Part 74: Turn 64: Miscommunication and War

Things to note: 11 water gems, no Chalice.

I talk to Gath after this and it was apparently just a miscommunication. Chalice next turn.



We find a rather rare magic site in Baptizer. Fire gems, unsurprisingly, are rare underwater. Certainly nothing we're complaining about.

Kunal: supercombatant splattering PD. Heavy PD, admittedly, but just PD.



In Melma, C'tis shoots us with remote ghouls. Unfortunately they manage to take down my meager province defence. I'll have to go clean that up.



I've been wondering where the other King of Elemental Earth is. Looks like Ulm has it. That's not particularly worrying - he's a horrifyingly deadly creature, but only if he's used properly. AI Ulm, I can guarantee, is not using him properly.




Holy shit this witch is tenacious.

So, remember that group of C'tis that I was just going to leave to Gath? I kinda fucked up. I forgot to actually attack them. Additionally, instead of going north, they headed southwest to Hesperia, making a strike for Jome.



By "making a strike", I mean "getting royally wrecked". My province defense defeats them (okay, my province defense and a scout, but I don't think the scout contributed substantially to the battle.)

Fenatice: Jomon fucking around with Mictlan. Jomon loses nigh-instantly - their force is maybe half a dozen weak infantry, and Mictlan's got a small pack of jaguar warriors.



Fluffy Bunnies attacks Gath in C'tis and gets flattened.

The problem I had was a single unit and a few bad rolls. Fluffy Bunnies is rather fragile at this point in the game, and while he can easily go up against a single unit and win, Gath's actual army decimates him quickly.

Once he comes back - if he comes back, Gath may simply stomp C'tis before that happens - he'll be down to zero Astral, which will make him substantially easier.

Villia: Gath army stomps a small number of C'tis PD.

Lupia: Barathrus versus small amounts of Jomon.



Whoa hey no it's not, that's Barathrus versus large amounts of Jomon.



Jomon casts Mind Burn and Desiccation. It is not effective. Both of them are magic-resistance attacks, and Barathrus's MR is easily high enough to make them wholly ineffectual. Beyond that, it's just a bunch of guys with pointy sticks jabbing at a King of Earth wearing full magical platemail.

Yep.

Kunal: A pair of Jomon mages move into Kunal, expecting it to be owned by Jomon. It isn't, thanks to our Cloud Trapeze, and we kill the mages easily.



Except for this.

Phyleides is now Horror Marked. She's doomed, long-term. I don't know how many marks she's eaten - three? four? - but it should be a low chance, for now at least. I'll keep using her, of course, because that offensive power is incredibly useful, but someday she'll go bye-bye and I will be sad.



In Lucky Lake, a small Atlantis combat force attacks one of my claimed provinces. You know what? I need another Queen of Elemental Water. I just can't defend my own territory with what I currently have.

Anyway, between the Kraken and the Sea Serpent, Atlantis easily defeats my meager defenses.



In Ralothia, we get to see a Man Bane Lord thug take out some independents.



No magic resistance to speak of, easy target for Mind Hunt. He's kind of nasty in close combat but nothing particularly notable. It gives me a sense of what Man's tactics are - the Flying Shoes are an interesting choice, giving him massive mobility - and will let me counter him if needed.

Also, Ring of Water Breathing. What?

Atlantis: wholly ineffectual counterattack against Man.

Ocean of Plenty: Thalassa doing what Thalassa does best.



Well, almost.

She gets paralyzed early on - truly incredible bad luck against her high MR. It lasts for 28 turns.

However, her Awe, Luck, Fear, and Regen continue functioning as normal. The troops are simply unable to damage her in any meaningful manner.

28 turns later she wakes up and kills everything.



It says this. There's no combat log, and he certainly didn't rout anywhere, as he would have died. Indeed, he's still sitting in the middle of Atlantis.

I have no idea.




Yeah, okay.

I don't care about starving, actually, I can just heal them with Priestesses. We'll just take the damn fort.



Right now, I've got three big priorities.

1) Get the Chalice and get my Tartarian factory going again.

2) Save up for some big enchants, cast once the Atlantis enchants go down and there's room for them.

3) Grab what I can in preparation for war with Mictlan.

Orders. Barathrus is in Lupia, and north of there is a squad of Jomon mages. Barathrus has kind of crummy magic resistances - his gear dates from before I'd discovered Elemental Armor - so I'd rather not send him into that. I could send him southeast to hit Ulm but I'd rather not provoke them, I'd be just as happy if they were to attack Mictlan or Man.

Instead I just have him build a Lab. He's been building up a large reserve of Earth gems that I'd like to cash out, plus I can swap his gear to more modern items.

Now, Phyleides does have great elemental resists, and I'd love to attack with her . . . but she's busy "Reanimating".

Sigh. Stupid Tartarians.

Philetor moves east to siege the Silver Fangs fort. I'll follow him with my siege group once they're done taking Lettia. Speaking of Lettia, I was going to use Embaar to conquer it while moving my siege force onwards . . . except he's trying to demolish a Temple for some reason. There isn't even a temple here! Fuck you, Tartarians! Let me capture Lettia and then I will build a temple that you can demolish.

Instead I just storm the castle with a huge number of warriors and the mages that I have here.

Another huge force is gathering in Robber Home. Seriously, this is a horrifying number of units - with a supercombatant on the front lines they can probably squash Mictlan's forces with little trouble. I drop some winebags in there to head off starvation.

Polypoites, in the forest separating us from the outside world - that forest is really getting on my nerves - moves up to Lettia. I thought about using him to siege C'tis, but honestly I'd rather have him providing heavy artillery either in Jomon or on the Mictlan border.

Speaking of which, I haven't seen Mictlan's Arch Devil for a few turns. Wonder where he's off to.

My Gate Stone gets used to pull a bunch of military from Jome to Linshire. We'll use them to knock down C'tis's little enclave.

The forces in Agartha move out to recapture the new C'tis territory (sigh.)

I have some trouble with Thalassa. She may be needed shortly to cast a very large and expensive enchant. Unfortunately, movement under the sea is slow - one square per turn.

Since she's right in the middle of the ocean, I tell her to build a lab. If she gets attacked, all the better - she'll fight off the enemy forces. No matter where she is, she'll be one movement away from her lab.

I'm mildly worried about her getting jumped on the turn I do my major spellcasting. She'll be decked out in boosters, not combat gear, and - shall we say - extremely fragile. If I have to retreat with her I'll do just that, and then figure out how to get my gear back somewhere else.



You can see a growing river of mages, streaming from the western territories over to the eastern territories. I've got what could be best described as a shockwave of scouts moving out - I need intel yesterday, I have no idea why I slowed down on that. I'm not expecting many territory grabs this turn, but I'm definitely mobilizing for some extremely large-scale war.

Next: Preparing for a new war.