Turn 18-conclusion
Turn 18. The Vampire Queen returns, but now instead of a vast host, she is at the head of a pathetic band of slingers, with one infantry and one pikeman still at her call. This time, Cirin is able to pounce upon her before she has started summoning her undead minions, and happily ignores them as he finally takes his revenge.
A pathetic message arrives from the scattered remnants of Ulm's queendom: "You killed our God! This war will not end until everyone of your people are dead!" Or vice versa.
The gates to the castle now lie open. I'm going to go in in force, just to be safe, but do not expect to be opposed. And then, Ulm's remaining territories lie open for quick conquest. I will rehire Giuseppe for that purpose, and then perhaps turn his hand at suppressing the Amazons in the mountain provinces.
Meanwhile, scouts report finally seeing evidence of Tien Chi. And how. They report a battle between Tien Chi and Abysia, with Tien Chi bringing an impressive array of archers, infantry and cavalry to bear against Abysia's local overmatched local militia. It seems Tien Chi may be the true power in the South. Abysia's capital is yet unconquered and unbesieged, but its only other known province is now cut off by the Tien Chi invaders.
Giuseppe Del Migo's contract is up next month, so we rehire him to finish the job he's started in Ulm. Meanwhile, another Black Sorcerer and four more Hoplites are recruited at the capital. Shujaa arrives at Gula Kusten bearing magical supplies and reinforcements, only to be told that he's too late. Ofagion takes pity on the confused veteran, and tells him to bear the magical gifts he holds on to his God while Ofagion leads the Black Hunter home. Cirin's many priests start to disperse to begin the vigorous temple-building project the God drew up during his convalescence. "Fire-eating" Mshabatha is the latest addition to the God's growing ranks of magicians. He spends his first days in the city's lab, forging some earth boots for his old colleague Kimya, while an order is put in to VU's Department of Earth Science for a set of Bracers of Defense.
Income 628, Upkeep 206.
Research 74 Construction (127 left for level 5), also Alt 2, Evo 4, Ench 1, Thaum 1.
Gems: F 12 (+1), A 9 (+1), E 21 (+6), D 3 (+1), N 15 (+5).
This is threatening to become tedious, so I'm not going to report on the next few turns if all goes as expected. I hope to mop up Ulm's remaining provinces, then take out the longbowmen and knights on the last day of Gynter's contract, and then do a bit more mopping up of independents whilst rebuilding my armies and perhaps engaging in a spot of temple-building. Thus far, I've had no problems with hostile dominions, so I may not even bother with that last.
Anyway, if Pythium or Jotunheim go to war, I'll consider that worthy of comment.
Turn 26: Okay, so Pythium declared war, and their initial attack was shredded. I have labs at the three choke points with nice buff casters at each lab, and more spiders than I know what to do with. I'm far ahead in the graphs in provinces, income, research, and gem income, and the only reason I'm not way ahead in army size is I haven't been bothering to cast my summon spells. I also have the top 9 spots in the hall of fame. There are only three territories through which I could be attacked, plus an independent so buff I doubt anyone but me could take her out, and even I would probably lose too much for it to be worth it. The other players might be able to harass me with imprint souls or ghost riders or whatever (assuming they had the research for them), but that's about it.
If I successfully conquer Pythium, I won't be overexposing myself, either, because swallowing up all their territories still only leaves me with a grand total of three points of exposure to enemy territory. In the meantime, everyone else is squeezed into one corner of the map, and Tien Chi and Abysia would have to go through either Pythium or Jotunheim just to get to me.
I'm declaring this game won, because I don't feel like actually fighting a war against an opponent I feel sorry for. Maybe I'll save it for some time when I get jumped by 3 computer players simultaneously or something.
I think the 9-strength independents worked in my favor, as once I'd accumulated the firepower needed to take out the moderately tough ones, I was able to sweep through a large number of them, while the computer player doesn't seem to have been able to crack that puzzle.
Bonus Grafix: This one is a final map of my territory. I'll also include a world map in the next post.
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