Part 222: Sauro - Turns 51-52

Turn 51
Okay, I was wrong. I guess none of these turns are long, just exciting. Let's see if I can get through them quickly...

- Schneeble/Sauromatia
Remote site searching reveals 3 sites: A Gorge of Glowing Fish (1 Fire gem per turn) in one of my ocean provinces and both a Lifeless Lake (1 Death gem) and a Weeping Stone (1 Water gem) in one of the provinces in the heart of my empire.

I've also started building a fortress in the Peninsula of Awesomeness, that foothold province I kept on TheDemon's island with great gem income and a ghoul-recruiting site. Since he and I have an NAP now and he has nowhere to expand but north, that province should be safe enough from attack for the next few turns while I build it.

There is a lot of army shuffling this turn as I shore up my defenses against Mictlan. Fortunately it seems as though Lilli's focus is on crushing Hinnom quickly and not on taking both of us simultaneously. The zmey on the border have fallen back for now and I'm pushing my border guard west to re-take those. Also I gave the mercenary Pak-Ur a water-breathing ring and sent him into the sea. It's true that I won't see that ring again, but those things are cheap and I still feel as though I need a big bag of HP to soak blood magic.

187 units suffer badly from Burden of Time and my random-event High Priest died from disease , and here's the map:


I zoomed out a little bit so you can see my northern sea province; north of that province is another isthmus (it's been controlled by Pangaea for quite some time, and he's moving southeast down it into Mictlan's territory now). Also if you squint you can see that Mictlan still has Arcoscephale under siege, and that Hinnom and I each have a land province in Mictlan/Arcoscephale territory(!)

- Lilli/Mictlan
I saw an undefended province (Gnome Peaks) that my little ocean-conquering squad could reach and I went for it. A witch king, 3 Shades, and 11 mermen and ichtyids against Mictlan PD. I lost 3 mermen but really they were just along to draw sling bullets so they died bravely. I immediately have my troops fall back into the ocean to meet up with Pak-Ur; I don't have enough scouting to know what to expect in response and really this is just a raid at the moment and I don't feel the need to lose anybody important trying to hold it.

I've also set orders to take back both of the provinces that Mictlan took from me last turn and to conquer one of T'ien Ch'i's old provinces now under Mictlanese control way down south.

- buildscharacter/Hinnom
Hinnom sent a Treelord's Staff (2-handed weapon, improves Nature path by +2 and gives you more Vinemen when you summon them) and Earth Boots (boots, improve Earth path by +1 and grant reinvigoration) along with this message.


I'm pretty sure I paid cost (assuming Dwarven Hammer and Forge of the Ancients and Construction Site) for these, so practically nothing.

- Dexanth/Arcoscephale
Wrath of Rainbow: 918 (previous turns) + 42 (7 wounded) + 24 (2 killed) = 984 gold

Turn 52
Lilli, we are almost at the end of the last batch of turns that you sent out! I'm going to do something a little out of order here because this turn is the one I was waiting for. This is the turn where the secret weapon is unleashed.


Behold! All flying units are grounded in strategic movement, and all flying units without storm power (or the exceedingly rare #stormflying tag) are grounded in combat as well. Any flying units with orders given on turn 51 that relied on flying will have those orders cancelled and so will have done nothing in turn 52. There are a lot of Zmey and Bane Lords stranded right now, and the alliance is going to do its best to capitalize.

Also, all gold income drops by like 20% but that generally hurts more the bigger your empire is, and mine is not the biggest so I don't mind TOO much... yet.

- Schneeble/Sauromatia
Remote site searching turned up nothing, but manual site searching revealed a Brigand Lair that I suspected in a province next to my capitol. I suspected it because that always had at least 5 unrest, which is part of what the Brigand Lair does. It doesn't do anything but raise unrest by 5 and allow the recruitment of stealthy troops with shortbows.

Also I summoned this dude.


It was either him or the Mountain King. Some people think that Elemental Royalty are wasted in the battlefield, others claim they are wasted in the lab. Watch and learn, my friends, as I disappoint both factions in the following turns! Seriously though, I love the Elemental Royalty always and forever. Some people believe that NinjaDebugger made them too powerful. I think that the strongest argument against the power of much of the Awesome Endgame stuff is that the super-combatant type gods don't really hold up very well against them. I tend to overlook that argument when I think about the Royalty because I love them so much. Haters to the left.

217 units suffered badly from Burden of Time. Nevermind all that, have a map.


Well, I'm up 4 provinces and down 2 so that's good, but one of them is Worshin, within striking distance of my not-yet-completed fort in the Peninsula of Awesomeness. What is this madness?

- Lilli/Mictlan
I guess I assumed that my westward-bound army would intercept the lone Bane Lord if it came east. Whoops! Worshin had like 20-something PD in it and this asshole killed them all.


I dispatch a team of Witch Kings to deal with this insolent undead. Meanwhile Mictlan takes Gnome Peaks back from me unopposed and I take Terrym (the former T'ien Ch'i province down south) from Mictlan unopposed, so that's kind of a wash. I also note that one of Mictlan's coastal provinces has some Circle Masters (and so it is probably used for blood hunting) but its defenders seem to have moved away. I order my small raiding force and Pak-Ur to attack that one, and I move my force from Terrym deeper into Mictlan's territory.

- Dexanth/Arcoscephale
Wrath of Rainbow: 984 (previous turns) + 24 (4 wounded) + 36 (3 killed) = 1044 gold

Irrational Objectives:
1. Control the entire isthmus.
2. Extract an air mage from buildscharacter.
3. Summon/GoR the Daughter of Typhon.
4. Extract blood price from Arcoscephale (1044 gold).
5. Summon 9 Elemental Royalty or cast each of the 6 Royalty summons at least once (current progress: 1/9 or 1/6)