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There's definitely certain fights in the game that magic resistance comes in handy for, but not to the extent it does in Crossworlds
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Jun 19, 2017 16:03
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After so many fights where you're able to cheese the enemies and take minimal losses, it's kind of shocking to see you losing substantial chunks of your army in this update. On the other hand, it's good to see the game can still pose a challenge to you. 
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Jun 19, 2017 16:22
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Are you sure it's wise to put hundreds of snakes on a boat?Slaan posted:He's stealing.... Stealing souls for God 
Poil fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Jun 19, 2017 |
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Jun 19, 2017 16:31
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:After so many fights where you're able to cheese the enemies and take minimal losses, it's kind of shocking to see you losing substantial chunks of your army in this update. The difficulty in the game can be a bit wonky at times, and it leads to this kind of thing (many fights with minimal losses, and then taking massive hits). It's also very dependent on how you want to approach the game. King's Bounty allows for a pretty varied approach to the adventuring style. You've probably seen that I like to be methodical, clearing each area one by one as much as possible. If you are playing on harder difficulties, you might want to instead try to only fight the easiest fights, use the ability to kite enemies to hover up loot/runes/banners until you are as powerful as possible for each fight. Alternately, you can plunge into harder fights willingly if you want more of a challenge. As the game goes on, my ability as a Mage to wreck the enemy in the first turn will become less effective, so losses are definitely going to go up, especially once we start running into certain types of units/unit combinations. Sloober posted:There's definitely certain fights in the game that magic resistance comes in handy for, but not to the extent it does in Crossworlds I am definitely glad to have found that Cloak, it's always good to have equipment options even if the item isn't great in most fights. The upgraded forms of it will be really nice for a few locations, and the bonus Mana is always nice - because of that, I don't feel as pressured to sink Magic Runes into improving my maximum Mana before I invest in more advanced magic.
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Jun 19, 2017 18:00
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Poil posted:Are you sure it's wise to put hundreds of snakes on a boat? Better on a boat than a plain. And based on the later games in the series, "challenge" isn't really much of a problem to maintain, with the exception of a few fairly broken tactics.
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Jun 20, 2017 00:07
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Narsham posted:Better on a boat than a plain. Snakes are quite at home on a plain.
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Jun 20, 2017 04:55
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Narsham posted:Better on a boat than a plain. Having played all of them Crossworlds was the only one that consistently had some tough fights, the others didn't have merely a few broken tactics, they had flat out overpowered mess of being difficult to not stumble into them. Coincidentally North/Dark were also not done by Katauri, the group that did TL and AP, so there's probably a good reason why the caliber is simply not as high for them, and both of DS/North suffered from holy poo poo being way too long
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Jun 20, 2017 13:33
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Update 29: Head Hunting Last time, we took a break from new lands to return to the old stomping grounds around Darion to take care of a few pieces of business. But now we are back to the pirate life, with a boat overflowing with snakes of all sorts.  This time, we are going to head east by sea, and explore one more of the big islands. To get there, we first round this peninsula that juts to the south. We can't explore the inner parts of the island it lies on, but we can deal with this army at least.  The armies in this part of the world are tending towards large stack numbers. Elves and Barbarians abound as well, as you will see.  My spells aren't doing quite as much as the used to, since I've left Feanora in her frog state for the Snake boost.  It's super effective!  Chewing their way forward through the Sea Dogs and Barbarians, they don't reach the remaining Priests before the last one dies to a Totem blast.   Continuing along the shore, a smug and recognizable man is standing on a small and apparently empty island. We resurrected Bart here accidentally back in the Western Isles, and he absconded to find his lost treasure. He still hasn't learned that all treasure belongs to the Royal Treasure Searcher, Bill Gilbert!  : Is that you again, the pitiful treasure searcher? Ha ha, look at him! Do you want to take my treasure?!! No, no way! : Do you think you're so tough? This is my treasure! Bart brought some Skeleton Archers back with him from the grave to complement his seafaring army.  Let's slow these guys right down if we can, on top of eliminating the Archers before they can act.  Having the Bowmen back is nice for complimenting the freeze effects from Ice Snake. Ice Arrow is a great way to ensure that basically every enemy stack is slowed down.  The Royal Snakes got a little too far forward, so I used a Trap spell to protect them from the remaining Sea Dogs.  Even with that, I didn't account for Bart hasting his Hyenas. Luckily, the AI once again proves to be kind of poo poo, and gets distracted by this totem. 1k damage would have been bad to take on my Royal Snakes.  Thanks to that, we emerge without any losses.  Bill hits level 13! As always, we are taking Leadership when it is offered. This pushes us over the 5000 Leadership mark.  In anticipation of soon getting Level 3 Chaos Magic, I really want to pick up this skill. Alchemy is the second unique skill for the Mage class (Higher Magic being the far more important one). Although this is available very early, it's not a good investment in the early game. However, if you want to get a lot of Level 3 spells, you really want to spend some runes here. The upgrade to Level 3 can be very expensive. It's hard to determine exactly when to invest in Alchemy for the most benefit, compared to saving up runes for other magic skills. I usually get 1 level right before getting the first Level 3 magic skill, and maybe a second level a bit later. Anyways, let's dig up that fantastic treasure that Bart was looking for...  ...seriously? A plain old +1 Intellect helm, one which I already have. Bart, I'm glad you are dead (again).  Sailing on, a small desert island lined with sharp rocks draws our attention. Reaching the sandy shore, a desiccated sailor lies in apparent agony.  : Hey, what happened to you? : I'm sorry... I can barely speak... my crew put me ashore here, and sailed away on my ship, the Hoper.: Why did they do that?: The map... the damned map caused a mutiny. Dwarves asked us to recover some treasure. But we couldn't find the treasure for a long time, so my crew mutinied. (Each coming word is clearly hard for him, and he weakens with every breath. It looks like his days are numbered.): Hey, can you still hear me? Don't even think of closing your eyes, can you hear me?: Find the treasure. I don't even know where it's buried. If you find it, take it to Upper Hadar, a tavern called the "Stone Darillas." Here's the map. Find it. Good luck. (Poor man closes his eyes and dies.): Rest in peace, captain. Hidden tastefully behind a dialogue box, the captain slumps to the ground, dead.  Huh...it's hard to tell where this is... we will have to keep our eyes open.  Another castaway was stranded here, though something tells me we are a bit too late... doesn't mean I can't land and rob the body!  And the next island over just has a skull! Wait a minute... didn't Bare Hornet say something about this when he asked us to find his "herbs"?  : I planted them on an uninhabited island on the Eastern Islands. There's a secret cave there. On that island there's a big cross a little skull nearby. If you push this skull you'll get to my secret refuge.Yeah, I thought so. Let's see this secret refuge.  Not too shabby... better looking than a lot of the dank caves we've seen. I'm kind of surprised this kind of rocky cave can exist right below a sandy island.  Of course, such a nice cave will not be undefended.  This isn't the first time we've faced Evil Beholders, but it is the first we've seen them in large numbers. Evil Beholders are largely just upgraded versions of the basic form, with the same eye lasers that cause sleep... except Evil Beholders have a powerful and annoying Talent called Mind Control. This lets them take control of a stack for a turn, as long as the stack has less Leadership than the Evil Beholder stack. And at 180 Leadership each, that 30-large stack is enough to cause trouble.  Luckily, a Mage has ways to deal with that before it gets out of hand. Evil Beholders are prime, prime targets for spells.  With the Beholder threat reduced, I can focus on the Hyena/Barbarian rush.  The Mind Control Talent is not limited to only enemy stacks. The Evil Beholder can also use it on their own allies. The affected stack immediately attacks, even if it had already taken a turn.  Of course, that's not much of a problem in this case, and results in immediate destruction of the controlled Barbarians when they go for my Swamp Snakes.   A broad tree grows in the light filtering from above.  Sheltered beneath the tree, a number of special looking plants are growing.  These must be the shrubs that Bare Hornet wanted us to find. I'm sure these are legitimate herbs, and not going to be used for any other reason.  The central island only holds 4 of the 5 shrubs we need to find. It's surprisingly hard to find the last one, hidden in the shadows off to one side of the cave.  We'll take the shrubs back later. First, we find a beach to land on that lets us access the interior of this large island. A Viking ship shows that the island will have some prior visitors that may be hanging around still.  The Vikings are still happy to sell us mercenary troops. Lots of Barbarians and Berserkers, along with our first look at Polar Bears. These guys are the top of the bear line. They are very similar to the Ancient Bears we've used in the past, but much tougher and resistant to cold and freeze effects. I think they are a bit expensive for what you get, but they are solid troops.  The invading barbarians have set up a small village around a boiling red fountain. This is a Fountain of Rage, and is a re-usable feature that gives you full Rage when drunk from. A Barbarian army surprises us as we survey the village.  The Barbarians are backed up by hired Elves and tame Wolves.  Elves can do serious damage with their arrows, I usually focus them down with magic when I can.  Slow is another best friend on these Islands. Barbarians are fast and cannot be frozen, but Level 2 Slow is great at isolating stacks from each other.  And Barbarians can be dangerous attackers, so you don't want them ganging up on you.  With a significant loss of Swamp Snakes, it's time to break out this baby. We found the scroll on a nearby island a couple updates back, but we haven't gotten to use it yet. Resurrection is a pretty nice spell, even with only Level 1 Order magic. It is restricted to only low-level troops for us, though. I'll usually prefer damage spells when combat is heavy, and then use Resurrection to top off some stacks when the battle is nearly over. You can cheese this a bit if you want to take the time.  Like with the Inquisitor's talent of the same name, we get a handy tooltip showing us if we are 'wasting' any of the healing power.  The animation is exactly the same as the Inquisitor talent as well.  See? No Snakes died, no way.  Their guarding army beaten, the local Barbarians will sell us their warriros, as well as a stack of Griffin Eggs if we wanted them.  Uhh, that doesn't look like any of the Magic Absorbers we've seen... (This is clearly a bug, with this object being given the wrong tooltip)  Unsurprisingly, Bill Gilbert has a rather pragmatic view of sacrilege and holy objects. Does it sell for money? Then it's not sacrilegious to steal it.  Leaving the village, the path splits in two. We'll follow the northen path first. Another Barbarian army guards treasure for me.  After dealing easily with the Thorns, we'll use our second casting to Slow down the most dangerous stack.  Rock Wall also works wonders for separating enemy concentrations of force. Here, the Hyenas will probably head north while the slowed Barbarians will take the open path down south.  Once again, the Royal Snakes take advantage of a super-slow army to use their Lunge attack safe from harm...  Or maybe not! The Slow wore off before I expected it to. Remember, it always pays to double check if your debuffs are still active or not.  I can't even resurrect these guys.  It's not just Barbarians on this island. An enemy hero chases us down, leading a horde of Dwarven, Elven, and Human troops. He must be quite the convincing speaker to get all these guys to get along...  Or he could be some kind of inter-dimensional being who controls their minds? As a result, he has quite the army. Strong melee stacks in their Dwarves, annoying stacks in their Elven units, and some human backup. But there's one stack that troubles me in particular.  I really...  ... really...  ...really hate these drat Dryads! As they clearly demonstrate here, they have a Lullaby Talent that sends every enemy unit Level 3 or under to sleep for 2 turns. And its a skill that recharges too. With a single use, 80% of my army can do nothing. (Oh man, don't get me started when there are multiple Dryad stacks.)  It would be so much worse if the AI weren't really bad at this. Two of my Snakes get attacked right after the Lullaby, awakening them immediately into action-ready stance.  Because they got woken up, my Swamp and Royal Snakes can act to block these Dwarves and Sprites from getting through my lines. Dwarves are basically tough warriors, but don't underestimate just how tough they are.  Underground Blades is an excellent Rage ability when an army is spread all over and mixed in with your own units.  This Totem does some serious distraction work that lets my units close with them.  That could have gone a lot worse (and did in my test run).  An interesting level choice here. With my poorer Rage intake as a Mage, I'll go for super-cheap Smashing Swords.  One more barbarian army along the path.  Same kind of army we've been seeing - Barbarians, Elves, and animals.  Chomp chomp!  Not much special to say about this one.  The northern path leads to a lagoon. We could have brought our ship over here to land instead.  Near this stone arch, an actual Magic Absorber! It's always good to get more Intellect.  With the northern path a dead-end at the lagoon, we'll head back to the village and take the other path. Of course, we are attacked almost immediately.  Any surprise at this enemy composition? I'm being a little harsh, actually. I do like how there are all these little stories hidden within things like enemy composition. Like for this island, I imagine that the Vikings landed here, set up a temporary camp, and tamed the local wildlife (and hired some Elves) to help them ransack the island.  However, it doesn't make it easy to come up with unique things to talk about in each battle.   Now this path leads us somewhere special beyond just barbarians and loot.  On a small hunch and a great deal of foreknowledge, we head back to the Fountain of Rage before entering the castle.  Castle Totenheim and Duke Sov, we have heard of this before. Governor Thompson directed us here to try to locate the Griffin's crown. First, though, I will stock up on fresh Bowmen. He carries one of the most useless artifacts in the game, the Scroll Case, which lets you store more scrolls... except you can store infinite scrolls, you just can't buy any more if you are over the limit.  : I have two requests to you, duke. The first - I need the crown of the king of Griffins. The second - forget about overthrowing Thompson! It's not just a conspiracy against the Governor, but against his Majesty, the King Mark! : Give you the crown?! Ha ha, that's ridiculous, young man. Do you really think that I'd tear up my plans and just give the Crown to a youth?! And I'm not going to give up my dreams of becoming a Governor, either! My place is perfect! I've gathered a huge army. Do you really think you can stop me? Young man, you can't even imagine how much energy, time, and gold has been put into this!: Well, that means you've wasted a lot of time, energy, and gold... But there will be no conspiracy! (Attack duke's castle...) I admire Duke Sov for being one of the few castle defenders who bothers to help with the actual fight. However, I gotta say that he fails pretty hard at the whole tactical layout. His main threat is his 200+ bowmen, but half of them are right out in front, while his melee stacks are in the back.  As such, my Royal Snakes can immediately strike at them. The first stack is virtually eliminated by spells and fangs.  Meanwhile, we can distract the other stack of Bowmen with Totems...  ...and Books. Anything to keep them punching and not shooting.  Snake party, whoooo!  Standing over his mutilated body, we rip the Griffin's Crown out of the clutches of the ex-Duke Sov.  We will have to see who ends up ruling this castle, maybe they will have better things for sale.  The interior of the island has been fully explored. We head back to the ship to finish the coastlines. Near the nothern lagoon, we find a small inn.  : I didn't expect such hospitality! I just wanted to ask what you have for sale. Pedro has some Snakes to restock our forces. He also sells the Ogre Sandals, which give bonus Speed to Ogres and Giants (as well as +2 Defense). I'll pick them up just in case, even though I may never use them.  : I'm so glad to see your... your face again! Come in, come in! Where's my rum? At last, I can talk to someone other than these stupid barbarians.: To have a talk? With pleasure!: I want to tell you a story, which has been told for many years, but nobody could ever find out if it's true. There's a barbarian deity - Kanatos. And there are rumors, that at the beginning of ages, a not very powerful, and even less popular deity, known by the name Kanatos, came to barbarians and asked them to make him their high deity. Barbarians had laughed at him and said that they didn't need such a weak god. Then Kanatos snatched at his head and tore it away in one movement. He threw the head to the barbarians and, headless, began to strike them dead one by one. The frightened barbarians begged for mercy, and declared Kanatos their high deity. There are legends that the head is on their altar and they make their sacrifices to it.: Look... I have some kind of head here. Is this the one you're talking about?: Thousand sharks into my throat! It's Kanatos' head! Look, don't offer it to anyone else. Sell it to me, I'll give twenty thousand gold coins for it.: It's a deal, you old fox.The Kanatos Head is a sell-able item with a base price of 35000 Gold. Right now, with one level in Trade, we can sell items for 50%, or only 17500 Gold, so Morales gives us a better price unless we had additional levels in Trade.  One last bit of shoreline looting nets a bunch of gold and a Magic Rune. Not bad!  We have a few errands to run now with what we've accomplished today. First, let's give Bare Hornet his shrubs. : Oh my! Did you fail to find my cave? Or have you brought me the herb?: I've found the cave, and gathered your strange herb. Take it!: I don't want to be holding when I have to go through security to see the King: By a thousands blue-eyed imps! Now my "Black Cuttlefish" will fly faster than the wind again, and nobody will be able to keep up with me. Thank you, Bill Gilbert, we are even up. (Reward: 5600 Gold, 300 Experience): It's the first time I ever saw so much happiness on account of five shrubs. Well, goodbye.Next, we'll head back to Governor Thompson with word of the downfall of Duke Sov.  : 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'd like to talk about Duke Sov.: So, have you already punished the rebels and the duke?: Yes. The duke is dead, and with their kingpin eliminated, the other conspirators ran away.: Good job, Bill Gilbert! You have eliminated that damned duke, my chief rival. Here's your reward. (Reward: 11500 Gold, 1300 Experience): Thank you! Two rewards for one job. This shoul happen more often!Two rewards? Sure, we got both experience and gold, but that's not unusual, and a bit meta... Actually, Bill Gilbert isn't breaking the fourth wall here. Instead, it's a weird word choice that will make more sense in a bit.  Finally, we need to head all the way back to Arlania to return the Griffin's Crown. We had a boat sitting here for a while now... wait... does that island in the background look familiar?  Aha! That's the island marked on the map the stranded captain gave us.  Indeed, treasure glowies appear once we land, which weren't here before.  We will pocket this rare metal until we can find the proper recipient.  That done, we head to the summit of Griffin Island to meet their King.  : So, Searcher, have you found out anything about the Crown? Have you found it?: I have not only found out what happened, but I've brought you the Griffin's Crown!: You've found the Crown? This is great news! Thank you, Bill Gilbert! You deserve your reward. Everybody will know of your services, and nestlings will be named for you. (Reward: 11500 Gold, 1300 Experience): Thank you, Your Majesty!Aha, that's why Bill mentioned being rewarded twice. For some reason, the game assumes you'd go back to the Griffin King before Governor Thompson. Either way, we do get the same reward again, and that's a pretty substantial amount of experience. Despite the fact that we just leveled up, we've almost reached the next level already.  Bill is getting up there in power. Our next goal is to get Level 3 Chaos Magic, which costs 6 Might and 12 Magic Runes, which we will reach at the next level up. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Marking the Map  Talkin' 'bout Troops Evil Beholder  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 20 Defense Bonus: 3 Talents  Mind Control: Takes control of a creature's mind, driving it to attack any selected enemy. Can control a troop of level 1-4 creatures, friend or foe, whose total Leadership does not exceed 180 - assuming they are not immune to Mind spells. (Charges: 1)Abilities Soaring Archer Paralyzing Ray Underground Immune to Mind Spells Gully's opinion: Evil Beholders are really useful units. They have a decently strong ranged attack that has the same sleep-causing attributes that regular Beholders do, letting them incapacitate low-level units very often. Of course, the reason to use these guys is the Mind Control talent. Taking control of an enemy unit for a turn is amazing. Not only do you get the attack of the unit you take over, but that unit can be retaliated against by the attacked ally. So it's really several attacks, achieved at any range, and even uses up a retaliation if you want to use it that way. Of course, the downside is that the enemy has to have sufficiently low Leadership, and many units in the game are Immune to Mind Spells (like all Undead). Besides that, the biggest downside to the Evil Beholder is the pathetic Health and no Resistances. These guys die easily to spells and ranged attacks, and the AI loves targeting them. Good luck keeping these rare guys in stock. Fighting them: Do what you can to ensure that they can't use Mind Control on your stacks, and they aren't too bad. Spells are very effective due to their low Health. Spells Seen Resurrection  Killed creatures in a selected troop can be resurrected. Crystal Cost: 10 / 15 / 25 Mana Cost: 10 / 20 / 30 Level 1: Recovers Health: 200; Target's Level: 1-2 Level 2: Recovers Health: 400; Target's Level: 1-3 Level 3: Recovers Health: 600; Target's Level: 1-4 Gully's opinion: A very useful utility spell. This really helps keep stacks reinforced and healthy, and is especially valuable when you have stacks you can't find new reinforcements for. The Paladin starts with this spell, which is fantastic in the early game. It is pretty expensive, mana-wise, though. Skills Shown Alchemy Reduces the number of Magic Crystals which the hero spends when learning scrolls and upgrading spells. Magic, Tier 1 Prerequisites: Mage Class  Level 1: Reduces crystal requirements by 15%. Cost: 0/1/3 Level 2: Reduces crystal requirements by 30%. Cost: 0/1/5 Level 3: Reduces crystal requirements by 50%. Cost: 0/1/7Gully's opinion: As a Mage, you will want to be upgrading lots of spells. I suggest getting one level in this before upgrading to Level 3 spells. After that, a second level is good if you want to level a bunch of spells, but probably not needed if you only use a few. Items Identified Ogre Sandals  Description: Huge rough sandals. Effects: +1 to the Speed of Ogres and Giants, +2 to Defense Type: Boots Race: Orcs Cost: 8000 Info: Ogres and Giants use such rough sandals, made of a huge single piece of stone. The complete set includes the Ogre's Club, Ogre's Belt and Ogre's Sandals. It looks extremely impressive and gives the hero +2000 to Leadership. Kanatos's Head  Description: The head of the idol of the barbarian deity, Kanatos. Type: Item for Sale Cost: 35000 Info: Barbarians made the minor god Kanatos their principle deity, after he tore off his head by his own hands, to impress the barbarians. Griffins' Crown  Description: An ancient artifact, the crown of the Griffins' royal family. Type: Quest Info: This crown, a present for griffins' king, was produced by the best masters of Darion over a thousand years ago. Titan's Tear  Description: Titan's tear has rare properties. Type: Quest Info: Heavenly metal, of which dwarves are so proud, is in truth the melted tears of Titans. Treasure Map  Description: An old map on a piece of yellowed paper. Type: Quest Info: The map marks the place where the Titans' treasure was buried. Hemptis Sprouts  Description: Stalks of a plant which has a pleasant, intoxicating aroma. Type: Quest Info: From fibers of this plant sailors make fine ropes and rigging.
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Jul 1, 2017 07:26
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Yeah it's really hard to get evil beholders going. Which is a shame considering how fun they are. But I thought they were dark purpleish, are they only red in Legends? Now I'm imagining going into a dwarf smithy and being greeted with a "Thes axe was forged frae th' tears ay titans!".
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Jul 1, 2017 08:22
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Poil posted:Yeah it's really hard to get evil beholders going. Which is a shame considering how fun they are. But I thought they were dark purpleish, are they only red in Legends? They definitely change colours for the next game. The most confusing one is Pirates, who for some reason get morph to look exactly like the Sea Dogs do in this game (red shirt and all), while the Sea Dogs acquire an entirely new model.
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Jul 1, 2017 12:45
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Gully Foyle posted:They definitely change colours for the next game. The most confusing one is Pirates, who for some reason get morph to look exactly like the Sea Dogs do in this game (red shirt and all), while the Sea Dogs acquire an entirely new model. 
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Jul 1, 2017 21:15
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It's a completely organic way to make ropes. Ropes! The mariner's best friend, or at least cool uncle.
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Jul 3, 2017 00:32
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You can't side with the rebels? It's kinda interesting how the enemy army leader is never an actual unit on the battlefield. So you never kill them in combat - you presumably hunt them down and cut their throat after the fight.
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Jul 4, 2017 21:01
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I just love the pirate names. The whole atmosphere of the Islands of Freedoms is so... piratey, in the Pirates of the Caribbean way. Glad to see you're increasing in power! And yeah, Evil Beholders and Polar Bears are also some of my favourite units. Polar Bears in the cold area of the game, especially, and Evil Beholders... just everywhere. *Including* against Dryads. (I think they strike before Dryads do?) Dryads... are nasty.
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Jul 5, 2017 19:28
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Update 30 - Weird Ships We start where we left off so long ago (sorry about that), at the Griffin King Harl. : Well, Searcher. You have done well and proved I can trust you.: I have heard that Griffins are great warriors. I'd like to hire some of them for my army. Once we've found his crown, he will let us browse his own shop. Unsurprisingly, his primary item is to hire out his Griffin troops. And just look at that stock! 4000 Griffins makes me wonder why they don't just make them infinite. Nevertheless, this many Griffins is way more than enough for the entire game. Despite the fact that we are kitted out for super-strength snakes, I'm going to replace one of those stacks with these guys. A) Griffins will give us more tactical options in combat, even if they aren't as strong, and B) It'll be more interesting than just using snakes forever. One quick note: Harl here does have a new quest for us. Warning! This is a bit of a trap, as taking the quest will prevent us from accessing Harl's shop until we complete it, and we can't complete that quest until we advance the main plot a bit further. It is best to wait to take on his new request.  Shopping done, we return once again to the Islands of Freedom. We are very nearly done exploring these lands, though that doesn't mean we are that close to being done with the place.  This time, we turn our boat northwards to find the last few islands we haven't seen. The first beach we find has a bounty of leadership for us.  Following the coast, an old shipwreck wreathed in a haunting glow lays on the inside of a small bay.  Naturally, we will scourge the ship of the evil within.  The ghost ship turns out to be full of ghosts, who knew?  But not nearly enough to resist our fire magics, which does a pretty good job of vaporizing them even just using the splash damage.  The ship must have run aground bearing treasure from somewhere, as we open two treasure chests bearing a moderate amount of gold.  The exorcism is easily accomplished.  As with the other haunted wrecks, once cleared we can buy undead troops here. That's a decent stack of Skeleton Archers, but we can't use them effectively yet without demoralizing the rest of the army.   Sailing on, we find another crystal wishing well. Unfortunately, we get one of the worst awards. 6000 Gold is not worth the loss of a Magic Crystal.  After digging up some buried treasures, a group of pirates attacks us for stealing their booty.  Accompanying the Sea Dogs are some tame beasts and a decent sized stack of Bowmen.  A couple of Ice Snakes later, most of those are dead.  One stack of Fire Dragonflies manages to corner my own Bowmen, leaving them no choice but to attack in melee and face retaliation (well, we could just skip the turn, but that's no fun). Instead, I'll protect them with a cast of Glot's Armor, and then make free with the punching.  The Griffin Separation talent is a really interesting one. Dividing into two equal stacks, this Talent does nothing to enhance the raw power of the Griffin. Plus, smaller stacks are generally weaker since they'll take out fewer troops before facing retaliation. However, the ability is tactically extremely useful. We see the main benefit here: the newly created half-stack starts with their full amount of Action Points. Griffins already have 5 speed, which means you can reach a troop up to 9 hexes away from where you started. So that small remnant of Bowmen?  Despite being near the far end of the field, my Griffins reach them on Turn 1, and eliminate them.   Continuing along the beach... wait a minute, is there something wrong with that ship?  Huh, that was weird...  : Hello! You have a strange ship... : Of course... But I would trade it with pleasure for the scabbiest dinghy on these damned Islands! My ship is my curse.: Look, maybe you could sell me something from your stocks? Nothing special for sale, despite the weirdness of the ship. : I would like to hear your story!: You see... Once upon a time, together with my crew, I was the terror of the Free Seas. Even the most menacing and desperate pirates took to flight, at the very sight of our sails. We sank ships, sacked and burned towns... Then, naturally, everyone turned against us. And one day, they hired a sorcerer, who cursed us. Now we are common people and a common ship during the daytime, but at night our vessel turns into a ghost-ship, and the crew - into ghosts.: Yeah, doesn't sound pleasant. Strange nights you must have!: It's nothing to be envious of, you're right about that. We paid for our crimes tenfold, that's for sure. Maybe you could help rid us of the curse?: Is that possible? What can I do for you?: A collective absolution can help us. An indulgence, they call it. They are given by the temple priests to those who have sincerely repented for their sins sincerely. Believe me, Bill Gilbert, our repentance is truly sincere! If you do that, I'll give you a ruby no girl can resist! (Reward: Anga's Ruby, 2000 Experience): I think that there's a place... the Temple of Deceased Souls in Marshan Swamp. I bet they can help you. I'll talk to them about your situation. But, as far as I know, you can't get an indulgence for free...: You need gold? Take it! 2000 gold coins, I'm sure that'll be enough. We don't have that many sins, after all.: Well let's see what I can do for you. Good luck!I'm sure these pirates deserve forgiveness, right? We will have to visit the Temple the next time we want to pick up some Snake reinforcements.  Just another glow indicating treasure here. However, this shoreline looks vaguely familiar.  Digging through our bulky load of various helmets, potions, and scrolls, we dig out the parchment that Brendan Cook gave us as a reward for helping him out with the Cook family inheritance (see Update 27). Yep, that shape looks like the island we are standing on... ok, how do you suppose they got a map made that includes details like the rowboat on the shore?  Digging deep into the ground, we uncover a dazzling diamond.  The diamond is indeed the one we were looking for, "Clear Eye". We could sell it for 25K right now if we wanted to. We aren't short of gold, so it's not necessary right now. On harder difficulties, this might be a really nice reward when gold is a bit more scarce.  i guess we weren't the only one looking for this diamond, as a nearby strand of beach is covered in holes. Surely anything buried there was found...  And yet, we still manage to find a buried chest with a Rune of Might in it. I'm not complaining, but whoever was digging here was really bad at it.  Just across the water from that thoroughly dug-up beach, we see a familiar lagoon. We've already explored that island, but maybe we can see if the Governor managed to send someone to occupy the castle after we evicted Duke Sov.  Yep, the castle is now under new management.  In addition to the reward we got from the Governor, we get access to this castle's shop. I don't mind having a local source of Bowmen to replace losses. He also has that rare item, a new spell we haven't found yet. This one is called Target. Guess what it does.  Returning to our boat, a ruin-covered island lies to the north-east.  Before heading to the ruins, we'll clear up this beach. A Magic Crystal, a Leadership banner, and some very dry undead (you can't see it, but this pop-up came from examining a set of bones on the sand).  Is...is that a shoe?  Ameliy here has the capability to go on for a bit about Endorian history, so see the bonus section for that. Meanwhile: : Yes, of course I'd like to visit your museum. Here are your 1000 gold coins. : Well, since you're going to visit the museum anyway, maybe you'll do me a favor?: What favor?: You see, a troop of orcs under Bdyh Haar's command has taken over the museum. The only hope is that the orcs still honor the titans as their creators. I do so hope they won't smash the museum into bricks. Could you please clear the museum of them? (Reward: 5400 Gold, 275 Experience): Yes, I'll help you - and maybe I'll find something interesting in there. Uhh, your museum needs some serious work, like lighting, and maybe a bit less rubble?  Still, the exhibits on display are pretty nice, like this nice collection of runes. No guards around, so I'll help myself here.   On either side of the rune display, we also find these two altars. The bonus stats are worth far more than any quest reward here.  We have to head deeper into the museum hall to find the first of the orc invaders.  The battle takes place among assorted debris. The enemy forces have a significant component of Goblins, a smattering of Orcs, and a pair of Ogres. We haven't seen Ogres before (I don't think), which are the Level 5 Orc unit. Basically big beefy melee warriors, they aren't usually very threatening.  To combat the large number of Goblins, let's see how our new Target spell works out. The spell does what it says, making one of your units the priority target for enemy units.  Griffins make excellent troops to use this spell on. Griffins have fantastic Health, decent Defense, and unlimited retaliations, making them great to be targeted by the enemy (and we also know where to find 4000 more of them if a few happen to die).  As advertised, the Goblins all target the Griffins. The long range even further reduces the damage to a pretty manageable amount.  I want to move my troops up to the backline to take out these Goblins. The Ogres don't like this one bit, and work themselves into a battle frenzy. This is their special Talent, Rage of the Ogre, which boosts both their speed and Attack significantly.  The Ogres ignore the nearby Totem and Griffins, and head straight to the Royal Snakes, delivering a tremendous blow. Keep in mind there's 2 of them. Ogres aren't normally threatening, as I said... unless you foolishly get in range of their attack.  Apart from the Snakes crushed by the ogre clubs, we lose only a single Griffin. That large Health pool is quite nice.  Before we can react much after that fight, a new orc army comes charging in to avenge their allies.  This army doesn't have Ogres, but does have a number of Furious Goblins, which are the low-tier melee units for the Orcs. They are quite sturdy, fast (with both 3 Speed and the Running talent), and decently strong.Like Goblins, they have nothing really interesting about them though.  Once again, we split up our Griffins to serve as a distraction and target while the rest of the army is moving up (or shooting).  The Griffins damage output is far outpaced by my Snake stacks, which are still demolishing everything in sight.   The next choice for Sleem gives us an option between a bit more damage on their single target ability, or the ability to use Glot's Armor more often. The damage of Poisonous Spit is quickly going to become obsolete, so I go with the more utility option.  The battle brings us to Level 14 as well, along with one more point of Intellect to boost our magics.  A much bigger boost is going to come from getting to Level 3 Chaos Magic. This is a huge milestone as a Mage.   Just look at the kind of boost that gives the Ice Snake spell. Not only does the damage increase significantly, it also gets a much greater chance to inflict Freeze. Of course, the spell now costs a chunk more Mana, so until my Mana pool increases, I'll have to be careful about throwing around too many Level 3 Ice Snakes.  For now, the only other spell I'm boosting to Level 3 is Flaming Arrow, since it doesn't go up in cost at all, just gets a pure boost to damage and Burning chance.  Lastly, I invest a pair of Mind Runes into Level 2 Scouting. Now we will get an approximate count of each creature type in an enemy army. Like in Heroes of Might and Magic, this will be things like "Few","Some", "Lots", and so on. This is completely unnecessary for the game, but it is nice to know how many of that annoying troop you will have to deal with, or if that army just seems like too much trouble for now.  Nearby, we see the leader of the Orc invaders, and see the new Scouting in action.  In this case, a few Ogres actually means just one, which makes Bdyh's army pretty pathetic. Side note, how do you think you'd go about pronouncing Bdyh?  Our updated Ice Snake just demolishes most of his army immediately. Even the AoE damage of Ice Snake is getting pretty strong with that.  Since Bdyh's army is proving less than a challenge, I'll show off one more use of the extreme mobility provided by splitting Griffins: getting chests on the battlefield ASAP. Sure, this time it's just a scroll for a spell we have, but I hate not getting these things in case they have valuable Runes.  The Bowmen take unavoidable losses from the last few enemy Shamans. On the whole, Bdyh's army was less threatening than the other troops he brought with him.   With the last of the Orcs dead, we loot one last treasure from the museum, which turns out to be another Mind Rune. : Have you driven orcs away from the museum? Is it good news you bring? Or is there something else that I can help you with?: There are no more orcs now.: Excellent news! Now I can restore the museum! Though it will take much time. Here is your reward (Reward: 5400 Gold, 275 Experience). By the way, did you notice that the architecture of the titans and elves has much in common? Oh yes, but you've hardly been in Ellinia.: Thanks, I'll have an opportunity to look.I'm not sure how Ameliy knows we haven't been to Ellinia, or how Gilbert knows that we will be going there eventually.  Continuing the exploration, we make landfall on the northern shore of one of the islands, where we find a surviving wandering army.  None of these stacks are actually very threatening, despite how many there are...  ...and now there's a lot fewer of them. The ability of the Mage to destroy half of an enemy army immediately is amazing.  Our troops finish up the job quite easily.  Our prize for this victory? Nothing! Nothing at all! The path leads up to an empty plateau. I guess the view is nice?  Back on the ship, we sail through a half-sunken village, presumably wrecked in some storm.  Just past the wreckage, a rocky inlet is guarded by a Beholder army.  So much for that "Huge" number of Skeleton Archers. One thing our new Scouting talent won't tell us is how the army will be divided, or how many stacks there will be. Usually, the more divided the troops, the easier the fight, though there are exceptions to that.   This little inlet is...  ...one of the most densely packed...  ...with buried chests in the game.  After spending a few hours digging (well, getting his troops to dig), Bill continues along the shore.  The last wandering army for this update sees a return of the Thorn Hunters.  Fireballs don't need to be Level 3 to roast these plants.  Mmmm, now that's a nice amount of damage.   Yet another Mind Rune waits after the battle. We've more than found enough to pay back that investment into Scouting.  This Mana Fountain is in a bit of an odd spot. There are no more wandering armies on this island, so there's nothing to need Mana for. I guess you can use this when you want to go hunt the Pirate boats sailing around? Don't worry, we will deal with those scum soon enough.  The main feature on this island is this sorcerous tower.  : I'm not a thief, and I didn't see any signs posted. So I came in... Is that alright? : Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were another pirate that wants to buy a spell to sink his enemy's ship. I don't know what to do with them, and they just keep coming. To tell you the truth, I regret ever leaving Verlon Forest. I was looking for peace, but even here I cannot find solitude...: A spell to sink a ship, eh? Do go on...: I wanted to buy some spells. Show me what you have. The shop here sells nothing we really want right now. : I wanted to ask, what are these Wanderer's spells you've mentioned?: Haven't you heard about that? Ah, I see not. Alright I'll tell you. In the various corners of Endoria were found the tracks of sorcerers that came here from the other worlds. The magic they use differs form everything that is known in our world. Several magic scrolls with the Wanderer's spells had been found. And hundreds of our best mages struggle to solve the magic formulas written there. Few of them succeed, because that magic is too strange and incomprehensible for us.: Why are they called Wanderers?: Because the travel across different worlds! And their spells have one purpose - to facilitate the trip! These spells are extremely useful for a long journey and for exploring dangerous and unknown places, but absolutely useless in other circumstances.: Thanks for the explanation!Ok, enough of the lore banter, maybe we can talk about something a bit more... relevant? You may remember (but probably don't) that way back in Update 24, we spoke to an innkeeper named Nine Yards, who told us a tale of a sunken ship made out of metal named the Moon Ghost, and the sorcerer Cann Torius who was looking for a way to raise it. : Yes, I'm looking for you.: So, what do you need?: A pirate told me a story about an unusual ship, the "Moon Ghost." And he said that you were interested in that ship yourself...: Ah, the ship made of black gold. I'm not actually interested in the ship itself. I just wanted to try a spell on it. You see, Bill Gilbert, like many of my other colleagues, I like to try my hand at revealing the secrets of the Wanderers' spells. Right now I'm struggling with a spell called "Lighter than a Feather." It is an amazing spell that moves great weights by turning them very light!: So, have you succeeded?: If you can forgive me for boasting, yes. I'm one of the very few mages who can claim that he has solved a Wanderers' spell formula! Just one variable, to be exact, but on its basis I've managed to create a new spell! I call it the "Power of Water." And it's ten times stronger than the "Lighter than Feather" spell! But it only works on objects submerged in water. I want to tet the spell's power on Moon Ghost. I needed something very, very heavy, submerged in water. And what can be heavier than a huge sunken ship made of pure gold?: You know, I'd like to buy this scroll from you!: I've made a few scrolls, so their price would be... let's say, 1000 gold coins.: Ok, I'll buy the scroll.: Fine, take it! You can handle it, just keep your head on straight!: Thank you very much, I'll remember! If you did remember the conversation with Nine Yards, you know that when the Moon Ghost went down, it sunk a village with it, which lets us know that the village we just passed is the location we are looking for. Or, if you are like me, you will have forgotten that hint entirely and sail around for like 10 minutes until a pop-up appears...  Whichever way you do it, the "Power of Water" scroll does the trick, and the Moon Ghost rises to the surface.  : Let me take a look at your loot. Maybe I'll buy something. Ok, I've complained about shops being pretty bad quite a bit, but this is not one of them. The undead for sale aren't interesting, but everything else is very excellent to find. First, Potions of Rage are very useful for hard battles. Second, those boots are the Boots of the Mystic, and are the best Mage-style boots in the game. They boost Intellect by +2, and give +1 Power to both Slow and Haste spells. This means both a boost in effect (the amount slowed/hasted) and the duration. Trust me, this is an amazing boost. I'm not going to use them quite yet, since I still love my Snake Boots. But I won't be surprised if they end up on my feet soon enough. Finally, the scroll the captain sells is for a spell we haven't seen, Sacrifice. This Chaos spell damages one of your own friendly troops to transfer Health and raise troops in another stack, making it the Chaos version of Resurrection. Unlike Resurrection, there are no targeting restrictions based on level. More importantly, unlike Resurrection, you can get more troops than you started the battle with. What this means is that Sacrifice is the only way to replenish rare troops when there are no more to buy, just by Sacrificing troops that are around in infinite quantities.  With that, we've finished our exploration for the time being. On our way out, we sail by this clearly important and quest-relevant ship... which I continue to sail right by. I have my reasons, which will become clear next update.  Exploration done, we have a loose end to wrap up, the issue of the indulgence for Black Eye. We head all the way back to the Marshan Swamp to the Temple.  : I welcome you, Bill Gilbert. Please feel yourself a welcome guest in our temple.: Hello, Father. I came to you with a request.: What has happened. my son?: You see, recently I was at the Islands of Freedom... and I came across Captain Black Eye, a sorry man who was cursed by his friends. Now he, his crew, and their ship turn into ghosts at night. They want to become ordinary people once more, and have asked me to help them.: Remove the curse? I'll give the indulgence to them if they are ready to repent for their sins and swear that they will never again rob and kill.: I'm sure that Black Eye and his crew will be glad to make this vow. Even a peaceful life would be better for them than such existence.: Well... the necessary indulgence cost 5000 gold coins. Are you ready to pay?: 5000? Wait, Black Eye only gave me 2000... someone is getting scammed here, and I feel like it might be me.: Yes, here is the money.Indulgence in hand, we travel allll the way back to Black Eye's ship. : So? Have you found the indulgence for us?: Yes, here's your indulgence!: Wonderful! Now we'll be free from the curse!: Yes, by the way... I promised that you'll stop robbing and killing people.: Stop pirating?! Blow me down! What else you think we should od? Job retraining classes? Hah! Now we'll take revenge on those who cursed us, and then make up for lost time!: Well, it doesn't look like that absolution did you much good...: Don't worry, lad! Everything will be fine! Here, take your reward. (Reward: Anga's Ruby, 2000 Experience.): Try not to draw a new curse upon yourself.I'm sure there's some sort of lesson to be learned here... ah well, at least we got paid.  Anga's Ruby... what an interesting item. +3 Attack, Defense, Speed, and Initiative? That's an insane boost! We've seen how good just +1 Speed/Initiative is for my snakes. However... the world of King's Bounty is definitely not an equal-opportunity employer, and the number of "she-fighters" is less than impressive. In fact, there are only 4 troops in the entire game that are women - 3 from the Elves, and 1 from the Demons. Some people like to use this Ruby and one of the Elven-type stacks just to have a troop with the highest initiative, so as to always act first. We already have our Royal Snakes boosted to 8 Initiative, so I'm not worried on that front.  Anyways, that does it for this update. Apologies again for the long delay between updates. To make it up, next update will get us back on the plot road... after a brief detour to pick up some seafood. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore Today's Lore extra is truly that: history lessons from the curator of the Titan Museum. Each time we speak to the curator, we can spend 1 gold to hear a bit of history. In my testing, it seems basically random which bit you will hear, and the curator will gladly tell you the same one over and over again. Below, I've assembled his four pieces of lore into what I think is the appropriate order. : I'd like to hear something about Endorian history.: Endoria was the third of the created worlds, which appeared by the will of the gods who had learned to create worlds. The seeds of life germinated here, and soon there were created a variety of fanciful forms, one of which turned out to be much stronger and cleverer than others. The fierce pangolins, which lived in poisonous swamps, calling themselves Scraggs, crawled out from their bogs, gobbling each other and the other creatures. Wishing goodness and prosperity for Endoria, the Gods created Titans - gigantic creatures possessing great intellect. Besides intellect, the gods gave them the Creator's spark, a great gift which the gods learned to regret soon enough.: So Scraggs were the first, and the Titans second, I see.: Soon after their creation, the Titans realized their semi-divine substance. They started a war with the pangolins, which inhabited all Endoria that time. They inflicted the Great Winter in order to eliminate the cold-blooded scraggs, as well as the other creatures, then populated the world anew. And first they decided to create living creatures possessing intellect, just as they themselves were created by the gods. And so the orcs appeared, the first-born nation to be created not by the gods, but by Titans. Thus orcs worship titans even to this day.: So in reality, the firt-born nation is the orcs. And they are now the most ancient race still living in Endoria?: You are aware that all the deceased go into the Land of Death, but do you also know that before the titans, all the deceased used to simply vanish forever? It was only thanks to titans that life after death became possible - and that is why they were eliminated by the gods. The Titans wanted to give the eternal life to their creatures, but the laws of the gods were unbreakable - a dying creature simply disappeared into the Nothing. Then the titans created the world where the laws of the gods did not apply. Having gotten there, the deceased could exist for a long time against all rules or mortality. This is how there appeared the Land of Death, and its Death Magic, Necromancy. The titans themselves called it Second Life Magic - and even the gods have no power to control it.: Oh, the gods of Endoria! That's really interesting!: All this which the Titans were doing was not planned by the gods, and they did not approve of the Titans' destruction and rebuilding of all they had created. But the gods could not tolerate their creation of the Land of Death. The gods became angry, the land opened wide under the Titans' feet. All were eliminated. The Gods started to populate Endoria once again, but this time they were wiser, and no one was given the Creator's spark. And so the gods created the humans, elves and dwarves. The new races began to re-divide of the lands, eliminating the living creatures which were created by Titans. But they did not manage to eliminate all of them. The orcs, for instance, have asserted their right to live, though they were banished to barren Murock...: So, this museum is the only thing left of the Titans? It's a pity; I'd like to speak to them.Marking the Map  Talkin' 'bout Troops Furious Goblin  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 20 Defense Bonus: 3 Talents  RunningAbilities: None Gully's opinion: The Furious Goblin is an extremely solid low level orc unit, although a bit boring. They basically have no weak points - decent Attack/Defense, good Damage (though the range is a bit wide), and good Health. Their strong point is their agility - very high Initiative, and they have a base move of 3 and the Running Talent, which is a strong combination. If you are looking for a melee unit that can get into combat fairly easily and hold their own weight, these guys are good. But the lack of any unique points or Talents makes them a little dull, so I usually go for other troops. Fighting them: There's not much of any kind of strategy to take here other than the usual ones against melee units - slow effects, ranged damage, and strike first if you can. Just keep in mind their 5 hex range in the first turn. Spells Seen Target  The selected troop becomes an enticing target for the enemy. (1-2/3/4) level creatures will attack the target first, ignoring other targets. Crystal Cost: 2 / 6 / 10 Mana Cost: 3 / 6 / 12 Level 1: Duration: 1 turns, affects Level 1-2 creatures Level 2: Duration: 2 turns, affects Level 1-3 creatures Level 3: Duration: 3 turns, affects Level 1-4 creatures Gully's opinion: Target is a pretty interesting spell, and I think it depends highly on your personal playstyle whether it is good or not. If you are using a troop that you really want protected from ranged attacks, this is one option where you can direct those attacks to a stack you care less about. It should be noted that this only makes the creature attack the Target if possible - if an enemy is immobile or can't reach the Target that turn, it will gladly attack elsewhere. Also, the duration is not affected by Intellect, so you probably want Level 2 so that it doesn't expire almost immediately. Items Identified Anga's Ruby  Description: The ring holds an amazingly beautiful ruby. Effects: +300 Leadership, +3 to Attack, Defense, Initiative, Speed, and Morale to all she-fighters Type: Artifact Race: Humans Cost: 80000 Info: It's a very beautiful and expensive thing. You could sell it for good money. Boots of the Mystic  Description: High boots with runes embroidered upon them. Effects: +2 Intellect, +1 to Power of "Slow" and "Haste" spells Type: Boots Race: Humans Cost: 15000 Info: These unusual boots are quite popular among mage-travelers. It is thanks to runes depicted upon them that these boots allow the wearer to travel long distances and cast spells to hasten travel. "Power of Water" Scroll  Description: Upon the scroll is written a spell, by which you can lift great weights up from the seabed. Type: Quest Info: Although this spell was made by the mages of Endoria, its magic was based upon a few decoded spells of strangers. Indulgence  Description: A scroll containing an unqualified absolution of guilt. Type: Quest Info: The scroll bears an absolution, past and future, signed by the senior priest of the Temple of Deceased Souls. Diamond Clear Eye  Description: The biggest diamond in Endoria! "Clear Eye" - 87 carats. Type: Item For Sale Info: There is only one purpose for such a diamond: that it costs a load of money.
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Aug 2, 2017 23:00
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I don't know how you're supposed to pronounce 'Bdyh', so I'm just going to say 'Biddy' and to hell with it.
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Aug 2, 2017 23:12
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Man, that's a really interesting idea for a backstory.
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Aug 3, 2017 01:31
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Gully Foyle posted:
I imagine "Bdyh" sounds a little something like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WQ046gvtPA&t=20s
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Aug 3, 2017 13:27
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I always thought Bdyh Haar meant body hair.
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Aug 3, 2017 15:45
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Nice to see another update.  All those druids for sale and you didn't buy any? Is Anga's ruby worth it if you run with the female demons? They do have that hilarious/infuriating special ability.
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Aug 3, 2017 16:29
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Poil posted:Nice to see another update. For the druids, I will probably save them for use later on. Right now, I can't take advantage of them fully without other Elven troops. As for the Demonesses... maybe? I mean, they are amazing troops, and the boost is so huge that even mediocre troops would shoot up in quality. Their most infuriating talent is better for the AI than for you, though. It'll be a long time before I find them or can use them without a morale penalty either way. When I can, I will be trying it out for sure.
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Aug 3, 2017 17:31
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Dunno why you're not getting a lot of posts, still really digging this LP. keep up the good work.
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Aug 4, 2017 01:09
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tithin posted:Dunno why you're not getting a lot of posts, still really digging this LP. keep up the good work. Thanks, glad you're enjoying it! I usually don't worry about the number of posts, I have a long personal experience as an LP-watcher/observer who rarely posts in threads, and that's still the case for the most part.
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Aug 4, 2017 02:56
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Yep, I'm enjoying the ride. I just don't have much to say. Gully Foyle's doing a great job of pre-emptively answering any questions I might have!
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Aug 4, 2017 03:27
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Yep, I'm enjoying the ride. I just don't have much to say. Gully Foyle's doing a great job of pre-emptively answering any questions I might have! Also, I assumed it was pronounced "buh-die-uh". That's probably wrong, but whatever.
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Aug 4, 2017 20:12
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Poil posted:Nice to see another update. In my experience, the ruby is the only way to make an all-demon army actually worthwhile running, and it is amazing if you are just using the female demons on their own. The morale penalty for mixing demons with most other units is really annoying though. Other guides seem to think the ruby is even better with one of the elven units, though I didn't like them as much. I didn't like royal snakes all that much either, though, for comparison.
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Aug 5, 2017 01:52
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Just out of curiosity, what classes of recruits have we seen so far?
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Aug 7, 2017 04:37
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Glazius posted:Just out of curiosity, what classes of recruits have we seen so far? I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'classes' here.
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Aug 7, 2017 20:59
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Gully Foyle posted:I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'classes' here. Demons, elves, that sort of thing. Or aren't they classified like that?
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Aug 8, 2017 01:17
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Glazius posted:Demons, elves, that sort of thing. Or aren't they classified like that? Ah, of course. Yes, there are 7 classes/races of troops in the game. Human/Crown - We've seen every one of these so far - this is our 'standard' troops, and the ones we get infinite numbers of a good chunk of - Bowmen, Swordsmen, Knights, Archmages, etc. Also includes Robbers and Marauders. Dwarfs - We haven't seen much of these guys yet, and only a few recruits available for us. We have fought a handful of things like the Cannonneers here and there. Elves - We've actually seen probably half of these troops as enemies so far, though not too many in the recruit pool for us yet. Orcs - We've used Goblins and Shamans, and seen every other one of their troops in enemy form, I believe, though only Shamans have had a stable recruit pool for us so far. Demons - Completely unseen except for waaay back when we challenged Zerock to use him, where we only saw the self-named Demons (confusing, I know). Nothing recruitable so far for us either. Like Undead, they will give other non-Demon troops morale penalties if you don't have the Tolerance skill. Undead - We've seen almost every Undead troop in action through the graveyard adventures. We could recruit a few different kinds, but they too have the morale penalty. Neutral - Everything else - all the beasts, magical creatures, constructs, plants, and even a few things that are humans like Barbarians and Berserkers. There are still a bunch we haven't found yet in the campaign (hint, dragons, hint) that will be pretty important and much more common as the game goes on. Hope that answers your question.
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Aug 8, 2017 01:38
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Update 31: Unleash the Kraken... and the plot! The LP lives again, and this time we will make actual progress, I promise!  One more (and last) time we start by the pirate Mirabella, the Red Devil. We've already spoken to her, but there was one topic we hadn't quite got to... : Beautiful Mirabella, I'm seeking your hand in marriage. : Wow! Don't make me laugh now. Do you know how many times a day they make proposals to me around here? And one of the suitors even brought me the left hand and the heart of my old enemy, as a present. Look, first off, I'm not a free girl. I belong to Lucky James because I'm his fiancee. And second, I'll marry only the bravest and worthiest man alive. I have a special condition for such "suitors" like you: my chosen one will kill the Kraken.: Where can I find this Kraken?: To the northeast from here, near the Curved Rock, you can find the ship of the captain Wetbelly, the famous sea-monsters hunter. He will show you the way to the Kraken.: Ok. We'll talk next time.Our wife is currently a bit occupied by being a frog, hopefully she won't have heard any of that.  We can follow the coast to find Wetbelly's ship. We saw it last time, but now we have business.  : I've been looking for you, captain. I was sent by the beauty Mirabella... : It seems I'm seeing a new fiance of the Red Devil? Look, youth - you'd better give up! Do you think you're the first one who I've shown the way to the Kraken? Tens of darers, trying to win Mirabella, have vanished into that sea-monster's gullet. Forget her. Think of her as a wonderful dream, a visions cast by rum's kind vapors! But I swear by my cocked hat, no skirt is worth your life, son!: No, I've made my decision. Show me, where Kraken lives!: Ok, it's your decision, youth... Set sails! Weigh the anchor! Head to the Kraken's Abyss!: (Follow Captain Wetbelly's ship...) Woah, calm down there, man! Let me back up a bit before you shake your ship into pieces.  Once we let him get out, Wetbelly sails off through the center bay of the region. Following him is... well, a bit of a pain. He'll stop if you get only slightly far away, or his pathfinding will freak out if you get ahead of him (or if any of the other pirate ships sailing around get in the way).  With enough patience, we can get Wetbelly to reach the open ocean on the other side, near where the Titan Museum was. His ship slows to a stop... : Well, youth, we've reached the destination. The Abyss is a little to the North... That's where the Kraken rests - at the bottom... Nobody knows much about that place... What? What the!!! Left rudder! Let's get out of here quickly! Hoist all sails! Left rudder...: What's happened, captain? Uhhh, that's... that's not good. I am beginning to question Captain Wetbelly's qualifications as a "sea-monster hunter".   Thar she blows!  Welcome to the second boss fight of the game, the Kraken!  The Kraken is actually three monsters in one - the centre tentacle (as shown here) and the left/right tentacles (with 5000 Health each). The description is mostly useful... except for the bit about fearing fire. As far as I can tell, fire has no special effect on the Kraken. In fact, it's resistant to it. Through testing, the Kraken has the following resistances: 30% Poison, 30% Fire, 30% Magic, 25% Physical. Its Defense is around 18 or so.  For the "sea predators", it means Devilfish. Each turn, the Kraken will throw two stacks of Devilfish on board the ship (usually around 100 per stack). They won't be able to act that turn, so you have some time to beat on them before they start chomping.  The tentacles will retaliate to melee attacks if possible - so the Royal Snakes (and the Lunge attack from the regular Snakes) are great in this fight.  Meanwhile, I'll devote the Griffins to Devilfish duty.  SMACK! The Kraken attacks by simply lifting up a tentacle, and slamming it down on a row of hexes in front of it. Any stacks underneath will be hit for a decent chunk of damage.  Any of the rows in front of the Kraken are possible tentacle slam targets (as long as there is something to hit within range.)  My Bowmen were having a bit of trouble piercing the tough hide, so let's try out a new spell. Dragon Arrows is an awesome buff spell that adds a special ability to an arrow-using troop. It eliminates essentially any penalty to damage that troop would normally suffer (Defense, Resistance, and Range penalties). Against the right troop, a Dragon Arrow could do 10x the amount of damage the archer would normally do. And it doesn't depend on Intellect in the slightest, so it's a great spell for non-Mages.   In this fight, it only doubles the amount of damage these Bowmen do, enough for us to eliminate the left-side appendage.  As the fight goes on, the Kraken can start attacking multiple troops at a time, if they are in position.  Eventually the middle tentacle goes down. We've lost a number of Royal Snakes in this fight. Let's see if we can do anything about that...  I talked about the Sacrifice spell when we bought it. Brief recap: lets you resurrect troops at the cost of another stack, no restrictions on level, Chaos Magic.  Here, we Sacrifice 25 of our Bowmen to raise 6 Royal Snakes back to life. Be careful, though: the spell will absolutely let you bring troops to numbers your Leadership doesn't cover - if this happens, you will not be using that stack until the battle is over and you can dismiss a few to get under capacity again.  The Kraken may not actually fear fire as advertised, but this Flaming Arrow still does the task of finishing the last tentacle.  With that, the Kraken slips back beneath the waves. We've supposedly killed it... I think we just made too much of a nuisance for it, and it decided to bugger off.  After cleaning up the last few Devilfish, victory is ours! And look at that Experience gain! Let's go report our success to Mirabella. : I've killed the sea monster. Kraken is dead.: You speak the truth. I know it because I can feel a lie. So it was really you. In every tavern they say that someone killed the Kraken. You know, I've almost fallen in love with you. Unfortunately, there remains one barrier between us - and his name is the thrice cursed Lucky James, my husband-to-be. So long as he is alive, I am his fiancee, and cannot belong to another. This is the law of the Islands. But I hope this scum won't live long.: Ok. We'll talk next time.Sigh, there's always one more thing...  In a brief intermission, I go change up our line-up. We've been using Shamans for a while now (most of the Islands, in fact). Let's switch it up a bit for the LP... the Shamans will be back, though. For now, I swap in some Evil Beholders.  After that, back to the Islands! We are finally getting to the reason we came to the Freedom Islands in the first place. We land by this small run-down shack.  : Hmm. Can't you tell at once that I'm new here? : Oh, my laddie, I was born on these Islands, and I've been living here my whole life until I die. I know what kind of impression this ground will leave on a man.: Aren't you the famous Redbeard the Pirate who I'm looking for?: I don't know who you're looking for, or why, but I'm called Redbeard more often than by name. First tell me - what do you need from him? Maybe I'm the guy you're looking for.: I was told that you might know how to find Lucky James.: Lucky? Oh, his luck is over, son, mark my words. Of course, I know you can say we're neighbors in that, heh-heh. When the governor got him in a tight corner, he ducked out of sight, strike him dead... Many, yes, many people would like to find him and... have a little chat with the scoundrel. I moved to this island because I knew that scoundrel is hiding here! His mines are here, he makes a living off the precious ores and gemstones. He's hiding in those mines, I just know it; he has secret passes and all sorts of shady business.: So, you say he's hiding here, in the mines. Thank you!: Wait! Just look at this fiery young man. How are you planning to get by the guards? Or do you think that nobody knows about these mines? There's gold, gems, plus Lucky's secret den down there. You can't get there just like that. Plus, you'll need to know the secret word. The password. Let's do like this - you help me and I help you. You'll give the black mark to Lucky from me, and I'll tell you the secret word so that the guards will let you in. Do we have a deal?: Ok! Give me that black mark.: Okay, here's how you can get in. You should say that you brought some food, and they'll ask you for the password. Then you tell them the password is "Shrimp." I've been keeping an eye on those mines for a long time, and I've managed to find out a few things.: Wish me good luck.We don't need his Black  The path behind Redbeard's shack winds inland.  These mines aren't much of a secret, it seems.  : What's underneath there? : Don't you know? Perhaps you are new to the Islands? These are possessions of the Lucky James - mines where precious stones are mined.: That's the person I'm looking for - Lucky!: Well then you're looking in the wrong place. We haven't seen the boss for a long time; probably he's hiding out somewhere. But he sure ain't here.: Alright, I got it. Well, in that case I'd best go...Hmmm, somehow I'm not buying that James isn't here... : I need to see James... It has to do with his bride.: You mean Mirabella? What about the password? I was told not to let anyone in until they say the secret password.Bill refuses to actually remember the password for this bit of dialogue. : Ah, I think I can remember... It's uh... "Open Sesame!" right? Or something like that?: Ha! You must have been reading some ancient manuscripts about the eastern princes' treasure. You'd better just go away; and I'll pretend that I didn't see you.: I'm already going.Let's try that again. : I have an urgent message for James from some old friends.: A message, you say? But what about the password? I was told not even to let in couriers until they say the secret password.: A faithful sword and a troop at my back - that's my password!: Ha! Do you know how many desperate men will come at my whistle to help? You'd better just go away. And I'll pretend that I didn't see you.: I'm already going.Okay, okay... for real this time. : I've brought the food... I'm... I'm Shrimp!: You're late, Shrimp... We've been waiting for you for a long time. Come on, I'll open the door now...: And get a move on, the food is getting spoiled. Into the mines we go. We are greeted immediately by the sight of a chained Dwarf working away on the wall with a pick-axe.  The nearby pirate troop, expecting us to be the food delivery man, will not attack us. Or talk to us for that matter.  Maybe we can get more out of the Dwarf?  : Hey, dwarf, if I attack James's people, will you and your guys help me? : I'm sorry; I thought he needed some help... I guess I'll be leaving...I'm not taking that for an answer! Let's try again!  : I should work... Don't distract, or I won't manage to work fast enough.Hmmm... maybe again? : Oh, it's a pity that Lucky doesn't come here... I'd love to meet him... I've become pretty good at throwing the pick during these long years...: As soon as I strike the first slave-driver, run at your top speed and warn your guys... : Hey! Leave him! It's not permitted to talk to the workers!: I'm sorry; I thought he needed some help... I guess I'll be leaving... Alright, let's continue on... maybe one of these other dwarves will say something useful... : They've raised the daily rates again... It's too much for a dwarf to bear!: You don't look like hired employees! Can it be that James uses the labor of dwarven slaves? Answer me!: Hey! Leave him! It's not permitted to talk to the workers!: I'm sorry; I thought he needed some help... I guess I'll be leaving...So why keep on talking to these dwarves if they aren't saying anything important? Well, once in a while you will get this: : Have you ever tasted roasted rats? Huh?: No. Do you have a roasted rat? I can give you 50 gold coins for it!: I do have one. Here, take it...: Thank you, here's your money. Mmmm, roasted rat! My favourite! Ok, serious talk... these are my favourite! The Roast Rat is a usable item that gives us +2 Max Mana and Rage at the cost of 50 Leadership. It may not seem like it at first, but this is an amazing deal. If we get more Mana/Rage during level-up, we will get either 5 or 7 at a time. The average leadership bonus when chosen during level-up over the game is about 750 (more for Warriors, less for Mages). Therefore, the normal 'exchange' rate is something on the order of 125 Leadership per point of Mana or Rage. Instead, these rats give us 2 of each for only 50. Trust me, this is well worth it. Also, it's not clear, but we can multiple rats in this mine. Just keep pestering the dwarves, and we can buy up to 7 of the things. Delicious... During said pestering, the dwarves have a number of other things to overhear. : I want to return to Kordar! Oh, if only...: (Mumbling) Two plus four, eight, by two, will be sixty four, plus one hundred, it'll be one thousand and two dozens... So the speed of light must be... Wow! Fortunately, my knowledge will rot here together with me! This world is not ready for such knowledge, at least, not yet...Oh dear, looks like some of the miners are cracking under the torment of forced labour. : (Hums) Gold-gold, gold-gold...: One-two, one-two, one-two... Work, dwarves, work, the sun hasn't risen yet... Though I suppose we don't get any sun down here in the caves?: Back aches... Arm aches... Leg aches... Even my butt aches!: I'll soon have callouses up to my elbow from that pick! Exploring the mines, we can also loot the place as expected. This guard casually looks on while we ransack the chest. Just the delivery guy, I swear!  Just here to deliver food! And take these Runes!  Just here to take your Crystals. Thank you for the tip! At least, I assume the gold left on the ground is my tip!  Unlimited wealth! I like the sound of that... although the entire castle inside of a mine is a tacky look, in my opinion.  Emerald... a real creative name there for a castle in an emerald mine.  : My name is Bill Gilbert... And as far as I understand you're Lucky James? : Yes, that's what they call me... Red jellyfish's curse! Do you know, Bill Gilbert, what question I keep asking myself, so much that my head is ready to burst? Why are you looking for me, drat you? I never did anything to disturb you, as far as I remember, and you don't even know me. Nothing connects me to the king of Darion either...: I'm looking for you, by order of His Majesty, King Mark the Wise. I need the maps of the dwarven underground. And I know you have them!: Maps, you say... I have the maps. But I'm not going to give them away. Doesn't matter if you're a knight, the king's courier, or the king himself!: So can we arrange something?: Why not? If you need them so much, you'll definitely pay the going price for them! I'll need... Let's say one hundred thousand gold coins! Don't even think to haggle, the price is final and non-negotiable, hah hah... Oh, my old cook used to say the same thing. He was a well-educated person too, by the way! That's why it's such a pity that he went to feed fish... heh...: Are you crazy? That's way too high a price for a piece of paper!!!: I guess it's not just simple paper, if you need it so much. Am I right? And it wasn't an ordinary dwarf who drew it for me, either, but a first-class mine engineer! I never thought that among the dwarven slaves that Rotten Hake supplies, that there could be such a gifted map maker. He drew these maps for two days, the stupid dwarf. Five days of torture, and two days of drawing. He's walled up alive here, in the mines... It's to teach him not to give out secret information. Now when my mine's resources run out, I'll tunnel under the sea to dwarven mines, and collect precious stones and ores on their territory!: Rotten Hake, you say? I wonder if you're buying slaves from the leader of the Darion robbers.: So, Searcher, did you think about my offer? Actually, a hundred thousand gold coins is not that much!: Forget the maps; I came to you on behalf of Redbeard...: Thousand blue cuttlefish, he reached me nevertheless... What do you need? Well I think I already know - the black mark? Ok, give it to me; I respect the marine brotherhood's laws. And I won't kill you, you damned truce envoy.: What if I help you to solve your problems with Redbeard?: Hmmm... It's a pleasure doing business with you, Bill Gilbert! I swear on shark's guts - if you kill this bastard, you'll get the maps! May I lose my luck if I break my word!: Deal...So... we have three options for getting the maps from Lucky James. A: Pay 100K Gold B: Kill Redbeard C: Kill Lucky James You know what that means, its However, before we get hasty with the castle storming, we should head back to Redbeard. We've delivered his Black Mark. You'd think he wouldn't care if we take James out, but doing so will fail the quest that Redbeard gave us to deliver the Mark. : So, have you visited Lucky? Have you given him the message?: I've given him your mark.: Excellent job! Blow me down! I knew you could do it, Bill Gilbert! I will repay my debt of gratitude. By the way, what did Lucky say?: I have no idea about your dealings with him, but he got really frightened. And he told me to kill you.: Hmm... So, what was your answer?: Don't worry, I won't kill you.: Hah! Shark in your throat, young man, it's the best decision you made all day. I'll show you that Redbeard can be grateful. My men and my loot are at your disposal. (Reward: 5800 Gold, 325 Experience): Thank you, I'll think about it.: Strike me dead, it's Bill Gilbert! What good wind brought you here? Have ye decided to hire my men?: Yes, I'd like to have a look at your crew. Redbeard's shop is one of the most pitiful in the game. The Straw Hat gives a bonus of a whopping +20 Leadership... whee! Delivery quest done, we can now return back to Lucky James for the violence. : So, have you killed that scoundrel yet? Hurry up, if he had the courage to send me the mark, then... Eh...: As for the money... It's easier for me to kill you and just take the maps!: You? Want to attack me in my own house? You saucy whipper-snapper, get out of here, or my guys will throw you out!: So, I've given you a chance to settle this amicably... (Attack...) James' crew isn't that threatening to us (that's one of the consequences of exploring nearly everywhere before proceeding with plot). He does give every troop in his army +2 Health, but that's a fairly minimal bonus.  Upgraded Ice Snakes tear huge holes in his front lines.  As the Griffins move up to occupy attention, James summons an Evil Book to make up his losses. James will usually summon either Evil Books or Phoenixes (we haven't seen that spell yet). In the meantime, the Evil Beholders take over the mind of these Swordsmen, forcing them to attack the nearby Pirates.  The damage is not huge, but it takes the full turn of the Swordsmen, preventing them from acting for this turn. This also makes them an obstacle, so the Pirates won't be able to reach my Griffins this turn.  The Evil Book decides to cast Poison Skull... on my Royal Snakes and their 80% Poison Resist. Great choice there.  The Evil Beholders eye-beams are very strong, aided by the fact that this fight counts as underground.  BZZAP! As my troops stand among the guts and blood left behind by James' troops, the Beholder fry the last few Bowmen.   It doesn't mention it, but we did actually get the maps as well as that bit of gold.  We can try to re-enter the castle, but there's nothing more to see there.  Of course, the pirate guards could not help but overhear the battle, and have turned hostile.  Not that the henchmen offer too much of a roadblock after we've already taken out the main boss.  Using Mind Control on a ranged stack is particularly useful, as it is one of the few ways to stop a ranged attacker from hitting your troops. Of course, my Shamans were pretty good at that too...   We don't really need to hunt every stack here down... but you know, slavers kind of deserve it.  More easy fighting, with Glot's Armor to prevent any casualties I might have otherwise had.   Hey, just wanted to let you know... you were a pretty terrible guard.  And yet you manage to aggravate me even more by stealing my treasure!  Yeah, that's what you get.   This final stack blocks our way out of the mines.  A little bit of Evil Shoal...  ...and a little bit more treasure for me...  ...and with that, the slavers are all dead!  The guard outside the mines has noticed nothing, and we are free to return to the King with the dwarven maps as was our mission!  But first, we have a redhead to see with news of a dead husband... : Don't worry. The matter with Lucky is settled, you're a free woman again.: Wow! Can you be the same daredevil who killed James? I never imagined you're able to do it. Thank you kindly. You've saved me from a scoundrel. But what about the Kraken? I've not heard of that monster's death! When you kill the Great Kraken I will marry you.: Uhh, are you feeling alright? Do you seriously not remember me telling you about the Kraken?: James and the horrible Kraken are dead.: Go to blazes! Damnation! Oh, my damned tongue... I mean, come here, my hero! Gosh, you can't even image. Bill Gilbert. How happy I am that it's you who did it! It's like a huge three-masted ship unloaded off my shoulders.: What are you so happy about?: Have a look around; look what the scum surrounding me, who impose their love on me - especially after my suitor Lucky James was killed. They're all cutthroats without exception, and they eitehr have pot-bellies or they're missing a leg or an arm. And let's not even talk about the lame, toothless, one-eyed men. And the few who do look alright have a mix of rum and seaweed in their heads, so they're about as smart as a shrimp.: Well, I've thought about it, and I'm not ready for such an important step yet.: It's a pity... I hope you know that you can't find as good a wife as me in the whole of Endoria. I will be waiting for you, Bill Gilbert. I like you - very much.: See you!We're not gonna take Mirabella on, my frog wife is far more suitable right now. But to show it off... one divorce later... : Beautiful Mirabella, I'm seeking your hand in marriage.: Don't you tell me lies now. Don't you play with a fragile girl's feelings. And if it's rum in your head that's talking, then you'd better tell me right now. Do you really need such a wife, who uses foul language, snatches at her saber every time someone sneezes - and besides, guzzles rum like a boatswain?: I'm serious! Be my wife!: I... I don't even know what I should say. Bill Gilbert, I'll be damned, but even all my swears have left my mind. Well... I'm... you know... I agree... Kiss me, my beloved.: (Kiss the girl.) Mirabella provides yet another boost for Pirates/Robbers (competing with Human Rina and her Speed/Initiative bonus). +100% Attack is pretty drat nice, especially for Sea Dogs. Additionally, she has a fantastic spread of equipment slots, with Weapon, Belt, Boots, and Regalia slots. The Weapon slot is particularly awesome, since Weapons tend to be very strong in this game (especially late game weapons). The Regalia slot is also great to get huge Leadership bonuses and other boosts. Mirabella is a great choice for Warriors who want that extra Weapon slot. On having children... : A thousand cuttlefish, Bill Gilbert! I'm bored to death... If this continues, soon Old Jack's ghost will appear. I need to grapple a couple of ships or I'll die of boredom.: Darling, I wanted to talk to you about children.: What? drat it, what children?: I think we are ready to have a baby.: Are we now? Well what's it got to do with me? Go ahead and have one, if you want... Yeah, that's what you're talking about. You want to have children. But do you know that young mothers can't drink rum, or swear, or grapple ships, or batten down the hatches during a storm? I'm not speaking about how my jackets fit exactly my splendid slender figure - which there won't be anything left of it if we decided to have a baby.Insist : I think you could do without rum for a while. As for your jackets - we can have new ones sewn.: That's why I'm your wife - to know and feel what your thoughts and wishes are. I'd really like to have a little baby and take care of him.: That's great, my darling! (Kiss your wife.)Decline : Ok, you've convinced me - you weren't born to raise children.On divorce... : It seems to me that we aren't a good match, and it's time to separate.: Do you want to say that I'm a foul-mouthed, drinking, rude woman and no match for you? Not warm and cuddly enough for you? I'm spoiling your girlish reputation? As you wish. But if I do go away, I won't go empty handed, you know. Being your wife, I have the right to one-fifth of our property. And I'm not going to return the presents you gave me - I'll keep them as a memento.Insist : May you have a fair wind, and the Kraken for help.Decline : Come on, stop acting crazy, I'm just kidding; I wanted to check how much you love me.Wow...Bill, way to be a huuuuge dick.  Back to our regularly scheduled reality, in which we are married to a frog. Time to finally get these maps back to the King.  : Any questions Bill Gilbert? We thought that you were already on the islands, searching for the dwarves' maps. Or maybe you've found them already?: Yes, I've brought the maps!: Great job, Bill Gilbert! Come on, give them to me... well, excellent... here are their secret passes, here the fortifications... our military strategists will be quite pleased... I just don't understand how mere pirates managed to acquire such precious information. (Reward: 650 Experience, 6300 Gold): The pirate got this information from some dwarven slaves which he bought here in Greenwort, from the local robber, Rotten Hake.: What? What slaves? Somebody trading slaves - and dwarves at that - right under our noses? Well... of course I can't say I feel sorry for the dwarves, under the present circumstances. But slave trade was outlawed in Darion centuries ago! This is no good! While we prepare for war, you must find and punish these criminals. The law is the law, and as for slave trade - trade of any intelligent creatures is strictly prohibited. At the same time, I'd also like to know how these dwarves got here in the first place!: Don't worry. I'll sort out that slave trader immediately. With that, we will pause for a bit while Bill sets out to devour 7 Roast Rats in a row in some sort of bizarre food race. Next time, we will be... you guessed it... heading back to the Islands! There are still some bit to clean up there while it is still a challenge. Once that is done, we will proceed with the main plot... haha, only kidding. First, we will have some other bits on Darion to finish up. Then, then I promise we will get to finding out where these slaves came from. Actually, that's all a bit of a lie. Next time will actually be a mini-update with bonus stuff from this material - alternate ways to get the maps, alternate dialogues, and so on. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Marking the Map  Spells Seen Dragon Arrows  Gives Dragon Arrows to the Archer. These magical arrows negate the archer's range penalties, as well as the defense and resistance of the target. Crystal Cost: 2 / 3 / 4 Mana Cost: 4 / 4 / 4 Level 1: Gives Dragon Arrows: 1 Level 2: Gives Dragon Arrows: 2 Level 3: Gives Dragon Arrows: 3 Gully's opinion: This Order spell is fantastic, one of the hidden gems in the game. By negating pretty much any penalty, a bow-using troop can be boosted hugely. 100 Bowmen shooting a normal arrow at a Cyclops will do about 50ish damage - with a Dragon Arrow, the same troop will do over 500, likely enough to kill one. They are also one of the best ways to use magic to kill Black Dragons. On top of that, the spell is extremely cheap and doesn't depend on Intellect (beyond getting bonus arrows), making it perfect for non-Mages. Sacrifice  You can sacrifice one of your troops to another troop, which will gain a number of creatures proportional to the health taken by the sacrifice. Crystal Cost: 3 / 7 / 15 Mana Cost: 10 / 20 / 30 Level 1: Damage: 250; Increase: 50% Level 2: Damage: 500; Increase: 60% Level 3: Damage: 750; Increase: 70% Gully's opinion: Sacrifice is an awesome Chaos spell for retaining your favourite hard-to-acquire troops. It essentially lets you transfer health from one stack to another. There are no level restrictions for the target being raised either. Beyond that, it lets you get more of the raised troop than you started with, even past your Leadership. It is good to pair with the Reserve skill - bring along a huge stack of infinitely available troops like Bowmen, and use them to maintain all your other troop numbers. The Mana cost is significant though, so this spell generally gets the most use by Mages. Items Identified Black Mark  Description: It's a little black paper circlet with the image of the skull and the crossbones. Type: Quest Info: It's the element of a pirate ritual. A challenge to fight a duel, or just a warning about coming retribution. Map  Description: The map of the underground mines of the dwarves. Type: Quest Info: All the underground mines, passes, and caves known to the dwarves are marked on this map. The map is drawn upon a piece of oiled paper, seemingly by a hand unfamiliar with the art of cartography. Roast Rat  Description: The roast crackling rat. Use: Permanently gives 2 to maximum Rage and Mana, but decreases Leadership by 50. Type: Used Item Info: Roast rats are the favorite snack of miners. Straw Hat  Description: An ordinary peasant hat. Effects: +20 Leadership Type: Helmet Race: Humans Cost: 750 Info: The use of this hat is questionable at best. On the other hand, it's better to have this hat than to have nothing. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Aug 28, 2017 |
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Aug 26, 2017 15:05
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Rip (and tear) one kraken. The only time I tried to fight the kraken I was hopelessly underleveled for it. Half the ship was full of fish eating my stacks.
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Aug 26, 2017 15:56
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The one time I finished that fight I had a giant stack of royal snakes to help me. I didn't have a giant stack of anything by the end of it. 
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Aug 26, 2017 16:07
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Gully Foyle posted:
Also, this is one of the few updates in which I can clearly see exactly which Russian proverbs / pop-culture quotes were awkwardly translated into English. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk0taJn5dyU
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Aug 26, 2017 20:19
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The kraken is a fun fight. I like to use 'thematic' armies, which means, at this point, that my army usually included Robbers, Sea Dogs and Pirates (and I was wearing all the them-enhancing items I could get my hands on, such as the Jackboots, Chieftain's Belt and the Jolly Roger). Robbers have that fun "strike from a safe position" special ability that the Snakes also have, Sea Dogs and Pirates get bonuses while fighting on sea, and I forgot which of the two also has that three-tile strike ability - but if you use that and position correctly, you can hit a Devilfish unit together with a tentacle. With that, I usually finished without any losses, just by not putting any of my troops close to the kraken to get into its range.
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Aug 27, 2017 13:23
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Oh, so winning the pirate queen's hand in marriage was just part of the critical path?
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Aug 27, 2017 21:29
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Glazius posted:Oh, so winning the pirate queen's hand in marriage was just part of the critical path? You can get the map without killing her fiancée, and the Kraken is wholly optional.
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Aug 27, 2017 21:47
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meristem posted:The kraken is a fun fight. I like to use 'thematic' armies, which means, at this point, that my army usually included Robbers, Sea Dogs and Pirates (and I was wearing all the them-enhancing items I could get my hands on, such as the Jackboots, Chieftain's Belt and the Jolly Roger). Robbers have that fun "strike from a safe position" special ability that the Snakes also have, Sea Dogs and Pirates get bonuses while fighting on sea, and I forgot which of the two also has that three-tile strike ability - but if you use that and position correctly, you can hit a Devilfish unit together with a tentacle. Nice, that's a good strategy. A heavy ranged focus can do the job too, just bring a couple melee stacks to fight the Devilfish while you shoot the tentacles to pieces. Poil posted:Rip (and tear) one kraken. Slaan posted:The one time I finished that fight I had a giant stack of royal snakes to help me. The Kraken can definitely be a hard boss if you come across it sooner rather than later, or don't know what you are getting into. An unprepared army with normal melee units will have a rough time, since the retaliations are no joke and hit very hard. Even in my case, I still lost like 50 Snakes, and they only got hit a few times. Xander77 posted:I'm assuming some of these are LJ's lines? Haha, whoops  . Looks like I missed a line of dialogue entirely there, which threw it off. Thanks!Glazius posted:Oh, so winning the pirate queen's hand in marriage was just part of the critical path? Oh no, that's completely optional, but I thought it was a nice way to frame this update. As TooMuchAbstraction said, almost all of this material is very much optional, and the Islands of Freedom possibly more than most. You can literally sail there, hear about Lucky James/Redbeard from the Governor, sail to the Eastern Freedom Islands and find Redbeard's shack get the Shrimp password from him, and pay Lucky James 100K gold for the maps. That's all the main quest requires, and can be explicitly combat free if you have the money. Could be done in 20 minutes, instead of the 10 or so updates we've seen on the Islands so far. But A) that path will leave you underleveled and underequipped, and B) if you don't like the combat/exploration in this game... why are you playing it? Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Aug 28, 2017 |
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Aug 28, 2017 04:34
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:You can get the map without killing her fiancée, and the Kraken is wholly optional. I recall being uninteresting in wooing another bride the first time I played, and missed the Kraken entirely. Finished the game and wondered whether they'd miscounted the number of boss monsters in the advertising materials.
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Aug 28, 2017 19:48
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| # ? May 20, 2024 03:06 |
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Update 31 Bonus In this short update, I'll explore the alternate ways we could have gotten the maps from Lucky James. First, what if we don't care to get the Black Mark from Redbeard? : No, I don't want to meddle in you pirates' shady dealings. I'll try to get to the mines myself.Redbeard has no objection to this, so we head up the hill to the mine entrance. But without a password, how are we going to get in? : Stop! Not so fast, can't you see that this is private property? No passage ahead... No admittance into the mines of Lucky James! Not for strangers.: Can we arrange something, perhaps?: What do you plan to arrange?: We can do this nicely, or we can do it the hard way...: This is interesting! Please, tell me the details.You can tell where this is going... : I'll pay you 5000 gold coins, and you'll take a walk to the nearest tavern. Have a drink to Lucky James' health. With his pockets jingling with a fresh bribe, the guard decides the best place to go is... right into the mines. Well, I guess intelligence wasn't his best suit. And naturally, we could go the other path... : The less pleasant way means that I just kill you! (Attack the guard...) And of course, there's the violence approach. Much like the armies inside the mine, the guard outside is not that tough.  A quick bit of magic neutralizes the only things that might have caused a casualty, the Bowmen.  We do get to snag a treasure chest worth almost as much as our bribe would have been. The guard must have let someone else in for a fee before, and hidden his dirty money.  The melee units fall quickly.  As said, once the Bowmen were gone, the rest of the army was a push-over. Ok, so how about the other ways we could have gotten the map? First, of course, we could just pay up the 100K fee: : So, Searcher, did you think about my offer? Actually, a hundred thousand gold coins is not that much!Lucky James isn't wrong here, at least for Normal difficulty. We currently have nearly half a million in the bank, so that won't really set us back too far. : I've gathered the money. Take the damned money and give me the maps!: What? Where did you get that money from? Did you rob the Tomb of Thousand Kings? Hey, I want to be your best friend!: That's none of your business. Take the money and give me the map.: Great! It's been a pleasure to dealt with you, Bill Gilbert! Let me know if you need another one. I have a lot of different maps, ha ha!: You'll choke on your greed some day!Now, I don't like Lucky James one bit, but I think Bill "Royal Treasure Searcher and Professional Looter" Gilbert is being a bit of a hypocrite by calling someone on their greed. The last way to get the maps is to go back to Redbeard, and kill him for Lucky James. : I'm sorry, nothing personal, but I really need these dwarven maps. (Attack.) A hopeless, eh? Sounds about right. Redbeard has decent physical stats, but he lacks a really threatening army to use it with.  I use the Evil Beholders to control his stronger Bowmen stack for the first turn, so I can focus my magic elsewhere.  The Evil Beholders keep that stack under control through sleep effects as well, while the rest of the army is picked apart.   Hmmm, whatever could have happened, it is such a mystery! Bringing the news back to Lucky James: : So, have you killed that scoundrel yet? Hurry up, if he had the courage to send me the mark, then... Eh...: I've killed your enemy. You promised to give me the maps for that!: Huh! It serves him right!... Well, your sailing's over, Redbeard old fox! Now his guts are fish chum! Excellent job, Bill Gilbert. You've deserved your reward. Here, take your maps!: Thank you...It's pretty telling that Bill is less disturbed to have attacked and killed Redbeard to get the maps than paying up the gold. Finally, after learning about the dwarven slaves, we can talk to King Mark about slavery in Darion: : I would like to know more about the laws connected with slave trade in Darion.: Long ago, during the rule of the Mellis dynasty, the slave trade was a part of everyday life. But when at last the throne was returned to the Leonar family, laws restricting slave trade were passed. The law prohibited trade of any living intelligent creatures against their will, or the consideration of them as property. The punishment for breaking the law was lifelong penal servitude, or death sentence with no right to pardon or reprieve! Of course, ambitious tradesmen quickly found loopholes in that law - for instance, zombies and vampires can't be considered living creatures, and orcs, they argue, are not intelligent enough, so for a time, the slave trade was held together by trading undead creatures and stupid creatures, but eventually it all stopped.: Thank you, I won't detain you from your affairs of state any longer.That's it for this little bit of bonus material. Next time, back to the Islands of Freedom for a couple of updates. We have one more cave to explore there, and there's all these pirates still sailing around... and we all know what pirates have that Bill wants.
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Aug 29, 2017 14:41
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