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Presumably Trap goes great with sneks, since you can put the trap in the square that the snakes are striking over.
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Feb 22, 2017 11:04
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Trap is a fun spell but you have to take two things into consideration if you plan to put one directly in front of your own unit beyond the obvious that you might want to advance. First, it's useless if you're fighting snakes or other enemies who will strike from one hex away (I've totally never had that happen). And second, don't do it if the enemy can pull your troop forwards (absolutely never had that happen to me neither). That's a really bad. Bosses... oh the bosses. The turtle is probably the best one because it's the least annoying to fight even when you're not overleveled for it and it's not recycled every loving game. The lack of rage abilities is very annoying. It would have been fine if only normal direct damage worked. It would still have been fine if the actual boss was immune to them but you could use them anyway. Hey here are some cool spells for you but you can't actually use them when you need them the most because gently caress you.
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Feb 22, 2017 11:31
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Might sound like a dumb question but are you planning on doing the sequels? I remember playing these but I usually had to cheat because regardless of class I'd play, I'd usually have huge losses and my army would start running on fumes. I was probably bad at the game
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Feb 22, 2017 11:54
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I'm pretty sure the King was saying "two lost troop expeditions led us to believe there's a giant boss that will beat weak horde units to a pulp" which is completely true, boss fights are liable to incur far more losses than normal fights if you're not careful or utterly overlevelled.
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Feb 22, 2017 13:42
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I only played the first and the second game. Do the bosses get recycled afterwards as well? On Trap, my most vivid memory is that in the second game, you could get an achievement for how many units you killed with traps, and in return, for each rank you got a new trap at the start of the battle and a bonus to damage. Getting it was a pain in the rear end, since the unit had to be *killed* by the trap (so it had to be weakened *just enough* before stepping on it). But once I got to the second or third level of the achievement, and since I also obtained two trap items, by the end of the game, I had four or five traps laid out across the battlefield at the start of each battle. And with all the bonuses (both from the achievement and the normal one from intelligence, and I think I *was* playing a wizard)... it was a minefield. Pretty funny. It was certainly a different gameplay.
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Feb 22, 2017 13:47
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Delacroix posted:I'm pretty sure the King was saying "two lost troop expeditions led us to believe there's a giant boss that will beat weak horde units to a pulp" which is completely true, boss fights are liable to incur far more losses than normal fights if you're not careful or utterly overlevelled. meristem posted:I only played the first and the second game. Do the bosses get recycled afterwards as well? Traps are a lot of fun but that achievement is much easier if you do it early but actually getting the spell is 100% RNG which will often screw you over.
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Feb 22, 2017 14:17
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tithin posted:Might sound like a dumb question but are you planning on doing the sequels? I absolutely intend to, though from the pace it will be some time before we get there. But I know what you mean. The early parts of this game are pretty easy, but later on (and in other games) certain battles seem positively unfair. A lot of knowledge of how to use units together is required, and sometimes the RNG about which units are available can swing against you. The later games are also a bit less linear, as I recall, which means traveling around a lot more looking for battles you can win.
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Feb 22, 2017 17:16
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I wonder if warrior bird nobility hatching out of blue eggs that are later kept as a sign of their origin was a reference to Gerard Klein's "Overlords of War"
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Feb 22, 2017 19:22
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Wait, his name is King Marky?
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Feb 23, 2017 00:20
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I can appreciate them wanting to get the boss fights resolved without whatever crazy rage powers to worry about balancing for.
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Feb 23, 2017 05:09
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But magic is even stronger in the game, as shown here. Why not disable that too? Are any of the later games worth picking up? I played through most of this one but never bothered buying the sequels
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Feb 23, 2017 05:34
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Wait, his name is King Marky? Haha, I wish. No, that's just me and my clumsy fingers making a mistake. Fixed now. Slaan posted:Are any of the later games worth picking up? I played through most of this one but never bothered buying the sequels In my opinion, Armored Princess/Crossworlds (the second game, Crossworlds is a sort of expansion and overhaul of the main Armored Princess campaign) is the best one of the series that I've played, though I haven't touched the Dark Side (#4) yet. It balances the game out a bit better between the classes (makes Paladins pretty decent, and makes Rage abilities a bit better I think), the Leadership curve is more steady (you automatically get increased Leadership every level), and opens the game world up a bunch more. Plus there's quite a few more cool units, so your armies have a lot more potential variety in them. Plus, there's a few quality of life adjustments (like loot objects show up on your mini-map, Crit Hit % are included in the unit cards, and so on).
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Feb 23, 2017 06:44
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Slaan posted:But magic is even stronger in the game, as shown here. Why not disable that too? The 3rd game, Warriors of the North, is buggy and poorly balanced, and I've heard the 4th game is even worse. Armoured princess is good, and makes lots of improvements to balance classes and units, though there are a few bits with a really mean difficulty curve to them.
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Feb 24, 2017 02:26
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Slaan posted:Are any of the later games worth picking up? I played through most of this one but never bothered buying the sequels Dark Side is... A genuinely interesting game. With three games down Katauri got really creative with their tools, and while it has the most recycled assets of any of the games they're recycled in such interesting ways that it's hard to be angry (the goddamn ship graveyard). It almost feels more like a top-tier fanmade mod than it does a full new release, with all the awkwardness that implies. Some of the puzzles are really obtuse, you get to play with different unit comps than you usually can (and really early at that), and the writing has a mix of this game's upbeat snark, some shockingly-morbid turns and a few flashes of full-on narrative brilliance. I hope Gully gets to it, because it really deserves to be LPed as a capstone to the series. I'm sort of shocked that everyone's talking up the Mage class - I typically found it the weakest of the three, because all you're really doing is compensating for decreased unit firepower with increased spell firepower (which also means you're sort of locked into attack and summon spells every turn). Maybe I've been playing the class wrong.
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Feb 24, 2017 03:13
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Yeah, Dark Side is indeed really interesting. Unfortunately, I also found it really grindy near the end, much more than the previous games. It's worth a pick up though, unlike Warriors of the North.
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Feb 24, 2017 03:41
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Some of Dark Side has incredibly poor map design at times. On the level of rushing modder who didn't give a poo poo kind of poor. I gave up on it kinda early though so maybe it got better. In Warriors of The North I got stuck at some point and couldn't motivate myself to try any further. You have to fight several battles against enemy heroes in a row but you're not using your own hero and army for it. Instead you have these premade ones with units, skills and spells you might not be familiar with at all, either because you've never used them or tried but quickly stopped because they're poo poo/boring/don't work for you. Some might think that sounds like an interesting puzzle but I just got annoyed. You also have to really like viking troops for the first bit of the game.
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Feb 24, 2017 10:37
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Like I said, I only played the two first games, but isn't Dark Side unnecessarily... edgy? Like in the vein of "haha, good and evil are just two sides of the same coin, and being 'evil' is just another word for being a 'freedom fighter'"? Because it was rumours to that extent that kept me from playing it in the first place. I've never been much for this type of equivocation.
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Feb 24, 2017 11:15
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meristem posted:Like I said, I only played the two first games, but isn't Dark Side unnecessarily... edgy? Like in the vein of "haha, good and evil are just two sides of the same coin, and being 'evil' is just another word for being a 'freedom fighter'"? Because it was rumours to that extent that kept me from playing it in the first place. I've never been much for this type of equivocation. Only at first glance. You're playing as an orc/succubus/vampire so of course they're going "we're totally freedom fighters not evil bastards". Then you proceed to cheat, betray, backstab, deceive, forsake and generally be quite cartoonishly evil towards everyone and everything in the world (minus a couple catspaws here and there). The narrative is not "good is evil and evil is good", it's "everyone in this bloody world is horribly evil and the two competing flavors call themselves light and dark".
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Feb 24, 2017 14:37
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Poil posted:In Warriors of The North I got stuck at some point and couldn't motivate myself to try any further. quote:The narrative is not "good is evil and evil is good", it's "everyone in this bloody world is horribly evil and the two competing flavors call themselves light and dark". On the other hand, I might just be giving the writers credit that they don't deserve. Like I said, the game has some flashes of narrative brilliance, but a fair chunk of the writing is indeed kinda janky.
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Feb 24, 2017 18:37
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Omobono posted:The narrative is not "good is evil and evil is good", it's "everyone in this bloody world is horribly evil and the two competing flavors call themselves light and dark".  (I mean, even the King's brother wasn't plotting to return to the throne, and just wanted to get laid instead!)
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Feb 24, 2017 20:42
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Update 22 - Stats and Stuff 1 In this interlude, let's look at some of the bonus chats from the material in Update 21. First, we can talk with Carl about the nature of the world.  : Hello , my dear friend! Did you know that Martha came to me? It's so wonderful! Thank you very much! My life has changed and now I study not only the stars but also their influence on the human mood - and even on frogs! Martha has told me so many interesting things about life in the swamp, that now I wish to travel there myself! : I want to ask you some questions, Carl.: Finally! Perhaps you are interested in my theory about Endoria's movement in the World's Ocean? Or are you interested in the world's geography during the Titan's Epoch?: You said your name is Carl Leonar?: Yes, you are right... I belong to the Leonar dynasty, and good King Mark is my younger brother.: And you work here... in an observatory, and he rules?: Yes, I rescinded the throne. You know, young man, it is far more interesting for me to conduct research, than it would be to sit on a throne, sealing edicts and such.: Perhaps, yes. The Titan's Epoch is an interest of mine.: Well I suppose you must know the time when there were no people, no elves or other such creatures, and the Titans ruled Endoria. They were the first intelligent race to be created by the Gods. At that time there were none of the continents known to us today - neither Darion, nor Ellinia, nor Kordar. All was a single continent. But the Gods became enraged, and struck our world, so violently that the continent split into three parts. Thus modern geography is really quite young...: I'd like to know more about our world.: Great! Wonderful! Perhaps, I'll tell you my theory... It is really quite interesting - I even submitted my research to the department of Geography, and my research may even win the Fandor's prize! Now, then... I have been observing the movement of the heavenly bodies for a long time, and I've discovered a very interesting regularity, which gave me the crazy but profound idea, which could transform our entire view of the universe!: Very interesting... Please go on...: Of course, I had to double-check everything. I asked for the assistance of the Geographers Guild, and collected all the information we have on earthquakes and weather cycles over the last two hundred years. Finally, I can say with certainty that our world is not a flat disk as the old know-it-alls claim. Moreover, it is not even a convex disk, as our more enlightened scientists nowadays believe...: So, do you agree with those madmen who consider our world to be round like a ball and suspended in the air, without support of any kind?: Is that some kind of joke!? Do I look like a madman? Of course our world isn't a sphere. It really looks like convex disk, but it doesn't hang in the air as Fandor's followers assert, Nor is it an island in the Great Ocean, as the followers of Gulliver believe. Though they are correct in a way... My research leads me to believe that, in truth, our world sits on the back of a huge moving animal!: Ha-ha... That's right, that's right... Our world rests on the backs of three elephants, and they in turn stand upon a great turtle!: Well, young man, I see that you don't believe me. But modern science moves ever forward. In time, modern astronomy will prove my ideas to everyone! Ok, Bill Gilbert, will that be all, or do you have any more questions for me?: No, I have no questions.The developers were definitely fans of the Discworld books. Next, what if our talk with Geya, the Great Turtle was a little less friendly?  : Thaaank you, human.: Hey, didn't I kill you? Well, that mistake is easy to correct.: Stoooop! Don't kill!: I have the king's orders - to get rid of the threat to Darion.: 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.: If he still has the crystal, then he might try it again.: The sorcerer became weak. He neeeds time. But heee will return again. He woooon't give up.: Then it's easier for me to kill you, and there will be no threat.: That is up to youuu. But when my soul rises inside the crystal, all my power will beee in the sorcerer's hands. All magic. All memory.: Not the best situation, I agree. So what can we do?: 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.: Aha! I heard of that! That's how sorcerers obtain power over victims' body and mind. Do you take me for a fool?: By Life and Death, Soooul and Mind, by the Power of everything Exiiisting and Created, I swear. I will only use our tiees if the sooorcerer comes to me. And I will ooobey our ties if the sooorcerer comes to you. When I reeegain the Crystal of Peace, I will split the bonds. I swear on my blood, swear in the sunrays, in the currents of the wind and sea splaaashes.: I didn't quite understand your vow, but it impressed me. Alright, 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.No matter how much we try to threaten and bluster, we can't screw up the alliance and bonding spell from happening. Finally, let's get the King to elucidate (at length) on the lands we will soon be exploring.  : Any questions, Bill Gilbert? We thought you were already on the islands, searching for the dwarves' maps? Or maybe you've found them already?: I wanted to ask you some questions, Your Majesty.: Well, I guess we can find some time for you. What's on your mind, Bill Gilbert?: Do you know why the dwarves attacked Creiston Mines?: These mines have always belonged to us! Dwarves have been renting them for several centuries - and it costs them quite a bit each year... Well, it always did in the past, but this year they didn't pay on the agreed date. Moreover, instead of gold, the arrogant Torn Digor sent an army to occupy the mines! So it made sense to sell the mine to Baron Ahey, who has been interested in the mining rights for many years, and who himself helped to repulse the dwarven attack.: Right, and that doesn't seem the least bit suspicious to you?: I'd like to know more about the Islands of Freedom.: That is and Island State, in the northern waters, where live criminals and fortune hunters. It's a pirates' and smugglers' paradise! Only the laws of the Islands are enforced there, and they were created by and for pirates, and so in a way these truly are Islands of Freedom. The governor is considered to be the ruler there. He has a treasury, an army, and he enacts the laws and sees that they are observed. The Islands of Freedom are considered to be the province of Darion, but except for the taxes paid regularly to our treasury, nothing really binds Darion with the Islands.: Why do you stand such lawlessness?: Gold! The great amounts of gold that flows into Darion's treasury. Every governor realizes that the islands exist only so long as the King of Darion wishes them to exist, and so they do not begrudge us their gold. In fact, nothing happens on the islands without our Majesty's knowledge. Several times there have been attempts to secede from Darion... but pirates and robbers are not used to obedience, so they were unable to unite around a common leader, even when they faced great risk! Even in spite of their huge fleet and extensive combat experience, all this power remains useless because no one can control it. In addition, Governor Thompson had occupied his position only through my assistance, and he understands all of this very clearly.: Well, it looks like there's a lot of interesting things for me to find. Wouldn't you say, Your Majesty?: Here is a real Treasure Searcher! You're absolutely right. The pirates attack ships and coastal cities, do various smuggling, and take tribute from the merchants up and down the coast. Gold flows into their hands - and every boy in his childhood surely dreamt of digging out a pirate's treasure! I don't really know if it's tradition or just a question of prestige, but every self-respecting pirate will definitely hide part of his treasure hoard for a rainy day. Our former Treasure Seeker de'Virre liked to busy himself with these searches...: How was this state formed?: There's a small group of islands to the north of Darion. A questionable border territory, which had always cause conflicts with elves. At one time we had occupies them, next they control the interests there... Tensions eased when one of my ancestors leased the islands out to pirates and robbers. By the king's order, all prominent criminals were brought there. They built houses and shipyards for them, several ports and workshops. Surprisingly, but sure enough it worked! After realizing they were free, the criminals and killers had a good laugh, but soon enough came to their senses. And one pirate, Dick Raynolds and his gang, took them by the throat. He set a kind of order there, introduced laws and declared himself a governor of the Islands. Thus the ruling order was set, and has remained in place ever since...Fun with Numbers! Number of Battles Fought - 155 Enemies Killed - 22,426 creatures valued at 436,246 Leadership (Mean Leadership - 19.45) Friendly Casualties - 635 losses valued at 11,260 Leadership (Mean Leadership - 17.73) Per Update   Cumulative   By Type   By Level   Top 5s Enemies Killed (#) 1: Thorn Hunter (3612) 2: Skeleton Archer (3451) 3: Skeleton (2104) 4: Vemomous Spider (1853) 5: Cave Spider (1611) As expected, the top 5 killed list is entirely Level 1 units. The trip through the cemetery brings the skeletal pair up in large numbers, while the spiders were decimated through numerous cave and marsh battles. Thorn Hunters win out overall, being present in large numbers all over the place. Enemies Killed (Leadership) 1: Skeleton Archer (48314) 2: Thorn Hunter (28896) 3: Skeleton (25248) 4: Ghost (23120) 5: Cave Spider (22554) The higher Leadership value of the Skeleton Archer brings it far in front of the pack, while the Ghost makes the only non-Level 1 appearance. Friendly Casualties (#) 1: Thorn Hunter (293) 2: Lake Dragonfly (166) 3: Marauder (33) 4: Bowmen (28) 5: Barbarian (25) By number, the Thorn-Hunter tops the list due to low Health, taking losses in almost every fight while we used it. The Lake Dragonfly number is inflated since I largely sacrificed them during battle since I knew I'd be replacing them. Marauders/Barbarians appear as well, as low-Health melee units, while Bowmen get a few casualties since the AI like to target ranged units. Friendly Casualties (Leadership) 1: Thorn Hunter (2344) 2: Ancient Bear (1840) 3: Lake Dragonfly (1494) 4: Bowmen (1400) 5: Marauder (990) Notably, Ancient Bears shoot up the list when Leadership is taken into account (though only 23 were lost). Next time, we delve back into the world of Endoria, and take a trip on the high seas to the Freedom Islands. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 06:42 on Feb 28, 2017 |
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Feb 28, 2017 02:39
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Re-check the third to last portrait; ya accidentally put the searcher there instead of the king~
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Feb 28, 2017 06:01
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The elf bar is empty. This is... unacceptable! 
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Feb 28, 2017 10:33
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Poil posted:The elf bar is empty. This is... unacceptable! It's technically not. We have killed exactly 80 Elven troops, worth 5450 Leadership. It's just too small to show up (much like the exactly 2 Demons we have slain, and 1 solitary Dwarven Cannoneer).
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Feb 28, 2017 16:27
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Clearly we also need a "senseless deaths" counter to represent those defeated and lost in some of this game's goofier encounters (that still result in armies clashing with one-another). Fare thee well, tutorial knights. Your sacrifice being headbutted to death by a captive dragon shall catapult us ever onward.
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Feb 28, 2017 18:54
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Gully Foyle posted:It's technically not. We have killed exactly 80 Elven troops, worth 5450 Leadership. It's just too small to show up (much like the exactly 2 Demons we have slain, and 1 solitary Dwarven Cannoneer). Still unacceptably small
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Feb 28, 2017 20:30
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Update 23 - Pieces of Snakes Ahhh, can you smell that salt breeze? Time to sail across the sea to the Freedom Islands! We do have a boat or two, but we don't have the sailing ability to stray far from shore. Instead, let's talk to someone who lives off the ocean.  : Oh! Thunder! It looks like I have guests. What do you come for Bill Gilbert? Here to listen to an old seaman's stories?: Under orders of the king, I must get to the Islands of Freedom.: News from the castle reached us before you, and the ship is preparing to set sail... Don't worry, young man, the "Sea Swallow" will get you wherever you need! Oh, I remember romping on those islands when I was young...: Cast off! Or what is it you fishermen normally shout? The Sea Swallow sets sail to the north, looking very much like a ghost ship with a moving tiller with no one manning it.  Before long, we reach our destination, the Western Islands (that is, the Western Islands of the Islands of Freedom).  We are put to shore on a beach, where an impressive castle overlooks a small settlement.  Before we hit the castle, let's see if the locals have any information for us.  : Merchant, you say? Show me your goods. As Valdes says, he is our source for a coastal ship to use for this area. We will get one, in time, but not yet. His second job is to let us travel back to Darion, which we will need to do to grab fresh troops. He also will sell us a variety of units, and I'm glad to see some more Inquisitors here. The Pilgrim Staff for sale here is the same as the one we found way back, and we are already using the upgraded version of it. Anything else we can get out of him?  : Good afternoon. So, you've come to the merchant for advice? Or maybe you're missing your Darion lands, and want to rent a cabin on my ship?: Hey, maybe you know Lucky James?: Lucky? Yes, he's my best jewelry supplier.: Do you know how I can find him?: Sorry, but I haven't heard from James for a long time. Perhaps he's laying low. The Governor is cracking down again. Hmm, you'd better ask his fiancee, Mirabella - you can find her in the eastern port. And better still, ask Redbeard. He moved to the Eastern Islands, not sure why. Probably he's planning something.: Thank you. Another villager stands near the castle gates.  : Hey buddy, I see you have recently come to the islands, and you're not a native. If you want to make some money, I have a job for you.: Ok, sounds interesting. : Where are the Mantil Islands?: The Mantil Islands are to the north. The house of the old Cook is on the very first island - you'll easily find it.: Ok, I'll try to find it if I have the time.This bit of dialogue is a bit superfluous. It doesn't actually start a quest, just points us to where one might be.  Time to speak to the Governor. We have two main business issues at hand - locating the maps from Lucky James, and returning the Griffin King's crown.  Tripol here is the capital of the Freedom Islands, and has some nice things for us to pick up. First, we'll buy that green ring, which turns out to be a Snake Ring.  Next, we will buy some Sea Dogs. From the previous pic, you may have noticed a change in our line-up. The Swordsmen and Ancient Bears are gone, and we are going thematic by replacing them with Pirates and these Sea Dogs. To go along with this, we've given our wife the Chieftain's Belt again (giving Pirates/Robbers +5 attack), and bought some Jackboots from the Alchemist in Marshan Swamp (which give Pirates/Robbers +1 speed, as well as +10% gold from combat).  : Hello, Governor. Maybe a well-informed man like you, who knows everything that is happening in your possessions, can tell me where I might find Lucky James? : Alas... I'm not as well-informed as I'd like to be. Some time ago, Lucky hid himself in one of his secret hide-outs, and if this location is known to anybody, that body is not me. In fact I believe he is hiding because I put a reward on his head. You might try asking the Redbeard. He's one of Lucky's main competitors; their hatred for each other has lasted, oh, well past ten years. I'm sure he would have a good idea where his mortal enemy is hiding.: Where can I find this Redbeard?: Redbeard recently moved to the Eastern Islands, probably to the Big Bay, but I don't know where exactly. You may ask in the Eastern Islands' port, speak to Beauty Mirabella, for example.: Beauty Mirabella?: Yes, she is a great beauty - and at the same time a truly unassailable fortress! They say that she has broken the hearts of many of our cutthroats. I even heard she was engaged to Lucky James, but I don't believe that.: Ha, I'd like to have a look at her. : Croaaak, and what exactly do you mean by that, darling?No new information beyond what Valdes gave us. Seems we will need to head to the Eastern Islands and find Redbeard. And if you've been paying attention to this LP, you should know that won't be for a while yet, I like to be too thorough in the local area. Anyways, let's see about the Griffin Crown. : I'm glad that you managed to find some time to visit this old grumbler. What can I do for the envoy of the king?: I came to you at the request of the king of Griffins, concerning a situation that is rather difficult.: What's happened?: I have come to you at the request of the Griffin King Harl. He claims that by your order, the Griffins priceless treasure, the Crown, was stolen. Griffins saw ships under your flag just before the theft.: Hmm... I can assure you that I had nothing to do with it. My ships have not appeared in the waters of Darion for a long time. That was our agreement with King Mark. Hmmm, I think I may know who has done this. : Who is that?: Yes, I believe this to be the work of Duke Sov - by his people to be more precise. He has played dirty like this before, but stealing the crown of Griffins is an interesting move... stupid though. I doubt this crown will help him. But the fact remains that the duke is my personal enemy. He lives in the Castle Totenheim, on the Eastern Islands. Kill him, and return the Crown to the Griffins as well. I'll pay you well for this service.: I'll take care of him, you can be sure of that.Finally, I don't think anyone would be surprised to find out that the Governor here has his own mission to send us on. : Nice to meet you. My name is Bill Gilbert, the Royal Treasure Searcher. Maybe I can help you somehow?: Hmm. You want to help me, right? Sorry, but what kind of help you can give? Understand me right, Bill Gilbert, not every day does the envoy of the king offer me his help. We have recently had some disagreements with the king, you know.: Governor, please tell me straight what you need. You'll find that I'm capable of many things.: I don't know... I do have one problem, which unfortunately I cannot solve by myself. Your assistance would be just in time, but... Tell me, Bill Gilbert, what do you think about a job, which comes with some mortal risk, and, let's say not very... clean... yes?: I like risk, and I'm not afraid of getting dirty. The job of the Searcher is not the cleanest either. What kind of problem is it?: Actually here on the Islands everything is not always smooth and calm. Sometimes problems arise, and your help would come in handy in solving one of them. There is a problem with one pirate named Thorny Dog. This young and desperate cutthroat had blocked the main trade route. And besides he didn't get my permission to rob the trade vessels. I invited him to a meeting, so we could discuss the matter, but he ignored my invitation. I can't leave things as they stand - otherwise everybody will start doing what they want. Thus, I have fixed a reward for his head. (Reward: Snake Boots, 2900 Gold): So, where I can find Thorny Dog?: To the north in a lagoon is a little grotto. His refuge is situated there.: I see, I'll take care of it.We know that Bill is no stranger to being a murderer-for-hire, and we really want those Snake Boots.  Speaking of snakes, how about that ring we bought? The Snake Ring gives us just +1 Intellect. Not a bad bonus, as it brings us to 15 Intellect. This breakpoint means that all of our duration-spells (like Slow, Haste, Doom, etc) will last one extra turn. We also see that it is upgradeable, and that it has something called Morale.  This is the hardest Keeper battle we've seen yet. Appropriately enough, there's a ton of snakes here.   Our strongest spell isn't enough to finish off a tower, so we weaken the two evil towers first. Thankfully, there are only three towers in this fight.  Let's see how our new pirate units do. The Sea Dogs here are the stronger of the two. They have low speed, but they do get the Running Talent. Combined with our Jackboot boost, this makes them quite mobile. They also have an excellent combat Talent...  Fury Attack lets the Sea Dogs attack enemies on either side of the target. Not only does this double/triple their damage if the positioning is right, but only the main target can retaliate. So if it dies, like this tower, no retaliation happens. Even if it doesn't, you can pick which target is weakest to minimize the damage you get back.  Pirates, on the other hand, are pretty mundane. No talents to speak of, they are plain melee attackers, with a focus on offensive output. Of course, that means they take a lot more damage in return.  The tower to the left is finished off by the Bowmen. Of course, they had to move forward to get rid of the range penalty...  Which leaves them in range of the huge numbers of Swamp Snakes on the left wing.  Meanwhile, the Snake/Royal Snakes on the right wing move quickly to engage our troops, aided by a Mass Haste spell cast by the remaining Gremlin tower.  Facing several hundred snakes is not good for the health of my Bowmen, so I pop on a Glot's Armor to protect them while help arrives.   It does some solid work, absorbing over 800 damage and saving the lives of about 30 Bowmen.  Eventually, the right wing is stabilized with the help of the Sea Dogs, and the Bowmen get aided by the Pirates, though both stacks are suffering.  A few more blows are bandied around, and the fight is won... at a pretty large cost. Pirates are not a durable unit, and we've lost about 80% of them. The Bowmen have also been badly mauled. For reference, the Leadership we lost in this one fight is almost exactly one half of the Leadership we lost in the previous 155 battles combined.  On the other hand, we are well-rewarded for our efforts. First, Bill reaches double-digit level, and a hefty amount of Magic Runes. This level's bonus was a hard choice. Defense is probably a bit better from a pure number standpoint. Instead I chose +5 Rage. This will help us play with the higher level abilities down the line.  Of course, the main reason to do this fight is for the upgraded equipment. Our ring has been transformed into the Ring of the Snake King.  Mmmm, now that's a sexy piece of jewelry. The ring gets an additional good-sized boost to Intellect, bringing us to 17 total. Second, any Snakes we now use get a flat boost to their Damage.  Yeah, I like that, I like that a lot.  With the new Magic Runes we got, I pick up Necromancy in the Magic tree. This skill automatically brings back part of your losses after a battle. Only one troop is affected per fight, I believe it's chosen by the greatest Leadership lost. It's not much, but it does help preserve your force a bit, and it's nice to have when a valuable stack with limited supply gets hammered. Anyways, after a break to go back to Darion to reinforce my troops, it's time to head inland of the Governor's castle  Right away we find an enemy hero blocking our way forward. Time to see how our newly boosted Intellect can do to cut down an enemy stronger than us.  Sharp eyed viewers may be wondering why I only have 26 Pirates here. Turns out I forgot to buy more when I went for reinforcements. Ooops. I also forgot entirely to mouse-over the enemy portrait while recording. Here's Tiberius' bio: quote:Son of the head of the Magic Academy. One fateful day he received a dark sword, which subordinated his will to its own, and transformed this knight into a ruthless killer   Especially seeing as how well my spells are working now. 2 Ice Snakes and an Evil Shoal, and his army is looking a lot worse for wear.  He moves his melee units up in perfect formation to take a double-swipe to the face.  However, he is skilled in magic, and can use Level 2 spells like this Magic Pole Axe, cutting down a quarter of my Inquisitors.  It doesn't save him, but it does make victory a bit more painful.  Here's the Necromancy skill in action. Do note that even though we get the unit back, it still counts as a casualty in terms of troops lost.  Sleem levels up. I pick the immediate damage boost over the increased DoT (mostly because it affects the cost less).  We continue along the road, but it is well patrolled.  Unlike the cemetery fights, the Freedom Islands tend to have fairly eclectic collections of units, although there's almost always some pirate-y type in there. Here we have goblins, Skeleton archers (already destroyed by magic), and Hyenas.  Goblins are pretty sturdy archers, but hits like this go a long way to put them down. Having 4 speed on my Pirates makes them good at getting to the back row quickly to hit ranged stacks.  I love the way these guys look when they take a troop down.   The road passes by many beaches, as expected for a pirate-themed area. Some are closed off, only accessible by sea.  While others can be reached on foot.  Buried treasure abounds in this place. Make sure you check out every empty-looking piece of land, even it just nets you a few more thousand gold.  More pirate patrols. I have to do a lot more running away to let my mana regen these days.  These spells aren't too cheap.  I still hate wolves and their stupid Fear Cry.  But at least my Sea Dogs are better than theirs (or at least more numerous).  It's getting harder and harder for my Inquisitors to resurrect my losses completely.  I believe someone was asking for more Elf death? Well, turns out pirates do hire some from time to time.  It seems appropriate for my Pirates to take a few cannon balls to the chest. The Cannoneers have a Talent that lets them do triple damage every few shots.  Mmmm, I love the range that these guys have with their Run.  Hey, AI, this is why you save it rather than always use it on Turn 1!   Haha, sweet! The Elf/Dwarf combo there was guarding a scroll of Dragon Arrows, one of the more essential spells in the game (in my opinion). This little Order spell gives an archer stack a new special arrow to use which negates all range penalties, Defense, and Resistances. We may not see it used effectively for a good long time yet, but this spell is why Bowmen can be great end-game units. It's also super cheap and effective at Level 1.  Another Elf stack is doing a poor job of guarding this Mind Rune.  Ah! He's not guarding the Mind Rune, but the chest behind him.  They've taken to hiring the local wildlife, as Thorns and Dragonflies join this battle.  Mwa! Now that's a spicy Fireball!  Once the ranged units are down, the rest of the fight is just mopping up.  The guarded chest is holding a sweet reward of highly valuable Might Runes.  Finally, the road winds its way up to a toothy fortress. An old orc stands outside.  : I wasn't that interested anyway.That's a total lie. I am extremely interested in this embassy, since I know what's usually found inside.  That's quite the embassy.  : Me? I'm the Royal Treasure Searcher, Bill Gilbert! : Human? You are servant of human king Mark? You stand there, and not go, or stone of catapult hit your head. Do no let Mark people go to embassy.: Hey hey, be careful with that catapult! Why can't you let me in?: Let me think... We let you in if you give sheep! You bring 40 rams, me let you in!: I've heard about some sheep somewhere... Look, green snout, maybe we can arrange another deal? I don't have any sheep with me right now.: Do you know what orc like? Orc like meat and show! You not give the meat, so you give show! Me watch you fight little brother Bardyn Orn. You win, me let you in.: What is his name, you say? Bardyn Orn? He deserves to be killed on account of that name alone! Bring him in here! (Fight the orc...)Casual anti-orc racism and weird name opinions aside, time to battle!   Bardyn Orn controls a sizable army. His stats make his already offensive-focused orcs even more dangerous. Worse than that, his hero buff gives damage boosts to all his units (it's somewhere around a 20% boost to damage). Be prepared for a tough fight, especially if you are less leveled than we are, or not a Mage.  Any battle with a huge amount of enemy stacks is best started with an Evil Shoal to hit as many as possible.  Ice Snakes (or another AoE spell) are so good to start off as well. This is why you want high initiative units as Mage, so you can nuke things before they move around.  The orcs on the left side receive a similar treatment.  Bardyn unleashes a Level 2 Slow on my Royal Snakes. This proves to be a major pain in the rear end. Meanwhile, I've moved up my Sea Dogs to block my Bowmen off.  The orc units quickly advance up, and I'm trapped in my deployment zone. You can see how my Royal Snakes are screwed. They only have 1 speed now, and can't attack this turn at all.  To try to prevent units from rushing up as I kill stacks off, I throw down a Rock Wall to occupy enemy attention.  My Pirates face off against a stack of Veteran Orcs, and get butchered. The Veteran Orcs have an ability that lets them attack again after retaliation happens, and are very strong offensively. Thats 1500 damage to my poor Pirates.  In vengeance for the pirate blood spilled, the Sea Dogs lash out, taking the Veteran Orcs down, as well as a stack of Furious Goblins (well, it also took a Royal Snake attack and a Poison Skull to weaken the Orcs first).  Although my front-line troops are hurting, the main orc force is finally broken and the tide turns against the rest.  One Furious Goblin stack mills uselessly around the top of the field until...  The Sea Dog vengeance is complete.  Another Pirate massacre (we do get 20 of them back afterwards). : Hey, good job! You good fighter, strong and brave. Bardyn Orn bad fighter. He run from battlefield quick quick. Me punish him after that. Hit a big stick on his head.: Thank you for the praise, Galdyn. In addition to the usual experience/gold, we are given access to the Orc embassy of Hezerhem. So why was I so interested in getting in here? Well, they say a picture says a thousands words, so:  No comment (until next time).  Bill's Intellect keeps growing, and we've now filled out most of the Magic tree. I think I will aim for Distortion Level 2 next, to power up Slow and certain other spells. Tutorial: Item Morale We are now starting to see items with Morale, as seen in this update with the Snake Ring/Ring of the Snake King (our Jackboots also have Morale): This Morale can go up or down depending on certain conditions. Commonly, fighting the Race of the item decreases it's morale. Additionally, other conditions are hinted at by looking at the Info for the item. For instance, the Ring of the Snake King: quote:Beware, he who owns this ring! The subjects of the Snakes King will not forgive betrayal! quote:Observant owners may notice that dealing with Snakes has some influence on these strange sensations, amplifying or weakening them. quote:The enchanted boots are not intended for heavy combat, and wear out during combat very quickly. The morale number generally has no effect until it hits 0. When it does, the item is rendered useless. However, you may then fight the Keepers again in order to restore Morale. In this way, Morale items can actually be a decent source of bonus experience, as they offer potentially repeatable battles. But they can also be a pain in the rear end. Next update, we will finish off the main island, and take a boat into dangerous waters. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore The Governor has a good bit more to tell us about the Islands, depending on our interests. : Hello, Governor, I'd life to have a look around your Islands. Can you tell me something about the area?: Fine, fine. I think you'll like this place. The spirit of freedom and brotherhood - what else does a real adventurer need? The Islands is a place where everyone is free to do anything they like. You, for example - what would you like to do?: Kill, rob, burn villages and cities to the ground!Woah, Bill... settle down a bit there, dude! That's a little much, and probably not something to say to the Governor's face! : Then it's as easy as a pie! Hire on to some pirate ship. Captains always need desperate guys like you.: I'd like to find a beautiful wife, build a castle, raise a son.: Darling, crooaak, I'm standing right here!: Hmm... There are not so many women on the Islands, but all of them are very fair. Take the Mirabella for instance. The greatest beauty on the Islands. Many unhappy sailors tried to win her heat. And there have been many duels, both deadly contest and plain drunk scuffles, only on account of her single look or sigh.: I'm the royal Treasure Searcher. And I like what I'm doing.: So your destiny led you to us. Have you ever heard about pirate treasure? Every self-respecting pirate has certainly hid a part of his trophies in some secret grotto, or buried on a small island under a palm.: I'd like to become a here. To lead armies, so that bards will compose songs about me.: Ha! Surely you heard the stories about our legendary captains! Buy a good vessel, hire a crew of desperate guys, and go forth to make a name for yourself. Black Beard, One-eyed Tom, Jolly Harry - just listen what kind of songs about these fortune hunters, which people sing in their taverns.: I'd like to bring law and order. Clear everything here of filth and scum.: Oh, my young friend! Let me shake your hand. Seldom, very seldom do I meet such noble impulses, especially among this rabble that come at our coasts. You could become a fine captain of one of my "chastisers"! That's what I call my special hunter-ships, which are keep order in the coastal waters.: I need to take care of some business. Sorry, but I'm in a hurry. See you later.Marking the Map  We haven't seen the world map for a long time, but we are now exploring entirely new lands. As we've seen, we are now on the Western Islands in the Freedom Islands. I never really noticed before now that the world map is actually entirely accurate with displaying roads and paths.  And here's the local area map. Talkin' 'bout Troops Pirate  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 15 Defense Bonus: 1 Talents: None Abilities Gold Hunter: Allows the creature to find 10% more gold. Marine: During naval battles, Morale is increased. Gully's opinion: Pirates, in their base form are...ok. Their mobility is acceptable, with 3 speed and 4 initiative. They are clearly offensive units, with high damage for their cost, and an emphasis on Attack. Of course, that means Defense and Health are low, so expect them to die massively. However, as a Pirate, there is a large number of boosts from equipment and spouses (the Chieftain's Belt, the Jackbooots, Rina in Human form, and more) that help them out, making them good at moving around to hit soft ranged units. Note: You may see that they have a smiley face for morale. This means their Marine ability is active, and it gives them +2 Morale (+20% Attack/Defense, +50% Crit chance). It turns out that 'naval' battles also include fights by the coast. Since you can aggro enemy armies, you can exploit this effectively in some areas to get bonuses. Fighting them: Low Health and Defense, so they die easily to your own attacks. Get a first attack in, and maybe a ranged attack or two, and they should be no trouble. Huge stacks can be slowed. Sea Dog  Resistances: None. Critical Hit %: 20 Defense Bonus: 2 Talents  Fury Attack: Allows the creature to attack 3 cells at once, inflicting 5-7 points of damage to each target. (Reload: 1) RunningAbilities Gold Hunter Marine Gully's opinion: Much better than Pirates. Very good Initiative, though their Speed is low (the Running talent helps mitigate this). Great Attack/Damage for their cost, though they retain some of the fragility of the Pirate. The higher base stats get boosted a lot more if you can fight on or near the sea. All that would be not great if it wasn't for Fury Attack. This Talent is fantastic. It's pretty easy to hit two targets with it, and every now and then you get the perfect arc on 3 targets. In addition to massively increasing damage, you can often select which target to attack, minimizing or negating any retaliation taken. One final note, the Sea Dog is the cheapest Level 3 unit in the game, which is generally a small boost (affected by fewer spells/talents), though there are some of your own spells that may not work on them too. Fighting them: Like any Speed 2 unit, they are very vulnerable to slow/freeze. Just make sure not to position units such that the Fury Attack will be used. Since the AI will use the Run right away, their threatening range isn't very big. Spells Seen None Skills Shown Necromancy After combat, part of a slain troop can be resurrected. This skill also amplifies the Necro Call spell. Magic, Tier 4 Prerequisites: Chaos Magic  Level 1: 15-20% of lost units raised from the dead, power of Necro Call increased by 10%. Cost: 0/2/4 Level 2: 20-30% of lost units raised from the dead, power of Necro Call increased by 20%. Cost: 0/3/5 Level 3: 30-40% of lost units raised from the dead, power of Necro Call increased by 30%. Cost: 0/4/6Gully's opinion: I like to grab one level of this if I have spare runes. 15-20% isn't much, but it does save units over time, and it's a small help when a stack of units with limited reinforcements gets hit. Past that, I think it's too expensive (2 Mind/4 Magic isn't too bad, but 7 Mind/11 Magic is a hell of a lot to double an already minimal effect). You do get a boost to the Necro Call spell, so if you are using Undead, maybe that's better. Items Identified Jackboots  Description: High leather jackboots. Effects: +1 to the Speed to Pirates and Robbers, +10% increase of Gold after combat Type: Boots Race: Neutral Morale: Good (80) Cost: 8500 Info: Huge leather boots, popular among pirates. Special spells make them waterproof and allow to the owner of these boots to find more gold after combat. The enchanted boots are not intended for heavy combat, and wear out during combat very quickly. Snake Ring  Description: A ring in the form of coiled snake. Effects: +1 to Intellect Type: Artifact Race: Elves Morale: Normal (50) Cost: 3700 Upgraded To: Ring of the Snake King Info: A cool and quite heavy ring made of dark green stone. A slight tingling in your finger indicates presence of some kind of magic, contained in this ring. Observant owners may notice that dealing with Snakes has some influence on these strange sensations, amplifying or weakening them. Ring of the Snake King  Description: A ring in the form of snake wearing a golden crown on its head. Effects: +3 to Intellect, +3 to the Poison Damage of allied Snakes Type: Artifact Race: Elves Morale: Normal (50) Cost: 14000 Upgraded From: Snake Ring Info: This ring was presented to the wandering minstrel by the King of Snakes, as a reward for saving his life. This living ring not only amplifies the magic skills of its owner, but also increases the attacks of friendly snakes. Beware, he who owns this ring! The subjects of the Snakes King will not forgive betrayal! Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Mar 10, 2017 |
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Mar 6, 2017 15:53
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The snake ring was full of snakes? Now there's a surprise.  Orc shamans! I hope you ditch the useless pirates for them.
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Mar 6, 2017 16:14
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Thanks for all the care you put into presentation and explaining the high notes of the fights.
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Mar 8, 2017 00:48
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It's an education listening to you explain strategy and such. I like that pretty much every unit has at least a little something to make it unique, like that sweep attack.
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Mar 10, 2017 01:15
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Gully Foyle posted:
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Mar 10, 2017 05:19
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Doh! I thought I was getting better at proofreading. Thanks for pointing those errors out, fixed now. Glazius posted:It's an education listening to you explain strategy and such. Thanks! Yeah, most of the units in the game have a little something to them. Some of the low-level units can be pretty bland (like our Pirates, who have no Talents, and weak abilities). The 2nd game goes even further with abilities and unique units, although it's almost too much in some ways. This LP has been educational for me too, since I'm trying to use a wider variety of units than I do when normally playing, as well as a wider variety of spells. Man Dancer posted:Thanks for all the care you put into presentation and explaining the high notes of the fights. Haha, I try. Some of these fights can get repetitive, but there's usually something interesting happening. And the fights are the meat of the game, so I figure it's important to not skip over them if I can help it. Poil posted:Orc shamans! I hope you ditch the useless pirates for them. Nope! The pirates are staying for a little while at least. Not because they are great or anything, but they are thematic. It's also nice having a unit I don't care about losing. Finally, I do like to keep 3 front-line units. But don't worry, the Shamans will be joining us a mainstay.
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Mar 10, 2017 17:22
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That orc embassy fight is surprisingly difficult. Interesting, though. I love the Pilgrim Staff and its upgrades. Apparently bonuses from two copies of the same item stack in this game, and so I have fond memories of a run of this game using two of them. I still have no idea why items have a "Race: " description field, though. As far as I can tell, this doesn't seem to influence anything?
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Mar 10, 2017 17:45
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Hope this isn't abandoned, I was enjoying watching a competent playthrough! I like these games but i'm not very good at the tactics in combat and always lose a ton of troops.
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Apr 17, 2017 01:48
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ratchild13 posted:Hope this isn't abandoned, I was enjoying watching a competent playthrough! I like these games but i'm not very good at the tactics in combat and always lose a ton of troops. Thanks for the encouragement! I didn't mean to leave this thread for so long with no update, but I started a new job recently and the adjustment to a new schedule has been more stressful than I thought it would be. I've actually been sitting on a partially-done update for a while now, just haven't had the time to work on it. But the LP is not abandoned, and I think I should be able to get an update out soon. Now that I'm getting used to the new job, hopefully I get my personal time better managed and the LP will continue with regular-ish updates.
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Apr 17, 2017 14:32
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meristem posted:I still have no idea why items have a "Race: " description field, though. As far as I can tell, this doesn't seem to influence anything? It influences something alright, but you're not likely to notice what. As far as I remember the race of an item means that using it with that race in your army makes morale decay slower and fighting against that race decays morale faster. So if you have an item of race Elf and kill a really huge amount of Elves with it it gets mad. It also determines what sort of enemies will be in living weapons when you subdue them and to an extent determines potential drop/shop locations of items. Undead items will be sold by Undead merchants and drop from fights with Undead.
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Apr 17, 2017 18:10
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Gully Foyle posted:Thanks for the encouragement! I didn't mean to leave this thread for so long with no update, but I started a new job recently and the adjustment to a new schedule has been more stressful than I thought it would be. I've actually been sitting on a partially-done update for a while now, just haven't had the time to work on it. But the LP is not abandoned, and I think I should be able to get an update out soon. Now that I'm getting used to the new job, hopefully I get my personal time better managed and the LP will continue with regular-ish updates.  There's still a lot of cool and fun stuff in the game like spoiler or spoiler when the spoiler the spoiler and spoiler has to spoiler but spoiler was spoiler.
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Apr 18, 2017 09:29
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Update 24: The Shaman Shuffles Thanks to everyone for their patience, and I'm sorry it took this long to get this update out. But the LP marches on! To briefly re-cap: our hero investigated the mysterious Lyaro Island to find an Orc shaman and a Giant Turtle. After a quick battle, we liberated the turtle and drove the shaman away. The good King Mark has now assigned us the task of acquiring maps of the dwarven underground from the Islands of Freedom. To that end, the Governor of the Islands has directed us to find Lucky James, who may be in possession of these maps.  Last time, we battled our way into the Orc Embassy here. I hinted that our army would be getting a change here.  First, we swap out the Bowmen for these Goblins, mostly just to show them off. Goblins are interesting archers. These dudes are relatively tough and strong, but they suffer from short range and a lack of any abilities or talents that would make them interesting. We won't be using them for long.  Way more importantly, we get access to a large pile of Shamans. If I was playing the game on my own, I'd be getting Shamans here and never ever letting them go. Similar to other Mage-type troops (Archmages, Necromancers), Shamans come with a large number of Talents. However, the Shaman talents are fantastic at breaking the AI.  Anyways, with our new troops in hand, we continue our trip along the island paths. Near a local tavern, a group of pirates surprise me from behind some trees.  Dwarven Cannoneers join in the pirates as the major threat in this battle.  Our spells cut their numbers down, while also eliminating the Beholders.  Our new Shamans unleash their offensive Talent, Dancing Axes. This summons forth ghost axes that attack a troop with magic damage. An interesting element of this Talent is that it is unaffected by the usual Attack/Defense calculations. It always does 20-25 damage per Shaman (modified by any Magic Resistance, of course). This means it can be very good against high-level units with high Defense. On the other hand, it will do poor damage against Level 1 or 2 units (comparatively to your other troops). Oh, and Shamans can only do this attack once every 3 rounds.  Our Goblins spring into action, hurling axes into our foes. Goblins are nominally a stronger archer than the Bowmen they replaced, with similar damage at a much cheaper Leadership cost. However, in exchange for raw damage, they lose not only all Talents, but additionally have a very short range before penalties kick in. They only do full damage to units within 4 hexes (instead of 6 for Bowmen). They do gain better melee abilities and suffer no penalty in melee combat.  I make one of my common mistakes here by accidentally placing my Sea Dogs in the way of my Royal Snakes. If I had left that hex open, I could have attacked using the Snake's Lunge. Be careful of troop placement when you have flexible troops like Snakes.  Here we see the second Talent of the Shaman, the Totem of Death. The totem can be placed on any free hex in the field. It extends an aura over a radius of two hexes. Any enemy units starting within that aura suffer a slow effect, reducing their speed by 1. It has a second effect, which we will see later on. Even without that, a mass slow effect is amazingly useful.  Almost more important than the slow effect is the effect it has on the AI decision making ability. You see, the Totem counts as a valid target to the AI, and so is often attacked even when your actual troops are right there. The Totems have 10 Health per Shaman (Defense unknown, probably around 20), so they fall to strong attacks. But any attack that doesn't hit my troops is welcome.  We still lose a small number of Pirates and Sea Dogs.  To counteract these losses, I decide to invest in the skill Diplomacy. This Mind skill lets you steal away units from your enemies, if you have both matching stacks AND room for those troops. It's not much, but it's a nice bonus to have, especially when it triggers on valuable, hard to find troops. Plus, it's like a little bit of free damage when it works.  We also get another level for Zerock. Once again, the game is refusing to give me his last ability, arrgh! Instead, I will continue to enhance Smashing Sword. It's actually reaching the point of being good damage now, especially when you consider that damage is double against any mage troop.  After the battle, we visit that local inn. Harpoon here has nothing to say to us. I'm keeping these Beholders in mind, though.   We come across another Obelisk left by King Fandor.  We continue along the winding paths, keeping to the right as it circles back.  The path is guarded by some mercenary Archmages.  Bill suavely lures some of the Sea Dogs over to his side.  The Beholders are quickly destroyed while the Pirates and Swordsmen move up.  The slow effect from the Totem of Death stacks with any other slow effect (Slow spell or Freeze), which lets us reduce the speed of the Swordsmen to 1 while inside this area.  Here's the other effect of the Totem in action. Once per turn (not including the turn you put it down), the Totem unleashes magical bolts at every enemy in the area of effect. It's not made clear what the potential damage is or if it is affected by Defense. It does scale with how many Shamans you have. The damage done is not usually huge, but not insignificant either.  Still can't resist doing this slashing attack anytime I can, even when it leaves my Sea Dogs vulnerable.  The third Shaman talent is the Totem of Life. This defensive-oriented totem boosts the Defense of every friendly unit in the area by 20%. Once per turn, it will also heal any friendly units around. However, the heal effect seen in this screen is not from the Totem. Rather, this is a side-effect of the Dancing Axes talent, which also heals your units when it is used. It's a very minor effect usually. But hey, every little bit helps.  Huge stacks of tough units like Swordsmen can be tough to take out without casualties.  Continuing on, we find an enemy hero standing by a pool and cave entrance. Bracing ourselves, we go in for the attack and...  Well, can't say I was expecting that. : Don't you know it's rude to address a stranger in this way? : My name is Bob Devis. Alright, now that we're already acquainted, I can repeat myself: hey, you!: You're pushing it, Bob Devis! But I like your style. What do you want from me?: I have a business proposition for you. I got a map made by the pirate Bartholomew. But they say that damned Bartholomew cast a curse on his treasure. Look at this, it's scratched on the corner of the map: "To he who touches the gold hid here: your life is no longer than the blade of a knife!": And you want me to prove the curse?: You're quick-witted, I noticed it at once. I see you not a superstitious person, unlike us sailors. You don't care about the curse of an old dead pirate, right? So what, do we have a deal?: No, that's not a deal. I'll get the curse on me, and you'll get all the treasures? Is that what you pirates call a deal? Let's talk about my cut of the treasure.: How can we divvy it, when we don't even know what's inside? What if there is a beautiful mermaid or a princess hidden? You want to take the top or bottom part? First we have to find the treasure, and only then can we divide it.: Ok, give me the map. Being a Royal Treasure Searcher, we can't very well turn down an explicit Treasure Searching quest. Onwards into the Pirates' Underground!  The cave has a single path for us to follow, and a Beholder army springs out from behind a pillar as we head deeper in.  Oh boy, that's a lot of Beholders and Spiders.  We start off in the usual way.  The Beholder ray is no joke when they have the numbers.  The other ones send my Sea Dogs to sleep with their ray.  As I move up, the Lightning Altar gets some good zaps in on my troops. At least the enemy spiders are also hit.  Here's where the mass slow from the Totem is really nice, especially since the Spiders have been frozen by the initial Ice Snakes we cast.  As the enemies are distracted by the appearance of the Totem in their midst, the Sea Dogs get a rare triple attack in.  The Totem of Death bolts are nice when you can hit a few stacks.  As usual, my reckless behaviour with the Pirates hurts them badly, though I regret the loss of 16 Royal Snakes more.  Time to dig into the reserve stack of Pirates to replenish my army.  We find a magical belt under a pile of bones. The Champion Belt gives a bit of Defense and Leadership, but our current equipment is strictly better at this point, so it goes into the backpack.  Bob Devis did give us a map to help find the "cursed" treasure. It's a bit unnecessary, since there is only one path and we have a magical buried treasure sensor.  We reach the end of the path, dig when instructed, and a mysterious voice booms out to us as we uncover the treasure.  The treasure guardians turn out to be a pretty massive undead army. To make my job more difficult, I made huge mistake here. Can you spot it? So yeah, I forgot there was a battle here and didn't let my mana recharge. Going in with only 18 Mana as a Mage is a bad idea. As you will see.  I can only cast one Ice Snake, but I'm lucky since it freezes both of the Skeleton troops.  One benefit of using Goblins is that their Axes don't count as arrows, so the Bone ability of skeletal units doesn't help (Bowmen would only do 30% damage).  Desperate for more mana, I turn to the Magic Spring spell. This Distortion spell gives a unit a boost to Defense, and returns 5 Mana to you every time it takes damage (and reduces the duration by 1). This spell is one of very few ways to gain additional mana during a combat, so it has its uses... but is so niche that I basically never use it.  I throw it on my Pirates, since we know they get hit a lot.  We focus on the Ghosts first, since their ability to regenerate units could be a big problem.  They can also do great damage to our units.  Here is another key function of a Totem of Death: archer blocking. Like any other unit, the Totem blocks adjacent enemy archers from using their ranged attack. Because of their slow-zone, any 2 Speed archer units are unable to both move away and fire, so the AI pretty much always reverts to attacking the totem in melee.  And since archers usually do only half damage in melee, the Totem often survives, as it does here.  Meanwhile, the Magic Spring on my Pirates has given back enough mana to start using Flame Arrows to cut down the Ghosts.  A Totem of Life in the midst of the enemies at least distracts the Ghosts for a turn.  I try to use Glot's Armor here, but it just means that my Sea Dogs get attacked instead of the Pirates.  There is more to the Shaman than just their Talents. It's easy to forget, but the Shaman is actually a really tough and strong melee unit. They have 3 Speed, very high Defense, and more Health than any other Mage-type unit (160 Health), nearly as much as the Knight or Horseman. So don't be afraid to charge them in to melee and ram their ram into an enemy stack.  Well, that was nearly a disaster due to going in with a weakened army and low mana. Both my Sea Dogs and Pirates are almost completely eliminated, and even my Royal Snakes are only half strength. We desperately need to restock.   Our prizes from the buried treasure is a pile o' gold and the Pirate Halberd. Let's return to Bob Devis with the loot. : So what, have you found the treasure? I don't see any sign of the curse on you.: Yes, I found it. And what a curse! A few undead creatures came out, that's it! Piece of cake...: Come on, let's see what was in the chest.We do have the option here to lie to him and say there is nothing. As you might guess, that path leads to a fight with Bob here. If I was in better shape, I could take him. But my army is suffering from that catastrophe in the caves, and Bob's army isn't a joke to me in that state. And it's not worth fighting over, really. So let's be truthful. : There was money and the pirate halberd.: Give me everything - the gold and the halberd too.: Look, that's not fair. I took all the risk and you want to take everything for yourself? Let's divide it into equal parts!: Into equal parts? So which one is your part?The Pirate Halberd is a great weapon for this point in the game...if you are a Warrior/Paladin. As a Mage, I prefer to put Intellect-boosting equipment in my weapon slot. And we only have one slot available to us, unless we change wives. So: : I'm interested in the gold.: Deal!: Fine! It was nice doing business with you. To tell the truth, I was expecting a dirty trick. Good luck.As was I, as a matter of fact. I could have sworn in my memory that Bob Devis attacked you no matter what.  Anyways, we spend some time heading back to Darion to reinforce our army to full, and head back to the Islands. We return to unexplored areas (the upper left path leads to Bob Devis, the lower path leads back to the Orc Embassy).  More pirates confront us, but these armies seem easy compared to the underground gauntlet.  The Smashing Sword has become a devastating weapon against mages, equivalent to about a Flaming Arrow worth of damage.  Royal Snakes and Shamans are one of my favourite pairs of units in the game. Not only are they both strong independently, their Talents combine to make some great tactical moves. For instance, the Lunge + Totem combo. First, you have the Snakes Lunge (since Snakes have Initiative 6, they will usually go first).  Next, you plant a Totem in between your Snakes and the enemy stack. Shamans have Initiative of 5, so this works against anything Initiative 4 or lower.  With the slow effect, it would take a unit with a speed of 4 to even reach and attack the Snakes. Usually, they will just attack your totem. Now you can get a second attack in next turn when your Snakes go first.  These losses are far more acceptable.  Just past this battle is another wishing well.  The Griffin Banner pops out of the well, not a bad find. This is a piece of Regalia which reduces the Leadership cost of Griffins by 30%. It's a little bit specific to be much good, compared to army-wide Leadership bonus most Regalia items give you.  Continuing on, the path reaches the far side of the island, where a sea-worn shack awaits.  : Show me your goods. Nine Yards' shop is pretty sparse, with just a pile of Devilfish. Maybe some day we will try them out. Back to chatting with Nine Yards (and there's more of that in the bonus section). : I want something you can't find in the usual shops. : Hmm... I'll need to search my chests. There was something unusual... now, now... Here, here it is.: What is it?: This is a key, my friend! And not just any key - this one is filled with the blood of Bartholomew Bart himself. Have you heard of him? He was a good pirate; and he gathered so many treasures during his sinful life that it's hard to imagine. When I got this key, I was told where he buried his loot.We have in fact heard of him. Bob Devis got that map to the "cursed" tresure from a Bartholomew, so I guess he was the one responsible for that undead ambush as well. Too bad it sounds like he's dead, otherwise I'd like to "thank" him for that. : Wow! That's interesting! What do you want for this key?: You know, this treasure is very precious, so the price for the key is also great. I'll take twenty thousand coins for it.: Twenty thousand! Isn't it too much for a strange key? What's the guarantee that Bartholomew Bart really possessed any treasures? Maybe he had buried his old shoe there?: Don't say so; don't you say so, my friend! Bartholomew Bart was one of the most cunning and malicious pirates. Nobody knows how many ships he destroyed. But one thing is certain - no one found his treasures yet, although everyone knows they exist, everybody knows and everybody looks for them.: So, why didn't you go and dig out this treasure yourself, if there's such a big treasure there?: I'm afraid. My life has made me believe the old fortune teller, and I'm afraid of meeting with the ninth yard. I've given up the past. So what, will you take the key?: Yes, I will.: Fine, take the key. The grave where the treasure is hidden is situated somewhere here in the cemetery.: Ok, I'll try to find this famous grave in the cemetery. We all love cemeteries, don't we?  Fortunately, this one is really small, with just a single path leading between graves to a more elaborate tomb. We don't find anything other than a bit of gold and useless troops we can't fit in our army anyway, and this wandering Necromancer.  These Undead aren't very frightening compared to what we have faced.  Smashing Sword is so good now for taking Necromancers down. And now, I present a tragedy in four parts (or how I tried to be clever and failed):     So rather than place the Totem in between my Snakes and the Undead Spiders, I placed it a hex below (to affect units below the screenshot). The Spiders were already slowed and were at 1 Speed with the Totem. My Snakes will be fine, right? Well, except that the Vampires transformed into bats, flew in and destroyed the Totem, leaving the Spiders able to come in and attack.  Luckily, my Snakes are still way stronger than those Spiders, so only a couple of casualties come about.  There's only one place that Bart's treasure might be, so we use the key with the sarcophagus, revealing an incredibly smug-looking pirate.  : You... Who are you?! : I'm Bartholomew Bart! The greatest pirate ever! And who are you?: You are not short on modesty, I see! Here on Islands, every other pirate says he's the greatest.: Why do I have to be modest? I'm Bartholomew Bart and the name speaks for itself. Every pirate has heard about me and my treasures. Though I guess it's only because I spent a lot of time spreading our rumors about these treasures - blow me down! Let's take you, for example... Why are you standing here with a spade in your hands in front of my grave?: Because someone sold me a map and the key to a great treasure. And so I opened your grave, hoping to hear the jingle of gold. But I don't hear anything except for your disgusting voice...: Ha-ha-ha! You opened this grave because I wanted you to do it! Many years ago, I found a few drops of Phoenix blood - magical blood that can resurrect anybody from the dead! I prepared to my death thoroughly - drew the map and spread out rumors about the great treasure that I ordered to be buried with me. I hid the key filled with blood so someone would find it after my death. I figured... no, I should say I knew that some simpleton would want to get my "treasures." Having put the key into the lock, you sprinkled my ashes with the blood of the Phoenix, and brought me back to like. Thank you, of course, but I have to go. I have a lot of things to do!: Oh no, that won't do. I have to get some kind of reward! Do you know how much this key and the map cost me?: You surprise me, stranger. I'm beginning a new life, and my treasures will come in handy for myself. So, I'm sorry, you'll have to deal with it. You'll find another treasure, don't worry. There are a lot more treasures waiting for you ahead. But I will keep my treasures to myself!: I'll find you, because those treasures are mine! It's in the job description, buddy! With that, Bart disappears like a Cheshire Cat. Something tells me we haven't seen the last of him.  Back past Nine Yards' shack, the path continues along the shore, leading to a group of wandering Snakes.  The army is full of wildlife and plants, all out for our blood.  The Totem works really well when there's extra obstacles in the way.  I came into the fight with really low mana, and by mid-fight I am down to below the point of even being able to use a Flaming Arrow. One of the cheapest spells we can cast is Precision, which boosts the damage of Archer units, even if they are actually axe-throwers.  The screenshot doesn't really show it, but the Goblins now have about 35% boosted damage, resulting in a bit more than 100 bonus damage per attack.   Past the Snakes, we find an ominous building.  Well, I guess there's nothing to do here at the current time.  We have now completed the inland portion of this island. Next update, we will take to the coasts and see what treasure lies out on the waves. Hopefully it won't be a month until that update! ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore Not too much extra dialogue this time, just a bit of chatting with Nine Yards. : Ahoy there, Bill Gilbert. Do you want to have a look at my goods or maybe you want to see something unusual?: Something unusual, of course! And even better - any unusual story you might know!: Pirates tell an old story: in the old times, the gremlins boat a ship specially for the famous pirate Krez Keller - "The Moon Ghost" it was called. It was made of the "sky metal", and this miraculous ship did not sail but flew. Captain Keller could attack forts from land and could easily escape pursuit, even in a dead calm, and could perform other miracles. But the cunning gremlins didn't tell the captain that sky metal is not eternal, and soon would turn into black gold. One day the ship quickly went down to the bottom of the ocean, with all her crew and loot, having turned into a hunk of black gold.: Interesting story. Is it true, or just a pirate's fairy tale?: I know now what part of it is tale or truth. But I do know the place where the "Moon Ghost" was said to have gone down.: The place where it went down? Can you describe it to me?: Of course I can. While the "Moon Ghost" was falling to the depths, it struck a part of the coast, and a part of the coast went down with it. On that coast there was a little village, and it went down as well. I heard the mage Kann Torius used to appear around that place. There's no reason for a Mage to spend days and night in such a strange and sinister place. I think that he was looking for a way to raise the "Moon Ghost.": Would that even be possible?: I don't know. Maybe somebody tried, but if he managed to do this, it would have become known, believe me.: Thank you. It's a good story. I'll remember your words.Interesting indeed. Maybe this will be more than just a story. : Why don't you tell me about yourself. Your name is...interesting.: Nine Yards? Aye! Long ago, in the days of my youth, a fortune teller in the port made a prediction for me: "You will live past eight yards, but the ninth one will become the last!" I didn't believe a word of it, but I always remember her words when I get into the hands of the governor's hangmen. They never managed to hang me - the rope broke. And when my crew rebelled against me, the rope slid off the yard. Many have tried, but no one could ever hang me on a yard, for eight times over. And now the ninth one is ahead, and I don't want to test the destiny, so I'll sit here on the shore.Marking the Map  Talkin' 'bout Troops We take our first look at some Orcish units. Goblin  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 2 Talents: None Abilities Archer No Melee penalty Gully's opinion: Basic but boring archers. The Goblins have good Attack and Defense, and their Damage is alright on the face of it (for their cost, at least). But the stats don't tell the whole story, since their axes only do full damage within 4 hexes, rather than 6 like Bowmen. They are much better than Bowmen and most other archers in close-combat, which is handy when fighting fast units. One minor thing is that they don't use arrows, so they do full damage against units with the Bone ability, but also can't be the target of the Dragon Arrow spell. Fighting them: No special weaknesses, but they aren't very threatening at long range, so it's not a problem if they are plinking away at you from the back row. Shaman  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 5 Talents  Dancing Axes: Summons ghost axes, which inflict 20-25 points of magic damage. In addition, the shaman turns 80% of the inflicted damage into curative energy, healing his own troops. (Reload: 2) Totem of Death: Shaman places on the battlefield a totem which decreases the speed of enemy troops and damages them every turn. Radius of action: 2. Health: 10. (Reload: 3) Totem of Life: Shaman places on the battlefield a totem which gives protection to allies and heals them every turn. Radius of action: 2. Health: 7. (Reload: 3)Abilities: None Gully's opinion: OMG, probably my favourite unit in the game. Seriously, these guys rock. More analytically, they have some of the most AI-breaking Talents in the game. The AI loves attacking Totems. You can use them to shield your own units, block archers off, and sometimes even make the AI send units backwards to try to attack a Totem. The mass-slow of the Totem of Death is even better for this, since any 2 Speed unit can be slowed and unable to even attack the Totem. On top of that, you get bonus damage/bonus Defense/bonus healing. Their main offensive damage comes from Dancing Axes, which does great damage, especially against well-armored, high Defense units. Finally, it is easy to ignore the physical capabilities of a unit that tends to sit at the back and use Talents. However, Shamans are extremely tough units. 32 Defense is among the highest of any unit below Level 5, and their Attack is high as well. Even their Damage is higher than that of a Knight! Finally, they have a very respectable 160 Health, far higher than other mage units (for instance, the Archmage has 90 and the Necromancer has 140). Combined with their Defense, they are quite sturdy. They do lack any resistances, so full damage will be taken from any source. Don't be afraid to throw them into melee combat! They come with 3 Speed as well, so you can move them up 2 hexes while using a Talent, and they will be ready to pounce on an opportune target. When using Shamans, it's important to keep their Talent cycles in mind. For instance, you can go: 1) Dancing Axes 2) Totem of Death 3) Totem of Life 4) Dancing Axes 5) Nothing 6) Totem of Death 7) Totem of Life/Dancing Axes This is the cycle I normally use, aiming to use their physical attack on Turn 5. You can start with a Totem instead, but then you will have a no-Talent turn on Turn 4 instead. Fighting them: Shamans aren't nearly as scary in the hands of the AI. Nevertheless, they will do damage with Dancing Axes, and it's hard to kill them before that happens due to their high Health. It can be useful to save a Spirit of Rage ability ready to kill off Totems. Remember that they are tough melee fighters, so best to weaken them with ranged attacks and spells first. Spells Seen Magic Spring  Friendly troop increases its Defense, and when receiving Damage its commander gains Mana, while the spell's duration decreases. Crystal Cost: 2 / 4 / 6 Mana Cost: 5 / 5 / 5 Level 1: Defense: +10%; Mana: +5; Duration: 3 turns Level 2: Defense: +20%; Mana: +5; Duration: 4 turns Level 3: Defense: +30%; Mana: +5; Duration: 5 turns Gully's opinion: This Distortion spell can help regenerate Mana... but I rarely want to spend both a spell and the initial mana cost for that benefit. It requires your unit to get hit as well. It would be a lot better if the Mana regen increased with spell level, but as it is, I don't find it useful. Precision  Increases the damage of an archer's basic attack. Crystal Cost: 2 / 4 / 6 Mana Cost: 2 / 4 / 6 Level 1: Damage: +20%; Duration: 3 turns Level 2: Damage: +30%; Duration: 4 turns Level 3: Damage: +30%, Mass; Duration: 5 turns Gully's opinion: This Distortion spell provides a decent buff, and costs very little Mana. It's pretty good for Warrior/Paladins, who have larger armies, higher Attack, and less Mana. Usually I only have one ranged unit, so the Mass version isn't useful (obviously, it's great if you do). Remember that it only applies to the basic attack, so not to Fire/Ice/Dragon Arrows. For a Mage, I'd usually rather just use a spell to do damage directly. Still, this spell is worth using once in a while, especially when running low on Mana. Skills Shown Diplomacy Mind, Tier 3 If the hero and his enemy have similar troops in their armies, then the hero can entice away a part of the troops from his enemy's army, provided his Leadership allows it. Prerequisites: Reserve  Level 1: Adds up to 5% of similar enemy troops to hero's army. Cost: 1/6/0 Level 2: Adds up to 10% of similar enemy troops to hero's army. Cost: 2/7/0 Level 3: Adds up to 15% of similar enemy troops to hero's army. Cost: 3/8/0Gully's opinion: More of a nifty skill than a great one. It is nice when you lure away high value, hard to find units. But it requires you to have not only the same troops, but available space. I usually get just 1 level, and mostly just so I can keep going down the tree. I would never get more than that. Items Identified Champion Belt  Description: An exact copy of the knight's tournament champion belt. Effects: +1 to Defense, +150 to Leadership Type: Belt Race: Humans Cost: 8000 Info: Even though it is a copy of the knight's tournament champion belt, it looks very elaborate and well-constructed. Pirate Halberd  Description: A pirate's grappling weapon, decorated with runes. Effects: +3 to Attack, +5% gold after combat Type: Weapon Race: Humans Cost: 20000 Info: A solid halberd, made of quality steel. The runes of Wealth" and "Destruction" are engraved on the blade Griffin's Banner  Description: The banner of the royal griffin embroidered in gold. Effects: -30% to the Leadership of Griffins Type: Regalia Race: Neutral Cost: 7000 Info: This banner was presented to the griffin Arch, the commander of the victorious army of griffins, as a gift for his great service to Darion during the Revolt of Necromancers. The young griffin Arch had become famous among his kinsmen, and the banner had became a symbol of the valor and talent of the commander. Strange Key  Description: The key to the grave of Bartholomew Bart, who lies in the pirate cemetery. Type: Quest Info: Rather a strange item - the key is in the form of a glass pyramid, filled with a liquid. Treasure Map  Description: An old map scrawled upon a piece of leather. Type: Quest Info: The map marks the place where a cursed treasure was buried. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 13:03 on Apr 20, 2017 |
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Apr 20, 2017 13:00
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Shamans are really good. But I think there are some really obnoxious goblins (and shamans) in the later game that are just a pain to fight against. Wouldn't fighting that lazy pirate be a better idea since then you get all the treasure for yourself, whatever he is carrying and some xp as well?
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Apr 20, 2017 13:59
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| # ? May 19, 2024 23:19 |
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The goofy expression on the fish's face makes it hard to take seriously. Lookin' forward to the prison. Maybe we'll run into an interesting NPC in there.
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Apr 20, 2017 20:43
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