“You need to upgrade your forge if you want to do tandem projects,” Joeth said.
“You don’t say,” I grumbled. 57 hours remained before I could upgrade any further. Oh well, I was pleased with what I had so far.
I closed the Grid and looked up from my desk to see that Joeth was carefully stacking upside-down glasses upon one of the dinner trays. It was midnight again. “Damn! Why does time pass so quickly?”
“It does?” Joeth asked, snapping his head away from his project. “What do you mean?”
“In the Grid, when I’m planning things, time just sort of…goes away,” I explained. “And when I leave, usually more than a few hours have passed.”
“I thought you were just reading something,” Joeth said. “You finished working on the upgrades about six hours ago.” He groaned. “I think that’s your illness manifesting. Time shouldn’t be passing in large gaps. Has that always been the case?”
“Since day one,” I said.
“Hmm. Well, I never heard of this before, so keep an eye on it. Maybe get one of those fancy grandfather clocks that rings every hour, so you know time is moving.”
Not a bad suggestion. But I didn’t have time to dwell on this. “Well, no matter. Tell me, how do I steal that mana crystal reserve without the Baron noticing?”
Joeth sat back into his seat and resumed stacking the glasses, trying his best to make a pyramid. “You can do it all from the comfort of your own home. Just target the area and select the “Raid” option. If there’s no defense rating to the area, you automatically gain access to the zone. From there, it’s standard defense, albeit your goal is to steal as much as you can.”
“I don’t need to get in a big caravan and go rolling towards the area?”
“For raids? No. You pay for the Extraction Sphere first, which then allows instant grid building. Once the sphere has finished its job, it removes everyone and sends them back to where they belong. You get your whole investment back.”
“Unless they destroy the sphere,” I said. “Then I lose everything?”
“Worse! All your golems shut down, so the enemy doesn’t even have to scavenge. He gets a free complement of golems and towers, courtesy of you.” Joeth grinned and looked around for a moment, as if anyone could possibly be listening inside my office. “I know some crafty bastards out there who leave unattended warehouses to invite raids. Then, when the enemy has put down all their golems, bam! A surprise attack using only sphere-killing units. Free golems!”
I grimaced at this idea. The Baron’s lots were all unoccupied in the Sunkissed Hills. What if it were bait? But that would require him knowing the crystals were stored there. No, I couldn’t let these thoughts get into my head. Not when I had a limited amount of time to pull this off.
I found myself yawning quite loudly, prompting Joeth to warn me. “Why don’t you take the rest of the night off? You’ve been working all day and I doubt you realize how tired you are.”
“I’d rather just get this over with,” I said, going to activate the Grid. Error You Have Been Denied Access appeared before me as I tried to bring up the vision.
“Nope. Teacher says bedtime,” Joeth said. “Hell, I shouldn’t have let you stay up this late to begin with.”
I found an anger washing over me. “I am a fully grown man. I do not need you to tell me when to go to sleep.”
“Well, apparently you do. Sleep, spend the morning with your wife lounging around eating breakfast in bed, and then around three we can start the invasion. Trust me, bucko. A tired mind makes mistakes. You need to rest and you need to relax. This is my only warning. After which I’m going to start spiking your drinks to ensure you sleep on time.”
Chapter 27
I stared at the screen of the Grid, head throbbing. For some reason, a nausea had overtaken me for most of the day and nothing could seem to make it go away. I had reluctantly chosen to go to sleep, but found that there was little that could be done to relax me. Even Yoni noticed that my mood was so gloomy and unfocused that she spent most of the morning merely cuddling alongside me, barely speaking a word. And that was fine by me, because my sickness was the worst when I first woke up. So much so I wondered if Joeth didn’t actually poison me.
Sickness aside, it was finally time to begin my heist. I found my heart pounding a little as I opened up the Grid and hovered over the target lot. This was the first time I’d ever take an offensive action! It would cement my relationship with the Baron as a foe, guaranteeing his invasion. But if I could pull this off, if I could defend against his forces, the entire Northern Tip would look at me as someone worth working alongside. Hell, the marriage offers might come rolling in after that.
Letting these pleasant and somewhat unrealistic thoughts echo through my head for a moment, I ginned up the courage to activate the empty lot. A list of options appeared.
Casus Belli Actions:
Invade (You have 1 claim to this territory)
Raid (Target has issued you an ultimatum)
Demand Land (You have 1 claim to this territory)
Unjustified Actions:
Demand Tribute (They are a higher rank than you)
I had a claim to the land itself? Interesting. But I certainly didn’t have the resources or the manpower to take back what was apparently rightfully my alliance’s. So, instead, I merely selected Raid. At once, a display appeared informing me that no enemy defenses were present in the area. The extraction process could begin as soon as I set up my own perimeter. It was time!
Rubbing my hands together, I zoomed into the battlefield to see the plain patch of land. The area was entirely flat, devoid of any hills whatsoever. “Who was in charge of cartography over here?” I muttered as I surveyed the zone. A completely empty grid, 8 by 8, forming a total of 64 squares. It was one gigantic chess board, albeit with pieces that would be much bigger and more violent than what I had stored away in my game room.
Purchase Extraction Sphere? appeared in my vision, with the option to spend a whopping 1,000 silver on the unit. Yeesh, that was a bit steep. I had planned to budget 5,000 to this defense. In theory, if I was able to fend off the attackers, I would get a full refund on my spending. But I still needed ten thousand to protect the wall, at least. So, I’d have to take the hit and only spend 4,000 on the rest of this defense.
“Where should I put it?” I asked Joeth as I made the purchase, watching as the outline of the sphere appeared on the Grid. The Extraction Sphere looked different from the typical mana core. The design was composed of a massive sphere, with four smaller spheres surrounding it.
“You’ve got a completely open battlefield here. Place it somewhere random, build your maze design and then place it better,” Joeth said. “As for effective defense designs? You should have some idea from your studies.”
My head was hurting too much for me to recall any such information. With all of my concerns in the world, studying had sort of fallen on the backburner these last few days. I think I was reading the material, sure, but my mind was miles away, pondering other troubles. Map-making wasn’t that hard though, right?
The enemy spawn points were fixed to one area, the corner right of the map. I could do a proper two lane maze, well technically that would be a labyrinth, since there was no exit. In fact, this design would be exceptionally effective, for I could essentially force the enemy units to pass the same towers more than once. By creating a labyrinth that led to one singular point in the middle, going all the way around the map, the enemy would be forced to head to the left, down, then to the right, all the way back up to the other side of the barricades, where they had first entered. They’d be in range of all my starting towers again, meaning I could set the majority of my heavy hitters at the start and get the maximum amount of damage out of them.
Immediately, I began laying out barricades, creating four straight lines that formed the exterior of the maze. Seven squares across, seven squares up and down. Then, I’d simply re
peat the first pattern, albeit using less squares since I had less room. I had enough space to do this three times, creating a single entrance to a central area where the Extraction Sphere would rest.
This design created “double exposure zones” as were referenced in the books, causing enemy units to pass the same barricades twice. I had toyed with this before, but not to this degree. The top and bottom sections of the outer maze were the areas where the enemy would have the highest amount of exposure to my towers. Therefore, I’d need to develop a proper damage strategy to make the most out of this fact.
“Ah, the Hedge Maze, a classic,” Joeth said, voice filled with approval. “But a little too classic. Your opponent will be prepared to try and circumvent it however he can.”
“Should I not use this then?”
“No, it’s fine. Your enemy can’t counter everything. But you need to just remember that there’s always a chance your foe has anticipated your design. What’s the weakness here?”
I surveyed the area. Without any towers placed down, I couldn’t see any real weakness. “Fliers?” I asked.
“Chase Golems, actually. If you get forty of them swarming towards your extraction unit, you’re in real trouble. They’ll climb right over the barricades. Any fool would think to put up some anti-air units, but Chase Golems? They’re pretty damn quick.”
“Not quick enough to avoid a Phlogiston Cannon,” I countered.
“Very good! You are paying attention to your course work,” my instructor said.
Surveying the battlefield again, I decided to place two Phlogiston Cannons right next to the opening that led to the Extraction Sphere. Assuming the golems took the fastest path to reach their target, they would opt to go through the opening right after climbing over the second barricade, allowing the twin cannons to burn through them with ease. At 250 silver per cannon and the large amount of barricades I needed to buy, I had already spent nearly 1,000 silver on just getting the framework up and running. 3,000 left to spend.
I’d divide my defense into two parts. Heavy damage at the beginning? Or light damage at the front and heavy damage later on? Hmmm. If it were cost-effective, I’d just choose heavy damage all the way across the board. But I didn’t quite have those resources.
My first thought was putting Thorn Towers at the beginning. They were strong, armor piercing and most importantly, hit all enemies within melee range. Placing two at the front would cost me a grand, buuuuut would ensure that the toughest enemies would immediately get smacked down on the way in and then again when passing through on the other side of the maze.
With those two structures placed down, I’d position one more Phlogiston Cannon at the corner of the first turn, to cook those who had managed to bypass the first set of defenses. Phlogistons had an unfortunate fixed firing point, so they couldn’t swivel around to fire behind them, meaning they were exempt from the double exposure plan.
Once I was satisfied with the top part of the maze, at least in terms of towers, I moved on to the bottom, where my next set would be. My Karrack Towers were heavily upgraded at this point, able to hit three enemies at once, making them perfect for countering any swarms that got through the top layer. Plus, at 150 silver each, it was easy to make a whole row of them for only 1,000 more silver. Seven Karracks, all lined up and ready to tear through the enemy forces without a problem.
“Going big, eh?” Joeth said. “I like it. You seem to have the guts that most newbies lack.”
“Well, I want to keep my investment, so I’m willing to spend it all to ensure it,” I said.
“The Stars bless a gambling man with a plan,” Joeth replied with a chuckle. “You’ve a little under a thousand left. What else?”
I placed two Repulsion Towers by the entrance to the Extraction Sphere, covering the area perfectly. The shortest path for any flying golems would be right in range of those repulsors, guaranteeing they’d be knocked down. In fact, the enemy would probably fall in the firing path of the Phlogiston Cannons, ensuring some cooked birds.
“Good call,” Joeth said. “I was half tempted to not remind you about those. But we are playing for keeps here, so I won’t be a dick about stuff like that.”
I have to say, it was quite encouraging having the Erudite with me, watching as I worked. Being completely alone, without any reassurance had been nerve wracking. But with his tutelage, I felt somewhat at ease. If I made any catastrophic mistakes, he’d be there to back me up right quick.
With three hundred spent on those towers, I had a little under six hundred—enough for three auto ballistae. These had the range and the speed to distribute damage across the entire map without any trouble, so I just put them in the center so they could hit everything.
“And that is it for the towers,” I said. “What do you think?”
“Hmmmm,” my instructor replied as he surveyed my handiwork. “You have good coverage, strong counters to anything quick and a veritable killing floor at the bottom there. This is a viable build. Could be better, but with your resources? I think it’s good.”
Those were all the words I needed to hear! I quickly opened up the golem tab and began to prepare for my auxiliary defenses. Now, according to the material I had been studying (at least, what I could remember), one of the most effective strategies when using golems was to use them as hard counters to what were called “game deciders.” Siege Golems, special units and heavy swarms were all serious threats to the survival of the Extraction Sphere. Since I was a tower-heavy combatant, I needed to focus on using golems to counter the units that my towers would struggle to take down. And the most consistent threat to any of my builds so far had been those damned Siege Golems.
I only had a measly 200 mana crystals to spend, but after some thought, I decided upon buying two Berserker Golems. Rather than placing them at the beginning, I’d put them on the inner side of the maze, where they would intercept anything that had been able to survive the rest of my deathtraps. Each Berserker Golem was strong enough to kill a Siege Golem given enough time, though they were prone to being distracted by some other target. Yet, in my experience, whenever there was a Siege Golem coming my way, its escorts were always killed off well before the lumbering siege beast could reach the halfway point of the map. So by placing the berserkers in the back, it would ensure that only the heartiest of enemy golems would be the target of their wrath.
As I placed my golems, I realized that my Grid Commander abilities were not well suited to this map at all. Attraction Ping was only sort of useful here and barrage was pointless without artillery units on the board. Target Marker was still handy, just in case I got a major swarm. Imagine all seven of my tri-beam towers focusing on a single target! I should swap out for…Champion Designation?
That was a powerful ability that made my berserker a champion, growing in strength, health and damage with each kill. Such a designation would essentially boost the value of my current strategy. Certainly worth the empty slot. And should I replace Attraction Ping? It would be useful for forcing an enemy group to turn right back around and go past the tri-tower section, essentially creating a quadruple exposure, as they’d be forced to pass the same area four times total. Useful for a huge swarm. I’d keep it. These abilities and my berserkers should be enough to build a proper defense.
“Hrmmmm,” Joeth muttered once I placed the two golems down in the same area. “That’s all?”
“Those are all the crystals I have,” I replied. “And I need something to catch a Siege Golem at the end.”
Joeth said nothing to that. Instead, he merely changed the subject. “You ready?”
“Should I do something differently? With the golems, I mean?”
“I can’t hold your hand the whole way. Limits creativity. I can’t say no to a risky play, because it might work. And you’re right, you have very few options here. So go big or go home, right?”
“Exactly right,” I muttered beneath my breath as my focus turned to the Commence R
aid button hovering before me. “Go big or go home.”
Chapter 28
A territory raid has begun! 2,000 mana crystals detected. Extraction Time: 15 minutes. the Grid announced as horns bleated in my ears.
“Get ready for the longest fifteen minutes of your life, bucko,” Joeth said. The timer began in the right-hand corner, counting down immediately. There would be no rounds in this battle. Just a steady onslaught of enemies pushing their way through until they broke my Extraction Sphere, or the timer ran out. I felt my stomach tie itself in three knots as the battle announcement faded. This was it. No going back now.
“What the hell, man?” came a thoroughly confused voice across the Grid. It belonged to none other than the Baron Jerem Leiss. I heard the crack of thunder, followed by a warning. Enemy forces inbound. Total amount: 85.
Not an overwhelming number. “Can he add more to the fight?” I asked.
“Man, if that’s all he has, it means he’s definitely trying to defend this land on the cheap,” the Erudite replied. “Now focus, no more questions unless it’s life or death. Papa needs a nap.”
The phantom voice of the Baron spoke up as Joeth fell silent. “You really intend to raid my property, Richard? Do you understand the consequences of such an action?”
“Is it going to make you attack me any harder next week?” I asked. The first swarm of enemy units arrived; twelve Boulder Golems came crashing out, only to be immediately greeted with a hailstorm of thorns, piercing their incredibly dense bodies. I watched as their health bars shot down from the heavy blows. Ballistae began firing, though those shots did little damage.
“So that is your response to my ultimatum? Attack me? Do you have…I mean…” his words fell short as he became too flustered to speak. The audacity of my action had completely caught him off guard. As he tried to regain composure, the twelve Boulder Golems reached the end of the first lane, coming face-to-face with the Phlogiston Cannon. A wide torrent of flames finished them all off with ease, melting them into the ground.
Gentleman's Wars 2: A Tower Defense LitRPG Series Page 17