Forenia, 911In the mountains, the balance of power shifts. Moskurg has moved additional troops into the mountains to try and gain back their castle, but they fail spectacularly to even get to the battlefield, losing skirmish after skirmish to Arstotzkan traps, many of which are concealed behind rolling clouds of fog. Arstotzka in turn has failed to win out on most of its return skirmishes with Moskurg, because although the mountains are astoundingly defensible, this goes both ways. Nevertheless, Arstotzkan forces were able to push back Moskurgers around their newly captured castle and have been building outer walls and watchtowers in place to hold their new territory. Once again, terrain has proved the key factor in victory.
Arstotzka has gained significant territory in the mountains.In the jungles, fighting is as bitter as ever. Moskurger raiders have the clear advantage in the thick jungle, despite the skill of proud Arstotzkan longbowmen who are nevertheless not best suited to ambush tactics. Magical concealment in the form of rolling clouds of steam help somewhat, but Moskurger raiders are seemingly always able to tell which clouds contain real troops and which are decoys, raining arrows down upon them. Although the two armies are evenly matched when it comes to actual battle, only half of the Arstotzkan troops ever manage to reach the battlefield, a cruel mirror of their own victories in the higlands. Moskurg slowly begins to make some territorial gains, but their real victory comes in the butchering of thousands of brave Arstotzkan souls.
The jungles are far too hot for our people, to say nothing of the sudden drops, the rope traps, the perfect ambush ground that Moskurger troops are light and plentiful enough to truly take advantage of. Worse still is the confusion resulting from our attempts to guard the thanes by dressing them in common clothes and allowing commoners to pretend to command in their place. Commands have been confused, authority is being questioned, commoners are taking it upon themselves to make tactical decisions with no idea of the overarching strategy, and nowhere has this been worse than in the confusing mess that is the jungle. We seem to continue to walk into traps at every turn, no matter what we try to do, and now the figures stalking us have begun to mutter mad syllables in some strange arcane tongue whenever we catch sight of them.
The greatest problem we face in the jungle is that of the so-called Black Phantasms; a score of elite Moskurger horsemen all garbed in black cloth and the finest scale mail their inferior armourers can produce. They have swept through our positions, time and time again, and when our ragged forces finally meet theirs the Phantasms are always leading the charge against us. Worst is their leader, al-Mutriqa, the Hammer. Unlike the rest of his band, the Hammer wears bright gold, red and purple silks upon burnished scales, and he fights with religious zeal. In one hand he wields a golden mace, which thanes have attested can break through even well-wrought chain, and in the other he bears what appears to be the Moskurger's recovered wand, a white rod which seems to glow with the light of the sun. Our brave soldiers are not dismayed by his sight, but it seems that al-Mutriqa's enchantments give great inspiration to his followers. Worst of all, the madman screams poetic quatrains to the skies whilst he is killing our men!
Fighting in the plains has been even more brutal than in the jungle. Armies clash with common frequency, and with no clear advantage in raids and skirmishes armies are meeting one another more or less intact. Arstotzka successfully took a major town in the plains early in the summer, only to lose it again in autumn. Territory is changing hands with alarming speed, but there have been no real gains. There have, however, been losses on both sides, with Moskurger cavalry chasing down fleeing Arstotzkans and Arstotzkan mages entangling fleeing Moskurgers in what appear to be massive spiderwebs, spun out of thin air, that hold their targets in place long enough for the infantry to come take hostages or execute the losers. Although both sides have lost a number of troops, the Arstotzkans have come out of the exchange worse for wear.
Truthfully, we are showing a poor footing in the plains, where our lack of defensive terrain is causing us harm. Our thanes and carls fight their hardest, but one man makes the difference; Master Wizard Myark, a man of common stock who prefers to fight amongst the carls, rather than fighting as a thane and leader. A simple man, Myark marches amongst his fellows, seeming to be any other carl until he raises our rightful inheritance, our wand; a short staff of seemingly blackened wood, set with gleaming bronze runes. Our enemies flee at the sight of Myark and his staff, for soon after they are burnt and laid low before him. Myark would not consider himself so high, but right now he is standing between the Moskurgers and their vicious victory.
At sea, the tides have turned, at least in the western sea. Admist the vicious sea battles between longship and sailboat, sailboats have been attacked by swarms of biting, stinging insects, which would not be such a problem were it for the fact that their stings seem to burn away the cloth of sails! Both Moskurg and Arstotzka lose ships as fighting intensifies, but with the aid of their blazing wasps, the Arstotzkans are gaining command of the jungle coast.
With losses continuing to pile up, the King has elected to reinforce the flagging plains first and foremost.
It is 912, the Design Phase.Propaganda Contest: Moskurg has received the Revision Credit this turn, due to their entertaining propaganda description of al-Mutriqa.
Northern Taiga: 4/4 Arstotzka
Central Mountains: 3/4 Arstotzka, 1/4 Moskurg
Western Jungle: 2/4 Arstotzka, 2/4 Moskurg
Eastern Plains: 2/4 Arstotzka, 2/4 Moskurg
Southern Desert: 4/4 Moskurg
Northern Sea: Arstotzkan
Western Sea: Disputed
Eastern Sea: Disputed
Southern Sea: Moskurger
Mundane Equipment
Broadsword: Officer weapon. An iron age classic. A double-edged blade designed for speed, flexibility and force. Requires training to wield, can be used one or two handed. Expensive.
War Axe: General infantry weapon. Can be used as a tool in a pinch, this is a single-handed weapon that does well against heavily armoured foes. Can be used with minimal training.
Wooden Shield: General infantry equipment. Couples well with an axe, cheap, easy to replace. Works best in heavy melee. Can be used with minimal training. Cheap.
Hide Armour: General infantry armour. Cheap, thanks to the plentiful sheep in the taiga. Turns aside weak blows. Cheap.
Chain Mail: Officer armour. Expensive, due to the steel required. Very effective against most weapons. Expensive.
Longbow: General infantry weapon. Difficult to find wood and requires a lot of training, but long ranged and powerful. Expensive.
Shire Horse: A heavy riding horse. Survives and rides well in cold weather. Powerful charge. Expensive.
Longship: Oar-rowed wooden ship. Slow, but sturdy, and can carry large numbers of landing troops. Very Expensive.
Magical Equipment
Wand of Fireballs: Hurls fireballs at a distance, able to destroy whole squads at a time. A National Effort.
Conjuration Spellbook
Obscuring Mist: Cloaks a squad in a fog cloud, hiding their numbers and equipment, and making them harder to hit at range.
Summon Swarm: Conjures a swarm of stinging wasps to harrass foes. Expensive.
Variant (Fire Wasps): Conjures stinging wasps that can start small fires. Expensive.
Magic Lance: Conjures a set of lances for a cavalry squad. Currently useless in their intended role due to fragile cross-section. Expensive.
Webs: Conjures a sticky web, immobilising an entire squad and preventing them from moving. Very Expensive.
Huh? WHY do we have disadvantage on those rolls? On the bright side, our enemy should also get confused by our directions.
Because they are bonus rolls, not true revision actions. Instead of spending your time and energy making them work, you pretty much handed them off to other people and said "Good luck!".
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Topic: Wands Race - [Arstotzka] {COMPLETED} (Read 391712 times)