In the mountains our men develop a new card game to pass the time. It involves a mixture of magic themes and creatures from legend - plus a few entirely made up. The goal is to kill your opponent using your creatures, who are powered by terrain that you add to your kingdom. Our men rather uncreatively call the new game "Magic".
Otherwise, nothing interesting happens in the mountains this year.
No battles occur in the mountains.A row of Moskurg forts stare silently across at a row of Arstotzkan forts, sitting on both the edge of the plains and tangia respectively. Our men complain of cold weather, leaky boots, and mediocre rations. The year goes by quietly.
No battles occur in the plains.Fireballs streak through undergrowth at soldiers charging through wet, dense undergrowth. Explosions rock the trees, and our longbows rip through leaves with deadly force. Our men run screaming into battle, hacking and slashing with a wild frenzy as our calvary thunders through the trees into enemy positions. Moskurg returns the favor with arrows of their own, pelting our men. Rain pours, pours, and pours - for the first time in memory, the weather doesn't let up. For the entire year thunder booms overhead and lightning arcs downward at random. The jungle is marred with dead, splintered, burning trees from the incessant bolts of plasma that come streaking towards the ground. Our men are hit with increasing frequency, and they get really mad when some of them die because of it. The rain makes maintaining equipment difficult - steel rusts, boots fill with water, and men sink up to their knees in mud. Our new flurry of longbowmen do a good job of punching through enemy sternums, though the jungle isn't the ideal place for their use. The rain is hard on the bows, but oiled coverings keep them as dry as possible between battles. Our heavy calvary do the heavy lifting, working in tandem with our heavy infantry. We fail most of our skirmishes, but the more frequent use of fireballs means battles are more or less even. Moskurg is more successful with skirmishes, lulling our guards to sleep at night before charging into our positions to wreck havoc. Our caltrops do their job, but they've learned to travel single-file. Anti-magic charms on the theatre commanders tip us off about incoming raids, but the warnings are becoming less frequent as Moskurg learns they're giving away their position. By the end of the year, the jungle is filled with blasted trees and corpses. The Moskurgs outnumber us here, and that's their only saving grace - that, and their cursed wizard al-Mutriqa.
The fighting is bloody; both sides lose several companies in the viscous combat. The bloodiest part comes after the battles, though.
We make examples of every Moskurg soldier who dares surrender.
Neither side gains ground in the jungle.We have very limited success in the desert, only winning a few raids before combat. Moskurg hits our positions nearly every night, and by the time the battles occur our men are tired and angry. We win one battle initially and score a good number of prisoners, but the following fights go against us. We are pushed back to the mountains, under the safety of our Tower of Frost. We captured a number of Moskurg soldiers during the initial assault, and Moskurg captures twice as many during our retreat. We wait until our men are returned to us, then hang every last enemy prisoner from the parapets of the Tower. Myark personally kicks the last soldier from the stony heights. They hang there for the rest of the year where all can see them.
Moskurg repels Arstotzka from the desert.The seas are a game of cat-and-mouse. Moskurg threatens our ports whenever we sail, but flee whenever we get close. They're cowards, every last one of them. Battles are all fleeting skirmishes with no clear winner.
Neither side makes coastal gains in the Western Sea.It is 922, the Design Phase.Northern Taiga: 4/4 Arstotzka
Central Mountains: 4/4 Arstotzka
Western Jungle: 1/4 Arstotzka, 3/4 Moskurg
Eastern Plains: 4/4 Moskurg
Southern Desert: 4/4 Moskurg
Northern Sea: Arstotzkan
Western Sea: Disputed
Eastern Sea: Moskurger
Southern Sea: Moskurger
Mundane Equipment
Broadsword: Officer weapon. An iron age classic. A double-edged blade designed for speed, flexibility and force. Requires training to wield, can be used one or two handed. Expensive.
War Axe: General infantry weapon. Can be used as a tool in a pinch, this is a single-handed weapon that does well against heavily armoured foes. Can be used with minimal training.
Wooden Shield: General infantry equipment. Couples well with an axe, cheap, easy to replace. Works best in heavy melee. Can be used with minimal training. Cheap.
Hide Armour: General infantry armour. Cheap, thanks to the plentiful sheep in the taiga. Turns aside weak blows. Cheap.
Chain Mail: Officer armour. Expensive, due to the steel required. Very effective against most weapons. Expensive.
Plate Mail: General infantry and officer armour. So well designed it costs surprisingly little to make. Normal cost.
Longbow: General infantry weapon. Difficult to find wood and requires a lot of training, but long ranged and powerful. Cheap.
Shire Horse: A heavy riding horse. Survives and rides well in cold weather. Powerful charge. Normal Cost.
Longship: Oar-rowed wooden ship. Slow, but sturdy, and can carry large numbers of landing troops. Very Expensive.
Magical Equipment
Wand of Fireballs - Hurls fireballs at a distance, able to destroy whole squads at a time. A National Effort.
Tower of Forever Frost: An astoundingly expensive tower that has to be assembled in place and requires the skill of a master wizard to operate, as well as countless other skilled wizards. Creates a very powerful cold evocation and then channels it directly into the air, consistently lowering temperatures within a radius of about fifty miles. A National Effort.
Anti-Magic Charm: A magically enchanted diamond. Grows really, really, really fucking hot in the presence of magic. Very Expensive.
Anti-Wizard Guard: Guard thanes against mind-readers and other threats by shooting them. Also partially negate spell support of other units.
Conjuration Spellbook
Obscuring Mist: Cloaks a squad in a fog cloud, hiding their numbers and equipment, and making them harder to hit at range.
Variant (Channeled Fog): A denser form of Obscuring mist, continuously generated.
Summon Swarm: Conjures a swarm of stinging wasps to harass foes. Expensive.
Variant (Fire Wasps): Conjures stinging wasps that can start small fires. Expensive.
Magic Lance: Conjures a set of lances for a cavalry squad. Thick enough not to break on use, and lasts long enough to be useful in combat. Expensive.
Magic Axe: Conjures a set of long axes for officers. Weapon is anchored to a small gem in the handle, allowing it to exist longer than 24 hours.
Webs: Conjures a sticky web, immobilizing an entire squad and preventing them from moving. Very Expensive.
Fireball: Hurls fireballs at a distance, able to destroy whole squads at a time. Damaging side effects harm morale. Very Expensive.
Streamlined Fireball: Hurls small balls of fire that explode on impact, not as devastating as full fireballs but much easier to cast. Cheap.
Firewall: Creates static walls of fire. Long casting time, concentration sustain. Very Expensive.
Crystal Caltrops: Jagged crystals designed to lay in the grass and catch enemy troops unaware. Good for defense. Normal Cost.
Author
Topic: Wands Race - [Arstotzka] {COMPLETED} (Read 377086 times)