1 player AAR - Machaka

[Tom_Scudder]

The army's outriders dragged in a man - pale-skinned and wearing black steel chainmail and a tabard bearing the sign of a white moon on a blue field. He turned even paler on seeing the dragon in its full majesty, but his voice was steady enough: "Are you the one that calls himself Cirin, Lord of Torture and Vileness?"

"Penitential Torture. And who might you be, presumptious one? I am marching towards conquest, and though I am also Prince of Patience, I do not have a lot of time."

"My mistress sends me with a message: Lydia, the Vampire Queen, Persecutor and Destroyer of Youth and Queen of Ulm, demands you cease this mocking pretense to divinity immediately. Fail to surrender immediately and subjugate yourself to her, and she will know the taste of dragon's blood!"

"Oh, very well rehearsed. A Vampire Queen. Then you would say that she is a mistress of life and death?"

"Of course! And of the deepest mysteries of existence!"

"And then that the barriers between life and death pose no obstacle for her?"

"Well, no..." The envoy seemed to notice once more that he stood before a twelve-ton carnivore.

"Then she will be able to read my response when your ashes blow past her palace!"

Later:

"Are you truly the Prince of Patience, lord?"

"Among Dragon-kind, the extent of my patience with the smaller folk is legendary."

That was the morning. The afternoon saw the defenders of Gula Kusten turn out, prepared for a fight. The lines were drawn up at the back of the battlefield so the great Dragon could try some new magic before he leapt into the fray. The fire darts worked marvelously, burning two of the lightly-armored units alive and wounding several others. And the leaping into the fray worked beautifully as well. The day saw not a single casualty.

And then the evening. The troops prepared their camp, and the outriders had rounded up some of the village notables to pledge themselves to the cause, when a voice cried out:

"Defenders of Gula Kusten, come forth! We claim this land in the name of Ulm and of Lydia!"

"That is the second time I have heard that name spoken today. I would not be sorry never to hear it again."

Cirin took to the air, surveying the field, then landed behind his army's hastily-arrayed lines.

"Would you like to wait for the rest of your troop to arrive?" he called to the 7 men who faced him. Two were mounted, and five on foot - one an obvious noncombatant, unarmed and unarmored and carrying the tools of a siege engineer.

One of the mounted men spoke: "It is 7 men of Ulm facing a score of the trash of Machaka. I would say the odds favor us."

"Enough talk. I am Cirin, the Everburning One, and I will see your bones piled before me."

The battle plan was drawn up to oppose a large, lightly-armored force, but improvisational genius was not one of Cirin's many virtues. Still, how badly could things go? His spells flew wide of the targets, but he made short work of the engineer and his two bodyguards, and looked around for other prey. Where was that knight with the big mouth, anyway?

And then the lance punctured his lung.

He flailed around miserably - one of his claws took the man's eye - but the Ulmish warrior followed up with a well-placed mace blow that fractured the dragon's skull.

Roderik pulled the lance free and looked to the rest of the field, where his men had despite his boast been overwhelmed. This could have been a disaster, but this one blow told for all. Bearing his still-dripping lance, he wheeled and rode for home.

And so the vampire queen's boast was fulfilled on the same day it was delivered.

[Tom_Scudder]

Wow, after that, what else is there to say? Very quickly: I think I should be able to squish Ulm - I'm pretty sure I have a bigger industrial base and now I have a foothold right next to his home territory. Swap my money out of making researchers and into breeding spiders, and I should be able to start sieging his castle in two turns or so. Losing the dragon hurts, and I only have 6 priest-power right now - I'll also be recruiting voices of the lord (who also might come in handy if Ulm has other undead or demons about, and who I probably needed to start recruiting at some point), which are 3 strength priests, but if I recruit nothing but votl's and put them to calling immediately, my calling will go (4 + 7 + 12 + 15 + <15= 5 turns to get Cirin back) Most Holy is currently sitting on a priest-recruitable province if he builds a temple there - that would go (0 + 7 + 14 + 19 = 40 precisely in 4 turns, plus it leaves me with a temple where I would have to build one eventually anyway. But it also leaves me with 2 semi-useless independent priests, and sucks out more money during the middle of a war effort. Still, 4 turns is better than 5 turns. The other thing I haven't mentioned is that I've also found Pythium's home city, and it's only one space removed from my southeasternmost province (Midkrona, for those keeping score at home).

As part of the war effort, I have three mages in my capital raise undead - my witch doctor and sorcerer cast "construct Manikin" (thereby spending 20 of my 24 nature gems), and a sorceress casts reanimation, using all 5 of my death gems. I also alchemize 6 fire and 11 earth gems to be able to pay for a temple, and recruit a voice of the lord, 2 black hunters, one more scout in the province bordering pythium, and 1 independent archer in the province bordering Ulm. I ship 4 nature gems to Pythium as a sign of peace, friendship, and brotherhood, and really really hope (1) they're playing serpent cult and so feel inclined to trust a fellow-lizard and (2) they don't realize quite yet that Cirin is dead.

I run my province defense in my new province to 9, which is all I can afford without (even more) alchemy. I also move my Black sorcerer, Kimya, over from where he's just found an Earth Blood Seepage (+2 Earth), so he can bolster the defenses and search at the same time. Mjima starts walking my infantry from the capital over - strat move 1, it'll take them 2 turns. I also send Tefle (my other new sorceress) up to the front with four archers and two more Hunters, and order poor simple Shujaa back to the capital so he can ferry reinforcements up later.

If Ulm comes at me next turn, I will have a province defense of 9, along with 7 hunters, 9 archers, 1 level 4 priest, and 2 mages: a 2-path and a 1-path fire and death mage with only evo 1/ench 1 to work with. That probably won't survive if they hit me with all 60 units (assuming they really have 60 units) I see in their home castle. If Pythium decides that now is the time to take advantage of my obvious weakness, I'm really hosed.

We'll see!

Take-home lesson: Wear a safety helmet! I didn't quite realize that dragons only have 18 protection, which is nice, but not exactly invulnerable, even to normal troops. Spending 5 research points and 5 earth gems to give him a nice black steel helmet would have put his protection above 20, which is where I like it. So kids, remember, don't send your dragon out to play unless he's got his helmet.

Also, the Random Number Generator can be cruel. That one lance hit was 45 points of damage in one hit! Now, Cirin was kind of fatigued from spell-casting, so he might have had his armor ignored, but that's still a mighty big hit for a 16 damage no-strength-added armor-piercer.

Right, that was a bit disorganized. I think I'll leave it as it is, since it's a pretty good reflection of my thought processes.

Provinces: 7
Income: 522 Upkeep 140
Research: 47 (54 to Construction 4, also Evo 1 and Enchantment 1)
Gems: F 5 (+1) A 2 (+1) E 4 (+4) D 0 (+1) N 0 (+5). The cupboard, she is bare.

I was going to check the graphs again to see how the world was shaping up, but I like the suspense.

[shovah]

very unlucky with that lance but better luck next time eh?

[Tom_Scudder]

The luck did indeed improve. I didn't keep track of when and whether Roderik the Black Lord got his comeuppance, unfortunately. He probably got et by a spider during the big fight after Turn 14.