Noob's shot at an R'lyeh AAR

[CharonJr]

Some thoughts about the overall strategic situation:

I am starting to overextend here I am afraid, while the war vs. Jotunheim is progressing very nicely I am leaving my northern and southern flanks very open to attacks from Ulm/Atlantis and Marignon respectivly.

Due to Man fighting Jotunheim, too, and there already have been 3 clashes between my forces and those of Man this might escalate into a real war, too.

Sadly it looks like Ulm and Atlantis did not go to war about the province of Witches Copse and Ulm even has withdrawn its troops from Witches Copse to the east (Monherboa) most likely to retake the province of Bolfagon.

Ulm has sufficient forces to hit my open flanks and force me to divert a lot of my forces to deal with them.

Since I am fairly certain that my empire is currently number one in number of provinces (likely income, gems, fortresses and research, too) it is most likely just a question of time before the AIs gang up on me.

Due to the lack of forces I am able to see from Marignon I am wondering what they are doing, but I dare to say that the apparent lack of visible forces is a sign that they are at war, too.

With Pangaea, C’tis and Abysia down and Atlantis, Jotunheim, Marignon, Man and Ulm accounted for I am still missing Pythium and Arcoscephale. Maybe Marignon is at war with one of them.

Pythium and Arcoscephale are most likely located in the eastern part of the map (due to Atlantis most likely having started in one of the northern sea provinces).

One of the possible ways to secure my southeastern flank would be to invade Marignon once the war with Jotunheim is over. Currently I am only able to build up a token force in Pangaea and hope that Marignon will keep on being preoccupied for some more turns.

I could build up a decent defensive ring by sending troops and building PDs in the provinces of Gol Ryepe, Abysia, Scytha, Aran Plain and Pangaea which is anchored by the 2 fortifications and would protect most of high income provinces and temples. The ring is still open in the south, but I am not overly worried about this hole.

The defense of Agenor and the 40 blood site there have a very high priority for me, too, because I am currently lacking troops to effectively defend my realm while still being able to field decent offensive forces.

But for the moment I prefer to let my offense be my best defense. In contrast to PDs troops can be moved where they are needed and are able to be used offensively and defensively.

My defensive ring of indies in the sea can be shattered soon by Atlantis especially since they seemed to have not gone to war vs. Ulm. I have to hope that they are at least at war with either Pythium or Arcoscephale.


The key point at the moment as I see them are:

1. Very volatile situation due to me being most likely the leader in most graphs
2. Lack of troops to effectively defend my flanks
3. Reliance on the AIs to be preoccupied by their own wars
4. Lack of ressources to discourage the AIs by building PDs
5. Gem income only slowly starting to pick up to summon forces/empower summoners


The best remedy I can currently think of is a closer focus on getting new gems and getting my mages the skills needed to get good summons.

In order to do this I will keep on using Acashic Record and to get my astral gem production up to a level where I can cast 1 Acashic Record each turn.

In addition I still need a lot of mages to forge the items (I have astral, water, fire, nature, (blood – due to needing him to bloodhunt) but still lack any 2+ mage in death, earth and air). I hope that some of the Lore Masters which I will recruit each turn now will provide me with some of the lacking skills due to their 4?.

The lab in Tiash with the 20% gem reduction is helping in getting the items needed to support the summons (summon enhancers + spell-skill items). I would love to get the costs for forging the items further down, but due to my low earth gem income this would mean using alchemy in order to get the earth gems and currently I prefer to use those gems for other items or summons.

Due to using Enslave Mind and my mage’s poor leadership I have to keep producing some Scepters of Authority to enable them to command the additional troops.

A Staff of Storms would be a nice addition to my defensive arsenal, but I am still lacking a 3A mage.

My summons will be mostly in astral, death, nature and water and I mostly lack in death.

Some items I will forge sooner or later, there are other ones:

All skills:

Robe of the Magi – Slot: Body – magic needed: 4A, 4B – effect: +1 (cursed)
Ring of Wizardry – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 5S – effect: +1


Death increasing items:

Skull Staff – Slot: 2H – magic needed: 2D – effect: +1
Scepter of Dark Regency (unique) – Slot: 1H – magic needed: 4D – effect: +3
Skullface – Slot: Head – magic needed: 3D – effect: +1
Ring of Sorcery – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 4S – effect: +1
The Black Book of Secrets (unique) – magic needed: 2D, 2B – effect: +1


Nature increasing items:

Thistle Mace – Slot: 1H – magic needed: 2N – effect: +1
Treelords Staff – Slot: 2H – magic needed: 4N (will be forged next due to the summon bonus) – effect: +2
Ring of Sorcery – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 4S – effect: +1
Moonvine Bracelet – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 3N, 1S – effect: +1
The Tome of Gaia (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 2N, 2E – effect: +1


Water increasing items:

Staff of Elemental Mastery – Slot: 2H – magic needed: 3F, 3W / 3A, 3E – effect: +1
Robe of the Sea – Slot: Body – magic needed: 3W – effect: +1
Water Bracelet – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 1W – effect: +1
Orb of Atlantis (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 4W, 1E – effect: +1


Blood increasing items:

Blood Thorn – Slot: 1H – magic needed: 3B – effect: +1
Armor of Souls – Slot: Body – magic needed: 4B – effect: +1
Brazen Vessel – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 3B – effect: +1
Ring of Sorcery – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 4S – effect: +1
The Black Book of Secrets (unique) – magic needed: 2D, 2B – effect: +1


Fire increasing items:

Staff of Elemental Mastery – Slot: 2H – magic needed: 3F, 3W / 3A, 3E – effect: +1
Flame Helmet – Slot: Head – magic needed: 3F – effect: +1
Skull of Fire – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 1F, 1D – effect: +1
The Ruby Eye (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 3F – effect: +1 (cursed, +2 water gems/turn)
The Forbidden Light (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 3S, 3F – effect: +2 (cursed/horror marked)


Air increasing items:

Staff of Elemental Mastery – Slot: 2H – magic needed: 3F, 3W / 3A, 3E – effect: +1
Winged Helmet – Slot: Head – magic needed: 3A – effect: +1
Bag of Winds – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 3A – effect: +1
Tome of High Power (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 2A, 2S – effect: +1


Astral increasing items:

Starshine Skullcap – Slot: Head – magic needed: 2S – effect: +1 + raises skeletons
Crystal Coin – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 2S, 2E – effect: +1
Ring of Sorcery – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 4S – effect: +1
Tome of High Power (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 2A, 2S – effect: +1
The Forbidden Light (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 3S, 3F – effect: +2 (cursed/horror marked)


Earth increasing items:

Staff of Elemental Mastery – Slot: 2H – magic needed: 3F, 3W / 3A, 3E – effect: +1
Earth Boots - Slot: Feet – magic needed: 2E – effect: +1
Blood Stone – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 3B, 1E – effect: +1 (+1 earth gem / turn)
The Tome of Gaia (unique) – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 2N, 2E – effect: +1


Summons:

Soul Contract – Slot: Misc – magic needed: 5B – summons 1 Devil/turn
Magic Lamp ? Does is enable the summon of a Jinn each turn, or just once ? (sounds like just once to me)


Well, there is still lot to do, I just have to hope I have the time, otherwise I might have to trade provinces, troops and money (PDs) for time.

Any comments or other ideas ?

CharonJr