Spotlight on:   Khoraja

Every few weeks or so HWE will feature a review of a different kingdom of Hyboria by players who have either won with them or done well enough that they might as well have.  These contain strategy tips, ideas, and a general direction to go for those interested in making the most of their bid for Hyborian dominance.  Crom is very interested in gathering in as many reviews as possible from veteran players, so don't be shy about sending them in!  

This week's review is by Justin Kohlman, who believes that if it's possible to learn from mistakes, he should be able to make a scholar out of the next potential ruler of Khoraja. Despite no end of early mistakes, Justin somehow led Khoraja to a second place finish in Hyborian War 280.

Khoraja: This Looks Swiss

Overview

    If the country of Switzerland is in Hyborian War, you can bet it is south of Koth in the form of tiny Khoraja. Like Switzerland, Khoraja has the friends in high places, the wealth, the well-trained military and the noblemen. Heck, it even has the nice mountain scenery. All it needs is a yodeler to pipe in music during the battles, soldiers in Lederhosen and tax free bank accounts to complete the comparison.

Military

    Khoraja's starting military is small (24 troops to start with), but what it loses in quantity it more than makes up for in quality. Besides, with the cash on hand it's only a matter of time until you build up the numbers too.

    The eight standard troop types and four types of mercenaries offer choices that most other kingdoms can only dream about. And when it comes to picking, pick heavy. The heavy and medium cavalry are among the finest in the land, and where possible, load up on mercenaries for the front lines. The 15 per cent of light infantry archers and medium infantry are best left at home to tend to the sheep and cook meals for their wives. In battle, they tend to fall faster than a Betty Crocker cake at an AC/DC concert.

    In face-to-face battles with Keshan, Ophir, and Hyperborea (that backstabbing @#*!) the Khorajans always gave more than they took. In three separate meetings with Hyperborea, Khoraja was badly outnumbered and still managed to hold on to the home provinces in open field battles. With 12 troops of the Khorajan Medium Cavalry, a little magic and a lot of luck, I was able to defeat 20 of Keshan's (and I use this term loosely) finest to take the Stygian Borderlands. The toughest troops encountered belonged to Shem and the Eastern Shemish Nations. In both spots, I was lucky to get a one-to-one loss ratio. For that reason, I recommend outnumbering them, use your magicians and set piece to total loss, but I'll get into that later.

    Once you take over Sabatea and Akbitana to achieve your imperial goals, you will be granted the Khorajan Imperials (HI) and the Shemish Legions (LIA). The Shemish Legions are great if you want some crops seeded or someone to look after the women, but pretty much useless in battle. The Imperials on the other hand are indestructible. I used them as front liners in nine straight battles before losing one single troop. Getting the third Imperial Army for achieving Imperial Status is also a nice bonus that sets you up for a nice romp in the desert or a trek through Shem. If you don't get the Imperial Status you need to take seven provinces to get that badly needed third imperial army.

Court

    Sure, there is a lot of inbreeding and a couple of the young Alkhaku's are softer than George Foreman's beer belly, but all in all you've got a great bunch of characters to spend quality time with. Just keep them doing what they do best and they will do your bidding. As it happened, I also tended to get some support in the form of excellent nobles and wizards later in the game. What I didn't get was agents, so take care of what you do have for intrigue.

Wuhan Altaku  Raja-Cha, Priest, provincial ruler of Khoraja, long life, bless and prophecy

    Comments: Growing up in a middle-class family, Wuhan was the most popular guy in his class. He's also got brains to go with his looks and graduated early with a degree in political science and a minor in chemistry. As a result, he was granted rulership of Khoraja at a young age and due to his work ethic and long life, can keep it indefinitely. When he isn't actively ruling or blessing, he is especially adept at casting long life, first on himself then on your top diplomat, Altai Almivas who is a little long in the tooth.

Banaric Thespides  Raja-Adj, General, Adjutant General

    Comments: This guy is a stud. Not for his own talents, but for landing his good looking and talented wife and producing a fine offspring. As for Banaric himself, he's a pretty useful guy to lead raids and he's good at taking command of the flanks or the archers. But, he is not the kind of guy you want leading an actual battle. While I wouldn't recommend killing him off, if he dies he's certainly not worth wasting your reincarnate spells on.

Lady Khosala Thespides  Raja-1, Noble, Monarch of Khoraja

    Comments: The beautiful Lady has caused men to lose their senses with nothing more than a naughty smile. As a result, she is a good character to send in search of peace treaties. The Turanians, Shemites and Keshanis all fell prey to her looks and wit. Her largely male populace love her as well, and she is therefore adored as Monarch of Khoraja. She married Banaric Thespides for his money.

Dern Thespides  Raja-2, General

    Comments: Dern has his mom's popularity and his dad's bloodlines. Unfortunately, like his father he can't lead an army. He is good for support though and has been known to inject some life into the cavalry. When he's not fighting keep him busy world spying or helping his mother with dishes, just don't let him go adventuring (as the young schmuck likes to do) unless you plan to use reincarnate to resucitate him.

Anshan Almivas  Raja-3, General

    Comments: Anshan grew up as the eighth son in a family of eight. He therefore spent his life trying to get noticed. And while his father may have overlooked him, as ruler of Khoraja you certainly shouldn't. He's an incredibly good military commander, that can get countries to sign a peace treaty or do some kingdom military spying with great success. Basically, he'll do anything except the windows.

Voloso Aghaku  Raja-4, Hero

    Comments: Aahh, the wonderlust of youth. One moment you want to love them, the next kill them. Volosa has the skills to help out in a battle, rule a province or maybe even get a peace treaty from time to time. What he can't do worth a damn is adventure, but like all youths he just won't listen. Instead, he'll end up in a prison cell where he'll stay until dad comes with the Khorajan credit card.

Altai Almivas  Raja-5, Priest

    Comments: Altai is not just another pretty face. Quite literally. This old crag could scare the concrete smile off of a gargoyle. All the same, she has brains and uses them as a diplomat extraodinaire, repeatedly suing the Shemites for peace, and when the time comes, she is also a decent ruler. Just make sure someone casts long life on her early, or General Almivas, will grow up without a mother and your kingdom will be a lot worse off for the experience.

Ata Alkhaku  Raja-6, Priest, rains

    Comments: With the exception of her father Khacca Alkhuku, if Ata dies, no one will be the poorer for it. She is a priest that can't rule or get a peace treaty to save her soul. Her little bit of heroism should make her a decent protector but she can't even do that. Use her rains spell to quench the deserts you take over and to help out in battles, other than that, use her to world spy. Even then, she may disappoint.

Khacca Alkhaku  Raja-7, Priest, prophecy

    Comments: Rumour has it that Khacca had a fling with the beautiful Lady Thespides in his earlier days and ended up feuding with the entire powerful Thespides family as a result. If not for that mistake, he would certainly get far more recognition. Khacca is a terrific diplomat, very good ruler and can prophecy with the best of them. Needless to say, there's always something for him to do.

Thebe Alkhaku  Raja-8, Priest, prophecy

    Comments: How a great guy like Khacca could end up with two useless children is anybody's guess. Basically, Thebe has lots of desire to be an adventurer but would be better off at home with a book. If you get desperate you can make him ruler and then have him actively rule for the rest of his days. His dad's legendary status should be enough to make his provincial minions respect him. He can't protect provinces either, as he actually ended up in a jail cell protecting Khoraja.

Liktok Khanyria  Raja-9, Wizard, long life, firewall and prophecy

    Comments: As far as wizards go this guy is a god send. The long life spell which you should originally use on Insk Altaku, and the firewall (which should be used whenever you can) are both great fun. He can also rule in a pinch, but that does seem to cramp his style a bit. Plus, his subjects are pretty much petrified of him because of the rumours that he practices firewall by lighting individuals on fire with a gaze.

Banaric Fargora  Raja-10, Wizard, black death and prophecy

    Comments: Poor Mr. Fargora. When he isn't casting black death or prophecy there is nothing he can do. He has tried (oh, how he has tried) but this chap can't even walk and chew bubble gum. While his black death sounds scary, his success rates are also questionable. His prophecy spell seems to be his only sure thing.

Insk Altaku  Raja-11, Wizard, reincarnate, fanaticism, far sight, bless and curse

    Comments: The younger brother of the Chancellor, Insk has ten times the ability and a third of the personality. As a result, his brother is at the top of the food chain, and poor Insk is using his energy bringing back stupid adventurers from the depths of death. He does like to take his frustration out on opposing enemies and the fanaticism and far sight are both helpful. When he's not fighting, he loves to curse the Shemites.

Paxoi Shupras  Raja-12, Agent

    Comments: Paxoi grew up stealing from the local church plate and finding out gossip about the neighborhood women for his doting mother. As a result, he can spy or counter-spy with the best of them. However, his doting mother made him a little too soft to pull off more dangerous work like assassinations or kidnappings. Still, he's a useful guy to have around and as long as you keep him spying, he'll keep coming back for more. Send him on more dangerous missions, and it's likely his mommy will have to identify his sliced up corpse at the local morgue.

Geography

    In terms of Hyborian War locations, it doesn't get better than this. The north is sheltered by Koth and your eastern side protected by the Khauranis. To the south you have the Eastern Shemish Nations and a whole lot of free space. To the west, Shem is definitely going to be a nuisance, but nothing you can't handle if you cultivate some useful friendships.

    On the home front Khoraja has terrific forts and is surrounded by mountains. On top of that, it's loaded with cash and trade routes and even more routes are in the neighborhood just waiting to be picked up. And if that isn't enough, because of your size, you shouldn't be taken as a serious threat and therefore I found a lot of countries willing to ally.

    As the game goes on Turan could be problematic due to their dislike of Khauran. But you can cross that bridge when you come to it.

Strategy

    Your first goal should be to get rid of those pesky Eastern Shemish Nations. They are tough, but if you don't take them early, they'll come after you and they'll bring Shem with them.

    But before you think about war, give some thought to peace. That is, ally with Shem's neighbors and get a peace treaty on both Eastern Shemish Nations and Shem. You've already got Koth as a friend. Now go out and get Argos and Stygia to join in the cause. I found all three nations were willing to ally and either use their navies or their armies to raid or attack Shem. Stygia was especially happy with the arrangement since they need Eruk, Koth found it gave them Kyros without much fuss and Argos had assurances Koth wouldn't attack his back side. Best of all, Khoraja, just had to play broker and not really promise anything except to leave Eruk for Stygia. It also guaranteed no one else would take or give help to the Eastern Shemish Nations. This made the Eastern Shemish Nations easy pickings and all four provinces were mine before the first peace turns. Just to be on the safe side though, you might want to use some diplomacy to break up the alliance between Shem and the ESHE.

    Now the fun stuff: battles. Although others will recommend going open field, I recommend going set piece battle in Nippr with both armies right away. You should be able to win that battle without any losses. Then take Akbitana and Sabatea in the same fashion before cleaning up in Shumir. That should leave you with an extra Imperial Army, five very good troops of infantry and a whole lot of victory points all with time to spare before the peace years turns. Doing it this way ensures you won't waste time losing any battles. This helps keep the treasury in tact. Despite the fact you should have them on the run, ensure you keep suing the ESHE for peace along the way just so they don't counterattack. I forgot to one turn and spent the next turn having to waste time defending myself.

    If you can't get the assistance of Argos, Koth and Stygia you will have a much more difficult road ahead. You should probably break the alliance between Shem and ESHE and take the chance of splitting up your armies to take the ESHE nations sooner. Then drop a peace treaty on Stygia to keep them from coming in. >From there, start working on Shem with whatever support you can get. And every time you take a province, drop a peace treaty on them. I realize it's a wimpy way of doing it, but if Shem can counterattack Khoraja will fold like a house of cards.

    After the first peace turns, you really have to decide your own course of events. If Shem is still around, you might want to go in and pick up whatever pieces are left. You may also want to go north, but I wouldn't recommend it. Heading south is my personal preference, as the south's light archers and spearmen are fun to overrun with heavy cavalry. However, try to avoid running into Turan unless you have lots of help. In my game, Turan went north. As a result Khauran (who wasn't being played) and I had the southern deserts to ourselves. I used the opportunity to slide down and take out the Keshanis who were creating difficulty for my ally in Stygia. En route I took Zamboula since Stygia dropped the game as well. Later on, the only enemy I had to worry about was the pesky Hyperboreans who broke our alliance and stabbed me in the back. Amazingly, they lost all four battles against me, but they were still able to win the game.

    The one troublesome part of this strategy is financing. Most of the desert lands are poor. Although others don't agree I found actively ruling helped improve loyalty and cash flow. That said, I still ran out of cash early on the second and third set of war seasons. Luckily, my enemies didn't realize the spot I was in and missed their opportunities. But it did keep me from expanding as I planned and it came back to cost me the game. Therefore, what I am saying is protect your treasury, don't build more than 6 troops per turn early and get rid of your mercenaries when the money gets low. You can always replenish the mercenaries early in the next war years anyway.

    In terms of other items of note, I found that desert was an easy terrain to get to and the troops all seem to like it. Firewall came in handy on several occasions therefore Raja-9 is nice to have with your imperial army. Raja-3 is essential in all battles. With or without the support of the other lesser generals in the kingdom, he will get the most out of the troops.

Bottom Line

    This country has it all. As long as you protect your hard-earned cash, use your alliances well and expand in a slow and steady manner, you will rack up victory points. As an added bonus, you've got an army of good characters that can peace off your enemies and keep your provinces happy. Then you just have to sit back and wait for the foreign currency to start rolling into your bank accounts. Much like the Swiss do.