The Dark Forest - where we fight one another before getting overrunned by thrash mobs
New turn.
Morpheus cleans up the Gruds from W and dumps more troops on R.
Porkbelly cleans up the Gruds from T and dumps more troops all around and in the Dark Forest.
Rastignak .... builds up his defenses on 6.
Dayyalu occupies I from Rastignak.
The Specter eats two men from Dayyalu on A, the GRUDMANIA doesn't stop as the Gruds push on X in their mad dash to get Castle 4.
To give an idea of the troops and territory sizes:
Dayyalu: Territories 11 Troops 65
Morpheus: Territories 7 Troops 53 (Half of this troops concentrated on R)
Porkbelly: Territories 7 Troops 21 (visible, Grud only knows how many hidden)
Rastignak: Territories 2 Troops 11
Gruds: Territories 4 Troops 9
I'm rooting for the Gruds!
Well, I decided to search my castle, and...
Holy everloving shit! Game, you must be fucking kidding me!
I'm dead so many times over!
Quote from Baron Rastignak on 21 September 2023, 9h45Well, I decided to search my castle, and...
Holy everloving shit! Game, you must be fucking kidding me!
I'm dead so many times over!
It is befitting a character called Rastignac to accumulate a large amount of treasure and capital.
Morpheus conquers U from the Gruds, keeps stockpiling on R.
Porkbelly conquers Q from the Gruds, keeps stuff in the darkness.
Rastignak searches his castle with amazing results.
Dayyalu redeploys and builds his own cheapo doomstack.
Specter eats two men from Porkbelly. Magician gives Porkbelly a man. The Gruds do nothing.
I am a bit late, but I added the turn 11 map below, with of course the Free Republic of Grud indicated.
Also : Turn 12
Turn 13 in two parts :
Turn 14 + 15
Turn 17!
Morpheus secures X, keeps dumping troops on R.
Porkbelly decides to go on the offensive and manages to take F from me.
Rastignak reinforces his castle as strong as he can, moving all his men inside.
I choose that I can't win being double-teamed, but I can at least make someone pass some terrible minutes before I die. If Morphy doesn't stop me, I'm coming for whatever troops you have stacked inside that forest, Porcine Lord.
And if Morpheus stops me, hey, it happens.
The Spectre eats three men from Rastignak and the Magician gives an extra man to Morpheus.
The situation gets increasingly brutal.
Morpheus goes on J, reducing Rastignak to a single castle.
Porkbelly goes on X, blowing a hole in Morpheus' southern defenses.
Rastignak's Scots angrily charge forth, I presume they maul heavily Morpheus' force on J (as 7 is quite low for an "hot area").
Dayyalu goes on on K to clean up the Porcine Invasion.
The Spectre eats three of Porkbelly's men inside a forest and the Magician summons a single man for Dayyalu.
Speaking as a player, I do not entirely get Porkbelly's moves, but I feel that will be better left for a postmortem. Also I wonder seriously how the game degenerates when there's only two players left.
Would you believe me that this turn required almost ten minutes of me thinking what the hell to do?
The brutality and the border gore continue unabated. With the Gruds on full retreat, it's up to the humans to deliver mayhem and terror. It's in the numbers, you see.
Morpheus conquers T from Porkbelly.
Porkbelly conquers 4 from Morpheus. Congrats for the Castle conquest!
Rastignak, still alive beyond all expextactions, is not only alive but a Clan of Scots was magically teleported on 6 giving him another army to cause chaos with.
Dayyalu leads his doomstack on L, encountering light opposition and pissing his pants in fear of the Pork Dark Doom Army that for sure is waiting in the dark.
The Specter tries to ruin Porkbelly's fun and eats four of his men in 4 and the Magician gifts some extra men to Dayyalu to build the Great Anti-Scots army on I.
Border gore, border gore everywhere
Some heavy action this turn!
Morpheus at last goes with his boat doomstack on I, killing my smaller doomstack but losing a lot of his troops in the process (roughly 18 lost to my 23)
Porkbelly, from what I see, does not move and reinforces.
Rastignak reinforces on 6.
Dayyalu pushes on O.
The Spectre eats some of Dayyalu's men in the Dark and the Magician gives an extra man to Morpheus. Oh, and F is still under Porkbelly but I forgot to paint it.
Oops, yes, the Porkers spent the last turn searching castle 4 and raising some fresh bunting over the gate.
We discovered the Mighty Rod of Equity and Mercy! and quickly melted it down to make spearheads.
Oh my gosh, what a mess.
Morpheus makes a probing attack on H.
Porkbelly gets M with a somewhat decent force.
Both moves are clearly uncoordinated with peculiar results, as we will see.
Rastignak calls for his ancestors and charges forth on J. Only the Magician can save him now.
Dayyalu chooses to secure a Castle and easily gets 3.
The Specter eats Dayyalu's men and the Magician gives a man to Dayyalu. Balance.
The border gore at last starts to punish the players: while Morpheus (correct me if I'm wrong) merely loses a couple men thanks to not having a clear route to a friendly castle for H and I, Porkbelly should be reduced to what, recruiting two men each turn if he doesn't blast through T or U?
Do you get recruits if you're controlling a castle you didn't start the game with?
Quote from Argyraspide on 25 September 2023, 18h13Do you get recruits if you're controlling a castle you didn't start the game with?
Absolutely, it's not necessary to hold onto your home castle, any of them will do.
You get reinforcements as long as you can trace supply to any castle you own, and you can also reinforce provinces that you can't trace supply to.
Morpheus gets 6, dealing what methinks is the killing blow to Rastignak. May the Scots be remembered.
Porkbelly breaches T, consolidating again his provinces and regaining some decent recruitment.
Rastignak prepares for a honourable last stand.
Dayyalu crushes Porkbelly's army on F at considerable cost, managing a half-decent frontline for once.
The Spectre eats some of Porkbelly's men and the magician AGAIN gives a man to Dayyalu. I'm missing the Gruds.
It appears that the endgame fight will be between me and Morph, if Porkbelly doesn't have some kind of ace in the hole.
The Scots have had their last stand.
But as McArthur famously quoted:
"I shall return! Now press the space bar."
Morpheus at last ends Rastignak's raiding conquering J. Have a cold one and press space bar, Baron.
Porkbelly... reinforces? I can't see offensive moves.
Dayyalu sends his men from the Dark Forest to get T and cut again Porkbelly in two. The magician, summoned, gives me 11 men for the first time in the game.
The Spectre eats 6 men on P(orkbelly) (Holy rotten RNG) and the Magician summons a man for Morpheus.
Armies assemble.
Morpheus reinforces (from what I see) and prepares.
Porkbelly retreats from Q to P, assembling a reasonably large Doomstack and letting the Free Gruds live once more.
Dayyalu bashes through on X, closing to Argyra's Castle, long-awaited prize.
The Spectre eats two men from Dayyalu and the Magician summons an extra man for him.