FfH2:The Clan of Embers/Sheelba – Chapter 5

Ok, it’s been a while, I apologise. My excuses are many: moving house, work, playing some over games, etc. But, the recent 10 year long Civ 2 game story has given me some motivation to make sure I finish this game.

So, the current state of affairs is thus: my heartland is a landlocked peninsula, which has forced me to become a nation of sea-faring orcs. Well, this is perhaps over selling my navy. The Clan of Embers‘s research is pretty lousy, and so my ships are pretty basic too. For the first two campaigns, this wasn’t a problem, but recently my enemies have started a counter attack, and I find my empire split over four regions separated by water and mountains.

the North

While you can’t make it out well in the map, my three main cities, on the left of the map, are split off from my new settlements in the East. This is a problem, as I’ve lost most my navy, and these cities are not well defended. I was relying on the constant flow of orcs from my capital’s warrens to keep my empire safe, but these fledging cities are going to have to look after themselves.

the West

Over the sea to the West we have the conquered cities of the Kuriotates. They all belong to me now, and the cities are up to speed and reasonably self-sufficient. in the south you can see the Sheaim, who are responsible for sinking my navy. And due to another impassable mountain range, I’m going to have to build a new navy before I can invade.

the South

South of the Clan‘s heartland like the Sidar, pretty much my only allies. And south of them, you can see where I’ve managed to conquer some elven cities. As the Sidar are currently winning the game, once I solidify my holdings to the South, I’ll hopefully move up in a pincer movement and destroy them. Otherwise, I worry that their lead will snowball and I’ll have no chance of beating them in the late game. unfortunately, I’m currently getting my copper via trade with the Sidar, and cancelling this deal (ie, declaring war) will make it even harder to build a better fleet. And I need that better fleet to ferry a huge angry horde of orcs down from Braduk the Burning, my capital city.

The other clear option is to wait, and build up a navy before attacking. But unfortunately, waiting doesn’t seem to be the Clan of Ember’s strong point: my capital has no choice but to constantly build units two at a time, and this swiftly cripples my economy, causing my research to slow to a crawl.

Perhaps I should attack the Sheaim in the south-west.