Noob's shot at an R'lyeh AAR

[CharonJr]

Originally posted by Arryn:
Nicely done against Jotunheim and Marignon.

The 3D mage will be mighty useful.

The Vastness needs to be careful with knights. They're a tough, dangerous foe.

Yeah, I love my brave warriors

But mainly I think that I have been fairly lucky till now since I was able to fight my enemies mostly one at a time (or was mainly just mopping up when a new war began).

The fairly small size of the map is helping in keeping my troops in positions which give me decent strategic flexibility.

When I reread the turn just now I realised how stupid I have been when I send my Vastness there solo. Mainly I had already decided to attack on the next turn with the 2 armies when I remembered that I had no new target for Glisas. When I assigned Glisas to attack I didn't remember that I had an army in striking distance already, but exchanged it with the 2 armies

Well, we will see if this mistake will be a costly one. Due to the 2 defensive casts prior to attacking rear orders I hope to be able to catch the commanders and route the enemy before the knights are able to attack.

The 3Ds out of 4? were VERY lucky, especially considering that I really needed D

Overall I surely can't complain about bad luck in this game

CharonJr

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
Due to the 2 defensive casts prior to attacking rear orders I hope to be able to catch the commanders and route the enemy before the knights are able to attack.

If one of those 2 casts is Astral Shield, then the knights shouldn't be much of a problem. Otherwise it might be ... unfortunate.

[CharonJr]

Personal Luck and Astral Shield

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

Turn 36


3 blood slaves were captured in Dunheim and 5 in Gol Phalas.

Another 3 Vine Ogres were summoned in Kolermegor.

The was an ill omen in Runia, a midwinter celebration (increased faith) in Kolermegor and 50 additional taxes were levied in Glade Woods.

The province of Illidar was taken without a fight.

The 10 knights and 15 militias in Spire Woods were defeated without problems by Glisas.

The 2 Marignon Witch hunters In Oune were enslaved while they were still casting their preparation spells

The Marignon forces in Stone Spires of Aran (20 piketeers including 15 PDs) were easily defeated – fighting among themself/mindbLasts and routing before my troops were able to engage them.

Marignon attacked me in Pangaea and since I had no defenders there (mistake here) they are sieging the castle.

The 25 PDs in Marignon were quickly dispatched and the siege is beginning.

My PDs in Birman Highs discovered a sneaking enemy.

Atlanasha’s summon was a failure and became feebleminded. The 2 Greater Otherness which came from the Void attacked, but were killed by the 4 Things from the Void, while being able to kill 1 bodyguard. I have to hope that my Gift of Health will cure the feeblemind soon.


Provinces: 48
Treasury: 1.134
Income: 2.054
Upkeep: 1.121
RP: 362
Fortification: 6
Temple: 10

Conjuration – 7
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 7 (researching)
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 6 (researching, will reach 7)

Fire gems: 19 (+7)
Air: 12 (+4)
Water gems: 6 (+12/+1)
Earth: 6 (+2)
Astral gems: 0 (+12/+10)
Death: 42 (+10)
Nature: 0 (+11)
Blood: 58


Updated province information:

Jotunheim managed to take the province of Moss Woods from Man, likely preventing the elimination of Jotunheim.

Hopefully the Marignon army in Pangaea will continue to siege. I am fairly optimistic that I will be able to break the siege on the next turn. If they decide to move on I will have to chase them or corner them with additional forces which would take quite some time and effort.


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.


I got a 1A, 1W, 3S, 1D mage who will get the Starshine Caps and move to Kolermegor.

The new Lore Master turned out to have 1A, 1W, 1D and 1B and will research while the 3D Lore Master in R’lyeh will move on to Tiash.

More Vine Ogres will be summoned in Kolermegor, sadly only 2 this turn instead of 3 since my 2(3)N mage in Tiash needs the Treelords Staff (+2N) to cast Gift of Health using the remaining nature gems (48).

The Clam is given to a star child in C’tis, the Horror Helmet to the Sea Troll King in Jotunheim and the Water Bracelet, too (bringing him to 4W).


The mage in Kolermegor takes the 9 Vine Ogres and moves to break the siege in Pangaea. I can’t be sure that this will be enough, but I need the other forces for defending or taking the other provinces.

My 2 mage lead armies in Oune will attack the fairly defenseless province of Sleepy Mountains.

Since I doubt that the Pangaea army will attack the Stone Spires of Aran I will move the army there to take Great Aran Waste which is fairly undefended, too, but in case Pangaea should decide to attack the Stone Spires of Aran I will move the fodder army from Rame there and raise the defenses to 21 (which still would not be enough to stop the Pangaean White Bull pretender, but might discourage him).

I would prefer Pangaea to either stay where it is or move to Rame which leaves less options to move into one of my undefended provinces.

Since I can’t do anything about the Marignon forces in Old Man Mountains at the moment except sending Glisas in which shouldn’t have too many problems with the 20-30 militias there. This way I can’t send it to defend Jotunheim, but this gives me the chance to enslave some more Jotuns instead of killing them if they should decide to attack

The mage lead army in Illidar will attack the 20 Jotuns in Moss Woods in addition to the 2 mage lead armies in Temiglia. In order to dissuafe them from attacking Jotunheim I will recruit 20 barbarians there. I don’t have enough forces or money to defend Stone Heavens and Gipha, too, but since I have enough forces around I feel like being able to afford this risk.

The 2 fodder armies from Aenasia will move to Cacian Forest to pick up some troops and continue towards Glimmering Fields.

The armies in Iron Range, Solam and Old Forest will stay in their defensive positions.

The defensive army in Bolfagon will be supported by 4 more archers.


4 death gems will be transformed into astral gems in order to cast Acashic Record on Runia.

A Clam of Pearl will be forged for 8W.

I will buy 1 more starspawn mage and a Lore Master in addition to 1 commander and 15 archers in Abysia.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART36.JPG

[CharonJr]

Turn 37

Research in Blood magic reached level 7.

5 blood slaves were captured in Dunheim and 5 in Gol Phalas.

2 Vine Ogres were summoned in Kolermegor.

Gift of Health was cast in addition to Acashic Record on Runia which revealed 3 magic sites – Rockside Spring (+1 earth gem/+1 water gem), Canyon of Wild Winds (+2 air gems) and an Iron Cliff (+1 earth gem) raising my much needed earth gem income by 100%.

Some death gems were found in Giant’s Rest in addition to some earth gems in Feldan Forest.

Marignon tried to break the siege with 8 fodder troops who were easily dispatched, enslaving 3 in the process.

The Great Aran Waste was defended by 10 PDs who very quickly killed/routed.

The 8 PDs in Sleepgy Mountains were easily overcome, too.

My mage and 9 Vine Ogres tried to break the siege in Pangaea which was attacked by roughly 20 swordsmen, 5 men at arms, 2 royal guards, 1 knight of the chalice and a friar. The knight and royal guards were enslaved and charged the swordsmen together wih my vine ogres. In the end my forces lost 7 vine ogres but killed all but 1 of the sieging forces. For some reason 20 indies (10 knights/10 militias) attacked my forces right after this, but routed right after the first 2 knights were enslaved. In the end 4 knights were enslaved.

Glisas faced the knight od the chalice prophet, 1 friar, 1 inquisitor, 1 initiate and a witch hunter in Old Man Mountains besides 10 militias and about 8 piketeers. After about 10 militias/piketeers were killed the Marignon armies routed. Glisas received a affliction this turn – a limp, I think I will send it to rest soon unless I will be forced right into the next war.

As I have been afraid the Jotuns from Moss Woods attacked Jotunheim, but due to this the province of Moss Woods was taken without a fight.

For some reason right next I got the message that the Jotun pretender was vanquished since he did not rule a single province ! I have no idea how this could have happened since the Jotuns should either still have ruled Moss Woods (check for provinces before the battles) or Jotunheim (check after all battles). The faith in the Jotun pretender should still have been high enough... Strange, anybody has a clue what might have happened ?

But now the former Jotun armies turned indie and are still sieging Jotunheim. Oh well, this way at least they will not run from the attack next turn


Provinces: 51
Treasury: 1.053
Income: 2.081
Upkeep: 1.201
RP: 362
Fortification: 6
Temple: 10

Conjuration – 7
Alteration – 6
Evocation – 6
Construction – 7 (researching, will reach 8)
Enchantment – 7
Thaumaturgy – 6
Blood Magic – 7 (researching)

Fire gems: 19 (+7)
Air: 12 (+4)
Water gems: 6 (+12/+1)
Earth: 6 (+2)
Astral gems: 0 (+12/+10)
Death: 42 (+10)
Nature: 0 (+11)
Blood: 58


Updated province information:

Man has gathered a fairly large army of 130 troops in Namor which is leaving me worried, the 80 Ulmish troops in The Two Woods are not really healping to put me at ease, too. But on the other hand, if the AIs don’t combine their forces in the next 10 turns I dare to say that the game is effectively over.

Atlantis running out of indie provinces to expand into (only Baptizer left) will make the next turns even more interesting.


My Provinces:

Due to the info about my provinces getting longer and longer I will skip this one, too.

Mainly I reduce taxes by 10% for each 5 points of unrest/raise them again when unrest is going down.

The was a Tower of the Golden Order found in Old Man Mountains in addition to a lab, adding 3 fire and 2 astral gems each turn and enable the recruitment of Adepts of the Golden Order (2F, 2S, 1, 11 basic RPs for 180 gold). This should give me a 3F mage which I still need anyway.


I got a 1W, 3S, 2N mage who will research for now. The Lore Master turned out to be 1A, 2N, 1B will be empowered in blood to hunt for slaves after having forged a Sanguine Rod.

More Vine Ogres will be summoned for 1 nature gem in Kolermegor, this time 3 again due to having the Treelords Staff back.

Acashic Records will be cast for 25 astral gems on Sleepy Mountains and I hope to find more earth gem sites.

The Clam is given to a star child in C’tis.


The 2 fodder armies from Stone Spires of Aran in addition to the mage lead army of summons and Illithids from Great Aran Waste will attack the 20 satyrs and centaurs in Stone Wood Waste which are lead by the Pangaean pretender (a white bull).

1 mage lead army consisting of 5 knights will move from Sleepy Mountains to Aran Plains, trying to build up some defenses in my northern border.

The other mage lead army in Sleepy Mountains with some summons will attack the lightly defended Marignon province of Rim Mountains.

The mage lead army with its 2 vine ogres and enslaved knights/royal guards will move from Pangaea to the north, too.

The 2 fodder armies from Cacian Forest will move to Scytha and continue towards Glimmering Fields.

The 3 mage lead armies in Moss Woods will take out the indie attackers of Jotunheim.

The armies in Iron Range, Solam, Bolfagon and Old Forest will stay in their defensive positions.

Glisas will move to Gol Phalas (8 dom) hopefully being able to get rid of the afflication. BTW, is the chance to heal dependent on the dominion strength, or is having positive dominion enough ?

The 3A Lore Master receives the Ring of Water Breathing on will move to Tiash via R’lyeh.


My 3D mage will forge a Skullface (+1D) for 16 death gems, another mage will forge a pair of Earth Boots (+1E) for 8 earth gems and a Clam of Pearls will be forged for 8 water gems.

I will buy 1 more starspawn mage, a Lore Master and a Golden Adept in addition to 1 commander and 24 archers in Abysia.


To be continued...

CharonJr

Map: http://homes.highspeed3.de/CharonJr/R'lyehAART37.JPG

[Arryn]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
For some reason right next I got the message that the Jotun pretender was vanquished since he did not rule a single province ! I have no idea how this could have happened since the Jotuns should either still have ruled Moss Woods (check for provinces before the battles) or Jotunheim (check after all battles). The faith in the Jotun pretender should still have been high enough... Strange, anybody has a clue what might have happened?

The moment you conquered the Last province they had, that wiped out all their dominion, immediately. The battle at Jotunheim was not yet won, so Jotuns had no provinces under control. Apparently the check is done after each battle, not after all battles ...

[CharonJr]

Hmm, but the Jotuns took the province of Jotunheim before my forces took Moss Woods.

Maybe the check for the Last owned province is based on the situation before all battles (thus Jotun lost the Last known province when I took Moss Woods) and the new ownership is only written after all battles and the check if there are still provinces left.

This way there would be no known provinces left at the time of the check since Jotun's ownership of Jotunheim was not known at the time of the check.

I can't really complain about the result , but I think this should be changed.

Oh well, Pangaea and Marignon will go down next and then it will be interesting who will attack me next.

If there are no attacks (which I doubt) I would prefer to go after Pythium in order to get shorter borders.

Actually I am a little surprised by the speed of this game, I think I haven't been in such a fairly strong position after 37 turn before.

CharonJr