Outmaneuvering Ochreil

After the skirmish in Obocte, Ochreil was feeling overly threatened by my dragons. Fighting one of them was one thing, but fighting 3 or more at once was another. He was also facing a newly raised army of undeads coming from Ermor.

As such, he had stopped his raidings and gathered all of his forces in the fortress of Grey Barrier (104). Gathering such an army was understandable. More than 250 units was something to be accounted for, and if there ever was a battle, he wanted to win it.

However, the place he had chosen for that gathering was like a gift to Dragenheim. Indeed, from there, he needed at least 2 turns to reach his northern provinces … which meant they were free for raiding.

In fact, the geography was in my favor. He didn’t have mountain survival and so the moutain provinces and mountain passes completely hindered his ability to move. And while my dragons were free to raid, my main army was still up and had almost recovered its former strength : a now 20-strong communion thunderstrike party along with 85 warriors and truebloods. Sure, some of them were weakened by disease but it’s likely that the enemy didn’t know it.

So the 3 raids fought turn 28 were a success and one of them even destroyed a small raiding party. Turn 29 saw 4 other raids, taking all 4 provinces when he only took 1 with a small party of sacreds. Ermor on its part had taken back his full cap circle and was already teasing the other Ochreil’s positions.

That turn 29 saw also my main army raid just close to his northern fortress. This way, I was threatening to take it and I was pretty sure he would send his main army to help there. That wasn’t my intention however, I only wanted to make him lose time. Indeed, if I ever had done that, I took the risk to let him take my Sorceress factory and I certainly didn’t want him to do that.

Also, turn 29 Abolethive told me that Swarmhive was attacking Drakonia, and as such he felt free to, finally, join our struggle against Ochreil.

So by turn 30, my plan had perfectly worked. Ochreil was indeed losing time to move north to save his fortress from … an attack that never occured. I had outplayed him and whatever happened gained time. But with the attack of Abolethive on his flank, Ochreil knew he was now in a tough situation and I was really wondering what he would do.

The Spoils of War

And this turn, I received a desperate message from Drakonia begging for help. He was of dragonblood and I felt compelled to answer him. So I studied the situation carefully, and my reasonning was that I had, some way, beaten Ochreil. He knew perfectly well that in a 3 vs 1 he was fucked, and given the large territory I had conquered, I felt I could propose a truce.

So at that point, my plan was very simple : make peace with Ochreil and move south all of my dragons along with a new army, to raid as much of Swarmhive as possible. Also, I had opened another border with them on the north of my empire, and I could then attack him on both sides, and hopefully join forces in the middle, making my empire fully connected from north to south.

But for that I needed Ochreil’s agreement. To ensure it, I defined the new borders so that he could retake 2 provinces. I hoped he would feel like he gained something in the process, and wouldn’t try to negociate.

All in all Ochreil was now down to 20 provinces, and me up to 20 too. Ermor was alive and healthy (as much as undeads can be…), and with Abolethive on his flank, Ochreil had other other fish to fry. He had every reasons to accept my truce and the new borders.

I also felt a bit bad about it as I hadn’t told any of this to Abolethive. I hoped he wouldn’t feel betrayed, leaving the coalition just after having pushed him into it …

In any case, when turn 31 arrived I was still worried : would Ochreil accept my proposal ? His army now gathered in the north looked stronger than ever, 400 men strong and even for my main force difficult to beat. Sure I was on the verge of having my 7th dragon out, but would it be enough ?

Turn 32 was the final relief : Ochreil accepted the truce and a NAP-1 : I was now free to expand against the ants. Against them, I believed I didn’t need any crystal communion : dragons and warriors would be enough. And so that turn I sent a declaration of war (“Your actions against our cousins are unforgivable. Dragonblood is sacred and must be protected at all costs !“) and gave my orders to start a large scale invasion …

Also, whatever happened, I believed I had to keep my big crystal army ready, as a constant warning to Ochreil … that’s why I did let them on the border for some time.

Finally, I told to Abolethive about the truce and suggested him to do the same : let the undeads and the 3-eyed cavemen fight one each other !