PhaseI: The Opener

Started out by selling a few items and running 0 taxes ... the usual stuff.

Decided that it would be best to run 0 taxes as long as possible, while city spamming and CannonFodder spamming.

See ... my civ traits were Master Crasftsmen (-50% production on armor and weapons) and Unending Horde (-50% production on training) ... so I could get a LOT of mooks.

While I had the ability to build stronger units, my goal was to get as many boots on the ground as possible. Therefore, until my Sovereign had a full set of cannon fodders, I didn't bother with other unit types.

Equally, until I had built all possible city locations (Pioneer + Fodder guards), I did not build anything stronger.

Eventually (turn 20ish?) I had 4 cities, captured a 5th from Gilden, and couldn't see anywhere else to expand. Finally I had the extra time to build some stronger units.

(15 turns later)

But wait! Now I have -30 gold per turn and I'm almost out of money ....  

 -> This is when my 0taxes finally came to a halt, around turn 35-40.

               ->I was already selling items on the side, but it was here that I decided to sell some of the more expensive stuff I was saving up, in order to fund my military campaign.

Still, after turn 40, most of my turns were spent at Oppressive taxes for the next 20 years.

Phase II: Diplomacy and the Crusade against Man

So here I was, with a Fledgling empire, economy crumbling to a halt, and no Champions.

what was I to do?

War, war, and MORE WAR!

I was already at war with the Gilden,

The players on the Map were Myself Magnar IV of the Quendar Nationalists, my ally Magnar of the Quendar (originals?), Altar, Tarth, and Gilden. There was also a 1 city Resolyn up north behind part of the magnar.

Well, first I declared war on the Tarth, because they were below my underbelly and I had to not fight a multi-front war. This little distraction led to my Gilden friends retaking 2 of their old cities

Even before I killed off the 1-city Tarth however ... I NEEDED MOAR GOLD! Therefore I made a deal with Magnar. We two magnars would both declare war on the Altar, and he paid me a hefty sum of money

-> Therefore, with my Campaign newly funded, I headed down a winding peninsula to slay the wily Tarth.

After I killed the Tarth I had a little catching up to do. So I captured back the 2 gilden cities, ended up killing the Gilden Sovereign a few more times (for still crappy exp), and took another Gilden city. This was when I sued for peace (him giving me gold ) and went After Altar.

Little did I know, however, but Magnar was kicking Relias's ass. My Quendar brothers to the North ... and to the East!? Had taken Altar lands and become the new World Superpower.

This new powerful Magnar the First had crafted an IMMENSE empire, with the potential to kick my ass, and had killed of the Altar before I arrived. Therefore I quested a bit, Killed off the Gilden, and built up my armies for a war to end all wars.

THE WORLD WAS FILLED ONLY WITH FALLEN ... but ONLY ONE COULD LORD OVER IT ALL!

Phase III: Magnar? This is Magnar the Fourth. Prepare to Die!

well, the world was ours. The races of man had been enslaved, and their hope had been extinguished.

But in hell, there can be but one ruler, and all wish to rule.

Therefore it was only a matter of time before Quendar the First was going to wipe us out. We were already down from Pleased to Neutral with him. He had easily twice as many cities, and likely twice the population.

He was going to win ... I couldn't let that happen.

Therefore I did the only reasonable thing ... carve him up from the inside out.

Lets look at the players.

The Empire of Magnar -> 1 mean sovereign, many soldiers, many champions

Quendar Nationalists -> 1 mean sovereign and a horde of cannon fodder. No Champions.

The War was long, and many battles were fought. Some I won, some I lost. Cities went back and forth many ... many times.

Two things I learned in this war

1-> You can always guarantee a win with your Sovereign

and

2-> Fighting with Mooks is hella fun!

Basically, my Sovereign never died, and he spent the entire time up in the north, at Magnar's starting location... trying to take and keep the cities there.

Meanwhile, there was a war-front about 1000 miles wide.

I split the continent in half. There was the "battlefield" which consisted of about 10 cities on the NorthWestern half of the continent. There was my lair in the South west, their was Gildenlands in the South East.

The gained and lost cities in the battlefield, I lost and retook cities in the Gildenlands.

The most fun was when I would fight against a legion of Enemies supportd by a caster and still win (with only mooks!)

I started fielding better units, with positive traits instead of negative traits, but it was still mostly early game stuff.

By the end of the War Magnar had worthless Ash Mages, and I finally had Chainmail.

I buit a few "Chain Tanks" and used them to reconquer the Gildenlands. 1 Chain Tank + 1 leather defender + 1 mook could kill an entire army of soldiers led by a Caster Champion.

In the north, the prodigal son Magnar IV led countless victories against the armies of his Grandfather. Sometimes defeating Magnar personally. Mangar the Fourth could handle a melee with his dagger, but he preferred to let his spells do the talking.

Namely Wither, Fire Elemental Summons, and a 1 turn Fireball    (He was Death 1 and eventually Fire IV by the end of the war)

While Magnar eventually gained the ability to 1-hit kill enemy mooks with his fireball, his personal passion was being a Commander. His traits gave his horde of mooks +1 initiative and +1 dodge. This really helped against such beasts as Bone Ogres and Obsidian Golems

Eventually Magnar took an interest in running to the front lines to knock in some heads, in order to save Mana. By the end of the war he was using a Flame Axe of (Trogdor?) which gave him 86 total attack with his strength boosting pendants. (+26 Cutting and +26 fire attack, +50% strength bonus iirc)

The fighting in the north was pretty close ... not because Magnar IV's victory was ever in question ... but because MAGNAR had TONS of armies.

While I had my singular hordes of mooks, Magnar seemed to have an infinite number of army groups filled with lower numbers of slightly stronger soldiers.

Eventually he started to add mages (and he'd always had archers) which were a bit tough for my low initiative Cannon Fodders to fight, but my Defenders (and ,if lucky, Chain tanks) were more than strong enough to wipe them out.

Eventually, after the Western Hemisphere was firmly in my grasp, I sued for peace. I probably could have continued the initiative for a win, but my economy was still pretty thin, and I wanted to do some questing with my Sov.

Phase IV:Finally build up the Economy 

by the end of the war, most of my 14 cities were still size 1. I believe I had 1 size 2 city .. my best (and third) city.

I started focusing on improving my economy .... (which was kind of hard to do due to the lack of building choices).

Eventually all of my cities were size 2, with a training yard in Best City (Rostuya) and markets everywhere else.

Sometime in this peaceful build-up, my starting city got killed off by a group of Spiders.

The South (below my South-western core) was very much wild, and the monsters had time to grow during the war it seems.

-> There were 2 lairs of wildmen, 1 bear lair, and 1 spider lair ... which at that point in the game was enough to overrun the garrison mooks I had left behind.

It was only a 4/2 city however, So I was not that sad to see it pass. Meanwhile Rostuya at 4/4 was quickly becoming my favorite.

In Rostuya I built my only command post, and invested in my only training yard. Rostuya eventually became size 4 and built an Oracle. (near the chronological end of this AAR)

Early in this period, Rostuya was my only source of new troops. Sure I would spam 3 or 4 cannon fodders in a city I deemed worth protecting, but all my best new designs were built only in Rostuya.

I grew and I quested. I quested and I grew. I built Outposts in all the lost-land in between cities to pick up the odd Iron mine or Crystal Crag. I kept selling all (but a few) of my crystal to Magnar for horses and Iron.

Yes, I started to build horses ...

I actually built my first Dark Knight during the war, and had 2 by the time peace was declared. Very useful. Very.

I find its best to use the Scout trait with horses to make them 4 move ... as really what use is a 3 move horse? Might as well add scout to a soldier for 3 moves ...

During this time I finally invested in Archery, and built my first Fire Archers (version 1). I really liked the Archers

With Archers and Guardsmen, I used Mook-only groups to clear out some of the monsters that I deemed an annoyance.

I had one really good Mook-only group of 3 fire archers and 2 dark knights

Phase V: Okay Champions ... Give it a shot

finally I was starting to get my level 4 cities, and some slower cities became level 3 for the gratuitous tax office.

I reasearched into the Magic field, and got Legendary Armor. I then designed some better archers and better knights. (slightly better archers, but MUCH better Knights).

Finally I decided to start recruiting some champions. I could now get 200+ gold on Oppressive taxes, so I'd switch between No Taxes (after selling items) and Oppressive Taxes (to rebuild gold stocks, or recruit Champions, or equip Champions).

I recruited 2 new Champions at level 9 and level 7, and arbitrarily named them generals.

-> For ease of reference I'll call the two Champions Sally and Brutus.

Sally quickly became my favorite, and I sent her to the north to lead Army Group A. I also bought for her some of the best Champion Equipment available. And gave her my Heartseeker blade.

See ... Sally has this awesome little trait called "Instant Curse ALL at the beginning of battle". Its nice because it doesn't cost any mana ... but she doesn't have Impulsive and is therefore lacking in initiative.

Brutus is even slower than Sally, but he has Fire 2 and Death 2 for my favorite spell combo BURNING SOUL.

While Brutus can't 1-hit a fireball, he can use Burning Soul to pick off some of the stronger enemies during a battle. As I now have 3 fire shards and 3 death shards, it is a very fun spell.

Later, I recruited even MORE Champions ... but decided to kill them with the "Steal Spirit" ability. I only need 3 generals after all.

Thanata was a tough choice ... as she seemed really cool with Path of Mage AND Path of the Assassin ... but I needed death 2 on my Sov so I could use the cool BURNING SOUL in my main army group. (Army Group Badass)

Then I entered the Arena, and saved some poor chap from the Arena. I really didn't care about saving him, but I already had a Heartseeker so maybe I could get something useful from this guy instead.

I almost killed him for his Water1 ability, but his green skin and scath companion made me have pity on him.

Therefore I allowed him to live, for now, as there was another Champion recruit in the north I had planned for a "Kill for Water1" anyways.

(I really love Steal Spirit )

Therefore I sent the little guy, lets call him Kermit, to the north to give Sally his Scath.

Magnar IV found the Bezerker's Sword ... but at -4 accuracy per hit (instead of -3) I decided it wasn't worth it.

Almost sold it ... but if I get to level 20 or something I'll just buy a Champion's Helm and finally use it. (on someone)

-> currently using the Emerald SkullCap and Mage's Robes on magnar IV

-> Wish I could use "Steal Spirit" to gain aptitude from yet another useless Champ

 Phase VI: A recap of the EndGame -> A world destined for War

So here I am, in the final act, heading north to Kill a Fallen Champion for Water 1 ... With my armies becoming optimized.

My Power is around 340, while the enemy's power is around 250 or so.

In the north-> Sally.

She has Death IV, auto-mass Curse. and will get a Scath mount shortly

her army will consist of 3 Fire Archers(version2) and 3 light cavalry. Army Group A

In the south -> Brutus.

He has Fire III and Death 2, but due to low initiative his fireballs are worthless, therefore he uses Burning Soul alot, and fights in melee.

He has a horse, but I'm thinking of buying him a Warg.

His army will also consist of 3 Fire Archers (version 2) and 3 light cavalry. Army Group C.

In the 'wherever he is needed' -> Magnar the amazing danger rodriguez the Fourth.

He has 86 attack with Trogdor's Axe, has Death II, Fire V, Air I, Earth I, and soon will have Water I. Also has Leadership 1 and Tactician 1.

He is currently level 11.

He was non-mounted for the longest time ... but eventually stole the 'awesome' spider from Thanata.

He was going to switch to a Scath mount ... but then found that Scath's don't have any advantage over spiders

His army will likely consist of 2-3 Fire Archers ... and 3-4 KNIGHTS OF THE ROUNDS.

These Knights have somewhere between 40 and 50 defense, and 12+ dodge. Less DPS than light cavalry, but far more survivability. And a decent 17 initiative to boot. (fast + scout + charge)

I might add in a few Skirmisher Knights though ...

These tricky fellows are the REAL light cavalry, but their massive production time sees less of them being built than the 'light cavalry'.

Less Total Damage, but at 28 initiative they probably have more DPS than light cavalry.

-> Skirmisher Knights are the REAL counter to any Archer or Ash Mage Magnar will be able to build.

During the war I might just have Rostuya perma-building new Skirmisher Knights and sending them in as expeditionary forces to supplement the three army groups.

So in conclusion, Magnar IV's army group, ARMY GROUP BADASS will likely have 2 fire archers, 2 knights of the rounds, and 2 skirmisher knights.

And now you know what I've been doing since yesterday

-> If the final battles are interesting, I may post about that here as well.