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[NAV]

Are there any obstacles to giving our mages actual hoplite armour, which they then enchant for hoplite++ protection? Should only take one revision and make mages harder to kill. Would cost either 1 or 2 ore. Worth it to protect our 18 training apprentices.

Only problem is if armour interferes with magic, or mages are just inherently scrawny.

[Jilladilla]

Only problem is if armour interferes with magic, or mages are just inherently scrawny.

It's likely the latter, but we could potentially get them a lightweight breastplate or something like that. We have plenty of ore to spare, after all. (382/1500..... Ok, either try to go for Professional Army, or a low training, heavily armored spearmen...)

That said, what are we going to do for government? A heavy democracy is likely out of the question due to our current ruling elite. It's probably too soon for a mageocracy. I'm not partial to going for a monarchy or dictatorship type government. And quite frankly I don't know that much about government types and layouts to really propose one...

(Note: Our 2nd Front is faltering, they failed to kill more workers than they reinforced... But at the same time we cannot surrender our 3rd... I propose spending a Strategy Die this turn to redirect Kroton to reinforce Nippi, and sending any excess boats in Fleet 1 to Fleet 2. We'd lose ground with Front 1, yes. But we can spare ground there. (To be fair, reclaiming that fort will likely be hell... But if they claim Nippi and get a new queen...). To be fair, if the current state of affairs continues, we'll thin out the worker swarm on the 3rd Front in fairly short order, they had a net loss of 218 workers there this turn, so the fort will likely hold... But they're so close to taking it, they might just put some extreme pressure onto that front...)

Also what the heck we built a lot of boats this turn... We should probably move that budget elsewhere... Especially as we won't be able to build any this turn...

(Iituem, what's Fleet 1's required/current transport capacity to fully deploy all of Epidaea troop assets? And how exactly do we resolve the issues plaguing the Borolis Woods?)

[Tack]

Freedom for Service
Less slaves
Better slaves
Large rectangular wooden shields & shoddy spears.

[Taricus]

For now, a sort of republic/constitutional monarchy would seem like the best idea, with an elective succession. The city states all hold one seat, and the king holds a seat that has two votes. However though despite the king being the head of state and effectively in charge of the political executive, legislative power is held within the council.

Furthermore, as the monarch is elected by the nobility (And the internal selection for the representatives of the city states is left to them) the nobility should be inclined to support the plan.

[Nirur Torir]

Iituem: Could we get a brief report on the effectiveness of Magic Weapons, Daze, skirmishers, and if our commanders actually mind the loss of bowmen?


Here's an idea: Drop Daze for a magi-saber spell, revise apprentices with hoplite-quality training. 18 > 21 training points won't hurt the apprentices much.

[Jilladilla]

Here's an idea: Drop Daze for a magi-saber spell, revise apprentices with hoplite-quality training. 18 > 21 training points won't hurt the apprentices much.

We could go for Magic Fighters... Spellswords? Battlemagi?...

If we do that, maybe focus their magical education solely onto enchantment, to save on training costs.
After all, those would likely be a few of the most relevant spells for someone that's fighting in the thick of things, is it not? (Nevermind that it's literally half of our current spell repertoire, I'd rather not have the guy right next to me deploy a point-blank fireball, thank you very much. And even disregarding that, but I'd like our expensive magic melee units being well protected, and a spear stab or sword swing is likely much faster than even a basic attack spell, as these guys won't be master mages.)


Could I suggest a slight alteration of your government plan, Taricus?
In addition to what you have, perhaps have every city state hold a general election (Helots not allowed, for now....) to elect a single local to the council. Now, to keep the nobles happy, these elected officials will only get one vote, and those chosen by the Aristoi get 2. Our 'king' will of course then have 3 votes, and be selected by Council Vote, which of course the nobles would have a significant advantage for. Another concession will be that only a member of the Aristoi can be nominated to the position, to rest easy any fears of a mere lower class citizen being elevated to a position above them.

TLDR, every major City-State gets 2 officials, one chosen by the local nobility, one by a more general election. Keeps the Aristoi happy by giving them more powerful seats, keeps the lower classes happy by giving them a say in government, even if a minor one. (Also, technically nothing stops an Aristoi being the elected official for a city, if they can win the popular vote, although a clause will be in place stopping one person from holding multiple seats on the Council.)

[Nirur Torir]

Here's another possibility:

Invent fireballs as a greater spell. We can get 2 mages out, and use our boat redistribute die to make sure a mage goes to front 3. A few fireballs might be able to kill enough workers to keep them from overrunning the fort.

[Jilladilla]

Here's another possibility:

Invent fireballs as a greater spell. We can get 2 mages out, and use our boat redistribute die to make sure a mage goes to front 3. A few fireballs might be able to kill enough workers to keep them from overrunning the fort.

If things continue as is, they won't have the numbers to overrun Nippi, remember that we are killing their workers a lot faster than they can reinforce them there. Of course, I can see them focusing their forces on there too, as getting a second queen would give them a significant boost...

My issue with fireballs is that it'd be our first foray into actual attack magic, so things might not go as well as we hope... (Perhaps we could design an 'Enchant Siege Ammo' spell? One that more or less hardens the projectile, then makes it explode on impact, sending magically reinforced bits of metal and wood everywhere? That'd have a similar effect, and we already have two spells that do half of the desired effect.)

[Taricus]

The problem with general elections is how do we get everyone eligible to vote and how do we record said voting. At any rate, how the member city-states choose their councilmen is effectively left up to them some might have elections but others may not. So it placates the cities by virtue of autonomy.

[Iituem]

Iituem: Could we get a brief report on the effectiveness of Magic Weapons, Daze, skirmishers, and if our commanders actually mind the loss of bowmen?

Strategos Obol's Report:  Well, councillors, every shot we get in before the big crunch makes a difference.  We didn't deploy a lot of bowmen beforehand, and with the wood crunch being what it is right now we probably wouldn't be able to deploy any now anyway.  I personally miss the cowardly sons of goats, because it was always nice to soften up those bugs before we sent in the cavalry, but the extra mages sure are nice instead.

Skirmishers are pretty damn useful for the same reason the bowmen were.  More dead bugs before the melee.  Can't really do ambushes as well with ranks of spearmen as you can with the javelineers and slingers.  Of course, they do take longer to train than just putting a spear in a man's hand and giving him a shield, so there's that.

Those spells are pretty useful.  If I had to guess, I'd say that magic weapon spell probably doubles the punch a spearman's spear gives to some drone's armour.  Bit like that new magic armour spell, though, your mages have to keep focusing on it, so they usually only keep it going on anywhere between ten to twenty men at a time, depending on the skill of the mage.  That daze spell's a bit trickier to estimate, since what it really does it weaken the enemy rather than strengthen our boys and girls.  It's definitely a big help in an ambush, gives our skirmishers a few vital extra seconds to get their throws in.  And it saves lives in the melee, since the buggers don't know where to hit.  Shame it only really affects the ones near the mage doing the casting.

[Nirur Torir]

Iituem: The budget's off - Should be 15% apprentices, not 14%. We might have 2 too many apprentices, unless the budget sends extra training points down the chain.


With a 4, our first major training camp makes +100. On a 5, this new one earns +190!

(Perhaps we could design an 'Enchant Siege Ammo' spell?

That might work better. We could make it as a lesser spell, and have 1 apprentice dedicated to each ballista. Since our revises can't be used to fix this this turn (New ship redistribution and timber expansion), a more conservative plan might be best. On the other hand, we have 1 ballista on that front, 5 total, and can't make more this turn.

Nippi, remember that we are killing their workers a lot faster than they can reinforce them there

They're only sending 20% manpower and no nationals there.

[Iituem]

Iituem: The budget's off - Should be 15% apprentices, not 14%. We might have 2 too many apprentices, unless the budget sends extra training points down the chain.

It's right in the code, I just cocked up writing it down.

[Terenos]

Our new spell, and many apprentices has led to us beginning to turn the tide in the melee. We are still hemmoraghing troops, but as our apprentices survive we will be able to give protections to more and more troops. This is all good.

With our additional reinforcement to ballistae, we are also beginning to do sizeable damage in the artillery phase. This is also good.

They're still winning ground and I doubt we'll be seeing this change anytime soon. We still have a long way to go.
---
Also, sounds to me like there might be some magic in the south. Magic we do not yet control.

[Nirur Torir]

I'm leaning towards Burning Hands. Melee-range should be easier, it will still be effective, and it's not suicidal now that we have the armor spell.

[NAV]

We already have a good close range attack spell with magic weapons, no major need for burning hands. Also fire magic is incredibly overrated. I'm of the belief that magic is best used in a support role while weapons do the killing. And that our next spell should be either anti-acid or generic healing.