Turn 19 - Niefelheim comes forth

All three battles went well. No units were lost. I think one of the skinshifters may have stubbed his toe.

In the North, the Lankan army I was attacking in 148 moved in to siege Demon in his castle in 141. My troops are now moving in to break that siege.

In the south, 272 only had 1 PD. The Jarl took it easily. I can see his cap from here, and there appear to be only 50 troops and his pretender in there. No shades. Runners, city guards, heavy infantry and Sauromancers.
The shades must have gone out somewhere.

In 11, Ermor stayed put, so I actually had a battle there, though not much of one. He was vastly overpowered. I had forgotten that EA Ermor Lizards are the regular C'tis kind, not the nasty ones with Tridents. I killed 44 of 69 units. He has 70 more slingers and barbarians next door in 6.

I'll post again when I decided what I am doing this turn.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f86/13/76/96/87/nief-s10.jpg

The moves you see on the screenshot above are not the final ones. It was taken during an initial phase. You can get the idea though.

OK, here is the initial plan.

The three Jarls in 11 split up. The one with the skinshifters hits Ermor in 6. One moves to take C'tis prov 273. Two move to take 273 from C'tis. The Jarl in 272 moves over to take C'tis prov 276.
In the north, the Jarl army moves to break the siege on Caelum's castle, and the Jarl and skinshifters in 106 move on Mictlan in 127.

Two new Jarls will be moving into the castle in 34 this turn, and they are bare. Ideally they will need a charcoal shield and some kind of brand each. The Jarl building the lab this turn in 42 is unequipped as well, but he can wait. I'm building one new Jarl and a Gygja this turn.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f86/13/76/96/87/nief-n10.jpg

Niefelheim north, with a some nice intel on the Lanka cap.

Nothing unusual this turn. I'll post pics since I forgot last turn.

West: https://2img.net/h/oi43.tinypic.com/vgiuyf.jpg <- evidence of progress here is the pic has moved farther west a good deal
I'm moving out of Abysia's cap this turn. All yours atul. No break siege attempt, so you'll be facing about 30 burning ones and at least a dozen fire mages. Good luck.

Lanka moved into my fort at 141. The walls are breached. I will give retreat orders to my mages inside just in case.

I think my next target should be Argatha. Give poor qm a bit of relief on that front. This turn I'm moving to a friendly prov so atul and I don't clash accidentally. I could also raid the hell out of Mictlan and stop his blood hunting, or, well, anything really.

Sauro made no moves. He DID move his Hydras out of his cap though. Watch out for that. I'm attacking his force in 172. Ironhawk, you should probably patrol, I don't think you can take on those Cataphracs in 186.

East: https://2img.net/h/oi39.tinypic.com/2nghssz.jpg
With Niefel taking care of Lanka, and Abysia on the ropes, the East is the main challenge. Vanheim took 181 from me, and lost a dwarf to my 1 PD. No fault of his, just lucky on morale checks and flying.

I *think* I killed Vanheim's pretender with seeking arrow. He's disappeared from all scout reports, and he was on turn 1 of the 2-turn sitesearch procedure. No way to tell for sure unfortunately.

I have two choices with how to deal with Vanheim. This turn, I can cloud trap/move 7 EKs to my army in 170 and lay down some thunder. I'll have to sim the battle first though, I'm not really sure how it'll go. My army is 13 mammoths, 64 archers, and two mages casting berserkers on the mammoths. Adding 7 t-striking EKs and 12 Yazads and some Gift of Flight casters for the mammoths might give me the edge vs his 124 glamor troops, mixed calvary and decent infantry.

The other choice is to continue the retreat, and use fire and flee with my archers to wear down his forces. Bring in the EKs as well to t-strike twice and run. Less work, and he doesn't have missile troops (but does have tons of blood slaves, not sure for what).

Let me know what option you think is best.


Not much else to report. I'm bleeding provs pretty badly so once we get rid of these incursions and get atul into Abysia's cap I'll need some of my old provs and conquests back.

Thanks for sitting on Abysia TheDemon, my turn now.

Took 109 and 97 from Abysia with small losses to 20+ PD, moving on 114 (capital), 116 and 91 now. I think this turn is the most critical one since I have starving troops and few mages. Reinforcements come next turn. Wolven Wintering capital and casting Rain, not much else I can do for now.

My Wyrm took 212 from Fomoria this turn. He's still wandering a bit aimlessly, though. Ideas most welcome.

Sauromatia has 2 Enaries on 189 now, as previous poster said no movement in the northern army. I see a Hydra in 221.

Recruited a small army on 219, taking indies at 202 with them. Should be near your eastern front in case you need just manpower/castle breaking.

Ermor found some guts and attacked my seas, #7 to be exact. 50 undead, 4 of which died to 1 PD. I've upped PD to 10 or so on both sides of #7, should at least bleed him out of undead for now.

Wolven Winter targets and water gems appreciated.

Ling, I looked over your reports and I dont think you should move your Jarl back to 276. If you move him away like that, he will be out of position when you are ready to attack the CTis cap. Plus, you might run into the roving shade army unexpectedly and that would go badly for your Jarl. I would recommend staying in position and preaching. That way you boost overall cold dominion in the area, reduce CTis dominion (ie less shades!), AND you will have 3 Jarls on hand for the attack on the CTis cap next turn (two from the north and one from the east).

After running some tests, I'm going to meet Vanheim's army in the field next turn with everything I have in the East. Hoping for an easy victory. The prov is already cold and I'm not using any cold armor anyway so no WW necessary. So, I'll submit my turn.

Ironhawk wrote:Ling, I looked over your reports and I dont think you should move your Jarl back to 276. If you move him away like that, he will be out of position when you are ready to attack the CTis cap. Plus, you might run into the roving shade army unexpectedly and that would go badly for your Jarl. I would recommend staying in position and preaching. That way you boost overall cold dominion in the area, reduce CTis dominion (ie less shades!), AND you will have 3 Jarls on hand for the attack on the CTis cap next turn (two from the north and one from the east).

Yeah, that's good thinking Atul. I will make the change in orders.

FYI, that was me talking, not Atul

Ironhawk wrote:FYI, that was me talking, not Atul

Hmm. Is that why it says Ironhawk at the top of the quote?

https://i.servimg.com/u/f87/13/77/31/44/helhei17.jpg

Overall this turn went well. The starving attack was a complete success, wiping out 62/63 of the ctis defenders while losing only a handful of men (only 2 helhirds i think). The province they took has plenty of supply too so I have no fear of starving for a little while, at least Given my success there I decided to continue the attack into province 246. This is a gamble because if CTis is aggressive, he could cut off my retreat by attacking the province I'm currently in (247). However, I think its an ok bet given that my force could probably beat an army of up to 120 units in size AND the fact that CTis just appears to be completely defensive in playstyle. Wish me luck, anyway.

In addition, after talking with Atul and doing some tests it was revealed that Sneak Attacks from the same province no longer occur in the magic phase!!! So my plan to intercept the Sauro Hydra/Andro army would have failed if he would have attacked. To that end I have instead ordered my vanherse to attack into the Sauro province and force a battle. If Sauro doesnt move I should get some good friendly fire kills. If he does move, then my plan will be ruined by PD, alas! Atul is also attacking the sauro prov with a scout on the opposite side of the battle field too. So if that works we could drive losses up to the 60% range.

Other than that, not much to report. I'm scout-attacking a 0 PD prov that CTis's shade army left in its wake - hopefully he wont buy any there. Moving some reinforcements over into the CTis warzone. Recruiting a Hangdrott so that I'm ready to cast Wailing Winds when I get it next turn.

5 gold says the reason Sauro isn't moving is he's building a castle there.