Play
this song while you read this post.
The nation of acrosephalae heard the call as one,
There is nothin' fair in this world
There is nothin' safe in this world
And there's nothin' sure in this world
And there's nothin' pure in this world
Look for something left in this world
And they had found it! Something left- well, the song itself of course. As one the sons of acrosephalae bent a knee to the awesome might of "White Weddding" by Billy Idol. They had found a new god.
(note that in the original the barbwire ring cuts her finger but MTV took it out of the video ‘cause of the blood)
(Why can’t I see images on the shrapnel forum?)
” The kingdom of Arcoscephale is yet to be founded. Bronze is more common than iron and hoplites have yet to see the dawn of day. Instead, myrmidons and chariots compose the core of the armies. In this time, slaves are commonly used and most free men have plenty of time to spend on fine arts and good living. Philosophers gather in the cities to discuss esoteric truths and engineers manufacture clever contraptions for civil or military use. At the heart of Arcoscephale lies Mount Cephalos, abode of the Awakening God. At the foot of the mountain is a great temple where sacred Wind Riders are trained. Icarids, men with mechanical wings, are also used in warfare. The philosophers are better at magical research in a slothful Dominion.”
Also, unmentioned, are the ubiquitous mystics and the powerful oreids. Mystics are recruit-anywhere mages with one point of astral and two or more other paths while the oreids are powerful air and nature mages with some earth access too. Both these units are impressive when applied properly (ie- by someone other than myself).
This is my first time running any acrosephalae nation. My usual nations for the early era are helheim, yomi, and sauromatia, with my preference falling in that order also. I’ve decided to play acrosephalae because I’ve played helheim and yomi in recent games and I got frustrated with myself during play-testing with sauromatia and threw a huge tantrum, sweeping my computer off my desk and onto my floor in the process and vowed never to play sauro again. None of that last part is true except the tantrum.
Anyway, from what I can tell from play-testing acrosephalae is that you have two ways to play- either take some production and expand using the “not horrible” conventional army available to you or sack your production scales and take sloth three, making use of the philosopher unit and expand with an awake pretender. If you take the production scales you get to use a lot more of your resource-intensive troops like the myrmidons and chariots but if you take the sloth your 50g philosophers generate 9rp per turn. Wow. So anyone playing acrosephalae is faced with a huge choice right away. I don’t want to give away what I choose right now.
As for leadership, the golden age Acrosephalae nation is led by the (semi-) anthropomorphic embodiment of Billy Idol’s song “White Wedding”. I don’t want to say much more than that about my pretender but it should be obvious that acrosephalae under the leadership of a 80s Billy Idol song is gonna rock so hard!
Anyway, that’s all for now- I’ll post more when the game hosts and we progress a bit.