Part 90: Lanka - Turn 39

I too highly anticipate the diplo update although I hope I can catch up before it happens. Doubtful though


Turn 39 - Just in time logistics fucks it up





I guess because Hinnom is led by some kind of caricature, he tells really bad jokes? I have no idea if there's a deeper meaning here, because his shit just gets killed /spoilers



That's a Horite Shaman and 10 Dust Warriors taking back the raided province. One thing you'll note with experienced players is they react to raiding aggressively, immediately. Inexperienced players are slow to react or don't react at all. Pro-tip: enemy raiders rarely stick around, so you don't have to have forces that can take them on to retake provinces behind them.



My guy kills a scout.




Haven't we done this before?



Once again, the flanking position of my heavy hitting demon forces is super important, because units always attack the square directly in front of them unless it is empty. This lets my demons get free hits while his guys will be clearing whatever chaff I can stick in front of him every round.



Frozen Heart hits for a huge amount of damage, too. Wish I had more W1 mages.







KILLCOUNT
Unfortunately, that battle was fought in Lanka, which means he moved onto me instead of me moving onto him.



Had I gotten the move, I would have cut this army's retreat.

There's also been an issue...



I've run out of blood slaves for the sabbath that lets me cast Darkness. I've used the red phone to Mictlan to ask for more all panicky, but they obviously haven't arrived. So I can't use darkness, and therefore it's dangerous to venture forth. Missed opportunity abounds.

It's dangerous for my raider to stay in one place, so I move him north. I might have to borrow a province from TC to get him home, which TC might not want to do, but my policy with that is to do the borrowing and ask for permission after the fact. Usually players won't go to war over little things like that.


Turn 40 - Just in time logistics continues to fuck it up



Lost all my chaff last turn. Making more.



What's this, a magic phase battle?



SKROOB! here is set up with a Starshine Skullcap, which gives him S3 so he can Teleport, and flying shoes so he can get in hits before the enemy finishes buffing. He's scripted to attack without buffing. These guys are called anti-thugs or anti-SCs.



And he does fly in and... does no damage with his first hit.



There's one problem with this gear setup against mine. Can you spot it?




No regeneration. So it's a high alpha thug build, relying solely on alpha-strike, without any high alpha weapons.



Still, he does manage to Horror Mark and more importantly Chest Wound (+5 enc) my thug. If my guy makes home, the gear will have to be swapped out to someone more healthy. Killing PD with a Chest Wound should be possible.




Now for the regular phase battles:




Hinnom attacks Lanka once more, this time with his army. Fortunately I am patrolling, although I have no Darkness.




The Barbs are routed pretty much immediately, and the evocations fall on the high-hp Dust Warriors.




Evocations quickly cause a rout, but my remaining demons take a lot of damage and rout themselves. This is annoying but isn't as big a deal.



See, I don't have any gold to make more. I haven't for nearly a dozen turns. I've already made other plans. Also, to preempt questions, desertion isn't a big deal in dom3. It only affects troops. Troops suck. Therefore the main concern is that you don't have gold for mages, not that your troops are running off.



KILLCOUNT
Congrats to Hinnom for breaking 10k gold losses. We're all cheering you on!



Due to slow communication on my part the shipment of blood slaves from Mictlan was delayed. Since the SCs and the armies have both been devastated, I set my guys to research to hit a few minor goals.

edit: Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the diplomatic incident I'm purposely provoking in the above picture in order to get my thug out of dodge. Hopefully it will work out for me, but it's a risk.



I don't think I've shown off my research screen yet. This is what I have. For turn 40 this is slightly behind, but not overtly so. Basically, I have a great spread of midgame goals, but at turn 40 a typical nation is starting to work on an endgame goal and I am not pursuing one at present.

Next turn: Do the blood slaves arrive in time?