Your war hammer is too fake

You won't get any real junk from the resource pool. If you really want to strictly follow the background setting, Tu Wushang even uses a lot of homemade bone and stone tools; the situation of the naturalized Huns is slightly better, but there are still few decent iron arrowheads in their quivers. Wolf tooth arrows are the most commonly used tools by these grassland residents.

An Jiyue had drawn cards from the supply pool many times, but she had never drawn these junk. Even so, drawing these outdated things from the supply pool was still an infuriating thing. Fortunately, the governor had already reserved a place for the old equipment that had been drawn and might be drawn in the future: all of them were sent to Prager as aid supplies. After all, the Kislevites, who were used to being poor, were not picky about food.

"I know you don't care about the gratitude of a group of people you consider untouchables, but I still want to say thank you." Constantine stared at An Jiyue's face. "These equipments can help many warriors of Ersun survive."

"I must correct you. In my eyes, you are 'barbarians', not 'untouchables'," An Jiyue handed a list of equipment to Constantine and watched him sign his name on the list. "Don't compare me with those so-called nobles. No matter what title I get, I will always be a commoner in my life."

"Maybe you're not as bad as I thought, Duke An," the bald man said, stressing the word "Duke." "They all say I'm crazy, and I think so too. I think you're probably even crazier than I am."

"General Bing can only be in charge of the expedition, unless she is unable to perform her duties for some reason." An Jiyue didn't want to talk to Constantine about identity recognition or anything like that. "You can't continue to preach to her or any other Zhendan people. If you want to save your god, if you still consider yourself a devout believer, don't do things that will only create more conflicts and rifts. Look at me, Constantine, this is not a warning."

The half-bald man's eyes widened: "How can you prohibit the divine right of the servants of the gods to preach?"

"Let me tell you a little secret, Constantine." The girl felt that her patience with this guy was almost at its limit. "Ersun placed a part of his essence in a devout believer. As long as this person is killed, Ersun will also fall. This believer is now in the capital of my territory, accepting my protection. Do you need me to continue?"

"..."

"Some things that you take for granted may not be so in the eyes of others," An Jiyue turned around and led Jin Zhifan away, "You may not understand, but you must accept it."

"Will you keep your promise?" Constantine shouted behind the girl.

The Jiedushi did not give any response.

……

After An Jiyue had done some ideological work on the two leaders (?), the expeditionary force set out.

The governor stood on the hill, watching the six thousand warriors embark on this life-threatening journey. When the last flag disappeared from the end of the field of vision, An Jiyue turned around and looked at Aiwen and Dustan standing behind him.

"This fortress is now in your hands," she patted the knight's shoulder, "I'll transfer 50,000 points to you first, so you can recruit some troops to get familiar with the feel. But I don't recommend you deploy any of the Empire's core units here, except for the musketeers. If you draw a special card, you can add some chickens or something."

The provincial infantry has never been weak, but the fort already has powerful counterparts in China such as the Central Army Camp. Before the new round of expansion, the fort can only accommodate about 5,000 people stationed here for a long time, and their logistical supplies are completely dependent on their own holy book master to gamble in the supply pool. The fort currently has more than 4,000 people living in it, and the remaining space is limited. Although everyone doesn't mind letting Egwen come to brush some northerners to earn extra money, the provincial infantry is indeed not suitable for this place.

Among the core units of the Empire, the only elite ones are the Imperial Knights. However, just like Dustan did not deploy cavalry here, the ration consumption of war horses makes them lack of cost-effectiveness.

Of course, the monster cavalry is another matter.

"The Empire's infantry is much stronger than that of Battor, but it's still too much of a stretch to throw them into the King's Game," Aiwen had no objection to this. "Speaking of which, let me ask you a question. Does your Bible have any expanded troop types?"

The Jiedushi and the magician looked at each other. "Expansion? What expansion?" An Jiyue asked.

"There are many, such as this one," the knight summoned her war codex and turned to the recruitment page. "Aldolf Expansion, which says that after unlocking it, you can recruit Rick Swordsmen and other unique arms of Rick Territory. And this one, Nuln Expansion, has more expansion arms that can be recruited, such as Ironclad Army, Land Cruisers, and White-winged Griffin Knights."

"Fuck it," Dustan said bitterly, "Why can't I recruit Tal Gaiwo?! I want the power of the four cards, too!"

"These things all have prerequisites," Aiwen waved her hand, "and the unlocking conditions of some expansions are mutually exclusive."

"What are the specific prerequisites?" An Jiuyue asked again.

"First, there's the main deity of the faction. I need to choose one from all the legal religions in the empire as the main deity of my faction. After I choose it, all the system units recruited will believe in this deity by default, unless the background setting is such as witch hunters, where the object of faith has been clearly stated. You can choose not to choose, but then you won't be able to unlock any expansion units," Evelyn said, rubbing her hair in embarrassment. "The most outrageous thing is that I actually found dwarf gods and some elf gods in it. If you choose the dwarf god, you can unlock the empire's dwarf units."

"That's normal. There are indeed some people in the Empire, I mean, a small group of humans who believe in the ancestral gods and Kadai. This is legal in the Empire, as long as it is reported," An Jiyue said, "Let me guess, if you choose Sigma, you can't start the Middenheim expansion, right?"

"Yes. Although I can choose, I will definitely not choose Yurik as the main god."

"Then I'm curious about one thing," An Jiyue smiled playfully, "Which god do your Holy Grail Knights believe in?"

As soon as these words came out, Evelyn's expression suddenly became strange.

"They..." The Knight looked troubled by this, "They believe in me."

Chapter 180 My Goddess (Part 2)

The three time travelers came to An Jiyue's private office and asked someone to prepare some food.

"I don't know if you have ever encountered a similar situation. Anyway, when I was looking at the recruitment list, I found that if I wanted to recruit Holy Grail Knights, in addition to the recruitment card and points, there were additional requirements," Aiwen said. "Each Holy Grail Knight requires a drop of my blood. In addition, their background descriptions say that they all believe in me."

The firemen quickly brought three portions of cakes and hot tea, two of which were on normal-sized plates, and the remaining one was in a washbasin—an ogre washbasin. After each of them took their portion, the three Lords of the Holy Scriptures ate the snacks while chatting about Egwene.

"Although it is often jokingly called Lilith's foot-washing water, the mysterious liquid in the Holy Grail that the Bretonnian knight drank is actually Lilith's blood, which has been diluted." An Jiyue drank a sip of hot tea without touching the cakes. "Should I say this is expected... When I first met Gazul, He called me a 'young Outer God'."

"Are we not human beings?" Evelyn asked.

"I'm not a 'human'." Dustan rolled his eyes.

"Stop it," An Jiyue glanced at the wizard unhappily, "And the time in Altdorf, Tzeentch told me in person, 'Welcome to join our great game.' Obviously, mortals are not qualified to get involved in the war between the four vendors."

"You two are fine, but I'm not a god at all. Is there any god as weak as me?" The magician said as he threw a piece of mung bean cake into his mouth. "I feel like I can hardly defeat any ordinary-looking demon."

"Yes, indeed. The four vendors are out of the ordinary, and the elf gods are also on the stronger side," An Jiyue, the only genuine hammer guy in the group, explained, "In the background setting, some gods are weaker than you think. Let's not talk about others. Do you think Ersun is strong? In addition, although I feel like I have said it many times, I still have to say it again now, the Great Demon is very strong. Your wrong impression of the Great Demon's combat power is mainly because the author of Snow Skin Pig is born with the characteristic of 'combat power collapse', and GW always likes to use the Great Demon as a stepping stone to boost people's status."

The governor picked up a piece of mung bean cake from the plate in front of him, but did not eat it. He just turned it in circles between his fingers. "If we really follow the setting strictly, even if the Great Whirlpool is still alive, a great demon that appears in the mortal world is enough to destroy a small country. If it is a great unclean one, there may be more than one small country."

"Then let's get back to the topic. Gazul's name for me is very interesting, the young Outer God. I'm an expert in the Ancients, so I'm not very familiar with the situation in 40K, but I heard that the group of space bean sprouts next door call Gayman the 'young god'. What do you think is the gap between the Thirteenth Prince and his father?"

"Actually, I'm more concerned about one thing right now," Aiwen said after temporarily stopping talking. "It's basically confirmed that you're no longer a human being. What about the other group members, including me? Are you the only Outer God, or are you..."

"We can find an opportunity to verify this matter." For some reason, the Jiedushi seemed to be reluctant to discuss this issue. "Let's talk about you. Have you decided which one you want to choose as the main god?"

"Although I really want a dwarven spearman (Note 1) or something like that, who can resist the charm of the Imperial version of Tar Gaiwo?" Knight Ji said, knocking on the basin in front of her.

The fireman waiting on the side immediately replaced the basin with a new one, which was piled high with various cakes and pastries.

"Wait a minute," Dustan frowned, "The dwarves and Sigmar should have a good relationship. It's not surprising that the beliefs of Sigmar and Ulric are mutually exclusive, but why are A-Duan and the barbarian hammer-wielding giant mutually exclusive as well?"

"Choosing the Aldmeri will also unlock the Altdorf expansion," Egwene explained, "but the Aldmeri and all other expansions are mutually exclusive. If you choose to worship the dwarven gods, only the Imperial Dwarven expansion and the Altdorf expansion are available."

Hearing this, An Jiyue fell into deep thought. The additional soldiers provided by the Altdorf expansion are mainly three different configurations of Rick Swordsmen, including sword and shield, greatsword and halberd versions, as well as the Caronburg Greatswordsman, and then various knights headquartered in Rick Territory. Since the Imperial Army Book can recruit Rick Knights, and there are also invincible chickens, those fancy knights are not very valuable, and only the Caronburg Imperial Flower and the halberd version of Rick Swordsman are the most useful.

As for the Imperial Dwarves, although the Dwarf Spearmen are rare and you won't see them anywhere in the Mountain Kingdom, this unit is just that. The Imperial Dwarves expansion can only provide units at the level of Longbeard Warriors, and they are special units. If you really want to play the Dwarf unit, you just need to say hello to Barrel, and you can borrow the Iron Crusher and the Heavy Hammer.

The Empire's ability to hold the line is not bad, and the terrible appearance in Total War is purely due to the game mechanism and CA brand files. Unless the Empire Dwarves can produce troops of the level of Ironbreaker Warriors, their role in strengthening the Empire faction is quite limited.

Thinking of this, An Jiyue suddenly had new doubts.

"If the Empire's dwarven expansion is limited to this extent, why is the cost of choosing it so high?" In front of the two group members, the Jiedushi expressed his doubts: "I have a feeling that the choices given by the War Codex should be roughly equal, and there is no absolute distinction between good and bad."

"Can anything be better than the power of four cards?" Dustan complained.

"That's true. The White-Winged Griffin Knights are really great. The Ironclad Army and the Land Ships are just extras." An Jiyue felt that the topic had gone a bit off topic, so she quickly changed the subject. "Ewen, judging from the fact that your blood is needed to recruit the Holy Grail Knights, Dustan, Barrel, and Lao Xiao aside, you must be an Outer God. Only the blood of the gods can create a powerful Holy Grail Knight."

"It doesn't matter whether he is an Outer God or not. I'm not like the constipated patient next door who uses god-like powers while insisting that he is not a god." The Knight Princess waved her hands, and the crumbs of cake fell from her fingertips. "What I am more worried about now is that if my little secret is exposed, I don't know how Bretonnia will react."

"Don't worry too much about that. Even with our current strength, unless the knights abandon their lair and gather their entire army to attack us, we can handle it," the alchemist girl supported her chin with one hand, and her bright red eyes reflected the knight's cheeks that were as bulging as a squirrel. "But in this way... Tsk, if I had known that this would happen, I shouldn't have advised Kagaba not to meet with Laun. I should have gone over and killed the so-called lake fairy."

Aiwen tilted her head: "What meeting?"

"According to the original history, Carl would run out to patrol the forest after the first round of voting in the Emperor's Selection Meeting, but he was ambushed by forest goblins on the way. There is nothing much to say about the ambush itself. The key point is that after the battle, Carl would encounter an assassin who disguised himself as Rick's Guard and infiltrated the team. The assassin almost succeeded, but at the critical moment, the Green Knight suddenly appeared and saved Carl, and took the opportunity to make an invitation, inviting Carl to meet with Lawn near Axe Pass."

The governor recalled and said, "As a result, at the Axe Pass, the Imperials and the Bretons encountered another greenskin attack... Of course, there is nothing much to say about this. The Lake Fairy herself came at that time. If we kill her, Li Biao will not be able to find a suitable replacement in a short time. At least in the next two or three years, Li Biao's control over Bretonnia will be seriously reduced. This period of time is enough for us to do a lot of things."

"Um..." Knight Princess raised her hand, "Um, do you think the Green Knight is still waiting there?"

The office suddenly fell silent. An Jiyue looked at Aiwen first, then at Dustan. Finally, the alchemist girl turned her head away and asked guiltily, "What do you want to eat for dinner?"

Aiwen's mind suddenly jumped: "How about the charcoal grilled elf?"

"If you want to eat charcoal-grilled elves, please go to Nagarond, thank you," An Jiyue answered reflexively, "There is one there with just the right temperature."

After saying that, the two beautiful girls looked at each other and laughed at the same time.

……

Note 1: The Imperial Dwarves have spearmen. When Magnus the Pious went north to fight, his army included several battalions of Dwarven spearmen.

The author says:

Author's words: PS: Reply to reader "Reader 1674233950":

You guessed it right, the reason why dwarves don't use bows is because their arms are too short and they are not naturally suited to using bows and arrows. According to the seventh edition of the Dwarf Military Book, dwarves have a very long history of using crossbows, even before the establishment of Plateau Fort.

Chapter 181 Subtle Details

There is no rush to make a decision on the matter of the faction's chief god.

After all, there is still at least a month before County Magistrate Ai takes office in Goose City... However, Aiwen's first card draw as the Lord of the Holy Scripture attracted more attention from the travelers. Not only An Jiyue and Dustan who were at the scene, but also Barrel who was busy looking for the wine hiding place and Xiao Yiyue who was busy clearing out the undead, sent messages saying that they wanted to watch the live broadcast.

Under the strong watch of the four group members, Aiwen, who was not nervous at first, began to get nervous. Knight Ji called out the War Codex, took a deep breath, then turned to the corresponding page and clicked on the recruitment pool.

With a flash of light, 33 cards jumped out of the recruitment pool and lined up in three rows in the air in front of Aiwen. The bad news was that there was no miracle in this card draw. The Knight did not draw the most difficult rare card or the second most difficult Lord card. The good news was that she drew eight special cards at once, and the power of the European Emperor shone so brightly that it almost blinded the eyes of the non-Africans.

Four of the special cards immediately turned into four teams of half-griffin knights, joining the ranks of the multi-ethnic coalition forces in the fort. Egwene kept half of the remaining four special cards as backup, and the other half turned into two teams of mortars. Neither the Anshun nor the dwarves had this type of indirect-fire artillery, which could just fill the gap in the firepower of the fortress garrison.

Conventional artillery, regardless of race, faction, or category, is a team of six war machines, and will also have its own ammunition cart and spare traction beasts - if there is such a thing in the background setting. As for monster cavalry, it is possible to have a team of twelve to thirty. Generally speaking, the scale of flying monster cavalry is smaller than that of ground cavalry.

In addition, if the rider is a powerful race, it will also cause the unit size to become smaller.

Take the An Zhendan's Ta Camp as an example. These heavy cavalrymen riding giant rhinos only have 12 riders in a team, and the size of each team is smaller than that of the air knights such as the Eagle Guard. As for the Empire's half-griffin knights, perhaps because the riders are not very good at fighting compared to the various monsters, each team has riders.

On the contrary, the Holy Grail Knights, these mounted cavalrymen were treated the same as the six-ton ​​carbon-based tanks of the Treading Camp, with only 12 riders in a team. You should know that whether it is the Yulin Guard, the Rick Knights or the Dragon Prince, a team is uniformly riders, which makes Aiwen more and more looking forward to the combat effectiveness of the Imperial version of the Holy Grail.

It is worth mentioning that there is a small detail about the four teams of Demi-Griffin Knights recruited by Egwene, that is, their default main weapon is the cavalry halberd. Demi-Griffin Knights are a type of entanglement cavalry, usually using cavalry halberds in combat, and lances are also used but less frequently; however, in the tabletop rules, the default weapon of Demi-Griffin Knights is the lance, but it can be replaced with a halberd for free.

"You may think this is nothing, but as a Hammer guy who is familiar with military books, well... how should I put it," An Jiyue organized her words, "Come to think of it, I have never asked, Dustan, in your war book, is the magic swordsman a lord or a hero?"

"Of course he's a hero," Dustan asked in a somewhat strange tone, "What's the problem?"

"That's the problem. In the tabletop rules, the Spellblade is a lord," An Jiyue recalled the details in some military books that she knew, "but whether in terms of character characteristics or background settings, the Spellblade is closer to the positioning of a hero rather than a lord. The Holy Codex of War has obviously made adjustments to some details that are more in line with the background settings, but in this case, why is the Eagle Claw Ballista still a rare unit of the High Elves? What's so rare about this thing?"

"Fuck, I only got a crossbow once from the supply pool," Dustan got angry when he mentioned this, "The high elves only have this kind of artillery, and it's like they didn't give me any artillery!"

"Perhaps it's not that the War Codex is unwilling to further rationalize, but that it can only do this much?" Aiwen guessed: "To be honest, the Pistol Cavalry is a special unit, and the Imperial Knights are the core units. According to the background setting you mentioned before, except for a very small number of Imperial Knights who are directly promoted from the Imperial Flower, all members must serve as Pistol Cavalry for several years before they can truly become an Imperial Knight. As a result, I won't change it here."

"But the Magic Swordsman has indeed moved from the Lord category to the Hero category." The more An Jiyue wanted to dig deeper, the more she felt that there were too many knots that she couldn't figure out. "Forget it, let's put this question aside for now. This is the only known information, and no matter how much analysis we do, we can't come up with a credible conclusion. Dustan, are you ready?"

Asur led the mage to make an "OK" gesture.

"In short, this fortress and these more than 4,000 people are now in your hands," An Jiyue stared into Aiwen's eyes, "Don't lose it. Of course, if it's really impossible, remember that your safety is the most important, and everything else can be abandoned."

"I will." Aiwen opened her arms and hugged An Jiyue. When Dustan subconsciously opened his arms and came closer, the knight took a step back and turned her head away with a subtle expression.

The wizard's face suddenly puffed up like Perturabo's.

White clouds emerged from under their feet, lifting up the Jiedushi, the magician, and their followers. As the knight watched, it flew higher and higher, straight up to the sky, and finally disappeared into the horizon.

……

The sun gradually set in the west. The bright moon rose high in the sky, and then fell again. When the first rays of sunlight in the morning shone on the earth, the group of people who had been flying all night finally arrived at Xuanshui.

An Jiyue only had one follower, Jin Zhishi, but Dustan brought a whole team of Hoeth Swordmasters. He originally wanted to bring the Phoenix Guards, and he recruited this team because he wanted to have some powerful bodyguards. An Jiyue advised him to change to Hoeth Swordmasters. On the one hand, the Hoeth Swordmasters, who were professional counterintelligence, were more suitable as bodyguards. On the other hand, the origin of the Phoenix Guards was not easy to explain.

As for the most professional bodyguards, the White Lion Guards, even if Dustan dared to recruit them, he would never dare to let outsiders see them. Unlike the Phoenix Guards, which bear the name of the Phoenix but have little to do with the Phoenix King, the White Lion Guards are the Phoenix King's direct guards. Although these elite warriors from Chrace are sometimes sent abroad, such missions are well documented. Once the White Lion Guards from the War Codex are known to Ulthuan, it will be a huge trouble.

The same goes for the Avalon Archer Boy.

"Damn it, you, Lao Xiao, and Barrel are free to recruit whoever you want," Dustan cursed as he took the meat porridge offered by the maid of Duke Wu's mansion. "I originally wanted to send a team of Avalon."

"Stop complaining, drink the porridge and go to bed," An Jiyue waved her hand, "The next thing will depend on you. Remember, hang out in the group when you have time, and ask group members if you encounter problems that you can't solve. It's always better to work together than to figure it out on your own."

"Ah."

After staying up all night, Dustan, who had been fighting recently, was a little exhausted. Although An Jiyue was also very sleepy, there were too many things she needed to deal with personally, and she couldn't fall asleep until the work was done.

Just as the two Lords of the Holy Scriptures were flying to Xuanshui, the school marquis stationed in Altdorf sent the latest news that Boris Todbringer, the Elector of Midden, publicly announced his withdrawal from the election, and it was a foregone conclusion that Karl Franz would become the new emperor. Along with this news, the envoy of Bretonnian King Lawn Leocornwall hurriedly visited Altdorf.

They sent an invitation to a meeting. Due to An Jiyue's previous arrangement, Karl, who was waiting for the second round of voting, politely declined Laun's invitation. Although the second round of voting had become a formality after the Wolf Lord withdrew, the rules were the rules. When the Bretonnians asked Karl when he would be free, Karl said that he had made a promise to the Elector of Nordland that he would lead his army north immediately after his coronation to deal with the Norscans who plundered the coast of Nordland.

Laun has not yet responded further, but An Jiyue is sure that she has ruined the meeting. Laun himself will definitely not care about the "neglect" of the imperial people, but those arrogant Bretonnian nobles, especially the Parraon people who are enemies of Reikland, will definitely think that Carl deliberately humiliated them. As a medieval monarch, Laun, who has been crowned for only two years, cannot go to see Carl despite the dissatisfaction of the nobles.

"Let Lu Zhenfu send someone to Paraon to keep an eye on it. If the Bretonnians make any unusual movements, notify me immediately." An Jiuyue said to Nishikori Shigeharu who was standing behind him.

"Yes." The deputy captain took the order and left.

Bretonnia could not possibly go to war with the Empire at this time. As long as Laun was still king, he would never let that happen. However, a local conflict between Parraon and Reikland was entirely possible. Anyway, the two families had fought so many wars in the past that there was a special term called the "Parraon War".

There have been four Parawon Wars in history, so a fifth one is no big deal.

Chapter 182: Separate Departures

Dustan rested for a day in Xuanshui, and then led the team of Hos Sword Saints back to Akendorf.

With the points earned from the Fortress of the Northerners, the population of Akendorf has expanded to 40,000, which is a very prosperous city even in Ulthuan. Located on the Silver Road, Akendorf is an important trade node in the Old World. Currently, caravans visit the city every week, bringing endless wealth.

The burning and dividing of the Mirkwood and the construction of various reclaimed villages also progressed smoothly. During this period, various strange "residents" living in the forest launched dozens of attacks on the settlements of the high elves, but they were all defeated by the martial Asur. With Akendorf as the center, thousands of square kilometers of land became safer than ever before.

According to the report of the high elf noble appointed by Dustan as the mayor of Akendorff, there is even a group of human refugees coming from the west recently, hoping to become the subjects of Dustan's territory. The mayor has investigated these people and found that they come from several "principalities" in the central part of the border prince's territory. Recently, the "principality" they belong to organized a "multinational coalition" and fought a fierce battle with an unknown force, but was defeated by the other side.

The refugees who had not received any education had very poor communication skills. The mayor listened for a long time but still did not understand what their opponents were like. The only things that could be confirmed were that, first, the opponents were "newcomers" and had not lived in the border prince's territory for a long time, maybe a few years, or maybe more than ten years. Second, the number of the opponents was much smaller than that of the "multinational coalition forces". As a result, when the fight broke out, it was the "multinational coalition forces" that were pinned to the ground and beaten violently.

Third, the other side is very rich, at least the refugees think that they are very rich. The refugees' descriptions of this unknown force are almost different, but all refugees mentioned that there seems to be someone on the other side who regularly delivers them food and other necessities of life.

The "princes" were very jealous of the other party's supplies, so they teamed up to blackmail them. However, the other party didn't care about their threats at all and attacked them without saying a word.