Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

This game is unusual for me on several levels. It started as a 10-Turn Test. It is my first game after an extended break. It is my first game with the Concept Balance 5.0 mod. It is my first game with low magic settings and slow research. It is the second outing for this particular Pretender chassis (see below). While it is not my first game at the Difficult level, it’s the first one in recent months; so far I’ve been pretty happy soloing at Normal.

10-Turn TEST: Because I intended to run just 10 turns, I didn’t keep close track of income, gems, etc. the way I would in a dedicated AAR. However, the game just sucked me in, and I have kept playing. I am well past turn 50 as I post this first installment. Thus, any advice on strategy or play techniques, while welcome, is unlikely to be relevant to the game’s current progress. With this in mind, feel free to comment. I will post play notes as I transcribe them.

TEST OUTCOME

Cradle map with 8 nations. Nondefault settings: Independents 6. Sites 30. Research slow.
Password off. Rename on. Cheat Protection disabled*. AI Difficult.
Mods: Complete Concept Balance 5.0, Oceania 1.0.
Nations: Abysia (me), Arcoscephale, Caelum, C’tis, Man, Pythium, Oceania, Ulm
*I always do this. I think it’s twitchy, had difficulties before it was patched, and haven’t used it since.

Pretender: Manticore 7S3N Dom: 5 (note: S=Astral; other paths abbreviated by first letter; N=Nature.)
Scales: 2 Order/1 Production/3 Heat/0 Growth/-1 Misfortune/1 Magic
Fort: Citadel (much cheaper in the CB mod!)
Provinces Owned: 7 (poised to take 2)
Current Research: Evo 2 (Evo 3 will be reached turn 11)
Research Rate: +25 (Bid on wizard Dagon turn 10)
Gem Income: 5F (starting income—low magic means low magic)
Income: 398 gold
End of Turn Treasury: 8
Capital Resources: 160 (have taken three of the four provinces adjacent to the capital).

Leaders: Manticore*, 1 Warlord* (Prophet), 1 Assassin* (*starting leaders); 2 Apprentices, 2 Salamander Priests, 2 independent Commanders. Turn 10, buying another Apprentice.
Mercenaries: Blackfist (about half strength); Dagon (renegade mage) bid on turn 10.
Field Armies: Two. The first is about out of steam (probably last attack on turn 11). The other is going into combat for the first time on turn 11. (An army is about 12 Abysian Infantry, plus 20 or so Independent or Mercenary foot, supported by a Salamander priest).

Provincial Structures: Temple construction ordered in province #169 (Lizard Men, south of special magic site), to be followed by a Lab.

Strategy: Normally I clear the provinces around the capital first. However, I start in province 157 (east continent, northwest quadrant, well inland), giving me access to two of the inland special magic sites—if I can get there quickly enough (as opposed to clearing out around the capital and heading for the coast). This decision is driven by the relative scarcity of magic sites in this game.

By turn 10, I have secured the first special magic site and conquered the Lizard Man province directly south of it. Intelligence says my two paths to the second site (an island with one access point) are blocked by a 70-man force and a 60-man force, respectively. The latter route is quicker (three moves, opposed to four), but farther from my capital, so reinforcement will be slower.


((Flashback
This test is actually the second try with this setup. I wasn’t doing a 10-turn test then, or recording an After Action Report, so the following details are sketched from memory. The first Pretender was generally the same, except the Manticore had Earth instead of Nature magic, a Mage Tower instead of a Citadel, and no Production scale. C’tis (default nation) declared war on me around turn 20 and popped the global spell “Foul Air” around turn 30. The war was a major blunder on my part—I provoked it too early in the game.

I discovered later that when the war started, C’tis was greatly outbuilding me in raw number of troops. I had a fortified chokepoint between us, but by turn 25 he was hitting it with 30-40 infantry plus a half dozen Bog Beasts every single turn, while a typical defense for me was 8-12 Abysian Infantry and scattered scum troops. Turned out, he could reach the chokepoint from his capital before I could reach it from mine. The chokepoint was changing hands about every turn, until I managed to clear it long enough to build 25 province defense (PD). The next few turns, the PD died every turn, but I always seemed to have 1 or 2 unbroken regular infantry when the smoke cleared, just a little more battered than before. (I would have been history by turn 24, except that I managed to get a Wand of Wild Fire up there, so by turn 30, C’tis was still trying to pry my bloody fingers off the province.)

After that, though, with no way to counter either disease or the global spell, and with all my income being sucked into the battle for the chokepoint, things were pretty much over. As of turn 30, I had not discovered a single Astral site and was still at L1 Enchantment (I had been concentrating on Fire, Earth, and Blood magic—Evocation, Blood, and Construction schools—and Dispel is a fifth level Enchantment). I discontinued the game at this point, and started over.

The experience with Foul Air reminded me of some earlier experiences with C’tis and the Burden of Time global spell, before that was patched. Isolated event? C’tis is going to be on my priority opponent list for some time, I think.
End Flashback

Overall, the restart is decent for a single player game, but not nearly good enough for multiplayer, IMO. It may have been a mistake not to send the Manticore out conquering early, but I chose troops over researchers for early expansion. I need the Manticore as a researcher, and I’m a little skittish about getting early afflictions on the Pretender, anyway.

Projected: I will be pursuing an inland strategy for the next 10 moves or so. At this time, only one black candle is visible, in a sea province off the west coast (#135). Turns 11-20 should see the start of a Blood economy (I usually prefer non-blood magic paths, but this game is an experiment). I will probably build a big Fire mage soon, and send one of the Apprentices out blood hunting.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

Much as I would like to, there is no way to mod forts.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

Oops! You are right. I wonder how that got into my notes.

Oh well. I remember that thinking this did have an impact on which fort I took for this game--I usually prefer the Castle for the Admin or Watchtowers because they are cheap.

I guess I spent a little too much time on summer vacation!

Thanks for the catch!

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

ive never even noticed the foul airspell before :p i can see my ermor combining this with burden of time and maybe utterdark , mwa ha ha

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

Shovah: Have fun! Happy to help!

SNAPSHOT: TURN 15
(picking up from the Turn 10 summary)

I have hacked through to the shores of the inland lake, defeating Heavy Infantry and a force of Woodsmen. Never seen a more ragged battle line than my Abysian Infantry. Of the seven survivors, the affliction count reads: 3, 2, 0, 1, 3, 3, 5. The recently hired Dante’s Stingers are in better shape: 4 dead, 7 afflictions, and one triple affliction out of 30 men. The army’s Salamander priest hasn’t seen a gem in so long he’s not sure what they look like anymore. The Prophet Warlord is holding this crew together, but intelligence reports 70 Longdead on the island. Oh, and there isn’t enough food here—I have to attack, withdraw, or starve. Can’t resist going for it…

A relief force consisting of the Second Army, plus Edward Blackfist, is cleaning out the rest of the interior, and just defeated a force of Heavy Infantry. They’re two turns away from the shore. Meanwhile, I have built a Lizard Shaman and escort near the first magic site. The Manticore turned up a 1-gem Astral site, so I can now probe for more. Still looking for the first Nature site, though. Also, I’m starting to hunt Blood Slaves south of the capital (15 in two turns!). I’m building an Independent leader to carry these back to the capital—I can’t afford a Lab here yet.

For research, I’ve cleared Thaumaturgy 2, and started on Blood 1. Now, if a random event gives me Nature gems, the Manticore can do remote searching for a few turns. Finally, I have no idea where Man is, but he just declared war on me, so I need to start looking for him.

This changes my plans considerably. Checking for new mercs, Hector’s Heavy Horse has just appeared. At a hefty 220 gp, I can (barely) swing this by cannibalizing almost everything in queue. I think Man may be east of me, across a major river line, but my side of the crossing can’t sustain a defensive force of any size. The chokepoint on the far side of the river might, and if Man’s capital is far enough away, that province might make a reasonable site for a fort. Intelligence reports only 20 Lizardmen. The downside is that I give up exploiting the island magic site for now. So be it. The battered First Army will cross eastward, with Hector falling in behind them. The Second Army can be on the island site in three turns (the only enemy province now in the way has mostly militia).

The big risk here is that I’m renting Hector instead of building Third Army. Anything breaks north or west of me and I will be in serious trouble, I have no reserve other than the nub of a regular spearman unit that I’ve been slowly building north of the capital, and I’ve put very little into province defense anywhere. Interesting times.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 16-17
Disaster! First Army is wiped out. The intelligence report was low—there were 40 Lizard Men. They chewed through the Abysian Infantry and Dante in short order. Only the Salamander and Prophet escaped the debacle, and the Prophet was Cursed. Even worse, Hector showed up in the capital, instead of at the east bridge (oops!), so he’s totally out of position for any offensive action. On the bright side, Second Army flattened the militia, and shortly will be in position to cover the bridge.

Time to settle for half a loaf. I can just as easily build my fort on this side of the river. First, though, I lay out a Temple and Lab. This will let me recruit Druids, and stock my Salamanders with Fire gems, both useful for an assault either on the island with the site or across the river to the east.

I can’t wait to build a second fort—I need a source for halfbreed spearmen that won’t keep running afoul of the Abysian Infantry heat ability. Tactical separation and orders can do only so much to preserve normal troops fighting alongside Abysians. (Typically, I have been deploying the Abysians forward and far right with orders to attack closest. The normal foot have been deployed refused far left with orders to attack rear or archers. Usually, the Abysians draw off the missile fire, which their heavier armor helps deflect, as well as any enemies with attack orders. The normal human foot engages either the rear enemy units or comes in on the flank of enemies fighting the Abysians, thus limiting their own exposure to “friendly fire” (at least it’s better than having the Abysians coming in straight behind them!). My assassin sneaks over the bridge to look for Man.

On his way to the first magic site, the Manticore discovers a Nature site—Farm of Plenty. Bah, but then I note that somewhere along the line I picked up 16 Nature gems (some troops did get cursed by a witch a turn or so ago). Manticore diverts south to the Lizard Shaman’s Lab—time to scry out some Nature sites and maybe forge something nice.

First Blood Slaves hit the labs. While I could start summoning Spine Devils immediately, I’m going to hold off until I can recruit a Demonbred leader and reach Blood 3, which would give me summonable Devils. Hector and my human spearmen converge northwest of my capital. When I get a little stronger here, I might try a breakout, but the two possibilities are Heavy Horse or Amazons with Nightmares, so for the time being, this group is defensive.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 18
Caelum buys Blackfist away from me! Also, it turns out C’tis, not Man, is east of me. I can see a province he owns, but not his capital. My assassin moves in to investigate. My fort construction starts now and I have raised the PD there to 15. I’m two turns away from Blood 3, so a Demonbred will soon be a priority.

Hector’s contract is up, so it’s him or the fort. I choose the fort. With Blackfist gone, Hector in his current location isn’t helping. If I let him go and no one else hires him, I might be able to hire him back on turn 19, and put him where he will be useful. Risky. I would not have this problem if I’d positioned Hector properly the first time. Also, the last of the aquatic mercenaries came up this turn, so down the road it’s going to be harder to get into the oceans.

I’m feeling a little low, so I sneak a peak at the graphs. Ulm and C’tis are tied for most provinces, I’m third. I have the best income, with Ulm right behind me. For gem income, I’m fifth of eight; looks like the other three lowest still have only their original sites. Ulm and C’tis are in a dead heat for first, probably pulling 11-12 gems each. For dominion, I’m tied for fourth. For army size, with the loss of Blackfist, I’m dead last, a little behind Oceania. I need to raise my troop count before everyone starts jumping on me. No choice, the fort goes on hold, I keep Hector, bid on the Fishermen, and start raising cheap troops. If my fort type was a Castle instead of a Citadel, I would be building now.

I need more provinces. If Hector and the spearmen move northeast, there’s another pass, and I’ll have two more provinces to attack before I run up against the Amazons. The first is Light Infantry and Crossbows, no clue about the second. Stay tuned…

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 19

Oceania outbids me on the Fishermen, so my troop situation is going critical fast. On the other hand, Orion is up, and I intend to bid high—I could use his punch for expansion in the north. If I can cobble together an army of Mercs and Independents in the north, use the Abysians of Second Army to bolster the east, and build a fully Abysian Third Army in the capital, then I should be able to continue expanding north and west. I can’t move east before building a fortified base of operations, and I still have the Longdeads in the magic site on the island to deal with.


C’tis is expanding north along the east map edge, I think. My assassin spotted a Temple of theirs south of the first province I found, so I’m betting their capital is south, rather than north. The assassin moves south, leaving behind a force of 40 C’tis Militia and Tomb Worms. Tomb Worms, drat. I was hoping that C’tis would be the default nation, but apparently not this time.

I am completing Blood 3 next turn; I put the rest of my research into Construction. If C’tis turns my way, a decent item or two could be the difference between standing and folding. The Manticore has already turned from remote search to research, so I’ll build a Druid to bolster my future Citadel site and handle remote Nature scrying in his time off.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 20
C’tis does seem to be south. No capital yet, but two more provinces with Temples. He does move in my direction with some of his force—I count 9 Militia on the east side of the bridge after he takes out the independents, and no Tomb Worms. I must fortify here as quickly as possible. I can’t put off building another turn.

Orion joined, so the attack (northwest) is on. After I take these two provinces, it looks like I’ll have to backtrack and start working the far north. C’tis has sealed off the east, the only other crossing is about two provinces northeast of my northern force. I take a minute to reorganize armies.

The new “First Army” is at the east bridge with the Prophet. It’s still something of a paper army until the Abysians from the old Second Army join it. By that time, the new Citadel will be up and pumping out cheap halfbreed spearmen. The new “Second Army” is the northern force. It consists of Hector, Orion, and two understrength spear units. It is attacking with no magic support (other than Orion) but a Lizard Shaman is on the way. I’ll probably delay him long enough to build a Temple somewhere—I need some cheap, weak Priests to bolster the army, aid province defense, and chat up the locals. “Third Army” is building in the capital, currently a dozen halfbreed spearmen and three Abysian Infantry (also a half dozen archers I raised during the blood hunts, but they’re more of a castle guard). I need to double this force and add a Salamander and a half dozen more Abysian Infantry before sending them anywhere.

Scores: For provinces, I’m still third, but static, while everyone else is growing. Not good. For income, I’ve dropped to second, below Ulm; Man is behind me, and accelerating. Not good. For gems, I’m still fifth, but Man has caught up to me. In research, I am sixth, but catching up to three, four, and five. No one is catching Man any time soon, and Arco is so far ahead they’ve more than doubled everyone except Man. In dominion, I am third and accelerating. I will pass C’tis soon; Caelum is ahead of us, but static; Man and Oceania are not only at the bottom of the heap, but fading. For army size, C’tis just hyperaccelerated past Man to grab first place. I’m in last place, but at least my rate of growth is higher than Ulm (third) or Oceania (seventh). Overall, it’s not looking so good.

TURN 21
Pressure’s on. C’tis parked 60 Ghouls and Tomb Worms on my doorstep, and I have only a handful of troops to meet them. The province defense (PD) is up to 25, backed by the Prophet, a Druid, and a Salamander priest. The Abysian Infantry is still two turns out, but the Manticore can get there now. I build junk archers. I think I will not see Construction 4 before the hordes of C’tis attack. Now I need money and troops, and the only way to get those is to get land. I find the C’tis capital, it is on the map edge several provinces southeast of the bridge.

While the new Second Army moves through Godsgrave Pass (how appropriate!) against a Militia/Light Infantry force, the half-built Third Army moves northwest from the capital. We may see a combined attack on the Amazons soon. Elsewhere, I hire Urgek and his Beast Brothers, who will combine with one spear unit and the Lizard Shaman to expand into the far north/northeast. My Demonbred will pop in the first Devil next turn, but the blood hunting came up dry this turn. I have enough slaves in reserve to get three or four Devils. I am relying far too much on mercenaries, but I haven’t been able to ramp up production of national troops yet.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 22
Mixed news. The C’tis horde moved away from the border, leaving a guard of 10, mostly Tomb Worms and a priest (Prophet?). I have a couple turns, maybe. Meanwhile, my assassin discovers that the C’tis capital is on a choke point--no movement south without going through its province. Do I risk it, or hang around keeping tabs on troop movements in my direction? I think I’ll try infiltrating with a scout before risking an assassin.

The strategic implications are troubling. Northeast/east expansion will eventually hit C’tis coming the other way, so it’s ultimately a dead end. Northwest will be good for a while, but I’m sure someone’s across the bay from me—I just can’t see him yet. I can’t go south on my west border without trickling out down along the coast, and that means dealing with Knights.

Almost forgot to renew Dagan and Orion this turn. That would have really messed things up. Fixing this prevents my getting another Demonbred this turn. I bank the difference and send a researching Apprentice out to find Blood Slaves. This cuts my research even more. I put the Manticore back on line, but I’m only getting 48 research points this turn. At current rate, I’m two turns off Construction 3, and Construction 4 is where all the goodies are.

TURN 23-24
Moving right along. First Army is building at the east bridge, and the Citadel there will finish soon. Trouble on the horizon. Assassin spots a 60-lizard force of C’tis, mostly Slingers and Militia, may be headed my way. In the northwest, Second/Third Army cleans out the Amazons. In north, Urgek and company reach the river border and will cross this turn. Urgek’s mercs were reduced to meat shield status in the last combat, but the force across the river looks soft—30 Militia/Archers. Still, after the next battle there won’t be much left to rehire.

Boy, was that right! The attack failed. Urgek was killed, the spear unit and lizards were virtually annihilated, but at least the leaders and a few troops escaped. With the remnants reorganizing for another attack, the mercenary ettin Pak-Ur joins.

To the west, the Second Army cuts its way northwestward, stopping next to a magic site province (Witch's Roost) guarded by 60 Barbarians. Fortunately, the mercenary unit Grom’s Breakers is available, so I put up a bid. If it comes through, I’ll try to get the site.

At the east bridge, the fort is finally done. I’m going to risk First Army by throwing everything except one priest at the island magic site. C’tis looks far enough away that I can hit it and get back. Also, the 70 Longdead are reading 30 now, so there surely won’t be more than 70, and I can handle those, I think. I’ll just have to suck up the research loss, but I need to find some gem sites.

The extra priest heads north to help the northern river crossing. This map is very constricted; ground units have little mobility and it takes forever to get anywhere. With one renegade air wizard and no sites, it’s not like I’m ever going to be building the Flying Ship (Construction 8), and the Gate spell is a very long way away.

Next turn: Oops!

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

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.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

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…

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

if your thinking of a wand that increases fire lvl i dont know of any that exist, theres the helmet (with -3 reinvig) or the misc which requires fire and death

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

shovah: The only wand I've mentioned specifically so far is the Wand of Wild Fire, which throws Fireballs, as per the spell. It's great for plugging holes in the line when faced with masses of cheap troops. I just got a little confused about when it becomes available (my fault, when I solo I generally don't have the item reference open).


TURN 30
In the north, I find my first Nature site—1 gem, but at least I have an income—C’tis forces are now visible to the southeast. I’ve taken the last choke point I’m going to get. By next turn, I’ll have enough money to start building. In the meantime, there’s one more province to clear—50 Heavy Foot/Archers. I’m going for it.

Hector is back. Crud—the men are about gone, over half are diseased and have 4 hit points or so. They have maybe one battle left, if it’s soon. I’m sending them northwest to hit the Amazons at the map edge—maybe they will kill a few before they die. No one’s coming back, though. Never buy a used merc!

All quiet on the northwestern front, which I’m pushing. All quiet at the east bridge. I will reach Conjuration 2 and Enchantment 2 next turn.

Scores: For provinces, Ulm is leading, followed by me (Abysia), C’tis, and Man. I hold 25 provinces, so I guess Ulm has about 30, C’tis about 20, and Man 17-18. For income, Ulm is first, I’m second, barely edging out Man, who apparently lost a province recently. Caelum is fourth. For gems, the top three are Ulm, C’tis, and Oceania in that order. There is a distinct second tier, with me, Caelum, and Man. For research, I’m running sixth (still). Arcoscephele has a huge lead; Man and Caelum are practically tied for second, with Caelum accelerating. Pythium, Oceania, and I form the next tier, all growing about the same pace. For dominion, Caelum is the clear leader, with Ulm, C’tis, me, and Pythium forming a second tier. C’tis is accelerating sharply. I’m growing slowly and unevenly here—I need to build more Temples.



TURN 31
Caelum bought Grom away from me, just as I won a battle and Grom found an enchanted pike. Figures. My guess is, Grom is about two-thirds used up, but there’s no way to check it now. This halts the attacks in the northwest—I’m just out of steady troops.

In the north, Hector dies and takes out only three Amazons. I start my northern base near the map corner, but west of the river (province #208) to block the river crossing. All my surviving mercenary contracts expire next month, which means I have only enough money left to start the fort. I can’t afford troops or other structures. Nothing else breaks, but I will probably commit the Devils to coastal projects when I have a few more of them.


TURN 32
In the northeast, the Celestials divert across the barrier river eastward to clear the last independents adjacent to the fort site, which is getting a Temple this turn. The Lizard Shaman also goes, with some archers built locally and some recently arrived Lizard Warriors.

In the capital, enough Blood Slaves are available for two more Devils (hunted in the capital, ouch!). I start collecting ground troops for a west coast campaign. The Green Horde is available and I scrape up enough to bid (it takes some alchemy). Remote scrying locates another 1-gem Nature site. Great! Random Earth gems! Double great!!


TURN 33
In the northeast, Celestials push on to the corner province, which has 50 Lizard Men, the other choices are an open province (40 Heavy Infantry and Cavalry), sit, or retreat. There are still two unknown provinces between C’tis and me, so we might split the difference on this one. I don't care, just so I have enough breathing space to finish the fort. The Temple is built, the Lab is going up this turn.

Northwest force sits, except for some scouting, but a big attack toward the west coast begins now (Fourth Army). The Green Horde, a Salamander (now that the Amazon Lab is done) and a Demonbred with 14 Devils should clean out the 40 Heavy Cavalry and Militia in the coastal town. After that, it’s southward along the coast—I might even get as far as the big forest before hitting someone else. We’ll see.

By the east bridge, a few new scouts are arriving and sneaking across the river. I can see two C’tis units of 40, but not much else. I’ll try to get a scout past the C’tis capital and see what’s south. My fort here has become home to my scrying efforts. Meanwhile, I should hit Enchantment 3 this turn.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 34
Well, this turn the secret is out! C’tis hasn’t been pushing into the north because the last river line is blocked by a huge independent: the Earth Mother--with 110 Vine Men, Vine Ogres, and Dryads. The last two independent provinces near me that are mine if I can take them before C’tis takes out this block. My attack this turn is successful, but I lost all my Lizard Warriors. Fortunately, this is a Lizard Man province, so I’ll soon have enough fodder to take on the 30 Heavy Horse in the last independent province to the southwest.

In the west, the whole Green Horde is gone, only the Salamander and Devils remain! It was my own fault. I left the commanders in their default positions and the Demonbred heat effect set the Horde commander on fire. Gah! I deserve that for playing into the wee hours. However, other foot troops are close enough so I can finally clear the Heavy Horse out of the last province adjacent to my capital next turn. All my mercs renew this month; I wonder if I’ll lose any more of them. I recruit an Amazon Sorceress.

In the northwest, I try a risky attack with Orion and some common spearmen. I’ve been sitting only one province short of where I was considering a base, and it’s guarded only by Militia. I’ll try a defensive tactical setup and see if they impale themselves on it.

By the east bridge C’tis is back, with 70 Ghouls and Tomb Guards. I’m not worried if this is all they bring up.


TURN 35
I have very few reserves of Astral or Nature gems; I’ve been burning them off doing remote scrying. I’m going to stop this for a while—I have a feeling I’m going to want these gems before long. I also need to forge at least one Thistle Mace to upgrade a Druid. However, remote viewing pays off. I increase by 3 Astral and 2 Fire gems. And Pythium just declared war on me.

In the northeast, I mass for my next attack. I strip the new fort of troops to form a second prong for the assault. On examination, I discover that the river line blocked by the Earth Mother is more porous than I thought: C’tis can cross into my target province from the south! I would hate for my attack to run into a block of 90 C’tis. Turns out, that chance is remote…

…because across the east bridge, C’tis gathers 110 troops! I build some more Abysian Infantry and Woodland Archers in the fort, and summon two Fire Drakes to help hold the line. All wizards are issued gems.

In the northwest, on the western continent, the river assault was successful; I have my site (now I just need the money to develop it). It has a black candle, so I leave Orion to preach, while the other leader scrambles back a province to retrieve some routed troops. I wonder if the candle is Pythium coming? Also, barbarians have struck deep into my northwest territories, taking my Earth gem site. *pain*

The west (coastal) army stops to rebuild. The Demonbred and Devils return to the capital to pick up more infernal troops. Next turn they will clean out the barbarians. I need a Salamander to set up a Temple in the Amazon province so I can get an Amazon Priestess. Across the river south of the capital, I am also seeing black candles. It might be C’tis, Pythium, or maybe someone else.

I’ve been trying to build more internal Temples recently. I divert enough funds for the Prophet to build one in the first magic site. I also have a Salamander on the way to rebuild the Lizard Lab that burned down.

Scores: For provinces, Ulm is ahead, I am second, followed by C’tis and Man; no change. For income, it’s Ulm, me, Man, and Caelum. I am declining here, probably due to blood hunts and some bad unrest randoms. For gem income, Ulm and C’tis are tied, I am third and accelerating past Oceania, which is declining. For research, Arco soars, while Caelum has shot sharply past Man. I’m still sixth, in a third tier pack that includes Oceania, Pythium, and me. For dominion Caelum is still first, but Ulm has almost caught up. C’tis is third and climbing. I’m fourth and stagnant. Pythium is behind me and will catch up unless I raise more Temples. Man, Oceania, and Arcoscephale are far behind and in decline, the last two sharply so.

(Oops, forgot armies—I trail badly, last I think.)



TURN 36
If I want a base on the west continent, my northwest force (Orion) has to start it this turn. Caelum territory is about three provinces west and Man territory is about three provinces south. I have barely enough money to start construction, but would it be stretching my resources too far? I decide to risk it.

The west coast force is stuck; too weak to advance without the Devils. I discover I miscounted, the Devils can’t reach the Barbarians this turn, so they go as far as they can. Blood hunts dried up last turn, so no Devil this turn. Maybe Devil next turn.

C’tis pulls away from the east river fort again. OK with me. I think I can grind up anything he can send in the next few turns. I’m going to put the east bridge theater on hold for now. Incidentally, my Scout did not get past their capital. We hold brief services.

The north just turned messy. C’tis is across the river up here. If I attack my independent province target and win, we have a one-province front. Worst case is we try for the same province and he comes in second with a bigger army.

I’m going for it. Worse news is that Bogus the Troll has showed up and besieged my north base! No reinforcements, no gem restocks, and the expeditionary force has no way home. Great. If enough Celestials survive the coming battle, then that might be enough to get rid of the raiders, otherwise, the siege is a lo-o-ong march from anywhere I have troops.



TURN 37
In the northwest, scouts are trying to track down the capitals of Caelum and Man. When I get a chance, I’ll make more scouts for this area. There is a special magic site here (number four), near my base location, but the way in is limited, and I’m not positioned well for it; Man is closest.

On the coast, the Devils go in unsupported against the barbarians. The Amazon Sorceress is at the north (third) magic site and is searching. I am consolidating ground troops in the large coastal city for an advance down the coast; also hunting blood here.

In the north, the raiders are actually damaging my fort. I grab the Celestials and other troops and send them back to break up the siege if they can—it’s a long walk, though.

Elsewhere, I concentrate on infrastructure, building two Temples and a Lab. Oh, yes, an Arena fight (to ignore) begins.


TURN 38
Aha! The Amazon Sorceress found an E1D1 source at the magic site three. Finally! And oops! Forgot to renew my mercs! They’re all gone now. Rexor just appeared, so I will have to break the Bogus block with his barbarians. I don’t think this will work, though. I have to handle this personally—the Manticore moves out.

Typically, someone (Caelum in this case) sends their Pretender to the Arena fight: Wyrm with a Ring of Tamed Lightning. Ooch.

It worked, Caelum nailed two enemy Prophets. Idiots. Maybe I’ll buff and ambush the sucker next time there’s an Arena fight. I’ll need protection against poison…but is a Champion’s Trident worth it? And do I get it if my misc magic slots are filled? And if I don’t, am I forced back into the next Arena fight? I may do it just to test this.

In the northwest, with Orion gone, I have to commit the Devils. They are on their way, but I have to build a second unit or I won’t have a strategic reserve. I need another two Demonbred, one to build and one to lead, and probably at least one more Apprentice to blood hunt. This turn yielded lots of slaves. I could probably afford a Sanguine Rod or two now, which would improve my hunting. Also, I could use two or three more researchers.

My big global is at Evocation 8 (Second Sun), and I really need to be targeting it now. Also, now that I’m getting gems, it may be time to think about better magic items. Starting now, I split my research between Enchantment and Evocation. At Enchantment 5 (the Dispel spell), I will switch to Construction. At Construction 4 (Major Items), I will switch to Blood (Archdevils). So much for theory, we’ll see how this two-school advance plan works. I’ll phase into it as soon as I complete current work on my infrastructure.


TURN 39
A bad turn. The west coast force, Army Four, was destroyed and all three leaders slain! My fault for not sending in a spy to count numbers, the intelligence report was low again (like I had a spare spy!). I still killed about 35 of 50 defenders, but it will take me several turns to rebuild and several more to get into position to try this again.

In the northwest, I lost a Scout to Man, so I am effectively blind until another one gets here. Figure three moves. The Devils arrive. Since the Boar Mage mercenary is available, I will bid on him to be here. With the Devils and local troops, this should ensure the base and give me a shot at the special site nearby. The black candle is back, but since Orion built a Temple before he left, I recruit a cheap Priest to keep the locals in line. I’m going to recruit another cheap Priest to build a Temple in the Amazon province. It would be quicker than trying to schedule a Salamander priest at the capital and walking it out.

In the north, I don’t attack the Bogus raiders yet. Next turn, the Manticore will be in position, and a Salamander priest can join the attack, too. I order a Fire Salamander and some foot in the north fort; they will break siege next turn when the attack comes in...OK, so I forgot you can’t build while under siege; sue me. The Lizard Shaman builds a Lab in the northeast corner province (Lizard Men)—more Shamans will be showing up soon, I think.

My infrastructure work is almost done for now. My tenth temple is up. I think I need one more soon, since one of my temples is especially vulnerable. I can see that C’tis is also building Temples as fast as he can. Next turn, a Warlock, maybe two.

By the east bridge, the C’tis troop mix has changed: 60 Desert Rangers and Heavy Infantry. Seems quiet, though.

Next time: One Little Indian. Stay tuned

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 40
Oceania has been eliminated. At times like these I really want a post-game playback. I haven’t done much with that nation, and I’m curious to see the progress of its collapse.

In the northwest on the western continent, the Devils attack, hopefully opening my way to the special site. The Amazon Sorceress at the fort site builds a Lab. The cheap Priest I built here is on his way to the Amazon province and another has been recruited for local defense.

On the coast and capital region, I’m reorganizing and resetting the blood hunting. I rarely play Blood magic, as I prefer “good guy” factions overall, so I’m on a fairly steep learning curve here.

The blood hunts all failed this turn. I have enough for 4 Devils, or 3 and a rod.

In the north, the attack against Bogus goes in. The forces cut off by his siege overloaded their province, but I doubt it will be a problem. If I win, there’s plenty of food in the Citadel. If I lose, there won’t be enough troops left to trigger starvation. In we all go.

My script for the Manticore: Berserkers, Twist Fate, Astral Weapon, Attack Large Monsters; I positioned my Pretender carefully next to Rexor. Besides the Manticore and Rexor, there is a small squad of 3 Lizard Warriors, a squad of 5 Militia, and a unit of 17 Archers, backed up by a Salamander priest with orders to cast Blessing first, followed by general spellcasting. Everyone else dogpiles Bogus (attack/fire at large monsters). Waiting for this turn to resolve is tough. Bets are on the table.

On the northeast C’tis border, he threatens with 80 Militia, City Guard, and Tomb Worms. I shove all local troops in to face off, increase province defense to 10, and build a Lab in the northeast corner province.

The east bridge area is quiet, but small C’tis units of 30-40 seem to be moving into the area. The balloon might go up next turn.

My scout against Caelum had been following a trail of temples back to the capital. He didn’t get there, this turn he is discovered and killed.

Scores: For provinces, Ulm is ahead, I am second, followed by C’tis and Man, though Pythium is accelerating and should pass Man soon. For income, it’s Ulm, me, Man, and Caelum. Man actually led me for a short time, but I’ve spiked up past him. For gem income, C’tis leads, I’m second by a gem or two, Ulm is third and static. Man and Caelum form a second tier at a little more than half our levels. For research, Arco leads, Caelum is a clear second, and Man is clear third. I’m fifth by virtue of Oceania’s elimination, though I still am below it in the third tier pack that includes Pythium and me. For dominion, Caelum is still first and declining, with Ulm almost caught up and climbing. C’tis is third and static with an up-tic. I’m fourth and stagnant with a down-tic, Pythium has plateaued behind me and is static. Man is far behind and static, while Arcoscephele has declined almost off the graph. (Forgot armies again—I’m last.)


TURN 41
In the northwest on the west continent, the Devils open the way to the special site. However Caelum turns up next to my base with 60 Caelian Archers, independent Archers, and Militia. I ramp up the province defense and order the Devils back to hold the fort. A cheap Priest is recruited.

In the north, Bogus is annihilated in an epic battle. The enemy Dark Knight Griffon Rider swooped down and slew the commander of my archers. I am disappointed that the Berserker spell only affects four barbarians, and they’re in the back. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif

The raider Warrior-Mage and Troll Mage buff, the Troll Archer shoots, and Bogus the Troll just looks mean (Str 31!). The Dark Knight is killed immediately by Rexor’s barbarians, while we suffer incoming Shards and Ghost Wolves. The barbarians turn and charge the advancing Bogus, supported by my Archers (I don’t mind a few friendly fire hits on the barbarians; it just makes them mad). The Manticore finishes buffing with Twist Fate and Astral Weapon, then flies to the attack and slays the Warrior-Mage outright.

That leaves just the Troll Archer and Bogus. The Archer took on the Manticore, while Bogus was swarmed by the entire barbarian force. The Archer didn’t like the odds and fled, narrowly missed by a Fireball, but Bogus did not go down until the Manticore itself entered the fray. Rexor took Precious (the ring) and Black Steel Armor, Abysia recovered the Faithful short sword and a Cat Charm. The victorious survivors received a great feast that night. I recruit a cheap Priest here, renew Rexor, and bid on the Ghostfather. Next target, the local Amazons.

In the northeast, C’tis backs off as the Celestials show up for me. Turns out they are a little battered but still potent; about half have an affliction or two, but no disease. Should they last until I can summon a Faerie Court (Conj 8), I might be able to restore the entire unit.

At the east bridge, I recruit an Anathemant Dragon. My total income now is 1,112 gold, with troop upkeep 310 gold. I have reached a milestone in which I can build a fort without saving for a turn. Next turn should see another Warlock or two and, finally, the rebuilding of the Lizard Lab.


TURN 42
In the northwest on the west continent, Caelum backs off, followed by one of my scouts. The Devils fly directly to the special site. Lots of enemy dominion popping up to the south; I have to remember that Man is there and we are at war. I need to reinforce this base quickly so I will be hard to push off the west continent.

In the capital, I’m trying to reorganize blood hunting again. I am recruiting another Demonbred, but I don’t have enough Apprentices blood hunting to support two full-time summoners. A continuing problem is the low population of the inland provinces, which is making the coast look increasingly attractive.

In the north, the attack against the Amazons commences. The northeast corner is static; I put the Lizard Shaman on research.

By the east bridge, C’tis seems a little twitchy, and my dominion is shrinking here. The Anathemant Dragon sacrifices a precious Blood Slave to bolster my dominion. My Druid forges a Thistle Mace.

I’m thinking that I’ll probably have to fight C’tis before Caelum. I will try to fortify my foothold on the west continent and expand down the west coast of the east continent first, at least to the large forest, but the instant C’tis puts up a global spell, I will re-evaluate this stance. I figure I have enough Astral gems now for one Dispel attempt, but it’s really hard to build a reserve of these. I have reached Construction 4. I will reach Evocation 4 next turn (rushing a little), so I shift the rest of my production to Blood (to be adjusted to half the following move).


TURN 43
Disaster in the north! Total annihilation of Rexor’s expedition: both mercenary units and commanders, my Hall of Fame Salamander priest, and my Prophet are all dead. I will be devoting half my income to building up the north fort garrison. Right now, I am sending the Manticore and bidding on the Wind Lord to get a force to crush the Amazon resistance. There are 2 commanders and 12 troops surviving the battle, so two turns should see the ladies off. To make sure, I will recall the Celestials and guard the northeast front with Lizard Warriors.

On the west continent, the special site is secured; next step, last independent province adjacent to my base. A new Demonbred flies over from my capital with more Devils; I will build another Demonbred this next turn. I beef up the normal troop contingents and province defense in the west continent provinces.

On the east continent coast, blood hunters flock to my large coastal city, and the first one in gets a Sanguine Rod. Small numbers of troops move in to reinforce the city guard. The cheap Priest arrives in Amazon province.

By the east bridge, the dominion loss is now alarming. Despite this, I dispatch a Druid to the island with orders to raise Shamblers and build a Temple. The Anathemant Dragon conducts a blood sacrifice. If this doesn’t work, I’ll have to pull the priests off research to preach up the province dominion. Incidentally, I have exactly one Warlock with Water magic, and he's in the capital. The Shamblers don’t come with a leader. I must build a replacement Warlock before moving the one in place, and it’s five moves to the island, so I have time to put together a Shambler force before their leader arrives. Or I can make a Water Breathing Ring and send a local commander.


TURN 44
In the northwest on the western continent, the Devils return to the base for refit and reinforcement. It takes three turns of flight to get to this base from the capital. Just hunkering down, scouting, and building a little PD and a few more troops on this front. I’d really like to connect the two cities across the bay, but I don’t think that’s too realistic an expectation at this point.

In the north, the attack goes in on the Amazons. It occurs to me that this may be a poor use of the Windmaster, since I have no Air sites and this is my ticket in. Still, I make sure to transfer 11 of his gems to the Manticore, so I will have a stock if he falls.

I play a deep tactical position, setting up on my baseline to draw in the ground troops. After holding two turns, I’ll attack rear to take out the commanders before the ground troops can get back to them. In the last battle, both commanders had bodyguards, so maybe that will draw in my attacks (normally combat units ignore commanders unless they actually run into them).

The northeast just got interesting. C’tis just took out the Earth Mother with 110 City Guards, Militia, and Falchioneers. We now have a two-province front, and I’m really weak, since his other province has 50 units! It’s a good thing the Celestials are headed for the fort. If C’tis attacks, I will be hard pressed to man it. It is imperative that the Amazons be subdued and added to my forces before a general war starts. Although it will cost me two sure Abysian Infantry, I risk a bid on the Dragon Tamer to bolster the fort.

It’s quiet by the east bridge. I have two Salamander priests out to build temples on my side of the river, but there is no money in the collection box this month, so they preach.

As a refinement of my strategic vision, I will try to slowly shift forces so the east continent is mostly Abysian, while mercs and normal humans spearhead the effort on the west continent. We'll see how it works.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 45
In the northwest on the west continent, Caelum is pushing hard toward the coastal city two provinces south of me. The only way to forestall this is to send the Devils (who are getting a little battered) up against 50 Ichtyids. If they're successful, Caelum’s access is blocked. I can wait a turn and go in with 5 more devils, but run the risk of having Caelum come in behind me while I’m weak.

Since I’ve lost touch with Man, I decide to move immediately. Man may have a problem (war with Caelum?) because in about 10 turns he doesn’t seem to have moved north at all.

((A short digression about my Blood economy. It is very weak and I'm not exactly pushing it hard. A few turns ago I said I had enough Blood Slaves for four Devils. That didn't mean I summoned four Devils that turn. I have one Demonbred raising Devils and one researcher flying them to the front whenever I get a half dozen or so, so the statement indicates my expectation that I have four turns of Devil-summoning before I'm out out Blood Slaves. In the event, as I recall, I summoned one Devil and forged the Sanguine Rod with the other Demonbred.))

In the north, the Amazons are finally crushed. Tempus the Wind Lord, who picks up Precious, sets up a Lab, while the Manticore Pretender flies to the north fort. The Dragon Tamer is there, and the Celestials will arrive next turn. C’tis has moved away from the border, though, so there is no war this season. This sector will henceforth become the "northeast front." The north front has disappeared with the conquest of the Amazons. I own the whole north map edge on the east continent (hurray!).

On my side of the east bridge, I build two more temples to support my dominion. Blood sacrifices continue and seem to be effective, I am holding my own here. No money for new Priests or Warlocks, though. Remote scry turns up a Death gem site here! Gem Income: 7F/2E/5S/2D/2N + 8-9B on average (seems low for turn 45, but it's a low-magic game).

Scores: For provinces, I lead, Ulm is second and declining, followed by C’tis (stagnant) and Pythium (growing); the latter has passed Man. To me, it looks probable that a Pythium/Ulm war is in progress, with Ulm getting the worst of it—probably on the south continent. Man and Caelum may be at war as well.

For income, Man is ahead, growing steadily. I’m second, after a sharp spike up and spike down (blood economy flux, hunting brings unrest, which requires low taxes to fix), then Ulm, Pythium, and Caelum. (Economic advisor shorthand for my condition is that I've "got the bloody flux again.")

For gem income, C’tis leads with some recent big finds, I’m second only because Caelum lost some. Ulm trails me as much as I trail C’tis, and next is Man with about half of what C’tis is getting. (There may be a math challenge in here somewhere.)

For research, Arco leads, Caelum is a clear second at about two-thirds Arco’s value, and Man is clear third. I’m fourth, and growing faster than Pythium, I’m about two-thirds Caelum’s value.

For dominion, Ulm leads, but Caelum is closing the gap. C’tis is third, oscillating but static. I’m fourth, oscillating but growing. Pythium is falling rather sharply. Man is oscillating but static. Arcoscephele has fallen completely off the graph.

For armies, C’tis is looking very scary (if I’m at 1, C’tis is at 18!)--almost as strong as everyone else put together. Ulm and Man are about equal (at about 8), Pythium leads Caelum (about 4 to 3). Arcoscephale edges me into the cellar at 1+. I knew my military was weak, but holy cow! Looks like it’s long past time for me to build more troops!

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 46
Be careful what you wish for! In the northwest, Man showed up adjacent to the blocking province I just took, with 120 mixed infantry! Since the Devils took no losses, I think it’s safe to leave them there.

I build up the province defense, bring in my infernal reserves from the west continent fort (5 Devils + 1 Demonbred and gems) and dig in. This might be an important province, because it’s a source of Ichtyids, which I will need in order to go aquatic, plus there’s an Arena site here. It also would make my fort placement awkward, because if I built a base here to maximize Fish Man production, I would overlap the first northwestern base in two provinces. On the other hand, a base here would secure the large coastal town. Looking back, I think I might have been better served not to try the west continent at all, but to have concentrated on the east continent. Consider:

I am badly overextended now and exposed to Man and Caelum both instead of just Caelum. I am suffering in my blood hunting because I don’t have the populous coastal plains of the east continent. If Man and C’tis both attack me, and Caelum joins a general dogpile, it will be very bad for me. I empower my Amazon Sorceress so she can find Earth sites.

It occurs to me that I might be able to use the map names to target magic sites: Godsgrave Mountains might be a Death site, Aeros River might have Air gems, and so forth. I will test the theory this turn. This wouldn’t work in a standard game, because most of the names are randomized, but I haven’t played this map much, or recently, so I don’t know how much of it is designed (yes, I could look at the map text file, but that’s cheating, so I won’t).

On the coast, the large city is played out. Apparently, it can’t support two Apprentices with Sanguine Rods hunting monthly. I need to thin out the hunters, only hunt even turns, or maybe transfer one of the Rods to another blood hunter. Unfortunately, this city and my capital are my only provinces with over 10,000 population, and I haven’t had much luck hunting in provinces under 6,000. Provinces in the 6-10K range are scattered widely and few have Labs, so I would need some Scouts as porters or more money for Labs. It would take some time to reorganize along these lines. My blood hunting strategy is still a work in progress.

In the northeast, I move some cheap Priests into position to build Temples, get the Wind Lord busy scrying for sites, put the Manticore back on research, and add a few units to fort defense. And hope the balloon doesn’t go up this turn.

By the east bridge, the outlying Priests are recalled, and I ramp up research. The blood sacrifices to restore dominion seem to be working, and the new Temples should help hold the dominion line. Also, I suspect the reason I started losing dominion was that the C’tis Prophet had moved next to my province. But now the C'tis garrison has shrunk to 20 Militia and no commander is radiating power, so things ought to be back to normal soon on this front.

I rush slightly to get Blood 4 next turn, must rebalance research then. I also need to let my Death gems build up a little. I could use a few Mentor Skulls for research and Horror Helms for the commanders.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 47
Hmmm. Looking at the Blood 4 spells, I see Call Horror. If I give a Starshine Cap to an Apprentice, he can cast this. Could I nuke a large enemy army by running a single Apprentice and soldier onto the field, cast this spell, then flee while the Horror cuts down their number? Might be a way to preempt a C’tis horde attack—I’ll keep it in mind.

The Godsgrave probe was a huge success! Two sites, 2D1A1W. This gives me unlimited Air scrying as long as Tempus remains, and getting access to Water is a big plus also. I now have sources for all gem types, a major milestone! On the other hand, Aeros River was a bust, so the theory stays only a theory, after all.

On the west continent, Man backs off. I’ll take a chance and send the Devils to grab the last independent province close to the Fish Man province. If I build a Fish Man base, I will need the adjacent province for production. The only danger is accidentally hitting a huge Man force and losing the Devils and Demonbred. Looking at this whole area, I am losing badly here on dominion. I must fix this or my position here will be untenable. Next turn’s priority, though.

In the northeast, I quietly build, scry, and research. The C’tis masses are gone except for a watch group of 50 Ghouls and Tomb Worms, but his Prophet is here. If he starts hurting my dominion, I’ll either have to build a Salamander priest or get the Manticore over there.

The west coast of the east continent has a new development. Arcoscephale (!)--I wondered where they were--has taken the woods province next to the large coastal city south of my holdings. I have to start an offensive here soon or lose the high population centers of the coast. This area is the only expansion zone I have left after this turn. I'm blocked on the west continent by Caelum and Man, and on the east side of the east continent by C'tis. South along the west coast of the east continent is my only growth option.

The God’s Justice mercenary appears at this moment. Perfect! It nearly breaks me to lay out the 400+ gold this turn, but if the bid works I will have a shot at the two Plains provinces along the coast and maybe even the inland town, if Arco doesn’t press. It occurs to me that I wouldn’t have much of a game if it weren’t for the mercenaries. I must play this difficulty level more often and see if I can make it with more of an all-nation army.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 48
The dead prophet’s power is back, so the Anathemant Dragon gets it. Temple count: 14. I must build at least one more this turn (my starting Dominion was 5, at +1 per 5 Temples, one more temple increases me to Dominion 8, making it much harder for enemy priests to preach down my influence).

In the northwest on the west continent, the attack on the independent succeeds in classic manner. My deep set-on draws in the ground troops, then the Devils pounce on the command group. There is just one more open province between Man and Caelum, but going for it is just asking to get hammered. I patrol and preach, instead.

In the northeast, C’tis is back to 110 Falchioneers, Heavy Infantry, and Tomb Guards, led by the Prophet, and my dominion is down to 0 in the target(?) province. I reinforce with a small force of Lizard Men and the Manticore. Might be a mistake, I don’t think this can hold him off if the intel is accurate. Magnus’s Crossbows come up. Sheesh, am I a merc junkie this game, or what? I think I have to…

On the west coast, the attack on independent provinces begins. A scout reports an Arco force of 50 Slingers and Heavy Cavalry, with an Elephant. May be enough to take the big city, if he attacks. Next turn I may have to choose between a coastal plain and a small inland town.

By the east bridge, C’tis has bulked up: 110 Militia, City Guard, and Tomb Worms. Not enough to take me here, I think, but may be enough to block my gutting his nation if he hits me in the northeast. No matter. If he attacks, I will go berserk against his forces, cut off his expeditionary force, and ravage his holdings up and down the east map edge, or die trying. I also think Arco may dogpile him if he does attack me. Too bad we are the wimpiest military forces in the game. I convert most of my researching priests to preaching this turn.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 49
A new arena fight! I didn’t get a chance to buff the Manticore, so I’m not going. Also, C’tis is tying the Manticore down to defensive duties.

On the west continent, I stay defensive. I’ve decided to try for a second fort (in the Fish province), and will start with a Temple because my dominion is so low here. Next, I’ll put in a lab so I can get gems and item production rolling. After that, we will see.

On the west coast of the east continent, I’m off to a rocky start. God’s Justice isn’t that good against Heavy Infantry. My normal troops hit the line slightly first and are ground up, then the mercs start taking hits. Without magic support, I may not have won this (Will’o Wisps surprise me with their effectiveness—I’ve become a fan, plus the graphic is cool). Nonetheless, I advance against the second Plains province, because it’s in range of a small force of Devils I can fly in. Arco just stands there this turn, so I may have a shot at the big city.

On the northeast front, I’m going to build a Lab under the Manticore (province #195), so I can guard and research at the same time. I may even fortify here if the peace lasts long enough. I have scryed a place I already checked—I’m doing this far too late at night. One more turn, I think, and I’ll take a break. Magnus shows up, I stay defensive in the northeast, and C’tis leaves two moderate garrisons. We stare at each other.

Free Nature gems this turn. I can use them! There is barely enough money to cover the mercs this turn. I can’t afford to lose the Wind Master, so I delay the Fish Temple and put the rest of the money into more troops. I also start forging: A Girdle of Might and Horror Helm for the Manticore, and a Wand of Wild Fire for the defense of the northeast or the east bridge.

Current Gem Income: 7F1A1W2E5S5D2N. Gold Income 1,042 this turn. I hit a performance wall and end the session.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 50
New developments on west continent! Man is definitely at war with Caelum. A force of 20 Blackhawks from Man has replaced the Caelum Militia next to my fort. All my provinces within flight range of this province now need to be proofed against this attack.

It’s just as well I didn’t try the Arena. Caelum’s pretender has almost 500 hit points and regenerates 17 per round, in addition to being lightning- and poison-proof. My 230-point Manticore would have been chutney.

On the west coast of the east continent, I can now see why Arco stopped. The big city’s garrison is 100 Barbarians. I divert my attack line into the smaller inland town (20 Militia/Light Cavalry). Apparently, Arco has only a small bridgehead in this area. I have to seal that off as quickly as possible, so I can mop up the remaining Forest provinces on my own schedule.

For the second turn running, the blood hunts are dry. I pull from the sacrifice pool to summon a single Devil this turn. I *must* solve this blood hunting issue. Interestingly, a Blood economy thread has started on the Forum. Just what I needed!

Scores: For provinces, I lead. Ulm (declining), Man (rising), C’tis (stagnant) and Pythium (dip down), form a second tier pack.

For income, I lead, but have spiked down and Man is close behind and growing. Ulm, Pythium, and Caelum form a second tier, and are declining.

For gem income, I clearly lead, with C’tis more than one find behind. Ulm, Caelum, and Man are almost a dead heat, with Ulm stagnant and Caelum spiking down exactly the same as Man spikes up. They are about half me, and C’tis splits the difference.

For research, Arco leads, Caelum and Man are a neck-and-neck second at about two-thirds Arco’s value, and I’m next, chased by Pythium, I’m about two-thirds Caelum’s value.

For dominion, Ulm leads, but has leveled off, and Caelum is closing the gap. C’tis and I are virtually tied, me rising, him declining. Pythium is falling rather sharply. Man is oscillating but static. Arcoscephele has fallen completely off the graph.

For armies, C’tis is still so strong it’s scary (I’m at 2, C’tis is at 18!), almost as strong as everyone else put together. Man and Ulm are about equal (at 8 and 7), Pythium leads Caelum (about 4 to 3). I’ve passed Arcoscephale.

This changes things a little. The Man/Caelum war is going badly for Caelum. The time to strike C’tis is now or soon, before Caelum falls—I have to beat C’tis quickly enough to bolster the west before Caelum goes completely. Should I close the border with Arco and build more troops before striking? I get the feeling that if I go to war now, I will destroy a mighty empire. Stay tuned.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

may i ask what caelums pretender is just out of interest (you probably said somewhere else)

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

Shovah:
Actually, I have no idea what Caelum's pretender is. On this turn I am nowhere close to their capital. It hasn't shown up in any Arena fights. It's whatever the AI decided to field at Difficult level.

[I later had the opportunity to record the exact Pretender chassis, but didn't take it, sorry. At this point, I semi-recall it was something fairly weak, a Frost Father or Ghost King, but I just don't know for sure. The only thing I can easily determine at this point is that the AI stuck them with the Return of the Raptors theme. Not a choice I would have set voluntarily for this game.]


TURN 51
With war against C’tis brewing, I have a large number of items on the checklist: Manticore fully buffed, including Ring of Poison Resistance. Rings of Fire Resistance for the Druids. One or more Fire Wands on each front. At least 3-4 Priests per army group. Enough troops in the pipeline to make good on losses. Enough troops in the base forts to stop any C’tis who get through the front line. More Priests to bolster PD. Enough Warlocks to keep up research while the war continues. My most sensitive spot is the northeast corner. With three of five Astral gems a turn coming from there, I would be in deep trouble if I lost that province.

From the west continent, I pull the large Devil unit (16-17) back to my big port on the east continent. I will need them to solidify the border with Arco, and possibly raid east into C’tis territory. They are at once my greatest striking force and mobile reserve, and I need them where the action is.

On the west coast of the east continent, I blow the tactics and it costs. My small Devil unit rushes in and hits the advancing body (of Knights!) head-on instead of the Horse Archers or command group. The God’s Justice pikemen piles into their rear, taking heat damage, which a misplaced Hellfire spell does not help. I won, but the army is in shambles; most of the Devils are gone, and God’s Justice is a lot weaker than 37 survivors would suggest. Instead of husbanding my resources, I have squandered them.

Worse, Arco has pushed 30 Cardaces and Heart Companions into his bridgehead, so I must attack the independent 40 Heavy Infantry/Crossbows next to him immediately to seal him out of this area. Pikes far forward with attack orders (to minimize missile casualties). Devils ordered to charge enemy archers to disrupt their fire. With any luck, I will crack the defenders and hit the commanders before the Devils are all killed. Go, go, go!

In the northeast and by the east bridge, it is the quiet before the storm.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

But you said just a few posts back :

That doesn't sound much like a Frost Father or Ghost King. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif Take it some other nation had the 500 HP beast in the arena.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

thats why i asked, guess he 4got

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

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. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

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. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

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..."

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

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.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

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

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

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!" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

(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...

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

This is a good read! Sounds like a very fun game.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

Oversway: Thanks. This game does have its moments. This is a holiday weekend, and I fully intend to overindulge in this sport.


TURN 56-60
A whirlwind of activity this time.

I drop Fires From Above on the biggest C’tis mass, then attack the province east of my east bridge fort. I also Send Lesser Horrors, two of them—they kill his Pretender!

His forces split into two large groups, one covering the way to his capital, and one poised to move north. I send two Lesser Horrors after the northern one, then split my own army: Abysians toward the C’tis capital, mercs and humans covering the east bridge crossing.

Meanwhile, I am raising Druids and making Sacks of Endless Wine, forging Skull Mentors as fast as I can, and building troops after laying in a major caster or two each turn. In particular, I start building super-heavy infantry at my main forts (so far I’ve been using the mediums). C‘tis sends major forces north to retake lost provinces, while I try to plug the chokepoint to the south. In this epic battle, I hold the field, but lose the Manticore. Drat!

I use the Devils for vertical envelopment of his largest force with limited success. Looks like there is no way I can save the Astral gem site—and I will be hard pressed to defend the northern fort. In the south he has two large armies, one has 380 troops-and his Pretender is back. The other has 280 troops. A lot of these troops are undead. I just can’t match his numbers, and the mass undead-killing spells are beyond me at this point. Things are getting hot.

[i][No score check this turn—I’m at war. Deal with it.] http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 61-70

The western continent is quiet. Good.

By the east bridge, the Lesser Horror trick does not work so well when he has 500+ units. I have managed to destroy most of his northern forces, but more just keep coming. Devil production is slow, Lesser Horrors suck up much of my Blood Slave supply.

Along the coast, Arcoscephele dies by dominion snuff (!). (Don’t look at me, I didn’t do it!) I use scouts and flyers to grab as many unoccupied Arco provinces as I can.

Battle fatigue is setting in. By the end of turn 70, I have driven C’tis completely out of the north, though large blocks of troops (lots of undead) gather behind the river line south of the inland island.

I have broken up two major counterattacks here and killed the C’tis Pretender again. On the coast, I am building a fort north of of the Hundred Island crossing, and have discovered an abandoned coastal fort on my side of the next river line below the island. Advanced scouts see C’tis units two provinces east of the abandoned fort and inland. It’s a race—can I get to the abandoned fort first?

[No score check. I’m too busy.]

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 71-80
All the action is on the East continent this period.

On the northeast/east bridge front, by hitting the C’tis with two Lesser Horrors a turn, I hold them off and kill lots of them. I need more Fire sites. If I can put up the Eternal Pyre global spell to get a Fire gem surplus, I can eventually cast Purgatory (Thaum 7) to keep the undead hordes under control. Most of the C’tis armies are Ghouls; without them his military would be insignificant, I think.

The timely arrival of the mercenary Arco phalanx (Agyraspides) allows me to siege and take the coastal fort before C’tis can get there. It turns out to be the old Arco capital; lots of Astral gems, and all for me! The irony makes me chuckle--in later histories (which I will write), we will be the liberators!

I take the whole small local area bounded by rivers, then start pushing south and east. I have my eye on another abandoned fort southeast of "Fort Arco" and inland (province #87). Also, my deep-ranging scouts detect that Ulm has crossed onto the eastern continent and is moving north. Cue the *Darth Vader theme*, Ulm is on the march!

A second timely arrival, God’s Enforcers, allows me to besiege and take the inland fort! Hah! It has a laboratory and Azure Wizards—I finally get a Water site searcher! Incidentally, I have built a force of Shamblers, equipped a Salamander priest with a Ring of Water Breathing, cleared the waters around the magic site island, and built an underwater Temple there (a full 50 turns after I took the island magic site!). If I can send Lesser Horrors to a C’tis coastal province and rout the army there, the Shamblers can pop out and raze another C’tis Temple or two.

Turn 78, the C’tis Pretender pulls off a vertical envelopment of my main army on that front, materializing behind it with 120 Ghouls. Holy crud!

I hit him with four Lesser Horrors and try to break through to friendly lines. Without waiting, he moved north, destroying my local troops there, so the trapped army didn’t catch him, but he didn't annihilate my most important army, either.

Of note: The commander of my Devils had picked up a Lycanthropos Amulet turns earlier, which I ignored (bad idea). He changed and charged berserk in this battle, dying immediately. This stranded my big Devil unit (by "big" I mean 14-15) next to 1,020 hostile troops (three provinces full of Ghouls). Worse, the commander had been carrying a Cauldron of Endless Broth, so the rest of my army, now one province north, starved next turn! My main force followed the enemy Pretender, while the leaderless Devils basically fought a round and retreated when they were attacked the next turn.

In the center of the east continent, the two mercenary phalanxes from the coast circle the mountain block north of the big desert in opposite directions. I may not be able to hold this ground, but grinding up the C’tis temples in this area is my main goal, anyway. Best case, I will clean him out west of the river line near his capital and meet Ulm coming up the continent. I am now working toward a number of goals: Eternal Pyre/Purgatory/Second Sun, the Faerie Court/Couatl, binding Arch Devils, Mind Slay (for the Manticore, once I fix him).

My gold income on turn 81 is 1,014 gold, gems: 10F/3A/3W/7E/9S/8D/6N, and I'm pulling an average of 30-40 Blood Slaves.

My earlier panic has subsided. I'm feeling like things are starting to come under control, though there is much to do. Finally some breaks are going my way.

[Scores? Maybe later...]

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

i know its a little late now but if you ever need magical dicversity you should trying going for lamia queens

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

shovah: Thanks for the suggestion. At this stage in the game, I've been grabbing every tool I can to put C'tis down, although bludgeoning him with Lesser Horrors has been my most successful strategy so far. (I'm afraid I will get no awards for finesse or style this game!)

I am at this point mostly set up for Fire and Blood magic--most of my Nature magic is going into supply items--the C'tis ghouls have really stripped the eastern provinces--I can hardly go into them without starving. I don't have a lot of Death magic, either, and most of my Death gems at this point are going into Skull Mentors to boost my research so I can get things like the Eternal Pyre and Faerie Court (to un-feeblemind the Manticore). We may see some Lamias before I am done, though.
------------------------------------------------------------

TURN 81-90
I take the desert province southeast of Fort Azure. I also put pressure on the C’tis west river line. By disrupting his large armies of undead with Lesser Horrors, it is now proving fairly easy for my much smaller ground forces to push into his provinces and raze his Temples.

I won’t get much from the C'tis nation provinces, because all his Ghouls are killing his population and making his provinces useless for supply and taxes. Also, putting more than two Lesser Horrors into a province has proved to be a waste, unless his Pretender is there.

On the south continent, it looks like Pythium got the green west half and Ulm got the desert right half. My deep scout looking for capitals down there is discovered and slain, I quickly send another.

Turn 88-89 sees the decisive battle for the C’tis capital. After taking the province and besieging the fort on turn 88, I am pushed out by a huge force of Ghouls. I kill the C’tis Pretender for the fourth time. I have units enough left to launch one final attack on turn 90, preceded by four Lesser Horrors and a Horde from Hell; there were still 1,040 undead of various types in the capital.

The province fell again and, even with no C’tis relief forces left, I haven't got enough troops left for an assault, so I choose to go for a strategic dominion snuff, and start constructing Temples. *wheeze*

Side Note: One of my really good Salamander Priests picked up the !@#$%@# Lycanthropos Amulet after the capital battle. I thought I was rid of that thing! (WE are NOT amused...) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image.../firedevil.gif

On west continent, the Fish Fort (remember that?) is finally finished, and I start building Ichtyids there. This may not bode well for Caelum and Man, since control of the ocean provinces is one of my milestones on the way to extended west continent operations. Stay tuned...

[I have been slacking off on the score graphs. I'll do them next time, promise.] http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

i thought commanders kept magic even if they morphed? o well. and if possible you might like to try swapping to normal horrors soon (research allowing). after reading most of your report i started my own abysia game and am currently owning with sending horrors and lots of assasins (but on a smaller map, urgaia to be exact) and with 2 6000 pop provinces with 3 hunters each i can easily meet my slave demand, its around turn 70 and ive just got pyre up and im cranking out spells and items now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

i also found a site right next to my base to let me get shadow seers (S3) and grey knights (etheral 30 move knights) and have been making etheral crossbows for assasins (which i believe warlocks may also make)

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 91-100
At beginning of turn 91, I have 1,300 gold income, gem income 33F/5A/10W/11E/12S/11N/12D + 39B (this turn).

Incidentally, I been leaving out a few details about the C'tis war. In addition to the Lesser Horrors, I have been profligate in my use of Fires From Afar. I've been dropping 1-3 of these a turn on C'tis armies as well, and killing 7-13 troops a pop. At 10 Fire gems each, this has been keeping my Fire gem supply in the 50-80 gem range, although it has been as low as 30 on the high-panic turns. You don't question the waste factor when the game is on the line, but this is a terribly inefficient way to use Fire gems. (No, finesse has definitely not been my strong suit this game.)

Now I will build for war with Man (who seems to be doing better than Caelum), and absorb the C’tis holdings, such as they are. I’ve learned how effective blood sacrifices are to spread my dominion, so this slows up Devil and Arch Devil summoning, as I divert slaves to this activity.

The Blood Sacrifice process is a pain, though. I have to pool Blood Slaves or spend a lot of time finding individual hunters, but pooling means I have to reload every single priest who is using the Blood Sacrifice command in a province with a Lab. The only way to keep play moving that I can see is to load a priest with Blood Slaves, move into a province before it has a Lab, and totally convert it to my dominion first. Sheesh. I hope that’s changing in Dom 3. Nothing like having to deal with something like this to drive home a point.

On turn 100, my income is 1,252; down a little because blood hunting is up; gem income 34F/5A/10W/13E/14S/15N/14D + 42B this turn.

The C’tis Pretender is finally snuffed this turn. I own the East! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

In the west, Man enters the seas with a huge force (60 Trolls and 2 Sea Kings); my assassins also reveal he has a 130 troop aquatic force on his coast, still uncommitted. Phooey! I needed to clean out the ocean Independents before he got active. I have been taking old Oceania provinces in the south—these are in the 200-300 Unrest range, and have scant production. I think I have the capital fort province, in the narrows between the east and south continents, but since I’m using only Water wizards, I can’t get into the fort until I build Sea Trolls. I have small Ichtyid forces building on the northeast coast of the west continent at the Fish Fort, but at the rate of 3-4 Ichtyids per turn against 60 Triton Guards in the only adjacent sea province, it’s taking a while to build up.

The inland island magic site on the east continent has been producing Shamblers, but with no leaders, I’ve had to walk over Fish Men commanders from the west continent. I expect Man will likely grab most of the seas between us, greatly complicating the defense of my coast.

I’ve been hit by several Earthquakes recently—this is most likely Ulm, although I caught a Pythium spy as far north as Hundred Isle a few turns back. I’ve strengthened a lot of my PD to 10 to stop infiltration, and I'm slowly seeping southward through the desert. (Say THAT at 4 am!)

I finally get my Faery Court. The Manticore comes back, too, without the Feeblemind (I forgot you sometime lose afflictions when a dead Pretender is revived). I ignore the irony, and fly him over to the old C'tis capital, where I put him to work as a researcher. He needs the rest, and insists on being re-empowered as soon as possible. The C'tis capital province is completely dead, population 0.

Meanwhile, I think I have located all the capitals except Pythium, and have gotten a small foothold in a major city on the north coast of the southern continent (the one just east of the north coast special site).

I cannot expand from there without coming directly between Pythium and Ulm. Since they are at war and touch at only two chokepoints (the other is blocked by an Ulm fort), I think putting myself between them would be a bad idea. So I’m just building a Citadel in the city and will use it as a Blood Slave source. In keeping with my earlier thinking, I’m not building a Lab here until the dominion is securely mine through blood sacrifice. I assign a Demonbred to shuttle Blood Slaves to the occupying priest.

As a side note, I’m building a rainbow mage in the capital (Demogorgon 1F/0A/2W/2E/3S/1D/1N/3B—he’s getting Fire empowerment this turn, but it will be a while for Air). By the time I get Construction 8, he should be able to build a lot of the artifact items himself. My Schools: Conj 8, Alt 1, Evo 8, Cons 7, Ench 6, Thaum 5, Blo 6.

Also, my Salamander priest with the Lycanthropos Amulet turned Skinshifter, so I forge a lot of magic items to equip him as a thug. Empowered a mage for Air site searches, and top Fire priest for the Second Sun spell. I forgot to pay the mercs again and they all left (too bad, I had built my Faerie Court and the Celestials were being healed). http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Scores:
For provinces, I dominate. Man is second at about 50%; Ulm at 45%; Pythium about 22%--the war has been going badly for him; Caelum last at 5%.

For income, I lead, Man 95+%; Ulm about 45%; Pythium 15%.

For gem income, I am first and hyperaccelerating--the Eternal Pyre is in place. Man is next at 45%; Ulm 40%; Pythium about 5%.

For research, Man leads; I'm next at 90%; Pythium 30%; Ulm 15%.

For dominion, Ulm leads, but is stagnant. I’m about 80% and climbing. Caelum has gently faded to 35%. Pythium and Man are about 15%.

For armies, Man leads by a wide margin. Ulm 50%; I’m 25%; Pythium 15%; Caelum 10%.

I dominate the Hall of Fame, with two live and three dead heroes. Man is next, with two live heroes. The Caelum Pretender is here—and has been killed six times! Obviously, Man holds his capital, and is just killing him as he returns each time. The C’tis Pretender is here, too--I killed him five times, and good riddance. Finally, Pythium owns the top spot by virtue of Orion’s death on his watch, many, many turns ago.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

shovah: The problem with the Demonbred with the Cauldron was that he died, and the Cauldron was not recovered. A cursed shapeshifter doesn't use magic, he charges and melees--and Demonbreds can fly, so he just tried to take on the whole freaking C'tis army by himself, and they killed him.

Apparently the Lycanthropos Amulet was picked up by a C'tis commander, because--as you can see by the latest post--I've got it again.

The reason I'm going the Thug route with the Salamander Priest is that I can't rely on him to cast magic anymore. Since when he changes he's going to charge into melee anyway, and since he won't outrun his support, I may as well give him enough tools to do some damage. I suppose there are better commanders to give magic to, but I roleplay my solo games, and I like the way that doing this fits into the story of my Ascension War.

At this point Doom Horrors (Blood 8) are two levels beyond me--remember this is a low-magic game and research is very slow. Will you see them? A very safe bet, IMO...

I am jealous of your Shadow Seers, the coolest independent I've gotten has been the Azure Mages.

I occasionally make Ethereal Crossbows. As I recall there was a bug in them that prevented them from working properly. I have no idea if it was ever fixed. I still build them every once in awhile for thematic purposes, but tactically I really can't say I've ever seen concrete results from them. I haven't made any this game.

I have been keeping a reserve of Astral gems for dispelling enemy globals, and even though I haven't seen any of those, I am reluctant to use more Astral gems than I absolutely need. I have tapped my supply on occasion to make Fire gems, or add enough other gems (4-8?) to rush an Empowerment, but I try not to do that, as there are some really nice Astral globals that have hit my radar screen.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

Note: This update is really quick, because the actual posting of my last update was delayed by almost 7 hours when the Shrapnel server was down/busy last night. Events proceed apace.


TURNS 101-110
On the western continent, Owleye’s Retreat (province #206) is driving me crazy. Even though I haven't been able to afford an Acashic Record, I have searched all gem types to 9, and Holy to 3 and there’s nothing there! I could check Holy to 4 by building an Anathemant Dragon for the purpose, but it seems a bit of a long shot. All special sites on this map were supposed to have something…SOMETHING!

In the east, I try to establish my dominion, build Temples, sacrifice, research, and weep over the half dozen totally depopulated provinces I have won at bitter cost. The Prince of Death has made my new lands a desert. (I console myself with the other dozen provinces I took from him that are merely damaged to some degree.)

On the east continent south of the mountains, I burn out an independent group of Trogs in the south central desert. This province is the best site for a southern desert fort, and I will need an advanced outpost against Ulm's encroachment.

I sent in 10 Abysian Heavy Infantry and 8 Crossbowmen, backed by a Salamander priest. I won only because I had the foresight to pack a few Fire gems. The Trogs hacked up the infantry, and would have overrun me with ease, except the priest summoned a Fire Elemental, which routed them off. I start building the fort. This turn I reach Thaumaturgy 6.

My oceanic adventures mostly fail. A unit and a half of Ichtyids from the Fish Fort in the north perish at the hands of the Triton Guards—I sent them in about two turns too early. My Sea Trolls and Gibur the Water Mage merc attack an Independent in the south sea provinces (where I am trying to prevent Man from sealing me off--most Sea provinces are still independent). The Trolls prevail, but Gibur dies. *Ouch!* The surviving 12 Trolls are too weak to break out into the main ocean, so they hold, at once victorious and frustrated.

I recruit another Water Mage at the Azure Academy, but as soon as he steps into a coastal province, new Trogs attack and kill both him and the Salamander priest pacifying the area! I hate Trogs!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

The very first Oceania provinces I took just begin to produce units on turn 106. I send my replacement Water mage into the battle to kill the Trogs and, while I won, I left the mage too close to my Abysian leader and he fried! And my other unit commander picked up a Lycanthropos Amulet!! (I won’t repeat exactly what I said, but I think it freaked out the neighbors.) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

On the eve of war with Man, I finally get into the water in the north, but Man takes an independent province and seals off my sea expansion in the south.

I actually had put together a large surplus of Nature gems,so I have put up both the Gift of Health and Wild Hunt global spells as part of my war prep. First victim of the latter was Aenos the Prophet, an Emerald Lord of Pythium. Not my first choice, but he should have stayed out of the woods.

Next turn, I kill a Serpent Lord in the same province—why do I have the rotten feeling that this spell hits Forests in ascending province number order? If so, this was not a good choice—it really helps Ulm against Pythium, just when I’m about to go to war against Man.

Otherwise, I prepare carefully. I could attack Man on turn 109, but I hold because there is a tournament—maybe Man will send a powerful hero and lose it.

I finally get a look at the small island “Jaw-Breaker.” Somebody has a sense of humor…

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 110-112
Owlseye, the fourth special site, my obsession: OK, I built the Dragon, and he found nothing. I built a Mound Fiend to check for Unholy sites…nothing. I finally divert enough Astral gems to cast the @#$%&! Acashic Record…NOTHING!

(The Cone is not the only thing smouldering in my capital now!)

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

Furious, I attack Man.

First priority is to clear the forces of Man from the ocean provinces off my coast, which will greatly simplify my homeland defense.

Second priority is to take Man’s border provinces, most of which have by now changed to my dominion.

I have used my gem supply for items prepping for war; the only global I really want to see at this time is Strands of Arcane Power (after all, the Pretender is strong in Astral magic), although it may be more efficient play to go for Gaia’s Bounty and expand the blood hunts. I might just punt the Wild Hunt once GB becomes available.

Total Income end of turn 110: 2,819 gold, gem income: 37F/6A/11W/18E/19S/24D/23N + 51B this turn. I can see I must be careful to build a Lab in every province I hunt. I had two hunters this turn that released slaves because they were full. Focus, idiot!

Turns out, Caelum has been driven totally into the sea. He holds three Sea provinces and maybe a lake. He has to have a priest or Prophet also, because apparently he can still call his god.

Scores:
For provinces, I dominate. Man and Ulm at 45%, Man is on steep decline, Ulm spiking up; Pythium 15%; Caelum 5%.

For income, I lead; Man 90%; Ulm about 50%, sharp spike up; Pythium and Caelum 10%, with Pythium strongly down.

For gem income, I dominate. Man and Ulm tie at 35%; Pythium 5%, Caelum flatlined.

For research, Man leads; I'm at 90% and losing ground; Caelum flatlined at 45%; Pythium 25%; Ulm 20% and accelerating.

For dominion, I tie Ulm. Caelum is auguring in* at 25%. Man is at 20%; Pythium is approaching dominion snuff at 5%.

(*You've heard of "crash and burn"? "Augur in" is the next level of intensity.) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

For armies, Man leads by a wide margin, but is starting to spike down. Ulm 50%; I’m 35%; Pythium and Caelum 10%.

The graphs urge me to hurry and grab as much of Man as I can, before Pythium goes under…

…but I miscalculate badly…again. While I was building infrastructure, gem hunting, Arch Devil buffing, and so on, I let my mage- and troop-building lapse. In the meantime, it looks like Man has put every halfpence into cheap troops for the last 50 turns!

Man has materialized an army of 580, and another of 390 right on my border! These are all junk troops, plus a few summons (disproportionately many Cold Drakes), but seemingly impervious to waves of Lesser Horrors and intense concentrations of Fires from Afar.

They overrun a large army of mine led by the Spectral Mage merc with no difficulty at all, destroying him utterly. This distracts me so much I forget to renew the mercs again (Perceville is gone for good, but I manage to rehire *smudge*—Couatl? without incident).

I am still two levels out from Greater Horrors, and find I don’t have a lot of army-killing magic to hand at this point. I hold the oceans for now, but if I can’t keep my troop-building sites on the west continent, he’ll force his way into my east continent core.

And I thought C'tis was trouble!

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURNS 113-115

By this time, the turns are taking about 45 minutes to an hour or more each, and I keep losing track of where I am. (I’m not even sure without checking this record exactly which AI positions I’m currently at war with!) I’m starting to suffer from severe burnout on this game, just a time when I have to rally back and keep fighting.

The huge number of Man troops is daunting. I really think the only thing that can save me now is if all those Man troops are actually starving and becoming diseased; otherwise, this is likely to end badly.

If I thought the AI didn’t need supplies, I’d just call it here. Last turn, I could see 1,900 Man troops (combined intelligence reports) before my scouts started dying. Not many of them left now. For me, a west continent army of 60-70 is about as big as it gets. (But reading in the Forum about the AI’s problem with supplies keeps me slogging on.)

I crank research and start building troops as fast as I can. I summon Fire Snakes in the west continent forts. My best play is quality against quantity, I think. I’ll give up non-fort provinces here to concentrate on surviving the sieges to come. It’s going to get ugly, but I think I can prevail as long as I can keep him off the east continent.

I’m scrambling for Greater Horrors, the Haunted Forest Global, the Earth Attack ritual; anything to slow up and cripple the armies of Man. One Couatl has been sniping with Mind Hunt for the last few turns. Four kills, but no visible effect on the advance of Man.

I manage to pump out the Ghost Armada, but it hits Ulm (lowest numbered enemy coastal province—not sure if it’s a pattern or just abominable luck). The Armada is wiped out in its first attack. Crud. I won’t be doing that again. Sea Trolls are much more cost effective for me now. I commit my buffed shapeshifter to the water campaign after giving him a Ring of Water Walking.

I have three Demonbreds and an Arch Devil summoning devils now. I have to keep a wary eye on my Blood Slave level. I wouldn't want to gain the ability to Send Greater Horrors and then not have enough Blood Slaves to actually use them. Arch Devils are hideously expensive for me, but I try to summon one whenever I can get enough Slaves accumulated--a slow process. I have two majorly buffed Arch Devil commanders now, plus one summoning devils, plus one researching and producing Fire gems. Although I have been using Apprentices for blood hunting, I have discovered that the Demonbred are somewhat more efficient, so I have been building Demonbred hunters rather than more Apprentices.


TURNS 116-120
Man’s large armies break up to take provinces. Great news! I hit the smaller forces in a series of sharp counterattacks. I have invaded his east coast from the sea, found big armies, and am marching south along his east coast away from them, burning Temples. I crush Man’s counter-invasion of the sea south of the west continent, and I mass amphibious forces to begin seriously raiding this coast. However, I’ve lost both my Sea Troll Kings and my shapeshifter with the Ring of Water Walking.

I have met Sir Perceville in the employ of Man and killed him—I got his cursed armor back, a Priest got to it. (The Manticore gave Perceville the artifact armor as a gift when he was bought...er, loyal. The Manticore is foolishly generous at times, but I try to ignore it as long as it doesn't interfere with the game too much.) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

I don’t want to think about all the magic Man has taken off my dead Leaders the last few turns--it's just too depressing. Next turn, Man hires the Couatl mercenary away from me. I now have a single merc, Mamor the White Wizard, who is tucked away in a forest lab somewhere north of the C'tis capital.

To the far west, a large force of Caelum aquatics has appeared in an ocean province—I ignore them. Ulm is quiet—or maybe he is still crushing Pythium—my scouts on the south continent are dead again.

I equipped my chief assassin with Armor of Virtue (I really lose it about 3 AM). He attacked an Avalon Warden and, well, it’s a long walk back to the front from the capital…

Other than that, we seesaw. Man is in the oceans, I’m on his coast. Vice versa and back again. He is deep-probing me with Blackhawks and Impress Soul spells, I am buying back the Couatl merc turn 120. I get to Blood 8 and Greater Horrors, so Man may be in trouble.

Scores (turn 120):
For provinces, I dominate; Ulm 50%; Man 40%; Pythium and Caelum at 5%.

For income, I lead, Man 65%; Ulm about 50%; Caelum 7%, Pythium 0%.

For gem income, I dominate; Ulm at 40%; Man at 30%; Caelum about 3%; Pythium 0%.

For research, Man leads; I'm next at 75%; Pythium 20%; Ulm 15%.

For dominion, I lead; Ulm about 90%; Man 12%; Caelum 10%; Pythium 1%.

For armies, Man leads; Ulm 90%; I’m 70%; Caelum 15%; Pythium 1%.

I was thinking of knocking on Caelum’s door, but looks like I’m going have a big pain in the south in 2-3 turns. I will try to hold off Ulm and take out Man fast if it happens. Now that I have Blood 8 and Greater Horrors, I am going to burn my way up the Alteration track to Level 8 and Crumble.

Treasury (turn 120): 1,217; gems 37F/8A/16W/18E/21S/22D/26N + 61B this turn. Schools: Conj 8, Alt 1, Evo 8, Cons 8, Ench 8, Thaum 7, Blo 8.

I will prevail!

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 121-125
Crud! The capital lab burned down. The Fires from Afar, Horrors, Mind Hunts, and Philosopher’s Stone are all offline this turn. Everybody who can blood-hunts while the Lab is rebuilt. Pythium dies now (turn 121), worse luck. I will need to deal with Ulm, soon.

I’ve been kicked decisively out of Man’s coastal provinces with the loss of 4 Leaders and 116 troops! I can’t afford these losses to the sea forces. I spend much time rallying the fragments on my coast and sending them back to the deeps. Local commanders report the situation at sea is…“fluid.”

I've started a Druid casting Beckoning, and he is killing 30-40 of Man's troops a turn with it. This is really helping me thin out his armies massed in Forest provinces. On the other hand, in spite of brief visits north, the Wild Hunt has stayed pretty much on the southern continent; a real bust of a global in this game.

Greater Horrors prove to be fun, but it’s too easy to go overboard and run out of Blood Slaves. So far my results are that they generally disrupt the enemy somewhat, but unless I’m lucky enough to actually hit near a command group, they haven’t been causing general routing. They certainly aren't proving as effective against Man hordes as the Lesser Horrors were against the C'tis Ghouls. After trying this a few times, I’m thinking that one Horror per 100 enemy troops is the best ratio to send...and I do send, and send, and ...need more slaves.

Ulm declares war turn 123. I have been fighting to establish my dominion in the desert area, but aside from my southern fort, it has been really hard to change the local dominion, even though I have been building Temples in most provinces, flooding the area with cheap priests and using Blood Sacrifices lavishly. Ulm strongly holds the fertile provinces south of the desert lands, and has been massing troops there.

On the west continent, by the end of turn 125, I own just about everything on the north and east of the mountain line. I will probably extend to the old Caelum capital (located on the west coast of the west continent, second coastal province south from top) by the time I get Crumble. I plan to use that to take that fort, then wheel down, clearing everything west of the river line. We’ll see how it works out. By this time, I have one Devil pack (11-14, led by an Arch Devil) operating on the west continent, one just arriving, and a third almost built at the capital.

I’ve been using Raven Feast to clean up the big battlefields. As a source of Death gems, it’s been a bit of a disappointment (like I have much use for Death gems, anyway), but I figure it's less potential Death magic for the enemy, so why not?

Treasury (turn 125): 1,217; gems 38F/11A/20W/21E/22S/26D/26N + 82B this turn. Schools: Conj 8, Alt 6, Evo 8, Cons 8, Ench 8, Thaum 7, Blo 8.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 126-130
Bogus turned up again a few turns back, but I finally moved a force against him on turn 126. I scored Precious, Greenstone Armor, and a Horror Helm.

On the south continent, the Wild Hunt took out a Harbinger from Ulm, and the Ivory Tower special site repelled an Ulm attack (this is the special site on the north coast of the south continent west of my big city there).

On the west continent, I am attacking through both passes toward the old Caelum capital, but it will take a few turns to actually get there. In the east half of the west continent, huge Man forces mass south of the river line; I give ground, retreating through the Fens, while harassing him with magic.

The seas are still in turmoil, with me holding most of them, but Man launching attacks from shore. On the east continent, Ulm continues through the desert, I prepare with summons (Summer Lions) and harass with magic. I want to suck him in one more desert province, so he’ll be in supply trouble no matter what happens.

(Later.) I have success on the west continent northwest. The Caelum capital (owned by Man) is under siege and I may have enough blocking forces south and east to keep the relief forces from Man out. I have taken most of the east coast of the west continent, though I doubt I can hold it. There is one major Man troop block threatening my river line in the center. However, I do feel very much in control of the situation on this continent. If I was not at war with Ulm, I think I would be close to wrapping up Man now.

On the east continent in the desert, Ulm and I are still fighting over my forward defense line. Ulm has taken the easternmost Mountain province near my desert fort, but with luck, next turn I should bag his lot there. However, Ulm has at least twice as many troops approaching. The question is whether I can grind them up faster than Ulm can throw them at me.

And the Manticore has been Feebleminded for the second time this game! Wah! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

I remember too late it’s been awhile since last score report (maybe next time).

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 131-135
I’m losing ground to Ulm on dominion; I need more temples. Man is crumbling. I finally take the Caelum fortress, just before Caelum’s Pretender attacks! After a turn of my summoning, however, the Caelum Pretender can no longer damage the walls, so I’ll just leave it at that until I finish with Man.

I have been having a lot of fun with Arch Devil thugs scripted for Fire Shield, Attack One Turn, Fire Eruption, Attack One Turn, Fire Eruption, Attack Archers. It has certainly done a number on Man; in combination with a squad of 15-18 Devils, I’ve been taking out groups of 65-100 with no losses. With three of these killer packs operating, it’s no wonder Man is on the ropes.

My toehold city on the southern continent (near the Ivory Tower) is besieged. I need to do something before the Ulm Engineers show up. I had grabbed the Ivory Tower just after Pythium fell. It has Illusionists, so I’ve been building some and looking for more Air sites.

I have fended off three Ulm attempts to grab this site so far, and stupidly killed off one of my illusionists by giving him Retreat orders. (I was going to Cloud Trapeze him into danger, which the retreat would take him out of, but then changed my mind and forgot to fix his orders. When Ulm attacked, he fled the field immediately, taking a long run off a short pier. *sigh* Airhead...)

I bring up some aquatic troops and break the siege. If I expand and take the small group of provinces here, I cut Ulm in half on the north shore of the south continent.

Scores (turn 135):
For provinces, I dominate; Ulm 40%; Man 7%; Caelum 3%.

For income, I dominate, Ulm 35%; Man 13%; Caelum 5%.

For gem income, I dominate; Ulm at 30%; Man at 10%; Caelum 0%.

For research, Man leads; I’m at 90%; Caelum 30%; Ulm 20%.

For dominion, I lead; Ulm 95%; Man 3%; Caelum 3%.

For armies, I lead; Ulm 80%; Man 20%; Caelum 15%.

I pretty much own the Hall of Fame. Aside from Ulm’s prophet, Hildegarde, all the living heroes are mine. Caelum’s Pretender has knocked Orion out of first place (and died seven times!). C’tis’s Pretender is also still on the list, with six deaths. Everything else is mine.

My top hero is the Druid Vanno, who racked up 313 kills with the Beckon spell, then Gargagon the 10F wizard, who just put in the Ruby Eye last turn; then my Prophet, Cron, 2F5H (holy).

Treasury: 2,221 gold; gem income 38F/14A/28W/25E/24S/29D/28N + 67B this turn. Schools: Conj 8, Alt 8, Evo 8, Cons 8, Ench 8, Thaum 7, Blo 8.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 136-140
The whole western continent has fallen, except some forts and two wooded provinces down near the henge in the southwest quadrant. But I have strong forces there, and it’s just a mopping up operation at this point.

I can’t stand waiting. I attack Caelum’s Pretender just to get rid of it. Why should I give Caelum the 55 gold tax income every turn?

I steadily grind down my other foes. I take one of Man forts (south coast, Hervewood), and put another coastal fort under siege. The second fort turns out to be his capital. It's very tough; aquatic troop assaults bounce twice here with murderous losses. However, in a few turns, my fort assault group will arrive from the west, and that will finish things. I use a Doom Horror to break up Caelum’s big aquatic force and walk into his Sea provinces virtually unopposed.

On the eastern continent, I have counterattacked Ulm and taken the entire continent. (I actually got the southeast corner, a wooded province, with Impress Soul, followed by a Druid [via Faerie Trod], who built a Lab, summoned Dryads, built a Temple, and generally made a nuisance of himself.)

I take the island between the east and south continents with aquatic troops, and these provinces become the anvil on which I smash Ulm’s last forces on the eastern continent. I then push on across the island to the fertile south continent coastal provinces of Ulm.

Along the north shore of the southern continent, I expand my holdings westward—there is still an independent province between Ulm and me to the east, so I leave it alone. I use aquatic forces to hit the coast east of that, however, and I will run as far into his interior from there as I can, burning Temples all the way. A force of Devils arrives from the north.

On turn 138, the Manticore finally recovers his wits (at least that’s what we tell the faithful) and pops off the Arcane Nexus global spell (drat, I got this spell and the Strands of Arcane Power global confused—only noticed the difference when I started getting Astral power instead of magic sites—comes of playing too late at night).

In the north sector of the west continent, Caelum has been holding onto a lake. I clean it out with a Doom Horror and discover his Prophet. Unless he hid another priest underwater off the west coast, this should end the god callbacks.

On turn 140, Caelum is snuffed, after being killed eight times. Man is reduced to two small field forces and a besieged fort. I am making inroads on the southern continent: many temples destroyed, a fort (capital?) under siege (Ashdown, northeast quadrant southeast of a henge special site).

Ulm counterattacks onto my eastern continent (I missed a connecting route between ports—sloppy), but his forces are contained and will probably be driven back this turn. My combat-thinned forces in the southeast area of the southern continent have gone about as far as they can, but the northern force on this continent continues to chew up Ulm's backfield.

In the western half of the south continent, I cross a river line and start building a fort as a base for expansion here. Ulm has enough local troops to block and maybe counterattack here. I decide to finish Man before pushing further on this front.

By this time, I’m building a Demonbred and Sanguine Rod every turn in my capital to expand Blood production. The Philosopher’s Stone has been long built, and I’m burning a significant number of gems to supplement my income for end-of-turn Temple building. Also, except for one Mound Fiend casting Leprosy each turn, I’m converting most of my Death gem income to Astral.

Incidentally, an Income vs. Treasury note. Until turn 50 or so, my army costs topped out around 310 gold (not counting mercs). From that point, it has slowly grown to about half the Income figure, or a little more. Total income in the late game now is in the 5,600-5,700 range, upkeep around 2,700-2,800.

Just for fun, I cast Gift of Reason on a Summer Lion. I’d like to raise a unit of Summer Lions, led by a Summer Lion. Unfortunately, Summer Lion Commanders can’t command magical creatures, and they only have two misc magic slots, so there’s no way I can use a Crown of Command to work around this. (Hmmm, it would be nice to have an Amulet of Arcane Authority that enables command of 10 magical creatures; enough for a raiding force, for example.)

Scores (turn 140):
For provinces, I dominate; Ulm 25%; Man 2%.

For income, I dominate; Ulm 20%; Man 3%.

For gem income, I dominate; Ulm at 23%; Man at 0%.

For research, Man leads; I trail at 95%; Ulm 20%.

For dominion, I lead; Ulm 90%; Man 3%.

For armies, I dominate; Ulm 50%; Man 5%.
(Note: I have been using the word "dominate" when I lead and the next highest score is 50% or less.)

Hall of Fame: No change. I hold six positions with living heroes. Ulm still has the prophet, Hildegarde. Two dead Pretenders and dead Orion round out the field.

Treasury: 3,170; gems 40F/20A/30W/26E/26S/34D/32N + 79B this turn. Schools: Conj 8, Alt 8, Evo 8, Cons 8, Ench 9, Thaum 7, Blo 8. Currently researching Evo 9 at 285 RP per turn (usually 299, but I’m doing some special forging and wizard movement this turn); completion in two turns.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 141-145
Something unusual. For most of the game, I have been unthinkingly pooling Blood Slaves each turn, then manually doling them out one at a time to temple priests for blood sacrifice.

This last turn, I went totally manual, collecting and assigning Blood Slaves by hand. When I processed the turn, all Priests with Blood Sacrifice orders from the previous turn had, on average, been automatically assigned three Blood Slaves each (even though I expected the previous turn’s allotment of one slave to have been reduced to zero). Wow...

There’s no question that Blood Slave assignment is a little fiddly, but apparently it fiddles both ways (at least in the Concept Balance mod). Immediate pooling each turn isn’t necessarily the best move, as I had reflexively assumed--that would disrupt the automatic assignment of the optimal (?) number of Blood Slaves to sacrificing priests. Another new thing discovered in this game.

On the west continent, turn 143, Man dies as I take his last Fortified City. Next turn his Pretender (Green Dragon) comes back to the capital, and besieges it, and is destroyed.

On the south continent, my minion, the arch devil Furcas, flies blindly into an Ulm province far to the southwest. Defeated, he is banished to the Abyss and his devils are destroyed (he wasn’t really stupid, he was just played that way).

Two turns later, the pocket lich Carcator, carried by Furcas, is found in the possession of a minor Ulm infantry commander who is slain by an Earth Elemental (love that Earth Attack ritual spell, Evocation 8).

Another Earth Elemental locates the Ulm Prophet Hildegarde in a fortified city, but she slays it with six mighty blows. I give up Blood research in favor of Alteration—I wonder if you can Wish for population? If the game goes another half dozen turns, I may find out.

East continent, the Manticore pops off the Strands of Arcane Power (the twit finally got it right this time). This is my sixth global spell. Oddly enough, this blows away the Arcane Nexus. I really expected it to replace the Wild Hunt, which was cast at minimal gem cost; the Arcane Nexus was cast at a substantial premium. Oh well...who knows what really goes on in the black box of AI operations--incidentally, Arcane Nexus was the last global cast before the Strands of Arcane Power.

I meet another milestone turn 145, all of my land PD is at 10+ and all of my Citadels are at 25 PD. I have been in the course of this game developing a personal discipline for solo play that gives magic sites a 15 PD minimum, and increases high-income province PD by 5 per 25 gold (so 10 PD up to 25 gold, 15 PD to 50, 20 PD to 75, 25 PD to 100 gold, and so on. I use disciplines of this type to create administrative "drag" that increases the challenge level of a solo game (such disciplines are unnecessary for multiplayer games, IMO).

Gold income: 6,407. Treasury: 3,935; gem income 44F/20A/36W/35E/40S/38D/38N + 108B this turn. The huge increase here is because the Strands of Arcane Power global has been turning up 3-4 sites per round on average. However, it doesn’t flag or identify them, which means I have to go to the Province screen and try to figure out which site listings are new.

This turn (#145), I get to pick the three new sites out of 201 listed sites. This is busy-work, and it is annoying. It’s not so bad if the sites are all vanilla, but really cool stuff can be buried for turns and turns. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/fear.gif

Schools: Conj 8, Alt 8, Evo 9, Cons 8, Ench 9, Thaum 7, Blo 8. Currently researching Alt 9 at 313 RP per turn; completion in four turns.

I have become bored with Ulm; the question of Wishing for population consumes me. I find the 0 population provinces left by C'tis irk me and mightily offend my sense of divine order. All my remote casters are directed to turn their efforts to research Alteration. Revised count: 481 RP per turn, completion in 3 turns. I also order 13 more Temples to be built on turn 145, which will bring my Temple count to 141. I burn off most of my Fire and Earth gems to do this, but it’s all rather moot at this point.

However, I have now discovered THE QUESTION. Stay tuned.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 146-147
The west continent, east continent, and oceans are mine. All that remains is the final conquest of the south continent. Aside from two forts under siege, Ulm has been pushed west of the central river. I have used the Faery Trodding Druid and sea forces to open a new front in the southwest corner of the continent. I have erected a new fort in a wooded province several provinces inland to consolidate my gains, and have started squeezing the surviving Ulm field forces from this side.

Hildegarde, guarded by a Crusher, has fallen to my Devil hordes, and on the far west coast, the Ulm hero Ratik has perished as well. The only thing of interest left in this war is to get my Manticore to the old C’tis capital (population 0), and see if a Wish will give me some population here.

A surprise reversal on a castle assault—Abysian forces destroyed by the Ulm Pretender (an Oracle) holed up with a pile of Clockwork Horrors and six (!) Crushers. Its Blade Wind is truly impressive (and I tried to clean him out with about 20 Sea Trolls, a few fanatics, and two Angels—not). Well, at least he isn’t going anywhere.

Note: The capital is in fact the fort just southeast of the henge special site in the northeast quarter of the south continent. I have enough troops nearby to bottle him up, but I will wait for the massed Devil horde to launch a final assault.

Turn 148 may be the next to last turn. Ulm has four Temples left unprotected by forts, and I will raze all of them next turn. All his forts are open to assault (though the capital is strong beyond the abilities of my local forces there).

Forgot to pay the Couatl merc again (that’s the fourth or fifth time now—one of these days it isn’t coming back).

Recalled Furcas and equipped him with a Hell Sword, Chain Mail of Displacement, Flame Helmet, Chi Shoes, Ring of Regeneration, Ring of the Warrior, and sent him out with 21 Devils. My Hound of War has returned.

Somewhere along the line I have summoned a Heliophagus and ordered it to the front. There was a time when I would have considered that a significant milestone--it is interesting how impending ascension changes your perspective. Such a powerful creature reduced to an insignificant, half-forgotten footnote to a successful campaign. Ironic.

The Warlock Demogorgon is now 3F/2A/2W/4E/4S/3D/4N/4B. Even though he was scheduled to empower Air this turn, things change. The Manticore spotted the Crown of Overmight on the available item list--and insisted. This, despite the fact the item is cumbersome and will screw up his flying and defense, and cost him an Astral level until he can empower. But…what the Manticore wants, the Manticore gets (the twit). We may even see if people “flocking” in can cause immigration into a dead province (I don’t think so—more likely it has the same dominion effect as the Juggernaut, if anything—I’ll check the documentation after I’m done with the game).

Just for the record, I set up the Wish with a single key word “population.” We’ll see what develops. The caster is in a fort in a province with no population at all.

Income: 7,064; Treasury: 8,667. Gem Income: 49F/21A/40W/39E/40S/40D/41N + 102B this turn. Even though this is late game, it seems like an awful lot of magic for a low-magic map.

I can hardly wait for the results of the great experiment.

Re: Abysia CB 5.0 AAR
 

TURN 148
OK, Wish message: “A bunch of people just showed up in Minto Strait.” That's one of my Sea provinces. Current population 7,140. I have no idea what the previous population was, could the Wish have added as much as 5K?

I’m going to try the Wish again and see if I can target the effect in North Galenwood. Hold everything...there’s also a weird battle report: Six Ulm woodsmen showed up in Minto Strait (underwater!?) with no leader, didn’t down, and routed as soon as the battle started. Coincidence? Or what?

Another weirdness, if I was managing the province like I usually do, the Unrest last turn would have been under 10, but the current reading is 103. I don’t know whether this is part of an anomaly, or whether the province is just recovering from one of those “several hundred” Unrest points I tend to end up with when taking aquatic provinces.

I raze four temples and initiate two assaults. Only the Ulm capital survives to await the arrival of the Devils. I’m not tracking cash anymore—with 9,740 gold unspent this turn, and an income of 7,219, there’s no point. The Wish is the only thing of interest. I try again, wording: “population in North Galenwood.” I also do minor administrative stuff like some builds and troop movements, but only one thing seems important now.

I wonder what will happen.