[1.01 FE & MA 1.01.015b] WIP Playthrough (Picture Heavy) [Completed]

Turn 10 - FP 11. Highest is Yithril at 18, lowest is Gilden at 10. Well, Lady Irane is downright scared. Decent starting spot with 4/3/2 and next to forest for logging camp. However, mountains to the west and ocean to the right. Expansion available to the north and south. Unfortunately, Air Shrill lair up north blocking next city expansion slot with 4 packs of roaming air shrills. To the south is a mite lair already sending out rabid packs of mini-devils. The roaming air shrills have over 600 hp and have already approached the city proper once. Lady Irane, along with Bannon Heighsley are together along with two spear chick units. Have upgraded the town watch so Irane now has 4x5 city spearmen defening the city along with Tarth's fledgling army. Irane must avoid paralysis by analysis and make a move. But to what direction and with how much force? Irane is considering maxing out city defenders at 9 with cheap spear units (which along with the 4 unit army) would provide 13 defenders against the air shrills. Could also consider making some pioneers to make an outpost to the north and south, each within 2 tile distance from the city hub to ensure armory/fort stacking. In addition, Tarth needs some tanks and range units. Technologically pursuing weaponry (for the tanks) and making a beeline for banditry to get the heartwood shortbow. Whether Tarth thrives or joins the history books may well depend on the decisions Lady Irane makes now. Save.

Kingdom Report:

 Lay of the Land:

Bane of Tarth:

Turn 13 and these bandits are roaming the countryside. Have mercy...

Turn 20 - FP 19. Yithril highest at 28 and lowest is Resoln and Gilden, both at 16. Pretty uneventful prior 10 turns. Hope is now a level 2 town. Built a Tower of Dominion, Logging Camp, and are now upgrading to a Lumber Mill. Roaming mobs near Hope and then move on. Have 4 city spearmen and 1 city archer defending plus sov, hero, and 3 spear units. Designed a tank unit, researching banditry to allow bows. Also allows building an archery range and hideout to increase the number of archery defending units. At this point believe caution is the better part of valor - will proceed making an outpost to the north and south. Lady Irane is considering quitting her day job and return to pole dancing. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Turn 30 - FP 21. Yithril highest with 29, lowest Resoln and Magnar at 16. Last 10 turns quiet as Tarth solidifies production and expands boundaries around Hope. Built a monument to grab another iron ore mine. Created one outpost to the south which has now overlapped the Mite's lair and is 3 tiles away from my city hub (preplanning for outpost buff overlap in case town is attacked and expanding line of sight). Preparing another settler to make an outpost to the north and do the same thing. Outposts are now upgradeable to armories, forts, greater armories, and border forts. Close to completing researching banditry which will further solidify defenses. Tarth is preparing to start moving out with the mites as the first target. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Have you taken a look at the special Tarth traits for unit design? They are pretty awesome. I posted my unit designs in the MA thread if you want to take a look at how I designed them.

Cool, I have not read the details in your thread but I did see them in unit design and read them there.   Have designed a few. Can't wait to see what archers I can design... now need some meat shields to dance with these insane hp mobs...

Staff, Mark of Tarth, Pugilist, Mark of the Claw makes for a pretty strong turn one meat shield. I like to pump out 6 of those from the start. If you already have Weaponry, Get Warhammers, Full Leather, Weapon Proficiency, Mark of the Wild and Mark of the Tiger. You can do some serious bash damage.

Turn 40 - FP 24. Yithril highest at 44, Gilden lowest at 22. Borders are quiet with the occasional intrusion from air shrill stack or the roaming mites. Training first official tank unit to be followed by 2 bow units. Will wage war on the mite lair sometime before turn 50 and make the first official clear of a lair. No factions met yet, city is well defended with 4 city spearmen and 3 bowmen defenders plus army stack. Southern outpost is upgraded with an armory and fort which will help in the mite lair battle. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Turn 50 - FP 32. Yithril highest with 51, Tarth is now the lowest. Turn 50 was absolutely devastating. Irane's entire army was wiped and obliterated by the rat quest - a corpse spider. A corpse spider on crack, weed, meth, steroids, an energy drink, and a pack of Marlboros (& 700+ hp). After clearing the mite lair with little trouble, and spending the last 10 turns training a tank and a few bow units, some little crackhead asked Lady Irane to clear some rats from a cellar. Joke's on Irane... absolutely devastating. Irane will spend the next 5 seasons licking her wounds and Tarth will need to retrain a new army. Save.

Sean - I thought you hate spiders. Why, for the love of Curgen, WHY?

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

The beginning of the battle... Irane's got this:

Or not... Mother F$%k@r!

500 hp less... the spider is roaming the land.

Turn 56. Sent 5 cheap spear units to arachnophobiaize that damn spider. Lost 3 but killed that bugger. Alas, the air shrills smell blood and are moving in... things are not looking good for the fledgling kingdom of Tarth.

Turn 60 - FP 30. Highest is Magnar with 63 and Tarth, unfortunately, is lowest. At this point Lady Irane is completely happy to lay low and not meet any of the AI fearing a massive dogpile. Furthermore, a game-ending stack of bandits is toying with Tarth's northern border. Do not yet have wardens to keep them at bay - must survive until then and explore south west for a possible 2nd settlement. Researching heroes to get wardens and nightwatches. Must also finish upgrading the outposts... too many things need to be done, not enough time. Magnar appears to be just outside Tarth's northern border... no dialoge yet, Irane senses a storm brewing... Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Tarth's Bane:

Turn 70 - FP 39. Magnar in the lead with 76, Tarth bringing up the rear. Now have wardens watching the northern border. Rebuilding the final tank and bow units for primary army. Irane plans on leading a campaign down south to clear out some rabid wolves and the den they are spawning from. There is hope a settleable spot exists to the southwest otherwise Irane may rename the capital Hope to Despair. Up north exists the air shrill den, the roaming bandit horde, and Magnar... Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

So that others may see through my eyes the dangers of spiders unchecked. 

Turn 79 - Game over, lol. There is a wall of death to the southwest. Lair upgraded to Great Wolf, and right behind that is Sean's pet spider named Giant Ravenous Harridan and all of his multi-legged friends. There is a settleable spot but might as well call in a nuclear strike. Jimminy Crickets, I think the fat lady has sung. Both directions from the capital are closed off - out of options. Anyone have vodka? It's time to get drunk and party in Hope. Maybe play the fiddle while Tarth burns...

Christ-all-mighty that those bandits have silly levels of HP. Volcanoes ASAP! Grand crusade against the mighty wolf army, their hit points may not be as glorious but valor to the Tarth all the same.

Wouldn't mind seeing the occasional stat screen for heroes or units you have a surprising break through with.

Will do. However, everything I have right now is extremely weak. Sov is level 4, secondary hero is level 3, and just mid early game units (tanks with leather, and first tier bowmen).

Turn 80 - FP 41. Altar is now in the lead with 85, Tarth is bringing up the rear. Being outpaced by the faction AI, hemmed in by impenetrable mobs. Irane has 2 choices: blast a wall through the mountains to the west via lower land (not practical, have only 2 mana per turn income) or move north, settle that spot, and stick the best 9 man army in there and immediately upgrade the defenses. Nothing left to lose... need to expand or toast. Risk of that move north is dialogue with Magnar and immediate border tension - once Magnar knows Tarth exists, let the dogpile begin. Irane is heading back north to prepare the advance settlement. Hope will start training a pioneer... as Iron Maiden says, if you're gonna die, die with your boots on. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Turn 85 - and this awaits me on the northern front...GG.

Tunr 90 - FP 40. Yithril highest at 116, Tarth by far is lowest. Irane is trying one slow methodical approach up north... push the boundaries of Tarth on top of the Air Shrill lair and the out of control bandit lair. Upgrade to warden and hope the beasties leave and wander into Magnar's area. The primary lair guardians may not move but that's ok... I think. If Irane can push the mobs out and then settle that tile, Tarth can immediately move in 9 defenders plus obtain the city defenders. Immediate upgrades to city defenders would be priority, including getting that town to a level 2 fortress asap. Irane is not optimistic the plan will work but there's nothing really left to do other than party or raise some land around the mobs and hope Earth exists out there, Battlestar Galactica style. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Northern Boundary (those are my lonely and isolated wardens!):

Turn 100 - FP 43. Yithril highest with 151 and Irane is still last by a large margin. Built a nightwatch, grocer, and now finishing a hideout for 4 extra defending bowmen. Once that is built, will build a pioneer along with 9 best units and settle that 2nd city. The next 10 turns will be extremely interesting. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Part of the reason you have so many lairs in one place is that your map size is rather small. The current strategy you have should work though. Hideouts are definitely your friend.

Turn 110 - FP 51. Yithril on top with 169. Major setback these 10 turns. One of the bandit armies rampaged all over my lonely outpost and wiped the wardens. Did complete the hideout so have 7 archer and 4 spearmen units defending the city along with 9 regular units. If Irane needs to make a last stand it will be glorious. Magnar declared war but they have not yet sent any armies. Have a feeling the rampaging air shrills and bandits might be picking off any units they are sending south towards my border. Going to make two more pioneers and try again to settle the tile up north. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Turn 120 - FP 56. Yithril is in the lead with 151. Nothing much has changed the past 10 turns. Now building high towers to expand zoc on both existing outposts. Magnar has not yet sent any stacks. Still trying to hoodwink those mobs into letting me settle that spot up north...

Having played with similar settings to yours, basically I went with the same strategy - build up big defenses, build up a large unit with a single pioneer, and hope like hell you make it to the settling spot.  Strategic (heh) use of the Raise/Lower Land spell actually can help quite a bit, since it lets you create a path where otherwise you might be stuck either not being able to make it through at all, or have to take 1/2 speed.  Get the second city, rinse and repeat.  It's very slow, brutal going.

Thanks for the input, Salurian. Magnar is beginning to send some nasty stacks Irane's way, built off Sean's diabolical default unit templates. This could be over sooner rather than later...