Season 3: Chapter 202. Hill Tank (2)
“Evict them!!”
Was it because of OrangeKing’s desperate cry?
Bang!
Persia eventually canceled its defense tower at six o’clock.
The worker casualties nearly reached a dozen and the wood camp had been out of commission for too long.
“Right now, there’s no production at the blacksmith!”
Persia’s blacksmith could no longer produce bows and no wooden buildings were being constructed either.
“Oh my, Best Yi Sun-Shin is so ruthless! She perfectly strangled the wood supply!”
As the caster said, Joseon had Persia completely by the throat.
“Can they finish it?!”
“That might be too hasty! It’s like they’ve just pushed the second tower in LIL! It’s too soon to end it!”
Above all, Persia wouldn’t be the master of turtling if they collapsed here.
“What!? The workers! Some of the workers heading to twelve o’clock are now going to the three o’clock position!?”
In the context of the whole map, the three o’clock direction led to Joseon’s main base and gate.
“It’s not just the workers!”
Persia suddenly gathered the accumulated forces and charged toward Joseon’s main gate.
“Are they planning to reverse attack Joseon’s main base?”
“Is there an opening in Joseon’s defense?”
Normally, charging through the main gate would result in significant losses because of Joseon’s forces on the wall. However, all forces had been dispatched for resource harassment.
Persia realized that Joseon had focused entirely on harassment and launched a counterattack.
The Persian forces marched out.
“They got out very easily!”
“Are they running straight to Joseon’s main base? Most of these forces are barbarian soldiers... and workers are mixed in too?”
— Persian cheese rush!!
— Really?
— Crazy
— What is this?
— Huh?
The Persian forces left their base and seemed to be running toward Joseon’s main base at three o’clock.
However, they changed course mid-way.
“What?!”
“Oh, they’re going for a multi?”
A multi referred to setting up new resource camps or buildings in another area. Usually, they would set up another worker producing facility like a village hall. Attempting a multi always entailed risks, but Persia showed its guts to try a multi in such a situation.
“They’re looking for another terrain with a wall!”
“Surely they’re not starting anew?”
The commentators speculated about Persia’s intentions, but that wasn’t it.
“No, they want a multi where they won’t be harassed for wood.”
“Wow... going for a multi so openly? That’s risky!”
“But from Joseon’s perspective...”
Ping.
The observer briefly switched to Joseon’s view.
A replay showed and they saw a glimpse of Persian forces rushing to three o’clock. Then, it became dark again.
The middle ground of this map had no stationed forces.
“Joseon thinks Persia is making a final rush to their main base!”
Joseon had positioned defensive forces toward nine o’clock, assuming the enemy was coming. That seemed logical based on the map’s flow.
“They’ll realize Persia is taking too long only after the multi has been built!”
While Joseon was mistaken, Persia would use this time to set up the multi at six o’clock where another ancient wall was.
“To avoid the earlier mistake, Persia is stationing quite a few soldiers on the wall now!”
Most of the soldiers Persia brought had been placed on the wall.
The workers immediately headed for the wood to build a depot and resume gathering wood. The village halls and defense towers also began construction.
“Joseon has noticed something. Their forces are moving around!”
Joseon noticed that something was off, but had already been delayed.
“What about Persia’s main base?”
“They’ve completely abandoned everything near the wall and compressed their base! It’s a full-on Korean-style retreat! Gather in Seoul for the new village movement!”
— lol
— They really all gathered in the center
— Gather in the middle first
— Abandoning the base for now
— Amazing decision
Tightly packed buildings protected the main base.
“Defense towers are also being built out of the wall’s range.”
Persia wanted to prepare for Joseon’s potential full-scale attack due to its lack of troops.
“Yes. Persia’s resource score is starting to rise again! This is amazing!”
Persia’s move was nothing short of impressive.
“This is true experience! In such a situation, I would’ve panicked and tried to reclaim the wall with all my forces! But Persia coolly abandoned that!”
“Indeed! Looking back, it was an area that could be abandoned! As long as it wasn’t regarding wood!”
Wood resources were usually the farthest from the village hall and made for easy targets from the wall. Without wood, the occupation of the wall wasn’t a big issue.
“With this, Persia escapes the pressure and gains a surprise multi! With such a plan in this crisis....”
“It’s a testament to their high experience level.”
“Indeed.”
Only someone who had done a lot of turtling could pull off this strategy.
The casters viewed the situation like this, but the viewers didn’t.
— Is this how it turns out?
— What’s going on?!
— Can’t cut them off here??
— Ah
— But this is a huge loss too, actually
The viewers couldn’t hide their disappointment at Joseon not finishing the advantageous game.
OrangeKing explained why it was far from over, “Think of it like pizza! Joseon has captured the crust part of the pizza! But Persia is like, ‘Oh, the crust is not the main part!’ and discarded it! The pizza is still alive! The cheese is still hot! That’s why the game isn’t over!”
— lol what an analogy
— Capturing the crust means they captured nothing ㅡㅡ
— Fell for it, no cheese crust
— lol
— Actually good
— Just did someone else a favor lol
“But now we have to calculate?”
“Ah, yes. Exactly.”
“Persia survived, but they’ve spent too much! The unexpected expenses are around seventy to eighty percent!”
Building the multi, evacuating workers, and producing troops to station on the wall all cost resources.
Persia intended to proceed into the third era without spending, but had to slam on the brakes after suffering a massive blow.
Meanwhile, Joseon only dispatched troops and suffered no losses. Most of those troops were still alive.
“Joseon has some leeway. They can say, ‘Multi? See you later. Follow me to the third era!’”
“Yes! Now they’ll start snowballing!”
Just as he said this, the drums began to beat.
Boom!
[Joseon - Third Era]
Joseon had unexpectedly reached the third era first.
They also entered the second era first and inflicted heavy damage.
— Wow
— Awesome
— This is it
— Best! Yi! Sun! Shin!
— Let’s go~
“Good! It’s the third era! Joseon reaching the third era first hugely increases their chance of winning!”
“Indeed! But don’t they need to pull their forces back from the nine o’clock wall?” the caster mentioned the forces initially sent during the fast archer rush. “Aren’t they still holding onto the crust on the edge!?”
— Controlling the crust lol
— What is this?!
— Evict the crust!
— It’s really a crust prison now
OrangeKing felt surprised.
Those forces were the elite of Joseon’s archers. Leaving them there could be a disadvantage in the upcoming third era battles. Moreover, those soldiers had to get the new third era weapons like the recurve bow.
“How will they receive the recurve bows...?”
Upon reaching the third era, troops were usually rearmed with third-age weapons for a vastly different efficiency. Civilizations aiming for the late game minimized second era weapon production for this reason. Weapons bought in the second era would be wasted money in the third.
“Continuing to pressure with short bows has its limits. Persia has compressed their base... they’ll reach the third era eventually!”
“Joseon can’t descend from the wall to attack the main base either. Persia has it tightly secured!”
With second era short bows, Joseon couldn’t deal more damage to Persia. The archers wouldn’t be able to attack without recurve bows. Despite this, Joseon’s forces on the wall didn’t retreat and hadn’t received orders to retreat.
“I’m not sure what the plan is here, but Joseon needs to decide between mounted archers or heavy infantry in the third era.”
“Yes. Light cavalry is ineffective against elephants, so it’s not an option. I’d rather see some crossbowmen! They used swordsmen quite well before.”
“Yes. That’s true... What?”
OrangeKing saw something that shocked him.
“They’re going with this!?”
***
“What’s this? Are we staying here?”
Latte scratched his head in confusion.
They hadn’t shot an arrow in over fifteen minutes. It had been great during the initial worker massacre, but they had just been waiting since then.
“We reached the third era. Shouldn’t we go get recurve bows? Did they forget us?”
Latte had all sorts of thoughts. It didn’t make sense to forget the first-line archers, but everyone seemed uneasy.
‘This has to do with trust...’
Almond knew they felt uneasy because the commander wasn’t Cookie. They knew what orders Cookie would give and even what mistakes he would make. If Cookie was known to forget troops, they would have returned to the base by now.
What about Best Yi Sun-Shin? They knew nothing. Regardless of skill, they didn’t know her mistakes or strategies.
Things seemed fine when the game went well, but prolonged uncertainty made soldiers anxious.
“The order is still to wait,” Almond spoke, “Just wait. I’m the leader. Listen to me.”
“...”
The archers momentarily looked at Almond.
“... Okay.”
No one objected. Almond’s tone sounded so definitive that it didn’t allow for any dissent.
They waited as Almond instructed. No orders came down even after reaching the third era.
Boom!
[Persia - Third Era]
Now, Persia also reached the third era.
Pang and Carrot looked like they had much to say but remained silent.
“...”
If anyone spoke now, the team would fall apart.
Almond turned his back on them and looked down from the wall. Buildings for producing elephants were being constructed as if to show the Joseon soldiers on the wall.
Persia also began building additional useful buildings in the third era. In RTS games, every building constructed expanded the civilization’s capabilities.
As the third era progressed and the necessary buildings increased, Persia’s strategy of abandoning the wall and focusing on the main base seemed increasingly strained.
‘Can we hit them with recurve bows?’
At this point, shooting at the workers constructing buildings seemed possible. If only they had recurve bows...
However, no one voiced such complaints.
[Wait]
The order was still to wait.
Then—
[Attack]
The order changed.
“What?”
Carrot felt surprised and puzzled.
Their attack target was the Persian workers constructing buildings. Did they have to attack from here? They were clearly out of reach. Had the commander forgotten that they only had short bows?
Thankfully, everything became clear in the next moment.
[Composite Bow - Completed]
“!”
A quiver containing Tongah and Pyeonjeon arrows appeared at the archers’ waists.
Composite bows, like the focus or spear throwing trait, didn’t require any physical delivery.
“Composite bows...”
Composite bows could reach those targets. No, they could aim even further and maybe even disable the gold mine.
“Let’s shoot them all.”
Swish.
At Almond’s command, everyone loaded their bows with Tongah arrows.
It felt a bit awkward compared to recurve bows, but they had also trained with composite bows. A slight change in the bow wasn’t a problem.
Creaaak.
Almond drew his bow first and the focus light began to flare. He aimed at a soldier on a defense tower far away.
This distance would be impossible with short bows. It was only possible with composite bows, the focus trait, and the wall’s range bonus.
After precisely three seconds...
“Shoot,” Almond said and released the arrow.
Bang!
A loud explosion echoed as a small arrow flew toward a soldier who didn’t expect to get hit.