MWAH! I think i put in a lazy 230
Hoo boy! Looks like I walked right into THAT one - AkaOni anticipated my movements very well. And those Chosen aren’t bad in combat, it seems…quite tough!
My prophet mysteriously got zapped at the end of the battle though - not sure by whom as Ur was retreating off the field! The battle log didn’t seem to give any clues…
Unfortunately I cannot look at the turn right now. And I have been lax in doing my turn by turn posts. I blame @Evil_Steve, obviously, since it has nothing to do with over eating during the Christmas break, or sampling the delightful new …beverages, yeah, lets go with that… which impair your thoughts.
But my turn 20 set up against Pan:
- I knew from scouts that he had a lot of white Centaurs, his fearsome 35 gold a pop sacred. He also doesn’t have much in the way of mages on his capital. I am sure some are there, but when you see a report saying a single Pan and the usual escort of Playmates, and nothing else, you get the idea that many books are staying open in Pangaea.
- Which fits into his strategy - White Bull awake, expand with him and recuperating affliction white centaurs, get enough gold to build up forces to take out Thrones, and then deal with other nations. 40 turns means not much research is getting done, certainly not end game level.
- Scouts also told me he doesnt have many archers (watching his battles). So his tactical setup is to mass close to the right so he can melee as soon as possible. And I didnt see any mages, either.
Plan - For some reason I took it for granted that he would attack me, into my dominion, even though I initiated hostilites. So I set up all troops behind the Province defense troops (which will spawn in the middle), so they take the bulk of the casualties. I have been recruiting nothing but sacred (Chosens) infantry, longbows, and Mushu Dragons, so the Mushus go in front of my archers. Set archers to shoot at the other archers, which (in Dom4) meant they defaulted to shoot at the rearmost enemy, hopefully a Pan or other commander. Grab roughly half of my researchers, the ones who can do Lightening bolt spam or some other vaguely useful spell at Evocation 3, like sleep cloud or freezing mist. Give them a gem or two to help them continue firing past the 3 or 4 turns, and hopefully they will survive any harpy attack. I did forget bodyguards on them…
I had pulled back from 2 provinces on border, the very most north and south provinces. I then re entered them in force this turn, supplemented by some mercenaries. (No one has been buying up the mercs, so I have been hiring them on the cheap! 66 gold asking price for 40 archers! )
I am not convinced that these preparations are going to totally work. For instance, Pan has a lot of sneaky troops, so I expect some gurriella attacks taking over a few provinces, perhaps. And if this does work, he will start augmenting his follow on forces with mages, so I need to come up with something different in the next few turns to keep him off balance.
For my part I had to decide whether to play defense or offense - and I decided I’d rather fight in Ur’s territory than in mine. Taking enemy territories deprives them of gold and gems, even if only temporarily, and leaves my income intact. I attacked into two different directions so that Ur’s defenders couldn’t focus on a single raiding force - he’d be forced to split his forces too. I was moderately confident that my forces could handle his as long as he didn’t have overwhelming numeric superiority. I shored up my castle defenses moderately so it could hold out if his dragon and defending forces moved into mine.
My raiders managed to snag a lightly defended province in the rear. Ur will likely take it back next turn, but it’s tying up some of his forces at least. With these tight maps it’s difficult to get too far into the rear - there isn’t much depth to our nations!
AkaOni knows Pan’s general strategy, and indeed I’m a bit behind on research so have been relying on combat, not spells. His sleep cloud definitely slowed my centaurs down it seems (will have to rewatch the battles) so I need to crank up my research!
Kailasa, Qt3Lizzies
Monkeys of Kailasa, hidden in the trees, watched a battle between Ur and Pan. It was close but the berserking, regenerating horse-men of Pan eventually chased the big, ugly cavemen away. Monkeys stay and keep eyes on Pan.
Monkeys also spy huge army of shimmering blue men in water near our homeland. Led by very large blue, shimmering man. Clyde, our divine Monkey God, believes this army will invade the lands of Kailasa soon and has called our mighty armies back to Mount Kailasa to defend it to the very last chimp if the water-men come!
Ok, after looking at the battles, I am pleased with how my troops fared. Sure, I lost 3 provinces (glup), but gutted most of his forces. And I am close to my capital, reinforcements, and my pretender is right there.
But White Centaurs - Attack 12 or 13, Defense 18 (!), protection 9, regenerating, slash/pierce/blunt resistant, recuperating, beserker…for 35 gold! And I pay 150 for a Mushu porker. Ouch!
But of other concern, is that we are slugging it out while Ctis and Sauro mass on our borders.
Not sure where you’d like me to mass my troops - my entire nation is made of borders. But fret not, all this bellicose talk has my troops just jumping into all sorts of action!
Just a heads up, but my home show is next weekend, which means I’ll pretty much be living at the Tucson Convention Center from Wednesday through Sunday. My ability to submit turns will be sporadic.
do you need more than the 96 hours currently set for turn hosting?
No. But I’m just saying I’ll be posting less frequently
QT3 Lizzies Ur
Turn 21 was not a good turn for the cavemen. Our scouts had revealed that many Pan provinces were defended by a dozen or so troops, so we decided to take a few with Call of the Winds. In addition, it would be a good way to retake the province he stole from us, deep in our heartland (ie adjacent to Ctis).
Sadly, it looks like every Pannite is equipped with large flyswatters, as all those attacks failed. Well, back to the drawing board.
The one GOOD thing my scouts tell me is that it looks like Sauromatia has done some INTERESTING things.
Hey guys, some adventurer just came back from ruins deep in the mountains. He’s completely gone mad, but he found this cool magical lantern. Who wants to use it? It will double your research efforts! It says here in the instruction manual it will make you known to the horrors that live beyond the veil, but that’s probably nothing to worry about. So… who wants it?
crickets
No one? Okay, here, you take it. Use it well! Don’t fall asleep!
*gives it to random, terrified mage.
I hope you’re referring to our “Make Sauromatia great again!” campaign.
Sauromatia is trying to make history, but so is Ctis! I wonder if his army will try to besiege Ur after I mop up the last bits of Pan.
Those Merc swordsmen are available for hire, and I have gold. How high will Pan go, I wonder?
Naw… not trying to make history. Just straightening up a couple of borders that were looking a little crooked. I’m sure it was all down to some minor misunderstanding back in the mists of time.
QT3 Lizzies Pan
Hmmmm, a few birds fended off thanks to trampling Minotaur captains, but Ur’s finally gone on the offensive. My forces are scattered about (mostly in Ur’s lands), and Sauromatia has nibbled away at the Pan pizza as well, yet has not followed up! Not sure if he’s cannily keeping me off balance, or just content to be the opportunistic scavenger.
Well, Pan’s not dead yet! We’ve still got castles, we’ve got troops, and we’ve got a raiding Dragon to pin down and kill (hopefully). Let’s see if we can catch it somehow. All while defending against Urian incursions and keeping what I’ve gained. A tall order, but possible…maybe. Time will tell!
As foretold, it’s the pansauroctisur!
And, holy crabcakes, i had no idea your capital was so close to me Pan! i was literally scouring my map, trying to find out where it was and then like, oh. Well, that was (sorta) easy.
Yeah, we’re all stuffed in here like kids at a sleepover. Now how about getting your right foot out of my eyeball? Else I might have to bite it!
I often can’t tell which game is being discussed. But I love the banter.
I think everything recently has been about the Lizzies game. Everyone in our game is being very quiet. It’s a little worrying to be honest.