AAR: Feb25 Update - Calling All Tourists! - MA Oceania DAR - Chapter 13

[cleveland]

No spoilers!

Will do paarfi, though rdonj is right, my position has gotten, er, interesting of late. But it's great to know folks are enjoying it, thanks for the feedback!

[cleveland]

Chapter 10: Coming of the Capricorns

Turn files: Turn10.zip

Finally some gold! Some merchant "donated" 250g to the "temple." Right, I'm sure it was out of the goodness of his heart, and has nothing to do with the upcoming vote to remove tuna from the endangered delectables list. Whatever, sorry fishies, but daddy needs a new octopus squisher.

My new found wealth is going to be invested in an unorthodox scheme that might just give me the upper hand against Glug. I'm using it to buy a Capricorn and a whole pile of ichtysatyrs. And not the good ichtysatyrs either, I'm stocking up on the crappy ones.


Why? Because these guys are stealthy, as is their Capricorn commander. The thought is to send this stealthy raiding force behind enemy lines just prior to the main attack, and have them strike the Atlantis capital (which is only separated from my boarder by 1 province, see the map below).

Unfortunately these ichtysatyrs are really bad, with a base 8 morale, which makes it 7 in enemy territory. Which translates to really bad with Glug's fear aura.


To boost this, I'm going to give their Capricorn a Horn of Valor, which should mitigate the morale issues somewhat. How the horn works underwater is beyond me, but my skilled mermage blacksmiths assure me it's possible, so I commission the item. Combined with Eagle Eyes, Tangle Vines, and the element of surprise, it just might be enough to take out his Capital PD at the same time as the Prophet conquers Boat Eater. Should be fun.

A word on sneaking. I'll be buying over 60 ichtycentaurs. Capricorns have +10 stealth, which means the group will be at around -10 destealth strength (formula is in your manual). This will be bad if he has any significant amount of PD in Boat Eater, but from my scout that just reached Broken Ocean, it seems Atlantis does the classic 1PD in his provs. This fact is driving the decision to pursue this risky endeavor...again, stock up on scouts!

The Plan is progressing according to schedule, with the land province of Tenvir captured at the cost of 1 casualty. Nuptia is next, and the last indy I'll be attacking before my move on Atlantis. The newest scouting report puts the defenders of Nuptia at 40, so not so bad. They'll still have Tangle Vine support, and the Prophet will be on hand to press the attack next turn, if needed.

Interesting international intrigues from the message boards: Bretonia is crushing Tien Chi, and Shinuyama is at war with Vanheim. Of note, Vanheim has killed the Shinuyaman god (based on his gloating) and prophet (based on the Hall of Fame). All this info gives me enough to build a rough idea of the layout of nation starts:
NORTH: Nekehara - Agartha - Oceania
CENTRAL: Arcoscephale - Vanheim - Shinuyama - Atlantis
SOUTH: Brettonia - Tien Chi - Ogres - R'lyeh

Here's the updated Plan, keeping the same colors:

[cleveland]

Chapter 11: The Awakening

Turn files: Turn11.zip

Glorious day! Our lord, our king, Monsiur le Marquis de Sous-Marine is here! Like a seasoned frat boy, he awakes just in time for the party.

In celebration of his arrival, we immediately alchemize our 4 Astral pearls into Death gems, and present them to the Marquis. These will be invaluable should the we meet the octopus on the field, who will be immediately Cursed by our serpentine overlord:


But curses alone won't win slay the beast, nor will unending tangle vines. We need a way to hurt Glug. His fear/awe blend will be tough, especially on his home turf, and I suspect he'll have mage support to boost his protection. Hmmmm, well for one, berserk ignores both fear and awe. Berserker pelt is a trinket I can forge immediately, but who will wear it? Well, the Trident Lord would be a good choice, if his armor didn't suck...oh wait, with the berserker pelt, his encumbrance drops to reasonable levels. But he ain't hurting an ironskinned Ancient Kraken with that silly trident. But the Hunter's Knife is armor-piercing...and length zero...how's a dual AP knife wielding berserk part-man-part-fish-part-horse sound? Like victory, that's what; sushi-grade victory. A last batch of ichtycentaurs to accompany him:


Our sneaksky new Capricon gets the codename 007, of course. This is a gentleman's game, after all. Q gives him his high-tech underwater Horn, his 62 ichtysatyrs join him, his last martini is shaken, and off he sneaks to the South.

Some unfortunate news, however. My scout network has finally reached Boat Eater, the lone Atlantian province between me and his capital, and it seems the PD is "quite well organized." This could mean he's got 10+ PD there, and if so my secret mission might be compromised. Negative stealth is very risky against even PD=10. But we'll see, as of now he's going to stick to the plan to sneak behind enemy lines:


In other news, a clam field was found in the north, Sade seduced one of the commanders of the Heavy Cav province, and we captured Nuptia in a close battle, losing 4 ichtycentaurs and the mermage support in the process. The survivors will join the Marquis in Tenvir for the attack!

TC has been crushed, and has no provinces left, though he's not dead. He capitulated to Bretonia in the game thread, but cheers to Starshine_Monarch for staying until the bitter end. [Newbies: ALWAYS fight until your capital falls!]

[cleveland]

Chapter 12: The Calm before The Storm

Turn files: Turn12.zip

I'm not going to execute the sneak attack with 007. This decision is based on a calculation I ran: if he does indeed have 10PD, the probability of detection is approximately 84.1% - yes I built a program to calculate it, yes these bruises are from fighting. Though there's a good chance he has exactly 6PD for this reason, I don't want to risk blowing my cover for a low chance at a quick Capital capture:


I frankly think the probability that he notices my buildup on his boarder is lower, given his war in the South with R'lyeh. The likely outcome is that he'll notice my buildup and pump the PD up to 20, which I'd rather battle than potentially lose the equivalent of 75 wall siegers (11 str each...@ 8gold, some of the most efficient recruits in the game, 2nd only to indy Atlantan Militia). I order 007 to hold position this turn, with the intention of sneaking along with the main force carrying gems. Besides, our fish monger can use the Horn of Valor (see below).

Full disclosure: if this were a normal game, I would absolutely send Atlantis a PM right now declaring my friendship, explaining that my forces are simply guarding a new fort in Sea of Mermaids & attacking the indies of Ostmark, and asking for a NAP. And other such lies. But because this is a gentleman's game, lies aren't permitted; or if they are, this gentleman won't be doing it. So I'll just hope he doesn't notice, but normally I'd lie through my teeth

Here's my fish monger. Enc-7 is still high, I know, but as long as Glug is tangled up, it won't matter, he can deal quite a bit of damage in 100/7 = 15 turns...assuming 8prot, that's about 30 damage per turn...450 damage plus curse afflictions before passing out isn't bad at all:


So our frontline troops move into position. Sade kills another Ostmark defender. All's well with the world.