Dreadful fates II - LA Ulm - Twobits Winner !!

[Jiggymike]

People must have bid CRAZY high on those mercs last month to take them from me. I'm pretty much done in this game, Ulm is just swallowing me up and my mages refuse to follow their orders. Sure guys, just waste all your slave on summoning imps and then blink all around the battlefield, that should help! Don't cast all those great offensive blood spells in your repertoire or banishment against his army of ghoul guardians that basically took the north half of my territory with barely any resistance.

[Fantomen]

Those blinking warlocks were an unexpected display of bravery, I'll give you that . Well, you did kill 17 ghouls, sieged a fort and horror marked my baron, that's something. I'll have to send new troops now and break that seige, which will slow down my building of a vampire defence by two turns at least. Outrageous.

About those offensive blood spells, could it be they don't work on undead, and that's why your mages go off script? Inexplicable mage behavior is usually tied to targeting issues of some sort or the other.

Blink should probably be removed from the game or given a gem cost, I don't see it causing anything but trouble and frustration. If you want a blinking commander/mage you can just forge sandals. And that's not very often, blinking assassins with magic bows are funny though.

Interesting thing there, that we could see in this battle, a master casting blink also blinks all the slaves. That can actually be useful in a linebacker communion storming a fort, I've used it that way, but that's extremely niche though.

[Anaconda]

To my belowed family back home in the imperial city!

Yesterday I learned more lessons than I have learned during my time with the host so far. Our training at the imperial barracks was put in test for very first time at the fields of Wyndun. I can now assure you, my loved ones, most of the war stories one hears in taverns from here back to the imperial city --- its all just hydras' droppings. But first lesson of the day was that hour is so very long for the waiting men.

Only few days earlier we had became aware of monstrous, one-eyed worms from the deepest caverns of the earth crawling down on us from the north. Commander Titus ordered us to march north and meet them. Later we learned that commander had sent riders before us to muster men from the loyal towns. Our host was few in number, but we had got the best training the empire has to offer, and we were eager to test our mettle with these grotesque monsters. The commander was wise to hide the size of the enemy from us at this point, and our spirits flew high along with the colors of the empire.

When we finally arrived to the field, the commander chose not to try and hide from the enemy but wanted them to find us. So, we build huge fires, and sent out rides to scout surroundings. We didnt build any fortifications however, but we simply maintained our selves and slept. I shared the first watch with a comrade of mine, so we two had got our rest when the horns went off early in the next morning. The enemy was approaching from the north. They must have had some evil magic from the deepest caves with them, for our riders had not seen a hint of the precense of scouts.

As the worm-general spread his host across the field, we were stunned. The enemy had trice the numbers we had in our camp. Indeed we must have seem puny in their eyes. But from this point on, nothing happened for hours. They were simply waiting, and so were we. Commander Titus didnt let us know of he's plans, and therefore we just stayed put on the other side of the field. The enemy saw we had not prepared any defences what so ever, so they must have reasoned we might simply break after seeing theri numbers.

The host didnt break, however, no matter we were truly scared. Maybe more than we had ever been in our lives. What happened was the men grew anxious, and it started to show. The commander had instructed his underlings to keep the men in hand, no premature advance should be made. The stress symptoms are strange, I can assure. Some leak under themselves, some cant stop talking while others dont answer no matter how many times you speak to them... every man acts differently, and it only gets worse with each passing minute.

I believe, now that I think of it, we saw them at the same time with the enemy. A ragtac lot of men marching down a hill from wouth-west. The militia consisting of local men were finally coming to meet us. This made the enemy seemingly disturbed. It became finally clear they had not got outriders nor scouts of any sort. How sloppy, I remember my self thinking. On the other hand, we had the training of imperial war academy. We got these things – underground dwellers... well, most likely they did not.

The local men took the head and met the vanguard of the enemy. The imperial legionaries stayed back. This was, of course, understandable. Never send your best in first.

What hope the first appearance of our militia had sparked, it died out fast. When they passed through us, we saw them up close. The local were young boys with mixed training and equipment. We are young too, I admit it, but these fellows – they appeared so green they could s hit grass. The good thing was the militia had no time to be scared, for the enemy fell on them right away.

They broke immediatelly – it seemed, at least. Poor lads came back running. They threw down their shields and what ever weapons they had got with them. Commander Titus sounded off and we formed a thin, long line. This was also a sign for our horsemen, who were about to flank the enemy and fell on their archers and commanders behind the lines. Running militia was drawing the enemy after them. It was perfect timing; the premature joy of victory was taking over the enemy, and their flanks became vulnerable.

It was my first call, and I remember thinking surely this was also going to be the last. There aint that many things I can recall from the battle itself, thou.

I remember us meeting the remains of our scattered troops as we advanced. Some were crying us to turn around. We had no chance, they shouted. My comrade pushed one of those pitiful things down to the mud and yelled at him that bring it on, we are not afraid! Commander Titus was right after us, furious. I recall him punching hard one of the militia commanders running into him, commanding the deserter to gather all of those capable of carrying arms, and come after us.

”The emperor's own are still here! The fight is not over yet”, he thundered waving the banner he had picked up from the slippery field!

At one point I remember wondering to my self how come there could be so many dead enemies already. When they had died and who had slain them? Later I understood my stress reaction had been playing a trick on me – the militia had not not given up right away after all. Indeed, they had done their part before showing their backs to the enemy. Unfortunately the cavalry got pinned down by missile fire and thus, the infantry was forced to work their way through the enemy lines a foe by foe. That cost us more men than the original plan had been, told commander Titus. The enemy stood bravely their ground. Blood left no room for rust on our blades that day.

[Bullock]

Seriously gath's giants are amazing they wipe all waves of enemies whatever the nation is, with so few losses.
The sacred buff seems to be the right, working pretty well


it's quite a shame to fail at 3 (4?) Vs 1 like that

[Scaramuccia]

You guys are so fun to watch

[Bullock]

lol stop laughing and come help us we could use a 5th guy haha.

I'm also gathering any funds that northern nations would provide for this war !

[Umsolfunolanis]

Those Gibbors are tough, especially with that bless!!

Just got rid of three spies in one province this turn.
Stop snooping around in C'tis land

[P3D]

There are troops better than the Gibbors, but for a cap-only giant sacred they are "massable". Without that E9N4 bless they are not that good.

You need to get more skellispammers.

[Jiggymike]

I hope I stay alive in this game as long as possible just so I'll remember to check for the AAR's (or whatever you call the narratives)...fantastic!

[Jiggymike]

I don't love to throw around accusations, but did anyone have spies in Mark for that last battle between myself and Ulm? Seemed pretty clear to me that his archers were firing at my commanders because they ran way up without releasing any arrows and then started dropping them directly around my [poorly arranged] commanders who weren't close to anybody else that that point. Not sure this was explicitly stated in the rules but I understand that it's bad form to use these commands, which can only be copied from Bogus or something. Can we please clarify this?

In any case I finally got the battle I wanted: our pretenders one on one (plus a bunch of imps and PD on my side). Au revoir Fantomen, highly afflicted PoD.