SKILORD
Insurgent
Update Soundtrack: Black Sabbath's Iron Man
-
New Tactic Added
Charge: Negates an enemy's Retreat or Bombard (when possible)
Clarification of "Intercept" as a tactic
So, we are all developing vast land empires and sometimes people ask me what the practical application of that is other than working towards more player interaction.
The answer is that large empires give you more room to build cities, put a building somewhere or station troops and *bam* city. If a city or region is lost and there was a trade good coming out of that region then you lose that trade good and any bonuses from the buildings that might have been there.
What does this have to do with Intercept?
Well, a couple of players have been playing the subterfuge game and I tend to get orders that imply that Intercept covers a whole country and it does not. Expose Agent does affect a whole country, but Intercept is a tactic not a mission, it only affects the city or region where that unit is stationed.
Your best bet at improving the capture rate of enemy spies (as if there were any you paranoid bastards) is by building either the "Training Grounds" or something along those lines of your own devising.
-
Fuyashi was one of the first men of Kitanato to become familiar with the puzzle of galleys that the Emperor of the Heavenly Dragon provided. Soon he was teaching the others and even captaining expeditions to the other Islands, where Kitanatese Spearchuckers were deployed to claim the lands for the Celestial King, but Fuyashi pined to learn more of the secrets of the Sons of the Dragon and so after much debate among the court he was granted leave to go and see what could be bartered or gained on the alleged mainland.
It is said that the Northern Seas are so full of Shang fishing and merchant ships that a man cannot fall overboard without being rescued a mere ten minutes later and in his travels Fuyashi found the truth of these words.
But closer to the coast these fishermen are even greater in number, where they pull thick nets through shallow water to dredge up oysters. Aside from the food obtained, the Pearls from these Oysters have become a sought after luxury and the massive fishing industry has even spawned the growth of a new city on the coast between Laozai and Nanjing that caters to the sailors and has become a great center of economic activity.
When Fuyashi arrived in Laozai he found that their wealth and power was not limited to the seas, which they controlled with such grace and ease when compared to their Kitanatese cousins, but in Laozai he learned that the people of Shang understood the working even of Iron, and the wealth of Shang was more than enough to replace all of the outdated infrastructure quickly and without hesitation.
The Iron, however, was harder for Fuyashi to find, word held that all of the available iron had been shifted to create swords and new armor for the soldiers of the Shang army. And those soldiers were not available for comment, they were far to the West, fighting the Khan's Horsemen.
Fuyashi found that the words were spoken with a seething rage in Shang, the people were furious. Unprovoked and without warning the Khan had invaded the Western Border and sent 5 Horsemen to pillage the countryside.
The newly equipped Swordsmen had arrived to repulse the invasion, and were charged by the Khan's soldiers only to see the Horsemen scatter as soon as they hit against the Iron of Shang's weapons.
The second group of Horsemen did not charge with such fervor, and again the Shang forces held against the charge. Finally they were unfettered enough to mount a charge of their own against the invaders, only to be beaten back.
After pushing back the soldiers of Shang, though, a whole wing of the Khanate army felt compelled at once to retreat and return to the Khan.
Distracted by the apparent retreat a group of Shang Swordsmen charged at the retreating Horsemen only to be cut down by the large section of the remaining army that was not retreating.
Before engaging again in combat the remaining officers counted their numbers and proposed to fall back and mount a defense further East, hoping for support from the Emperor. The stories of their heroism have endeared them to the hearts of the citizens, and the stories of the Khan's treachery boil the Shang blood.
The captured lands, they say, must be reclaimed.
Word came to Laozai that the Koreans were offering any troops that they can provide the Shang Empire and Fuyashi told his men to set off at once and tell the King of Kitanato to send his own men in support. "Admiral" Fuyashi took on the title "Diplomat" and set off on his own to the South.
(The Shang Empire: +Iron Working, +Economic Expansion (2), +Pearls, -2 Swordsmen, -1 EP, War Declared by The Khanate, +4 Reputation)
In the Empire of the Heavenly Dragon the first city that Fuyashi visited was Soo, where the new Courthouse was busy bringing order to the city after Soo's brief stint with decadence.
The people here had heard of the problems to the North and many were at least as angry as their Shang counterparts, saying that they always suspected this from the Khan.
As he wandered to Junjan he was startled by the now massive herds of cattle which are being regularly marched through the countryside, Cows on their way to Shang or Goats headed for the coast. Here there was talk of the Empire's new colonies in Chaojan and Singhai, as the seas fell to the relentless domination of the Heavenly Dragon, the natives had been terrified when the Spearmen of the Empire arrived and quickly surrendered and began to cooperate.
In India the soldiers who marched out to claim new lands have discovered the ruins of a civilization completely overrun by barbarians. Where the barbarians are is a question that greatly vexes the generals and each is on full alert waiting for the ambush.
But none has yet come, instead they have sent expeditions into the underground labyrinths of the strange ruins, but it seems that whoever used to inhabit those cities was extremely worried about Barbarian intrusion as the abandoned structures are filled with traps. Few of the survivors from the preliminary investigations are willing to go back into the ruins, but along the edges still, a camp has grown where expansion towards Kush is halted, trying to determine where the barbarians came from or went to after destroying this city.
Paranese scholars claim that they have limited knowledge of the lost city, The Nation of Baejoi they claim, was a tiny and reclusive nation dedicated to the study of what they considered alchemical and magical arts, but which were in fact just the poison making and trap setting that the soldiers of the Dragon have witnessed. The Baejoians, however, had quite the taste for theatrics and so any new toy that their scholars put together became "magic."
It was for this heresy that the Baejoian Ambassador was not welcome in Paranaa. But these are all ancient records, and hardly a complete understanding of their culture or their achievements in the scientific fields. The most recent story originates before the Temple of the Heavenly Dragon was rebuilt the first time.
While no one can tell what mysteries Baejoi might hold, or whether the city can be rebuilt, the allure of the place has captured many hearts. The Chronicles of Baejoi, for instance, is the hottest selling scroll of the year, it is an epic poem that details the fall from grace of a master "magician" who spends his days in court selling fancy trinkets to the Lord of Magic, the Master of Baejoi. These men are delighted with these toys and they craft smaller and often deadlier versions with each passing season. They tell elaborate lies to make all of their cheap trinkets more valuable and they become quite powerful.
Until one day Tibble the Barbarian arrives, sees through all of the deception, murders them both and burns the city of lies to the ground.
But the real issue that troubles hearts in Junjan and Soo is the Khan's invasion of Shang.
(Empire of the Heavenly Dragon: +Economic Expansion (2), +Imperial Naval Harbor (Soo), +Wall (Paranaa), +Forge (Paranaa), +2 Swordsmen, +1 Chao War Junk, +1 Galley, +1 Agent, +2 Spearmen, +Engineering (2/15), +Beef on the Hoof, +Goats, +1 Social Cohesion, +6 Reputation, +Industrious)
Ders the Miller fled the devastation of armies in Land of the Sun.
The Spearmen of his homeland found battle charging from the North, and like many of the villagers and peasants from between the Tigris and Euphrates. Ur held strong still according to rumors, but his own hamlet was long lost in the struggle. The Treaty of the Rivers was done.
Ders soon fell in with a group of caravaneers who were welcome in the foreign lands, he was an old hand at trade and even had a craft, although rarely access to the tools he needed.
The Zulappi were not aligned in the conflict in his land, so despite the strength of the Faith of Stones in those lands Ders decided it would be a safe place to seek refuge. In Dreadsea he found many who were enthusiastic cheerleaders for the armies of Cyria and Kurdia, who have claimed the right to rebuild Ur as a city of Stone.
So he travelled on to the city of Zull where people were more concerned with the new libraries and the hope of social elevation through education. Here he heard talk of the newfangled Iron, or Silvertin as it is known to the South. This weapon had been the edge that pushed the armies of Kurdia and Cyria over the top in so many battles.
But this was hardly the only technology to be discovered in Zull over these years, people learned the advantages and power of the Masonic Order and also the trick of Sailing.
The hottest selling scroll of the season is the meditative volume "Whispers of the River" and it can be had in any collection of scrolls from Punt to Cartagena, a whole industry of scribes has arisen to make copies of the well loved stories of Zulappi.
A group of Horsemen have been recruited from the upper classes, as those were the ones who had horses available to be saddled.
These Horsemen have heroically smashed some small groups of Zorrkanist Barbarians to expand the control of the Shaman through the desert.
(Zulappi: +Economic Expansion, +Library (Zull), +Library (Zull), +Farm (Zull), +Domestication, +Masonic Code, +Sailing, +Iron Working (3/7), +1 Horseman, +Naked Shoes, +1 Social Cohesion, +4 Reputation)
In Zull there were rumors of people to the North and so Ders felt compelled to catch a private merchant ship seeking wealth in Iberios, under the captain Illierias Moohor.
Sadly he never made it to Iberios as his ship was raided by a Seasworn Boarding Party aboard a galley where he was captured and sold as a slave to the miner clans of the Seasworn.
In Queen's Harbor he came to learn much of the Seasworn, their hard partying, their love of Pearls and Gold, their raiding parties who swarmed aboard civilian ships through the Mediterranean, even their strange religious rituals of drowning and resuscitation.
Their economy expanded on the basis of more ships sent to plunder, and the expansion of the "Queen's Fleet" full of the finest Galleys on the sea.
But he also found out that while he had been unable to make deals with Iberios, apparently every nation with the Sea on their coast had been making those deals instead. Among them the Seasworn and the Cyrians. As he was finally sold he even noticed a Kurd selling glass in peace in the middle of Queen's harbor.
(The Seasworn: +Economic Expansion, +1 Galley (Queen's Harbor), +1 Boarding Party (Queen's Harbor), +Writing, +Iron Working, +Pearls, +1 Social Cohesion, +5 Reputation)
In Satura the Oracle spoke of dire visions.
In the first place she insisted that the horrible inefficiency that dictated trade goods be distributed from the Warehouse of Wonders to the Archivers Mint and with another few buildings in between she dictated that the Oracle would no longer recognize trade goods not kept at the Archivers Mint and has caused all other trade good based wonders to fall out of use.
But new Grandeur rose in the West, in Lotalogas where the Great Lighthouse was constructed rapidly, fueled by the wealth of Waset.
The Inquisitors sent to the Khanate were unable to bring home any elders of the Khan, as war soon came to those lands and the elders marched with the armies and not with the Inquisitors, who remain in Ulaanbaatar.
The Inquisitor in the Land of the Sun calls for help, as the armies of Cyria and Kurdia march towards Ur. He does not know how those soldiers were able to understand or acquire Silvertin so quickly, by his estimates the Kurds were nowhere near such understandings.
The answer, he presumes, lies in Iberios, even the so called "Seasworn" have been able to negotiate research with those damned Spaniards.
In terms of colonies the lands of Satura were expanded with the acquisition of the island of Socorata and the construction of the city of Aureapolis there. Contact was made with the Kuhorsehockeyes, but were not able to find a coast for the Lands of the Dragon, sailors claim that these lands are just landlubber myths.
There are also rumors of another colony that was intended to be built by a Freelancer in the Kongo, the sailors of "Octavian's Own" claim that they saw some large buildings, as though there was a city already there, but no inhabitants came out to meet them, but the Freelancers who were left there have not been heard from since.
(Satura: +Aureas' Forge (Napata), +Orangesmith's Archive's (Sereg), +Great Lighthouse (Lotalogas), +1 Longship (Lotalogas), +1 Longship (Eliat), -1 Freelancer, +Cartography, +Irong Working, +Acupuncture, +Hemp, +Silver, +8 Reputation)
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Map Time:
-
Diplomacy:
To: Shang
From: The Khanate
Surrender your Western Lands.
To: Shang
From: Korea
We will send troops to help if you desire.
To: Shang
From: Kitanato
We are interested in trading our Chex Boards for your Pearls. We are also willing to help you with your invasion.
To: Heavenly Dragon
From: Persia
The Inquisitors were last seen leaving our lands for the Khanate.
To: Satura
From: Land of the Sun
Words cannot express my panic.
To: Zulappi
From: Kurdia
Send support for the Holy Crusade!
To: Seasworn
From: Iberios
Could I convince you to invest further in the holy cause?
-
New Tactic Added
Charge: Negates an enemy's Retreat or Bombard (when possible)
Clarification of "Intercept" as a tactic
So, we are all developing vast land empires and sometimes people ask me what the practical application of that is other than working towards more player interaction.
The answer is that large empires give you more room to build cities, put a building somewhere or station troops and *bam* city. If a city or region is lost and there was a trade good coming out of that region then you lose that trade good and any bonuses from the buildings that might have been there.
What does this have to do with Intercept?
Well, a couple of players have been playing the subterfuge game and I tend to get orders that imply that Intercept covers a whole country and it does not. Expose Agent does affect a whole country, but Intercept is a tactic not a mission, it only affects the city or region where that unit is stationed.
Your best bet at improving the capture rate of enemy spies (as if there were any you paranoid bastards) is by building either the "Training Grounds" or something along those lines of your own devising.
-
Fuyashi was one of the first men of Kitanato to become familiar with the puzzle of galleys that the Emperor of the Heavenly Dragon provided. Soon he was teaching the others and even captaining expeditions to the other Islands, where Kitanatese Spearchuckers were deployed to claim the lands for the Celestial King, but Fuyashi pined to learn more of the secrets of the Sons of the Dragon and so after much debate among the court he was granted leave to go and see what could be bartered or gained on the alleged mainland.
It is said that the Northern Seas are so full of Shang fishing and merchant ships that a man cannot fall overboard without being rescued a mere ten minutes later and in his travels Fuyashi found the truth of these words.
But closer to the coast these fishermen are even greater in number, where they pull thick nets through shallow water to dredge up oysters. Aside from the food obtained, the Pearls from these Oysters have become a sought after luxury and the massive fishing industry has even spawned the growth of a new city on the coast between Laozai and Nanjing that caters to the sailors and has become a great center of economic activity.
When Fuyashi arrived in Laozai he found that their wealth and power was not limited to the seas, which they controlled with such grace and ease when compared to their Kitanatese cousins, but in Laozai he learned that the people of Shang understood the working even of Iron, and the wealth of Shang was more than enough to replace all of the outdated infrastructure quickly and without hesitation.
The Iron, however, was harder for Fuyashi to find, word held that all of the available iron had been shifted to create swords and new armor for the soldiers of the Shang army. And those soldiers were not available for comment, they were far to the West, fighting the Khan's Horsemen.
Fuyashi found that the words were spoken with a seething rage in Shang, the people were furious. Unprovoked and without warning the Khan had invaded the Western Border and sent 5 Horsemen to pillage the countryside.
The newly equipped Swordsmen had arrived to repulse the invasion, and were charged by the Khan's soldiers only to see the Horsemen scatter as soon as they hit against the Iron of Shang's weapons.
The second group of Horsemen did not charge with such fervor, and again the Shang forces held against the charge. Finally they were unfettered enough to mount a charge of their own against the invaders, only to be beaten back.
After pushing back the soldiers of Shang, though, a whole wing of the Khanate army felt compelled at once to retreat and return to the Khan.
Distracted by the apparent retreat a group of Shang Swordsmen charged at the retreating Horsemen only to be cut down by the large section of the remaining army that was not retreating.
Before engaging again in combat the remaining officers counted their numbers and proposed to fall back and mount a defense further East, hoping for support from the Emperor. The stories of their heroism have endeared them to the hearts of the citizens, and the stories of the Khan's treachery boil the Shang blood.
The captured lands, they say, must be reclaimed.
Word came to Laozai that the Koreans were offering any troops that they can provide the Shang Empire and Fuyashi told his men to set off at once and tell the King of Kitanato to send his own men in support. "Admiral" Fuyashi took on the title "Diplomat" and set off on his own to the South.
(The Shang Empire: +Iron Working, +Economic Expansion (2), +Pearls, -2 Swordsmen, -1 EP, War Declared by The Khanate, +4 Reputation)
In the Empire of the Heavenly Dragon the first city that Fuyashi visited was Soo, where the new Courthouse was busy bringing order to the city after Soo's brief stint with decadence.
The people here had heard of the problems to the North and many were at least as angry as their Shang counterparts, saying that they always suspected this from the Khan.
As he wandered to Junjan he was startled by the now massive herds of cattle which are being regularly marched through the countryside, Cows on their way to Shang or Goats headed for the coast. Here there was talk of the Empire's new colonies in Chaojan and Singhai, as the seas fell to the relentless domination of the Heavenly Dragon, the natives had been terrified when the Spearmen of the Empire arrived and quickly surrendered and began to cooperate.
In India the soldiers who marched out to claim new lands have discovered the ruins of a civilization completely overrun by barbarians. Where the barbarians are is a question that greatly vexes the generals and each is on full alert waiting for the ambush.
But none has yet come, instead they have sent expeditions into the underground labyrinths of the strange ruins, but it seems that whoever used to inhabit those cities was extremely worried about Barbarian intrusion as the abandoned structures are filled with traps. Few of the survivors from the preliminary investigations are willing to go back into the ruins, but along the edges still, a camp has grown where expansion towards Kush is halted, trying to determine where the barbarians came from or went to after destroying this city.
Paranese scholars claim that they have limited knowledge of the lost city, The Nation of Baejoi they claim, was a tiny and reclusive nation dedicated to the study of what they considered alchemical and magical arts, but which were in fact just the poison making and trap setting that the soldiers of the Dragon have witnessed. The Baejoians, however, had quite the taste for theatrics and so any new toy that their scholars put together became "magic."
It was for this heresy that the Baejoian Ambassador was not welcome in Paranaa. But these are all ancient records, and hardly a complete understanding of their culture or their achievements in the scientific fields. The most recent story originates before the Temple of the Heavenly Dragon was rebuilt the first time.
While no one can tell what mysteries Baejoi might hold, or whether the city can be rebuilt, the allure of the place has captured many hearts. The Chronicles of Baejoi, for instance, is the hottest selling scroll of the year, it is an epic poem that details the fall from grace of a master "magician" who spends his days in court selling fancy trinkets to the Lord of Magic, the Master of Baejoi. These men are delighted with these toys and they craft smaller and often deadlier versions with each passing season. They tell elaborate lies to make all of their cheap trinkets more valuable and they become quite powerful.
Until one day Tibble the Barbarian arrives, sees through all of the deception, murders them both and burns the city of lies to the ground.
But the real issue that troubles hearts in Junjan and Soo is the Khan's invasion of Shang.
(Empire of the Heavenly Dragon: +Economic Expansion (2), +Imperial Naval Harbor (Soo), +Wall (Paranaa), +Forge (Paranaa), +2 Swordsmen, +1 Chao War Junk, +1 Galley, +1 Agent, +2 Spearmen, +Engineering (2/15), +Beef on the Hoof, +Goats, +1 Social Cohesion, +6 Reputation, +Industrious)
Ders the Miller fled the devastation of armies in Land of the Sun.
The Spearmen of his homeland found battle charging from the North, and like many of the villagers and peasants from between the Tigris and Euphrates. Ur held strong still according to rumors, but his own hamlet was long lost in the struggle. The Treaty of the Rivers was done.
Ders soon fell in with a group of caravaneers who were welcome in the foreign lands, he was an old hand at trade and even had a craft, although rarely access to the tools he needed.
The Zulappi were not aligned in the conflict in his land, so despite the strength of the Faith of Stones in those lands Ders decided it would be a safe place to seek refuge. In Dreadsea he found many who were enthusiastic cheerleaders for the armies of Cyria and Kurdia, who have claimed the right to rebuild Ur as a city of Stone.
So he travelled on to the city of Zull where people were more concerned with the new libraries and the hope of social elevation through education. Here he heard talk of the newfangled Iron, or Silvertin as it is known to the South. This weapon had been the edge that pushed the armies of Kurdia and Cyria over the top in so many battles.
But this was hardly the only technology to be discovered in Zull over these years, people learned the advantages and power of the Masonic Order and also the trick of Sailing.
The hottest selling scroll of the season is the meditative volume "Whispers of the River" and it can be had in any collection of scrolls from Punt to Cartagena, a whole industry of scribes has arisen to make copies of the well loved stories of Zulappi.
A group of Horsemen have been recruited from the upper classes, as those were the ones who had horses available to be saddled.
These Horsemen have heroically smashed some small groups of Zorrkanist Barbarians to expand the control of the Shaman through the desert.
(Zulappi: +Economic Expansion, +Library (Zull), +Library (Zull), +Farm (Zull), +Domestication, +Masonic Code, +Sailing, +Iron Working (3/7), +1 Horseman, +Naked Shoes, +1 Social Cohesion, +4 Reputation)
In Zull there were rumors of people to the North and so Ders felt compelled to catch a private merchant ship seeking wealth in Iberios, under the captain Illierias Moohor.
Sadly he never made it to Iberios as his ship was raided by a Seasworn Boarding Party aboard a galley where he was captured and sold as a slave to the miner clans of the Seasworn.
In Queen's Harbor he came to learn much of the Seasworn, their hard partying, their love of Pearls and Gold, their raiding parties who swarmed aboard civilian ships through the Mediterranean, even their strange religious rituals of drowning and resuscitation.
Their economy expanded on the basis of more ships sent to plunder, and the expansion of the "Queen's Fleet" full of the finest Galleys on the sea.
But he also found out that while he had been unable to make deals with Iberios, apparently every nation with the Sea on their coast had been making those deals instead. Among them the Seasworn and the Cyrians. As he was finally sold he even noticed a Kurd selling glass in peace in the middle of Queen's harbor.
(The Seasworn: +Economic Expansion, +1 Galley (Queen's Harbor), +1 Boarding Party (Queen's Harbor), +Writing, +Iron Working, +Pearls, +1 Social Cohesion, +5 Reputation)
In Satura the Oracle spoke of dire visions.
In the first place she insisted that the horrible inefficiency that dictated trade goods be distributed from the Warehouse of Wonders to the Archivers Mint and with another few buildings in between she dictated that the Oracle would no longer recognize trade goods not kept at the Archivers Mint and has caused all other trade good based wonders to fall out of use.
But new Grandeur rose in the West, in Lotalogas where the Great Lighthouse was constructed rapidly, fueled by the wealth of Waset.
The Inquisitors sent to the Khanate were unable to bring home any elders of the Khan, as war soon came to those lands and the elders marched with the armies and not with the Inquisitors, who remain in Ulaanbaatar.
The Inquisitor in the Land of the Sun calls for help, as the armies of Cyria and Kurdia march towards Ur. He does not know how those soldiers were able to understand or acquire Silvertin so quickly, by his estimates the Kurds were nowhere near such understandings.
The answer, he presumes, lies in Iberios, even the so called "Seasworn" have been able to negotiate research with those damned Spaniards.
In terms of colonies the lands of Satura were expanded with the acquisition of the island of Socorata and the construction of the city of Aureapolis there. Contact was made with the Kuhorsehockeyes, but were not able to find a coast for the Lands of the Dragon, sailors claim that these lands are just landlubber myths.
There are also rumors of another colony that was intended to be built by a Freelancer in the Kongo, the sailors of "Octavian's Own" claim that they saw some large buildings, as though there was a city already there, but no inhabitants came out to meet them, but the Freelancers who were left there have not been heard from since.
(Satura: +Aureas' Forge (Napata), +Orangesmith's Archive's (Sereg), +Great Lighthouse (Lotalogas), +1 Longship (Lotalogas), +1 Longship (Eliat), -1 Freelancer, +Cartography, +Irong Working, +Acupuncture, +Hemp, +Silver, +8 Reputation)
-
Map Time:
Spoiler :
-
Diplomacy:
To: Shang
From: The Khanate
Surrender your Western Lands.
To: Shang
From: Korea
We will send troops to help if you desire.
To: Shang
From: Kitanato
We are interested in trading our Chex Boards for your Pearls. We are also willing to help you with your invasion.
To: Heavenly Dragon
From: Persia
The Inquisitors were last seen leaving our lands for the Khanate.
To: Satura
From: Land of the Sun
Words cannot express my panic.
To: Zulappi
From: Kurdia
Send support for the Holy Crusade!
To: Seasworn
From: Iberios
Could I convince you to invest further in the holy cause?
