You're right, this isn't an easy war for Riombara, Enweil and IVF can also both run higher taxes in their regions due to smaller size. But well, Fronen may have created a 3 region city/mountain front, but I don't think that they'll be able to hold that much longer. The chokepoint front they created can quickly turn against them.
Indeed, it is a race against time. To do significant damage against Riombara before the north does significant damage against Fronen.
But looting hasn't only affected IVF. Vur Hagin could've been burned to the ground numerous times if Thalmarkin wanted (that's a big if though) and looting worked. Melhed would be getting an empty shell of a region with Jyl if we could've looted. Since it switched to OG, it has basically become an outpost for us, we've had an army there frequently and practically unopposed, right next to Fronen's capital. With nothing to do but destroy some military infrastructure.
No, but the north can actually do takeovers, which Fheuv'n cannot. A brutal takeover can be quite damage on its own, without any looting. You've also got large quantities of militia you can focus on killing in the meanwhile, we do not. Before our attack, Fwuvoghor had like 2k worth of militia only. And Vur Hagin only offers a small percentage of Fronen's income, while Ajitmon, Cjelegy, and Avengmil produce a large portion of Riombara's food production. Furthermore, Fheuv'n suffered heavy casualties to access these regions, our mobile army got completely decimated on the expectation that looting would eventually be turned back on. We lost all of our forces for nothing. Our attack required looting to be worth it, while the costs of any northern attack is quite smaller, especially considering that the trip from your capital to the targets is both shorter and safer.
Anyway, back to the point, Enweil did suffer some serious military defeats towards the end of the war, sure they were still powerful but things did start to look grim when the invasion kicked in. I also wouldn't call it a gangbang if you've got allies fighting for you as well. The word gangbang is used way too easily in my opinion, and often a "gangbang" is even necessary when fighting a powerhouse like Fronen or Enweil. People should see it as a compliment.
The seriousness of these defeats was exaggerated and due to poor movement rates or coordination. The biggest defeat, which set the tone of the propaganda thereafter imo, was the defeat in DoA lands, where we had a strategical advantage but called off our forces at the last minute because of the declaration that the invasion was coming. The armies pulled back in waves, and was slaughtered by the enemy forces. However, had it not been for that declaration, we were preparing to loot Alluran's core regions heavily and cripple their military capacity, as we had significantly superior numbers and were going to force them to attack us instead of the other way around. The other big defeat was in Mio Dupaki, where smaller forces attacked by "squeezing through the heavily overcrowded siege engines" and with horrible formations. However, you will note that Riombara boasts of no victory following this. All the battles were occuring in enemy lands, and they were happening deeper and deeper in enemy lands. Someone who is winning a war won't be fighting in his own regions, imo. Also, is Rio was fairing a little better at the end, it is because Alluran declared war, and Enweil considered Alluran to be, by far, the easiest target, and therefore decided to focus fully on Alluran to wipe them out first.
And do consider that war isn't just about battles. Riombara, for example, mostly pulls back whenever they deem they risk losing. Allows them to keep a "better" slate and boast about a better win/loss ratio. However, this win/loss ratio is completely meaningless. When I commanded Enweil's forces, I didn't really give a damn about win/loss ratios. My objective was to destroy Riombara. And destroying Riombara won't be done by simply having a good w/l ratio. Since battles do damage to the regions they are in, I preferred having a minor defeat in enemy lands than a minor victory in my own lands. *Especially* since staying put for this minor defeat typically meant I had extra time for looting, which we did extensively, in addition to causing enough attrition to the Riombaran army to prevent them from fielding a significant force for a counter-attack (as there were always enough stragglers in the Enweilian army to form a considerable second line of defense). It was a war of attrition, and let me tell you that despite such defeats, production always dropped quite rapidly in the regions we've attacked. In the Dominion, for example, they had to do investments to counter our damage. So what did we do? We sent a few lone units to loot that region that had just been invested in. They'll boast that they quickly killed the troops, but I'll tell you that these troops succeeded in totally ruining the investment that they had done, and the financial losses they caused were worth many times how much it costs to recruit these lost soldiers.
Riombara boasted in similar manners at the beginning of the first war, because it was very difficult for Enweil to launch any attacks against their heavily fortified positions. It only really stopped by the time Riombara was down to 3 regions or so, really, that they realized that despite their occasional victories, they truly were losing the war. Imo, the post-gangbang war was the same thing. They'd fool themselves by boasting their w/l ration, why Enweil maintained and increased her economical superiority. In their defense, though, our attacks were focused against Alluran at the end, so it was harder for them to see the scale of the damage inflicted.
All in all, I don't consider Enweil's win/loss ratio to have been any different prior to the invasion than during the similar phase of the first part of that war.
Keep in mind that I only talk about Riombara's war on Enweil pre and post gang-bang. The West's war against Enweil was a different story: we had a perfect record in defending against them because of their poor coordination until I went camping for a week, then it was for Enweil defeat after defeat until peace treaties were signed
