Woah this library is a treasure!
I'll have a look into it...if I can motivate myself to do so
But obviously clearing are one of my bigger weaknesses, I'm not really good at it. And you're probably right. What is your usual Build Order when yo ustart off as Sorc, Hil?

Ok I see but even in a 4v4, your strategy seems too long-term and passive to me. Researching Phantasm Warrior after the Empire Upgrade for Apprentice means you do not build on one of the main strength of Sorcerer: being able to reinforce as you move (and in a more reliable way than Convert). I would never do that myself. There is no need to for Node Serpent, but at least go for the Warriors. Similarly, it means you waste half (or more) of your potential: Sorcerer is not about building units, you had few units to clear the Mines because you were not summoning real units. You need to think about your strategy/playstyle again because it's not normal to have a Gold Mine uncleared 1 turn away from your Throne at turn 40+. Even with team mates leaving, etc. Getting multiple cities should be a strength for you, not a drag (defending vs roamers and us), because it means more production, more mana, more gold, more research and thus more CP.

I think you underestimate your skills too. Maybe you should check some of the videos in the library: http://age-of-wonders-3.wikia... and then try to replicate some site clearing with units you feel are not entirely strong enough for YOU to clear the sites.

And besides that... you seem to highly overestimate my skill

I started off very slowly in this game, my starting position didn't really allow me to research fast. I rallied my units because I simply waited for you guys, I tried to gain some time by sending wisps but I never made it to an undefended city, but burned down some towers and one or two fortresses I think. There just was not more in it for me, my wisps didn't came far enough to take your cities.

Also, I sent  a unit underground to steal your cities and it went along all the map, just to end up in a place on the other side with no cities of you near it and surrounded by lava/water and undiggable walls which needed me to return. If the path would have been free it would have ended up perfectly in teh back of you. It took a time to get this unit  morei nto the center and then to where your cities must be but got catched by one of your patrols. As I took over the cities of some of our players who left the game I needed to secure them against independents and your scouts etc, as well, stretching my lines thin and I couldn't really form a fast moving unit that would have been capable of taking a city even if only lightly defended.
My plan in the game was to stay behind our lines build up and support with summons until I woudl be ablt to form stacks of apprentices and summons that could reallydo harm. Due to our allies leaving us, this left me quite unprepared for the new situation. Until I had enough troops to clear the mine etc. the game was already clearly lost so I secured my capital as good as possible for the final attack and waited for an honorable death.

resreach wise I only got the phanto mwarriors very late, after researching teleport and stn for apprentices, which took me very long due to my slow start andt he lack of buildings/sites that could boost my research under my control.

Zytozid, as part of the "Academy" side of things, I'm a bit surprised you have a Mana Node and Gold Mine unexplored near your Throne whereas you have the units to clear them. If I were you, I would have cleared that some time ago, it's gold, mana and experience, just for clearing it. And potentially income if you build a Fortress.
Also I see you used your CP to cast a defensive spell. Why not? But what about your summons? I'm surprised you sent only Wisps at us. A Sorcerer can build his army on the go by summoning very good units. You could have attacked us while we were attacking you. Attack is usually the best defense in AoW3. We have many lightly defended cities that you could possibly have taken. (though we do have patrols )

Good remark

Small tip: dezooming to reach the strategic map in "scroll-mode" allows to see better what is at the edge of the fog of war. It can also help to see if some Dwellings have been razed or not as it may not be obvious in the fog of war. The fact they have no name on that dezoomed map shows they were razed.

We will not be hindered, the Alliance will hold for now, we are those who bear the supreme truth, death to all infidels!

Nice, in some way, to hear that Zytozid fight on!

Hi all! Everyone's playing quite fast and I have a lot of extra work for the balance mod these few days so I can't keep up, sorry. I'm going to play my turn tomorrow, removing the turn timer temporarily as it would expire before I can play.

It's fine, you should upgrade the game to v1.23, we play with the current version of the balance mod, whatever it is.

Hei,
I just manually upgraded to the PBEM mod 1.23 for another game. Now if I would play my turn of the academy game i would update that also to 1.23 or so it tells me at least. Is that fine with everyone. And in case not how do i change back? I have gog so will downloading the old .taf file from Hiliadans dropbox and delete the 1.23 ta file work?

We will never surrender!

 - a lot of countries shortly before they surrendered

Apparently, yes. And when Zytozid is finally defeated we will keep playing football with his hero's head.

It is up to Zytozid anyway, if he wants to stop the game he can surrender.

So we keep playing this game?

I reverted the turn, 4 vs 1 (+1), you cannot really skip a turn. Time to get some training at big battles.

Sorry for skipping, I'm on a business trip and I thought I'd surely have enough time to do my turn but nope, I was wrong. Well be back tomorrow.