Noob's shot at an R'lyeh AAR

[CharonJr]

Hello,

I am still a Dom noob (but I have been playing strategy games for close to 20years now), and since reading the AARs around here – and the resulting discussions – has given me a lot of valueable ideas about this game I want to start an AAR of my own. This seems to be the best way to improve my gaming without actually jumping into the shark-pool of MP.

Since I am a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft I have decided to play R’lyeh for this AAR, despite the advice that R’lyeh is already one of the better analysed races in Dom.

I am not trying to develope a killer-strategy here, but am mainly looking for basic advice on how to improve my gaming/how to go about/improve implementing my strategy. So any advice is welcome http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I am no great writer – even less in a language which is not my native one – and because of this I will keep the style of this AAR pretty straightforward.

Due to having some water and not being to large (and due to being somewhat familiar with it) I decided to take the Aran map with 9 additional (random) races for a fairly fast paced game.

Since having read more than once that the AI is having difficulties with playing against Ermor I decided to keep them inactive.

Since I am a noob I think that normal AI is challenging enough for me at the moment :

Indi-strenght will depend on the other races I am getting. E.g. if Atlantis is not in the game I will take an indi-setting of 9 in order to make me either having to fight very hard vs. all those flying Tritons in order to rule the seas of forcing me to head towards land fairly early.

Setup:

Pretender creation

First I had to decide what kind of pretender I want to play and since I like magic and want to have decent scales and dominion I decided on a Void Lurker whos main job should be helping with research, casting ritual spells and forging items for the decent mages of R’lyeh. The inherent research skill of 5 and the fairly cheap access to new magic path of the Void Lurker made him my main choice. The initial dominion of 2 is nothing to really brag about, but it could have been worse. I just had to name him Cthulhu, despite him being doomed to immobility in his Void Lurker body http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Since R’lyeh seems to be fairly dependent on money I took Order-3 for 120 of my 500 points.

Due to the nice positive random event a Luck-scale of 3 might provide I chose to get this one for the next 120 points (money random events being the main reason, but gems, magic items and Last but not least the nice R’lyeh heroes being additional benefits).

Since I like magic and R’lyeh seems to be fairly strong in the field of magic I decided to take Magic-3 for 120 points as my next scale. This should enable me to climb the research tree fairly fast and utilise the powers of my pretender and my mages.

I still needed to raise my dominion to an acceptable level, but since I have already burned 360 of my 500 points I decided to pick a fortress next.

With R’lyeh just having 3 choices and the Kelp Fortress looking fairly weak/the Dark Citadel being fairly expensive to build in addition to taking 4 turns too build, I decided on spending the 80 points in order to get the Kelp Citadel with its fairly good values.

With just 60 points left and a lowly dominion of 2 I needed some more points to spend. I think that there are mainly 2 choices for negative scales with R’lyeh. Either Sloth due to not being overly dependant on production for the main units or the heat/cold scale since at least in the oceans there would be no negative effect form it.

Since I didn’t know if the Atlanteans would be in this fight, forcing me to head towards land provinces while I gather the strength to deal with them and due to me thinking that potentially wasted taxes/supplies on land are worse than reduced production I chose Sloth-1 which gave me 40 additional points to spend.

I decided against taking more than Sloth-1 or any Heat/Cold in addition to it since I want to be able to be change my strategy according to the needs without being too severely hampered my my setup decisions. To semi-quote Clausewitz here: “No plan survives the first contact with the enemy.”

100 points left with a dominion of 2 is nothing to really write home about, too, but since a new magic path costs 15 points each and I could get my dominion up to 6 by spending 70 points I decided to burn those points and only being able to pick 2 new paths. The rest would have to be gotten by empowering my pretender. Since my pretender and the R’lyeh mages all having 3 astral getting some decent gem income via Acashic Record will not be too hard once I am able to forge some Clams of Pearl.

Due to my mages already being skilled in astral and water and with the usefulness of nature rituals and earth being useful for forging items I decided to spend my Last 30 points in getting a fairly cheap start in those paths. This way I am not dependent on one of my mages randomly getting those paths, too.

I plan to set up a decent blood economy, too, but since I have a little bit more control about blood income than I have about gem income, I decided against getting a point in bllod during setup.

Death would have been nice, too since I mainly plan to rely on summons for my heavy hitters (due to low upkeep), but by the time I get enough death gems I hope to have at least one mage with a skill in death.

With all points spend it was time to set up the actual game.

The random races I got were:

Pythium, Ulm, Arcoscephale, Abysia, Pangaea, Marignon, Jotunheim, C’tis, Atlantis (argh, there goes my potential advantage of being the only water race) and Man.

Being unable to decide between an indi-setting of 5-7 I chose to randomize that one, too and got 6. The other settings were left unchanged.


With just my noob knowledge about the races I got I am not able to make a real strategic plan at this point since a lot will depend on my starting position and the proximity of the other races. Surely with Atlantis in the fray they will be my major concern.

My priorities at the moment are:

- trying to get some rich provinces for additional income
- fast research (still have not made up my mind in which direction, items/site-finding or battle support)
- setting up void summons ASAP

Ok, now it is time to take a look a my initial position and making up my mind about the research.

CharonJr

To be continued...

[IKerensky]

Well Sloth 1 could be a bit tricky, as the better Version of the illithid are definitely the armored one and your low administration underwater castle just never seems able to field enough.

Anyway good luck on your AAR, have a great game.

[fahdiz]

CharonJr, I'm excited to read your AAR and I'm sure it will give me some good insight for when I finally receive my copy of the game (Friday of this week http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ). Will you be going one-post-per-turn? Or will you be consolidating?

[Arryn]

Originally posted by IKerensky:
Well Sloth 1 could be a bit tricky, as the better Version of the illithid are definitely the armored one<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I disagree that the armored ones are best. R'lyeh has resource issues no matter what scales you take, and the armored ones aren't, IMO, worth the expense. Plus their limited strategic movement will hurt you later on. The strategy for keeping illithids alive is not in using armored ones but in finding magical means to defend them on the battlefield, and in putting other (disposable) troops between them and the enemy.

Thus the arguments over R'lyeh begin ... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ February 11, 2004, 22:36: Message edited by: Arryn ]

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by IKerensky:
Well Sloth 1 could be a bit tricky, as the better Version of the illithid are definitely the armored one and your low administration underwater castle just never seems able to field enough.
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The armored Illithids suffer from being strategic move 1, however, which almost makes them not worth it, because it'll be that much more difficult to get them to the front lines. Also, I think their mindbLast attack is actually weaker, doing only 10 instead of 12, IIRC.

[gibson]

I'd imagine that luck 3 scale will come in handy with void summoning as well. I know at least in a game I played with Ry'leh with a misfortune scale, I never saw anything useful from that gate, so I imagine they are correlated somehow.

Also, how do you randomize your opponents/settings? I'm too indecisive to choose and usually just click a bunch semi-randomly, but thats a pain when I just want a "quick-start" option to try out a strategy idea.

[CharonJr]

Turn 1

Treasury: 400
Income: 212
Upkeep: 23
Resources: 72

Water gems: 2 (+2)
Astral gems: 3 (+3)

My starting position is province #10 – being the most SE water province on the Aran map this presents me with a tough choice to make:

Should I try to grab the sweet looking farmlands of Gol Phalas (26) right to the NE or Dunheim (28) to the north without waiting for any intel about it in order to try to get a headstart, send my scout there or wait one turn for the standard intel while sending my scout westwards into the only neighbouring sea-province of Devourer (6) in order to see if Atlantis is starting close to me.

For the moment I decide to play it safe, send my scout to the west and build up my army one more turn while I get some rough intel about the farmlands.

Since I want to get my summon-program up and running as fast as possible I decide to recruit a Starspawn for 150 gold in order to send him to the void gate on the next turn.

Due to not (or always, depending on point of view) being short on resources, but short on money I decide to get 3 Illithid Soldiers for my future expeditionary forces/summoner guards and 2 Shambler Thralls instead of the better Crab Hybrids since I don’t know if I will stay in the water or head for land next. This leaves me with 30 gold.

In order to protect my summoner I decide to research Thaumaturgy first (level 1 in Thaum will give me the ability to cast Returning if my summoner gets attacked from the Void).

CharonJr

To be continued...

[CharonJr]

Fahdiz,

mainly I will try to post once for each turn, maybe I will consolidate some turns later on if there should be a lull in the game, but mainly I want to give a step by step account of what I am doing and why I am doing it.

This way I have the best possibilities to get some detailed feedback about what I am doing.


Concerning the Illithids,

I will switch between both actually. I will try to keep the unarmored ones (which I mainly plan on using) out of fights with fliers and recruit the armored ones when I got excess ressources.

The point about the unarmored ones having potentially a better mind-bLast is very interesting, too and might push me even further towards them.

Mainly I plan to use the armored ones at first while I research the magic I need to protect the unarmored ones later on.

IMO the better strategic movement will get more important in the later stages of the game than it is at the beginning.


Gibson,

I think I read in some threads that there seems to be no correlation between luck-scales and summons - just pure luck http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif - but having luck-3 surely can't hurt summoning http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

I randomized using the randomize function in Excel configured for the maximum number of wanted results. But throwing dice should work nicely, too. AFAIK there is no means to randomly choose a certain number of opponents in the game itself.

Thank you for the feedback http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

CharonJr

[AStott]

Originally posted by gibson:
Also, how do you randomize your opponents/settings? I'm too indecisive to choose and usually just click a bunch semi-randomly, but thats a pain when I just want a "quick-start" option to try out a strategy idea. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I do it by grabbing a number of six sided dice equal to how many opponents I want. Then I throw them all at once. Then I order them from top to bottom, left to right (similar to how provinces are numbered). Then I count down a number of races from the top equal to the first die. That's my first computer opponent. Then I continue counting from there for the second die, etc. I (of course) skip over races that have already been picked, and when I hit the bottom of the list, I skip back to the top and keep counting. It works pretty well, but an in-game random selection would sure be nice...

[CharonJr]

Turn 2

I only got 2 Messages on this turn. Ulm declaring its commander prophet and Jotunheim declaring its herse as a prophet.

Treasury: 199
Income: 176
Upkeep: 43
Resources: 72

Water gems: 4 (+2)
Astral gems: 6 (+3)

Hmm, interesting, I have not noticed this one before. Is it normal that my actual income is going down without havning unrest between turns 1 and 2 ? On turn 1 I still had 212, now I am down to 176 without any special events that I am aware of.

I don’t really like what I see on the map when I get to it. I have received no intel at all about the potential income of the surrounding provinces, but I can see a black candle in one of them.

Concerning the surrounding provinces I have the following informations about potential troop strengths (from west to east):

Devourer (6) – 40 Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea - Scout report
Tiash (15) – 40 Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – general intel – Heat 2
Dershid (20) – 50 Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – general intel
Dunheim (28) – 30 Light and Heavy Infantries – Farm Lands – general intel
Gol Phalas (26) – 50 Militias, Longbowman and Knights – Farm Lands – general intel
Vepitre (14) – 80 Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – general intel – Black Candle1, Order1, Magic1
Kolermegor (5) – 50 Crossbowman, Militias and Heavy Infantry – Forest – general intel

I decide to modify my army a little bit. Since the leadership of my commander is just at 25, but I currently have 30 troops I swamp some of the initial slave troopers for the newly bought Illithid Soldiers and Shambler Thralls.

The 5 slave troopers are going to guard my summoner. With some lucky hits they might even be able to offer him a little bit of protection, but I will not count on it.

The 3 Illithid Soldiers are etting their own squad and are put at the leftmost end of the battlefield, together with the commander.

The 2 Shambler Thralls are set up together with the 20 slave guards for now. I hope they might be able to bolster the guards moral a little bit this way. This squad is put on hold and attack closest. They are set up as a screen in front of the commander and his little mindbLaster squad.

Due to the setup I should be able to get some turns of mindbLasting in vs. Slower opponents before my own troops are getting into melee range.

Due to the low protection (2) of the slave troopers and their long weapons (length 4) they are mainly useful as a kind of “one shot troops”. If the ememy is not routing after the initial assault I will likely lose a lot of my troopers and might rout myself due to moral.

I need a slow enemy with small troopers and short weapons fairly small numbers in order to maximise the effect of my mindbLasts, tramplers and my own troopers.

The Tritons look like a fairly bad enemy at this stage, their speed being the main concern here, but the length of their weapons is another thing to take into account.

This is forcing me to focus on the land provinces.

Since generating new income is one of my main goals I first consider the 2 farm land provinces. My intel about them is not very reliable, but the 30 light infantry in Dunheim are surely sounding MUCH better than 50 militias, longbowmen (yuck) and knights (yuck, too) in Gol Phalas.

On the other hand Gol Phalas is right next Vepitre, the province with the enemy dominion, so maybe I will see enemy troops around there soon. But since I seriously doubt that I am able to take Gol Phalas and there are some chances that the AI might fail to take it, too, I decide to send my army for Dunheim at the moment. In addition there are 2 more farm lands a little bit north of Dunheim, which would be a nice addition for my empire.

I would have prefered to be able to wait a bit more before attacking, but with a fairly crowded map speed of expansion is looking even more important now than it normally is.

The summoner (having 1 random skill in blood) is send to the Void Gate despite his bodyguards most likely not being strong enough to defend him if he gets attacked, but I have decided that I will try to take my chances here in order to get a fast start in summoing.

My pretender is continuing his research in R’lyeh and I should get Thaum 1 at the beginning of the next turn.

Due to potential routing of my attacking army and wanting to climb the research tree as fast as possible I decide on recruiting a Star Child and 2 more Illithid Soldiers before I run out of gold (14 left, 27 production).

Mercenaries are no option at the moment – simple right now, because I am still confinded to the ocean http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif – but I am not sure if I will try to enlist some in the future, due to the AI not bidding aggressively enough for them they seem to be a fairly huge advantage for a human player. I think I will decide on using them by the level of my desperation http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

CharonJr

To be continued...

Edit: Forgot to mention that I send my scout to Tiash in order to get additional information about the troops there since the oceans are fairly blocked to me at the moment due to the tritons.

[ February 12, 2004, 07:15: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[GavinWheeler]

The lower income might be due to the scales on your province varying.

I'm also surprised to see that you don't appear to have set your starting army to 'patrol' so you can jack up taxes for the first few rounds. Population wastage is much less important than the extra cash for a quick start, in these early game.

For your scales, I've always avoided taking Order+3 with Luck+3. If you are spending lots of points on Luck to get good events, you want to get a lot of them, so you want turmoil (Order-3, or possibly less if you don't want to live dangerously). This has the advantage of Luck+3 being balanced by Order-3 (design point wise) giving you plenty of points to spend on Growth (for example) to slightly counterbalance the income hit of Turmoil, and help feed your hungry squidheads too.

Name: Cthulhu? tsk tsk!

Next we'll have pretenders called Drizzt dual wielding - thankfully we don't have scimitars in this game, do we?

I tend to restart games a lot as I try out different mixes of scales and pretenders. If you do restart, here are a few suggestions:
- Cthalamari (still clearly derivative, but more fun, if more appropriate for an Ancient Kraken)
- Deep Mushroom
- Bathomycetis (snobby Version of the one above)

I'm waiting to be able to rename commanders, so I can have 'Gift of Reason'ed Things That Should Not Be called "Semi Skimmed Milk" "Tepid Coffee" "Christmas Jingles" and so on. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[CharonJr]

Yup, just read about a bug concerning the scales changing on turn2 in another thread.

I have read about the tax-raise/kill the dissenters with troops approach. But since I have not tried it before I have no idea how many people I will kill with this tactic.

But this AAR might be a good place to give it a shot in order to show me and some other people who have not tried this one before the additional income one can generate this way and the consequences one is faced with (lower pop + unrest).

In some of my earlier games I have tried to play around with turmoil-3/luck-3, but in the end I kept losing most of my population and income due to bad events. This is the reason why I wanted to give Order-3/Luck-3 a shot here (my first try actually).

I agree that the name is not exactly original http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif but I am even thinking about modding R'lyeh to be even more Lovecraftian, Shoggoths, Deep-Ones, Elder-Things, Mi-Go... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Thank you for the feedback http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

CharonJr

[von_Schmidt]

Regarding random numbers/ dicerollers:
http://www.amicron.com/diceroller

Funky program to roll several types of die.

[Wendigo]

I wouldn't say that R'lyeh is a very analyzed nation, in this forum it has not really been discussed to much, apart from the Void gate novelty.

I'd rather say it is however a difficult nation for a newbie, because her biggest strength lies in her Starspawn mages, and playing those right requires a good knowledge of spells & magic items.
The military in itself is kind of weak, & the Void Gate is a gamble. Being underwater & the magics are the real (& always reliable) strengths that make R'lyeh IMO one of the top nations.

On the matter of your pretender I prefer a combat oriented one for R'lyeh, for 2 reasons:
-My general rule when choosing a pretender is to go for multiple complementary magic fields when playing nations with narrow magics, and to go with a SC when playing nations with powerful & broad spellcasting choices. R'lyeh is definitely one of the 2nd.

-In MP there is a high probability that you might end up fighting Atlantis (or even Ermor) for the seas early on, and a SC adds some much needed muscle here while you develop your magics.

Your scale choices are very good for a noob. I would have done some things differently, but that's more because of my personnal style of min-maxing the scales to get more design points, which might not really be for everybody. Heh, I am playing a MP game as R'lyeh right now and if I were to start another one I would change half my scales with new ideas!

Maybe you can get Nagot to chime in, he can give you the best R'lyeh advice as far as I know.

[GavinWheeler]

We already have Elder things (called exactly that) as one of the Void Summons.

Shoggoths also have a clear analogue in the Lesser and Greater Othernesses, or the Formless Spawn

Deep Ones could be represented either by the Atlantians or by the hybrids that pop up in any coastal (on the land) forts you may build - that bit in the national description is not just there for colour!

This is not to say that there is no point in adding on your own personal interpretation of these. Personally I saw the Shoggoths as something the Elder Races made, rather than calling through a portal, so would have represented them as a High-level construction item, similair to Golems. But no two Dominions/Lovecraft fans would ever agree on the 'right' way to represent R'lyeh!

Mi-Go would be nice (for R'lyeh) in that they would be (if I recall correctly) cold-loving land-based troops that would nicely complement a R'lyeh taking a cold scale, as it often does since its sea-based troops are snug and warm under the waves. But does R'lyeh really need more strengths?

[Norfleet]

What would be really fun would be Stealthy void gate Things, such as the "Thing That Goes Bump In The Night".

One of the downsides of being underwater is that most Underwater indies tend to be Tritons, and if you're doing an SC, you run the risk of a severe mauling before you can get your spells up. A heavier pretender chassis can help, but R'lyeh doesn't exactly have a very wide variety of pretender options to choose from.

[CharonJr]

Turn 3

C’tis declared a Lizard Hero as a prophet this turn and my thaum got up to 1. Due to bad intel my attack was a semi-desaster, but this is offset by Altanasha – my summoner – successfully summoning 2 Things from the Void and Auluudh offering his services.

Treasury: 150
Income: 188
Upkeep: 40
Resources: 72

Water gems: 6 (+2)
Astral gems: 9 (+3)

Looks like I have been the victim of the “vanishing scales on turn 2” bug. My order-3 scale simply vanished and from what I have read it might take quite a number of turns before the scale starts to go up again, let alone being back to order-3. But it seems I was lucky and at least got it back to 1 on this turn.

Due to my bad intel about Dunheim I recieved a beating there. Instead of the 30 expected light and heavy infantries I was meet by 40 ememies, including 5 crossbowmen and 3 commanders. The mindbLasts were actually working fairly decent vs the infantries, but due to their large numbers quite a lot got into melee range.

The first spear volley by the light infantries killed 11 of my 20 slave troopers and 1 Shambler, causing the immediate routing of my troops (except for the Last remaining Shambler who stood his ground, but was killed during the next turn).

The ememy has lost nobody till this point and were in hot pursuit of my fleeing troops. My commander and the Illithid Soldiers stood their ground and bLasted some more infantries.

When the infantries got into melee range they inflicted some wounds on the first round, but the rearguard stood their ground and even managed to kill 1! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif infantry.

During the enemies next turn they managed to kill one of the soldiers which sent the rest of my troops into a route, too. While fleeing they managed to kill another Soldier.

Overall I lost 11 slave troopers, 2 Shamblers and 2 Illithid Soldiers due to rushing into a fight without having decent intel – kids, don’t try this at home http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

OK, I was a bit unlucky to lose such a huge number of troops to the first volley of spears, but I am fairly sure that I would have lost the fight anyway.

Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -50(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea
Tiash (15) – 30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – general intel – Heat 2
Dershid (20) – 40-50 Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – general intel – Dom1, 6k pop, 29 inc, 12 res
Dunheim (28) – 34 Light/Heavy Infantries + 5 Crossbowmen – Farm Lands – confirmed
Gol Phalas (26) – 50 Militias, Longbowman and Knights – Farm Lands – general intel – Dom1, 13k pop, 66 inc, 9 res
Vepitre (14) – 40-80 Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – general intel – Black Candle1, Order1, Magic1
Kolermegor (5) – 40-50 Crossbowman, Militias and Heavy Infantry – Forest – general intel – Dom1, 9k pop, 46 inc, 34 res

East of Vepitre is province 12 which has a dominion of 5 with scales of O3, P2, C3, G3, Mi3 and Ma3. Due to the scales I dare to say that this is the capital of Jotunheim, which might be an interesting matchup for my mindbLasters.

To the north/northwest a 3 dom1 black candles have appeared in the coastal provinces bordering Dershid (20).

In the northeast bordering Gol Phalas there are 2 more black Dom1 candles.

I think that it is safe to say there are at least 3 enemy races in fairly close proximity to me and one of them is Jotunheim.

My error about attacking without proper intel will enable me to take a shot at the raise taxes/kill dissidents approach. I will raise my taxes to 150% and patrol the province with the rest of my army (14 slave troopers and 4 Illithid soldiers). My current pop in R’Lyeh is at 30.130, lets see where it will end up after this little stunt.

Since I AM desperate now I will take a look at possible mercs to hire and it seems that Lady Luck is really favoring the stupid. Sho’guu and The Fisherman are up for hire. 25 troops for 120 gold. I will offer 130 for them and hope that Atlantis is either not needing mercs or unwilling to pay more than those 130.

For the remaining 20 gold I will buy a scout.

In addition to Cthulhu I assign my Star Child and Auluudh to research who add 6 and 13! research respectively for a total of 29.

Auluudh is a water/astral 4 mage with 110 HP and a decent magic resistance of 19. This opens up new options to me. Now I might be able to try to take on Atlantis after some spell research.

I want to get Quickness next, so I will need Alteration 2. Enslave Mind is a big temptation with Auluudh to back me up, but I first want to see what happens during the next turn before I decide on any spell research past Alt2.

Altanasha recieved the 3 pearls needed to cast Returning, was put at the back of the battlefiled and will cast Returning.

CharonJr

To be continued...

[ February 12, 2004, 18:09: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[CharonJr]

Turn 4

Oh joy, Atlantis declared war on me. On the bright side I got the mercs and my Alteration is up to 1 already.

Treasury: 224
Income: 188
Upkeep: 41
Resources: 72

Water gems: 8 (+2)
Astral gems: 9 (+3)

The 150% tax worked very nicely. My treasury is up to 224 and I only got an unrest of 2. I will switch the tax rate back to 100% this turn. My pop is down to 29.660 which is better than I anticipated.

Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Heat 2
Dershid (20) – 40(s) – 60(g) Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – Dom1, 6k pop, 29 inc, 12 res
Dunheim (28) – 34 Light/Heavy Infantries + 5 Crossbowmen – Farm Lands – confirmed
Gol Phalas (26) – 20-50 Militias, Longbowman and Knights – Farm Lands – general intel – Dom0, 13k pop, 66 inc, 9 res
Vepitre (14) – 40-80 Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – general intel – Black Candle1, O1, P2, G2, Mi1, Ma1
Kolermegor (5) – 40-50 Crossbowman, Militias and Heavy Infantry – Forest – general intel – Dom0, 9k pop, 46 inc, 34 res

Northwest of Dershid (20) I can see the C’tis capital now in province 27. Either they own province 25 to their west, too, or they are still stuck with just their capital.

Looks like Jotunheim’s dominion is spreading to my east

Sho’guu and his Fisherman are amphibious. This gives me 2 options:

Go after the tritons in Devourer (6) with an unknown income or repeat my attack on Dunheim (28) where I at least can be fairly sure that the income is decent due to it being a farm land.

With the declaration of war from Atlantis and my need for money I decide to gather my forces and attack Dunheim (28). This way the indies might prove useful as a buffer between me and Atlantis.

Due to my mindbLasters I actually prefer to fight Jotunheim first and hope that C’tis, Atlantis and the unknown third party will not come after me.

With a bit of luck I might even be able to salvage enough troops to be able to attack Gol Phalas after Dunheim since the actual number of troops there might be around 30. In order to not repeat my earlier mistake I will send my new scout there and get decent intel about the forces there.

In the meantime I will move my first scout from Dershid (20) to Talito (36) to the northeast in order to get some information about the third enemy around here.

Sadly I am lacking 2 research for getting Alt2 this turn, but since I will not need my magic in this fight anyway it is not that bad. But when I confront Jotunheim I want to have some nasty astral surprises for them. Due to this I will get another Star Child for better research this turn in addition to 2 Illithid Soldiers in order to fry the minds of some Jotuns later on.

CharonJr

To be continued...

[CharonJr]

Turn 5

Marignon declared war on me.
Altanasha managed to summon 3 Things from the Void and Cthugul decided to join my cause.

The battle went fairly well with the mindbLasts doing their job. Since I put up the mercs as a screen in front of my troops I lost not a single one of my troopers. Even the mercs only lost 3 men.

Provinces: 2
Treasury: 181
Income: 231
Upkeep: 61
Resources: 71

Water gems: 10 (+2)
Astral gems: 12 (+3)

Unrest went down to 1 and order is stuck at 1.

Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom1, 2.5k pop, 10 inc, 45 res
Dershid (20) – 40(s) – 60(g) Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – Dom1, 6k pop, 29 inc, 12 res
Gol Phalas (26) – 20-50 Militias, Longbowmen and Knights – Farm Lands – general intel – Dom0, 13k pop, 66 inc, 9 res
Vepitre (14) – 40-80 Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – general intel – Black Candle1, O1, P2, G2, Mi1, Ma1
Kolermegor (5) – 40-60 Crossbowman, Militias and Heavy Infantry – Forest – general intel – Dom0, 9k pop, 46 inc, 34 res
Talito (36) – 30 Milita, Light and Heavy Infantries – Plains – scout intel
C’tis (27) - ???
Abysia (40) - ???

Right to the north of Gol Phalas my scout in Talito is able to see the capital of Abysia (40).

Due to the light loses from the attack on the knight supported force in Gol Phalas (26) is tempting me very much, especially with the mercs hopefully being able to take the brunt of the attack. Actually I am more worried about the longbows than about the knights. My scout reports the enemies strength to be at 40.

Cthugul’s appearance is giving me another choice to make here. He is a lvl3 priest in addition to a 2W/4As caster, which would make a nice addition to my invasion forces, especially since he could bring the 2 Illithid Soldiers along I have hired Last turn.

On the other hand he has a research value of 11 which would be a nice addition to my magic boosting program. Since this AAR is about making mistakes, too, I will keep on playing this one risky. Cthugul will stay at home and support the research, even if this means having less firepower/morale in Gol Phalas.

My orders for the troops will remain unchanged, the mercs as a screen, my fighters behind them and the commander and bLasters to the rear.

I will send my scout from Talito (36) back to Dunheim (28) in order to start a little bloodhunt there since I can afford to expand to the north at the moment anyway. Jotun is my target of choice for now. With a bit of luck this will leave C’tis and Abysia enough room to expand and hopefully leave me alone, or even better fight each other.

The other scout will head to Vepitre (14) in order to get a closer look at my potential Jotun friend.

I will spend the Last missing 2 points for getting Alt2 and will pump the remaining 44 points into construction in order to get to Con2 as soon. I want to be able to forge some Clams of Pearl soon and start to get some decent astral gem income before starting to research conjuring for acashic record.

I will recruit one more Star Child for faster research and 1 Illithid Soldier for additional firepower this turn.

CharonJr

To be continued...

[CharonJr]

double-post

[ February 13, 2004, 18:19: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[CharonJr]

Turn 5 results

I reasearched Alt2 and Const1. Pythium declared an Emerald Lord as the prophet.

R’lyeh had a summer festival and I received 200 additional tax from R’lyeh, too. In Dunheim 5 fire gems were found.

My troops did very well in this battle, too. I lost only 2 slave troopers and the mercs lost another 2 men. The enemy force consisted of about 1/3 knights, militias and longbowmen and was supported by a priest.

Only 3 knights of the knight charge were even able to get into close combat range, but were killed fairly fast, but they still managed to kill 2 slave troopers and 2 mercs. Meanwhile the archers were shooting at my commander and Illithid Soldiers (good that those were armored well enough), but due to the range and protection nobody was killed. While the Last knight was killed the militias got into melee range, but after just one turn of attacks their morale broke and they ran. My troops killed the stuned/retreating troops and before they were able to reach the archers their leader turned and fled. My troops just had to dispatch some more paralysed victims, including about 5 of the archers in the end.

Provinces: 3
Treasury: 447
Income: 276
Upkeep: 69
Resources: 72

Water gems: 12 (+2)
Astral gems: 15 (+3)

Unrest went down to 0 in R’lyeh, is at 2 in Dunheim and 18 in Gol Phalas.

Dom is at 7 in R’lyeh, 1 in Dunheim and -1 in Gol Phalas.

Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom1, 2.5k pop, 10 inc, 45 res
Dershid (20) – 40(s) – 60(g) Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – Dom1, 6k pop, 29 inc, 12 res
Vepitre (14) – 40(g)/60(s)-80(g) Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – Black Candle1, O1, P2, G2, Mi1, Ma1
Kolermegor (5) – 40-60 Crossbowman, Militias and Heavy Infantry – Forest – general intel – Dom0, 9k pop, 46 inc, 34 res
Talito (36) – 30(s) – 50(g) Milita, Light and Heavy Infantries – Plains
Scythia (35) – 40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – general intel
C’tis (27) - ???
Abysia (40) – 20 Abysian Infantry and Humanbreads, Cyclops pretender
Aran Plain (23) - 50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Militia – general intel


My scout in Vepitre (14) reports that the capital to the east does not belong to Jotun, but to Pangaea, which does surprise me a little bit.

My confirmed neighbours are Abysia, Pangaea and C’tis and I am not to happy about any of them. Still no trace of Atlantis, which is not making me really sad http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

My army is in Gol Phalas (26) and the bordering provinces are (west to east) Talito (36), Abysia (40), Scythia (35), Aran Plain (23) and Vepitre (14).

The main question now is which AI to fight first and how to be fairly save from the other AIs stabbing me in the back.

Without Atlantis in the game my first choice would have been trying to crush C’tis on the peninsula NW of my capital, but I currently have no common border with C’tis and they might actually serve as a buffer vs Atlantis.

My newly aquired province of Gol Phalas (26) is bordering right on Abysia (40) and makes Abysia a likely target for further expansion. But in this way I would have Pangaea potentialy in my back, but since I don’t share a common border with Pangaea at the moment I would have at least some warning if they want to go after me.

If my reports from Abysia are correct and there are only 20 infantry and a pretender in his capital this might actually be a chance that is too sweet to miss.

The mercs are paid for one more turn and attacking Abysia might just be the way to put them to best use. Taking Abysia would put me closer to the 3 farm lands to its west, too.

I think I will recruit a mage starspawn this turn for 280 in order to get a offensive mage who is able to bring the Illithids I recruited during the Last turns and the 3 summons to the (potential) front and cast quickness and mind burn.

Either I will add 3 Illithid Soldiers for further offense or start to raise some defenses – but since the only direct threat at the moment is Abysia I tend towards the Soldiers.

I am still undecided about what to do next and would love some feedback. Personally I tend towards attacking Abysia immediatly (despite bad intel – hmm, bad intel, sounds familiar, wasn’t there something about making a mistake due to bad intel earlier ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ).

CharonJr

[Norfleet]

Don't forget that despite seeing only 20 units in his capitol, that a capitol also begins a defense of 25: That means you're going to see +25 units of whatever Abyssia uses for a defense. 45 units is a big difference from 20 units. Plus, the report is probably off by about 50%, so there's probably more like 40 units in there, for a total of 65 units. Reports from castled provinces tend to misunderestimate.

[IKerensky]

There is one more thing you can do with Cthugul, and it is ...

... something he is really good for as he only have 2% bad luck.

[CharonJr]

Hmm, you are right, I have completely forgotten about the 25 capital defenses. There is no way I can win vs 45+ Abysians. Their troors are able to take a decent beating while burning their enemies and I lack the numbers with my Illithids to get a good number of them fast enough. Waiting for reinforcements from my capital would delay the attack.

Concerning Cthugul, yup, I have shortly thought about replacing my starspwan priest with Cthugul, but since he is said to have no additional strength in summoning besides having only a 2% chance to get feebleminded instead of the 5% my priest gets, I think I will rather use his superior research.

I am fairly happy with my summons till now and would hate to lose even the few turns I have already played in order to get a new summoner up.

Hmm, ok, this leaves Pangaea and C'tis. I think I could use the death/nature gem combo I might get from C'tis.

This has the added benefit of stoping C'tis before they are able to summon too many mindless.

Thank you for the comments http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

CharonJr

[Sleepy]

What does AAR stand for anyway??

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/confused.gif

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Sleepy:
What does AAR stand for anyway??

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/confused.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">After-Action Report

[Taqwus]

On the other hand, it's quite possible that the Abysian armies are mostly not on 'patrol', in which case you'd be facing primarily the province defense in the first battle. In that case, I would then expect an immediate relief / break-out attempt unless your numbers are very much greater than those inside, which would be unlikely.

[Sleepy]

Okay, thanks Arryn.
I like the idea of an AAR, I might want to try doing one.

[CharonJr]

Turn 6

Ok, I will go after C’tis first because this enables me to link up my expeditionary force currently in Gol Phalas (26) with the second army I am currently building in R’lyeh and I would love to get my hands on some death/nature gems .

By attacking the indies in Talito (36) this turn I will be able to use my mercs one more time and since there should be about 40 light/heavy infantry defenders and some militias I should be able to take this province without losing many of my own troops.

If I wanted to go for maximum expansion here I should surely try to retain the service of my mercs or try to get some new mercs, but since I was able to consolidate my position with their help I want to restrict myself from using them again unless I become desperate again (no need to lose due to pride http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ).

On the next turn I plan a combined attack of both my armies on Dershid (20). Due to the tribal archers there I will need some additional arrow fodder and I will buy 3 lobo guards for this in addition to the 3 Illithid Soldiers and the starspawn mage. The Things from the Void should be decent arrow fodder due to their 24 HP and 6 HP regen per turn, too.

My second army will consist of 1 starspawn mage with astral 3+ who will cast quickness and mindburn, 6 Illithid Soldiers, 1 lobo guard (due to just being able to lead 10 troops) and 3 Things from the Void.

Now I only have to hope that Pangaea and Abysia will leave me alone while I embark on my little adventure. At least while my army is in Talito (36) I am fairly optimistic that Abysia will not attack and I still don’t share a common border with Pangaea.

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 8

I reasearched Conj2 and found an magic item (astral shield) in Talito (36).

Looks like C’tis wanted to have Dershid (20), too. They attacked first with about 40 troops, the army was lead by the prophet, a priest and a commander. They managed to defeat the indies without many problems, losing only 2 runners and 1 poison slinger to the archers.

Next my forces attack the C’tis in Dershid (20). The mindbLasts and burns are doing their jobs again and the runners route before even getting close to my troops. After another 2 volleys of bLasts and burns the remaining forces are routed, too, right before my troops are in close combat range. My troops manage to slay some unparalysed enemies while those are fleeing and manage to paralyse some more. In the end about 10 city guards and poison slingers are able to flee together with their commanders.

Provinces: 5
Treasury: 317
Income: 314
Upkeep: 104
Resources: 72

Fire gems: 5 (due to an event some turns ago)
Water gems: 16 (+2)
Astral gems: 21 (+3)


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom1, 2.5k pop, 10 inc, 45 res
Vepitre (14) – 40(g)/60(s)-90(g) Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – Black Candle1, O1, P2, G2, Mi1, Ma1
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – black candle 5
Scythia (35) – 40-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – general intel
C’tis (27) - ???
Abysia (40) – 50 Abysian Infantry and Humanbreads, Cyclops pretender
Aran Plain (23) - 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Militia – general intel
Hoburgdorf (34) – 60-100 Ichtyids/Ichtyid Warriors – farm lands - general intel – black candle1
Gol Ryepe (46) – 70 Light Infantry – farm lands - general intel
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – black candle 1


Pangaea took Kolermegor this turn, but since I doubt they want to visit me in R’lyeh there is still one province between me and them, but I will keep this in mind after I managed to defeat C’tis.


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.760 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 188 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6
Gol Phalas (26) – 13.090 pop, 90% tax, 4 UR, 45 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 1
Dunheim (28) – 11.500 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 54 inc, 5 res, 0 def, dom 1
Talito (36) – 8.440 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 33 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -2
Deshid (20) – 6.380 pop, 70% tax, 13 UR, 22 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom 3


Intel reports 30 enemy units in C’tis mainly slave warriors and longdead including a master druid pretender. As long as there is no undead commander I am not too worried about the undead troops, this might even work to my advantage since when I kill the living commanders the undead will disperse. And since my mindbLasts and burns will only target living troops I might get to fry some commanders rather early.

I slightly rearrange my squads (all Illithids are in one squad with my mage and the summons are in the first squad of the commander, the fodder is in his second squad). Both armies will attack C’tis this turn. With the capital defenses the fight might be fairly hard (unless the regular troops are already hiding inside the castle – mausoleum in this case), but I think I should be able to win without taking too many losses.

I will buy another starspawn mage and am hoping for a 2W or 4As here in addition to get some additinal research.

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 9

I researched Conj3 and found another magic item (heart finder sword) in R’lyeh (10). The luck scale is working very nicely till now. And with me getting more provinces I hope that this will get even better. But sooner or later there will surely be a bad event, too.

Pangaea declared a centaur commander as the prophet.

Looks like I was facing most of C’tis army on the fields of C’tis. Mainly militias, some city guards and poison slingers, about 45 in total. The armies were lead by 2 commanders, 2 priests, 1 taskmaster and the prophet.

Most of the runners were either bLasted or burned and broke after the first turn of close combat. The militias were standing their ground bravely and took a beating for 2 more turns before they broke, too. I managed to paralyse both priests before they were able to retreat and only lost 3 lobo guards and 2 Things from the Void.


Provinces: 6
Treasury: 359
Income: 460
Upkeep: 118
Resources: 72

Fire gems: 5 (due to an event some turns ago)
Water gems: 18 (+2)
Astral gems: 24 (+3)


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom1, 2.5k pop, 10 inc, 45 res
Vepitre (14) – 40(g)/60(s)-90(g) Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – Black Candle1, O1, P2, G2, Mi1, Ma1
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – black candle 5
Scythia (35) – 40-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – general intel
Abysia (40) – 50 Abysian Infantry and Humanbreads, Cyclops pretender
Aran Plain (23) - 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Militia – general intel
Hoburgdorf (34) – 60-100 Ichtyids/Ichtyid Warriors – farm lands - general intel – black candle 2
Gol Ryepe (46) – 70 Light Infantry – farm lands - general intel
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – black candle 1
The Weald (25) – 30 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – black candle 2
Soth Beaver (38) – 60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Baptizer (43) – 70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel


My order scale in R’lyeh went up to 2, 1 more to go.


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 200 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6
Gol Phalas (26) – 13.060 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 55 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 2
Dunheim (28) – 11.500 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 54 inc, 5 res, 0 def, dom 1
Talito (36) – 8.390 pop, 100% tax, 2 UR, 30 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -2
Deshid (20) – 6.380 pop, 70% tax, 13 UR, 23 inc, 10 res, 0 def, dom 3
C’tis (27) – 31.360 pop, 70% tax, 11 UR, 98 inc, 46 res, 0 def, dom -3

My 9 slave troopers retreated to Deshid (20) where I will pick them up with my commander while my mage with his Illithids and the summons I will assign to him will keep up the siege vs C’tis.

Ulm is making massive use of mercs, this sounds like bad news when I meet them.

I got a 1Ai, 1W, 4As mage which will be a great asset in a later war, but for now will be assigned to research, too.

My mage and commander are in the hall of fame, with the commander having the valor ability and my mage having heroic toughness.

I will buy another starspawn mage and am hoping for a good event in order to be able to build a temple soon.

To be continued...

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 7

I reasearched Const2 and Conj1. Man declared a knight as his prophet.

Atlanasha managed to summon 4 Formless Spawns.Their moral of 50, decent HPs and regen will surely help my attack vs C’tis. The 50% fire resistance might come in handy vs Abysia, too.

The battle in was won without losing a single trooper. MindbLasts were doing their job very nicely again and the 40 enmies routed after the first turn of close combat.

My mercs are gone now and I have to rely on my own troops again, but with my decent summons I think this will not be too bad.

Provinces: 4
Treasury: 206
Income: 305
Upkeep: 99
Resources: 72

Water gems: 14 (+2)
Astral gems: 18 (+3)

Due to the fighting the unrest in Gol Phalas (26) went up to 18, dominion is still at -1, I will lower the tax to 60%.
Talitos (36) unrest is at 12, the dominion is -2, I will lower taxes to 70%.

Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom1, 2.5k pop, 10 inc, 45 res
Dershid (20) – 40(s) – 60(g) Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – Dom1, 6k pop, 29 inc, 12 res
Vepitre (14) – 40(g)/60(s)-90(g) Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – Black Candle1, O1, P2, G2, Mi1, Ma1
Kolermegor (5) – 40-60 Crossbowman, Militias and Heavy Infantry – Forest – general intel – Dom0, 9k pop, 46 inc, 34 res
Scythia (35) – 40-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – general intel
C’tis (27) - ???
Abysia (40) – 50 Abysian Infantry and Humanbreads, Cyclops pretender
Aran Plain (23) - 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Militia – general intel
Hoburgdorf (34) – 60 Ichtyids/Ichtyid Warriors – farm lands - general intel – black candle1
Gol Ryepe (46) – 70 Light Infantry – farm lands - general intel -

Abysia is reported at 50 enemy troops now and I am glad that I didn’t attack.

The scout I sent to Dershid (20) reports 50 Tribal warriors and archers, but due to decent arrow fodder (lobo guards/slave troopers) and soakers (Things from the Void/Formless Spawns) I am not too worried about them.

I sent my other scout to Gol Phalas for some bloodhunting there, but due to the unrest I will wait another turn.

Azay - my new mage is 2F, 1W, 3As with a leadership of 20. I assign my 6 Illithid Soldiers into one squad and the 3 lobo guards, 3 Things from the Void and 4 Formless Spawns into a second one with hold/attack closest orders. Azay will cast quickness and 4x mind burn and is put to the back together with the mindbLaster squad.

I will send both of my armies to Dershid (20) and hope that I might be able to catch C’tis off guard and attack the capital on the next turn.

With construction at 2 I assign my mages to continue to research in Conjuration and will get to Conj2 on this turn.

I was thinking about starting to build a Clam of Pearl, but I refrain from using either one of my best researchers for this task (11/13 RPs). I will rather wait till I get to Conj5 in order to cast acashic record in order to find gems than forging Clams at the moment. The Sea King’s Court summon at Conj6 is very tempting, too.

I will only recruit a star child this turn in order to save up some money in order to buy a starspawn mage next since I would not be able to get reinforcements to the fight vs C’tis fast enough anyway. If I run into serious trouble I have to completely regroup my forces.

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 10

Atlanasha managed to summon 4 Otherness this turn and the walls of C’tis were breached.

One of my scouts managed to gather 2 bloodslaves this turn, but I will have to stop gathering again till the unrest is down since I still need the money. Maybe later I can switch a province to bloodslave production.

Provinces: 6
Treasury: 363
Income: 432
Upkeep: 136
Resources: 72
RP: 80

Fire gems: 5 (due to an event some turns ago)
Water gems: 20 (+2)
Astral gems: 27 (+3)


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res
Vepitre (14) – 40(g)/60(s)-90(g) Tribal Warriors and Tribal Archers – Plains – Black Candle1, O1, P2, G2, Mi1, Ma1
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – black candle 5
Scythia (35) – 40-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – general intel
Abysia (40) – 50 Abysian Infantry and Humanbreads, Cyclops pretender
Aran Plain (23) - 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Militia – general intel
Hoburgdorf (34) – 50-100 Ichtyids/Ichtyid Warriors – farm lands - general intel – black candle 2
Gol Ryepe (46) – 40-70 Light Infantry – farm lands - general intel
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – black candle 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – black candle 2
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 200 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6
Gol Phalas (26) – 13.060 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 64 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 2
Dunheim (28) – 11.490 pop, 80% tax, 9 UR, 36 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 1
Talito (36) – 8.340 pop, 90% tax, 3 UR, 24 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -2
Deshid (20) – 6.380 pop, 80% tax, 9 UR, 26 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom 3
C’tis (27) – 31.820 pop, 90% tax, 2 UR, 99 inc, 49 res, 0 def, dom -2

Since the walls of C’tis have been breached I will attack on this turn with the army in C’tis supported by the small army of slave troopers which have fled to Deshid (20) earlier.

I got a 1F, 1W, 3As, 1B mage this turn who might be later turned into a blood hunter, but for now will be assigned to research, too.

I will buy another starspawn mage and with my current 80 RP each turn I am fairly sure to be one of the leaders in magic, but want keep raising my research.

To be continued...

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 11

Atlanasha managed to summon 3 Things from Beyond this turn and a witch has cursed some of my troops for taking her gems in Talito..

The battle in C’tis proved to be harder than expeced, due to C’tis pretender – who posed as a master druid - being a green dragon with 200 HP, 18 prot and 18 magic resist who has able to summon undead in addition, too. Other than that I was facing a marshmaster prophet and about 15 militias. The pretender was casting berserk and summon undead for some turns, then flew to my troops to attack. On the first turn my summons in combination with mindburns and bLasts were able to damage him for 92 HP, but I lost 1 thing from the Void in the counterattack. On the next turn the pretender was brought down to 43 HP and failed to kill another summon. While the undead (commanded by the marshmaster) were getting into close combat range the pretender was killed by the coordinated attacks of my summons, but some were severely wounded. After the undead killed 2 Formless Spawns the Things from the Void broke and retreated. The Formless Spawns kept killing the longdead and the Illithids kept bLasting the militias. In the end I lost my Last Formless Spawn, but C’tis army was routed and destroyed.

Provinces: 6
Treasury: 410
Income: 577
Upkeep: 153
RP: 91
Fortification: 2
Temple: 1

Fire gems: 5
Water gems: 23 (+3)
Astral gems: 30 (+3)
Death: 2 (+2)
Nature: 5 (+2)


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res
Vepitre (14) – Pangaea – black candle 2
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – black candle 5
Scythia (35) – 40-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – general intel
Abysia (40) – 50 Abysian Infantry and Humanbreads, Cyclops pretender
Aran Plain (23) - 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Militia – general intel
Hoburgdorf (34) – 40-100 Ichtyids/Ichtyid Warriors – farm lands - general intel – black candle 2
Gol Ryepe (46) – 40-70 Light Infantry – farm lands - general intel
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – black candle 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – black candle 2
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 212 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6
Gol Phalas (26) – 13.060 pop, 90% tax, 2 UR, 54 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom 1
Dunheim (28) – 11.490 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 52 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 1
Talito (36) – 8.290 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 28 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -2
Deshid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 33 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 4
C’tis (27) – 31.820 pop, 90% tax, 2 UR, 99 inc, 49 res, 0 def, dom -2

My order scale in R’lyeh is finally back up to 3.

Vepitre (14) has been taken by Pangaea and now my province of Gol Phalas (26) borders on both Abysia and Pangaea. I am thinking about raising my defenses in Gol Phalas to 21, but since I am not sure if the defences will really stop the AIs from attacking I think that I will further concentrate on building up offensive power instead of defenses.

Abysia has an estimated 20 Abysian Infantry and Humanbreads in its captial while Pangaea has about 40 satyrs and satyr hoplites in Vepitre.

I will start to concentrate more on building troops and moving my armies to Gol Phalas now, but in order to keep improving my research I will recruit star children in C’tis.

I will have to pick up my 2 Last remaining Things from the Void from Deshid, but am tempted to move my armies to Gol Phalas via Hoburgdorf (34), but the 40-100 Ichtyids there are looking fairly strong to my 2 understrength armies, but in order to keep up my momentum I will attack.

I got a 1W, 3As, 1D, 1N mage this turn who will participate in my research project, too.

Since I have no prophet till now and need a “non researching” commander anyway I will recruit a starspawn priest in R’lyeh this turn in addition to 3 Illithid Soldiers.

I will reach conjuring 5 (and acashic records due to it) this turn and will invest the remaining 6 PRs into thaumaturgy to go after paralyse, soul slay, gateway and enslave mind.

To be continued...

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 12

Atlanasha managed a successful summon again – 4 Formless Spawns - bringing the summon skill up to 6. No blood slaves were found, but 5 air gems were found in Talito.

Marignon declared a paladin as the prophet.

The battle in Hoburgdorf went very well, despite there being close to 70 enemies. About half of them being Ichtyids the other half Ichtyid Warriors. Only 4 Ichtyids made it past the mindbLasts, but my arrow fodder (slave troopers) were broken after the first turn of close combat – 5 were killed. In the end my Illithid Soldiers had to engage about 20 Ichtyid Warriors in close combat, but surprisingly not a single one of my soldiers was killed. But the battle afflictions are starting to add up.

Provinces: 7
Treasury: 481
Income: 613
Upkeep: 171
RP: 94
Fortification: 2
Temple: 1

Fire gems: 5
Air: 5
Water gems: 26 (+3)
Astral gems: 36 (+3) – 3 gems back from the summoner to the pool due to enough bodyguards (at least that is what I hope;) )
Death: 4 (+2)
Nature: 7 (+2)


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res
Vepitre (14) – Pangaea – black candle 2
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – black candle 5
Scythia (35) – 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – general intel
Abysia (40) – Abysia capital
Aran Plain (23) - 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Militia – general intel
Gol Ryepe (46) – 40-70 Light Infantry – farm lands - general intel
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – black candle 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – black candle 2
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 212 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6
Gol Phalas (26) – 13.060 pop, 90% tax, 0 UR, 54 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 1
Dunheim (28) – 11.490 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 54 inc, 5 res, 0 def, dom 1
Talito (36) – 8.240 pop, 90% tax, 4 UR, 24 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -2
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 33 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 4
C’tis (27) – 32.200 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 198 inc, 108 res, 0 def, dom 0
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 80%, 9 UR, 38 inc, 10 res, 0 def, dom 1

I will send my commander with the rest of my army to Talito (36) and to Gol Phalas (26) next. Meanwhile my mage will be send to Dunheim to pick up the 2 Things from the Void.

I will declare my newly aquired priest Togrul as my prophet this turn and the star child in C’tis will be set to research.

I will recruit another star child in C’tis and a starspawn mage in R’lyeh in addition to 2 Illithid Soldiers and 3 lobo guards as new arrow fodder.

I have to take one of my mages out of the research pool in order to be able to cast acashic records (one of my 2 provinces containing mountains due to a higher chance to contain sites). Either Talito (36) or Dershid (20), but in the end I will cast it on Dershid due to it not bordering right on Abysia (40).

The remaining 83 RPs will be put into thaumaturgy.

To be continued...

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Just a quick question here, what are peoples thoughts about using the statistic screens in order to get information that would normally not be available to you in SP ?

Till now I haven't looked at them, but it surely is tempting.

On the other hand I like to use only information I could have gathered by using spies or reports from neighbouring provinces...

Due to its heavy merc usage I am fairly sure that Ulm is currently the largest nation in my game. But maybe they get beaten by 2-3 other AIs who ganged up on them...

Hmm, some "rumors from distant lands" event (random, not automatic information about everything) would be nice which just would tell if a nation is at war.

CharonJr

[ February 16, 2004, 12:50: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[CharonJr]

I will switch this AAR to patch 2.08 later today, from what I have read in the patch notes it shouldn't have a dramatic impact on this game.

CharonJr

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
I will switch this AAR to patch 2.08 later today, from what I have read in the patch notes it shouldn't have a dramatic impact on this game.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Don't be so sure. My AAR has just been screwed ...

[CharonJr]

Thank you for the information, since Jotunheim is in my game I will refrain from patching for now.

CharonJr

[GavinWheeler]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
Just a quick question here, what are peoples thoughts about using the statistic screens in order to get information that would normally not be available to you in SP ?<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Looking at the score graphs after you have effectively won can be very interesting. I've avoided looking at them until very late on in the game, at which point you have a good idea who is where and how big, but info on research, or seeing the province graphs bob around as two AIs fight together, can be fascinating.

[CharonJr]

Turn 13

Acashuc Record has revealed 2 magic sites in Dershid (Well of White Water – 1W and a Painted Cave - 1As). My bloodhunter found 15! Slaves in Gol Phalas. In addition I found 5 nature gems in Gol Phalas.


Provinces: 7
Treasury: 423
Income: 612
Upkeep: 198
RP: 97
Fortification: 2
Temple: 1

Fire gems: 5
Air: 5
Water gems: 20 (+4)
Astral gems: 15 (+4)
Death: 6 (+2)
Nature: 14 (+2)


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res
Vepitre (14) – Pangaea – black candle 2
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – black candle 5
Scythia (35) – 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – general intel
Abysia (40) – Abysia capital
Aran Plain (23) - 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Militia – general intel
Gol Ryepe (46) – 40-70 Light Infantry – farm lands - general intel
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – black candle 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – black candle 2
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 212 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6
Gol Phalas (26) – 13.030 pop, 90% tax, 1 UR, 52 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom 0
Dunheim (28) – 11.490 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 54 inc, 5 res, 0 def, dom 1
Talito (36) – 8.190 pop, 90% tax, 4 UR, 24 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 35 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 4
C’tis (27) – 32.390 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 188 inc, 108 res, 0 def, dom 0
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 80%, 8 UR, 36 inc, 10 res, 0 def, dom 0

I am bloodhunting in Dunheim (28) and Gol Phalas (26).

My new mage turned out to be 1F, 1W, 3As and 1B.

Cthugul will be assigned to forge a Clam of Pearl and in order to keep my research up I will get a starspawn mage and another star child. For the remaining gold I will get another Illithid Soldier.

I will move my army from Talito to Gol Phalas and my mage with his 2 Things from the Void will move to R’lyeh to pick up more troops. I assigned 5 Illithid Soldiers, 4 Formless Spawns and 1 Otherness to my prophet (in addition to giving him the heart finder sword and the enchanted shield) and will move him to Gol Phalas this turn, too.

Research in thaumaturgy will continue.

To be continued...

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 14

Atlantis had declared a Coral Prince as his prophet.

Thaumaturgy is up to level 3 and just 12 RPs short of level 4.

Atlanasha managed to summon 3 Things from Beyond and my bloodhunter found 5 more slaves in Gol Phalas.


Provinces: 7
Treasury: 380
Income: 656
Upkeep: 226
RP: 121
Fortification: 2
Temple: 1

Fire gems: 5
Air: 5
Water gems: 14 (+4)
Astral gems: 19 (+4)
Death: 8 (+2)
Nature: 16 (+2)


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res
Vepitre (14) – Pangaea – black candle 2
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – black candle 5
Scythia (35) – 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – general intel
Abysia (40) – Abysia capital
Aran Plain (23) - 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Militia – general intel
Gol Ryepe (46) – 40-70 Light Infantry – farm lands - general intel
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – black candle 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – black candle 2
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 212 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6
Gol Phalas (26) – 13.020 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 60 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 0
Dunheim (28) – 11.490 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 54 inc, 5 res, 0 def, dom 1
Talito (36) – 8.140 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 26 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 33 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 4
C’tis (27) – 32.250 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 210 inc, 108 res, 0 def, dom 1
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100%, 1 UR, 61 inc, 10 res, 0 def, dom 0

I am bloodhunting in Dunheim (28) and Gol Phalas (26).

My new mage turned out to be 1Ai, 2W and 3 As.

I am giving the Clam to one of my star child researchers and Cthugul will forge another one this turn.

I am exchanging my 3As mage for a 4As mage in R’lyeh and his army consists of 2 Things from the Void, 3 Otherness, 1 Illithid Soldiers and 3 Lobo Guards and will move to Gol Phalas this turn.

I wasn’t really sure where to move next, but since my Intel reports just 4 enemies in Abysia I will attack there despite a part of my forces still being in R’lyeh. The possibility of getting my hands on the income of an enemies’ capital is surely fueling my greed, too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Another starspawn mage and star child will be build this turn in addition to 3 more Lobo Guards.

Research in thaumaturgy will continue.

To be continued...

CharonJr

[ February 16, 2004, 20:45: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
Just a quick question here, what are peoples thoughts about using the statistic screens in order to get information that would normally not be available to you in SP ?

Till now I haven't looked at them, but it surely is tempting.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I look at it just for the sake of curiosity, but I never let it affect my planning. And I don't write up in the AAR what the score graphs say. I don't even write up the HoF info for other nations, though I could justify doing so since the exploits of other heroes would travel far and wide. If my readers want me to include the full HoF info, I'd expect at least one of them to speak up about it. So far, no one has. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[CharonJr]

Turn 15

Thaumaturgy is up to level 4 and 53 RPs short of level 5.

Atlanasha managed to summon 3 Otherness.

In Abysia my troops were only met by the province defenders, the small number of forces my intel indicated earlier seem to be inside the castle. The ememy troops were routing after one turn of close combat with more than half of them being already neutralized by my Illithids. In the end I won without losing a single trooper.


Provinces: 7
Treasury: 482
Income: 692
Upkeep: 252
RP: 138
Fortification: 2
Temple: 1

Fire gems: 5
Air: 5
Water gems: 8 (+4)
Astral gems: 24 (+4/+1)
Death: 10 (+2)
Nature: 18 (+2)


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res
Vepitre (14) – Pangaea – Plains - black candle 2
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – Forest - black candle 5
Scythia (35) – 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – Mountains - general intel
Abysia (40) – Abysia capital
Aran Plain (23) - 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Militia – general intel
Gol Ryepe (46) – 40-70 Light Infantry – farm lands - general intel
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – black candle 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – black candle 2
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Nifel (57) – Abysia – 2 warlords – mountains/waste – general intel


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 212 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6
Gol Phalas (26) – 13.020 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 60 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 0
Dunheim (28) – 11.490 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 54 inc, 5 res, 0 def, dom 1
Talito (36) – 8.140 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 26 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 33 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 4
C’tis (27) – 32.250 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 210 inc, 108 res, 0 def, dom 1
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100%, 1 UR, 61 inc, 10 res, 0 def, dom 0

I am bloodhunting in Dunheim (28) and Gol Phalas (26).

I will send my prophet with the 3 lobo guards and 3 otherness from R’lyeh to Abysia in order to add to the troops there since it will take a lot of time to breach the gates of the mountain citadel there with its 350 defense. This gives me the possibility to try and bring down Abysia’s dominion down to 0 with my prophet, too. This might even happen before I would be able to get into the citadel otherwise.

Since I haven’t tried this before, this might be very interesting.

It looks like Nifel (57) is the only other province of Abysia, if this turns out to be true after this turns, too, I will send a small detatchment to take Nifel.

My new mage turned out to be 1F, 2W and 3 As.

I am giving the Clam to one of my star child researchers and Cthugul will forge another one this turn.

Another starspawn mage and star child will be build this turn in addition to 3 more Lobo Guards and 2 Illithid Soldiers.

Research in thaumaturgy will continue.

To be continued...

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 16

Thaumaturgy is up to level 5 (soul slay – yummy http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ) and 175 RPs short of level 6 (my goal due to enslave mind).

In Abysia my troops were attacked by the 2 units from Nifel (2 Warlords), those were killed without even getting close to my troops.


Provinces: 8
Treasury: 403
Income: 741
Upkeep: 285
RP: 145
Fortification: 2
Temple: 1

Fire gems: 5
Air: 5
Water gems: 2 (+4)
Astral gems: 5 (+4/+2)
Death: 12 (+2)
Nature: 20 (+2)


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res
Vepitre (14) – Pangaea – Plains - black candle 2
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – Forest - black candle 5
Scythia (35) – 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – Mountains - general intel
Aran Plain (23) - 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Militia – general intel
Gol Ryepe (46) – 40-70 Light Infantry – farm lands - general intel
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – black candle 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – black candle 2
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Nifel (57) – Abysia – 0 – mountains/waste – general intel


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 212 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.980 pop, 100% tax, 3 UR, 51 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom -1
Dunheim (28) – 11.490 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 52 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 1
Talito (36) – 8.040 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 27 inc, 13 res, 0 def, dom -1
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 33 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 4
C’tis (27) – 32.720 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 208 inc, 108 res, 0 def, dom 1
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100%, 0 UR, 68 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom 1
Abysia (40) – 27.170 pop, 90%, 5 UR, 90 inc, 38 res, 0 def, dom -2

I am bloodhunting in Dunheim (28) and Gol Phalas (26).

My mage Qithas (1Ai, 1W, 3As) will lead a part of my siege army (2 Otherness, 2 Formless Spawns and 4 Illithid Soldiers) to take the province of Nifel (57) which seems to be devoid of defenders (except for potential PD). Qithas’ spells are scripted as 1x Quickness, 4x Soul Slay, when I reach Enslave Mind I will exchange the Soul Slays for Enslave Mind.

In Abysia my prophet starts to preach. I hope the 2 dom there will vanish faster than my troops are able to breach the gates.

If I knew how fast I can lower the enemies dominion in Abysia I might be able to move most of my army close to Pangaea and try to siege its home province after conquering Vepitre (14), but for now I will build up troops in R’lyeh and concentrate my forces on Abysia.

My new mage turned out to be 1W, 3As, 1D and 1N this time, he is assigned to cast Acashic Record on Talito (36) this turn since it does contain some mountains and should have a better chance than the plains provinces to contain magic sites.

I am giving the Clam to one of my star child researchers and Cthugul will kepp forging new ones.

Another starspawn mage and star child will be build this turn in addition to 7 more Lobo Guards.

Depending on the success of my prophet in deminishing the dominion in Abysia I might have to move one of my mages to Abysia with additional troops, but would prefer to keep them researching for now.

Research in thaumaturgy will continue.

To be continued...

CharonJr

[IKerensky]

Hum, you sure Chtugul is the only one that could make the clam ? Because, even if you dont really need all thoses RP, he could do better in research...

[CharonJr]

Turn 17

Nifel was defended by 3 units which went down during the second turn.

Atlanasha managed to summon 1 Greater Otherness, bringing the summoning skill up to 9 (got my first Vastness at 9 in another game, so my hopes are starting to get up).

2 magic sites were found in Talito (Mercury Pond +2W and Natures Grove +1N). For some reason I am getting +1 air gem, too, but I am not able to find an air gem in any of my magic sites - edit: found it, Nifel contains 2 magic sites, +1air, +20prod. I think I will add information about magic sites to my provinces, too.

A traders guild was founded in R’lyeh and increases the tax revenue permanently by 25 gold.


Provinces: 9
Treasury: 506
Income: 827
Upkeep: 313
RP: 185
Fortification: 2
Temple: 1

Fire gems: 5
Air: 6 (+1)
Water gems: 8 (+6)
Earth: 0
Astral gems: 12 (+4/+3)
Death: 14 (+2)
Nature: 23 (+3)
Blood: 0


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res
Vepitre (14) – Pangaea – Plains - black candle 2
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – Forest - black candle 5
Scythia (35) – 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – Mountains - general intel
Aran Plain (23) - 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Militia – general intel
Gol Ryepe (46) – 40-70 Light Infantry – farm lands - general intel
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – black candle 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – black candle 2
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Chilad (52) – 10 Knights and Militias – Forest/Mountain – general intel
Bolfagon (63) – Ulm – 10 Militias – general intel

Hmm, I found Ulm, due to their heavy merc usage likely the most powerful nation at the moment. With just their 10 militias I doubt that they will attack in indi province of Chilad (52), but it would be a decent buffer for my newly aquired province of Nifel (57).


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.930 pop, 90% tax, 3 UR, 48 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom -1
Dunheim (28) – 11.490 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 52 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 1
Talito (36) – 7.990 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 25 inc, 13 res, 0 def, dom -1
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 33 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 4
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 208 inc, 108 res, 0 def, dom 1
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 68 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom 1
Abysia (40) – 27.010 pop, 100% tax, 2 UR, 108 inc, 39 res, 0 def, dom -2
Nifel (57) – 1.710 pop, 70% tax, 15 UR, 3 inc, 32 res, 0 def, dom -3

I am bloodhunting in Dunheim (28) and Gol Phalas (26).

My mage Qithas and his 8 magic troops will continue to Chilad (52) this turn since both Nifel (57) and Chilad (52) are chokepoints. Even if I underestimated the enemies strength in Chilad by 100% I dare to say that I should win this fight without too many problems, unless the knights get too many successful magic resist rolls.

In Abysia my prophet continues to preach, the dom is still at -2.

My new mage turned out to be 2W, 3As and 1B this time and is put to research.

I am giving the Clam to one of my star child researchers.

I will recruit a starspawn priest this turn in order to either add another preacher to Abysia or build a temple close to there to help lowering the enemies dominion. Additionally I will hire 3 Illithids due to their strategic movement of 2 and 4 more lobo guards.

The remaining 101 gold will be saved for potentially building a temple and recruiting at least 1 starspawn mage and 1 star child.

Research in thaumaturgy will continue and the remaining 154 points are put into Enchantment (for Gift of Health later on).

To be continued...

CharonJr

[ February 17, 2004, 20:21: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[CharonJr]

Well, I need skill in W to forge the Clam and Cthugul has W and generates 11 RPs. All my other mages are generating 11 RPs, too.

Sadly my star children only have 1 As, I would love to use one of them to forge the Clams, since they only add 8 RPs (all with magic 3 - edit: just 6 without any XP-levels actually).

And I want to priests to build temples or preach.

In the end I am stuck with Cthugul or one of my mages and it will not make a difference which one I am choosing, unless one of them gets a new level http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

CharonJr

[ February 18, 2004, 18:26: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[CharonJr]

Turn 18

Chalid was defended by 18 enemies, 50% of them being knights. Most of the militias were mindbLasted, but 4 of the knights were able to get into close combat range. They were bLasted and beaten on the following turn without being able to cause serious damage. The routing knights were chased and killed in addition to the remaining militias. My mage managed to successfully use enslave mind on one of the paralysed knights http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif .

2 Bloodslaves were found in Dunheim and 5 Bloodslaves were found in Gol Phalas. Since I can’t recall how many slaves one of my scouts is able to hold and my scout in Gol Phalas is at 29 (his inventory looks to be fairly full) I will send him back to R’lyeh to place the slaves in my lab.


Provinces: 10
Treasury: 583
Income: 795
Upkeep: 340
RP: 181
Fortification: 2
Temple: 1

Conjuration – 5
Alteration – 2
Evocation – 0
Construction – 2
Enchantment – 3 (researching, 4 next turn)
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic - 0

Fire gems: 5
Air: 7 (+1)
Water gems: 4 (+6)
Earth: 0
Astral gems: 20 (+4/+4)
Death: 16 (+2)
Nature: 26 (+3)
Blood: 0


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res
Vepitre (14) – Pangaea – Plains - black candle 2
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – Forest - black candle 5 - temple
Scythia (35) – 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – Mountains - general intel
Aran Plain (23) - 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Militia – general intel
Gol Ryepe (46) – 40-70 Light Infantry – farm lands - general intel
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – black candle 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – black candle 2
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Bolfagon (63) – Ulm – 10 Militias – general intel
Feldan (51) – 40 Barbarians – Forest – general intel
Faran (60) – 40 Militias, Heavy Infantry and Archers – Plains – general intel

Pangaea has build a temple in Kolermegor (5).


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6 – magic site (+As/+2W)
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.870 pop, 70% tax, 14 UR, 32 inc, 7 res, 0 def, dom 0
Dunheim (28) – 11.480 pop, 100% tax, 3 UR, 53 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 1
Talito (36) – 7.940 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 24 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1 - magic site (+2W, +1N)
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 33 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 4 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 204 inc, 108 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+)
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 68 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom 1
Abysia (40) – 26.850 pop, 90% tax, 3 UR, 94 inc, 38 res, 0 def, dom -1 – magic site (+)
Nifel (57) – 1.700 pop, 90% tax, 5 UR, 3 inc, 34 res, 0 def, dom -3 – magic site (+1Ai, +20prod)
Chilad (52) – 2.570 pop, 0% tax, 45 UR, 0 inc, 16 res, 0 def, dom -1

I keep bloodhunting in Dunheim (28)


My mage Qithas and his troops will return to Nifel in order to either support the siege of Abysia or to support an attack on Gol Ryepe (46) later.

In Abysia my prophet continues to preach, the dom is down to -1 and I will send my newly recruited priest (1As, 1N) with some troops (1 Greater Otherness, 3 Illithids and 6 Lobo Guards) to support the preaching/siege.

Pangaeas spreading dominion to my east is not making me very happy, I think I will move against Pangaea next, after Abysia is destroyed. On the one hand this would eliminate my Last competitor for the south/middle part of this map, but I can’t be sure how far they have already expanded eastwards.

A more conservative option would be to gobble up the numerous indi provinces surrounding my little empire, but I prefer to weaken my enemies while I try to strengthen my position.

I soon have to build up a second task force in order to speed up my expansion. Getting another astral 4 mage would be nice to lead that second task force. Otherwise I will have to stop my acashic record research program in order to build 1-2 astral caps.

I am giving the Clam to one of my star child researchers.

I will recruit a starspawn mage and another Star Child in addition to 3 Illithid Soldiers and 1 Illithid.

To be continued...

CharonJr

[Taqwus]

In case you haven't tried it yet -- Star Children make decent communicants with their 1S, in addition to being assassins and possible researchers. Communicants => higher levels => easier enslavement, more Smite, etc. Not as cheap nor as automatic as Theurg Communicants, but still fun.

[CharonJr]

Turn 19

Atlanasha managed to summon 3 more Greater Otherness which will add a very nice punch to any army I will deploy them in.

A good harvest in Hoburgdorf brought 50 gold as additional taxes and unrest was reduced by 20.

Enchantment reached level 4 and 45 points are needed till level 5, the remaining points will be put into construction.


Provinces: 10
Treasury: 486
Income: 857
Upkeep: 379
RP: 188
Fortification: 2
Temple: 1

Conjuration – 5
Alteration – 2
Evocation – 0
Construction – 2
Enchantment – 4 (researching, 5 next turn)
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic - 0

Fire gems: 5
Air: 8 (+1)
Water gems: 0 (+6)
Earth: 0
Astral gems: 3 (+4/+4)
Death: 18 (+2)
Nature: 29 (+3)
Blood: 29


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res – dom 2
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res – dom 5
Vepitre (14) – Pangaea – Plains - black candle 1
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – Forest – dom 1 - temple
Scythia (35) – 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – Mountains - general intel – black candle 1
Aran Plain (23) - Pangaea – 20 Satyrs and Satyr Hoplites – general intel – black candle 1
Gol Ryepe (46) – 40-70 Light Infantry – farm lands - general intel – black candle 2
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – dom 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – dom 0
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel – black candle 1
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Bolfagon (63) – Ulm – 10 Militias – general intel
Feldan (51) – 40 Barbarians – Forest – general intel
Faran (60) – 40 Militias, Heavy Infantry and Archers – Plains – general intel

Pangaea has defeated the indies in Aran Plains (23) strengthening my resolve to go after Pangaea next.


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6 – magic site (+3As/+2W)
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.840 pop, 90% tax, 3 UR, 54 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom 1
Dunheim (28) – 11.480 pop, 100% tax, 2 UR, 54 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 2
Talito (36) – 7.890 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 27 inc, 13 res, 0 def, dom -1 - magic site (+2W, +1N)
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 31 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 4 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 215 inc, 108 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+)
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 68 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom 1
Abysia (40) – 26.690 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 117 inc, 40 res, 0 def, dom 0 – magic site (+)
Nifel (57) – 1.690 pop, 90% tax, 2 UR, 3 inc, 35 res, 0 def, dom -3 – magic site (+1Ai, +20prod)
Chilad (52) – 2.570 pop, 60% tax, 17 UR, 4 inc, 20 res, 0 def, dom -1

I keep bloodhunting in Dunheim (28) and am sending my other scout back to Gol Phalas (26).


My mage Qithas and his troops will attack Gol Ryepe (46) in addition to my commander with 13 Illithid Soldiers, 3 Illithids, 4 Otherness and 1 Formless Spawn.

Togrul – my prophet - will stay in Abysia and continue preaching, I put 2 Things from the Void, 1 Formless Spawn, 1 Greater Otherness, 1 Otherness and 5 lobo guards under his command. I doubt that this will be enough to stop the defenders from repairing the walls, but think that it should be enough to deter them from trying to break the siege.

There are still some black candles in indi provinces (mainly 46 and 35) surrounding Abysia and I will have to try to bring those down, too.

Additinally there are some black candles in my newly aquired provinces around Abysia, too. In order to bring those down I will send my priest with the rest of my troops (6 lobo guards - no other leader has enough leadership to command them) to Nifel (57) in order to build a temple there.


My new mage has 1W, 3As and 2D and will cast acashic record on Nifel.


I am giving the Clam to one of my star child researchers and will forge another Clam.

I will recruit a starspawn mage and another Star Child, the remaining gold will be saved for building the temple in Nifel on the next turn.

To be continued...

CharonJr

[ February 18, 2004, 16:22: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[Arryn]

What's Atlanasha's summoning skill now?

EDIT: max number of 'gems' on a leader, including slaves, is 30 of all types combined. So 29 is very close to your max.

[ February 18, 2004, 16:19: Message edited by: Arryn ]

[CharonJr]

Taqwus,

thank you for telling me that Communicants will help with priestly magic, too, I have not realised this till now, since I have never tried it in combination with a priest http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

I have used them to empower my mages fairly often, but tend to only do this when I have advanced my research fairly high.

I think once I reach construction 7 or 8 (forge of the ancients/high level artifacts) I will send some of my star children out to support my mages/priests.

Thank you again for helping me to learn this game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Atlanasha's summoning skill is now at 10 which is getting my hopes up about the chances to aquire a Vastness.

Once I get one I will have to start to empower/forge my way to Gift of Reason. I hope, that my gem acquisition program is running with full steam by this time.

Thank you for the information about the gems http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

CharonJr

[Arryn]

The earliest I've gotten a Vastness is summoning-9. Your chances after about summoning-12 to 14 is virtually nil, so if you don't get one soon you likely never will. Best of luck to you.

[Taqwus]

Another random bit of weirdness you might want to try:
Darkness.
It's not exactly an easy spell for R'lyeh to cast based on its national mages, but if you can get there (with communion, this might be not that hard late-game), but it reduces the precision, attack and defence of every living thing on the battlefield. This matters a little less for illithids than for others, because mindbLasting always hits even if they're *blind* (so Solar Brilliance is also more of an option for R'lyeh than most, incidentally.) R'lyeh is also penalized less by Storms than many, due to lack of fliers or archers and again the prec-100 mindbLasts.
(Storms + Darkness + Stellar Brilliance would be overkill, but might be worth trying once. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif )

[ioticus]

Charon, I think calling yourself a beginner is a gross misrepresentation.

[CharonJr]

Arryn (sorry http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ),

I have read before that you can't summon a Vastness past 14 summoning, but IIRC in a game where I got 2 Vastenesses I got one fairly late (first one at 9, haven't checked the other one, but I think about 20+ turns later - but maybe I didn't get many summons during those turns and was still at 14 at this time).

Is there any reason for no more Vastness past 14 summonig ?

Taqwus,

hehe, yup, I did it once before (storm vs. indi archers), but I haven't thought about combining the different effects http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Thank you again http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

CharonJr

[ February 18, 2004, 16:54: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[CharonJr]

Splooger,

thx (I guess http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ), but with less than 10 SP games under my belt (non of them played till the end) and no MP-games and with the new things I am learning on these forums every day, calling myself anything but a noob would be crazy.

But I think that playing strategy-games for about 20 years (pc & boardgames) is helping with some basics.

Btw, what are the points which make you consider me anything but a beginner ?

E.g. from what I have read on these forums I consider my rate of expansion to be way to slow to survive in any kind of competetive environment.

CharonJr

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
Is there any reason for no more Vastness past 14 summonig?<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The reason IW gave is game balance. BTW, no one knows the exact number. The odds just keep getting worse from about 10 or 12 onwards. I consider 9-10 to be a moderate level, but apparently IW considers it to be high, and 14 is very high. They called my summoning-36 to be "absurd". I just call it very lucky.

[ioticus]

Originally posted by CharonJr:

Btw, what are the points which make you consider me anything but a beginner ?

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I'm just basing it on how well you seem to be doing in the current game, the way you explain your actions and the amount of info you provide in your AAR. You come across as someone very knowledgable about the game. But then again I only have 2 games under my belt in which I got creamed by easy AI.

[CharonJr]

Originally posted by Arryn:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by CharonJr:
Is there any reason for no more Vastness past 14 summonig?<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The reason IW gave is game balance. BTW, no one knows the exact number. The odds just keep getting worse from about 10 or 12 onwards. I consider 9-10 to be a moderate level, but apparently IW considers it to be high, and 14 is very high. They called my summoning-36 to be "absurd". I just call it very lucky. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hmm, ok, I tend to get my summoners up to 30+, too, mostly I give them the Chalice to cure them of their feeblemindness since I don't have to worry about them being attacked by the knights. Bodyguards who are able to defeat things from the void tend to be able to defeat knights, too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 20

Enchantment reached level 5 and construction is up to level 3.

Acashic record revealed 2 Wells of Pestilance (+1D, improves death). Are 2 Wells cumulative concerning the death improvement ?

The battle in Gol Ryepe (46) went very well again. There was a mage (2W) with his Jotun Giant bodyguard in addition to 60 light infantries. On the second turn my enslave mind managed to control the giant who immediatly turned and killed the mage – nice move there http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif . The light infantry kept advancing but lost about 50% of its troops before coming into close combat range – partially due to fighting their own mind enslaved troops. After the first round of close combat – my summons + enslaved knight were able to kill about 6 troops – the infantry routed. This battle was won without a single casualty on my side, I actually managed to get the giant and 1 light infantry due to enslave mind.


Provinces: 11
Treasury: 624
Income: 890
Upkeep: 407
RP: 229
Fortification: 2
Temple: 1

Conjuration – 5
Alteration – 2
Evocation – 0
Construction – 3 (researching, will reach 5 on the next turn)
Enchantment – 5
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic - 0

Fire gems: 5
Air: 9 (+1)
Water gems: 6 (+6)
Earth: 0
Astral gems: 12 (+4/+5)
Death: 22 (+4)
Nature: 32 (+3)
Blood: 29


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res – dom 2
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res – dom 5
Vepitre (14) – Pangaea – Plains - black candle 1
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – Forest – dom 1 - temple
Scytha (35) – 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – Mountains - general intel – black candle 1
Aran Plain (23) - Pangaea – 60 Satyrs and Satyr Hoplites – general intel – black candle 1
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – dom 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – dom 0
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel – black candle 1
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Bolfagon (63) – Ulm – 10 Militias – general intel
Feldan (51) – 40 Barbarians – Forest – general intel
Faran (60) – 40 Militias, Heavy Infantry and Archers – Plains – general intel
Glimmering Fields (61) – 40 Militia, Archers and Heavy Infantry – Farm lands – general intel
Giant’s Rest (67) – 40 Light Infantry – Mountain/Wastes – general intel


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6 – magic site (+3As/+2W)
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.810 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 66 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 1
Dunheim (28) – 11.480 pop, 90% tax, 3 UR, 48 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 3
Talito (36) – 7.840 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 24 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1 - magic site (+2W, +1N)
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 31 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 4 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 215 inc, 108 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+2D/+2N/+1W, +20prod, +10gold)
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 68 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom 1
Abysia (40) – 26.530 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 117 inc, 40 res, 0 def, black candle 1 – magic site (+)
Nifel (57) – 1.680 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 4 inc, 36 res, 0 def, dom -3 – magic site (+1Ai, +1D/D imp, +1D/D imp, +20prod)
Chilad (52) – 2.590 pop, 80% tax, 9 UR, 6 inc, 22 res, 0 def, dom -1
Gol Ryepe (46) – 19.730 pop, 50% tax, 22 UR, 27 inc, 7 res, 0 def, black candle 2

I keep bloodhunting in Dunheim (28) and Gol Phalas (26).

The Abysian dominion is back to 1 in Abysia despite preaching, I hope the temple I will build this turn in Nifel will help. But to get the dominion there up faster I will set my priest to preach there, too.

The report about 60 Pangean troops in Aran Plains (23) is not very reassuring. I hope that I will preach out the Abysian pretender before Pangaea is going to be a real problem.


The 2 provinces to the north/northeast of Gol Ryepe are tempting me due to their fairly light defenses. I could either increase my income or get another province which might give me an additional gem income. But I have to think about the potential threat of Pangaea, too, which would force me to ignore the 2 provinces and move my forces to Scytha (35).

I decide to keep playing this one agressively and take Glimmering Fields this turn and hope to be able to take Giant’s rest on the next one. If Pangeae declares war I should be able to invade from R’lyeh with enough firepower to make him return to his capital soon. If I have to I will send 4 of my star children with this force in order to add some more punch http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif


I am giving the Clam to one of my star child researchers and lack the gems to forge a new one this turn.

I will recruit a starspawn mage and another Star Child.

To be continued...

CharonJr

[Arryn]

I doubt that you have the dominion strength to preach out the Abyssian pretender in his home base, unless you use a temple, a prophet, and a pretender in an adjacent province. And even then you may not succeed.

[CharonJr]

Originally posted by Arryn:
I doubt that you have the dominion strength to preach out the Abyssian pretender in his home base, unless you use a temple, a prophet, and a pretender in an adjacent province. And even then you may not succeed. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hmm, like I said, I haven't tried it before, that's why I will continue trying in order to show people how hard this seems to be.

But I will try to surround Abysia with temples (I need some anyway) and while the "siege" of Abysia is binding some of my troops I am able to keep conquering some indi provinces - even if this is further slowing my expansion down.

But it sounds like preaching an pretender out is no real option in a competetive game.


When I finish this AAR I will ask the pros here to comment about the mistakes I made and am fairly certain that there is a LOT to improve my gameplay http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif


Thx http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

CharonJr

The quickest way to preach out a Pretender is to build a Temple (or temples) in adjacent provinces and churn out Priests and send them in to the capital and preach. 4 or 5 of those and he should be dead.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Zen:
The quickest way to preach out a Pretender is to build a Temple (or temples) in adjacent provinces and churn out Priests and send them in to the capital and preach. 4 or 5 of those and he should be dead. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Provided that there are no other provinces with that pretender's dominion, and that the enemy pretender doesn't have such a high dominion that it renders the efforts of the 4-5 priests futile.

But, as you say, if you've been able to surround the enemy capital with temples, by that time the enemy likely only has the one province and 4-5 temple-backed priests should make short work of the false god. In my AAR, I'm still puzzled as to how I was able to get positive dominion in the Pythium capital and still not kill that pretender. A very odd result, based on what I've seen in my other SP games, where I have preached out gods in the past.

[CharonJr]

Turn 21

Construction is up to 5 and I will bring it to level 6 this turn (enough for +1S cap IIRC). I will stop there since I lack the resources for Forge of the Ancients at the moment. The remaining points will be put into conjuration since I will need some more troops soon.

The battle in Glimmering Fields (61) was won without losing a single one of my soldiers again. My forces will continue to Giant’s rest (67).

Shadul Ummush offered to join my forces, he is a 5W, 10RP, 25 leadership leader who will be my new Clam forger for now, but his main job will be summoning later on.

Atlanasha summoned another Greater Otherness this turn bringing her summoning up to level 11.


Provinces: 12
Treasury: 622
Income: 976
Upkeep: 452
RP: 229
Fortification: 2
Temple: 2

Conjuration – 5 (researching)
Alteration – 2
Evocation – 0
Construction – 5 (researching, will reach 6 on the next turn)
Enchantment – 5
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic - 0

Fire gems: 5
Air: 10 (+1)
Water gems: 2 (+6)
Earth: 0
Astral gems: 21 (+4/+5)
Death: 26 (+4)
Nature: 35 (+3)
Blood: 29


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res – dom 2
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res – dom 5
Vepitre (14) – Pangaea – Plains - black candle 1
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – Forest – dom 1 - temple
Scytha (35) – 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – Mountains - general intel – black candle 1
Aran Plain (23) - Pangaea – 60 Satyrs and Satyr Hoplites – general intel – black candle 1
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – dom 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – dom 0
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel – black candle 1
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Bolfagon (63) – Ulm – 10 Militias – general intel
Feldan (51) – 40 Barbarians – Forest – general intel
Faran (60) – 40 Militias, Heavy Infantry and Archers – Plains – general intel
Giant’s Rest (67) – 40 Light Infantry – Mountain/Wastes – general intel

Pangaea has build a temple in Vepitre (14).


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 5 – magic site (+3As/+2W)
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.730 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 66 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 2
Dunheim (28) – 11.480 pop, 90% tax, 3 UR, 48 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 2
Talito (36) – 7.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 28 inc, 13 res, 0 def, dom -1 - magic site (+2W, +1N)
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 33 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 5 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 210 inc, 108 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+2D/+2N/+1W, +20prod, +10gold)
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 64 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom 1
Abysia (40) – 26.370 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 108 inc, 40 res, 0 def, black candle 1 – magic site (+)
Nifel (57) – 1.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 4 inc, 36 res, 0 def, dom -2 – magic site (+1Ai, +1D/D imp, +1D/D imp, +20prod)
Chilad (52) – 2.600 pop, 80% tax, 8 UR, 7 inc, 22 res, 0 def, dom -1
Gol Ryepe (46) – 19.610 pop, 90% tax, 4 UR, 61 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom -2
Glimmering Field (61) – 25.120 pop, 70% tax, 11 UR, 60 inc, 10 res, 0 def, dom -1


I keep bloodhunting in Dunheim (28) and Gol Phalas (26).

The first temple (Nifel) is up and I will move my priest to Talito to build another one.


My new mage is 2W, 4S and I will send him – with 4 Greater Otherness, 5 Illithid Soldiers and 1 Illithid - right towards Scytha (35) in order to prevent Pangaea from expanding there. For a later war it will surely help to have additional troops there, too.

My forces in Glimmering Fields will continue towards Giant’s Rest (67) and I will bring these forces down towards Pangaea after this battle, too.


I will recruit a starspawn mage, a Star Child and 3 Illithid Soldiers on this turn.

If I get lucky I will get another 4S mage this turn, but with 6 construction and 10 astral gems I will have another option to get my mages up to 4S.

I think I will attack Pangeae in 2-3 turns from now with 2-3 4S mages and about 30 troops, at least two-third of those being void summons or Illithids. The forces from the north should be able to put some preasure on Pangaea 2 turns after this. Normally I would like to wait till I would be able to strike with both my forces at once, but want to distrub Pangaea as soon as possible.

To be continued...

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 22

Construction reached level 6 and I will put all points into Conjuring now and will reach level 6 this turn.

The battle in Giant’s Rest vs. the indies was easy again, just 3 crossbowmen and about 30 light infantry. I didn’t lose a single man and even got 1 light infantry due to enslave mind.

Ulm attacked me in my newly aquired province of Giant’s Rest with about 20 Foul Servants and 1 Elephant. I managed to enslave the Elephant on the second turn and the other troops routed immediatly. Sadly (and I have no idea why) I was not able to keep the Elephant, despite him neither being killed nor seriously wounded – I still have remaining slots in my armies, too.

Due to low supplies my troops are starving in Giant’s Rest, but I will move all of them on this turn anyway.

4 bloodslaves were found in Gol Phalas and 200 additional taxes were levied.


Provinces: 13
Treasury: 781
Income: 977
Upkeep: 489
RP: 241
Fortification: 2
Temple: 3

Conjuration – 5 (researching)
Alteration – 2
Evocation – 0
Construction – 6
Enchantment – 5
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic - 0

Fire gems: 5
Air: 11 (+1)
Water gems: 8 (+6)
Earth: 0
Astral gems: 6 (+4/+6)
Death: 30 (+4)
Nature: 38 (+3)
Blood: 29


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res – dom 2
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res – dom 5
Vepitre (14) – Pangaea – Plains - black candle 1
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – Forest – dom 1 - temple
Scytha (35) – 30-50 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – Mountains - general intel – black candle 1
Aran Plain (23) - Pangaea – 50-60 Satyrs and Satyr Hoplites – general intel – black candle 1
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – dom 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – dom 0
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel – black candle 1
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Bolfagon (63) – Ulm – 10 Militias – general intel
Feldan (51) – 40 Barbarians – Forest – general intel
Faran (60) – 40 Militias, Heavy Infantry and Archers – Plains – general intel

My northern provinces are surrounded by Ulm and Jotun to the north and northeast, the west is held by indies.

To the east of my capital Vepitre (14) and its temple have no Pangaean troops, tempting me to attack right now, but I will need to build up/move my troops for at least another turn in order to be able to reach the Pangaean capital with sufficient forces on the turn after my initial attack. This should prevent Pangaea from sending harresment troops into my undefended rear areas.


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6 – magic site (+3As/+2W)
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.740 pop, 80% tax, 7 UR, 41 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom 1
Dunheim (28) – 11.470 pop, 80% tax, 8 UR, 39 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 2
Talito (36) – 7.740 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 27 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1 - magic site (+2W, +1N)
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 35 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 5 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 210 inc, 99 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+2D/+2N/+1W, +20prod, +10gold)
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 68 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 1
Abysia (40) – 26.210 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 108 inc, 40 res, 0 def, dom -1 – magic site (+)
Nifel (57) – 1.660 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 3 inc, 35 res, 0 def, dom -2 – magic site (+1Ai, +1D/D imp, +1D/D imp, +20prod)
Chilad (52) – 2.610 pop, 90% tax, 5 UR, 8 inc, 22 res, 0 def, dom 0
Gol Ryepe (46) – 19.490 pop, 100% tax, 2 UR, 74 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom -2
Glimmering Field (61) – 24.970 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 108 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom 0
Giant’s Rest (67) – 1.620 pop, 60% tax, 19 UR, 0 inc, 23 res, 0 def, dom 0

I keep bloodhunting in Dunheim (28) and Gol Phalas (26).

I am building another temple in Talito (36).


I got a 1W, 4S and 1D mage this turn and I will send him – with 3 Illithid Soldiers and 7 Lobo Guards – to Gol Phalas (26) right next to Vepitre (14).

My mage Qithas and his summons will move from Giant’s Rest (67) to Abysia (40) while my commander with his slower Illithid troops will only be able to move to Gol Ryepe (46).

My other army (1 4S mage, 4 Greater Otherness and some Illithids/Soldiers) will continue their move to Scytha (35) and unless Pangaea is attacking on the same turn should have no problems in conquering it. Even if Pangaea attacks me I am fairly certain that my forces are strong enough to stop the roughly 50 Satyrs and Satyr Hoplites.

I have 3 4S mages now and this might help me to get some more troops in addition to slow the enemy down by creating new enemies in their midst.


The Clam will be given to another star child, sadly I lack the W-gems to forge another one this turn, but due to this I have enough RPs to reach conjuring6.

I will cast acashic record on Giant’s Rest – the alternative would have been Chilad (52), but since it borders both Ulm and Jotunheim I prefer Giant’s Rest since it only borders on Ulm.

I will recruit a starspawn mage and a Star Child this turn in addition to 4 Illithids (I start to need their better strategic movement) and 3 Lobo Guards.


To be continued...

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 23

Conjuring reached level 6.

Atlanasha was able to summon a Vastness this turn (yeah!), now I will have to turn it into a SC. In order to cast Gift of Reason I will need a 4N mage and 20 nature gems.

Scytha (35) was taken without real opposition (15 heavy infantry and 15 militias) and without losing a single trooper again.

2 magic sites were found in Giant’s Rest (67), 1 Cave of Clouds (+1A) and 1 Well of Pestillence (+1D, increases death).

4 bloodslaves were found in Dunheim and 9 astral gems were found in Gol Phalas.


Provinces: 14
Treasury: 477
Income: 1005
Upkeep: 529
RP: 258
Fortification: 2
Temple: 4

Conjuration – 6 (researching)
Alteration – 2
Evocation – 0
Construction – 6
Enchantment – 5
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic - 0

Fire gems: 5
Air: 13 (+2)
Water gems: 14 (+6)
Earth: 0
Astral gems: 26 (+4/+7)
Death: 35 (+5)
Nature: 11 (+3)
Blood: 29


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res – dom 2
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res – dom 5
Vepitre (14) – Pangaea – Plains - black candle 1
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – Forest – dom 1 - temple
Aran Plain (23) - Pangaea – 50-60 Satyrs and Satyr Hoplites – general intel – black candle 1
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – dom 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – dom 0
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel – black candle 1
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Bolfagon (63) – Ulm – 10 Militias – general intel
Feldan (51) – 40 Barbarians – Forest – general intel
Faran (60) – 40 Militias, Heavy Infantry and Archers – Plains – general intel
Cacian Forest (45) – 40 Light Infantry, Crossbowmen and Heavy Infantry – Forest – general intel
Agenor (37) – Jotunheim – Plains - general intel
Old Aran (29) – 30 Militias, Light Infantry and Heavy Infantry – Plains – general intel
Yellow Mountains (72) – 20 Heavy Infantry, Light Infantry and Crossbowmen – Mountains – general intel
Pania (56) – 40 Militia, Archer and Heavy Infantry – Forest/Mountains – general intel
Witches Copse (73) – 40 Militia, Archer and Heavy Infantry – Forest – general intel
The Two Woods (78) – Ulm – Forest – general intel
Monherboa (75) – Ulm – Forest – general intel


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6 – magic site (+3As/+2W) - Temple
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.740 pop, 80% tax, 7 UR, 45 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom 1
Dunheim (28) – 11.460 pop, 70% tax, 12 UR, 34 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 2
Talito (36) – 7.690 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 27 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1 - magic site (+2W, +1N) - Temple
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 35 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 5 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 211 inc, 99 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+2D/+2N/+1W, +20prod, +10gold)
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 66 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 2
Abysia (40) – 26.050 pop, 100% tax, 2 UR, 99 inc, 39 res, 0 def, dom -3 – magic site (+)
Nifel (57) – 1.650 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 4 inc, 36 res, 0 def, dom -2 – magic site (+1Ai, +1D/D imp, +1D/D imp, +20prod) - Temple
Chilad (52) – 2.620 pop, 80% tax, 7 UR, 7 inc, 22 res, 0 def, dom 0
Gol Ryepe (46) – 19.370 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 75 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom -2
Glimmering Field (61) – 24.820 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 108 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom 0
Giant’s Rest (67) – 1.610 pop, 90% tax, 5 UR, 3 inc, 26 res, 0 def, dom 0
Scytha (35) -4.970 pop, 60% tax, 19 UR, 7 inc, 20 res, 0 def, dom -1

Grr, the Abysian dom in Abysia is up to 3 again, well I will build more temples anyway http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

I keep bloodhunting in Dunheim (28) and Gol Phalas (26).


I got a 1F, 1W, 4S mage this turn and I will keep him in R’lyeh for now in order to give him more troops on the next turn (research).

My mage Qithas and his summons will move from Abysia (40) to Gol Phalas (26) while my commander with his slower Illithid troops will move to Abysia this turn (helping a bit in bringing down the defenses can’t hurt, too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ).

My other army in Scytha will move to Gol Phalas, too.


I will start to save up my water gems in order to cast Sea King’s Court (needs 45 water gems) soon.


Due to the Vastness I want to Gift of Reason it as soon as possible (turning it into a leader).

I will empower one of my mages with 1N (my only one actually) in nature magic. Empowering my pretender is no real choice since he is lacking hand slots which will be needed to get up to the required 4N faster and by using less gems due to items.

I will need a Thistle Mace (Conj4, 2N - +1N) and a Moonvine Bracelet (Const6, 3NS - +1N).

In addition I might build a starshine cap (+1S) in order to give another caster level 5 in astral since this will enable me to forge a Ring of Wizardry (+1 all magic paths). A Ring of Sorcery (+1S/D/N/B) would be another possibility and since it needs 40 less astral gems which I need for casting acashic record I should rather forge this in order to cast Gift of Health later on. A Treelords Staff (Conj6, 4N - +2N) would be another possibility.

In the end it will depend on the number of gems I have at my disposal and since I need nature gems for casting GoH using astral gems for getting the needed nature skills seems to be the faster/more efficient way at the moment.

Since this would mean neglecting my magic site searching I will have to see how the game will progress before I make any decision. For now the steps I want to take are empowering, forging a Thistle Mace and then to forge a Moonvine Bracelet as fast as possible.

It seems like I will have to alchemise some gems here, too.

Then I will have to see what kind of items can be used by a GoR Vastness and build some items in order to turn it into a “real” SC.

The Pangaean capital should give a nice boost to my nature gem income and I will start my attack on the next turn. Depending on the number of troops in the provinces I would like to strike the 3 provinces at once and move on to the capital on the following turn.


I will recruit a starspawn mage and a Star Child this turn in addition to 2 Illithids and 2 Lobo Guards.


With the 258 RPs I will bring evocation up to level 4 in order to add some additional punch to my mages vs. Pangaea – this way I can make some good use of my mages with less than 4S, too.


To be continued...

CharonJr

[Arryn]

Please be advised that a Vastness has slots only for gems, none for equipment of any sort.

[CharonJr]

Arryn,

thank you for the information, this will free up some gems for me, but I will have to be more careful about where I am sending my Vastness.

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 24

Evocation is at level 4 now and will be researched further.

50 additonal taxes were levied in C’tis in addition to a (unless) reduction of 20 unrest, in Abysia 200 additional taxes were levied.


Provinces: 14
Treasury: 490
Income: 1026
Upkeep: 562
RP: 265
Fortification: 2
Temple: 4

Conjuration – 6
Alteration – 2
Evocation – 4 (researching, will reach 5 this turn)
Construction – 6
Enchantment – 5
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic - 0

Fire gems: 5
Air: 15 (+2)
Water gems: 20 (+6)
Earth: 0
Astral gems: 27 (+4/+7)
Death: 40 (+5)
Nature: 14 (+3)
Blood: 29


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res – dom 2
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res – dom 5
Vepitre (14) – Pangaea – Plains - black candle 1
Kolermegor (5) – Pangaea – Forest – dom 1 - temple
Aran Plain (23) - Pangaea – 50-60 Satyrs and Satyr Hoplites – general intel – black candle 1
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – dom 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – dom 0
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel – black candle 1
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Bolfagon (63) – Ulm – 10 Militias – general intel
Feldan (51) – Jotunheim – Forest – general intel
Faran (60) – Jotunheim – Plains – general intel
Cacian Forest (45) – Jotunheim – Forest – general intel
Agenor (37) – Jotunheim – Plains - general intel
Old Aran (29) – 30 Militias, Light Infantry and Heavy Infantry – Plains – general intel
Yellow Mountains (72) – 20 Heavy Infantry, Light Infantry and Crossbowmen – Mountains – general intel
Pania (56) – 40 Militia, Archer and Heavy Infantry – Forest/Mountains – general intel
Witches Copse (73) – 40 Militia, Archer and Heavy Infantry – Forest – general intel
The Two Woods (78) – Ulm – Forest – general intel
Monherboa (75) – Ulm – Forest – general intel

Jotunheim has expanded into Feldan (51), Faran (60) and Cacian Forest (45) taking the Last indi provinces to my northeast. This has me worried a bit since this was a fairly large/fast expansion which might mean that they don’t have any room left to expand elsewhere. I might be their next target which would be fairly bad timing for me since I would like to crush Pangaea first.

On the other hand I am not really worried about the giants. Due to enslave they might actually provide some nice additions to my armies http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Their main army consists of 30 troops, mainly slingers, axeman and 3 giants.

Ulm potentially is still able to expand into indi provinces to their west, but I will have to watch them closely, too.


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6 – magic site (+3As/+2W) - Temple
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.740 pop, 80% tax, 7 UR, 43 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom 0
Dunheim (28) – 11.460 pop, 90% tax, 4 UR, 50 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 2
Talito (36) – 7.640 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 29 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom 0 - magic site (+2W, +1N) - Temple
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 33 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 6 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 211 inc, 99 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+2D/+2N/+1W, +20prod, +10gold)
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 70 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 2
Abysia (40) – 25.890pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 104 inc, 39 res, 0 def, dom -2 – magic site (+)
Nifel (57) – 1.640 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 4 inc, 36 res, 0 def, dom -2 – magic site (+1Ai, +1D/D imp, +1D/D imp, +20prod) - Temple
Chilad (52) – 2.630 pop, 80% tax, 6 UR, 7 inc, 22 res, 0 def, dom 0
Gol Ryepe (46) – 19.250 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 75 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom -2
Glimmering Field (61) – 24.670 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 100 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom 0
Giant’s Rest (67) – 1.600 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 4 inc, 28 res, 0 def, dom 0
Scytha (35) -4.960 pop, 80% tax, 6 UR, 13 inc, 22 res, 0 def, dom 0

I keep bloodhunting in Dunheim (28) and Gol Phalas (26).

I will build a temple in Scytha this turn.


I got a 1A, 1W, 1E, 3S mage this turn who will research.

The Starshine Skullcap (+1S) is given to a 1W, 2D, 3S mage and I will send him and 4 lobo guards to conquer Kolermegor (5) which seems to be devoid of Pangaeans.

2 mages with summoner/enslaved troops and 6 Illithid Soldiers will try to conquer Vepitre (14) were my intel reports about 30 satyrs and satyr hoplites.

My remaining 2 mages with their summoned troops and 9 Illithids will try to take Aran Plains (23) where there are supposed to be about 50 satyrs and satyr hoplites.

The main problem here might be troop movements between the provinces – especially to Kolermegor. I am not really worried about movements to the other provinces since my troops should be good enough to handle nearly everything Pangaea might throw at me (short of their main army which might be building up in the capital).

I should wait another turn for my commander and his troops who will be moved from Abysia to Gol Phalas this turn, but I am fairly certain that I will be able to take at least 2 provinces this turn and since I will continue right on towards the Pangaean capital Pangaea will have to worry about the siege first.


A Thistle Mace will be forged on this turn by my newly empowered mage for 10 nature gems and will bring him up to 3N next turn.


I will recruit a starspawn mage in addition to 2 priests from the temples I build earlier in order to become serious about preaching out Abysia. Due to this I will recruit no more troops on this turn since I will need 400 gold for the 2 temples I plan to build on the next turn.


The 265 RPs will bring me up to evocation 5.


To be continued...

CharonJr

[ February 20, 2004, 22:02: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[CharonJr]

Turn 25

Evocation is at level 5 now and will be researched till 6.

The first battle was in Vepitre (14) and my forces faced about 5 Harpies, 25 Satyrs and about 5 Centaur Warriors/Cataphracts in addition to 2 leaders (White Centaurs). The Centaurs were closing in fast, but were slowed down when 2 of them were enslaved. In the follwing turns more enemies were enslaved. In the end my troops were just mopping up and I got 4 new troops (2 Centaur Warriors and 2 Satyrs).

The second battle was in Aran Planes (23). Here my troops faced about 10 Centaur Warriors/Cataphracts, 5 Harpies, 20 Satyrs and 3 Minotaurus. The battle was fairly similar to the first one and in the end I got 2 Centaur Cataphracts, 1 Centaur Warrior and 1 White Centaur.

The Last battle was in Kolermegor (5) and I got lucky here, I faced only about 5 Harpies and 10 Satyr/Hoplites. I lost 4 lobo guards but due to enslaves and some soul slays the enemy broke and fled.


Provinces: 17
Treasury: 638
Income: 1118
Upkeep: 610
RP: 265
Fortification: 2
Temple: 5

Conjuration – 6
Alteration – 2
Evocation – 6 (researching, will reach 6 this turn)
Construction – 6
Enchantment – 5
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 0 (researching, will reach 3 this turn)

Fire gems: 5
Air: 17 (+2)
Water gems: 26 (+6)
Earth: 0
Astral gems: 15 (+4/+7)
Death: 15 (+5)
Nature: 0 (+3)
Blood: 29


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res – dom 2
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res – dom 5
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – dom 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – dom 0
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel – black candle 1
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Bolfagon (63) – Ulm – 10 Militias – general intel
Feldan (51) – Jotunheim – Forest – general intel
Faran (60) – Jotunheim – Plains – general intel
Cacian Forest (45) – Jotunheim – Forest – general intel
Agenor (37) – Jotunheim – Plains - general intel
Old Aran (29) – 30 Militias, Light Infantry and Heavy Infantry – Plains – general intel
Yellow Mountains (72) – 20 Heavy Infantry, Light Infantry and Crossbowmen – Mountains – general intel
Pania (56) – 40 Militia, Archer and Heavy Infantry – Forest/Mountains – general intel
Witches Copse (73) – 40 Militia, Archer and Heavy Infantry – Forest – general intel
The Two Woods (78) – Ulm – Forest – general intel
Monherboa (75) – Ulm – Forest – general intel

East of Pangaea are two Marignon provinces which seem to be devoid of troops.


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6 – magic site (+3As/+2W) - Temple
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.740 pop, 90% tax, 3 UR, 51 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom 0
Dunheim (28) – 11.460 pop, 90% tax, 4 UR, 50 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 1
Talito (36) – 7.590 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 28 inc, 13 res, 0 def, dom -1 - magic site (+2W, +1N) - Temple
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 33 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 6 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 211 inc, 99 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+2D/+2N/+1W, +20prod, +10gold)
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 70 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 2
Abysia (40) – 25.730pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 104 inc, 39 res, 0 def, dom -2 – magic site (+)
Nifel (57) – 1.630 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 4 inc, 36 res, 0 def, dom -1 – magic site (+1Ai, +1D/D imp, +1D/D imp, +20prod) - Temple
Chilad (52) – 2.630 pop, 80% tax, 5 UR, 7 inc, 22 res, 0 def, dom 0
Gol Ryepe (46) – 19.130 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 75 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom -2
Glimmering Field (61) – 24.520 pop, 90% tax, 2 UR, 87 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom -1
Giant’s Rest (67) – 1.590 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 3 inc, 28 res, 0 def, dom 0
Scytha (35) -4.950 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 19 inc, 24 res, 0 def, dom 0
Kolermegor (5) – 9.650 pop, 80% tax, 9 UR, 30 inc, 31 res, 0 def, dom -1
Vepitre (14) – 4.970 pop, 70% tax, 12 UR, 21 inc, 10 res, 0 def, dom -3 – Marble Temple (UR-5/+20 gold/can recrui High Priest)
Aran Plains (23) – 11.810 pop, 70% tax, 12 UR, 30 inc, 21 res, 0 def, dom -3


I keep bloodhunting in Dunheim (28) and Gol Phalas (26).

I will move my new priests to Gol Ryepe (46) and Gol Phalas (26) this turn, my old priest will move to Abysia (40).


I got a 1W, 3S, 1N, 1B mage this turn who will research.

All 5 of my armies will move to Pangaea and it looks like I will be facing about 20 enemies there.


My nature mage gets the Thistle Mace and will forge a Moonvine Bracelet (needs 20N, 5S, gives +1N) this turn. In order to do this I have to transform a lot of my death gems into astral pearls and transform those into nature gems.


I will only buy 1 starspawn mage this turn due to needing the money for the temples.


To be continued...

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 26

Evocation is at level 6 now.

Pangaea had some troops outside of my capital which were quickly dispatched and enslaved by my forces, in the end I added 3 Centaur Warriors, 3 Centaur Cataphracts and 2 Satyrs to my forces.

10 air gems were found in Giant’s Rest and Atlanansha was able to summon another Greater Otherness bringing her skill up to 14.


Provinces: 18
Treasury: 881
Income: 1199
Upkeep: 651
RP: 277
Fortification: 2
Temple: 4

Conjuration – 6
Alteration – 2 (researching, will reach lvl 4 this turn)
Evocation – 6
Construction – 6
Enchantment – 5
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 3

Fire gems: 5
Air: 29 (+2)
Water gems: 26 (+6)
Earth: 0
Astral gems: 0 (+4/+7)
Death: 18 (+5)
Nature: 0 (+3)
Blood: 29


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res – dom 2
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res – dom 5
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – dom 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – dom 0
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel – black candle 1
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Bolfagon (63) – Ulm – 10 Militias – general intel
Feldan (51) – Jotunheim – Forest – general intel
Faran (60) – Jotunheim – Plains – general intel
Cacian Forest (45) – Jotunheim – Forest – general intel
Agenor (37) – Jotunheim – Plains - general intel
Old Aran (29) – Jotunheim – Plains – general intel
Yellow Mountains (72) – Atlantis – Mountains – general intel
Pania (56) – 40 Militia, Archer and Heavy Infantry – Forest/Mountains – general intel
Witches Copse (73) – 40 Militia, Archer and Heavy Infantry – Forest – general intel
The Two Woods (78) – Ulm – Forest – general intel
Monherboa (75) – Ulm – Forest – general intel
Rame (3) – Marignon – Plains – general intel
Stone Spires of Aran (16) – Marignon – Waste – general intel
Ouwe (19) – Jotunheim – Waste – general intel

First Contact with Atlantis to my far north, they have taken the indi province of Yellow Mountains (72) with a small force of about 20 troops.

Jotunheim seems to have its main forces to my east – in Ouwe (about 20) and Old Aran (about 30).

With a bit of luck Ulm and Atlantis will go to war about the indi province of Witches Copse (73).


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6 – magic site (+3As/+2W) - Temple
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.740 pop, 80% tax, 8 UR, 44 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom 1
Dunheim (28) – 11.460 pop, 90% tax, 5 UR, 50 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 1
Talito (36) – 7.540 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 28 inc, 13 res, 0 def, dom -1 - magic site (+2W, +1N) - Temple
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 33 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 6 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 223 inc, 99 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+2D/+2N/+1W, +20prod, +10gold)
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 70 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 2
Abysia (40) – 25.580pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 98 inc, 39 res, 0 def, dom -1 – magic site (+)
Nifel (57) – 1.620 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 3 inc, 35 res, 0 def, dom -1 – magic site (+1Ai, +1D/D imp, +1D/D imp, +20prod) - Temple
Chilad (52) – 2.630 pop, 90% tax, 5 UR, 8 inc, 22 res, 0 def, dom 0
Gol Ryepe (46) – 19.020 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 73 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom -2
Glimmering Field (61) – 24.370 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 95 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1
Giant’s Rest (67) – 1.580 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 3 inc, 28 res, 0 def, dom 0
Scytha (35) -4.940 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 19 inc, 24 res, 0 def, dom -1
Kolermegor (5) – 9.650 pop, 90% tax, 1 UR, 39 inc, 33 res, 0 def, dom -1
Vepitre (14) – 5.060 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 41 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -3 – Marble Temple (UR-5/+20 gold/can recruit High Priest)
Aran Plains (23) – 11.830 pop, 90% tax, 4 UR, 43 inc, 23 res, 0 def, dom -3
Pangaea (12) – 25.850 pop, 60% tax, 17 UR, 47 inc, 34 res, 0 def, dom -6


I keep bloodhunting in Dunheim (28) and Gol Phalas (26).

My priests in Gol Ryepe (46) and Gol Phalas (26) will build temples, my additional priest in Abysia is starting to preach.

I forgot to move my commander and his troops from Abysia Last turn, but since I don’t need him in Pangaea anyway I will keep him at the siege of Abysia.


I got a 1F, 1W, 3S, 1B mage this turn who will research in addition to a Hybrid Lord in C’tis who will be used to pick up some troops who are dispersed in many of my provinces and move them to Abysia in order to support the siege there. They will help in defending/expanding my northeastern border, too.


My nature mage gets the Moonvine Bracelet this turn and will cast Gift of Reason. In order to do this I need 17 additional nature gems, 2D are transformed into 1S and then 34S are transformed into the 17 lacking nature gems.


My research will be switched to Alteration this turn and level 4 will be reached.


To be continued...

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 27

Alteration is at level 4 now and will be a tad short of reaching 6 on this turn (at 6 there will be some nice spells like Frozen Heart, Control, False Horror).

The Vastness was Gift of Reasoned and will be send to wreck havoc this turn.


Provinces: 18
Treasury: 661
Income: 1288
Upkeep: 675
RP: 283
Fortification: 2
Temple: 6

Conjuration – 6
Alteration – 4 (researching, will reach lvl 5 this turn)
Evocation – 6
Construction – 6
Enchantment – 5
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 3

Fire gems: 5
Air: 31 (+2)
Water gems: 38 (+6)
Earth: 0
Astral gems: 1 (+4/+7)
Death: 28 (+5)
Nature: 9 (+3)
Blood: 24


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res – dom 2
Tiash (15) – 20(g)/30(s) – 40 (g) Militias and Heavy Infantries – Forest/Swamp – Dom4, 2.5k pop, 9 inc, 42 res – dom 5
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – dom 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – dom 0
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel – black candle 1
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Bolfagon (63) – Ulm – 10 Militias – general intel
Feldan (51) – Jotunheim – Forest – general intel
Faran (60) – Jotunheim – Plains – general intel
Cacian Forest (45) – Jotunheim – Forest – general intel
Agenor (37) – Jotunheim – Plains - general intel
Old Aran (29) – Jotunheim – Plains – general intel
Yellow Mountains (72) – Atlantis – Mountains – general intel
Pania (56) – 40 Militia, Archer and Heavy Infantry – Forest/Mountains – general intel
Witches Copse (73) – 40 Militia, Archer and Heavy Infantry – Forest – general intel
The Two Woods (78) – Ulm – Forest – general intel
Monherboa (75) – Ulm – Forest – general intel
Rame (3) – Marignon – Plains – general intel
Stone Spires of Aran (16) – Marignon – Waste – general intel
Ouwe (19) – Jotunheim – Waste – general intel


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 6 – magic site (+3As/+2W) - Temple
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.740 pop, 90% tax, 3 UR, 51 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom 2
Dunheim (28) – 11.460 pop, 90% tax, 2 UR, 56 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 3
Talito (36) – 7.440 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 28 inc, 13 res, 0 def, dom 0 - magic site (+2W, +1N) - Temple
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 35 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 6 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 223 inc, 99 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+2D/+2N/+1W, +20prod, +10gold)
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 76 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 2
Abysia (40) – 25.430 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 98 inc, 39 res, 0 def, dom 0 – magic site (+)
Nifel (57) – 1.610 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 3 inc, 35 res, 0 def, dom 0 – magic site (+1Ai, +1D/D imp, +1D/D imp, +20prod) - Temple
Chilad (52) – 2.630 pop, 90% tax, 5 UR, 8 inc, 22 res, 0 def, dom 0
Gol Ryepe (46) – 18.910 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 73 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom -1
Glimmering Field (61) – 24.370 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 103 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1
Giant’s Rest (67) – 1.570 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 4 inc, 28 res, 0 def, dom 0
Scytha (35) -4.930 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 21 inc, 24 res, 0 def, dom 0
Kolermegor (5) – 9.650 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 45 inc, 34 res, 0 def, dom 1
Vepitre (14) – 5.030 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 41 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1 – Marble Temple (UR-5/+20 gold/can recruit High Priest)
Aran Plains (23) – 11.830 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 51 inc, 23 res, 0 def, dom -3
Pangaea (12) – 26.010 pop, 90% tax, 5 UR, 90 inc, 38 res, 0 def, dom -6


My new Hybrid Lord will take the 22 troops (fodder) from C’tis and move to Talito (36) this turn.

I got a 1W, 3S, 2B mage this turn and will he will forge a Sangunie Rod (+1B for bloodhunting for 5B) for himself in order to turn him into a decent bloodhunter.

The Vastness will be send to Tiash (15) and shouldn’t have too many problems in taking this indi province. During the next turns I will send it northwards and hope the conquer all 3 indi provinces in the end which might hold some decent magic sites due to their mountainous/forest environment.


Meanwhile I am pondering my next steps and I think that Jotunheim will be my next target since more than 50% of my border are shared with Jotunheim which will sooner or later lead to a conflict with the giants anyway. And getting some giant warriors for free can surely help in future conflicts, too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Due to this I will forge a Starshine Skullcap (+1S) this turn in order to be able to field another mind enslaver http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

I will have to watch out for Marignon, which might have run out of room to expand easiliy into, too.


To be continued...

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 28

Reached Alteration 5 and will continue to 6.

Glisas – my Vastness – took Tiash (15) without too many difficulites. After casting the protective spells (Etheral Body, Personal Luck, Magic Resistance and Astral Shield – with an added Soul Slay) it flew right to the rear of the enemy forces and started to wreck havoc. The roughly 40 independents fought bravely, but in the end only provided additional kills and XP. Glisas made the Hall of Fame and gained 1 level and Quickness.

In Tiash a Steel Oven was found, providing +40 production and a construction bonus of 20 (IIRC this makes forged items cost less gems, I think I will build a lab there and move some of my forging mages to Tiash).

Atlanasha was attacked by a Greater Otherness, but the attack was repelled by the 5 Things from Beyond serving as bodyguards (6 actually, but without a Ring of Warning only 5 will fight) without any problems.

The Abysian God was finally prayed out, but the walls are still up and I have to continue my siege. Most likely I would have been much faster by simply laying siege to Abysia will all my forces. IMO praying is only useful if a large number of defenders (or some very dangerous ones) are inside the walls and I don’t want to fight them. With Illithids and enslaves I don’t really have to worry about the defenses otherwise, since the fight will most likely be over very fast.

The walls of Pangaea were breached and I will storm the castle with one of my squads (I doubt there is hardly anybody left after the counterattack they tried earlier), the 4 other armies will take up positions vs. Jotunheim.

As a nice bonus I received 100 additional taxes in Dunheim.


Provinces: 19
Treasury: 1.088
Income: 1291
Upkeep: 699
RP: 292
Fortification: 2
Temple: 6

Conjuration – 6
Alteration – 5 (researching, will reach lvl 6 this turn)
Evocation – 6
Construction – 6
Enchantment – 5 (researching)
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 3

Fire gems: 5
Air: 33 (+2)
Water gems: 0 (+6)
Earth: 0
Astral gems: 10 (+4/+7)
Death: 28 (+5)
Nature: 12 (+3)
Blood: 24


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res – dom 2
Bright Woods (17) – 20 Woodsmen - forest - general intel – dom 1
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – dom 0
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel – black candle 1
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Bolfagon (63) – Ulm – 10 Militias – general intel
Feldan (51) – Jotunheim – Forest – general intel
Faran (60) – Jotunheim – Plains – general intel
Cacian Forest (45) – Jotunheim – Forest – general intel
Agenor (37) – Jotunheim – Plains - general intel
Old Aran (29) – Jotunheim – Plains – general intel
Yellow Mountains (72) – Atlantis – Mountains – general intel
Pania (56) – 40 Militia, Archer and Heavy Infantry – Forest/Mountains – general intel
Witches Copse (73) – Ulm – Forest – general intel
The Two Woods (78) – Ulm – Forest – general intel
Monherboa (75) – Ulm – Forest – general intel
Rame (3) – Marignon – Plains – general intel
Stone Spires of Aran (16) – Marignon – Waste – general intel
Ouwe (19) – Jotunheim – Waste – general intel


Ulm took Witches Copse (73) and is bordering on Atlantis now, I would love those 2 to get into a war with each other. This would enable me to focus completely on Jotunheim and potentially Marignon. For now I will keep some gold in my treasury in order to build PDs if the need should arise.

The large black candle 2 provinces to the west of R’lyeh is a fairly good indicator that Atlantis holds this province. Sooner or later they will take Devourer (6).


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom 7 – magic site (+3As/+2W) - Temple
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 62 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 2 - Temple
Dunheim (28) – 11.460 pop, 90% tax, 1 UR, 56 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 3
Talito (36) – 7.450 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 28 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom 1 - magic site (+2W, +1N) - Temple
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 35 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 7 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 223 inc, 99 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+2D/+2N/+1W, +20prod, +10gold)
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 75 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 2
Abysia (40) – 25.280 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 108 inc, 43 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+)
Nifel (57) – 1.600 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 4 inc, 36 res, 0 def, dom 0 – magic site (+1Ai, +1D/D imp, +1D/D imp, +20prod) - Temple
Chilad (52) – 2.630 pop, 80% tax, 5 UR, 8 inc, 22 res, 0 def, dom 0
Gol Ryepe (46) – 18.880 pop, 100% tax, 1 UR, 73 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom 0 - Temple
Glimmering Field (61) – 24.170 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 109 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1
Giant’s Rest (67) – 1.560 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 4 inc, 28 res, 0 def, dom 0
Scytha (35) -4.920 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 23 inc, 26 res, 0 def, dom 1
Kolermegor (5) – 9.650 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 49 inc, 30 res, 0 def, dom 2
Vepitre (14) – 5.040 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 39 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom 0 – Marble Temple (UR-5/+20 gold/can recruit High Priest)
Aran Plains (23) – 11.870 pop, 90% tax, 1 UR, 46 inc, 23 res, 0 def, dom -3
Pangaea (12) – 26.170 pop, 90% tax, 3 UR, 99 inc, 38 res, 0 def, dom -6
Tiash (15) – 2.510 pop, 30% tax, 31 UR, 1 inc, 37 res, 0 def, 6 dom


I got a 1A, 1W, 3S, 1N mage this turn who will be assigned to research for now.

The Starshine Skullcap will be given to a 2W, 3S, 1F mage who will move to Scytha (35) in order to support my attack vs. Jotunheim.

The Sanguine Dousing Rod is given to my 2B mage and he will move to Gol Phalas to look for bloodslaves there, the scout from Gol Phalas will move to Gol Ryepe to look for slaves there.

1 mage with his 10 fodder troops (light infantry, satyrs, slave troopers) will storm the Pangaean castle.

1 Mage with 15 Illithids/Soldiers will move to Aran Plains (23) which borders 2 Jotun provinces in addition to another mage with more fodder.

The two remaining mages and their forces (5 Greater Otherness + 4 enslaved heavy hitter; about 10 minor void summoned + 13 Centaurs) will move to Scytha which is bordering 3 Jotun provinces.

Glisas the Vastness will attack Bright Woods (17). I still refrain from attacking the Tritions in the sea due to their flying ability not letting me prepare my battle spells and their poisoned weapons.

Shadul Ummush (5W) will summon the Sea King’s Court (3W, 45 water gems) after I have turned 2 astral pearls into another water gem. This will give me 15 Water Trolls in addition to gaining 1 water gem each turn due to the King.

My hybrid lord in Talito and his 22 fodder troops will join the siege of Abysia.

I will move a priest from Gol Ryepe to C’tis to build a temple there while another priest will move from Gol Phalas to Vepitre to build a temple there and enable me to recruit some High Priests if I should need them.

Since I am just 20 points short of Alteration 6 I will pot the remaining points into Enchanting, which will put me to level 6 there (maybe I will be able to cast a cheap Stellar Focus – level 7 Ench, 5S, 30 astral gems – which would provide 5 astral gems till dispelled).


To be continued...

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

In order to enable better visualisation here is a map:

http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART28.JPG

Smart move here to use "space" in the file name, I think you have to copy and paste the link in order to see the map http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

edit2: Changed the name.
CharonJr

[ February 21, 2004, 15:12: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[CharonJr]

Turn 29

Alteration 6 and Enchantment 6 were reached, the research in Enchantment will be continued.

Glisas – my Vastness – took Bright Woods (17) and still has no affliction. There is a Shambler Reef.

The Pangaean fortress was taken without a fight.

R’lyeh had a special event that raised dominion (9 now).


Provinces: 20
Treasury: 1299
Income: 1392
Upkeep: 784
RP: 307
Fortification: 3
Temple: 6

Conjuration – 6
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 6
Enchantment – 6 (researching)
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 3

Fire gems: 5
Air: 35 (+2)
Water gems: 7 (+6/+1)
Earth: 0
Astral gems: 21 (+4/+7)
Death: 33 (+5)
Nature: 20 (+8)
Blood: 24

I lack earth gems, but I will restart my acashic record program on the next turn anyway.


Updated province information:

Devourer (6) – 40(s) -60(g) Trition Troopers and Triton Guards – Sea – Dom1 – 7k pop, 33 inc, 14 res – dom 2
The Weald (25) – 30-40 Light/Heavy Infantry and Crossbowmen – forest/mountain- general intel – dom 0
Soth Beaver (38) – 50-60 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel – black candle 1
Baptizer (43) – 50-70 Triton troopers/guards – Sea – general intel
Bolfagon (63) – Ulm – 10 Militias – general intel
Feldan (51) – Jotunheim – Forest – general intel
Faran (60) – Jotunheim – Plains – general intel
Cacian Forest (45) – Jotunheim – Forest – general intel
Agenor (37) – Jotunheim – Plains - general intel
Old Aran (29) – Jotunheim – Plains – general intel
Yellow Mountains (72) – Atlantis – Mountains – general intel
Pania (56) – 40 Militia, Archer and Heavy Infantry – Forest/Mountains – general intel
Witches Copse (73) – Ulm – Forest – general intel
The Two Woods (78) – Ulm – Forest – general intel
Monherboa (75) – Ulm – Forest – general intel
Rame (3) – Marignon – Plains – general intel
Stone Spires of Aran (16) – Marignon – Waste – general intel
Oune (19) – Jotunheim – Waste – general intel


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom9 – magic site (+3As/+2W) - Temple
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 62 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 2 - Temple
Dunheim (28) – 11.460 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 65 inc, 5 res, 0 def, dom 3
Talito (36) – 7.410 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 36 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom 2 - magic site (+2W, +1N) - Temple
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 35 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 7 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 223 inc, 108 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+2D/+2N/+1W, +20prod, +10gold)
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 80 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 2
Abysia (40) – 25.130 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 124 inc, 44 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+)
Nifel (57) – 1.590 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 4 inc, 41 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+1Ai, +1D/D imp, +1D/D imp, +20prod) - Temple
Chilad (52) – 2.630 pop, 80% tax, 5 UR, 7 inc, 22 res, 0 def, dom 0 - Temple
Gol Ryepe (46) – 18.690 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 75 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 1 - Temple
Glimmering Field (61) – 24.070 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 97 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1
Giant’s Rest (67) – 1.560 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 4 inc, 28 res, 0 def, dom 0
Scytha (35) - 4.920 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 24 inc, 26 res, 0 def, dom 1 - Temple
Kolermegor (5) – 9.650 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 52 inc, 30 res, 0 def, dom 2
Vepitre (14) – 5.040 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 49 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom 0 – Marble Temple (UR-5/+20 gold/can recruit High Priest)
Aran Plains (23) – 11.890 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 53 inc, 24 res, 0 def, dom -3
Pangaea (12) – 26.330 pop, 90% tax, 3 UR, 95 inc, 89 res, 0 def, dom -5 – magic site (+5N)
Tiash (15) – 2.510 pop, 100% tax, 7 UR, 7 inc, 41 res, 0 def, 6 dom

Since the unrest will not go down in Chilad (52) I think that there is a magic site which causes unrest.

I got a 1A, 1W, 4S mage this turn who will be moved to the “front” in Scytha (35).

My 2 priests will build temples in Vepitre and C’tis.

I will start the attack vs. Jotunheim this turn, especially since I can see no large troop concentrations anywhere close. I should be able to take 4 provinces from Jotunheim this turn and destroy 1 temple, as far as I can see at the moment Jotunheim is in no position to strike at one of my provinces in retaliation, but I will keep saving money in order to build up defenses on the fly when the need arrises.

Glisas will fly to Oune (19) since it is the southernmost province of Jotunheim I am able to see and this will keep my “real” armies closer together. Glisas – due to its strategic movement of 10 – will be able to jump to any place where it is needed.

My 2 armies from Aran Plains (23) will try to take Old Aran (29) and shouldn’t have much of a problem unless a large number of reinforcements will arrive.

2 of my armies from Scytha will move to Cacian Forest (45) and I don’t expect much resistance there.

The remining army from Scytha (with the void summons and centaurs) will move to Agenor (37).

Shaduul Ummush will move to Tiash and set up a lab there on the next turn (due to his 5W he will forge there, too and with his 10RPs is not wasting too many RPs).

I will buy 1 more starspawn mage and another star child this turn again, 1 commander, 2 crossbowmen and 1 heavy infantry will be bought in Pangaea as a token force to discourage Marignon from attacking.


To be continued...

CharonJr

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
In order to enable better visualisation here is a map:<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Can you turn on the province names the next time you snapshot a map? It'd make it easier to correlate the info in your reports with the strategic situation. TIA.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
Glisas made the Hall of Fame and gained 1 level and Quickness.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Awesome! You got arguably the best HoF bonus for it! Congrats!

In Tiash a Steel Oven was found, providing +40 production and a construction bonus of 20 (IIRC this makes forged items cost less gems, I think I will build a lab there and move some of my forging mages to Tiash).<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">A good idea.

[CharonJr]

BTW, is there any HoF Bonus that adds huge chunks of protection ? I think I would actually have prefered this since the Vastness mainly kills passively.

And I will enable the names for the next screenshot, sadly the banners are partially hiding the names.

I will move my mages on potential forge duty over to Tiash on this turn, too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif I have to start getting me some nice death and blood items in addition to astral and nature I partially have.

It looks like I am getting into a large one here by the results from the Last turn. I hope I will be able to post it in 1-2 hours.

CharonJr

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
BTW, is there any HoF Bonus that adds huge chunks of protection?<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes, it's called "Tough Skin", and the Jotun Herse I began my AAR with, Bove, has it. With 2 stars, he's getting +8 to his Protection!

[CharonJr]

Turn 30

7 earth gems were found in C’tis this turn in addition to 6 blood slaves in Gol Phalas.

The walls of Abysia were breached and due to the long siege and their killed pretender I don’t expect any opposition here.

All the battles in the Jotun provinces were only fought by token forces (likely PD).


Provinces: 24
Treasury: 1112
Income: 1438
Upkeep: 813
RP: 257 (mainly due to moves)
Fortification: 3
Temple: 8

Conjuration – 6 (researching)
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 6
Enchantment – 6 (researching, will reach 7 this turn)
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 3

Fire gems: 5
Air: 37 (+2)
Water gems: 13 (+6)
Earth: 8 (+1)
Astral gems: 7 (+4/+7)
Death: 38 (+5)
Nature: 29 (+9)
Blood: 24


Updated province information:

Due to the map (and time constraints http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ) I will skip this section and just make some general comments here.

It seems like Jotunheim is at war with Man, which would explain the absence of Jotun troops, but this will surely change soon. I have to try and take out the Jotun capital as soon as possible.


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom9 – magic site (+3As/+2W) - Temple
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 62 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 2 - Temple
Dunheim (28) – 11.460 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 65 inc, 5 res, 0 def, dom 3
Talito (36) – 7.410 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 36 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom 2 - magic site (+2W, +1N) - Temple
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 35 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 7 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 223 inc, 108 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+2D/+2N/+1W, +20prod, +10gold)
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 80 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 2
Abysia (40) – 25.130 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 124 inc, 44 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+)
Nifel (57) – 1.590 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 4 inc, 41 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+1Ai, +1D/D imp, +1D/D imp, +20prod) - Temple
Chilad (52) – 2.630 pop, 80% tax, 5 UR, 7 inc, 22 res, 0 def, dom 0 - Temple
Gol Ryepe (46) – 18.690 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 75 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 1 - Temple
Glimmering Field (61) – 24.070 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 97 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1
Giant’s Rest (67) – 1.560 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 4 inc, 28 res, 0 def, dom 0
Scytha (35) - 4.920 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 24 inc, 26 res, 0 def, dom 1 - Temple
Kolermegor (5) – 9.650 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 52 inc, 30 res, 0 def, dom 2
Vepitre (14) – 5.040 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 49 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom 0 – Marble Temple (UR-5/+20 gold/can recruit High Priest)
Aran Plains (23) – 11.890 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 53 inc, 24 res, 0 def, dom -3
Pangaea (12) – 26.330 pop, 90% tax, 3 UR, 95 inc, 89 res, 0 def, dom -5 – magic site (+5N)
Tiash (15) – 2.510 pop, 100% tax, 7 UR, 7 inc, 41 res, 0 def, dom 6
Oune (19) – 1.730 pop, 20% tax, 38 UR, 0 inc, 10 res, 0 def, dom -2
Old Aran (29) – 3.990 pop, 70% tax, 14 UR, 9 inc, 6 res, 0 def, dom 0
Agenor (37) – 11.050 pop, 70% tax, 13 UR, 30 inc, 14 res, 0 def, dom -4 – magic site (40 blood magic bonus, +1E/+1N)
Cacian Forest (45) – 6.550 pop, 30% tax, 34 UR, 4 inc, 15 res, 0 def, dom 0

With this sweet site in Agenor it looks like I will have to get my blood slave program running more seriously (I have not used this site before, but I assume that is saves 40% of the gems used in blood spells). After I brought conjuring up to 7 (sweet summons there) I will switch my research to blood. Atlanasha should be a good keeper of horror marked items due to the bodyguards. For additional protection a Ring of Warning will/should be forged.

I got a lot of options for acashic record right now, but want to cast it on a fairly safe province and hope to get some more nature gems, because of this I will cast it on Kolermegor.


I got a 1F, 1W, 4S mage this turn who will be moved to Scytha.

3 mages will move to Tiash in order to forge there when I get the necessary gems.

Due to the way Jotunheim expanded I suspect their capital to be in the northeast and my forces will mainly move this way with just a small part of my forces (including the Vastness Glisas due to its movement) trying to take out the southern Jotun provinces.

I can still see no Jotun forces, but the army of Man in Silvania (70 longbowmen, militias and slingers) might pose a real problem when we decide to attack the same province. It might attack Ruina (32) or Aenasia (54). I lack the air magic to protect my troops from the arrows.

This is no real problem for my army prepared to invade Aenasia since the summoned/enslaved troops have decent protection, but my 2 armies set up to invade Runia would be in trouble since only the Illithid Soldiers have decent protection. I could send my Vastness to Ruina as addition support with orders to attack archers, but this would “waste” the opportunity to take another province (Birman Highs in this case).

Glisas will move to Ruina to back up my troops moving there since I can’t afford to lose the momentum of my attacks.

The 2 armies from Cacian Forest (45) will continue to the currently undefended (except PD) province of Feldan Forest (51).

2 of my armies (Illithid Soldiers and some summons) will move from Abysia to Nifel (57).

2 other armies from Abysia (about 25 fodder) will move to Scytha.

The remaining army in Abysia (with about 10 fodder) will storm the castle in Abysia.

The Sea King and the mage with their Sea Trolls and 2 Greater Otherness will move to Cacian Forest.

The priest from Vepitre will move to Kolermegor and the priest from C’tis will move to Bright Woods in order to build temples there.


I will buy 1 more starspawn mage and another star child this turn again, 3 Crossbowmen and 1 Heavy Infantry will be bought in Pangaea.


To be continued...

CharonJr

map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART30.JPG

[ February 23, 2004, 09:20: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[CharonJr]

Turn 31

Enchantment is up to level 7, now research will be switched to conjuration (till level 7) with the remaining points going into blood magic.

Acashic record was cast on Kolermegor and 2 magic sites were revealed – a Mercury Pond (2W) and a Citadel of the Lore Masters (2S, can recruit Lore Masters (150g, 4?, 12 RP) and Sages (80g, 1?, 7 RP) in addition to a lab. This looks like a potential source for new mages who can forge. 180g for 12 RP is a decent ratio, too I think.

My scout in Dunheim captured 8 blood slaves in addition to my blood hunting mage capturing 6 slaves in Gol Phalas.

There was an uprising of some knights and militias in my province of Chilad and since there were no defenders there I lost it without a fight. On the bright side it seems like Ulm had something similar happen to him in Bolfagon (Barbarians in his case).

Atlanasha was attacked by 2 Greater Otherness and lost 2 of the Thing from Beyond bodyguards.

The fortress in Abysia was taken without any resistance.

My troops in Nifel are beginning to starve.

Feldan Forest was taken without any real resistance.

The battle in Aenasia was intereting since it managed to catch the Jotunheim pretender – a Great Mother – out in the open, guarded by just 6 Jotun militias. My mage managed to enslave 2 militias and the rest were dispatched by my centaur forces fairly quickly. The Great Mother was a TAD harder http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif 27 regen each turn and close to 300 HP are bad news. It managed to kill about 4 of my troops before my mage got a successful paralyse in – it was down to 100 HP at this time. Shortly after this the battle was won and the Jotun pretender was dead http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Right after this battle my forces were attacked by the forces of Man from Silvania (about 35 longbowman and 5 infantry). After the Centaurs and Summons charged the infantry and killed them (the ones who were not already enslaved http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ) and one of my berserking Centaurs reached the lowbowmen they routed. In the end about 10 longbowmen were killed, the rest was able to escape to Silvania. They lost 1 commander and 15 men while I gained 1 longspear, 1 longbowman and 1 slinger.

More importantly I found the Jotunheim capital right to the north of Aenasia.

The battle in Runia was over before it really began, my troops only faced 5 militias who were enslaved before even getting close.

Man has spilt its troops in Silvania and while one part attacked Aenasia the other part attacked Runia and met my troops there, too. Man’s forces consisted of about 30 troops, mainly spearman, some slingers and knights. The knights were stunned/enslaved on the first turn, the Vastness attacked the slingers and soon Man’s forces were retreating. In the end they lost all except 1 man while I gained 3 spearman, 1 Cu Shide and 1 knight (sadly all with battle afflictions).


Provinces: 26
Treasury: 1118
Income: 1474
Upkeep: 851
RP: 257 (mainly due to moves)
Fortification: 4
Temple: 8

Conjuration – 6 (researching, will reach 7 this turn)
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 6
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 3 (researching)

Fire gems: 6 (+5)
Air: 39 (+2)
Water gems: 5 (+8)
Earth: 9 (+1)
Astral gems: 0 (+4/+7)
Death: 35 (+5)
Nature: 34 (+9)
Blood: 24


Updated province information:

Due to the map (and time constraints http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ) I will skip this section and just make some general comments here.

Man tried to attack 2 Jotun provinces but since my forces had already taken them they attacked me instead.

Most importantly I found the Jotunheim capital and will move there.


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom9 – magic site (+3As/+2W) - Temple
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.700 pop, 0% tax, 24 UR, 0 inc, 6 res, 0 def, dom 4 - Temple
Dunheim (28) – 11.440 pop, 80% tax, 10 UR, 42 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 4
Talito (36) – 7.350 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 31 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom 2 - magic site (+2W, +1N) - Temple
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 35 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 7 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 223 inc, 108 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+2D/+2N/+1W, +20prod, +10gold) - Temple
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 80 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 3
Abysia (40) – 24.830 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 155 inc, 104 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+5 fire, +30 gold)
Nifel (57) – 1.570 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 3 inc, 28 res, 0 def, dom 2 – magic site (+1Ai, +1D/D imp, +1D/D imp, +20prod) - Temple
Gol Ryepe (46) – 18.510 pop, 80% tax, 8 UR, 63 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom 1 - Temple
Glimmering Field (61) – 23.870 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 113 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1
Giant’s Rest (67) – 1.530 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 3 inc, 28 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+1A, 1+D/increases death)
Scytha (35) - 4.890 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 24 inc, 26 res, 0 def, dom 1 - Temple
Kolermegor (5) – 9.650 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 52 inc, 30 res, 0 def, dom 2 – magic site (+2W, +2S/recruit loremaster/sage)
Vepitre (14) – 5.040 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 44 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom 3 – Marble Temple (UR-5/+20 gold/can recruit High Priest)
Aran Plains (23) – 11.890 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 55 inc, 24 res, 0 def, dom 1
Pangaea (12) – 26.650 pop, 90% tax, 3 UR, 110 inc, 89 res, 0 def, dom -5 – magic site (+5N)
Tiash (15) – 2.510 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 13 inc, 42 res, 0 def, dom 6
Oune (19) – 1.730 pop, 60% tax, 17 UR, 2 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom -1
Old Aran (29) – 3.990 pop, 90% tax, 4 UR, 14 inc, 6 res, 0 def, dom 0
Agenor (37) – 11.120 pop, 90% tax, 4 UR, 46 inc, 15 res, 0 def, dom -4 – magic site (40 blood magic bonus, +1E/+1N)
Cacian Forest (45) – 6.580 pop, 70% tax, 10 UR, 17 inc, 24 res, 0 def, dom 1
Aenasia (54) – magic site (+1S)


I got a 1A, 1W, 3S, 1B mage this turn who will cast Acashic Record on Cacian Forest.

I will forge 2 Clam of Pearl (8W each), 1 Sceptre of Authority (4F) and 1 Ivy Crown (4N) in Tiash.

My summoned/enslaved armies will attack the roughly 6 Huskarls in Jotunheim. Man’s forces in Gipha consist of about 80 knights and lowbowmen which might pose a real problem if they attack on this turn, too. Due to this I change my troop setup. The 3 units that were enslaved during the Last battle are placed as point guards (fodder) and set to attack closest. The Centaurs are send to the right flank, a bit behind the fodder with orders to attack archers. The summons are set up a little bit to the left of the center and behind the fodder with orders to attack closest.

20 Jotun Flagelants and Hurlers are in Iron Range and might attack Aenasia. I will send my Sea Troll army to secure Aenasia in addition to a lone 4S mage from Scytha and another mage with 2 Greater Otherness from Cacian Forest.

The 2 other armies in Scytha (fodder + 3 Illithids) will secure Runia and provide backup in the south in addition to a mage from Old Aran with some fodder.

The 2 armies in Runia will attack the roughly 9 Jotun archers in Birman Highs.

Glisas will fly to Black Forest which seems to be only defended by a Great Hag which might be the Jotun prophet.

I don’t want to attack Yldmyre due to Man possibly attacking there from Silvania.

The 2 armies in Nifel will attack the roughly 30 Barbarians in Bolfagon. This might gain me an former Ulm province while I keep Chilad for a later conquest. Ulm might attack, too, and it seems like the Ulm army in Monherboa is lead the the Ulm pretender (a Moloch) – it consists of about 20 Militias and Light Infantries.

The 2 armies in Feldan Forest will invade the undefended Jotun province of Faran (likely 1-10 PD).

The priest from Abysia will move to Nifel with some fodder as backup in order to provide flexibility in the future.


Temples will be build in Kolermegor and Bright Woods.


I will buy 1 more starspawn mage and a Lore Master, in addition to 3 Crossbowmen and 1 Heavy Infantry will be bought in Pangaea.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART31.JPG

[CharonJr]

Some thoughts about the overall strategic situation:

I am starting to overextend here I am afraid, while the war vs. Jotunheim is progressing very nicely I am leaving my northern and southern flanks very open to attacks from Ulm/Atlantis and Marignon respectivly.

Due to Man fighting Jotunheim, too, and there already have been 3 clashes between my forces and those of Man this might escalate into a real war, too.

Sadly it looks like Ulm and Atlantis did not go to war about the province of Witches Copse and Ulm even has withdrawn its troops from Witches Copse to the east (Monherboa) most likely to retake the province of Bolfagon.

Ulm has sufficient forces to hit my open flanks and force me to divert a lot of my forces to deal with them.

Since I am fairly certain that my empire is currently number one in number of provinces (likely income, gems, fortresses and research, too) it is most likely just a question of time before the AIs gang up on me.

Due to the lack of forces I am able to see from Marignon I am wondering what they are doing, but I dare to say that the apparent lack of visible forces is a sign that they are at war, too.

With Pangaea, C’tis and Abysia down and Atlantis, Jotunheim, Marignon, Man and Ulm accounted for I am still missing Pythium and Arcoscephale. Maybe Marignon is at war with one of them.

Pythium and Arcoscephale are most likely located in the eastern part of the map (due to Atlantis most likely having started in one of the northern sea provinces).

One of the possible ways to secure my southeastern flank would be to invade Marignon once the war with Jotunheim is over. Currently I am only able to build up a token force in Pangaea and hope that Marignon will keep on being preoccupied for some more turns.

I could build up a decent defensive ring by sending troops and building PDs in the provinces of Gol Ryepe, Abysia, Scytha, Aran Plain and Pangaea which is anchored by the 2 fortifications and would protect most of high income provinces and temples. The ring is still open in the south, but I am not overly worried about this hole.

The defense of Agenor and the 40 blood site there have a very high priority for me, too, because I am currently lacking troops to effectively defend my realm while still being able to field decent offensive forces.

But for the moment I prefer to let my offense be my best defense. In contrast to PDs troops can be moved where they are needed and are able to be used offensively and defensively.

My defensive ring of indies in the sea can be shattered soon by Atlantis especially since they seemed to have not gone to war vs. Ulm. I have to hope that they are at least at war with either Pythium or Arcoscephale.


The key point at the moment as I see them are:

1. Very volatile situation due to me being most likely the leader in most graphs
2. Lack of troops to effectively defend my flanks
3. Reliance on the AIs to be preoccupied by their own wars
4. Lack of ressources to discourage the AIs by building PDs
5. Gem income only slowly starting to pick up to summon forces/empower summoners


The best remedy I can currently think of is a closer focus on getting new gems and getting my mages the skills needed to get good summons.

In order to do this I will keep on using Acashic Record and to get my astral gem production up to a level where I can cast 1 Acashic Record each turn.

In addition I still need a lot of mages to forge the items (I have astral, water, fire, nature, (blood – due to needing him to bloodhunt) but still lack any 2+ mage in death, earth and air). I hope that some of the Lore Masters which I will recruit each turn now will provide me with some of the lacking skills due to their 4?.

The lab in Tiash with the 20% gem reduction is helping in getting the items needed to support the summons (summon enhancers + spell-skill items). I would love to get the costs for forging the items further down, but due to my low earth gem income this would mean using alchemy in order to get the earth gems and currently I prefer to use those gems for other items or summons.

Due to using Enslave Mind and my mage’s poor leadership I have to keep producing some Scepters of Authority to enable them to command the additional troops.

A Staff of Storms would be a nice addition to my defensive arsenal, but I am still lacking a 3A mage.

My summons will be mostly in astral, death, nature and water and I mostly lack in death.

Some items I will forge sooner or later, there are other ones:

All skills:

Robe of the Magi – Slot: Body – magic needed: 4A, 4B – effect: +1 (cursed)
Ring of Wizardry – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 5S – effect: +1


Death increasing items:

Skull Staff – Slot: 2H – magic needed: 2D – effect: +1
Scepter of Dark Regency (unique) – Slot: 1H – magic needed: 4D – effect: +3
Skullface – Slot: Head – magic needed: 3D – effect: +1
Ring of Sorcery – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 4S – effect: +1
The Black Book of Secrets (unique) – magic needed: 2D, 2B – effect: +1


Nature increasing items:

Thistle Mace – Slot: 1H – magic needed: 2N – effect: +1
Treelords Staff – Slot: 2H – magic needed: 4N (will be forged next due to the summon bonus) – effect: +2
Ring of Sorcery – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 4S – effect: +1
Moonvine Bracelet – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 3N, 1S – effect: +1
The Tome of Gaia (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 2N, 2E – effect: +1


Water increasing items:

Staff of Elemental Mastery – Slot: 2H – magic needed: 3F, 3W / 3A, 3E – effect: +1
Robe of the Sea – Slot: Body – magic needed: 3W – effect: +1
Water Bracelet – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 1W – effect: +1
Orb of Atlantis (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 4W, 1E – effect: +1


Blood increasing items:

Blood Thorn – Slot: 1H – magic needed: 3B – effect: +1
Armor of Souls – Slot: Body – magic needed: 4B – effect: +1
Brazen Vessel – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 3B – effect: +1
Ring of Sorcery – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 4S – effect: +1
The Black Book of Secrets (unique) – magic needed: 2D, 2B – effect: +1


Fire increasing items:

Staff of Elemental Mastery – Slot: 2H – magic needed: 3F, 3W / 3A, 3E – effect: +1
Flame Helmet – Slot: Head – magic needed: 3F – effect: +1
Skull of Fire – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 1F, 1D – effect: +1
The Ruby Eye (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 3F – effect: +1 (cursed, +2 water gems/turn)
The Forbidden Light (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 3S, 3F – effect: +2 (cursed/horror marked)


Air increasing items:

Staff of Elemental Mastery – Slot: 2H – magic needed: 3F, 3W / 3A, 3E – effect: +1
Winged Helmet – Slot: Head – magic needed: 3A – effect: +1
Bag of Winds – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 3A – effect: +1
Tome of High Power (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 2A, 2S – effect: +1


Astral increasing items:

Starshine Skullcap – Slot: Head – magic needed: 2S – effect: +1 + raises skeletons
Crystal Coin – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 2S, 2E – effect: +1
Ring of Sorcery – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 4S – effect: +1
Tome of High Power (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 2A, 2S – effect: +1
The Forbidden Light (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 3S, 3F – effect: +2 (cursed/horror marked)


Earth increasing items:

Staff of Elemental Mastery – Slot: 2H – magic needed: 3F, 3W / 3A, 3E – effect: +1
Earth Boots - Slot: Feet – magic needed: 2E – effect: +1
Blood Stone – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 3B, 1E – effect: +1 (+1 earth gem / turn)
The Tome of Gaia (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 2N, 2E – effect: +1


Summons:

Soul Contract – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 5B – summons 1 Devil/turn
Magic Lamp ? Does is enable the summon of a Jinn each turn, or just once ? (sounds like just once to me)


Well, there is still lot to do, I just have to hope I have the time, otherwise I might have to trade provinces, troops and money (PDs) for time.

Any comments or other ideas ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

CharonJr

[Taqwus]

The Djinni lamp is an expendable artifact; you forge it, use it, and lose it. In exchange, you get a Djinni mage. If anybody else forges the lamp again, you'll lose the mage.

[CharonJr]

Thank you http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I don't think I will forge that one, enough other things to do http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

CharonJr

[Arryn]

Have you tried blood hunting with scouts? If you find that it's effective, that may free up mages for you to use elsewhere.

EDIT: in your self-described precarious situation, I'd advise that you knock Jotunheim out as soon as you can and make no aggressive moves towards Atlantis or Ulm. Especially Atlantis. Atlantis may seem a natural next victim for you, but you'll probably be better off with going after Ulm once the Jotuns have been dealt with. Tritons are a nuisance, and land provinces have better/more gem sites.

[ February 24, 2004, 19:01: Message edited by: Arryn ]

[CharonJr]

Originally posted by Arryn:
Have you tried blood hunting with scouts? If you find that it's effective, that may free up mages for you to use elsewhere.

EDIT: in your self-described precarious situation, I'd advise that you knock Jotunheim out as soon as you can and make no aggressive moves towards Atlantis or Ulm. Especially Atlantis. Atlantis may seem a natural next victim for you, but you'll probably be better off with going after Ulm once the Jotuns have been dealt with. Tritons are a nuisance, and land provinces have better/more gem sites. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">2 of my hunters are scouts actually, I am only using 1 mage at the moment http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

I am concentrating some forces in Jotunheim just now and due the castle's 100 defense the walls should be breached fairly soon.

At the moment I am most tempted to go after Marignon since this would shorten my borders.

And yes, mainly due to the pesky tritons my attack vs any water province will be delayed as long as possible. My mages and bLasters need time to be effective and those fliers are taking that away from me.

Ulm has gathered a huge army (about 170 troops including the pretender) next to me. This might get VERY ugly soon. On the other hand I would no longer have to think about what to do next since fighting for my life will have a fairly high priority http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Thank you http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 32

Conjuration is up to level 7 and the research points will be split between construction and blood magic (blood magic will reach level 4 this turn).

Acashic record was cast on Cacian Forest and 2 sites were found, a Cedar Forest (+20 prod, +2 nature gems) and The Jervellan Wall which created the Jervellan Wall (0 Admin, 1000 supply, 30 defense).

7 blood slaves were captured in Gol Phalas and 4 in Gol Ryepe.

A vengeful witch has cursed 1 of my troops for taking her gems in Cacian Forest.

200 additional taxes were levied in Aenasia.

Ulm did attack in Bolfagon as was to be expected. The attacking army included the Ulm pretender (a Moloch) who caused the indie Barbarians to route on the third turn.

When my forces attack the Moloch summoned some Imps who were quickly dispatched. The Moloch jumped behind my troops and attacked the Illithid Soldiers. Shortly after this (about 70% of the militias were killed) the forces of Ulm routed.

The battle in Faran was easily won vs. PD forces.

Glisas only faced PD forces in Black Forest, too, which were defeated without any problem.

In Birman Highs my troops faced roughly 20 Jotuns lead by 3 Nifel Giants. 2 of the Giants were enslaved and fought very well for my side http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Overall I lost about 6 fodder troops, but gained 2 Nifel Giants and 3 Jotuns.

In Jotunheim my forces were mainly met by 25 Jotun Militias (in addition to 4 Hurlers) some were enslaved, but due to just one enslaver in my forces a lot of my troops had to engage in close combat. In the end I lost about 4 Centaurs and my other Centaurs routed while the enemy lost about 50% of his troops and routed due to my summons keeping the preasure up.

Atlanasha managed to summon 1 Greater Otherness bringing her skill up to 17.


Provinces: 31
Treasury: 1.187
Income: 1.728
Upkeep: 890
RP: 314
Fortification: 4
Temple: 8

Conjuration – 7
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 6 (researching)
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 3 (researching, will reach 4)

Fire gems: 11 (+5)
Air: 41 (+2)
Water gems: 1 (+8)
Earth: 10 (+1)
Astral gems: 8 (+9/+9)
Death: 40 (+5)
Nature: 15 (+11)
Blood: 24


Updated province information:

Due to the map (and time constraints http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ) I will skip this section and just make some general comments here.

I can see 2 provinces of Pythium to the east now making it very likely that the still missing Arcoscephale is located in the northeastern corner of the map.

Atlantis took the indie province of Endless Oceans with 60 troopers commanded by a Wyrm (likely the Atlantis pretender), destroying my buffer and making the situation even more volatile due to the fairly large force close to my capital and my forging province of Tiash.

Ulm has massed 170 troops including their pretender in Monherboa and this has me VERY worried, but at the moment there is not much I can do about it if they should decide to attack. If Ulm should attacak me I will wait till the armies are starting to split up and then try to destroy the smaller forces with coordinated attacks and potentially some PDs.


My Provinces:

R’lyeh (10) – 29.740 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 284 inc, 72 res, 25 def, dom9 – magic site (+3As/+2W) - Temple
Gol Phalas (26) – 12.680 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 68 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom 5 - Temple
Dunheim (28) – 11.440 pop, 80% tax, 6 UR, 45 inc, 4 res, 0 def, dom 5
Talito (36) – 7.320 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 33 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom 2 - magic site (+2W, +1N) - Temple
Dershid (20) – 6.380 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 35 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 8 – magic site (+1W, +1As)
C’tis (27) – 32.790 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 223 inc, 108 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+2D/+2N/+1W, +20prod, +10gold) - Temple
Hoburgdorf (34) – 13.670 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 80 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 3
Abysia (40) – 24.680 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 153 inc, 103 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+5 fire, +30 gold)
Nifel (57) – 1.560 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 3 inc, 28 res, 0 def, dom 3 – magic site (+1Ai, +1D/D imp, +1D/D imp, +20prod) - Temple
Gol Ryepe (46) – 18.430 pop, 90% tax, 2 UR, 65 inc, 8 res, 0 def, dom 1 - Temple
Glimmering Field (61) – 23.770 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 104 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom -1
Giant’s Rest (67) – 1.520 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 5 inc, 28 res, 0 def, dom 1 – magic site (+1A, 1+D/increases death)
Scytha (35) - 4.890 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 24 inc, 26 res, 0 def, dom 1 - Temple
Kolermegor (5) – 9.650 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 52 inc, 30 res, 0 def, dom 2 – magic site (+2W, +2S/recruit loremaster/sage)
Vepitre (14) – 5.040 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 44 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom 3 – Marble Temple (UR-5/+20 gold/can recruit High Priest)
Aran Plains (23) – 11.890 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 62 inc, 24 res, 0 def, dom 1
Pangaea (12) – 26.810 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 125 inc, 92 res, 0 def, dom -4 – magic site (+5N)
Tiash (15) – 2.510 pop, 100% tax, 0 UR, 13 inc, 42 res, 0 def, dom 6
Oune (19) – 1.730 pop, 80% tax, 10 UR, 5 inc, 12 res, 0 def, dom -1
Old Aran (29) – 3.990 pop, 90% tax, 2 UR, 15 inc, 6 res, 0 def, dom -1
Agenor (37) – 11.120 pop, 90% tax, 4 UR, 46 inc, 15 res, 0 def, dom -4 – magic site (40 blood magic bonus, +1E/+1N)
Cacian Forest (45) – 6.580 pop, 70% tax, 10 UR, 17 inc, 24 res, 0 def, dom 1
Aenasia (54) – 12.310 pop, 90% tax, 5 UR, 42 inc, 13 res, 0 def, dom -5 - magic site (+1S)
Birman Highs (24) – 4.880 pop, 70% tax, 15 UR, 10 inc, 27 res, 0 def, dom 0
Black Forest (31) – 7.010 pop, 60% tax, 18 UR, 13 inc, 21 res, 0 def, dom -1 – magic site (+2S)
Jotunheim (68) – 35.770 pop, 70% tax, 15 UR, 51 inc, 34 res, 0 def, dom -7
Faran (60) – 4.020 pop, 60% tax, 20 UR, 8 inc, 9 res, 0 def, dom 0
Bolfagon (63) – 1.850 pop, 70% tax, 13 UR, 19 inc, 11 res, 0 def, dom -3


I got a 1FA, 1W, 1E, 3S mage and a 1F, 1S, 2N Lore Master who will research for now. The Lore Master might later be used for summons, too.

A Treelord Staff (32N) will be forged in addition to a Clam of Pearl (8W), a Water Bracelet (4W) and a Starshine Skullcap (8S).

Glisas will fly from Black Forest to The Weald and try to take it before Atlantis gets any funny ideas.

My 2 armies from Birman Highs will move to Solam and should be able to conquer it without to many problems.

My commander and 20 fodder troops from Runia will move to defend Black Forest.

The 2 mage lead armies from Runia will attack Vldmyre and should face no opposition there.

The Troll King and his 15 trolls with move from Aenasia to Jotunheim in order to support the siege there.

The 2 remaining mage lead armies from Aenasia will attack the 2 Jotuns in Iron Range and even with just 2 Greater Otherness and 6 Centaurs will hopefully able to conquer the province due to their spells.

My priest from Nifel and the 2 mage lead armies from Faran will reclaim the province of Chilad.

The 2 armies from Bolfagon will move to Faran in order to support the siege in Jotunheim on the next turn.


I will buy 1 more starspawn mage and a Lore Master, in addition to 7 Crossbowmen, 9 Heavy Infantries and 1 Archer.

A lab will be build in Gol Phalas in order to transfer the blood slaves from Gol Phalas and Dunheim faster to one of my labs.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART32.JPG

[ February 24, 2004, 19:38: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[CharonJr]

Turn 33

Blood magic is up to level 4 and I will continue to split the RPs between blood magic and construction

3 blood slaves were captured in Gol Ryepe.

Chilad had been conquered without any problems (10 knights and 10 militias) and my troops were able to enslave 5 knights.

Iron Range was defended by roughly 10 Jotuns and 10 Flagellants. In the end 2 Jotuns were enslaved with my forces losing just 1 Centaur (due to me making a mistake – I forgot the set my Centaurs to hold/attack and they charged on the first turn).

Yldmyre was defended by 15 Jotuns and militias who were easily defeated without losing a single man. Suddenly Pythium attacked Yldmyre with just their prophet (an Emerald Lord), a High Priest and another Emerald Lord. There was no real combat, but my forces managed to enslave the 2 Emerald Lords (sadly the prophet is only holy3 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ).

Glisas faced about 15 light infantires, 10 heavy infantries and 5 crossbowmen who were easily dispatched.

Solam was defended by 5 Jotuns and 5 archers who were easily dispatched by my forces.

My forces in Yldmyre are starting to starve and will be moved this turn.


Provinces: 36
Treasury: 1.223
Income: 1.867
Upkeep: 966
RP: 350
Fortification: 5
Temple: 10

Conjuration – 7
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 6 (researching)
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 4 (researching, will reach 5)

Fire gems: 16 (+5)
Air: 0 (+2)
Water gems: 2 (+8)
Earth: 11 (+1)
Astral gems: 0 (+10/+10)
Death: 39 (+7)
Nature: 25 (+11)
Blood: 43


Updated province information:

Due to the map (and time constraints http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ) I will skip this section and just make some general comments here.

I can see 2 provinces of Pythium to the east now making it very likely that the still missing Arcoscephale is located in the northeastern corner of the map.

Marignon has massed about 80 troops in Great Aran Waste further adding to my worries. They seem to be boxed in the the southeastern corner of the map, making it VERY likely that they will attack me further strengthening my resolve to attack them next.

Atlantis took the indie province of Devourer with 60-70 troopers commanded by a Wyrm (likely the Atlantis pretender) and keeps on reducing my sea buffer provinces.

For some reason the 170 Ulmish troops have vanished out of my view, with a bit of luck they are fighting somebody.

There is an army of 40 Jotuns in the province of Stone Heavens which might try to break the siege of Jounheim.


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when is unrest is going down.


I got a 1W, 3S, 2N mage who will cast Acashic Record on Feldan Forest and a 2A, 1W, 1E Lore Master who will be empowered to 3A by transforming some death gems.

The Treelord Staff and Ivy Crown are given to the 2N Lore Master who will summon Vine Ogres in Kolermegor.

The Sceptre of Authority, Water Bracelet and Starshine Skullcap are given to a 1A, 2W, 3S mage who will lead some troops to Aran Plain on the next turn.

The Clam of Pearl was given to another Star Child and another Clam will be forged this turn.


My 2 armies from Solam will move to Glade Woods which is defended by 10 Jotun Militias and a Great Hag.

The army from Black Forest will move to Birman Highs in preparation for the attack/defense against Marignon.

The mage and his troops in Yldmyre will attack the indie province of Old Forest which is defended by 10 knights and militias which the priest and his fodder will move to Iron Range.

The 2 mage lead armies will attack the 8 Jotuns in Temiglia.

My 3 fodder armies will move from Faran to Aenasia and finally reach Jotunheim on the following turn. The 2 mage lead armies from Chilad will move to Aenasia,too. If I knew how many provinces Jotun still holds I might move them to the south, but since I lack this information I decide to play it safe.

The priest with his fodder troops from Chilad will move to Bolfagon to build a temple there later.

Since I can’t be sure if the Jotuns in Stone Heaven will attack Jotunheim or just stay there I have decided to attack myself. Since I don’t want to stop the siege of Jotunheim the only forces I can bring to bear is my mage in Jotunheim with his 8 summons, 3 Centaurs Cataphracts and 5 Sea Trolls I have exchanged for 5 enslaved fodder troops which are more useful at the siege. As additional firepower I will send Glisas there, too.

I will buy 1 more starspawn mage and a Lore Master, in addition to 8 Illithids, 1 commander, 4 crossbowmen, 10 heavy infantry and 5 archers this turn.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART33.JPG

[CharonJr]

Turn 34

Blood magic is up to level 5 and I will continue to split the RPs between blood magic and construction

3 blood slaves were captured in Gol Ryepe and 5 in Gol Phalas.

2 magic sites have been found in Feldan Forest by Acashic Record, a Ancient Temple (1S) and a Boiling Bog (1F, 1W).

A thief in R’lyeh has stolen man of my gems, apparently the special events happen before items are forged since I have been unable to forge the Clam of Pearl.

Marignon declared war this turn, some turns too early for my taste, but I should be able to find the Marignon captial fairly fast and hope to be able to stop their incursions into my territory in by laying siege to it. Marignon took my fairly undefended province of Oune with 4 commanders (2 friars, 1 Knight of the Chalice and a Knight of the Chalice prophet) who lead 10 Crossbowmen, 10 Men at Arms, 10 piketeers and 5 Flagellants.

Pythium attack Jotunheim in Glade Woods with about 30 Velites, 5 Alae Legionnairs, a serpent Cataphract and 5 Barbarians who were lead by a Hydra Hatchling and 2 Centurions. Jotun fielded 10 Jotun Militias, 10 militias, 5 archers, 1 Principe, 1 Standard, 1 Jotun Herse, 1 Jotun Herse prophet and a Great Hag. The Hydra poisoned many of its own troops and was fairly fast dispatched by the Jotun Militias. About 3 turns later both sides began to route. Roughly 15 Velites still pressed on while the Hag and some bodyguards stood their ground. About 3 turns later the remaining Jotun forces routed.

My invading army in Glade Woods only faced the remaining Pythium forces of roughly 15 Velites, 2 Centurions, the Snake Cataphract and an Emerald Guard, a Standard, a Principe and a Barbarian. Due to the enslaves and burns my core troops never reached close combat before the Pythium forces routed. In the end my forces enslaved the Snake Cataphract, the Emerald Guard and the Standard.

My troops in Old Forest faced 5 knights and 10 militias and beat them easily, enslaving 5 knights.

Temiglia was defended by only PDs and taken without a problem. Right after this Man attacked with 50 troops, about 15 slingers and longbowmen, 30 militias and spearmen and some knights. 2 knights were enslaved very soon and charged the enemy ranks. The spearmen and militias routed after my Centaurs joined the fight who quickly killed the slingers and broke the longbowmen right after this. 2 Knights and 2 longbowmen were enslaved.

Jotun fielded 3 Nifel Giants in addition to 20 Jotun Huskarls, Hurlers and Militias in addition to 8 slingers in Stone Heavens. The Nifel Giants made it to my main forces while Glisas jumped into the Jotuns. The Giants managed to route my 3 Centaur Cataphracts and the Sea Trolls, but were killed soon after this. This broke the Jotun forces and they fled. 2 Troglodytes attacked after this fight, but were easily enslaved in addition to 1 Herse from the previous fight.

I completly forgot that I hired 20 mercs Last turn in order to help with the siege of Jotunheim and with the help of the mercs the doors were breached. The mercs will be used as fodder on the charge which will follow.

The troops in Glade Woods and Temiglia are starving and will be moved this turn.

Provinces: 41
Treasury: 852
Income: 1.929
Upkeep: 1.088
RP: 343
Fortification: 5
Temple: 10

Conjuration – 7
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 6 (researching, will reach 7)
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 5 (researching, will reach 6)

Fire gems: 6 (+6)
Air: 4 (+4)
Water gems: 4 (+9)
Earth: 2 (+2)
Astral gems: 6 (+12/+10)
Death: 37 (+7)
Nature: 29 (+11)
Blood: 48


Updated province information:

I can see the Altantean capital now in the easternmost sea province in the north in addition the the Pythium capital on the middle of my eastern border.

Most of the Ulm forces in Monherboa are back (120 troops including the Moloch). Well, we will see if I can get around this fight again.

Atlantis moved its troops to Endless Ocean which raises my hopes that it will continue to go after the indies.

The indie province of Illidar is defended by 20 Vine Man.

My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.


I got a 1W, 2E, 3S mage who will become my earth forger and will move to Tiash and a 2S, 2D Lore Master who will become my death forger and will be moved to Tiash, too. But since he can’t cross the sea I will first have to forge a Ring of Water Breathing for 4W which will be used to move all other potential Lore Master forgers to Tiash, too.

More Vine Ogres will be summoned in Kolermegor since I lack the nature gems to cast Gift of Health and I need the troops anyway.

I will try to forge another Clam of Pearl for 8W.


My equiped mage will move with 3 Greater Otherness and 8 Illithids to Aran Plains in order to protect the province and maybe even catch the Marignon forces trying to move there.

The army in Birman Highs will stay there in order to defend the province if Marignon should choose to attack.

The 2 mage lead armies from Glade Woods are moving to Wicker Woods which is defended by 7 halberdiers and I am fairly certain that I will attack the Marignon capital from this province in the following turn.

Solian is defended by 20 Jotuns and will be attacked by my mage lead army from Stone Heavens. I would love to support this attack with Glisas, but it will be better used in an attack on the Marignon province of Rame which is defended by 5 piketeers.

Gipha is defended by 10 Jotun Hurlers and I will attack with my 2 commanders leading the slow troops (including 15 Illithis Soldiers) while the 2 faster mage lead armies will go to defend Old Aran.

Due to the lower supply usage I exchange the armies from Iron Range and Temiglia since I want to have some troops in place if Pythium should decide to join the war. For the same reason my army in Old Forest will stay were it is, especially since it directly borders on the Pythium capital.

The mercs in Jotunheim are set to attack closest and are put in the front row for the attack on the castle while the Sea Trolls are standing right behind them with orders to attack closest, too.

The Marignon army in Oune consists of about 60 Men at Arms, Piketeers, Crossbowmen and Swordsmen. I am afraid that none of my provinces would be able to stop a concentrated attack of these forces. I will raise the PD in Aran Plain and Old Aran by 11, while Birman Highs will be raised by 23 due to having the weakest forces.


In order to field 2 more 4S mages I will forge 2 Starshine Skullcaps for 8S each.

I will buy 1 more starspawn mage and a Lore Master. Due to the PDs I lack the money for anything else.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART34.JPG

[ February 26, 2004, 07:28: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[Arryn]

I see that you've been having a great deal of fun, and success, with Enslave Mind. I love that spell!

[CharonJr]

Originally posted by Arryn:
I see that you've been having a great deal of fun, and success, with Enslave Mind. I love that spell! <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Enslave is the core of my arsenal since it buys the time my mindbLasters and mages need to cause additional damage and buy even more time http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Thats's one of the reasons why I am not overly worried about Marignon's attack since I think that I have enough mages in reserve (IIRC about 10) who can be brought up to 4S with a Starshine Cap and who should be able to stop Marignon cold in their tracks fairly fast. That's one of the reasons why I am forging 2 additional Starshine Caps this turn.

Getting more fodder troops due to having more enslave mages is a nice bonus, too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Sadly I have to pay upkeep for the enslaved troops and lack the death magic to get upkeep-free summons, otherwise I would be churning out a lot more Illithids.

BTW, is there a list anywhere which shows which summons are needing upkeep and which are free ?

From what I have read here I think that only some undead are free of upkeep which makes sense, maybe elemantals and the etheral beings, too.

CharonJr

[PhilD]

Originally posted by CharonJr:

BTW, is there a list anywhere which shows which summons are needing upkeep and which are free ?
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I just had a look at Zen's Summoned Creatures Quick Reference, and it does list upkeep costs. Gotta use the office's color printer again http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[CharonJr]

Hehe, just saw it, too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Should have started reading the threads from top to bottom http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Thank you for the input, but since my mages are usually operating in pairs of 2 and not in large Groups the Caps are actually cheaper http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Most of the times I have to control manay territories at once and due to this have to field many small battleGroups consisting of 2-3 commanders (likely 2 mages) at best.

But otherwise you would be prefectly right, in huge Groups of mages a Banner would be the right thing to do. The only benefit of many Caps in a setup like this would be greater immunity from flyer (attack rear) attacks. When the Banner bearer is killed this might be a real problem otherwise http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 35

Blood magic is up to level 6 and construction is up to 7.

5 blood slaves were captured in Gol Ryepe and 6 in Gol Phalas.

Another 3 Vine Ogres were summoned in Kolermegor.

A Horror Helmet has been found in Bright Woods.

Solian was defended by 12 PDs who routed on the third turn.

My troops in Jotunheim were attacked by 6 Jotun Hurlers, 1 Herse and 1 Jotun Woodsman. 5 mercs were killed, but this is their job http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

In Gipha my troops only faced 5 PDs who were easily dispatched.

In Rame Glisas was met by 5 piketeer defenders who ended up as additional kills and XP for the Hall of Fame. Glisas has 3 XP stars now.

Marignon attacked in Aran Plains with roughly 10 piketeers, 10 men at arms, 5 crossbowmen, 5 swordsman and 5 flagellants who were lead by a knight of the chalice (prophet) and 2 friars. After some Enslaves and 2 Breaths of Winter the Marignon forces broke and fled, the Breaths killed some of my PDs, too. Sadly nobody was enslaved http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Marignon send reinforcements to Wicker Woods and all of a sudden my forces were facing roughly 90 defenders – 65 militias, 10 flagellants, 10 men at arms, 5 piketeers and 5 royal guards/knights of the chalice lead by 3 friars and a heroine. The charging knights/guards were enslaved (2) or paralysed due to mindbLasts. My leading elements met the militias and flagellants but soon routed vs their superior numbers, the Marignon forces lost about 50% of their troops in the process mainly due to mindbLasts. The remaining forces met my Illithid Soldiers who were protected decently vs most of their attacks. After 2 more turns the remaining Marignons routed.

Jotunheim Fortress was only defended by 5 Jotuns and 1 Lore Master. Due to the chokepoint at the gate only few of my forces were able to engage the enemy, but in the end they won. Most mercs were lost, and about 5 of my sea trolls. This is a fairly good example how valueable Enslave Mind is for fights like these, only due to having no mages there who were capable of casting Enslave Mind this fairly large number of troops were lost.


Provinces: 43
Treasury: 1.018
Income: 2.096
Upkeep: 1.085
RP: 352
Fortification: 6
Temple: 10

Conjuration – 7
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 7 (researching)
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 6 (researching)

Fire gems: 12 (+6)
Air: 8 (+4)
Water gems: 13 (+12/+1)
Earth: 4 (+2)
Astral gems: 28 (+12/+10)
Death: 46 (+9)
Nature: 39 (+11)
Blood: 54


Updated province information:

As expected the Marignon capital was found, it is right in the southeastern corner of the map.

East of Rame there is still a province with Pangean troops including their pretender supported by 10 Centaurs/Satyrs.

Man's province of Silvania is completely surrounded by my provinces, I wonder if/when Man will do anything about it...


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.


I got a 1F, 1A, 1W, 3S mage who will get one of the Starshine Caps besides an already present 1W, 3S, 2N mage who will get the other one. One will move to Aran Plains while the other will pick up the Vine Ogres in Kolermegor.

My other new recruit is a 1F, 3D! Lore Master who gets the Ring of Water Breathing and will start to move to Tiash (via R’lyeh), this is just what I needed to get a decent death forger/summoner.

The Clam is given to a star child in C’tis.

My army from Solian will attack the Jotun province of Illidar and I hope this is the Last one since I want to focus some more troops on defense vs possible attacks from the other nations.

I will have to move some troops to defend Glimmering Fields and will start by moving the 2 armies from Gipha to Aenasia.

Since I lack the forces to take Spire Woods I will exchange the army from Temiglia with the 2 armies from Iron Range and hope nobody else will “steal” Spire Woods http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif In order to prevent this I will move Glisas there and should be able to take it from the 20 knight/militia defenders.

The army from Birman Highs will move to Solam to defend it from a possible Marignon attack.

The 2 armies from Old Aran will attack Oune this turn and should have no problems vs 10 men at arms.

The army from Aran Plain will attack the Stone Spires of Aran which is defended by 20 swordman and men at arms.

My commander in Pangea will pick up the heavy infantry and crossbowmen and move to Rame.

The armies from Wicker Woods will attack Marignon which seems to be defended by 7 militias beside the PDs.


More Vine Ogres will be summoned in Kolermegor since I still lack the nature gems to cast Gift of Health and I still need the troops.

A Clam of Pearl will be forged for 8W in addition to a Water Bracelet (4W) amd another Starshine Skullcap (8S).

Some death gems will be transformed into astral gems to be able to cast Acashic Record (25S) on Scytha (I hope to find some earth gems there).


I will buy 1 more starspawn mage and a Lore Master.

Due to being only defended by inferior troops the PDs in the provinces of Rame and Solan will be raised to 21.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART35.JPG

[ February 26, 2004, 20:37: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[Arryn]

Nicely done against Jotunheim and Marignon.

The 3D mage will be mighty useful.

The Vastness needs to be careful with knights. They're a tough, dangerous foe.

[CharonJr]

Originally posted by Arryn:
Nicely done against Jotunheim and Marignon.

The 3D mage will be mighty useful.

The Vastness needs to be careful with knights. They're a tough, dangerous foe. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yeah, I love my brave warriors http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

But mainly I think that I have been fairly lucky till now since I was able to fight my enemies mostly one at a time (or was mainly just mopping up when a new war began).

The fairly small size of the map is helping in keeping my troops in positions which give me decent strategic flexibility.

When I reread the turn just now I realised how stupid I have been when I send my Vastness there solo. Mainly I had already decided to attack on the next turn with the 2 armies when I remembered that I had no new target for Glisas. When I assigned Glisas to attack I didn't remember that I had an army in striking distance already, but exchanged it with the 2 armies http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Well, we will see if this mistake will be a costly one. Due to the 2 defensive casts prior to attacking rear orders I hope to be able to catch the commanders and route the enemy before the knights are able to attack.

The 3Ds out of 4? were VERY lucky, especially considering that I really needed D http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Overall I surely can't complain about bad luck in this game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

CharonJr

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
Due to the 2 defensive casts prior to attacking rear orders I hope to be able to catch the commanders and route the enemy before the knights are able to attack.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">If one of those 2 casts is Astral Shield, then the knights shouldn't be much of a problem. Otherwise it might be ... unfortunate.

[CharonJr]

Personal Luck and Astral Shield http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

CharonJr

[Patrik]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
Thats's one of the reasons why I am not overly worried about Marignon's attack since I think that I have enough mages in reserve (IIRC about 10) who can be brought up to 4S with a Starshine Cap and who should be able to stop Marignon cold in their tracks fairly fast. That's one of the reasons why I am forging 2 additional Starshine Caps this turn.
[/QB]<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Banner of the Northern Star (Con 6, 20S) increases astral lvl by one on all astral mages in battle. Should be cheaper than forging Starshine Caps.
/Patrik

[CharonJr]

Turn 36


3 blood slaves were captured in Dunheim and 5 in Gol Phalas.

Another 3 Vine Ogres were summoned in Kolermegor.

The was an ill omen in Runia, a midwinter celebration (increased faith) in Kolermegor and 50 additional taxes were levied in Glade Woods.

The province of Illidar was taken without a fight.

The 10 knights and 15 militias in Spire Woods were defeated without problems by Glisas.

The 2 Marignon Witch hunters In Oune were enslaved while they were still casting their preparation spells http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

The Marignon forces in Stone Spires of Aran (20 piketeers including 15 PDs) were easily defeated – fighting among themself/mindbLasts and routing before my troops were able to engage them.

Marignon attacked me in Pangaea and since I had no defenders there (mistake here) they are sieging the castle.

The 25 PDs in Marignon were quickly dispatched and the siege is beginning.

My PDs in Birman Highs discovered a sneaking enemy.

Atlanasha’s summon was a failure and became feebleminded. The 2 Greater Otherness which came from the Void attacked, but were killed by the 4 Things from the Void, while being able to kill 1 bodyguard. I have to hope that my Gift of Health will cure the feeblemind soon.


Provinces: 48
Treasury: 1.134
Income: 2.054
Upkeep: 1.121
RP: 362
Fortification: 6
Temple: 10

Conjuration – 7
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 7 (researching)
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 6 (researching, will reach 7)

Fire gems: 19 (+7)
Air: 12 (+4)
Water gems: 6 (+12/+1)
Earth: 6 (+2)
Astral gems: 0 (+12/+10)
Death: 42 (+10)
Nature: 0 (+11)
Blood: 58


Updated province information:

Jotunheim managed to take the province of Moss Woods from Man, likely preventing the elimination of Jotunheim.

Hopefully the Marignon army in Pangaea will continue to siege. I am fairly optimistic that I will be able to break the siege on the next turn. If they decide to move on I will have to chase them or corner them with additional forces which would take quite some time and effort.


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.


I got a 1A, 1W, 3S, 1D mage who will get the Starshine Caps and move to Kolermegor.

The new Lore Master turned out to have 1A, 1W, 1D and 1B and will research while the 3D Lore Master in R’lyeh will move on to Tiash.

More Vine Ogres will be summoned in Kolermegor, sadly only 2 this turn instead of 3 since my 2(3)N mage in Tiash needs the Treelords Staff (+2N) to cast Gift of Health using the remaining nature gems (48).

The Clam is given to a star child in C’tis, the Horror Helmet to the Sea Troll King in Jotunheim and the Water Bracelet, too (bringing him to 4W).


The mage in Kolermegor takes the 9 Vine Ogres and moves to break the siege in Pangaea. I can’t be sure that this will be enough, but I need the other forces for defending or taking the other provinces.

My 2 mage lead armies in Oune will attack the fairly defenseless province of Sleepy Mountains.

Since I doubt that the Pangaea army will attack the Stone Spires of Aran I will move the army there to take Great Aran Waste which is fairly undefended, too, but in case Pangaea should decide to attack the Stone Spires of Aran I will move the fodder army from Rame there and raise the defenses to 21 (which still would not be enough to stop the Pangaean White Bull pretender, but might discourage him).

I would prefer Pangaea to either stay where it is or move to Rame which leaves less options to move into one of my undefended provinces.

Since I can’t do anything about the Marignon forces in Old Man Mountains at the moment except sending Glisas in which shouldn’t have too many problems with the 20-30 militias there. This way I can’t send it to defend Jotunheim, but this gives me the chance to enslave some more Jotuns instead of killing them if they should decide to attack http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

The mage lead army in Illidar will attack the 20 Jotuns in Moss Woods in addition to the 2 mage lead armies in Temiglia. In order to dissuafe them from attacking Jotunheim I will recruit 20 barbarians there. I don’t have enough forces or money to defend Stone Heavens and Gipha, too, but since I have enough forces around I feel like being able to afford this risk.

The 2 fodder armies from Aenasia will move to Cacian Forest to pick up some troops and continue towards Glimmering Fields.

The armies in Iron Range, Solam and Old Forest will stay in their defensive positions.

The defensive army in Bolfagon will be supported by 4 more archers.


4 death gems will be transformed into astral gems in order to cast Acashic Record on Runia.

A Clam of Pearl will be forged for 8W.

I will buy 1 more starspawn mage and a Lore Master in addition to 1 commander and 15 archers in Abysia.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART36.JPG

[CharonJr]

Turn 37

Research in Blood magic reached level 7.

5 blood slaves were captured in Dunheim and 5 in Gol Phalas.

2 Vine Ogres were summoned in Kolermegor.

Gift of Health was cast in addition to Acashic Record on Runia which revealed 3 magic sites – Rockside Spring (+1 earth gem/+1 water gem), Canyon of Wild Winds (+2 air gems) and an Iron Cliff (+1 earth gem) raising my much needed earth gem income by 100%.

Some death gems were found in Giant’s Rest in addition to some earth gems in Feldan Forest.

Marignon tried to break the siege with 8 fodder troops who were easily dispatched, enslaving 3 in the process.

The Great Aran Waste was defended by 10 PDs who very quickly killed/routed.

The 8 PDs in Sleepgy Mountains were easily overcome, too.

My mage and 9 Vine Ogres tried to break the siege in Pangaea which was attacked by roughly 20 swordsmen, 5 men at arms, 2 royal guards, 1 knight of the chalice and a friar. The knight and royal guards were enslaved and charged the swordsmen together wih my vine ogres. In the end my forces lost 7 vine ogres but killed all but 1 of the sieging forces. For some reason 20 indies (10 knights/10 militias) attacked my forces right after this, but routed right after the first 2 knights were enslaved. In the end 4 knights were enslaved.

Glisas faced the knight od the chalice prophet, 1 friar, 1 inquisitor, 1 initiate and a witch hunter in Old Man Mountains besides 10 militias and about 8 piketeers. After about 10 militias/piketeers were killed the Marignon armies routed. Glisas received a affliction this turn – a limp, I think I will send it to rest soon unless I will be forced right into the next war.

As I have been afraid the Jotuns from Moss Woods attacked Jotunheim, but due to this the province of Moss Woods was taken without a fight.

For some reason right next I got the message that the Jotun pretender was vanquished since he did not rule a single province ! I have no idea how this could have happened since the Jotuns should either still have ruled Moss Woods (check for provinces before the battles) or Jotunheim (check after all battles). The faith in the Jotun pretender should still have been high enough... Strange, anybody has a clue what might have happened ?

But now the former Jotun armies turned indie and are still sieging Jotunheim. Oh well, this way at least they will not run from the attack next turn http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif


Provinces: 51
Treasury: 1.053
Income: 2.081
Upkeep: 1.201
RP: 362
Fortification: 6
Temple: 10

Conjuration – 7
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 7 (researching, will reach 8)
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 7 (researching)

Fire gems: 19 (+7)
Air: 12 (+4)
Water gems: 6 (+12/+1)
Earth: 6 (+2)
Astral gems: 0 (+12/+10)
Death: 42 (+10)
Nature: 0 (+11)
Blood: 58


Updated province information:

Man has gathered a fairly large army of 130 troops in Namor which is leaving me worried, the 80 Ulmish troops in The Two Woods are not really healping to put me at ease, too. But on the other hand, if the AIs don’t combine their forces in the next 10 turns I dare to say that the game is effectively over.

Atlantis running out of indie provinces to expand into (only Baptizer left) will make the next turns even more interesting.


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.

The was a Tower of the Golden Order found in Old Man Mountains in addition to a lab, adding 3 fire and 2 astral gems each turn and enable the recruitment of Adepts of the Golden Order (2F, 2S, 1, 11 basic RPs for 180 gold). This should give me a 3F mage which I still need anyway.


I got a 1W, 3S, 2N mage who will research for now. The Lore Master turned out to be 1A, 2N, 1B will be empowered in blood to hunt for slaves after having forged a Sanguine Rod.

More Vine Ogres will be summoned for 1 nature gem in Kolermegor, this time 3 again due to having the Treelords Staff back.

Acashic Records will be cast for 25 astral gems on Sleepy Mountains and I hope to find more earth gem sites.

The Clam is given to a star child in C’tis.


The 2 fodder armies from Stone Spires of Aran in addition to the mage lead army of summons and Illithids from Great Aran Waste will attack the 20 satyrs and centaurs in Stone Wood Waste which are lead by the Pangaean pretender (a white bull).

1 mage lead army consisting of 5 knights will move from Sleepy Mountains to Aran Plains, trying to build up some defenses in my northern border.

The other mage lead army in Sleepy Mountains with some summons will attack the lightly defended Marignon province of Rim Mountains.

The mage lead army with its 2 vine ogres and enslaved knights/royal guards will move from Pangaea to the north, too.

The 2 fodder armies from Cacian Forest will move to Scytha and continue towards Glimmering Fields.

The 3 mage lead armies in Moss Woods will take out the indie attackers of Jotunheim.

The armies in Iron Range, Solam, Bolfagon and Old Forest will stay in their defensive positions.

Glisas will move to Gol Phalas (8 dom) hopefully being able to get rid of the afflication. BTW, is the chance to heal dependent on the dominion strength, or is having positive dominion enough ?

The 3A Lore Master receives the Ring of Water Breathing on will move to Tiash via R’lyeh.


My 3D mage will forge a Skullface (+1D) for 16 death gems, another mage will forge a pair of Earth Boots (+1E) for 8 earth gems and a Clam of Pearls will be forged for 8 water gems.

I will buy 1 more starspawn mage, a Lore Master and a Golden Adept in addition to 1 commander and 24 archers in Abysia.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART37.JPG

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
For some reason right next I got the message that the Jotun pretender was vanquished since he did not rule a single province ! I have no idea how this could have happened since the Jotuns should either still have ruled Moss Woods (check for provinces before the battles) or Jotunheim (check after all battles). The faith in the Jotun pretender should still have been high enough... Strange, anybody has a clue what might have happened?<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The moment you conquered the Last province they had, that wiped out all their dominion, immediately. The battle at Jotunheim was not yet won, so Jotuns had no provinces under control. Apparently the check is done after each battle, not after all battles ...

[CharonJr]

Hmm, but the Jotuns took the province of Jotunheim before my forces took Moss Woods.

Maybe the check for the Last owned province is based on the situation before all battles (thus Jotun lost the Last known province when I took Moss Woods) and the new ownership is only written after all battles and the check if there are still provinces left.

This way there would be no known provinces left at the time of the check since Jotun's ownership of Jotunheim was not known at the time of the check.

I can't really complain about the result http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif , but I think this should be changed.

Oh well, Pangaea and Marignon will go down next and then it will be interesting who will attack me next.

If there are no attacks (which I doubt) I would prefer to go after Pythium in order to get shorter borders.

Actually I am a little surprised by the speed of this game, I think I haven't been in such a fairly strong position after 37 turn before.

CharonJr

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
Maybe the check for the Last owned province is based on the situation before all battles (thus Jotun lost the Last known province when I took Moss Woods) and the new ownership is only written after all battles and the check if there are still provinces left.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It's, IMO, not the behavior that would be ideal. It checks for province losses before it checks for province gains. It should be the other way around.

That's akin to a bank doing debits before it does credits, which is bad. Say you have $50 in your account. A charge comes in for $200 on the same day you deposit $500 in cash. That night, when accounting processes the transactions, by doing the debits first you get slapped with a $25 overdraft fee for having a -$150 balance when you should actually have $550 in the account ($350 after the debit). I have had this actually happen, which is why I switched banks to one that has non-idiot programmers.

[CharonJr]

Turn 38

Research in construction reached level 8.

1 blood slave was captured in Gol Ryepe and 11 in Gol Phalas.

3 Vine Ogres were summoned in Kolermegor.

Acashic Record cast on Sleepy Mountains revealed 2 magic sites – Farm of Plenty (+25 supply) and Bronze Pillar (+1 fire gem).

Some death gems were found in Giant’s Rest in addition to some earth gems in Feldan Forest.

500 additional taxes were raised in Hoburgdorf.

Jotunheim was taken without any resistance.

Rim Mountain was easily taken from the 5 raptors and 8 piketeers defending it for Marignon.

The Marignons tried to break the siege of Marignon with 7 troops, but only succeeded in adding 3 militias and a knight of the chalice (prophet) to my forces.

My forces attacked the Last Pangaean province of Stone Wood Waste defended by 15 satyrs, 7 centaurs, 5 harpys, 1 minotaur lord, 1 tribal chief and the White Bull pretender. The Cief was enslaved and engaged the Mino Lord while the Bull charged my lines while the satyrs were already routing. The Bull resisted 1 paralyse, but the second one stuck. The Chief lost the fight, but the Bull was killed fairly fast by the 4 Greater Otherness and the remaining Pangaean forces retreated. An Arena was found in the province.

Glisas was cured of the limp, but Atlanasha is still feebleminded.


Provinces: 54
Treasury: 1.846
Income: 2.342
Upkeep: 1.253
RP: 362
Fortification: 6
Temple: 10

Conjuration – 7
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 8
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 7 (researching)

Fire gems: 40 (+11)
Air: 24 (+6)
Water gems: 18 (+12)
Earth: 10 (+4)
Astral gems: 3 (+14/+12)
Death: 22 (+10)
Nature: 20 (+11)
Blood: 37


Updated province information:

The large threatening armies of Man and Ulm have disappeared for now, but I am fairly sure that I will see them again.


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.


I forgot the to recruit the Golden Adept in Old Man Mountains, oh well, this time...

I got a 1W, 3S, 1N, 1B mage who will be empowered to bloodhunt. The Lore Master turned out to be 1F, 1A, 1S, 1D who will research, too.

3 More Vine Ogres will be summoned for 1 nature gem in Kolermegor.

Acashic Records will be cast for 25 astral gems on Rim Mountains and I hope to find more earth gem sites.

The Clam is given to a star child in C’tis, the Skullface is given to my 3D mage who will forge a Scepter of Dark Regency (+3D, unique) for 32 death gems and will raise him to 7D! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif Tartarian Gate, here I come, I just need 2 more conjuring now and will put all research into it.

Argh, I keep forgetting that my star spawn mages have no feet, the Earth Boots are wasted for now, but I can still hope for a 2E Lore Master, otherwise the 3A, 1W, 1E one will be empowered in earth, too.


The mage in Kolermegor will grab the 5 Vine Ogres and start to move to the north.

The 3A Lore Master will finish his move to Tiash and the Scout in Gol Phalas will move back to Dunheim to continue his bloodhunt.

The 2 mages in Aran Plains continue their journey to the north and will move to Talito this turn while the 2 armies in Scytha will continue to Abysia.

The mage lead army in Stone Wood Waste will move to Oune and will support my forces close to Pythium with the priest in tow to build a temple there. The commander from this provinces with his slower troops will only be able to move to Rim Mountians.
In Rim Mountains the mage lead army will head to Wicker Woods.

The fortress in Marignon will the stormed by the mage lead armies.

1 of my mages in Jotunheim will pick up the 4 Sea Trolls in Stone Heavens, they other will pick up 3 Trolls in Aenasia while the remaining one will head towards Iron Range. The Sea Troll King will stay in Jotunheim for now and will lead the troops I plan to recruit there (19 barbarians this turn).

The armies in Iron Range, Solam, Bolfagon and Old Forest will stay in their defensive positions.

Glisas will move to Yldmyre to show some presence there.

The mage lead army from Gol Phalas will continue to Gol Ryepe.


A Sanguin Rod will be forged for 4B, in addition to a Clam of Pearls for 8 water gems.

A temple will be build in Hoburgdorf and another temple in Bolfagon, hopefully not provocing an attack from Ulm or Man.

In Abysia 1 commander, 6 heavy infantry and 2 archers will be recruited.

I will buy 1 more starspawn mage, a Lore Master and a Golden Adept.

To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART38.JPG

[ February 29, 2004, 08:05: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[CharonJr]

Turn 39


8 blood slaves were captured in Gol Phalas.

3 Vine Ogres were summoned in Kolermegor.

Acashic Record cast on Rim Mountains revealed 3 magic sites – Brigand Lair (causing 5 unrest), Rockside Spring (+1 earth gem, +1 water gem) and a Magma Cave (+1 fire gem, +1 earth gem) adding nicely to my earth income.

Some earth gems were found in Faran.

Pythium declared a Emerald Lord as its prophet.

2 sneakers were discovered in Birman Highs.

Marignon was defended by 15 militias/helbardiers/piketeers, 3 Initiates, 3 Friars, 1 Inquisitor and a Great Sage (who turned out to be a Red Dragon with 300 HP). While the infantry was fighting my front elements and was having some of its units enslaved the Dragon flew out to my Illithids and attacked them. The Illithids broke fairly quickly. While the Dragon followed the Illithids it was paralysed – sealing its fate. During the same turn the Marignon infantry broke and my troops were able to charge the casters. In the end I lost 6 Illithids and about 5 fodder while Marignon is destroyed.

My troops in Abysia are starving and I will start to move them out.


Provinces: 54
Treasury: 1.553
Income: 2.475
Upkeep: 1.316
RP: 442
Fortification: 7
Temple: 12

Conjuration – 7 (researching, will reach 8)
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 8
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 7

Fire gems: 56 (+16)
Air: 30 (+6)
Water gems: 25 (+14)
Earth: 26 (+6)
Astral gems: 7 (+15/+13)
Death: 22 (+10)
Nature: 30 (+11)
Blood: 0


Updated province information:

Some fairly large troop concentrations of Ulm, Man, Pythium and Atlantis can be seen, making me rather wonder when than if they will attack. Actually I am surprised that nobody has attacked till now.


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.


The Golden Adept is 2F, 2S, 1D and will be set to research, another one will be recruited.

I got a 2W, 1E, 3S mage who will research, the Lore Master turned out to be another 1F, 1A, 1S, 1D who will research, too.

3 More Vine Ogres will be summoned for 1 nature gem in Kolermegor.

Acashic Records will be cast for 25 astral gems on Gipha and I hope to find more earth gem sites.

The Clam is given to a star child in C’tis, the Sanguine Rod is given to the 2B empowered mage who will start to bloodhunt in Kolermegor and the Scepter of Dark Regency is given to the 3(4)D mage, bringing him up to 7D and will summon a Spectre for 10 death gems.


The fodder army from Rim Mountains will move to Old Man Mountains while one of the mage lead armies from Marignon will head to Rim Mountains to pick up the troops who routed from the battle in Marignon and the other mage from Marignon will do the same in Wicker Woods.

The army in Wicker Woods will continue to Glade Woods.

The mage lead army from Oune will move to Birman Highs in addition to the priest there.

The mage lead army from Gol Phalas will continue to Gol Ryepe.

My 2 mage lead armies, my prophets army and the army of my Illithid Lord will move from Abysia to defend Glimmering Fields, they can’t take too many troops with them due to moving 2 provinces, but they might be enough to discourage an attack.

The archers and heavy infantries in Abysia are assigned to 2 commanders and will move to Gol Ryepe.

The mage lead army from Stone Heavens will move to defend Illidar while the Sea Troll King from Jotunheim will move to defend Moss Woods with his 35 barbarians.

The 2 armies from Iron Range will move to defend Temiglia while the mage lead army in Aenasia picks up the 3 Sea Trolls and continues to Iron Range.

My priest in Bolfagon will preach for now and my priest in Hoburgdorf will move to Glimmering Fields.

The mage lead army in Gol Ryepe will continue to Giant’s Rest and due to the Ulmish armies on my borders I will raise the PDs to 21.

The armies in Iron Range, Solam, Bolfagon and Old Forest will stay in their defensive positions.

Glisas will move to Yldmyre to show some presence there.


A Sanguine Rod will be forged for 4B, in addition to a Clam of Pearls for 8 water gems.

A 2B mage will be empowered to 3B in order to become my blood forger.


In Abysia 7 heavy infantry and 3 archers will be recruited in addition to 4 Crossbowmen in Giant’s Rest.

I will buy 1 more starspawn mage, a Lore Master and a Golden Adept.

Since having only seldomly played with assassinations I will hire a master assassin merc in Giant’s Rest this turn in order to have some fun (and to prevent anybody else from getting him http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ).

To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART39.JPG

[CharonJr]

Turn 40

Conjuration is up to 8 and will be researched till 9.

8 blood slaves were captured in Gol Phalas and another 8 in Kolermegor.

3 Vine Ogres were summoned in Kolermegor in addition the the Spectre in Tiash. I think that the Spectre might be a decent assassin due to its decent hitpoints, defense, etheralness and 1W, 1E, 1D (Quickness, Iron Skin, Animate Dead, Animate Dead, Frozen Heart, Attack rearmost), it will be moved to Gol Ryepe.

Acashic Record cast on Gipha revealed 1 magic site – Flesh Eater’s Isle (unholy priests can summon ghouls here for free).

100 additional taxes were raised in Scytha and 200 in Pangaea.


Provinces: 54
Treasury: 2.140
Income: 2.622
Upkeep: 1.366
RP: 442
Fortification: 7
Temple: 12

Conjuration – 8 (researching)
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 8
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 7

Fire gems: 56 (+16)
Air: 30 (+6)
Water gems: 25 (+14)
Earth: 26 (+6)
Astral gems: 7 (+15/+13)
Death: 22 (+10)
Nature: 30 (+11)
Blood: 0


Updated province information:

Indies have taken Namor and I will try to take this province.


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.

It seems like my newly empowered 3B mage died (reason unknown) making me effectively waste 45 blood slaves http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

The Golden Adept is 2F, 2S, 1E and will be set to research, another one will be recruited.

I got a 1W, 3S, 1N, 1B mage who will research, the Lore Master turned out to be 2A, 1S, 1N who will research, too. One od each will be recruited again.

3 More Vine Ogres will be summoned for 1 nature gem in Kolermegor.

A Bane Lord will be summoned for 10 death gems to lead some undead archers later on.

Acashic Records will be cast for 25 astral gems on Moss Woods.

The Clam is given to a star child in C’tis.


My mage lead army in Illidar will attack the roughly 10 indie troglodytes in Namor.

The 2 armies in Temiglia will move to secure Spire Woods.

The mage lead army and the priest in Birman Highs continue to Black Forest.

The fodder army in Old Man Mountains continues to Solam.

The mage lead army in Wicker Woods moves to Glade Woods.

The army in Rim Mountains picks up some routed troops and moves to Old Man Mountains.

My hired assassin Terminus is moving from Giant’s Rest to The Two Woods and I hope to catch a Ulm commander there.

The mage lead army in Giant’s Rest will move to reinforce Bolfagon.

The mage lead army and the Illithid Lord lead army in Gol Ryepe move to Giant’s Rest, the 2 fodder armies move to Glimmering Fields.

A temple and a fortress are build in Glimmering Fields in additions to 21 defenses. Another 21 defenses will be build in Bolfagon.

The armies in Glade Woods, Moss Woods, Iron Range, Solam, Bolfagon and Old Forest will stay in their defensive positions.


A Clam of Pearls will be forged for 8 water gems.


In Abysia 7 heavy infantry and 3 archers will be recruited in addition to 1 barbarian chief and 18 barbarians in Jotunheim and 1 commander + 1 heavy infantry in Cacian Forest.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART40.JPG

[CharonJr]

Turn 41

Pythium declared war this turn.

4 blood slaves were captured in Gol Phalas, another 7 in Kolermegor and 1 in Gol Ryepe.

3 Vine Ogres were summoned in Kolermegor in addition to the Bane Lord.

Acashic Record cast on Moss Woods revealed 1 magic site – Thunder Oak (+1 air gem).

50 additional taxes were raised in Temiglia in addition to reducing the unrest by 20.

Solam was flloded by rain and 25% of the population died.

My armies in Giant’s Rest are starving and I will switch them for the armies in Bolfagon.

The 8 trogs in Namor were easily defeated, but Man wanted its province back, too, attacking with 25 light cavalery, 10 Cu Shide, 6 spearmen and 2 Daoine Shide lead by 1 Castellan and 1 Shide Champion. Gladly the arrows failed to do serious harm and the charging Cu Shide were dispatched first, some due to enslaves. Meanwhile my centaurs charged the archers and routed them. The remaining infantry soon followed leaving just the Champion on the battlefield taking death before dishonor http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif 2 of my centaurs died.

Pythium attacked in Spire Woods with 15 Triarius, 5 Principes lead by a serpent lord and a theurg communicant. The battle looked fairly bleak with 3 sea trolls, 2 trogs, 1 Nifel Giant and 10 fodder being killed before the 4 Otherness were able to turn the tide. In the end all but 3 Triarius were killed.

The other Pythium attack took place in Old Forest. The Pythium forces consisted of 10 Alae Legionnaires, 5 militas, 3 serpent cataphracts and 1 hydra hatchling being lead by 1 Serpent Lord. After 1 serpent cataphract and the hydra hatchling were enslaved the Pythium forces routed, after this another serpent cataphract and the Serpent Lord were enslaved. For some reason my 5 knights stayed right next to the unmoving hydra and were killed by the poison http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif


Provinces: 55
Treasury: 1.290
Income: 2.665
Upkeep: 1.407
RP: 494
Fortification: 7
Temple: 13
Converted Provinces: 27

Conjuration – 8 (researching, will reach 9)
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 8
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 7

Fire gems: 88 (+16)
Air: 27 (+7)
Water gems: 37 (+14)
Earth: 38 (+6)
Astral gems: 10 (+15/+14)
Death: 32 (+10)
Nature: 50 (+11)
Blood: 27


Updated province information:

There are roughly 100 troops in each of Glanis and The Two Woods.


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.

Ah, my 3B mage is back, mistakenly I used him to cast Acashic Record http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif he will be moved to Tiash now.

The Golden Adept is 2F, 3S (argh, I need it the other way around...) and will be set to research, another one will be recruited.

I got a 1W, 3S, 2D mage who be moved to Gol Phalas to summon some death troops there. The Lore Master turned out to be 1A, 1W, 1S, 1N who will research.One of each will be recruited again.

3 More Vine Ogres will be summoned for 1 nature gem in Kolermegor.

Acashic Records will be cast for 25 astral gems on Birman Highs.

The Clam is given to a star child in C’tis.


The 2 mage lead armies from Glade Woods will attack the Phythium province of Elkland which is only lightly defended at the moment.

The lightly defended Pythium province of Garillion will be attacked by my 2 fodder armies from Solam.

The Pythium province of Storn Woods is defended by about 20 troops and will be attacked by my mage lead army from Black Forest while the priest will build a temple.

Pythium is defended by roughly 30 troops including the pretender – a Son of the Sun – and will be attacked from Old Woods and Spire Woods by 2 mages, 1 star spawn priest and Glisas to provide additional firepower since my troops consist of just 4 Otherness, 3 Illithids and about 10 assorted enslaved units

The lightly defended province of Jerib will be attacked by 1 mage lead army from Iron Range.

The army for Old Man Mountains will move to Solam.

The priest in Glimmering Fields will start to preach while the fortress is still under construction.

The Spectre from Gol Ryere will move to Giant’s Rest and the assassin in The Two Woods will try to assassinate a commander.

An army with 24 heavy infantry will move from Abysia to Gol Ryepe.


A Clam of Pearls will be forged for 8 water gems in addition to a Winged Helmet (+1A) for 16 air gems and a Starshine Skullcap (+1S) for 8 astral gems.

The remaining RPs will be put into Alteration.

Atlanasha is still feebleminded, is it possible that Gift of Health will not word underwater or have I been just unlucky till now ?


In Abysia 1 commander and 6 heavy infantry and 3 archers will be recruited.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART41.JPG

[ February 29, 2004, 18:16: Message edited by: CharonJr ]

[Arryn]

You have an impressive / obscene number of RPs. I'm envious. And gem income. When I think of what I could do with those numbers if I had them in my Utgard game ...

Do you build PD? If I recruited as many mages as you have I couldn't afford to have built all the PD I have. I'm still trying to figure out how you're so much stronger in magic than I am (350 RPs on Turn 33 vs. my 232 on the same turn). I can add, if I try, 35 RPs worth per turn in mages (at a cost of 510g). You're climbing faster than that.

[CharonJr]

Turn 42

Research in conjuration is completed.

8 blood slaves were captured in Gol Phalas, another 8 in Kolermegor.

3 Vine Ogres were summoned in Kolermegor.

Acashic Record cast on Birman Highs revealed 2 magic sites – Mirrorlake (+2 water gems, +1 air gem) and an Earth Blood Seepage (+2 earth gems).

Some fire gems were found in The Weald, and some troops were cursed when they took some gems away from a witch.

Terminus successfully assassinated a Commander of Ulm in The Two Woods.

My undefended army province of Spire Woods was taken by Pythium.

The Pythium province of Jerib was defended by 20 militias and 15 slingers who were easily dispatched.

Pythium’s province of Storn Woods was defended by 20 militias, 15 slingers, 10 Velites, 6 Principes, 6 Battle Vestals, 5 barbarians and 5 archers, 5 Villain lead by 1 Centurion, 2 Theug Communicants, 1Battle Deacon, 1 Barbarian Chief and 1 Hydra Trainer. While they rolled towards my 8 Illithids, 3 Greater Otherness, 1 Minotaur and 1 fodder my mage managed to enslave 4 of them, slowing them down a bit with the mindbLasts helping, too. When the troops clashed the slingers and archers were killing hurting their own men more than mine. The Greater Otherness cut through the infantry like a hot knife through butter. Right before my Greater Otherness reached the Pythium commanders the Pythium forces routed.

A indie army consisting of 15 militias, 15 thralls, 10 blood slaves and 8 vampires lead by a vampire count attacked Storn Woods next. The vampires attacked and it took some rounds to kill them due to being etheral. Next the thralls were killed by the Greater Otherness without any problems. The count summoned undead 3 times but nothing was able to stop my Greater Otherness. But in the end the number of enemies did take its toll and 1 Greater Otherness was killed.

The PDs in Elkland were overcome without problems.

My two fodder armies in Garillion were met by 10 militias, 5 slingers and 5 barbarians lead by a Centurion and a Battle Deacon. The first volley of my archers routed the militias. Later the archers killed more of my own men than enemies. In the end I lost 6 fodder.

A sneaking enemy was discovered in Old Aran.

My forces in Pythium (2 mages, 1 star spawn priest and Glisas leading 4 Otherness, 3 Illithids, 2 serpent cataphract, 2 Emerlad Lords, 1 Serpent Lord and 10 fodder) met 45 militias, 25 slingers, 20 gladiators, 6 Velites and 1 serpent cataphract lead by 1 Serpent Lord, 1 Emerald Lord, 2 Centurion and the Pythium pretender – a Son of the Sun. My mages casted some enslaves while Glisas jumed right into the slingers after casting its preparation spells. My mages had to cast 6 Paralyse on the pretender before one finally stuck. The Son’s Astral Shield paralysed 5 of my troops, but he was killed fairly fast anyway. The remaining Pythium forces routed but just about 10 were able to escape. 1 serpent cataphract was enslaved. Glisas reach the fourth XP star during this fight.

The Dark Citadell in Pythium will take quite some time to breach due to its 350 defense, but I am not sure if I can assign additional troops to support the siege right now.


Provinces: 59
Treasury: 1.757
Income: 2.784
Upkeep: 1.447
RP: 501
Fortification: 7
Temple: 14
Converted Provinces: 25

Conjuration – 9
Alteration – 6 (researchind, will reach 7)
Evocation – 6
Construction – 8
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 7

Fire gems: 109 (+16)
Air: 20 (+9)
Water gems: 46 (+17)
Earth: 46 (+8)
Astral gems: 11 (+17/+15)
Death: 32 (+10)
Nature: 63 (+12)
Blood: 27


Updated province information:


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.


The Golden Adept is 2F, 1E, 2S and will be set to research, another one will be recruited.

I got a 2W, 3S, 1N mage who will research. The Lore Master turned out to be 2A, 1E, 1N who will research.One of each will be recruited again.

3 More Vine Ogres will be summoned for 1 nature gem in Kolermegor.

Acashic Records will be cast for 25 astral gems on Black Forest.

The Clam is given to a star child in C’tis, the Winged Helmet (+1A) to my 3A mage and the Starshine Skullcap (+1S) to a 3S mage who will move to Talito.


The 2 fodder armies from Garillion will move to Storn Woods in order to support the siege at Pythium.

The 2 mage lead armies from Elkland will attack the lightly defended province of Cimri.

The mage lead army from Stron Woods will attack the lightly defended province of Tirannea.

My mage lead army in Jerib will attack Spire Woods which is defended by roughly 30 Pythium gladiators. Glisas will support the attack since it is fairly useless at the siege anyway.

My fodder army in Gol Ryepe will move to Glimmering Fields.

My priest in Giant’s Rest will build a temple.

The Spectre will move to The Two Woods where Terminus will try another assassination.

My mage lead army in Solam will move to Garillion.

The priest in Black Woods will move to Storn Woods to build a temple there.


A Clam of Pearls will be forged for 8 water gems in addition to a Bag of Winds (+1A) for 16 air gems and a Blood Thorn (+1B) for 16 blood slaves and a Starshine Skullcap (+1S) for 8 astral gems.

Since I want to cast a Well of Misery (required 80 death gems, adds death gems each turn) soon I can’t use any death gems for forging right now, but I can’t resist the temptation to cast Tartarian Gate for 10 death gems at least once http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART42.JPG

[CharonJr]

Originally posted by Arryn:
You have an impressive / obscene number of RPs. I'm envious. And gem income. When I think of what I could do with those numbers if I had them in my Utgard game ...

Do you build PD? If I recruited as many mages as you have I couldn't afford to have built all the PD I have. I'm still trying to figure out how you're so much stronger in magic than I am (350 RPs on Turn 33 vs. my 232 on the same turn). I can add, if I try, 35 RPs worth per turn in mages (at a cost of 510g). You're climbing faster than that. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Nope, I rarely build PDs unless I am afraid of an impending attack. And even then I will not build them unless I am fairly confident that they will make a difference in the fight. Whenever I build PDs I write it into the AAR since this happens fairly seldom.

I prefer a fairly strong offensive/mobile army to static defenses.

I recruit about 35 RPs each turn, too, costing me 610 gold. But I think the main difference are my researching heroes and pretender (48 RPs each turn) in addition to the fairly cheap (85 gold) star children which add 7 research which I essentially recruited ever turn in the beginning in addition to the mages.

The star children are among the most efficient concerning RPs/gold due to my magic scales of 3.

My main focus is on research, which would likely get me killed in MP fairly fast, but did work fairly well in this SP.

I think I was able to conquer richer provinces in the beginning, too, enabeling me to buy more mages.

And finally the decent Void summons enabled me to save some money I would have otherwise been forced to spend on troops.

CharonJr

[Arryn]

Okay, that explains things. I routinely build all provinces to 10 PD, and 20 PD on borders that are, or may become, contested. Different styles. Whatever works is okay. And after all, it's only an AI ... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[CharonJr]

Originally posted by Arryn:
Okay, that explains things. I routinely build all provinces to 10 PD, and 20 PD on borders that are, or may become, contested. Different styles. Whatever works is okay. And after all, it's only an AI ... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well, in contrast to the R'lyeh PDs (except the Illithid commanders) the Jotunheim PDs are actually worth their money http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 43

Research in alteration reached level 7.

8 blood slaves were captured in Gol Phalas, another 11 in Kolermegor and 1 in Dunheim.

3 Vine Ogres were summoned in Kolermegor and Tartarian Gate was cast in Tiash, summoning a Tartarian Cyclops (no leader) – 327 HP, 18 prot, 30 mor, 17 MR, 0 Enc, 26 Str, 12 Att, 17 def, 5 prec, 3/11 move.

Acashic Record cast on Black Forest revealed 1 magic site – Corpse Candles’ Marsh (+1 death gem, +1 water gem).

Rain killed one fourth of my pepole in Great Aran Waste.

Terminus successfully assassinated another Commander of Ulm in The Two Woods, but is leaving my services now.

In Cimri my forces faced about 30 militias/slingers who were easily defeated.

My sieging forces in Pythium were attacked by 15 forces from Pythium who were easily beaten and adding 1 Emerald Lord and 6 fodder to my forces.

Tirannea was only defended by PDs and taken easily.

Spire Woods was defended by roughly 15 militias and 15 gladiators lead by 3 Centurions. They were beaten without my forces breaking a sweat.

My Spectre was found in The Two Woods and slain by roughly 100 troops from Ulm.


Provinces: 62
Treasury: 2.354
Income: 2.925
Upkeep: 1.499
RP: 503
Fortification: 8
Temple: 15
Converted Provinces: 27

Conjuration – 9
Alteration – 7 (researching)
Evocation – 6
Construction – 8
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 7

Fire gems: 80 (+16)
Air: 24 (+9)
Water gems: 47 (+19)
Earth: 54 (+8)
Astral gems: 13 (+17/+16)
Death: 43 (+11)
Nature: 54 (+12)
Blood: 30


Updated province information:


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.


The Golden Adept is 2F, 1A, 2S and will be set to research, another one will be recruited.

I got a 1W, 5S! mage who will move to Tiash and get the Starshine Skullcap – recruiting 1 more.

The Lore Master turned out to be 1F, 1S, 1D, 1B who will research – recruiting 1 more.

3 More Vine Ogres will be summoned for 1 nature gem in Kolermegor.

Acashic Records will be cast for 25 astral gems on Yldmyre.

Finally Atlanasha is cured of feeblemind and will continue summoning.

The Clam is given to a star child in C’tis, the Blood Thorn (+1B) is given to the 3B mage who will forge a Brazen Vessel (+1B) for 16 blood slaves. The Bag of Winds (+1A) is given to the 3(4)A mage who will cast Raven Feast (conj5, 4A, 5 air gems) on Cimri (24 corpses) in the hope of getting some much needed death gems.

Since I don’t seem to get a 3F Lore Master and have enough fire gems I will empower a 2F mage for 45 fire gems.


The 2 fodder armies from Storn Woods will move to Pythium and the priest will build a temple.

Glisas will move from Spire Woods to Ermithia.

The army from Garillion will move to Storn Woods.

The 2 mage armies from Cimri will move to Pythium.

The mage in Talito will continue to Glimmering Fields.

My priest in Giant’s Rest is starting to preach will the priest in Stron Woods will build a temple.


A Clam of Pearls will be forged for 8 water gems in addition to Boots of Quickness for 10 water gems.

A Robe of Shadows (Etheralness) will be forged (8 astral gems) for the Cyclops who will be Gift of Reasoned (20 nature gems) this turn.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART43.JPG

[CharonJr]

Turn 44


Ulm declared war this turn.

6 blood slaves were captured in Gol Phalas, another 4 in Kolermegor.

3 Vine Ogres were summoned in Kolermegor.

Acashic Record cast on Yldmyre revealed 1 magic site – Thunder Oak (+1 air gem) and Raven Feast brought back 2 death gems being a bit disappointing, but 5 air gems for 2 death gems is a better ratio than alchemies 4:1.

Gift of Reason revealed the Cyclops to posses 4E, 10 RPs and leadership of 25.

There was a festival in Glimmering Field raising faith and an ill omen was seen in Temiglia.

Ulm attacked my forces in Giant’s Rest with about 100 troops (60 militias, 15 Infantry of Ulm, 15 heavy infantry, 8 crossbowmen, 2 heavy cavalery and 1 black knight lead by 3 Commanders of Ulm). They faced my 7 knights/royal guards, 2 Vine Ogres and 10 fodder troops in addition to 21 PDs, being lead by 2 Illithid Lords (PDs), 1 starspawn mage and a lowbie priest (2H). I forgot the reset myriders to hold and attack rearmost, they were still set to attack closest from the siege, this way they charged right into the enemy ranks and received a beating after being able to kill about 10 militias. They routed after 3 of the 7 were killed. In the meantime the PDs reached the militias and while losing some men were able to route the militias. The Infantry of Ulm engaged my forces next and broke the slaves trooper contingent of the PDs. But my mindless kept pressing on breaking the Infantry of Ulm soon. In the end Ulm lost its 3 commanders (enslaves mainly) and 48 troops while I lost 3 riders and 1 fodder while 4 crossbowmen and 1 black knight were integrated into my army.

My armies in Bolfagon were attacked by 10 troops from Ulm who were quickly beaten.

Glisas deafted the PDs in Ermithia easily.


Provinces: 63
Treasury: 2.924
Income: 3.036
Upkeep: 1.538
RP: 503
Fortification: 8
Temple: 16
Converted Provinces: 29

Conjuration – 9
Alteration – 7 (researching, will reach 8)
Evocation – 6
Construction – 8
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 7

Fire gems: 80 (+16)
Air: 18 (+10)
Water gems: 58 (+19)
Earth: 62 (+8)
Astral gems: 21 (+18/+17)
Death: 56 (+11)
Nature: 33 (+12)
Blood: 36


Updated province information:

There seem to have been an indie uprising in Man’s province of Glanis.


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.


The Golden Adept is 2F, 3S and will be set to research, another one will be recruited.

I got a 1W, 1E, 3S, 1B mage who will research – recruiting 1 more.

The Lore Master turned out to be 1F, 1A, 1E, 1N who will research – recruiting 1 more.

3 More Vine Ogres will be summoned for 1 nature gem in Kolermegor.

Acashic Records will be cast for 25 astral gems on Great Aran Waste.

The Clam is given to a star child in C’tis, the Robe of Shadows is given to the Cyclops in addition to the Boots of Earth bringing him to 5E (for Forge of the Ancients when I get the 80 needed earth gems).


My mage lead army from Giant’s Rest will move to Bolfagon to pick up some of the routed forces. While one mage lead army from Glimmering Fields will replace it in Giant’s Rest.

The army and priest form Stron Woods will move to Pythium to support the siege there.

Glisas from Ermithia and the 2 mage lead armies from Tirannea will attack the indie province of Glanis, hopefully being able to beat the 140 troops Man might send.


A Clam of Pearls will be forged for 8 water gems in addition to an Amulet of Antimagic for 4 astral gems, a Ruby Eye (+1F) for 16 fire gems, a Treelords Staff (+2N) for 32 nature gems, a Spirit Helmet (casts lightning) for 16 air gems and a Ring of the Warrior (adds to attack skill) for 4 Blood Slaves.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART44.JPG

[CharonJr]

Turn 46

Forge of the Ancients was cast adding hugely to my forging program.

4 blood slaves were captured in Gol Phalas, another 5 in Kolermegor and 2 in Dunheim.

Acashic Record cast on Wicker Woods revealed 3 magic sites – Damned Merchant (+1 blood slave), The Inverted Tower (+4 air gems, can recruit Illusionists) and a Brigand Lair (increases unrest by 5, can recruit villain).

An ill omen was seen in Faran.

Ulm attacked in Giant’s Rest. Their forces consisted of 20 militias, 20 Infantry of Ulm and about 15 archers being lead by the Ulm pretender (Moloch), Terminus the Merc-Assassin and a Siege Engineer with 5 sappers. I forgot to move my mage with his 2 Ice Trolls and 1 Otherness to The Two Woods, that’s why he was there with the 21 PDs. My mage managed to paralyse the Moloch, but sadly my troops were not able to take advantage of this since they were outnumbered and defeated.

Glisas easily defeated the PDs in Witches Copse.

My troops met roughly 130 defenders in Monherboa – 40 crossbowmen, 30 light infantry, 20 Infantry of Ulm, 20 militias and 10 guardians being lead by 5 Siege Engineers, 4 Priests, 4 Commanders of Ulm, 1 Master Smith and 1 Lord Guardian. I was fielding 15 Illithid Soldiers, 7 Vine Ogres, 8 archer/crossbowmen, 5 knights and 7 fodder being led by 2 mages, 1 2H priest and 1 Illithid Lord. Except for the fodder I just lost 1 Vine Ogre and killed 88 troops and 6 commanders.

My armies in The Two Woods were met by 45 regular Ulmish troops (mainly 30 crossbowmen and 15 Infantry of Ulm) in addition to about 25PDs, while my forces numbered 80 troops (about 40 archers, 30 heavy Infantry and 10 knights being led by 2 mages and 2 priests. 1 enemy knight managed to break 25 of my archers (reminding me why I prefer summons in my armies). With the help of some Fanaticisms my heavy infantry and knights were able to break the Infantry of Ulm and the crossbowmen shortly after. In the end 36 troops and 3 commanders were killed while I lost 10 troopers.

My armies in Pythium faced just 4 Theurg Acolytes, 1 Hero, 1 Triarius and 1 Serpernt Lord. All but 1 Acolyte were enslaved http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Atlansha summoned a Greater Otherness.

Pythium was destroyed.


Provinces: 63
Treasury: 2.743
Income: 3.188
Upkeep: 1.749
RP: 545
Fortification: 9
Temple: 16
Converted Provinces: 32

Conjuration – 9
Alteration – 8 (researching, will reach 9)
Evocation – 6
Construction – 8
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6 (researching,will reach 7)
Blood Magic – 7

Fire gems: 90 (+18)
Air: 39 (+15)
Water gems: 39 (+22)
Earth: 9 (+9)
Astral gems: 1 (+23/+18)
Death: 0 (+11)
Nature: 40 (+12)
Blood: 9 (+1)


Updated province information:

I am not sure about the name of Ulm’s capital, but would have expected Ulm. Maybe it is Nicia or Ulm got a fortress there for some reason, but I will siege it anyway.


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.


The Golden Adept is 3F, 2S (argh, now that I “wasted” the gems on empowering another mage) and will move him to Tiash, another one will be recruited.

I got a 1W, 4S, 1B mage who will move with 10 Illitihds to the northern front – recruiting 1 more.

The Lore Master turned out to be 2F, 1A, 1W who will research – recruiting 1 more.

3 More Vine Ogres will be summoned for 1 nature gem in Kolermegor.

Acashic Records will be cast for 25 astral gems on Cimri.

The Clam is given to a star child in C’tis, the Sanguine Rod the the newly empowered 2B mage who will move to Hoburgdorf and hunt there, the Flame Helmet is given to my 3(4)F mage, the Starshine Skullcap and Sceptre of Authority are given to a 2W, 1E, 3S mage who will move to Kolermegor to pick up the Vine Ogres there, the Cyclops exchanges the Earth Boots for Boots of Quickness and will move to Gol Ryepe.


The fodder army from Nifel will move with 25 militias to Gol Ryepe.

The 2 fodder armies from Pythium will move to Tirannea.

A mage led army and a mage will move from Pythium to Glanis while the remaining 2 mage led armies move to Iron Range.

The star spawn priest from Pythium will move to Temiglia.

2 mage led armies and the priest will move from Monherboa to Midland while the Illithid Lord and his Illithid Soldiers and the remaining mage will attack Forest of Idun. Both provinces are defended by roughly 20 troops from Ulm.

Both fodder armies from The Two Woods supported by 2 priests and one mage will try to take Nicia which is defended by 20 troops and PDs.

A commander without troops from The Two Woods moves to Glimmering Fields.

The remaining mage led army from The Two Woods will attack Banded Hills which is defended by PDs and 1 sapper.

Glisas attacks Lupia from Witches Copse and will met about 20 militias/archers in addition to PDs.


A temple will be build in Pythium and the 8 recruited mages will move to empty provinces to build temples there.

The PDs in Gol Ryepe are increased to 21 while the PDs in Glimmering Fields and Bolfagon are raised by 10 to 31.


4 Clams of Pearls will be forged for 16 water gems in addition to an Armor of Souls (+1B) for 16 blood slaves, a Skull of Fire (+1F) for 1 fire and 1 death gem, a Trident from Beyond (+1W) for 8 water and 4 astral gems, a Sceptre of Authority for 5 fire gems and 2 Starshine Skullcaps (+1S) for 8 astral gems.

10 astral gems were converted to death gems and Well of Misery will be cast for 83 death gems.

23 Illithids will be recruited in R’lyeh in addition to 1 Hybrid Commander in Glimmering Fields to pick up some routed troops.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART46.JPG


BTW, I updated to 2.08 on this turn.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
My troops met roughly 130 defenders in Monherboa – 40 crossbowmen, 30 light infantry, 20 Infantry of Ulm, 20 militias and 10 guardians being lead by 5 Siege Engineers, 4 Priests, 4 Commanders of Ulm, 1 Master Smith and 1 Lord Guardian. I was fielding 15 Illithid Soldiers, 7 Vine Ogres, 8 archer/crossbowmen, 5 knights and 7 fodder being led by 2 mages, 1 2H priest and 1 Illithid Lord. Except for the fodder I just lost 1 Vine Ogre and killed 88 troops and 6 commanders.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">An impressive achievement to kill so many with such a small force. Your mages must have played an important role ...

[CharonJr]

Turn 45


8 blood slaves were captured in Gol Phalas, another 5 in Kolermegor.

3 Vine Ogres were summoned in Kolermegor.

Acashic Record cast on Great Aran Waste revealed 3 magic sites – Mineral Cave (+1 earth gem), Mercury Pond (+2 water gem) and a Unholy Temple (+1 death gem).

A witch cursed some of my troops for taking her gems in Jerib.

A group of religios zealots (militias) showed up in Nifel to join my forces.

Ulm attacked in Giant’s Rest again, with about 190 troops this time – about 80 militias, 30 Infantry of Ulm, 20 heavy infantry, 20 archers, 20 sappers, 10 Black Plate Infantry and about 5 Black Knights lead by 2 Black Lords, 1 Siege Engineer and a Lord Guardian. My army fielded 21 PDs with their commanders in addition to 15 fodder, 3 summons and 3 Ice Trolls lead by a starspawn mage and supported by a 2H priest. My PDs were decimated by the archers but kept pressing on and were able to break the leading militias. My mages Astral Fires riped decent holes into the advancing enemies. Due to the huge losses the Pythium forces routed after about 10 more turns despite my forces just having 1 Otherness and 2 Ice Trolls left in addition to 5 fodder.

The 22 indie barbarian defenders were easily defeated, but as expected Man attacked. But since the attack was just lead by 20 spearman, 10 archers and 10 militas it was easily repelled.

The entrance to Pythium has been breached.


Provinces: 63
Treasury: 2.743
Income: 3.101
Upkeep: 1.609
RP: 503
Fortification: 8
Temple: 17
Converted Provinces: 30

Conjuration – 9
Alteration – 8 (researching, will reach 9)
Evocation – 6
Construction – 8
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 7

Fire gems: 80 (+16)
Air: 18 (+10)
Water gems: 58 (+19)
Earth: 62 (+8)
Astral gems: 21 (+18/+17)
Death: 56 (+11)
Nature: 33 (+12)
Blood: 36


Updated province information:

Since I seems to be unable to bleed the Ulmish forces dry (too many are able to escape) I will attack this turn. Witches Copse is virtually undefended while The Two Woods and Monherboa are defended by about 100 troops each in addition to heavy PDs. Ulm’s Moloch defender is in The Two Woods.


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.


The Golden Adept is 2F, 1A, 2S and will be set to research, another one will be recruited.

I got a 1W, 1E, 3S, 1N mage who will research – recruiting 1 more.

The Lore Master turned out to be 2W, 1E, 1N who will research – recruiting 1 more.

3 More Vine Ogres will be summoned for 1 nature gem in Kolermegor.

Acashic Records will be cast for 25 astral gems on Wicker Woods.

The Clam is given to a star child in C’tis, the Treelords Staff is given to my 2(3)N mage in Tiash, the Amulet of Antimagic, Spirit Helmet and Ring of the Warrior are given the the Cyclops and the Ruby Eye to my 3F mage.

A 1B mage will be empowered to 2B for 30 blood slaves in order to get another bloodhunter.


The fortress in Pythium will be stormed by the 5 armies with the support of 2 priests and 1 additional mage.

Glisas will attack the lightly defended province of Witch Copse.

My 3 fodder armies and 1 mage led army will attack The Two Woods with the support of 1 mage, 1 priest and the prophet from Glimmering Fields.

My 5 armies from Giant’s Rest and Bolfagon will attack Monherboa.

A commander from Abysia will move to pick up the militias in Nifel and a new one will be recruited.


A Clam of Pearls will be forged for 8 water gems in addition to a Flame Helmet for 16 fire gems, a Sanguine Rod for 4 blood gems, Winged Shoes for 4 air gems, a Sceptre of Authority for 5 fire gems and a Starshine Skullcap for 8 astral gems.

A Tarrasque will be summoned this turn for 25 nature gems in addition to casting a Forge of the Ancients for 86 earth gems by transforming all astral gems into earth gems.

23 Illithids will be recruited in R’lyeh in addition to 8 priests to build temples in the conquered provinces.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART45.JPG

[CharonJr]

Arryn,

you are right, I should have been a bit more elaborate about this one.

Mainly it was the usual mix which which tends to lead to success for my forces:

Some enemies are enslaved - leading to fighting among themselves - while my mindbLasters do their job of stuning/killing more troops to great effect due to the additional time they get due to the infighting.

The Vine Ogres took the brunt of the infantry attack - giving my bLasters even more time to do their work - breaking the infantry fairly fast (thus sustaining only light casualties, except for the fodder which did their job of being fodder http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ).

In addition the knights were put on hold/attack archers (my standard setup for them) and tore through the ranks of the crossbowmen and commanders later on.

The crossbowmen were fairly inefficient due to the decent protection of my troops and the long range (they were trying to take out the Illithid Soldiers mainly).

Overall I would say that my mages played actually a fairly minor role (except for the VERY important enslaves). The major number of the kills were caused due to the stuned enemy troops who were just standing there waiting to be killed after their other forces routed. I seem to recall that about 40 were killed after the battle was won.

But my mages surely could have played a larger role if I assigned gems to them. Due to no gems they are limited to 4S and tend to mainly cast protection spells on themself after the scripted spells are cast.

CharonJr

[Norfleet]

Hmm. I wouldn't say that those enslaves played a "minor" part in the battle. I'd say they were rather crucial in buying you more firing time. Don't discount the small stuff: I've seen battles go totally pear-shaped because of a single "minor" event such as a single militiaman getting Enslaved, a battle which would otherwise have ended in their favor....but for that event.

[CharonJr]

Yup, that's why I said "except the VERY important enslaves", but after casting the scripted spells they became virtually useless http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Hmm, having them use the mindbLasts would be a possibility, but sometimes (even fairly often) they decide to use decent spells (Soul Slay and Paralyse mainly after buffing themselves), but this time they kept on casting buffs for some reason.

Now that I think about it this might have been due to them standing right in the middle of the Illithid Soldiers, thus having enough targets for their buffs with a range of 1.

Next time I will try to position them away from other troops, this might "force" them to use more useful battle spells.

This will leave them more vulnerable to attacks, but I will surely try to see if it helps. If it helps I can decide on a case by case basis if I am willing to risk my mages for more offensive output.

CharonJr

[Wendigo]

The Starspawn are among the best mages in the game, do not missuse them with mindbLast orders. Give them a chance to prove themselves with the right research & they will not let you down.

What is more, missile troops & commanders that run out of ammo default to attack orders...in a long battle your mages would end up charging into melee after exahusting their mindbLasts: paralyze a SC, only to purposefully suicide vs his fire/cold aura!

[CharonJr]

Originally posted by Wendigo:
The Starspawn are among the best mages in the game, do not missuse them with mindbLast orders. Give them a chance to prove themselves with the right research & they will not let you down.

What is more, missile troops & commanders that run out of ammo default to attack orders...in a long battle your mages would end up charging into melee after exahusting their mindbLasts: paralyze a SC, only to purposefully suicide vs his fire/cold aura! <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Since I already suspect that they behaved this way due to me placing them right with the Illithid Soldiers there is no real danger of me wasting them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

As have been said in other threads I tend to believe that about 80% of the stupid spells cast by the AI are due to "user errors" and not knowing what factors into the AIs decision about what spells to cast.

Here it seems like protecting the Illithid Soldiers got priority over offensive spells. Due to the range/precision of the crossbowmen and the decent protection of the Illithid Soldiers this wasn't a good decision in this case but it could have been a VERY good decision under different circumstances.

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Just a quick question here:

Due to the reluctance of the AIs declaring war, the numbers of enemy troops I can see and the remaining provinces I am fairly sure that R'lyeh is at least as strong as the other remaining nations combined.

Sadly the AIs haven't ganged up on me like I have been expecting for the Last turns.

This has got me thinking about attacking Man and Altantis in order to force them into a war with me before I can further strengthen my position.

What do you think about this ?

CharonJr

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
after casting the scripted spells they became virtually useless<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">If the mages are squids, you can try 5 scripted spells, then "Fire Closest" so that instead of using spells the AI uses mind bLasts. This at least guarantees 10 more attacks that aren't useless AI picks ...

[ March 02, 2004, 12:17: Message edited by: Arryn ]

[CharonJr]

Well, since everybody seems to be asleep I simply have to attack Man and Atlantis. Maybe this will wake up some people http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif


Turn 47

Research in alteration has been completed (level 9) and thaumaturgy is up to 7.

5 blood slaves were captured in Gol Phalas, another 8 in Kolermegor and 4 in Dunheim.

Acashic Record cast on Cimri revealed 1 magic site –

Indie barbarians attacked my province of Tirannea, but were easily defeated by my troops.

My tax income has been increased permanently by 25 gold in Kolermegor.

My province of Gol Ryepe was attacked by Ulm with 10 archers, 5 militias, 5 Black Plate Infantry, 5 Infantry of Ulm and 3 sappers being led by a Master Smith and the Moloch (Ulm’s pretender). My defenders consist of 21 PDs, 25 militia fodder, 20 blood slaves (doh !) being lead by Meges (my Cyclops), a scout and a commander. Meges casted Invulnerability and Strength of Giants on himself, the Moloch summoned 10 imps and the Master Smith castin Curse of Stones (fighters lose endurance quickly) with Meges following up the Legions of Steel and Iron Will. The imps were quickly beaten by the PDs. Meges cast another Strength of the Giants and Iron Warriors (making curse myself for not scripting anything for him since he is supposed to be a SC, not a caster). My militias were easily routed by the Infantry of Ulm while the Moloch jumped right into my fodder and PDs breaking my slave troopers very soon and puting my blood slaves very close to the fighting. My lobo guards very able to break the Ulm militias, Black Plate Infantry and Infantry of Ulm. Meges cast Blade Wind next (great, still no close combat http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif ). The Master Smith was casting very efficient Magma Bolts but was not able to save the Moloch from the onslaught of the lobo guards. While Meges was down due to fatigue his Spirit Helm kept casting Lightning Bolts, but except 1 imp at the beginning it kept missing. Despite the archers killing a fair number of lobo guards they pressed on and finally engaged the archers, routing them soon after. When Meges git back into the action he cast another useless Blade Wind (all missed) and was down again. The armies of Ulm were routed shortly after this and my troops were only able to kill the stunned soldiers. In the end I lost 7 fodder while killing 17 Ulm troopers and the Moloch.

Nicia was defended by 10 crossbowmen and 5 archers being led by a priest and a S
siege engineer. They were no match for my 20 heavy infantry and 10 archers lead by a mage and 2 priests and routed after losing 2 troopers and 1 commander.

Midland was defended by 18 crossbowmen and a priest who were defeated without a loss, routing after just 1 was killed.

My 5 knights being lead by a mage attacking Banded Hills routed after the first volley from roughly 20 crossbowmen killed the mage.

Forest of Idun was defended by 20 militias, 10 crossbowmen, 10 Infantry of Ulm, 5 archers and 2 knights led by 3 siege engineers, 1 commander, 1 master smith and a priest. My army consisted of 15 Illithid Soldiers, 1 commander and a mage who was hit by crossbow bolts on the firsts turn and imediatly tried to retreat. 1 of the knights was killed, the other one stunned by the first volley of mindbLasts. About 20 more troops were killed/stunned before they got into close combat range with my Illithids, but a stray bolt killed my mage. 5 Illithids got into close combat while the others kept bLasting. The infantry broke when all my Illithids atarted to attack, but the ranged troops kept firing. When my Illithids reached the crossbowmen they broke and Ulm routed. I lost 1 mage and 1 Illithid Soldiers while killing 42 troopers and all commanders. The Starshine Skullcap was retrieved by my commander.

Glisas defeated the PDs and 10 troops in Lupia without any problems.

Atlansha summoned another Greater Otherness.

It seems like Well of Misery is adding 20 death gems to my income which will be very hand for my summoning program.

I have decided that since Atlantis and Man will not attack me, that I will attack them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif A bit too early since I could use additional preparation, but since I try to simulate them declaring war on me, I don’t want to be more prepared than I am now.


Provinces: 70
Treasury: 1.938
Income: 3.618
Upkeep: 1.822
RP: 545
Fortification: 9
Temple: 17
Converted Provinces: 32

Conjuration – 9
Alteration – 9
Evocation – 6
Construction – 8
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 7 (researching,will reach 7)
Blood Magic – 7

Fire gems: 90 (+18)
Air: 39 (+15)
Water gems: 39 (+22)
Earth: 9 (+9)
Astral gems: 1 (+23/+18)
Death: 0 (+11)
Nature: 40 (+12)
Blood: 9 (+1)


Updated province information:

Ah, I found Ulm, restoring my faith in Dom’s naming conventions http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.


The Golden Adept is 1F, 1A, 2S and will research, another one will be recruited.

I got a 1W, 1E, 3S, 1N mage who will get a Skullcap in addition to the Sceptre of Authority and will lead 30 Illithids and 2 Greater Otherness vs the Altantean province of Devourer – recruiting 1 more.

The Lore Master turned out to be 3W, 1N who will research – recruiting 1 more.

3 More Vine Ogres will be summoned for 1 nature gem in Kolermegor.

Acashic Records will be cast for 25 astral gems on Ermithia.

The 4 Clams are given to a star children in C’tis, the Trident from Beyond to my 5W mage in Tiash, the Skull of Fire to my 3(5)F mage in Tiash and the Armor of Souls to my 3(5) blood mage in Tiash.

Tartarian Gate will be cast for 10 death gems in addition to summoning a King of Elemental Fire for 50 fire gems, Awaken Treelord for 50 nature gems, Crossbreeding for 15 blood slaves and a Queen of Elemental Air for 50 air gems.


My mage led army in Namor will attack 10 of Man’s longspears + PDs in Dust Fens, mainly looking for Man’s capital.

The Troll King with 35 barbarians from Moss Woods and the mage in Spire Woods with some fodder will attack Man in Laria.

My 2 fodder armies in Tirannea will attack Holoma, but might very well lose this fight if the PDs are strong enough.

1 mage led army with 8 Illithid Soldiers will attack Gol Amrod from Glanis while the remaining 3 mage led armies will attack Recenna.

My army in Jotunheim (10 barbarians) will play archer fodder for the estimated 70 longbowmen in Kark who will be attacked by Glisas.

1 mage led army in Iron Range will attack Silvania while the other mage led army will move to Moss Woods to fill potential gaps in my northern front with Man.

Since I lack the forces to finish Ulm fast I will siege their capital with my armies from Forest of Idun (commander + Illithid Soldiers) and 2 mage led armies from Midland supported by a 2H priest.

The 2 commanders from Nicia will move to The Two Woods and Witches Copse to pick up troops there – they might be attacked on the way, while the remaining forces will continue the siege.

My army in Glimmering Fields will try to take Yellow Mountains from Atlantis.

The commander in Gol Ryepe will fetch more fodder from Nifel.

Meges will try to liberate Giant’s Rest, this time he will be scripted to cast Invulnerability and Summon Earthpower before attacking.

My mage led army from Talito will move to Glimmering Fields.

The mage from Hoburgdorf will move to Glimmering Fields, too.

A commander and 16 fodder will move from Abysia to Gol Ryepe.

My 3F mage from Birman Hights will move to Aran Plains.

Due to me needing the money for troops I will not build the 8 planed temples for now, the priests will preach.


3 Starshine Skullcaps are forged for 12 astral gems to replace my lost mages since I need more commanders for figthing all 3 nations in addition to 3 Sceptres of Authority and a Skull Staff (+1D) for 5 death gems.

23 Illithids will be recruited in R’lyeh.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART47.JPG

[condors]

that Last combat report made me smile,

I have had my own experiences with a passing out cyclops

keep the updates coming

[CharonJr]

Turn 48


6 blood slaves were captured in Gol Phalas, another 6 in Kolermegor and 4 in Dunheim.

Acashic Record cast on Ermithia revealed 1 magic site – Mineral Cave (+1 earth gems).

A King of Elemental Fire, a Treelord, a Queen of Elemental Air, a Tartarian Titan (no leader, afflictions: never healing wound and diseased), 3 Vine Ogres and 20 Foul Spawn were summoned this turn.

Ressources have been increased by 10 in Old Man Mountains.

Devourer, Silvania, Holoma, Yellow Mountains, Gol Amrod, Laria, Recenna and Dust Fens were taken without any serious resistance.

Nicia and Forest of Ildun were defended vs attacks from low numbers of enemies.

Meges attacked 15 crossbowmen and 6 Black Plate Infantry led by a Master Smith and a priest in Giant’s Rest. After casting Invulnerability and Summon Earth Power Meges charged the enemy. The Black Plate Infantry was routed by Meges Fear Aura (+5 fear) and after reaching the crossbowmen those routed, too.

Glisas and the small barbarian army (10) were met by 40 longbowmen, 20 militias and 5 crossbowmen in Kark. Sadly Glisas routed (despite 30 morale) after the barbarians were broken/killed while only being able to kill 5 longbowmen.

Ulm was defended by 30 crossbowmen and 10 Infantry of Ulm led by a priest and a Commander of Ulm. My forces consisted of 5 knights, 6 Vine Ogres and about 10 fodder. 4 Infantry of Ulm were enslaved and attacked their former friends while my 5 knights charged the crossbowmen. The crossbowmen fought bravely killing all but 2 knights and 2 Vine Ogres before routing.


Provinces: 80
Treasury: 2.258
Income: 3.887
Upkeep: 1.925
RP: 545
Fortification: 9
Temple: 17
Converted Provinces: 37

Conjuration – 9
Alteration – 9
Evocation – 6
Construction – 8
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 7 (researching,will reach 8)
Blood Magic – 7

Fire gems: 90 (+18)
Air: 39 (+15)
Water gems: 39 (+22)
Earth: 9 (+9)
Astral gems: 1 (+23/+18)
Death: 0 (+11)
Nature: 40 (+12)
Blood: 9 (+1)


Updated province information:

Man, Dust River and Dust Hills are each defended by 50+ longbowmen, making it very challenging to attack them. I should have build some Staffs of Storm earlier...

My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.


The Golden Adept is 2F, 2A, 1D and will research, another one will be recruited.

I got a 1W, 4S, 1N mage who will get a Sceptre of Authority and will lead 29 Illithids to C’tis – recruiting 1 more.

The Lore Master turned out to be 2F, 1A, 1B who will research – recruiting 1 more.

3 More Vine Ogres will be summoned for 1 nature gem in Kolermegor.

Acashic Records will be cast for 25 astral gems on Silvania.

The Skull Staff (+1D) is given to my 1W, 3S, 2D mage who will summon Pale Riders for 10 death gems.

A Starshine Skullcap (+1S) is given to a 3S mage in Gol Phalas who will continue with his 10 Vine Ogres towards the northern front to Gol Ryepe.

A Starshine Skullcap (+1S) and a Sceptre of Authority (+25 leadership) are given to a 3S mage in R’lyeh who will move to Kolermegor to pick up some more Vine Ogres while another identically equiped 3S mage will move to pick up the summons in Tiash.

The Robe of the Sea (+1W) is given to my 5(6)W mage in Tiash who will forge a Water Bracelet (+1W) for 1 water gem.

The King of Flames from Tiash will move to Hoburgdorf while the Queen of Elemental Air will move to Gol Ryepe.

The 3F Adept moves from Aran Plain to Dunheim with the other 3F Adept moves from Birman Hights to Aran Plain.

My mage led army from Silvania will move to Faran in order to attack Kark next and defend Faran now.

The 2 fodder armies will move from Holoma to Gol Amrod while my mage led army with 8 Illithid Soldiers will attack the lightly defended province of Ryd from Gol Amrod.

The armies led by the Sea Troll King and a mage supported my a starspwan priest will move from Laria to Dust Fens, getting into position to attack Man’s capital and protecting Dust Fens for now and as additional defense the PD is raised to 10.

The mage led army in Dust Fens (2 Greater Otherness, 2 Sea Trolls and 3 Jotuns in one squad, 6 riders in the other one) will try to attack roughly 60 longbowmen/longspears in Dust River, possibly getting severely beaten. Man would have been the more interesting target, but with 25+ PDs in addition to 60 longbowmen I would like some additional troops. I have to hope that Dust River is not heavily defended by PDs. Glisas will support the attack.

The fodder army from Nifel will move to Bolfagon, the mage led army from Moss Woods to Stone Heavens and 1 commander will be recruited in Jotunheim to attack Kark next turn (and defend the provinces into which they are moving).

My 3 mage led armies (mainly 7 Greater Otherness, 4 Otherness, 11 Illithids and 10 fodder) from Recenna will try to take Dust Hills which is defended by roughly 130 militias, longbowmen, light cavaleries, flagellants and spearmen.

PD in Yellow Mountains will be raised to 10, but I doubt I will be able to defend the province if Atlantis launches a determined attack. Meges will move here in order to try to defend the province.

Wailwind Waters is defended by roughly 20 Atlantean spearmen and Ichtyids and hopefully my commander leading 14 Illithid Soldiers will be enough to beat them.

The commander in Witches Copse fetched 17 fodder and will move to support the siege in Nicia.

The commander in The Two Woods picks up a lone knight and will move to Nicia, too.

My heavy mage led army in Devourer will attack the barely defended province of Depth of Dago.

A small fodder army moves from Gol Ryepe to Glimmering Field.


Sadly I lack the nature gems to cast Gift of Reason on my new Titan, but will do so on the next turn, but in order to test the Treelord’s Vine Ogre summoning ability (he has a bonus there) I will summon some Vine Ogres with him.


Tartarian Gate will be cast once again for 10 death gems in addition to summoning another King of Flames for 50 fire gems.


1 Blood Thorn (+1B) is forged to get another mage high enough in blood to hunt for blood slaves in addition a Sword of Swiftness (2 attacks) for 4 water gems and 4 Clams of Pearl for 16 water gems.

27 Illithids will be recruited in R’lyeh.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART48.JPG

[CharonJr]

Turn 49

Thaumaturgy reached level 8 this turn.

9 blood slaves were captured in Gol Phalas, another 7 in Kolermegor, 8 in Glimmering Fields and 4 in Gol Ryepe.

Acashic Record cast on Silvania revealed 1no magic sites (first time that I failed http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif ).

A King of Elemental Fire, a Tartarian Titan (no leader, afflictions: feebleminded), 6 Vine Ogres (so a Treelord is able to summon 3 Vine Ogres without any tools) and 22 Longdead Horsemen were summoned this turn.

Some earth gems were found in Gol Ryepe and Jerib, while I recieved some astral pearls, a magic item (Wall Shaker – nice, could have used this one BEFORE sieging Ulm http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ) and 100 gold as a gift in Ulm (looks like somebody knows who is going to win there http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ).

My forces trying to take the Depth of Dago caught the Altantean pretender – a wyrm with 416 HP – supported by 10 Atlantean Spearmen, 10 tritons and 1 Consors in addition to 1 Initiate of the Deep while my forces consisted of 30 Illithids and 2 Greater Otherness led by a mage. The spearmen broke after the first volley of mindbLasts which killed 4 of them and stuned 3 others. The tritons attacked my rear and managed to kill 3 Illithids before being killed/broken. 2 tritons were enslaved and the pretender paralysed after the 3 paralyse cast on him effectivly ending the battle.

Man attacked my forces in Fagan (8 heavy riders and 7 jotuns) with 33 longbowmen, 5 tower guards and 2 knights led by a Castellan. Both charging knights were enslaved and with infantry quickly dispatched. 19 troops and the commander of Man were killed while my forces didn’t lose a single man.

My forces attacking Ryd were a tad too slow since the defenders were able to retreat before the fight began and only left the PDs who were easily dispatched.

A part of Man’s troops in Dust Hills moved to Namor and conquered it without a fight, again my troops were to slow to attack Dust Hills.

Right after this my forces attacked the remaining forces in Dust Hills – 10 militias, 7 Cu Sidhe and 3 light cavalery led by a monk and a castellan. Due to 3 mages the Cu Sidhe were enslaved before even getting into close combat the Illithids were bLasting away at the remaining troops and Man routed before my Greater Otherness got any chance to engage them.

The PDs in Wailing Waters were killed by my Illithid soldiers in 1 turns.

The PDs in Dust River + 1 additional commander withstood my onslaught 1 turn longer http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

The walls of Ulm have been breached and my troops in Dust Hills are beginning to starve.


Sadly my troops have been too slow on the attack costing me an undefended province and forcing me to redirect some of my troops to deal with the 130 troops of Man in Namor.


Provinces: 83
Treasury: 2.154
Income: 4.137
Upkeep: 2.065
RP: 545
Fortification: 9
Temple: 17
Converted Provinces: 40

Conjuration – 9
Alteration – 9
Evocation – 6
Construction – 8
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 8 (researching,will reach 9)
Blood Magic – 7

Fire gems: 90 (+18)
Air: 39 (+15)
Water gems: 39 (+22)
Earth: 9 (+9)
Astral gems: 1 (+23/+18)
Death: 0 (+11)
Nature: 40 (+12)
Blood: 9 (+1)


Updated province information:


My Provinces:


The Golden Adept is 3F, 2A (argh, now I get TONS of them, oh well, of to Tiash), another one will be recruited.

I got a 1F, 2W, 3S mage who will research – recruiting 1 more.

The Lore Master turned out to be 1A, 1E, 1S, 1D who will research – recruiting 1 more.

3 More Vine Ogres will be summoned for 1 nature gem in Kolermegor.

Acashic Records will be cast for 25 astral gems on Spire Woods (I need more nature gems now since I still can’t cast Gift of Reason and have 2 Titans waiting for it + 1 Tarrasque).

The Water Bracelet (+1W) is given to my 5(7)W mage in Tiash .

4 Clam of Pearl are given to star children in C’tis.

The Blood Thorn (+1B) is given to a 1B star spawn mage and a Dousing Rod will be forged for 8 blood slaves for him his turn.

The King of Flames from Hoburgdorf will move to Glimmering Fields while the Queen of Elemental Air from Gol Ryepe will move to attack Banded Hills.

The 3F Adept moves from Dunheim to Tiash with the other 3F Adept moves from Aran Plains to Dunheim.

The commander in Bolfagon (+3 troops), the mage led army in Faran, the barbarian leader and his 10 barbarians in Jotunheim and the mage led army in Stone Heavens will attack Kark.

The 2 small mage led armies in Ulm will storm the castle now supported by a priest.

My mage picks up 23 Vine Ogres in Kolermegor and will move to Gol Phalas.

The mage led army from Gol Ryepe continues to Yellow Mountains.

The 2 fodder armies from Gol Amrod will move to defend Recenna.

My 3 combined armies from Dust Fens and Dust River (2 mages, 1 Sea King Troll supported by a star spawn priest) attack Man’s capital this turn.

Since my army in Ryd is too weak to attack Dustlands I will move them to defend Dust Hills, but I hope that Glisas is strong enough to tackle the 60 longbowmen and longspears in Dustlands.

My 3 mage led armies in Dust Hills will attack Namor.

The mage lead Illithid army from Depth of Dago will attack the lightly defended Utterdeep.

The Bane Lord in Gol Phalas is given the Sword of Swiftness, the Wall Shaker and the Winged Boots and will move with the 22 longdead horsemen to Glimmering Fields.

The mage lead Illithid army in C’tis plus some fodder will attack the lightly defended province of Soth Beaver.

Meges and a fodder army from Yellow Mountains will try to conquer the Atlantean province of Ministra which is defended by 70 Altantean Spearmen, War Shamblers and Shamblers which might mean quite a fight there, but I want to attack this force before there are able to possibly interfere with my siege of Nicia where I expect the walls to be breached on this turn.

Ghost Riders will be cast on Namor for 5 death gems for which the Skullface (+1D) will be given to the 2(3)D mage in Gol Phalas in addition to casting Awaken Dark Vines for 12 blood slaves.

Another Skullface will be forged for 8 death gems this turn in addition to 6 Clam of Pearl for 24 water gems.

Angelic Host will be cast for 50 astral gems on Dustlands to support my attack there with some artillery. I am not sure if the summons will attack before or together with my armies or if there are differences between summons, that’s why I try 2 summons into enemy provinces here.

1 of the mages in Tiash picks up some troops (25 assorted Foul Spawns and 3 Vine Ogres) and moves together with the King of Magma to Hoburgdorf.


A lab will be build in Glimmering Fields for 200 gold (to get magic items there and move to blood slaves to my lab).

27 Illithids will be recruited in R’lyeh.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART49.JPG

[CharonJr]

Geez, fairly busy week here, but I hope to be able to get some turns in again during the weekend http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

CharonJr

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
Geez, fairly busy week here, but I hope to be able to get some turns in again during the weekend http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Been nigh on six weeks. I miss reading Charon's Posts. Especially now that patch 2.11 has dramatically changed the effectiveness of squiddies ...