Word from Ulmish loyalists made its way back to Ulm with troubling news. It seems that this newly discovered nation, Ermor, was being commanded by a giant cyclops. The cyclops was said to have a divine aura and peasants in Cerne had begun to believe that it may be the next divine being meant to take command of the world. The Ulmish Priest Smiths thus decided to send an emissary to Cerne to construct a temple and teach the residents of the power of the Iron Faith.
The resident of Cerne responded to this attention is the best of ways, throwing a celebration and donating a trove of magic gems.
Shortly after the celebrations in Cerne, a mage by the name of Obscuro arrived in Ulm. He would have been immediately turned away, but it seemed that Ermor was already hiring mercenaries to bolster their numbers.
Urgek Beast Brother is a crappy, crappy mercenary. He has a group of misshapen troops under his command that... well, they don't really do much. They're sort of decent cannon fodder I guess. Obscuro's an air-2 mage which will be useful for lightning spam and site searching. I'm beginning to realize that my magic access is going to be quite limited, so I'm trying to expand it when I can.In honor of his work with the people of Cerne, Donner was given the honorary name Kiron. By mid-autumn, much had happened.
Urist's forces were nearly back to full strength, Obscuro had been hired (and was being kept on a short leash), and the Iron Faith was beginning to spread. The next target province, Rafabolia, was nearly within reach.
In order to keep Ermor in check, Estrith the spy was sent to instill unrest. Unfortunately he immediately discovered that the legions of Ermor were not all among the living. The undead ghouls did not require rest and eventually tracked him down. He managed to escape, but lost an eye in the process.
By midwinter the strength of Urist's battalion had expanded past where it had begun. The mercenary Hector's horsemen were hired to reinforce the Ulmish men. While not as well equipped as Ulmish cavalry, they were experienced and did not require Ulmish resources to field.
The Smiths had been searching for ways to use their knowledge of Earth and Fire to aid the armies on the battlefield and research into evocation was advancing. Rafabolia would fly the Ulmish flag by the end of winter.
The battle began as most do.
Us against
them.
As the defending cavalry advanced across the field, Kiron's fire darts targeted less armored units.
Arrows bounced off of Ulmish armor and harmlessly passed through Obscuro's illusions. Five of the seven losses came from the first charge of the enemy heavy cavalry into the Ulmish pikewall.
After the enemy charge, Hector lead his cavalry against the lightly armored militia while Obscuro's lightning bolts continued to thin the ranks of the defenders.
The sheer effectiveness of this attack, coupled with the painful defense the pikemen were displaying routed the enemy cavalry.
Hector's horsemen intercepted the retreating cavalry while Urist's smiting attacks continued. Only one enemy cavalry made it past the horsemen and the remainder of Rafabolia's defenders retreated at the sight of the now-advancing Ulmish troops.
The battle for Rafabolia was won!
In the wave of celebration that followed victory, a figure was observed entering Ulm from the forests of Rafabolia. It was a woman, three times taller than most. She walked with the grace of the gently flowing water she crossed on Ulm's borders, and vegetation seemed to burst in to bloom as she passed. It would seem that she was the true reason for the vibrance of the lands around Ulm. Even though it was the dead of winter, crops across the province grew a second harvest and a fertility festival was held with the surplus food.
And that's the end of the first year. Not much progress compared to what I'm used to (usually about a province/month instead of one per SIX months like I did here) but harder independents + lower resources = really hard to make progress. Fortunately the AI's in a similar boat and only one of the nations has more provinces than I do (and they only have one more at that). I'll have evocation 3 soon so my Priest Smiths can start throwing iron shards and magma bolts and then I'll go hard into construction and get some thugs set up. I think I'm going to be able to set up a second fort north east of Rafabolia soon (take it within 2 turns, fort 4 or 5 turns after that, depending on how long it takes) so that should help with my army situation. Let me know what you guys think and if you want me to do anything in particular.
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Topic: Dominions 3 LP - Time to take out some indies! (Read 19705 times)