[AStott]

Initial Review
I've started the game out in a coastal province. For those who like to follow allong, I'm in T'ien Ch'i (112). Of the four non-water provinces around me, one is farm/forest, one is forest/mountain, one is mountain, and one is farm/mountain. My own province is forest. Obviously I have no idea yet about populations (and therefore gold income) or anything else useful.

I take a look at my starting units. I've got Tai, my Arch Mage of course. I also have Naggor the Scout, and Di-ya the Eunuch. Di-ya isn't much of a commander, but he's something. I place my 5 horsemen (light cavalry), 12 archers, and 8 footmen (with pikes) under his command. Since none of these units has any significant armor, I'm going to need to be really cautious of armies with ranged attacks. Against those, I plan to place my melee units far forward and charge the enemy while my archers fire at enemy archers. The cavalry will of course attempt to flank the enemy. Against enemies with no (or weak) archers, I will have everyone hang far back, with the melee units delaying for two turns before attacking. Again, the cavalry will attempt to flank and hit the rear.

With this force, I think it would be wise to hold back for one turn so I can get some kind of estimate about the forces in the provinces around me. I will send Naggor south to Bithyne (102) (the farm/mountain province), as this should be a nice income and resource province for me. I'll then try for the nearby weakest provinces, attempting to work my way north as much as possible to take all the provinces around T'ien Ch'i. In the meanwhile, I'll set about attempting to build a second army featuring some heavier armor, sacred troops, and a priest or two. Tai will be researching until I can get some mages to take over, freeing him up to search for magic sites. I'll focus my research on Construction until I hit level 2, then I'll start branching out. I don't expect to heavily use my mages in combat until later.

Turn: 1
Though expensive, I recruit a Celestial Master. He will be my prophet, and will also help out quite nicely in the research area. In addition, I queue up a Red Guard (the start of my elite cavalry unit), and two spear wielding Imperial Footman. They'll be nice units to guard my archers. This leaves me with 54 gold in my treasury, which will probably be sorely needed later to pick up priests and mages.

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Turn: 2
Nothing significant in the Messages. Just a couple prophet announcements.

Naggor sends back a report from Bithyne (102). On the good side, there are only about 20 hostiles. On the bad side, it's mostly heavy cavalry and heavy infantry. Not something I feel comfortable taking on when my main punch is composed of archers. I send Naggor on to the east, to Iron Range (102). This isn't directly accesible from T'ien Ch'i, but I want to get a feel for what's around.

I quick check on the other provinces around T'ien Ch'i reveals that two of the other three feature archers or crossbowmen. The final, Lombaria (120) to the north (along the coast) has approximately 40 light and heavy infantry. This sounds tough, but should be do-able. I send Di-ya and his 25 troops up north (and hope that the enemy size was over estimated, not underestimated).

Sun-pi the Celestial Master has arrived at T'ien Ch'i. He features the standard array of magical skills, plus a single level of death magic. I declare him as my newly discovered prophet.

After recruiting another Red Guard and two Imperial Footmen I am (unfortunately) three gold short of the 100 I need to recruit a Master of the Way to begin helping out with research efforts. I decided to hold off on spending that gold this turn so that I can get a Master of the Way next turn. Following that, I'll try to pick up a Prince General as the leader of my army which is forming.

At the Last minute, I decide to increase the taxes to 110. I'll drop it back down to 100 again before the unrest gets out of hand.

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Turn: 3
Another four nations announce new prophets. Of course, the only one that really matters is the announcement from T'ien Ch'i... In addition, I've completed research in level 1 Construction magic.

Feeling a little nervous, I bring up the battle replay.
The Battle for Lombaria
It appears the independants have 5 crossbowmen, 7 heavy infantry, 15 light infantry, and 3 commanders. Hmm...

The battle begins with my archers being unfortunately innaccurate. Probably not too surprising given the shields worn by the enemy infantry. I lose one footman to the crossbowmen before my troops start moving. My cavalry is of course headed off towards the crossbowmen. Good.

My footmen are remarkably bold. They take massive losses, but somehow route the enemy light infantry before the two survivors turn and flee back towards my archers. My cavalry fails to make much of a dent in the enemy rear before the one remaining horseman turns and flees. This isn't looking good... Fortunately, my archers remain strong and force back the enemy heavy infantry in hand-to-hand combat. That proves to be sufficient. The remaining enemy forces turn and run.

The Battle for Lombaria has been won by my brave troops. I lost 12 men. Not too bad, considering the opposition, but I'm definitely going to have to send Di-ya back to the capital for some fresh troops. As a nice bonus, Di-ya is now apparently in the hall of fame. He has picked up the Heroic Endurance ability. Yeah... that'll be useful.

Interestingly enough, taking Lombaria (120) reveals that Pythium has already taken the next province to the north (along the coast). Grey Mirks (3) may not currently have much of an army, but it's already at a dominion level of -1. That strongly implies that his capital is only one province further away. Something to watch out for.

I also spot another -1 dominion province off to the south in Winter Peaks (95). I should still have plenty of space to expand to the east though.

I set Sun-pi the prophet to continual research in the field of Construction, and send Tai north to Lombaria (120) to hunt for magical sites.

A quick check for unrest reveals that setting the tax rate at T'ien Ch'i (112) to 110 had no effect on unrest, so I happily leave it there. Lombaria (120) is at11 unrest, so I set the tax rate there to my standard of 100 minus the unrest rounded to the nearest 10. In this case that would mean a tax of 90. Seems to work well enough.

My recruits this time will be a Master of the Way, and my now standard allotment of Red Guard and Imperial Footmen. The remaining 91 gold will be needed to purchase that Prince General soon. Well... make that 25 remaining gold. The remainder is spent upgrading the defence in Lombaria (120) to 11.

Oh yes, almost forgot about Naggor (so hard to keep track of scouts). Looks like Iron Range (106) is defended by 30 hostiles, militia and heavy infantry. Should be a good site to hit. Oh... other than the fact it's a mountain/waste province. Hmm... Naggor will move on to the north-east, into the province Keban (111). From there I'll be able to quickly head towards the provinces held by Pythium.

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Well, that's it for tonight. Time to head to bed. I doubt I'll remain this detailed (unless people want me too). I'll probably go with whatever feels like an interesting level of detail.

So far I'm finding that game play is definitely slower since I write stuff up as I play, but it's really not that bad. The benefit of course is that I end up putting more thought into my turns and I also have a record to check back on for remembering what I'd planned to do. That should be helpful.

Tune in next time for Turn 4.