At 100 fatigue people pass out, and they try to avoid taking actions that could put them over 100 fatigue. Mages can cheat a bit because some spells cost multiple hundreds of fatigue, but you'll get some weirdness where over 60 they won't cast a big spell but the smaller spell still puts them over the cap. Same for melee troops. Clockwork soldiers are for people who can't make long-dead but need a mindless blocker with some resists. Not many great use cases for them.
After 6 versions I still find it hilarious that Ulm has flavor text about fearing religion. You guys are literally lead by something trying to be The One God! This is a real discworld atheist situation.
After 6 versions I still find it hilarious that Ulm has flavor text about fearing religion. You guys are literally lead by something trying to be The One God! This is a real discworld atheist situation.
It's to justify the lack of sacreds. Like how the Phlegra line are at war with the gods, despite being led by one.
My favorite parts are the lore of what happens to each nation between ages. Ermor cool Roman dudes, find a cool God to follow, decide to bring their God to this plane of existence. Turns out, it's a hungry God.
MA ermor is the zombie apocalypse. Bad times to be had. They have a couple splinter empires. Pythium (the byzantines) where Rome never fell, and Sceleria where the problem wasn't the necromancy promise, it was how we used it.
Then late age hits, Pythium still chugging along, Sceleria and Ermor are externinated and the broken remnants of the original populace are hanging out as ghosts as Lemuria. Guarding the gate so the hungry God doesn't come again. With a side of world domination.
If you turn on the most advanced combat log it'll show you the rolls for the armor defeating hits and whatnot. It's good, but it's not going to do a lot of damage if the base unit couldn't already threaten you. If you have 30 prot and I have a 10 damage spear, probably not going to hurt you no matter how tired you are. Statistical outliers with exploding dice do occur of course, but 57 dmg slingstones are rare.
Ah, so the only effect of passing out is the same ones you get from generically high fatigue - e.g., the greater amount of "through-armor crits" and lowered defense. I thought there was supposed to be an additional modifier to the actual protection values on top of that, based on the way it's worded.
For those (not) following along at home, I'll have a post up laterish with a melee combat example that walks through this.
Busy weekend, so I didn't have as much chance to do write-ups here, but ...
So my turn 16-19 were spent consolidating my hold on various places and using my Pretender God as the big tanky thug he is to wipe out a couple of locations. My expansion force to the northwest was able to take one more territory, but unfortunately Ermor moved in on the same turn and largely wiped them out, taking the territory from me and pushing me back a province. So, I'm currently rushing some reinforcements that way to stabilize the situation.
Luckily, the bridgehead Ermor had pushed across the river and into my natural area was overrun by A RANDOM BARBARIAN HORDE! They kicked out the Ermorian legions and claimed the territory as their own, which meant that I could take it from the Barbarians without upsetting Ermor and causing them to declare war on me. My first attempt unfortunately failed: my forces had largely driven the Barbarians from the field, with only a few leather-clad fighters left, when one got in a lucky blow and struck down my Warrior Chief. Left leaderless, my army began to retreat at the same time the barbarians were also retreating, and unfortunately we managed to get off the field first, so we lost. A few turns later, KALLUM was able to lead a much stronger force into the province, and began setting up another fortification to watch the land bridge from Ermor.
Hilderith, the Prophet of KALLUM, claimed the Throne of Might and began building a new fortification there, as well. With the land protected, he dedicated a small shrine to KALLUM that the Earth Monster's Glory might be further spread.
Our borders' protection being seen to, we began a program of aggressively recruiting new mages to shore up our magical research and power. Although steel is strong (though nothing compared to the hand that wields it!), steel backed by magical might is even better!
Unfortunately, we are reaching the end of where we can reasonably expand: Atlantis has taken a handful of shore provinces in areas I would prefer to hold, and Ermor has locked me off from expansion to the northwest. There are a few remaining neutral areas in my east, which Hilderith and his forces would quickly be seeing to, but all of the wisest heads agree that, soon, it must come down to battle against the other Pretenders. Which one to target first is always a dicey proposition. Multiple factors - ability to recruit and sustain attacks, likely magical might, possibility of being backstabbed - must all be weighed. But, in the end, the decision was taken from me, because ..
In Turn 20, WAR WAS BEGINNING!
Arcoscephale has decided to make war against me. So, war they shall have. My strong forces are already in the east, ready to meet them head-on. And, unbeknownst to the philosophers, we have a friend awaiting our call to battle. So our messengers have been sent, to call upon the Pyrenese to honor their defensive pact and crush Arcoscephale between. With luck, the war will be quick and decisive, and Grafe will find himself locked away again.
Recruiting of many, many Scouts has been rushed forward, so that we might have a better view of the philosophers' plans. Initial attacks are planned. Even KALLUM himself moves to the east, hoping to drive his mighty broadsword into the heart of their nation. But all focus cannot be on the east, for the Atlanteans cannot be allowed to consolidate their hold on the shores, and Ermor is, as ever, a risk. Additional fortifications are being thrown up in the west, and all armies are beating the drums of reinforcements. Even the ... shudder ... horsemen of Carnag are providing soldiers to this effort.
In Ulm itself, strange rituals are spoken over the funeral mounds of ancient kings, and they rise again to lead their troops as of old.
Visible: piles of reinforcements moving the hold the Spire Woods in the northwest; KALLUM moving to the east south of Ermor to pick up reinforcements on his jog further east through the remaining neutral provinces; a multi-pronged invasion of the first Arcoscephalian province I hope to take.
Things I'm concerned about: where Arcoscephale is hiding their army (hence all the Scouts getting recruited and some redirected away from Ermor / Atlantis); Xibalba has a large army underground Behemoth's Rest, near the Fungwood; there's an uprising on nonbelievers in Cerne, two provinces east of Ulm, that I need to spend at least 1 turn wiping out before they start harming my dominion.
Overall: Things are solidifying, but I'm still behind where I wanted to be when this kicked off. Another turn or two from Arcoscephale would have been really welcome. Still, coordinating with Vic, he's going to hit Faran and then swing more east, and I'll go south through Aole and Trottern, so hopefully that'll work out.
Our initial attack into Arcoscephalian territory was a success!* Their prophet, the Wind Lord (think Pegasus-riding knight) Iphitos, joined the battle on the enemy's side, against our Prophet and his amassed troops. We massively outmanned them (and, because we're Ulm, out-womanned them, too!), so the attack should have been a sweeping success. We took very light losses, mostly to the mercenary robber-band we had hired to serve as arrow-catchers on the approach, and when our troops met theirs in melee combat, we were able to quickly overwhelm their militia - who lasted only a few moments against our warriors before turning and running. Their lighter infantry lasted only a little longer, but they quickly broke and ran, as well.
The enemy Prophet was made of sterner stuff, however, and continued to hold his position while their archers shot at our troops, hitting some of their own fleeing troops in the process. But, soon, the enemy Prophet rode forth to engage our soldiers, neglecting to take to the skies on his winged mount and instead charging ahead like a normal cavalryman. His horse was quickly cut down from beneath him, and soon after he, too, fell beneath the axes and swords of Ulm. But, being a Prophet, he had laid a curse on the battle, so that if he were struck down, the wrath of Grafe would fall upon those who slew him. And after Iphitos fell, random beams of divine energy struck the battlefield, killing many of our troops - more, in fact, than were lost attacking the soldiers! With Iphitos dead, the enemy archers turned to flee, and a handful escaped while the rest were cut down. The battle was won! Great glory to KALLUM!
Hilderith, lead us in prayer!
I said, Hilderith, lead us in prayer and praise of the Earth Monster!
Hilderith?
... during the battle, Iphitos had beseeched his false god for many blessings, but one foremost amongst them in the opening stages. With a word, Iphitos was able to snuff the life from one target and, as chance would have it, he picked Hilderith. One of the primary traits of the people of Ulm is that they are weak to sorcerous influences.
What's worse is that, even with that being a weak point, we missed the saving throw by 1.
Apparently, being the Prophet of Kallum is a short-term job.
Moving on, we continue to consolidate our hold across our borders, and our recruited Warrior Scouts are moving into enemy territory to find places of weakness.
The Pyrenese have honored their defensive pact, and we are in the process of upgrading it to a full Non-Aggression Pact; this would enforce a three-month delay on any hostilities, and any time our forces accidentally met each other, the aggressor would retreat instead of inflicting casualties.
Now to deal with the lack of priestly support on my critical eastern front ...
The mid-game is fast approaching. I'm not sure I'm ready.
I've come to an agreement with Xibalba regarding our border in the caves. I'm taking the moist caves in the north while he gets the lands to the south and west. Unfortunately my expansion party tasked with taking over that area was defeated, and it may take a while before I can afford another one.
My borders have extended nicely towards the northeast. I now border Ermor and Atlantis, though still not C'tis. My current attack may fail, but I decided to take the risk since claiming this province would net me a very valuable source of sacred troops.
In the west my lands border Xibalba, mirroring the caves.
In the south, I've come into contact with Ulm. It would seem Arcoscephale did not enjoy the extra competition. They declared war on Ulm two rounds ago, triggering our defensive pact. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that I had a non-aggression pact with Arcoscephale, which has delayed my entry into the war. I've offered Ulm reparations for failing to take this into account, but in truth, it's quite convenient for me to have the extra time to prepare my forces.
I've also managed to claim the first throne inside my borders, netting me the nice bonus of additional magic scales (giving me extra research) and magic resistance for my sacred lords and soldiers, though at a considerable cost of men.
My mage core is starting to become respectable and site searching inside my territory has turned out some very valuable sites. What's more, I've found a unique site that reduces the cost of crafting magical items. This is very powerful, especially since my strategy hinges so strongly on mages and combat lords. I've already started to fill it up with craftsmen and it should not be long before I can start fielding decent thugs.
My research has gone rather slowly, but that should change quickly now that I have three forests to hire mages in.
Overall I think I'm in a decent position, though I have neglected building out my infrastructure. I now own 28 provinces including my capital, and have encircled a further four. The world was generated with roughly 15 provinces per player, which means I've claimed about twice my "fair share". I can only hope the other players don't take this as a reason to gang up on me before I can consolidate my hold on these lands.
.. Although apparently the Pyrenese had previously arranged an NAP with Arcoscephale, and so need to wait the mandatory 3 months before they can start active operations against them. This is not ideal in the short term, but, well, Vic is working to make good by offering a small tribute of a Dwarven Hammer.
The Dwarven Hammer is a one-handed weapon, and can be used in combat to deal magical damage, but it's true use is in the forge, where it discounts 2 magical gems from the cost of any item you forge. The Smiths of Ulm are already talented smiths, and get a 1-gem discount natively, but with this hammer that gets upgraded to a 3-gem discount, making lower-level items (which typically cost 5 gems to craft) almost cheap-as-free (2 gems). Although I can craft Dwarven Hammers myself, it takes a talented smith - 3 Earth Skill - and a bucket of gems (15 before any discounts) to make, so I'll call that a win in my book.
Our most northwestern Province, Holoma, was surprised by a sneaking barbarian horde:
... which quickly overran the defense with minimal losses:
So, basically exactly what I was snerking about happening to Ermor. Turnabout, fair play, etc. But, unlike last time, I have an ~100-strong army hanging out nearby, ready to retake the province, as reinforcements had just arrived from Ulm. My hope is that I can take and hold it without it being snatched by Ermor or Atlantis, thus preventing them from declaring war on me just at this moment.
Arcoscephale launched another weak attack against me, bringing in another Wind Lord and a few attendants; they were possibly hoping that my invasion force had moved on, and that they could quickly take the province from whichever local defenses I'd put in place. However, since I was waiting for my Scouts to move forward, my invasion army was still there, and easily dispatched the token Arcoscephalians.
Now I wait for the Scouts to move up and reposition my army. Hopefully, next turn, I'll be able to root out the cause of the religious problems in Cerne, as this happening so close to my capital is concerning:
From my SP game: I love seeing enemy armies with kills even though none of my units died *and* the enemies is all melee units. Little enthusiastic with the sword there, Bob?
From my SP game: I love seeing enemy armies with kills even though none of my units died *and* the enemies is all melee units. Little enthusiastic with the sword there, Bob?
Did you summon anything into the battle?
ED: In my SP MA Marignon game, I always gift my enemies a couple of kills every battle because I bring Falconers for distractions, and they've got 1d6 chaff hawks apiece.
Pyrene and I are friends with a common enemy ... For now! As Pyrene has claimed their own Throne of Ascension, and that Throne clearly belongs to KALLUM!
This is a level 2 Throne, and so it provides 2 victory points (Ascension points). In addition to that, it is very good at spreading your dominion, providing the equivalent of 3 Temples' worth of growth each turn. It also makes magical research faster in its province and provides a minor Magic Resistance benefit (which my troops would certainly benefit from).
I also now have two fortifications beyond my starting location, and a third coming up in a couple of months. I now need to turn my attention to spreading more temples and laboratories, as spreading my dominion and empowering my remote troops with the ability to grab the armaments I forge and stocking up on magical gems for use in combat will be key. As it is, I need to have a commander ferry them from my capital, which is inefficient at best and prone to mistakes.
We were able to recapture Holoma with limited losses, especially given that we were fighting barbarians who, like my troops, favor one-hit-kills with their massive weapons:
Essentially, an initial crunch where the barbarians each took a swing and scored 50% kills, and then our troops attacked, did significant damage, and they broke and ran. Our archers did well, scoring an initial couple kills on the way in, but likely they ended up hitting my own troops in the back and scored an own-kill.
Arcoscepahle continues to throw troops onesie-twosie into my forces, where they are summarily defeated. Now that my Scouts have a view deeper into their territory, we are launching our next attack against Arcoscephale.
Depending on how the next several turns go, I might be considering doing something really, really dumb. Or brilliant.
From my SP game: I love seeing enemy armies with kills even though none of my units died *and* the enemies is all melee units. Little enthusiastic with the sword there, Bob?
Did you summon anything into the battle?
ED: In my SP MA Marignon game, I always gift my enemies a couple of kills every battle because I bring Falconers for distractions, and they've got 1d6 chaff hawks apiece.
Nope! Just basic Ulm troops, no spellcasting at all.
I had yet to see another faction in the multiplayer game until this last turn in which I simultaneously discovered 3 AIA on my borders and they all immediately attacked me from opposite directions. Ruh roh
So, most nations in the game have what are called "national spells," and these are spells (usually but not exclusively out-of-combat rituals) that those nations can cast that others cannot (or, at least, only a couple of others can). Middle Ages Marignon, which is totally not Joan of Arc Catholic France fighting demons with fire and sword, has a bunch of exclusive "Summon Angels from Heaven to Fight for Me" rituals (spoiler alert: the angels are complete badasses) and "This spell does a decent amount of fire damage, but does 3x damage against demons / undead" combat spells. The yeah-we're-Irish-Elves Tir na n'Og can summon Cu Sidhe ("fay hounds") that are comparable to standard Nature summons, like Leogryphs, but are Sacred (and so can be Blessed) and an in-combat spell that makes an opponent start attacking its friends or get permanently Cursed (which is bad).
Ulm's only national spell comes in at Conjuration 3, and requires a Nature 2 mage to cast. It is ...:
For the low, low price of 6 Nature gems, or roughly 2 minor magical weapons, you get 15 or more of these bad boys:
First off, that is a huge pile of hit points - at least 600 hit points per casting - to add to an army, although they'll need it because with such a low Defense score (6) and Protection value (8), they'll be taking damage on the routine. However, like most of my line troops, they're double-attackers (bite and claw) which means they pile up "Harried" penalties on their targets really quickly, so even with baseline Attack skill (9) they'll start hitting fairly often for +21 and +19 damage - which means they hit like a trucks. Because they're animals, they have what is called the Undisciplined ability (the icon for which looks like two barbarians, so, you know, harmful stereotypes: ). Undisciplined troops can only have the Skirmish formation (a loose block, -1 Morale) and cannot be combat orders (they just charge straight ahead). So, in any combat where I'll be bringing my bears to bear, I'll need to position them carefully so that they arrive roughly at the same time as my other troops so that they don't get ripped apart on the way in by archers, to which they - like all of Ulm - are fairly weak.
So, anyway, I grabbed some bears to bring to battle.
We found the heretic that had been spreading the word of false Pretenders in Cerne, and it did not go well for him and his heathen flock:
However, before we found him, he was able to largely convert the populace of Cerne to his ways, so now I have a hole in my dominion.
It should fill back in soon as everyone learns the error of their ways and returns to the proper worship of KALLUM, the EARTH MONSTER, the CONSUMING FIRE.
Arcoscephale's next province has fallen to me with only minor injuries - a random slinger was able to score a headshot across the battlefield on an archer before the withering return fire cause them to break and run after a mere 2 losses, and in the initial engagement two Shield Maidens were slain by the opposing heavy infantry. Beyond that, though, we were able to take the land cleanly. We have also found Arcoscephale's main army, 90-strong, defending the castle he has built around the Lower Throne. It is made up of a great number of Icarids, which are troops trained in the use of a strange magical-mechanical device that allows them to, somewhat inexpertly, fly. That makes it somewhat easy for them to drop into combat on top of your commanders, and an army without commanders immediately routs. Accordingly, we need to change our army layout in case they attack, ensuring that our commanders are all guarded. The Arcoscephalians are lead by one of the Oreiades, a mountain nature spirit of great beauty and power. In kinder times, we'd invite her over for one heck of a barbarian party. Instead, we need to defeat her quickly, before Arcoscephale can study enough magic to make her truly dangerous in battle.
Good thing my next couple of armies are coming up quickly to challenge the Arcoscephalians.
I had yet to see another faction in the multiplayer game until this last turn in which I simultaneously discovered 3 AIA on my borders and they all immediately attacked me from opposite directions. Ruh roh
I have other commitments to handle first, but when I have a spare army I would be happy to try to help you get one of them off your back.
Depending on how the next several turns go, I might be considering doing something really, really dumb. Or brilliant.
With the war against Arcoscephale proceeding well, and with the doughty cavemen of Pyrene entering the battle, I decided it was time to do something about Atlantis before they were able to ... heh heh ... get too much of a beachhead. They had begun expanding south from their lake and the land of Silbermark which they had beat me to, and were beginning to head west around the Throne on the shores. And, specifically, that castle going up on my borders was something I could not allow. So, I moved some troops surreptitiously west and, in a single turn, launched three separate attacks against Atlantis: against his castle in Vlecz, the farmland in Silvermark, and the farmland in Omicria. This had the immediate effect of taking 3 rich provinces' income from him, but Silvermark was also the bridge between his capital fort and his southwestern territories. In Dominions, you cannot collect taxes from any land without a contiguous connection to a fort - so not only did I take 3 provinces worth of income from his pocket and put it into mine, but I also denied him the income from 3 other provinces.
The first few rounds of attacks have gone well, and a few turns later, here's the status of Atlantis's land holdings:
They've moved slightly on-shore to their west, and I think that might be the extent of their remaining expansion opportunities. Pyrene is building a fort on the north shore, locking them off from there, and while they've finally completed an initial fort in the Green Sea, they accomplished this immediately before my UNDEAD WARRIORS FROM ULM! are about to sink under the waves, Pirates of the Caribbean-style, and take the fight to them. The fort means it might take a bit longer to actually grab the territory than I'd planned, but since I've confirmed with Pyrene that Atlantis hasn't spread beyond Ophaleph on the west coast of the lake, which I'm taking on my next move, that should largely end them as a threat. They've tossed a couple of waves of soldiers at my besiegers, but in each case I've been able to beat them back at largely horrendous losses for them:
Otherwise, I continue to recruit reinforcement armies to throw against Arcoscephale, I've got a strong defense to the north against Ermor in-place (and hopefully they're distracted fighting C'Tis right now, based on taliosfalcon's comments above!), and I just my Prophet back, so things are, at least for the moment, a bit more stable.
My main worries are still Xibalba deciding to come boiling out of the ground, since his cave system is basically right underneath everything I own, and the fact that my nearest rivals all have really strong Dominions, increasing the risk of a "Dom kill." Basically, if no one believes in your Pretender God (there are no territories where you have a positive Dominion), then you lose, regardless of what else is going on. My starting Dominion score is 6, which is pretty solid! But Atlantis's is 8, and Arcoscephale's is 7, largely, I think, on the back of temple building (which I couldn't afford early because of my stumble out of the gate). So, in addition to forting up, I'm in the process of beefing up my religious coverage, reminding people of just how great it is to be fed into the Forges of the ALL CONSUMING FIRE.
Basically:
Wars? Good!
Infrastructure? Ehhhh?
Long-term Outlook? It is in KALLUM's hands.
Unfortunately, while I have been able to withstand some of the attacks against my besieging force in Vlecz, I was not able to get enough reinforcements there to stand against the large pile of Basalt Pillars and the Prophet of Shaugnaar Faug at the same time. And so, Atlantis was able to break the siege and inflict serious losses against me, though he did pay for it with some expensive troops. However, I was also able to take every other territory the fishman own, leaving them with their lake, their besieged castle in the south, and the castle on the shore. Another pair of armies are on their way northward, this time armed with Greatswords of Sharpness, to slice through the heavy armor of the Pillars. Additional magical support, in the form of gem-carrying shamans, are also on their way to bring Fire and Earth Elementals into battle, which should have fewer issues with the foe.
(Armor piercing weapons cut the effectiveness of armor in half when rolling for damage, which turns the heavy stone armor of the Living Pillars into something more like a basic chain shirt, which my strong Warrior Chiefs have little trouble chopping through.)
I am also working to pull some more Shades from the Netherworld, as their life-draining touch doesn't care much against the armor of the Living Pillars at all. The Shades' normal defense, though, is the fact that they are ethereal and therefore basically immune to normal weapons; the Pillars' rock spears are enchanted, though, so I need to use the shades carefully.
And, in other bad news, I had noticed that a large number of my commanders and troops in my war against Atlantis were coming down with horrible wasting diseases. Like, way more than there should be. A sick realization (... heh) dawned on me, and I took Death gems from the great tree Irmunsul, which normally would have powered a ritual capable of summoning a squad of skeletons or a handful of shades, and instead pulled a spirit of Wisdom from the depths of the Underworld and traded the gems for information. Wurm the Shaman asked what the spirit knew about the Spire Woods, where the men of Ulm had recently completed our fortifications. The spirit laughed a dry and dusty laugh, and imprinted on Wurm's mind the path to a blackened tree in the middle of the Woods. When scouts followed the directions, they came across a great fissure in the ground at the base of the tree, surrounded by dying vegetation that dripped with sickness and corruption. The scouts returned to tell of the place they had seen, and all died shortly thereafter of a wasting sickness. Still, though the area around the tree is ... unpleasant, there is great power there for those who can use it ...
And, basically, great chance for all of the soldiers recruited in the Fortress to get the Diseased wound, which reduces max hit points by 10% each month and has a great chance to give you other wounds, like "lost an eye" or "battle fright" or "chest wound."
Basically, it's a death sentence and sucks ass. This is on top of the effect of Death scales in the territory (+2 Death), which reduces supplies (how many troops can be here without starving) and population over time and, yes, makes it more likely for your troops to pick up Diseased wound. Two things make this not completely horrible: 1) Undead don't care, so this'll make a good Undead recruiting spot once I can start summoning undead who can summon their own undead (xzibit.png), and 2) it'll make besieging this castle suck for anyone who has to spend several months here with a large army.
But not all is bad, as the war against Arcoscephale is winding its way to its conclusion:
Their castle guarding the Lower Throne has been breached, and soon my forces will attack. Meanwhile, all of their holdings except for their capital itself and the castle in Rame have been taken, either by me or by my allies, the Pyrenese.
They have enough troops that they could stage a limited breakout, into the Bright Woods, for instance, but that is really their only path, and it would quickly run into the (hopefully successful!) former besiegers from Rame, while Arcoscephale itself is about to be attacked from the east by my BEAR WARRIORS!
But I do need to hammer the Arcoscephalians quickly, as I need those troops to move on to taking out Atlantis's troops on-shore and then get them prepped for Ermor to take a swing at me or, more likely, Xibalba to decide to take me out.
I've been falling pretty deep down the Dominions hole lately. Well, as deep as you can without actually playing any multiplayer, that is. Reading nation guides, exploring units, items, and spells in the mod inspector site, making Pretender's, doing quick test games to see how well I can expand...the analytical parts of my brain get very addicted to this stuff.
I kind of doubt I'll ever be able to play a PBEM game again. Back around 2011 I went a year straight where I basically didn't think about anything other than my next Dominions 3 turn, and my life is no longer the right kind of fucked up to be able to do that. It might be fun to try and find a blitz game sometime, though.
We have not written these reports in some time. Much has happened. We liberated our cap circle of the undead scourge, at great loss of life. Of all the magical items carried by the despoiler, we received the chest armor. Definitely not what we were hoping for. Pushing into the south every single province is cynocephalians. Every single province. We have been drowing them in blood to claim our rightful lands. We discovered a throne barely guarded by some pale ones and took it for our own. As our campaign UG reaches its closure, we turn our eyes above.
And Ulm reaches out to us at this time, knowing our empire stretches beneath them, asking what our intentions are. Our intentions? The same as they've always been. Take back the sun, let nothing stand in our way.
Tactical musings
I have no idea how to use these bats properly. Attack rear tactics aren't working very well and they tickle most of the enemies I find down here. I'm starting up summon production and some blood slave farming but I think it's much later than I needed to. Also I get so much fire gem income with basically no way to spend it. Plenty of onaquis are around so at least I'm getting freespawn bats and have some big death casters. Gotta hit darkness before Ulm comes at me and hope my secret weapons will work.
Unfortunately, the Atlanteans did counterattack after their success relieving the siege of Vlecz. They drove into the farmland of Silbermark (the Original Bone of Contention (TM)) and into Silver Grove, which forced me to pull my eastern assault on Arcoscephale back. This allowed Arcoscephale to stage a breakout to the east, and retake the Gladewood. Still, my western army advances this turn on Arcoscephale itself, which is their last bastion. By sieging it, I prevent them from collecting taxes which should, theoretically, cause their non-sacreds to start deserting due to lack of pay (and if they do fight, they should have decreased morale).
My reinforcements were on their way up to help reinforce the siege of Vlecz have instead been repurposed to stomping out the Atlantean breakout in the south, and the initial moves have worked well:
This is a generic Mage of the Deep:
This is a Mage of the Deep carrying a bunch of magical gems:
This is a Mage of the Deep carrying a bunch of magical gems getting eaten by a bear:
Any questions? (Bonus shot above of the Mother of the Deep, who was just a generic recruit without anything fancy, getting eaten a few seconds before.)
Their southern breakout has been aided by the fact that, of the territories I took from them, two have local militias made up entirely of slingers:
For the record, slingers are turbl. No real damage potential if they hit, and that's a big if because they've got a substandard Precision score for a missile unit (baseline 10, -2 from the Sling). So when some Living Pillars roll in, the slingers basically ineffectively chuck rocks for a bit and then break and run.
Well, the attack on Arcoscephale has begun, and the next wave is coming forward to kick Atlantis back into the sea (hopefully).
Claimed the Throne of Beasts in my SP game and suddenly werewolves, werewolves everywhere. I've never seen an army lose to an attack of independents before, but Sceleria lost a province to a bunch of werewolves.
I think i am toast. over the last 4 turns ermor and yomi have cooperatively curbstomped me down from 17 provinces to..3 I've at least ground their armies down to next to nothing in the process whilst losing about 2000 elite troops' worth of armies. avenge me!
I think i am toast. over the last 4 turns ermor and yomi have cooperatively curbstomped me down from 17 provinces to..3 I've at least ground their armies down to next to nothing in the process whilst losing about 2000 elite troops' worth of armies. avenge me!
What research do you have? Might be able to help you hold out or find a solution
I think i am toast. over the last 4 turns ermor and yomi have cooperatively curbstomped me down from 17 provinces to..3 I've at least ground their armies down to next to nothing in the process whilst losing about 2000 elite troops' worth of armies. avenge me!
That's rough. Ouch. I'm not sure there's anything I can do at this point to keep you in the game, but if you come up with some hail mary plays, let us know.
The war against Arcoscephale is nearly done, as their false god has fled their capital and is seeking respite in the woods nearby:
This was the anticipated breakout point - though they also briefly took the woods to the east of Arcoscephale, before my siege enhancement force swung by to take them out - but I didn't anticipate that their Pretender would go with them. But after several months of besieging the castle, the gates of Arcoscephale lie open to my troops:
If all goes well, then my forces will storm through the fallen gates and destroy the last vestiges of Arcoscephalian power; without a castle, they cannot collect taxes, and without taxes, their remaining mundane troops will desert and they will be unable to build any temples. Domain death, if not actual death, follows quickly thereafter. Or, alternatively, attacking them in their last holding and winning results in them losing because they have no territory. In short, the !Greeks are not long for this world.
Similarly, the Pretender of Atlantis was forced to leave his capital to help defeat the sieging force in Vlecz; I believe that he's currently caught there in the castle. This is what he looks like:
What's not immediately clear from that long, crazy list of icons is that this:
... is his Fear aura, which has a ridiculous strength of 10. It basically means that anyone in melee combat with him, or within a few squares on the tactical map, will take a rapidly escalating set of Morale penalties until they just turn and run, taking the rest of their squad with them. I'm hoping that ...
... this icon offers me a way around it. It means that he's vulnerable to salt, like jinn or other monsters. It also means that you can attack him with specially-prepared magical salt, which I can manufacture (requires a low-level Earth mage, and I have those in spades). Moreover, when hit with magical salt, he loses certain abilities; I'm hoping his ridiculous fear aura is one of them. So now I have a bunch of Warrior Chiefs standing around outside the castle, hefting their Greatswords of Sharpness (magical, armor piercing, high damage, decent defense) and a pantry's worth of seasoning, shouting, "Here, fishy fishy fishy ..." Maybe it'll work?
Apart from Vlecz, we've also been pingponging control of the lakeshore, as I'll move in to take a province, he'll move in behind me to take the one I left, then I'll retake it, and he'll take a different one ... Once the army is done with Arcoscephale, I'll be able to use them as garrison forces to prevent that from happening (remember: most of the territory is staffed with slingers as the local defense, which are useless). Until then, I'm fairly happy to trade units with him as I'm making a lot more of them with my much larger economy.
Also, it looks like Xibalba and Pyrene might be going to war soon, based on troop movements and some initial indications I've been getting from them. Xibalba really wants to expand through the independent territory, but I don't think Pyrene wants to let them and they have both been amassing forces on each other's borders.
As the war against Arcoscephale began to wind down, their armies ground to a paste by the mighty warriors of Ulm, I found myself at a crossroads. My two closest neighbors are both worthy rivals. If I start a distant war against the AI one or both of them will likely attack me to prevent my victory.
I decided to attack Xibalba, for three reasons. One, I am already allied with Ulm and have just fought a war on their side. Two, Xibalba appears to have recovered from their rough start and has started fielding some quite scary armies, and will only grow stronger over time thanks to their blood magic. Three, Xibalba is run by the most experienced player in the game and is probably the one most likely to notice how close I am to victory and stab me in the back.
In preparation for the battle, my forges have been running hot. I have created over a hundred magical items to outfit my mages. My nation naturally has powerful smiths, and the fact that I found a magical site that further reduces smithing costs has meant that my items come at a ridiculous discount. Unfortunately, that province also has a magical site that spreads plagues, so many of my smiths have paid dearly for their service.
The bulk of my military might comes from my mage core. Since I'm fighting a nation with predominately flying warriors I have paid particular attention to armoring my mages to make them difficult to kill. My bless is built to facilitate this, improving natural armor by 5 and giving resistance against physical attacks.
The Sorginak are excellent mages, particularly in air magic. Every Sorgina I send into battle has a Bag of Wind, an item that gives them a small air elemental as a retinue and a temporary air gem that lets them summon a full-sized air elemental. These summons alone make the Sorginak very deadly even in small numbers, but they are also perfect for casting damage spells like Thunder Strike and Lightning Bolt. They can also cast Storm, further increasing the power of their air magic while grounding any flying enemies. This will be an incredibly powerful tool against Xibalba in particular.
The Jentilak are masters of earth magic and very powerful combatants. I have given them Earth Boots and Blood Stones, boosting their earth magic to 5 and letting them summon an earth elemental. I've given them full thug equipment but expect them to spend most of their time casting powerful earth spells. These include earthquake, a mighty spell that is particularly potent in caves, that can potentially wipe an entire army out in a single cast.
The Basajaunak and Basanderak are minor giants that my nation can recruit from wild forests. They make incredible thugs, since their potency in earth, water and nature magic allow them to cast many of the best buffing spells. I'm generally using them in matched pairs, letting them share buffs and guard one another's back.
My actual armies are far less impressive, made up mostly of heavily armored Bekryde warriors and club-wielding Mairuak. I have also managed to recruit a modest number of pegasus riders, who I will use as bodyguards for my Sorginak while still allowing them to fly great distances. None of these troops are particularly deadly, so I will rely quite heavily on my mages to win my battles.
I believe I have managed to create quite a formidable force, and one that is well-matched against my opponent, but I am far from confident that I'll win. Using so many thugs comes at a massive risk; if I ever lose a battle where I field a considerable number of them my opponent will be able to claim all magical items of the mages that they killed. I have a lot of magical items on my mages, probably way more than is efficient, which means that I may only be one major loss away from giving my opponent all the tools they need to crush me. To reduce this risk I plan to fight in quite a cautious manner. I can't be too passive, since the massive number of flying troops my opponent controls means they'll be able to raid my lands with impunity. The name of the game is containment and attrition, unless the Xibalbans offer me a decisive battle that I'm confident I can win.
I think i am toast. over the last 4 turns ermor and yomi have cooperatively curbstomped me down from 17 provinces to..3 I've at least ground their armies down to next to nothing in the process whilst losing about 2000 elite troops' worth of armies. avenge me!
What research do you have? Might be able to help you hold out or find a solution
Mostly conjuration (lvl 6) and alteration (4), i think i've temporarily held them off by burning all 200+ death gems i had stockpiled mass summoning undead armies with all my researchers in one turn after noticing they were all physical damage, though. I still have next to nothing for provinces but i've killed off most of their armies
Those treacherous curs calling themselves Pyrene have finally shown their true colors. They have declared war upon us, the peaceful nation of Xibalba. We have a feeling they may not have planned this war terribly well. They have many forces on the periphery of our mutual lands, but we have ours poised to strike at their heart. A mighty army advances. Onaqui attract beastbats which are stealthy sacred flying units every turn with no further investment from us. We made a great front line of our sacred summons of jaguars and scorpions. Their troops are feeble and manshaped, quick to die and quicker to flee. Their mages may cause some issues but if we slay enough of their troops the mages will flee the field anyways. Their capital will be under siege in 2 turns and captured shortly thereafter. I can stall their advances with the spell Horde of Skeletons which can keep them bottled up at our gates for many turns. Maybe long enough to make them flee. (Turn timer mechanics are at turn 100 all buffs turn off, and then the attacker routs shortly thereafter, then the defender. Anyone remaining at turn 150 dies)
I think i am toast. over the last 4 turns ermor and yomi have cooperatively curbstomped me down from 17 provinces to..3 I've at least ground their armies down to next to nothing in the process whilst losing about 2000 elite troops' worth of armies. avenge me!
What research do you have? Might be able to help you hold out or find a solution
Mostly conjuration (lvl 6) and alteration (4), i think i've temporarily held them off by burning all 200+ death gems i had stockpiled mass summoning undead armies with all my researchers in one turn after noticing they were all physical damage, though. I still have next to nothing for provinces but i've killed off most of their armies
Bane lords should be able to solo take on almost any amount of PD. A couple of those running around can help regain territory. Enchantment 5 is pretty much the best if you have death casters. Horde of Skeletons can carry you through anybody not prepared for you to generate hundreds of skeletons per turn of combat
The losses were heavy, as they always are against entrenched enemies, even if their primary form of ranged attack are *pft* slingers:
(My total losses are at the top; the enemy forces are listed below including both mobile forces (the top section) and fortress garrison (the bottom number))
... but still, inflicting 2x losses into a fortress is not bad. The mercenary troll force I've been paying look they didn't accomplish much - 0 kills across the leader and his troops - but what they primarily did was be large targets with a pile of regenerating hit points, allowing my smaller, faster troops to not get killed as much, and in that respect they did pretty well. I had a small mistiming on my back ranks of melee troops arriving at the fight, which allowed the enemy Wind Riders to get a couple rounds in against my archers, with predictably heavy losses for my ranged toops, but then the infantry arrived and finished off the Pegasus-riders. ("Hold and Attack archers" being a common flyer command even for AI; it means "wait 2 rounds of combat doing nothing, then lift off and land on the enemy archers;" for flying cavalry with lances, this can be a decisive attack. I guarded more against "Hold and Attack rearmost" with my positioning, and so took heavier losses than I otherwise would have by mixing my infantry in closer to my commanders and archers.)
I was able to retake the remaining lakefront territory held by the Atlanteans, and my upgauged siege against their holding in Vlecz is proceeding ... Hold a moment, this just in:
I believe that their Pretender is still trapped in this castle, which means that if I attack and capture it, he'll be killed. A dead Pretender is not necessarily a game-over, as with enough Priestly power you can call them back, but it takes a long time and a lot of priests, and I've been reducing Atlantis's ability to recruit priests by capturing all their territory and razing their temples, and, when given the chance, killing any priests attempting to slither out of the ocean.
So the order is given to assault Vlecz, and I've changed the orders given to my Shamans and Warrior Smiths - they'll be summoning the power of the raw elements in this battle, but anyone with Earth Skill will also be working to rip apart the armor worn by the Atlantean troops, especially the Living Pillars. Their basalt armor is magically enchanted, and so while it may not immediately succumb in great numbers to the powers of my casters, each one that fails will change that Living Pillar from 21 + Shield protection to 9 + Shield protection, which is child's play for my troops to pierce.
Winicho, the VOICE OF KALLUM, the SPARK OF THE CONSUMING FIRE, PROPHET OF THE EARTH MONSTER! says a prayer over the assembled host, blesses their swords and their salt, and sends them forth into battle against the Atlanteans.
But first, my forces, still celebrating their success against the fortress of Arcoscephale, move north into the Bright Woods, where Grafe, the false pretender, huddles with a few remaining supporters. Initial scouting has indicated that the bird is likely to spend some time casting spells on itself, letting its meager forces hold off my troops, before taking to wing along with its remaining Pegasus-riders and attacking my back lines.
The Steel Warriors of Ulm are waiting for it to try:
The Pretender of Arcoscephale is tainted with the powers of the Underworld, and any who strike it risk being cursed forever, but the Steel Warriors of KALLUM care not! They carve the bird into pieces, and trample its feathers beneath their steel-shod feet.
The Jaguar Tribes of the Bright Woods are armed primarily with slings and spears; the majority of the remaining Arcoscephalian forces are clockwork soldiers, similar to what Ulm occasionally uses. And so a great fist of troll warriors is assembled at the front of my lines, and they charge through the clockwork soldiers and into the tribesmen. The tribesmen hit them, repeatedly, with slung stones, but the trolls quickly regenerate such minor wounds.
The death of Grafe the Pretender echoes across the battlefield, and the remaining leaders of the Arcoscphalian forces turn and flee for their miserable lives. KALLUM STANDS VICTORIOUS!
While KALLUM may not Ascend to the Pantokrator's Throne, it will not be by YOUR hands, Children of Grafe!
Meanwhile, to the east, the forces of Ulm assault Vlecz, and the initial assault proceeds well, with our hired heavy cavalry charging into the breach in the walls and wreaking great slaughter against the enemies guarding it!
Unfortunately, they cannot quite punch a hole through the defenses before the enemy's summoned assistance - Fall Bears, Crushers, and a Cave Drake - are able to join the fray. The Cave Bear, in particular, are challenging for the cavalry's mundane weapons to harm. And while, behind them, our warcasters try their hardest, the spells they have do not do sufficient damage fast enough to whittle down the ethereal enemies, and so a tarpit develops at the castle walls. The Crushers exacerbate this, as while they are much easier to hit, they are also ...
... multi-story slabs of animated stone, capable of crushing a horse in their bare hands. They shrug off most weapon attacks easily, and while some of my troops - Trolls, Ogres, and Iron Warriors - specialize in clubs and hammers, the vast majority of my army uses swords and axes, which are almost complete ineffective against the frames of the crushers.
And then Shaugnaar Faug and his henchman, Takultu the Basalt King, a powerful mage of Earth, Water, and Air, joined the fight personally.
The Pretender of Atlantis had wrapped his ghostly form in blacksteel armor, the kind the smiths of Ulm specialize in, and had replaced his magical staff with a dwarven hammer, which he used to destroy several of the attacking cavalrymen. The fight continued for what seemed like hours, with neither side able to get a definitive advantage. Although many fled before the might of Shaugnaar Faug, there were many more to take their places. The Ulmic archers spent their quivers shooting dart after dart into the Atlantean infantry, and were able to reduce their numbers somewhat. But the Crushers and the Cave Drake held the gap, and the Ulmic wave beat against it without much progress. Until the first crack appeared, and Baalboo, Coral Priest of Atlantis, broke and ran.
When it fled, the remaining mundane forces of Atlantis fled, too, reducing the pressure on the Ulmic forces:
And, while the Cave Drake and the Crushers were very hard to kill, they were also large ineffective at killing any attackers - their attacks being largely slow and easily dodged (though deadly if not avoided). Takultu found himself alone on the front lines as his support disintegrated, and without the Ghost King's powerful defensive magic, he was cut down quickly.
Nearly an hour into the battle, the Cave Drake fell to the jaws of a Great Bear.
20 minutes later, the Crushers were destroyed.
The fight was the entire remaining Ulmic forces against Shaugnaar Faug, who had planted himself in the ruined gates of his castle and would. not. move.
At a little over two hours into the battle,
... a Steel Maiden was able, with her completely mundane steel, to finally deliver the final blow against Shaugnaar Faug.
What happened is that everyone I'd kitted out to actually fight Shaugnaar Faug ended up getting stuck in the mosh pit surrounding him, and eventually just took enough morale hits that they personally routed, without ever making it up to Shaugnaar Faug in the first place. Would the salt have helped? Can't tell yah! But, in the end, he took just enough chip damage just enough times to whittle him down and kill him. Ugh. That took forever.
Meanwhile, a small raiding force snuck out of the castle in the Green Sea and took a territory nearby, so more ping-ponging, as I've got another force already looking to take it back.
And last but not least, it looks like Pyrene has attacked Xibalba, and is besieging one of their forts on the surface! This is an absolutely insane attack that I totally could not have predicted at all! I should definitely stay out of this ...
This is an Asphodel focused update, they got new type of manikins and gods. They also got spells and abilities to spread carrion seeds with which to infect their enemies and turn them into undead manikins. There is also a large amount of bug fixes, performance improvements, new mod commands as well as some balance changes.
Asphodel
New sprites for manikins and carrion beasts
New Asphodel pretenders: Mother Mandragora, Titan Mandragora, Worm Soul
Carrion dragon now has a carrion vine attack that can infect targets with darkseeds
Asphodel's ritual Grow Fortress has now become Carrion Fortress instead
One third of sacred manikins will now be Carrion Furies
New types of manikin chassis
New magic items: Carrion Seed, Carrion Bow
Some magic items are cheaper for Asphodel
New spells: Sleep Vines, Vengeful Vines, Tangle Thicket
New sacred: Black Minotaur
Black Centaur get +1 berserk
Sagittarian replaces vine bow with carrion bow that can infect target with darkseed
Manikins start age fix
General
Increased 3D performance (+25% FPS) for Windows-AMD (new AMD driver) and Mac
Ind got cheaper temples as 'every mansion is a palace and every building is a temple'
Heroism bless +50% -> +35% xp
Awaken Forest now more expensive and only targets 50% of battlefield
Spiritform beings are now immune to petrification
Mossbody can no longer target spiritform beings
Magic scale 4+ didn't give horror marks correctly
Terrain changes now affects resources and can make people migrate
Performance improvements for main map and research screens
Performance improvements for large battles and turn generation
Spell AI no longer casts sermon of courage on mindless targets
No longer show regen icons that are incompatible with the monster type
More possible errors printed to admin log for lobby games
Keyboard shortcuts in scoregraphs (F2) were wrong
Skeletal Legion affected caster too, fixed
Liches now keep their age
Master password wasn't always properly remembered during game setup
Switching between lobby and local network could crash the game, fixed
Independent priests could cast all type of banishments, fixed
Icon for negative inspiration bonus
Migrations now less likely to lead into wastes or swamps
Weightlessness bless didn't affect combat speed
Supply usage was sometimes wrong on 'y' screen
More national summon rebalancing
Awe from throne did not show up in bless info
Keyboard shortcuts in alchemy didn't work properly
Twiceborn no longer has any effect on most monster shapes
Fix for twiceborn getting around uniqueness of some monsters
Stat penalty from blindness wasn't shown correctly
Blank config path could prevent game from starting, fixed
Humanoid apes and dogs now leave corpses when they die
Fix for simulacrum losing global enchantments when killed
Fix for simulacrum creator getting unexpected afflictions
Magic empowerment can now raise to max level 13
Chain mail of displacement now gives actual displacement
Income box was not shown when dominion was 0, fixed
Dreams of R'lyeh did not give Dimensional Overload in battle
Fixed possible memory corruption when two immortals returned on the same turn
Memory leak during host fixed
Rider's magic items never affected mounts that were commanders
Last messages didn't work in very large games
All Elemental Opposition rituals dispelled air, fixed
Most immortality effects now take priority over Life after Dead
Shinuyama had access to Caelum's national spell 'Call of the Drugvant', fixed
Pretenders no longer lose passive bless when outside dominion
Fix for incorrect retreat message mentioning fort
Fixed incorrect 'cannot lead magic beings' error message
Returning from the void can no longer put you inside a cave wall
Returning from Inferno/Kokytos will now usually leads to a cave
Fear and Dread no longer stacks with each other
Mirror walk no longer castable by stationary commanders
Fix for out of range dominion values in games with Dreamlands R'lyeh
Throne settings were not loaded/saved with ctrl-l/ctrl-s
Indep flags weren't flashing when choosing spell target province
Larger background texture in network lobby
Auto site searching now stops if inside a besieged fort
Elemental royalties permanent elemental summons can now be boosted
Fix for temporary spirit sight not working
Stygian Paths didn't work for units following along
Box selecting commanders/squads didn't always work properly
Network lobby games now keeps time better
F1 now shows sneaking commanders at the end
Fix for divine emperor not being able to storm castle
Farstrike ritual performance fix
Farstrike rituals were not always fully anonymous
The Missing Tune didn't work properly
Earthquake's special effect in caves didn't work
Random maps with edge start positions are now square shaped
Stat & typo fixes
Modding
Potential crash bug fix for mods using new sounds
Fix for "too many sprites" error when using mods in textonly mode
Button to disable all mods in mods menu
Enabling mods from command line now requires both folder and modfile
Posts
It's to justify the lack of sacreds. Like how the Phlegra line are at war with the gods, despite being led by one.
MA ermor is the zombie apocalypse. Bad times to be had. They have a couple splinter empires. Pythium (the byzantines) where Rome never fell, and Sceleria where the problem wasn't the necromancy promise, it was how we used it.
Then late age hits, Pythium still chugging along, Sceleria and Ermor are externinated and the broken remnants of the original populace are hanging out as ghosts as Lemuria. Guarding the gate so the hungry God doesn't come again. With a side of world domination.
Ah, so the only effect of passing out is the same ones you get from generically high fatigue - e.g., the greater amount of "through-armor crits" and lowered defense. I thought there was supposed to be an additional modifier to the actual protection values on top of that, based on the way it's worded.
For those (not) following along at home, I'll have a post up laterish with a melee combat example that walks through this.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
My turns 16, 17, 18, 19, 20:
So my turn 16-19 were spent consolidating my hold on various places and using my Pretender God as the big tanky thug he is to wipe out a couple of locations. My expansion force to the northwest was able to take one more territory, but unfortunately Ermor moved in on the same turn and largely wiped them out, taking the territory from me and pushing me back a province. So, I'm currently rushing some reinforcements that way to stabilize the situation.
Luckily, the bridgehead Ermor had pushed across the river and into my natural area was overrun by A RANDOM BARBARIAN HORDE! They kicked out the Ermorian legions and claimed the territory as their own, which meant that I could take it from the Barbarians without upsetting Ermor and causing them to declare war on me. My first attempt unfortunately failed: my forces had largely driven the Barbarians from the field, with only a few leather-clad fighters left, when one got in a lucky blow and struck down my Warrior Chief. Left leaderless, my army began to retreat at the same time the barbarians were also retreating, and unfortunately we managed to get off the field first, so we lost. A few turns later, KALLUM was able to lead a much stronger force into the province, and began setting up another fortification to watch the land bridge from Ermor.
Hilderith, the Prophet of KALLUM, claimed the Throne of Might and began building a new fortification there, as well. With the land protected, he dedicated a small shrine to KALLUM that the Earth Monster's Glory might be further spread.
Our borders' protection being seen to, we began a program of aggressively recruiting new mages to shore up our magical research and power. Although steel is strong (though nothing compared to the hand that wields it!), steel backed by magical might is even better!
Unfortunately, we are reaching the end of where we can reasonably expand: Atlantis has taken a handful of shore provinces in areas I would prefer to hold, and Ermor has locked me off from expansion to the northwest. There are a few remaining neutral areas in my east, which Hilderith and his forces would quickly be seeing to, but all of the wisest heads agree that, soon, it must come down to battle against the other Pretenders. Which one to target first is always a dicey proposition. Multiple factors - ability to recruit and sustain attacks, likely magical might, possibility of being backstabbed - must all be weighed. But, in the end, the decision was taken from me, because ..
In Turn 20, WAR WAS BEGINNING!
Arcoscephale has decided to make war against me. So, war they shall have. My strong forces are already in the east, ready to meet them head-on. And, unbeknownst to the philosophers, we have a friend awaiting our call to battle. So our messengers have been sent, to call upon the Pyrenese to honor their defensive pact and crush Arcoscephale between. With luck, the war will be quick and decisive, and Grafe will find himself locked away again.
Recruiting of many, many Scouts has been rushed forward, so that we might have a better view of the philosophers' plans. Initial attacks are planned. Even KALLUM himself moves to the east, hoping to drive his mighty broadsword into the heart of their nation. But all focus cannot be on the east, for the Atlanteans cannot be allowed to consolidate their hold on the shores, and Ermor is, as ever, a risk. Additional fortifications are being thrown up in the west, and all armies are beating the drums of reinforcements. Even the ... shudder ... horsemen of Carnag are providing soldiers to this effort.
In Ulm itself, strange rituals are spoken over the funeral mounds of ancient kings, and they rise again to lead their troops as of old.
Visible: piles of reinforcements moving the hold the Spire Woods in the northwest; KALLUM moving to the east south of Ermor to pick up reinforcements on his jog further east through the remaining neutral provinces; a multi-pronged invasion of the first Arcoscephalian province I hope to take.
Things I'm concerned about: where Arcoscephale is hiding their army (hence all the Scouts getting recruited and some redirected away from Ermor / Atlantis); Xibalba has a large army underground Behemoth's Rest, near the Fungwood; there's an uprising on nonbelievers in Cerne, two provinces east of Ulm, that I need to spend at least 1 turn wiping out before they start harming my dominion.
Overall: Things are solidifying, but I'm still behind where I wanted to be when this kicked off. Another turn or two from Arcoscephale would have been really welcome. Still, coordinating with Vic, he's going to hit Faran and then swing more east, and I'll go south through Aole and Trottern, so hopefully that'll work out.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
My turn 21:
The enemy Prophet was made of sterner stuff, however, and continued to hold his position while their archers shot at our troops, hitting some of their own fleeing troops in the process. But, soon, the enemy Prophet rode forth to engage our soldiers, neglecting to take to the skies on his winged mount and instead charging ahead like a normal cavalryman. His horse was quickly cut down from beneath him, and soon after he, too, fell beneath the axes and swords of Ulm. But, being a Prophet, he had laid a curse on the battle, so that if he were struck down, the wrath of Grafe would fall upon those who slew him. And after Iphitos fell, random beams of divine energy struck the battlefield, killing many of our troops - more, in fact, than were lost attacking the soldiers! With Iphitos dead, the enemy archers turned to flee, and a handful escaped while the rest were cut down. The battle was won! Great glory to KALLUM!
Hilderith, lead us in prayer!
I said, Hilderith, lead us in prayer and praise of the Earth Monster!
Hilderith?
... during the battle, Iphitos had beseeched his false god for many blessings, but one foremost amongst them in the opening stages. With a word, Iphitos was able to snuff the life from one target and, as chance would have it, he picked Hilderith. One of the primary traits of the people of Ulm is that they are weak to sorcerous influences.
What's worse is that, even with that being a weak point, we missed the saving throw by 1.
Apparently, being the Prophet of Kallum is a short-term job.
Moving on, we continue to consolidate our hold across our borders, and our recruited Warrior Scouts are moving into enemy territory to find places of weakness.
The Pyrenese have honored their defensive pact, and we are in the process of upgrading it to a full Non-Aggression Pact; this would enforce a three-month delay on any hostilities, and any time our forces accidentally met each other, the aggressor would retreat instead of inflicting casualties.
Now to deal with the lack of priestly support on my critical eastern front ...
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
The mid-game is fast approaching. I'm not sure I'm ready.
I've come to an agreement with Xibalba regarding our border in the caves. I'm taking the moist caves in the north while he gets the lands to the south and west. Unfortunately my expansion party tasked with taking over that area was defeated, and it may take a while before I can afford another one.
My borders have extended nicely towards the northeast. I now border Ermor and Atlantis, though still not C'tis. My current attack may fail, but I decided to take the risk since claiming this province would net me a very valuable source of sacred troops.
In the west my lands border Xibalba, mirroring the caves.
In the south, I've come into contact with Ulm. It would seem Arcoscephale did not enjoy the extra competition. They declared war on Ulm two rounds ago, triggering our defensive pact. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that I had a non-aggression pact with Arcoscephale, which has delayed my entry into the war. I've offered Ulm reparations for failing to take this into account, but in truth, it's quite convenient for me to have the extra time to prepare my forces.
I've also managed to claim the first throne inside my borders, netting me the nice bonus of additional magic scales (giving me extra research) and magic resistance for my sacred lords and soldiers, though at a considerable cost of men.
My mage core is starting to become respectable and site searching inside my territory has turned out some very valuable sites. What's more, I've found a unique site that reduces the cost of crafting magical items. This is very powerful, especially since my strategy hinges so strongly on mages and combat lords. I've already started to fill it up with craftsmen and it should not be long before I can start fielding decent thugs.
My research has gone rather slowly, but that should change quickly now that I have three forests to hire mages in.
Overall I think I'm in a decent position, though I have neglected building out my infrastructure. I now own 28 provinces including my capital, and have encircled a further four. The world was generated with roughly 15 provinces per player, which means I've claimed about twice my "fair share". I can only hope the other players don't take this as a reason to gang up on me before I can consolidate my hold on these lands.
My turn 22:
You know, you seem a trustworthy fellow ...
.. Although apparently the Pyrenese had previously arranged an NAP with Arcoscephale, and so need to wait the mandatory 3 months before they can start active operations against them. This is not ideal in the short term, but, well, Vic is working to make good by offering a small tribute of a Dwarven Hammer.
The Dwarven Hammer is a one-handed weapon, and can be used in combat to deal magical damage, but it's true use is in the forge, where it discounts 2 magical gems from the cost of any item you forge. The Smiths of Ulm are already talented smiths, and get a 1-gem discount natively, but with this hammer that gets upgraded to a 3-gem discount, making lower-level items (which typically cost 5 gems to craft) almost cheap-as-free (2 gems). Although I can craft Dwarven Hammers myself, it takes a talented smith - 3 Earth Skill - and a bucket of gems (15 before any discounts) to make, so I'll call that a win in my book.
Our most northwestern Province, Holoma, was surprised by a sneaking barbarian horde:
... which quickly overran the defense with minimal losses:
So, basically exactly what I was snerking about happening to Ermor. Turnabout, fair play, etc. But, unlike last time, I have an ~100-strong army hanging out nearby, ready to retake the province, as reinforcements had just arrived from Ulm. My hope is that I can take and hold it without it being snatched by Ermor or Atlantis, thus preventing them from declaring war on me just at this moment.
Arcoscephale launched another weak attack against me, bringing in another Wind Lord and a few attendants; they were possibly hoping that my invasion force had moved on, and that they could quickly take the province from whichever local defenses I'd put in place. However, since I was waiting for my Scouts to move forward, my invasion army was still there, and easily dispatched the token Arcoscephalians.
Now I wait for the Scouts to move up and reposition my army. Hopefully, next turn, I'll be able to root out the cause of the religious problems in Cerne, as this happening so close to my capital is concerning:
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Did you summon anything into the battle?
ED: In my SP MA Marignon game, I always gift my enemies a couple of kills every battle because I bring Falconers for distractions, and they've got 1d6 chaff hawks apiece.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
My turn 23:
Pyrene and I are friends with a common enemy ... For now! As Pyrene has claimed their own Throne of Ascension, and that Throne clearly belongs to KALLUM!
This is a level 2 Throne, and so it provides 2 victory points (Ascension points). In addition to that, it is very good at spreading your dominion, providing the equivalent of 3 Temples' worth of growth each turn. It also makes magical research faster in its province and provides a minor Magic Resistance benefit (which my troops would certainly benefit from).
I also now have two fortifications beyond my starting location, and a third coming up in a couple of months. I now need to turn my attention to spreading more temples and laboratories, as spreading my dominion and empowering my remote troops with the ability to grab the armaments I forge and stocking up on magical gems for use in combat will be key. As it is, I need to have a commander ferry them from my capital, which is inefficient at best and prone to mistakes.
We were able to recapture Holoma with limited losses, especially given that we were fighting barbarians who, like my troops, favor one-hit-kills with their massive weapons:
Essentially, an initial crunch where the barbarians each took a swing and scored 50% kills, and then our troops attacked, did significant damage, and they broke and ran. Our archers did well, scoring an initial couple kills on the way in, but likely they ended up hitting my own troops in the back and scored an own-kill.
Arcoscepahle continues to throw troops onesie-twosie into my forces, where they are summarily defeated. Now that my Scouts have a view deeper into their territory, we are launching our next attack against Arcoscephale.
Depending on how the next several turns go, I might be considering doing something really, really dumb. Or brilliant.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Nope! Just basic Ulm troops, no spellcasting at all.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
My turn 24:
Ulm's only national spell comes in at Conjuration 3, and requires a Nature 2 mage to cast. It is ...:
For the low, low price of 6 Nature gems, or roughly 2 minor magical weapons, you get 15 or more of these bad boys:
First off, that is a huge pile of hit points - at least 600 hit points per casting - to add to an army, although they'll need it because with such a low Defense score (6) and Protection value (8), they'll be taking damage on the routine. However, like most of my line troops, they're double-attackers (bite and claw) which means they pile up "Harried" penalties on their targets really quickly, so even with baseline Attack skill (9) they'll start hitting fairly often for +21 and +19 damage - which means they hit like a trucks. Because they're animals, they have what is called the Undisciplined ability (the icon for which looks like two barbarians, so, you know, harmful stereotypes:
So, anyway, I grabbed some bears to bring to battle.
We found the heretic that had been spreading the word of false Pretenders in Cerne, and it did not go well for him and his heathen flock:
However, before we found him, he was able to largely convert the populace of Cerne to his ways, so now I have a hole in my dominion.
It should fill back in soon as everyone learns the error of their ways and returns to the proper worship of KALLUM, the EARTH MONSTER, the CONSUMING FIRE.
Arcoscephale's next province has fallen to me with only minor injuries - a random slinger was able to score a headshot across the battlefield on an archer before the withering return fire cause them to break and run after a mere 2 losses, and in the initial engagement two Shield Maidens were slain by the opposing heavy infantry. Beyond that, though, we were able to take the land cleanly. We have also found Arcoscephale's main army, 90-strong, defending the castle he has built around the Lower Throne. It is made up of a great number of Icarids, which are troops trained in the use of a strange magical-mechanical device that allows them to, somewhat inexpertly, fly. That makes it somewhat easy for them to drop into combat on top of your commanders, and an army without commanders immediately routs. Accordingly, we need to change our army layout in case they attack, ensuring that our commanders are all guarded. The Arcoscephalians are lead by one of the Oreiades, a mountain nature spirit of great beauty and power. In kinder times, we'd invite her over for one heck of a barbarian party. Instead, we need to defeat her quickly, before Arcoscephale can study enough magic to make her truly dangerous in battle.
Good thing my next couple of armies are coming up quickly to challenge the Arcoscephalians.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I have other commitments to handle first, but when I have a spare army I would be happy to try to help you get one of them off your back.
My turn 25-28:
With the war against Arcoscephale proceeding well, and with the doughty cavemen of Pyrene entering the battle, I decided it was time to do something about Atlantis before they were able to ... heh heh ... get too much of a beachhead. They had begun expanding south from their lake and the land of Silbermark which they had beat me to, and were beginning to head west around the Throne on the shores. And, specifically, that castle going up on my borders was something I could not allow. So, I moved some troops surreptitiously west and, in a single turn, launched three separate attacks against Atlantis: against his castle in Vlecz, the farmland in Silvermark, and the farmland in Omicria. This had the immediate effect of taking 3 rich provinces' income from him, but Silvermark was also the bridge between his capital fort and his southwestern territories. In Dominions, you cannot collect taxes from any land without a contiguous connection to a fort - so not only did I take 3 provinces worth of income from his pocket and put it into mine, but I also denied him the income from 3 other provinces.
The first few rounds of attacks have gone well, and a few turns later, here's the status of Atlantis's land holdings:
They've moved slightly on-shore to their west, and I think that might be the extent of their remaining expansion opportunities. Pyrene is building a fort on the north shore, locking them off from there, and while they've finally completed an initial fort in the Green Sea, they accomplished this immediately before my UNDEAD WARRIORS FROM ULM! are about to sink under the waves, Pirates of the Caribbean-style, and take the fight to them. The fort means it might take a bit longer to actually grab the territory than I'd planned, but since I've confirmed with Pyrene that Atlantis hasn't spread beyond Ophaleph on the west coast of the lake, which I'm taking on my next move, that should largely end them as a threat. They've tossed a couple of waves of soldiers at my besiegers, but in each case I've been able to beat them back at largely horrendous losses for them:
Otherwise, I continue to recruit reinforcement armies to throw against Arcoscephale, I've got a strong defense to the north against Ermor in-place (and hopefully they're distracted fighting C'Tis right now, based on taliosfalcon's comments above!), and I just my Prophet back, so things are, at least for the moment, a bit more stable.
My main worries are still Xibalba deciding to come boiling out of the ground, since his cave system is basically right underneath everything I own, and the fact that my nearest rivals all have really strong Dominions, increasing the risk of a "Dom kill." Basically, if no one believes in your Pretender God (there are no territories where you have a positive Dominion), then you lose, regardless of what else is going on. My starting Dominion score is 6, which is pretty solid! But Atlantis's is 8, and Arcoscephale's is 7, largely, I think, on the back of temple building (which I couldn't afford early because of my stumble out of the gate). So, in addition to forting up, I'm in the process of beefing up my religious coverage, reminding people of just how great it is to be fed into the Forges of the ALL CONSUMING FIRE.
Basically:
Wars? Good!
Infrastructure? Ehhhh?
Long-term Outlook? It is in KALLUM's hands.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
My turns 29-30:
(Armor piercing weapons cut the effectiveness of armor in half when rolling for damage, which turns the heavy stone armor of the Living Pillars into something more like a basic chain shirt, which my strong Warrior Chiefs have little trouble chopping through.)
I am also working to pull some more Shades from the Netherworld, as their life-draining touch doesn't care much against the armor of the Living Pillars at all. The Shades' normal defense, though, is the fact that they are ethereal and therefore basically immune to normal weapons; the Pillars' rock spears are enchanted, though, so I need to use the shades carefully.
And, in other bad news, I had noticed that a large number of my commanders and troops in my war against Atlantis were coming down with horrible wasting diseases. Like, way more than there should be. A sick realization (... heh) dawned on me, and I took Death gems from the great tree Irmunsul, which normally would have powered a ritual capable of summoning a squad of skeletons or a handful of shades, and instead pulled a spirit of Wisdom from the depths of the Underworld and traded the gems for information. Wurm the Shaman asked what the spirit knew about the Spire Woods, where the men of Ulm had recently completed our fortifications. The spirit laughed a dry and dusty laugh, and imprinted on Wurm's mind the path to a blackened tree in the middle of the Woods. When scouts followed the directions, they came across a great fissure in the ground at the base of the tree, surrounded by dying vegetation that dripped with sickness and corruption. The scouts returned to tell of the place they had seen, and all died shortly thereafter of a wasting sickness. Still, though the area around the tree is ... unpleasant, there is great power there for those who can use it ...
And, basically, great chance for all of the soldiers recruited in the Fortress to get the Diseased wound, which reduces max hit points by 10% each month and has a great chance to give you other wounds, like "lost an eye" or "battle fright" or "chest wound."
Basically, it's a death sentence and sucks ass. This is on top of the effect of Death scales in the territory (+2 Death), which reduces supplies (how many troops can be here without starving) and population over time and, yes, makes it more likely for your troops to pick up Diseased wound. Two things make this not completely horrible: 1) Undead don't care, so this'll make a good Undead recruiting spot once I can start summoning undead who can summon their own undead (xzibit.png), and 2) it'll make besieging this castle suck for anyone who has to spend several months here with a large army.
But not all is bad, as the war against Arcoscephale is winding its way to its conclusion:
Their castle guarding the Lower Throne has been breached, and soon my forces will attack. Meanwhile, all of their holdings except for their capital itself and the castle in Rame have been taken, either by me or by my allies, the Pyrenese.
They have enough troops that they could stage a limited breakout, into the Bright Woods, for instance, but that is really their only path, and it would quickly run into the (hopefully successful!) former besiegers from Rame, while Arcoscephale itself is about to be attacked from the east by my BEAR WARRIORS!
But I do need to hammer the Arcoscephalians quickly, as I need those troops to move on to taking out Atlantis's troops on-shore and then get them prepped for Ermor to take a swing at me or, more likely, Xibalba to decide to take me out.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I kind of doubt I'll ever be able to play a PBEM game again. Back around 2011 I went a year straight where I basically didn't think about anything other than my next Dominions 3 turn, and my life is no longer the right kind of fucked up to be able to do that. It might be fun to try and find a blitz game sometime, though.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
And Ulm reaches out to us at this time, knowing our empire stretches beneath them, asking what our intentions are. Our intentions? The same as they've always been. Take back the sun, let nothing stand in our way.
Tactical musings
My turns 31-32:
My reinforcements were on their way up to help reinforce the siege of Vlecz have instead been repurposed to stomping out the Atlantean breakout in the south, and the initial moves have worked well:
This is a generic Mage of the Deep:
This is a Mage of the Deep carrying a bunch of magical gems:
This is a Mage of the Deep carrying a bunch of magical gems getting eaten by a bear:
Any questions? (Bonus shot above of the Mother of the Deep, who was just a generic recruit without anything fancy, getting eaten a few seconds before.)
Their southern breakout has been aided by the fact that, of the territories I took from them, two have local militias made up entirely of slingers:
For the record, slingers are turbl. No real damage potential if they hit, and that's a big if because they've got a substandard Precision score for a missile unit (baseline 10, -2 from the Sling). So when some Living Pillars roll in, the slingers basically ineffectively chuck rocks for a bit and then break and run.
Well, the attack on Arcoscephale has begun, and the next wave is coming forward to kick Atlantis back into the sea (hopefully).
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
What research do you have? Might be able to help you hold out or find a solution
That's rough. Ouch. I'm not sure there's anything I can do at this point to keep you in the game, but if you come up with some hail mary plays, let us know.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
My turns 33-37 (Busy weekend!):
This was the anticipated breakout point - though they also briefly took the woods to the east of Arcoscephale, before my siege enhancement force swung by to take them out - but I didn't anticipate that their Pretender would go with them. But after several months of besieging the castle, the gates of Arcoscephale lie open to my troops:
If all goes well, then my forces will storm through the fallen gates and destroy the last vestiges of Arcoscephalian power; without a castle, they cannot collect taxes, and without taxes, their remaining mundane troops will desert and they will be unable to build any temples. Domain death, if not actual death, follows quickly thereafter. Or, alternatively, attacking them in their last holding and winning results in them losing because they have no territory. In short, the !Greeks are not long for this world.
Similarly, the Pretender of Atlantis was forced to leave his capital to help defeat the sieging force in Vlecz; I believe that he's currently caught there in the castle. This is what he looks like:
What's not immediately clear from that long, crazy list of icons is that this:
... is his Fear aura, which has a ridiculous strength of 10. It basically means that anyone in melee combat with him, or within a few squares on the tactical map, will take a rapidly escalating set of Morale penalties until they just turn and run, taking the rest of their squad with them. I'm hoping that ...
... this icon offers me a way around it. It means that he's vulnerable to salt, like jinn or other monsters. It also means that you can attack him with specially-prepared magical salt, which I can manufacture (requires a low-level Earth mage, and I have those in spades). Moreover, when hit with magical salt, he loses certain abilities; I'm hoping his ridiculous fear aura is one of them. So now I have a bunch of Warrior Chiefs standing around outside the castle, hefting their Greatswords of Sharpness (magical, armor piercing, high damage, decent defense) and a pantry's worth of seasoning, shouting, "Here, fishy fishy fishy ..." Maybe it'll work?
Apart from Vlecz, we've also been pingponging control of the lakeshore, as I'll move in to take a province, he'll move in behind me to take the one I left, then I'll retake it, and he'll take a different one ... Once the army is done with Arcoscephale, I'll be able to use them as garrison forces to prevent that from happening (remember: most of the territory is staffed with slingers as the local defense, which are useless). Until then, I'm fairly happy to trade units with him as I'm making a lot more of them with my much larger economy.
Also, it looks like Xibalba and Pyrene might be going to war soon, based on troop movements and some initial indications I've been getting from them. Xibalba really wants to expand through the independent territory, but I don't think Pyrene wants to let them and they have both been amassing forces on each other's borders.
I suspect the fireworks will kick off quite soon.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
As the war against Arcoscephale began to wind down, their armies ground to a paste by the mighty warriors of Ulm, I found myself at a crossroads. My two closest neighbors are both worthy rivals. If I start a distant war against the AI one or both of them will likely attack me to prevent my victory.
I decided to attack Xibalba, for three reasons. One, I am already allied with Ulm and have just fought a war on their side. Two, Xibalba appears to have recovered from their rough start and has started fielding some quite scary armies, and will only grow stronger over time thanks to their blood magic. Three, Xibalba is run by the most experienced player in the game and is probably the one most likely to notice how close I am to victory and stab me in the back.
In preparation for the battle, my forges have been running hot. I have created over a hundred magical items to outfit my mages. My nation naturally has powerful smiths, and the fact that I found a magical site that further reduces smithing costs has meant that my items come at a ridiculous discount. Unfortunately, that province also has a magical site that spreads plagues, so many of my smiths have paid dearly for their service.
The bulk of my military might comes from my mage core. Since I'm fighting a nation with predominately flying warriors I have paid particular attention to armoring my mages to make them difficult to kill. My bless is built to facilitate this, improving natural armor by 5 and giving resistance against physical attacks.
The Sorginak are excellent mages, particularly in air magic. Every Sorgina I send into battle has a Bag of Wind, an item that gives them a small air elemental as a retinue and a temporary air gem that lets them summon a full-sized air elemental. These summons alone make the Sorginak very deadly even in small numbers, but they are also perfect for casting damage spells like Thunder Strike and Lightning Bolt. They can also cast Storm, further increasing the power of their air magic while grounding any flying enemies. This will be an incredibly powerful tool against Xibalba in particular.
The Jentilak are masters of earth magic and very powerful combatants. I have given them Earth Boots and Blood Stones, boosting their earth magic to 5 and letting them summon an earth elemental. I've given them full thug equipment but expect them to spend most of their time casting powerful earth spells. These include earthquake, a mighty spell that is particularly potent in caves, that can potentially wipe an entire army out in a single cast.
The Basajaunak and Basanderak are minor giants that my nation can recruit from wild forests. They make incredible thugs, since their potency in earth, water and nature magic allow them to cast many of the best buffing spells. I'm generally using them in matched pairs, letting them share buffs and guard one another's back.
My actual armies are far less impressive, made up mostly of heavily armored Bekryde warriors and club-wielding Mairuak. I have also managed to recruit a modest number of pegasus riders, who I will use as bodyguards for my Sorginak while still allowing them to fly great distances. None of these troops are particularly deadly, so I will rely quite heavily on my mages to win my battles.
I believe I have managed to create quite a formidable force, and one that is well-matched against my opponent, but I am far from confident that I'll win. Using so many thugs comes at a massive risk; if I ever lose a battle where I field a considerable number of them my opponent will be able to claim all magical items of the mages that they killed. I have a lot of magical items on my mages, probably way more than is efficient, which means that I may only be one major loss away from giving my opponent all the tools they need to crush me. To reduce this risk I plan to fight in quite a cautious manner. I can't be too passive, since the massive number of flying troops my opponent controls means they'll be able to raid my lands with impunity. The name of the game is containment and attrition, unless the Xibalbans offer me a decisive battle that I'm confident I can win.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Didn't know that Ulm knights and spearmen were stealthy. o.O
Bane lords should be able to solo take on almost any amount of PD. A couple of those running around can help regain territory. Enchantment 5 is pretty much the best if you have death casters. Horde of Skeletons can carry you through anybody not prepared for you to generate hundreds of skeletons per turn of combat
My turns 38, 39:
*Celebration noises*
The losses were heavy, as they always are against entrenched enemies, even if their primary form of ranged attack are *pft* slingers:
(My total losses are at the top; the enemy forces are listed below including both mobile forces (the top section) and fortress garrison (the bottom number))
... but still, inflicting 2x losses into a fortress is not bad. The mercenary troll force I've been paying look they didn't accomplish much - 0 kills across the leader and his troops - but what they primarily did was be large targets with a pile of regenerating hit points, allowing my smaller, faster troops to not get killed as much, and in that respect they did pretty well. I had a small mistiming on my back ranks of melee troops arriving at the fight, which allowed the enemy Wind Riders to get a couple rounds in against my archers, with predictably heavy losses for my ranged toops, but then the infantry arrived and finished off the Pegasus-riders. ("Hold and Attack archers" being a common flyer command even for AI; it means "wait 2 rounds of combat doing nothing, then lift off and land on the enemy archers;" for flying cavalry with lances, this can be a decisive attack. I guarded more against "Hold and Attack rearmost" with my positioning, and so took heavier losses than I otherwise would have by mixing my infantry in closer to my commanders and archers.)
I was able to retake the remaining lakefront territory held by the Atlanteans, and my upgauged siege against their holding in Vlecz is proceeding ... Hold a moment, this just in:
I believe that their Pretender is still trapped in this castle, which means that if I attack and capture it, he'll be killed. A dead Pretender is not necessarily a game-over, as with enough Priestly power you can call them back, but it takes a long time and a lot of priests, and I've been reducing Atlantis's ability to recruit priests by capturing all their territory and razing their temples, and, when given the chance, killing any priests attempting to slither out of the ocean.
So the order is given to assault Vlecz, and I've changed the orders given to my Shamans and Warrior Smiths - they'll be summoning the power of the raw elements in this battle, but anyone with Earth Skill will also be working to rip apart the armor worn by the Atlantean troops, especially the Living Pillars. Their basalt armor is magically enchanted, and so while it may not immediately succumb in great numbers to the powers of my casters, each one that fails will change that Living Pillar from 21 + Shield protection to 9 + Shield protection, which is child's play for my troops to pierce.
Winicho, the VOICE OF KALLUM, the SPARK OF THE CONSUMING FIRE, PROPHET OF THE EARTH MONSTER! says a prayer over the assembled host, blesses their swords and their salt, and sends them forth into battle against the Atlanteans.
But first, my forces, still celebrating their success against the fortress of Arcoscephale, move north into the Bright Woods, where Grafe, the false pretender, huddles with a few remaining supporters. Initial scouting has indicated that the bird is likely to spend some time casting spells on itself, letting its meager forces hold off my troops, before taking to wing along with its remaining Pegasus-riders and attacking my back lines.
The Steel Warriors of Ulm are waiting for it to try:
The Pretender of Arcoscephale is tainted with the powers of the Underworld, and any who strike it risk being cursed forever, but the Steel Warriors of KALLUM care not! They carve the bird into pieces, and trample its feathers beneath their steel-shod feet.
The Jaguar Tribes of the Bright Woods are armed primarily with slings and spears; the majority of the remaining Arcoscephalian forces are clockwork soldiers, similar to what Ulm occasionally uses. And so a great fist of troll warriors is assembled at the front of my lines, and they charge through the clockwork soldiers and into the tribesmen. The tribesmen hit them, repeatedly, with slung stones, but the trolls quickly regenerate such minor wounds.
The death of Grafe the Pretender echoes across the battlefield, and the remaining leaders of the Arcoscphalian forces turn and flee for their miserable lives. KALLUM STANDS VICTORIOUS!
While KALLUM may not Ascend to the Pantokrator's Throne, it will not be by YOUR hands, Children of Grafe!
Meanwhile, to the east, the forces of Ulm assault Vlecz, and the initial assault proceeds well, with our hired heavy cavalry charging into the breach in the walls and wreaking great slaughter against the enemies guarding it!
Unfortunately, they cannot quite punch a hole through the defenses before the enemy's summoned assistance - Fall Bears, Crushers, and a Cave Drake - are able to join the fray. The Cave Bear, in particular, are challenging for the cavalry's mundane weapons to harm. And while, behind them, our warcasters try their hardest, the spells they have do not do sufficient damage fast enough to whittle down the ethereal enemies, and so a tarpit develops at the castle walls. The Crushers exacerbate this, as while they are much easier to hit, they are also ...
... multi-story slabs of animated stone, capable of crushing a horse in their bare hands. They shrug off most weapon attacks easily, and while some of my troops - Trolls, Ogres, and Iron Warriors - specialize in clubs and hammers, the vast majority of my army uses swords and axes, which are almost complete ineffective against the frames of the crushers.
And then Shaugnaar Faug and his henchman, Takultu the Basalt King, a powerful mage of Earth, Water, and Air, joined the fight personally.
The Pretender of Atlantis had wrapped his ghostly form in blacksteel armor, the kind the smiths of Ulm specialize in, and had replaced his magical staff with a dwarven hammer, which he used to destroy several of the attacking cavalrymen. The fight continued for what seemed like hours, with neither side able to get a definitive advantage. Although many fled before the might of Shaugnaar Faug, there were many more to take their places. The Ulmic archers spent their quivers shooting dart after dart into the Atlantean infantry, and were able to reduce their numbers somewhat. But the Crushers and the Cave Drake held the gap, and the Ulmic wave beat against it without much progress. Until the first crack appeared, and Baalboo, Coral Priest of Atlantis, broke and ran.
When it fled, the remaining mundane forces of Atlantis fled, too, reducing the pressure on the Ulmic forces:
And, while the Cave Drake and the Crushers were very hard to kill, they were also large ineffective at killing any attackers - their attacks being largely slow and easily dodged (though deadly if not avoided). Takultu found himself alone on the front lines as his support disintegrated, and without the Ghost King's powerful defensive magic, he was cut down quickly.
Nearly an hour into the battle, the Cave Drake fell to the jaws of a Great Bear.
20 minutes later, the Crushers were destroyed.
The fight was the entire remaining Ulmic forces against Shaugnaar Faug, who had planted himself in the ruined gates of his castle and would. not. move.
At a little over two hours into the battle,
... a Steel Maiden was able, with her completely mundane steel, to finally deliver the final blow against Shaugnaar Faug.
What happened is that everyone I'd kitted out to actually fight Shaugnaar Faug ended up getting stuck in the mosh pit surrounding him, and eventually just took enough morale hits that they personally routed, without ever making it up to Shaugnaar Faug in the first place. Would the salt have helped? Can't tell yah! But, in the end, he took just enough chip damage just enough times to whittle him down and kill him. Ugh. That took forever.
Meanwhile, a small raiding force snuck out of the castle in the Green Sea and took a territory nearby, so more ping-ponging, as I've got another force already looking to take it back.
And last but not least, it looks like Pyrene has attacked Xibalba, and is besieging one of their forts on the surface! This is an absolutely insane attack that I totally could not have predicted at all! I should definitely stay out of this ...
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
This is an Asphodel focused update, they got new type of manikins and gods. They also got spells and abilities to spread carrion seeds with which to infect their enemies and turn them into undead manikins. There is also a large amount of bug fixes, performance improvements, new mod commands as well as some balance changes.
General
Modding
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]