Not really, the major reason we hired them was to stop the Khemetri from doing so. Ultimately we don't care much what they do so long as they aren't working for the Khemetri. In the meantime they're useful for padding the army, and depending on how they recruit we might actually end up turning them after keeping them for a long time due to generational turnover.
Thanks for the heads up! I wasn't following that part of the discussion 100%. I hope we can sway the mercs closer to our side, but it helps to always be prepared for the worst.
We could maybe have only hired two, because setting up the Trelli for the consequences of their mercs fighting each other if they'd hired the third would have been entertaining.
...its kind of nice that our criminal underworld network is willing to pass national security concerns up to the central command, even if its dangerous to have them
Symphony at work?
We had 40% towers .
On integrating Hatvalley we went to 30%.
Ergo Hatvalley is 10% of our land and has no towers.
Towers would enhance our reaction time to any Highlander or Khemtri nonsense.
Also easier to catch them if the info is single source
Alright, hail science!
Historically someone would start for us yeah
Note he was very good ONLY at the army itself and left our backline undermanned, so...he's good at horde logistics only
Boat
The units are just by career instead
I did say they are great armor breakers
It was a bigger surprise we kept it secret this long
Diff Checker (Action) Diff Checker (Civ Sheet) Diff Checker (Civ Sheet BBCode)
Hmm... @Academia Nut is the "Epic Age" bit actually a game mechanic like golden ages or heroic ages? Or is it just that you decided that the events around the war (or at least it starting) deserved a continuous update name?
16 - 1 (Carrion Eaters) - 1 (Study Health) + 2 (Automatic Refugees) = 16
Yay for refugees that don't deal stab hits Surprised the Thunder Speakers getting conquered didn't produce any refugees, actually, since it sounds like it was just the Metal Workers... @Academia Nut ?
Statuses King of the Hill: You are the most prestigious polity around, gaining you +1 Diplomacy a turn, but all other groups gain the 'Take the Crown' casus belli
Baby Boom: Converting 6 Econ Expansion to 6 Econ a turn Population Explosion: Converting 6 Econ Expansion to 6 Econ a turn Efficient Economy: +1 Wealth/turn while above Econ 10
It's a good thing we keep the KotH bonus for hte war...it'll help us get max stats this turn.
Baby boom and Population Explosion, but AN has said that the latter has a decent chance to downgrade this turn to just baby boom; i'll cover those quotes more in the relevant section.
Trade Status
Resource
Status
Rivals
Luxuries
Amber
Known only
Fine Pottery
Minor
Fine Dye
Dominating
Trelli
Fine Textiles
None
Swamp Folk, Trelli
Furs
Known only
Gems
Dominating
Trelli, Tin Tribes, Khem (in)
Glass
Dominating
Gold
Significant + minor trading (in)
Metal Workers, Khem->Trelli
Incense
None
Khem->Trelli
Mercury
Dominating
None
Silver
Significant (in)
MW, Trelli (in)
Salt
Dominating
Trelli
Spices
None
(SI+Khem)->Trelli
Wine
Dominating
Trelli
Strategic
Copper
Leading
Highlanders, Thunder Horse, MW, Trelli
Bronze
Minor
Trelli
Slaves
Forbidden
MW (in), Trelli, TT
Tin
Minor + Significant Trading
MW (in), TH (in), HK (in), Tin Tribes, Trelli->Khem
Iron
Non-traded dominant
MW
Cultural
Pilgrimage
Major Competition
TH
Silver: "Significant (in, needing) -> Significant (In)" New silver mine is keeping us solvent on currency
Pilgrimage: Thunder Speakers gone...but replaced with Thunder Horse, seemingly with no reduction in power... :/
Periphery States (8/8+3) (Loyalty [L], Dependence [D]) Stallion Tribes (March) - Eliminates raids from the north and mitigates raids from the east, can provide military advances and supports the Western Wall (L: 5/5, D: 2/5) Western Wall (Colony) - Expands to produce new provinces and find new resources, and can take be brought into wars to the north and west (L: 5/5, D: 1/5) Gulvalley (Colony) - Expands to produce new provinces and find new resources, and can take be brought into wars to the south, south-east, and south-west (L: 5/5, D: 3/5) Greenshore Colony (Colony) - Settles the territory on the west coast of the sea (L: 5/5, D:4/4) Red Banner Company (Mercenary Company) - Can be hired to other kingdoms for wealth, or maintained to boost Martial capacity (L: 5/5) Heaven's Hawks (March) - Eliminates raids from the north-east, can provide military advances and supports the Stallion Tribes (L:4/5, D: 2/5) Txolla (Vassal-Colony) - Foreign territory under your control, follows you in war but has own agenda, restricted to expansion through settlement (L: 4/5, D: 4/5) Tinriver Trading Post (Trading Post) - Increases trade power for all Tin Tribe products, provides a market for an extra saltern (L: 5/5, D: 4/4)
ST Loyalty 4 -> 5.
Gulvalley Loyalty 4 -> 5
Greenshore description updated.
Heaven's Hawk Loyalty 3 -> 4
Txolla loyalty 3 -> 4
So either being in a great power war boosts loyalty, or all the threats boost loyalty.
Desdydyn had been elected king in order to continue the work of what many saw of as a great time of peace and prosperity. What he got instead was to reign over what was shaping up to be one of the greatest times of conflict in the People's history. While neither he nor the People wanted a fight, they would not abandon the land they had already settled because the Khemetri claimed that they deserved it just 'because'. There was some possibility of a misunderstanding, of a mistranslation, but even then there could be no good reason for the People to give way. Desdydyn gave permission for his more martially inclined subordinates to bring war to those who would force the People from their homes,
also authorizing the mass employment of every mercenary they could hire from the Trelli, which was a significant number. This also kept the Khemetri from trying the same trick.
Relying on the advise of advisors because he honestly had no idea what he was doing, Desdydyn was kept in the loop on the fighting as he worked to keep everything else stable and assist in training up a fresh batch of Carrion Eaters to assist with the inevitable casualties.
Soon enough word was filtering back, and it was not good. The People weren't exactly fighting with their mercenaries, but there was a great deal of conflict over how the two groups went to war. As it was, the Red Banner and the local warriors were frequently moving slow just to try to keep the mercenaries under some semblance of control by forcing them not to run forward to slaughter and loot everything indiscriminately, but that meant that they were nowhere near as effective as they could be... which was a distinct problem because the Khemetri were not pushovers.
Eesh, there were worries about the mercs and how effective they'd be, but i dont think anyone predicted it would be that bad :/ @Academia Nut what sort of equipment and tactics do the mercs seem to have?
while they did not have access to iron they had an almost alarmingly ridiculous amount of bronze. While apparently rare, there were tales of heavily armoured nobles who were clad in bronze thick enough to bounce arrows off of.
Ugh, as expected, bronze armor heavy infantry exist...luckily more rare than i feared they'd be...but that might change if/when the main Khemetri forces arrive in bulk :/
The decision to look into making oversized bows that required two people to span but could be fired by a single person was apparently paying off in a few cases there.
In any case, while the People certainly weren't losing, it was hard to say that they were winning either. For the most part they were just sort of keeping the Khemetri away from any major settlements in Hatvalley and Gulvalley, but the frontier settlements of both kingdoms were at serious risk from rampaging bands of warriors and mercenaries, and the valleys in between were becoming a place for both kingdoms to feed warriors into like grains into a mill.
Ehh, semi-stalemate and slaughter is ok for now i guess...hopefully we still have the advantage in combat medics and medical tech, and can recover more of our losses than they can, like this turn (we lost 1 martial to the war, but are gaining one as a veterancy bonus)
With refugees from the metal workers scattering from the conflict by the Storm Wolves, the People were gaining somewhat in terms of expert labour, but the secrets of iron were certainly being spread
However, soon enough the king received a mysterious package, a note attached to it that said, "Intercepted in transit, source in danger, of critical importance."
Inside the package he found a sword and two blocks of iron, all a symbol of a bear, the current crest of the Highland Royal Family. Soon enough artisans were summoned to examine them, and their conclusion was the same: these were of lower quality than what the People made, but not by much, and certainly higher than what the Metal Workers were doing. The artisans clearly did not have the same depth of experience or access to good quality equipment, but they were not starting from scratch either. The conclusion was simple: the Highlanders had someone acquired the secret of iron from the People without them knowing, at least a generation ago.
Some consideration had the older people noting that if one wanted to smuggle an artisan out of the kingdom without anyone knowing, pretending that person was dead would be useful, especially if a skilled ironworker ending up dead wasn't considered that unusual... so perhaps those old rumours of a Shadow King were in fact related to the Highlanders somehow secretly stirring up trouble to cover for stealing off with the People's secrets? It seemed implausible, but then again the Highlanders clearly acquired iron somehow. What they might do was unknown... but having an iron armed power that was at least moderately hostile able to strike into Hatvalley and potentially disrupt resupply into the province and Gulvalley while fighting the Khemetri was distinctly not good, especially with the Thunder Horse being on a conquest spree and the Swamp Folk no doubt interested in pouncing upon the Txolla at the first opportunity.
Plant Hemp - This sturdy plant has been planted in limited quantities before, but you now have cultivars that can take well to being planted in large areas and could use it for
*S: -2 Econ, -2 Econ Expansion, +1 Tech, +1 Mysticism, +1 Diplo if have boats, +1 Econ next turn
*M: -3 Econ, -3 Econ Expansion, +2 Tech, +1 Mysticism, +2 Diplo if have boats, +1 Econ next turn, other effects
Well, given that someone got this intelligence to you, its entirely possible that the Shadow King is on your side. They honestly have no idea, but given that they haven't been detected, the Blackbirds almost certainly are fundamentally compromised. If the Shadow King does exist, and this isn't just all externally driven rather than internal corruption. The People are welcoming of refugees, and if a Highlands spymaster decided to take advantage of that behavior... it would be complicated and amazing that they haven't been detected up until now, but there's some level of conspiracy at work.
And then AN points out one good thing: at least someone is helping us? Also blackbirds probably wont be too helpful in dealing with our intrigue issue, since if they could have noticed, then the blackbirds as an institution are too compromised to have "more of htem!" help.
Also confirmation that artisan support would be useful, because our bolt throwers are a major boon against heavy bronze armor, and we'll only end up seeing more of that as the war heats up i imagine.
Guaranteed? No, you could suffer a catastrophic plague or volcanic eruption or something like that, which could end both. It's fairly unlikely that something knocks off both simultaneously, but population explosion has a decent chance to end this turn, but if it does it probably won't take baby boom with it.
Info on the baby boom, because i was paranoid about whether we might lose it unexpectedly and lose out on GA
So we're most likely going to end up with +12 econ this turn, which means getting a golden age will be easy. King of the Hill will max out diplo so long as we dont do any subordinate actions, and i dont think we can spend 11 econ (true city eats one) in our main actions...our provinces might thought i suppose... @Academia Nut if we don't send a war mission, are our provinces likely to just send 2 main war missions, or are they likely to raise troops or the like?
If we wanted to be safe from that 5% chance (isuppose maybe more like 4.9% since in the worst .1% the baby boom probably goes too ), we'd either need to be net wealth positive (rather unlikely), or we'd need to spend at most 5 econ on our actions, since the true city will eat one. Current plan is eating 6 econ (1 metal, 1 artisan, 4 palace annexes), so its not 5% safe...but honestly most plans that include the double annex wouldn't be, and the double annex seems pretty useful... do still want to do watchtowers though, so i probably wont vote until the morning, too torn :/
Ehhh... a lot of the advisors think that the king's efforts might be best spent working out new magic for the People to use to their advantage rather than organizing more war efforts, where he pretty much has to delegate and doesn't really know who is a good person to delegate to, and the best guy to ask is at the front.
Infrastructure is hilariously efficient if and only if it is building Palace Annexes (It's then worth ~2.3 secondaries, otherwise it's worth ~1 and ~0.6 for Aqueducts)
Defensive is worth a constant ~1.6 secondaries.
I'm fine with Defensive.
However, we really should use our understanding of what they can do to our advantage. They're extremely good at building Palace Annexes and they should know that, so we can let them do it. It's basically trading -1 econ for completing the Aqueduct and +4 Culture, though with a chance of the policies only completing a single Arsenal and then doing something else with their leftover policy action.
Infrastructure is hilariously efficient if and only if it is building Palace Annexes (It's then worth ~2.3 secondaries, otherwise it's worth ~1 and ~0.6 for Aqueducts)
Defensive is worth a constant ~1.6 secondaries.
I'm fine with Defensive.
However, we really should use our understanding of what they can do to our advantage. They're extremely good at building Palace Annexes and they should know that, so we can let them do it. It's basically trading -1 econ for completing the Aqueduct and +4 Culture, though with a chance of the policies only completing a single Arsenal and then doing something else with their leftover policy action.
I'm pretty sure it only built the Great hall in one progress because it was half cost...of course, @Academia Nut never confirmed whether new annexes would cost 2 progress for the policy as that suggests, or 3 as the "needs a secondary action" suggests...
They haven't been doing it, and they've had the opportunity.
Therefore, them "knowing that would be efficient" isn't enough for them to choose to do that. Conclusion: At the very minimum, we'd have to have a Build Annex vote as a close second for there to even be a chance they'd build any.
They haven't been doing it, and they've had the opportunity.
Therefore, them "knowing that would be efficient" isn't enough for them to choose to do that. Conclusion: At the very minimum, we'd have to have a Build Annex vote as a close second for there to even be a chance they'd build any.
Highland Kingdom: YES! INTRIGUE works! Make moar iron weapons!
Ymaryn: Fuck! Wait, we have a spy network?
Khmeteri: Why are they so slow and a hard nut to crack?
Thunder Horse: Going on a conquering spreeeee!
Metal Worker: What a shitty day, right after we discovered iron too.
I mean, we got the infrastructure bonus from the Law because we emphasized "Community Health" and made it so that elites' wealth and whatnot are based on the wellbeing of those beneath them...so i'd say it makes perfect sense for the policy to focus on public health over the palace
It's probably a fair sized chunk. Unless Khemetri is basically Roman Empire or full out Hellenic League in size and power, it's hard to throw the sort of forces out that even we call "A whole fucking lot of them". That they can be equipped nearly ubiquitously with Bronze suggests that they're either stupidly rich, colossal in size to the point that this probably shouldn't have been a Great Power War, or get in serious fights rarely enough that their standard drip has spread through their levies over the course of generations, and they have minimal losses from breakage and post-battle looting.
Basically, if this is only a tithe of their forces, then this probably shouldn't have been a Great Power War, because we'd have heard about them long ago and would know better than to fuck with them. I mean, we heard about them, but not to the point where they're basically a colossus astride the world, this was literally the first time we made land contact with any of their dudes, since normally we only heard about them through the Trelli.
So yeah, I'd probably say we can keep up this pace longer, we're not particularly straining just yet, but the problem comes when our rivals decide to take advantage of our distraction to shank us in the kidneys, and we've got every reason to believe they're sharpening the knives.
Ideally, we need to make some kind of satisfactory peace before long that lets the Khemetri save face without us conceding our lands, or we're going to have Problems. That's basically the issue here, King of the Hill is nice for us, but it's not something we really build around. We'd have almost certainly conceded if they weren't trying to invade our periphery on reflex.
I'm also starting to get the feeling though that the Khemetri aren't used to fighting peer powers though. Their Heavy Infantry for instance would be fucking devastating against anyone else, but we happened to have a weapon that nullified them nicely at the levels they can deploy. Hopefully we get some ideas out of that.
Actually, from what I remember, he drained the northern lands of men, not the southern ones. It's just that the normal provincial army wouldn't be able to handle the full might of the HK alone, so the king's forces were needed back at home... but the king was using them to take Xohyr.
The king wanted to take the city asap, since he thought the HK didn't have the guts to try to attack the people, but he sent the men back when the governors pressed him to do so.
So it's less that he was logistically incompetent, and more that he was pretty shit at diplo, and so didn't see the HK and TS as the threat they were.
If the Shadow King was the one who tipped us off that the HK has iron, I'd love to send them a thank you note of some sort, especially if we aren't going to do anything about it right away.
Okay I think it is time to go full conquest so I propose, after we defeat the khem we send the mercenary companies we hired from them to attack the HK and while they are doing that we send our ships and men to strike at the trelli.
If the Shadow King was the one who tipped us off that the HK has iron, I'd love to send them a thank you note of some sort, especially if we aren't going to do anything about it right away.
Actually, if we can do that, then it's a perfect opportunity to give him an official charter. That way we get rid of the criminal syndicate (it's legal and taxable now) and we get our urban intelligence network and espionage/underhandedness specialists.
Ehhh... a lot of the advisors think that the king's efforts might be best spent working out new magic for the People to use to their advantage rather than organizing more war efforts, where he pretty much has to delegate and doesn't really know who is a good person to delegate to, and the best guy to ask is at the front.
Surprised the Thunder Speakers getting conquered didn't produce any refugees, actually, since it sounds like it was just the Metal Workers... @Academia Nut ?
