[AStott]

Turn: 7
Naggor the Scout has now reached Pythium. From here, it appears that they currently possess three provinces. Unfortunately, it appears that scouts are not given the option of causing unrest. Ah well, back to scouting. I'll go sit in Grey Mirks (3) so I'll have a good idea of when to begin attacking Pythium and when he might attack me.

Down in Bithyne (102), Tai begins his search for magical sites.

I set Kui-xing the Master of the Way to forging a Robe of Missile Protection. This will be useful for my non-combat commanders. Other than that, I really don't have the gems to spend, so my other mages will continue researching. I will finish up level 1 Thaumaturgy next turn, and the remaining points will go towards Conjuration (summoning is always fun).

A quick check of unrest levels reveals that I can once more bump the taxes in T'ien Ch'i (112) up to 110.

I think I'll send Di-ya the Eunuch, Ru Shou the Minister of Rituals, and the first army east to the Sleepy Mountains (109). This province holds a (theoretically) small number of Heavy and Light Infantry, and Crossbowmen. We'll set our archers to fire at the crossbowmen, and have the ground units wait a couple turns before attacking. With luck, we'll break the crossbowmen early and then be able to focus on the ground units.

With the gold we have available this turn, we purchase 3 Imperial Footmen and 4 archers. No more Red Guard until we solve some of our income problems.

We also spend some money to increase the local defense in Bythyne (102) from 4 to 11. I a little uncomfortable with R'lyeh right out there off our coasts. The remaining 37 gold in the treasury I'll save to try and get some more cash for mages and additional local defenses in my new provinces.

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Turn: 8
Excellent news! Tai found two magical sites in Bithyne. The first is a set of Standing Stones which produce one air gem and one earth gem each turn. The second is a Pearl Beach which produces 20 gold and one astral pearl each turn. Very useful stuff!

The Defense of Lombaria
Bad news. It looks like Pythium decided to attack this province. I guess the level 11 defenders weren't a sufficient deterent. In a battle that really isn't even close, my 11 footment and one Eunuch are chased off by the invading force of 9 Hastatus, 1 standard bearer, and a Theurg Communicant in the lead. Not good at all.

The Battle for Sleepy Mountains
My force is up against the local garrison of 7 crossbowmen, 11 light infantry, 10 heavy infantry, a priest, and 4 commanders.

Happily enough, the crossbow men are routed before they get the chance to fire a second volley. This frees up my archers to fire at the approaching light and heavy infantry. After a single volley, the light infantry breaks and runs. This leaves only the heavy infantry and leaders.

There is a tough extended skirmish between my Imperial Footmen and his heavy infantry, while my Red Guard attacks kills the enemy priest that was hanging back. They turn back to hit the enemy heavies from, while Longdead summoned by Di-ya with his ring stream forward to help out my Footmen. The enemy soon routes, and victory is mine. At the end, I have lost only a single unit (an Imperial Footman I believe).

Tai, moves over into Sleepy Mountains (109) where he will hunt for more sites. Naggor will move down into Lombaria (120) to keep an eye on the troop levels there.

I am now presented with a choice. I can move the First Army off towards Lombaria (120) to retake it from Pythium, or I can move east (away from my capital) and attempt to take Keban (111). It will take two turns for the First Army to reach Lombaria. In the process they will pass through the capital and have a chance to pick up two turns worth of recruited men to swell the ranks. Keban on the other hand appears to have a large population and would give me a rather nice gold boost...

After some thought, despite a great desire for revenge again Pythium for their vicious sneak attack, I decide that it is more important at this stage to get the gold. The First Army will march for Keban.

I am able to pick up a Eunuch, 3 Imperial Footmen, and 5 Archers this turn in the home province. This leaves me with 128 gold, which I will save for the defense of Keban and for the building of my second army which will be attempting to retake Lombaria.

Sun-pi the Prophet will summon a Corpse Man. We will see if they are worth any kind of significant casting effort. Next turn will see the completion of the first level of Conjuration magic. This may provide some more alternatives.

I drop the tax level in Sleepy Mountains (109) down to 90 for now to get the unrest level down. Bithyne (102) is ready to go back up to 100 tax.

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Turn: 9
The Battle for Keban
It appears that we're up against the local garrison of 5 crossbowmen, 10 Light Infantry, about 20 or so Heavy Infantry and one Commander. That's a pretty scary group of Heavy Infantry. This could be tough.

Our Archers are not so fortunate this time. They consistently miss the enemy Crossbowmen while the enemy melee units close in on ours. Things look grim.

My Imperial Footmen are almost completely surrounded by the enemy Infantry, when the Red Guard finally reaches and eliminates the Crossbowmen. Immediately, my Archers retarget on the nearby Infantry while the Red Guard attempts to quickly eliminate the enemy commanders, hoping to cause the enemy to flee.

After another turn of intense fighting, my squad of Imperial Footmen have been reduced to only three men. These turn and flee while my Archers release another flight of arrows at the enemy. Fortunately, this kills enough of them that they also turn and run. During the ensuing rout, the Archers and Red Guard account for a few more enemy troops. Unfortunately, in the process, one of the Red Guard is killed by the fleeing troops.

Victory is ours, but it is expensive, costing us 7 of our Imperial Footmen and 1 precious Red Guard.

In other news, Lu Tung-Pin the Immortal has arrived at our gates, seeking to fight for our cause. Despite being unarmored, he is quite skilled in attack and defense, has a high magic resistance, carries a demon slaying sword, is blessed, is a level 3 priest, and has level 3 astral magic, level 2 water magic, level 1 air magic, and level 1 fire magic. To top it all off, he can command 80 men! That will be very useful just as soon as we can raise the troops for him. Oh yeah, and he can fly.

I take a look at the map, and discover (to my dismay) that Pythium has taken Shamballac (118). This was a neutral province to the east of Lombaria (120). It borders on both T'ien Ch'i and Keban. I definitely do not want to lose Keban and it's 50 gold income per turn, so I will probably have to leave the First Army there for now to protect it.

As Tai goes to begin searching for magical sites in Sleepy Mountains (109), he discovers that there is already an Arena there. That will give us an additional 15 gold per turn. Very useful. After he finishes searching here, he'll take the two Imperial Footmen who fled the Battle for Keban back with him to Keban so that he can search there as well.

The Corpse Construct summoned Last turn is an ok unit. It's main feature is a fairly large hit point total, and a fairly high strength. I'll hang on to it for now, but not focus on putting them out, as Sun-pi the Prophet is (ironically) the only one able to command undead.

I go ahead and pump up the defenses in Keban to 11. I'd like to go higher, but I may need my gold for other things. I also purchase a single Heavy Infantry there to add to replace the losses in the First Army. This is all the resource level of the province can bear at this point.

Back in T'ien Ch'i, I recruit another 3 Imperial Footmen and 5 Archers. I'm not that far from being able to afford another Celestial Master, but I decide instead to improve Keban's defences to 21. This makes me a lot more comfortable about a rather aggressive plan I have in mind.

The First Army will move out of Keban and head for Shamballac (118). The Second Army (still a little small) under the command of Lu Tung-Pin the Immortal will meet them there. Together they will wrest control of that province from Pythium, and likely then move on to Lombaria. I'm hoping that his army of around a dozen units will stay in Shamballac, allowing me to eliminate them.

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That was an unfortunate event having lost Lombaria, but I think it'll work out just fine. It seems like the enemy defenses are not that large initially, and these territories may be easier to take back than it would be to take the provinces from the original defenders. After the battle, I may go ahead and combine the First and Second Armies under command of Lu Tung-Pin while Di-ya returns to T'ien Ch'i to assemble a new army.

Tune in next time for Turn 10.