Dark Castle: Turn 18

I sent a note to R'lyeh last turn about working together mutually, and he said that our only common neighbor is Eriu and he has no interest in fighting him, but that we could talk further if our interests do align. It was very well stated, and it implies hat he has some type of non-aggression pact with Eriu. Oh well, at least he doesn't want to destroy me. 

Let's check out our battles:

Zentrha

It's a bad day to be an architect

We started fairly far away on the battle map. As our chaff wall advanced we took some fire from banishment from Marignon's Friar, which killed some of my troops, but he quickly retreated after we began slaughtering his comrades. 

I was worried I would take heavier losses and figured there could be a lot of more PD, but this worked out great. It's also a nice province at 13K population, which makes me convinced he was building a fortress here. I hope Marignon is pissed.

Cerulean Sea

Grave Giggler charges into the midst of the Kullulu's and lays into them with his Bane Blade. The Ku's manage to score a single hit, but he quickly regenerated. After a few rounds the Ku's fled -- no doubt from Giggler's fear aura.

I thought I couldn't love GG anymore, but he received the following heroic trait after this combat:

Over time his HP and strength will increase, which is amazing -- especially since his HP gain will synergize nicely with regeneration, and the higher HP might make him survive alpha strikes from certain single target spells.

Here were our events:

All positive -- especially that blood slave one. That will allow me to forge certain items that rquire blood slaves, e.g., Armor of Twisting Thorns, that I'd never be able to since I don't have enough population to hunt for blood slaves.

For our attacks this turn I use Grave Giggler to attack some independents in Alluvia:

I thought about using Giggler against Marignon, but that neutral sea territory is outside my dominion and might have decent income. It's also hard for other nations to take sea provinces, so it might be relatively safe to seize.

We'll be attacking Marignon in Troll Land. 

This will be our formation:

You will notice that I'm using Longdead Horseman (LDH) as guards. I actually prefer my Knights for this role, but they are too valuable on the frontlines for me to use as guards. However, LDH are still very good guards because they are fast and they strike with the lance, which can often pop assassins before they know what hit them.

I tend to pick out LDH from my freespawn for this sole purpose.

Next turn I'll hit Marignon in Spires of Ascension and then reinforce it with a flow of troops I'll be sending into Silverham. At this point I do not want to attack Marignon's capitol -- I just want to cripple him and leave him for Phaeacia.

For our final battle this turn we send our small force in Zenthra against Marignon in Bitra:

It's a very modest force but it's dangerous enough where you need more then PD to defend against, and Marignon will be forced to divert some of his military to stop. Since Marignon has a slow army and is being attacked from all fronts, anything that divides his forces will be of great benefit to me. 

I can't stress enough how important I think ghouls are because of how they deter attack on my fortresses. If an enemy can't break down my walls easily, he's not going to want to attack -- especially if my lands don't generate any gold. I'm starting a new section called Ghoulwatch where I count how many ghouls I have in my fortresses:

I have 568 ghouls across my six fortresses with the following breakdown:

• Shadowland: 156
• Obocte: 17
• Karene: 99
• Ermor: 140
• Plothai: 56
• Morn: 100

I'd like to have at least 100 in each with 150 in Ermor. I start shuffling ghouls and priests around to try to equalize this a bit better, but it will take awhile.

On the construction front I upgrade my fortresses in Shadowland and Karene. 

I really want to hire a priest but then I'll have less then 900 gold next turn, which I need so I can upgrade my fortress in Obocte and build a new one in The Caverns.

There is an arena competition:

The only units that would stand a chance of winning on my side, e.g., Grave Giggler, are far too valuable for me to risk in the arena. If I had a shroud of the battle saint I could put it on a Censor, but I don't and every commander is valuable to me right now. I've had a total of 6 commanders appear via freespawn (7 if you count Grave Giggler)-- everyone else I've either recruited, e.g., priests, or summoned, e.g., Acolytes.