Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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...

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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.

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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?

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

<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 ]

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

<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.

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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.

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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...

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

<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...

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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 ]

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Funky program to roll several types of die.

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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.

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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?

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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.

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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 ]

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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...

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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...

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

double-post

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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.

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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.

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

What does AAR stand for anyway??

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">After-Action Report

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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.

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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 ]

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Don't be so sure. My AAR has just been screwed ...

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

CharonJr

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

<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.

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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 ]

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

<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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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...

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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 ]

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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 ]

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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

Re: Noob\'s shot at an R\'lyeh AAR
 

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.