Mortal Empires, Part XXI - Total War

Previous: Mortal Empires, Part XX - Druchii Incursions

2507 IC marked the sixth year of fighting of the Age of Reckoning. While the Empire remained more or less intact, it was beset on all sides by large powerful empires. The Dark Elves were far and away the most powerful nation, but fortunately their incursions into the Empire were more raids for slaves and plunder rather than fully fledged invasions. The bulk of their forces were tied up in the invasion of Ulthuan. The forces of Chaos still swept down from the Wastes, and only the alliance with the Vampire Counts kept their forces from spilling out further into the Empire. The Empire also had two more powerful defensive alliances with the High Elves and the Wood Elves. By virtue of these agreements the Empire was only fighting a war in the north along the Sea of Claws on a front stretching from Marienburg all the way to Erengrad in Kislev. The Grey Mountains had been secured against the greenskin refugees fleeing the Vampire Count dominions, and now the Empire's western and south-western flanks rested comfortably against the Wood Elves dominions. Franz trusted the insular and reclusive woodland folk much more than he did the Vampire Counts, and the eastern and south-eastern flanks of the Empire were always watched and patrolled by Haupt-Anderssen even as the Emperor made plans to move against the Dark Elves to the north.

Karl Franz on Deathclaw.

To combat the Druchii the Emperor had moved his nation to a total war footing. No Emperor had ever had more centralized control over the Empire's means of production as had Karl Franz, and he turned the nation's considerable creative energies into manufacturing weapons from the Imperial Engineering School. The collapse of the Dwarven kingdoms had inundated the Empire with refugees, and among them were highly skilled engineers from Zhufbar and Karaz-a-Karak who could improve on the rudimentary designs used by the humans. The steam tank, originally designed by the genius Leonardo da Miragliano and of which only twelve were initially made, had proven to be decisive against the Dark Elves' beast heavy armies. The ensorcelled cannons mounted on the lumbering machines honed in on the Black Dragons of the Druchii, tore through sinew and flesh, and knocked them out of the skies. With the help of the best Dwarven engineers the design for the steam tank could finally be recreated and put into mass production.

In addition to the steam tank the Colleges of Magic were able to produce another magical wonder, a mounted platform called a Luminark of Hysh. It functioned almost like a cannon, but instead of shooting ensorcelled balls it fired pure bolts of Light energy. Unlike the steam tank, the Luminark could not be fielded in large numbers, but whenever they were present on the battle field they wreaked terrible havoc on the enemy. Once again the fell beasts of the Druchii were ideal targets, and many such creatures fell shrieking from the sky as their wings and bodies were blasted by iridescent rays of arcane power.

A steam tank on the battlefield, flanked by a Luminark of Hysh.

With such wonder weapons in his grasp Franz made bold plans to take the offensive to the Druchii homeland. The Asur were hard pressed by the Dark Elves, and the High Elves had been forced to retreat to the inner strongholds guarding the approaches into central Ulthuan. By landing a force in Naggaroth itself Franz hoped to remove some pressure from his ally, and to put Malekith on the defensive. Such a stratagem was fraught with danger. The approaches to Naggaroth were heavily patrolled by corsairs and all manners of fell beasts. Even if the Imperial navy could make a landing in the New World, such an expedition would be on its own, cut off and beyond support. Nevertheless there was no shortage of bold commanders willing to take the risk. Chief among them was Boris Todbringer, the Elector Count of Middenland. Still seething over the loss of Middenheim, and jealous of Ludenhof's rising fame and success as one of Franz's premiere generals, Todbringer hoped to eclipse his rival's achievements by staging an audacious landing in the New World. Todbringer was finally able to get the Emperor's backing for such an expedition, and soon the docks at Marienburg and Altdorf became centers of industry as the invasion fleet was prepared for this dangerous undertaking.

It's been almost a year since I last updated this blog, and somewhat longer since I played my Mortal Empires game on the PC. I have recently started playing the game again, and with the renewed interest in the game I've also found new found desire to complete the account of my Total War Legendary campaign. I apologize to anyone who was left hanging by my long inactivity on this blog. This will be the second time I've done that - the first being my X-Com fan fiction piece, which petered out and was never completed - and I'm hoping that I will at least be able to complete this one. It helps that Total War 2 has had some significant changes since I last played. The Norscans are now a primary faction with their own Legendary Lords, and the latest DLC introduced the pirates of the Vampire Coast, which made sea travel less lucrative and more perilous. I'm having fun playing again, and I hope that translates into more work into the blog.

In the interests of full disclosure, I was winning the Legendary campaign this account was originally based on, but ended up stopping after it became clear to me that I had passed the point where all that was left to do was to go through the motions and mop up remaining resistance. I've started - and lost - several new campaign using the latest DLCs, and the new distribution of foes, both old and new, has truly reinvigorated the game for me. To keep my interest up I've set the following house rule for myself - once I get to the point of unifying the Empire - which I've yet to do in Legendary in the current build of the game - that game will then determine whether Karl Franz and the Empire prevails or not in the story I'm writing. That at least will make my gameplay tie in with my written account, even if I'll have to fudge some details as past and present playthroughs merge together in a weird pastiche of alternate realities.

Next: TBC