Abysia CB 5.0 AAR

[RedRover]

TURN 146-147
The west continent, east continent, and oceans are mine. All that remains is the final conquest of the south continent. Aside from two forts under siege, Ulm has been pushed west of the central river. I have used the Faery Trodding Druid and sea forces to open a new front in the southwest corner of the continent. I have erected a new fort in a wooded province several provinces inland to consolidate my gains, and have started squeezing the surviving Ulm field forces from this side.

Hildegarde, guarded by a Crusher, has fallen to my Devil hordes, and on the far west coast, the Ulm hero Ratik has perished as well. The only thing of interest left in this war is to get my Manticore to the old C’tis capital (population 0), and see if a Wish will give me some population here.

A surprise reversal on a castle assault—Abysian forces destroyed by the Ulm Pretender (an Oracle) holed up with a pile of Clockwork Horrors and six (!) Crushers. Its Blade Wind is truly impressive (and I tried to clean him out with about 20 Sea Trolls, a few fanatics, and two Angels—not). Well, at least he isn’t going anywhere.

Note: The capital is in fact the fort just southeast of the henge special site in the northeast quarter of the south continent. I have enough troops nearby to bottle him up, but I will wait for the massed Devil horde to launch a final assault.

Turn 148 may be the next to last turn. Ulm has four Temples left unprotected by forts, and I will raze all of them next turn. All his forts are open to assault (though the capital is strong beyond the abilities of my local forces there).

Forgot to pay the Couatl merc again (that’s the fourth or fifth time now—one of these days it isn’t coming back).

Recalled Furcas and equipped him with a Hell Sword, Chain Mail of Displacement, Flame Helmet, Chi Shoes, Ring of Regeneration, Ring of the Warrior, and sent him out with 21 Devils. My Hound of War has returned.

Somewhere along the line I have summoned a Heliophagus and ordered it to the front. There was a time when I would have considered that a significant milestone--it is interesting how impending ascension changes your perspective. Such a powerful creature reduced to an insignificant, half-forgotten footnote to a successful campaign. Ironic.

The Warlock Demogorgon is now 3F/2A/2W/4E/4S/3D/4N/4B. Even though he was scheduled to empower Air this turn, things change. The Manticore spotted the Crown of Overmight on the available item list--and insisted. This, despite the fact the item is cumbersome and will screw up his flying and defense, and cost him an Astral level until he can empower. But…what the Manticore wants, the Manticore gets (the twit). We may even see if people “flocking” in can cause immigration into a dead province (I don’t think so—more likely it has the same dominion effect as the Juggernaut, if anything—I’ll check the documentation after I’m done with the game).

Just for the record, I set up the Wish with a single key word “population.” We’ll see what develops. The caster is in a fort in a province with no population at all.

Income: 7,064; Treasury: 8,667. Gem Income: 49F/21A/40W/39E/40S/40D/41N + 102B this turn. Even though this is late game, it seems like an awful lot of magic for a low-magic map.

I can hardly wait for the results of the great experiment.

[RedRover]

TURN 148
OK, Wish message: “A bunch of people just showed up in Minto Strait.” That's one of my Sea provinces. Current population 7,140. I have no idea what the previous population was, could the Wish have added as much as 5K?

I’m going to try the Wish again and see if I can target the effect in North Galenwood. Hold everything...there’s also a weird battle report: Six Ulm woodsmen showed up in Minto Strait (underwater!?) with no leader, didn’t down, and routed as soon as the battle started. Coincidence? Or what?

Another weirdness, if I was managing the province like I usually do, the Unrest last turn would have been under 10, but the current reading is 103. I don’t know whether this is part of an anomaly, or whether the province is just recovering from one of those “several hundred” Unrest points I tend to end up with when taking aquatic provinces.

I raze four temples and initiate two assaults. Only the Ulm capital survives to await the arrival of the Devils. I’m not tracking cash anymore—with 9,740 gold unspent this turn, and an income of 7,219, there’s no point. The Wish is the only thing of interest. I try again, wording: “population in North Galenwood.” I also do minor administrative stuff like some builds and troop movements, but only one thing seems important now.

I wonder what will happen.

[RedRover]

TURN 149
Well, that didn’t work. People showed up in Vankara Sound, another ocean province; population 10,840; and this time I know that Unrest increased from 0 to 72. My guess at this point is that the Unrest is a simple function of new population; maybe either 7,200 or 3,600 people were added. Again, I’m not fanatic enough to have all my populations recorded and tracking for each province each turn. But I’m going to try it one more time, with the province number, and see what happens. That will be it for the program; at 150 Astral gems per Wish, I’ll be alchemizing heavily to do it again this turn, and…CRAP!

South Halewood just lost its entire population!?! #$@#%! It even wiped the PD down to 0! Looks like the Wish spell, if used for population, is heavily crocked, in addition to being uncontrollable. I’m not a happy camper this turn.

Next try: “Move population from province 44 to province 107.” Hope springs eternal. Province 44 is Ulm’s capital, province 107 is the old C’tis capital I’m trying to repopulate. I’m copying the turn before resolution in case I want to go back and play with the Wish spell some more. This has nearly sucked my gem reserves dry.

[RedRover]

TURN 150
Nope. All the Wish did was teleport the entire population of The Pit (mine) into the Ardahan Bog (also mine). I find the names of the involved provinces suitably ironic.

So, the effect of wishing for population is a totally random population teleport that cleans out a friendly province, sending the destination province into major Unrest (125 in this case). What a waste of 150 Astral gems!

I am so frustrated I try to end the game immediately by wishing the Ulm Pretender dead. I get a flat refusal—in fact, any command I try (and I try about a dozen) that includes the Ulm Pretender name is refused outright.

OK. So I default to plan B. The Manticore puts on the cursed charm-beanie (aka Crown of Overmight) and empowers Astral to make up for losing his Astral Cap.

The Devils will arrive at Ashdown Castle in two turns. Time for the Oracle to DIE! DIE! DIE!

Nuts! I just realized that with two more turns of Blood empowerment, my top Blood mage could summon one of the three nasty blood ubersummons. I get right on it. (Easily distracted? Who, m…what did you say?)

[RedRover]

TURN 151-152
All quiet. I mess around with busy work while empowering my Blood mage. My forces close in around Ulm's capital at Ashdown.

On turn 152 I decide I’ve had enough and set up the last assault. Screw the uberfiends. (Hey, I’m going to be a god. What are they going to do?) Maybe I’ll bring in the unholy trio next game.