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Bill will not stand for mere apologies, not when there's potentially wealth on the line! Reject or at least demand some compensation for our lost troops.  (update on prior page)
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Apr 11, 2018 03:13
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Reject for his heinous crime of having a kinda crappy store!  Gilbert is a pretty lousy goodwill ambassador. He shows up at the ancient enchanted forest of the elves and proceeds to RAIN FIRE EVERYWHERE AND BARBECUE THE INHABITANTS MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
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Apr 11, 2018 08:56
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Accept humble apology and let it go. He's not a witch, but still our elder, and we started the fight ourselves.
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Apr 11, 2018 16:31
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Slaan posted:I say we go ahead and Accept his apology. I mean, he did eventually let us buy his stuff and the armies he tried to kill us with were mostly just +XP Yeah, be nice to the old geezer
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Apr 12, 2018 00:45
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Accept. You were hassling him after all.
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Apr 12, 2018 06:59
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Ugh, well, he's an rear end in a top hat, but we're on official kingly business and should probably be the bigger man, so we should accept his half-assed apology. I guess. (We should also be horrible and passive-aggressive towards him forever, and if we ever get the opportunity to screw him over in some non-lethal way, I say take it.)
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Apr 12, 2018 08:30
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Kill him because he's just sitting there with that bag of experience going to waste otherwise!
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Apr 12, 2018 14:18
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Might as well accept his apology. And good lord, a static bonus to a unit's damage is ridiculous when you've got thousands of them.
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Apr 15, 2018 07:44
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Looks like we will be accepting the wizard's apology and letting him live. Perhaps not the power gamer choice, but it does seem more appropriate.Glazius posted:And good lord, a static bonus to a unit's damage is ridiculous when you've got thousands of them. I assume you are referring to the Sprites with Anga's Ruby? Unfortunately it doesn't give a static bonus to their damage itself - just +3 to their Attack statistic. That's not nothing, but it is the smallest part of the boost the Ruby gives, and would be about the same boost no matter what unit was being boosted, about a 10-15% damage increase (not exactly, but the calculation is too complicated for all the situations). The boost to their movement, initiative, and morale are what really makes the Ruby so good. Morale modifies critical chance, which then in turn makes the unit deal 1.5*Max damage or so. Very few things in the game directly modify a unit's damage stat - the Ring of the Snake King we are wearing is one of them, with its flat +3 Poison damage boost to all Snakes. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 12:25 on Apr 15, 2018 |
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Apr 15, 2018 12:22
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This is right about where I quit on my longest playthrough years ago. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the game. There's what, 1/3 left? 1/2?
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Apr 15, 2018 12:25
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Slaan posted:This is right about where I quit on my longest playthrough years ago. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the game. There's what, 1/3 left? 1/2? Well, this turned out nearly prophetically as the end of the LP as well. This time, though, I have a decent excuse! (And for the record, there's about 1/3rd left). See, I kinda hosed up my arm, and it looked a little like this (not gross, but some people don't like X-rays of broken bones). So I was down an arm while it healed, and typing and creating updates for this LP was just not happening. Surgery, two titanium plates, and quite a bit of time have worked pretty well for said healing, and I nearly have full functionality again. I've lost some range of motion (temporarily or permanently? who knows!), and typing remains a bit uncomfortable. However, I really don't want to let this LP die! I want to show the game off to you, I want to finish the project for myself, and I think that giving myself a reason to have to type and use my arm will help with the range of motion issues. So to that end, I am in the middle of working on the next update - hopefully be posted by the weekend. I don't want to make any promises on the pace of the LP going forth, since clearly I have problems keeping the schedule up. But slowly and surely we will get to the end of this game. I hope I haven't lost too many readers in the meantime, but this LP will continue even if I'm just posting into the void. Thanks for your patience!
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Jul 5, 2018 05:07
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This is the most inspiring LP ever now. We will show this to future procrastinating LPers as a valuable lesson. "If this guy can LP with his arm snapped in half, you have no valid excuses". You can spend your off-time reviewing previous updates and typo-hunting.
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Jul 5, 2018 07:32
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That's some dedication. Hope your arms heals well.  Looking forward to seeing the LP go on.
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Jul 5, 2018 07:44
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Just cast a resurrect spell on your arm by killing off a bunch of stupid horsemen. What's the big problem  Glad to see you back and getting better 
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Jul 5, 2018 13:03
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Gully Foyle posted:But slowly and surely we will get to the end of this game. I hope I haven't lost too many readers in the meantime, but this LP will continue even if I'm just posting into the void. Thanks for your patience!
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Jul 5, 2018 13:34
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I'm very glad this LP hasn't died! Take your time and we'll be here when you're ready.
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Jul 6, 2018 17:48
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Update 50 - Turtles in the Sky with Crystals Welcome back to the King's Bounty LP after that hiatus! For a recap, Bill Gilbert (our hero) is currently on the Elven island of Ellinia to rescue the kidnapped Princess Amelie.  Last time we ended outside the tower of the wizard Vermeus. He attempted to trap us in with his armies, but we fought free of his trap. However, Bill (through the audience vote) has decided to forgive and forget his offense.  : What else do you need? Do not disturb me. : I remember you called me a paltry worm...: You know, Bill Gilbert, I was wrong about you. You are a strong Mage. But now that we have had a chance to talk, I feel a sense of respect for you.: I see you've changed your tune. But be careful, foolish wizard - don't put on airs any more with me.And... that's it. No reward or anything for sparing Vermeus, other than continued use of his (crappy) shop.  Leaving the tower, we get accosted by a variety of locals.   Of course, both the Royal Thorns and Ancient Ents here are plant-based, making them comically weak to our fire spells.  Post-Fire Rain, the only two stacks left of note are the Griffins and Lake Fairies.  Although the enemy Fairies aren't supercharged like ours, they still have quite the range, and their no-retaliation attack can be dangerous in large numbers like this. Therefore, before we move up to attack with the Unicorns, I want to make sure I'm not sitting in range. Luckily, a quick hover over the enemy lets me see that there's a hex I can use safely.  For some definitions of safe, anyways.  With the enemy Fairies left with no target, they move up and are open to a first strike by my own Sprites, who do massive critical damage.  Next turn, the Sprites move on to destroy the Griffins. Man, I love these guys.   I know that our next destination lies down here, but we have some more to do here first.  Like finding this River Farm.  The farm would sell us these Lake Fairies. I prefer the Sprites I have anyways, though, and I don't want both just for variety. However, I will buy a scroll of Pygmy. I believe we've seen the enemy use this spell before. It shrinks a unit, making it both weaker and more vulnerable to damage. It also disables certain abilities (like the Lunge from Snake-types).  Nothing important to see here, clearly, let's just move along (until the end of the update, at least).  Just down the hill from that obviously unimportant tower, another army guards a variety of local goods.  The two large stacks of Black Unicorns are a potential concern, these guys are strong and fast...  You know, if we weren't a mage with Level 3 Slow spells to practically immobilize one of them.  Even then, the un-slowed stack needs to be dealt with, and our own Unicorns take a chunk of damage fighting them.  However, the slowed stack just can't do anything against archers, spells, and non-retaliation Sprite attacks.  We lose a few Werewolves and Unicorns taking that first stack down though.  Ugh, I'm getting unlucky with Lina's level options. I don't want either of these boosts. Reluctantly, I upgrade Chargers. At least the increased orbs may help get Mana back or possibly give a speed boost when needed. Gizmo's healing is practically useless outside of one specific case.  The ancient woods here contain more than just visible treasures, and our buried loot sense comes in handy. This chest is just some gold...  However, just down the path another buried chest gives us an amazing find. Hypnosis does what you might think - letting you gain control of an enemy stack, as long as it has under a certain Leadership value (and isn't too high of a Level). This will absolutely come in handy, and is one of the last two or three great spells I'm looking for.  On a nearby hill we find another experience shrine. Usually not that useful, this one actually gives moderately decent experience, and...  It pushes us to the next level. As usual, we are taking any Leadership options we get.  Continuing on, we find a patch of forest that has an ominous sickly, decaying appearance. The presence of an Undead army may be a hint here.  Well, if we are gonna be seeing Undead, maybe it's time to get more experienced at fighting them. Or rather, it's time to get more experience from fighting them! I use some of the runes we have been getting to get the Keeper of the Light skill, boosting the experience and gold we get from fighting Undead and Demons. Very small bonus, but we have spare Mind Runes.  Into battle we go! I've mentioned it before, but I love the unique battle maps we get for certain areas. Like here, we see that we are fighting this Undead army for control of a creepy looking tome.    Speaking of things I love, add "clustered enemies when playing a Mage with Fire Rain spell" to the list. Especially Undead! We can absolutely demolish armies that are set up like this.   The remainders are quickly swept away.  Let's talk about Experience gains! I was unable to find an exact formula, but calculations seem to show that we get about 0.01825 Experience per point of enemy Leadership destroyed, with enemy hero fights granting a multiplier (as well as our Learning skill, and our new Keeper of the Light skill for certain enemies). Therefore, for this fight, the Keeper of the Light skill gives about 25 bonus experience. Nice to have, but also tiny in the long run. Normally I would not bother taking this skill, but I find myself with a few extra Mind Runes.  That important looking book surrounded by Undead turns out to be the Book of Death (or rather, a Book of Death, as we will see later on). That seems like something to avoid until I have a reason to investigate.  A nearby glade is dug up to reveal an Ordinary Sword. This is a pretty basic weapon, only giving +1 to Attack. However, it can be upgraded to the Runic Sword, which gives a more respectable +2 Attack and +2 Intellect. I may upgrade it just for the experience, but still wouldn't be an item I would use.  We also find this elf mourning over a grave.  : Hello, my dear sad elf, what has happened to you? : Hello, stranger! Are you confused by my sad song? I'm sorry, but my heart is full of grief and hopelessness, and my story is sad indeed. My name is Annore, the strolling minstrel, the bard. The Singer, poet and musician. But alas, my talent has faded away, and I can't write songs anymore. The only joy of my life has died.: So that is your misery. Who died?: I had a beloved fiancee, the beauty Hneya from the royal family of Icy Tears. All my poems and all my songs were only about her. But one terrible day she did not return from a walk. I went in search of her and found her dying among the bodies of the dead royal guards. In my hands she fell silent forever, and her last sigh still burns on my face. Her last words were these: "The shadow covers me, and death closes my eyes. I am parting from you, but we will be together again, when the blood of my murderer, Sheragga, is shed. Take vengeance for me, my darling!" But as you can see I am but a poet and musician. My weapons are words and music, and these won't be useful in the Land of Death, where the murderer has hidden. Maybe you, Mage, will be able to help me fulfill the last will of my beloved. Find and punish the murderer, I will give you all I have as a reward. (Reward: Elven Crown, 3000 Experience): Ok, poet, I'm going to the Land of Death... I will find the murderer of your beloved and punish him. The grave seems unreadable to us, possibly due to being Elvish writing.  The last thing in this corner is both a pathway to another region (The Great Forest), and this Alchemist Lab. Nothing we haven't seen before, but it's a large store of both Cannoneers and Alchemists, if we wanted them.  Before we consider this region finished, there is the matter of the seas. To that end, we hire a small boat from the elven village.  Much like the Islands of Freedom, it's worth checking every bay and island for treasure. Usually just gold...  On the nearby beach, though, we find a Telescopic Sight. This Artifact gives us +100% Attack to any archer unit. Not great with my Skeleton Archers, with their really low base Attack. But if you are using high level Archers, this can be amazing. It's also a set piece with the Ale Barrel (+1 morale to Dwarves), and using both together gives Archers a +30% Crit Chance, which is even more amazing.  Continuing up the coast, this beach is guarded. We want treasure, so let's get it.  Ah, this brings back memories of the Islands of Freedom. Been a while since we had a nice beach combat.  We hang back and let the Fairy stacks move up. Luck happens, and they group up...  So we do what comes naturally to a mage.  The Skeleton Archers get a refreshing blood sacrifice to bring their numbers up to match our new Leadership.  Here's our upgraded Chargers ability - the extra Rage charger doesn't even pay for the increased Rage cost of the ability though.  The super-fast Sprites are great troops for picking up these orbs, and with the additional action points they give, the Sprites can get all three of them in one swoop.   Further exploration north would lead to the next region, so we turn around and head south instead.  This magical land is granting all of my spell wishes! This island holds a scroll of Phantom. We've seen this in action on the enemy side. It creates an illusionary copy of a stack, with numbers based on the level of the spell and the Intellect of the caster. The phantoms go away after three turns, but until then, they do just as much damage and have all the abilities and Talents of the copied stack. We will see this in action for sure.  A larger island holds another army for us to battle.   We've seen Ents before, but this is a good time to talk about them. Ents are the tanky troops for the Elven faction. They are slowish, have high Health and melee damage, and one other special attack...  NOT THE BEES! Yes, Ents come inhabited by wasps, and are able to launch a swarm at range to attack the enemy. However, once used up, the swarm is gone (at least for these basic Ents). The range is short (only 4 hexes, I believe), but it does provide a nice alternative attack when you can't reach combat with them.  Meanwhile, though distracted by the bees, my army goes to work and destroys the remaining units.  The Ents are tough, but like other plants, they burn very easily and are never much of a threat to a Mage hero.   One last island in the south holds some vendor trash, and we can see the passage to the Valley of a Thousand Rivers. We are done exploring this region, but there's one last thing to do first. Remember that clearly unimportant tower?  Ok, it might be a little important. That looks like a lot of magic coming off this crystal, and that Orc looks familiar. Side note, it's really hard to actually see the full crystal at the top except from this one angle, since once we get closer, this happens:  : You have a good memory, shaman. Me know... drat it! I mean I recognize you too. : Now Karrakh take revenge. Me is very strong shaman now, have Crystal of Peace! Now remember big ancient magic and turn you into toad.We can respond to this threat in a few non-consequential ways. Bill's feeling a bit magnanimous today, so let's try a non-violent way... : Can we settle our differences some other way? Maybe my gold could calm you down.: Gold? Ha-ha, human. Orc not like gold. Orc like scream of dying enemy, and meat from his bones.: Hell no! I'm keeping my meat to myself, thank you. And I'm not going to scream to make you happy.: You soon scream, human, when me cut your skin for my shaman-drum. Old shaman-drum got very old, sound dull. Then me chew your meat, stuff my belly.: You may be strong, but will you be able to defeat the Turtle?: Human... You keep silent, not distract Karrakh. Me prepare big spell, need silent.: Great Geya! I am calling you. I found Karrakh! (Summon the turtle Geya for help.) With an enormous thud, the great Turtle drops from the sky...  And with a gulp, swallows the glowing crystal from the top of the tower.  : The Crystal of Peeeace is mine. The orc is completely helpless without the crystal. Now he can no longer harm anyone.: I hope you're right.: Now that the terms of our agreement have been fulfilled, our bond is broken. I thank youuu for your help and give youuu these fragments, these Magic Crystals. They are yours. Good luck, human.: Thank you for the crystals. Good luck, Geya.  Geya spews out a whole boatload of regular Magic Crystals in return before simply vanishing into midair. Before we grab them, there's an order of business to take care of. : Human, you are very bad. Why you call Turtle and take my Crystal? With the Crystal Karrakh is Great Shaman.: I simply returned the Crystal to the owner. You stole it, right?: Now you laugh at poor Karrakh? You spit and kick poor Karrakh, make pants from Karrakh's skin? You let Karrakh go. If you let me go, me give you shaman-artifact.Vote Time! How do we want to deal with the shaman Karrakh? He once threatened Darion before we drove him off, but the Turtle has reclaimed his Crystal and Karrakh is no longer a threat (at least according to the Turtle). Kill him : Good idea! Leather trousers would be useful. (Attack the orc...)Karrakh deserves to pay, and what better time to take him out than now, weakened by the loss of the crystal? Take his stuff : Pooh, I don't even want to touch you. Give me your artifact and don't ever let me see you again.One more dead Orc, though possibly satisfying, won't get us closer to rescuing the princess, while the promised artifact might. And after all, aren't we a Treasure Searcher?  And that brings us to the end of the update. The Magic Valley has been explored completely, and the way is open to head deeper into the Elven lands. Next time, we will head inland towards the Valley of a Thousand Rivers and hope that the name is an exaggeration. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore Of course, we could have dealt with Vermeus much less kindly. : No, wizard, that is not enough. You have insulted my honor, and one must answer for one's words. (Attack the wizard...) Vermeus himself is a pretty decent mage, but his army is pretty small. Just a whole bunch of archers, and a few Ancient Ents. How weak is he? Well...  1...  2...  3...  4...  And 5! Before he can do anything at all, his army falls.  We do get decent experience because he is an enemy hero.  His tower seals itself up, and we get nothing more from this act of violence. Marking the Map  Talkin' 'bout Troops Ent  Resistances: 50% Poison, -100% Fire Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 8 Abilities Plant Talents  Running Wasp Swarm: Summons a swarm of wasps, which sting the target and inflict 12-15 points of physical damage, as well as 12-15 points of poison damage. (Charges: 1)Gully's opinion: Ents are a decent melee option, but not spectacular. They are the tanky. slow units for the Elves - like Knights or Dwarves. High Health, good Defense, and a pretty good damaging melee attack mean that they are good in a scrap. Their movement is limited, though - with the typical 2 Speed and Running Talent. However, their speed is offset slightly by their useful one-shot Wasp Swarm - adding in some poison damage and more importantly a ranged option for when you can't get into melee. Still, I find them a little expensive for what you get. And watch out when fighting anything that causes fire damage! Fighting them: Fire! Use fire and burn them down! The double damage is huge, and Mages can easily take them out. If not a Mage, try using fire-based troop damage. If not available, just treat them like other tough slow melee units. Their Wasp Swarm is annoying, but they can only use it once. Skills Shown Keeper of the Light When the hero eliminates creatures of the Dark, such as demons and undead, he receives an additional reward after combat. Mind, Tier 4 Prerequisites: Trade  Level 1: +20% Gold, +5% Experience. Cost: 1/4/1. Level 2: +30% Gold, +10% Experience. Cost: 2/6/2. Level 3: +40% Gold, +15% Experience. Cost: 3/8/3.Gully's opinion: Keeper of the Light is a really mediocre skill. Experience is nice, but it only applies to demons and undead. It's probably better to invest a couple more runes into the second level of the Learning skill, which applies to everything. However, there are three circumstances to use this. First, on higher difficulties the bonus gold can be much more useful. Second, you need this if you want access to the Inquisitor skill, letting you transform Priests into Inquisitors. Third, if playing a Paladin, you need to get this skill to get to their class special skill, Runic Stone (which basically lets you trade Mind Runes for Magic/Might Runes). So if playing a Paladin, get this skill, otherwise probably pass. Items Identified Ordinary Sword  Description: An ordinary single-handled sword. Effects: +1 to Attack Type: Weapon Race: Humans Cost: 4200 Upgraded To: Runic Sword Info: Such swords are used widely by mercenaries and common warriors who cannot afford better weaponry. Telescopic Sight  Description: A sophisticated device for precise shooting. Effects: +100% to the Attack of archers Special: Affects archers who use projectiles and missile devices. Type: Artifact Race: Dwarves Cost: 25000 Info: An unusual device, made of crystal and the hollow tubes, invented by dwarves. This device allows the bearer to see remote objects far better, aiding his archers' aim. Combined with the Ale Barrel, Telescopic Sight gives an additional +30% chance of Critical Attack to all archers.
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Jul 8, 2018 19:10
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 Kill that stupid orc. The real treasure is inside. Of the orc. And we need to spill it everywhere. Personally I wouldn't rate keeper of the light as high as mediocre. But maybe there'll be a lot of demons and undead to make it worthwhile?
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Jul 8, 2018 19:43
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Kill him The turtle-botherer needs to die.
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Jul 8, 2018 20:35
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An ale barrel with a telescopic sight attached to it! Marvelous, Bill Gilbert!  I think I'd rather make the orc live with his terrible failure forever, or at least until somebody else pastes him. Plus: treasure! Spare him.
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Jul 8, 2018 20:41
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Poil posted:
Spare
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Jul 8, 2018 21:29
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Orc needs to die. He hurt turtle 
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Jul 8, 2018 22:32
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He deserves more humiliation. Spare him.
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Jul 9, 2018 00:06
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Glad you're back and feeling better was sad this wasn't getting updated. Don't think I ever got past the dwarf lands when playing this.
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Jul 9, 2018 17:54
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I'm glad you and your arm doing better! I'm a little sad Ordinary Sword can be upgraded. This seems like the kind of game that would have Ordinary Sword be an ordinary sword, with no upgrades or hidden bonuses. I have no opinion on what to do to the doofus. Whatever is more interesting.
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Jul 10, 2018 02:18
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NHO posted:Kill him
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Jul 10, 2018 02:21
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Thanks for all the well wishes! Glad people are still interested, we still have a lot of goofy stuff to see, as well as more interesting creatures to fight/use to fight. There is a bare majority for going with Kill, so Bill will be getting some vengeance next time. Xander77 posted:What level / how much gold would we have now, had we taken it before going to the cemetery way back when. Gold, I have no idea, since I don't know how it's calculated or even how much I've earned - maybe roughly 5% more gold than we currently have earned, so like 50K-100K more? Experience-wise, I went back and did a rough calculation based on how many Undead/Demons we've killed up to now, and it only comes to about 1000 Experience more, so similar to getting 1 bonus fight at the current level. However, we still have the main tough Undead/Demon sections ahead, so we will get more. Poil posted:Personally I wouldn't rate keeper of the light as high as mediocre. But maybe there'll be a lot of demons and undead to make it worthwhile? There are, quite a bit more in some upcoming sections. You are right though, mediocre is probably being too generous. However, the skill is quite cheap at this point, and I do have excess Mind Runes - or rather, I don't need them as much as I need the other rune types. And I am trying to show off most of the skills. In an actual game, I wouldn't take it unless I was a Paladin, in which case you need to take it to get access to their best skill. Gully Foyle fucked around with this message at 03:31 on Jul 10, 2018 |
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Jul 10, 2018 03:28
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Update 51 - Hippie Hypnosis Last time, we ran into a familiar orc face and air-dropped a huge turtle to even the odds. Now the thread has voted to wipe the orc out while we can.  Before we do that, let's gather up these crystals the turtle dropped. Trust me, they are gonna be real handy very soon. : Good idea! Leather trousers would be useful. (Attack the orc...) Karrakh's army is not super-huge, but he does have some significant stacks of Goblins and Catapults for ranged damage, and Orcs for the melee. On top of that, Karrakh provides his troops significant stat bonuses, and naturally the shaman will provide magic support.  We can burn out his Catapults easily enough, as their wooden frames take extra fire damage.  Last update we picked this sweet baby up. This is where all those crystals go - it costs me 42 crystals to upgrade it all the way to Level 3, even with the discount I'm getting. Totally worth it. Taking over an enemy stack is such a huge advantage, that this spell can nearly break the game. However, it does have limits that prevent it from being too insane - no Level 5 stacks no matter what, no Undead or Plants, and the Leadership limit means that as the game goes on, there will be fewer and fewer good targets. Further, it only lasts 2 turns (no matter what Intellect), and the spell costs a huge amount of Mana.  We take control of one large stack of Goblins. I would have preferred the huge Orc stack, but it's too large for the spell to handle.  The enemy AI treats the hypnotized target as any enemy stack, so the Orcs step up and smash their former comrades.  Meanwhile, Karrakh uses his magical abilities to slice apart some Unicorns with Ghost Blade.  Things get complicated in the orc's lines, as competing totems get placed, and Goblin fight Goblin.  The chaos lets my units move up un-harrassed, and the Orcs are soon surrounded.  The Sprites finish the enemy with their usual panache.   So, uh, about that vote... turns out Kill Him also means Take His Stuff. I didn't actually know that until I went to record this, so this was a pleasant surprise. I thought we were going to lose out on this very nice Artifact. This replaces the Image of Sorcery - losing 10 net Mana for us, in exchange for +3 Intellect.  With that done, we are free to move deeper into the Elven lands. A nearby path leads to the Valley of a Thousand Rivers. The name may be an exaggeration, thankfully, but the region is covered in criss-crossing narrow rivers, with delicate bridges over the deeper sections, while others are mere creeks we are free to splash through.  We are greeted with this glowing purplish-black cloud.  Ahhh, this is an Eviln. You may recall that on our arrival to Ellinia, we were given a strange creature and told to feed it these Evilns.  Egnum has just started, and one mere Eviln is not gonna satisfy him.  Entering a glade on the hunt for more, we are ambushed by this elven army. They can be sneaky when they want to be...  It may seem like a waste to target these Sprites with a Fire Rain that will overkill them probably 5x over, but I have my reasons.  That reason being that the Sprites have the Dispel ability, and that can cancel out the Hypnosis spell.  The Griffins tear into the hypnotized Elves.  The other Elf stack, though, steps away and sends two arrows flying into my own Sprites, wiping out over 100 at once.  Ooh, nice find here. Battle-found runes are the best.  The middle of the battlefield becomes a mess of flying fur, feathers, and horns.  The previously hypnotized Elves come out of trance only to get zapped into oblivion.  Not the cleanest victory, but it will do. Sprites may fall in droves, but they are usually easy to find in this region.  Past the army we find a friendly-looking Black Unicorn wandering around.  : Hmmm... I heard that Unicorns are magic creatures, but you're different from the ones I've seen before. : It's because I'm a black unicorn, bred artificially, using the black arts. I can tell you my story, human, if you want to hear.Ok, what is the game talking about? We've seen literally hundreds of black unicorns by now. : That would be interesting. Please do tell me your story.: My name is Elunium. I remember that I grew up in the Land of Death in the laboratory of the Dark Mage Velisar. The surrounding world was lifeless, dismal and gray, and my brothers and I know neither mother's love nor the warmth of the sunlight. But one day another mage came to visit Velisar - a Druid named Elean, and bought me and some of my brothers. Through the Gate he took us to that wonderful world of green grass, singing birds, and purling brooks. He showed this world to us, and said that we were kidnapped from here when we were little colts and he let us free. Now I am my own master, and the white unicorns recognize me and my brothers as leaders. But one thing bothers me. I never thanked the kind Elean.: If you want, I can find him and convey these words to him.: That would be great. Please do convey my words of gratitude. Find the Druid somewhere in the Great Forest. Unfortunately I cannot leave my herd without protection, or I would visit him myself.: Ok, I'll tell him that you're infinitely grateful to him. See you. We'll get to that when we get to the Great Forest. Meanwhile, another Eviln is found in a nearby brook, and we get some other goodies as well (a flag, Magic Crystals, and buried gold).  Back on the paths, we find some strolling Dragons.  Ok, forget the Dragons... the mass of Dryads here are the real problem. I have bad memories fighting armies like this - if your army is the wrong composition, they can absolutely wreck you.  But now I can turn that annoyance into my own ally. One key thing to note about Hypnosis is that the target stack retains the same Initiative order. So I carefully target the Dryad stack that acts soonest...  This dragon and the Berserkers get distracted by them.  This spell is basically why Dryad stacks can be so frustrating to fight. With a single cast, Lullaby can disable an army. It's possible to go into a fight against Dryads, and have your whole army go to sleep. And this Talent reloads. And if there are multiple Dryad stacks, they will happily keep casting it. Trust me, this sucks when it happens.  Now, though, I can get my revenge on them. My now-friendly stack turns around and sends all of her sisters to dreamland. This is why I chose the first-acting stack.  And that's not all. Dryads can also summon Thorns, and the summoned stack does not revert to enemy control when Hypnosis wears off. Thanks for that stack of Thorns, you can die now.  Time for one more trick that I find super-satisfying. Step 1: Hypnotize a stack.  Step 2: Cast Sacrifice using your nominal "allies" as the blood donor. That's right, since a Hypnotized stack counts as friendly for all purposes, you can use them to fuel Sacrifice and regrow your army from the blood of the enemy. This trick feels broken, but it's not really that overpowered. It's both expensive (at least 20 Mana for Hypnosis, and at least 10 for Sacrifice), and not that efficient damage-wise... but drat if it doesn't feel good.  The last enemy Dryad stack finally gets it's own Lullaby off, but it's far too late to affect the battle.  Getting zero casualties here is probably one of my proudest moments. I've had warrior armies fight this kind of enemy and take huge losses.  We come across another Water Lily. I was hoping for more Sprites to refresh my army on the go, but instead...  I pick up these Ents to replace the Werewolf Elves. The Werewolves have been not very exciting for me.  Moving on, we find a few more of the Evilns for Egnum to devour. After around 5 have been consumed, his status changes from "Has had a bite" to "Has eaten". I have a feeling we can do better.  Down this creek we run into a weaker army than the ones we've been facing.  Large number of stacks, but the numbers aren't impressive.  Especially when half of the army is made of wood.  We now have the power of BEES! for our own use. I have some corrections from my previous statements on this ability. First, although it has a limited range, the ability functions like an archer - so the limited range is for full damage, while the ability can be used at any range past that for half damage. Second... well, I'll save that for later.  These critical hits seem so common now that I'm disappointed when they don't happen. I'm getting spoiled...  This one was not nearly as hard to get zero losses.  As soon as the battle ends, we get ambushed by some werewolves, with no chance to regain Mana.  Ugh, and getting Black Dragons as a surprise is never pleasant. Silver lining is that Mana doesn't help much against these dudes.  Unable to target the tough Dragons, I'll Hypnotize the Druids here, hoping to distract them, while frying the half of the army that isn't immune to my spells.  The distraction doesn't work, and my Sprites with their vulnerability to fire suffer badly. Keep in mind that this damage is from one single Black Dragon.  The Hypno-druids do act as a distraction for these Unicorn stacks, at least.  Black Dragons aren't immune to Spirit abilities, and this Smashing Sword does decent damage.  So does a big wooden fist smashing into their face.  Druids are also good Hypnotize targets, since they too have a summon ability. The brawl up here gets quite confusing, but the numbers are obviously on my side.  The Dragons did their damage, but we escape with no other casualties.  The corner guarded by that army has some nice prizes. A good-sized banner...  And this far more important prize of permanent Mana gained.   We vacuum up another Eviln, but our path into the east end of the region is blocked by this large gate. I wonder if that one key will become important... nah...  I've been studiously working my way around the edge of the region, because the center is taken up by this large Elven city, built on an island and surrounded by rivers. Among the strangeness, we do find the familiar sight of a dwarven dirigible.  : Look at yourself, a real dwarven traveler... I've never heard of forest dwarves before! : You're telling me! I've never heard of such nonsense either... Together with the dirigible I am... well, a gift to the elves' queen. The pointy-eared may think themselves all high and wise, but the can't even fix a simple redonit bulb into an overload socket. And I'm not even talking the dirigible!: Can you take me somewhere?: I'm sorry, but for the moment I'm grounded. A special decree of the queen - no flights! If I got the dirigible into the sky, the balloon will be holed in a moment. You've heard of elven marksmen - it's no joke.: Why sudden;y such a decree?: Who knows what troubles the minds of these pointy-eared? Especially the mind of a girl of royal blood. Do you know how old Violetta is? Catch my drift?: Ok, I'll come by next time, after you're allowed back in the air. See you later, pilot.One of my annoyances with the game is how they disable the fast-travel like these dirigibles until after you've completed the main quest in that region. By the time you do, you've probably cleared out most the area. All it does is add time of you going back for troops that is not needed.  Anyways, the city is dominated by this soaring castle.  Welcome to the Elven capital, Daloer. The boots on sale here give +3 Defense - not as good as my current shoe-wear, but still not a bad boost if you need it. However, we have more urgent business than shopping.  : Your Majesty, I am Bill Gilbert. I cam from King Mark Leonar the Second! : (It seems the elf queen does not hear you. From time to time her lips soundlessly stir, but her eyes remain dead.): Do you know that the Princess Amelie was kidnapped by your ambassadors? I have come to take her back immediately. : (Leave the queen alone.) : You've come to us at a very difficult time for all who call Ellinia home. Look upon our queen's beautiful face and cry, human, for her face is the face of death! General Karador's evil spells have captured the pure soul of our queen. And now our nation obeys his will through her words.: I don't understand what you're talking about. I came here to recover Princess Amelie, and I seriously have to talk to your queen.: You're either extremely stupid, blind, or deaf, human! Look into these eyes that used to be so beautiful! The Majestic Queen Violetta is not here with us. Her mind is absent...: So how can I talk to her about the elves' kidnapping of our young princess?: It's not difficult to understand. Just return to Queen Violetta her priceless soul, which has been locked in the dreadful Crystal of Darkness.: And where can I find the Crystal of Darkness? Such treasure probably costs a lot of money...: It's simple enough, human. The Crystal of Darkness is with General Karador, in Necrocom castle. We elves cannot go through the dead gate and release the queen's soul, but you're a human, so you can do it. If you manage to break this dreadful crystal, you'll be able to return the stolen souls and bring our queen back to life. I'm sure that Queen Violetta will answer all your questions, and help you recover your young princess. (Reward: 5200 Experience)This is bullshit, by the way. We will have no problem taking plenty of elves through to the Land of Death. : Ok. My mission is to carry out negotiations with your queen. And if breaking the crystal is the only way, then I'll just have to do it!And there's our mission for this region - go to the Land of Death, find the castle Necrocom, and break the Crystal of Darkness.  Before we leave, I do an exchange and take on these Elves and leave my Skeleton Archers behind. Make no mistake, this is a downgrade.  The only other house of note (interactable, that is) sits next to the castle.  : Don't cry, my beauty, I'll help you. Wipe away your tears and tell me where the orcs have gone. : I don't know where they have gone. Their troops terrorize the whole of Ellinia. I heard them calling their commander Igdym Urkurshak. Find this monster and take the family recipe from him. The recipe is written on the bark of the Tree of Life.: Don't worry. Calm down, I'll do everything I can. And behind the castle, we find a figure that appears to be made out of the water itself.  : I need some non-freezing water. It is for a small brook in Kordar that is afraid of freezing. : Your way was very long, Bill Gilbert. You are a very kind man, to care so about a small brook. Please, take this vial of magical water, and give it to the brook.: Oh, I'm not doing it out of kindness, just regular old greed.: Thank you, I wish you pure water, fairy. The anti-freeze water itself is a pretty nice item, letting us refill our Mana three times at will. Since Mana regenerates, though, this is only truly great when you have multiple fights in a row. And I'd much rather have the reward for finishing the quest right away.  So despite our important quest, I think its time for a quick diversion back to Kordar to deliver this water.  : Have youuuu visited elves? Have youuuu spoooken to Diana?: Yes, yes, here's the elven water.: Thank youuu! Hooow gooood... Take the reward, byeee... (Reward: 2 Might Runes, 2 Mind Runes, 2 Magic Runes, 2400 Experience)That's a nice haul of runes, basically a level's worth. And we can definitely use these right away...  The new runes give us just enough Magic Runes to buy the final level of Destroyer, enhancing the power of our combat spells still further. Beyond further increases to Intellect, Bill's spells are now as powerful as they can be.  And that power will be used immediately. Remember the Arena of Truth, where we fought a doppleganger (in Update 38)? Well, as I said then, there's a second fight we can do, a much harder one. With our spells now at maximum strength, it's a good time to get this done.  : Are you ready to come back to Truth Arena? Do you wan to continue to learn yourself?: Remember, what waits for me there?: You will see your future. One possible future.... What heights can you reach? Who you can become? Everyone sees something. Even I don't know what awaits you there.: Let's try. This time, our Double has come from the future. Interesting, since we've either gotten stupider, or we've lost some equipment - our current Intellect far surpasses our Double's. Still, he does have significantly higher stats than the last time we met. Of course, the big difference is that last time we fought, our Double had about 25% more troops than we did. This time? He lives up to his name and exactly doubles the army we brought in.  Of course, Bill himself has grown quite a bit since the last time we fought our Double, and doing a good 12K+ damage with a spell goes a long way towards evening the odds. It doesn't hurt that I brought a lot of troops that are vulnerable to fire (both Ents and Sprites). I swear this wasn't intentional, but I'm glad to take advantage of it.  We've also acquired the Reaper since then, and his Soul Draining ability is perfect for large stacks, so say good-bye to 30% of this stack of Elves.  Like before, our opponent has access to a wide variety of spells, and what he chooses to use can vastly influence how your fight goes. I get very lucky and he chooses to use Pygmy in the first round. This makes our Sprites less effective, but not enough for me to worry about.   His fire-weakened Sprite stacks move up and get annihilated.  The Bees continue to be an effective attack, and are nice when you don't want to face retaliation.  Here's one of the spells I don't like to see him casting, Phantom. Since the Double's stacks can be very large, the phantom copy represents pretty large amounts of troops added.  The enemy Shamans do not like my new Elves - at least these losses will be easier to replace than my precious Skeleton Archers.  While his stacks are still grouped up, I continue to fry them.  Sometimes I learn new things while playing this LP. For instance, my Sprites have this handy Dispel ability, right? And the Phantoms that the enemy summoned are basically purely a spell, right? Well, what happens when we combine them?  That's right, Dispel instantly kills summoned units. The spell of the same name will probably work as well, but you need the Level 2 version to be able to target an enemy unit. The Sprite's Talent doesn't have that restriction.  Of course, the Double can immediately replace that loss, but at least it used up his spell for the turn.  An overview of the battle a few turns in. In the midfield, our Ents and Unicorns are battling with the enemy Unicorns (there's another stack below that you can't see). Our own Elves have been badly hit, but the enemy rear is still clumped and receiving massive damage from my Fire Rain spells, and the last of the enemy Ent is burned away. I'm sneaking my Sprites around to take out the opposing Elves.  They get one attack in before being Blinded. This is annoying, but better now than earlier on. I can use Dispel to get rid of it at the cost of missing out on a damage spell.  Here's the other thing I got wrong about Ents... the Wasp Swarm is not a one-shot, but instead a rechargeable Talent. It takes two turns to reload (so you can fire bees every third turn).  Ouch, that's not my Geyser spell. This hurts, though not nearly as badly as my own would.  But his spells can only hurt us while we hunt down his last few troops.  Our future self lays dead at our feet... not sure how proud I should feel. But the victory was a sound one, and we learn a great deal from the battle. The only truly battered stack are the Elves, who were a favourite of target of the enemy Shamans. (Side note: this recorded battle was so much better than my practice run. A combination of my own ineptitude and him casting better spells lead to me losing probably half of my army.)  Before we get our real reward, we get a nice level-up for the Reaper. Though Rage Draining is nice, I don't tend to use it in the hard battles. So I'll go for increasing the variety of targets I can use Time Back on. : Congratulations! You are worthy of the title Hero of Truth! And such a hero deserves a great reward! (Reward: 10K Gold, 3 Might Runes, 3 Mind Runes, 3 Magic Runes): Can I pass any more tests?: No, sorry. But there will be plenty of tests in your future. Just proceed down your life's road, which you're already one.: That's too bad. Well, good bye, Dreghen.Mmm, now that's a nice reward. Now to find our way back out of Kordar.  Remember this submarine? The first time we came by, the dwarf in charge wouldn't let us on, on account of us technically being at war. Now that we have peace with the dwarves...  : So? You come here again to teach the old sea fox how to swear? Or you want to whisper sweet nothings in me ear?: I want to know where you can take me in your ship.: Me? I would go to the ends of the earth! If there be a map of the depths... But of recent I been to visit the pirate Islands and Darion. To listen, to watch - you understand me, do you?: Come, turn your ship to Darion.: Hey, you! Who allowed you to command here, human? I'm the captain! Get inside and don't touch or turn anything. There have been several incidents with people with curious fingers...: Set sail... With that, we board the submarine and give our lives over to dwarven engineering as the machine dives into the frigid waters.  Luckily the captain knows his stuff, and we are deposited safely on the shores of Darion. The submarine doesn't work as a two-way transport though, and it dives again as soon as we are on dry land.  Thanks to these last couple of quests, we've gotten a large number of Runes to help us. Right now my plan is to save until I can afford Higher Magic 3 and then see what we can afford from there. Next time, we will finish exploring The Valley of a Thousand Rivers and feed our pet in an irresponsible manner. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore We could deal with the Shaman Karrakh in a few different ways. First, we could have just accepted his artifact (the Skull). In which case: : Pooh, I don't even want to touch you. Give me your artifact and don't ever let me see you again.: Now me say thank you and kiss your dirty boot. But you remember - great Karrakh remember everything! Karrakh find a terrible spell and then find human and take very-very horrible revenge.: Ok, I'll be waiting for you.That may seem like a final goodbye, but if we approach his tower after that: : Human... You again come to laugh at Karrakh? Why call turtle, damage tree? You not laugh long, soon me make terrible stinking poison and curse you!: Stop swearing and show me what you have for sale! Yep, we get to use him as a store! Not sure if we should buy a potion from a guy who threatened to make a "terrible stinking poison", but what do I know? Anyways, his stock is nothing special, though the Armageddon spell there is not a bad one if you haven't found it. Alternately, we didn't have to summon the Turtle to aid us and get rid of his precious Crystal of Peace. What if we attacked him first? : Don't even bother with your threats. I'll prove that your words aren't worth the wind that carries them. (Attack the shaman.) Though Karrakh's army is not significantly stronger, his stats are now off the charts. 50 Intellect?! Better hope he stays away from the damage spells.  We still burn his Catapults out, though it takes two casts, so no Hypnotize yet.  Lucky(ish) for me, he uses a bunch of non-damaging spells, like this cast of Sheep.  Our troops clash, and we take over the stack of Goblins before they can start raining axes on my head. You can see how the Orcs are doing pretty well against my Unicorns thanks to Karrakh's physical stats.  Finally, he does use Lightning to blow up my Unicorns...  Though the secondary spark then badly damages his own Orcs.  Definitely a harder fight than the non-boosted version, but not insurmountable. Marking the Map  Talkin' 'bout Troops Dryad  Resistances: None Critical Hit %: 3 Defense Bonus: 3 Abilities Soaring No Retaliation Beauty: Being confused by a beautiful girl, male humanoids can miss with a probability of 30%. Charm: During attack, the creature can fascinate a male humanoid with a probability of 20%, turning him to fight on the Dryad's side. Tree Fairy: Ents and Thorns in the army gain +1 Morale. Talents  Summon Thorns: Summons a troop of Thorns, which fight to the death on the side of the Dryad. They disperse when the battle is finished. Total Leadership of the troop is 8-10. (Reload: 2) Elven Song: The dryad sings an inspiring song, which increases the Initiative of allied elves by 3 for 5 turns. (Charge: 1) Lullaby: The fascinating voice of the dryad lulls the troops of level 1-3 to sleep for 2 turns. Does not affect creatures immune to Mind spells. (Reload: 3)Gully's opinion: Oh boy. Dryads are one of most jam-packed with goodness units in the game. Just look at that list of abilities! The ultra-amazing No Retaliation, the Beauty/Charm combo that are so insane that the only balance is that it only works on a small subset of units, and a boost for the plants in your army. And their talents? A summon (which as we've seen is supremely useful), a huge initiative boost for elven units, and the most crazy powerful talent in the game, Lullaby. Against some armies, this just shuts down so many things. And if the enemy army doesn't have targets for it? Just use the other talents! Or actually attack! Speaking of, their one weakness is limited damage from their attack - they have very low Attack stat and damage range, and the lowest critical hit chance in the game. Defensively, though, they are fantastic - good Defense, amazing Health, and no retaliation. On top of everything, they are female - and so affected by Anga's Ruby! Fighting them: The most important step is actually army design - when coming to the elven lands, make sure you have at least a few stacks that aren't effected by the Lullaby talent. Bring fire damage - not for the Dryad, but for the Thorns they summon. If you are fighting multiple Dryad stacks (and your army is vulnerable to Lullaby), they absolutely have to be priority one targets. Otherwise, they will chain Lullaby your army. Getting into melee, try to use non-male humanoid troops. If you have Hypnotize, they make great targets. Blind is also good just to be able to ignore them for a bit. Spells Seen Hypnosis  Hypnosis enables you to control the enemy troop. This spell does not effect creatures which are immune to Mind spells. Otherwise, this spell can effect any target whose Leadership does not exceed the spell's power. Crystal Cost: 10 / 20 / 30 Mana Cost: 20 / 30 / 40 Level 1: Target's Level: 1-2; Leadership: 40% of hero's total; Duration: 2 turns Level 2: Target's Level: 1-3; Leadership: 60% of hero's total; Duration: 2 turns Level 3: Target's Level: 1-4; Leadership: 80% of hero's total; Duration: 2 turns Gully's opinion: Hypnosis is a insanely good spell, at least if you have a good amount of Intellect to boost the range of potential targets. Seizing control of an enemy unit is just so good. Preferential targets include anything that has great Talents to use (especially summons, since they stick around) or just something you want out of the way for a couple of turns. You can use your target to soak up enemy retaliations, you can distract a bunch of stacks at once, and really mess up the AI with it. So much fun. Just beware the limitations: obviously large stacks can't be targeted (though you can whittle them down first), Undead/Plants/certain other troops are all immune, and the spell costs a ton of Mana to cast. Items Identified Old Skull  Description: It seems to be the skull of the shaman Karrakh's grandfather. It's a rather unusual amulet. Effects: +3 to Intellect, +10 to Mana Type: Artifact Race: Orcs Cost: 35000 Info: The shaman Karrakh created this amulet from the skull of his own grandfather, himself also a great shaman. If you will listen to it, you can hear that the skull is whispering. Perhaps it gives a well-needed piece of advice, but unfortunately the skull only speaks the orc's language.
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Jul 16, 2018 01:57
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Those dryads are actually really good (less good if the enemy only has high level troops though) and that hypnotize and sacrifice trick is hilarious. Looks like the fast travel system might be made for when you leave an area so you might be supposed to do one part at the time. Kinda annoying.
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Jul 16, 2018 09:24
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Update 52 - The LP title is now complete Last update, we arrived at the capital of the elven kingdom only to find that the Elven Queen Violetta was no longer herself - her soul had been stolen by the Undead General Karador and taken it to his castle Necrocom in the Land of Death. So a small complication on our quest.  We've already explored the southern half of the valley, so we turn north instead. Immediately we find the next Eviln to consume.  One path leads into the mountains (the same ones where that locked gate was), where we find a Griffin nest. These ones are not friendly like the ones back in Darion, and attack as we approach.  Reminds me of the battles you fight in a Heroes of Might and Magic game - just tons of the same troop.  Griffins make very good Hypnosis targets. Not because of any Talent, but one particular ability.  Their infinite counter attack ability means that every single enemy that comes in gets a retaliation attack.  One of the more subtle aspects of Hypnosis is that it tends to make the enemy group up - perfect for a Mage to follow up with a Fire Rain or two.  After the battle, we pick up one more Eviln and the banner the Griffins were guarding.  Nice little koi pond going on here. If it wasn't for the massive armies, it could be a nice peaceful place to rest.  We could pick up some Dryads here, but I decide not to. First, this isn't enough for a full stack. But mainly they would make the game too easy - sending half of most armies you encounter to sleep is just so powerful. I'm ok with abusing magic to blow apart armies - I've had to build my character and spend a lot of runes to that effect. But just having one stack of Dryads is such an easy way to go.  As we leave the pond, we come across another army - where did those Sea Dogs come from?   One stack of Elves is blown apart, and the other is blocked in by a totem.  This gives time for my Ents to come and spray bees all over the place.  You have to wonder what is going through the last few Elves here, watching the rest of their allies crumble under a storm of fire.   It's been a long time coming, but we've finally fought 50 battles while using the Banner of true Faith (we got it way back in Kordar, Update 44). Now we can "Use" the banner to spit out a whole 10 Mind Runes.  Yeah, this is probably more than we need for a long time.  We contine heading north-west in search of more Evilns.  Once again, we have multiple Dryad stacks, so we know what to do here:  Hypnotize the earliest acting stack...  And then put the others to sleep. I'm not gonna hire Dryads, but I don't feel bad about using them like this.  We've seen Royal Thorns a number of times by now, but we've usually burned them away immediately. Royal Thorns are the big boys of the Thorn world. Their primary talent, Germination, lets them summon Thorns out of nowhere. It's the main reason to play with them - lots of disposable units is great.  The Royal Thorns are also ranged archers, and their shots are fairly strong.  Of course, we can deal easily with them through any of our fire spells. And that's their primary weakness - it's hard to keep them alive once fire damage becomes popular. Red/Black Dragons love munching on these dudes.    After killing the Thorns, we head up the hill to find a flower house. I'm glad to find a good source of replacement Sprites - you may have noticed that we often lose a small handful in each battle, just due to how fragile they are.  We are chased away back down the hill by these Black Unicorns - I wasn't ready for this battle.  After waiting for them to move on, we pick up this precious Might Rune - we may have too many Mind Runes for now, but I can use as many of these as I find. Somewhere around here, we have also eaten enough Evilns for Egnum to go to "Is full" status - but we aren't finished yet.  We re-encounter the unicorns on a bridge over a pretty waterfall.  Unfortunately, the bridge scenery does not carry into the battlefield.  Thorns are just stupidly easy to fight as a mage.  I do mess up and let one stack of Black Unicorns though my lines, losing a Shaman that I didn't need to.  The other stacks are picked apart by my own in the midfield.   On the other side of the bridge an old ruin holds a few Crystals for us, and a view over where we first entered into the Valley.  The plateau we are exploring has most of the remaining Evilns in the region. But first we have to deal with the occupants.  Just lots and lots of Sprites - also vulnerable to fire.  They do not last long here.   With the enemies out of the way, we pick up all the evil cloud, and Egnum status changes to "Pigged out". There's also a Mana fountain here, though we don't need it at all.  The very last Eviln (#15) is down the hill, along a road leading to the coast.  Before we deliver the stuffed creature for the reward, we follow the road to this coastal village. Only the one house there is of any use to us.  : Is that why you're so sad, or is something else bothering you? : You're shrewd and responsive, human. Too sensitive for a human. Yes, my heart is filled with both sorrow and love as well. You might ask what is the connection between these two feelings? My answer is that I have a beloved girl, to whom I want to give my love, but there are ancient traditions which prevent me from expressing my feelings. You probably know that every elf has a flower-symbol? When my beloved Mirea was born, a rune with a symbol of wonderful Gerharius flower fell. So now, according to our ancient traditions, I must find this flower and place it before my fiancee's feet, if I am to express my feelings!: So, what is the problem? You allergic to the flower or something?: Human, you are talking to an elf! Human weaknesses are unfamiliar for us! The point is that this flower is very rare and it grows only in the densest thicket of the Great Forest! By myself I cannot reach it, for the way is very difficult, full of dangers and challenges. But my family is very rich and I am ready to give a generous reward to the one who can bring me the flower! (Reward: 17 500 Gold, 1 Mind Rune): Great offer, I agree.Well, the gold reward is paltry, and I have too many Mind runes as it is, but I guess we can do this.  We head back to the Magic Valley for a couple of things - first, we drop off Egnum.  : So, how's my little Egnum? Has he had his meal?: I think he may have overeaten.: Wonderful, just wonderful! You've saved the lives of many innocent creatures, and you've fed my pet at the same time. Come on, give me my Egnum, I missed him so much. Oh, he became so fat!: Ok, let's finish our discussion of the Egnum and return to more important matters. How many runes will I get for feeding it?: (The sorcerer takes the pet into his hands and gives you several sparkling stones.) Here, take them, I'm sure you'll figure out what to do with them. (You've gotten Magic Runes: 8 pcs): Thank you, I was glad to help.I'll say I'm glad! Now that's what I call a reward! The reward for this quest is dependent on both class and how full you get Egnum. There's really no reason not to stuff him full though, since the prize is so nice.  The influx of Magic Runes lets us pick up the last level of Higher Magic, letting us do double spells three time per batlle now. Our Mage key skills are basically done - everything from here on out are mostly just gravy.  We also came back to pick our ship up to explore the islands around the Valley of a Thousand Rivers.  Some of the islands look like they are man-made (elf-made?).  This one holds a lighthouse watching over the approaches to the island.  For an Elven Lighthouse, the troops guarding it sure aren't elvish. Maybe they are shipwreck survivors or something. Anyways, there's nothing special for us here - I buy the Mana potion and leave.  Across from the lighthouse, we can land on the mainland and explore an isolated path into the mountains. Is that supposed to be what a Dragon skull looks like?  The Den, as expected, will sell us Emerald Green Dragons - an offer I can't refuse. I snap up a troop of them, and they'll replace the Unicorns in my army. Finally, I have now used all the creatures in the LP title!  Down the coast we quickly get a chance to try these Greens out.  Another odd miss for the battle backgrounds - this should be a beach fight.  The enemy units move up together, but I see an opening for my Green Dragons. We fly them in to land next to as many enemies as we can, and then...  Mana Source is the main reason to use these guys - this offensive Talent unleashes a blast of magic damage at all surrounding hexes. The damage is lower than their normal attack, but there's no retaliation and you can often hit 3-4 stacks with it. And that's not even the best part:  As the name indicates, this Talent also gives you a bunch of Mana back, depending on damage done/how many units affected (I don't know the formula). Anything that gives me Mana means that I can either keep casting spells for way longer during a battle, or I can leave a battle more topped up and have less time to wait to recover.  Green Dragons, like most Level 5 units, are quite tough and can withstand a lot of punishment without any losses. However, do note that also like other Level 5 units, their offensive capability is not quite as good as low-level units. I did a bit of math, and my Sprites should do about 50% more damage against a generic target - though resistances and critical hits weren't taken into account.  Like this, my Sprites do way more damage using their basic attack. However, this attack leaves them sitting vulnerable next to the enemy. Maybe we can do something about that...  The second combat Talent of the Green Dragon is called Target Capture. This lets them pull the target from a hex away, before swiping it for extra damage (about 25% more than their base attack). Again, the target gets no retaliation against the attack. The ability is also one of the few in the game that does a constant amount of damage, no RNG to worry about. This one is useful for both the damage and the ability to move an enemy unit around the battlefield.  We also don't have to worry about taking trickles of losses when using the Green Dragons. Attacks that kill one are going to be major attacks or spells, ones that would do massive damage to any stack I have.  I pick up some bonus damage for the Underground Blades ability for Zerock - not that I use it basically ever, but the rage increase isn't that great and I'll still occasionally use Stone Wall because it is cheap.  The troops were guarding this Pirate hut - I guess this is where those Sea Dogs on the mainland came from.  Nah, nothing I need.  Plenty of inlets and islands, most of which have nothing but gold. Here though we at least find another army to take on needlessly (once we dug up the treasure, there's nothing else on this path).  So of course we fight them. This narrow path is another unusually lengthy battlefield.  Their Griffins serve as a nice distraction for the whole army.  The Target Capture talent gives the Green Dragons just a bit more range on top of their already great Speed.  Even with their high Speed, my Sprites would not have been to reach the enemy in the first turn - except now my Dragons have brought this one stack closer, so...  The Sprites get to use their insane damage capabilities to destroy the target.  And the remaining units are easily wiped out the next turn.   Moving along, we find another surprisingly good Shrine of Experience hanging along the coast.  And once again, it pushes us to the next level! I judge that I can probably use the bonus Mana more here. Intellect is nice, but all of my Intellect isn't useful if I run out of Mana to cast spells.  One last inhabited island to explore.  Now this battlefield makes sense, with the giant stone face and all - not sure why that other battle used this field.  Enemy Sprites are very easy to distract into using their Dispel ability instead of moving or attacking - basically any debuff on any enemy, even just something minor like being on fire will often cause them to use it.  And anytime the enemy is not attacking or doing anything useful is time for us to destroy them.   In front of the stone face we saw in the battle, we find a rare boost for us, bringing our Attack all the way to 3!  Hidden away at the back of the stone face is this mysterious cave. On my test run I missed this thing entirely, so the inside is a true mystery to me.  That exploration will need to wait until next time. A look at Bill's abilities shows that the Magic tree is nearly full. I won't mind getting some more Concentration or Wisdom to further boost the Mana reservoir though. Next time, we will see what that cave holds, and then head into the third region of Ellinia, the Great Forest. ---------------------------------- Bonus Material Learning Lore So you want to break the game? In the LP, I've shown off a few tricks that are very effective (things like Snakes and Shamans together, or the Hypnotize/Sacrifice combo, or just Dryads in general). I don't think those are really exploits. However, we now have the tools for one truly game-breaking combination.  To show it off, let's get rid of everything that's not an Emerald Green Dragon from my army.  They are looking pretty lonely out there, aren't they?  The other element to combine with the Emerald Green Dragons is the Invisibility spell.  When you have one single stack that's invisible, the enemy has no choice but to pass their turn. One key needed for this trick is that your stack should go first - luckily, Green Dragons have quite high Initiative. By going first, you can cast Invisibility before the enemy can act, and then wait until the enemy has passed.  We still need to do damage, though - and the Green Dragons have the perfect talent for it: Mana Source. See, you could theoretically do the fast-unit-with-Invisibility trick with other units... but you'd rapidly run out of Mana to cast Invisibility. Even if you have the regeneration to get the 10 Mana back each turn (which is possible), the game has a hidden mechanic to dis-incentivize long battles. After the 10th turn, most sources of Mana or Rage income are dramatically reduced. For instance, we normally get +5 Mana back per turn (+2 from Concentration skill, +3 from an item). After the 10th turn, we only get +1 back each turn. Not enough to sustain Invisibility castings. The Mana Source talent, though, does not have any such reduction - we get the full amount back anytime we use it (again, depending on how many stacks we hit/damage done).  You can also use Target Capture occasionally - it's not perfectly Mana efficient, but if you have a good reservoir, you don't have to do the trick perfectly. And Target Capture can be used to drag units into position to get as many stacks as possible with each Mana Source use.  You can still use Rage abilities freely to add some bonus damage or whatever you like. If you have spare Mana you can also throw some other spells around - just be careful to keep enough for Invisibility.  We continue working them down one Mana Source at a time. Invisibility does break after any attack or Talent use, so you need to re-cast it the next turn after any attack. This is why the stack should be faster than any enemy - if your Dragons are slower, you can use the Battle Cry spell to help out, though you still might take damage in the first turn, and you have to be careful in managing your casts of Battle Cry in between casts of Invisibility.  Finally, on turn 31(!) the last enemy falls.  And there we go - we had only 20% of our army, used no offensive spells, and still destroyed the enemy with no losses. This trick can truly break the game. You do have to be careful in managing your Mana right, but with this you can theoretically take on nearly any fight in the game. I highly recommend not doing this! Not only does it break the game, but the battles are boring, long, and highly repetitive. The only reason to do this trick is trying for a no-loss run on high difficulties. But that seems like a terrible way to play the game in my opinion. Marking the Map  Talkin' 'bout Troops Royal Thorn  Resistances: 50% Poison, -100% Fire Critical Hit %: 20 Defense Bonus: 6 Abilities Archer Plant Eyeless: Immune to "Blind", "Precision", and "Shroud" spells. Can sense invisible creatures. Talents  Germination: Grows a troop of Thorns in a free neighboring cell. The total Leadership of the new troop is 150-300. (Reload: 3)Gully's opinion: Royal Thorns are one of those troops that are extremely good in the early game but lose out as the game goes on. Their damage output is a bit low for their cost (though it is one of the stronger ranged attacks in the game), and they are highly immobile - if anything gets next to them, you can't scoot and shoot. However, their Talent is quite good - summoning an average of 225 Leadership of Thorn/Thorn-Hunters per Royal Thorn, and it can be repeated! In the early/mid-game, these sacrificial units are amazing at soaking up damage and making battles easy. However, as the game goes on, the more powerful enemies will start getting to your Royal Thorns and hurting them bad - especially anything that uses fire. Red/Black dragons will just wreck these guys, so once you start facing them regularly, the Royal Thorn should probably leave your army. Fighting them: It's a plant, so burn it. Even just Flaming Arrow will go a long way. And if you get anything into melee range, they are much less effective archers since they can't move away and shoot. If you can block every available hex, they also can't summon anything. Emerald Green Dragon  Resistances: 10% Physical, 30% Magic, 50% Fire Critical Hit %: 10 Defense Bonus: 6 Abilities Flight: Can fly over low obstacles or rough terrain. Hates Giants: Causes the creature to inflict double damage to Giants. If Giants are in the army, then Morale is decreased. Magic Resistance Fire Protection Immune to Mind Spells Talents  Target Capture: Seizes the enemy who stands opposite from him across one free cell, pulls the enemy to him and inflicts 130-130 points of damage. (Reload: 2) Mana Source: Inflicts 50-70 points of Magic Damage to all surrounding targets, and drains Mana from them, giving it to the hero. (Reload: 3)Gully's opinion: My favourite dragon, and probably favourite high-level unit. Although technically the weakest dragon, the Green Dragon comes with a nice combination of abilities to counter their lower stats. They are fast and mobile like all dragons - even if they have the lowest Speed at 6, it is boosted by the Target Capture talent to grab creatures just out of reach. But the big draw for them is the Mana Source talent - though the damage is low on individual units, you can often hit 3-4 targets at a time, and it does an alternate form of damage too (where Red/Black Dragons can only do Fire). Mainly, though, the mana-stealing effect is just plain awesome. Having a good source of Mana income is so useful in any of the tougher battles - especially for a Mage character. Note that both of their Talents also give the enemy no retaliation, so that's a nice boost to their survivability as well. Fighting them: Keep in mind their ability to attack across a hex, so try to bait them into flying close to you without attacking, and then gang up on them. They aren't particularly tough against Physical attacks (comparatively), and Poison damage can bypass their Resistances entirely as well. Try not to leave obvious holes that they can fly into and zap clustered units. Items Identified Book of Beast Rage  Description: The book is covered in leather and closed with a bear-claw clasp. Effects: +3 to Rage Type: Artifact Race: Elves Cost: 3000 Info: Pages of the book are covered with strange runes of bloody-red. The runic language is entirely alien to you, but after peering at the strange runes, you begin to feel the fury of causeless rage.
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Jul 21, 2018 14:58
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I think I would prefer to get stuck and give up on the game than resort to that kind of green dragon cheese tactics. Personally I prefer the firebreathing dragons. But of course I never realized how useful they were with getting mana back. And I never found a good spot for them from what I can remember.
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Jul 21, 2018 22:24
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Higher Magic 3 will basically carry you through the game. Magic is crazy powerful in the first game, and even nerfs throughout the others still just brought it to par with the other trees.
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Jul 22, 2018 01:21
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Poil posted:I think I would prefer to get stuck and give up on the game than resort to that kind of green dragon cheese tactics.
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Jul 22, 2018 01:48
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Poil posted:Personally I prefer the firebreathing dragons. But of course I never realized how useful they were with getting mana back. And I never found a good spot for them from what I can remember. The other dragons are good, but I don't tend to use them for a couple reasons. First, hard to get - we haven't seen them at all so far, the earliest you get them is pretty far into the game (in the Land of Death usually). Second, fire damage in the late game loses a lot of utility. The end of the game has a whole lot of demons and dragons, all having a minimum 50% resistance to Fire (and some of them as much as 80%). This is a real problem for units which can only use fire. They would/will be good for Ellinia and the Land of Death though, and I think we will be using them at least a bit, assuming I find a good store of them. wiegieman posted:Higher Magic 3 will basically carry you through the game. Magic is crazy powerful in the first game, and even nerfs throughout the others still just brought it to par with the other trees. Yep, it's pretty broken in this game. The balance changes in the future games are very welcome, and the classes become far more evenly powered (for that and other reasons too). Next game we will be playing something other than a Mage. Poil posted:I think I would prefer to get stuck and give up on the game than resort to that kind of green dragon cheese tactics. MagusofStars posted:Agreed. If you're spending 31 turns to finish a regular battle, you're straight up playing wrong, even if you're winning. Oh yeah, it's not a good way to play. The 31 turns go by pretty fast though - most of them you are just passing the turn doing nothing. It's a trick/combo that I saw people talk about on message boards, and I wanted to try it out just to see. But don't play the game that way.
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Jul 23, 2018 15:09
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Hey people, just stumbled across this thread. I love me some Heroes of Might and Magic, but haven't really gotten into any past 5. This looks like retro HOMM fun. So looking at my Steam account I have apparently impulse purchased (I have no recollection of buying either. So Steam.txt there  ) at some point KB Crossroads and Armoured Princess.Any recommendations on which I should give a try?
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Jul 23, 2018 17:45
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If my memory is correct it's the same game only crossroads has a lot more stuff. On one hand it adds to the game but on the other it makes it more complicated.
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Jul 23, 2018 18:22
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Play crossroads and think of it as armored princess + meaty set of patches.
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Jul 23, 2018 19:28
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Deptfordx posted:Hey people, just stumbled across this thread. I love me some Heroes of Might and Magic, but haven't really gotten into any past 5. This looks like retro HOMM fun. Glad to have you on board! As the posters above me have said, Crossworlds (not Crossroads, though I made that same mistake, it feels more natural to write) is basically an expansion pack to Armored Princess. It contains a few campaigns, the main one of which is called Orcs on the March. This campaign is the same campaign as the Armored Princess game, but with a whole bunch of new units, spells, items, and a few extra side-quests. I'd recommend that one, as it's really the best version (though I do have some minor complaints about some of the unit balance).
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Jul 23, 2018 20:01
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Downloading Crossworlds now, probably won't have a chance to play around with it till Wednesday though.
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Jul 23, 2018 20:58
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Gully Foyle posted:(though I do have some minor complaints about some of the unit balance). Just some? I always thought that the modern KB series is all about how much you can break the game
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Jul 26, 2018 18:05
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