The Black Vizier's page

The depths churned with an unearthly, abyssal might--maelstroms form cliff-sides amidst the sea-surface, and tsunami consume stray isles. The time has at last arrived. The sea god shall

"Arise, o! Leviathan! Once you were a god, a thing of blood and wood - Itzpapalotl. Now you are a glory of the water itself, Great Tyrant of the Waters! Majesty of Might!"

The beast is a monstrosity the likes of which the world has never seen. Breeching the waters, it massive form briefly blots out the sun before smashing the waters with such bulk that the oceans shudder from the injury so inflicted upon their surface. Miles long and covered in an inky ichor slickening the surface of a thick, horny carapace surrounding a muscled, whip-like body, terminating in a jutting jaw lined with ten thousand rows of man-high teeth, it resembles the abominable combination of a sea-turtle, whale, shark, and sea-dragon combined. Were it not for its bulk, such a description would be impossible for nothing in the natural world dares to defy its might, nor draws closer than ten miles from it.

NPC: The Leviathan arrives on the scene. The Leviathan is worth 50 points to kill, but it shall be massively difficult to do. It has 15 armies with war and all gods will face it at kill on 6, die on 2. It is also immune to miracles. Moreover, if the players do not kill it by the end of the game, each player will be penalized a loss of points between 50 and 20 as determined by dice roll.

Ink.

Ink suspended in water.

Twisting in a weightless dance, spreading in a cloud of grey around a deep, glossy black.

And bubbles. Oh so many bubbles. Bubbles that froth the surface of the sea, that turn blue to white, and then...pop. Pop. Pop. Little grey clouds float from the pop, pop bubbles, each with a speck of that darkness, that deep ink, in the very center.

Woe to the world from those bubbles!

Or woe to the Orizaba. For it is towards them that the clouds of grey-around-black ink-mist blow. Towards the homeland within the deep, dark forests where the skull-cheeked maidens parthogenetically populate their kind.

"Such strange love," a voice seems to say. But there's just...bubbles. And clouds. And ink. And the rain that falls black and staining.

And then they change. Melt. Twist. Dance. Dance to a Waltz of Void, as the strings of the Orchestra of Logic are first stilled, then snapped, in .

The god herself comes next, but she is not to dance. No, she is to join the music, to be merged within its notes, to be dissolved into the ink. Yes, Itzpapalotl becomes the music itself as she is melted by the terrible power in those bubbles and clouds, and which drives her people to the sea.

It is a sight to behold: Millions of the Orizaba. Millions in the dance. Their footsteps are gentle, and yet together they shake the earth. And then the sea. They churn it, and the forth takes shape and darkens. Darkens back to the ink, as it takes shape. Man-shape. Or something like it--the Black Vizier.

"How well you dance, dryads! Oh, you do not like that term? Or rather that form? Then join my sea; my abyss. How better you'd be there!"

So ends the Orizaba. They too, dissolve. But they do not become music. No. They become the ink, the ink in the bubbles, the ink in the clouds. And then they emerge new...altered, strange. No longer Orizaba, no. But things of the sea. Things of the ink. Black and mighty, the Kraken thrash! Slick with slime, the sirens sing! And deep, deep, deep down below...the leviathan is the tyrant of the abyss.

"The Riptide Confederacy is born! How sweet these creatures were to kill themselves for the birth of my people! I do so love sacrifice. It warms my heart, it does!"

And then he turned to the Heavens, his arms stretched wide and his head thrown back, "Alosvalophos, victor of another world and maste rof this, hear my promise: I am no God, merely a helper; and as a helper, I shall assist you! Mighty will my Riptide Confederacy be, to challenge the gods that they might prove their worth before your eyes!"

EVENT: The Riptide Confederacy is born. This shall be a sea-based NPC faction that shall make all sorts of difficulties for the players and provide commeasurable rewards beginning next cycle. However, in a rare move, the map has been updated mid-turn to include the Orizaba's departure from the world.

Kudos to the Warlord for suggesting the title and broad concept.

The reason I am going down the route of each biome has its own bonus, is that I think it encourages strategic terraformation. The survival mechanic in game, I think, should remain more or less the same purpose as before: For calculating travel rolls and difficulties of building/fighting on various terrain.

I am going to tinker with some stuff and get this started.

Uh, any comments on these things? Or does it sound all good?

I'll begin to get the next game started for anyone interested if so.

New Miracle

Army Shield (military domain): 10 power to protect an army from 1 smite.

New Domains

Wizardry: Miracle distance is counted from the nearest force or nearest settlement, whichever is closest.

Militarism: Military miracles are half cost.

Terrain Types Matter

Though a good objection to this idea was raised re: home terrain making it somewhat odd that every terrain would work the same for every creature, I think that it makes more sense to turn "home terrain" into a survival statistic, while having terrain themselves feature fixed-statistical bonuses.

All bonuses are only good in that square.

Water: None.

Wetlands: Defenders get the equivalent bonus of armour +1 and +1 weapons in this square.

Jungle: Magic shields cost -1 power to create.

Forests: +3 agriculture.

Scrubland: You can create 1 extra army than you usually can from the population in the square.

Barren: +1 religion.

Craters: Settlers cost 1/2 of normal.

Volcanoes: +3 points of science per turn.

If terrain is MOUNTAINOUS: Defenders gain +1 armour.

If terrain is HILLY: Each army costs -1 power.

If terrain is FLAT: Agriculture +1.

The Black Vizier wrote:

So basically: it'd be super safe from attack. In fact, impervious to attack. That's an interesting idea. You sure like rapturing, huh? The Late, Great Planet TacticsLion.

... mostly I just don't like my little men dying.

... I'm... I'm a sucker that way.

There, there. We all love our people.

That's basically correct. (EDIT: ninja'd; this was in response to your second post before this, not your third)

I think Drejk also suggested the possibility of reactive actions, too, though I don't know how those would work, exactly, and may be redonkulously hard to recall, unless they're "single turn only" reactions, in which case... I have no idea how they'd be set up.

But mostly it's not just about smiting (which could be handled as "miracles always happen last" (though that comes with its own problems)), but also instead of giving a power bonus, actually having their effects resolved first.

Miracles always come last seem to neuter any sort of offensive use of miracles.

Though as an idea (not sure I am behind it yet) you could have miracles tabulate at the end of combat.

Consider:

Player 1 attacks with 4 armies v. 4 armies from Player 2.

Player 1 kills player 2's army with 2 remaining, but player 2 cast smite, so the end result is that both enemies annihilate eachother and no territory is exchanged.

The only problem: Armies are so cheap to create that you could end up getting stalemates quickly.

This is why I think the most elegant, simple solution is just to take away power from last turn, give power to first turn. First turn player scan make up for ignorance by being more powerful, and last turn players get the advantage of reactionary action, but with fewer options.

If 10 power is too little at the end (after all, we were having players with 100+ power at their hands in the last turn), the GM can tweak the totals.

I'm thinking of like my last turn as Alosvalophos: Would it have really mattered to me if I had -10 power? No; I'd have just festivaled a bit more, or not done all the actions I did. I do want to avoid the sort of stuff I was able to chain together, as it seems to break the game after a while.

Sure, but what I mean is, "What does it mean?" i.e. do you only get power on the last turn, or is that every turn you take? How does that suss out over time?

Each turn, the player order determines the power you get -on that turn-.

So, if you are the first poster, you can claim in your post "first to go: +15!" Or whatever value that has been determined at.

The "go first!" modifiers would occur when the GM thinks it's time to institute it. The first few turns of this game are just building up and getting your home base settled, so it doesn't make sense to give advantages then. Everyone can post their turn in 10 minutes to start off. It's only later that it gets complicated.

As far as victory conditions, options that I could see are:

- landmass owned (though this could be a "stack the deck" effect in favor of larger populations anyway

Yeah. Also, it seems to reflect the flawed religion model we went with originally, where it was just pure settlements, as opposed to settlement pop that counted. To put it into a RL context: Would we really give Alaska political predominance over NY, because Alaska is tthe biggest state geographically?

- highest cultural power (yep: straight from Civ); this would require a new stat, however, and it would be awkward to make it directly competitive with other (necessary) war stats; it could be simple science, although again, since science is tied to population, the larger population would, inevitably, win

You would definitely need population, but we could make a science stat that has no advantage BUT for end-game victory conditions. We could call it, cheekily, "victory" and make it expensive enough that you have to sacrifice tangible benefits (like weapons or agriculture) to get it.

Nevertheless, we were still seeing the huge population players (Alosvalophos and Lord Yogga) gathering tremendous amounts of science per turn by the end of the game. Is it that much different from pure population benefit?

- raw power remaining after the final turn; this is a straight-up measurement of personal power; but, again, it's tied to population

Yeah, but considering anything useful requires power, reserving some power could be cool.

[qoute]- special materials owned (let's call it "wealth" stat, or something)

Umby suggested to me over Steam that we have a sort of "capture these special squares around the globe" sorta idea. I think that could be a useful variety of this.

- heroics: those who defeat the most random monsters/wild creatures/disastrous things sent by the entity or Vizier

-This- is a cool victory condition modifier. I like this. The creeps were ignored, more or less, by players. This could make them interesting/useful. It also has a cool mythological feel, like the Labours of Hercules.

One of the major problems with coming up with alternate victory conditions is that all of the other resources or special benefits - with... One of the major problems with coming up with alternate victory conditions is that all of the other resources or special benefits - with the mild exception of rare materials and heroics - is based on population. This makes a lot of sense, as population is a limiting factor, but it also means that population wins the game no matter what you do. There's no place for a player to focus on relatively low population.

In a sense, it kinda makes sense that raw population would matter a lot. In the history of the world, the bigger populations are generally more succesful. There's a reason that China is looming mighty in the 21st century, and it is largely due to its massive population. Hell, the quality of life in China is pretty crap for most people.

One possible rule is banking your power; something akin to "faking" higher population by sealing your power away in a "bank" - a certain amount of power so-placed acts as kind of a "fake" population for gaining more readily accessible power.

While so-banked, however, it's not accessible as power; it takes you a full turn to pull it out, and this reduces the amount that you have. It probably costs something to put it in, too, thus charging you twice.

The benefit of banking would be that it not only counts as a fake population, but that it can't be stolen. To that end, I'd recommend that it cost a lot... but then you'd have to have a solid population to start banking... which leads us back to "high pop = good; low pop = bad".

So basically: it'd be super safe from attack. In fact, impervious to attack. That's an interesting idea. You sure like rapturing, huh? The Late, Great Planet TacticsLion.

Another problem comes from the rapidly accelerating nature of the game. The rich get richer... quickly. The poor get poorer... equally quickly. Once you're crushed, in general, there's simply no way to genuinely recover.

If the Red Scaled One had two more turns, he would've made an almost complete recovery.

This first round really did hurt a lot from the player distribution. EVERYONE was in the NW, and Lord Yogga was more or less alone for the entire game. A definite change will be more or less even player distribution over a smaller, non-water focused map.

Consider if you had been on the Southern Continent instead of wedged between The Red Scaled One and Alosvalophos.

Player distribution is going to be something we have to address. Lord Yogga could have gone the entire game without interfering with any other player, whereas Alosvalophos had to kill everything under the sun to win the NW.

While higher population increases the cost of increasing population, it's only a local phenomena, meaning it gets substantially easier for those who've gained some traction (and a relatively broad swath of land) to build up their power-base by making large numbers of smaller, "cheap" cities, until cost is effectively no object (basically what happened in our game to the two largest players).

I have no solutions, but I offer these insights as to how this game played out.

Fun! Interesting!

Thanks, Umbral, for the great idea. :)

Maybe we need to institute a "maintenance cost" mechanic? I am thinking of how Rome became too large to manage.

We could scale the cost of building up settlements too large. Make it a lot more expensive. This would still encourage lateral expansion, but it would limit how big each one could get, and limit religion's effectiveness, too. I mean, if it is stupidly expensive to make one square 10 pop...it'd make no sense to have 10 religion.

There might also be a maintenance cost associated with too many settlements, but the penalty can't be too high as conquest ought to still be a big feature of the game.

Tacticslion wrote:

What is the "Last Turn Advantage Modifier"?

The stuff about getting more power from playing earlier, a penalty for going last.

I am not adverse to contingency miracles, but the problem is that you get GM-heavy branching worldlines at this point.

Given X, do Y.

Given A, do B.

It complicates the game greatly and it encourages a lot of power reservation. I don't like the idea of encouraging more than the spare energy you might reserve in the given course of the game, unless you have a specific tactical reason (such as saving up for a global miracle).

For later turns, a week long turn cycle is not that problematic for the game, says I. The whole "post earlier" isn't so much to speed the game along, but to offset the fact that earlier posts are subject to losing a huge tactical advantage.

As it stands now, we have a reverse chess situation going on, with last play being so much better than first play. The classic way to accomodate this is to institute some form of compensatory method. In Go the Oriental board game, this was instituted as komi, where white suffers up to a 6.5 point deficit to begin with.

Why I prefer the power solution is that it seems to me to take away some options for the attacking player. As every offensive action besides armies (which now can't just bypass other armies) requires power, removing power can mean that you simply can't just smitezilla everyone.

If going with some turns taking place simultaneously, I wouldn't give penalty to those posting later (real life, blahblablah), instead setting them as baseline and give bonus to those that acted before.

I am not sure I fully understand your idea.

You mean, for instance:

If player 1 attacks player 2, and player 1 acted before playing 2, and player 2 smited those armies, the smite actions would only occur after the attack of player 1?

So, Player 1 attacks O4. Player 2 smites the armies at O3 that attack. However, as he reacted, Player 1's armies still attack O3 before being smited?

What is the "Last Turn Advantage Modifier"?

The stuff about getting more power from playing earlier, a penalty for going last.

Anyone like those ideas?

As a quick summary of proposed changes:

Military Miracles

A new subset of miracles. Featuring the following:

REAR SHIELD: When an army RETREATS to neutral or held territory, a player normally must subject half of the retreating force to 1 round of combat v. the invading force. When this miracle is evoked, pay 3 power + 1 distance per army of that 1/2 of forces to save them from that combat.

GROUP REAR SHIELD: Cost 14 (changed from above).

CHARGE: When an enemy escapes a square that is being attacked to attack the enemy in its turn, the attacking player must usually expend power equal to the amount of attacking armies from the enemy + 1/2 of the army must fight exhaustive combat (to annihilation of one or all forces) with 1/2 of the enemy. With this miracle, pay 4 per army saved to avoid having to fight the enemy and only 1/2 of the cost of charging through the armies.

GROUP CHARGE: Cost 16 + 1/2 of the cost of charging through enemy.

INSPIRE FORCES is now divided into INSPIRE ARMY, which is a military miracle, and inspire SETTLER which is now a civic miracle.

Public and Private Alliances

Any alliance declared in public shall be a BINDING PROMISE for player behaviour.

Any alliance declared in private shall have NO SUCH BINDING for player behaviour.

Destruction Miracle Changes

Smite shall now cost twice as much (6 power).

All territories held shall now have a MAGIC SHIELD build command. For 3 power per shield. These shields are permanent till expended. Each shield will block 1 smite. You cannot have more shields than the population.

Magic Shields do not work against armies, but do work against global miracles. It takes 6 shields to block an obliterate. Shields will stop global miracles equivalent to the global miracle casting smite repeatedly.

Obliterate's cost cannot be halved to account for added efficacy v. shields and the rising in cost of smite.

Sea Changes

Seafaring +3 grants +3 deep water transit bonus over squares. Seafaring +4 grants +2 shallow water transit bonus, or +3 if not touching land(this is different from the rules in this game).

This probably won't come into play as the gameplan is to have the world feature far, far less water.

Victory Conditions

Besides worshipper totals, there ought to be several potential victory conditions. We haven't discussed which. Let's do that.

Last Turn Advantage Nullifier

In a 6 player game after a turn decided by the GM:

First to move: +15 power.

Second to move: +10 power.

Third to move: +5 power

4th to move: No bonus.

5th to move: -5 power.

Last to move: -10 power.

There's a next turn? I though we were done?

And I hope you can feel better umbral, you started us this game and now you get to see it finished!

I meant next game. Sorry.

Okay guys. The turns are all processed. Yay for us!

Umbral will make her post when she feels up to it!

Great job.

Okay, another idea I have for next turn: There ought to be a penalty for escaping from combat. Perhaps, in fact, two different types of penalties:

For RETREATS to neutral or occupied territory, 1/2 of the army must engage in 1 round of combat with the enemy. This can be offset by the miracle REAR SHIELD, which casts 3 + distance cost per army to protect.

For ADVANCES into enemy territory, 1/2 of the army must engage in exhaustive combat with the enemy + a power cost equivalent to the amount of enemy.

This can be offset by the miracle CHARGE with costs 4 + distance cost per army to protect.

These miracles will be under a new MILITARY MIRACLE set. GROUP REAR SHIELD and GROUP CHARGE will cost 12 (retreat) or 16 (charge) to cast.

What ya think?

THE FINAL SCORE!

Triumph goes to Alosvalophos who ends the game with 121 worshippers in 34 settlements.

Lord Yogga comes in second place with 49 worshippers in 9 settlements.

In third place The Red Scaled One with 25 population in 7 settlements.

Tied for last are The Source and The Dark Seer, all of whom have 0 population in 0 settlements.

More Combat

Alosvalophos' 2 Cordyceps armies fight the 2 PX armies of Lord Yogga at J13.

2 + 10 - 10 = 0. Alosvalophos must roll a 3 or better to defeat Lord Yogga's 2 armies.

2 + 4 = 6 - 4 = 2. Lord Yogga must roll a 3 or better to defeat Alosvalophos' armies.

CY - 4d6 ⇒ (3, 4, 4, 4) = 15
PX - 2d6 ⇒ (3, 5) = 8

Alosvalophos conquers J13, losing 1 Cordyceps army.

I'm still updating the map for the final turn. I'll be back after breakfast (going out) to finish that up. The stuff with Yogga/Alosvalophos on the Southern Continent is the last of that stuff.

If you really don't feel up to it, you can tell me a basic idea and I can write it up.

Or another player.

Or whatevs!

The Ages Conclude

Divinity Forge game 1 is now officially OVER!

The Progress of War

Alosvalophos attacks Lord Yogga at N12.

Alosvalophos has armour 2 + weapons 10 and Lord Yogga has weapons 4 and armour 10.

Alosvalophos has 1 Centaur, 2 Cordyceps, and 1 PX army v. Lord Yogga's 2 PX armies.

2 + 10 - 10 = 0. Alosvalophos must roll a 3 or better to defeat Lord Yogga's 2 meteor armies.

2 + 4 = 6 - 4 = 2. Lord Yogga must roll a 3 or better to defeat Alosvalophos' armies.

Alosvalophos:
Centaur: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 4) = 10
Cordyceps: 4d6 ⇒ (2, 2, 4, 2) = 10
PX: 4d6 ⇒ (1, 4, 3, 3) = 11

Lord Yogga:

PX: 2d6 ⇒ (2, 1) = 3

Alosvalophos' armies conquer Lord Yogga's without loss.

More Info

The map will shortly be updated and the the final tallies counted. Umbral Reaver will return to post the concluding actions soon.

Hurray for Umbral for making this great game.

Sorry for not finishing it, have a tendancy of that, but I just got caught up by general blahs, over load at work and ungodly humidity that should never be here on already too hot days.

It's been decent where I live (NY) for the first time in ages.

I am surprised, as I anticipated an extremely bad summer.

So we can expect no post from you this turn, Yogga?

Thanks, Red Scaled One, for posting.

As most of the rest of you haven't, I think I will give two more days to do so. I will have dental issues after that, as noted, so I'd really like to avoid keeping up with this after that.

Let's get a rollin', guys!

Great game. You were all fun players. Really. And three cheers to Umby for creating this kick-ass game.

Okay guys.

Let's try to get those turns posted within a few days.

I'd like to finish off the game before I get some dental work done that could be nasty and painful and make updating this game a pain in butt.

So, let's aim for...Monday morning?

Tired by work. I'll try to make my last moves on weekend.

I've been tired, too.

Oh sweet. I just thought people were a bit tired. Usually there's more discussion and such.

Sounds good!

Also, I am sensing profound and utter fatigue.

Do you guys want to call it quits and not finish out this round? I am gladly up for this last turn, but if you guys are "done" with it, let's go ahead and wrap things up.

Either way works for me.

As an alternative to making destruction spells roll-based, what do you guys think about some sort of defensive building?

Basically, as an action you could build up defenses on a square of your territory. The defenses would have a comparable power expenditure as a destructive spell.

Ah. I see. I think it was P7 that I missed. That has 3 pop.

Okay. The final turn is upon us!

This is for all the marbles!

Cycle 12 ends!

Lord Yogga

5d6 ⇒ (5, 1, 3, 4, 4) = 17 = 17 + 54 = 71 + 31 = 102.

Everything grows by +1 at a cost of...22 = 80. Then everything advances, giving him 81 science. 66 + 81 = 147.

The Source

1d6 ⇒ 6 3 + 2 - 1 = 4 + 15 = 19

Gain +2 science + 23 = 25.

The Red Scaled One

Can you check your numbers again? I count 25 settlers. Maybe I forgot to add one somewhere?

The Progress of War

Alosvalophos attacks The Red Scaled One's army on the Source's territory at N4. Alosvalophos' 8 centaur with weapons 10 and armour 1 fight the Red Scaled One's 1 Kai-Teng Army with weapons 3 and armour 8.

Base armour = 2 + 8 = 10 - 10 = 0 + 2 = 2. Centaurs must roll 2 or better to beat the Kai-Teng army.

Base armour = 2 + 1 = 3 -3 = 0 + 1. Kai-Teng must roll a 2 or better to beat the Centaur army.

16d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 3, 1, 6, 2, 3, 2, 2, 5, 2, 2, 1, 3, 3, 5) = 48
1d6 ⇒ 3

Alosvalophos kills the Kai-Teng army and loses 1 Centaur army. He conquers N4 from The Source who has no defense, gaining a settlement with 1 pop.

Alosvalophos' 3 Cordyceps Armies (weapons 10 and armour 1) attack Lord Yogga's 1 Phorax (weapons 6 + armour 3) at J11.

Base armour = 2 + 1 = 3 -6 = 0 + 1. Phorax must roll a 2 or better to beat the Cordyceps army.

Base armour = 2 + 3 = 5 - 10 = 0 + 2 = 2. The Cordyceps must roll a 2 or bette rto beat the Phorax army.

6d6 ⇒ (1, 3, 3, 6, 3, 6) = 22
1d6 ⇒ 2

The Cordyceps army kill the Phorax without loss. Alosvalophos conquers J11 with 2 pop.

Alosvalophos also conquers G14 and H14, gaining a settlement of 3 and 3 pop, respectively.

The Final Cycle Begins

The Black Vizier addresses the Gods:

"The victor of this world will be granted the supreme Godhood promised by the Entity, who will once more grace this world with her presence upon the conclusion of this Cycle!"

OOC: The map has been updated. Alert me to any errors on my part, please.

Okay guys.

I think I am going to post the turn today.

The reality is: The game is winding down as it stands and it's silly to prolong the inevitable at this point.

I'd very much like to all have you participate in Game 2! I think it might be better to hasten to that, as it feels like this game has run its course at this point.

So. Let's not dwaddle. Let's finish this up and move on to a new, improved game!

Hi, sorry about my lack of post, havn't been able to summon the drive to, barely made the post before as well... yeah...

Do you want me to skip your turn or give you a few days...?

Okay. Well, I am going to extend that grace period. I will post the new turn tomorrow morning.

After that point, it's pointless to wait. Things will go as things will go.

Well guys, I would feel kind of gay updating this before Yogga posts, as it would totally appear like I am twinking this game so I win.

So.

Unless Yogga posts by this morning, I will postpone it till tomorrow morning.

After that, the turn posts regardless. I just wanted to make sure everyone knows I am not trying to twist this in my favour or something. I've sent out two PMs. HOpefully Yogga can pop in and say he's here.

The game will not be updated this morning. The game will update Saturday around 11 am.

The last turn!

Despite some hiccups, this game was enjoyable!

Yeah, I would suggest that Source.

Okay guys. Think about trying to end the turn by Friday morning. That is when I am thinking I'll update.

I don't think the specific terrain benefits really work in a game where all the races don't have the same biome preference. why should a race of volcano dwelling crystals have an easier time feeding themselves in a forest? Just a thought. Although having some sort of specific benefits to different biomes would lead to more terraforming as people try to get certain benefits.

Good point regarding the species and such, but as you said, it would introduce a nice attempt to terraform the world more to your strategic liking.

Thanks for the correction. Makes my job easier. :)

But yeah: I've got a string of s#$#ty power rolls, too.

Correction

Alosvalophos has weapons 9, not weapons 8. The science totals remained the same.

Impressive turn, Red Scaled.

So, another idea for the next game:

Should each terrain have its own bonus?

Example: Forests grant the equivalent of agriculture +1 on terrain.

It's understandable. We all get hit with it sometime.

Glad to see you postin' again, though!

So, no one but me (through Gumby's orders) did the quest for the turn.

I really don't want to mess with the dynamics of the world too much with there being only two cycles left, but I am thinking of something cool to do. Maybe a new set of quests unless you guys are super "eh" about it?

CYCLE 11 ENDS

The Source's roll: 1d6 ⇒ 4 + 6 from last turn = 10.

He creates people at N4 (not N5 because The Red Scaled One is there). Growth costs 1.

He has 9 science.

+ 2 science more = 11.

2 worshippers.

The Dark Seer's roll 4d6 ⇒ (5, 1, 4, 6) = 16+ 24 from religion = 40.

Cost of growths = 10

All advance for 32 science.

With last turn's totals, the Dark Seer now has 87 power and 51 power and 28 pop.

The Red Scaled One

You have 12 worshippers, actually!

The Progress of War

Lord Yogga attacks with 4 Phorax Armies against a single army of The Dark Seer.

Lord Yogga has armour 6 + weapons 3 (he must roll a 2 to hit)v. non-modified Dark Seer (he must roll a 6 to hit).

Yogga: 4d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 5, 1) = 9
The Dark Seer:1d6 ⇒ 4

Yogga conquers J14 at a loss of 0 troops.

----

Alosvalophos conquers L13 (uncontested).

Alosvalophos 4 armies (2 Centaurs, 2 Cordyceps) attack the 1 Phorax army of Lord Yogga at L11

Alosvalophos has weapons +8 and Lord Phorax has weapons +3 + armour 6.

Base being 2 + 6 = 8 -8 = 0 = 2. Alosvalophos must roll a 1 in order to kill. Lord Phorax must roll a 2 to kill.

For this combat, Alosvalophos has refused to use war. If he wins, he will succesfully complete his quest and gain +30 power next turn. If he loses, no such power will be granted.

Centaur: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 6) = 12
Cordyceps: 2d6 ⇒ (2, 5) = 7
Phorax: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Odds = Cordyceps. Evens = Centaur.

1d6 ⇒ 4

1 Centaur army is killed. 1 Phorax army is killed.

Alosvalophos conquers L11. Alosvalophos gains 30 power, having achieved his quest.

Alosvalophos attacks the Lesser Herald with 9 Centaur armies. He must hit a 2 to win. The Herald must hit a 2 to win.

Centaur: 18d6 ⇒ (2, 4, 2, 6, 5, 4, 3, 6, 4, 5, 5, 5, 1, 1, 3, 1, 1, 6) = 64
Herald: 1d6 ⇒ 6

1 Centaur army dies. The Herald is destroyed.

RP:

The ceaseless war-lust of the Centaur drive them to conquer lands in the distant South, as ally turns against ally, and Alosvalophos now makes an enemy of the world. He has fought all the Gods thus far, but will Lord Yogga be the one to stop the advance of thundering hooves at long last?

Meanwhile, the NE is settled by not only the Red Scaled One, but also the Source. Will these old enemies share a peaceful coexistence? Or will they slaughter one another to the last?

And finally, Lord Yogga has assaulted the Dark Seer, who has fallen victim to the initial assault. Will the Iremae meet the same fate the Shaecubi have?

"TUNE IN NEXT CYCLE!"

Cycle 12 Begins

Five to midnight runs the clock. The penultimate cycle is upon the world, and in these latter days, what horrors may befall the world from the Void itself?

I will be posting the new turn by around 6:00 am tomorrow morning, give or take. It depends on when I come home tonight.

So please make your posts if you're gonna.

There are two more cycles left in the game (turns).

Okay guys, so the updated idea is that tomorrow the turn changes or early the next day.

So think around midnight Thursday or slightly afterwards depending on how tired I am after work.

The game is winding down now. There's not much time left for big plays. Use it or lose it!

I'd like to promote further discussion of game 2. Who here is up to join? I'll likely be Gming again, and Umby may be a player. I'd love to have all of you play and we can pick up two more people or so.

? Yes I did, I quite clearly moved 4 armies into J14 which is owned by The Dark Seer. Or am I meant to be listing that action differently to represent the army's intention?

Ah! Sorry then.

I misunderstood the movement action.

Generally, we've made it a bit more dramatic in terms of making clear the action, as through saying "attacking the _______ at ______".

Never mind, then!

All's well with you, Yogga. :)

I am going to let everyone have some more time to post. I will update the turn tomorrow sometime as there is confusion re: Yogga's and the Source didn't say if he wanted to do it.