[General Tacticus]

The fist Pangean War

On the first morning of his new reign, Tacticus Sanguinus took stock of the situation. In the secret of his own mind, he pondered and reflected, thought, devised plans, weighted their chances, and plotted a course of action. The future looked grim, he thought, but not impossible.

On the minus side, he was now the ruler, and God, af a small and backward nation.
On the plus side, saying so would now cost the offender his tongue, which was some consolation.

On the minus size, his nation lived in a poor and desolated continent. With nice mountains, to be sure, and some truly beautiful swamps, and arguably the best jungle on the world, but not very big on farmland.
On the plus side, he was the only God walking that continent.

On the minus side, his two main cities were set apart, with unexplored jungles and savage barbarians between them.
On the plus side, they were not that far apart. And compared to the Mictlans, the savage barbarians suddenly looked like quite civilized.

And so the God made his plans. The best chance for his people, he judged, would be to secure a strong position, one which could easily be well defended. South America would do. Whole America would be better, but South America would be a good start. North America, he knew, held outPosts of Man, of Vanheim, of Jotunheim, of Caelum, and some of them were not to be taken lightly. South America had only Pangea and Marignon, and Pangea at least had no way of bringing reinforcments from their capital.

That was to be the plan, then : focus all ressources on taking South America, and first of all take out the Pangean presence there. Marignon should be next, but if it does not expand too much it might wait until most independants there have been conquered. No expansion shall take place North of the capital.

And the God sent his orders : divert all available ressources to the South !

Magnus crossbows were recruted in Tiahuanaco. Also some warriors, and a tribal king. In the capital, nothing much, some slaves were levied, and Tacticus went to tour his lands, looking for useful sites. One such was already known : a Jungle Temple (where lamias can be recruited by a nature mage), in Chichen Itza.

The next season brought the first surprise : Pangea attacked and captured Beni, right on our frontier. They were showing us the way ! The plans for attacking them were hastily advanced by a few month, and the first (and only) Mictlan army marched to Beni. Pangea had gone to Ucayali, so they followed. Hector�s heavy horsemen joined our army, and we regrouped in Ucayali before attacking Pangea�s starting (and well defended) positions.

In the North, Tacticus discovered a second site in Chichen Itza, the Bowl of the Lost, were banes could be summoned. A king priest (nature 2 blood 2 holy 3) was on his way there to summon lamas, he would soon be joined by a death priest. Man conquered the Island of Cuba, dangerously close, but in accordance with the Grand Strategy, nothing was done to anger him.

And thus the first year of Tacticus reign came to pass.

In the second year, the first army (still mostly mercenaries) took Negra and started to siege Amazonas, the two starting Pangea provinces in South America. One Pangean counter offensive was crushed, but another made a wide flanking movement and attacked our southern positions in Pampas. All in all, the war proceded well.

In the North, Mictlipoctli the king of legends arised from his tomb to serve the God (death 3 blood 3 unholy 3). He was promptly sent to summon banes in Chichen Itza) A High priest of the sun (Fire 2 Blood 3 Holy 4) was recruited and made prophet. But, there being no way to send him to the war in the south, he stayed home to find some blood virgins. And Atlantis was sighted on the coast in South America. This will require additional planning, the order went to leave them alone for now.

Finally, a deathmatch arena was called. Having no commander to spare, we sent none. Only one pretender attended, a lich from Atlanta, and two prophets, from Jutonheim and Vanheim, plus various nobodies from other races.

A few memorable fights took place :
A minotaur lord (Pangea) was killed by a machaka commander. Apparently trampling wasn�t successful at all, but the commander�s sword managed to hit the minotaur from time to time. Size 3 trampling sucks, why not use the minotaur�s axe instead ?
A slugging match took place between Jotunheim�s prophet, a Jotun Herse, and Atlantis pretender, a lich. Flying shards vs banish, nothing much happened until the two hit 100 fatigue (more or less simultaneously). Then the lich slowly took the advantage, managing to land some flying shards (easier with 100 fatigue on the Jotun), while the Jotun�s banish did not improve much (but still took a few hps from time to time). The jotun died, but kept fighting as a longdead (Death 9 blessing I believe ? ). And so we had a longdead trying to banish a lich... but the lich eventually won...
... only to face Vanheim�s prophet, a van jarl, who mixed his blessings with phantasmal warriors. This was too much for the lich, which went under, leaving Vanheim the champion (when it reached 100 fatigue, the lich could no longer stop the phatasmal warriors)

Things, the God felt, were going quite well. Pangea was being crushed, they fielded armies of satyrs, militias, light infantries and slingers (nothing too overpowering to Mictlan). Oh, and speaking of minotaur lord, one was met in battle in Amazonia. It took a glancing hit by an arrow while his armies routed, went berserk, and single handedly tried to halt the Mictlan army. Berserking commanders are a very bad idea...

The third year of the Pangean War saw Amazonas captured (after a year of siege to breach the walls of a watch tower ! But I was busy elsewhere), As well as most of their lands : Gran Choco, Pacaraima, Parana, Pampasn, Caracas, and Piaui. But it also saw man declaring war, for no good reason. The official doctrine is : sit tight and don�t answer their taunts.

In the north, a small army managed to capture Tegucigalpa and Cali, joining with the main force in the South. Cali was defended by a lamia queen, and netted me an Enchanted Sward and a Fenris� Pels, but the latter went to a merc commander.

Pangea was still holding out in Coqimbo and Patagonia, the South tip of South America. The fourth (and Last) year of the first Pangean War was spent wearing them out and finally conquering them. A handful of centaurs made things quite difficult, and had to be swarmed under the sheer numbers of warriors :no less than 3 attacks with 50+ cheap warriors and then militia (random event) before I finally routed an army of 5 centaurs and a dozen slingers...

And by the end of the fourth year, Pangea had left South America, although it still made its presence felt with an occasional Call of the Wilds.

And thus ends the record of the First Pangean War, and the first 15 seasons of the reign of Tacticus Sanguinus.

[ January 04, 2004, 09:12: Message edited by: General Tacticus ]