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Oh man, Warlock. I spent so much time playing this with a fraction of my attention while watching TV. On launch there were no terraforming spells, no Lords, no artifacts, no variable income from terrain types, less terrain types, no random events, less diplomacy... it was all just make wampires, point wampires at enemy, repeat. So as much as it is Baby's First 4X - and it is - it used to be even more so. Which is kind of a terrifying thought.
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Jun 21, 2013 01:56
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 21:43 |
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The gods are pretty open-minded in Ardania. While humans have the most options (can build temples to seven of the eight gods) the other races get access to four gods each, and the only difference apart from availability is the type of units you get from the temples.
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Dec 29, 2013 20:40
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Check your Warlock 2 directory - depending what version you got you could have got a book with it that fills in a big chunk of what happened between Warlock 1 and 2. The Planestriders aren't so much a race as they are a coalition that Miralbus built out of humans, monsters and undead to fight the Dremer. They were joined by a non-Ardanian race called the Incorporeals, who are aligned with Lunord - Rjakh from the first game is one  The Svart are a race distantly related to dwarfs, native to a world once attacked by Dremer. Attacked, but not consumed. Yeah, Svart are hardcore. They're also crazy good at metallurgy, possibly related to their link with Helia. They've got a steampunk-y vibe but it's all magic and runes and poo poo. Spoilers for events between Warlock 1 and 2: The canonical end of Warlock 1 is that while Miralbus is out campaigning against the Dremer, the Grand Librarian casts Unity and either enslaves or ejects all his former rivals. Where Are They Now? Miralbus: Leading the Planestriders. Anna the Benign: Used Agrela's favour to save a huge number of her subjects and relocate them off Ardania. Nicolas Frost: Dremer-caused global warming robbed him of much of his power, he's a Lord instead of a Great Mage now, and follows Miralbus. Grand Librarian: United! Elpiritster the Eternal: Swore allegiance to TUO, recognizing that he could easily take away his immortality. Empress: Ditto, and in doing so lost the favour of Krypta. It's hinted that Countess Mallacir, the new undead Great Mage, is her descendant. King Lich V: Had a huge knock-down drag-out fight with TUO to goad him into revealing all his powers, then reformed himself as King Lich VI  Rjakh: Just before the Grand Librarian cast Unity, left Ardania to return to the Incorporeals and assume leadership of them. King Rrat XLII: Tried to flee TUO but died. After the ensuing civil war, King Rrat LIV rose to power. Sol de Torvega: Teamed up with Amberon and Krel to try to kill TUO, and died. Ash-Haar the Wisest: Got bribed by TUO with his own cozy little pocket-world for him and his followers in exchange for not fighting TUO. His former student, Xara, took up the mantel of Head Priest of Grum-Gog. Tendral, Son of Vendral: Signed up with TUO. Malinalxochi: Tried to take on TUO solo and was squished  Her half-brother, Tlalocian, has sworn vengeance.Amberon the Dark: Was captured by TUO who tried to recruit him, and ended up splitting into Amberon the Dark, who serves TUO, and Amberon the Light, who leads the Arethi Elves against TUO. The Dragon Queen: After Amberon was captured, lead the elves out of Ardania. Krel the Kingpin: Helia and Krolm intervened to pluck him and his followers out of Ardania and seal it up to stop TUO from conquering the other worlds. Plus a few entirely new faces: Nefertari, a desert demigoddess, who 'adopted' a pack of human refugees that were lost on her desert world. A couple leaders for the Svart. And a newly-reawakened Primordial Dragon, who originally created magic but hasn't been keeping up with the times.
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Apr 18, 2014 04:38
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Part of the problem is that the AI is subject to the same plotline (attack by two Shadows of Vendral, offensive terraforming, and the Empress' skeletal zerg rush) as the player, which can easily cripple or greatly slow them down. I've seen an AI absolutely doomed because the terraform quest appeared to have spawned a Snow Queen by the portal in their home shard and it just shut them down completely. That said, Warlock 1 had great post-release support, so perhaps the AI just needs to be tweaked to fit the new parameters.
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Apr 19, 2014 04:31
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I'm digging the narrative, I've been replaying Masjesty 2 and it really fits with the universe. Warlock 2 spoilers: The Exiled campaign is easy to blitz through early and forget about until it's time to zergrush through Ainadra into Ardania - the dragons can be lured into range of your capital's blasts, it's not difficult to stockpile gold and mana early on to pay for the Elpiritster mission, and with even a little bit of luck with Lords or some relatively early tier-3 units or sufficiently experienced tier-2s you can stomp on the Empress' minions and at that point you're free to hop through the multiverse without concern, building up a monstrous economy, founding sprawling metropoli of free cities and collecting Legendary Lords and Unit Perks like stamps, and the United One and his goons will just be sitting there twiddling their thumbs and waiting for you for as long as it takes.
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Apr 26, 2014 00:37
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Elf settlers cost 75 instead of 50, which really pushes back the break-even point on free cities. You might be better off expanding fast and hoping to find some humans or Svarts and using one of your city limit on a gold city, especially since you can usually find a nice winter world early on, often with a good city spot with multiple or all of gold, silver, donkeys, dwarves and elves.
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Apr 29, 2014 08:34
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Whatever works best for you, man.
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Jul 23, 2014 05:25
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Demiplane invasions are really, really fun. You line up your best troops, load them down with every enchantment you can think of, and you send them in to establish a beachhead and fight seemingly endless waves of enemies. It's very Battle of Helm's Deep.
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Jul 24, 2014 23:51
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Elder Witches! They're kinda meh at first glance before you realize that their slightly-higher-than-average magical damage compounds easily into three digits with enough magical items, enchantments and upgrades, and they've got a range of three where most ranged units have two. Give 'em flying or invisibility as well as Eagle Eye to let them see as far as they can shoot and they become ridiculous near-immortal doom-artillery laying waste to anything and everything.
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Jul 26, 2014 14:36
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420 praise sun err'day  Noble wolves are amazing already with their incredible regen, add in +50% elemental damage right out of the box and you get something truly special.
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Jul 27, 2014 06:53
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 This is one half of the 'canonical' win condition, except it was Miralbus that killed the Dremer. Meanwhile the Librarian cast the Unity spell and between the Dremer devastation and Librarian being a massive douche with his newfound powers it set the stage for a lot of movers and shakers getting evicted from Ardania to go wander the outer planes. Tehan fucked around with this message at 08:43 on Jul 29, 2014 |
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Jul 29, 2014 05:50
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 21:43 |
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JcDent posted:And here I was planning to epilogue it, so that it would segue nicely into my Warlock 2 LP...  I'll spoiler tag the hell out of that.
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Jul 29, 2014 08:43
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