[DOM3 AAR] Detail - a mini-vignette

[Daimon]

This is really good. Hope you update soon ^^

[TevashSzat]

Beefeater, when are you going to return to M2TW vignettes as they were quite good and cant wait to start reading them again

[Beefeater]

First I heard it, a rhythmic stamping, filtering darkly through the gloom. Then I saw it; like a titan’s cartwheel, it revolved around a wooden axel that fed into a series of crates. To my horror, I saw that it was drawn by men chained to each spoke, their exposed skin cracking with each toiling step. Fur-clad Smiths moved to and fro, overseeing their labour.

My captor laughed then. “You fear, city-man? No need. The Wheel is for the strong; if they live, they will learn the secret of steel. You will not learn, city-man. The Wheel is not for you.”

-Terens, “The Wheel of Pain”

Cold Harald has awoken, and the five tribes await his command. New horizons stretch invitingly out from the borders of frozen Ulm – but what kind of world is out there?



Cold Harald’s World

Ulm is the province on the right hand side with a castle in it. The entire world consists of 42 land provinces. There are also a further six submerged provinces, but since I haven’t picked any undersea nations, we don’t have to worry too much about them for now. Note also he light white colour – this is a cold world, which is good for Harald, whose spells will be more effective in frosty areas.

There’s only one way to win a game of Dominions, and that is to spread belief in your pretender – in this case, Cold Harald – across the entire map until no other pretenders can claim the belief of any living (or undead) being. Most of the provinces are currently controlled by independent forces, but somewhere out there are three other pretenders, each seeking sole dominion. Let’s meet the opposition.

FALSE GODS

Three other nations inhabit this world. The Abysians are magma-blooded humanoids with a destructive bent. Ermor and Arcoscephale are Rome and classical Greece respectively, although the Ermorians, going one up on Caesar, have access to dinosaurs. Each can be expected to put up a fierce fight. As of now, I have no idea what kind of gods may be leading them.

ROAD TO POWER

In Dominions, you execute out your will through the actions of your commanders. I have three commanders; Harald himself, a warlord called Beric and a spy called Oligar. Normally it is very risky to start moving troops around without knowing for sure what they are going to hit, but Harald is a ‘supercombatant’ (an unusually strong pretender who can make up for an army on his own) and so I order him and Beric to take a group of soldiers and go exploring the promising looking croplands to the Northwest. The spy Oligar sneaks into the neighbouring province to gauge their strength.

I also recruit some new archers and an Antlered Shaman from the great oak, Irminsul, that is in my home province of Ulm.

PITFALLS

Lack of familiarity with the game teaches me a harsh lesson. I had forgotten that a great strength of Ulm armies is their stealth ability: they can move into provinces and hide there unknown to the defenders, which is what they do unless specifically ordered otherwise.

What could be wrong with such a useful skill? The answer, as you may have guessed, is that 30 foot tall giants are a bit more conspicuous than the sons and daughters of the forest. So I moved Harald and his soldiers into the soft and fertile lands; the soldiers scattered to commence their spying – and Harald was left on his own to confront the army of defenders that turned up to challenge him. The battle was short and, for Harald, quite sharp.

Result: Proud Independents 1 – Hardy Barbarians 0

Fortunately, so long as your Pretender has believers left, you’re not out of the game. If I can expand our borders with conventional troops, Harald can eventually be summoned back. So it’s a blow, but not too bad a blow. And hey! I know now how many troops the people of Solian can muster. So I order Beric and his soldiers to attack, and my Shaman and his troops to march to the rescue.

END OF DAYS

It didn’t work. Apparently Shamans can stealth too. Beric and his troops were slaughtered. The unfortunate Shaman retreats to Ulm to lick his wounds.

New plan. Shamans and Antlered Shamans are my priests and will be responsible for recalling Harald from the void. However, it will take too long for just one or two of them. So for now, the strategy is to build as many of them as possible and to use them to research new spells.

Finally, some good news! A hero has wandered up to my front door and offered to join.


A hero awakes; all that stands between him and domination is..a typo (or two)

Good news flowed thenceforth: a few turns later, Harald was back, and looking for trouble for Solian, properly supported this time….

Me and THIS army, actually.

…and overruns the terrified defenders.

The Independent provinces in the Northeast of the map fall, one by one, to Ulm’s conventional armies.

Finally, resistance crystallises in the township of Konberg; the prosperous people of these plains have learned to domesticate elephants, and these terrible new creatures of war smashed the first Ulmish army.


Just as tough as in Total War

One way to take them on would be to rebuild a bigger army with better troops. Another would be to use Harald himself. A third would be to have Harald summoning supernatural creatures to face down the Elephants.

But better still, why not do all three? The tribes gathered; steel warriors (fatherless sons, trained on the Wheel of Pain) mingle with Warrior maidens wielding bows, and among them stalked the root-sinewed forms of Vine Ogres, summoned lions, and of course the aforementioned 30’ giant.


Bit chilly, eh?

See how the ground has gone cold this time round? First, it was winter. Second, belief in Harald has gone ahead of him, and the locals through their belief are undermining their own soldiers’ efforts. Hampered by the chill, the elephants would be at a massive disadvantage against Harald’s supernatural army.

As before, the elephants were released in a wild wall of muscle, charging into the packed ranks of Ulm. This time though their charge was halted; skidding and uncertain on the icy soil, the elephants were easily isolated and surrounded; summoned lions tore at their hindquarters as the antlike figures of Harald’s Steel Warriors swarmed around the unfortunate creatures. On the left flank, Vine Ogres tore a screaming swathe ahead of them. Before long, the defenders’ morale was shattered, and the remnants of their army fled the field.


Divide and Conquer

With the fall of Konberg, independent resistance to Harald and the tribes was over. The true battle was now to begin: Ulm now bordered both smoldering Abysia and proud Ermor. Interesting times lay ahead for this tiny world.

@XDeathfire: I'll get back to M2TW in due course; I haven't been writing nearly enough of late but will try to correct this soon.

[Faenaris]

Thanks for the update, Beefeater. I once did the same thing with Ulm: use my Pretender as a SC, only to have him killed because the other troops just hided. That's why I love Middle Age Ulm more: black steel + not so much hiding.

Looking forward to reading about your struggle against the Ermorians and the Abyssinians.