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Offense seems good Note that this disaster can be triggered by the ai as well... and even say an outside power that has entered the serpentspine... and then got eaten by the dwarves leading to them having a massive ABOVE ground empire.
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Apr 5, 2023 17:09
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The best defence is a good Defence
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Apr 5, 2023 17:23
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Defence
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Apr 5, 2023 19:38
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edit: changed below idhrendur fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Apr 6, 2023 |
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Apr 5, 2023 23:15
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Defense
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Apr 5, 2023 23:29
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Offense!
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Apr 6, 2023 03:18
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e: changed
Rody One Half fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Apr 6, 2023 |
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Apr 6, 2023 03:39
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Defense
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Apr 6, 2023 03:50
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Defense
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Apr 6, 2023 05:15
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Quantity!
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Apr 6, 2023 05:51
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Offense seems like a great idea. Can orcs or goblins trigger this event too? If the regular dwarves don't manage to retake anything these obsidian dwarves show up and liberate the holds for dwarfkind?
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Apr 6, 2023 06:41
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Poil posted:Offense seems like a great idea. The specific requirement is holding three restored holds outside of Amldihr or the Jade Mines (the far eastern mountains), there's no restriction on race. So there is a scenario where the reclamation fails and goblins, orcs, or surface nations get invaded instead.
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Apr 6, 2023 09:00
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Comrades, I understand the dwarven urge to fall back and shelter in our holds! But we have seen time and time again this is the path of ruin. When the misguided leaders of other holds stood against our union, they relies on their sturdy walls and dug in troops. Yet in the end they became stagnant and could not outlast us. This new enemy further shows the power of swift, decisive offense. They struck without warning, appearing behind our defenses. But they did not stop to fortify their gains. They used the railway to move their forces faster than any thought possible, overwhelming our defenses before they could even start standing their ground and putting us on the back foot. These obsidian dwarves have shown a new way of war. One of speed and firepower. Unfortunately for them even their hardest blow couldn't defeat our armies. Now is the time to take the fight back to them. We will learn the lesson they taught us. And we will dutifully study and innovate and show the world we are the masters.of this new kind of war.
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Apr 6, 2023 12:59
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I'm a little disappointed we couldn't vote to tagswitch to the obsidian dwarves.
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Apr 6, 2023 13:06
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Offense.
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Apr 6, 2023 13:09
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Kanthulhu posted:I'm a little disappointed we couldn't vote to tagswitch to the obsidian dwarves. I don't think they have a mission tree yet.
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Apr 6, 2023 13:25
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Boksi posted:I don't think they have a mission tree yet. Pretty much this, they have some mechanics and a unique artillery unit but beyond that it'll just be all conquest all the time. If we were playing a hold with a weaker mission tree in the first place I might've put it up for a vote. The votes currently stand at: Offensive - 6 Defensive - 7 Quantity - 1
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Apr 6, 2023 14:32
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playing defensive in EUIV doesn't work out, it just lets your enemies concentrate their forces in a massive blob. We have to attack and go on the Offensive
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Apr 6, 2023 14:37
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Defensive seems like the proper dwarven response.
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Apr 6, 2023 14:37
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Offensive, our artillery will win the day!
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Apr 6, 2023 14:47
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Playing Defensive in EUIV means that the Obsidian Dwarves, when they come to hit us, are going to mass their entire force into one doomstack to hit us- and they outnumber us, remember? We've got to be like Napoleon and go on the offensive to try to cut some of their smaller armies down to size. Remember, we're playing Orglhevar. If we think like traditional dwarves, we fail and we die. Fivemarks fucked around with this message at 14:59 on Apr 6, 2023 |
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Apr 6, 2023 14:53
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Yeah, see these? Each one of those ones is currently it's own stack and isolated. When they link up the AI will just doomstack them and roll over us. The way you deal with that is by hitting them before they blob up. Quantity would also require us to raise armies to fight them, which takes time: and the longer they're around the more likelier they are to do that and to consolidate their territories. Also, we can't play as them right now because, if I recall correctly, they don't have content yet.
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Apr 6, 2023 15:00
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Yeah alright, fair enough. I'm changing my vote to Offense
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Apr 6, 2023 15:27
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In all matters, Cobalt Dwarves must progress and adapt. Offense!
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Apr 6, 2023 15:29
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Defensive tactics work pretty well for underground nations in Anbennar. The terrain is all chokepoints so you can force attrition on the AI and consistently take very favorable battles with good use of Ramparts. I'm not sure it's necessarily the best choice in this case given how the Obsidian Dwarves have spawned, but baiting them onto holds, attriting the doomstacks, and taking stack-on-stack exchanges with maximum dice bonuses can work well. You really need to play Kobolds for the full bleed-the-opponent-to-death experience, though. Nothing like watching Gawed and Lorent throw away a million troops on sieging a single mountain or cave. Also, Sybot posted:
Defensive pips on infantry lower your opponent's damage in an even fight by more than offensive pips increase yours. Offensive pips are better sy securing stack wipes vs out-teched or outnumbered opponents, which may or may not be more important concerns than performance in even fights depending on who you're fighting. Anbennar also has some weird outlier militaries like centaurs and undead where for various reasons conventional EU wisdom doesn't apply, but the dwarves are pretty standard. All that said: the effect of defensive-vs-offensive unit pips is small, and how much you want to care about mechanically optimal in a narrative LP is a different question.
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Apr 6, 2023 16:30
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Does attrition work on the AI in Anbennar? From what I understand, it's pretty heavily nerfed or capped for AI nations (or was at one point) in EU4 because otherwise the AI would just lose its entire manpower pool trivially. I'm going to break with others and vote Quantity. We've got all these other races/species in the holds. Time to put them to use in the military as well!
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Apr 6, 2023 16:35
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Dirk the Average posted:Does attrition work on the AI in Anbennar? From what I understand, it's pretty heavily nerfed or capped for AI nations (or was at one point) in EU4 because otherwise the AI would just lose its entire manpower pool trivially. I'm pretty sure attrition has always worked on the AI, at least in EU4. A lot of stuff would break if they could doomstack willy-nilly. Maybe Very Hard gives the AI some anti-attrition bonuses? I don't really play with that on (or Mythic Conquerors in Anbennar). You can absolutely win wars in Anbennar with an attrition-focused nation and an appropriately placed mountain fort. If you play the Dragon Coast Kobold tribes in Cannor then I'm pretty sure you must do so, since everyone else nearby hates you for being wrong culture Monstrous and the Kobold military's entire schtick is that their combat stats are hot garbage but they get defensiveness and an enormous attrition modifier.
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Apr 6, 2023 17:02
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Dwarf related news! An hour ago there was a brand new cover of Diggy Diggy Hole released, this time by Colm McGuiness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DGz7lRJNeI
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Apr 6, 2023 18:08
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Offense
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Apr 6, 2023 19:12
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I've been persuaded. Changing my vote to Offensive.
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Apr 6, 2023 19:20
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Offense Will we cower behind our walls as our people are slaughtered? We must counterattack!
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Apr 6, 2023 20:05
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Xerophyte posted:I'm pretty sure attrition has always worked on the AI, at least in EU4. A lot of stuff would break if they could doomstack willy-nilly. Maybe Very Hard gives the AI some anti-attrition bonuses? I don't really play with that on (or Mythic Conquerors in Anbennar). Fair enough. I just recall something from a very long time ago where issues with the AI effectively would cause it to just annihilate itself via attrition. To combat that, the maximum amount of attrition was capped. Granted, again, this was many, many years ago, so it's entirely possible that that's been cleaned up in the intervening expansions and versions. I'm glad to hear that the strategy works in Anbennar because it makes defensive play much more powerful for nations like dwarves that are themed around being more defensive.
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Apr 6, 2023 21:19
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Dirk the Average posted:Fair enough. I just recall something from a very long time ago where issues with the AI effectively would cause it to just annihilate itself via attrition. To combat that, the maximum amount of attrition was capped. Granted, again, this was many, many years ago, so it's entirely possible that that's been cleaned up in the intervening expansions and versions. I'm glad to hear that the strategy works in Anbennar because it makes defensive play much more powerful for nations like dwarves that are themed around being more defensive. Yeah, they capped attrition at 5% per month years ago. That said, Kobolds have an increased max attrition cap. Dwarves might as well, not sure, but I know kobolds do.
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Apr 6, 2023 22:07
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Voting for Defense Let our game be Tower Dwarf-fense!
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Apr 7, 2023 02:57
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Offence seems like the best option to me.
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Apr 7, 2023 11:27
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Offense. We're new dwarves for a new age
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Apr 7, 2023 13:05
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It's a little early but I'm going to call it there (also I already played the update when it was clear offensive had taken a huge lead). Final vote Offensive - 14 Defensive - 7 Quantity - 2
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Apr 7, 2023 13:24
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Chapter Eleven: A Light in the Darkness 1611-1616  Battle to the death As the army scrambled to coordinate their response to the invasion, the government sent out messengers to attempt to parley with the Obsidians. Not a single one returned. Whether they were dead or alive, the message was clear. There would be no negotiation, except when one dwarf had the heel of their boot on the other. The invasion can only be defeated after being 100% occupied by us, and vice versa.  The east is empowered to defend itself The agreed strategy for fighting the invasion was an immediate counterattack, but that left the eastern half of the Union completely undefended. The garrison at Hul-Jorkad was elevated to the status of an official command, and ordered via Sending Stone to focus on defensive fortifications. They would not have the strength to engage the enemy directly, but they could slow them down.  Through the caverns The rapid response force in Verkal Skomdihr was facing down the largest single collection of Obsidian forces, but they had an opportunity. The caverns running along the northern side of the Reach could take them directly to occupied Arg-Ôrdstun while bypassing the army. The enemy would have trouble pushing east with the rails sabotaged, so the hope was that the two armies would pass one another in the darkness and the defensive depth of the east would last longer than the walls of the Arg-Ôrdstun.  Innovation in the dark The invaders had made sure to destroy the daylight mechanisms as they had made their way through the mountains, leaving much of the Reach in pitch-black darkness. They had set up torches where the inhabitants had been forced back to work, but everywhere else was near-impossible to navigate for dwarves who had gotten used to natural light. How the Obsidian Dwarves managed in the darkness wasn't clear, but the Union Army needed to find their own way that wasn't relying on expensive torch oil. The artificers came through for them, as they offered up their inventions as light sources. Under certain conditions Damestear could be made to emit light, and that was a common feature of inventors who wanted to make their product look flashier for investors. Now, they were going to help guide the way.  To the start of it all The majority of the Union Army was still stationed in Orlghelovar, under Durin Goodanvil. The surviving members of the Assembly demanded that the army remained stationed in the hold to defend the government from incursion, but with the state under martial law the military had priority and followed through with the agreed plan. The portal that had brought the Obsidian Dwarves to the upper Serpentspine was in Shazstundihr. Going on the offensive immediately and preventing the enemy from reinforcing themselves was the highest priority.  The darkness speaks Shortly into the crisis, a message came through on the Sending Stone linked to Arg-Ôrdstun. The dwarf on the other end identified themselves as Runeherald Rarzharr Bedrock, supreme commander of the Obsidian Legion. They made it clear that they had no intention to negotiate. Millennia ago, their ancestors had been banished to the deepest depths of the Serpentspine, to the Primeval Serpentspine, a place of wonders and horrors yet unimaginable to those who dwelt in the safety of the upper mountains. The Runefather had guided them through those dark times and they had carved out an empire for themselves, waiting for the moment their imprisoners would weaken and break the rune seals that kept them from returning. All dwarves would be made to serve the Runefather, all other races were to be driven from the mountains. Whitebeard had to pause before responding, but when he did it was with fury that matched that of the Runeherald's own anger. The Aul-Dwarov was gone, the dwarves who had banished them were dead and their lines extinguished, the Obsidian Legion was killing and enslaving not for justice but out of petty rage. The might of progress and the peoples of the Union would bury them, and those who survived or surrendered would see a world better than any they could have imagined. A quick look at the bonuses that they get. The Legion suck at diplomacy but gets some really good generals, decent military buffs and a huge force limit buff, which they will need to have a chance at winning.  Battle in the darkness On the way to Shazstundihr, the spearhead commanded by General Shalesmith of the Tűngric Army ran directly into the western division of the Obsidian Legion. Thus began a brutal battle in the darkness of the caverns, lit only by the few Damestear lamps that they had been able to bring with them and the regular light of gunfire and cannonfire. The arrival shortly afterwards of the rest of the Union Army brought a sheer weight of numbers against the invaders, and it was quickly discovered that their lamps overwhelmed the darksight magic that the Obsidians used see in the dark. With the enemy suddenly struggling with the light levels, the combined Union forces rolled through them and scattered the remnants.  Overextended and caught out The Legion seemed to have been caught out by the ferocity of the counterattack, and scrambled the rest of their army to the defence of their headquarters in Arg-Ôrdstun. As they sallied from the fortress, they were cut down in their thousands by Union artillery, but in the inverse of the previous battle their numbers allowed them to breach the lines and start ravaging the artillery positions. Union forces withdrew to Verkal Skomdihr to recuperate, but their job had been done and the Legion had lost their initiative.  Reclaiming a ruin Union forces retook Shazstundihr within a matter of days, so devastated were the defences of the hold. The portal had already closed by the time they had entered the hold, leaving the cobalt dwarves to assume that the Legion's runesmiths had closed it to guard their homeland from any danger of counterattack. As the army recuperated, they began to dig through the ruins of the hold to find survivors of the original invasion. Captured obsidian dwarves were treated to the view of dwarves rescuing orcs and goblins whose districts had been cut off by cave-ins, and humans and elves who had fled to the surface pouring back into the hold once it was liberated. Actually lore-wise the portal is a one-time thing. If you play as the Legion, once you conquer your starting opponent you have to work to re-open a link to the Obsidian Empire. Their religion is also based around how strong or weak this link is.  Catch out the weak In an effort to reclaim the initiative, the Legion split its forces with those still at full strength pushing directly to Orlghelovar and those who had suffered losses in the defence of Arg-Ôrdstun pulling back to recuperate. That proved to be a mistake in the face of the Union's aggressive policy, as the few who had managed to hide within occupied territory and hold onto their Sending Stones reported the position of the depleted forces. General Goodanvil pushed his troops out along the rail line and hit them unexpectedly, inflicting significant losses and forcing them to retreat into the caverns. However, with the capital under threat pursuit was not an option. Losing Orlghelovar would be a massive blow and risked the collapse of the civilian government which was just about holding together in the face of the invasion.  Battle for the fate of the glass hold Whitebeard had not had time to leave the hold before the Legion's forces descended upon its defences, and watched as their artillery fired volley after volley of rune-enhanced shells directly into its walls. The Union Army had scrambled to make it back in time, and fell upon the Legion forces with everything they could muster in spite of their own exhaustion at traveling back and forth across the Reach. Just a few days more, and there might not have been hold to return to.  Rescue from the surface As the battle raged, an unfamiliar horn sounded across the plains of Ourdia. The Duke of Estallen had arrived, bringing with him tens of thousands of infantry and thousands of Cannorian knights. While the hold would have been defended without their help, a counterattack would probably have had to wait. But now, with fresh troops descending on the Reach, the Legion looked to be on the back foot for good.  Sweeping clean the mountains The human-dwarven alliance moved swiftly, and crushed an attempt to retake Shazstundihr. Meanwhile, the Duke was welcomed into Orlghelovar, where the Assembly put on a magnificent parade and feast to celebrate the collaboration of the two great nations. Whitebeard met with him in private to thank him for his aid, and while the mood remained good, discussion did eventually turn to repayment in terms of money and other support. Exactly what obligations had been promised between the two of them were entirely off the record, but they emerged with the alliance reaffirmed and the two nation's spheres of influence clearly defined. The Empire was Estallen's, while the lands beyond were the Union's.  Only temporary safety The obsidian dwarves who had appeared in the eastern half of the Reach remained cut off from support, and in fact retreated to a corner cavern and fortified themselves there rather than strike out. Whether this was a plan to set up an eastern headquarters or simply a breakdown in the chain of command wasn't clear.  Legion scattered After 8 months of war, the last of the Legion's mobile forces in the western Reach were crushed by the forces of the alliance. Thousands of obsidian dwarves had been captured, and thousands more and fled into the caverns where they would hide for years before either giving up and trying to integrate into society or else delving deeper in the mountains to try and find a way home. All that was left was to break down the defences of the Legion headquarters in Arg-Ôrdstun and bring the Runeherald to justice.  Last stand The forces in the east didn't last much longer. Their portals did not have the capacity to bring through cannons, so even as they made a last-ditch attempt to storm Gor Bűrad their unsupported infantry was wiped out with ease.  Increased gnomish interest With the war dying down, normality was beginning to come to the Union. The Gommo sent a request asking for an official branch to be opened in Aqatbar, considering that the mountain interior was still war-torn. There had been a great deal of interest from the gnomish organisation in the scientific developments within the Union, and so a greater level of cooperation was forged.  The headquarters fall It took the best part of another year to break into Arg-Ôrdstun, with the Legion defenders fighting to the last dwarf to hold the outer fortifications, even descending into street-by-street combat in an effort to protect their herald. The dwarf himself a was found in the mayor's palace, attempting to open a portal back to his homeland with the last of his runesmiths. Before he could complete the ritual, he and his command staff were captured. All that remained was to scatter the last few scattered units that the Legion had attempted to form out of deserters and drafted locals and the war would be won.  The Obsidian Invasion ends Runeherald Bedrock was placed on trial on Orlghelovar, along with the other surviving high-ranking obsidian dwarves. After a swift trial, he was sentenced to life in a cell with a view of the entire upper layer of the hold, where he could see the daylight illuminate the boulevards and plazas every morning and watch dwarves and all other races mingle in peace in prosperity. Those lower-ranked soldiers that had been captured were imprisoned in prisoner of war camps, with an eye towards rehabilitating them into society. There wasn't a way home for them, so it was either that or life as a permanent PoW. Many were still loyal enough to take the latter, perhaps dreaming that another invasion would free come and free them. President Whitebeard returned the authority from the military to the Assembly, who rapidly started to lift the wartime restrictions that had been put in place. For the most part, life outside the Reach proper had ticked along as normal, but now came the difficult task of reintegrating the devastated interior back into the Union administration and economy. Despite all the struggle, this challenge had been met and defeated, and they would emerge from it stronger than ever. So ends the Obsidian Invasion. I might have made it look straightforward, but we had some advantages. Our large surface territory was untouched because they only initially take provinces inside the Serpentspine, we managed to finish our wars and thus have time and manpower to spare hunting down runic circles before the start, majorly cutting their numbers, and had a powerful ally to march in and clean up. And of course, the fact that Offense was the correct choice. Catching and destroying a full quarter of their main army at the start helped keep them under control, and from then they were mostly responded to us rather than taking the initiative. Defensive would probably have still worked once the Estalleni arrived to bolster our numbers, but it would have been more of a slog and considering how close Orlghelovar came to falling we might have lost it in this scenario if we'd let them doomstack. This disaster has the potential to be devastating if you aren't ready for it. The buildup escalates at low stability, so you have less time to ready yourself if caught with low admin power, and most dwarven empires will be entirely within the mountains and thus not have external territory to fall back on. Finally, the numbers are large enough that they can just overwhelm you if you haven't built up as much as we have. I have another game going as Krakdhűmvror where I just conquered the hold with the calcite layer from an AI and my army is a third the size of what it was in this LP, so I'm starting to get fearful.  Institutional collapse The devastation wrought by the invaders even in the short time that they had held parts of the Reach was incredible. In areas under their occupation they had torn down the administrative institutions of the Union, retooled industries to produce weapons and supply the army, and established slavery to overcome the resistance of the inhabitants. Bureaucrats had been worked to death, miners had been drafted as cannon fodder, and non-dwarves had fled or died. It would take a long time for the people to recover from the trauma that had been inflicted, and the government was happy to give them the time they needed.  Rebuilding begins At the same time, the physical infrastructure of the occupied regions had been wrecked, first by the invasion and then by the counterattack. Arg-Ôrdstun and Shazstundihr both needed significant investment to restore to their original splendour. These were eagerly funded by the banks that had survived the war and were looking to make a name for themselves and get a piece of the restored economy.  Theory of flight The war did not halt the advance of science, even if it did turn it towards more violent ends. As most artificers focused on improved lighting or developing weapons directly, others sought inventions of even higher purposes, literally. A dwarven and gnomish collaboration brought out a theoretical paper outlining the idea of a flying warship that could rain down devastation on an army unable to response and patrol trade lines from the sky, if not be adapted to ship cargo itself. The engineering knowledge to create such a warship wasn't there yet, but it opened a new rush to study other potential flying artifice. This invention cannot be used until we have the Enlightenment institution (~1700). It doesn't even appear as a possible selection. Too bad really, it'd be very cool to get this early.  Universal suffrage The end of the war saw a greater push for voting rights among the lower classes. So many had died in defence of the Union, or resisted the rule of the Obsidians in the occupied holds, that it was a travesty that they weren't allowed to participate in the election. Under this mounting pressure, the Assembly voted on an extension of voting rights to all adult citizens in the election of their representative to the Assembly of Holds. Full democracy remained a little out of reach however, as the President was still not popularly elected and with a variety of races with different lifespans, especially mixed races, there was concern that the definition of 'adult' had not been set correctly and left otherwise competent voters disenfranchised.  Faithful allies Having seen the value of powerful allies, the Assembly was happy to devote a division of the Union Army to supporting a push by Verkal Kozenad to secure the eastern tunnel that led out onto the Forbidden Plains. The tribe inhabiting the tunnel were supported by a powerful ogre clan that had subjugated the centaur tribes out on the open steppe, so the army stationed itself at the entrance to the mountains and held there rather than descend into dangerous and unfamiliar territory.  Setting forth into the vault With the situation calm, the government signed off on an expedition into the Rizvâmbrčthar. The Legion had been searching for something, which meant that it was either very dangerous or very valuable. Either way, it was safer in the Union's hands than in the pocket of any random adventurer who tried their hand at the vault, as were all of the other runic experiments that lay within. Dungeons don't operate on quite the same process as other expeditions. Instead of slowly trawling through a certain number of levels while dealing with random events, we are required to go through a series of defined events and locate the exit. Then we can upgrade the associated Great Project and prepare for the next stage of the dungeon.  Trials of logic Whoever had originally created the vault had intended that only the smartest dwarves were capable of enter, and so the expedition had to engage in the most fiendish tests of intelligence in order to be able to proceed deeper inside. As with other expeditions, the success of different options is randomised. We get pretty lucky in this dungeon with the results.  Ravelians enter the Union A group of academics from the Empire petitioned to allow the establishment of a chapter of the Ravelian Society in Westend, with the stated goal of studying the Damestear meteorite that fell on the city. The Assembly approved the request without much dissent. While the Ravelians were considered radical by many, their focus on debate and study fit perfectly into the society that had sprung up out of Orlghelovar. Over the following years the Union would see more and more chapters opening up on the surface and within holds.  Runic perfection Beyond the entrance of the vault were many traps, but the expedition was able to navigate them without much issue. Even in the upper layers of the workshop they found countless runework artefacts, appraised by magesmiths in the party to be priceless perfectly crafted mechanisms. If this was in the upper levels, who knew what treasures lay even deeper inside?  The Age of Witch Kings The world at large was going through another shift, as the religious conflict that had defined politics in the previous century was starting to fall by the wayside. In its place were the rising nation-states of the world, led by powerful monarchs who were gathering more power, both magical and temporal, onto themselves. The Kingdom of Gawed, spanning from the Dragon Coast to Lake Silvermere, the Phoenix Empire and the Kheteratans, the petty kingdoms of Escann, and the rising colonial nations of Aelantir. Even Orlghelovar was part of this trend with the rise of the Union as a unified state capable of fending off an invasion that would have wiped out the dwarves of a century earlier.  Far from absolute rule Unlike the other great powers though, the Union was a democracy. Not unique in the world, but the extent to which it had extended power to its population was nearly unmatched. As a downside, as some would consider it, the President did not have the authority to rule unilaterally, to cut through red tape in the integration of new territory or instil discipline in the army through fear. The question remained, how would such a nation compete with the Witch Kings of the world and the powerful magics that they wielded? We have a couple of problems with regards to our absolutism, one being the giant stack of privileges we've given our estates, some required for missions and others not, and taking less-than-optimal picks from the government reforms for RP reasons. I'll be rolling back privileges as best I can but I think we'll be sitting at only 30-40 maximum by the end of it.  War returns to Escann The lands of Escann had long-since recovered from the Greentide. New nations had arisen, new cities had been constructed, and the population had gotten used to peace. However, with that came the ambitions of the Witch Kings and other petty kings who ruled over the divided lands, not to mention the ever-expanding Gawedis who saw Escann as ripe for the plucking. The region was once again barrelling towards a conflagration, not one born of foreign invasion like the Greentide but by a lust for power and dominance that came from within. Here is where Round 2 of the Escanni Thunderdome begins. Every nation in the region has a CB to conquer all other provinces in the region, and if they manage to own 100 provinces by the time the wars finish in about 50 years they get the chance to form some powerful unique formable nations. Sadly, I doubt any of the AIs have it in them to stand up to Gawed pushing in from the north-west there.  Golem bested through study, not violence Advancing deeper, the expedition encountered the guardian of the upper floor, a massive runic golem. As the group prepared for battle, a magesmith proposed a different solution. Study and understanding, not destruction, was the way of the Union. And thus, they were able to discover a way to safely shut down the machine before it could hurt anyone.  Turning the mechanisms to our favour Similarly, when mechanical spiders swarmed the machine and attempted to restore it to functionality, the magesmith was able to take the opportunity to reprogram the golem and have it join with the expedition as a guardian.  The way deeper Beyond the golem was an elevator that could take the expedition deeper into the vault, but it required additional work to bring it back to working order. A team of artificers joined the magesmiths in attempting to reactivate the elevator, despite the mages' protests. A layer of friction existed between the two groups, but at the same time their competition sped along the work on the elevator. As I understand it you need to 'upgrade' the dungeon before you can proceed to the next expedition.  Expansion of the Institute The Orlghelovaric Research Institute had languished for years, with money and effort being poured into the war effort and reconstruction, but the government was finally able to redirect some support to see the facility expanded further. The construction of specialized research rooms, office, and dorms for scientists and students was simply the first step in making the Institute the greatest scientific facility in the world.  Innovations emerge quickly While self-cleaning parchment hadn't seen widespread adoption yet, it was still commonly used by researchers who had the funds to purchase the expensive material and study it further. They even found ways to encode sounds as runes on the page, so that certain runes would appear when certain words were spoken. The technology had a long way to go, but the ability to turn speech to text had an enormous range of potential uses. Okay, I'm not sure how this is meant to work from an artificery point of view without it literally being just magic…  Rising to the challenge Not to be beaten, the Gommo increased their investment into their office in Aqatbar, expanding it to a full research facility. However, it was limited by the space available in the city while the Institute in Orlghelovar was only limited by how deep the miners could dig. The dwarven scientists were not openly worried about the competition, but having a competitor even if they were smaller in more ways than one was still a way to drive innovation.  Empire of Lights One of the highest priorities of the various research facilities around the nation was the first proper artificial light source based on the prototypes used during the Invasion. The daylight mechanisms installed throughout the nation's holds and the rail tunnels were good, but also fragile and only useful so long as the sun was up. With the development of handheld artificer-crafted lamps suddenly the darkness could be banished permanently. It would not be long before this extended beyond the mountains, and every city of the Union could treat night as if it were day. Enlightenment in both the literal and figurative sense could be brought to the world. To be continued… Vote The sheer effectiveness of the offensive, crushing the Obsidian Invasion before they could cement their foothold, has given a major boost to proponents of the offensive military approach. However, other ideas also have their proponents. Which ones will be selected? Vote for two ideas, (e.g. B, E) The top result will be our fifth idea pick, and the second result will be the sixth. It'll be a few updates before we manage to open the sixth slot but I didn't want this to just be a repeat of last update's vote, so even if we can't pick it right away it will guide our strategy for the next few decades. A: Administrative – The Union should expand and enlighten more of the world, although doing so will require streamlining our administration. B: Economic – Much of the core of the Union was devastated by the war, we should focus on economic recovery. C: Influence – The people of the world need to be free, but we cannot simply force them into our Union without a time of self-governance. D: Maritime – Our merchant navies could be bolstered even further to spread our trade influence from Aqatbar to Damescrown. E: Offensive – The Obsidian Invasion was crushed by quick and aggressive action. This is surely the right approach for our army, and our strategic aims (automatic +5 votes). F: Defensive – The army is strong enough, but the near-fall of Orlghelovar has shaken many, who now advocate for making our walls stronger. Let our enemies break on them until their tyrannies break under the strain. Voting lasts 48 hours Sybot fucked around with this message at 14:02 on Apr 8, 2023 |
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Apr 8, 2023 12:31
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A, E
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Apr 8, 2023 13:25
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Glad to see that we really did make the right choice. I am curious now though, do the obsidian dwarves have content yet, or was that me misremembering. Anyway, the vote: A: Administrative, B: Economic. I feel that by going this way, we really can make our nation into an incredible powerhouse: an efficient, wealthy state to be a shining model for all to follow.
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Apr 8, 2023 13:26
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