Sorry Tom but I just cannot not say my piece.
I have played on BT for every single invasion - and in between them. I suppose I'm a veteran BT player and having said that, I'm at peace with the fact that BT will probably be harvested entirely for the soul forges. I just strongly believe that this continent that has brought so much enjoyment to me and many other players may not go out without a bang. Your current tactics make me fear that this will exactly be the case. You are heading straight for your IC goal but are losing touch with your OOC ones:
1. Theme.
Overlord does not instill fear.
You've recently come to us complaining that we need to take this seriously and we can't go around calling Overlord a pussy. Yet, by all standards, he is a pussy. I've played in all invasions and Overlord is the most cowardly invader BT has ever seen. He isn't looking for big, epic fights, he isn't looking to prove his complete and utter supremacy over the human slaves and he does not respond in any real way to interactions with characters.
The actions of Overlord, like surprise-attacking undefended cities repeatedly, basically just avoiding any human army and lying about everything while boasting how terrifying he is do not instill fear. If he were to come marching to Unger and beat the gathered armies there bloody, basically if he didn't shy away from any sort of challenge on his path, yes, he would be terrifying. But as he prefers his pickings as easy as they come, he isn't.
Overlord will only instill fear if he rises up to challenges and overcomes them. If he does that, people will think twice before poking the big bad beast with a stick again. The knowledge that even their mere words can mean the immediate death of their realm is far more terrifying than any torture, execution or blighting you do.
2. Fun.
I have enjoyed this invasion a lot, I've been a great defender of it against anyone who I've seen complain that it's impossible or that the daimons are overpowered. Even when you captured pretty much all of us off-guard and blighted 4 out of 9 capitals (and let's not forget Fengen either). Those Horrors were a terrible enemy to fight and I couldn't have thought of a better introduction of them to the continent. I don't mind their strength, they are supposed to be obliterating and they're pretty damn good at it. People come to BT to fight impossible odds, and if they're good and if they're lucky, survive them. That is what invasions have been about since the first one, and that is how you introduced this one as well.
You started excellently. With small daimon hordes that were beatable. Also the concept of semi-immortal commanders was refreshing and very well thought-out. It added a lot to the atmosphere. Not to forget the different types of daimons we've come across, getting more bad-ass as the invasion progressed. They were a challenge and getting more and more so to the point where one realm alone could hardly hope to stand victorious against only one horde (barring a stroke of luck like killing the darkest hour in Unger, we were never victorious, just happened to kill the commander). We were fighting impossible odds and things were starting to look more and more grim.
Yet as we've come to this point, you're not giving us the chance to fight impossible odds. You choose desolated capitals and decide to take them in the knowledge that we can never take them back, in fact even trying (and succeeding) to mislead us into leaving those capitals undefended. We just need to undergo the loss of two capitals, we aren't given an opportunity to defend them, we aren't given the opportunity to make an epic last stand. They're just lost and that's that.
Even when we try to change things IC, putting everything we have at risk, you choose to ignore it (yes you can say it's Overlord, not you, but then why is he always boasting or even talking to us if he doesn't care in the least about what we think? And why should we even try to interact with him if everything we say doesn't matter anyway?) and you just go for the fastest way to destroy the continent.
Sorry, but this is not what invasions are about. Not even one where the very survival of the continent is at stake, especially not that one. They have always been about fighting impossible odds. And since the third, interacting with the invaders, provoking them, boasting against them, making deals with them, whatever. Any of those actions however had IG effects. Now... they don't.
And that is just very disillusioning.
It is just not the death that BT deserves. BT deserves to die in a series of epic, close battles and mutual taunting. Battles in which humanity musters all that it possibly can just for a tiny chance at victory.
When our characters are chased off this continent they need to flee with nothing but rags and amazing, yet terrifying stories. With the feeling that they gave it everything they had but still failed before the sheer strength of the daimons. Not with the feeling that if Overlord had actually dared to figh them prepared, they could've won.
And if BT survives (which I don't think is very realistic at the moment, and there's many a frequenter of this forum that can tell you what an accomplishment it is on your part to defeat my belief in human victory) they should be able to tell epic stories of how they brought everything they had together and actually defeated the biggest threat the continent had ever seen. (there is no other version here because there is absolutely zero chance that BT will survive if you continue to go after targets where we don't have an army).
I hope you don't discard this as yet another "the daimons are overpowered" rant because it isn't. Daimons reign supreme on the battlefield and they should. There's just other ways to use that power that are more enjoyable to the players that are likely losing their positions, realm and continent already. And if you have to increase the daimons' actual battle-strength to do that, then do it.
Just please do not stop giving us that epicness that we have all experienced from the invasion so far and were expecting from what Overlord basically announced to be his World-Devourers.
My thanks for reading.
Edit: fixed a few language mistakes.
