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[Iituem]

Hmm... We could also forgo a Design and just spam Training Camps (Kroton is a good candidate for one, it doesn't need transports to reinforce the front and it is behind multiple lines of forts... It'll take the Hive quite a while to overrun it even if we utterly fail to slow them down), the Academy, and colonize the woods to make it so we only lose 600 timber capacity rather than 1200... We're not maxed out yet at Epidaea so we can afford another full round of normal ship allocation, for the sake of future proofing. But we really should redistribute those boats next turn at latest.

(Sorry Iituem! Yet another question, this time about the Academy. The description implies that the training boost would be universal? Or is my sleep deprived mind horribly mistaken and it's just local?)

The training boost would be local, so if the city you build the Academy in was ever lost, you would lose those bonuses.  Just as Dorytos' training boon will be lost if it is ever taken.  The bonuses to spell slots would not be lost in that event, however; that knowledge will stay.  The restriction is simply that you can only have one Academy.

[Jilladilla]

Alright, thanks for clarifying Iituem.

The confusion came from assuming the 'improve the overall training output of the League' part of the description implied that it would boost every cities training by a bit. As to how? I was guessing that as it was built up, more and more apprentices-to-be would be sent to the city with the Academy, freeing up resources to use on other endeavors...

[Nirur Torir]

With the corruption cleared, magic school, and slight increase interest in learning from the failed magic revision, training per pop has gone from ~02.75%. to ~02.92%.

My predicted training points, before adjustment, was nearly spot on, off by a rounding error. We got extra apprentices from the unexpected growth. We didn't get the third ballista, as I didn't think to take into account resources.

We killed 8 of 12 spitters. I am pleased.
Our new apprentices all died. I want a personal defensive spell this turn.

We might be able to pull an "increased educational interest" revision.

[Iituem]

Enchant Armour:  1 (Jilladilla)
Heal: 1 (Terenos)
Macedonian Phalanx: 1 (Madman)

[NAV]

When are we going to design a piece of equipment and argue about every little detail?

[Nirur Torir]

On second thought, a dedicated personal shield spell might not be our best move yet.

We lost 8 apprentices, worth 144 training points. (Major camp got a 4, and gave 100. Assuming linear gains, that averages at 87.5) Even if the shield spell dropped apprentice casualties by 90%, it should be worth less than 2 dice of major camps. Roughly. There's probably some loss of effectiveness, but most of them died in melee anyway. Building up a superglob might help, but we have to maintain them with as many training points as they cost anyway.

We'd be better off increasing training points, giving them an offensive spell-

League 1st Front Deaths: [ranged] 11 skirmishers, 5 bowmen, 3 hoplites, 4 cavalry, 1 apprentices, 72 spearmen, 872 slaves,

Or giving them an air shield to try to bounce acid spit back, or maybe making our slaves better.

I don't know what I want to design, but I would like another revise on the mage training effectiveness. I'd like to try a revise for increasing educational desire. See if it works, it might. Another 5 training camps would be an expected 437.5, roughly a 20% increase. I think we're actually using all our training before putting slaves in our boats, so it would help. Then we could revise them to be more effective.

[Terenos]

Enchant Armour:  2 (Jilladilla,Terenos)
Heal: (This can wait, IMO)
Macedonian Phalanx: 1 (Madman)

Its not -just- a personal shield spell, we're just saying 'keep that cast on yourself first, plz'. I think its incredibly valuable even if all it does is save our apprentices.
Pushing for more apprentices acted as a huge force multiplier and started butchering them. Defending our apprentices + yknow, whoever else they can at the same time should do wonders for us.

Also... On second thought, we should take the offer. If we add those troops to the 3rd front, plus those biremes, we should be able to hold it, maybe even at the Nippan woods, and thats a pretty damn important thing. Who knows, the Lady most kind may show us her favor on a corruption revision.

[Nirur Torir]

I'm against it. That's 600 training worth of troops and less than 1 turn of boat production, for reduced troop effectiveness and doubtlessly some unknown penalty later. We're better off without them.

[Jilladilla]

Yup, Enchant Armor isn't self-only, just a note that says 'please cast this on yourself first please'.

Even if it only stops one apprentice from dying every turn, it'll still cause us to slowly build up our magical presence on the battlefield.
We could redistribute the reinforcing boats from Fleet 1 to Fleet 3, to give it +6 boats/turn. (Which would give us more transport capacity in one turn than what these jerks are offering.)

(Note: Tried to clarify some intentions of the Enchant Armor spell... Tired as all heck, but it should be a bit better now. Yell at me if I screwed up somewhere.)

[Nirur Torir]

Training Propaganda
Even up against our mightiest warriors, The Hive continues to advance. Worse, we have confirmation: Not a single human from Menotos survives. They have been devoured to the last child.

Fight! Train yourselves. Train your friends, and even your children.

They cannot be reasoned with. The only way to save our wives and children from their horrors is to fight. This will be the hardest war The League has ever fought, but fight we must. Victory must be ours.

Encourage the populace to train more seriously, alone, with friends, or in our minor training camps, and increase the size of the minor camps to compensate. Try to spread the popularity of martial sports.

Enchant Armour:  2 (Jilladilla,Terenos)
Heal: (This can wait, IMO)
Macedonian Phalanx: 1 (Madman)
Training Propaganda: 1 (Nirur)

[Tack]

Enchant Armour:  2 (Jilladilla,Terenos)
Heal: (This can wait, IMO)
Macedonian Phalanx: 1 (Madman)
Freedom for Service: 1 (Tack)
Training Propaganda: 1 (Nirur)

Mine didn't make it in.
Similar to Madman's, but instead of pikemen the  unit has a large wooden shield to help against acid.

[Iituem]

Looks like Enchant Armour is winning.  I'll work on a design.

[Iituem]

Design:  Enchant Armour  [Effectiveness: 6] [Expense: 4] [Bugs: 5]

Out first foray into defensive magic has proved a remarkable success.  By drawing upon the same 'force augmentations' that strengthen and balance weaponry, we have developed a (comparatively) simple spell that uses the same principles to harden armour, even clothing, to resist the effects of blows and even deflect minor splashes of acid from spitter strikes.  The spell has two basic 'forms', a personal variant that requires constant maintenance and a distributed casting that remains in effect for an hour or more before fading.  Our mages do require some mental expenditure to maintain the distributed casting, so they can usually only maintain 14-15 such enchantments in place at a time, but each one can double the strength of a spearman's armour, or give a spearman's level of protection to an unarmoured slave.  These versions are not too flexible, however; they realistically only provide protection in close melee.

The personal version is stronger, but each mage can only maintain a single casting at once - typically on themselves.  The personal armour enchantment turns their cloth robes into the equivalent of a spearman's leather armour by default; they can rely on this level of protection even in an ambush or under a cavalry charge, when they wouldn't have the presence of mind to 'tune' the enchantment.  In melee or when under ranged barrages, the enchantment can be tuned to provide extra protection.  When defending against ranged attacks, the mage can sweep one of the long flaps of their robe in front of them like a shield and focus the enchantment into that flap so that it provides the same protection as a hoplite's bronze shield.  When in melee, the mage can create a sort of 'buckler' of strengthened enchantment in the fabric of their robe and then move it around to deflect particularly strong blows, giving them powerful resistance to damage - again, about on par with a hoplite's bronze breastplate.

The only downside is that the spell has a one minute casting time, so a mage must sustain their personal variant continuously on themselves and make sure to pick their chosen recipients before the melee closes.


It is now the Revision Phase.  You have 2 dice remaining.

[Madman198237]

Usable by apprentices, or not?

[Iituem]

It's a Lesser spell, so both Mages and Apprentices have it equipped in their 3rd spell slot by default.