Sort of surprising that the guards didn't join you since you're Undead. I went to attack some Frostlings guards and they offered to join me for 0 gold. That was a pleasant surprise. Of course, they all died quickly because apparently, this is an unforgiving map...

I hadn't noticed (yet); my assault stack has mowed down all 2-3 aggressive stacks I've encountered so far.

Of course, that probably means the independent spider is going to win flawlessly against my dwarf berserker and proceed to burn my capital all by itself.

We recruit new cannon fodder. And the production resources is nice to us for a change.

TS

Dwarf King, Day 3

Huh, I wonder where those abominations popped out of. There were no holes for them, unless they ran past my army from a corridor a little further ahead, or unless they just spawned (with 1 move left?).

Also, my pioneer was found by three minotaurs. It wasn't even close; my pioneer butchered them.

Orcs, Day 3

Independent attacks overnight cost me nothing but a summoned hell hound. With the capture of a pair of furnaces I now have positive income, but no gold for the moment.

Turn sent.

Frosty, Day 3

Wish I'd brought some cross country skis. Many of my units posthole their way through the wilderness. No one has ever accused a snowman of being speedy.

TS

Goblin, Day 3

Lost some more scouts. Definitely should've used the earlier production resources in a different way.

TS

Dusk of Undead, Day 3

We found town to rebuild with our pioneer but a little bit worse news is that we are most likely going to die so it doesn't matter much.

Turn sent.

Elves, Day 4

We should get an outpost and a town tomorrow.

This map if full of Area Guards and Patrols. Area Guards return to their "holding place" until someone wanders into their sphere of influence. They will then always attack. A Patrol is moving along the entire map, killing and sometimes razing resources. Usually they will not attack Towns, but if your unit is next to Indie Garrison units that happen to have the same alignment (or are otherwise willing to join) inside a town, tower or Guarding a resource, you get the "benefit" of those Indie units joining you in a battle.

So, the Minotaur probably came from somewhere as a patrol, decided to attack your berserker and incidentally mopped up the defence of that town. The Minotaur will not take the place of the Garrison, as it is set to Patrol. So you have got yourself an unguarded town, congrats.

Sorry for not posting earlier, as I said I was mad for losing heroes in Nordic Star. And here, I get kicked around by Patrols who are now going to burn the only income structure I have. Sigh.

I'm not laughing at you, I swear! Laughing with you!! We definitely picked a couple of um, interesting, maps.
Any hex that is attacked will pull all six adjacent hexes into the battle. Depending on race alignments and alliances, the adjacent hexes may help or hinder the attack.

The adjacent hexes can be neutral garrison forces, your allies flying scout, guards of a ruin, another stack you own, etc. Pulling guards or neutrals into a battle to fight for you is a time honored way to score stuff for "free".

This is why bottleneck spots allowing single file attacks and two (or more) stacks on defense are so tough to beat. However, there is almost always a way around a bottleneck. :)

Orcs, Day 4

Wandering independents have killed my scouts and captured my furnaces. Luckily(?) with the scouts gone I no longer have a negative income without the furnaces.

Turn sent.

Blatant lies!

In the first Rupture game, I kept playing for awhile after you guys died. I seduced an orc warlord that needed to be killed as part of a quest, so I went looking for enemy stacks. I finally found 3 stacks of independents standing next to each other. I fought 2 or 3 of them, but each was in a separate battle; I'd been expecting all 3 to jump in and massacre my stack (including the warlord, hopefully completing the quest even if independents got the actual kill on him).

So surrounding stacks aren't always pulled in. I suspect it might have been alignment issues in this case. I seem to recall that one stack was Dwarves while another was Dark Elves, and neither one particularly liked me (perhaps the Dark Elves would have helped against the Dwarves if I had attacked the Dwarves first instead of killing the Dark Elves first).

(In case you were wondering, I got the Warlord to stand in front of enemies and take cannon fire to the back until he died, completing the quest)

Frosty, Day 4

Lost all my healers. Oops. Didn't think they'd all miss with all three shots for three straight turns against a flying guard. That's pulling a Vitek! Nine chances on Turn 1, Six chances on Turn 2, Three chances on Turn 3. Against a unit with two freaking hit points. Oh well. Easy come easy go.

Aerial scouts have been deployed.

TS

ooc: Adjacent hex pulled into battle - There is a certain amount of "beats the hell out of me" involved. Learning peace keeper early in a big map can truly pay dividends. :)