Where The Wild Things Are Year 1: Late Autumn

Turn 8 - The Empire Grows

Map Move and wraparound physics.

Our glorious empire continues to grow. Spike killed some militia in Snake Swamps - business as usual so I didn't bother to take any screenshots. Art historians have however interpreted this contemporary piece as a veiled reference to the massacre, testament perhaps to both the terrifying majesty of Spike Jonze and his ability to effortlessly maintain a strong presence in popular culture throughout the ages.

In Ligrea a mighty force of Enkidus assembles.

The centre is comprised of Enki's Chosen gathered from the temple training grounds in Eridu, while rural wildmen hold the flanks. Ranged against them is a fairly pathetic force of Lion Tribe:

More generic indies, even more naked that our own primitive warriors. Note however Map Move 3, presumably representing the great endurance described in the info text. I don't think I've discussed movement before! Units have two move values, the first representing their speed of movement across the strategic map and the second representing their speed on the battlefield. Really heavy infantry will have Map Move 1, limiting their flexibility and making them harder to bring to wherever you need them, while cavalry and similar speedsters have MM 3 and so can potentially be used as a rapid response force. Logistics again.

This sort of thing can be very important in Dominions, so these cheap fast-marching Lion Tribe Warriors might be disproportionately useful in certain circumstances, despite their lack of skill and armour. A good Map Move is entirely wasted on indies, however, as they just guard their home province. Our big bad Enkidus charge in and scatter them like the chaff they are:

Sadly a single Chosen of Enki is killed by a javelin, marring an otherwise perfect victory.

 Two more provinces PACIFIED. Welcome to the family!

Lovely. We can see that Fomoria chose to attack that independent province rather than tangle with us, which was sensible of them, but they might try moving in on our ancestral swampland now. Spike swoops in to prevent this eventuality:

This might lead to another collision but that's ok; our research in Alteration has unlocked a new defensive spell for our Pretender to use in battle.

I'm not sure how it works exactly, but Mirror Image should hopefully hinder any attacking infantry - even Fir Bolgs - long enough that Spike can set fire to them all. We'll see it in action next turn.

In the east our large Enkidu force marches in to occupy some farmland.

I had planned to split this force in two to take more land, but looking at the spread of provinces on our side of the mountains I don't think I'll bother. Instead the whole force falls to Carol to command, while Rob Brydon heads back to Ur to see how recruitment's going there.

We're getting big enough now that I can demonstrate how the map wraps around! Check it out:

Our eastern expansion force can clearly be seen to the far west, and Spike appears on the eastern edge of the map as well as in the centre; meanwhile the swamp province I've selected at the very bottom of the map is also at the very top. Wraparounds! They're fine so long as you don't think too hard about them! Bonus link: Here is a post on an aborted Dom 3 multiplayer Let's Play which considers the physics of wraparound maps. You just need to scroll down a wee bit until you see maps of the globe.

There are plenty of Dominions maps that don't behave in this way, but I think wraparounds are slightly favoured in multiplayer because with these maps no-one gets the advantage of being tucked away in a corner and everyone is fairly close to everyone else. I have chosen to play on a wraparound map for these same reasons, despite the possibility that it renders the physics of our narrative universe difficult to comprehend and almost completely unrelatable. Sorry guys.

Next time: probably no theoretical physics!