Dark Castle: Turn 23

There was a lot of activity this turn. Let's start with our battles:

Troll Land

This was a small engagement where Marignon reclaimed Troll Land against only 1 PD. I'm not going to show the formation, but it was interesting because Marignon's cavalry was set to guard his bishop who banished us. Maybe he's feeling paranoid after my Knights took out several of his commanders in our big battle several turns ago?

Zenthra

Marignon easily defeated our 6 PD with a modest size force of cavalry.

However, Marignon had a bit of bad luck because that province was attacked by a large number of Knights.

The Knights charged straight for Marignon's cavalry and overwhelmed them with a barrage of lance strikes. Some of Marignon's cavalry didn't have time to get fully blessed so they died fairly quickly After a few turns Marignon's force was nearly completely wiped out.

This is hysterical and underscores how difficult heavy cavalry can be in this game. This is obviously excellent for me, and will give me time to build my fortress in Panuonia without as much harassment from Marignon. To help with my counter-assault I'm moving Grave Giggler in position to help reclaim my provinces that I stole from Marignon and defend the throne. 

Glen of Wisdom

Marignon's attack our 1 PD with a squad of crossbow men. They launch two volleys of bolts at two of our charging barbarians -- killing one quickly. However, the remaining barbarian dodged the volleys and reached the lone commander, striking him down with his maul right before he goes down under a cloud of crossbow bolts. Without a commander Marignon's forces run off the battlefield and we win the battle. 

That barbarian is clearly a badass. We're going to turn him into a zombie and pin a medal on him.

Ecnaphale

Marignon tried to attack Phaeacia, who is sieging one of his fortresses.

Phaeacia opened up with mist to limit Marignon's crossbow fire and then lays into him with evocations (mostly thunderstrikes), destroying Marignon's force. However, Marignon did manage to do moderate damage with his cavalry, which might make Phae's siege a little more problematic.

I admire Marignon's fighting spirit, and it's difficult to fight two opponents, but I think he would have been more successful if he had brought some of his mages and and did not split his forces and attack me at the same time as Phae. If he had focused on just Phae, I think he would have had enough to defeat him -- he just needed a bit more firepower. Now he's truly screwed because he doesn't have much of an army left.

Hamane

Eriu attacked Man's last province.

Eriu didn't take very many losses. I did get to see his army in more detail, and from what I saw it doesn't look too scary -- although this is probably just a raiding party. 

The main unit was a Sidhe with 20 defense. I don't think I'd have too much trouble against them, but the whole sneaking thing might be annoying, although with my forts I can't be an ideal target for those shenanigans.

Since that was Man's last province he's been eliminated from the game.

Ulm attacked T'ien Ch'i (TC) in his capitol:

Ulm rained down evoations on TC and smashed his army, only taking light casualties.  I don't understand where TC's mages are. Maybe they were defeated earlier? TC did bring his pretender here that we can check out.

The fun doesn't stop there because R'leyh also attacked TC's capitol and now gets to fight Ulm's force:

R' casts mind burns while Ulm's returns the favor with Iron Darts that land in the midst of R'lyeh's commanders, killing several. This caused the rest of R's commanders to nope out and a general rout ensued. Compounding R'lyeh's misery all of his slow moving meterorite guards were either chopped up or gunned down by evocations before they could run off the battlefield. What a disaster. 

I always make a concerted effort to spread out my commanders to avoid these types of things happening, and I don't know if  R'lyeh brought enough mages to win this anyway. 

I'm not going to show it by we ferreted out a Scout from Bandar Log in Ermor.

We did reclaim our territory in Nifel this turn, but there is no battle report because there was no PD. I know it's easy to overlook PD, but it's important that there is at least 1 point. Not only can you sometimes get lucky (see what happened above to Marignon), but it also gives valuable intelligence about what your enemy is up to.

Anyway, Bandar log responded to my diplomatic effort and he said he feels obligated to attack me. I think that's a ridiculous reason to fight someone, but if he wants to tangle I'm cool with it. However, there's no-way I'm moving my force to Copper Canyon's because I think he's going to move there with his mage core and try to destroy my force. Instead, I'm going to raid him and send a squad to attack Deep Forest. It will only have 65 chaff units, but the defense is quite weak with 1 PD. 

I also move my large force to Three Pine Grove so I can be in position to either arrack Bright Woods or Peacehaven.

To my North I'm continuing form a new army in Silverham. This next turn it will have 13 Knights, 19 Lictors, and 184 chaff. I'm reinforcing Panuonia as well with about 60ish units and includes 4 knights and Grave Giggler. Shade Forest will be relatively undefended -- I hope Eriu doesn't attack me because there is an exposed temple here and I'm building a fortress, but I can't defend everywhere and I need to claim some of Marignon's lands.

Here were our events:

That's right next to one of my Dusk Elders, Wormlove, in Shadowland. After he searches this turn, I'm going to have him go to Land Pristine and search. 

On the infrastructure side we do the following:

Build a Palisades in Forbiggen Fields and upgrade a Palisade to a fortress in The Caverns. I use the remaining gold to upgrade some of my PD to 6.

On the recruitment front I summon a Dusk Elder. I might need him in case I lose Wormlove as part of my national event chain, and I need the diversity. Soon, I'll be using all my death gems to build Arch Bishops.

I also recruit a Woodhenge Druid in Shade Forest.

I can only recruit one every two turns. Ugh.

Finally, I give Grave Giggler a Blacksteel Kite Shield. 

I reached out to the Eriu player and asked him his intentions, and he said he was thinking of seizing Marignon's capitol. I told him that was fine and I was only interested in these provinces.

This is a good deal for Eriu, but I might have neglected to tell him that I offered the same thing to Phaeacia. I'm hoping those two fight over it, which I can use to my advantage. I'm also hoping I can give up some claims to stablize my front so I can focus on just a single opponent. I can always backstab people later if I want.

Finally, this Eriu player is pretty ruthless. He's being super aggressive and using every tool he can to gobble up territory.