Abysia CB 5.0 AAR

[RedRover]

TURN 25
Two more disasters! A sudden earthquake released Troglodytes, which wiped out the northern force. Only the Lizard Shaman escaped, even the mighty Pak-Ur perished. Man just hired Hector away from me, which delays the Second Army attack on the magic site. On the other hand, the Longdead were only about 40 strong, and were guarding a Shambler Reef, which opens up the surrounding waters (sort of: 40 Triton Guards are there) and gives me a way south. With enough time and money, I might even be able to exploit this. As a money source, though, the island’s a bust—my income this turn (566) was greater than the island’s population! First Army returns to the east bridge.

The Celestial mercenaries turn up. I bid on them—maybe they can destroy the Troglodytes and open the north to me. The Trogs seal me out of the whole northeast corner of the map. I can’t afford the dozen or so provinces this will hand over to C’tis. I have to get rid of them.

While waiting for Grom to show up, Second Army invades a wooded province. It has a 1-gem Earth site! If I can just get the right caster (Amazons take note), I may be able to find some more Earth sites. My gem income is now up to seven (5F1S1E)!

TURN 26
Good luck and bad. The Celestials are on board, but my Lab near magic site one has burned. No more Lizard Shamans until I get it fixed. The Celestials move on the Trogs, backed by the Lizard Shaman. Past the east bridge, a huge force of 90 heavy C’tis infantry are headed my way. Lots of building this turn, lots of remote scrying, especially the island magic site. Second Army moves on the northernmost magic site. My blood hunting has been sporadic, I can summon only one Devil this turn. I need more Apprentices and more provinces with higher population.

TURN 27
Here it comes. East bridge—90 Heavy Infantry and Longdeads, with 90 more right behind them. And me about 3 turns off Construction 4. My Prophet, who had left to found a new Temple, force-marches back—there is no money for temples this turn. One of my two Demonbreds leaves the capital with all the Devils he can scrape up; he’ll arrive at the east bridge in two turns. In the north, something went wrong: the Celestials didn’t march. I make sure they do this time, and my Salamander priest, who has finally arrived, will go with them. Second Army in the northwest rests after cleaning up the third magic site. This turn will see much remote scanning of that site. I only have two more scans for Nature sites after this—I need a hit or I’ll be forced to wait for another random Nature gem find.

Once again, short term need has overtaken strategic planning. I switch most of my research this turn to Conjuration. Will’o Wisps and Tangle Vines next turn look more important than Fire Rods in three turns. We’ll see how it works out. I miss a shot at rehiring Hector, who still has 10 knights, but 220+ gold is more than I can spare, and Man may kill the unit before it shows up, anyway. Too risky. I put the gold into another Salamander priest at the east bridge.

[RedRover]

TURN 28
C’tis doesn’t attack me, it must all be going north, east of the river. He’s left about 40 Slingers and Lizard Warriors watching me, and the rest are gone. My assassin moves north after them—I need more scouts out here (one is on the way, but it will take awhile).

In the north, the Celestials overrun the Trogs. I will push them forward while building a base up here. I need some of these wooded provinces for my last few shots at Nature magic.

In the northwest, magic site three proves to be Astral. Still only 1 gem, though. Phooey. From the map writeup, I thought the special sites would have something better than one gem each. Or maybe they do and I just don’t have the right paths to find out. But my gem income is now at eight. If this force can hold together for four more fights, I’ll cost to the west continent have a good place for a blocking fort on the west side of the great bay. Right now there are 60 Barbarians across a river saying no. I look at the bridge in front of me and say yes. If I sit here, I starve.

I will have Construction 4 next turn. I put the rest back into Conjuration, but after I hit Level 2 I’m going to start on Enchantments. We haven’t seen a global yet, but my main protection is Dispel, and that’s Level Five—it’s a long way off and I haven’t started on it yet. We’ll look at the graphs on turn 30.

TURN 29
Random Nature gems! Now I can keep the scrying going, but can’t quite get a Thistle Mace. I expected a Fire Wand at Construction 4, but it’s not on the list. I will empower a Salamander and check again (besides, the Fires from Afar spell, Evocation 3, will be useful if C’tis does come my way).

In the north, I’m across the river. I can either turn west and take on a second province with Amazons and Nightmares, or turn east against normal Militia. I go east—once I establish a border with C’tis up here, I can clean up what’s behind me (I hope). If I lose the Celestials, I’m absolutely done up here until I can build a base and make Abysian troops in big lots. It’s tricky—I want the base as far forward as possible, with as many high resource provinces as possible, yet I have to take the ground, build on it, and establish a vible military force before C’tis comes after me. I suspect I’ll probably wait too long to start it, but we’ll see…

In the northwest, I am in supply trouble. I thought I could attack out of it, but disease has struck and I have no counter. This could be really bad—I hope the scum troops die first.

Elsewhere, I have detached an Apprentice to head northwest to build a lab and activate the Amazon leaders in the province I conquered. Nightmares mean Onyx Amazons, which gives me Death and Earth magic seekers. The blood hunts are ramping up again, and I think a Devil a turn is now sustainable indefinitely. Time to go for two. Hector has been on the market for a few turns. I was saving for a fort, but I can use him up north with the Celestials. I couldn’t hire him last turn; that would have lined up four mercs in the same month—couldn’t afford that. Question is, is the hire going to be worth it at this point? I bite…

[RedRover]

shovah/cainehill:
Oops, busted! Yeah, I'm playing well ahead of the posting, so the details sometimes get a little fuzzy. Right now, I am embattled and my play is in a burnout stage. Also, like a dummy, I didn't even go back to check my own previous posts before answering. Hazards of using Quick Reply. Sorry for being a little scattered, but as future posts will bring out, things are going to get a little hot here in RedRover Central.

It was Caelum in the arena, and the critter was a Great Wyrm. The Frost Father/Ghost King reference must be from another game that I'm currently playing as part of a different project. (I have a number of Dom2-related projects I am pursuing simultaneously--I'll try not to cross the wires again.)

Apologies for the confusion.

Things are better now.

Really.

Thanks.

[RedRover]

TURN 52
Drat! C’tis has the same idea I do. His Pretender, leading 310 Longdead, Ghouls, and Soulless, appear just beyond the east bridge. I will hold, taking one more turn to prep. I hope it’s not one too many. I divert research to pick up cheap upgrades: Alteration 1 next turn, then Thaumaturgy 3.

On the west continent, a force of 90 mixed infantry from Man moves adjacent to me. He has an independent province to hit, or me. Me he’s not at war with, and beyond the independent province is Caelum, whom he is at war with. I’m hoping he hits the independent, because there’s not much I can do to stop him if he decides to attack me.

On the west coast, I divert the big Devil unit directly to the east bridge. They can get there next turn. I have to stop the coastal campaign one province short of sealing the area. All the Devils in the small unit are dead and God’s Just are down to 21 men, so I send the Demonbred here back to the capital for infernal reinforcements. I have no idea if these will be back or if they will be sucked into the east bridge area.

Blood hunting has netted barely enough for one more Devil (I have three Apprentices, two with Sanguine Rods, active in three different provinces with populations over 6,000—I’m beginning to think a province only yields Blood Slaves once per season!).

In the northeast, I have stripped the fort garrison, and all mercs are forced marching toward the front. C'tis is too weak to penetrate me here in the northeast, and I will pillage my way down to the east bridge if he attacks there.

At the east bridge, I recruit another Anathemant Dragon. I slow down research to maximize item production. If this lot goes, I want at least one Flame Helmet in store so I can create a Flames From Afar caster quickly. Given the number of undead, I make up some Just Man Crossbows for leaders, and make sure all casters have a gem supply. If he hits me I may not win, but they’ll talk about the fight for a while.


TURN 52-53
Surprise! No attack. On the west continent, Caelum boots Man out of the province next to my fort. Man pulls out of his other province next to me instead of attacking me or the independent. Go figure. This turn I will have 810 gp to work with. Blood hunting yields 20 slaves this turn…finally.

On the west coast of the east continent, Arco has pulled out, too. I will grab the available Devils in my capital and finish sealing this area.

Even though I am greatly outnumbered, I’m gambling that a lot of the C’tis strength is undead, and that my Priests will be able to destroy much more than I lose. The plan is to attack in strength from the north, capturing provinces, but more important, razing Temples along the east edge of the map.

The force from the east bridge fort will attack across the river and see how much of his land north of his capital they can pillage. The big Devil unit is in the fort, to hold it, reinforce a main battle, or to harry an isolated province. My coming attack probably isn’t wise, but it will be fun.

Note: I manually archive Turn 53, the turn I attack, before turn resolution, so I can go back and see what a longer game would have brought, if this goes badly.

"And so, it begins..."

[RedRover]

TURN 54
Double drat! Caelum just hired away God’s Justice! This totally stalls the coast campaign for the foreseeable future. I can make inferior infantry at the rate of 1-2 per province per turn, so it will be 6-8 turns before I can build the number of troops I need over here. Arco may well clean up the key independents long before I can cobble together an effective force. Unless another good merc comes up…not this turn. I do take 24 Blood Slaves. Why is this working so well now after such a long dry spell?

The west continent is stagnant for me this turn. All money must go into the war with C’tis.

In the northeast, the war goes much worse than planned. I do take two provinces the first turn (the good). In one battle, my tactical setup costs me needless casualties (the bad), but worse, in the other battle my Pretender is Feebleminded (the truly ugly)! The only way I have out of this is to research and summon the Faerie Court (Conjuration 8), and I’m only at Conjuration 2 now. That is very far away and nearly half my researchers are in the field at the east bridge. Arrrrgh!

At the east bridge, I break out of my Citadel, slaying all in my path with minimal loss, including his Prophet (Urrah!!). My planned attacks for next turn cover the entire C’tis holdings north of a chokepoint two turns north of his capital. I'm on the march!

Who let the dogs out? Me.

[shovah]

feeble minded+pretender=really annoying game. its probably one of the worst things that can happen to your pretender

[RedRover]

shovah (re feeblemind): What's a game without a few bumps along the way?

As an old RPG friend used to say to us when the situation went sour:

"You're heroes. If it was easy, anybody could do it!"

(It does get worse. Read on...)



TURN 55
On the west continent, I recall my last Demonbred stationed here to my capital. Otherwise, I try to shore up my eroding dominion on this continent as much as possible, but it looks really bad: everywhere, black candles, tall and thick.

Overall, the northeast battles are going well enough, but my southern force, with most of my spellcasters, was hit by the huge undead army, led by the C’tis Pretender. Nasty battle, but eventually the Pretender (the Prince of freaking Death!) got to my command group and slaughtered them all, routing the foot troops, most of whom died in the rout.

I could have had a better tactical setup, but it’s too late now. The C’tis Pretender has a Staff of Storms, which grounded all my flyers. Good thing the Devils weren’t in on this battle, but that staff will greatly reduce the efficiency of my Devils when I do commit them.

C’tis still has 70 troops left here, plus 20 more adjacent to the east bridge fort, plus 70 more coming up from the south. These are the ones I can see. I don’t think that my combined forces on the ground can match his, nor can my afflicted Pretender take on his. Looks like I gambled and lost on this one, but I’ll play a few more turns and see what happens.

On the coast, building enough troops to take even one province is not possible. The war in the east swallows all my resources.

I notice that in two more turns I can have Blood 5. This will let me Send Lesser Horrors at the C’tis forces. I don’t think this will be much, especially against the Pretender, but right now it’s all I can think of.

Scores: For provinces, I lead. The second tier of Man, Pythium, and Ulm have leveled out in a tight group, C’tis is somewhat below them, but this will change radically once C’tis starts taking my provinces.

For income, I lead. Man is next, maybe 80% of my level. At maybe 60% is a tight pack of Ulm, Pythium, and Caelum. C’tis is sixth at about 30%, I hit him hard (*heh-heh*).
(Well, OK, the fact that Ghouls are eating his population is probably more relevant.)

For gem income, I clearly lead. Man is next at 70% of my level; C’tis and Ulm are tied at 50%.

For research, Arco leads, Caelum and Man are a neck-and-neck second at about 70%. I’m next at 45%, Pythium at 40%, C’tis about 25%.

For dominion, Ulm leads and is climbing well. Caelum is about 70% and fading. I’m about 55% and jerky, C’tis is about 45% and dropping, Pythium about 30%, Man 15%.

For armies, C’tis has lost about 5% off its 100% peak. I’m at about 12% total, so I had absolutely no business making this attack.

Oh, what shall I do? Stay tuned...