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[Devastator]

They do have quite an advantage due to their terror choices.  Is there any recompse for not doing terror?  Because giving more casulties to the enemy in return for a penalty to them seems strictly superior to Chivalry.

[evictedSaint]

You have the moral highground, but that's about it.

[Devastator]

Can we do anything with moral high ground?  Propaganda or something?  It should probably be a benefit in the next foreign intervention event.

[3_14159]

One of the main issues, apparently, isn't to defeat them but that you trade the defeated enemies away again. Therefore, my proposal for this year's design action:

Prisoner-of-war camps: With more and more enemies being released to fight another day, we are finding it difficult to actually make gains. But what if we didn't have to trade them away or kill them? Instead, camps are created in isolated places in Moskurg's safe regions, allowing for internment of enemy prisoners. Separate prisons, complete with mages able to suppress magic, are created for their mages which - together with confiscating their wands etc - should be able to easily hold them.
While this requires Moskurg to feed the prisoners (although some may be asked to farm for them?), it should be worth it, only having to defeat each of them once.
(Note that, should these prisons be at full capacity, prisoners will still be released.)

[NUKE9.13]

They do have quite an advantage due to their terror choices.  Is there any recompse for not doing terror?  Because giving more casulties to the enemy in return for a penalty to them seems strictly superior to Chivalry.

My thinking behind choosing Chivalry was thus:
Our troops have a lower base morale than theirs (this is an assumption)
Lets say ours have 3 and theirs 5
If our morale is lowered by 1, that's a 33% decrease. If theirs is lowered by 1, that's only a 20% decrease.
Therefore it makes more sense for us to try and raise our morale than lower theirs.

Mind you, that was back when we were solidly winning combat, and could afford to grant them a few extra soldiers.

One of the main issues, apparently, isn't to defeat them but that you trade the defeated enemies away again. Therefore, my proposal for this year's design action:

Prisoner-of-war camps: With more and more enemies being released to fight another day, we are finding it difficult to actually make gains. But what if we didn't have to trade them away or kill them? Instead, camps are created in isolated places in Moskurg's safe regions, allowing for internment of enemy prisoners. Separate prisons, complete with mages able to suppress magic, are created for their mages which - together with confiscating their wands etc - should be able to easily hold them.
While this requires Moskurg to feed the prisoners (although some may be asked to farm for them?), it should be worth it, only having to defeat each of them once.
(Note that, should these prisons be at full capacity, prisoners will still be released.)

This... might be worth considering. Not this turn- we are so close to developing effective anti-magic, and that will be an absolute game-changer (you think ebbor's whiny now, hoo boy, just you wait until we roll out counterspells)
But it is worth keeping in mind.

[Devastator]

Nah, my thinking is that changing out of chivalry is an option, or we could do orders like to release people, but cut off a hand while they're killing their prisoners.  Or go into necromancy or something to use the tortured spirits against them or something.

Or just straight-up win now.

[ATHATH]

Maybe we could break our prisoners' limbs before sending them back (only while Arstotska continues their barbaric Terror policy, of course), so that Arstotska would have to either spend resources on feeding men who can't fight or work, deal with the consequences of killing their own crippled men, or spend several turns developing healing magic and/or medicine.

[crazyabe]

Ahem, Mindwashing.
We Return all their People just for them to all Turn at Critical Moments.

[ATHATH]

Ahem, Mindwashing.
We Return all their People just for them to all Turn at Critical Moments.

I'm going to assume that you're talking about magical brainwashing, not normal brainwashing.

This is a good idea, but our anti-magic might dispel some of the brainwashing before our commands trigger.

[Sosoku234]

That's why it's a pre-battle thing. You use it before combat to disrupt their Defensive lines before you use the anti magic spell.

[evictedSaint]

Sorry about the delay, everyone. I'm out of town this weekend - Design phase is gonna have to be later tonight

[evictedSaint]

Design: Enchantment Dispelling Tubikh Rrahim [6!-1, 4-1, 5-1]
As our research into the spell known as Tubikh Rrahim goes on, it becomes increasingly obvious that this is a powerful realm of divine magic.  As such, our researcher priests have worked tirelessly to further our understanding of it.  The Saadiya Madrasa - our temple/university - is where they've spent the past few months squirreled away.  The Tower of Storms has had its doors barred to the outside world, and from outside all that can be heard are the monotone chants of Divine Magic.

We've captured a few crystal axes from battles with Arstotzkan commanders.  They rarely last more than a month, so we've had difficulty getting them back from the front lines in time for research, but the few we've managed to get have been used extensively in testing.  It's been difficult finding the right combination of prayer and circle inscription, but our researcher priests have been motivated.  After a considerable amount of work we've managed to cause one of their crystal weapons to dissolve into magical aether.  At first we thought it simply vanishing on its own, but we've been able to repeat the experiment twice more.  Without putting it in the field we can't be for certain it will work on the same scale, but our researcher priests are hopeful.

The spell is still immobile, requiring intricate circles to be drawn on the ground, meaning it cannot be used on the offense - perhaps one of the more problematic aspects of the spell.  By default it still disallows our own mages to cast within the field, meaning we can't use it to protect high-value mages casting our more critical spells.  Curiously enough, the spell doesn't prevent lightning strikes from landing in the field (we thank our brave apprentice for testing this aspect), implying Arstotzkan fireballs wouldn't be dispelled upon entering the spell range.  The range is likewise still limited to the immediate area around the caster, preventing us from moving the spell further afield to where their mages are casting.  This variant of the spell is also more difficult than the standard version, requiring a more rigorous period of solitude and prayer to cast.  Expensive

[ATHATH]

Revision: Anchoring: Learn how to bind the center-point of Tubikh Rrahim to objects or people, causing the spell to move with whatever it's bonded to.

[Happerry]

Revision: Anchoring: Learn how to bind the center-point of Tubikh Rrahim to objects or people, causing the spell to move with whatever it's bonded to.

If this is possible, it has my +1.

[NUKE9.13]

Argh! We're so close to making them flip the table in anger! We just need a little bit more advantage...

Revision: Anchoring: Learn how to bind the center-point of Tubikh Rrahim to objects or people, causing the spell to move with whatever it's bonded to.

Hmm. That may be tricky- it's a pretty big change. I think if we can just get the spell to be mobile, so that we can use it offensively, that would be good enough to scare the shit out of them. We could perhaps make it bind to something if we roll high enough. How about this:

Revision - Wand of Tubikh Rrahim: God, in his infinite wisdom, requires a highly complex series of enchantments to call upon His aid. Drawing these spell circles is a complex thing, however, taking up much time and effort. Now, we cannot skip this step, but we can make it easier for mages on the front lines- by pre-inscribing the necessary circles onto a wand, and performing part of the ritual on it, it allows mages to cast through the wand, even whilst on the move.
This should allow Tubikh Rrahim to be used offensively. If we roll high enough, we might make the wand the actual center of the spell, allowing them to be thrown at enemy wizards like anti-magic grenades wait no then they can just pick them up and reverse-engineer them. Perhaps the apprentice casting the spell (apprentices can still cast Expensive spells, albeit only once per battle- but you can only cast Tubikh Rrahim once per battle anyway, so it's all the same) could be convinced to join a cavalry charge towards enemy mages. If they get killed... well, they're only apprentices. Dying a hero ain't so bad.