Mid Era Orania (STARTED)

[DrPraetorious]

Activate Interlock! Dynatherms Connected! Infracells Up! Megathrusters Are Go! Let's Go Voltron Force!

IPaddr: 160.39.37.111
port: 11113

Note that only the last byte of the IP addr has changed.

[Tyrant]

That was fast! Thanks Dr. P.

[DrPraetorious]

Augh! That's what I get for taking a turn while wasted. I left half of my army in the middle of nowhere

And I think I'm about to be attacked by a third person, unless that army on my border is strictly there for advisory purposes.... if anyone else wants to attack either the apes or r'lyeh - even if you have no desire to help me - their armies are entirely engaged in trying to divide up my territory.

In fact, I'd be willing to send skull mentors as a bribe to anyone who's willing to snatch up some provinces.

[DrPraetorious]

I am instituting a 48 hr host interval. Obviously I would like for turns to happen more often than that, if possible.

[Baalz]

The mother of all battles was joined this month.

Our campaign against van aggression has been short, but bloody. Initially our mystics were confident that arcane might would stop these fae horsemen in their tracks, but they drastically underestimated the raw power of the Vanheim war machine. As large groups of our scholars struggled to form a communion the mighty van horsemen blasted straight through the ranks of our stout phalanxes and most heinously slew our mages. So fast were these shifty horsemen that the mages had time not even to slay a handful with their arcane strength.

Several bloody months followed where this scene was repeated ad nauseam, with province after province falling in rapid succession. It would seem the van armies were unstoppable. Our only consolation was that many of our best provinces held strong fortresses, within which our forces withdrew in order to formulate a new plan. We were able to fight off the van’s smaller parties through arcane might, but their primary host would ride right over our heaviest infantry without pausing long enough to be properly blasted. This sad series of events culminated in the fall of the great citadel in Arcoscephale itself. Our council of scholars met, and the greatest minds of our time desperately tried to come up with some way to stave off the total fall of our civilization. They came up with a last ditch plan and threw everything they had into reclaiming our capital, for a king who cannot defend his own home is not worthy of being called a king.

The greatest wizards in our empire formed up and marched on the great citadel, protected behind rows of every able bodied man who could be found. The vans contemptuously rode out to break the siege and ride down yet another group of feeble old men. Our army paled, seeing a force over 300 strong, including massive numbers of mighty van horsemen bearing down on their scant 100, all afoot. Sensing Arcoscephale itself hung in the balance our righteous god Baal in a mighty divine stroke broke free of the prison and materialized in this plane before the Vanhiem army, proclaiming that the vans would not pass [ed note: I kid you not, my god broke free this turn and appeared in my home province to lend a hand in this huge battle totally unscritped].

A pregnant pause held on the battlefield as this divine presence was absorbed, then with a cry the van host broke into a charge. Coming to their senses, the Arcoscephale communion quickly began to form. A pair of priestess were able to join the communion through crystal matrixes and quickly began to howl arcanely to summon packs of wolves to our aid, while a pair of mystic pyromancers summoned will ‘o wisps from the realm of fire. This strategy worked beautifully, the wolves appeared surrounding the Vanheim host and the will ‘o wisps flicked around their flanks completely dissolving their charge as the army ran in all directions attacking these new threats. As the Vanjarls blasted lightning at the wolves, our wizards completed their communion and empowerment spells.

A great flock of black hawks descended on us, attempting to break the mage’s concentration. Our ranks of heavy spear were able to easily repel them though as the huge form of Baal the Nataraja stormed back to help them. The vans realized their mistake and attempted to reform their lines, but it was too late. Massive meteors crashed down from the heavens into their ranks, as molten lava burst from the ground underneath, and huge pillars of insidious astral flames burst into existence all around them and huge clouds of spinning blades were sent careening towards them. Insult was piled atop injury as their very own troops began to turn on them when their minds were enslaved by our master astrologists.

Incredibly, the massive van host barreled through this inferno, bearing down upon our communion with deadly intent. Then stepped forward the huge and terrible form of Baal, leading our now heavily enchanted phalanxes to meet this charge with a mighty cry of defiance. Despite the grievous damage inflicted upon them the vans are truly impressive warriors, charging straight through the jaws of arcane hell to engage us. Fortunately, our great communion enabled not only our mages to invoke truly amazing spells, it also allowed unparalleled endurance and they were able to continue the brutal pace of absolute destruction. Even STILL the vans persisted, as Baal lay about himself with all four arms of righteous fury and the very heavens vomited burning death upon them. Just as it seemed they may even yet prevail despite all the fury sorcery could bring to bear, as Baal stood grievously wounded and 70% of our infantry lay dead….the vans broke. Those unholy bastards broke, and broke hard, riding for the hills pursued by the fires of heaven.

Then the other jaw of our plan swung shut, and our secondary, much smaller army invaded the only province to which the vans could flee, preceded by a wave of astrological mind hunts which destroyed the few enemy commanders which were present. Our small army conquered the province without a fight, and slaughtered the vans which tried to retreat from the mother of all battles.

Now, Vanheim, doom is upon you. Baal’s divine fury points at your very heart, and the heavens line up against you. You shall pay for all you have done.

[Catquiet]

"'Ungrateful' is the word that comes to mind. Much gold and many lives have been spent in the effort to bring civilization and order to primitive tribes of Arcoscephale. Yet how are we repaid? With vicious attacks and vile sorcery." -- Granlodner, brigadier general in the Vanheim military

"The dark god Baal, once justly imprisioned for his horrific crimes, has broken free and men of ill intent rally to his cause. Woe unto the lands, that must suffer Baal's cruel footsteps once more. Woe unto the Vans, so many cut down in their prime. Woe unto us all, who must witness Evil triumphant ." -- dying words of Bjarke, high priest of Vanheim, tragically lost in the battle of Arcoscephale

[Tyrant]

"[ed note: I kid you not, my god broke free this turn and appeared in my home province to lend a hand in this huge battle totally unscritped]."

I was wondering why your god was fighting nekkid this late in the game.

[DrPraetorious]

There will be no timed hosting until January. Enjoy Christmas while you can, peons!

[Baalz]

Arcoscephale’s two-front war rages on. The Vanheim generals have proven every bit as tough and resourceful as the vans themselves. Counter, parry, feint, our dance goes on in a desperate struggle of well matched adversaries. After crushing their original army I knew it would be scant time before a fresh wave of Vanheim aggression crested our shores. Though the Arcoscephale great communion was able to slay the majority of Van power, a huge flock of black hawks continue to hold our home citadel, and our mage’s lacking in physical strength are unable to bring the walls down, we suspect stealthy vans are sneaking in to bolster the defense. As we sieged our own home, and watched the Vanheim reinforcements march closer, Man continued to nibble away at our borders completely unopposed. Despite our desperate press against Vanheim, I just could not allow our kingdom to be eroded in this fashion, so while I held the bulk of our power close at hand, I commissioned secondary and tertiary armies to press back along our more distant borders. Our tertiary armies consisted of small squads which pushed south into the land of the apes, to attempt and assist our Caelum friends in bringing civilization to the savages, while hopefully replacing some of the territories lost in our prolonged war. Our secondary army marched north, to deal some long overdue retribution to the armies of Man.

Seeing that much of Man’s strength was composed of powerful, but weak willed elephants, much of the secondary army was composed of astral mages, defended by hoplite phalanxes. As the armies of Man lined up on the battlefield, their powerful longbowmen began to fire from close proximity to their elephant corps, in an effort to soften us up before the elephants finished us off. As their first volley hung in the air, they realized their peril as many of the elephants turned towards the unprotected archers with freshly murderous intent. It was a red rout, with the majority of Arcoscephale casualties being the tragic result of having too few communion slaves to effectively share the strain of all the mind enslaving. Happily, the second engagement with Man went even better, as more communion slaves were sent forth, and now Man’s elephants march back into their territory under new masters. Our army grows with every encounter, though a deluge of seeking arrows fall upon us, presumably Man’s desperate attempt to slow the vengeance which advances to reclaim Arcoscephale land. Happily, our army consists of enough mages that this is no more than a nuisance, our priestesses heal the afflictions of those that survive, and the few that die are replaced quickly.

Meanwhile, our primary forces continue to match stroke for stroke with Vanheim. Seeing that the siege was not progressing, and operating under the strategy of not remaining where our enemy knew us to be we marched to intercept a largish Vanheim army before they could combine with others to overwhelm us, leaving a token force of mercenaries to maintain the siege. This worked even better than anticipated, as our decoy mercenaries were set upon by great eagles equipped with medallions of vengeance, obviously hoping to decimate our communion. Instead, they decimated our militia mercenaries in an all out kamikaze raid. There were no great eagle survivors. One province over, our main army slew and enslaved the bulk of a Vanheim army seiging another of our castles, sadly at substantial loss of life as the Vanheim general has adjusted his tactics to much more effectively target our mages. Powerful troll and dwarvish earth mages create earthquakes and shower us with clouds of blades, deadly to our lightly armored mages. We will need to push into Vanheim land before these strategies are able to be expanded. Thankfully, our god personally leads this army, thus victory is assured.

[Reverend Zombie]

Baalz said:


Seeing that much of Man’s strength was composed of powerful, but weak willed elephants, much of the secondary army was composed of astral mages, defended by hoplite phalanxes....Happily, the second engagement with Man went even better, as more communion slaves were sent forth, and now Man’s elephants march back into their territory under new masters.

Quite nicely done! I respect the power of Enslave Mind as never before.