ERFFIC - A Handful Of Units

[OneHugeTuck]

Damn He's Big - A Handful Of Units #61


Ronjermy strode into the Portal room, in his black armor. Castle Korse's regent Lubber and Chief Warlord Namer were there as well as two stacks each of Korsican stabbers and archers, all with weapons at the ready.

Ronjermy strode up to the Portal and tossed the scroll back through. It vanished with a ripple of the Portals glowing surface.

He moved back an appropriate distance and faced the Portal with his hand ready on Mjighty's grip.

And they waited.


Before too long, the Portal rippled again. A big man stepped through. His signamancy was impressive; Broad shouldered and heavy set, he had long gray and blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, an equally blond and grey beard, and a grizzled, war weary face. Black lace up boots, green and brown mottled pants, a shirt of silver chainmail covered by a long sleeved green jacket. A heavy war hammer was stuck into the front of his thick belt.

Ronjermy understood the signamancy of this Master class shockamancer…nobody messes with this unit. The hammer, and the caster himself emanated power. Ronjermy could feel it.

Ronjermy watched the shockamancer step through and look around the room, sizing up the occupants. He made a motion of showing his empty hands, then stepped to the side and took a standing position and the Portal rippled again. The room suddenly lit up.

What Ronjermy could only guess as being a Light Golem came through the portal, a draped body held in its arms. He was very impressed by its stats, but kept his poker face as he stood there doubting the likelihood of his survival if the Caster and Golem decided to attack the room.

The glowing golem knelt down, laying the body gently upon the floor. Then it stood, turned, and exited through the portal. The room returned to normal glowstone brightness.

Ronjermy motioned for a stack of swordsmen to remove the shrouded body from the room. Then he motioned for the rest to leave him alone with the caster.
They stood facing each other.

Diplomatically, Normany spoke first. "My condolences for your loss."

Ronjermy nodded but remained of neutral demeanor. "What happened to him?'

Normany answered factually. "He was stabbed in the back and dropped into an irrigation ditch. A dirtamancer doing upkeep on it found him. Otherwise, it's unlikely that the body would have been found before he depopped."

"Has the murderer been found?"

Normany scowled a bit. "No. No weapon has been found, the body was removed from the site of the murder. Lookamancer magic has failed to find any clues."

Ronjermy scowled as well. "So much for the Magic Kingdom being Neutral."

Normany returned his gaze, unfazed by the accusation. "The Magic Kingdom is neutral. This attack breaks our rules. If and when the murderer is found, appropriate action will be taken."

Ronjermy continued. "Clearly it's not safe for a Caster to enter."

Normany kept eye contact. "Here's the deal, Overlord. I don't give a sourmander's puss about your war or your politics. That's your problem. I didn't return your caster out of respect to you. I returned the body out of respect to him. Perhaps he was happy here, perhaps not, but it was where he came from. He deserves it."

The caster built like a veteran warlord continued, "The Magic Kingdom is a sanctuary free from your insane politics. We have our own rules. All informal. The volunteer justice co-operative is just that. Voluntary. Manned by people like me who are willing to enforce the rules. And one of those rules is no violence outside of witnessed duels. Your politics crawled in. A caster murdered another. That hasn't happened for thousands of turns. And I don't like it."

The two stood staring at each other, neither backing down.

The caster reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small round glass marble. "If one of your caster's enters the Magic Kingdom carrying this, I'll know. And if he gets attacked I'll know, and I'll know who the attacker is." He tossed the marble to Ronjermy, who instinctively caught it.

Then he turned his back onto Ronjermy, and walked towards the portal, and vanished into it.


Ronjermy stood there looking at the glowing portal.

Namer walked back in. "That caster could have taken us both."

Ronjermy nodded. "Could probably have taken the entire room." And if the rugged caster and his light golem could have taken the Overlord, Chief Warlord, a leveled regent and 4 stacks of infantry, then they could take Castle Korse. "Suddenly, I don't like the idea of an open portal and just anybody walking through."

Namer nodded in agreement.

What if a stack of casters sneak attacked through a portal? What if just one did?

"Seal this room off with heavy guard. Next turn I'll pop a gated structure around the portal so it can be sealed off when not in use."

Namer nodded.

Ronjermy turned and made his way to an exit. He needed to ride the surfing dish out into the darkness and think.

Seemingly minor oversights had just cost him three casters. Assumptions about reality. He'd taken measures for flying veiled units, but never considered a veiled unit crawling through Misty Hole. He'd never considered a threat coming from the Magic Kingdom, much less meeting on -in- the Magic Kingdom.

And he'd just lost three casters. Valuable units, and in Sino a friend as well.

As a warlord and a chief warlord he was accustomed to losses from the violence and tactical wins and losses of battle. But he was not accustomed to losses from
small misunderstandings of reality. He wasn't sure how to combat that and felt his mind moving towards paranoia.

His side had just been significantly weakened. Dirtamancy, gone. Moneymancy, gone. Luckamancy, gone. And he had little expectation of replacing them. Luck had blessed him, and he had squandered it.



Minutes later, floating alone in the void of darkness, he pondered these things, and felt sorry for himself. Whatever Thispian had done...he had won the day.

[OneHugeTuck]

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things - A Handful Of Units #62

Flanked by two Sirens, Overlord Ronjermy strode through the hallway, Mjighty in hand. They stepped over bodies in purple and black livery while Korsican Knight class stabbers dealt croaking strokes to surviving units and then rushed forward to join the clash ahead.

The clash ahead consisted of a stack of Sea Twolls making short work of the last defenders of KingKo, FetEx's capital city. Marmen warlords and flying fish had broken the majority of the city's defenders, and Ronjermy and his Siren bodyguards followed them in, joining battle as opportunity dictated.

Similarly organized shock troops were currently attacking FetEx's other two cities, led by Chief Warlord Rebeche and Whalor, respectively. Rebeche had been made Chief Warlord for the assault, as his level plus CW bonus allowed Ronjermy the luxury of assigning less units to him and more to Whalor.

By the time Ronjermy entered the throne room, the only FetExians still alive were a stack of knights surrounding guard around their King, his heir, and two females, assumably royal family members.

Ronjermy looked around, not seeing any casters, as he had been hoping to see since the beginning of the attack. He shouted to the Korsican knights "To the portal room!" Those that hadn't already gone that direction turned and raced down a hallway. They knew what they were looking for.

"Ladies." Ronjermy ordered.

As the sea twolls slowly advanced on the remains of FetEx, his two chainmail bikini-clad Sirens stepped forward and screamed, visible tight cones of noise lancing from their mouths to mow down FetEx knights. Sea twolls stepped in and finished the job as other screams echo'd sharply off the small royal throne room.

Ronjermy directed a steely gaze at the angry young heir, a visibly hopeless and resigned king, and two terrified and trembling females clinging to each other.

"This was a bad turn for FetEx," Ronjermy thought, "A bad turn at the end of hundreds of bad turns."

He wondered how long it had been since this side, subjected for so long to Atlan and then Korse, had seen glory.

[OneHugeTuck]

She'll Take It And Like It - A Handful Of Units #63

"All things change, lord. Now, always, and forever."

The turn after the assault on FetEx, Cirke, the red haired beauty, whispered consolingly to Ronjermy, as he looked down from Well Hung at the empty lands that used to belong to FetEx, and towards Evony, which was currently receiving the same treatment that FetEx had.

Ronjermy nodded. Despite the necessity of his strategy, he still felt bad. Removing FetEx and Evony could be seen as putting two weak sides out of their misery, could be seen as tactically expedient, but still felt like the execution of innocents and the murder of, well, entire kingdoms.

Cirke had used her juice last turn and this turn to increase the move of the units, enabling a quick attack on FetEx, and then on Evony the next turn. Due to their move, they weren't in battlespace when their turn ended and started, then when turn had started she increased their move. Ronjermy's conversations with her long ago, in the darkness and long quiet moments of Inner Korse, had given him access to this rare form of sneak attack.

Ronjermy technically put his Outer Korse cities at risk by sending enough units to crush them in a single turn each. With only level 3 capital cities and level 2 outlying cities, and forces away for only two turns, he assessed it as worth it. Unless there was a veiled army within two turns move…and that wasn't likely with the constant scouring of the surrounding 15 hexes in any direction being randomly scoured by small teams of flying fish.

War room sessions had centered around the question "What is King Thispian expecting us to do?" The crafty sovereign had surely planned the sneak attack on Inner Korse, and had prepared an assassin in advance to be waiting ready in the Magic Kingdom.

What would he expect from Ronjermy after that? What did he have in store for Ronjermy after that?

Ronjermy did what he wouldn't expect himself to do: remove FetEx and Evony from the board. This gave Ronjermy income from taking and raizing the cities, and kept that income from Thispian. Perhaps Thispian would then advance into the area and spend funds on city building an unit creation. Ronjermy hoped for that, but doubted it.

Ronjermy knew the obvious reaction options available from his side would be to either hole up in Inner Korse and do nothing any time soon, or fly over FetEx and Evony and attack Thispian's side, maybe even use the friendly (relatively) lands and/or cities to base out of for the attack on Atlan.

Ronjermy hoped that Thispian wouldn't expect him to destroy those sides and thus lose the regular income. Regardless, it needed to be done.

Rebeche had warned that Thispian was cold, calculating, and patient. But Ronjermy couldn't help but feel an attack on his territory was imminent. Maybe Thispian had succeeded at hurting Ronjermy's side without any further plan. Maybe not.

Ronjermy was in fact going to take the fight to Thispian. But with any luck, in unexpected ways.

The first step was to remove Evony and FetEx. This would remove conquest income from Thispians' reach. It might cause Thispian to build cities and advance into the now unoccupied land, helping Thispian to overextend himself and either reduce forces elsewhere or create new raid income for Ronjermy.

As Ronjermy was also aware, though none of his warlords brought it up, it also eliminated the possibility of Thispian bribing one or both kingdoms to some form of treachery with an offer they couldn't refuse.

Having missed the FetEx 'mancer with any luck, his Korsicans would capture Evony's Thinkamancer.

But he really wasn't counting on it.

-

Ensten had counseled the wisdom of pulling back to a safe and peaceful life inside the Sea of Total Darkness, instead of wading further into constant and ever-escalating warfare. Ronjermy had considered it. He had often pondered that option, but was always left with the thought "And what exactly would we do for a thousand turns? Sit around and...what?" Massages and more Sirens can only entertain for so long.

Ronjermy knew the Titans had created him for battle, to lead units in attack and defence. He had a sense that Fate didn't intend for him to become one of those short fat rulers. From all of Erf that he had seen, there was only the consistently changing tide of attack and defend.

While he saw no point to sitting around safely in a bubble kingdom, he had to admit that he also saw no point to constant warfare, other than survival of he and his. Overlord Raeptor had relished the carnage and the victories, but eventually fell to a stronger foe.

And so it was and so it must be. Thus he ordered the fall of FetEx and Evony. Thus he looked to not just survive the conflict with Thispian, but to .

What happened after that was of little concern.

Cirke stood against him with an arm around his waist, leaning into him. He knew she could feel his guilt, and he knew she understood the unstoppable tide in her own special way. Perhaps he would talk with her more about that. In their own ways as a Changeamancer and an Overlord, both understood that change is inevitable, and one masters it or falls to it.

Promisa of Evony, unfortunately, was fated to fall.

[OneHugeTuck]

The Kid's Getting Hard - A Handful Of Units #64

Behind him on the landing, Larry the Shockamancer was in a wooden swordfight with a Korsican stabber. Ronjermy had a standing order to his casters, even Ensten, for ongoing hand to hand combat training. Ensten didn't like that one bit.

Larry, still youthful, had returned from the invasions of Envony and FetEx with less of a smile on his face. Ronjermy saw in him the hardened look of a unit that had seen his first battle close up, inches away. Firing off air defenses from a location out of reach of sword and claw is an entirely different experience.

Ronjermy knew from reports that Larry and the stack of sea twolls he led had seen hand to hand action, and a respectable amount of it. He knew that Larry had personally croaked two stabbers that had slipped through the ring of twolls surrounding him. By hand…hands crackling with energy.

It was a terrible risk Ronjermy had taken, sending Larry with the invasion forces making quick strikes on both kingdoms, and putting his Shockamancer personally into the thick of battle.

But he needed his Shockamancer to be an experienced warrior for the battles yet to come. And Evony and FetEx were weak sides and sure wins (as sure as one could be). While Ronjermy knew Fate was not be be trifled with, he also knew that Fortune favors the bold.

The unspoken benefit of the invasions were the movement of the troops, including Larry, towards leveling. Ronjermy couldn't help but think of Normany Reach, and knew that Larry had a long way to go.

Ronjermy watched Larry, who was focusing intensely on the non-magical attack and defend of his wooden sword. Ronjermy thought about Normany Reaches magical hammer, and his own Mjighty, and contemplated the acquisition of magical weapons for his leadership units.

Levels give bonuses individually and to all. Any bonus, from any source (like a magic weapon), is a valuable bonus. And every bonus is to be desired.
In his turns, Ronjermy had seen different sides with different strategies. Some favored overwhelming numbers of basic troops. Some favored fewer troops but of stronger caliber. Some favored fliers, some land troops. Ronjermy had never seen a side with the equivalent of his warlord/flying fish combination, and he was glad of it, because it was a very effective unit combination. In line with that strong combination, Ronjermy preferred stronger units, even though the case could be made that costs were also higher.

Heavy fliers, rock and sea twolls, jumping spidews, warlords and his Siren units. Casters obviously...he had seen many sides make little use of their casters. These sides rarely lasted long.

Stabbers and pikers and archers, to be sure, they were useful and necessary. And they had all just gone to war, and won.

They hadn't caught a caster, unfortunately.

With the fall of Promisa and Evony this turn, there would be nothing but empty territory in between the two realms. With any luck, Thispian would assume that Ronjermy was clearing the way for a march upon Atlan. Towards that end, Ronjermy was assembling troops in war camp on the shore opposite Atlandis, just in case someone was looking.

[OneHugeTuck]

Getting Into It - A Handful Of Units #65

The next turn started.

Shortly thereafter, "Attack is in process Lord."

Ronjermy nodded calmly. "Ok."

Looking out over the territory viewable from the deck of Well Hung, Ronjermy stood, generally aware of his warlords, Sirens, two casters, and various other troops on the deck.

Ensten's message meant that the force led down the river by Namer had begun their attack on a far away Atlan city.

The city, nestled in between the river and a tributary feeding it that happened to be the border between Atlan and Dewbi, was a level 3.

Namer, reinstated to the status of Chief Warlord, had left Korse territory the moment turn started with a horde of flying fish, a handful of level 2 and warlords and 10 sea twolls. Cirque gave them the move to reach and attack their target.

They had left in stages and small groups and staggered lines, to help avoid detection by anybody looking into the river.

Namer's orders were to take the city. And failing that, expend all the flying fish to do as much damage as possible. And there were hundreds of them. Ronjermy had considered granting Namer Rebeche's magic ring that added a warlord level, but considered the defensive bonus of Namer's bracers enough of a boost to all the flying fish the Chief Warlord could stack with. And he didn't want to risk two magic items.

If Namer couldn't take the city, Dewbi surely then would take it in it's weakened state. Namer had noticed daily air patrols of Dewbi forces keeping an eye on the border, and they had a city not far away. If it survived, Atlan's city would be weakened, and at the very least Thispian would have to spend funds to build its defenses back enough in hopes of detering a Dewbi attack, and Dewbi would be putting attention on the Atlan border, regardless.

Flying fish, while powerful with stack bonuses, were cheap and relatively quick to replace, and therefore expendable if necessary.

The target city on the far side of Atlan was the easiest to attack. Ronjermy wanted Namer to lead the attack and get a win, but didn't want him to get too deep into enemy territory for other border cities. Losing flying fish could be strategic and painless. Losing Namer and the warlords, not so much.

Ronjermy had some trepidation about swimming his troops past Thispians capital city. Surely Thispian knew how the invaders had arrived when last his city was attacked. Ronjermy worried about traps or spells laid in the river. He worried more about defenses protecting the city from attack from the docks, so he looked down the river for potentially easier targets, with the added benefit of stirring up activity on the border.

But Namer had made it past. And the attack was in progress.

-

Ensten entered his thoughts again shortly thereafter. "Overlord...you know how you were worried that an attack was on it's way?"

Ronjermy instantly changed gears, having expected Ensten to give him an update on Namer's battle status.

"It's on its way."

[OneHugeTuck]

More Getting Into It - A Handful Of Units #66

"A scout entered a new hex. There is an army moving towards us. A big one. One moment, I'm viewing through his eyes."

Ronjermy slowly inhaled, and exhaled. "Continue when you're ready."

"They're approaching on Mountain hexes. You'll…oh…you'll want to see this."

Ronremy nodded to Ensten mentally indicating he was ready. His vision faded, and was quickly replaced from the vantage point of his marman scout, far above the mountain side.

In the distance he saw an army plodding along the steep mountain terrain. Plodding, because slowly leading the group were two giant beasts. Ensten, Ronjermy, and the scout all mentally agreed that those had to be Megalo sized beasts. Some kind of Megalo lizard. There were no fliers.

"Hide and get a closer look and a count. I want to know numbers and unit types and their speed. How long do we have till they are in battlespace?"

The scout mentally confirmed the order, and Ensten ended the scout's connection.

"Ensten, what's Namer's status?" Moment's later the Thinkamancer replied with "I can feel he's In the thick of battle, Lord, I don't want to fully enter his thoughts at risk of distracting him."

"Keep an eye on it, I want to know how it's going as right now as possible."

"Very well, Lord."

"Get Rebeche back here now. Make sure all the troops are back from evony into this hex."

"Yes Lord."

The 'clickity clack' of Larry's sparring practice made him grimace. If it ever actually got to the point that Larry needed to use a regular sword, that would surely be the last breath for the entire side.

[OneHugeTuck]

You Guana What? - A Handful Of Units #67

"The Warguana's are going to be the biggest challenge." Ensten had taken a trip to the library and to identify the giant lizawd.

Ronjermy stood in front of his commanders on the deck of Well Hung. The sun was far overhead, Ronjermy was shirtless and keeping his skin bronzed. That was an easy signamancy upgrade to keep in place.

All their attention was split between the unknown status of Namer's battle, and the intel recently received about the approaching army.

Ensten's head hovered near Ronjermy, his physical body safely ensconced in the heart of Castle Korse. Rebeche, Whalor, Atlandis' regent Aquan, Larry and Cirq, sat or stood in casual assemblage in front of him. A few low level but original Marmen warlords stood a little farther away, intermixed with half a stack of archers Ronjermy didn't order away. He was in fact curious why they were there.

Ronjermy was keenly aware of the stark contrast between a warroom meeting here, and meetings at the table in Castle Korse's. It hardly seemed worth the trip to the Castle these turns, when the action was going to happen outside the STD.

The Warguana's were Megalo sized lizawds. The entire army was mountain capable, Ronjermy had to assume that they could climb along the cliff face to attack the currently walless tower city.

The scout reported 6 Warguana's each carrying two stacks of archers, 30 heavy Plated Lizawds each with a rider, multiple stacks of stabbers and pikers, and multiple stacks of Lizawd Men. There seemed to be no fliers.

Ronjermy was glad he'd been producing units at full capacity. But that only created so much, so fast.

"We're in trouble." Ronjermy calmly stated. "So we need a plan. They'll be here in 3 turns after this one." There was unspoken agreement all around them that the
Titans deserved thanks for making Warguanas such slow units. And nobody mentioned how easily they could tear the city apart.

His commanders nodded, some more emphatically than others.

Ensten was first to respond. "If we pull all units into the STD and raze Well Hung, they'll have to come through tunnel defenses. And I doubt they can touch Atlandis if they're all Mountain capable."

Rebeche nodded. "The rumors I heard, the Lizawd King can -only- produce mountain capable units." He shrugged, not claiming it as definitive fact.

The rugged warlord continued. "Pay to increase the level of this city. Add thick walls, as the Warguanas are certainly siege units."

Ronjermy nodded. He was going to have to rebuild Sotomy and the tunnel defenses, just in case. But all effort and expense must go into Well Hung. Losing the portal into the cavern would be bad news indeed.

Larry spoke. "If Grava was here, she could trap the mountainside. I bet that army would never even get here."

Ronjermy responded quickly and curtly to end that line of wishful thinking. "She's not here. So what can you do to keep the army from getting here?"

Larry looked down at the deck, with no answer, but thinking.

Whalor spoke up. "Pull all the flying fish out, make Rebeche Chief Warlord, they'll all be in this hex. Put every archer we have on the deck here, and block out the sun with arrows. Follow it up with a charge of flying fish and Marmen. Larry's gotta be good for something, and available, since we won't be needing the tower defences. " He shrugged, implying that at least made it a fair fight.

Ronjermy couldn't help but notice the last hours of constant reduction of units under Namer's command. He looked at Whalor. "We're suddenly hundreds of flying fish short." That caught all his commanders except Ensten off guard.

Whalor showed the most concern. "Namer?"

"He's been losing units fast." Which was very bad news, considering the bulk of Korse's flying fish went with Namer. He let the silence sit for a few minutes, every commander knew that that much loss hadn't been expected.

"We'll have a good number of flying fish, but nothing close to giving us superiority, much less an edge. We don't have a lot of infantry, only three stacks of them are advanced. We're better off with our archers, the stacks that fought in the Great Fall were also sent to take FetEx and Evony." There had been not a single loss of an archer in any of those battles.

Rebeche smiled at Ronjermy. "Well, I guess we'll need something impressive again, then won't we."

[OneHugeTuck]

He Could've Queened Me - A Handful Of Units #68

Shortly thereafter, Ronjermy lay back on a lounge chair by the pool, talking privately with Cirke, rubbing one of her feet as she reclined in the opposite direction. Sirens lounged in the pool. There were no drinks this turn.

One of the archers that had been listening in on the warmeeting broke off a bit hesitantly from where his stack stood guard and approached his Overlord. His stride turned more confident the closer he got. Stopping an appropriate distance away from Ronjermy, he stood at attention and waited for Ronjermy to notice him.

Ronjermy already had. An infantry unit leaving his stack without orders to do so is something that immediately caught his attention.

He looked up from his conversation with the Changeamancer, continuing the foot rub.

"Do you have something urgent to report, archer?"

The archer unit looked steadfastly forward. "No sir. Permission to speak sir."

"Speak." Ronjermy replied, curious.

"My stack and I have been together since the beginning Lord. We popped in the first city popped after Korse, we stood firm at the Great Fall, and marched on FetEx and Evony. We are now advanced infantry, and we thank the Titans every turn for your care and planning, in that you have yet to lose a single archer in battle."

The archer took a breath and continued. Ronjermy started rubbing Cirque's toes.

"We are proud to serve our side and our ruler, and we will serve proudly until we croak. Please forgive any lack of decorum Lord, nor is the slightest disrespect meant, I don't know of a better way to say this…Overlord, there is no warlord from the archer ranks. It is my belief that you would only get more from your archer troops if there was one."

The archer then closed his mouth in a firm clench, and looked intensely forward, facing whatever his Lord's response might be.

Ronjermy looked up at the unit. Cirke smiled mischieveously but kept silent, giving Ronermy her other foot.

Mostly he was impressed with the archer's bravery to step away from his stack. And that a rank and file archer would have the audacity to approach his Lord, much less ask for a promotion.

"And that warlord would be you, of course?"

The archer didn't even blink. "It would be my honor to serve in that capacity, Lord. I don't believe that you'd be disappointed."

Ronjermy thought about it for a moment.

"Fine." And promoted him to warlord status, watching his side's schmucker count drop. Without time to give the archer time to respond, he ordered. "Go pick an 8th for your stack. Go select another full stack of the best amongst the archers. Bring them back here, asap."

The archer warlord spun on his heel and strode away. Ronjermy yelled "Larry, get over here." Rebeche started walking over too, following his Overlords' want. He got Ensten's attention, and ordered "Order the twolls to fabricate a couple stacks worth of Strength bows, starting right now."

"And put me in contact with Namer. What the Titan's tits is happening over there." Namer was down to two warlords and two sea twolls and a handful of flying fish. This was a long, long battle.

[OneHugeTuck]

The Knights Who Say Whee!- A Handful Of Units #69


And then it was over.

Namer knelt down, exhausted, leaning on his trident that was buried in corpse of the last defender.

The city changed sides.

Namer stood and walked to a window of the room he occupied in the small tower, leaning heavily on the sill. He looked out over a courtyard littered with the small shiny bodies of flying fish, infantry, twolls, Atlan fliers and heavy fliers. Namer knew he'd find more if he looked around.

He shook his head, and just wanted to get back to the water. In fact, he wanted nothing more than to get back to the quiet safety of the Sea Of Total Darkness and lay down in the sand with his feet in the water.

He finally opened himself to Ensten's communication.

"What the boop, Namer?" Ronjermy asked. "What's the status?"

Namer sighed wearily. "City's been taken. I'm hurt bad, but I'll make it till turn." He looked down at the ragged stump of an arm, bitten off by a heavy flier almost at the shoulder. That could have gone worse...

"They had heavy fliers, Lord. Lots of them. All packed in tight in the courtyard. I didn't see them until we went over the wall."

Ronjermy knew they hadn't been planning to attack the tower from the air, in case it had whatever air defenses were in use when Namer attacked the capital.

"The twolls used the swing ram on the gate, the fish took the units on the wall. Me and Dolf and some fish snuck around the back, took the wall and over it.
Dropped into the courtyard behind an ocean of heavies looking at the front gate."

"Maybe I shoulda ran. But there the regent was, standing right next to two other warlords. Close, and looking at the gate too, behind most of the troops . So I went after leadership. Regent was level 5, with two level 1's. Me and 50 bats went right over the heavies and into them, rear attack. I got the regent right before something big with a beak took my arm off."

"I called in the rest of the bats from the front gate. Took a chance air defenses wouldn't fire off, it would have been over right then if they had. We swarmed into the windows of the tower. Twolls hadn't made it through the gate yet it was starting to go. Course, they were gonna walk into a wall of heavies. I was looking for leadership, and getting inside for safety. Still had a hundred, hundred and a half fish. Infantry came in after us. There was some fighting."

"We got a level 1 warlord and infantry inside. Turns out the last warlord was outside. So we waited inside till the twolls and marmen came through the gate. That was a right smart fight. Lost Dolf and my stack of fish getting to the warlord. He went down easy though. Restacked and ordered everyone to the tower as their side went batboop crazy without leadership. Only two twolls and marmen made it through to the tower, even with the fish I sent to screen them. And it took them a while, lotta units got croaked out there. None of us would have made it if we hadn't got that last warlord."

"Then we stood in the stairwell and let infantry come to us. No problem as none of them were stacked. But now we're trapped in the tower. Probably twelve heavies left trying to get at us. I wish they were infantry instead of heavies..."

"No way we could rush em. Had to single them out. Didn't do so well at first. Lost a warlord that way. Then we got smart. Gave one of them a peek of a fish, drew it to the top of the tower or the front door where we wanted it. Those poor twolls did a lot of running back and forth but we got good about picking them off one by one. Still, heavies ain't easy and I was mostly out of fish. I lost everybody else. Had to get the last two by myself. Finally got them to stick their heads in through a tower window. Easy pickins those two. Should have done that with the rest of them, I could have brought some units home with me."

"But the city didn't fall. Some unit was left somewhere. Took me a while to find him, he couldn't get through a locked door. Lucky it was a piker and not a heavy."

"I don't know...maybe I should have called us back to the river. But the moment I saw the heavy fliers, I knew it had to be done. They were popping those units the whole time when they shouldn't have been. We'd have to deal with them now or later. And leadership was vulnerable, so I took a chance."

Ronjermy took it all in. "You survived. We won. I'll have Cirke give you movement to make it back next turn. Suck it up the rest of the turn, see if there's anything to loot. Raze the city before you hit the water, let Ensten know when you're ready to end turn."

Namer was ready right now, but duty compelled him to search the building, taking his many wounds with him.

--

"You guys heard that?"

Larry, Circ, Rebeche, and Whalor nodded. "Maybe our luck isn't all gone. "

Rebeche crossed his arms over his chest. "That was smart, taking out leadership. He's right, he wouldn't have made it if he hadn't have taken out that fiver regent first. A fiver stacking with the heavies would have been the end of it."

Whalor waded in "Should have given him your bracers for the extra level."

Rebeche nodded but shrugged. "Probably. Though we'd be regretting it if we lost one more unit in that battle."

The archer warlord marched up, leading 15 archers in tight formation. Ronjermy looked to them. "Ensten, which of these besides the warlord has the highest kill rate?"

After a few moments, Ensten responded with "The archer named Keye, Lord."

"Warlord, what is your name?" Ronjermy asked?

"Garrow, Lord." Was the prompt response.

"Who from these should be promoted to warlord?"

With but a moment's hesitation, Garrow responded with "Keye, Lord. His skill is a close second to mine, and I believe he has the most natural talent for leadership, Lord."

"Fine." Well, that was easy, Ronjermy thought. "Keye, I promote you to Warlord. Congratulations to Garrow and Keye, Korses' first infantry warlords. Now, I don't want to steal your thunder, but I'm promoting you all to Knights, as of now. Twolls will have strength bows and stocked quivers by the end of turn. Rest well tonight, next turn you strike the enemy."