[AStott]

Turn: 18
Things are definitely not looking up. In T'ien Ch'i, a demon possessed a herd of swine and ravaged the province for a week. That can't be good.

Maintaining the Siege at Pythium
Pythium frantically tries to break my seige at his capital. But he only brings along 4 Light Infantry, 1 Archer, and a Centurion to command them. Even without any infantry, I am able to dispatch the threat without losing a man, or even breaking a sweat.

The Defense of T'ien Ch'i
Interestingly enough, the Heavy Cavalry unit which has been pestering my troops so much decided to try and assault my capital. There are 7 of the Heavy Cavalry, plus their captain.

As the battle begins, my hoarde of Footmen charge forward to meet the enemy Cavalry. My Footmen take heavy losses, and half of them route. Fortunately, the remainder manage to convince the enemy to retreat, and I retain control of the province.

I take stock of the current situation, since it's been a while since I've played. Things definitely do not look good. The First Army is sitting in Pythium without any melee units. They definitely need to be reinforced. Unfortunately, I wasn't lucky enough to eliminate the enemy dominion like I'd hoped.

The Second Army, reformed under the leadership of Lu-xing the Eunuch, is pretty much at full strength, and is ready to move out of T'ien Ch'i. I will attempt to move them north to reinforce the First Army. Their likely route will be through Grey Mirks, which reports say is only defended by Militia. I will move them through Shamballac in order to retake that province. I will send Yu the Master of the Way along with them for some spell support.

In the south, Vanheim appears to have no interest in taking my Sleepy Mountains province. His armies have left the adjacent Iron Range and has moved on. This gives me a chance to put minimal provincial defenses in Sleepy Mountains as a minor deterrant.

I recruit three Imperial Footmen and 4 Archers in T'ien Ch'i. I also recruit a commander in Keban. I take advantage of the high resources in Sleepy Mountains to recruit a pair of Heavy Infantry.

I save the remaining 200 gold in order to try and save up to purchase a Celestial Master next turn.

The First Army I leave in place, beseiging the walls of Pythium, since Pythium doesn't yet seem prepared to attack in force.

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Turn: 19
The Second Battle for Shamballac
There is only a small group of militia holding this province. The Second Army is able to sweep aside the resistance without any incidences of note. My losses are a single Imperial Footman to friendly fire.

Maintaining the Siege at Pythium
The First Army is attacked by another group of 13 men with an assortment of weapons. They have no ranged attackers or mages, and so my Archers strike at them as they advance across the entire length of the field.

Within just a couple turns, their army is routed, and by the time they retreat out of sight they have lost 6 men.

After purchasing some local defenders, the Second Army heads north into Grey Mirks. The First Army will stay put.

I note with some pleasure that the presence of Tai in Pythium has finally resulted in the conVersion of that dominion to my own. That is useful.

I recruit single Heavy Infantry in Shamballac, Keban, and Sleepy Mountains. In addition, T'ien Ch'i recruits a Celestial Master, 4 Imperial Footmen, and 4 Archers.

I will at some point send a commander around to collect the units being produced in small numbers by the various provinces.

Seeing that Vanheim will apparently not be assaulting Sleepy Mountains, I drop their tax rate back down to a reasonable level from its former point of 200.

Hanifel the Commander (previously recruited in Keban) will head up the new Third Army. He begins touring the provinces, rounding up the scattered units being produced.

Naggor continues to keep an eye out in Acyste. It appears that Pythium has switched over from producing Shamblers and has cranked out some Light Infantry. Good. I don't have time to deal with them yet...

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Turn: 20
Some interesting news in Sleep Mountains. A group of zealots have joined my cause. Despite their light armor and weapons, they just might be of some use. In addition there was a large market in that province, and I gained a tax revenue of 100 gold. Excellent!

Maintaining the Siege at Pythium
Uh oh... It looks like they finally decided to bring in a large force to break the seige. I wish it had waited one turn, as then I'd have had the reinforcements from the Second Army.

My Archers spend all their time attempting to fire at an approaching Heavy Cavalry. As a result, I don't even manage to get a single kill by the time my army is routed. At the final count, I have lost three Archers.

The Third Battle for Grey Mirks
We're up against a very large force of Militia and some Slingers. I expect that our Archers will make quick work of them.

We manage to chase off the Militia and Slingers before any hand-to-hand fighting breaks out. What remains are a pair of Heavy Infantry and a single Commander. These go down fairly quickly as well, although we do lose another Imperial Footman to friendly fire. I'm starting to think one of the Archers is a traitor...

Fortunately, the First Army was able to retreat from Pythium into Grey Mirks to meet up with the approaching Second Army. Boy, if Pythium had broken the siege only one turn earlier, I'd have lost the entire First Army, including Tai...

In T'ien Ch'i, I am tempted to fork out the big bucks for a Prince General. I need a larger army, and he can command 75 men. Then I realize that I now have enough fire gems to create a Scepter of Command. So, I recruit another Eunuch, and set Song Di (my new Celestial Master) to building the Scepter. I also recruit 4 Imperial Footmen and 5 Archers in T'ien Ch'i. I continue building individual single units in other provinces (all Heavy Infantry, except for Grey Mirks which is able to produce 2 Heavy Infantry and 3 Archers).

I realize that off to my south, Gol Phalas (once owned by Vanheim) has been taken over by Ulm. This looks like a good opportunity, and I send the Third Army down into Iron Range to take the apparently defenseless province from Vanheim. The Third Army had taken on the fanatic Flagellant that had recently appeared, so they shouldn't have many problems.

In Grey Mirks, I transfer all of the troops from the Second Army to the First Army. This gives Lu Tung-Pin command of 31 Archers and 7 Imperial Footmen. I then change the Archers' orders to target large monsters. This is because Naggor in Acyste has spotted that Pythium has apparently acquired at least a couple elephants. I move the Imperial Footmen so that they are not right in front of the Archers, and then I send the First Army into Acyste along with Ru Shou the Minister of Rituals.

Lu-xing the Eunuch and Yu the Master of the Way will move into Shamballac to begin reforming the Second Army from the individual units being recruited around the empire. Tai will stay in place to search Grey Mirks for magic sites. I really doubt that Pythium will attack Grey Mirks this turn. I will also increase the local defense.

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Turn: 21
To my joy, Tai is able to find two magic sites in Grey Mirks. One is a Crystal Citadel, giving 1 astral pearl, and 1 earth gem and also allowing me to recruit Crystal Mages. The other is a Boiling Bog, which produces 1 fire gem and 1 water gem. The Crystal Citadel has also provided a decent fort and a laboratory. Wow! What an excellent find! I'll definitely need to defend that province.

The Battle for Iron Range
There are only 5 local defenders here, and I am able to destroy them while only losing 3 of my Flagellants.

The Defense of Keban
Oh shoot. Looks like the elephants (apparently a mercenary force) came down here instead of waiting to be taken by my First Army. There are a total of 6 elephants (one a leader) against my force of primarily local defenders.

Fortunately, I do have about a half dozen Archers, and they get right to work, wounding a couple elephants.

Amazingly enough, my Footmen are able to attack and kill an elephant while only taking minimal losses, and with that, the elephants turn and route off the field with my troops in pursuit. To make me even happier, the First Army apparently cut their escape route behind them, and the entire enemy force is lost! Yes!

The Battle for Acyste
As expected, the defenders consisted merely of Slingers and Militia. My large force of Archers is able to route the defenders before they get even half way across the field. I take the province without losing a single man.

To make this turn an even more glorious one, I realize that a barbarian army has attacked the province of Pythium, and forced the defenders inside the castle. This is extremely good news, as Pythium was the site of their largest army. With them tied up there, I will be able to move troops around without having to be so concerned about keeping my provinces defended!

With so many options opened up. I decide to take another break to consider what my next step will be.

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Well, things certainly turned around quickly. Suddenly Vanheim is no longer a concern (although I will have to watch out for Ulm. In addition, it really looks like I'll be able to go around Pythium and take all of his other provinces. This will allow me to lay siege to his castle and keep him bottled up at my own pace. Things are definitely looking up. Here's a summary of my current status.

Provinces: 9
Income: 339 (should go up a decent bit as I subdue some unrest)
Gem Income: 3 Fire, 4 Air, 2 Water, 3 Earth, 6 Astral
Research: 27 points per turn (yes, I'm still second to Last, but I may be able to devote some more gold to mages here pretty soon)
Dominion: 19 (this too should start going up as I take provinces from Pythium)
Army Size: 5th in size, but only about 25% the size of the largest (Ermor)
Upkeep: 96