Well, I finally managed to get that stockage. Took me a lot less time than I expected, too! Basically, I stopped preying on weaklings half my power and went for players who are about my strength, don't have strong commanders, and have probably forgotten about their characters. These chumps have in excess of 100k gold, and it's only proper that they start filling Lord Eronarn's (and my) coffers. Now I have this plan of simply letting my army grow naturally, instead of pumping it up every chance I get. I'll do random raids with attacks I stockpile, and with the money I plan to solely concentrate on defenses and ninja spies (anyone who attacks me without scouting first will get a nasty surprise, as well as a merciless retaliation). True, I will be still be a target for players with lots of weapons, but with the small amounts of money that I have I hope to present myself as a very unappealing target.
Armoury-wise, I find that bang-for-buck, getting steeds is the most economical choice, because steeds are 2.4 times the cost of broadswords, while offering 3x the power. Defense-wise, chainmail is slightly more than 2x the price of shields, while offering exactly 2x the defense (so get shields). As for prices supposedly fluctuating, I haven't seen any prices go up or down in the past week.
Siege weapons, of course, offer the best economic value of them all, defense or offense.
Frankly, I find it humourous that all I have in my armour is ONE shortsword, though my forces have long shields. I keep imagining that the one guy with the sword is the squad leader, who leads the charge with a bunch of long shielded buddies behind him, and then when they reach the enemy they start pummelling them with their fists. And when raiders come, my men throw rocks and sling stones from the battlements, irritating the invaders enough so that they'll leave. When I start getting steeds I wonder how will my men attack from horseback with their bare hands (maybe they use hadokens?), but I'm sure their l33+ ninja skillz will reveal a way to them.
In other news:
-Out of Lord Eronarn's massive commission of 2 officers, I am clearly better than his other lieutenant. *elitist sniff*
-BigMac has betrayed me and defected! <i>Et tu, Big Mac??!</i>
-As of today, the 3rd of April, I have officially suffered my first casualty in the war of liberating Chaos for freedom-loving Humans everywhere. His name was Abunai, an excellent squad leader who had held the Shortsword of Leadership for so long that the swordmaker's initials were permanently imprinted into the palm of his hand (think Raiders of the Lost Ark, except without the burning). He perished during a routine raid into the stronghold of Elven rebels, when a ranger shoved his arm down his throat and dropped a grenade into his stomach. Abunai, we will never forget your courage, and your sacrifice.