999YK Summer End: Game Over

End of summer 999YK

Summary

Let's see how the empires are doing — the changes since the start of the year are huge.

			Storm Lords	White Fang Tribe	Hammerhead Clan	Sulatar
			Human	Orcs & Goblins	Duergar	Drow
997YK	Start	Revenue	10	7	8	7
	Summer start	Troops	4000	2000	3700	2700
	Summer	Campaigning gains/(losses)	-530	20	-30	-530
	Winter Start	Troops	3470	2020	3670	2170
	Winter	Actual Revenue	28	22	29	12
998YK	Summer start	Troops	4187	3520	5370	2870
	Summer	Campaigning gains/(losses)	-980	-733	-520	-545
	Winter start	Troops	3207	2787	4850	2325
	Winter	Actual Revenue	28	19	44	12
	Winter gains/(losses)		0	-1400	-530	0
999YK	Summer start	Troops	4607	2787	7220	2925
	Summer	Campaigning gains/(losses)	-210	-2030	-1025	-2385
	Winter start	Troops	4397	757	6195	540
	Winter	Potential Revenue	22	0	56	0

Well, that's not officially the end of the game, but the Hammerheads have an enormous lead now, as is apparent from the map. They have the majority of the troops and the majority of the revenue. I could play out 1000YK but the Storm Lords cannot really win from here.

I rolled the winter events for the Hammerheads and Storm Lords: the former got Increased Revenue, and the latter got Rebellion. Well, that really wouldn't help the Storm Lords at all; certainly it doesn't help them. Really the only chance was if the Duergar rolled Treachery or Dragonrage, either of which might have taken a chunk out of their empire. As is, the Storm Lords would get crushed.

For completeness, I should say here that empires that lose their capital are not completely out of the game, but they can collect no revenue so they cannot buy supplies or recruit more armies, so they cannot play much part in what continues.

Debrief

The failure of anyone to ally against the Hammerheads really decided the game. In a game with human players, this would normally not happen: the players would be allowed to change alliances during the year and the other empires would probably have teamed up against the Hammerheads. But human players aren't rational and will sometimes refuse to work together, so I allowed that possibility in this game also, and that was what happened. If the White Fang or the Sulatar had managed to hold out until the end of the year, it would have been worth playing on as together the other empires could have been strong enough to resist the Hammerhead Clan.

The Hammerheads had a great game, and were able to control a large area without being significantly threatened. This was mostly because of the close placement of the Sulatar and Storm Lords' capitals, which meant that they had to position their main armies to contest with each other and could spare little for other excursions. The Storm Lords squandered a strong position in year 1, I feel: they neither went for an early kill on the Sulatar nor managed to gain much elsewhere by holding troops back from that fight.

The White Fang were always behind and were unlucky in the third year not to make more of a fight of it. Their brilliant defence of the capital in Lharvion was ultimately for nothing when they lost their main army on the same turn.