Ok. By popular demand. Here we go.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man
Not everyone was feeling down in Fomoria however. In the hearts of goat-headed children hope was blooming. They had never known anything else and in their childish hearts they knew that tomorrow would be a new and better day. They did not understand their parents problems and like children oft to do, they rebelled by being happy and positive.
No one knows were the symbol came from. Only that children kept scribbling it up on every flat surface. A stylized S made from sharp lines. The children called it Snakey. It was their secret friend and their source of strength and unity. Snakey, they said, would protect them from afflictions and sad faces. Snakey himself had a goat head, and in his world that was as natural as could be.
For his sake, the children would show the world that goat heads were the best heads. And who knows? If the children pray hard, fight gallantly and simply believe enough who is to say that this is not so?
Some children kept drawing another S instead. Most people considered those children to be a little touched in the head however. Such a silly mark.
Turn 1:Surveying the situation.
Unlike most other people in this game I *DID* look at the map in advance and noticed several of the starting positions. There were only 3 possible starts for Fomoria however, because Fomoria must always start next to water.
Of those three positions this one was probably the worst because it means starting one province away from R'lyeh. But thats probably less bad than it could be, as among the nations in this game, Fomoria would probably be the best nation to fight R'lyeh if he should show his ugly tentacles above water. All my troops have between 12-15 MR. 12-13 for the PD. And Fomoria can actually venture under water without gear. Witch saves on gems and research.
As you can see above I spent the first turn patrolling my capitol with my starting army in order to squeeze a few extra gold out of it in the first critical turn of the game. I raise the taxes all the way up to 160%. I know from tests that this is a viable tax level because my 30 starting soldiers are better patrolers than the average guy.
I also prophetize my starting scout but forgot to give him a fancy name. He is the littlest giant and everyone is always adored by his cuteness every time he steps on the battlefield.
As for recruitment I get this:
A smattering of recruits including a Fomorian druid. (The fomorian prefix is necessary, otherwise the Marverni Druids would sue them for trademark infringement.), two unmarked, and ten Fir Bolgs with various weapons.
So what are those then? Well the Fomorian druid is the Fomorian standard mage. It is the only mage I got that can be recruited outside of the capitol so I better learn to love it. In this case I recruit it in the capitol because it cost little resources as I need those for my troops.
The Unmarked is one of the two cap only sacreds that Fomoria can recruit. The other being the fomorian giant.
He is smaller than his parents but much more useful. You know how I call Fomoria the budget giants in the banner? Its because the Fomorian giant troops are much cheaper than equivalent type of giants that other nations get. For example the fomorian warrior cost only 30g. And if I wanted to prevent someone from entering one of my castles I would just recruit some 15g 18 str Fomorian militia to hold the walls forever.
This guy is an Unmarked. He is like a warrior that got slightly higher stats in attack, defense, MR and HP and he lacks the warriors 20% risk of starting with a random affliction. Thus the name. He cost twice as much but its worth it. Because he is also sacred he will cost the same upkeep.
There is nothing about him that jumps out at you and scream “Awesome!”. But he got good stats all around and only cost 60 gold, witch is a bargain for a sacred giant. I could get 5 of these for the same cost as 2 niefel giants. And if the repel mechanic was not broken he could repel people with his length 5 spear. Uhh yea.
I built two of them this turn to use in a future expansion party.
This is the Unmarkeds father, the Fomorian Giant. They have worse prot, atk and def. But more HP, strength and magic resistance. They also comes with big *** javelins witch they can fire like they were a ballista, but cant actually aim with due to having only one eye. Making them kind of dangerous. What is worse, beyond costing an extra 50% gold, is the fact that they have no helmet. I mean what were they thinking! They only ever got one eye! Expensive giant light infantry. Only recruitable size 6 giant troop in the game for what its worth. Might be good for blocking elephants. Or mammoths if I wind up next to Caelum. They can also, in a pinch, get down in the drink. Though they are not strictly speaking good at that either.
Anyway, you people wont see a lot of these guys in my updates. The bicycle association of Fomoria hate them because of the bad examples they set.
This is the (not) Druid. He is actually a teenaged larper that runs around in the forest and pretends to be a druid. But lets not get technical. Atleast he is sacred and dont cost a ton. I will be forced to recruit them so I'm sure I will find a way to squeeze some kind of use out of them. The question mark represent the fact that they can randomly get either Air, Water, Death or Nature as their final magic pick.
What else is relevant for this turn? Oh yea the Fir Bolgs!
These guys are like Uber-Mexicans! They have here to take all the ****ty jobs and not only will they work for pennies. They will also do a better job than you could!
They are economic immigrants that came to Fomoria in the hope that the Fomorian economic wonder was still roaring. Instead they found themselves outside the Fomorians summer homes together with the other unwashed masses. They are a bargain for the stats, if not very good all by themselves. I build 10 of them this turn. 4 with javelins and spears and 6 with slings in order to fill out my starting army. I could have built one more, but my starting commander can only command 40 troops and its not like most indies need more power to overcome. They should work fine.
I will not buy more for a while. Not because they are not good but because they have kind of low protection and I prefer expanders that do not take attrition. That way they can keep expanding without needing reinforcements.
And thats all for turn 1. Well, there was also some amazon mercs that I did not need. Though I doubt they would have been happy with just 20 gold anyhow. So whatever.
Till next time.