I'm FAIRLY sure Fire Rear isn't a thing, now I've heard of tricks using Hold and Attack Rear... But I'm certain Fire Rear is not a thing.....
I'm not lying to you, love. Give a commander a bow and see for yourself.
Also, you claiming my Throne of Life wouldn't guarantee a victory, you'd still have to hold it until the end of turn, and I was in position to do something about that... Although you would just defensive quake spam cheese your way to victory... Can't wait for Dominions 5 where stuff like that isn't more or less an automatic 'win' button unless you're up against certain compositions...
I don't think you could take the throne of life back. I finally got one of the Telkhine heroes, so I'd be spamming Shimmering Fields in addition to the regular stuff. Two earthquakes guaranteed on the first turn.
Besides, I've also just conquered Lanka's throne, which would also give me victory (although I'd have to send somebody to claim it).
The problem is, Ermor doesn't really have air mages, yes 1 in 4 Auger Elders, but I'd rather spam normal Augers yeah? (Fun fact: I recruited exactly two Auger Elders this entire match. Both rolled Death. I recruited enough normal Augers to be the research leader for most of the game, Hinnom and Marverni only just caught up, and only because I was fielding my entire mage force for the past 5 turns or so...)
That, and by the time I did my two army split I emptied my gem coffers on... I actually don't remember... Empowering that one random Auger in that western army with air I think?..... Lots of gear too, that got lost in the fiasco at the battle for the Throne of the Elements...
I mean, Il Palazzo, consider this honestly: I somehow coughed up the gems to shield my masters and a good chunk of slaves. You inflict massive damage to my standing army. Heck, you could've gone back to a multi-quake alpha strike to attempt to cause most of my troops to route, and punch through more of the not-absolute anti-quake countermeasures I would've been able to field. Either way, your ghosts are still better than my now battered legionnaires, and yes I actually have mage support now, but so do you, and you were taking countermeasures like rain and what not... Shocked I didn't see a Warriors of Niefelheim or Fire Fend out of you though... Then again, Pillar of Fire kinda doesn't care...
Yup, these are the kind of things one needs to start planning for longterm. As soon as the game starts, preferably.
If it were me fighting Therodos as Ermor, I'd probably use human troops only on the defensive (providing I could give them mass flight, for warriors, or army of lead/gold on the first turn), and use summons/thugs to hold the line when attacking.
I'd also try to take down as many mages as I can remotely, rather than in battle. I'd push for Flames from the sky and use it copiously, which is one of the better reasons for Ermor to get as many Augur Elders as possible. Another thing they could be casting is Vengeance of the Dead - a great way of taking down EQ-spamming mass murderers.
As it was, I don't think I lost more than 2, maybe 3 daktyls the entire game.
Oh, and I did not cast anything like Warriors of... because my best research was lvl 7 in Evo, and lvl 6 in everything else (sans blood).
Yeah, Hinnom was left oddly undefended.
My two armies were caught badly out of position - one was finishing taking the last provinces of Tir, the other was in the process of sieging Marveni's capital.
I started putting together a new army, but giants really are ruinously expensive.
Edit: I'd say that the misstep I made was underestimating just how big of a threat Therodos posed. There was a couple turns right after I'd taken out Sauromatia where I was deciding who my next target should be. Unfortunately, I decided to go after Tir na N'Og; then Marveni decided that I was the bigger threat (easier target?) than Therodos, and suddenly I was in a two-front war (which I was well in the process of winning, I'll note!) and had no attention/troops to spare in opening up yet another front (one which bordered me on 3 sides, I'll note.) So I just kind of crossed my fingers and hoped that someone else would rise to the occasion.
You really should have dropped everything and send those armies to the nearest throne as soon as shit started coming down (i.e., as soon as Marverni failed at taking both of our thrones they were aiming for). Conquering throne-less nations when people are at a brink of winning seems rather suboptimal.