997YK, Summer: Eyre, Dravago, Nymm

I am decreeing that the campaign begins in the year 997UK. I am using the Eberron calendar, of course, so the summer campaigning months are Eyre, Dravago, Nymm, Lharvion, Barrakas, Rhaan.

Eyre

I rolled to see which empire got to move first this season, and it was the Storm Lords.

Storm Lords: Scouting towards the Sulatar went as expected, with both banners finding and moving into villages — in particular the river crossing, which is the key to this area. The strongest banner, banner 3, had a bout of sickness (from the scouting event chart), losing a few troops and not moving this month. That might break their plan of going after the orcs. Meanwhile their banner 4 encountered an independent village, which I decided was not worth the risk to attack, so they also did not move.

White Fang: The orcs had some routine scouting, finding 3 villages. They also found an independent fortress; I rather like having independent fortresses in my realm, as I do not need to garrison them and few invaders want to waste time besieging them. Even if the orcs marched all their banners here they probably could not take this fortress, so there is no decision to make here. It does get in the way of scouting towards the humans, though.

Hammerhead clan: The duergar also had an army get stuck with sickness. Their army moving east found a village, which they needed to (they were sitting in a barren tile, consuming their last baggage). The other two armies both found fortresses! — the dwarves have far more than they can practically garrison now.

Sulatar: The scouting armies did fine, finding 3 villages. The two armies facing the Storm Lord advance tried scouting the tile north of the bridge tile, in case they got lucky and found a fortress — but it was just a village. They also scouted the nearest banner, finding out its strength (1000pts). That tells them that they outnumber the lead banner (1200 vs 1000) — but it will just withdraw if attacked, and there are two other banners behind it so that is 2-3000 pts coming at them. They decide to hold and merge those two banners to save on baggage.

Dravago

Storm Lords

The Storm Lords move Banner 1 back to the river crossing — I realised that my original deployment was not well thought out, as I did not want to attempt a dangerous river crossing and risk losing troops and baggage, particularly when the Sulatar might counterattack with my back to the river. The strike banner against the orcs, 3, scouts successfully this turn and finds a city; that will be a useful base for later. The other two banners both scout villages, and are in place to strike at that independent village next month if they want. Finally I split banner 3, as it now seems unlikely that it would actually encounter many orc armies this year, and I can use the city tile to break it up (a city is the only tile that can sustain two banners at once without consuming baggage).

White Fang: Simple scouting. The orcs find another fortress as they head along the inland route towards Stormreach, and an independent city on the coast. One banner is delayed by local weather and fails to scout.

Hammerhead clan: One city found, another fortress in the mountains (there is a big network of Duergar holds up here, it seems), and some villages. Banner 3 is following the river and heading towards the action to the southeast.

Sulatar: The Storm Lords splitting banner 3 shows that their total forces across the river are no more than 2000; they are also advancing slowly. So the Sulatar can afford to keep their eastern armies scouting for now, and they find two more villages. Banner 1 tries to do some scouting while waiting for the human armies, but the scouts are waylaid. Banner 4 is the tricky one; any scouting west that it does could be undone by the Duergar army heading down the river, and moving north takes it away from the action and it might not be able to evade the Storm Lords armies if it moves back into the pass to the capital next turn. So they play safe and move into the pass now, keeping space between them and the Storm Lords' leading banners.

Turn 2 End. The Sulatar have backed up banner 4 so that there is a clear tile between them and any Storm Lords' forces, and to avoid clashing with Hammerhead banner 3 that is heading downriver from the North.

You probably cannot see the banners clearly unless you zoom in on particular parts of the map image.

Nymm

Storm Lords: The Sulatar forces screening their capital mean that I have to choose now — the SL armies have to join up and join battle, or turn away. Although slightly outnumbered, they have an even chance of success and it would disrupt the Sulatar's plans if they win or even draw. So banners 1 and 2 advance and combine into a single army. The other banners all scout, finding two more villages, and in the west another city — so I probably will not advance much more this year in the west, as I need to screen these cities against the advancing Duergar.

White Fang: More scouting, 2 more villages secured.

Hammerhead Clan: Scouting reveals a fortress by the lake, and two more villages. Banner 3 has to choose whether to cross the river towards the Sulatar, and decides against it: there is a risk of getting attacked on that side by one of the armies manoeuvring here and being trapped against the river. Note that in ME, your position within the tile matters when the tile contains rivers or mountains: which side of the river you are determines which directions you can move freely.

Sulatar: There is a large Storm Lord force two turns away from the capital, but the Sulatar outnumber them and act with confidence. The two scouting armies continue scouting, finding another village; and the two armies before the capital march out to strike at the Storm Lords. The Storm Lords decide to stand and fight, so the first battle of the campaign is upon us! The battle report will be in the next post.

Sulatar armies converge to fight the Storm Lords advancing down the river. In the background the advancing Hammerhead banner 3 is visible, and the Storm Lords now have two cities west of the river in hand.