by Adam Elliott
“Gotta agree with the gal.” He winced at his own word choice as Silver’s expression darkened. “Production bonus is too much to pass up.”
“Glad we don’t have to argue about this.” Cayden de-selected the wall repair options and chose Lower Township Repair from the list. Before hitting the confirm button at the bottom of the menu, he turned his gaze to Roberta. “Just for peace of mind. Upkeep is exactly what it sounds like, right?”
Roberta laughed, a playful sound she couldn’t quite keep down in spite of herself. “Yes, Field Marshall. The cost is used to employ skilled laborers and other staff to maintain the condition of the wall once it is repaired. Judging by the listed cost compared to my previous experience, I suspect it is calculated daily.”
“Well, that is one thing off our plate this morning.” Cayden nodded, stabbing the confirm button with a certain amount of satisfaction. “What is next?”
Chapter Nine
“I believe you still had intended to conduct some mock combat,” Valserys observed dryly.
“Damn, that’s right.” Cayden chuckled. “Way too easy to get lost in this thing.”
Luckily for him, the left-hand pane required substantially less attention than its counterpart. Rather than a list of possible options that he needed to select from, it was a detailed breakdown of the current condition of the city. It listed his districts and the bonuses they currently provided (none), the defensive bonuses granted by the city walls (zilch), it’s population (nada) and so forth. It detailed the amount of food currently produced and consumed, as well as who consumed it. His food was being imported from Islo, one of the Duke’s gifts to help them begin, while his production came from the builders they had been assigned. All in all, it was a useful breakdown of information he had already plucked from elsewhere.
Only two things stood out as new to him. The first was a gauge labeled City Size. Currently, it sat empty, with a city size of zero. Next to a counter of 0/1000. A thousand civilians to increase his city size. Whatever that did. A useful goal if ever he’d had one. The other was a small indicator tucked away in the middle of two different categories labeled Happiness. Currently, the space beside it was occupied by a single white dash. In the future, however, he’d have to keep an eye on it. The last thing Cayden wanted or needed, was rioters.
Towards the bottom of the page sat the menu he sought, a button labeled Stores but despite his renewed focus on it, Cayden couldn’t help but be distracted by the one next to it. Research.
“Probably best to get this out of the way while we’re here?” Cayden asked, entering the menu before anyone could stop him.
He was actually a little disappointed by what came next. While Cayden had never been an enormous strategy game buff, he had played enough of them in his days that he had expected to be assaulted with an enormous tech tree, or perhaps, heaven forbid a tech web. What appeared before him was neither, just a floating pentagram graph and a small set of sliders next to it. The five points of the graph were labeled: Exploration, Development, Warfare, Magic, and Civilization.
Each of the five categories was represented on the sliders beside the graph itself, with two points of research devoted to each creating an even shape in the nearby diagram. By moving the sliders, the boundaries of the smaller pentagon were distorted, flattening in some places and becoming sharp points in others.
“Blind research.” Silver’s voice said with a sigh.
“Looks that way.” Cayden agreed, one outstretched finger manipulating the sliders back to their starting positions. “Any suggestions on where we should set our focus?”
Valserys stepped forward at that. “Would not a focus on military development be ideal? Given our situation?”
“Not necessarily,” Michael responded. “Repairing the walls would have been the military option among our production choices, but developmental choices will make us stronger in the end.”
“He is right,” Cayden said flatly, holding up a hand to forestall any protest from his aide. “We can’t devote extra resources to military options so early, particularly when we don’t have any idea of what sort of reward they’ll bring. But we also can’t neglect them either.” He sighed. “I think a balanced approach is our best choice, at least until we know more.”
“Almost.” Silver said thoughtfully.
“Almost?” He inquired.
“We should devote extra research to magical pursuits.”
Michael laughed. “Trust the magic caster to say we need to spend more resources on her discipline.”
Silver rolled her eyes in reply and gestured towards the resource bar. “Cayden, we have a starting pool and income of magic, and nothing to spend it on.”
“That isn’t entirely true.” Roberta interjected.
All three players looked in her direction, and the petite Elan girl straightened her spine so as not to wither under their attention.“With respect, Field Marshall, I’m not known as Roberta the Builder for nothing.”
“Roberta the…” Cayden started, groaning in unison with Silver as the simultaneous thought struck them.
Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “Is there something wrong?”
“Just the Developer’s sense of humor.” Silver explained. “What is it that you are capable of doing?”
“Ah, I understand,” Roberta replied, even though she clearly did not. “I am a creationist which-”
“Does that mean you believe the Developer created Babel in six days?” Michael snidely interjected. A backhanded smack from Silver shut him up and allowed Roberta to continue.
“-is the discipline focused on the magical creation of materials and objects.” Roberta continued. “I can use my personal magical energy, what you bloodline families call MP, to aid production in the city.”
Cayden studied her for a moment, before gesturing to the War Frame. “Was that already factored into the amount of production listed?”
“Yes, I believe so,” Roberta said softly. “It is a bit difficult to estimate, but if I had to guess, I think my abilities account for roughly five points of the listed ‘Production.’”
Michael whistled at that and earned himself another swat in the process.
“And you can use the city’s magic power to fuel your abilities?” Cayden pressed, his mind already abuzz with new possibilities.
Roberta smiled, “Yes, on a roughly one to one basis of magic to production.”
“That certainly changes things.” Silver murmured.
“All of it?” Cayden asked.
“Hmm? Oh, no, Field Marshall!” Roberta vigorously shook her head. “There is a limit to how much power anyone can channel. As a novice, my limit is rather low. At best I believe I would be capable of refreshing myself once, which would allow me to double my output for the day”
Cayden’s heart fell, but he did his best not to let it show. Dreams of completing the first round of construction overnight fell by the wayside, but even still, a bonus was a bonus. “If I wanted you to do this-”
“You would simply direct me through the War Frame.” Roberta smiled. “I cannot tap into the city’s source without such express permission.
“Which brings us back to where we started.” Silver observed. “We’ve got a big pool of magic, and nothing to spend it on.”
“Unless,” Michael grinned, looking to Valserys. “You don’t also happen to be holding out on some hidden powers, do you?”
The military man bristled under the accusation, drawing himself up to his full height and resting a hand on the guard of the long blade sheathed at his hip. “I resent the implication.”
Michael began to retort, but Cayden physically interposed himself between the two before a playful argument could erupt into something worse.
“Silver does have a point.” He mused. “What would we drop points from?”
“Civilization.” Silver and Michael said in unison.
“You can’t cut back on civilization. You will regret this!” Cayden snickered. Wh
en the other two stared at him blankly, he rolled his eyes in response. “Philistines, no wonder you want to cut back on civilization.” Despite his taunts, Cayden reached out a finger and adjusted the civilization slider downwards, then devoted it’s two remaining points to the Magic category. “Done and done.”
He hit the confirm button, then swiped away the menu entirely. “Now where was I?”
Silver rolled her eyes. “Cayden, you have the memory of a goldfish.”
“And like, a particularly absent-minded goldfish,” Michael added.
“Hey-”
“The Wayne Szalinski of goldfish.” Silver interrupted.
Cayden raised an eyebrow at that. “Obscure reference much?”
“I’d have said the Ronald Reagan of goldfish, but that seems in poor taste.” She retorted.
It was only then that the three realized that their Elan companions were still standing in the wings, alternating between exchanging baffled glances and looking at the players like they had lost their minds. Cayden often wondered just what Elan must make of humans when they went off on tangents like that. Probably something similar to the way they felt whenever an Elan started rambling on about the Great Emperor.
“You were preparing troops for mock combat,” Valserys said at last, once it was clear the players were waiting for one of them to say something.
“Yeah, I remember now.” He admitted, reaching for the display once again. The storeroom menu proved easy enough to navigate, in part because it was largely barren. It contained a listing of their arms and armor, their horses, a smattering of siege defense weaponry, and little else. That was going to have to change.
Equipping the troops proved as easy as selecting the items in question, then selecting the units to which he wished to assign them. He briefly experimented with assigning archery equipment or horses to his existing troops, but in each instance, the system kicked him back with a notification that the unit in question was not trained for that method of combat. Likewise, attempting to alter the equipment of soldiers outside the keep itself resulted only in a notification that a unit could only change their equipment when adjacent to the armory.
Once he knew what he was doing, it didn’t take Cayden long to alter the equipment of the twenty soldiers he had sent to the keep for his experiment. Their smattering of axes and swords were uniformly replaced with wooden blades from the keep storeroom before the soldiers themselves were marched into the empty courtyard that had so recently been filled with shambling terrors.
“So… uh. What now?” Cayden asked.
“I would recommend forming the men into discrete formations.” Valserys replied. “As it stands, you have them in groups, but not formations. A group without discipline is little more than a mob and just as easy to disperse.”
“Form them up. Got it.” Cayden replied though he did not actually ‘have it.’ He knew how to select multiple units, and how to direct them from place to place, but it took him nearly a minute of awkward fumbling and touching at the War Frame before he finally stumbled on how to organize them into a formation. He had to press and hold on the summary of the collected units until a sub-menu spawned with two options. Create a Formation and Add to Existing Formation. Seeing as he didn’t have any existing formations, it was a rather easy choice.
His selection drove the creation of yet another new window, along with a small floating keyboard. This one an empty, save for instructions along the top of its frame. Please enter a name.
“Suggestions?” Cayden asked,
“Silver’s Raiders?” The shameless mage offered, before crossing her arms at Cayden’s indignant look. “What? Like you’ve never wanted to name something after yourself?”
“1st Formation?” Michael proposed.
“Any good suggestions?” When no offers were forthcoming, Cayden studied the keyboard for a moment, then began to type. “The Fighting First.”
“And the other?” Valserys asked.
“My request for suggestions was open to you as well,” Cayden replied.
The very idea seemed to take Valserys momentarily off guard. The regal officer scrutinized Cayden for a moment, judging his intent before at last replying. “If you would, I’m sure the men would be honored to be known as “Bastion’s Second.”
Cayden smiled. “Absolutely.”
With names selected, Cayden studied the first of the two identical formations before him.
The Fighting First (Formation)
Type: Infantry (Elan)
Level: 1
Unit Count: 10/10
Formation Bonus: +2
HP: 100/100
MP: 0/0
TP: 100/100
Move: 8/8
Attack: 120
Defence: 120
Special: None
Resistances: None
Weaknesses: None
“Formation Bonus is new.” Michael said as if both of his fellow players hadn’t noticed that the instant the information had been displayed.
“Yeah. It looks like it applies to each unit in the formation.” Cayden continued the thought, looking to Valserys. “Is this just a generic bonus, or?”
The soldier looked somewhat wounded as he replied. “Difficult to say, Field Marshall. The vagaries of the War Frame are not entirely familiar to me.” Before Cayden could press him for an answer, Valserys continued. “In combat, having multiple soldiers in formation provides a significant improvement in the combat abilities of the whole, which is likely what this represents.”
“So the more soldiers we have in a unit, the better?” Cayden solicited.
“To a point.” Valserys cautioned. “At a certain point, a formation can become unwieldy, with too many men to properly direct.”
Silver gestured to the War Frame. “Rather than picking his brain based on his best guess, wouldn’t it be easier just to add more troops and see what happens.”
“She has a point,” Michael smirked.
“Silver always has a point,” Cayden admitted. The worst part of it was, they were often too accurate for his liking.
Cayden selected a handful of random troops from elsewhere in bastion, adding them one after another in groups of ten. The next increase was at 25 soldiers, then another at 50, again at 75, leading to a final +6 bonus at a full 100 soldiers. Past 100 the bonus fell off immediately, dropping to +5 with 101 units in formation, +4 with 126 and so forth.
“So our ideal formation would be one hundred then, huh? Easy to remember, I guess.” Michael said as Cayden’s experiment came to an end.
“Not alway-” Cayden and Silver both began in unison. The two exchanged glanced, with Cayden eventually deferring to Silver. “Not quite.” She continued. “It’ll depend on a lot of factors, how many units we need in the field, what other bonuses we might be able to apply, and so forth.”
“I’m not following,” Michael admitted, squinting a little as he tried to run the numbers again in his head.
“A group of one hundred gets the higher bonus.” Silver explained smoothly. “But a group of one twenty-five has an extra twenty-five members getting the smaller bonus. It isn’t a huge difference, but they would be the stronger unit.”
Michael continued to narrow his eyes, one hand waving awkwardly in the air as he worked through his mental map. “Carry the one and… okay, yeah, I’m going to take your word for it.”
“You should.” Silver smirked.
“Don’t feel too bad,” Cayden added. “You’re still correct that we’re mostly better off running units of one hundred. You can field five groups of one hundred, instead of four groups of one twenty five. Probably better in almost every instance.” With that said he looked to Valserys. “What now?”
The Elan had been waiting for the question and responded without hesitation. “The formations you have would be functional combat units as they are. But I recommend leadership.”
“Always nice to have that.” Silver said, giving Cayden a sidelong glance that he promptly ignored.
“Only myself,” Valserys replied. “You can assign me to a unit if you wish. Indeed, once the battle is fully joined, I recommend it in fact. For now, however, I suggest you promote from within.”
“And how do I…?” Cayden’s question trailed off, his eyes ignoring the stubborn glances of his fellows as he turned his attention to the War Frame.
This one was easy to figure out. He needed only to select an existing unit within a formation and hold his finger there until a new menu arrived. There was only a single option. Promote. Cayden touched it without hesitation and was met with a warning.
Promoting this soldier will cost 5 Influence. Are you sure? Y/N
“Is there any difference between the various soldiers?” Cayden asked. “Or should I just promote whomever I want.”
“Some soldiers would likely be more suited to command,” Valserys admitted. “Unfortunately I am not familiar enough with any of the soldiers the Duke has entrusted to you to make any suggestions.”
Cayden nodded, then began to zoom the map out far enough that he could see the city and its outskirts. He selected two units and directed both of them to return to the keep, expending most of their remaining movement in the process. Once there, he promoted each, and couldn’t help but notice a certain smile of satisfaction on Valserys face at his choice.
He’d used the two as his guinea pigs already, so Aleph and Zerald had earned their promotions.
“Leadership +2 and +1.” Cayden read aloud as he inspected each of his new officers in turn. “I’d ask if you knew if that was good but…”
“I couldn’t begin to guess,” Valserys replied, cracking another smile.
“Figures. We’ll promote some others later to see what we can see. For now…” Cayden navigated back to the keep, and ordered each of his new officers to take command of a Unit, with Aleph in charge of ‘The Fighting First’ And Zerald, the leader of ‘Bastion’s Second.’ “Let’s see what happens when they fight.”
There were two options in the formation menu that seemed like they could serve Cayden’s purposes. The first, demonstration turned out to have more to do with parade marching than combat, but the second, Practice Drills was precisely what they were looking for. Giving the order to one formation gave Cayden a warning that they would be unavailable for any other purposes for the remainder of the turn. Selecting it with two, however, brought the Combat log to life at long last.
