combined. Middling income, dominion and army size.

At the very least, it does not seem like they will be destroyed in the next two days... so a replacement is definitely going to be needed.

I think Michael has volunteered.....

I will let you guys handle it over PMs. Louist can choose who he wants for a sub, if it does come to that. He can fill that person in on the situation.

With the research, it does seem like he might be able to turn things around. I do not know the total situation, though.

Micheal spoke first, and he's free to take over. That said, Ti'en Ch'i has already taken half my territory, and I'm scrambling hard to raise some sort of resistance. I can't promise it will be a long substitution.

Edit: Research is my only strong point left. I have a large army score, which actually surprises me as I've lost 2/3rd of my men. I wonder if my philosopher horde is inflated somewhat? Otherwise, I'm last or second to last in all other areas. My magic heavy strategy necessitated securing a lot of gems, and I had a team searching all paths but death on turn 3 (or 4?). I just never lucked out. I hit on a few gem producing sites, but not nearly enough to implement any strategy. And sloth 3 means I couldn't switch gears to a martial strategy. I gambled and lost.

Certainly true. You looked weak, and I needed new sources of gems. It really backfired on me.

Yomi shall still be avenged!

I would need you to PM me your email address for the switch. 

Louist, what would be your last day?