Week 6: Work Instruction for Unit-based Ceremonious Discharge

Captain’s Log.  Stardate… 6.

Well, here we are.  Week 6.  How about that, eh?  How was your week? This was mine.

End log entry.

New segment: Literal People In The World

Instructions:  “Open here →”

Consumer: *looks up manufacturer business location and starts gauging the cost of air fares*

"And now for the Award for the Least Award Ceremony Attending Employee..."

What do people with crowd anxieties do when they are already having a stressful day and they receive an invitation to attend an award ceremony?  First, they continue to stress about their current stress, because really - first in, best stress - right?  (I actually didn't spend as long as you might expect, thinking up that one-liner… two minutes tops) Then they add to that stress a sprinkling of the crushing feeling of being in the ceremony room with the ceremony audience.  This continues to brew throughout the day like a gathering storm, until the ceremony’s scheduled starting time.  Thirdly, they don’t go to the ceremony.  Now, although they had decided not to go at the outset - knowing full well the effect it would have in their state - for some reason the anxiety still affects them for the entire time, past the ceremony start time and right up to the point when the ceremony is over, at its mid-afternoon finish time.  Then finally they can stop worrying about it, and go back to their previously scheduled stress.

Sometimes I wish I just didn't open the email or read the subject line or have ears, or exist in a position where any of the previous conditions have their intended effects. And yes, I know this segment was basically a rant complaining about myself, so if you happen to be reading this whole blog post backwards, then feel free to skip this section and scroll on up the page. If you're reading it from top to bottom, then you could still skip ahead, but you might not save any time. Maybe you could do everyone else a favour though and leave a comment to warn people, or just take up a hobby to give yourself less time to read blogs. That would prevent further untoward grief.

This week, in The Last Journey of the Eye of Odin

A static charge was building.

“Where.” An algorithm was devised.

The charge released.

A new charge built.

“Where.” A new algorithm was devised.

The charge was released – this time at a new vector.

Yet another charge was building...

Fantasy Tabletop Strategy Game - continued

This week, we’re going to start to look at some of the basic statistics of units - race and origin.

Units

Units are grouped into types (such as infantry, cavalry, ranged, or siege) and have modifiers based on their race (such as goblin, human, undead, elvish, orcish, etc) and origin (such as trained, mercenary, summoned, dominated, etc). Some modifiers can be used in conjunction with others (such as a mercenary unit which was dominated by another side), but some are mutually exclusive, such as racial modifiers. For example, a unit cannot be elvish and orcish at the same time.

The modifiers described above are shown in the following table, with their effects:

Racial Modifier	Description	Effect
Goblin	Physically weak race, but make good archers. Cunning with forest and mountain tactics.	-2 melee attack +1 ranged attack +2 extra attack when in mountain or forest hexes
Orc	Physically strong, but easily dominated.	+3 melee attack -3 to domination defense roll
Undead	Strong, slow, cannot be dominated (but their summoner may be), awkward and cannot easily dodge.  Undead are cheap to maintain as they do not require food.  Immediately disbanded if their summoner is unable to maintain the spell that animates them.	+2 melee attack -2 movement -1 defense vs ranged Immunity to domination Half logistics cost Requires dedicated caster to summon and control.
Elvish	Agile but physically weak, unparalleled accuracy with bows, skilled magic users.	+2 ranged attack -1 melee attack +1 with spell casting rolls
Fae	Unparalleled magic users, physically weak, skilled at stealth in forests.	1 free reroll on any cast attempt -3 melee attack Gain ‘invisible’ in forests until they take action other than move (1 round to re-hide)
Human	Standard attributes without bonuses or penalties.	Nil effects
Origin Modifier	Description	Effect
Mercenary	Pre-trained or self-taught units, hired instantly, for up-front cost, and higher logistical upkeep.	+1 attack and defence Double logistics and up-front production costs
Summoned	Creatures brought into play temporarily, through the use of magic spells.	No logistics upkeep, bonuses or penalties, but are usually unsummoned after a number of turns, or require the concentration of a caster to maintain existence.
Dominated	Units brought into a side from another side, by the use of a domination spell.	Half logistics cost -1 attack and defence. Can only cast spells at the direction of the caster controlling them.
Trained	Standard units trained by a side.	Normal upkeep.

All races can be recruited from camps. The map location of each camp is determined in the pre-game when players place these camps strategically. A side can maintain control of a camp by setting up a city close enough to the camp to put the camp within the city’s sphere of influence. After that, the city can choose to create units of the racial type of the camp. Some racial types are enemies, and cannot be controlled by a single side. If this occurs, the side needs to choose which racial type to keep, and which to spurn. A spurned camp is moved (exiled) beyond its controlling city’s borders. If the borders expand into the camp’s new hex, it is moved again, further away from the city. Each time this happens, the enemy camp generates enemy units that try to retaliate against this cultural invasion of their lands, by attacking the city and any allied units nearby.

Youtube

Yeah, I know - I didn’t actually get around to linking those videos last week.  But I did get them uploaded!   So, here’s the link to the play list where you can see the first five episodes.  There’s still footage I need to cut into episodes, but five episodes should keep you going for a while.  Trust me: there’s only so many times you can watch me be pedantic about furnace fuel efficiency.  No really - I was having issues watching it by the time I was working on episode 6.

That's it from me this week. Take care, and don't forget to put it back where you found it.

-Ix.