Jotunheim:Utgard AAR

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Zen:
If I'd known that you were going to write an AAR that would stir this much contraversy I'd have made you pick Arco with a Natarajah. They are much easier to teach *everything* about without having any instant weaknesses

My fault. I didn't get the idea to AAR it until I'd done 17 or 18 turns. It wasn't exactly planned. Hell, if it had been, I'd've been more dutiful about making sure I didn't overlook things when issuing turn orders (like my scout). The fact that I have save games for each turn is a habit I got into a few weeks ago, after I ran into an issue that I was posting to IW as a bug and was not at the time keeping savegames so couldn't show them an example of it. I have 77 turns of a R'lyeh game, 57 of an Ashikaga game (LoF god), 39 turns of a dual-bless (N+W) Utgard game, and a few others as well. None of these do I have any intention of writing an AAR for. One AAR I think will be more than enough work for me.

I am very interested in what you have to say about Arco, Nats, and "everything". Anytime you'd care to create your own educational thread ...

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Karacan:
Also, the communion strategy is *very* susceptible to assassinations. Communicants are slain by a simple unequipped assassin quite easily.

Since Jotun has no assassins, is there a way to hire indy assassins? (I've never seen any.)

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Zen:
If I'd known that you were going to write an AAR that would stir this much contraversy I'd have made you pick Arco with a Natarajah. They are much easier to teach *everything* about without having any instant weaknesses

Well, the Nataraja doesn't come with good natural protection, and only has a single misc slot so you can have some trouble giving him all the stuff you might want.

[Arryn]

In case anyone's been having any sort of trouble following the flow of my turn postings, I've been trying to maintain a consistent format for each one. It is as follows:

• Turn number and season (month).
• A one-line "poetic" summary of the turn's most significant event.
• The reports of events in other nations.
• The report of anything special that has happened to me. This may sometimes be moved further down to better fit the prose.
• Descriptions of the battles that have taken place. This may take several paragraphs. I will generally not go into what happened in every replay turn, but instead give a condensed, or abridged Version of the action. I do take the time, though, to count each and every enemy unit type on the replay, which is tedious as you may imagine. I feel it's useful to know the exact mix of forces the AI has used and what it did to me and I to it.
• I follow the battle report with a report of how my people in the Hall of Fame (HoF) are faring. "Trophies" is my word for "experience". It's the best I could think of to put XP into some sort of thematic form.
• Next is an overview of the unrest in my realm. I may also include significant increases in province dominion in this paragraph.
• Following this is a report on the commanders that were hired, and what school level my researches have achieved this turn.
• A summary of the most important numerical stats for the realm, and the capital.
• Followed by the gem treasury report, with the amount in the pool shown in parenthesis.
• Next is a paragraph describing what/who I'm recruiting, and why.
• The Last thing in the turn is what orders I have given to whom.
• There is one Last thing that I may add to some turns, and that is my own assessment of any obvious mistakes I made that turn.

I hope this helps.

[ February 10, 2004, 22:59: Message edited by: Arryn ]

Well there are uses for magic arn't there? Not everyone gets to be left alone for 30 turns to make supergolems

The reason that Arco is very nice to learn on is because of the wide variety of magics. The reason that the Natty is so good to learn SC's with is because he's very, very solid with a few picks of the right magic and has the slots to switch/adjust.

Combine a Natarajah with the versitility of Arco and you have a lethal combination for learning about SC's. Not to mention the standard armies of Arco can very much hold their own without much need for support from indeps. It is a much better breeding ground for learning alot of what the game has to offer as far as making tough combatants in combination with standard armies and magical choices.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Arryn:
Since Jotun has no assassins, is there a way to hire indy assassins? (I've never seen any.)

There are a few rare places you can hire assassins of varying quality: Some rare provinces have an Assassin's Guild site which lets you hire assassins. The Hidden Kingdom of Elludia would let you hire Elludian Stalkers, which are pretty mean baseline assassins. Alternatively, as Jotun, you could send those scouts out to hunt for some blood, and have a Skratti bake up some Black Hearts, which you could then equip on a Woodsman.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Zen:
Well there are uses for magic arn't there? Not everyone gets to be left alone for 30 turns to make supergolems

Hey. It's not _my_ fault that you guys got caught up in dealing with each other and left me all by myself to expand at a leisurely pace.

[Arryn]

Turn #10, Winter of Year 1
Fast food, medieval style.
Braving the snows, travellers from afar bring word that a Sidhe Lord of Man has been appointed as the false prophet of Yadnif Goo.

While the siege of Pythium enters the third month, my avatar goes for a pleasant stroll upriver in the farmlands of Eribon. The heathens of this land, independent yet mildly sympathetic to Pythium, oppose me with a force of one priest and his fanatical bodyguard, a pair of mounted commanders, eleven heavy cavalry, and a trio of heavy footmen. Jorgun begins the battle at the rear of the field, which allows enough time to prepare spells of Personal Luck and Body Ethereal before the enemy cavalry charge arrives. My avatar receives the charge, completely unscathed, and proceeds to eat the nearest horse and rider. The cavalry switch to sabers, but are still unable to hurt Jorgun, who strikes out and envenoms a second horse and rider, which die writhing only moments later. Appalled by this, and the ineffectualness of their attack, the morale of the cavalry breaks and they immediately attempt to flee, but not before Jorgun poisons another rider and his mount, who suffer the same agonizing death as their predecessors. The footmen move forward to engage my avatar, and two of them are snatched up and swallowed whole in the blink of an eye. This causes a general panic to set in and all the heathens rout. But the Last footmen is not quick enough and becomes another tasty morsel.

Jorgun adds another 4 kills and 9 trophies to his tally, solo battle gaining him valuable experience that further improves his fighting prowess. He now has 2 stars and has moved to the top of the HoF. The proceeds from the Eribonese farms (52g) increase my income by 15%.

The Seithkona Urd, and her bodyguard of 5 Jotun spearmen, arrive at Pythium and join in the siege.

The number of dissenters declines by one in the Black Alps, and by two in Gwyrth. The faithful also gain a foothold in the province of Helmshire (#59, just south of Eribon, and up the other river from Saeborea). Slowly increasing dissent in the beseiged province of Pythium lowers revenues there by 3 gold. That it is I that receives this income, and not the Pythium pretender, is all that matters. The unrest will be dealt with after my inevitable victory.

The Seithkona Sigyn joins the coven at Jotunheim, which achieve mastery of the second rank of 'Enchantment' magics and are expected to complete the third next month. I give instructions that study begin on the magics of arcane item Construction once the goal in Enchantment magics is reached. The newfound Enchantment lore enables my avatar to add the spell of Astral Weapons to its pre-battle preparations. This will enable it to ignore the non-natural armors of opponents when striking with its venomous fangs.

My realm has:

• __5 Provinces (+Pythium under seige)
• 272 Treasury.
• 395 Income. (+49)
• 127 Upkeep. (+16)
• 131 Resources in the capital. (unchanged)

Gem income is:

• +3 Astral (30)
• +1 Death (10)
• +2 Nature (15)

With the added income from my latest conquest, I feel that I can afford to invite a third Norna sister to join my coven, so I command that the appropriate gifts and celebration be prepared, and I also command that another Jotun Spearman be readied in case the siege of Pythium should continue longer than I anticipate. These preparations drain the treasury of 250 coins, and I continue to defer bolstering provincial defenses.

I give command of the Jotuns at Pythium over to Bove, and I charge my prophet Grymis with proselytizing to the inhabitants in the farmlands surrounding the citadel. Pythium's dominion here is -2, and if I can knock it back to zero I will kill this pretender without ever having to fight him. It's worth the attempt, though it's unlikely as my base dominion is only 5 and may not be enough for this. Still, weakening the enemy dominion will make my pretender stronger should I be forced to use him in a castle assault, plus it helps shift the local scales to my benefit. My avatar, still alone, heads north to the plains of Bel (#92), where an estimated score of independent heavy foot and heavy cavalry await. The newly-recruited human commander in the Black Alps is sent to Jotunheim to gather the Jotuns in the garrison there. Actually, I never leave troops in garrison. I always assign them as bodyguards until some commander carries them away to battle. Finally, I call on Seithkona Sigyn to Revive a Mound King, which expends 3 of the death gems in my vaults, and set Seithkona Edda to the task of the Reanimation of long dead Jotuns, for which another 5 death gems are disbursed.

PS - All provinces with positive dominion, except my capital, have dropped to Cold-1. I do not know why this has happened in the midst of winter, with no related events reported, and Pythium's dominion not increasing.

I repeat a small, but careless mistake this turn:

• I leave the scout Bdvar in place for a seventh consecutive month in Saeborea.

to be continued ...

[ February 11, 2004, 14:22: Message edited by: Arryn ]

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Arryn:
PS - All provinces with positive dominion, except my capital, have dropped to Cold-1. I do not know why this has happened in the midst of winter, with no related events reported, and Pythium's dominion not increasing.

I repeat a small, but careless mistake this turn:

• I leave the scout Bdvar in place for a seventh consecutive month in Saeborea.

to be continued ...

Yeah, that cold fluctation thing is a bit of a nuisance. This is actually what fuels the push towards Cold-3: Because even if you take Cold 2 as preferred, odds are that the random fluctuation will likely kick it towards Cold 1 or so anyway, and you'll be penalized just as much as if you were at Cold 3 all the time, whereas being Cold-3 will likely cause it to drift upwards to Cold 2, which is preferred anyway.

I personally find the "N" key invaluable and tap it constantly before ending my turn, to see if I've missed anyone. "Defend" is rarely what you want to be doing anyway. This may prevent "neglected commander" in the future.

[Patrik]

Arryn, I must add that I really like your AAR, especially the style. I don't think it's hard to follow and most of the relevant information is there. The only thing I lack is total number of held provinces in your turn summary.