For the strategically minded, here is a short run-down of my Marignon war :
I was quietly building up before attacking, when I noticed they went off to bash some indies, specifically a province with five dark vines. They lost the battle, and most of their heavy infantry (I had a scout there, and enjoyed the show). They tried again, won, and followed up by attacking two more provinces (one with vine ogres, one with more dark vines). All in a straight line from their starting provinces. Net result : they lost half of their army, including most of their heavy.
Sensing an opportunity, I had by that time brought all my forces. I had a two to one advantage in numbers on their conquering army, now split in three, and about equal quality (mictlan troops at their best being about on par with a heavy-depleted Marignon army). Plus, they wouldn't have raised provincial defenses yet.
So I cut them off with my first attack, then defeated the surrounded army, which led to total destruction since they had nowhere to retreat to. Then I divided their three remaining provinces in two isolated ones, but found out they had bought themselves more armies, and the remaining province defences were tough. So I paused a few turns to bring back reinforcements of my own, defeated their counter attacks, and went in for the kill.
It Lasted from turn 21 (first attack order) to turn 29 (Last province taken). Even with a 2 to 1 numerical advantage (at least) in all battles, I suffered heavy losses, almost always more than they did. I was fielding slaves and cheap warriors
in good numbers, plus lots of archers/crossbows, but nothing even close to heavy, and no sacred troops (capital too far away).
I clearly took advantage of an opportuniy there, if they had not lost so many troops (and the better quality one to) to the indies, I would not have attacked so soon.
Now, for the future : so far, I have mainly expanded by rushing opponents who were off balance, and funneling all resources to ensure they went down and stayed down (well, Pangea still sent the occasional Call of the Wild, but a provincial defence of 10 can handle it). My blood economy is pathetic (actually, so is my gold economy, turmoil 3 and forests and mountains don't help) My research is very backward, I have drain +1 and haven't found a library, si I have no descent researcher, the only good thing is my +1 bane +2 lamia income.
So I feel I really need to focus on building my economy for a few turns, and am doing so. Anyway, I don't want to shoot up in the province graph before I can handle it. But I also need to choose a target for my next expansion, and the choices are :
- Atlantis. They hold 3 provinces that should be mine. I can kick them back into the sea whenever I want (they are not heavily defended), but keeping them there afterwards will be difficult, and following them there is for the moment impossible.
- R'lyeh. They hold 4 provinces I want. Basically, the situation is the same than with Atlantis.
- North America, i.e. Man, Jotunheim, and Caelum. Caelum is fairly weak, but is not my neighbor. Man and Jotunheim split the rest of North America between them, and I am technically at war with both (they declared war, not me). But the new territory will be very difficult to defend, unless I aim for the whole continent. The good news is, they can be kicked out, and I won't have to worry too much about their coming back.
Oh, Atlantis in R'lyeh are ahead of me in most categories, so is Man, Jotunheim is barely ahead, Caelum is overall a little lower.
And to conclude, a newsflash of the situation in the rest of the world : Pythium has been kicked out (by Machaka and Ulm), Ulm has taken the capitals of Ermor (for which my thanks), Pythium and Vanheim (I think), and Machaka should have the other Pythium fortification. Ulm is doing very well, top in income, close to top in provinces, will make a nice challenge later... All this is from observing the graphs, I could of course be wrong. Pangea and Marignon are now bottom, and probably doomed.
Oh, and the population leaving was a random event (I have turmoil 3 and luck 1, I do get some nice gems almost every turn, but I have to take the consequences) that happened to happen (can I say that in English ?) the same month my serpent friend joined me. At which time I learnt (from his description) that he was the Lawgiver, my predecessor (from the Mictlan empire description) that I had unfortunately killed in my first post. Hence, the new heart. After all, we are both blood mages
[ January 05, 2004, 15:10: Message edited by: General Tacticus ]