Part 39: Turn 35: Warfare And Devastation

Yeah, C'tis is going down fast.

Gath is actually offering us C'tis's land, and we're inclined to take some of it - a little extra land never hurts. That assumes, of course, that we can spare forces from T'ien Ch'i.




Looks like T'ien Ch'i has picked up a few Astral mages in Sermioc. That was to be expected - that trick wouldn't work forever.

What does work forever is the fact that, as Arco, I can heal Feebleminded very, very easily. "Will probably never fully recover" is complete BS.



In Iron Range, the province Abysia lost to Ronin, we find a nice magic site.




In Farseer Mountaints, far to the southwest, we find two nice magic sites. Ahoy! We're now pulling in 13 water gems per turn, more than any other gem type.



In both Cythia and Chilad, Midgard tries to hit C'tis with a bunch of hawks to capture territory. The hawks are great against badly-defended territory, but these isn't badly-defended - in fact, the hawks die pretty damn fast. They're not very tough, they're mostly useful for surprise and nigh-undefended provinces.

Like mine, for example. I hope Midgard doesn't decide to target me. That could be a bit painful.




Lose some win some.




Mictlan and Jomon are still beating it out over Abysia's capital. Mictlan came prepared this time, and Jomon loses - those Jaguar Warriors are deadly.




Midgard jumps one of C'tis's border provinces. It may look unfair, and it is - but it's unfair in the sense that C'tis gets mauled. Midgard's skinshifters are painful, and C'tis's province defense is flimsy.

For some reason Midgard has gone AI. I'm really confused by this - Midgard is in a 3-way tie for the most provinces right now (Ulm and myself being the other two) and is actually beating me slightly on income. And he's got a fucking huge army of skinshifters - if those go after me, I am in real trouble. No clue what happened there.

(Future Me: I think Midgard might be reading this, but in case he isn't, I found out later that real life intervened and he was unable to get a replacement quickly. Folks, if you're sitting around wanting to get into a game, take over for someone! Even a complete newbie player is better than the AI is.)
(Future Future Me: Yes, as mentioned, some of this errata is written far in advance)




The battle for the outside of Sermioc goes . . .

. . . Well. It goes.

T'ien Ch'i has recruited an absolute shitload of PD, with an absolute shitload of arrows. My scripts all go as planned, although I take an unfortunate amount of damage from friendly fire via Gifts of Heaven. It's possible I should be using Blade Wind versus T'ien Ch'is mostly unarmored forces.

I lose a lot of elephants, as expected, even as those elephants do incredible amounts of damage. The battle isn't terribly interesting - it's just PD - but it goes well.

My scout in Oeperi . . .



Come on dude, that's a lot of PD!

I don't know why T'ien Ch'i is blowing so much money on PD. Maybe that's the best thing he has to spend money on. It's going to make it a royal slog, however.



You'll notice the enemy has no commanders. I guess they left the units behind and moved the commander on elsewhere. Actually, to Oeperi, as it turns out - that wasn't all PD, that included some real units.



Good.



Bad.

I don't know if I forgot to rebid for Obscuro last turn, or if Abysia just outbid me. I think I just forgot. Goddammit. Assuming he survives the next few turns - which he might not, depending on Abysia - I'll be able to pick him back up in three turns. That's a problem, because I need that fucker. Argh.

I need Faery Queens so badly you have no idea.



First, I want to get Sermioc, and I want to crush any forces that might still be inside. That means I keep sieging the place, moving reinforcements in at the same time. I move my Crystal Coin to a fresh Sibyl and keep Mind Hunting the place - I know they have commanders left, I want those commanders dead. I'm not Healing my Sibyl yet, as Heal is a province-wide effect and I don't see a good reason to sacrifice 15 RP to reclaim 8 RP.

Second, I think they're trying to jump me with a small army from the west. I'm moving forces to meet them, while recruiting more forces, though I expect they'll take a province or two before I succeed. Their army is honestly pretty chintzy, so if that is an entire invasion force, I should be able to head it off rather easily.



This is the worst Mystic I've ever seen. I just thought I'd point him out. Ugh. Can we get a little magical variety here

mystic more like crapstic

Mrs. Butterworth makes another Clam. Three so far, and at this point I can build them indefinitely. Unfortunately, this means Mrs. Butterworth is tied up permanently - I'd rather dispatch someone else to do these, but that will take some work, as I'll need to cram +2 Water onto a Water Sibyl. And I've only seen two Water Sibyls so far, I'm having awful luck getting them.

Everyone else continues their normal sitesearching or researching, except for Mellia, my feebleminded Sibyl, who just bums around and does nothing. (Sorry, Mellia. We'll get to you once we can.)



To be honest, I'm really curious what's going on with T'ien Ch'i's Monster Boars right about now. I haven't seen any battles, and I also haven't lost any scouts. Have they cut taxes way down? Have they not cut taxes way down, and are about to end up unable to recruit? Their income has dropped rather nastily, and that might be the result of the boars. I really don't know.



Here's an example of the perils of old age. Robior here, despite being a near-fresh recruit, is suffering from disease and a lost eye. All thanks to his old age. Disease does one point of damage every turn until he eventually dies, so he'll be departing in seven turns. Sad, but no reason he can't provide us with RP until then.

You may have noticed that nobody left Sermioc when I invaded it. That means his entire army is still trapped inside. I'm hoping to slaughter his commanders with Mind Hunt, cut off their escape route, and then autorout his forces. That way I kill them all with no damage. That's the idea - we'll see how well it works out.

I'm really wishing I had Soul Slay right now, as that would prevent some of the "you hit, but he didn't die" messages. Thaumaturgy 5, and I'm at 3. I need Conjuration 8 yesterday. No time.



And finally, I toss off a message to Mictlan. I had a conversation with another player who hadn't realized Midgard had gone AI, so I thought I'd bring it to Mictlan's attention.

Oh, what the hell, let's toss off a message to Jomon as well.



Yeah, it's pretty damn similar.

I'm going to find it hilarious if they both end up clashing in the middle of Mictlan forces instead.



And finally, we respond to Gath. Never hurts to keep up relations.



crush their fort, my minions

Next: Sieging Sermioc.