AAR: The Dreamlands in MP Blood Sacrifices

[Anaconda]

Introduction of the Dreamlands and the main characters

(The link to the game discussion: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=48682 )

A techical note: The flavor pictures are ripped from internjet, I claim nor hold any rights to them.

LA R'lyeh is excellent for thematic play, so I chose to try and play a role here. My attributes try to follow the example set by the original Cthulhu mythos, at least as much as made possible by the devs, and as far as I am familiar with Lovecraft's work. So, my R'lyeh was unyielding, uncompromising and overwhelming. It was my initial goal not to participate actively in diplomacy. The Dreamlands has but one possible outcome; The Dreamlands will reign or be eradicated.

The beginning of the game was a little bit burdensome, and I actually was convinced I would not make it even to the shore. However, the tide – so to say – turned, and I started making some progress. The story begins, therefore, from the turn 11.

As a side note, in addition to the story recording the culture revolution a turn by turn, I wrote down some stats too, in order to be able to publish some numerical data if ever relevant, interesting or otherwise offering some support on the events at hand (might be that I publish the whole stats database as a whole in the end also, or form some figures using some figure drawing tools – remains to be seen).



The mad arab Abdul Alhazred was chosen to serve as a pretender. The arab's success (read: victory over other nations) would mean Cthulhu's awakening. The only thing expected of Cthulhu was to eat who ever was left when all other religions would have been wiped out...

If I recall correctly I picked negative scales in everything, except in luck and magic. I picked full luck and some points in magic. I also took high dominion and the mad arab was created as a rainbow pretender for early manual site searhing (I left Astral out because I would have got that enough anyways). Also, I used Squirreloid's LA R'lyeh quide (”How I came to love Dreamlands and stopped worrying”) when building the pretender and character, and choosing the playing style.



An initial prophet was my scout, and I named him Robert Olmstead – a sketchy figure from the short story Shadow over Innsmouth. The thematic role suited the scout very well, for my understanding is that Robert found his inner, subdued fish later on during his life, and he eventually joined the creatures worshipping Dagon under the waves. Robert is also conducting area studies in the story...





At this point, three other champions worth mentioning are the Traitor King (whom I named Dagon because of his exceptional W5), successfull void summoner Uzumna (whos summoner level is currently 6), and an Illithid commander Zagauba. Zagauba has lead the armies to victories more than anyone else (maybe because there hasnt been ANYONE else - of importance at least - so far). Unfortunately he is losing it already, and the Starspawn Council estimates his insanity climbing already as high as 9. The Starspawn Priest Uzumna has been very lucky so far – no attacks, no sanity loss, no incidents.

A technical note: While working on the AAR I realized that writing the AAR highly increases the skill and level of playing. I think it is because it forces me to go through things more carefully than I would if I werent taking notes. It is a positive circle, so to say, for writing a long and deep AAR increases your willingness to succeed in the game also, improving the play even moar. Cant but recommend this to others!

[Anaconda]

and so it begins: turn 11


(The special sword markers indicate the capital of Midgård and possible locations of the capital of Marignon.)

The overall strategy was to gather information, weaken the enemy with my deadly dominion, and strike where it would hurt the most. First strategic goal was to secure the four population centers surrounding the home sea. Unfortunately, Marignon had already taken the one in West. It came clear during the turn 10 that R'lyeh and northmen from Midgård would be fighting each other for the city located at the Southern coast of the sea. The great cities in East and North remained untouched at the time (at least as far as we knew).


(I love how this champion belongs to a herse caste, the caste not allowed to perform religious activities and here he is, div blessing the warriors of the North!)

Midgård was faster – maybe the northmen didnt believe I would land, or they just were unlucky... but, they entered the city first and had to fight the city guard. As we can predict, for the prophet Kirk Van Houten – in charge of the northmen army – it was easy victory. But, maybe it was good for us, that northmen were not fresh when our ancient, proud and noble race surfaced with their slaves and crazy cultists to take over the city from hairy, smelly primates.


(They call it Mind Blasting)

It was a blessed day, Cthulhu fthang! Unfortunately Kirk Van Houten made his escape to rally fresh levies from the chilly hills in West. The leader of the horde, Illithid Lord Zagauba decided to stay, and build a strong presence in the city. Equipping the new cultists with sophisticated weapons he subdued rare fools trying to still resist the Dreamlands.

This landing was intended to be permanent, and lots of effort was put in play to make the city secure for the Dreamlands' cult. The province defence was lifted as high as 51.

The mad arab also moved out and started site searching to compensate the tax losses from Death Scale.

Because some areas under the waves still resist the cults, the Starspawn Council made plans to move through those areas in near future, in order to finally reach the opposite shore and capture another population center, like the city secured this turn (The Land of Our Lord).



The prophet of the mad arab, Robert Olmstead, had wandered afar, occasionally stopping to write down notes, sometimes stopping to preach for those willing to listen. So he went on.

He had reached a vast town – a city if you may – far to the West of home waters. A strange thing captured his attention. Midgård had secured both sides of the city but wasnt able to take the city it self. Robert Olmstead stopped to study Midgård's fighting habbits. There must be some vile magic in work here, otherwise the strange situation would not have been possible. The prophet needed to know what it was...



One aspect, however, needs to be clarified herein. While the Dreamlands as a nation and religion doesnt trade nor collaborate with others, the fact doesnt mean that we could not – or even should not - take any diplomatic actions.

So, I chose a thematic approach on diplomacy.

For example, I made plans to deliver accurate as well as misinformation for other players, in a form of short, edited Lovecraft story adaptions. The very first one was to reveal the location of Midgård's capital to his neighbours. It would serve my purposes if any of his neighbours would turn against him, especially now that I drove him off, secured a fat booty in front of his nose and thus made most certainly an enemy for the rest of the game.

So, to get started with the information war, I sent this message to Caelum and Marignon both (the edition is adapted from The Terrible Old Man by H.P. Lovecraft):

. . .The Terrible Old Man is, in truth, a very strange person, believed to have been a captain of East India clipper ships in his day; so old that no one can remember when he was young, and so taciturn that few know his real name. Among the gnarled trees in the front yard of his aged and neglected place he maintains a strange collection of large stones, oddly grouped and painted so that they resemble the idols in some obscure Eastern temple. This collection frightens away most of the small boys who love to taunt the Terrible Old Man about his long white hair and beard, or to break the small-paned windows of his dwelling with wicked missiles; but there are other things which frighten the older and more curious folk who sometimes steal up to the house to peer in through the dusty panes. These folk say that on a table in a bare room on the ground floor are many peculiar bottles, in each a small piece of lead suspended pendulum-wise from a string. And they say that the Terrible Old Man talks to these bottles, addressing them by such names as Jack, Scar-Face, Long Tom, Spanish Joe, Peters, and Mate Ellis. And, on the wall, hanging from a single pin, is a timeless, brown document with strange resemblance with a map - but the features drawn with wildly shaking human paw are unlike in any other map known to man. In the middle of the drawing is a small icon of a dark red flag wrapped around a bastard sword, and three grotesque words written under it: Midgård capital (69). The Terrible Old Man must have seen many strange, unspeakable places.

[Anaconda]

move along, nothing to see here: turn 12

Midgård contacted us offering a NAP. The player seems nice enough, almost hurts to remain dead silent. No response from Caelum nor Marignon, on the other hand. Now that I think of it, the elements and forces of asymmetry might prove working well for our benefit – while not mongering direct war for now, not responding enhances confusion among our enemies. I am not sure if the body responsible for the general strategy - Joint Chiefs of Starspawn Staff - have ever heard of Clausewitz or Sun Tsu, but chaos, friction and fog of war is good status quo for all mad cults in the world, no matter the origin.

This turn also showed that while the population dies quickly (hope the domkill effect reaches beyond our borders!!!!11), luck scales should keep us funded.

To strengthen the domkill effect, and especially for the reach, we decided to start a temple building project the first additional temple coming up already, and 2 additional temples being built next month. Of course, this is gonna have some implications on the research and economy... how dramatic, remains to be seen.



For conquest, we face two options.

Divide our host first time and march to the North and to the East, or concentrate all the troops against the East.

We chose the latter for two reasons. The chances of taking two provinces next turn are dim with divided forces – I came to the conclusion after evaluating the chaff calling them selves cultists – and when the whole army marches East as one we can ensure a victory, and hope ensuring two simultaneus victories turn 14, after fielding even creater force of cultists next turn.

The victories we expect to achieve turn 14 are even of greater importance: when we march East now, we can take the population center located in the East turn 14, and move North the same turn with smaller force – at least we hope. The special battle markers point out the city and the Northern province where our tactical aim lies. However, when studying the current tactical situation, we can be pretty sure Caelum has taken the the city already.



About the mad prophet, Robert Olmstead... to serve the initial goal of spreading domkill we decided we let him stay near vicinity of the city called Glimmering Fields. The population center appears to be a prosperous location with population of 19270 (Census Bureau, turn 12). The province is away beyond my physical reach, surrounded by strong provinces of Midgård. As a method of punching the Midgård's nose him even not knowing it, Robert Olmstead should stay around preaching, and we will see how low the population will die before Midgård actually secures the place, and roots the cult out.

[Anaconda]

writing on the wall: turn 13

Now that there appeared to be little time, the Starspawn Council descended down to the curious library under the sunken city.

Instead of books the library consisted of innumerous, empty stone champers. Instead of books the library had carvings on the walls, all done in symbols unfamiliar to man. The study was troubling – they were looking for any bits of intel revealing the secrets of newly discovered neighbours. And what did they find, dear Cthulhu!

All of them – Caelum, Midgård, Marignon – have easy access to Air magic. Marignon and Midgård also got knowledge on Blood, and Midgård and Caelum got considerable stealth units. Marignon, also, has champs I need to take into account; spy and assasin. This means, if willing, all three can easily submerge units with really nasty intentions. Cthulhu save us! We can only hope they keep busy with other earthlings...



It was pretty obvious massed cultists would crush the resistance in a province our armies headed, so no surprises there. Thus, it is not important what went down.

It is important what came up.

First, the ancient city (told to be as old as the Pillar of Heaven it self) where our army was headed stood radiant in the sun light – radiant and more importantly untouched by those grotesque flying demons flocking over the fabled hilltops of Caelum. The city guard was rumored to be heavily armored noblemen on horse, who would rather give their lives than give away their privileges as the leading caste in the city.

Good, a fight in sight.

The heavy cav might be supported by missile troops of some sort – maybe even crossbow men, after all the city was old, populous and prosperous. But they were not important. If we could succesfully utilize cultists as a meat wall against the cav charge, the Elder Things (from the Void) and Illithids would take care of the rest.

The starspawn Council chose to pursue the original plan, and carefully split the field army in two. The first, smaller unit heads North with Dagon the traitor king. The second and by far larger unit prepares to conquer the city in front of our troops.

So far we have been lucky...



...however, dark clouds (in form of dark wings) can be seen in the horizon. The province we pacified is a neighbour to the seat of power of infamous Caelum.

This is indeed very interesting situation.

First of all, the capital of Caelum stoods practically within one turn aerial drop from my seat of power. With some water breathing items the parrots with map movement 3 (there is only one unit w/ map movement 2, all others have map movement 3!!!11) can come knocking on our heaven's door without a warning.

Well, to be honost, I dont have slightest idea if flying over water works like flying over solid ground, even when equipped with water breathing items, and more over, they need to find my sunken city first.

But, they already know of our precense at the city West of their capital. Aerial drop could be coming any turn. Also, if we manage to capture the city in the east, as we should, they can drop their grotesque bird-alikes there too, directly from their dreaded hilltops within one turn.

Most importantly, we am now in control of a neighbouring province to their capital. This means we are a serious threath from their perspective. The fact is making a possibility of pre-emptive strike even more likely. But also opening a possibility for intersting gambit for us, too. If we keep the province occupied with a significant force, they might be too affraid to leave their home province.

And, we could, on the other hand, move against their capital right now! Tempting idea, wont lie it did not cross my squid's mind at all. However, being tied into a long war of attrition could prove fatal so early on. Therefore I simply leave parrots alone for now. But it is indeed tempting, considering how large army I field next to their capital.

While staying back for now, we would like to coin already a strategy for an incoming assault against their capital. No matter when it happens, we might got best chances if we can take them by surprise with massed, flying SCs. For example, emptying the neighbouring province allows them to fall to a false sense of security.

We could prepare couple of Vastness' (at least one with Gift of Reason cast on it) to secure the bridgehead and siege the capital. They can fly over multiple provinces – I assume at this point at least – so enemy doesnt know whats coming for them before they are already there. Same turn we can move our field army to the neighbouring province, and continue marching forward next month. In two turns we should have secured the siege with unbreakable army, and get the capital within a turn or two. But this is for the future (and could work on any other province on that matter).



In West, Midgård is getting ready to move against the city of Glimmerin Fields, it seems.

The prophet Robert Olmstead is doing good work converting people there, and while on it, he eyewitnessed a strange encounter. A single Midgård captain came rampaging into the city, killing cityfolk on his left and on his right. It took only an eye blink for the archers of the city guard to take the lunatic down, but Robert Olmstead was sure the commander wasnt acting alone for simple lack of witts (or because he somehow would have been converted to the cult). Olmstead reports he is sure the commander was merely screening a recon mission. Midgård most likely was measuring strenght of the city guard before the final showdown with them.



Robert Olmstead got finally convinced when he sneaked close to the city mortuary by night, and saw a Valkyrie flying away with the body of a fallen hero. This northman would be feasting among his warrior brothers in the halls of Odin before the archers who killed him would have got supplied with new arrows. Fine trade for a warrior serving his gods – in life and in death.

[Anaconda]

the northmen marching on: turn 14

A glance on stats shows some interesting figures.

First, the number of the temples went up 400% in three turns. One more coming up this turn, and another a turn after this one. Then we have got six up already and we have to evaluate if we can afford more at this point.

We need to start investing in local guards in the land provinces. Which brings us to another number. The upkeep cost. As Squirreloid stated in his guide, R'lyeh will be short on money side. We hired some Illithid infantry for initial expansion, but havent been hiring them for awhile now. We just can not afford them – as predicted. Luckily dominion pops up some random Void Monsters along the way, such as Elder Things and Otherness'.



We are a bit worried about our Void Summons – they dont keep coming like We'd wished, Cthulhu damn it!

Where are our Greater Otherness' and the first Vastness? The initial research goal is Gift of Reason, so we can start sending Vastnesses raging around the map, and right after it we aim for Void Spectre – this is the order because Astral Pearls are scarce commodity, and Spectres are Pearl hungry breed. By the time we get there we should have solid flow of pearls (Note to self: save all extra pearls!!!11). However, we might have to get some Construction in between, just to make sure when we start spamming GoR, we can supply our new champions the best gear of war available.



We won the battle of Omicria. Nothing special there.

Our mages casted Mind Burns, and Illithids and Elder Things casted Mind Blasts. Dagon the traitor king, on the other, lost the battle in North. Now we need to regroup and send a new invasion force, so little set back that direction. This turn our armies attack two provinces, battles after which the whole sea should finally be under our iron tentacle.

As seen in the picture, we also make two other movements, placing our fresh levies in locations from where they can move and attack finally outside our home sea turn after the next one. If all goes well we might be able to lauch four different attacks next turn, Cthulhu bless us!



The frikkin' parrots of Caelum worry us, thou.. as we can see from the recon sketch above, Caelum moved their aerial drop units into new positions. We are doubtfull, thou, they have got waterbreathing items – yet! However, they present some danger to our land provinces already, making the plan of investing in PD even more importat, as mentioned before.

In the West, northmen, as predicted, took the city of Glimmerin Fields. Simple infantry tactics, nothing fancy there.

[Lunaje]

Very nice AAR Anaconda. Keep them coming. I'm sure there is some Midgardian foolishness on the way.

[Torin]

Amazing. Good looking pics. Like the pretender design.

[Anaconda]

Originally Posted by Lunaje

Very nice AAR Anaconda. Keep them coming. I'm sure there is some Midgardian foolishness on the way.

Thanks everybody.

I will keep them coming but now I am under the burden of slow, mobile connection so uploading pics wont be possible for few days. And the game is still on, so I wont rush anyway for the sake of others.

And, yea some banquet with Midgård coming up later in the game. It really dropped my yes dude, leaving the sockets hollow and empty

[Anaconda]

the deep blue sea: turn 15

Truly a good month!

1) Now the whole deep blue sea is ours. Ours! MINE!!!11

The two battles fought this turn were both almost even, but because of my divine cause the cultists managed to come out victorious in both. Thank Cthulhu!



2) Uzumna lured first Vastness out of Void Gate. About time!!!11

Gift of Reason is beign discovered shortly, which means the mad arab could site search this turn and return R'lyeh next turn to cast it! Uzumna's summoner skill went up being now 7.

We also consider killing Robert Olmstead and making Vastness the prophet so he could bless him (Or her? Maybe it!) self in a battle. We need to think about this, but...maybe with the next Vastness, now that we thinked of that. Scouts have tendency to die on their own at somepoint, and we could send the first Vastness on the field right away the GoR is cast.



3) One of our Starspawn Priests found truly a magnificient site.

Aside of Abdul Alhazred, the mad arab, we also had to order some astral mages to conduct site searching. The arab lacks knowledge on astral matters. With this new discovery, the Pearl income rises up to 7, but in order to keep casting Void Spectres every turn in future we need 25+ income.

And, lastly,

4) Man and C'tis fround from North, and intel from Marignon revealing some others.

This means, unfortunately, that the population center located in North – the one where we had laid our eyes - has been taken by Man, leaving us with 2 out of 4 of the cities we had dreamed of. While someone weak at heart might think 2/4 is not bad at all, we remind you, R'lyeh is uncompromising, and we are not weak at heart!

Because we dont have heart!

The war in North caused us heavy loses, we could not move forward up the rivers we had originally planned. Instead, the legions stay put preparing for a new campaing. We had completely something else in our Illithids' minds, but it changed when an insane man arrived from a faraway land.

The man was sent by the high inquisitor of Marignon, to deliver a message. The person had been rifting in a skiff weeks, and had gone mad. The message however was clear, for it was carwen in the wood in case something happens to the delivery man (good thinking, Marignon, paper would have got soaked!):

A Summary Disposition of our Neighbors:

. . .

Utgard: Surrounding the Sea of Woe far to the east of our lands. Seems to have grown complacent; regret that we have no forces within easy reach to take advantage of said complacency. Man does not seem to have this problem, however.

Man: Capitalizing nicely on Utgard's failure to mount an adequate defense. Trading parties complain of exorbitant tax rates, likely to fund their large number of castles. From what we've seen of their armies, consist mostly of archers, flanked by more archers, with some armored crossbowmen in the vanguard, and then some more archers for added diversity.

. . .

Summarizing, best to explore possibilities for western/southern expansion. Midgard looks promising, but other avenues exist should insufficient forces be available.

The bolded part of the message caught our attention, and thus is worth repeating here. We were planning to reach out in West, and make a landing to the peninsula in East, still free of Caelum's parrots.

This all changed.



The forementioned lake, Sea of Woe, is just a month's march away from our current border, up the river in North-East. It would take one month to gather cultists, and another to secure Sea of Woe. Come the third month, we would be making landing already.

If it is true, what Marignon claims, and Man had got a free ride with Utgård, our first prey starts to reveal it self. We also got the second wave coming already, expected to arrive to Sea of Woe month after the vanguard. And, when mad arab gets GoR casted, the **** is gonna get very real! (This might very well be extremely well planned ruse of war, to lure my main armies away from my heart lands - if only Marignon would have better prospects for early war under water.)

Thus, make haste mad men, for the the spoils of war await!

But, back to basics: We keep building temples as planned because it seems everyone has got frikkin' high dominion around here and the madness aint spreading as it should. Also, we need to start hiring Starspawn Priests to preach around the border waters. This, however, means we need to build extra fortresses in order to hire some.



We should have recruited more scouts, so we could have eyes all over the place. This would have been usefull in determing where the Vastness should fly... to compensate this we train a Star Child instead. The poor little bastard (literally!) got better sneak than our regular Scout, and can assasinate while at it, so let us see how this comes out.

We started thinking maybe he should receive some gear, leading s to forge Skull of Champion, the basic astral shield (which costs 5S, gems we cannot afford and thus being terrible trade off, we fear and Ice Sword to improve his defense.

Even with forging we are in schedule with GoR, remind you!



And, now that we are gathering our forces for the very first serious campaign, should we introduce our high magus in charge?

Henry Wentworth Akeley (the late, of course!), from the H.P.'s story The Whisperer in Darkness (the movie is great too11!!!).

Yea, I know, Henry Akeley aint an Illithid, but give me a break – how many Old Ones we know by name anyways (and dont confuse D&D here, please)? The late Henry Akeley is one strange fellow - with outerworldly origins - so he would do!

As a final note, Robert Olmstead sneaks out of the city of Glimmerin Fields because ”the local defence appears to be quite well organized.” Maybe northmen started suspecting something is very wrong when the dark candles dont go out and death reigns in the side alleys of otherwise safe and prosperous merchant city. During the months Robert Olmstead preached in the city, he managed to bring population down to 18470 from 19270. Too bad the work must stop.

[Anaconda]

the orient express: turn 16

This time only one picture, but details are abundant. First note Yomi, discovered by Robert Olmstead. On the right side in the picture, however West from our sea. The prophet is swimming closer to the incoming area of operations around Sea of Woe.

Second, as you can see Caelum launched aerial invasion against northmen in South. This might prove smart because northmen are earthbound and can't easily pass the city controlled by our forces in the middle. If Caelum only holds his bridgehead, hes able to bring the war to the enemy.

Third, the gathering of Illithids near C'tis coast caused crisis among the swamp priests leading them demanding a swift NAP5 between two of us. We replied explaining we am not getting involved in formal diplomacy. He shared some intel (accurate or not, we will see next turn) that C'tis will launch an invasion against Caelum next turn – to which we replied leaking the Caelum-Midgård war.

The leader of the Illithid battle group, Henry Wentworth Akeley, is marching up the river to secure Sea of Woe come next month. The incoming turn appears to be extremely interesting: Sea of Woe is gonna reveal it's secrets.