Jotunheim: Niefelheim AAR

[Kelan]

TURN 1:

Hugin is my starting Jotun Herse
Starkader is my Jotun Scout

Vaklidun is set to research Alteration with his 11 RPs

I plan to get Alteration 2 and maybe 3 for Quickness, Mirror Image, and Mistform, then go for Const 4 for making some clams, wraith swords, and other items.

I start in the NE corner of the map, which will help me in defense later in the game. I will scout W and S and determine which way I want my 1st main army to go first and send my 2nd army later in the other direction.

I recruit a Jotun Scout to send S and save the rest of my gold for recruiting a Niefel Jarl next turn.

Mercs:

Mercs available are Victor’s Villains with 10 men for 30 gold. Mercs are fun to use, but I will have my hands full just trying to get enough gold to form my first armies and get some research going so will only grab some mercs if someone like Orion comes along. I normally like to form my own armies and avoid mercs for the most part anyway plus I tend to forget them a lot and don’t re-hire when necessary.

Provinces:

J (207) Yldemir – Capitol
I (208) Farsen Forest - Forest
I (218) East Farsen Forest - Forest
I (202) High Yldemir - Forest
I (195) Oeversee – Forest

It looks like all surrounding provinces are forests, which should give me some decent resources for my capitol to draw from and some good sites with hopefully good nature gem income. I hope to have enough to forge rings of regeneration to prevent my giants from getting afflictions too easily and later plenty of bags of wine to keep my giants happy.

I send Starkader to (218) to check one of the nearest provinces. He will then continue on to the West and hang out around the nearest chokepoint to watch for enemy movements. My new scout I am recruiting will head South and monitor activity there.

I set the tax rate to 130 for a bit of extra gold and set Hugin to patrol with his 8 axemen.

Thinking ahead, I do some comparison between the Jotun Spearman and the Huskarl w/spear. I normally recruit only Spearmen, but will consider using the Huskarl and its lesser resource cost if I am in need of more units in a hurry plus the improved morale won’t hurt.

I have taken screenshots of my starting map position and the pretender list to see what pretenders I am up against and to notice the nation flags.

I will attach those here if I can get it to work properly . Hopefully these files aren't too big. I may have to try to get Gimp going to try to reduce the file size.

[Kelan]

It looks like I can only attach one file per message, so put the pretender list there and will attach the map file to this post.

TURN 2:

I will try to set a common order of events to make it a bit easier to read and follow this AAR. I will try to adhere to this order: Turn starting statistics, Messages, Battle results and comments, Merc report, Province report (after tax/unrest is adjusted for the turn), Recruiting, Troop movements, Forging, and Research.

Provinces: 1
Treasury: 598
Income: 208
Upkeep: 21
RP Total: 11
Forts: 1
Temples: 1
Max Dom: 6
Converted Prov: 3

Research
Conjuration:
Alteration: (+11)
Evocation:
Construction:
Enchantment:
Thaumaturgy:
Blood Magic:

Gem Income
Fire:
Air:
Water: 6 (+3)
Earth:
Astral:
Death: 4 (+2)
Nature:
Blood:


~ Patrolling troops in Yldemir have killed 6 filthy brigands and trouble makers.
~ Caelum has appointed a Storm General named Vidhisravah as its prophet.

Vanheim has recruited Victor’s Villains
Ferdinando’s Footmen are now available, 30 men for 160 gold.

For province reports I have printed out quite a few extra spreadsheets to track dominion, defender counts, income, resources, population, tax and unrest per turn. I will use these to try to track certain trends and to hopefully draw some interesting information during the game. In the past, I normally use two standard spreadsheets to write turn info on while playing the game to track information and may try to attach them later if people think they may be helpful. One has 25 turns on a page and tracks per turn # of provinces, treasury, income, upkeep, RP, total forts, total temples, max dominion, converted prov, research levels, gems and gem income.

Provinces:

Owner Dominion (#) Name – Terrain – Defenders or Province Info Tax/Unr (Pop, Inc, Res, Sup) Note: I am only going to track Province info ( ) every 5 turns or so. I will put the defenders of a province in ( ) when a scout is present in the province to see if this helps at all.

J=Jotunheim, I=Indep.

J 2 (207) Yldemir – Capitol – 100/0 (29560, 208, 80, 409)
I 1 (208) Farsen Forest – Forest – 70 Militias/Archers/Light Infantries
I 0 (218) East Farsen Forest – Forest – (50) Woodsmen/Woodsman Blowpipes
I 0 (202) High Yldemir – Forest – 40 Barbarians
I 1 (195) Oeversee – Forest – 70 Barbarians

I set taxes back to 100 for Yldemir as I have had bad fortune in the past when I try to tax high for more than one turn… unrest goes up, income goes down, and I lose valuable resources.

I recruit a Niefel Jarl for 500 gold and 60 resources and have 98 gold left. I normally make this Jarl my prophet, but since he is normally in melee, he doesn’t get a chance to fully utilize the 4 Holy. This time I am going to recruit a Jotun Gode next turn to be my prophet and let him sit in the back in battle and cast Divine Blessing and Fanatacism to keep my troops in battle. I think this will work out better overall and also allow the Niefel Jarl to not lose so many hit points fighting in enemy dominion later on.

I send Starkader the scout to (208) and my new scout Tunne to (202). It appears that (208) has 1 Death already as a scale so perhaps there is a death site there. Starkader will continue on West each turn and Tunne to the South. I figure whatever direction has the nearest enemy I will send my first army toward to try to secure as many provinces early as possible. I will my send my 2nd army in the other direction. Another thing I am realizing is my position is nice and far from the water, so I won’t be harassed early by R’lyeh or Atlantis .

Vaklidun will continue researching Alteration with his 11 RPs.

[Kelan]

I will try to update at least a turn a day, but I only have a couple hours after work to play each day and I am realizing this takes a while . I will see what I can do, though.

[Kelan]

TURN 3:

NOTE: RP Total and research additions listed at beginning of turn summary is the status of both when the turn ends.

Provinces: 1
Treasury: 268
Income: 219
Upkeep: 38
RP Total: 31
Forts: 1
Temples: 1
Max Dom: 6
Converted Prov: 5

Research
Conjuration:
Alteration: 1(+31)
Evocation:
Construction:
Enchantment:
Thaumaturgy:
Blood Magic:

Gem Income
Fire:
Air:
Water: 9 (+3)
Earth:
Astral:
Death: 6 (+2)
Nature:
Blood:


~ Alteration 1 completed.
~ Pythium has made the Patriarch named Bartholomeus its prophet
~ C’tis has made the Lizard King named Ishkur its prophet
~ Angerboda the Great Hag appeared at the gates of your Castle

!!! Holy cow! I didn’t even take luck and got her already. My Last game under Luck 1 it wasn’t until probably turn 25 or so before she showed up as my first hero. She is a 3S, 3D, 2N, 3B mage with 13 research. This is a great surprise and satisfies many uses that I will want eventually including a 3S mage!

Ferdinando’s Footmen were recruited by Marignon.
The Elephant Corps are now available, Hannibal commands 5 men for 80 gold

NOTE: In the Province reports the Pop, Inc, Res, and Supplies will only update every 5 turns or so. I will also add a , and new defender numbers after the previous if there are new reports.

J=Jotunheim, I=Indep.

J 3 (207) Yldemir – Capitol – 100/0 (29560, 208, 80, 409)
I 1 (208) Farsen Forest – Forest – 70, (50) Militias/Archers/Light Infantries
I 1 (218) East Farsen Forest – Forest – (50), 40 Woodsmen/Woodsman Blowpipes
I 1 (202) High Yldemir – Forest – 40, (40) Barbarians
I 2 (195) Oeversee – Forest – 70, 40 Barbarians
I 0 (212) West Farsen Forest – Forest
I 0 (183) North Horslund Forest – Forest

Surprise! More forests, heheh. At least they aren’t swamps .

Gotvid is my new Niefel Jarl. He is a 3W, 2D, 3H fighting machine.

This turn I recruit a Jotun Gode for 200 gold and save the remaining 68 gold. It will be a couple turns before I move out so I may as well save on a little upkeep and hold the gold to recruit the rest of my first army.

I send Starkader the scout on to (212) and Tunne to (195)

Vaklidun, Gotvid, and Angerboda are set to research giving me 31 total RP in Alteration. At this rate I may hit Alt 3 sooner than I expected.

[Daynarr]

Keep it up.
There is never too much AAR's.

[Kelan]

TURN 4:

Provinces: 1
Treasury: 243
Income: 222
Upkeep: 44
RP Total: 31
Forts: 1
Temples: 1
Max Dom: 6
Converted Prov: 7

Research
Conjuration:
Alteration: 1(+31)
Evocation:
Construction:
Enchantment:
Thaumaturgy:
Blood Magic:

Gem Income
Fire:
Air:
Water: 12 (+3)
Earth:
Astral:
Death: 8 (+2)
Nature:
Blood:

~ Vanheim has made the Vanjarl named Hogne its prophet

The Elephant Corps was recruited by Marignon.
Obscuro the Hidden master is now available for 50 gold.

I like to take mercs for paths I don’t normally have, but my pretender now has air this game so I will pass on Obscuro this time.

J=Jotunheim, I=Indep.

J 6 (207) Yldemir – Capitol – 100/0 (29560, 208, 80, 409) 25 Def
I 1 (208) Farsen Forest – Forest – 70,(50),60 Militias/Archers/Light Infantries
I 2 (218) East Farsen Forest – Forest – (50),40,40 Woodsmen/Woodsman Blowpipes
I 1 (202) High Yldemir – Forest – 40,(40),60 Barbarians
I 2 (195) Oeversee – Forest – 70,40,(40) Barbarians
I 1 (212) West Farsen Forest – Forest – (80) Barbarians
I 1 (180) Suddeir Down - Plains
I 0 (183) North Horslund Forest – Forest
I 0 (216) Frostwater – Mountain
I 0 (205) Aeros River – Mountain

Maybe I will try to color code the provinces later on with Argitoth’s new color codes. I will save that for a later turn, though. It looks like a lot of barbarians are nearby. Those can hurt.

I would like to recruit some mages, but 250 gold is the cheapest for Niefelheim so I will have to wait until my 1st army is formed. This turn I recruit 1 Niefel Giant and 1 Jotun Spearman. This takes all but 8 of my resources and leaves me 63 gold for next turn.

Freke is my new Jotun Gode and I set him to become my prophet.

I leave Starkader the scout for one more turn in (212) to get more information on the large number of barbarians there. I may have to go South in my expansion first due to this roadblock. I send Tunne the scout South to (183).

[Kelan]

TURN 5:

Provinces: 1
Treasury: 240
Income: 222
Upkeep: 45
RP Total: 13
Forts: 1
Temples: 1
Max Dom: 6
Converted Prov: 7

Research
Conjuration:
Alteration: 2(+13)
Evocation:
Construction:
Enchantment:
Thaumaturgy:
Blood Magic:

Gem Income
Fire:
Air:
Water: 15 (+3)
Earth:
Astral:
Death: 10 (+2)
Nature:
Blood:

~ Alteration 2 is completed.
~ Abysia has made the Demonbred named Togaric its prophet.
~ Jotunheim has made the Jotun Gode named Freke its prophet.

Victor’s Villains were recruited by Marignon.
The Elephant Corps appears to be gone… I never did trust those elephants .
Obscuro the Hidden Master was recruited by Pythium.
Gynter Blukraft’s Sonnenkinder is now available, 30 men for 150 gold.

J=Jotunheim, I=Indep.

J 6 (207) Yldemir – Capitol – 100/0 (29750, 222, 80, 438) 25 Def
I 3 (208) Farsen Forest – Forest – 70,(50),60,30 Militias/Archers/Light Infantries
I 2 (218) East Farsen Forest – Forest – (50),40,40,60 Woodsmen/Woodsman Blowpipes
I 1 (202) High Yldemir – Forest – 40,(40),60,40 Barbarians
I 4 (195) Oeversee – Forest – 70,40,(40),30 Barbarians
I 2 (212) West Farsen Forest – Forest – (80),(70) Barbarians
I 1 (180) Suddeir Down - Plains
I 0 (183) North Horslund Forest – Forest – (50) Militias/Light Infantries/Archers
I 0 (216) Frostwater – Mountain
I 0 (205) Aeros River – Mountain
I 0 (166) Horslund Forest – Forest

I actually like that there are many good site provinces nearby to start this game. Hopefully it will allow me to get some good gem income going early and the income levels also seem to be decent. Also, these forest provinces seem to be a great population level (most are about 7k) for blood hunting and being so near my capital and in the corner of the map should allow my growth scale to help offset the pop decrease and keep the hunters safer.

I recruit another Niefel Giant and 1 more Jotun Spearman.

I send Starkader the scout on to (216) and Tunne the scout to (180).

Vaklidun with his winter wolves (1 per turn while in cold province), Gotvid with the 8 Jotun Axemen, 1 Jotun Spearman, and 1 Niefel Giant and Freke my Jotun Gode prophet head to (208) to attack. This seems to be the easiest surrounding province and should have around 45-50 defenders based on the reports. Hugin the Herse will stay behind to bring more troops to the next province.

I set the Axemen, Spearman, and Giant in the middle of the placement area with hold and attack nearest orders. Vaklidun is set at the rear top scripted with Quickness, Breath of Winter, Air Shield, attack closest. Gotvind will cast Quickness, Breath of Winter, attack closest and is set at the rear bottom. Freke is set to cast Divine Blessing, Fanaticism, and (cast). It is my hope that my giants will absorb any missile fire with their shields until buff spells are cast, then all will meet the charging enemy at about the same time.

Angerboda will continue to research Alteration with 13 RPs.