Adam Drake - Blackout

It was going to be a lot of work. I eyed the worker unit who were missing a few men. I’d need more workers than this lot. A lot more.

“Where can I get more of you?” I asked the leader.

He waved at the Keep. “Why, from there, boss. You can have thirty six stalwart workers at this level. More when you upgrade it.”

Thirty six workers meant three units. On a hunch I pulled up my command menu again and highlighted the Keep.

Keep:

Hire Worker Unit – 100 gold (1/3 units active)

Feeling pressed for time, I selected to hire another worker unit. The upgrade option would have to wait.

Instantly, the round room of the Keep was filled with twelve burly workers in overalls and red shirts. This unit’s leader stepped forward.

“What would you like us to do, boss?” he said. He looked and sounded identical to the one outside.

I shrugged inwardly. Well, they’re only workers. Don’t need to tell them apart.

“Outside, please,” I said.

The streamed past me through the door and assembled next to the other unit.

My health bar was now full, all hit points restored. I marveled at how close I’d come to giving that elven idiot a thousand battle points with my death and laughed. She must be steaming right now.

No, I corrected myself. Not steaming. Building. And fast.

I stepped through the door and pointed at the first worker unit. Each one stood at attention like soldiers on parade.

“Resume cutting wood over there, please,” I said indicating the tree line by the woodyard.

“Yes, boss!” the leader screamed, and they all turned in unison and ran off. In seconds they were chopping away as if possessed.

“And us, boss?” the leader of the new unit asked.

I liked their eagerness but interacting with them could eventually get on my nerves. Instead of answering, I pulled up the command menu and selected the Build Barracks option.

Barracks:

Needed to muster and train various battle units.

Cost: 350 gold, 200 wood

Do you wish to build this? Yes/No?

Selecting yes produced a large rectangular outline on the ground. I pointed it toward a spot right beside the banner’s altar.

“Build me a barracks there, please,” I said.

The worker unit sprang into action, surrounding the outline and hammering away. A long narrow building with many windows slowly emerged from the ground. Next to it looked to be a small parade ground for marching and wooden dummies for fighting practice.

Completed, the workers stopped and wiped their sweaty brows, but they still glanced at me with expectation.

My gold was seriously depleted so I wouldn’t be able to build anything for a while.

I pointed to the woodyard. “Go help them out.”

With the leader shouting at them, they took off to attack the trees.

Two system messages appeared.

Archery Range unlocked.

Cavalry Grounds unlocked.

Cool, I thought, but blanched when I saw their prices.

Archery Range: 700 gold, 200 wood

Cavalry Grounds: 1,000 gold, 200 wood

Won’t be getting those for a while.

Instead, I brought up the command screen and selected the new Barracks submenu.

Barracks:

Units available:

Footmen – 200 gold.

Scout – 50 gold.

Looking at my resources I had enough for one of each. I selected the footmen first.

Race: Human

Unit: Footmen

Hit Points: 100

Speed: 20

Weapon: Sword

Although slow, Footmen are the most common type of combat unit for both attacking and defending.

In terms of statistics, they looked identical to the troll grunts. I assumed all soldier units across the races were more or less even.

Train this unit? Cost 200 gold. Yes/No?

I selected yes, and a dozen men appeared in the training yard. Each wore basic cloth armor with a red jerkin. Armed with swords, some stabbed at the training dummies while others sparred on the parade grounds. A unit leader screamed a stream of filtered profanities at them.

Time to train unit: 5 minutes.

Oh, yeah. This stuff takes time, I thought with mild disappointment.

While I waited for my first combat unit to finish training, I called up the Scout’s info.

Race: Human

Unit: Scout

Hit Points: 85

Speed: 30

Weapon: Bow & dagger

The scout is best used to seek out resources and monitor for enemy movements. Gains a +20% camouflage bonus when moving through trees.

This was what I needed. I’ll use the scout to look for resources while I attended to a certain matter.

But when I tried to purchase the scout unit, I got a message.

Can only train one unit at a time, per barracks. Add Scout to training queue? Yes/No?

Heck, yes.

Scout added.

I frowned at the message. Only one unit at a time meant I’d need more than one barracks if I wanted to push out multiple units quickly.

A shout from the tree line brought me out of my contemplations.

For a moment, I thought another grunt rush was underway, and even summoned my bow.

One of the leaders ran over to me, beaming with excitement.

“Boss! We found a stone just inside the tree line,” he said panting with breath.

“Let’s take a look,” I said.

We hurried over to where the workers were feverishly cutting away. Tree stumps showed their rapid progress, and the woodyard had a growing pile of cut lumber.

“Over here,” said the leader, pointing.

I picked my way through the trees and noted how close they were to one another. Like a living fence, an army would not be able to slink their way through without being slowed to a crawl.

Then a clearing opened up amongst the densely packed trees. The entire space was composed of an outcropping of layered stone.

I looked at it blankly. “This is stone we need?”

The leader nodded. “Yes, boss. Y’Godda smiles upon us placing it so close to the Keep.”

“Well, thank Y’Godda, then,” I said. From my command menu I purchased a quarry with the last of my gold. Then I placed its outline on the flattest portion of the rocks. I told the leader to stop cutting trees and bring his unit over to assemble the quarry and start cutting stone.

He nodded happily, then screamed for his men.

Leaving them to it, I walked back through the tree line to the Keep. Smoke wandered over and nuzzled me hand.

That was the quarry taken care of, but without any more gold, nothing else would be built and no more units could be trained. I had to find a vein of gold and fast.

Footmen Unit training complete.

I looked toward the barracks.

The soldiers I’d seen training on the grounds had assembled themselves next to the barracks building in two rows of six with their leader at the front end.

Scout Unit in training.

A solitary man, clad in leather armor with a deep green hooded cloak skulked around the training grounds. He shot at one of the dummies with a bow, then quickly stabbed another with a dagger.

Time to train unit: 2 minutes.

The footmen leader suddenly bellowed, “Ready for orders, Commander!”

I walked along the assembled lines of men, making a show of inspecting them. If I was expected to command them, then I could pretend to act like I knew what I was doing.

Each man gave me a slight head nod as I passed.

To the leader I said, “I have a very important task for you.”

“We are ready to do whatever you ask of us, Commander!” he said.

I nodded. “Our resources are depleted so I cannot afford more soldiers for a while. Can you split this unit into two groups?”