A Tale of Fire and Blood

[General Tacticus]

The sun is setting on the Mictlan Empire, and the sky is red. The red of fire, and the red of blood. From the top of the palace (a 17 step pyramid that is now also, of course, the most Holy Temple of the Mictlan Faith), two small figures watch the sunset. Tacticus Sanguinus, God of the Mictlans, turns to his new chambellan. The man is kneeling, and doing his best to stay very, very still.

- A good omen of things to come. My reign starts under the most favorable auspices.
- Indeed it does, O Mighty One.
- You have, I believe, being chambellan here a long time ?
- Since before the days of your predecessor. I served his predecessor before him, although not in so exalted a position, O Great God.
- So you remember the old days, and the old ways ?
- Indeed I do, Most Powerful of Lords.

The God considers a moment. Then he pats the old man on the shoulder.

- You may keep your heart, then, and serve me in that office.
- I am honored, O Most Ben.. Tenacious One.

With his head still bent low, the man has nonetheless felt .... something ... And with the promptitude of tongue that marks only the best chambellans, those that keep their tongues, he changed his words, without faltering. The God reflects on this, and find it good. He still has many good servants to find, a charismatic prophet, cunning generals, talented priests... but he has already found a very good chambellan. And that, too, is a good omen.

- I have much to ponder. Dispose of the remains.
- As you command, O Wisest One.

And the chambellan goes to find some servants. Meanwhile, the God looks a Last time on his predecessor , the Lawgiver, late king of Mictlan. He is lying on his back on the altar at the top of the pyramid. The great wound where his heart used to be proclaims that the old ways are back.


This is the tale of my conquests as Tacticus Sanguinus, God of the Mictlans (and other silly randomly generated titles omitted here) It will be, or so I hope, a story of glorious and bloody conquest, and utter triumph over my enemies

Before you ask, the details :
Tacticus Sanguinus
Smoking Mirror Pretendor, ruler of the Mictlans
Magic : 9 Fire, 4 Blood, 4 Death
Castle : Fortress
Dominion 7, Turmoil 3, Heat 1, Growth 1, Luck 1, Drain 1, no special theme.
World War Scenario, 339 provinces, all 17 nations, all impossible AIs

I welcome any and all comments, and all general strategy advice. I have extensively played Ulm, and Pythium and Marignon a bit, but never Mictlan before. I hope I can cope with a lack of armored troops

[apoger]

You have chosen an extraordinarily challenging path.

Good luck!

[Orlanth]

Mictlan and 17 Impossible? Kudos you are a gutsy guy.. I don't know about the chance of glorious conquests but this will at least be a very good read!!

I think your bless effect is great but you might be better off with Sloth than Turmoil. Other than that I've no idea - best of luck

[General Tacticus]

Well, I like random events, so turmoil 3 with a bit of luck should make the game fun

And my first conquests have been glorious (a bit) and bloody (extremely). I used cheap troops (even by mictlan standards) as arrow fodder, more cheap troops as sword fodder, then there was sling fodder, javelin fodder, assorted fodder... oh, there was a commander as well, he was under strict orders not to become fodder

[Keir Maxwell]

My advice is extreme caution towards other nations. Raise defences on border provinces to 10+ before they become border provinces. Show troops on the border if anyone is looking upitty. Try and build a nice compact empire which doesn't get in to many other peoples road and let them fight each other. Then when your blood magic really gets going kick their butts as they are only silly computers in the end! You on the other hand are a God to be!

Jade Knives are important as are the Sanguine Dousing Rods.

I like Sun Warriors but I use them with earth so that I get the double whammy of +4 prot and reinvigoration for my mages. The fly boys could be good with your combo of extra offence and fear generating fast routs.

Mass Protection gets rid of all your problems. Good luck surviving till then.

Have fun

Keir

[Psitticine]

One thing I've found helpful with Mictlan is to make good use of their cheapest priests, the ones just called Mictlan Priests. Equip them with Jade Knives and Sanguine Dowsing Rods and let them spread the Dominion as well as rounding up the Blood Slaves. The more expensive guys have better work to do!

Oh, and summons are very important to Mictlan, IMO, and not only blood summons. Anything you can conjure up will be a help.

[General Tacticus]

to Keir Maxwell :

All my provinces get 10 defence as soon as they are conquered. It has already served me well.
I do plan to make good use of the fly boys, with hold and attack rearmost orders, they should make things interestings for the enemy archers and commanders.

to Psitticine :
I was already planning to use my basic priests to hunt slaves / spread faith, since faith doesn't spread by itself I have little choice...
And by turn 15, I am already summoning some nice things, but I just don't have enough to put them on the battlfield yet.

[General Tacticus]

The fist Pangean War

On the first morning of his new reign, Tacticus Sanguinus took stock of the situation. In the secret of his own mind, he pondered and reflected, thought, devised plans, weighted their chances, and plotted a course of action. The future looked grim, he thought, but not impossible.

On the minus side, he was now the ruler, and God, af a small and backward nation.
On the plus side, saying so would now cost the offender his tongue, which was some consolation.

On the minus size, his nation lived in a poor and desolated continent. With nice mountains, to be sure, and some truly beautiful swamps, and arguably the best jungle on the world, but not very big on farmland.
On the plus side, he was the only God walking that continent.

On the minus side, his two main cities were set apart, with unexplored jungles and savage barbarians between them.
On the plus side, they were not that far apart. And compared to the Mictlans, the savage barbarians suddenly looked like quite civilized.

And so the God made his plans. The best chance for his people, he judged, would be to secure a strong position, one which could easily be well defended. South America would do. Whole America would be better, but South America would be a good start. North America, he knew, held outPosts of Man, of Vanheim, of Jotunheim, of Caelum, and some of them were not to be taken lightly. South America had only Pangea and Marignon, and Pangea at least had no way of bringing reinforcments from their capital.

That was to be the plan, then : focus all ressources on taking South America, and first of all take out the Pangean presence there. Marignon should be next, but if it does not expand too much it might wait until most independants there have been conquered. No expansion shall take place North of the capital.

And the God sent his orders : divert all available ressources to the South !

Magnus crossbows were recruted in Tiahuanaco. Also some warriors, and a tribal king. In the capital, nothing much, some slaves were levied, and Tacticus went to tour his lands, looking for useful sites. One such was already known : a Jungle Temple (where lamias can be recruited by a nature mage), in Chichen Itza.

The next season brought the first surprise : Pangea attacked and captured Beni, right on our frontier. They were showing us the way ! The plans for attacking them were hastily advanced by a few month, and the first (and only) Mictlan army marched to Beni. Pangea had gone to Ucayali, so they followed. Hector’s heavy horsemen joined our army, and we regrouped in Ucayali before attacking Pangea’s starting (and well defended) positions.

In the North, Tacticus discovered a second site in Chichen Itza, the Bowl of the Lost, were banes could be summoned. A king priest (nature 2 blood 2 holy 3) was on his way there to summon lamas, he would soon be joined by a death priest. Man conquered the Island of Cuba, dangerously close, but in accordance with the Grand Strategy, nothing was done to anger him.

And thus the first year of Tacticus reign came to pass.

In the second year, the first army (still mostly mercenaries) took Negra and started to siege Amazonas, the two starting Pangea provinces in South America. One Pangean counter offensive was crushed, but another made a wide flanking movement and attacked our southern positions in Pampas. All in all, the war proceded well.

In the North, Mictlipoctli the king of legends arised from his tomb to serve the God (death 3 blood 3 unholy 3). He was promptly sent to summon banes in Chichen Itza) A High priest of the sun (Fire 2 Blood 3 Holy 4) was recruited and made prophet. But, there being no way to send him to the war in the south, he stayed home to find some blood virgins. And Atlantis was sighted on the coast in South America. This will require additional planning, the order went to leave them alone for now.

Finally, a deathmatch arena was called. Having no commander to spare, we sent none. Only one pretender attended, a lich from Atlanta, and two prophets, from Jutonheim and Vanheim, plus various nobodies from other races.

A few memorable fights took place :
A minotaur lord (Pangea) was killed by a machaka commander. Apparently trampling wasn’t successful at all, but the commander’s sword managed to hit the minotaur from time to time. Size 3 trampling sucks, why not use the minotaur’s axe instead ?
A slugging match took place between Jotunheim’s prophet, a Jotun Herse, and Atlantis pretender, a lich. Flying shards vs banish, nothing much happened until the two hit 100 fatigue (more or less simultaneously). Then the lich slowly took the advantage, managing to land some flying shards (easier with 100 fatigue on the Jotun), while the Jotun’s banish did not improve much (but still took a few hps from time to time). The jotun died, but kept fighting as a longdead (Death 9 blessing I believe ? ). And so we had a longdead trying to banish a lich... but the lich eventually won...
... only to face Vanheim’s prophet, a van jarl, who mixed his blessings with phantasmal warriors. This was too much for the lich, which went under, leaving Vanheim the champion (when it reached 100 fatigue, the lich could no longer stop the phatasmal warriors)

Things, the God felt, were going quite well. Pangea was being crushed, they fielded armies of satyrs, militias, light infantries and slingers (nothing too overpowering to Mictlan). Oh, and speaking of minotaur lord, one was met in battle in Amazonia. It took a glancing hit by an arrow while his armies routed, went berserk, and single handedly tried to halt the Mictlan army. Berserking commanders are a very bad idea...

The third year of the Pangean War saw Amazonas captured (after a year of siege to breach the walls of a watch tower ! But I was busy elsewhere), As well as most of their lands : Gran Choco, Pacaraima, Parana, Pampasn, Caracas, and Piaui. But it also saw man declaring war, for no good reason. The official doctrine is : sit tight and don’t answer their taunts.

In the north, a small army managed to capture Tegucigalpa and Cali, joining with the main force in the South. Cali was defended by a lamia queen, and netted me an Enchanted Sward and a Fenris’ Pels, but the latter went to a merc commander.

Pangea was still holding out in Coqimbo and Patagonia, the South tip of South America. The fourth (and Last) year of the first Pangean War was spent wearing them out and finally conquering them. A handful of centaurs made things quite difficult, and had to be swarmed under the sheer numbers of warriors :no less than 3 attacks with 50+ cheap warriors and then militia (random event) before I finally routed an army of 5 centaurs and a dozen slingers...

And by the end of the fourth year, Pangea had left South America, although it still made its presence felt with an occasional Call of the Wilds.

And thus ends the record of the First Pangean War, and the first 15 seasons of the reign of Tacticus Sanguinus.

[ January 04, 2004, 09:12: Message edited by: General Tacticus ]

[Endoperez]

Create Revenant to summon Banes. Reaching Enchantment 3 takes some research, but you get useful death spells and can use the mage for something better. And you might need Mound Kings to lead your banes... It depends on your death gem income, though. If you get death gems enchantment will propably be worth it, but otherways it might not be worth the work.

If you get your death priest animating dead, Marignon's mage-priests will most propably Banish them instead of casting something else. But then, it might not work and they would fry both your mage and the dead man with a Holy Pyre.

[General Tacticus]

Originally posted by Torvak:
Nice story, looking forward to the next chapter

quote:

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World War Scenario, 339 provinces,

Where can i find that?

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It's on

http://www.illwinter.com/dom2/maps.html

it is designed for the 2.05 patch, which has not yet been released, but it works fine as it is, except that Marignon is missing some of the units they should get at the start. No big deal however