Turn 18 - Stuck in a Cave Castle, send help!

So, I heard qm lost a battle against Argatha this turn. Not good news, but things are progressing nicely elsewhere.

I sieged Abysia's cap at 114 with no losses. Abysia took 116 from me with a force of 5 Burning Ones and an Abysian Infantry and an anthemant dragon and an annointed of rhuax. So my EKs are now cut off. The faster that siege force can get here the better. Although I'm confident I can take on his troops, and all my commanders are fire immune, if he brings out his mages then my Yazad chaff will get wiped and it's hard to accurately predict what will happen in that case.

Lanka made no moves. Looks like Niefel is in position to start driving him back to his cap.

Sauro took 172 from me. Annoying, but not threatening. His force is 10 Androphag Archers, 8 Raiders, and 3 Amazons, with a prophet commander.

Actually I think we should be doing some very specific things on the Sauro-Caelum fromt. Sauro can hit 188 or 163. Ironhawk has a force in skull island that can move moved to 188, which should kick the crap out of Sauro's force if he sets it to fire archers. I've got a decent force in 141 that can move to 163 and intercept Sauro's force. If we win (we should win), we can advance on Sauro's southern fort and either siege it or pass it by and raid.

In the East:
I took 181 from Fomoria.

Vanheim stayed put in 175, but he's receiving reinforcements I think (or he sneaked his sneaky guys and left the rest behind). He has 60 Archers in 193. His crone is in 187, but the prov's forces are "5 hostile units, mainly Commanders. A huge Elephant[...]" etc. So hitting it with seeking arrow might kill it, but it might not.

Thanks for buying the Green Horde, qm, that was going to be a royal pain to deal with if he had started raiding with it.

I've got Cloud Trapeze and Seeking Arrow and up to 6 EKs free this turn, although I'd like to use a few of them for various defensive purposes like moving Yazads to the Eastern front. Let me know if there are any priority targets. Con 2 and Thau 2 next turn.

Took 2 provinces from Abysian coast, the secondary army took some losses due to PD of 20+ and every "attack rearmost" group succeeding in their checks and running for the lone mage in the rear. Oh well, I'll manage. The bigger army's starving as expected, 81 has Sages, 88 has a faulty connection to 78, don't see any Abysian troops. Moving onwards to 109 and 97, 3rd group in on Caelum-occupied coast next turn.

For some reason Sauromatian army on 235 didn't move, I see C'tis took 274 from Helheim this turn. Does this spell trouble?

Found a site with a castle at 219 so should Caelum need some army support I can provide if requested. Basically given money could send 100 units on Sauro's castle at 189 in two turns, though without mage support they'd get slaughtered.

Also, please tell me where you are fighting big fights against Abysia, Agartha or C'tis, don't want anything big going on without Cold-3.

Fomoria built a castle to 237. 30 units and 5 Fomorian Kings at his capital.

Ermor's coast full of troops, but nothing that could hit any of us any time soon.

Sending 3 shields of gleaming gold to Helheim, Frost brand to Hinnom, 2 Snake rings to Hel and one to Niefel.

What did you need now? 3 reinvig girdles to Hel, others? Hinnom needs stuff stat?

No action so speak of for Niefel, but all troops are poised to strike this turn.

In the north, two Jarls, the prophet and his army are headed in to fight Lanka in 148. Will probably be a tough fight, but I think I can win. Another Jarl with a real army of skinshifters (30) is moving from 96 into the castle in 106 to pick up his fire brand. He will then move on Lanka as well.

I'll start building some Hurlers for sieging next turn.

In the south, I am attacking Ermor in 11 and C'tis in 272. Please freeze both provs if possible Atul.

Took 42 from Hawk. Labbing and templing it. Also building a temple in 14. Recruiting one Jarl, and one Skratti in 34. Please post if you need anything or disagree with any of my actions.

Oh, and the good samaritan noob that said he would send back the death gems... did not actually send back the death gems. You all get one free kick-in-the-ass on me.

Due to my raids I have a pretty complete picture of the disposition of the CTis forces...

274: The shades that were threatening ling moved east to 274. Their composition is:
63 shades (handful of shade beasts)
9 longdead ctis
16 falchioneers
22 elite warriors + 2 sacred serpents
4 Sauromancers, scripted to Shadow Bolt (wtf??)
1 indy commander

Don't concern yourself with this army on my account. If CTis wants to wander around in my backfield like a dolt - I say let him. I'll just dispatch a Dis and some Valks to retake provs in his wake. And if he actually gets into position to threaten either of my forts, my tons of priests / death mages will totally wreck him. IMO, we should ignore these guys and proceed with the siege of CTis at full pace.

(one interesting aside, the sacred serpents are mapmove 1. if ctis does not realize this he may think his entire force can only move 1 prov)

260: CTis Capital. 160 units, mostly Runners, Shades, City Guard, and Heavy Inf.

265: CTis 2nd Fort. 100 untis, mostly Runners, Slave Warriors, City Guards, Serpent Dancers, and Light Inf

247: This garrison didnt move but appears to have been reinforced with chariots (?). 40 units, mostly Serpent Dancers, City Guards, Lizard Chariots, and Light Inf.


As you can see from the intel here, it seems like CTis is just spamming as many units as possible. Hordes of low resource units - does this not play directly into our hands? Neifel is set up now for chaff clearing so I recommend that we press the attack against him ASAP.

Another interesting note - last turn we were justifiably concerned with CTis reinforcing any of his various positions. Other than a few token changes this did not occur at all. Hundreds of his units that could be out fighting or at least protecting his lands are simply idling in forts. To me, this suggests that he is expecting to lose the field and is preparing for an extended seige. He may even be getting fed gold from his team.

In other news:

As Atul reported, Sauro failed to advance this turn? No clue why not but as always, the more turns he wastes, the better prepared I am. Atul, I got the snake ring, thanks! Yeah if you can send reinvig belts, that would be good - tho they are not critical if someone else has a more important request.

Unfortunately, my men are starving AGAIN!@$ But at least this time its due to the starvation-bug rather than bad planning. They have 131/130 supplies and the game moronically refused to feed any of them. Sigh. Anyway, I intend move the archers back and leave the glamor'd guys in place so they can FINALLY eat. However --- this poses an important question: which eats first? The hidden army or the visible army? Cause if CTis retakes this prov and eats before me I'll just be screwed over yet again.

As for 188, Demon, I have a vanherse hidden there right now and I can sneak attack it - which will give me the prov first and allow me to move my forces from skull island during friendly movement, correct? That should give me defenders advantage which would be handy in an archer battle. My forces at skull island tho are only: 10 serf warrior (and a pair of huskarls) + 30 archers. I'll order the attack if you think its enough.

Atul, please freeze 148. I'll be attacking 200 Lankans there, and need some help.

Freezing my other two targets, 272 and 11, would be most helpful as well.

I'll send you my water gems.

Thanks.

From our discussions in IRC, the complete list of things to freeze is:

"so atul will need to freeze 11, 272, and 148 this turn, and 247, plus anything he's attacking"

Thanks atul!


(oh, i forgot to mention that I will be attacking 247 this turn. starvation be damned!)

well, really, all those aren't necessary. the critical ones are 247 and 148. 11 and 272 are lower priority.

Ironhawk wrote:From our discussions in IRC, the complete list of things to freeze is:

"so atul will need to freeze 11, 272, and 148 this turn, and 247, plus anything he's attacking"

Any idea what temp these provinces are, i.e. do they need a single freeze or a double? I can see 11 has neutral temp so it's single, but others are outside my vision.

EDIT: Got some W to spare, probably could/should freeze Abysia's capital also... ...but apparently not enough W3 mages. 11 has a single WW, 272, 148 and 247 double WWs unless you tell me otherwise. Also freezing my own conquests-to-bes.

Sorry, can't see any dominion readouts in any of those provs.

I'm like a Stealth Fighter on IRC. Now you see me, now you don't.

148 has neutral temperature scales.