It all started when [P]aradox led his army into mrterran22's land and said, "You suck!" Mrterran22 immediately responded with "Eat a bag of strife!" Thus the battle was commenced.

The opponents were well matched; [P]aradox went with the Accursed and mrterran22 chose random, ending up with the Dark Elves. mrterran22 was obviously pleased with the outcome, and expressed his gaiety in three words: .

[P]aradox immediately decides to use horde tactics. He starts pumping Skeletal Slashers.

Sure enough, mrterran22 chances a raid on the closest Aether network. He is clearly teching, and has scrambled to artillery as fast as possible.

He manages to put it out of commission, much to [P]aradox's supposed dismay: . Little does mrterran22 realize that [P]aradox has another functional Aether network online already, and another on its way!

Sadly for mrterran22, his carvers run across a painful trap set by a Zombie of [P]aradox, and they perish in short order.

Mrterran22 seizes the choke in the middle of the map and expanded to the mine there. He sends out scouts and lays traps around the entrance, but [P]aradox's Zombies finds and disarms them.

Meanwhile, [P]aradox is churning out slashers, Juggernauts, and a few dragons for support. He plans an attack on mrterran22's Aether line as well, but in this case, he never carries it out. Instead, he runs across a secluded group of cabalists summoning Chaos units. . After neutralizing them, he runs his dragons back to his own Aether network, which was under heavy assault by Dark Elven artillery. His slashers do well under attack, however, and after getting up a few times, they reach mrterran22's attack line and destroy the grenadiers.

[P]aradox decides it's time to remove mrterran22 out of the gap.

Mrterran22 does not want to lose the pass, however. He pours a swarm of carvers into its defence, and the attack fails, with [P]aradox in retreat.

Mrterran22 has made a dangerous move, however, and now it plays him false. [P]aradox was waiting for such an opportunity, and with the flanks of his opponent wide open, he makes his move. He gathers a strike force, crosses the ridge in Ghost Ships, and lands just to the west of mrterran22.

He sweeps through the static defences, moves towards mrterran22's main and hits him hard. . [P]aradox ravages the base until all of mrterran22's production buildings are destroyed. By then, the attack force is severely damaged, but mrterran22 had made the mistake of not expanding his outposts. He had been gambling all or nothing on a late game carver rush, but now [P]aradox has an edge on him that he couldn't fight against. He surrenders.

Lessons learned:
Don't count on one aether network to supply you, or even just two. It is always good to foolproof your resource chain.
Have at least two outposts. The aether network doesn't mean you shouldn't expand your base.
Always look at the big picture.
Even though the terrain is revealed, the enemy is not, and you have to keep scouting on your priority list.

Strifeshadow is a game in development by Ethermoon Entertainment Inc. "mrterran22" is a figment on [P]aradox's imagination. If you want to flame me, send it here.
Map: Warlock Ridge.
Thanks for reading.