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Kyan · February 7th, 2012, 19:22

Kyan Wrote:Quick update for now, will write a proper one this evening.

[COLOR="Silver"]
You're gonna have to wait. The view count tells me at least someone is reading. It would be cool for some feedback though. Reporting this way takes far more effort and, whilst I enjoy doing it, I doubt i'm doing it that well. Any ideas for improvements would be great. Plus, I find it far easier, mentally, to justify spending the time doing an update/answering something if someone ha[/COLOR]s posted.

Ichabod · February 8th, 2012, 11:15

Hey, Kyan, I'm still reading. I just avoid commenting due to the fact that I'm spoiled. I could try giving some feedback regarding writing, but I'm not sure I know enough to do it.

Mardoc · February 8th, 2012, 13:18

Kyan Wrote:It would be cool for some feedback though. Reporting this way takes far more effort and, whilst I enjoy doing it, I doubt i'm doing it that well. Any ideas for improvements would be great.

I enjoy the approach, especially the varied characters.

If I were to suggest something, it'd be to add a variety of perspectives - so far we haven't really left the throne room. I think I'd prefer the Warrior/Scout saga to have been a story about Jim, not a story about Warchief Kyan, if that makes any sense.

That'll probably get easier as your empire grows and more is happening, of course.

Gaspar · February 9th, 2012, 01:32

FWIW, the story is interesting and I'm enjoying reading along. I know it can get frustrating updating a thread thoroughly with no responses though, and I've never poured this level of effort into it, so I'm sure its even more frustrating.

I'll try and remember to comment on the story more often (can't comment on the game, as I'm terrible dedlurker so I just immediately spoil myself on everything now.) wink

Kyan · February 11th, 2012, 12:30

[COLOR="Silver"]Guys, i appreciate your feedback and honesty. I will try my best to take it on board going forward.

As you may be aware from the 'I.T. thread', i've unfortunately had a few real life issues crop up. I live with my younger sister who is pregnant. On Wednesday evening I got a call from work and had to rush her to hospital. Initially, I figured she was having the baby (albeit, prematurely). Turns out she had a blood clot in her lung. She's home again now which means I am too. The lack of updates recently has been due to me spending the majority of my time at the hospital. I probably won't be able to catch up the missing turns if I write them RP-style and I am especially wary of 'dropping behind' with the reporting as I can see how that would inevitably end up with me stopping altogether. Therefore, I will do a non-RP turn report catch up now so you're back in the loop and then continue as I was previously from now onwards. Hope you don't mind too much.

Turn 14:

Turn 15:

Turn 16:

Turn 17:

[/COLOR]

Mardoc · February 11th, 2012, 14:35

Kyan Wrote:Hope you don't mind too much.

On the contrary, you've got your priorities straight. I'll pray for your sister's health, and of course you should take whatever time she needs; don't worry about us.

Of course, I will hope for updates anyway - but mostly because their presence is indirect news that your sister continues healthy.

RefSteel

OOC Stuff first. Then on to the story.

Lyrasin watched helplessly as Jim'rohk Skullwrencher taunted the oncoming elven war band.

"Where are the orcish warriors who emerged from the city?" she whispered. "Surely to complete the trap, they should have come here by now ... or at least fortified their position on the grassland. Those night elves would never dare attack Jim here in his high perch when there was a mighty orcish band positioned to finish them off, still less to attack orc warriors at terrible odds with reinforcements about to appear. Unless ... can it be the orcs aren't even training new warriors, even with the enemy actually invading? Are the orcs so overconfident in battle that they think they can chase a warrior band from their lands with only a single band of their own? Without warriors to support him, Jim will probably be killed - and though he'll no doubt hurt or kill a few of them first, with no other units positioned nearby, the elves will have all the time they need to rally around their victory, to learn the ways of the woods and heal most of their wounded in the process, and to start digging in, filling out their ranks, and healing the rest! The warchief laughed about my bow - even Refstele shook his head - but if this goes on, and more enemy warriors arrive, we may need archers just to keep our lands our own!"

She sighed like the wind as Jim continued taunting, oblivious to her shadowy presence. The night elves arrived at the base of Jim'rohk's tree, waving their crude clubs menacingly. He issued a warcry, reached for his own club, and found that he had accidentally left it on the ground. Undeterred, he grabbed a branch of his tree, and with orcish strength boosted by an adrenaline rush, wrenched it from the trunk. He would not go unarmed into battle!

Lyrasin covered her face in her hands. Jimrohk's feat of strength had been impressive indeed: The branch he had wrenched free had been the one on which he was sitting.

The night elves watched open-mouthed as Jim fell toward them, striking his head first on another branch further down the tree and then on their instinctively-upraised clubs. He collapsed onto an old, gnarled root at the base of the tree, but was soon dislodged by another night elf's club, swung directly at his head as the wielder cried out, "Fore!" Jim'rohk's limp body tumbled down the hillside, toward the lake, smacking his head against various tree trunks as he went. He crashed head-first into a jutting rock on the bank, fell into the lake with a thundering splash, and was dragged out by a retreating wave, floating lifelessly out on his back toward the lake's freezing center. The night elves cheered their "resounding victory" over the "mighty and skilled orcish hero" whom they were convinced they had slain. Lyrasin just rolled her eyes; she had heard stories about Jim'rohk, and though his days of scouting were over, she had no doubt that he was actually alive: He'd taken all the impact on his head. Fatal though such blows might have been to someone like herself, she knew perfectly well that Jim'rohk had no vital organs there. Indeed, as it turned out, he would be found sometime later by the shores of the river nearby, having lost consciousness mostly from exhaustion after swimming to the opposite lakeshore and attempting to crawl back to Orgrimmar - in fact crawling, of course, in almost exactly the wrong direction.

"I still say they wouldn't have attacked at all if our warriors had been in position," Lyrasin insisted to herself. "They couldn't have known that Jim'rohk Skullwrencher is a completely inept retard."

She sank back into the shadows and did some quiet mental calculations. "No point in trying to dislodge them now," she decided at last. "They'll know the woodland ways and have their position well-fortified by the time we can attack. We'll never budge them with mere warriors unless they're fools enough to attack us first." Shaking herself, she tore her eyes away from the pale blue glow of the spell the night elves had woven from the energies of their victory. "I must warn the warchief - and Refstele!"

RefSteel

[img][Kyan image lost][/img]

Kyan Doomfist cursed, slamming his fist down on the table before him. "Have their warriors nothing better to do than harass us?"

[img][Viaseri image lost][/img]

Viaseri looked confused. "Aren't they all our enemies? Aren't they all allied against us? Isn't that why they call themselves the Alliance races?"

"Bah! Their so-called alliance isn't worth the breath to say the word. If not for us - for fear of our might in battle - they'd be forever at one another's throats. Do you really believe a night elf could stand the company of a human or a gnome for an instant, left to themselves? With that Titan allowing us only as many resources for all the Horde races together as any single member of the Alliance alone, they should be turning on each other!" Softly, he sighed. "Once," he said, his eyes for a moment far away, "Once ... I would have spoken to them separately, and ensured that it was so." He snaps out of his reverie at once. "But they can't have forgotten their grievances so quickly! Mark my words: No two of those four races will share a victory! If all unite against us, I intend to hold them off! But even if we fail - if all my subjects prove as incompetent as Jim'rohk, or the Titan broods over your pickpocket attempt and sinks us all into the sea - the Alliance races will only turn upon each other! They know it as well as I do - so why do they all seek battle only against me?!"

"They fear you," Viaseri answered quietly. "Not only the might of your orcs; they fear you, personally. They believe you will build the Horde into the unstoppable force it was before if they don't quickly intervene."

Furious, Kyan demanded, "Enough to leave their own homes unguarded, with threats on either side already known to them? Both the night elves and the humans?"

Viaseri slowly shook his head. "Apparently." But other ears heard the exchange - more attentive, perhaps, than his own: Suddenly realizing what had happened, Lyrasin gasped in her shadowy corner.

"No! Don't you see? They didn't! Put together everything you've seen! In fact ... Warchief! Warchief, please listen to me!"

The shadows didn't flicker. No sound reached Kyan or Viaseri - not even of a breeze.

"Warchief! Warchief Doomfist! Can't you hear me?" She reached out, but the shadows did not move, and even Mnnnguuuhhh made no sign. "Something's wrong," she whispered. "I can't manifest at all now! Perhaps Refstele Firstblood will know what happened - or can choose another emissary. I don't think the Horde realizes the depths of their danger - not if they've only bothered with a single warrior band - and my message must somehow reach them!"

"Where...?" Lyrasin searched the shadows, searched the darkness. "Refstele?" She opened her hands, reaching out into the emptiness. "Where have you gone? Where is the gathering-place of the Firstbloods? I ... surely at least you can hear me - surely someone must hear me! You were too quick to assume the warchief knew how the others would react; you didn't think it through - and neither did he! You had all the information, but you didn't put it together! Think!" She gathered herself, organized her thoughts. "He assumed that everyone would cower with their warriors in their capitals; you thought nothing of it and agreed - but think! He believes each race is close enough to two others to have seen their borders soon after the Titan left - to have seen their borders and recognize who they were!"

She spun slowly, facing every direction, seeking Refstele Firstblood, Kestrel Bloodshadow, Vanessa Razorblood ... anyone she recognized; anyone she knew. "Think of the gnomes! The warchief didn't understand how they had seen him when he could not see them. Had he forgotten the words of the Titan? Just as we were left with only the tools for hunting and mining, so the gnomes were left only with fishing nets and hunters' spears! Like us, they would have no war band ready, but could only send a scout into the world - and the gnomish scout could have spotted our borders - or more likely, seen Jim - and then slunk away out of sight before we could see him. From this, I believe that the gnomes lie beyond the night elves, since Jim was to our west when the gnomes first found us ... but not only from this! If Kyan's view of the world was correct, one of our neighbors lay from the first between us and the gnomes, and knew it - and so knew that there could be no cause for fear of an early warrior attack! We could have seen from the moment the Titan left us that either we or the gnomes would face an enemy warrior bent on breaking our early planning ... and what enemy would fear the gnomes' development when the Horde itself and its limitless potential lay close by? We should have planned our defense from the first, but we were blind!"

Lyrasin drew a deep breath, sinking to her knees. Blind herself to the shadows that surrounded her and what she knew they contained but could no longer see, she began to weep. Yet still she carried on, praying that someone might hear her voice. "The humans are only arriving now; they must have waited, or started another way at first. They may have waited until they were more ready to build new warriors without stunting their growth, and so could fend off anything the dwarves might throw at them. Of course they'll work with the night elves now that they're in our territory. Why risk the death of a warrior band just to kill off another when you can win gold from pillaging the countryside and keep a dangerous mutual enemy contained? Attacking one another would help neither, so why would either one even consider such a thing? We must find a way to kill the humans before more support arrives to help them!" She sighed with exhaustion, still seeking the shadows around her, the seeming-emptiness. "Can you hear me? Can anyone? What's happened to me?"

Shutting her eyes, she whispered, "I'll give such advice as I may, and pray that someone can hear me. We'll need two warrior bands at a minimum, as soon as we can get them, with enough of a start on a third that we'll be able to finish it immediately for a need. We must kill the human interlopers before they get too close, and we must be able to defend Orgrimmar from the night elves at the same time if they move in. We'd need the same number anyway even if the humans died immediately unless the night elves move very poorly: Two warrior bands must protect our orcish laborers - Doomfist's peons - whenever they move too near the enemy, and of course Orgrimmar can't go unprotected. If we make the attempt with mere warriors while they're up on a forested hill, we should expect losses of at least two or three to one in their favor! If only we could lure it to a hill or flatland tile ... but I fear that won't happen unless we use our laborers as bait, and then they will surely perish."

A deep silence pervaded the shadows. Lyrasin waited for some answer, some sign that she was heard, and finally crumpled to sit in emptiness, eyes shut, whispering, "Can no one hear me? What have I done to..." She stopped, and her eyes grew wide. She shuddered, drawing her bow from her shoulder, clinging to it fearfully. "Oh ... oh no...." She looked wildly in all directions, seeing only darkness. "My oath!" She shivered from head to toe. "But the light was freely offered to me! It ... at least ... it wasn't of any other use! It was only meant to banish shadows that weren't..." She hung her head in defeat. "It doesn't matter, does it? There's no one to hear me argue. I am forsworn - and no words, no attempt at justification, can heal the breach. Yet how can I make right what I have done if no one can see or hear me? Is there no recompense to be made? No payment for a broken oath but to be lost for all my life, or all eternity?" She opened her eyes on darkness and gazed skyward, her unseeing eyes still pleading. "Can't anyone ... anyone ... even hear me?"

RefSteel

Rione's eyes flash open, and she glares around the corners of her little hut, in the woodland camp where the few remaining of her people had gathered near Orgrimmar. She calls upon the power of the light to banish the shadows and darkness from her room, but even lit bright as day, it holds nothing she had not put there herself. Hurriedly, she dresses in her battle armor and calls for her elderly servant. He bows as he enters, and is almost knocked down as she strides past him out the door. Passing, Rione spares him a sharp glance. "Gather everyone you can, and bring them to Orgrimmar. We are beset by dangers that even I do not fully understand - to say nothing of that fool of a warchief or his foul undead companion. We must consult everyone who might know anything about this - who might even have seen an inkling of the danger."

Trembling, the servant asks where she is going. He does not ask why she goes alone, even at this midnight hour; he knows that with the light she wields, Rione knows no fear. She spins to glare at him a moment longer, but finally says, "I shall be before you. I must speak with Kyan Doomfist at once!"

[img][Kyan image lost][/img]

Kyan hears the commotion in the streets and strides out of his war room with a snarl. His eyes take in the scene outside in an instant, and his snarl deepens.

[img][Viaseri image lost][/img]

Rione is glaring at Viaseri, bearing down on him, slowly but with steady determination. "I must see him at once!"

Viaseri backs away just as slowly, waving his arms wildly. "You can't disturb his sleep! He's the warchief! He's getting little enough as it..."

Doomfist growls, "I haven't been sleeping. There are enemy forces in our lands, and I haven't formed a plan yet!" His eyes shift to Rione. "What's so urgent that it couldn't wait until morning?"

For a long moment, Rione's glare remains fixed on Viaseri even as she strides past toward the warchief. At last, she turns to the battle leader of the horde. "A dream," she says, her eyes still hard and bright. "Only a fool shuns sleep when it is needed. Without it, the mind clouds and cannot do its work. And as I dreamed, I saw the elf of the shadows. I dreamed that I walked with Lyrasin." And so she relates her dream.

Viaseri scoffs. "All that is out of date. The night elves have already moved from Jim's Fall Hill, across the bare hill to the river's mouth, of their own volition. And the humans inexplicably decided to go out of their way to hike up a hillside instead of taking the short route through the forest. It's delayed their arrival and given us extra warning. Their tacticians are fools."

"They still have twice as many warriors in our territory as do we - and our orcish skill won't surpass those wood-elves' recent training. Why have we spent all this time training fishermen?!" She glares at Kyan. "I warned you I would be watching when you made your plan that relied on Jim'rohk. I have not thus far been pleased!"

Calmly, Kyan answers, "It is not for your pleasure that I form my plans - it is for the good of the Horde! We need those fish. They're the only resource that these enemy warriors can't reach!"

Rione takes another step forward, her gaze still locked with the warchief's. "If we trained a second war band as we should have done, the enemy wouldn't be able to reach anything."

With slow deliberation, Kyan Doomfist shakes his head. "You speak with too much conviction of what might have been. Do not upbraid me for what you wish had been done; that is past now, and might not have gone as you believe. Our fishermen are nearly ready. I plan to begin work training warriors as soon as they are. Does that meet your approval? If you have a better suggestion, I want to hear it. I'm ready."

"I suppose it's better to start soon than not at all," Rione grudgingly concedes. She looks out across the city, finally breaking away from Kyan ... and then slowly narrows her eyes. "Who comes here? Yet more foul undead beasts? Is that some kind of mummy?"

"Where ish da bosh? Oh, oh, dere ish da bosh! Bosh, I drawed a new map! Look at my map!"

Slowly, Rione blinks. "This ... that's Jim?!"

Jim'rohk looks around frantically. "Where?"

With a sigh, Kyan reminds him, "She means you, Jim'rohk. You're Jim. Now, let me have a look at your map."

"Oh. Right. Yeah."

"I see. So the night elves have crossed the river, but the humans have moved to the rice fields. Ha - the more fools they. This is clearly a good sign: When we finally get out from under this, I will be able to outfox those humans, at least!"

Rione frowns, looking out into the distance, at the lights she now realizes must be human watchfires around the rice fields. "Very well. Since you seem to know what you're doing, and we're beginning to train more warriors now..."

"Not now," the warchief corrects her. "As soon as the fishermen are ready. They're about to complete their training, so..."

Rione spins on him. "Are you mad?! Look at the humans' position! They're clearly not afraid of our orcish war band; they're already within striking range of the city!"

Kyan smirks. "Have no fear: They won't attack us. It would be suicide for them. It might hand the city to the night elves if we're very unlucky, but the humans know better than to trust those violet-skinned freaks."

She frowns, trying to read his face. "You may be right ... maybe. But the risks you're taking lead me to question..."

With a wave of his hand, Kyan stops her. "We can't afford to squabble among ourselves like this, least of all with the enemy upon us. They will not take this city!"

For a long time, she holds his eyes, still trying to read him, almost glaring, but at last, she says, "Very well. Your argument seems sound. This time, I agree. But I shall not stop watching, warchief. Someone must ensure that the leader of the horde does not guide it to its own destruction!" She spins away and storms off toward her home, calling back in passing, "And don't think I'm blind to you, Viaseri. If you'd tried to attack me, there would be pieces of your undead body raining on the human and night elf capitals tonight."

Emerging from the shadows with blade and crossbow in hand, Viaseri frowns after her. "I was only protecting you, warchief Kyan. If she'd tried to attack you, she would not have gotten close, whatever she claims to be able to do to me. But how did she ever see me? I thought I was..."

"She didn't," Kyan answers with a quiet sigh. "She saw your snake."

RefSteel

Lyrasin moved through the shadows beneath the tall and waving grass. If no one could hear or see her, at least she still could hear and see - and if she somehow found a way to make herself heard once more, or Refstele could locate her, it would be well to learn as much as she could about the enemy. "Why have they moved?" she asked herself. "The night elves were in a strong position, threatening the capital, threatening or occupying the region of its best production potential, including most of its forests, and almost impossible to dislodge. They controlled the direct passage between our land and theirs ... and they decided to go wandering to the far corners of our territory. Why?!" She thought it over as she moved, thinking over the terrain, and suddenly remembered the dry, forested hill between the mountains and the sea. "It overlooks every land-based food source Orgrimmar can use," she breathed. "We must stop them from reaching it! ... If only someone could hear me!"

She found their encampment on the far side of the river just as it was breaking up, just as the night elves prepared to move out. Seeing it, she gasped. "Their spell is gone! The spell they wove from the thaumic energies of their victory over Jim ... they've exhausted it to give their force combat training! They could have been woodsmen or guerrilla forces according to their need, and our forces are still two marches away in the city. Why then..." Her eyes slid north, to the rice fields where the humans were gathering their men. With dawning realization, she said, "The humans! Viaseri thinks they're working together, but he's wrong - he's wrong completely! The only reason to use that spell now would be fear of attack by the humans! They should both know that fighting each other in these lands can benefit no one but the Horde, and probably they do, but they can't be sure - they can't trust each other - and so the night elves used their spell to make sure that the humans would not have a good chance to turn against them. In fact ... that might be why the humans moved so close to the city right away! They saw that the night elves had become too powerful for them, so they moved to a position where if either the night elves or our orcs attacked them, the victor would be slain by the other one's hand - thereby ensuring that neither would attack. This mistrust between the Alliance races is by far the most hopeful sign I've seen so far. We can beat them!" She looked out toward the city, the great city of Orgrimmar, and her mouth fell open. Her breath caught.

"It can't be," she whispered, but there it stood: A fleet of fishing boats at the docks, preparing to set sail. She trained her vision all across the city, and saw no sign of preparations for a second war band anywhere. "But ... but ... we knew the humans dared walk to the very borders of our city - everyone must have seen them standing there! Of course there won't be an attack on Orgrimmar, but it means the humans fear no attack from us! No wonder that: They know we'd be taking about one chance in three of losing the entire war. Not only that, they'll be able to see those boats as easily as I can, so they'll know there's no new warrior on the way! We've gained a single march of fish production at the cost of all our deer!" She watched, helpless, as the night elves marched northeastward and the humans went north to take control of the game camp exactly as she'd feared. A new warrior was in training, but it would come one march too late: By the time the orcs were able to attack without leaving their capital defenseless, the humans would have time to destroy the hunting camp - and the night elves would control the woodland hill that overlooked both the rice fields and the feeding grounds of the deer.

...

Rione wakes with a start, her eyes flashing wide. She glances quickly around the room, but knows she will find nothing there. By dawn, she has arrived in Orgrimmar.

[img][Kyan image lost][/img]

Kyan turns as Rione bursts into his throne room. He nods, smiling grimly. "You were right," he tells her, apparently pleased.

"I was wrong!" she answers, furious.

He raises his massive brows. "You were right to suggest that I motivate the troops. Our Burning Dawn Grunt Squad has won our first victory - and if they survive to return to Orgrimmar, they shall become more powerful still! Have a look for yourself!"

"If they survive!" She watches the second orcish warband gathering in the city outside, preparing for battle if needed. The sight calms her, though only slightly. "At least we're finally building up our defenses. If the first grunt squad does enough damage, maybe we can avenge them at least. I can only hope that your speeches were enough to help them hold off the night elves for a while." She pauses. "I still was wrong. I was wrong to let you get away with that ridiculous fisherman's gambit while we were under attack. There's a chance that we could at least have saved our game camp! I should have seen it at the time ... but..." She hangs her head. "I did not. Not until ... I had another dream...."

OOC comments:

Won't be the last time I end up missing more than a week ... but what a week-plus to miss! In spite of all the criticism being leveled at Doomfist by Rione in the narrative above, Kyan has done a great job defending against the Arabian/Japanese double-team! If Dazed holds off - or gets damaged and then loses the counter-attack - we'll have exactly traded hammers in combat overall, which isn't too shabby considering the position we were in! Of course, we'll also have lost a deer camp, giving some gold to Japan in the process, and lost just scads of worker turns, but that can just get written off as part of the hole out of which we're supposed to be digging with our 1337 C1V-PL4Y1N6 SK1LZ!

Note that if the "night elves" don't attack, our Burning Dawn Grunt will have a promotion coming - potentially to Shock - and it will heal him to ~1.4ish health if he takes it right away. But I'm hoping they do attack (and get seriously injured). I don't like their position on that hill.

If Dazed does attack (he's pretty much guaranteed to win the battle - odds are over 99%, I think, but he might not like the risk of the counter-attack) he will indeed get only +1xp, which will indeed leave him at least (probably exactly) one short of a promotion. Failing to counter-attack immediately, as you say, means the choke continues. If you do counter-attack ... well, whatever the odds, (and they'll be 50-50 even if he takes no damage at all) a win breaks the choke. And a loss probably ends the game. I don't mean it kills the Horde; I mean it ends the game:

Dazed walks right into Ogrimmar and gets the earliest second city of anyone in the game, with fish (and silver once he pops borders) already improved, not far enough away for maintenance to be a problem, at a cost of zero hammers (no settler required) with the most powerful unit yet available in the game (a shock warrior) already on hand for defense. Unless he's completely incompetent, (and he's not) that's game, set, and match right there. The others will presumably play on, but only until he's broken the first no-communications dogpile attempt and it becomes blindingly obvious that he's won.

Assuming that outcome DOESN'T transpire, note that GE is not necessarily sandcastling happily. If Ceiliazul does start next to him (probable) and at a similar distance to those between us and our neighbors (also probable) and realizes GE had a scout start (I assume he's paying that much attention) he might have done something similar to Commodore (another Fishing start) - including sending his starting warrior to choke his scout-start neighbor, in this case GE. For that matter, there may be other (later-starting) chokes going on. Knowing exactly where to find the capitals of both your neighbors, and knowing they're very close, has an ENORMOUS effect on the game. I used the GE example mainly in case any of the universal lurkers have not yet realized that sticking GE with a Scout start on this map (even if it happens not to have bit him, at least yet) was a bad, bad, bad idea. Unless the mountain ranges and seas and whatnot were actually set up to prevent an early choke against him (unlike us). In which case ... eh, whatever. Let's win this thing anyway!

What's that? What would I do if our warrior gets killed? Welllll ... I'd check the odds on attack. I'd check the demographics (to see how hopeless things look in case of a continued choke) and our prospects of getting bronze. But unless the enemy warrior is completely uninjured AND long-term prospects look a lot better than I expect they will, I'd just go ahead and counter-attack. If we don't, we'll likely need [Edit: Yet another warrior] before we can start improving the deer again (or the rice) ... and that's just ugly. Attacking means playing to win - or at least to have a chance - even if we're relying on a toss of the dice (or a flip of the coin!) ... and holding in place means playing not to lose, which tends not to be a winning strategy. Or, to put it more succinctly, as Sirian* used to say: Fortune favors the bold!

[spoiler]Disclaimer: If we do this, and lose the battle and therefore the game, I've no doubt that Rione will blame her warchief for the catastrophe. But Lyrasin and Refstele, though inaudible, won't agree.

[FINAL EDIT: Oh, I say that, sure. But the truth is, if I really were playing, I'm pretty sure I'd chicken out. First, I wouldn't want to throw the game (which as noted above is what we'd be doing if we lose the battle) and second, I'm enjoying the roleplaying too much to risk just ending our part in the thing. Plus, fighting our way out of an even DEEPER hole would be a terrific challenge! I admit some of this has to do with realizing we'd still only need two warriors to cover our worker though. Two versus three makes a pretty big difference in this case. So yeah, unless we have phenomenal odds, I'd probably just let it be.]

One longish-term question though: BW came in, right? Even though actually settling will be delayed (if it happens at all) ... is there any copper nearby?

*- Sirian of course wasn't the first to say it; he just quoted it a lot around here. Some sources attribute it (in translation) to Alexander the Great. Yes, it's that old.[/spoiler]

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