This Sunday, a Marverni double feature. Turns 3 and 4, in one post!
Try and hold the applause. Yes, all two of you.
Turn 3:
Here's what I see when I start my turn. Another Prophet (probably a recruited commander- maybe a priest, to try for Holy 4), a random event, a battle, and a message that makes me grin. See, if I got a magic item, that probably means I won the battle, which means things aren't yet failing on my usual scale.
The event was actually good, too! 200 gold isn't much- there are 1500 and 3000-gold events, if memory serves me right- but for somebody with Misfortune 1? Nice.
Look at that ratio. 53 troops and 3 commanders down, for eight of my (expendable) troops? I'll take that any/every day of the week. More on the battle in a bit.
This is the magic item I found, and it's a bit of a mixed bag. It's cursed, so my prophet is really easy to permanently cripple- and I can't take it off. On the other hand, it's a weapon that boosts my defense, curses guys it hits, ignores armor, and counts as magic (so it can hit ethereal enemies, which normal attacks miss 75% of the time). To top it off, it's on a guy I'm not trying to get into melee. On the whole, I'll call it a slight gain.
Here's the battle. On the left, my guys. That's my group of BCs up front, javelins behind and above them, and amazons behind and below. Behind that are two commanders. My prophet is the guy in the middle of the javelineers- look for the red shield.
On the other side, some bog-standard undead. The brownish ones are ghouls, and the green ones are soulless- basically zombies. The soulless can't have their morale broken, and the ghouls are really darn motivated (morale 18, to my 10-13), so the only way I'd win this is to kill them before they rout me.
Strength buff goes off as planned, and the amazons kill a handful of ghouls in one volley. They have 11 HP, for reference. You can see that each arrow is either crippling or outright killing a ghoul, which I like.
Volley of javelins at close range. More damage, but less accurate.
We've closed to melee now, and things are inconclusive- a few hits here and there. One of my Carnutes went berserk, which you can't see right now, because I was too focused on the effects of Banishment. Those are a lot of damage numbers!
Figure that that hit at least nine zombies, all of them taking 25-75% of their life in damage. VERY effective.
Another round, and you can see what a javelin barrage and melee attack did to the ghouls. Also, note the Carnute BC with the 12 over him, a row back from the front line. That's a one-hit kill from friendly fire, there. If it had hit anybody IMPORTANT, I'd be sad, but this is Marverni. None of my melee combatants are important.
The rest of the undead die in a few boring rounds of melee.
See that? That is R'lyeh's pretender god. Unescorted. Last turn, I guessed that he'd taken a Kraken, and here it is. An easy call to make, since most underwater units are total suck, but it's always nice to be right. Now, to my plans!
No new mercs, and Abysia recruited the militia I saw last turn. Were they hungry? Low on charcoal? Who knows?
Another Gutuater, a pile of BCs, and some slingers to round out my purchases. This is more than I got last turn- my new province at work- but a FRACTION of what I'll be recruiting ten turns from now.
My first Gut goes into the lab, and I set him researching Thaumaturgy. Usually I go for Alteration or evocation right off, but this is Marverni. Thaum gives me two things I want- most of the site-searching spells, and the ability to force my Carnutes to go berserk. Thaum1 will give me a limited amount of it, and Thaum2 gives me an area berserk and the search spells, so I can get to what I need quickly, before moving over to Alt or Evo. Four turns to Thaum1, and two more to Thaum2.
(Useful, but berserking requires one more component- Nature gems. Not something that'll be an 'I win' button for every battle.)
Scout moving to the next province over, army moving over to where the scout was (20 militia/heavy infantry? Slaughter), mage researching. Fairly obvious.
I also sent a message to R'lyeh, basically saying that I wasn't going to attack him, and asking him to stick to the seas for now. R'lyeh needs time to consolidate before it pushes up onto land, so I suspect jotwebe will agree for the time being. Sadly, I forgot to screenshot the message, so he'll have to show you all.
This is interesting. Notice the bright green line, and how it went flat? That's Pangaea's research. This, combined with grabbing two provinces this turn, tells me he has an awake combat pretender with magic. Turn 1, he had it researching, and then he sent it out to fight on Turn 2, once he knew what the neightbor provinces looked like.
Income tells us a lot, too. Helheim isn't doing well, at all- no new provinces and no more income (no income at all- 103 unrest shuts you down cold). I'm steady, R'lyeh gained a bit from his new province, and everybody else made a classic move. That spike-and-drop their incomes did tells me that they all increased their tax rates on Turn 1, so they could get a bit more gold on Turn 2. The cost of that is unrest, which either forces lower taxes, or forces you to use your units to patrol the province and restore order.
You can see that Abysia and Fomoria dropped back down to my level this turn- I suspect that they used patrollers. Arcoscephale... didn't. That, or they got hit with an event, too.
(Also, notice how my graph barely moved. A cookie if you can see the problem with that.)
The other reason why I won't be buying many commanders from my forts, by the way, is that I can just get them from my provinces! They aren't as good, but think of it this way: I'm trading a bit of inconvenience for another mage every time I buy independent commanders instead of Marverni ones. Mages win the mid- and late-game. It's an investment.
On to Turn 4!
Turn 4:
Three messages, all possibly good or bad. Let's look at them.
So R'lyeh wants me to know he has a kraken near me. He's also a bit dramatic. That's fine with me. Next!
More free money! I'll take that!
Kill ratios are still nice. Let's take a look at that.
You know what? No. Let's not take a look at that. We're fighting Militia and Heavy Infantry.
These guys. This is basically five decent soldiers, three commanders, and a bunch of javelin decoys. Nothing more to see here, though I am running low on BCs. Let's fix that.
See what I mean about volume? That's 40 barechests, and I'm not NEARLY at full production yet! I'll be able to turn out over 100 a turn, just from this fort alone- think of what you could do with that many attacks!
Rehiring my archers, because they've been awesome. Mercenaries only stay with you for three turns; you have to renew your contract, if you want to keep them. Thing is, each pound of gold you offer is worth twice as much when rehiring mercs, so 50 gold from me is equal to the 100 gold other people would have to put in. I, of course, will be paying a good bit more than that.
Province graph. Helheim is recovering- two provinces a turn is good work. Caelum has been lacking in success, R'lyeh is leading because of its first-turn attack, and Pan hit a wall. Maybe he's stocking up on Maenads.
I haven't gained much income, but Arco and Helheim are rebounding. Caelum seems to be in a bit of a slump. Wonder why?
That funny-colored line there is Pan, Abysia, and Helheim all finding magic sites that give gems. They're probably coming across the low-level sites- level 0 sites can be found by any commander. Nothing to worry about yet.
Caelum is still research-happy, Arco, Fomoria, and I are all building up, and Pan has totally stopped research. Pans are expensive, so this suggests he's putting gold into other things- a fort, maybe, or temples. Maybe just building combat commanders.
Pan is getting ridiculous dominion, as is R'lyeh. I'd say that the temple idea is fairly possible, given that. R'lyeh is just expanding into the water and the beach provinces- well, that and his pretender probably has maxed-out dominion. A classic move.
Pan's cheap troops and freespawn are SLIGHTLY more numerous than my cheap troops. R'lyeh is probably getting some freespawn, but most of that is cheap underwater guys.
Sending my guys back for BC reinforcements. You can't see that I just bought two independent commanders in my non-capital provinces; these guys will be my second expansion party. The kraken left, and my scout is heading west, where my first party is headed.