Chapter 5: Death of a Heroman
Turn files:
Turn5.zip
A terrible day! Our hero Haon Door, brave champion of Oceania, has fallen. I knew sending just 10 ichtycentaurs against a sea troll province was a bad idea, but I got too greedy. The approach was successful, as 2 ichtycentaurs did in fact make it to the hydromancer commander, but the execution failed, as his 2 sea troll body guards were able to keep him from being slain:
Under a withering barrage of water strikes, we took heavy casualties. As last time, Haon Door held back until he could wait no more, and charged confidently into the fray:
But Haon was grievously wounded in the tail, suffering an aqua-limp. With 60% of his troops killed, Haon realized the situation was hopeless and sounded the general retreat, ordering the survivors to save themselves. Haon tried to escape, but the sea trolls quickly ran him down:
[Image censored. - Oceania Dept of Defense]
So my attempt at an early 2nd expansion party failed. Adding insult to injury is the fact that a Death Match has been announced, where Haon Door surely would have been crowned champion. We shall send his understudy, Gorenigrai the Ichtyid Lord, in his stead. Gorenigrai is a vibrant 23 year old with absolutely no combat experience. We, who are about to watch you die, salute you.
At least we were fortunate enough to receive a lucky event: 3 Astral gems were found on a starry night...at a depth of 3,000 feet. Logistics aside, these will come in handy against my quadra-tenticled foe, as once they're alchemized to a Death gem my Old Man can use it to Spirit Curse ol' Glug. A Curse will go a long way toward making and keeping him ineffective, even after he gets recalled from the dead (Curses stick forever).
Sade unfortunately failed again at the simple task of convincing a key enemy leader to swim out into the ocean to his death. Hmmmm, fortunately Valentines Day is right around the corner, so hopefully we can get a discount on a new - ahem - wardrobe for her.
At least our Monsieur le Comte de Maquereau was successful, capturing the Sea of Woe without a single casualty. His next task is to capture the North Pole Deeps, which like the Creulean Sea is crawling with Sea Trolls. It'll be a nice warm-up for his subsequent wheel south to exact vengeance upon the Hydromancer of the Cruelean Sea:
With the failure of Haon Door, our newest Mermage (W3N1) has no lands to hunt for Kelp Fortresses, so he's directed to finally begin the great research endeavors of Oceania. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the original research plan will be delayed until Conj-1 and Alt-1 are completed.
Cash is starting to get tight, as my army draws a lot of pay and I'm now behind on my provinces. I can only afford another Ichtyid Lord, a Mermage, and a half-dozen Ichtycentaurs.
On the intel front, Shinuyama is now visible south of Agartha. Tien Chi, Vanheim, and R'lyeh all failed to capture a single province last turn, a sign that the choice indys are starting to dry up (not that I had many). Brettonia now has a second non-prophet non-god in the HoF, so they can be expected to be a thug nation; but they've just declared a NAP-3 with R'lyeh (all diplomatic arrangements are made public, per the game's house rule) so it's safe to assume he's located far to the south.