Once I read here
"There are not right or wrong way to play Masters of Raana. As far as you enjoy and are able to pay the taxes at the start of the day, it´s fine" and lots of thumbs up, hearths and smiles in the reaction line. And for me at least, this line have been the philosophy of the game and one of it´s mains appeals. Well, seem that the one who wrote this deep sentence forgot to add a coda "as far as you become a fighting machine, with you and your main combat team with good-like stats and completely maxed, because if this it not the case, after expending some hundred hours of your time, you are going to be kicked out".
I´m furious beyond words. Furious to the point to be a click away to delete the game and then clean the recycle bin. But hey, I have invested a lot of time in this game, and things c an be mended, so let´s talk a bit first.
What I´m talking about? I´m talking about the Dengi invasion, that, in my opinion and how have been implemented so far, it´s a big betrayal to the philosophy of the game.
So let´s tell the whole story.
The story starts with my fat-ass slavist. Master slavist, two steps of merchant, two steps of academic, and pathologically adverse to physical training. But hey, not a combat slouch by any means, as 800 combats under his belt can give proof. Aria, Clea, Trulls and Cassius are my front line squad. All with two implants, all (but Clea), in Hulk Armour, Trulls and Cassius in his high 140-low 150 with his axes, Clea with 120-130 in ranged/melee amd myself and Aria abowe 100 in ranged, all of them trained to 60+ in medicine. I have been able to defeat all the enemies with no big problems except for some really bad dice streaks that are solved with one save-and- reload, and this bad dice streaks have not been ever "Group defeated" but " one killed".
So far, life it´s good then. I have put Aria as Chancellor, defeat the Mordecainist armoured counter coup at Procoms and deal with the Dengi raid. And then I realized that I must adjust the time of the Dengi invasion, the major event of this update. Fine. Story-wise can make sense treat the Dengi raid that I have just defeated not as a raid, but as a probe or as a recon party, so I put the start of the invasion at +30 days, and proceed to go with life as usual, assisting to the academy, dealing with the daily bounties (but just 5+, or if you tell me where they are, for minor business call the local cops) raising Ikaanos prosperity and Ikaanos control, banging my slaves and fine tuning my household, living the life of a proper First Lord of Ikaanos. Things are fine in Ikaanos. Prosperity at 40´s, control in the 80 and both raising thanks to the Press office and my spreading of food to the poors....
And then, the chain of events of the invasion starts. And I have a bit of "bad omens" on my head. After all, in one of the combats of the Dengi Raid, Aria went down in a bad run of 3 strikes again her. Fine, I have finished all the training books, so I´m going to train a bit, just to have some margin and if some went down, he went down and didn´t die. I have time enough to put some 20+ stamina points under my (and Aria) belt and raising Clea, Trulls and Cassius stamina to 120, gaining also a score of hits. And every day, in the morning, I go to talk with Aria, to see if she have something to say about the invasion. But she remain silent, staring to the roof.
And then, the invasion proper starts. The text stats the Dengi forces in the low 5000´s, the Skyguard in the high 4000´s and two ways to end it. One it´s to kill the Dengi king, other to bring the Dengi forces down to 50. First aproach, go to the big boss and kill him. The fast way. So I raise my banner, bring my finest combat team and let´s see of what material are done this Dengis boys.
First impresion, from Kassey Park to Darkmere, are not so bad. They have a lot of hits, they hit hard, at a 6th to 7th bounty level, but they have basic tactics so the damage it´s spread among my team, and that´s nothing that some Tenditstim between combats and the ocasional point of will for my self can not solve. Well, I have 250 Tendistims and 67 of willpower, so no big deal. Then, I take the ferry to Hamma bay and clean Hamma Market. Harder, beyond lvl 7th bounty, but some expenditure of combat Tendistims and no serious problems. Backfang Valley more or less the same, I clean 3 of the groups and then go for the last one, the beast swarm, that seems the hardest nut to crack. And I get defeated, 3 deaths. Ok. May be some bad luck. Reload, and I win the combat. But with two deaths, one down and the one that remains standing holding by the skin of his teeth. Clearly that´s not the way. They are not the final boss and if in the path to fight him I lose two of my best fighters, when I get to him I´m going to be wipped out by sure.
Well, the fast way don´t work. No need to panic. We must grind them down slowly. Very Grimdark-eske. Surely it´s going to be a hard and long fight, may be a balanced one where the MC dealing with 10-20 raiders per day can tip the balance. A long run, not an sprint. We must keep an eye in the expense of will points on healing, we can not expend Wega canisters as if they were candy. Surely we will have a lot of events that will wear down the prosperity and control of Ikaanos in order to fill the ranks of the army. An attrition war. Do as much as we can to keep control and prosperity high, because the war it´s going to pass a bill on them...
And then, I start to play the long game. Looking for some ways to improve the combat capabilities of my team, I see that Master tactician it´s not so far away, just 12 points on my ranged skill. Train on this subject. Clea don´t cut the mustard, she is great against oponents with high armour and not so high hp, so I replace her with with the former foreman of the steel mine (100 ST and 100 Range, so he can wield properly my second minigun) and hulk him and fully implant him. And every day go to the field, kill a score of rascals, watch the events and go to talk with Aria, to see if she reacts in any way...
And then, Seneca strikes with a projectil. 50 Dengi die. And I open my journal and have a look at the numbers. The dengi are still in the low 5000 and the Skyguard it´s in the low 4000´s. Wait a minute!!!
LOW 4000´s? They were in the
HIGH 4000´s just a few days ago. So I make a save, open my notepad and start a routine of new day-see the events-take note of the numbers-Talk to Aria to see if she have nothing to say about.
To make the long story short, in 28 days we go from Dengi 5220-Skiguard 4020 to game over, with the Dengi still in 4300 strong. Other that a couple of missile strikes of the Seneca (50 dengi less) no events related to the invasion. Aria? Looking at the ceiling with a stare that makes a not-so-smart cow look like a Nobel Price. And my last ditch attempt, with the Master tactician under my belt, while was good enough to pass the Beast Swarm, was years light away to have any chance of hurting the Dengi´s king.
Notice that I´m NOT complaining about being unable to defeat the Dengi King. That´s perfectly fine, I have not trained like a psycho, and If Grimdark wants to put something that it´s a challenge for the most extreme gung-ho players, that´s fine.
But give me an alternative path!!.
I have expend 270 hour raising Aria Academic to 80 and Administrative to 100. Enough to make 130 training sessions. Bismark with tits, I call her, but now she is completely inactive, showing the same brain power as an artichoke, doing nothing.
We have an army of cannibals menacing to destroy Ikaanos.
Aux Armes, citoyens!
Formez vos Bataillons!
Marchons, marchons!!!
Where is the Republic decree of "levee en masse"? The "We take a loan to raise a company or tanks"? The "Honey, Can you spare to me a million and a thousand rifles to give a nice 1000$ flat bonus and weapons to anyone who joim the ranks?"
I have no Strengh or Dextry to talk about, But I have maxed Charm and Manipulation..
Where is the chance to strike deals with the different factions of Ikaanos? Not for free, of course, they can ask for a slice of power in return-. The Two moons church have 950 fighters, The Mosque 650, Kimantos 460, Scandi 460, Cyker House 1250, The underlworld, close to 12000.
And all of them are holding hands waiting to be converted in meat in a Dengi soup cauldron? Makes THIS any sense?
I only can hope that the Dengi invasion, as is NOW, it´s just an unfinished project with half a side to be worked about.