Conquering the Fantasy Kitchen Sink - Let's Play Sengoku Gensokyo!

[Tono]

I say take out Alice. No need to leave them brewing there when the others never seemed to even open up until the human village was attacked.

And just because we take someone prisoner, does not mean we need to recruit them right away. We can let Alice stew as a prisoner until whenever if we want.

[Sliver]

Let's take the forest. It will give us a larger area to develop before we open our borders to too many fronts...

[Mirrinus]

Let's Play Sengoku Gensokyo - Day 11

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Deciding to spare three units to develop the Faintly Dark Path, we launch an assault on the Magic Forest Entrance with just four characters. However, these are four of our best. As this is only the first battle, we are met with little resistance; just a squad of generic dolls.

Even with less than the maximum number of units, we score a smashing victory. We defeat the mooks with no casualties and little trouble.

But that's not all! We were also treated to a pleasant surprise. They're not much, but it's still something.

**********

Shanghai: ..........*flutter flutter*

The Shanghai Doll flitted around the forest. She wasn't aimlessly wandering about; she was actually performing surveillance. The miasma of the forest wasn't a problem for a doll after all.

.....!

The glint of a small, shiny object caught her attention. The object flitted about, as if it was inviting the Shanghai Doll to chase it.

Flutter flutter, flutter flutter, flutter flutter. With a suspicious twinkle, the shiny object continued heading deeper into the forest. The Shanghai Doll continued giving chase, entranced by it. Then...

The Shanghai Doll's body was suddenly entangled by ivy. The shiny object was actually a trap set by a tree. The tree had become a monster due to the miasma, and was awaiting its next prey.

"I'm gonna be eaten!" As the thought flashed through her mind, the tree simply threw the Shanghai Doll away. She had no idea what had just happened, but still pulled herself together and ran as far as she could.

She screamed soundlessly (as she couldn't talk), became teary-eyed (although she can't cry), and sped away back where she came from. Dolls should spend their time in happiness and not have to worry about being eaten, but this incident left an irremovable scar, and would be used as material to scare the other dolls during ghost stories.

**********

Reimu: Alice kept referring to her army as "us"...I wonder who else is with her?

Marisa: She normally only has dolls with her. She's probably referrin' to those.

The dolls...? Isn't she the one controlling them with strings and such?

Some of 'em have a fair bit of autonomy. I think she's researchin' on how to make a doll that thinks and moves fully on its own.

So something like an artificial life form? That sounds way too ridiculous. Does she think she's a god?

That's what I think too...But apparently, people've seen dolls like that before. And someone we know has seen 'em too.

Who?

That head maid that's always there whenever I go take some books.

Take? Don't you mean "steal"?

It's not just about how it sounds, hey...Anyway, even people besides Alice have seen that sorta thing. Well, this is Gensokyo after all.

Thus, it wouldn't be weird if they really do exist.

Right. As far as I know though, she's still a one-woman-show, so she shouldn't be too hard 'ta handle.

People would normally react to a remark like that, but to Marisa, there wasn't anything special about what she just said. It may not be what people wanted to hear, but it was not something she particularly cared about.

**********

Turn: 11
Ouki: 6856
Ryumaku: 13/29
Actions Available: 2

Our Territories:

Hakurei Shrine
Defense: 250/250
Cost to Develop: 24 RES

Night-Blind Road
Defense: 160/160
Cost to Develop: 9 RES (subsequent development costs 18 RES)

Faintly Dark Path
Defense: 175/175
Cost to Develop: 18 RES

Enemy Territories:

Magic Forest Entrance
Army: Forest of Magic Team
General: Shanghai Doll
Defense: 80/180

Magic Forest Border
Army: Forest of Magic Team
General: Hourai Doll
Defense: 160/160

Magic Forest Interior
Army: Forest of Magic Team
General: Alice Margatroid (leader)
Defense: 210/210

Human Village
Army: Human Village Corps
General: Keine Kamishirasawa (leader)
Defense: 310/310

Special Events Available:

Declare War: Human Village Corps
9 NEG is required to declare war.

Prisoners:

String Doll - Not very strong, can't be used to develop. Low cost and decent starting level.
Special: Full Power Shot, a single high-power ranged attack. The user is stunned afterwards.
7 NEG is required for recruitment.

Fumi Doll - Not very strong, can't be used to develop. Low cost.
Special: (None)
6 NEG is required for recruitment.

**********

One more thing: I'm thinking of spending some Ouki to level up our 3 strongest fighters: Reimu, Marisa, and Jack Sou. They each need 24 more exp to level up. It currently costs 10 Ouki for 1 exp. What do you guys think? Level them now, or wait one more battle and then level up?

I want to give Shanghai a hug...

[IncoherentEssay]

We are still a bit undermanned for using the full 2 actions/turn effectively, so recruit Fumi Doll with Izou/Souun. Though Fumi can't research, it DOES have a Neg score, somehow . So next turn Ayu/Fumi can recruit the String Doll. With that, our future recruitment efforts can be mostly handled by the dolls, since we won't really miss them elsewhere*.

As to our actual actions, grabbing the entrance is obvious. If we can spare someone (Ayu, perhaps) to Res NBRoad, all the better. Considering the overwhelming success of the Elite 4's first assault, this seems quite doable.

Especially since we can easily afford to buy the levels for them. Having gone from 1083 Ouki of Turn 2 to 6853 Ouki of Now, the 720 for the levels is a pittance, so let's buy them up.

*The recruitment speeches must be truly inspiring:
"...", o_O, X_X, "...", =P, "...", "...", "...", D=, ......

[Terraoblivion]

I say forget about the dolls, they seem pretty useless anyway. I also suggest winning one more battle before buying the levels, we don't really need them at the moment, so we could wait. Other than that, since we are committed to the forest, let's blitz through it and take it over fast, no need to let the villagers get too much stronger and all. Under the current circumstances and with the resources we have, improving Night Blind Road seems like a good call for our second action.

[IncoherentEssay]

Weak as the dolls are, they would only cost us as much upkeep as one of our own genenerics in total. The Neg scores for recruitment seem to be in the 6-9 bracket, perfect for human+doll.
The dolls can also free up people with Res scores from battle duties, being only a little worse combat-wise than Ayu/Souun and as fast or faster than them.
So the dolls are quite useful. Our biggest limit at the moment is having nigh-0 leeway in meeting the Res/Neg total whilst keeping a full assault team.
That will only get worse once we have enough turf for 3 actions/turn.
Buying the levels gives us a bit more certainty in keeping to the schedule, and since we'll grab the Village before finishing up the Forest, we have plentiful time to accrue moar Ouki before shopping becomes an option.

[Terraoblivion]

If i understood Mirrinus' explanation correctly, then spending more Ryumaki spent on maintaining an army means we earn less Ouki. And i can't see the dolls as being good enough to justify that expense, especially not the string doll which has terrible defense, but is better at attacking than defending. Also even compared to Ayu and Souun the dolls are a lot weaker. However, if i misunderstood the way you earn Ouki based on Ryumaki and the dolls are essentially free for now, i'd support recruiting them since it would essentially be for free anyway.

As for buying levels, i don't think that we should have any trouble with the next battle, even with Shanghai showing up. The last one was pretty much a curbstomp and i doubt Shanghai alone to change that.

[Sliver]

I support getting the dolls. It will free our other units to do other important stuff..

[Assassin89]

I think the fumi doll might be a good source of taking hits, but I'm not so sure about the string doll. As for actions to take, attack the forest.

[Terraoblivion]

I honestly can't see what we would use the dolls for. But if getting them has no meaningful cost, i see no reason not to.

And, yes, our actions should be taking the forest entrance and improving Night Blind Road.

[Tono]

The dolls may not seem like much of a cost, but even that pitiful two will hurt later when trying to save up and heal up between turns. I say just wait it out and get decent units when they come.

[IncoherentEssay]

Shouldn't be too hard to purposefully run the dolls up against impossible odds once they are not needed anymore. There isn't any other downside to taking permanent losses besides the losses themselves, right?
So we take the dolls as we need them now and sort them out later once we have better options. /WeHaveReserves

[Rolaran]

We should attack the forest, they've already declared war on us. Let all see that complete annihilation, and nothing less, awaits those who bother the miko!

Also, i agree that Shanghai is adorable, but is it just me or did she swear a blue streak in the fifth picture up there?

[Mirrinus]

Let's Play Sengoku Gensokyo - Day 12

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I probably should clarify: upon further testing, it seems that as long as total cost is below your total Ryumaku, Ouki production isn't really affected much. It's only if cost surpasses Ryumaku that we should really be worried. It's still a good idea to leave yourself with some breathing room, though, since you never know when you might suddenly lose a territory and a large chunk of Ryumaku along with it.

With that in mind, it seems the main objection to recruitment is gone. The main problem with recruitment, though, is that it costs us characters, and we're still stretched kind of thin as is. Still, we can't fix that without more units, so I went ahead and recruited the Fumi Doll.

Fumi Doll became an ally.

Sending in the same four members as before, we launch our second assault on the Magic Forest Entrance. This time, Shanghai Doll was there to greet us, and managed to put up a much better fight than our first bout.

With her attack power, Shanghai tore into us with Doll's War, doing over 100+ damage to Reimu and Jack Sou in the early turns of the fight. Reimu went down quickly, leaving mostly Marisa and Wriggle to carry us through to victory. In the end, we scored exactly enough to capture the territory.

Between the heavy damage sustained during the fight, our new recruit who started at 1 HP, and the additional exp we needed to level up, this marks our first turn where we actually lost a bit of Ouki instead of gaining it. However, we took a new territory and were able to develop it once, giving a nice boost to our Ryumaku.

**********

Alice: What!? They've broken through the entrance!?

After losing to Reimu's army, the Shanghai Doll staggered back to Alice. Upon hearing the battle report, Alice showed a hint of panic.

Grrr...So they've slipped through just like that...I suppose that's expected of them. Alright, Shanghai. You can return to my side now. Good work.

Shanghai: .........*nod nod*

The Shanghai Doll seemed dispirited, perhaps feeling guilt from having lost. However, with a bit of head-patting from Alice, her gloomy expression brightened slightly.

How dare they hurt my Shanghai...I wonder if they'll go after here or the boundary next...Whichever it is, I'll get your revenge for you, Shanghai. Especially against you, Marisa...I will not lose against you.

Alice's heart was soon set on one and only one thing: getting revenge for her defeated Shanghai Doll.

**********

The Hourai Doll sat with her back leaned against a tree, staring intently over the area. Her expression typically never changed, so no one knew what she was thinking, or whether she was even thinking at all.

Hourai: .........

A tiny forest beetle landed on the stationary doll's head. It was a harmless insect, but those who dislike insects wouldn't be able to tell the difference. The beetle continued to rest on the Hourai Doll's head.

.........

Dolls are made of inorganic material. Furthermore, they cannot die (since they're dolls) and cannot move. Thus, insects and animals would naturally gather around them without displaying any caution.

.........

A single bird flying through the area noticed the possible prey on the Hourai Doll's head, and swooped down to it. The beetle flew away just in time, and the bird's beak got stuck in the Hourai Doll's head.

She didn't fully understand, but at least knew that it was painful. She covered her head with her hand, causing the bird to hurriedly fly away. Silence once again returned to the forest.

.........

After a quick rub, the Hourai Doll's hand fell lifelessly beside it once again, and she continued her staring...It was just another peaceful day at the forest.

*********

The entrance of the Forest of Magic had been successfully captured, and Reimu and Marisa were performing reconnaissance of the area. Or more accurately, they were taking a walk.

Reimu: Honestly...There's no sunlight, there's strange miasma floating in the air, weird mushrooms are growing everywhere...How do you and Alice live here?

Marisa: Stick around long enough, and you can get used'ta anything.

However you want to paint it, a forest is a forest. Go live somewhere more appropriate.

As Reimu mentioned, the inside of a forest is certainly not kind to living things. It would take someone of considerable vitality to withstand or block the miasma and spores from entering their body.

C'mon, this forest is the perfect place for magicians. There's no lack of materials to experiment with...That girl doesn't seem'ta like 'em though.

Marisa's finger pointed in the direction of a cluster of mushrooms growing near a tree. She looked at them happily, but their appearance didn't look particularly welcoming.

Huh, you two disagree on what food youlike to eat? Sounds like you two are the extreme ends of the magician scale.

They're not food. Well, actually they are, but...Bah, that ain't my point anyway.

What is, then?

...That's a secret.

Tsk.

Marisa and Alice may be magicians, but they are not the same. But as Reimu never particularly looked into the subject of magicians, nor had anything to say about them, she decided to keep quiet.

**********

Turn: 12
Ouki: 6751
Ryumaku: 14/32
Actions Available: 2

Our Territories:

Hakurei Shrine
Defense: 250/250
Cost to Develop: 24 RES

Night-Blind Road
Defense: 160/160
Cost to Develop: 9 RES (subsequent development costs 18 RES)

Faintly Dark Path
Defense: 175/175
Cost to Develop: 18 RES

Magic Forest Entrance
Defense: 180/180
Cost to Develop: 9 RES

Enemy Territories:

Magic Forest Border
Army: Forest of Magic Team
General: Hourai Doll
Defense: 160/160

Magic Forest Interior
Army: Forest of Magic Team
General: Alice Margatroid (leader)
Defense: 210/210

Human Village
Army: Human Village Corps
General: Keine Kamishirasawa (leader)
Defense: 310/310

Special Events Available:

Declare War: Human Village Corps
9 NEG is required to declare war.

Prisoners:

String Doll - Not very strong, can't be used to develop. Low cost and decent starting level.
Special: Full Power Shot, a single high-power ranged attack. The user is stunned afterwards.
7 NEG is required for recruitment.

[IncoherentEssay]

Hmm, looking at the economic history so far:
(turn: Ouki, surplus Ryumaku, gains [notes])

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1: 468, 2
2: 1083, 4, +620
3: 1643, 5, +560
4: 2435, 7, +792
5: 2847, 7, +412 *
6: 3352, 10, +505 *
7: 4249, 12, +897
8: 4967, 12, +718 *,(1)
9: 5451, 15, +484 *
10: 6120, 15, +669
11: 6856, 16, +736 **
12: 6751, 18, -105 **,(2)

*Attacks on Wriggle's & Mystia's army
**Attacks on Alice's army
(1) overwhelming victory
(2) 720 Ouki spent on levelups

The surplus has some effect, though not as drastic as (Sur x 112) as would seem by turns 3 & 4. Still, there is obvous progress from ~600 to ~750 /turn. Seems like (BaseInc(Rndm) + Sur x ?), though the details are unknown.
In any case, the cost for the dolls is neglible, so Ayu/Fumi to grab String Doll, either Souun or Izou on Res duty whilst the rest assault the Forest Interior would be my suggestion.

[Terraoblivion]

Why go straight for the interior rather than take the border out first? We need to get both of them to defeat Alice anyway, i think, and the border is easier to take.

Also if there is just about no cost for the dolls pick up the String Doll as well and of course improve either Night Blind Road, my suggestion, or Magic Forest Entrance.

[IncoherentEssay]

Possibly, i don't think there has been any information either way. Taking out the leader ends a side, but whether we can take them down whilst they have turf left is an unknown at the moment.
I sort of assumed a 'Chop off the head' strategy would be viable, why else was such a big deal made about leaders in-game?
I do agree on taking the border first if taking out the Interior wouldn't end the conflict with Alice.

[Sliver]

But attacking the main area might prevent us from capturing more prisoners if the other area gets captured right away... Prisoners... War... We have to maximize our prisoners!

[Mirrinus]

Typically, if a leader's territory is captured but the army still has another territory, the leader will flee there and reappear again in the last battle for that territory. So while nothing's stopping us from taking the Magic Forest Interior, Alice and her army will still remain so long as they control the border.

[Mirrinus]

Let's Play Sengoku Gensokyo - Day 13

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Another typical day. We start by developing the Night-Blind Road, then send in our best fighters against the Magic Forest Border. The dolls there put up a pitiful fight. Usually, after the general of a territory gets defeated but before the army itself falls, the general has maybe a 50% chance of appearing in any battle you fight in that army's territory. However, Shanghai was a no-show here, so this battle was easy.

With only three generic dolls in our way, we made short work of them and won a sound victory. Sometimes, it's actually harder to score a 100% victory when there are fewer enemies, because the battle % bar goes up for each enemy defeated, regardless of how many are actually available.

Our victory should draw out Hourai next time. Maybe Shanghai will even join her.

Didn't have enough members left over to recruit String Doll, I probably should have just used 4 to attack, in hindsight. Oh well, it can't really help in development anyway, so I guess that's not too big of a deal. Interestingly enough, this is the first day to not have any cutscenes. Can you believe it?

**********

Turn: 13
Ouki: 7765
Ryumaku: 14/33
Actions Available: 2

Our Territories:

Hakurei Shrine
Defense: 250/250
Cost to Develop: 24 RES

Night-Blind Road
Defense: 160/160
Cost to Develop: 18 RES

Faintly Dark Path
Defense: 175/175
Cost to Develop: 18 RES

Magic Forest Entrance
Defense: 180/180
Cost to Develop: 9 RES

Enemy Territories:

Magic Forest Border
Army: Forest of Magic Team
General: Hourai Doll
Defense: 160/160

Magic Forest Interior
Army: Forest of Magic Team
General: Alice Margatroid (leader)
Defense: 210/210

Human Village
Army: Human Village Corps
General: Keine Kamishirasawa (leader)
Defense: 310/310

Special Events Available:

Declare War: Human Village Corps
9 NEG is required to declare war.

Prisoners:

String Doll - Not very strong, can't be used to develop. Low cost and decent starting level.
Special: Full Power Shot, a single high-power ranged attack. The user is stunned afterwards.
7 NEG is required for recruitment.

[IncoherentEssay]

Fake Doll, how does that work ?
Can we make partial progress on Neg tasks the same way as we can with Res? Would allow Fumi doll to pick up String by herself. Doesn't cost us actions to try it either.
They can also assist in future DoWs so the first assault will have all the heavy hitters available.
Though since we made some 1k+ Ouki this turn, the benefits of the surplus are starting to be notable.

Not much to vote on unless we want a full 180 turnaround in our strategy, is there?
Take the border and develop the Entrance. Though the entrance is exposed at the moment, it will be soon hidden behind the village, so no big risk.

Edit: V "Boring old Alice" eh? Seems like i seriously need to find time for this game myself.
Edit2: took a while to get it working. Just the intro was quite worth it. The game is a beautiful piece of work overall.

[Terraoblivion]

Yeah, it seems like we'll just continue on with our current strategy.

Also having begun playing the game myself i have to say this. Going for Alice first is exactly the right choice. Shanghai is almost aggressively adorable and Alice herself is the funniest character i've met so far.

[Mirrinus]

Let's Play Sengoku Gensokyo - Day 14

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First off, we develop the Magic Forest Entrance once, thanks to the efforts of Ayu and Souun. Next, it turns out that partial negotiations work too, so Fumi Doll shaves 3 NEG off of the cost for String Doll. Finally, we attack the Magic Forest Border using our remaining 5 members with the intention of capturing today.

Hourai's team goes down fairly easily. I was hoping to see her cast Artful Sacrifice, but she never bothered. That thing can be either good for us (in that using it nearly kills Hourai), or completely devastating to us, depending on when it's used.

A smashing victory gives us control of the Magic Forest Border. However, our victory celebration was short-lived. While we have accomplished much today, we've exhausted all available units, leaving no one ready for Alice's surprise counterattack.

The Magic Forest Entrance was hit, taking out a good chunk of its defense with no defenders to help out. It could have been worse, though; fielding just a few weak characters and suffering a major loss could cost us as much as 100 DEF, so this loss is bearable for now.

We have two options as to what to do here. We can continue onwards undaunted and lay siege to the Magic Forest Interior, where Alice stands. Alternatively, we can shore up our defenses and drive back the invaders at the Magic Forest Entrance. Defeating Alice will cause her to give up her current claim on the Entrance, and Alice needs two more successful attacks on the Entrance to take it. However, to take the Interior, we'll need at least 3 turns, assuming we win every battle (and Alice will be the toughest enemy faced yet).

**********

Turn: 14
Ouki: 8718
Ryumaku: 14/37
Actions Available: 2

Our Territories:

Hakurei Shrine
Defense: 250/250
Cost to Develop: 24 RES

Night-Blind Road
Defense: 160/160
Cost to Develop: 18 RES

Faintly Dark Path
Defense: 175/175
Cost to Develop: 18 RES

Magic Forest Entrance
Defense: 100/180
Cost to Develop: 12 RES

Magic Forest Border
Defense: 160/160
Cost to Develop: 9 RES

Enemy Territories:

Magic Forest Interior
Army: Forest of Magic Team
General: Alice Margatroid (leader)
Defense: 210/210

Human Village
Army: Human Village Corps
General: Keine Kamishirasawa (leader)
Defense: 310/310

Special Events Available:

Declare War: Human Village Corps
9 NEG is required to declare war.

Prisoners:

String Doll - Not very strong, can't be used to develop. Low cost and decent starting level.
Special: Full Power Shot, a single high-power ranged attack. The user is stunned afterwards.
4 NEG is required for recruitment.

[IncoherentEssay]

I say we keep up the attack. Alice needs to attack us thrice to take the Entrance, so with a bit of luck we can take the Interior before she mobilises again and end this quickly. If she hits either of our Forest territories again, then we counter.
Keep up the doll-diplomacy efforts and develop the FoBorder.

[Terraoblivion]

Attack Alice, don't let her get away!

[Cogwheel]

Attack Alice, don't let her get away!

This. Blood for the blood god(dess, this being Touhou), skulls for the skull throne etc.

I refer, of course, to Cirno. First one that springs to mind when you think of wholesale slaughter and berserking, really.

[Terraoblivion]

Wouldn't Suwako be the one you'd normally expect in that role?

[Cogwheel]

Wouldn't Suwako be the one you'd normally expect in that role?

Really? Apart from Cirno (the obvious choice), I was leaning towards Tewi. Maybe Chen.

[catchthesun]

Well, Suwako's actually a goddess. But she's not really the type of goddess. Although, I tend to think of Flandre or Utsuho or Merlin when I'm looking for a berserker.

But, yes, another vote for pounding on Alice some more.

[Cogwheel]

Well, Suwako's actually a goddess. But she's not really the type of goddess. Although, I tend to think of Flandre or Utsuho or Merlin when I'm looking for a berserker.

But, yes, another vote for pounding on Alice some more.

I suppose those would work. Or, you know, Warboss Marisa. Maybe even Patchouli.

I wonder how long it'll take for someone to figure out that I'm joking.