[hider=Hakurei, Capitol of Zakol (25)] Lord Claymont sat at his desk most of his work actually finished for once which was rare, "Rahmas, Yotul?" his assistant spoke up "Lord Rahmas is busy in meetings with various officials & bankers they're growing concerned with something i'm sorry to say i missed what was the cause, & Priestess Yotul has returned to the grand cathedral to help train the acolyte Magi students". Lord Claymont sighed rubbing his chin with thought "don't know what to do with this spare time now..." he thought in silence for a moment longer, "Ah that representative from Tushienia!, Artyom send a messenger to invite him to my favorite restaurant, i can treat him to the finest Zakolian cuisine this city has to offer & i can discuss some politics with him!". The servant bowed "As you wish sir!" before leaving the room. [b]Meanwhile...[/b] At the Royal lion restaurant, "Chef, the fishing guild is asking for a small fortune per salmon, well alot more than usual... claiming the wars effecting the amount of fishermen & ships available or some such rubbish", "Pa! idiot, boi! juz get Z'e cheapest fish availabl'e an-sui con seasonn it E'avly, Zem noble'lies won'no Ze differan'ce!". The kitchen boy nodded running back out of the service door connecting to the street & took off back to the market. ((Appologies for my atrocious attempt as spelling french-like speech, lol.)) [/hider] [hider=Mandalia Province (27)] Ozma Torth & Grumret stood watching over their forces defensive formation around the new fortress-town having been alerted by forward scouts of approaching flying monsters from the south. After the last event of the enemy beast like hounds appearing & fleeing without much of a fight & it being seen as an enemy scouting mission, the forces stationed in mandalia were sure this was the darkness's big attack and had prepared to face the full brunt of what was to come. The allied dirigibles were held in reserve as the airborne monsters approached from the horizon, & Zakols Artillery & Magi started hurling rock & flame into the distant flock that had been approaching them, Just managing to down a few at the extreme range when the flying creatures circled around and flew back off in the direction they had come from just like the hounds before. Quarter of an hour later General Venn appeared next to Ozma & Grumret "What was that?!, again!, they just left again?!" The elderly officer Grumret snorted at Venns outburst "You say that like it's a bad thing?". Venn gave side-way glance that could kill towards Grumret but before she could start arguing Ozma intervened "It can't be good regardless..." Both turned to look at Ozma as she spoke forgetting their impending verbal duel "testing our strength, probing our capabilities, biding their time waiting for us to weaken our guard perhaps?". Grumret proudly speaks up "In that case we've shown them twice how solid our defense lines are, and given them a taste of our magi & artillery both times Ha!". General Venn after rolling her eyes from Grumrets proclamation, she noticed Ozma standing deep in thought staring at the horizon seemingly oblivious to anything Grumret or Venn said. [/hider] [hider=Andinon's Province 15] General Mokur marched along the Zakolian reserve infantry line with his entourage inspecting his troops as more of a formality to ensure their discipline but also kept checking the forward formation lines & the deployments of their allies forces, Mass ranks of undead skeletal warriors making up the allied forces vanguard as the rest of both armies finished their deployments on the field. Having seen fit to get the newly assembled conscript infantry volunteers some combat experience Mokur had them placed up ahead just behind the allied vanguard forces in support so they could use their numbers to aid the front-line if pressured. Though Mokur himself was personally happy he wasn't standing near an undead warrior, ally or not... Some time later the military deployments long since completed, Mokur could just make out the approaching enemies, at first thinking his eyes were playing tricks on him as swift shadow-like figures seemed to appear dark then almost translucent as they approached, only as they grew closer he realized his eye's were fine, when the forward scouts were swinging or shooting their weapons clean through the creatures before the shadows turned dark & solid enough to strike back with razor like claws only to fade again until they went to attack the next target. Eventually the creatures began to approach the allied vanguard of undead, when as if almost in unison the skeletal infantry just crumbled over into dust, crashing into the earth without even engaging the enemy. General Mokur could only imagine what snarky comment High-priestess Yotul would of said at the sight of the dark magics failing on such a large scale had she been present. However such idle thoughts quickly faded as he remembered the conscript infantry in support of the now gone vanguard, all to late as the shadowy creatures wasted no time in closing the distance & carving into the massed ranks of the militia massacring them where they stood the panicked fight not lasting long as they tried to fight back before the handful of survivors fled as their units had been destroyed in the chaos. Within moments the creatures of darkness swiftly charged into the second infantry line which was a combined mix of Andinon's & Zakol's light & heavy infantry. The Bloody fight growing intense as the infantry had to try striking the creatures when they fazed into a solid form for an attack making an already difficult fight all the harder. The second infantry line began to buckle due to the desperate & bloody fighting. General Mokur quickly looked to his lines flanks and noticed Andinon was moving all their reserves forward to help the second line from breaking all together & followed suit as he lead the Zakolian Infantry reserves into the Frey as well. The front lines became more of a meat-grinder in the frenzied combat that raged on as masses of infantry poured in desperately trying to beat the creatures of darkness back. After what seemed like hours later, the allied forces managed to strike down all of these unholy creatures as they simply dissipated into nothing when they died. Having dispatched the creatures at considerable cost the allied forces of Andinon & Zakol eventually emerged victorious but found no celebration as in the aftermath of the carnage only their own fallen could be seen littering the battlefield. [/hider] [hider=Andinon's Province 19] Zakols military forces under the command of their nations monarch Princess Yui Wolph herself had arrived in the province to assist their Andinon allies. Not long afterwards having received word from advanced scouts of large monstrous creatures slowly lumbering across the provinces boarder, both forces discussed a strategy to deal with the creatures, Zakol's forces being mostly held in reserve to the rear due to their abundance of infantry and lack of light cavalry & heavy artillery in the province to assist with the overall devised strategy that was decided upon. (([u][b]Note:[/b][/u] [i]A small fact that remained undivulged to their allies, Zakol's lack of new artillery pieces was due to several issues, one being their rush to mobilize troop numbers saw that many craftsmen & skilled laborers from the various towns & cities were recruited into military service, While others & engineers were diverted to assist in the construction of the allied trains & extensive rail systems, and what was left of them were committed to hurriedly constructing new warships in a desperate attempt to continue holding their nations surrounding waters, or helping in the research & prototypes of their nations research efforts. In all Zakol is starting to suffer from a skilled labor shortage due to war-time demands.[/i])) Princess Yui Wolph watched as the final preparations were finished their allies artillery, light cavalry, magi, arquebus troops, dirigibles & raised undead archers mobilized to various positions across the battlefield, Zakol assisting by committing some units of infantry to carryout sapper works digging pitfalls & trenches infront of the raised allied artillery platforms on the hillside. Additionally the Zakolian war-magi Lucretia Arnet also, after generously being given command of several Gnome war-magi courtesy of Andinon, stationed herself near the artillery & lead the magi in using earth magics to create natural creators, trenches & pits in the distance infront of the approaching giant creatures in an effort to help slow them down to buy time for the allied ranged infantry & artillery to inflict some damage, while Zakol continued to manually finish digging near the hillside. Completely unaware of what occurred in the neighboring allied province, misfortune repeated itself as the allied skeletal archers that had been raised, collapsed over & smashed to dust back into the ground leaving previously occupied ranged platforms vacant on the hillside, the sight of which surprised the allied forces. Despite the abrupt loss of the numerous archers the battle plan was still holding steady, the giant creatures were being lured away from the hillside by Andinon's light cavalry & mobile arquebussers who were being swiftly pulled away to reload by a dedicated group of their light cavalry. Andinon's mobile forces keeping the creatures attention but staying safely out of their range. Princess Yui watched the well organised & clockwork-like back & forth of Andinon's ranged infantry & cavalry, then looked up to be momentarily amazed by the flying machines (she'd only heard about them) that swooped overhead towards the large creatures as Andinon committed their dirigibles trying to assist their mobile ground forces & inflict what damage they could on the heavily armored giants still some distance from the hill. Moments later Andinon's artillery was ready every one of them carefully aimed at the large creatures, they were only delayed by a slight pause as signalers waved some message with flags repeatedly until the dirigibles promptly elevated themselves a bit higher, no sooner had they done so the allied artillery fired every shot hammering accurately into the creatures, there was a brief pause however when everyone noticed the large creatures didn't even stagger when hit by the heavy artillery shots. But everyone quickly snapped out of the pause when the creatures suddenly ignored the mobile force & turned to face the hill from where the artillery shots had been fired. The allied arquebussers quickly form & fire off volleys at the creatures but as they were now closer it was clear to see the shots weren't making any impact on the large creatures armored bodies. following the shots some unfortunate overzealous but brave allied light cavalry charged in close to the looming creatures approaching the artillery in an attempt to regain their attention to lure them away, but one of the large creatures abruptly turned and lashed out with massive claw-like arms ripping through some of the light cavalry before resuming it's course as the few survivors pulled back. Princess Yui growing concerned the closer the creatures get started unconsciously walking forward her elite guard following her as she did so, unknown to her at that moment the Ogre heavy infantry started looking towards each-other unsure if they were meant to follow & advance or stay, worrying harm may come to their leader as no order came to move. However just before a runner came over to ask the princess stopped continuing to watch the battle unfold as the Andinons artillery had almost finished reloading. Luckily one of the closest monsters staggered almost tripping due to one of the dug trench lines, at the same time one of the allied artillery platforms fired it's shot hammering deep into the creature under it's armor at its shoulder joint, Quickly noticing this Lucretia Arnet shouted to any near by message-runner or free-hand to relay the information on these creatures new-found vulnerability, brief moments later Andinons artillery, dirigibles and relocated arquebussers unitedly concentrated their combined firepower at the creatures weakness causing it to fall dead crashing heavily into the ground, a massed cheer could be heard amidst the continued fighting which helped raise moral as the remaining creatures now closed on the hillside. The second closest creature became Andinons next victim of retaliation, as one of its legs stumbled onto a pitfall causing it to stumble over, just in-time for Andinons combined ranged forces to exploit the creatures weakness as they focused their fire into it's shoulder joint, another mass cheer erupting as the second creature fell. The second cheer is short lived however as the remaining creatures used the time to climb the hill closing the distance and as if on command went into a chaotic frenzy, wildly swinging, hammering, & smashing into the ground and the allied forces around or near them. Having lost the advantages of their position & distance all allied forces in front or around the artillery platforms, suddenly became panic stricken and began to retreat en-mass desperately trying to get away from these monstrous creatures going mad in battle as they lashed out climbing the hill. With few options available in the situation all the allied reserves made one last all out effort against the enemy coming at them, Lucretia Arnet stopped amongst the retreating allies when she heard a loud bellowing horn echo through the air, an ogre & several gnomes stopping beside her all looking equally puzzled at each-other when a second & third bellowing horns echo'd across the battlefield even louder than the first had. They turned their attention to the top of the slope everyone had desperately been fleeing towards, to see a mass of large hulking bodies come charging down but expertly filtering past the fleeting allies. Leading the Allied counter-charge was the heavy kragfang mounted cavalry who with reckless-abandon excitedly charged towards the giant creatures, their mounts expertly weaving & evading the giant creatures wild swings the beasts & riders cutting or hacking away at the monsters legs to bring them down so they could be better dealt with. The sight of the fearless heavy cavalry attacking these giant monsters towering above them rallied the allied forces into reforming behind the advancing reserve infantry who were still charging down to close the distance with the enemy. Occasional cheers from the charging Ogre infantry as every feat by the kragfang riders played out before them as they approached, one rider losing his mount to one of the creatures wild swings used the momentum of flying through the air with a large axe raised above his head as he swung down cutting into a gap in the monsters armor on its leg which caused it to buckle, the other riders hamming away at it's other leg causeing it to fall over altogether & the Axe-man rising atop it & swinging down repeatedly as if trying to hack the giants limb off by himself. The heavy cavalry having both led the charge & toppled the giants to the ground in a heroic last-ditch display of defiance, pulled back to reorganize as the infantry clambered up the fallen enemies as they all began wildly attacking them & eventually killing every last one of the monsters as their giant corpses lay motionless on the hillside. A massed cheer & celebration broke out more out of relief it was over, than a resounding victory uproar, still a win is a win, & seeing a huge armor-plated ogre dancing with a gnome would distract anyone from thoughts thinking otherwise. After the party had settled down, and both forces began the cleanup & collecting their fallen comrades, Lucretia had managed to find Princess Yui who was standing surrounded by her elite guard, (who glared at Lucretia for the train incident as she approached) Princess Yui stood beside one of the fallen creatures intensely looking at it in thought. "Your highness?", recognizing the voice the princes replied "good to have you back Arnet" she turned to smile at Lucretia who now stood beside her "good to be back your highness" she gave a ceremonious bow before asking "is something the matter?" hinting at the dead creature. The princess returned her attention to the monster "It's armor... this chitin it's covered in it's cracked but still solid." Lucretia nodded "Yes, we'll have to consult our allies and develop something to more easily counter such issues in future...". The Princess looked back confused for a moment "what- oh yes hmmm..." the princess looked around and pointed to the first one that fell "There!, that ones mostly intact secure it so our experts & our allies can inspect it for research or what have you...". Lucretia was puzzled by her highness's reaction but before she could say anything the princess continued "I want the rest of these creatures stripped of their chitin & it all shipped back to Zakol!". The princess nodded to herself as she finished folding her arms. "You want us to harvest the chitin?" asked one of the elites who was also curious of the request the princess just nodded "It's so durable, even getting hit by artillery didn't effect them because of it, Imagine if we can learn to craft it or something... the armor we could make!, or if we can sharpen an edge on them the weapons we could make!". The Princess had a huge fierce grin across her face that would of put a demon to shame in comparison. Her elites all smiled knowing when the princess got like that there was little arguing with her when she'd decided on something. [/hider] [hider=Actions] [hider=Diplomacy] [/hider] [hider=Military Action] - Province 19, Zakolian forces start harvesting chitin plating from the giant fallen enemies. - Mandalia Province(27), Construction of an additional outer defense Wall (tall thick walls, towers, gates, warehouses, garrison, stables, a large deep trench surrounding the outer-wall, etc...) around the central town of Eren. - In an effort to limit further decrease in skilled labor, the Kingdom of Zakol expands military acceptance ages, as they continue to recruit more military personnel for the war effort. [hider=Personnel Transfer] Naval Transfer: [/hider] > Recruitment - 1 units heavy infantry (27) - 1 unit heavy infantry (25) - 1 unit arquebusiers (18) - 1 unit light Infantry (16) > Naval Construction - 2 war ships (18) - 2 war ships (25) > Research Cannons (Turn 3) yay! Tech & Magic: [/hider] [/hider] [hider=Garrisons] North Zakol (18) - Lt. Larek Mokur - 2 Units of Light Infantry - 6 units of Heavy Infantry - 2 units of Conscript Infantry - 3 units arquebusiers - 25 units allied dirigibles South Zakol (25) - Glasha Yotul - Priestess of the Sun & Moon - 4 units, Crossbowmen - 1 units, War Magi - 1 units, Magi (20) - 3 units,Trebuchet artillery - 4 units, Light Infantry - 11 units, Heavy Infantry - 3 unit heavy cavalry - 25 units allied dirigibles Mandalia (27) - Ozma Torth - General Loxa Venn - Lt.General Grumret - 6 Units of Light Infantry - 28 Units of Heavy Infantry - 4 Units of Archers - 3 Units of War-Magi - 2 Units of Magi - 5 Units of Heavy Cavalry - 2 Units of Artillery - 25 units allied dirigibles Kirt Province (16) - 1 unit Conscript Infantry - 1 unit light infantry Andinon Province (15) - General Volaq Mokur - 14 Units of Heavy Infantry - 2 Units of Archers - 2 War-Magi - 1 Unit of Magi - 4 Artillery Andinon Province (19) - Princess Yui Wolph - Lucretia Arnet - High ranking war-magi / Military strategist - 1 unit Hellfire Banshees - 1 unit Javelin Ogres - 13 units Heavy Infantry - 2 units Heavy (Kragfang) Cavalry [u]Navy Locations[/u] - 7 transports (E12) - 4 warships (E12) - 5 Warships (E13) - 18 Transports (E13) - 8 Warships (F13) - 25 Transports (F13) [/hider]