[OOC] The Darkness Descends (Fantasy Conquest RP)

[Romero]

Remember to all get your posts up folks

[PlatinumSkink]

Of course. Just wondering a bit of how to write the text-part of the post.

Say, @Legion02? Small lights in the water, eh? So, whatever would happen if the humans of Orngat would attempt investigate these lights? Shoot nets trying to capture the sources of these lights? The humans of Orngat are very curious about things they don't understand in the immediate vicinity, so if they saw unexplained lights in their lakes, they'd totally try to capture one. For research and to see if it has a practical application. Haha.

[Legion02]

The lights themselves are the spirits New Engelica uses to create their familiars. They are small concentrations of semi-sentient magical energy. They are too small to capture with nets. But in theory you could capture one in a glass jar. Further, if War-Magi are close (say 100 meters) the spirits might automatically attach themselves to small organisms like fish (making the fish appear as if they glow). Long term effects of spirit attachement to organisms is being studied by the mages at Al'Gruin but there seem to be no special effects upon the host organism.

However, it should be said that these spirits don't obey you. At all. They merely glow a faint color (blue in case of water spirits). So far only New Engelican War-Magi managed to control and command spirits through the application of music. (ForKhorne is also busy researching familiars though he might use something else).

[PlatinumSkink]

@Legion02 Teh-heh. That's all I wanted to know. Thanks. Haha.

I am not really intending on doing anything with what Jonathan's thinking anytime soon, pretty sure it might be impossible, but it would be kind of against his character NOT to think of these kind of things. XD

@ForKhorne And, um, I asked this question to the GM by PM, earlier.

Hider

(When I place my troops in 50 and 49, as the Broken Empire doesn't have ports to make ships in, could I, like, make an agreement with them to take advantage of their resources under my Orngat engineer dwarves supervision to make Ironclads there since they can't build ships, anyway? Or does that go directly against the rules of the game? Just asking. XD)

@PlatinumSkink

As for "borrowing" the Broken Empire's ports, it's a good question. I suppose theoretically it would make sense, so I'm going to give it the green light, but you wont be able to train any other types of units other than navy.

@Romero

... This of course would only work if I got permission from you, so yeah. XD

Edit: Hm. In that victorious battle last season, that was won overwhelmingly, I still lost 2 units of Mechanical Warriors. That's like, as many as one province can produce over two seasons. Even if I only had those attacks on all provinces all the time, I'd still run out of troops eventually. Kind of makes me fear what would happen when the really tough things appear... Haha... Maybe I should try thinking of ways to research produce mechanical troops faster? Mass production? I have too many things I want to research. XD

[Romero]

This turn brings with it some tasty new traits, so if anyone has suggestions that I haven't heard already, feel free to let me know.

[PlatinumSkink]

@Romero Why, yes, I believe that was me saying that I wanted to research Increased rate of production of Mechanical Warriors, or something. Though, I'll examine the list, and then make a calculated conclusion on what might be the most important trait for me to obtain, right now. I can only get one per three turns, after all, and I think I'll have to be prepared to be under attack every single turn from now on. And me who was playing with possibly researching trains. No way, huh. Haha.

Researching how to research technology traits faster? XD

[Romero]

I've got the one's you've suggested, I was just curious if anyone else had any ideas.

[ForKhorne]

@PlatinumSkink That sounds all good to me

@Romero Seeing as Necromancy is failing, is there some new kind of dark magic that we might be able to research?

[PlatinumSkink]

I had a random useless train of thoughts, that I would randomly want to share to those that might want to read.

Useless Train of Thoughts

So, the Broken Empire clearly showed me the use of meat shields. Those undead took the brunt for all our forces and ensured that we took absolutely no casualties in that battle. This makes me realize that I would really have use of meat shields of my own. Looking at Conscript Units, I can make 3000 of them in a province at once if I research that. 3000! That's more than my entire army in numbers right now, and that's just a single province! But, that leads to an inevitable problem.

Orngat would never do that to its citizens. Meat shields? No friggin' way. They could never do that. So, thinking of ways I could fix that... maybe I could say that all these conscript infantry is actually extremely low-budget mass-produced machines that is not even 1% of the quality of a true Mechanical Warrior, essentially just created to stand in the way of enemy forces? I'm not even sure I'd be allowed to say that, considering machines isn't a race to chose from, but even if we say I can, that leads to another little problem.

Since I did not pick "Fearless" as a trait, because I really have no in-universe reason to, the people of Orngat AREN'T fearless, how would I explain why these machines feel fear? ... ... ...

Why Machines Feel Fear (Theoretical Scenario)

Penokio raised his hand as if to strike the low-budget bare-bones mechanical construct, and it immediately flinched, its knees bending in terror, its arms coming up to shield its face. Wearing a thoroughly undisturbed expression, Penokio turned to the ever so brilliant young inventor, with a very good question on his mind.

"Say, why does this robot feel fear?" Penokio asked.

"Isn't it absolutely adorable?!" Jonathan smiled brightly. "I managed to program in basic emotions! I know I shouldn't have, but I had too much fun while I was designing their artificial intelligence! They're now going to fawn over cute things and recoil from scary things! They'll be the cutest little robots ever!" The young engineer smiled brightly as he looked like he was going to get all the praise from his teacher for this brilliant invention.

"Sure, that's amazing and all..." Penokio noted, looking over and seeing two of the robots kneeling down and making odd noises cuddling with a cat that did not seem to appreciate their mechanical hands. "... But you DO realize these were invented to go to BATTLE, right?"

"Yes! Of course! Is there a problem?" Jonathan asked, tilting his head a little, looking confused and happy at Penokio.

"... How long would it take to recall all the robots and remove their fear?" Penokio asked, a kind of tired stare looking at the brilliant young engineer.

"Oh, dear, seeing how they're already being mass-produced, and... Wait, maybe I could design a tower that could change all their programming at once... Let's see... About three seasons?" Jonathan calculated the time it would take to research the Fearless trait on his fingers, getting a very focused look as he did. "But why would we ever do that?" He asked, looking back at his teacher in confusion.

"... No reason." Penokio said with an exhausted tone, as he left Jonathan smiling at his robot creations while he himself went out into the corridor and started hitting his head into the wall a few times. Jonathan's very difficult to deal with sometimes...

... XD

Edit: Wait... "You can only learn traits in categories that you already have a trait in." ... So, uh, I couldn't research conscript units even if I wanted because I have no traits among the "Conscript Military Unit" category? ... HAH!

[Catchphrase]

I am pretty sure my nation is screwed. I have too few troops and they can only fight effectively on one front at a time. My neighbours are silent and the nearest ally won't be able to reach me in time even if they had troops to spare. So, my nation is now just a meat shield to hold off the Darkness coming from the North East, anyone have any advice?

[Legion02]

Honestly I only have 1 option for you catch. Get the hell out of dodge. Load up ships with your entire population and relocate? Or beg to the gods that the Darkness will be too pre-occupied with fighting Orngat that they just sort of skip you a little.

[ForKhorne]

@Catchphrase I'm with Legion. If you hightail it east then you should be able to reach allies before the Darkness can catch up with you.

[Catchphrase]

@Legion02@ForKhorne
That is not an option, I will not abandon my lands without a fight. If worse comes to worse and it looks like I have no choice, I will. But for now, I will hold

[Bright_Ops]

@Legion02@ForKhorne@Catchphrase

Tushienia made the offer to house and allow the Outcast Republic to effectively train and equip new forces if they were to abandon their homeland and sail for Tushienia. But they refuse to give up their home without a fight.

All I can say is I hope you live long enough to regret the decision to stand and fight alone Catchphrase.

@Romero

New Traits you say? I had one in mind.

Tracking the Archlich: The nation in question has used some method (Magical or Mundane) to try and triangulate the current whereabouts of the Arch-Lich in control of the Darkness. While the process is not perfect, it does give the nation in question a general idea of where the Arch-Lich currently is (Instead of 'Anywhere in the world' it would be 'Somewhere in these three or four provinces').

[Romero]

Something along those lines is on its way. In fact, the Arch-Lich may even be making his first appearance...

[Bright_Ops]

@Romero

And thus Tushienia commits itself to the turn. This is either going to be insanely smart or incredibly stupid... It's invading Province 2.

[Romero]

@Bright_OpsYou'll find out which as soon as I'm not on a train! As ForKhorne already knows, attacking the Darkness is a very different kind of battle than defending against it

[Legion02]

I'll put my post up between now and 12 hours. Sorry for the delay!!! (Real life is becoming real indeed...)

[Catchphrase]

After much consideration, I have decided that I will withdraw a portion of my troops to anyone who will allow them room.

[Bright_Ops]

@Catchphrase

I've said before that Tushienia is happy to have you.