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Too bad that long quest chain didn't give you a new magic rune. But you know what they say, its not easy being green. Is it, princess? 
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Jan 6, 2017 01:21
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| # ? May 20, 2024 03:36 |
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I'm willing to give Argus at least a little credit for wanting the love potion for himself. Unless that's something else Bill Gilbert talked him into.
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Jan 6, 2017 08:38
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Gully Foyle posted:
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Jan 6, 2017 23:23
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: It depends on who you are, amd especially who you want to enchant.
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I finally have internet again, so I should have an update ready to be posted by tomorrow, I just need to upload screenshots. Whoops, fixed now. Thanks!
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Jan 17, 2017 20:06
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Update 18: Cemetery Caper, Part 1 Last time on King's Bounty, Bill Gilbert got married to the love of his  We begin by the glowing sigil we've seen before. We will be dealing with this, but not until next update.  As expected, the graveyards are teeming with wandering undead.  I believe that this is our first encounter with Vampires. Like the Werewolf Elves we have encountered, Vampires have two forms. The bat form, as seen in this encounter, is weaker at combat but much faster.  You may have noticed from the opening screen that I have replaced the Thorn-Hunters with the more specialized Priests as a ranged support. Priests do double damage to any Undead with their Holy Attack. Using the Holy Anger talent of the Inquisitors on Priests is extremely effective in this area. This means they do maximum damage (from the Bless effect of Holy Anger), then doubled (from the Holy Attack ability), then multiplied by 1.5x (from the other effect of Holy Anger). All told, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 damage per Priest, instead of their normal 3 damage on average.  It works extremely well.  We also see lots of zombies in the coming battles. There are two varieties - regular Zombies, and Decaying Zombies. Other than some minor stat changes, the main difference is that Decaying Zombies dissolve into a cloud of Plague upon death, infecting any nearby units with a debuff to Attack, Defense, and Health.   The next battle gives us a look at the higher tier Vampire, the Ancient Vampire. These guys, in larger numbers, are a pain in the rear end. But I'll save that discussion for when it applies.  Ancient Vampires are one of the few units that can out-initiative my Royal Snakes, even with their +1 initiative from Bill's current Regalia. In bat form, Ancient Vampires match that high Initiative with a high Speed. Unfortunately, the AI has no concept of mutual support. So fast units like this tend to zoom forward into range of our whole army, with no units backing them up.  Our Fireball damage is looking much better with our new wife and the related boost to Intellect (it doesn't hurt that a lot of Undead units have a slight weakness to Fire).   Zerock reaches Level 5, and I choose the boost to Smashing Sword damage. A little more direct damage is not a bad deal for only 1 more rage cost. And mages (like the Necromancers we are seeing everywhere) take double damage. Now I can potentially kill 2 Necros with one Smashing Sword.  The graveyard is not well up-kept, and various corpses lie all over the place. Bill has no issue with sifting through piles of ancient bones.  Not all corpses are buried with riches though, and many contain nothing but grave dust.  Entire coffins also decorate the cemetery. These are another form of creature container, with the more expensive coffins like this containing vampires, and the regular ones containing skeletons. The problem is that there are few sources of Undead units for hire on the beginning island, so a full Undead army is very hard to actually get. This makes these few coffins insufficient to sustain an army.  Getting rid of Necromancers should be the priority in any Undead combat. As discussed, their Raise Dead ability is very powerful, and you want to keep them from doing that as much as possible.  We also get very lucky in this battle, and find a Rune of Mind. Too bad it wasn't that last Magic Rune we need for Higher Magic. It's looking like we may have to wait for the next level up.  In the cemetery fights, the interactable coffin object is a common sight, giving a few extra Skeletons to the side that breaks it open.  They aren't much good, but they do serve as a distraction and shield to absorb hits.  In their Bat form, Vampires have the ability to drain living creatures it attacks, regaining Health and potentially raising killed Vampires again. Anyone who has played early Heroes of Might and Magic knows how annoying this ability can be, although it is toned down in strength in this game.   The graves in the cemetery are all lootable objects. Some of them, instead of loot, contain random undead troops. Unfortunately, this is a one-time deal, and if you interact with the grave with no open spaces, you don't even get to see what troops you've missed. I don't really care, since I have no intention of using Undead troops at this point in the game. If you are interested in getting undead units, come back to the graveyard with open troop spots.  Crypt doors litter the landscape, beckoning us to explore their depths. We will be back, but today's adventure is just to clean the surface.  The graves that don't have undead troops often contain a good chunk of change. Grave-robbing has already proved to be no issue for Bill, so this is a lucrative place for him.  Despite the claim of being a Robbers' Shelter, only Skeleton Archers lurk within. It's not clear who exactly we would be taking our money if we were to hire these guys. Skeleton Archers are probably one of the strongest ranged units in the game... if you can find the numbers. But these 100 dudes wouldn't even fill one of my slots and it's hard to find sufficient replacements.  In addition to the lootable bones and plain graves, more elaborate sarcophagi await our kleptomanic hands.  Haha, a nice find here! We are already wearing one of these, but a second is potentially useful since Feanora has a Belt slot. I don't need it right now, but it may come in handy if I want to further increase my Mana recovery when I start double-casting (if you don't remember, this belt gives +3 Mana per combat turn, and +20% Mana recovery on the map).  Just a little gold, only over a thousand pieces.  Both Vampires and Ancient Vampires can appear in their base Vampire form as well as their Bat form. Usually they transform into a bat on their first turn anyways, so it doesn't make much of a difference. I prefer if they start in Bat form, since they have less Health and are easier to kill with spells and whatnot.  Vampires in normal form do not have the Drain Life ability, but they do regenerate to full Health at the start of any turn. Not much of a barrier, but it does make them slightly harder to kill.   As we reach the coast, two more undead armies await us.     Not much to say about these fights. Same units, same results. After these fights, our wife approaches us with a concerned look in her face.  : Croak! Oh, how much I love you, my dear husband. Please forgive me if I do not devote enough attention to you and sometimes I am too chilly with you. It's just that... well, I used to be an amphibian, so it's second nature. : What are you getting at?: I thought.... Actually I decided... I want to confess to you that although I am happy with you, there is something missing to make our happiness complete. We are missing something.: What are you talking about?: Of course I am talking about children, my lord. Could your love for me have died? Don't you want us to have a baby, who we could give our love and care? I want us so much to be surrounded by a knot of jumping and croaking little children.: Sorry, but our way of life is not suitable for raising a family. Let's speak about it some other time.I generally never have children in this game. Although some of them are quite good, the randomness is frustrating and I don't want to get stuck with a pretty poor child that occupies a slot that could be taken up with better equipment. You can divorce your wife and she will take any children with her. Of course, then you lose that particular wife's related bonus.  This fancy tomb contains only a few scrolls of a spell that we've had since the tutorial.  Continuing along the coastal road, a roaming enemey Hero awaits. Duke Helm's army contains a variety of the living and unliving.  Ok, so not only is Duke Helm a vampire, but he also forced a child-vampire to bite him and killed the kid and his whole family. For fun, I guess? It's hard to judge the killers of the undead, considering our own activities. But it still seems a little harsh.  Duke Helm's army is a little tougher than the other stacks we've encountered here, but not by much. An Evil Shoal and Fireball removes his only ranged stack.  And his slow melee troops can't do much against our ranged attacks and spells, and we finish his army off by the second turn.   Unlike the many other catacombs we see, we cannot enter this impressive set of doors.   With the number of undead wandering around, it shouldn't be a surprise that many of the graves and crypts are empty, since their previous occupants have become rather mobile.  Another wandering undead group meets its doom at my hands.  Castle Karmag sits at a peninsula, alive with an eerie corpse light. I said before that we are not strong enough to take on the residents. I decided to prove it, and the results are seen below in the bonus material section. It's one of the odder spikes in difficulty in this game. The wandering undead armies all around here, even Duke Helm, are no threat. Yet this castle is doom for us for a good long time yet. For now, we will be avoiding it completely.  Instead of actually entering the castle, we turn back to continue the circuit of the cemetery. Along the way, we find this sweet cache of Might Runes.  With that, I now have enough to buy a new skill in the Might Tree, while still keeping enough Might Runes in store for Higher Magic. I pick up Master of Spirits, which boosts the rate at which our Spirits of Rage will level.  We find another fancy belt in another stone sarcophagus.  The Steel Strip is not that great... but we notice that it does have an upgraded form.  Let's unlock it by taking on the Keepers, since this one is easily doable right now.  We can't finish these towers off with an Evil Shoal, but it does weaken them significantly.  Fireball is still our best weapon to destroy the towers.  The other towers retaliate with a bolt of Lightning. Luckily, these towers only have the Level 1 version, or my whole army would be getting shocked.  I send my bears and snakes to block the approaching Guardsmen from reaching our more vulnerable ranged units, while my own Swordsmen head for the remaining Evil Gremlin tower.  Although melee isn't recommended, there's no retaliation from these guys if you manage to kill them in one attack.  We do take minor losses to the tower spells and the Guardsmen units.   With the victory over the Keepers, the Steel Strip becomes the Steel Belt. Now there is no malus to Attack, and we get the same +100 Leadership our current Chieftain's Belt is giving us. So I pop this badboy onto our wife, boosting our Defense from 4 to 6.  Continuing along, we find a certain quest zombie, but we first need to take care of the wandering army.  This army contains our fist look at the Black Knight. This Undead unit is similar in many ways to the Knight - slow, armored, fairly powerful. The Black Knight is a bit less tanky and a bit more mobile with the Running Talent.  But since there is only one, its not much of a challenge. Even these bees are able to get into the cracks of his armor and sting him to death - well, re-death, I suppose.   Let's return to this zombie with a quest flag.  : Hey, you! Zombie! Maybe you haven't yet rotted so badly that you can only hum, but you can talk as well? : Ah! Who's here? Can it be another grave robber? Why will the treasures of the dead give you no rest? Just let the dead rest in peace.: Oh sure, I rob one grave... well, maybe tw... ok, there was that other one. And that other one. And those other two graves. But still, just because I've stuck my hand into every vaguely grave-shaped hole I can find doesn't mean I want to be called a grave robber.: Why are you so unfriendly?: I don't like you, humans.: Why's that?: You see... I once was just a normal zombie - I wandered with my pack around the cemetery, eating humans in the night. That all ended when some humans caught us and burned us so bad we were practically unrecognizable. They took my hands - I barely escaped the cruel torturers. I ran to the swamps where Foritop found me and nursed me back to health. He sewed on new hands to me, and changed my throat, so that now I can talk normally. I owe him much, so I wander the cemetery for him, gathering different things for his experiments.: You are really sensible for a zombie. Look, can you sell me some of the things you've gathered?: No, I can give nothing without the permission of Sir Foritop.: Hey, I have permission from Foritop!: Well, if it is Sir Foritop who has sent you, then I will give it to you of course! I am his good servant until the end of my days... Here, take the bag, this is all I managed to gather. Do not lose it, for Sir Foritop likes order in everything!: Pah, what a stink, what did you put into this bag? Look, even my horse can't stand your bag! I will return it to the dwarf as soon as possible...: Take it, take it, and don't be so precious. I spend all my time here, and I have no problem... However, I have no nose to smell, ha-ha...: Ummm, yes you do. I can see it right there in your picture.: Look, do you have anything for me as well? Maybe you found something interesting?: No, I won't give it to you for free!: What do you want in return?: You know, we haven't eaten living flesh for a long time... And I crave fresh human meat! If you bring us fresh meat, you will get the valuable thing.: Pah! Sorry, but your request fills me with disgust. I don't need your items.We aren't allowed to sacrifice any of the humans we are leading around for some reason, but maybe if we talk to Noric again, we can come to some arrangement. : Well, what else?: I came to ask - maybe you should give me the loot in a nice, amicable way?: I'll give it you, of course! Only bring me some living flesh for me and my friends. We are very hungry; we are falling apart without fresh meat!: You still want human meat?! I'll mince you, you ghoul!: Don't threaten me. You are neither the first nor will you be the last. I am dead already.: It's no threat. I'll just put an end to what was left unfinished! (Attack zombie...) Unfortunately, no arrangement is possible beyond our usual interaction with the Undead. Noric's army of zombies is fairly numerous, but not too tough.  As usual, we weaken them while they are bunched together.  The geography of the field restricts the action to two lanes of approach. Interestingly, it seems that the only time an AI unit won't use their Running talent immediately is when all paths forward are blocked, as the zombies in the back decide to simply move as normal.  After my snakes and bears clear out the bottom path, one stack of Zombie reinforcements surges forward to strike at my bears, while the other stack oddly runs away in the wrong direction.  My Swordsmen are left to manage the large stack that took the top path, and take a small beating. My Inquisitors will resurrect most of them before the end of battle.  The last of the zombies falls apart in a disgusting cloud of miasma.  With that, Noric and his zombie horde are gone for good. We lose a few Swordsmen, but a 100:1 kill ratio is pretty decent. As a reward, we find Noric's closely guarded treasure on his freshly disassembled body. I won't complain about another Bronze Ring (these give bonus to Mana, and are upgradeable), since we have open Artifact slots to fill now.  Sleem levels up. I was hoping for more Evil Shoal damage or reduced rage, but I'll take the reduced recovery period on Poisonous Spit. It's a cheap source of damage, and I don't use Cloud of Poison very often because of the friendly fire.  Near where we encounter Noric, we find an Altar of Combat waiting, giving our second Attack bonus of the game. Never a bad thing.   One of the graves in the area holds an interesting object, a Magic Recipe. Rather than an actual magical item, we can instead return this scroll to the Magic Academy and they will give us the opportunity to create a specific piece of equipment at a cost of a number of Runes, Crystals, and Gold. We will see what this Recipe is for later.  One last uninteresting army stands between us and a complete circuit of the cemetery.  Here is a look at Bill currently. Our Defense is getting fairly decent, and we now have a whole 2 Attack! We are getting close to the next level, which will let us finally use these saved up Magic Runes and will increase our firepower greatly. Next time, we will explore the numerous crypts that we passed in today's journey. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore Let's see what happens when we take on something far too powerful at Castle Karmag:  Yeah, that's a lot of undead. 1100+ Skeleton Archers, 100+ Cursed Ghosts, 100 Vampires, and 50 Ancient Vampires. (That's over 46K total leadership, compared to our current army of around 11K).  The only reason the enemy takes as long to destroy us as it does is due to the geometry of the battlefield. I manage to form a wall, and only three melee units can attack over the bridge at a time. Doesn't stop the archers from decimating my Priests here.  The Cursed Ghosts force my line back with their shriek, and these vampires finish off the Priests.  The Inquisitors meet a similar fate very shortly.  The Swordsmen fall beneath this ghostly visage.  The Royal Snakes are pierced by hundreds of bone arrows.  Last to fall are the tougher Ancient Bears, but they are no match for these Ancient Vampires.  The defeat screen is a sombre affair to see. We did kill a good number of units, about 17K worth of Leadership. More through Fireballs than anything else.  And with that, we must load a game to continue. Hope you saved recently! (we did) Marking the Map  In this update, there were fewer landmarks, so I've shown the path we took in the graveyard. Talkin' 'bout Troops Zombie  Resistances: 50% Poison, -10% Fire Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 3 Talents  RunningAbilities Undead Gully's opinion: Never used them, but I wouldn't even if I had an undead army. They have low initiative and speed, low Attack and only decent Defense. Their damage is nothing special either. Fighting them: Not much of a threat. If they appear in large numbers, use slow or freeze effects and pick apart at range. Decaying Zombie  Resistances: 50% Poison, -10% Fire Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 3 Talents RunningAbilities Undead Decay: When dying, it discharges the rot of death, which infects the surrounding troops with the plague. Gully's opinion: Much better than regular zombies, but they still suffer from low speed (and even lower initiative). Still, their attack and damage are now more threatening. Maybe, maybe use in an all-undead army. Probably not though, as their Decay ability is useless for the player. Fighting them: Try to finish them off without any units in contact to avoid the plague (unless at the end of a combat). Their attack and damage is a bit more threatening than the regular Zombie in large numbers, so again use slow effects to keep them shuffling one hex a turn. Vampire/Vampire(Bat)   Resistances: 50% Poison, -10% Fire (both) Critical Hit %: 20 (Vampire form), 5 (Bat form) Defense Bonus: 4 (Vampire form), 3 (Bat form) Talents  Transformation (while in Vampire form): A vampire turns into a bat, which has less health and inflicts less damage, but can fly and has the ability "Drain Life". (Reload: 2) Transformation (while in Bat form): A vampire bat takes human form once more. He loses his abilities to fly and "Drain Life," but gains "Regeneration" and increased Health and Attack. (Reload: 2)Abilities Undead No retaliation (both forms) Soaring (Bat only) Drain Life (Bat only): Sucks a part of the health points from its enemy, recovering his own health. Dead creatures arise. Regeneration (Vampire only): Recovers his maximum points of health each turn. Gully's opinions: Vampires are excellent offensive units. We've seen how great the no retaliation ability is on the Royal Snakes. Vampires have good base Attack, which becomes much larger at night or underground. They have high initiative in both forms, and can use the bat form for both mobility and to regain lost vampires by attacking vulnerable units. Their main drawback is relatively low Health, especially in bat form. A slight vulnerability to Fire can hurt, as it is a common element to see. Fighting them: It's hard to keep vampires at a distance, since the bat form has high mobility. Powerful slow effects may force them to transform the regular form, which has low speed. Try to take advantage of the lower Defense, Health, and Damage of the Bat form. Fire spells do a great job here. The low Health of Vampires means that getting a powerful first hit in is great for reducing their numbers. Spells Seen Skills Shown Master of Spirits Might, Tier 2 Increases the experience received by Spirits of Rage during combat. Prerequisites: Rage Control  Level 1: Experience gains increased by 10%. Cost: 4/1/0 Level 2: Experience gains increased by 20%. Cost: 5/1/0 Level 3: Experience gains increased by 30%. Cost: 6/1/0Gully's opinion: If you have a few spare Might runes, picking this up isn't a bad idea. Not as necessary for a mage, but since Rage abilities are key for Warriors, it's a great idea there. I usually only grab the first level since there are diminishing returns to the rate at which the Spirits level up. Items Identified Steel Strip  Description: A flexible steel wrap with a fastener. Effects: +2 to Defense, -1 to Attack Type: Belt Race: Humans Cost: 5250 Upgraded To: Steel Belt Info: A wide strip of steel provides a good defense, but hampers its owner, preventing him from attacking with full strength. Steel Belt  Description: This handy steel belt provides you with good protection. Effects: +2 to Defense, +100 Leadership Type: Belt Race: Humans Cost: 9000 Upgraded From: Steel Strip Info: This belt, made of good steel, affords the hero excellent protection. This belt shows that its owner has great combat experience and is an expert judge of solid equipment. Carved Coffin  Description: You can pull several vampires out of the coffin. Type: Used Item Info: An expensive coffin, decorated with gold and jewels. Coffin  Description: You can pull several skeletons out of the coffin. Type: Used Item Info: The ordinary wooden coffin, decorated with plain carving. Magic Recipe  Description: A strange magic scroll containing a recipe. Type: Quest Info: The scroll emits a strange radiance, and is covered with runes. Probably the scroll is intended for mages. Noric's Bag  Description:The bag of various things which the zombie collected throughout the cemetery. Type: Quest Info: A terrible smell comes from this bag, and bones and scraps of cloth protrude from it.
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Jan 19, 2017 05:49
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Vampires are absolutely wonderful, and good on you for finding that second belt! What's in Noric's bag?
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Jan 19, 2017 21:33
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meristem posted:Vampires are absolutely wonderful, and good on you for finding that second belt! What's in Noric's bag? I'll be taking a look at Noric's bag (and finishing the associated quest) in the next session.
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Jan 19, 2017 23:04
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I don't think I've ever used vampires in this series. The difficulty to get them and I believe you get morale penalties for bringing undead.
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Jan 19, 2017 23:53
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Poil posted:I don't think I've ever used vampires in this series. The difficulty to get them and I believe you get morale penalties for bringing undead. Or, more conveniently, play a Paladin. Then you can take the Tolerance skill, and your units will oddly enough get along no matter how unholy some of them are. They're like mages, except you get to cast things other than direct damage spells and summons :P
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Jan 20, 2017 01:11
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Doopliss posted:Well that's an easy solution. Play more undead. Playing more undead is never a bad idea. Demons are also very good, and get along fine with them. Nothing but nothing is worth giving up Higher Magic.
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Jan 20, 2017 04:13
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Aw, please tell me you didn't kill the friendly zombie for good. He can't help his taste in food.
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Jan 20, 2017 05:11
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Poil posted:I don't think I've ever used vampires in this series. The difficulty to get them and I believe you get morale penalties for bringing undead. As a fun bonus, dragons, beholders and vampires are all flying or soaring, so the Giants' Jump ability won't touch them. I usually play a wizard and/or use the Spirits a lot, so I prefer high Initiative and Speed over numeric army count. Whatever lets me strike first! meristem fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Jan 20, 2017 |
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Jan 20, 2017 07:12
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I am enjoying this LP a lot.
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Jan 20, 2017 23:37
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What happens if your wife wants kids but you don't? Can you keep putting her off indefinitely, or will she eventually force the issue? This is a great LP, and I'm enjoying it a lot.
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Jan 21, 2017 15:21
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Doopliss posted:Well that's an easy solution. Play more undead. Playing more undead is never a bad idea. Demons are also very good, and get along fine with them. Anyone can take the Tolerance skill, though you are right that it is easier for Paladins since they get more Mind Runes. I'm hoping to show it off (if I can spare the runes). Playing undead is great, but it will have to wait until we have access to them to hire beyond a few skeletons and zombies. If I don't show them off in this game, well, we've got three more full KB games after this one. wiegieman posted:Nothing but nothing is worth giving up Higher Magic. I both agree and disagree. Higher Magic is fantastic, and Mages are probably a bit overpowered because of it. But the other classes are still fun. Warriors get huge armies to play with, and usually much higher Attack by the end. Its fun to use buffs on your big stacks to stomp the enemy out, and they will have so much Rage coming in. Paladins are sort of meh, they get a lot better as the series continues though, but are ironically good at leading unholy armies. Glazius posted:Aw, please tell me you didn't kill the friendly zombie for good. He can't help his taste in food. Sadly, he is gone for good. I swear, it was self-defense! I was defending the ring he was holding for me! Maybe some friendly necromancer will come along and rebuild him. meristem posted:Only to some categories of units, though. Dragons and beholders don't get penalties. My favourite army is three colours of dragons + both types of vampires. High initiative, high speed, and you can restock it as needed completely - the vampires from the reserves, the dragons from the dragon eggs. Although the vampire bloodsucking means that they are usually back to full count by the end of the battle, so even the need for restocking is rare. Haha, I didn't actually know about those interactions. The game never mentions anything like it, but that's not surprising. Good to know for the future. I will be showing off some of the units you are talking about when we find them. Although I'm not a fan of Sprites, I find them way too vulnerable even with their abilities, at least in the late game. Maybe I'll have to give them a go. tithin posted:I am enjoying this LP a lot. TheNakedJimbo posted:What happens if your wife wants kids but you don't? Can you keep putting her off indefinitely, or will she eventually force the issue? Thanks, I'm glad people are liking it! Generally, you can avoid the child issue forever. There is one special interaction with Feanora that we will be seeing (probably next update? I don't know what the exact timing of it is).
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Jan 21, 2017 19:12
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The different hero classes can all beat the games but they do so in different ways. The warrior will have giant armies that deal and take less damage, the paladin can field a diverse combination of units with high morale (e.g fielding elf units with demons and undead) and the mage will break the game over its knee with higher magic but takes heavy losses against boss enemies if you're not prepared or overlevelled. Higher magic is a test if you can figure out direct damage, debuffs, buffs or illusion magic will let you walk out of a fight with no losses. I like to think that King's Bounty provides a way of scratching that old HoMM itch since the newer ubisoft ones have gone in another direction.
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Jan 22, 2017 06:10
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Gully Foyle posted:Haha, I didn't actually know about those interactions. The game never mentions anything like it, but that's not surprising. Good to know for the future. I will be showing off some of the units you are talking about when we find them. Although I'm not a fan of Sprites, I find them way too vulnerable even with their abilities, at least in the late game. Maybe I'll have to give them a go.  although I didn't mean Sprites, just the Spirits of Rage . I agree that Sprites are vulnerable - I very rarely use them.
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Jan 22, 2017 10:43
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Delacroix posted:I like to think that King's Bounty provides a way of scratching that old HoMM itch since the newer ubisoft ones have gone in another direction. I know VI wasn't very great, as I have it and played it a bit. I never got into it. Is 7 any better?
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Jan 22, 2017 14:41
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Slaan posted:I know VI wasn't very great, as I have it and played it a bit. I never got into it. Is 7 any better? I should say 'newer' is relative to the the KB reboot being a long time after the original.  I thought HoMM V was pretty neat (I know HoMM 3 is considered faraway the best) but VI and VII didn't remotely pique my interest. I've always liked TBS games but I likely wouldn't play them even if I got them for free.(Not even a jab at uplay being bad. It certainly is, but not the point)
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Jan 22, 2017 15:57
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VII is actually a decent HoMM game, hidden beneath all the tons and tons of bugs and glitches, poor balance and some questionable decisions.
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Jan 22, 2017 16:31
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I actually really enjoyed the direction of the mechanics changes in HOMM IV, even if they lacked polish and the graphics aged poorly.
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Jan 22, 2017 17:13
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Xarn posted:I actually really enjoyed the direction of the mechanics changes in HOMM IV, even if they lacked polish and the graphics aged poorly.
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Jan 22, 2017 17:49
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Update 19 - Cemetery Caper, Part 2: Die Harder Last time, Bill got some fresh graveyard air as he toured the surface of the Marshan cemetery. This time, he will return to the graveyard to investigate and  But before we head back in, we have some business to report to the alchemist Foritop. If you recall, we had a little run in with his zombie, which resulted in a slight amount of zombie dismemberment.  Before we beat him down, Noric had given us his collection bag, filled with disgusting remains and other unmentionable items.  It might be gross, but the lure of potential treasure draws us in...  We've been digging through human remains for gold since the very beginning, no reason to stop now. We only get 680 Gold from this, but its more than nothing. We can now hand over the more moist bits to Foritop.  : Be careful, be careful! Don't step on any of the splinters... I had another successful experiment here! Did you hear it? No? Oh well, no matter. So tell me, have you brought the bag?: Take the bag quickly. I don't know what is inside it and I don't want to know. It stinks awfully.: Fine! It means that Noric has collected just what I need. I've just asked him to gather some grave mold and... well, something you'd probably rather not know about... Here, take your well-earned reward! (Reward: 3200 Gold, 100 Experience): Look, Sir Foritop, thank you for the reward of course. But here's one thing. Noric started to ask me for human meat. I couldn't just let this stand, and I'm afraid I had to kill him.: Oh dear, oh dear... I deeply regret this of course, but it was expected. All in all, I think you did the right thing. Oh, I remember when I found him wounded, and assembled him from parts... Made a human of him, one might say! Did you hear how he talked? You wouldn't even think he was dead; I transplanted onto him a new throat from some drowned man. Oh well, what's done is done. I'll have to assemble another helper for me...: I'm glad you didn't get very upset. Well, see you later.That went better than expected for killing his personal assistant.  We head into the cemetery and reach the first crypt. I'm following the same path as we took before here.  The crypt is dark, lit only by some flickering giant candles. Do the undead maintain these? Who makes 10 foot candles?  We come across the first Holy Cross. These are the crosses that Furious Paladin asked us to sanctify (see back in Update 16).  Undead armies are all over the place here. If we want to, we can rush in and reach the cross before we get caught...  When we do, the nearby undead recoil in despair and fade from existence as they are purged by the holy light. Sound great, right? Well, not really, since this means no experience, gold, or other rewards from these battles. But if you wanted to explore here before you are able to take on the armies, you can do this.  Instead, we take advantage of our power to rewind time and reload. I want the satisfaction (and rewards) of crushing these armies myself.  While the surface graveyard had tons of vampires, the crypts are full of undead of the more... bony persuasion. Like these Skeleton Archers. Skeleton Archers are only Level 1 units, but they can pack a big punch, and tend to appear in large numbers.  Like Bowmen, they have special arrows. The first is a Poison Arrow, which does normal damage and poisons the target. The second, seen here, is the Black Arrow. This Talent boosts their damage and removes one positive effect from the target.  If you've been using Bowmen, you'll also find Skeletons frustratingly durable. They only take 30% damage from any arrow-wielding troop. Fortunately, our Priests and Inquisitors suffer no such problem, and are great at blowing these guys into piles of bone.  Yeah, those are some biiig candles.  If it wasn't for my Inquisitors, I'd be losing a few more units in almost every battle.  We next engage the Necromancer army in the corner. He is accompanied by both Skeleton Archers and the melee oriented Skeletons. Although I've said that you should focus on killing Necromancers, I'd rather get rid of an entire stack of Skeleton Archers than a single Necromancer.  This leaves the Necromancer alive to put Magic Shackles on my Inquisitors, removing their ability to use Resurrection or Holy Anger.  I could wait for the spell to wear off, but sometimes it's easier just to use Dispel to remove effects like this.  Level 1 Dispel removes any and all effects, both buffs and debuffs. Higher levels make the spell much more selective.  Skeletons are not nearly as threatening as Skeleton Archers, because they suffer the same issue as any other slow melee troop. Like Zombies, they can run, but after that they are stuck moving only 2 hexes. Even very large stacks will usually be wittled down by the time they reach you. (This only holds for the first game. When we get to the sequels, Skeletons become much more annoying.)   Finally, we turn to the third army in the vincinity, led by these Ghosts.  We get to start off with an Evil Shoal, which frees a stack of our own Skeletons.  They do a good job of distracting one stack of Ghosts.  While the Ghosts are busy, the Swordsmen take the time to open this chest...to find a Magic Rune! The last Magic Rune we need for Higher Magic... of course, we get it about 2 battles before we level up (sorry, spoilers). Still, not gonna complain too much.  We need to finish this battle before we can celebrate. The Cursed Ghosts scream, pushing all nearby units away... including the Skeletons trying to reach us.   At last! We've been saving Magic Runes for this since Update 11, and it's worth every last one of them. This skill is what defines Mages in this game. The other two classes can get any spell in the game at any level (well, eventually, since it takes a while to get the Magic Runes). But only Mages can get Higher Magic. We will eventually aim to max this skill out. The first level is the most important, as it lets us perform devastating Turn 1 strikes using our damage spells, or to bind and slow down multiple units, or to summon units while still dealing out a Fireball, and so on.  Anyways, now that we've killed the nearby armies, let's explore and loot. There are a ton of containers in the crypts, although many are empty.     The four urns surrounding the Holy Cross enrich our purse (well, 3 of them do).  Finally, let's sanctify the poo poo out of that cross! (For real this time)  A passage leads out of the chamber, where an undead army awaits us, unperturbed by the sanctified cross. Let's show them how a real Mage works.   Having two spells in one turn may not seem like a huge deal on paper. But just look at the devastation we can cause with a pair of Fireballs before the enemy can even act. No more Skeleton Archers, so my ranged troops can focus on the melee units.   The passage opens into another chamber with an ancient statue of some goddess.  More undead await. Not much surprise there.  No guesses as to what happened to the Archers here. Also, I have no idea why these Zombies didn't attack my Swordsmen. Usually the AI will make an attack if it can.  Well, it's not like it really matters.  The battle leads to Bill reaching Level 9. So we would have gotten Higher Magic only a little later than we did. I pick up the Leadership option, as we will everytime it comes up from now on. +360 Leadership is nothing to sneeze at...currently, that's about a 20% increase for our army size.  Here's my next goal for our Magic Runes.  Meanwhile, I pick up a Might skill, Combat Readiness. The skill itself is nothing special. Reduced physical damage in the first round of combat is of very limited use, although it does help against archers. But this skill is necessery for any further progress in the Might tree, which has a couple of good skills we will want.  Near the goddess statue we find a second Holy Cross. I could sanctify it... but again, we want to make sure we clear out the area personally, so we don't miss any battles.  Indeed, we find another Undead troop hiding around the corner.  One issue with Higher Magic is that it becomes very easy to burn through your mana. Sometimes you want to save it by purposefully casting spells at lower levels (by pressing Shift while in the spell book menu).  Man, am I ever glad I brought Priests to the crypts. This critical damage is massive.  These are my lucky Swords, that's 2 bonus runes in like 5 battles.  Showing off one of the simple Royal Snake tricks here. I slow these Skeletons...  And lunge with the Snakes. Any surviving Skeletons can't reach either of my units, and will be easily destroyed.     Having finished all the roaming dead, we loot the more sedentery ones. Greasy Mist is an interesting spell that works as a combo piece, and we will take a look at it later this update.  Don't forget to visit the cross before you leave (I say this out of experience).  This crypt has a second entrance, which we will be using as our exit point.  We exit to find ourselves outside the next crypt in the circuit.  Continuing along the surface path brings us to this crypt near the coast.  This crypt is much smaller than the first, consisting of a single large room. We find the Holy Cross in view right from the entrance.  And, of course, some undead to play with.  A couple of Fireballs (and some Holy attacks) takes care of the only threats in the army, leaving these few Skeletons feeling a bit lonely.  Not for long though, as they get ripped to pieces by Holy attacks. And yes, the skeleton is blown apart before the attack actually hits. A lot of the animations in this game are oddly timed when you try to take screenshots, but it generally all looks fine in motion.   The next army in the room is a bit more threatening. These archer stacks are slightly too large for a single Fireball.  So lets help it out a bit. Greasy Mist is a Chaos spell which inflicts a small amount of fire damage and makes the stack more vulnerable to further Fire damage.  (Sorry for the weird jump, I accidentally moved the camera during the animation)  The effect isn't that dramatic... and even less so on Skeleton Archers. The vulnerability imparted by Greasy Mist doesn't stack with their natural 10% vulnerability. Usually, I'd rather just use another damage spell, but there are circumstances where Greasy Mist can be good.   3 Holy Crosses down, 3 to go.  The tomb also holds this very nice piece of Regalia.  The Officer's Baton is not bad on its own, comparable in its Leadership bonus to our current Regalia (although we are also getting +1 Initiative from that). But it's only the first of four forms for this item, and it eventually has the largest Leadership boost in the game. Eventually. Even the first upgrade is a bit beyond us right now.  Leaving the crypt, we come to a slightly different looking one along the path.  This turns out to be the crypt holding the Chronicles of the Lost Town we've been sent to find, and the password given to us by Chvakha works to open the doors.  The maintainence of this tomb has been a bit more subpar, with mushrooms and tree roots breaking through the floor.  The passage leads to a central chamber, where another glowing sigil awaits. As well as two groups of undead.  These armies are nothing but bone men. We also have a distinctive arena to fight in, with the bottom area of the map restricted by a decorative pond. Just quite how these water lilies are growing is beyond me.  As usual, we take care of the Archers first with our spells, leaving the three melee groups to advance up the centre.  I still want to get the last ability out of Zerock, so I call down a rock shower on their heads.  Soon, the last Skeleton lies in a pile of shattered bone. Also, is this a tomb for giants? Because those entombed skeletons in the wall are loving massive!   We do get another level for Zerock, but no new ability yet. I'll just keep boosting Smashing Sword, since I like to keep Stone Wall as cheap as I can, and the extra damage is nice.  The second skeletal army in the Chronicles crypt has a few more bodies, but other wise is identical. Double Fireball + Evil Shoal kills off 90% of the Archers, and a good number of the others.  I tried to be all clever and get this desecrated cross to hit the Skeletons, and my Swordsmen get a face full of Poison as thanks. Ah well, that's what Inquisitors are there for.  Another 500+ skeletons down without a loss.   We grab the documents from under the artificial sun, which indeed turn out to be the Chronicles we wanted.  Examining the scrolls is no good, since we can't break the code. But we do get a new spell from doing so.  Necro Call essentially replicates the Necromancer talent in spell form. You can raise your own fallen troops as Undead. The spell is actually fairly powerful, but it is highly situational, as you need destroyed stacks to do it. Still, in very tough fights this can be a good help. There are other summons I would prefer to use though. I'm not going to spend the crystals to learn this yet.  Speaking of Necromancer talents, we find another spell in this room that replicates their Magic Shackle. You need the second level to be able to affect Level 4 creatures, which is the tier that has most of the desired targets (like Necromancers). At max level, it gets a mass effect at the cost of a whole bunch of Mana, but that's a nice ability to have.  Oh man, I am glad I found this. Sheep is amazing. It is a Chaos spell that polymorphs an enemy stack into useless, uncontrollable sheep. The affected stack can't attack, retaliate, or use abilities until it wears off. The spell costs a ton of crystals to learn/upgrade, and a ton of mana to cast. But any targeted stack is effectively disabled for a couple of turns. Well, three new spells is a pretty good haul for a single room. Althoug we still have 3 Holy Crosses left to sanctify, this update is long enough as it is. Let's take these Chronicles back to the Magic School as our quest demands.  : Well met, young knight. How goes your search? Have you found that old witch? She has the Chronicles for sure, drat her!: Yes, I've found your Chronicles. The witch was going to perform some rite with them, and had taken them into the cemetery...: Later, tell me everything later. Give them to me! (Shivarius hastily snatched the manuscripts away from your hands and looked through the pages.) Right! The Chronicles of the Lost Town, there it is! Well, Bill Gilbert, good job! You'll become an excellent searcher, not unlike the previous one, may he rest in peace. There's only one little thing left to do - to decipher these papers! (Reward: 3300 Gold, 120 Experience): That's a loit of money, thank you. If ever you need to find something in future, just call me. I'll be happy to wander about swamps and caves! And that will be it for this update. Bill has gotten a huge boost to power through finally getting Higher Magic, and a decent boost to his Leadership as well from reaching level 9. Further, our spell book has a few extra options in it to play with in the future. Next time, we'll return to the cemetery yet again. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore Let's take that magical scroll we found in the cemetery topside (see Update 18) to the Magical Academy. : I've found a strange scroll. Can you help me to discover what that is? : A magical design! Wonderful!! I can offer you 4000 Gold.: Take it, take it.: Do you want to know something else?: Yes. Can you read what was in the recipe?: Well, I will not read the whole recipe. There is a lot of information you shouldn't hear. But we can make a Silver Rapier for you according to this recipe. The Rapier increases Attack against undead creatures by 30%. For it we require: 2000 Gold, 5 Mind Runes, and 5 Magic Crystals. Do you agree?: Attack by 30%? That sounds suspiciously like a fourth wall being broken...: No, not now. But I will think over your offer.We can't quite afford the Silver Rapier right now, even if I wanted to buy it. And I don't really want it right now. As you can see, we've had little difficulty with the undead around here (except at Castle Karmag, and this item won't make the difference we need right now). It is a useful item for undead combat, and we may come back to make one if we need to. Since it's a % increase, the bigger the base Attack of our troops, the better this item is. The other reason I'm not going to buy it is that we may find the actual item elsewhere. The Silver Rapier is possible to find in treasure chests or for sale somewhere, and I don't want to spend 5 Mind Runes unless absolutely necessary. Marking the Map No map this update. Underground/interior areas have no map we can look at (except for the minimap in the corner). Talkin' 'bout Troops Skeleton  Resistances: 50% Poison, -10% Fire Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 2 Talents RunningAbilities Undead Bone: Suffer only 30% of damage from arrows. Gully's opinion: Not too much respect for these guys. Minimal Attack, Defence, Speed, Initiative. Their damage is respectable for their cost, and their HP is good. But they don't get much out of being Undead (the Attack/Morale buffs all work on percentages). The Running talent does let them close with the enemy, and Bone does make them durable against arrow-based archers. Be prepared to lose a bunch of these guys if you use them. Fighting them: They sometimes come in huge numbers, so use slow/freeze to keep them away. Like many undead, Fire does bonus against them. Turn your arrows to other units. Honestly, the low Attack/Defense mean these guys die easy and don't dish much out. Skeleton Archer  Resistances: 50% Poison, -10% Fire Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 1 Talents  Poison Arrow: Discharges a poison arrow, inflicting 2-3 points of poison damage and poisoning the target. (Charges: 1) Black Arrow: Discharges a magic arrow, which inflicts 3-4 points of magic damage and removes one poisitive spell from the target.Abilities Undead Bone Archer Gully's opinion: Despite the similarity to the Skeleton, these guys rock. 2-3 Damage for a ranged unit at only 14 Leadership is a steal (for comparison, Bowmen do 3-4 for 50 Leadership - granted, there is a big Attack difference). They do best when targeting low Defence minions. Further, their special Arrows give them access to 3 different types of damage, which is great for getting around Resistances. Black Arrow in particular is quite nice, and can be used for both damage and the dispel effect. Bone is an especially nice ability for a ranged unit, since they are often targeted by archer units. Still, be prepared to replace a lot of them. 8 Health is quite tiny. Fighting them: These guys can be surprisingly threatening, since the game likes to throw giant hordes of them at you. These guys are one of the prime units I like to use disabling spells on (particularly Blind), so I can focus on other troops before taking them out in melee. Once you get them into melee range, they fall easily. Spells Seen Dispel  Removes a target's positive or negative effects, depending on spell level. Crystal Cost: 1 / 2 / 5 Mana Cost: 5 / 5 / 5 Level 1: Removes all effects on a friendly target. Level 2: Removes all effects on a friendly or enemy target. Level 3: Removes all negative effects on a friendly target or all positive effects on an enemy target. Gully's opinion: You'll always want this Order spell at least at Level 1 in your book, and at 1 crystal to learn, no excuse not to. Generally, Level 1 is fine. You just want it for emergencies when a unit gets sheeped, blinded, or hypnotized. Higher levels give you more options, but I don't find I need to dispel enemy buffs very often. Greasy Mist  Covers the target with greasy mist, inflicting some fire damage and making it more vulnerable to further fire damage. Crystal Cost: 3 / 5 / 7 Mana Cost: 10 / 10 / 10 Level 1: Damage: 40; Fire Vulnerability: 20%; Duration: 2 turns Level 2: Damage: 80; Fire Vulnerability: 30%; Duration: 3 turns Level 3: Damage: 120; Fire Vulnerability: 40%; Duration: 4 turns Gully's opinion: An interesting Chaos spell, but I don't generally find it great. Obviously, pair it with other sources of Fire Damage - spells and units. The more sources you have, the better this spell gets. Also, the mana cost is really bad at Level 1, but doesn't increase. So Level 3 is actually much better, both from the effect and mana efficiency. Still - I usually find I'd rather just use a second damage spell. If this had an AoE effect, it'd be much better. Skills Shown Higher Magic Magic, Tier 5 The secrets of higher magic will allow the hero to use his Spell Book two times per turn during combat. Prerequisites: Mage Class, Archmage  Level 1: The ability is available once during combat. Cost: 5/5/20 Level 2: The ability is available 2 times during combat. Cost: 5/5/15 Level 3: The ability is available 3 times during combat. Cost: 5/5/10Gully's opinion: Are you a mage? Then get this skill. It is the reason to be a mage at all. By far the most expensive skill in the game, and it's totally worth it. Interestingly, it's the only skill that gets cheaper with more levels. The 1st level is the most impactful, but you will eventually want to max this out. With the more damaging spells, you will be able to devastate armies before they do anything. Further, there are many spell combos in this game that work much, much better if you can do it in the same turn. Combat Readiness Might, Tier 2 All troops in the hero's army receive less damage from Physical Attacks during the first round. Prerequisites: Training  Level 1: Incoming damage reduced by 10%. Cost: 2/2/0 Level 2: Incoming damage reduced by 15%. Cost: 3/2/0 Level 3: Incoming damage reduced by 20%. Cost: 4/2/0Gully's opinion: Get 1 level to get further in the Might tree, and that's it. The skill itself is basically useless. It will reduce damage from arrows, Giant stomps, and a couple other things. It might be decent if you like to use fast units to counter-charge approaching enemy units. If it affected all types rather than just Physical, it'd be a lot better (cough, Dragons, cough). As it is, not worth the cost to go past level 1. Items Identified Officer's Baton  Description: The ordinary baton of a commander. Effects: +250 Leadership Type: Regalia Race: Humans Cost: 8000 Upgraded To: Colonel's Baton Info: The bronze baton, decorated with a silver knob, is the symbol of a combat officer. Chronicles of the Lost Town  Description: Ancient manuscripts which are of interest only to those who study the history of Darion. Type: Quest Info: These ciphered records are nothing short of chronicles of the mythical Lost Town of Necromancers.
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Jan 29, 2017 00:21
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I wish the Lost Town of the Necromancers quest went further. That would be such a cool thing to Search for. (I think that Shivarius does tell you that if you ever find someone who could help with deciphering the manuscript and whatnot, send them to him? But I never seemed to find anyone in my games.) Anyway, good on you for finding that Baton! You seem to have good finds so far. But I hope we'll get out of that cemetery soon... It's awfully dreary.
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Jan 29, 2017 18:52
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I never realized that you get the manuscript from that particular tomb. I've always gone past it and left the zone without knowing how to finish that quest
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Jan 29, 2017 19:00
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Dispel is a lie! In Armored Princess (I think) I got hit by some utter bullshit ability (gently caress orcs and their lame poo poo like transferring damage one of their troops take to one of your troops and you can't prevent it), and it didn't go away when I cast the spell. But maybe it was the order magic spell to get rid of all negative stuff I used. Either way it didn't! 
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Jan 29, 2017 22:27
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Update 20 - Cemetery Caper, Part 3: The Face of Death Last update, we worked our way through half of the crypts in the cemetery, unearthed the Lost Chronicles, and achieved the highest mastery of magic. This update, we are going back in for one last push. I know it has dragged on a bit, but this update will be the end of cemetery adventures for a good while (mostly).  Yep, a familiar sight here. This crypt is the next in the circuit we are taking.  This tomb is a split-level affair, with plenty of ghostly apparitions in our way.  Not to mention the vampires.  A mixed group of undead await us, but they are lacking in number.  Now that we have Higher Magic, it's important to use more mana efficient spells like Flaming Arrow.  They more than do the job here.  Sometimes I just like the art and backgrounds in this game. Like these shafts of light contrasting with the darkened statues.  The other army on the upper level contains mostly Ghosts (once the skeletons are gone). Ghosts are potentially tough customers. Being incorporeal, they have extremely high physical resistance, only taking 50% of any Physical damage (such as the Evil Shoal here).  This just makes bringing Priests here even better. Not only do they do double damage to undead, they effectively do another double damage to Ghosts, as their attack is Magic-based. They are the perfect counter unit to Ghosts.  Not often will Priests outclass Royal Snakes for damage, but here is where they shine.  Of course, Inquisitors are the same deal.   The cross sits on the upper level, but we know by now to take all enemies out before activating it.  In addition to missing experience, we would have missed these chests.  Which would have meant missing out on this scroll of Ice Snake. Ice Snake is a physical damage equivalent to Fireball, and is one of the best direct damage spells in the game. More on this later. (The other chest just had a scroll of Bless)  We've seen the Scream of the Cursed Ghost a few times by now. Honestly, this talent just isn't that threatening. Since Cursed Ghosts are fast, they are usually found in front of the other enemy units. When they scream, the push effect often just ends up pushing their own units back. The AI also isn't good at using the AoE damage to maximum effect.  Just because something is resistant to Poison doesn't mean you can't Poison them to death.   In addition to that nice scroll find, we get some other magical supplies in the lower level.  As we investigate this sarcophagus, the giant skeleton becomes animate and reaches for us. Luckily, it remains encased in the wall. (I kind of wish Giant Skeletons were a unit in the game)  For some reason, there are two exits to this crypt. Both just lead out the single door we came in, so it's pretty pointless.  Are you sick of crypts yet?  This one is quite small comparatively, with a single lonely army guarding the tomb.  More ghosts! Being a Mage really helps against Ghosts. Access to non-physical (and non-poison) damage really helps these guys go down. A warrior would be well advised to bring Priests along, since he likely won't have much in the way of fire magic.   Tomb-raiding has made us pretty wealthy due to finds like this.  It also helps us fill out our spell library. Hell Breath is the only buff in the Chaos Magic school, giving bonus fire damage to a unit. I tend not to use this much, usually a Fireball would do much more damage. Although it'll be better as your army size increases, by the late game many units have high resistances to fire. I do wish it had a mass casting version, in which case it would be fantastic for certain fights.  It's around this point that I remember I picked up a Magic Rune. This gives us enough to buy the Destroyer skill. This directly buffs the damage of all spells. Although the boost is small compared to the effect of increasing the spell level, this boosts damage without affecting mana cost, and without requiring us to spend crystals to upgrade.  Last crypt!  This one is much darker. I like the back-lit look of our last Holy Cross. Not much time to appreciate it, as a group of bats rush in.  This is quite the odd army. It's pretty uncommon to see fewer than 5 stacks in an opposing army (although special fights can have many more).  We get rid of the archers with a Flaming Arrow while adding Slow to the Black Knights. With a base speed of 2, this will keep them at bay for a while.  This may have been a tactical error, as the high initiative of the Ancient Vampire bats lets them swoop in and inflict decent damage to our bears, resurrecting 2 of their own number in the process.  Once we've dealt with the vampires, the slow Black Knight is no problem.  We would have lost some bears, but Inquisitors preserve another lossless victory.  The second army in the crypt is more numerous, but we can again kill off the Archers before they can shoot with our increased magical ability.  You sometimes have to get creative with Evil Shoal to use it to full effect.   Some decent loot in this room, much better than just more gold.  The last Cross is sanctified...  ...so we return to Furious Paladin with the good news!  : So, have you found all the crosses?: Yes, I have completed the purification. You were right - the Purification prayer worked very well!: Excellent work! Thank you. You have rendered me invaluable help. At least for some time, I will have a short respite, and there will be fewer undead creatures than there used to be... (Reward: 3500 Gold, 120 Experience): I'm not sure if the crosses did anything, but there are definitely fewer undead now, by at least a few thousand.: Thank you, I was glad to help you. See you.Huh. That's a bit anti-climactic for all that work. However, there's still a quest icon above Furious Paladin's place, so you know what that means. : It's you again, Bill Gilbert? What brings you here?: I wanted to ask. Do you need any other help?: I am tired, so very tired. These two hundred years of endless struggle... and still do not see the end. The undead creatures come as if from a bottomless hole... Now you have helped me, but what will happen next? I feel that the dark side becomes stronger and stronger every time I win a battle. I ask you to go to Aron Demion, who you can find in the Knight's Temple. The temple isn't called the Temple of Truth for nothing... You studied there, so you know what I mean. Ask him if there is something in the Temple archives what could explain the reason for such rampages of necromancer's magic! (Reward: 3500 Gold, 130 Experience): Alright, I'll go and talk to him.: Let them look in the archives. I am sure that they have studied this phenomenon! Recently, the priests of Truth even attempted to sanctify this place, to get rid of this curse...: I'll ask them, don't worry.Man, Furious seems a bit desperate. You'd think 200 years of living would teach some patience. But we will go see if we can help him out.  On the way back to the Temple, I come across this army again. We saw (and avoided) these guys way, way back, since they were far too strong for us. Now, the army is far less intimidating, and I want that banner!  The numbers in the opposite army are small, but both Knights and Horsemen are strong Level 4 units.  Let's check out the new toy!  Ice Snake is an awesome spell. It offers a little more power than Fireball at the cost of a little more mana, and Physical instead of Fire damage. The real joy of it is the Freeze effect, though. You can see that we have a 54% chance to freeze the enemies caught in the blast. Slowing down multiple troops at a time is a great effect, and generally much better than the Burning effect Fireball can cause.  I'd much rather have these Knights moving only 1 hex a turn than be taking a minor amount of fire damage.  The Horsemen move forward, and our Bears rush out to take them on. Horsemen are quite sturdy though, and we dish out far less damage than we are used to.  The Swordsmen move up the centre, while the shivering Knights are going to be taking their sweet time.  Yeah, our Priests aren't very good against non-undead units, dealing barely 100 damage (instead of the 600+ we've been seeing). Of course, the Knights are also much tougher than the foes we've been facing.  Sleem's Poison Spit is actually not too bad here. A steady drip of damage helps take down one or two of these Knights by the time they reach combat.  Of course, a more direct load of Poison is pretty nice too.  By slowing down and controlling the battlefield, we take out the strong Knights before they can get any damage in.  Finally, this banner is mine! Sure, it's not much of a boost, but we take all that we can get.  Onwards to the Temple!  : Welcome again, Bill Gilbert. Our doors are always open for people who craving cleansing of their sins or those who seek divine inspiration. Perhaps you need our help?: I have a question for you. It has to do with Furious Paladin.: So you've met Furious Paladin?: Yes, I met him in Marshan Swamp. He wants to know if there is a way to stop the undead creatures that fill the cemetery.: The cemetery? Yes, that's a terrible place... A source of evil and generator of some of the strongest necro disturbances I have known. Undead creatures feel comfortable there, and day after day new undead rise from their graves. So, what did the Paladin want to know? I've heard of him. A great warrior, who burdened himself with the impossible task of clearing the cemetery of the undead.: That's exactly what he wanted to know. For 200 years he has been killing undead creatures, but there is no end to his combat, and he is tired. He wonders if there's an answer to the question in the Temple's archives. Is it possible to clear the cemetery?: The archives, you say... Let me see, I remember around ten years ago the priests tried to sanctify this place, in order to cleanse it of its wickedness. (The priest goes out of the room and soon returns with a book in his hands.) Here we have collected all the information we know about his cursed place. There are also the notes those who participated in the cleansing ceremony.: Thanks! I'll bring him these papers. One trek back to the Marshes, papers in hand... : How did you make out, Bill Gilbert?: I've visited the Aron. He gave me these papers...: Give them to me! (Paladin took the papers and began to study them closely... Finally, he stops reading and held out a couple of pages to you.) Look! These two documents were written at the same time. It is said in one of them that 12 statues were delivered and installed. And in the other one, the Temple curator points out the outburst of necrotic disturbances. The same day! Statues... I remember them - no magic comes from them, but perhaps the spells are well hidden? There are twelve of them; it is the number of the magic circle of rites. I suggest you destroy them!: Alright. As the saying goes, "it's easier to break than to build." I will do it now.We might as well, easy enough now that we've cleared the cemetery.  We've seen these statues all over the cemetery multiple times by now (especially these six right by the entrance). Now we get a crossed sword icon when mouse over them...  And the statue crumbles into pieces.  The statues are all fairly close to the top level of the cemetery, so it doesn't take much time to find and destroy them. Unless you are like me, miss one obvious statue and spend five minutes running in circles wondering if you found a bug.  As we destroy the penultimate statue, a voice rings out to us... : Stop! Stop! I understand you are doing as I asked: by destroying the statues you are destroying the sources of Death energy and killing the undead creatures. Indeed, I agree this is right, but... I grow weak, I feel the breath of death on my face. You are killing me as well, for my vow expires! If you destroy the last statue, my vow will be fulfilled, and the link which has been keeping me in the world of the living will be destroyed. These long years of fighting the undead have made death abhorrent to me, and I greatly fear my own death. Please, do not destroy the last statue!Vote Time! Furious Paladin, facing the reality of death, feels like he might now prefer eternal life rather than shuffle off this mortal coil. What should we do with the last statue of undeath? Leave it alone : Alright, if you prefer eternal struggle to death, then I will not destroy the statue.We obey the pleas of the Paladin to let him live, even if it means an eternity of fighting the undead. The last statue remains, exuding its necronomical energies. Destroy it : I'm sorry, but I think that it's better for you to die and stop suffering in this world. Rest in peace, warrior of the Temple.We deliver the mercy of death to a soul who has been suffering for years, and eliminate the undead threat in the cemetery. But a man will die due to our actions, although it is a death that is long overdue. And that's it for this update. Whichever decision we go with, we are finally going to be leaving not only the cemetery, but the whole land of Darion itself! That's right, we are finally going to be advancing the main plot. I had to go back and check, but the last time we saw the main quest was back in Update 9! If you recall, King Mark has asked us to investigate Lyaro Island, which appeared during a storm recently. Several recon teams have failed to return, so who better to send than the Treasure Searcher? ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore No new conversations to be had yet. Marking the Map Same crypts as before. Talkin' 'bout Troops Ghost  Resistances: 50% Physical, 50% Poison Critical Hit %: 15 Defense Bonus: 1 Talents: None Abilities Undead Soaring Phantom: Suffers only half of any Physical Damage (50% Resistance to Physical Damage), and can pass through barriers. Soul Draining: Drains the souls of enemy troops, recovering his own health and turning them into ghosts. Gully's opinion: Ghosts are interesting units, but suffer from being overpriced (if you want to use them). They have good speed and initiative, and can easily fly over (or through) battlefield obstacles. They also have one of the best Physical Resistances in the game, which is very strong. Soul Draining is also a great ability. Thankfully, it's not as broken as ghosts from early HOMM games. Now you get about 25% of the damage you deal back as Health, raising new Ghosts if possible. The big weakness to Ghosts is their low Health, so they die easily to non-physical, non-poison damage. Secondly, their damage is pretty bad for their cost (for comparison, Ancient Bears do 9-12 damage for the same cost). Fighting them: Ghosts will be in your face quickly, use fire/magic spells to really hurt them. The Bowmen's Fire Arrow Talent is nice if you are a Warrior. Once they have reduced numbers, their low damage means they can't hurt you much. Cursed Ghost  Resistances: 50% Physical, 50% Poison Critical Hit %: 20 Defense Bonus: 1 Talents  Scream: A blood-curdling scream, which throws back level 1-3 enemy creatures in area of 2 cells, and does 6-9 points of damage, the power of which decreases with distance.Abilities Undead Soaring Phantom Soul Draining Gully's opinion: Same strength and issues as the regular Ghosts. They do get even higher initiative, meaning they are even faster to get into combat. Scream is a great ability (for the player), since you get multiple hits in and no retaliation. The push effect does effect your own units though, so be careful. Still, low Health against non-physical damage hurts against common Fire-using enemies. Their Damage is still very low for the cost (Royal Snakes have a better damage range at less than half the cost). Fighting them: See the advice for Ghosts. Beware their high initiative, and try not to clump up units around them to avoid a damaging Scream. Spells Seen Ice Snake  Ice Snakes freeze the target and does physical damage. When it explodes, the ice pillar can damage neighboring targets with splinters, and attacked targets may become frozen. Crystal Cost: 4 / 7 / 10 Mana Cost: 10 / 15 / 20 Level 1: Damage: 140; Damage Adjacent: 20-60; Freeze: 20% Level 2: Damage: 305; Damage Adjacent: 45-130; Freeze: 40% Level 3: Damage: 475; Damage Adjacent: 65-200; Freeze: 60% Gully's opinion: This Chaos spell is a great Physical AoE spell, in fact the best AoE spell against Fire-resistant units. The Freeze effect is where it really shines. Level 3 Ice Snake, with Intellect bonus, will usually have 80%+ chance to freeze. Obviously, the benefit of freezing depends on the target unit. Having a slow effect packaged into a high-damage spell is premium. As a Mage, this spell pretty much always gets maxed for me (especially by the time we hit Demonis). Skills Shown Destroyer Magic, Tier 5 Mages who specialize in combat spells will inflict more damage with them. Prerequisites: Archmage  Level 1: Spell power increased by 15%. Cost: 1/0/5 Level 2: Spell power increased by 30%. Cost: 2/0/7 Level 3: Spell power increased by 50%. Cost: 3/0/9Gully's opinion: If you are a Mage and using damage spells, Destroyer is quite nice, as it boosts spell damage without affecting mana costs. I usually get one level pretty early, and then more later after I've invested in higher spell levels if I can spare the Magic Runes. Items Identified Temple Archives  Description: These papers contain the records about the cemetery, which were collected by monks. Type: Quest Info: These records were collected by the monks of the Temple of Truth, while they were trying to solve a riddle of the cemetery and free it of the undead. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Feb 6, 2017 |
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Feb 6, 2017 05:47
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Let the paladin die. 200 years ought to be enough for anybody.
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Feb 6, 2017 06:05
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Break the last statue, let the paladin die. Once his reflexive fear of death passes, he will probably agree that it is his stern paladin-ly duty to die if it serves to vanquish a mighty evil. If he does not, he's not a true paladin. 
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Feb 6, 2017 06:23
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Death comes for us all
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Feb 6, 2017 09:14
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Kill him
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Feb 6, 2017 10:33
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Kill the paladin
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Feb 6, 2017 11:29
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Gully Foyle posted:
Also, leave it. We're not on some quest to rid the entire world of an undead scourge. We only started doing this thing at the Paladin's request, and if he wants to keep fighting undead in an isolated location forever, there's absolutely no reason not to oblige him.
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Feb 6, 2017 13:14
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Continue with the graveyard vandalism and smash the statue. Cover the remains in graffiti and let your horse piss all over it.
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Feb 6, 2017 14:05
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If the undead aren't posing a threat to anyone else, sure, leave the statue. Can you make sure you get all the inquisitors you can off that guy before you kill him if you do kill him?
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Feb 6, 2017 15:19
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Leave the statue. If he wants to stop working and commit suicide ever again, he now knows how to. He can well do it himself.
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Feb 6, 2017 18:12
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Need to figure out how to attach flywheels or something to the dude so we can use him as a perpetual power source.
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Feb 6, 2017 18:19
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We've killed hundreds of men already. What's one more? Destroy the statue
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Feb 7, 2017 01:04
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Let the paladin die. It's not like anybody's going to make him into a skellington.
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Feb 8, 2017 06:58
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Update 21: Turtle Time We left off with a choice whether to complete the destruction of the statues in the cemetery or not. By a vote of 8-3, it has been decided that although he has fought the good fight, it's time to destroy the last statue keeping the Paladin alive. : I'm sorry, but I think that it's better for you to die and stop suffering in this world. Rest in peace, warrior of the Temple! With that, we destroy the last statue. Quest complete! Wait... if the Paladin is dead, who do we talk to about the quest reward? Maybe there's an underling at his temple/house we can talk to.  : Goodbye, Furious Paladin....whoops. Turns out that we have both killed him and left him to struggle eternally! Welp.  : Hello, Bill Gilbert. You know, the guise of dead has its advantages. Now I can fight on equal terms with the children of Darkness! I need not sleep, I can see in the dark, and at night I feel an incredible fit of energy. And you wouldn't believe it: cemetery soil heals my wounds!: I hope your chests of trophies are still full? I'd like to look at them. Hey, he's looking happier than he was before, so I'd call that a win! He's also managed to attract a new stock of undead units. Unfortunately not enough to be useful, but he's trying. We also lose access to his previous units, but I went ahead and snagged all the Inquisitors he had in stock before his turn for the worse.  Much more importantly, he is also selling Scrolls of Doom. This is a fantastic spell, and we will see it later this update. With that, we are done with Marshan Swamp for a good while, until I feel confident enough to take on the undead at Castle Karmag.  Since we are done with killing undead, it's time to drop off the Priests. We head off to Arlania to the castle of the Earl Argus (the frog-o-phile), and re-shuffle Bowmen into the line-up to keep some ranged options in.  While we are in the neighbourhood, it's time to report back to Carl about our success with Martha (meant to do this way back).  : Hello there, Bill Gilbert. I have grown tired of waiting, and anxious for news. Have you gone to Marshan Swamp? Have you found Martha?: Yes... I gave her the letter, and she said that she will find you herself. So, please wait for her to come...: Thank you very much, Bill Gilbert! Here is your reward! You will always be welcome in my home! (Reward: 3 Scrolls of 'Trap', 100 Experience): See you later, Carl. I'll drop in sometime.One more happy couple, and a nice reward which gives a pretty neat spell. Again, we will see it in action later on.  Before we get to the main quest, we have one more area to visit, and it requires a ship. I'm too lazy to actually go find where I left my boat, so I just purchase a new one. They are quite cheap.  Off we sail on a long voyage...  Haha, just kidding. We sail fifty feet away to another beach.  Welcome...to Griffin Island!  Along the left-hand path, we find a unique-looking griffin model.  : What happened, birdie? : Birdie? I'm a Griffin! Ok, call me whatever, even a chicken if you must, but please, please help me! Look, there is a huge spider and she has laid her eggs. Please, clear my nest. (Reward: 1700 Gold, 84 Experience): Of course, I'll help you. Well, we can't have that happening. Time to do some pest elimination.  A few hundred spiders and a few Beholders. Shouldn't be much of a problem.  First, I want to get rid of these Beholders. We've seen them a couple of times, but Beholders can be dangerous units. They have a strong ranged attack that can cause the targeted troop to fall asleep (meaning they can't act for 2 turns unless damaged). The probability of this happening depends on the level of the hit unit. Level 2 and under troops are quite likely to be affected, while not so much for Level 3 and above. Basically, these guys are high-priority targets for spells.  Let's try out our new Trap spell. This Distortion spell lays a hidden trap on a single Hex, which halts and damages the first unit to step on it.  Of course, you've got to predict where the enemy will go. Usually right in front of the unit is a good place.  As planned, these Venomous Spiders move forward directly into the spikes, and are stopped in their tracks. Basically, Trap is a combination of a poor damage spell with a poor version of Slow, but the fact that you get both effects with one spell makes it potentially useful. It's best against very fast ground-based units, like Horsemen. You can also place them right in front of your own troops to stop any unit entering that hex to attack.  The return of Bowmen to the line-up gives us access to another slow effect, which is quite nice.  While the ranged units and spells go to work, our melee line moves up to block any movement forward by these spiders, which are quickly decimated.  : She's dead! Thank you very much, young man!: Is that all you need, or do you have any further request?: You know, it wouldn't have been proper for me to ask you... But now that you brought it up... An egg vanished from my nest. I think spiders stole it to eat it. Please, go into the cave and find it. You'll recognize my egg at once: there's our family emblem on it. I'm not a common Griffin, but the noble Kaghem from the Royal Family. That means... well, among other things, it means that it's a blue egg-shell.: Why don't you go and take back the egg yourself?: Griffins can't easily go into closed and dark places. This is why I ask you to go.: I call bullshit, I'll likely be taking hundreds of griffins into caves in the future: Well... Alright, I'll go into the caves. Where are they?: The entrance into Spiders underground is here, on the island. Just below.: Ok, you wait here. As we explore Griffn Island, the local griffins ignore us as they guard their nests. If we wanted to, we could grab these griffin eggs for ourselves. If we do, the neutral stacks will probably become quite unfriendly, so we are going to leave them alone. (It's at this point that I get confused about the spelling of griffin/griffon. But the unit itself in-game is Griffin, so that's what I'm going with.)  The island is built as a multi-tiered hill, so we pick our way up to the summit, looting anything that's not an egg along the way.  At the top, the King awaits. Well... a King awaits.  : How do you know my name? : Do not be surprised, young man! I'm the Griffin King, Harl! And I make it my business to know everything that happens in my territory. So of course I was very interested in the human who led a small army to Arlania!: Your Majesty, your acquaintance is a great honor. And if I can help you in any way, I will do it with great pleasure.: Interesting, human. Your help is quite appreciated.: Alright, please tell me what I can do for you and your kingdom, Your Majesty.: Yes, you can be useful. I think you have already visited the Islands of Freedom? Then of course you know their governor, Scott Thompson?: Actually...no, and no.: If you have not met him, you will soon do so. Long ago, the kingdom of the Griffins was separated from Darion, but in the days of the Old Empire of Arlania, both Heon and Darion were united by Kerus Leonar into one Kingdom. But Arlania's crown remained the symbol of the ruling Griffin dynasty, and it passed from one generation to another. Recently, in the night, pirates landed on our island. These cowardly thieves snuck up to the sacred peak Alavar, and stole this crown.: And you want me to return the crown?: That is right, my friend. The reward will be great, for it is the symbol of the ruling Griffin dynasty which has been stolen. Go now to the Islands of Freedom. Right before the theft, the ships which flew the flag of the pirate Islands governor were noticed just offshore. You aren't afraid to visit them, are you? (Reward: 11500 Gold, 1300 Experience): Ok... I'll try to do it.Wow, he is not kidding about that reward. 1300 Experience is about 10 battles worth right now. Of course, it'll be a good while before we get to this quest.  Heading back down the mountain, we find the underground cave where Kaghem wanted us to look for her missing egg.  Very inventive naming here.  We get chomped on by a patrolling Beholder.  Pretty much all the enemies in these caves are like this, sometimes with Thorn-Hunters instead of Beholders.  First priority is the Beholders, which a Fireball/Smashing Sword combo gets out of the way.  Slow/Freeze make a nice combo to reduce these 3-move spiders to a crawl. This lets me focus on the Royal Snakes entirely.  Let's check out Doom. This Chaos spell is fantastic, but pricy. If you play as a Warrior/Paladin, this spell is one of the few that make picking up Chaos worthwhile, since the strength of the spell depends on your army.     Automatic criticals stack up the damage very quickly. Remember, Critical hits do maximum damage *(1.3 to 1.7, depending on current % of rage you have).   Finishing the troop, we find buried treasure at the site of our battle. Too bad it's just a couple of Last Hero scrolls.  The rest of the monsters in the cave are at the end of long hallways, guarding treasures.  Plant-type enemies are rarely much of a threat to a Mage, that double damage really knocks them down fast.  Running away is a valid strategy, especially when it's necessary to open a battle chest.   Ugh, just gold.  Looks like these caves aren't naturally formed, as we find abandoned mining equipment. Who exactly was doing the mining? It's certainly not the Griffins.  More snakes and spiders go down.   Hardly have our warriors finished cleaning the ichor off their blades/fangs/claws, when marital issues crop up again.  Like Rina, Feanora is another wife with dual forms. Unlike Rina, who we can transform between zombie/human form at will, Feanora only transforms into a frog after a certain number of battles. She retains the same equipment slots, but her bonus is quite different.  +100% Attack is a huge buff. Royal Snakes with this buff have a higher Attack than any troop below Level 5. It's this reason that Feanora is my go-to wife for the early game even if I'm playing a Warrior, since her frog form is so good for these guys. It makes ordinary Snakes worthwhile as well.  : Croooak!: What "Croak"?: Croak-croak-croak?: Croak-croak. Croak-croak. Croak?: [The frog falls silent and looked at you. Her gaze seemed to you a little bit surprised.]: I've heard that an excellent delicacy can be made of your legs. You hear about that too?: [Upon hearing your words, the frog freezes, looks at you dolefully and pathetically says:] Croak?Minor point here... we know that Feanora can speak in frog form, so why has she suddenly lost that ability now? As useful as the bonus to Snakes are, the Intellect boost is too nice for us Mages. : [Kiss the frog.] Though it takes a while to get Feanora into frog form, returning her to human takes but a kiss.  Beholders bar our way to these Magic Crystals.  Beholders and a bunch of snakes.  Here's a look at the Cyclops-style eye lasers of the Beholder.  These armies are all a little too weak to be any threat though.    Caves tend to have a nice quantity of Magic crystals for us. We have a decent hoard of these, but trust me, we will need them once we start getting Level 3 magics. Upgrades to Level 3 spells can take a ton of crystals.  The trail of crystals lead to the last nook, where an army guards a colourful egg.   Same strategy applies. We destroy the Beholders with a spell, slow down the larger group of Spiders with slow/freeze combo, and focus on the smaller group with the troops.  DOOOOM!  Mwahaha!   We grab the egg, which looks more like a Faberge egg than something a living creature ejects out of a cloaca. Still, it matches the description given to us, so we return it to the worried Griffin. : Have you brought the egg? Have you found my little Artridis, the future heir of Kaghems flock?: I don't know if it is Artridis or not... But I have found an egg.: It's him! My Artridis! Thank you from all the Kaghems! (Reward: 1700 Gold, 84 Experience).: Thank you, Griffin. And my advice to you - keep a closer eye on your nest.Ok, enough diversions and sidequests. Time to return to the capitol, and get going with what the king actually wants us to do.  : Well, well, well, Bill Gilbert, have you already been to Lyaro Island? We anxiously await news about what has happened there. Two lost troops expeditions us to believe that a great danger inhabits the island, one which may be a serious threat to our blessed Darion [LP Note: Yeah, the writing is like that. No idea what "expeditions us" was supposed to be]: I'd like to know how to get to the island.: Our technician Tregum will take you to the island on a dirigible! He has already received our instructions. I hope you're not afraid of our little dwarf - or heights? Ha-ha.: Thank you, I understand. I will go now to the dirigible. : Hey... What are you standing here for? Go away... This place is full of you disagreeable types! The next moment you'll have no idea where my bolts and nuts disappeared to.: Look, I need to fly to Lyaro Island...: It doesn't matter what you want. I wouldn't advise you to fly there.: I have a personal order of His Majesty Mark Leonar...: Well, my apologies. If it is an order from His Majesty, then sure, I'll take you to the island. A couple of troops have already vanished on that island, so you may be saying goodbye to your life. Oh! You aren't afraid of heights, are you? If we start to fall, don't grab hold of me - just jump out, every man and dwarf for himself!! Don't worry though - you have enough steel on you; you'll fall quickly.: Ok ok! I'll throw you out first if something happens. Get your dirigible started. Hopefully the dirigible has room for a couple hundred Snakes/Bears/various humans, or this could be a little crammed.  Tregum lifts us off the ground, and we fly away north over the ocean.  The weather is a little forbidding at the destination. As we land, we discuss with Tregum to see if he knows anything of this place. : Look, Bill Gilbert, I feel uncomfortable here. Finish your affairs here quickly, and we'll be off.: Look, it's not the first time you're here on the island. What happened last time?: What happened? They woke me up in the middle of the night, told me to fly north-east. So many people crowded into my dirigible - I feared we'd crash down right into the forest. Thanks to Hammerer, we finally got there. There were mages, king's advisor, and royal troops of course. We stayed there for more than 24 hours. Sorcerers were darting in and out, looking all about; they'd brought some strange things with them. Then we went back, but not all of us: a small troop was left behind, back on the island...: And another time?: Then.. Again they rushed to me, I had hardly managed to finish my meal, and the pulled me right from the table. A royal decree - take the troops to the island. Five hundred guardsmen and a couple of priests, battle priests, you know. I took them to the island and left them there, as it was ordered. By the way, none of those we left there before had come out to meet us. Later I found out they were missing. And the second troop, too.: It doesn't sound very encouraging. Ok, we'll talk later. The path forward among the barren rock leads past bones and carved totems.  Yeah, that doesn't bode well for the fate of the previous expeditions.  We round the corner, and come across an Orc shaman next to a giant, glowing, and clearly magical circle.  : drat it! Can I really be too late?  : Human! You everything see? You see how me summon Small Turtle? Now me get huge, huge power!: Oh my, what a... "small" turtle you have there!: Karrakh to be master! Master this island, this turtle, soon master whole world!: I've heard this word - megalomaniac.... I think it describes guys like you.: I be master of world! I be strongest shaman! Human, why come? You not let Karrakh be master of world? Others come, Karrakh kill others. Now Karrakh kill you.: I don't think you'll succeed, no matter how strong a shaman you are.: You make Karrakh laugh! Karrakh not need magic. Karrakh not need army. Karrakh is master of Small Turtle. My creature kill you and you army. I just snap three... no, two finger! Like this... [Snap!]: What the... Time to take on the "Small" Turtle in the first Boss battle of the game.  Like the other Boss battles, the turtle is a large, multi-hex creature, and we can damage it by hitting any part of it. We aren't given any actual stats beyond Health. However, we can calculate other defensive stats by comparing our expected damage to the actual output. By doing this, we learn that the Giant Turtle has a Defense of 20, 30% Physical Resist, and 20% Magic Resist. Attack/damage stats are too hard to figure out without knowing one of them to begin with.  Spirit of Rage abilities are also disabled completely during Boss battles. Why? I have no idea. Whether for balance or because there were programming issues with making them work, it's once more thing tilting the balance in favour of Mages. We are going to do this fight without magic, though. See the bonus section for why.  We start the fight by pricking the turtle with arrows. It doesn't do much through his thick skin/shell, but any bit helps.  As our melee units move up, the turtle begins to emit a colourful glow...  The neon-glow gets brighter, and the turtle emits a breath of green gas over the battlefield.  The gas settles into our troops, deadening their limbs and reducing their speed (in other words, it casts Mass Slow).   Next turn, as our slowed troops fail to reach the turtle, he rears up on his hind feet, and slams back down, sending shockwaves throughout our army.  Finally, our troops make it into range. Our Snakes take advantage of their range to strike it without retaliation. The Turtle cannot be poisoned, but the attack deals significant damage to its leg.  The Swordsmen move in on the other side with a Smashing Blow.  Angered, the turtle slams his right foot into the warriors, damaging them and sending them back stumbling into the hex behind them.  Distracted, this leaves his mighty head open to a vicious mauling by the bears.  This proves to be too much for the turtle, and he retreats into his thick shell to hide.  The Giant Turtle is a pretty easy boss, but keep in mind that we could have come here a long time ago. The entire Marshan Swamp was not necessary for the main quest, and we've been pretty thorough in cleaning up every region. We are basically as powerful as we can be at this point in the game. : Stop! Stop, human, not come, or I curse you bad! Karrakh can swear by his grandad spirit - you surprise Karrakh, you kill Turtle... Karrakh very-very surprised... Karrakh think long-long...: I see you're a strong shaman, Karrakh. As a mage I'm very interested - how did you manage to summon and subdue this amazing creature...: You no understand! You not be mage! You weak, too weak. Karrakh strong!: Why did you raise this island and summon this monster?: Karrakh want power and whole world belong Karrakh! Many-many study... Look great secret, smoke stinking herb, dance old spell. I find out where Turtle Egg... I get it and put magic on turtle. Kill many sacrifices - kill elves, kill humans, even orcs! I want rule whole world!: I'm afraid I can't let you do that.: I not afraid of you. But I very tired. Dance difficult magics - legs ache. Loud scream spell - throat ache. Kill many sacrifice - hands ache. I go now, but you meet I later and many-many cry! Al garum baran gabum! [Snap...]: Stop, I'll show you garum-gabum! With a flash of magic, the shaman fades out of this place. Something tells me we will see him again. But before we can contemplate what the Shaman said, a huge voice booms out to us.  : For what? For nearly killing you? : I aaam not a monster. Deaaath and destruuuction are oooffensive to meee. The sooorcerere awoke me. I was weeeak. He took the Crystal of Peeeace awaaay from meee. The sooorcerer obtaaained my power, power oover me. You caaame in time. You stooopped him. Thaaank you.: The Crystal of Peace? What is that?: A part of me... A reeeesource of pooower... Protection... I am weeeak without it. Weeeeak will, weeeeak magic. An owner of the crystal can break your wiiill, taaake your magic... The sooorcerer is dangerous, when he haaas the Crystal of Peace... He wiiill become powerful.: So, he can subdue you again at any moment?: The sorcerer became weak. He neeeds time. But heee will return again. He woooon't give up.: Maybe I can help you?I neeed proteeection. Until I am at fuuull strength. My power grooows with every day. Soon I won't need a Crystal. It's neeecessary only in the beeeginning, for protection. : Ok. I think that King Mark will provide you protection; Darion needs such a powerful ally. But what can be done about the sorcerer? He won't just leave you along, and he promised me a warm welcome as well.: Thank you. I need protection just for a while. Soon my strength will reeeturn and I'll be able to hold my own. We need to stop the sorcerer, and take the crystal. Together weee can do it. The Magic of Souls, Name ties, Blood bonds... You've seeeen my strength, shed my blood. I see your soul. Give meee a drop of your blood and your naaame, and then if I can call you by the naaame, you will come. I tell you my naaame, and you'll beee able to call my name and I will come.: Ok. Here's a drop of my blood. And my name is Bill Gilbert.: My name is Geya. Remember my name.: Ok, Geya, cast your magic. Rainbow lights flash out along the turtle's shell, and a cloud of prismatic magic descends onto our head.   (Note: "Source of Magic" isn't a spell, I think it means Magic Spring here) With our contract concluded and alliance struck, we head back to Tregum's blimp.  We return to Darion in triumph, having fulfilled the King's quest. : I've been to the island. (Tell about what has happened, in detail...): Very, very interesting... So you say you've concluded an alliance with the huge turtle? Well it is certainly good to have a powerful ally; still it was rather unwise to bind us with such ties... The shaman must have wanted to sacrifice the Turtle to Dark Spirits, I should think. That would be a great sacrifice, because as I understand, even a common turtle is a sacred animal, a symbol of wisdom and longevity, and of the universe's basic stability.: I don't really know what exactly he wanted...: I wish we could reveal this secret full. We shall place a defensive troop on the island immediately. The island will be declared a restricted zone, and nobody will bother this huge animal without our consent. If the shaman attempts to enter there again, he'll receive a warm welcome. But you will not participate in this matter further, Bill Gilbert. You have completed your part of the mission, and proven that you are brave indeed. Now I shall assign you a mission connected with high politics.: Politics? But I'm neither a spy nor an assassin.: Don't worry, Bill Gilbert, you will be searching like a Royal Searcher. At the moment, everything may look peaceful and calm, but that's just a semblance. You must have heard about the guileful dwarven attack on Creiston Mines. The dwarves broke the lease, and determined to occupy our mines by force - but thanks to Baron Ahey's assistance, we've managed to push them back. Our advisors are sure that this won't stop them, and there is need to prepare for war. To do that, we require the maps of the dwarven mines and caves, so that we will know when and where we should await the attack, and perhaps even make a preemptive strike.: (Listen further...): We've found out that one of the pirate "Barons" has such maps - a pirate named James, nicknamed Lucky. You will need to go to the Islands of Freedom, find this James and acquire from him the maps of the dwarven undergrounds - at any cost! Oh, and yes... For your faithful service to Darion and to Our Majesty, we, King Mark Leonar the Second, confer upon you the title of Baron and the regalia which thereto appertain! Bow your head, my loyal friend.: Thank you, Your Majesty. I will get those maps by whatever means necessary! With the promotion to Baron, the king authorizes unlimited troops for our disposal. We can now hire infinite Bowmen and Swordsmen. Promotions can also add new equipment and spells. It's not just the main castle itself, some other places will also have new stocks, which we will see in a future update.  The promotion also comes with a +500 Leadership bonus, bringing us well above 3k. We do have enough Runes for a couple of skills, but we are so close to Level 10 that I will wait until that hits to make any decisions there. We will have a special update next time. We have now hit a major point in our Treasure Searching career, and will be exploring new lands soon. We have also nearly cleared out the entire land of Darion, with only a few locations left, most of which are out of our power level right now. And we have reached the first of 3 promotions in the game! So next update will have no actual exploration. There are a number of extra conversations from this update (that I skipped for length) that we need to get through, and we will have a statistical look at our adventures so far. After that, we set sail for the Islands of Freedom, yarrr! ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore You may have noticed that our mage character didn't use any spells during the Turtle fight. Frankly, this is because it just wrecks him too fast.  Ice Snake is our best damage spell here, despite the Physical resist. Although ordinarily Fireball would be better, for some reason (bug, maybe?), the Turtle is untargetable by it. So Ice Snake it is!  Dual Ice Snakes takes over 70% of his Health out.  A little plinking by our ranged units, and a Flaming Arrow at the start of Turn 2 is all it takes to finish it off.  The only thing it got to do was the Mass Slow. The Turtle is really not any challenge at this point to our Mage. If we took him on as soon as possible, we would take a good chunk of losses, since I'd probably only be able to do 250-300 damage per turn with Flaming Arrows. Marking the Map Lyaro Island, like underground caverns and dungeons, doesn't have any map for us to look at. Talkin' 'bout Troops Beholder  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 15 Defense Bonus: 3 Talents: None Abilities Soaring Archer Paralyzing Ray: Does a Ranged Attack and has a chance to lull the enemy to sleep for 1 turn (Note: I think it's actually 2 turns). The lower the level of the enemy, the higher the chance to lull him. Underground: If combat takes place under ground, Attack is increased by 50%. Immune to Mind Spells Gully's opinion: Beholders are strong ranged units, with a high maximum damage and an awesome special ability. Sending a unit to sleep is really nice, since it lets you focus on other troops and stops ranged units from attacking. However, it doesn't apply to any troops who are Immune to Mind Spells (like Undead), and it is chance-based, so don't count on it to affect Level 3+ units. Their Attack and Defense is good. However, Beholders are extremely expensive, and have reaaally low Health (just look at that Leadership:Health ratio!). And they have no resistances to help out there. This makes them extremely vulnerable, especially to spells - probably one of the weakest troops in the game in this measure. Generally, I'd just rather take their big brother, the Evil Beholder. Fighting them: The sleep ability is very annoying, so I recommend focusing on these guys. Low Health and no resistances means spells are your best friend. Melee troops will slaughter them in close combat if it comes to that. Spells Seen Trap  Places a trap on the battlefield. The trapped troop receives physical damage and loses all Action Points. Crystal Cost: 2 / 4 / 6 Mana Cost: 5 / 7 / 10 Level 1: Damage: 80-120; Duration: 3 turns Level 2: Damage: 240-360; Duration: 4 turns Level 3: Damage: 400-600; Duration: 5 turns Gully's opinion: Trap is a nice cheap Distortion spell that combos a slow effect with some damage. Best used against fast ground troops. Too bad so many fast units have some form of flight. You also need to predict where the enemy will go. One fun way to use it is to put a unit into range of an enemy, and put a Trap in the hex the enemy needs to use to attack. All in all, a fun spell that has some good tactical use, and great for non-mages, as Level 1 is all you need. Doom  Condemns the enemy target to fatally bad luck, which causes the target to receive Critical Damage on every hit from a base attack. Crystal Cost: 4 / 8 / 12 Mana Cost: 20 / 20 / 20 Level 1: Target's Level: 1-2; Duration: 2 turns Level 2: Target's Level: 1-3; Duration: 3 turns Level 3: Target's Level: 1-4; Duration: 4 turns Gully's opinion: Doom is an awesome spell which only suffers from high Mana costs. At least that doesn't increase with spell level. This spell can practically double all of your damage against a stack (though keep in mind that caveat that only base attacks can crit). One of the few Chaos spells that are great for non-Mages. I usually like to get Level 2 at least to give a wide variety of targets, if I have the Chaos Magic level. Skills Shown None Items Identified Griffin Egg  Description: The young griffin Artridis, heir to the Kaghems' clan, is to hatch out of this egg. Type: Quest Info: You've never seen such eggs before; the shell glitters as if it were made of jewels. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Feb 23, 2017 |
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Feb 22, 2017 06:15
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