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Alright then ! We'll celebrate the wedding next update. We need more good news in Watershield

With the death of their general and a ever increasing number of casualties on their side, the goblins and trolls fighting on the bridge started to waver. Their attack had lost their momentum, their cavalry was unable to charge and was bogged down against our heavy infantry on a confined area, where they could not take advantage of their superior numbers. Our injured and deadskept piling on too, but clearly we had the upper handin the main battle.
However, the second flanking cavalry group,who has gone around the fort by the north was still intact and had strong morale. Their plan was probably to attack the bridge from behind, effectively taking us in a pincer movement.
As soon as they came close, the hunter squad started shooting at them, maiming and outright killing the first wave of riders.



However their mounts survived the volleys and proceeded to attack the archers. Jamila, the captain, was personally charged by one of them. The archers had to engage the beasts in melee, without real armor nor proper weapons.
Zefer, theyounger of the bunch, managed to free Jamila by striking her attacker on the head with tremendous force. Jamila was critically wounded and we lost a part of our archer squad during the charge, but in the end it was eventually driven back.

After that ultimate failure, the main force broke and turned heels. We pursued them, slaying as much as we could. Dawn was rising and the Dented Attack finally ended. We had fought all night.



We took a brief nap, and before noon, my debriefing was ready.

We had slaughtered around two hundred besiegers.

The first honors of the battle comes to Inspunz Elderpath, who wasgiven -he heroic name of Gebbiswurtawki, "Rise-to-the-Occasion". During her life, she has slain two generals - Unbeh Mouthmirrors the goblin, and Osnun Menacedinches, the dwarf. She's also the killer of the weretortoise Lipi Footbridle and 41 other enemies.
She'll be honored and revered for her bravery by the future generations, and is an exemple to us all.

Now for our casualties :

Inspunz "Rise-to-the-Occasion" Elderpath, slain by a goblin maceman.
Osti, son of Haspen. Slain by a beakdog.
Iguk, son of Mim. Gave his life against a rear attack.
Domi, daughter of Mim. Died alongside her brother.
Lum, daughter of Uquur. Slain by a goblin hammerer.
Keth Toldvirtue, archer, parentage unknown, slain by a goblin maceman.

Therset, knight and Jamila, hunter captain, sustained heavy wounds and were released from service.

Until further notice, Imic now has the responsability of drilling new soldiers to cover our losses. The archer squad is to be disbanded and replaced by a heavy infantry unit - gear is already underway.
After that storm, we expect the calm to come back to Watershield. We do not forget the fate of the kingdom rests on our shoulders.

*-*-*-*-*

Prince Ryukan has been socializing a bit, and the hired matchmaker thinks Cemir Pestratus would make a fine Princess. She's a milker by profession, parentage unknown, around Ryukan's age and quite pretty with nice copper hair.
Alternatively, Xetan is also interested. She's a childhood friend and has experience in ruling Watershield. But...well. It's Xetan, and she's twice his size and looks like an ogre.

Same thing happened to me quite a time ago. I was followed by squads of fighters, which would just keep at reasonable distance from me, but always stalk me for some reason. It appeared they were a group of soldiers from a nearby town, checking me out, and as we were from the same nation never getting into attack mode.
At least that's what I concluded. Some of them are my friends now.

Again, sorry for the big waiting time. Got my stuff sorted out (kinda),let's continue our story.

***

It is hard for me to write this story. The siege that will later be known as the Dented Attack took the lives of many of those we loved and cared for. But as painful as it is to remember this night of november, I feel I need to do it to honor the heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice for the Nation of Pearls.

Music

When the army of Oslun came to Watershield, we had already began to improve our defense system. The brook was made deeper to serve as a poor man's moat, and a chokehold was built to control the enemy movement. The plan was to concentrate the fighting into the smallest area possible, so our fewer but superior fighters can negate the numerical advantage of the goblins of Dungeonpleat. The fight would have to take place on the bridge ; after an opening volley from the archers, my shieldbangers engage first. Wounded and tired soldiers would be evacuated and replaced by Imic's knights as the fight goes on.

This way, we could stand a modicum of chance, outnumbered ten on one.

But when I did the usual headcount before the fight, one of my soldiers was missing. It was Inspunz Elderpath. I assumed she fled and went into hiding with the civilians... I was soon to learn it was the exact opposite. She went to meet the enemy alone, engaging the three hundred soldiers of Oslun.



She killed their general with a single strike, and went on unleashing primal fury on every troll and goblin her axe could find.

Inspunz was already known for her bravery the day she went on fighting and slaying that weretortoise alone. Surrounded from all sides and walking on a sea of corpses, she finally died, not without having delayed and disorganized the invaders.



Without clear leadership, the goblins fell into chaos, and broke down in roughly three groups. While the main army proceeded to attack on the bridge, two groups of cavalry tried to walk around to find ways of surrounding us. We decided to keep on with the plan ; the main battle had to be fought on the bridge.


One volley of arrows was enough to avenge the death of Inspunz. My shieldbangers moved on the bridge and the fight started.

Osti, first son of Haspen, and Lum, only daughter of Uquur, gave their lives on the bridge but the enemy casualties kept piling on. Morale was still high and we were fighting with desperate energy.

Hours of fighting to keep the enemy bogged down and the first group of goblin flanking cavalry arrived from the rear and rushed to the archers.
Iguk and Domi, children of Mim Eshahiner, broke ranks and engaged them. Their father wasn't far and moved to assist them.

He however was too late.



A handful of soldiers came to his help, and they made short work of the flanking cavalry. We already had a lot of losses, and the main enemy force was still in fighting condition, but slowly, the battle started to turn in our favor.

I'm terribly sorry for that cliffhanger, and for letting you guys down for a prolonged period of time. Work is eating my time, had some more projects to work on, and that battle is quite long to draw. But this is going to continue, like quite soon. I have already stuff to show, like 50% of the battle, and I'll be uploading everything this week end. Again, very sorry.

Also yes, Ryukan is wearing a monkey on his shirt. Don't ask... that's what our artisans decided to sew ! For the bloodline, I also wish to give him a legacy, and I tried to make him hangout with single ladies, but... He's not really flirtitious enough. I might need to help him a bit.

If you're smarter than the AI then you can make it work.

Tests with AI actually favors dual wielding by removing random shield bash occurences. With human intelligence behind a character action, single wielding with shield have a distinct advantage.

Is having two axes better than having just an axe and no shield? Yes.
Can having two axes provide a marginal and circustancial advantage in some situations? Yes.
Is dual wielding viable? Yes.
Does dual wielding overpowers singlewielding with shield? Absolutely not.

Your effectiveness in melee, including both offense and defense, will be roughly the same as singlewielding with shield, but you'll lose the ability to block projectiles and breath attacks. You'll earn experience quicker tho.
As a sidenote, if you lose an arm, the pain and bloodloss will likely kill you regardless of the fact you have another weapon ready. At the time you're taking wounds, the battle already shifted critically against you.

You don't really need to analyse anything with those risks and rewards. Always defend : not only it provides almost the biggest reward (3) but it limits your losses to zero no matter what. Defend beats gift and steal altogether.
You'd need to increase the gifts value to +4/+4 for it to be a reasonable choice.