Battle Report: July 29th

Another week, another war in Minaria. This game was just a quick two-player one between Werepuppy(as Shucassam and later Rombune) and myself(as Immer). Early on, Immer managed to get Muetar and Hothior as allies. Shucassam gained Rombune and summoned barbarians to aid their campaigns. From here, we begin. 

The most pivotal early battle in this session happens just outside Beolon on the Downs. A roughly even fight between the massed forces of Immer and the Shucassami alliance, ends poorly for Shucassam. With the monarch of the desert kingdom perishing in the battle. Shucassam falls into confusion, its attempt at hegemony failed. 

From here, Rombune takes up the struggle for supremacy. They are able to gain Zorn as an ally early on though. From here, we continue. 

An ignominious end, to the pilgrimage of the Muetarian king to the Temple of Kings. After sneaking past several enemy units and making it to the Temple. Emperor Herrott is judged unworthy by the gods of Minaria and dies at the Temple instantly. Muetar falls to Chaos. 

Rombune's diplomatic efforts falter with the death of their ambassador in the northern reaches. His attempts of recruit barbarians, result in him being burnt at the stake. 

Despite this, the forces of the Rombuni alliance are still powerful and lay siege to the Gap Castle in eastern Immer. 

Which is quickly overwhelmed. 

Immer gaining the Trolls as an ally, decides to pursue offense as well, and lays siege against the goblin capital of the Pits. 

This is in addition to sacrificing an army of trolls at Grey staff to summon a firestorm upon the main Zornite army. 

This caused significant losses to the goblin forces around the Gap Castle. 

Despite this, Zorn brings its strength back to its kingdom to break the siege of the Pits. Here, the armies play a cat and mouse game throughout the territory. 

Meanwhile in the Sea of Drowning Men, Immerian ally Mivior attacks the vulnerable Rombuni fleet...

...and sinks it in its entirety. 

Immer currently has the lead in victory points but, in all other measures things are presently a stalemate in Minaria. Rombune had some heavy naval losses but, their strength is still largely preserved. The two powers are largely even in military strength, paricularly in Zorn. This game could still go either way. 

Notes

An interesting strategy that cropped up in this session was taking losses strategically. In DR, the units a player loses is determined by the player losing them from among those that took place in a battle. These battles take place between any/all adjacent stacks at the discretion of a player. Werepuppy's first monarch was lost because he had decided to take losses from the stack containing the Shucassami monarch after the unfortunate battle near Beolon. This triggered a "Leader Fate Roll" on the monarch and the rest, as they say, is history. We came to the realization, that if he had taken the losses from an allied stack that took place in the same battle he could have avoided the leader fate roll entirely. A neat little tactic if you need to bring your player monarch into combat. It's something I'll certainly keep in mind because, after all, it's not over yet.