[RedRover]

Shovah: Have fun! Happy to help!

SNAPSHOT: TURN 15
(picking up from the Turn 10 summary)

I have hacked through to the shores of the inland lake, defeating Heavy Infantry and a force of Woodsmen. Never seen a more ragged battle line than my Abysian Infantry. Of the seven survivors, the affliction count reads: 3, 2, 0, 1, 3, 3, 5. The recently hired Dante’s Stingers are in better shape: 4 dead, 7 afflictions, and one triple affliction out of 30 men. The army’s Salamander priest hasn’t seen a gem in so long he’s not sure what they look like anymore. The Prophet Warlord is holding this crew together, but intelligence reports 70 Longdead on the island. Oh, and there isn’t enough food here—I have to attack, withdraw, or starve. Can’t resist going for it…

A relief force consisting of the Second Army, plus Edward Blackfist, is cleaning out the rest of the interior, and just defeated a force of Heavy Infantry. They’re two turns away from the shore. Meanwhile, I have built a Lizard Shaman and escort near the first magic site. The Manticore turned up a 1-gem Astral site, so I can now probe for more. Still looking for the first Nature site, though. Also, I’m starting to hunt Blood Slaves south of the capital (15 in two turns!). I’m building an Independent leader to carry these back to the capital—I can’t afford a Lab here yet.

For research, I’ve cleared Thaumaturgy 2, and started on Blood 1. Now, if a random event gives me Nature gems, the Manticore can do remote searching for a few turns. Finally, I have no idea where Man is, but he just declared war on me, so I need to start looking for him.

This changes my plans considerably. Checking for new mercs, Hector’s Heavy Horse has just appeared. At a hefty 220 gp, I can (barely) swing this by cannibalizing almost everything in queue. I think Man may be east of me, across a major river line, but my side of the crossing can’t sustain a defensive force of any size. The chokepoint on the far side of the river might, and if Man’s capital is far enough away, that province might make a reasonable site for a fort. Intelligence reports only 20 Lizardmen. The downside is that I give up exploiting the island magic site for now. So be it. The battered First Army will cross eastward, with Hector falling in behind them. The Second Army can be on the island site in three turns (the only enemy province now in the way has mostly militia).

The big risk here is that I’m renting Hector instead of building Third Army. Anything breaks north or west of me and I will be in serious trouble, I have no reserve other than the nub of a regular spearman unit that I’ve been slowly building north of the capital, and I’ve put very little into province defense anywhere. Interesting times.