AAR: Multi-Player After Action Report (Now Discussing Turns up to 13-16)

[jotwebe]

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 10

Soundtrack: A. Avkhimovich: The Sound Theory: 07. Brainfuzz


TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The triton cannot hear the tritoner;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

~~Wllii'am Bt-Ler Yts, the Poet Mind Lord

Penned to commemorate the worrying happenings in Lake Fortune last
month, this poem should turn out to be strangely prophetic. Worse
things are coming.

In the Great Blue, a Skallhög, king of the sea trolls, has sent one
of his captains to take the province.





Our troops are nowhere near. Our province defence consists of a traitor
prince and his henchmen, all two of them. The attacking army consists
of a lot of sea trolls.



The outcome is unexpected.



Did I write unexpected? I lied.



Not all is gloom and doom, however. On land, R'yeh's finest continue
their foray on land, after having reduced mighty Ermor to picturesque
ruins. They turn north to storm-swept Bolfagon.



The outcome is... unsurprising.



The next target is fair Saeborea. It is defended by cavalry, maybe they
will be more of a challenge.



There is also some diplomacy. It appears that Corinthian (Fomoria)
directed both Bluemage142 (Maverni) and me (R- wait, you should know
that) to the same provinces in his north. Not sure if I mentioned it
already or forgot, but when Corinthian claimed Komoroo/the Isle of
Balor, he suggested me to expand into Numecria/Ermor.

The interesting bit about the geography is that there is no land
connection east from Bolfagon; the peninsula is only reachable via
Numecria. Or amphibious units. Or sailing.

Numecria also is the easiest path for Maverni to reach Fomoria ~~ there
is another connection further inland, but it is via a mountain
province. So Corinthian gains some protection and ideally causes me and
Maverni to get mad at each other.

However, we agree to be flexible about those provinces and work
together if and when we go to war against Fomoria.

This becomes a lot more likely a little later, causing me to revise my
turn. Originally Yöt-Webbogoth had orders to return east and liberate
The Great Blue once he got there (three turns later), but news from
Immaculate changes that.

He reports to have received a threatening message from Fomoria, and
suspects he will be attacked soon. I change orders to send
Yöt-Webbogoth north, where he will build a fortress off Fomoria's coast
and defend against possible aquatic incursions.

Offensive operations will have to be done my regular troops, since I
can't make amulets of the fish yet.

[decourcy]

The poem was inspired. Thanks.

[jotwebe]

Originally Posted by decourcy

The poem was inspired. Thanks.

Just so we're perfectly clear: it's Yeats' poem
The Second Coming with a very slight alteration. It is
awesome, but I cannot take credit ~~ unless you mean the choice
was inspired, in which case picture me nodding smugly.

And with, we continue our rapid catching up with:



R'lyeh ~~ Turn 11

SOUNDTRACK
A. Avkhimovich: The Sound Theory: 09. Uranium-238


Well, not quite as much happening this turn. In R'lyeh the cult of
Yöt-Webbogoth feels secure enough to extract additional contributions
from recalcitrant mind lords.



I bet there's more where that came from.



Immaculate wants water gems. No idea what kind of deal we make.

The battle for Saeborea is indeed more interesting than the conquest of
Bolfagon. Well, slightly.



The army is positioned pretty far back, and the trolls are set to guard
commander, in an attempt to draw archer fire. The mind lords can take a
couple of arrows. It might have been smarter however, to position the
small stuff in such a way that they don't walk directly through the
fire zone on their way to the action. I guess I wanted them to catch
the cavalry first strike if any made it far enough?

It doesn't matter much, though. The attacking heavy cav is enslaved as
they approached and/or dies to the infighting that follows. The
survivors turn back and slaughter the light infantry that was following
them, assisted by atlanteans, lobo guards and mind blasts.



Then they all continue on to the horse archers. REAL horse archers
would proceed to give them a hard time, but these stand around like
chumps and take it. Until they rout.

[decourcy]

I know Yeats, poetry is one of my passions, I liked what you did with it.

In the MP i am in at the moment I am playing Tien Chi and am attempting to do the poet Li Bo justice.

Mike

[Soyweiser]

Originally Posted by jotwebe

The army is positioned pretty far back, and the trolls are set to guard commander, in an attempt to draw archer fire. The mind lords can take a couple of arrows. It might have been smarter however, to position the small stuff in such a way that they don't walk directly through the fire zone on their way to the action. I guess I wanted them to catch the cavalry first strike if any made it far enough?

If you want to catch fire is is usually best to just use one (archery is good in hitting large amounts of groups. (And lucky shots killing commanders, lone troops are usually safe ) and to put it in front, set to guard commander.

The troll walks back to the commander, drawing the archers forward in pursuit.

You do want your arrow catchers to walk trough other troops. Sure it is one turn of missile fire, but otherwise you draw the attack closest enemy troops right toward your commander.

Minor note, the second aboleth is still at risk from stray arrows in this setup above.