Civil Order (civil)		Stinger | Ruiner | Bellendaine Mr Sweetie | Mange | Visigoth
		versus
		Foundation (*F*)		Ralph | Mims | Funkdubious Gil-Estel | Cantrip

For this game, Foundation select maximum infantry, twelve archers and two wights. Their opponents, Civil Order, take no wights, and trade in archers for three dwarves instead. As the game starts, Foundation's ghols rush to the bridge and blockade it quite successfully. This allows their wights to reach the water safely.

Civil flank north with a small band of warriors and ghols, while Foundation send warriors both north and south. As Civil Order set up the main body of their army on the opposing bank, Foundation's wights explode in the midst of their two largest clumps of thrall. This prompts the Civilians to rush the bridge.

Civil's ghols are the first to hit, and are little more than free veteran status for Mims' warriors. These veteran warriors cut a swathe through the Civil warriors when they hit next. Civil's dwarves bring up the rear, and get three good hits in the main melee before being cut down by archer fire. This doesn't help the Civilian cause enough, and their partly paralyzed thrall fall like wheat before the scythe.

Meanwhile, Mange's flank has been cornered by overwhelming warrior and ghol force, and is swiftly exterminated. As the center battle winds up, Ralph's south warrior and ghol flank arrives and hits the enemy rear. Foundation take all six flags to force an early Sudden Death.

This game, Civil trade away their largely useless ghols for more archers and two wights. Foundation take the same unit setup as last game. At the start of the game, Foundation once again block the bridge and slip ghols past the Civil defense to try and tag their wights. One ghol tries for a Civil wight but is cut down by one of ruiner's thrall (who goes mad and starts attacking a friendly ghol as well). The other ghol runs into Stinger's famous twelve-archer, three-dwarf flank, and is mulched.

Wight games abound in the north, with thrall and wights submerging and arising from the depths alternately. It's all good fun until Ruiner's wight cuts a corner too sharply and is popped by the pursuing enemy thrall... right next to his thrall regiment. While this is going on, Civil flank north with all of their warriors, and thirty thrall. This leaves only fifteen thrall in the mid-south and Stinger's flank, advancing on the Foundation army's south.

Ralph sees the threat posed by the archers and dwarves, and rushes them with his ghol pack. A combination of luck, skill and the fact that Stinger is the host mean that his ghol pack is annihilated, without even killing a single archer or dwarf. The next wave of nine warriors is also taken out, Stinger surviving with seven archers.

Ralph: gads, I'm all over the place here
Mange: Stinger rocks

Ralph sends another nine warriors chasing the remaining archers, while the Civil army closes in on the remaining Foundation troops from all sides. Although Civil are late to commit some of their thrall, Foundation are significantly outnumbered by this time and don't last long. The two surviving wights converge on the mid-west flag and blow each other up, signalling the end of an easy cleanup that gives Civil six flags and the win.

Note: due to OOS considerations, the Creep Territories games were played last, so this is Game 6 in the film pack.

Foundation take twelve archers this game, and two wights. Civil opt for eighteenarchers, less ghols and thrall, and less than full warriors. Foundation send most of their army center, with warrior and ghol flanks, while Civil split their army 50 / 50 north and east.

Spying the Civil flank, the Foundation army heads east from the center, starting a faceoff at the eastern ford. Civil manage to hunt out one of Foundation's wights from the ford, while Foundation themselves are not so lucky. As they charge the Civil position, Ralph's warriors stop, frozen in fright as Stinger brings a wight up out of the water next to them.

Despite this advantage, Civil are severely outnumbered and their troops are overrun. Meanwhile, the Foundation flank has been chased all the way east by Mr Sweetie and Mange, and after killing this flank they move to the north side of the ford to confront Foundation again.

Foundation charges once more, and Mr Sweetie seems to lag out just as the battle begins, his warriors standing idly by. Civil lose the fight convincingly due to this inattention. Meanwhile, Ralph has shown superb timing and dispatched three sets of warriors to the Civil flags on the west side of the map. Just as the game enters Sudden Death, they arrive to take two flags off the helpless Civilians' defense thrall.

Note: this is Game 7 in the film pack.

Both armies take no wights this time, Civil going for more infantry and Foundation filling out their archers' ranks. Foundation send a juggernaut south, with many warriors and ghols to the middle. Civil have a strong center force, with north and east warrior / ghol flanks once more. Right about now, Ralph realises that he's left 15 thrall sitting on his home flag, and scurries them south to link up with the Foundation army in the center.

Ralph sends about half of his warriors chasing the southern Civil flank, which leaves the middle weak. Civil Order attacks across the river, and Mims' thrall are caught over-extended. These two factors combine to let Civil Order eliminate the Foundation center army rather easily. The cleanup is only marred by Ralph's warriors managing to hold onto one flag in the endgame.

Note: this is Game 3 in the film pack.

Civil Order take twelve soulless this game, with few dwarves or fetch and a large group of infantry. Foundation take nearly-maximum infantry, with only two soulless. As the game beings, Civil's infantry and two trow charge across the river to Foundation's southwest ball, forcing Foundation's meagre force back and claiming the ball as their own. Meanwhile, Ruiner's soulless are misbehaving, and one of them accidentally pushes a ball a long way off their fortified hill; Ralph's trow almost steals the ball, but is stopped just in time by one of Stinger's trow.

Civil's northeast ball is being moved via fetch, and an overshot blast causes the ball to leap within range of Funkdubious' wandering trow, who tries to run with it but gets the ball stuck on a hill. At about this time, Stinger's two trow find a group of Funkdubious' myrmidons standing undefended in the north and make short work of them.

Foundation realise that they are down 2-4 in the ball count, and mount an attack across the bridge. After a heated battle, they end up with three dwarven heroes and two fetch in a prime attacking position versus Civil's single oleg and eleven soulless. Unfortunately, they don't protect their artillery quite well enough, and they are all killed by the lone oleg and one of Stinger's trow. The attack basically fails at that point, with nothing that can get the balls down from the fortified soulless on the hill.

Note: this is Game 4 in the film pack.

This game, Civil take the same troop setup, while Foundation trade away some infantry for six soulless. Civil sends a massive attack force east across the south ford (we're talking two trow, 30 berserkers and about 40 myrmidons), and takes out the single myrmidon guarding Foundation's SE ball. Foundation respond with similar force, and a huge battle erupts.

At the start of this battle the percentages are 100% to 99%. The massive formations of infantry slam into each other, and battle ensues.

Mange: fight like apes!

As the battle progresses, four trow (two from each side) turn up and pile into the fray. Once the dust and claymores settle, Foundation have won the fight, with one trow and a handful of infantry standing. The troop percentages have dropped all the way to 53% / 44%... over half the total forces on the map lie in a pile on the searing desert floor.

At this point, Foundation has two balls in the northeast on a fortified hill, and one stuck on the edge of a low hill in the mid-east. Civil Order have pushed all three of their balls together onto a hill in the mid-west and are defending this hill with an armada of soulless, fetch and olegs. Stinger's single remaining trow is able to tag the mid-east Foundation ball for a second, putting Civil in the lead. This forces Foundation to mount an attack, and they do so. Stinger's trow causes quite a bit of chaos, however, and manages to hold them up for nearly two minutes at the bridge.

Eventually, the Foundation attack makes it to Civil territory. The attack isn't pretty, and the Foundation artillery is basically lost for no real gain. However, with thirteen seconds remaining on the clock, Ralph slips a trow around the back of the enemy hill and is able to contest a ball that has been placed too far down the slope. This contestion moves Foundation ahead to give them the win.

Note: this is Game 5 in the film pack.

Civil take four wights, and heal all of them for pus. They also take a fourteen-strong band of archers. Meanwhile, Foundation have selected two wights, a dwarf and a larger pack of ghols. Both armies flank clockwise with nine warriors. Foundation think that they are able to sneak their two wights into the water undetected, but Civil spot them as they submerge.

Mims hits the Civil middle with a large force of eighteen warriors, thirty thrall and eight archers. Civil's scattered forces back off towards their home, and hit Mims from multiple directions with small forces at the same time. This tactic doesn't inflict severe damage, even despite their use of pus. However, they do manage to lure Mims' thrall into an archer killing zone, and draw off most of Ralph's warriors to be pussed.

As Mims' thrall enter the killing zone, Civil hit them from the front with infantry and from the rear with pus and more warriors. This entire battle is conducted under withering archer fire, and although Foundation do win, their warriors are cut down mercilessly. The remaining band of warriors splits up to chase archers and is easily killed by Bellendaine's archer guards. Quite a lot of Mims' thrall have survived to this point, and they are forced to retreat all the way back to the river (and their wights) under harrowing archer fire.

Civil follow them to the river, where the Foundation home forces have been mobilised to meet Mims' retreating thrall. The Civil forces don't take the bait, and don't cross as they know there are wights submerged on both sides. Stinger flanks with a group of warriors, which forces Foundation to retreat their force back to base in response.

Civil's archers and thrall split into small groups to make the treacherous crossing, and when Ralph's wight half-heartedly emerges, it is easily taken out. The other Foundation wight is able to shamble along in the middle of Civil's loose thrall formation for quite some time before anyone realises, and a few thrall are blown to kingdom come.

As time runs out, the Civil army surrounds Foundation's thrall, dwarf and archers from all sides. Their warriors are thrown at the thrall and dwarf defense, while the Civil thrall play with the enemy archers. Foundation try to form their thrall into a circle around the flag to prevent it from being captured, but Civil are able to shatter this formation with their thrall and a close battle ensues. It comes down to the 'death of a thousand cuts' once more; when the battlefield grows still, the only troops standing are the fir'Bolg, giving off yelps of joy at the fact that they weren't hacked to pieces... this game.

I have to say, I stand quite awed by Foundation's work in this match, even though they lost. Ralph and Mims were the only two players present to face the six-player Civil armada for the first two games, and they held their own very well. Then, after repeated silent-OOS errors in the Creep Territories games, they chose to remove the source of the OOS errors (their teammates, who had turned up during the intervening games) and face Civil alone once more.

The fact that the score stands so close after seven games, when Foundation were missing their captain, alternate captain and most of the rest of their players... well, I'm impressed.

The games in this match have to be some of the most nerve-racking I've participated in during the MWC, and I was only watching! Kudos to both the teams for some great work.

Civil Order emerge victorious from the playoff to claim the third-place trophy of the Myth World Cup, which will be presented at the official Awards Ceremony after the conclusion of the Grand Final.

However, we shouldn't look on Foundation as the losers in this; they claim fourth place, out of eighty of the finest orders that Myth has to offer. Not an achievement to be taken lightly, and I salute them.

- Butcher