Oberic report continued:
The war continues againts Tauron. I face a difficult decision in that if I wait for the better transports and ships, Tauron's VP status will weigh too heavily against me. After embarking on a big ship building program, I think I have relatively good control of the seas as far as him trying to get troops ashore and even if he does, I have enough "fire brigades" to deal with what he might come up with. He has primarily launched raids on my original island. (Goodluck as most of the cities on that coast have lots of warrior monks). He has also tried once on my new island as well where reconstruction continues. The newer island is helping economically as far as science goes and income, but little else has been contributed yet. It is a big area to defend, but with my 3 armies there and also a good number of spiders and white riders, I should be ok.
I have my spot picked out to go visit Tauron with and take 36 troops over. I find out the hard way that White Riders are not amphibious. (Rutro). I land them anyway as I know that Tauron has 3 beholders in each city.
Tauron does not react right away to my troop landings and I manage to take both coastal cities. The area is nice and open around them so any foot troops coming in, I am going to get some shots at. The only units he has that can attack first are his 2 movers and the line up for what he has is much stronger on foot. I am fortunate in that one of the cities I capture, I get to keep the barracks and port, so both cities are considered in communication and the barracks will be integral for what I want to do. I keep a fair number of transports in the area, just in case we want to leave in a hurry.
The next turn, Tauron's troops start showing up and I see the following in the area:
7 Giants (8-4-1), 15 Mauler (8-4-1), 16 Beholder (1-4-1), 10 Chaos Etten (7-3-1), 3 Hellspawn (6-2-1) and 1 Wolf Rider (5-2-2).
Tauron is sort of smart in that he has them hang out in the mountains and does not rush the first stack in by itself. This was one thing I had been hoping that he would do. His navy also comes in with a couple of warships and a transport, which my navy (I have around 15 hawk ships there) dispatches.
My forces are primarily White Riders (32) and a few Wizards (4).
I got a bit of a suprise as earlier, I had signed a mutual protection pact with Lo Pan and he entered the war against Tauron. I figured he would not do much and he has not and Tauron has not done anything against him either. It became a liability when Merlin decided to start a war with Lo Pan, so now, I have Merlin against me as well. He is not much more than a pest at the moment, but does distract some troops that I would have sent after Tauron. I am building another fleet to go visit his little island and see if I can put him out of my misery. He has not done anything and won't give me anything either in the way of tech, so time for him to hit the bricks.
Tauron makes his approach and my first counter attacks are reasonably successful and I probably kill 10 or so of his units for the loss of 5 of my own. Considering his cost more and I am getting a better kill ratio, I will take it. My navy is also helping by doing bombards when Tauron's ships are not around. They are not a major factor, but everything I can get helps. The question will become can I hold where I am and kill him fast enough without having all my troops become depleated. I have another follow up wave of 12 white riders and 3 wizards coming, but it will be an interesting fight. I am two techs out from finishing out the middle era and I think I have about caught Tauron in the science department.
Current econ:
1540 incom. 732 sci, 241 corruption, 344 maint, 164 units. I can run 50 percent science and still be positive income. Research is generally taking 6-7 turns.
Current Army: 273 with 109 allowed:
20 Workers, 5 Sword lizards (used to prevent landings in mountains), 1 Glade Rider, 3 army, 12 acolyte, 63 scorcer, 9 champion, 18 wizards, 1 Trebuchet, 16 Cogs, 16 spiders, 76 white riders, 60 warrior monks, 11 cleric, 37 hawk ship.
I am considering dumping the warrior monk producers at some point. Most of my coastal cities facing Tauron have probably 8-10 monks in them and that should be more than enough to stop him. My econ is huge, but 60 is a dent in it considering they are costing me maintence.
The war continues againts Tauron. I face a difficult decision in that if I wait for the better transports and ships, Tauron's VP status will weigh too heavily against me. After embarking on a big ship building program, I think I have relatively good control of the seas as far as him trying to get troops ashore and even if he does, I have enough "fire brigades" to deal with what he might come up with. He has primarily launched raids on my original island. (Goodluck as most of the cities on that coast have lots of warrior monks). He has also tried once on my new island as well where reconstruction continues. The newer island is helping economically as far as science goes and income, but little else has been contributed yet. It is a big area to defend, but with my 3 armies there and also a good number of spiders and white riders, I should be ok.
I have my spot picked out to go visit Tauron with and take 36 troops over. I find out the hard way that White Riders are not amphibious. (Rutro). I land them anyway as I know that Tauron has 3 beholders in each city.
Tauron does not react right away to my troop landings and I manage to take both coastal cities. The area is nice and open around them so any foot troops coming in, I am going to get some shots at. The only units he has that can attack first are his 2 movers and the line up for what he has is much stronger on foot. I am fortunate in that one of the cities I capture, I get to keep the barracks and port, so both cities are considered in communication and the barracks will be integral for what I want to do. I keep a fair number of transports in the area, just in case we want to leave in a hurry.
The next turn, Tauron's troops start showing up and I see the following in the area:
7 Giants (8-4-1), 15 Mauler (8-4-1), 16 Beholder (1-4-1), 10 Chaos Etten (7-3-1), 3 Hellspawn (6-2-1) and 1 Wolf Rider (5-2-2).
Tauron is sort of smart in that he has them hang out in the mountains and does not rush the first stack in by itself. This was one thing I had been hoping that he would do. His navy also comes in with a couple of warships and a transport, which my navy (I have around 15 hawk ships there) dispatches.
My forces are primarily White Riders (32) and a few Wizards (4).
I got a bit of a suprise as earlier, I had signed a mutual protection pact with Lo Pan and he entered the war against Tauron. I figured he would not do much and he has not and Tauron has not done anything against him either. It became a liability when Merlin decided to start a war with Lo Pan, so now, I have Merlin against me as well. He is not much more than a pest at the moment, but does distract some troops that I would have sent after Tauron. I am building another fleet to go visit his little island and see if I can put him out of my misery. He has not done anything and won't give me anything either in the way of tech, so time for him to hit the bricks.
Tauron makes his approach and my first counter attacks are reasonably successful and I probably kill 10 or so of his units for the loss of 5 of my own. Considering his cost more and I am getting a better kill ratio, I will take it. My navy is also helping by doing bombards when Tauron's ships are not around. They are not a major factor, but everything I can get helps. The question will become can I hold where I am and kill him fast enough without having all my troops become depleated. I have another follow up wave of 12 white riders and 3 wizards coming, but it will be an interesting fight. I am two techs out from finishing out the middle era and I think I have about caught Tauron in the science department.
Current econ:
1540 incom. 732 sci, 241 corruption, 344 maint, 164 units. I can run 50 percent science and still be positive income. Research is generally taking 6-7 turns.
Current Army: 273 with 109 allowed:
20 Workers, 5 Sword lizards (used to prevent landings in mountains), 1 Glade Rider, 3 army, 12 acolyte, 63 scorcer, 9 champion, 18 wizards, 1 Trebuchet, 16 Cogs, 16 spiders, 76 white riders, 60 warrior monks, 11 cleric, 37 hawk ship.
I am considering dumping the warrior monk producers at some point. Most of my coastal cities facing Tauron have probably 8-10 monks in them and that should be more than enough to stop him. My econ is huge, but 60 is a dent in it considering they are costing me maintence.
)
Wouldn't go back and change a thing - this has been really fun, but also, really time-consuming. We'll see how much I'm going to work with the mod in August when I get back. There will definitely be a 1.1 but after that, I have a feeling I need to take a step back and do just maintenance instead of adding new stuff. 
)
*rubs his aching head* But we can't let it get away with that ... I'll play some more turns right now! 
