Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
[X] Bring in Ice Witches
[X] Find the Boyar

I'd rather not complicate the line of command with bringing a sizable foreign army to the battle.
 
Does this mean she does it chantless or unconsciously?

Chantless. All the trappings of magic - incantations, gestures, components, and so on - are different ways to outsource part of the effort normally performed by the mind to the mouth or the hands or the physical world. Mathilde got into the rhythm enough that she was able to bring all of it back under her direct control, instead of keeping part of it in the spoken chant.

To be fair though, there are a lot of people who don't have dwarvern highways.
I pretty much guessed that, yeah, but it doesn't really change my assessment. Being able to turn any reasonably flat terrain into the equivalent of a perfectly paved road is huge on a strategic level, even for forces who can't get as much out of it. It's not a complete game-changer, obviously, but it's still a very very nice boost.

Yeah, it absolutely is a huge help in a lot of circumstances and I don't want to downplay that, I'm just leery of the idea taking hold that it's a flat x4 speed multiplier.
 
Regarding the Waystone discoveries, if the witches have the control sequences, they could have routed power to Karak Vlag to thwart the dryads or as part of a deal to sell excess magic to the dwarfs.

[X] Contact Ostermark
 
[X] Bring in Ice Witches
[X] Find the Boyar
[X] Contact Ostermark

Ice witches for magical firepower that Kislev is probably going to want, the Boyar to try to ascertain what this is about, Ostermark for hammer and anvil effect and preventing the elves from vanishing into the forests across the border. Ice witches is effectively risk-free, Ostermark has a bit of risk if things go wrong and the Boyar is ???, but ultimately I am fine with either of these options winning.
 
Yeah, it absolutely is a huge help in a lot of circumstances and I don't want to downplay that, I'm just leery of the idea taking hold that it's a flat x4 speed multiplier.
Yeah, and its also a road in any direction you want, so it could potentially also cut down travel times by letting you take shortcuts where the main road doesn't follow.
Does it do anything about gradient, I assume not or the Karag Dum expedition would have just gone straight up and over mountains? Its something like walking up/down a staircase but you always perfectly step on the next step?
 
What you hadn't guessed was that the leyline would be flowing northwards, taking power from Kislev to Praag.
As expected the Ice Witches have been mucking about with the network.

While the Shadowsteed has many advantages over flesh-and-blood horses, its willingness to gallop at full speed into a tree or river can be quite a downside.
…for most people discovering that would have been rather dangerous. For someone with Mathy's Belt and Seed, it was probably just humiliating.

add it to the very long list of unanswered questions you've accumulated on the subject of Waystones
We really need to get Lay The Foundations done.

Nice bloke.

Boris looks at the churned remnants of the rutted path the Kreml Guard has left in its wake. "But not slippery, yha? Like proper Dwarf road?"
Most people don't think about it much, but the difference that a flat even surface makes to travel is immense. Going from dirt paths to paved roads is what made non-coastal empires possible.

I do so love these windows into the world.

Boris, he asks you if you know your way around a blade. Branulhune's appearance in your hand supplies your answer for you, and an accepted challenge later you find yourself ringed by Kossars as you weigh up Boris, who's an intimidating sight even with the icy glow of his glaive muffled by a cloth wrapping. The two of you put on a decent showing for the audience, but you can tell that Boris is growing as frustrated by having to keep from unleashing the full power of his weapon as you are
Yeah, sparing with high end magic weapons is… problematic.
Nice to know Boris is packing a decent weapon though.
 
The hilarious thing will be when the Wood Elves notice there is a bit more commotion they expected, pull out, and we slam in with all these forces only to find nothing.
 
Yeah, and its also a road in any direction you want, so it could potentially also cut down travel times by letting you take shortcuts where the main road doesn't follow.
Does it do anything about gradient, I assume not or the Karag Dum expedition would have just gone straight up and over mountains? Its something like walking up/down a staircase but you always perfectly step on the next step?
It only covers interruptions. A slope isn't one, though a shallow trench is.
 
It makes a surface flat and even. If that surface is at a significant angle, then making it flat and even means you've turned it into a slide.
IIRC this was an issue the second time we lost a steam wagon during the Expedition? It went out of control and the RoW wasn't able to help because it was on the downhill and not level terrain.

[X] Bring in Ice Witches
[X] Find the Boyar
 
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Athel Loren has a history of not respecting parlay, ether coming up with backasswrd reasons that you broke it first so it's ok to slit your thort or doing shit like 'technically, parlay is over now, start running.'

And mathy is likely to know that, even without know it's the head bitch wood herself at the head of this war host.

Parlay was never an option.

[X] Find the Boyar
[X] Contact Ostermark
 
IIRC this was an issue the second time we lost a steam wagon during the Expedition? It went out of control and the RoW wasn't able to help because it was on the downhill and not level terrain.

[X] Bring in Ice Witches

Yes, it was shown as the possible reason for why we lost another steam wagon during the expedition from the loss of control as ROW as I understand it made it worse as the smooth and flat downward incline led to no existing friction to slow down as shown here.

Unfortunately, when there's one spell trying to smooth the way for five fairly spread-out steam-wagons at once, there's going to be situations where what helps most will hinder others, and that appears to be what happens about two thirds of the way through the mountains: the Kriestov, currently fourth in the convoy, loses traction and begins to slide down the slope, accelerating as it dislodges stones beneath it that join it in a growing rockslide. Thankfully this time there isn't a terrible drop to swallow it, but when it leaves the relatively smooth area scouted out by the Knights and into uneven scree and hardy mountain trees, its momentum eventually fails it as the wheels on one side roll up a hillock and the wheels on the other buckle, and it ponderously and noisily topples over, turning the trees unlucky enough to be beneath it into splinters.
 
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Thinking about it there is one way Rite of Way might be usable strategically without Mathilde and her staff, if you could make a battle altar of it. That said I do not see us voting for such a course of action anytime soon. There is simply too much stuff to do for us to be drawn to bog standard enchanting... that is also dangerous as only battle magic enchanting can be
 
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