Turn 11: Interlude
A short and eventless turn.
150 extra gold in taxes are had due to a mild winter in the mountains of Cimri. Snakeys heat dominion keeps the snow at bay and the roads usable.
The other main event of importance is that The Isle of Balor, sometimes known as Koromoo, has been returned to its rightful owners!
I was right in bringing a large force, as the enemy turned out to, in fact, *be* barbarians. Two Unmarked and two Fir Bolgs dies to their madness. This marks the first time in the game thus far that an unmarked have died. Those thing are surprisingly sturdy.
Desmond and his men spend some time on the island admiring the scenery and partake in the ancient Fomorian arena culture. But its just not quite what he remembered. Eventually he decides that his nostalgia has gotten the better of him and returns to New Fomoria and his work.
On the east front, expansion is happening at a comfortable pace. Actually I have slowed down my expansion a bit in order to not over extend myself. I though from previous diplomacy that Marverni was going to have the provinces in the forest so I only slowly made my way there. Many of my commanders are instead occupied with site searching.
Dante, for the crime of cowardice, is sent on a mission to negotiate with the horse tribe people.
Turn 12 End-of-Year-Wrap-Up.
Lots of people searched for magic sites this turn. But only one was successful.
A ****ty death mage finds yet another ****ty death site. Well, many streams small and all that.
Armies conveys in the province of Isurian for a mysterious meeting. There they talk of war and conquest, but not everyone is happy with the current course of action. They say that the omens are against us and that we should wait.
The Kings of fomoria will not listen to that ear however. They gather a mighty host and continues their preparations.
As this is turn 12 ,witch many considers to be an important turn in a game, I will have a graph wrapup to show people how the game have proceeded thus far.
Oh wow. This Graph really is rather impressive from my perspective. I count 24 provinces at turn 12, witch is almost twice the average of the other players. There is no wonder that my neighbors fear me. Exiting!
Despite that I have actually slowed down my expansion a bit in order to get more manageable borders. You really dont want more neighbors than necessary. So Marverni holding the forest in the center of the map prevents me from sharing a border with Caelum and Pangaea. It is my opinion, that from a psychological perspective, it is hard to attack someone who does not share a border with you. Not to mention the logistical problems and the problems of holding ground in a part of the world not connected to the rest of your empire.
This is why I prefer normal maps to wraparound maps. In the later the biggest player will always have so many boarders and fronts that he can not focus much on anything and risks being overwhelmed. On this map however, I only have three neighbors. So even if they were all to attack me all of a sudden, at most I would only have to fight 3 people at once. Thats the theory anyway.
It is too bad that its no longer going so well for Abysia, as I was counting on him to soak up some of the threat factor for me. But no such luck. I can tell from all the graphs combined that he is fighting Pan though. And I'm trying to convince Arco to attack his unprotected back.
Another interesting graph. You can clearly see were I started to overtax my capitol. Before that I was not leading as much, compared to the province graph, because most nations get the lion share of their income from their capitols were they have good castles and scales. Still, my income is even more huge when counted after my upkeep. This should leave much gold for infrastructure projects witch I am building around my lands.
Despite finding only minor sites that can be uncovered with a mage with only one point in a path, I am still in the lead, even here. The fact that Aby has stolen gem income from Pan is one of the reasons I know they are at war.
The rest of the graphs are either not interesting or not flattering to me so I will leave them be for now.
Turn 13: A view to a kill.
Oh, and taking inspiration from Immaculate again, you really should listen to this song while reading this turn in order to get the proper feel for things.
This is it gents! This is war!
My armies will launch a three pronged assault on Arco. The expansion force to the center will go for the growth province, the stealthing Nemedians will attack the entry province next to his capitol and the major army will simply sail over the seas and land on the other side of his capitol. Next turn the two groups will siege it and with the help of my strong giants they should be able to break down the walls to the helpless philosophers in just 2 turns. After that it is over for arco, and the rest will be just mop-up work. The Chariots he have been relying on until now are completely unsuitable for fighting my giants. So while he might be able to raid my provinces still, he will not be able to break the siege.
Even if my other neighbors take offense to this it will take a few turns for them to get their asses in gear. And by the time they have done that Arco will be a nonentity, thus allowing me to divert my forces to fight my other neighbors.
It is a perfect plan and I'm a genius!
To be concluded....