The world froze. Every hand, every chest, even a falling rock and a flying bird. It all stopped.
Ethan stared. Unable to fully focus as the blue screens streamed in front of his eyes. If only for self-preservation, he focused on the immediate choice. And it wasn’t much of one on the surface.
Their history, laid out in such terms was flattering. And the classes were both rare and powerful! A heavy infantry warrior and a heavy horse that was a damn knight in stats. But… they were highly specialized. Bonuses against demons and only demons. The Hospitalier had some generic skills to, Fortress building and healing but even it was primarily a purifier. Lands, wounds and even the demon’s connection to this verse.
All three would have been powerful during the war.
But the war was over. It was time to focus on the next one.
As for culture, No. The Horselords were unholy terrors on their plains… but Alfwin pass wasn’t a plain! He wasn’t sure if they could feed the horses they had through the winter, much less planning some empire of horses.
In the mountains…
No.
That left Biomes.
Lake Biome?
No. Just no.
He glanced at the classes just to be safe, but general seamanship, ship legs and proficiencies to swimming and light armor were not in the Bands future. And while they needed some fishing boats, the shipbuilder was rather overqualified for that.
Glacial Valley Biome?
Damn. Massively armored, lots of stamina and skills that burned that stamina to make them even more durable. Throw in the buff that doubled down on it and you had one hell of a front line fighter. The lack of shield was a bit of a change, but he could see how heavy armor and that active could take its place. An upgrade path that doubled down on being able to take a beating and a specialist plate armor smith to synergize? He could easily see a place for them in the Band.
River Biome?
Huh. Medium but fast-moving shield and sword infantry with buffs to fighting on boats. Doubled down with the elite unit but with a pleasant surprise with the boatbuilding axe master. Half builder but with skills that could easily be used in a fight as well? A solid class. Solid synergies and the makings of a trade dynasty.
Subterranean Biome?
What… What did that warning even mean? Weapon focus hammers or pickaxes? Why would you… those were tools, not weapons!
But Damn. That Runesmith. That was something. Enchanted gear wasn’t found… well at all! Not outside of rift rewards. Magisters could sort of fake it, but only with a steady diet of expended cores.
But unless they wanted to live in tunnels, the buffs just weren’t useful…
Pity.
Meadow Biome.
Damn. Now that was a passive buff! Crossbows, a decent ambush skill and doubling down on mobility! It would require a major shift in the Band's methods. But he’d not want to fight them! Not in a high meadow at least. With enough room to maneuver, you’d never catch them and they’d pick even heavily armored men apart. Not to mention the crafter… Siege engines and crossbows?
Tempting. They’d require front-line troops to close rifts with, but the Band had those… Tempting indeed.
Mountain Biome.
Pahadi were mountain specialists. Half hunter, half skirmish warriors with specialties in bow, spear and armor made from things they harvested. Sakri were specialized leatherworkers who could make the most of their kills, and with the number of Tier 2 hides they had on hand, that might be stronger than some of the metal armor options. The Ghurka took that to 11 with an additional bonus to tenacity that reminded Ethan of an angry honey badger.
There wasn’t really enough of a forest for it to be a real choice, but for Completeness, Ethan went to the next one.
Forest Biome.
Ethan paused. Specialist fast-moving, stealthy archers, bowmakers and buffs to using them? That was actually quite good! Just not here, and not for the band.
Being next door to The Forest, but trying to outforest them? No thanks.
Ethan took a deep breath.
Well, at least he could cut a few out. No Lake and effective as it might be, no River. Miro excepted, it just wasn’t the skills or style that they wanted. No Forest, no Subterranean. The Runesmith was possibly the single best class of the lot, but the rest was mediocre. Worthless even unless they wanted to abandon the surface.
Ethan leaned back. Could he ask advice of a friend?
__________
It turned out that he indeed could.
Yes.
Huh. Now that was useful. Limiting the field a bit to concentrate the discussion.
Share Biome choices for Mountain, Valley and Meadow with the Bandsmen present.
He mentally tagged each name and repeated his request.
Ethan winced internally. Poor Miro. She’d have loved the River option. Though she was probably wise enough to reject it. Just too limited for the river they had. But she did make a good point. It was a compromise between the extremes. Reaching up out of the valleys and even out of the meadows it was named after, while retaining an organized military power and even a small ability to project it out of the mountains. The speed buff would make them an absolute nightmare to deal with as they retreated up the valleys, ambushing invaders at every turn.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a compromise he was willing to make. He didn’t have crossbows now. And while the Feinmechaniker was a damn good reason to choose that option by itself, it wasn’t available without ranking up the core. Until then, the class was mostly defunct.
And that led to the Valley. He did have plate available, if in limited quantities. And while they wouldn’t be from specialists, they could bang out a few of those polearms. Expensive between the two but doable.
But it was an extreme option in its own right. It surrendered the ridges and peaks in favor of dominating the valleys and keeping the potential to expand beyond the mountains entirely. All with a disgustingly powerful unit…
One that would require a large logistic train they’d have to make on the fly… While not spending that time on so many other tasks.
And as Leo said, even with great troops they didn’t have the numbers to fight a stand-up battle against the lowlanders.
They’d dominate a rift and the walls of the fortress they were about to build too…
Stamina stacking and spaming that defensive skill while Ethan buffed their stamina regen…
Damn but it was a disgusting combo. He sighed and let it go.
Reluctantly.
To the mountains they had gone, and it looked like in them they would stay.
It would take work, but they knew how to make everything required already, and having men not stuck inside during the winter would do amazing things for their security, morale and larders.
He sighed, looking longingly at the many things he could have, but likely couldn’t survive having.
Then made his choice.
Integrate?
Fuck Yes!
Ethan’s eyebrow twitched. Yes…
The standard left Quintus’ unmoving arms to float above the core. Then the class stones embedded in its shaft began to melt. Dripping down to coat, then be absorbed by the core.
Alpine Hunter? He gave the class a quick glance.
Was:
To:
Well… That was a welcome change. Not just making a dangerous job more survivable but also more useful in war.
Yes!
Dhanush-kami?
Was:
To:
That was… a specialization. An upgrade for sure, but a dangerous one. It would leave a gap that men would have to jump. A risk he wasn’t sure he’d take in normal situations. But with the synergies to the Pahadi he almost had to. Especially as he had a number of existing Bowyers that would bridge the gap… even if he’d be unable to gain more.
Yes.
He glanced through them. That explained part of the Riverlands farming output and how The Forest really did provide. No doubt the Horse Lords had herding too. Travel was tempting, both from something Miro had mentioned and just needing to cover so much blasted territory! Prospecting? Mining? Yes and yes. There was so many undetected resources just waiting to be exploited here. Fertility… well he did need a larger population base. Hard to argue with that. And…
Rift?
Now wasn’t that a cherry on top? They were going to be spending a good portion of their lives trying to close the damn things over a large, sparsely populated territory. Might as well get more out of it!
