Randomination purges deadly sinners
Writer: Pilgrim
Utopian date: Age 58, The Art of War
"Never laugh at live dragons."
― J.R.R. Tolkien
The terrible Ruby Dragon encroached on the Kingdom of Randomination. He flew over the fortifications and landed graciously on his hind legs, a considerable feat considering his amazing girth.
The steward of Randomination warily approached him.
"O Great Dragon. We humbly ask your aid in this upcoming war. We offer you this gold, and in exchange we ask you to reduce their military effectiveness, so we may more easily defeat them." The steward bellowed, hoping his voice would carry all the way up. How they shouted, thought the Dragon.
Ruby Dragon puffed, barely bothering to state the terms and conditions in exchange for his aid. He only cared about the glitter... The steward presented him with the neat pile of gold the Dragon required. Using magic unknown to all races of Utopia, the gold was whisked away into thin air. Without another word, as none was needed for this ages-long type of agreement, he flew out to the front lines.
The mighty Ruby Dragon ascended and glided down to the front lines. From his perch up on the skies, supported by his massive wings, he could discern more details than could be seen by any other naked eye.
Both armies were assembling near their Kingdom Borders. The mighty Orcs and Faery of Randomination, against the more even mix of Orc, Undead, Dwarf and Faery of The Deadly Sinners kingdom. Each army bristled with heavy weapons, each kingdom leaning more to offensive styles and armor. Even their formations spoke of the aggressiveness of their plans.
His knowing eye continued to take in the status of each kingdom. Randomination appeared to carry scars of their previous conflict, but they had a good build and seemed pumped. Their weapons seemed worn, but sharp. The Deadly Sinners also seemed very well prepared, but the Dragon could see that some fortifications were still not completely up. Something about their buildings was not quite right. Either they didn't know better, or they had been too forthcoming with their declaration of war on their enemy.
The dragon could also see that The Deadly Sinners were also preparing an offering for a dragon... but the pile was yet too small. No dragon would come forth for that petty a glitter.
Stats prior to war:
Randomination 28,100 acres, 4,869,753 NW
vs.
The Deadly Sinners 31,230 acres, 5,132,254 NW
Small skirmishes rang out, with Randomination advancing their armies and conquering acres. The Deadly Sinners fanned out their forces and attacked villages, killing peasants and wizards, thieves and merchants.
Hostile summary
Finally, the war claxon rang. That claxon excited the Dragon, and he finally sprang forth into action.
May 24 of YR7 The Deadly Sinners has declared WAR with Randomination!
He swept down and ravaged the enemy army's back, ruining its tactics and weakening its formations. The Ruby Dragon made little work of their resistance, eating as he pleased. It was a dreadful sight. Only through deadly sacrifice from The Deadly Sinners, near the end of war, did the Dragon finally decide he had had enough and done enough to compensate for the glitter.
The Dragon spiraled up, and gave the battle one last disapproving look.
Randomination had advanced heavily on the enemy. Using the strength of their Orcs, and their greedy ways, they had ripped the lands from The Deadly Sinners and kept it for themselves. They had moved the borders towards their favor, in one giant sweep that left no enemy province untouched. Their attacks were swift and constant, with all armies moving in unison. If he were not a Dragon, he might have been impressed.
The Deadly sinners had tried to take down one province at a time, hitting each continuously as they tried to force overpopulation to take its toll on the armies. However, their plan was not working well enough. They were not able to capture as much land as they hoped. They would not know what trick lay behind this until too late, when their informants leaked the survey plans of each province to the strategists of The Deadly Sinners, by then, the war had been decided. Most of the armies had done well to follow the plan, but the plan itself had not proved effective against their enemy.
January 1 of YR8 The Deadly Sinners has withdrawn from war!
The Dragon once again employed its magic, and from its own body sprang a doppelganger... he smacked it down and it fell to the retreating army of The Deadly Sinners, where one spear was all it took to complete the mockery of slaying a Dragon.
Ruby Dragon puffed out loud once more. The poor races of Utopia thought Dragons actually served them and then died in glorious battle. Nonsense. Before he flew away he looked over his massive wings once more... that pile of gold from The Deadly Sinners never quite got big enough to attract one of his kind.
"Fu fu fu fu fu..." Too bad, this time he would not have anyone to share the petty war stories of these weaklings with, as he counted his ever increasing hoard of glitter.
War Summaries:
Stats at end of war cease-fire:
Randomination 36,750 acres, 4,634,345 NW
vs.
The Deadly Sinners 24,863 acres, 3,518,309 NW
Reporter's note: It has been a while since I published, but I hope to continue and constantly update you with war news here in the site, also on Facebook and Alliance Rankings. I am at your service and in your hands! Thank you.
EDIT: As a bonus, since The Deadly Sinners' Monarch took some of his time to answer my questions in an email, which due to technical issues was not received on time, I wanted to include the interview... thank you for taking the time to answer them!
- How do you want to be identified? (Monarch of The Deadly Sinners, King Taranli)?
Monarch of the Deadly Sinners is fine.
- Why did you decide to war Randomination? Have you warred before?
We warred them because we were looking for a challenge. We got one.
- When you assessed them/got intel, what were your initial impressions?
Our initial impressions were that they were highly drafted but weakish on defense and BE. We felt that they were built for a short war.
- What overall strategy did you decide one to take them down?
We decided we would need to outlast them. We knew the first wave or two would be rough for us, so we focused on longer term strategies, chaining the most dangerous provinces, fireballing/kidnapping to destroy their economy, further lowering their BE and income.
- What problems did you foresee and how did you plan to solve them?
Most wars have a rebound when the winning kindgom takes enough land to make enemy gains high, and their gains low. We expected that at that point in this war, their GS and defense would be less, and we would rebound strongly. After the rebound, their economies would worsen as we made the war longer and we would push a win. That was the plan.
- What unforeseen problems did you encounter and how did you solve them?
Their first waves were more potent than we expected. I don't know if it was because they did not chain, or if they had heavily invested in gains science, but the first waves were massively unbalanced. Also, they used their mages to ToG almost 100%, so were able to fund two dragons in 2 days. This was unexpected, and not something we were prepared to deal with.
- What convinced you that it was best to withdraw?
The bounce that we were planning on pushing to a win did not happen. It became apparent that their gains would remain high even while they were fat, and their dragons and spread hits damaged our own offense too much.
- What are your plans after this war?
Rebuild, look for another war. What else?
