Maybe the elves will kill the wolves for you?
You know, I wouldn't be surprised if I learned that Vanheim already tried and failed with some small force (maybe Atlantis even tried as well). This group from Tir doesn't look too tough; I'd give it even odds the wolves would win.
Turn 16As it happens, Tir na n'Og's ill-advised expeditionary force keeps going west, killing more of my province defense. There's one remaining province of mine in the area, "Baccar", and I'm like 90% sure they'll target it next turn:
(In the province that they just took it looks like they got the random event that gives a level 2 priest and a bunch of militia, funnily enough; most of their other units are "invisible" to scouting due to having the "glamour" effect.)
It turns out that both UwU and OwO have enough map move that they can reinforce Baccar, despite the extra movement costs of passing through a province I don't own. UwU alone could probably handle them, but I'd rather not chance it (regrettably, this means listening to the freaking wolves laugh all night for yet another month).
UwU has their new equipment, another "Fire Plate" plus two weapons:
The spear's just a spear really, but the "Main Gauche of Parrying" giving +6 defense is nice. Ordinarily wielding a length-3 weapon alongside another weapon would give a -3 attack penalty, but UwU's "heroic ability" (from being in the Hall of Fame) is "Extraordinary Agility", which is currently giving him Ambidextrous +3 (this negates the dual-wielding penalty) as well as granting some extra attack and defense. This means UwU has two attacks per round (4 with the "quickness" gained from winning the tournament), while gaining defense similar to the benefit of a good shield, and on top of all this they have the ability to repel most common weapons using the spear's high length (repelling can be overcome by a morale check, however).
After this and chucking his old armor, UwU's defense rating rose to an outrageous 30, making him nearly impossible to hit in melee (being stunned or exerting himself over 100 fatigue will make it possible, though). There will be better weapons later, but these are more than enough for now (we could maybe do something goofy with UwU later, like give him a whip alongside some other weapon, or give him extra arms to hold even more unnecessary weapons).
With the two Dai Oni able to handle the west (provided Tir na n'Og walks into the trap) the army I pulled in to help can expand along the southern coast instead. One of these provinces has another entrance to the underground plane, which my dominion has scouted out a bit more.
From what I can see, the new cave terrain types are:
Cave: (low income)
River: (high income) {can overlap with others}
Drip Cave: (excellent resources)
Crystal Cave: (low income, excellent resources, many more magic sites)
Cave Forest: (high income, low resources, more magic sites)
And let me tell you, some of these underground provinces are bonkers:
Those two bizarrely rich provinces are accessible from an entrance adjacent to our capital (I assumed that the "Iron Caverns" province only connected to the throne, but that was a quirk of our God senses revealing the throne locations).
I'd like to make a research detour into Enchantment 3 for the "Fire Shield" spell (which would make fighting undead trivial for the Dai Oni, whereas it's currently quite dangerous), but this would delay Construction 5 by 2-3 turns (itself an agonizing 5-6 turns away, and vital for accelerating our research afterward). That said, UwU with their new equipment and tournament win may still be able to handle these particular undead (a mere "120" unarmed soulless and ghouls), though it's still a bit risky. Ghouls at least aren't mindless, and thus are affected by "fear" and "awe".
Speaking of caves, we also now border Agartha (visible on the southwest of the above map). I think the smart thing to do would be to send non-aggression pact requests to all these people and attack the odd man out (or just build up forever in peace), but I also feel like that just isn't the Dominions experience I'm looking for. I'm not about to start anything with Helheim, but attacking Agartha and Pyrene isn't off the table.