Our First City....
It is now turn 7. In this turn the harbor has been built in the capitol city. An additional unit of skeleton archers is available, while I can now build Caravelus (ships) to explore the oceans. My land units can also move into water hexes using up one turn worth of action points to do so, as long as they are on a coastal hex at the beginning of a turn.
I waste no time and move my badly wounded warriors north, out of range of the enemy forces.
I now look to surround and pummel the remaining enemy unit with all my forces. The nearby archer unit manoeuvres between the unit that just retreated and the enemy warriors. To attack it and at the same time protect the weakened warriors from attack. It takes aim and fires causing (-3) to health. My other unit of archers I order to take up position in the hex the previous archers occupied and they too fire a volley into the enemy unit. This time only inflicting a further (-2) to health. I send my newly created band of warriors into the hex left unoccupied by the last group of archers. Their attack reduces the enemy to a pulp, forcing them to retreat to the west. Their city blocks my only remaining unused undead warriors from finishing the job. Instead I order them to attack the enemy city, scoring (-8) and a critical hit.
Having reached the end of turn, the A.I moves it's warriors into the city and precedes to attack the nearest group of skeleton archers. Suicide by arrow is the result.
We are now in turn 8. It is us against the city defences. Unsurprisingly after using all my healthy units, archers first, followed by a single warrior attack the city defences are crippled to a few points. The first warrior unit which attacked managed to go up a level of experience and I chose to upgrade it with Bladewall perk (+30 melee resistance), and not Furious charge (+20 melee attack) or Cover Specialist.
The AI takes its turn, and with great fortunate sees its single attack score a critical. Damage is still low though, due to the city's strength being low.
To the north a single unit of cockroaches appears from beyond the veil of war.
Turn 9 sees a new skeleton archer unit ready in the capitol. With the unaligned city defences reduced to zero, my 2x archer units complete the job and lay way for one of my warrior units to walk right in and seize control. Yay! One of the archer units raised its experience level and was awarded the Marksman perk as the one before.
With the goal achieved, I move my newly created archers north of the capitol, up to the coastline. I want them to go fishing for gold the next turn.
With the capture of the suitably named Lichton, an alert remind me that I can erect a building there. Taking a look at what's available I choose the most basic of mana producing buildings – the mana trap. I then decide to rest any unit that has not taken an action this turn and let the AI have its go.
To the north the cockroaches close the distance with my resting warrior unit and attacked. Luckily for them they regained enough health to see of this assault losing (-4) health.
Turn 10 arrives. I turn my attention to remove these vermin. One of my archers together with the warriors that were attacked manage to kill off the cockroaches without any bother. The warrior unit going up in experience. It is awarded the Bladewall perk (+20 melee resistance). As the warriors automatically move into the hex vacated by the enemy, they get into visual range of the source of the cockroaches. A garbage dump to the north.
To the east, the archers unit I move into the sea acquire transport ships and immediately gains the rewards of moving into the area of a shipwreck. Wielding a 50 gold boon to our coffers. I set the remaining units to rest, to recover from any battle-damage suffered so far. Except for one group of skeleton archers who are at 100% health. These I send towards the garbage dump.
No enemy actions are seen during the AI phase of the turn.
It is turn 11 and finally spell research completes. Firestorm will allow me to wreck havoc against my foes. <Queue evil laughter> My new choices to research from; are Range & Melee Resistance, Summon Imps, Lesser Weakness and Shadow Bolt. I taken on Shadow Bolt as it can deal a goodly amount of death damage against a single target.
I have two alerts to deal with. Unit orders and a new building slot in my capitol. My choices come down to two. The Mana Vault or the Air Dockyard. I opt for the latter, in order to get access to the Flying Caravelus. A machination that will give me access to the units that can fly over land and water. One that can fly over mountains.
To the north move the transports full of my archers towards the other shipwreck hex and gather in another 40 gold reward. Conveniently they are now in range of the cockroaches sitting on the garbage pile. They let fly their arrows joined by another group of archers to cause nominal wounds against their target. I send a second group of archers towards these cockroaches, but they stop short when they discover a group of flying bats hovering over their next to the west of the garbage pile.
To the south near the city of Lichton, my two warrior units are ordered further west to scout out what may be waiting for us in that direction. The AI moves next.
My mistake. There aren't flying bats. Not when fire bolts shoot out of their mouths! The attack scores a critical devastating my archers for (-9) hit-points. Ooops!!! At least they gain a level in experience!
More to follow....