Which wing of the Empire is stronger?

[Tomon Ris]

I was wondering which would be considered the most powerful wing of the Empire militarily, politically, and economically. My bet is on the West since it seems to have the most friends surrounding it and can expand into the lands of the federation with help from Illien.

[Evalation]

From what ive read in the lore the Western Empire seems to be the strongest as of right now. That doesnt mean however that the Eastern Empire is "weak" in any way, they're just in a more difficult position then the Western Empire. Mainly the reason I say that the West may be stronger than the East is the fact that the West can, and has, send many legions over to aide the East and still have enough legions to defend their own borders.

Politically.. hmm id say the East in this regard. Unless im mistaken but I think I remember reading that the politics in the West is growing corrupt and decadent. Though, im not sure about this one.

Economically is also another hard one scince I believe both Empires are doing fine for the most part, well as far as money is concerned. The West may be doing a little bit better, but thats mainly because their half of the Empire has more provinces to draw taxes from.

Someone else may be better off to explain further, this is just my assumption based on what ive read.

[Squeaks]

Right...

Thanks for the input Evalation :The West and East have differing Provincial veterans/elites....

EAST

Dalthrasian Pike (heavier than Sun King and Lindiri ones, but also possibly slightly more skilled)
Duinir Wardens (SPear and bow)
Atakash Angelbloods (just cool)
Telmior Noble SOns Chariots and Brazen Sons 2h swords
Karesi Lionhearts (foot sword/shld and mounted)
Saladir Silver Lancers
Kai Losson Horse Lords (mounted missile)
Spurhawk Riders
Ancillian Pitdogs

WEST

Carian Heavy Horse
Daikini Royal Pathfinders
Lisandra's Leafblade Rangers
Taichondran Long Knives
Kirisi Lightbringers (cavalry)
Nehemian Horse Archers and SKy Bulls
Heartland Legions - slightly better than normal ones

I'd actually say the East is a fair bit better off in this way, but they have lesser quality legions.

Economically, the East is actually better off, BUT the East faces pretty much the hardest wad of starting enemies there are at all.

The West will have Nehemia revolt at some point, losing a LOT of power. That's a third of their lands gone, giving a buffer between them and Ilien (so work on being nice to her), but also collapsing it all a bit.

Both can receive Kadasandran troops in batches....and...

The West has Dragonriders, which should be mean. Ilien is no friend to the West ( a player can change this), the Feds hate the West, the Ghuarchlai are nasty enemies. It depends what we do with the Principality too. Played, they have some major choices; unplayed I'm not sure....maybe random, which could see them secede from the Empire, adding another enemy in the West.

SO, the West will start differently each time, I hope. The East you know they're in trouble from the start, but the Only CHurch and the Lake Kingdom will require a choice for one or then other as allies/foes.

The EMpire will also face CHitkinnen 'explosions' too, as do the Feds and others.

It's not quite as clear, but I suspect the East start stronger but collapse very quickly, and the West is very hard to judge. East is richer though (at the start).

You also have the Dragonthrone of Kadasandra to bear in mind.

I'll add more later if I caome back after thinking. Do ask away!

[Squeaks]

Here....if I put the original map that the main cmapiagn was based on here, you can see properly the East and West. If you look at the bottom of the West, you can see Nehemia...the loss of that at random will have an impact.



Of course, at the same time, you can see an awful lot of things.

The map changed a LOT after this, of course, so it's not quite what you'll find, as it was the first concept. ANyway, hope it helps a bit!

Also means I missed the two Valadir units from the Western elites...Valadir Kyrini being one that's quite naughty.

[Tomon Ris]

Thanks but I thought the Ghuarchlai were busy with Badabaska and their impregnable fortresses of Last-Standitude. Or are theosee two different groups of Ghuarchlai?

[Kaiser Leonidas]

The main part of the Ghaur are mainly busy with the Badabaskans, but if you look on the map at the bottom of the west continent, the 'Ward of Descati' are also Ghaurchlai. These guys kind of infiltrated the Federation and slowly began to take power but by the time of the main campaign are pretty much in a full on state on invasion against them so if Descati can break the western Feds then they can cause serious problems for the western Empire too. Sorry if I've completely butchered the lore here Squeaks but I think this is vaguely right?

Just to kinda sum up Squeaks here, the Eastern Empire could be considered the more powerful of the two, both militarily and economically as far as I can tell, but they're more or less surrounded by potential enemies so the west should have an easier time of it as it were. The west also gets blue legions which look much cooler than the red ones the east gets. And dragons, who wouldn't want dragons?

[Squeaks]

The Ghaurchlai are actually quite strong; very, in fact. I suspect the Western Federation will be the hardest faction to keep alive, amongst the larger ones. They have the East, which will stand, but the West has Descati (Ghaur leader) on it's eastern bit, Ilien to the north, part of the Empire, and a massive CHitkinnen explosion in the western bit.

If you look at the west continent, west feds, south on the eastern coast, there is the Ward of Descati. A large number of them are disguised as 'Descati's Hounds of Hell' (partly Templar Sadisti and Macabre) and he has just replaced five of the 9 Federal Council with Shapestealers (all but one of the western ones, so will have a certain amount of internal damage to the West Feds). He has Descati's Ward, which is tough, has the properly 'woken' Ghaurchlai all over the southern ice of Cara Hapa (all 3 fortresses have fallen), and has the Ghaurchlai at Badabaska, which will probably get massacred, unless played; when they are played, they may take the islands out..but it would need a detour for a decent amount of much needed beasties - the big Ghaurchlai stuff is on the ice; SLaughterstars, Face Collectors, Revenants, Vore Angels etc.

Badabaska is under siege by a few nasty Ghaur, but mainly weak ones in great numbers. Obviously, we don't want them to overwhelm the Badabaskans, but it will also be tough for them. The threat is simply being worn down by attack after attack.

Descati's main reason for taking the council out was to arrest and execute Ilien, as she is a danger to him; did it, she was rescued, so he's made it worse.

Feds in the east are fighting the Lindiri in a death-struggle, but are strong and have allies there, and it is uncorrupted by Ghaurchlai.

[Squeaks]

Kaiser...



You're on the ball, and very accurate, aren't you? This always happens...I take half an hour to reply and other messages pop up in the meantime...nicely done though!

[Squeaks]

East Legions



WEST (Heartland Legions)

[Evalation]

I love the legion concept you came up with for the Empire. My favorites are the gaurd legion xbow and the gaurd legion pike for the Dragonthrone faction, they look simply badass.

Id rep you, but I need to spread some around.

[Squeaks]

I love the legion concept you came up with for the Empire.

They have to seem nice to me, and I'm not a fan of beardie faces and stuff...some (a lot of) people hate the lack of militia-type units with woolly jumpers, but there's little to compare the setting regarding medieval or dark ages europe. The reason there's no militia-beardie-types is mostly down to professional armies, highly developed societies and also they don't want their carpenters, smiths, masons etc to die and leave them with nothing.

The look is down to me deciding helmets and symbols and armour before anything else I do, so they look nice to me, otherwise I'd get REALLY bored. Some of them were really hard to think of.

My favorites are the gaurd legion xbow and the gaurd legion pike for the Dragonthrone faction, they look simply badass.

The Guard legions are cool...Kadasandra will have white and gold (ish) legions as well as guard legions. I don't know if you've seen the 7th Legion for Bandit Kings? They were one of the Palatine Legions, which were disbanded after the 7th killed the naughty EMperor, in power at the time.

Id rep you, but I need to spread some around.

Ah well. I don't get much rep, so the thought's nice.

[Squeaks]

I have actualy done something model-related.

I always wanted to finish the Western Empire...whole East is done, as is much of Kadasandra, but the western provincial units are low.

SO, I did the Taichondran Long Knives...it's a mesh of various influences from other models, plus a slight reskin and other work. I also included the Carian Heavy Horse helmet and the Kirisi Lightbringers helmet. They're related, but Kiris is more glorious....

Here's a post base from the group forum:

TAICHONDRAN LONG KNIVES

Using bits of various things, and a reskin of a fair bit, these guys are with us. They're an odd one...I always wanted bark masks, but doing them isn't easy (really not, to actually work), so I added Lindiri style arm twigs and fiddled.

ANyway, first model in ages really. The Long Knives are expert at killing beasts, even ones ridden, so even cavalry are very much in danger when facing the lOng Knives, who practice a slide under beasts, cutting into their bellies whilst sliding through the legs. These will be similar to the Greenglaidh ('Mossmen' of the Fennweyr)

Lots of shots so I can try to see if it works at all....















Yes, I have some Bandit Kings and stuff to finish. I have ideas for them, but the Forlorn Axemen will be hard.

Helms for Carian Hvy Horse and Kirisi Lightbringers are mostly done (2 more West Empire, leaving only 4 or 5)....was working hard on them before....

CARIAN HELM





KIRISI LIGHTBRINGERS







There's a lot about the Kirisi in various bumblings dotted around...their 'Lady of Light' is immortal, and her power shines in them. They're lethal, and very grand,....I'd want a model that gives morale or summit. The Carian Horse ride black horses, the largest there are, heavily war trained and armoured. The Carians and Kirisi are from similar ancestry. Makes sense.

Yes, they will need a slightly less mad hat, but I like it. Just a load of fiddling gone interesting.

[Tomon Ris]

are the long knives humans or elves?

[Squeaks]

are the long knives humans or elves?

They're humans. You won't find many ELven (or Rhysthari or Khezdruli) units in other armies, although there are a couple. For instance, the Bandit Kings have a few odd things...'Stolen' Gnomes (kind of need a big thingy to get them), a Rhysthari unit or two, 2 Dwarven units and non-recruitable Void Knights.

[Squeaks]

Another way we identify units' abilities is this system...

Regular>Veteran>Elite>Heroic>Superheroic

If I do this to the units...

EAST

Dalthrasian Pike (heavier than Sun King and Lindiri ones, but also possibly slightly more skilled) ELITE
Duinir Wardens (SPear and bow) VETERAN
Atakash Angelbloods (just cool) ELITE
Telmior Noble SOns Chariots and Brazen Sons 2h swords ELITE
Karesi Lionhearts (foot sword/shld and mounted) VETERAN
Saladir Silver Lancers VETERAN
Kai Losson Horse Lords (mounted missile) VETERAN
Spurhawk Riders ELITE
Ancillian Pitdogs ELITE

WEST

Carian Heavy Horse VETERAN
Daikini Royal Pathfinders ELITE
Lisandra's Leafblade Rangers VETERAN
Taichondran Long Knives VETERAN
Kirisi Lightbringers (cavalry) ELITE
Nehemian Horse Archers and SKy Bulls VETERAN Horse Archers ELITE Sky Bulls
Heartland Legions - slightly better than normal ones REGULAR

AND (OOPS) West -

Valadir Kyrini VETERAN
VALADIR SHieldsworn VETERAN
Dragon riders HEROIC

BOTH

Imperial Warflame Heroic

(sort of) Void Knights - Super Heroic