Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Completed Let us RECLAIM THE HOLY LAND

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
Patron
Joined
Feb 23, 2006
Messages
28,396
Location
Not Here
Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
Galilee Upgrade points has big game changers.
And not getting cash when your army hasn't reached its peak is no good. Take out Antioch for income.
 

Reinhardt

Arcane
Joined
Sep 4, 2015
Messages
29,236
Upgrade points. What the point of upgrade tree if you don't upgrade things?
Asia Minor.
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,405
Location
Djibouti
SURAH 5 - SALADIN'S MARCH TO THE SEA

201707281720501.jpg


We accept the gracious donation of elder scrolls. Soon we'll be able to master dragon shouts.

201707281722561.jpg


After which we go check what all the fuss is about in Antioch.



201707281723431.jpg


Lovely desert morning.

201707281723561.jpg


Here are the fortified enemies. They aren't as muslim as the mission preview would believe you to be.

The regiments are no problem, just white companies and crusader archers, but the catapult and ballista might be a problem.

201707281724201.jpg


The other enemy force has shittons of heavy infantry - 2x crusaders and 2x templars, which is going to be a HUGE pain. Also two bowmen units on top.

No sign of the third force that was supposed to come from the northeast. Suspicious.

201707281725511.jpg


We split the army to send all cavalry towards the siege weapons, and all the rest to ambush the templars & co.

201707281726551.jpg


An artistic picture of the charge of the seljuk light brigade, flung about by catapult fire

201707281727221.jpg


Not for too long however.

201707281727471.jpg


Trouble's getting closer with every second, so better hurry it up.

201707281728191.jpg


Naturally, the fucking ballista, right before it was cut down, had decided to switch targets and clobbered one of Saladin's dudes into the sand...

Still, this post is no longer a concern.

201707281729311.jpg


While the templars got within our archers' range. We really, really have to soften them on the approach.

201707281730111.jpg


Fortunately, the crusaders decide to chase after our cavalry, which gives us a lot of bonus time to shoot their faces.

201707281730451.jpg


And also lets us ride around them and murder their bowmen.

201707281731531.jpg


Meanwhile the third crusader detachment has finally arrived, and it looks like BIG TRUBBLE. Must be some Teuton expedition cuz it has langschilde and 2x styrian infantry. Also 2x spearmen and 2x crus archers.

not good at all

201707281732141.jpg


Mass arrow fire works pretty well to break the morale of even the toughest units.

201707281732581.jpg


Unfortunately that's all we can accomplish before things get personal.

201707281733581.jpg


I reposition the archers in preparation for the nazis, and note their stamina fell to a fat zero :what:

201707281734221.jpg


Meanwhile the fleeing templars regroup.

201707281734571.jpg


Which is why we might want to bumrush them.

201707281735241.jpg


YALLA YALLA

201707281735531.jpg


The corpses on our side start piling up as the useless fucking seljuk swordsmen keep getting kicked around by generic crusaders :|

201707281736161.jpg


However, Allah be praised, the AI is too dumb to move the Germans.

201707281736251.jpg


So we can safely clean up here and rest.

Resting is super important now because almost ALL our units are out of stamina. Had the Germans attacked now, we'd be fucked.

201707281738421.jpg


Once everyone's had some pepsi, we can reposition to a nearby hill.

201707281739141.jpg


Keep firing, KEEP FIRING!

201707281739561.jpg


In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have bothered at all with shooting the crus archers and should have instead focused fully on the styrians. Oh well...

201707281741001.jpg


Here come the javelins :negative:

Also, the AI is actually cleverer than expected. I first tried to bait the javelins by running in with seljuk warriors, but it refused to comply.

201707281742501.jpg


The corpses pile ever higher, but I dare not engage with Saladin and the Circassians due to all the spearmen.

Meanwhile the seljuk horsemen run behind enemy lines to get rid of the archers

201707281744061.jpg


Mopping up

201707281744281.jpg


Huge losses, but the map wasn't actually the easiest. Lots of upper tier units against our zerglings seljuks leads to much bloodshed.

Fortunately, these being trash unit losses, the refills shouldn't be that costly.

201707281745221.jpg


:abyssgazer:

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Also, meet the Abbasid Lancers. They are an improvement over seljuk spearmen all around, but unfortunately not by a whole damn lot. I especially like how they have these shields and scale armours, but their ranged defence is still 0...

AND THEY EVEN HAVE THE SHIELD WALL ABILITY THAT RAISES RANGED DEF BY 50%

WHAT?


Some level ups

201707281745591.jpg


I grab Ambush for the assassinos. Pretty sure it makes for a better net damage increase than masterwork weaponry.

201707281746401.jpg


Saladin gets access to two new skills. Masterful tictacs.

201707281746421.jpg


Offensive strategy.

Needless to say, we will pump every possible point into offensive strategy from now on.

Now, time for some geld management

201707281747001.jpg


I first sell this piece of shit because what's its fucking point

201707281748171.jpg


I also get this upgrade. In the meantime I kicked the seljuk warriors and spearmen into the reserves too.

201707281748321.jpg


Voilla. Suddenly reinforcement costs go down from 18k to 10k.

Nevertheless, I reinforce neither Saladin nor Asad, because other matters need our dolla bills.

201707281749531.jpg


We are in desperate need of better archers.

201707281750121.jpg


These archers to be specific.

Allah akbar, who gives a shit about them fighting better in melee?!

Still, they also happen to have a lot better ranged damage than the Seljuks, and that's what counts.

201707281750331.jpg


And we have just enough cash to upgrade all of our archers into them.

201707281751131.jpg


They get a skill reroll, which gives me a short pause.

We're now sort of running out of areas with forests, I think, and archers typically have p. big losses, so I pick experienced retains over ambush.

Also, new event:

201707281751571.jpg


Fucking heretics.

You know, my biggest regret of the crusader campaign is that it didn't allow me to conquer Byzantium.

Anyways, this is a pretty silly event, "what kind of support do you need from them?" aka "how else can we word an event for free stuff?" and the rewards are obvious

- 6 Upgrade points
- Relic and armour
- 9k petrodollars

201707281752501.jpg


Antioch gives way to a new map.

201707281753001.jpg


Inb4 runtime errors!

201707281753391.jpg


Acre is largely a bizarro edition of the Crusader version of the map. We gotta split our army into two forces, then assign one to defend the city with siege weapons against the first wave of crusaders. After this is done, another wave of infidels will arrive, but we'll also get the second part of our army as reinforcements.

Other possible maps include: Arabia (oasis), Lesser Armenia (dudes on a hilltop with guard towers), Seljuk Sultanate (Turk rebels), Asia Minor (Hamburger Hill), Damascus (u wot m8)


Like always, plz be into tellings wot do:

- Which bribe to take from the Maronites/Orthodox/whatever heretics these even are
- JIHAD!!!
 

Erebus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
Messages
4,763
The upgrade points seem like an obvious choice.

And let's go to Arabia.
 

Azira

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
8,519
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Codex 2012
Upgrade points. You don't really need more cash right now, do you? :troll:

I don't care which map you take first though, so I'll abstain on that.
 

Jaedar

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
9,838
Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Iirc there are several maps ahead which we won't get any cash from, so I say we take the cash bonus and a mission that gives upgrade points (I don't remember which is which)
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,405
Location
Djibouti
okay, here's the list of available missions atm, cuz they are easy to lose track of:

201707281752501.jpg


201707261747151.jpg


201707261748021.jpg


201707241803401.jpg


201707222121221.jpg


201707222122121.jpg

You can easily disregard Damascus and the Seljuk Sultanate for now, I'm p. sure.
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,405
Location
Djibouti
SURAH 6 - BLOOD FOR PARADISE

201707300951591.jpg


We pressgang the Christians into giving up all the upgrade points they've stockpiled in their basements.

201707300952271.jpg


And we prepare to defend Acre with our lives!

I divide the army into archers + heavy hitters for the initial onslaught, and the rest for later reinforcements.

Dis gon be gud



201707300953461.jpg


Ah, no destructible walls and bastions.

That's good because the odds of runtime error go down significantly.

That's bad because all the holes in that fucking wall spell flanking disaster.

201707300954561.jpg


Nice details on some of those buildings.

201707300958371.jpg


10 engineering points don't give a lot of room to play with, so I set up 2 fire ballistas (unlike crusader siege weapons, you really want to max these out. They are crazy effective) and 2 patches of caltrops at the city entrances.

201707300959171.jpg


Here they come. And their advantage is overwhelming to say the least.

2x ENGLISH LONGBOWMEN, 2x crus archers, 1x KNIGHTS TEMPLAR, 2x langschilde, 4x vassals/white company, 3x spearmen.

I don't like this at all.

201707300959231.jpg


Also some pilgrims stashed here for whatever reason.

201707301000591.jpg


The templars park themselves at the left entrance and let themselves get pummeled by artillery. Don't mind if I do.

201707301001561.jpg


But obviously we switch targets to this juicy blob here the moment it enters our range.

201707301002251.jpg


... the crusaders are certainly performing some advanced manoeuvres here

Reminds me of Asterix and the roman legions scrambling into formation in a huge dust cloud.

201707301003331.jpg


Still, after a moment they finally decide to attack.

201707301003551.jpg


I put Saladin against the templars because everyone else is gon get trampled to death.

Let's hope the others finally start breaking because otherwise we'll be in BIG TRUBBLE.

201707301004341.jpg


They, in fact, don't start breaking. The gambit has failed.

BRACE FOR IMPACT

201707301005051.jpg


WHOA

201707301005341.jpg


Well, the morale fail domino came a bit late, but can't say it wasn't effective :lol:

Nevertheless, I'd rather see them run on the approach and not break in combat. That's because if units fly the white flag in combat, they typically still fight, while out of combat they just run in whatever direction, so we could shoot them out with archers. Meanwhile we'll be taking moar losses.

201707301006011.jpg


The effect of which is I gotta evac Saladin before he takes too much of a beating.

Also gotta commend the knights templar for holding out so damn long.

201707301006361.jpg


And here come the red flags, finally :hero:

201707301006541.jpg


... and here come the enemy reinforcements...

... spearheaded by two more regiments of knights templar :abyssgazer:

201707301007021.jpg


while the rest are 3x templars, 4x crus archers, 1x styrian infantry :abyssgazer:

THIS WILL BE A BLOODY FIGHT

201707301007431.jpg


Meanwhile our idiotic archers leave their cozy positions by the artillery for whatever idiotic reason and start taking shittons of casualties. Remember kids, NEVER GO THROUGH THE STREETS under arrow fire.

201707301008081.jpg


Our reinforcements finally make it in as well. But will they get to us in time?

And, most importantly, will they make a difference against all these fucking templars?

201707301009221.jpg


good that i picked experienced retainers for the turks

Anyway, the infidel vanguard has been sent to hell. We can now prepare ourselves for their friends.

201707301009351.jpg


But first lets try to get rid of these remaining cowardly archers.

201707301009591.jpg


It turns out to be a very dumb idea because the knights templar hunger for our seljuks.

201707301010281.jpg


This isn't really a fight we can win, especially with the rest of the heathens right there.

201707301011481.jpg


So I gtfo a moment later. We really have to get behind the artillery again.

201707301012351.jpg


However, one of the knight units refuses to fuck off, so I order the abbasid lancers into formation

201707301013221.jpg


And engage with the seljuk swordsmen as well.

201707301013541.jpg


But then the other knights come in from the flank :negative:

HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTTS

201707301014121.jpg


The first knight unit dies just as our dudes start getting trampled and shot. Allah be praised, they do not break. Because if they did, they'd both be toast.

201707301014341.jpg


The lancers manage to leg it with just 1 dude left :M

201707301015561.jpg


Here we go again, for another bloodbath.

201707301016281.jpg


Saladin, stop these templars from wrecking the artillery or I swear I'll have you beheaded.

201707301016441.jpg


Phew!

The heathen infantry might be a problem if they get near though.

201707301017391.jpg


The styrians fortunately get murdered by our bowmen.

201707301018081.jpg


Then the knights break :thumbsup:

201707301018191.jpg


And finally so do the incoming templar footmen :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

201707301019001.jpg


While these cretins here just park themselves and do nothing, no doubt frozen in fear by our righteous might! Superfortunate this, because I'm kind of out of good units that could engage them...

201707301020291.jpg


Once the parked templars are killed, we can bombard the equally parked crusader archers.

201707301023331.jpg


Killing some of them makes the rest trigger, but it's no biggie.

201707301024201.jpg


At this point, the artillery and archers are enough to massacre any fools dumb enough to get too close.

201707301025101.jpg


Cleaning up stragglers.

201707301025371.jpg


This was a cool battle men :shredder:

201707301026151.jpg


huge losses though so the refills will prob be costly

201707301026261.jpg


Yep :negative:

I kick out the lancers and swordsmen into the reserves, swap in the rested spearmen.

You know, I wonder if that's how the "economy" of the saracen is supposed to work and why you get a new unit for each map. You are supposed to cycle regiments in and out of the reserves all the time to conserve the cash. Because, remember, Richard could always get a loan from the jews venetians, while Saladin has to make do with what he has.

201707301026571.jpg


Much better.

Also, new unit. Slave heavy infantry, better in all ways than the pathetic seljuk swordsmen. Cool guys, wish we had more of them.


Some level-ups

201707301027441.jpg


Ah, turns out I was dumb. The lancers don't start with shield wall, but spear wall, as do all spearmen (+100% damage vs cavalry). Still, it's pretty hilarious that they can get shield wall here as their ranged defence is 0. However, after eating all the arrerz in the last battle, they got the "battered" accolade, which got them +30 ranged def, so shield wall is a no-brainer. Especially since the remaining abilities are terrible.

201707301029031.jpg


Experienced retainers for the circassians takes down another 1500 gold from the reinforcement cost. Neat.

201707301029231.jpg


Asad gets access to Cowardice and Cleave. I think he could use some offensive abilities, so I start pumping Cleave.

201707301029531.jpg


Turks get aimed shots + fire arrows, which is also fairly idiotic. One is +50% damage/-50% fire rate, the other +30% dmg/-30% fire rate. Also like how the fire arrows says "+30% damage (fire-based)", as if that even mattered.

201707301030201.jpg


Close combatant is a very mofo ability, and it took me a while to decide between this and arms-bearer. In the end I picked close combatant to maximise the glass cannon potential.

201707301032251.jpg


We have shittons of upgrade points, so I spend some. First, better healers for obvious reasons.

201707301032411.jpg


Then abbasid lancers. While not a pressing matter per se, it's more of an investment in the future, since it'll give us access to turk palace guards. And we really want to have turk palace guards.


Politicool event:

201707301034171.jpg


TRAITORS! HERETICS!

So the templar traditionalists want to see proper order restored... by allying with the saracen devils? :M Yeah makes perfect sense :M

Straightforward choice, although both options are enticing:

- The Templars will give us a Templar unit for free
- The Hospitallers will give us a reric and 2 upgrade points

New map:

201707301034271.jpg


"Extremely hard", I like the sound of that.

201707301034341.jpg


"This will be the end" indeed.

201707301035111.jpg


ALLAHU AKBAR!

Yeah, forget it. We'll be leaving Jerusalem for last, just like we did with Baghdad.

So the remaining options are: Arabia (oasis), Asia Minor (Hamburger Hill), Lesser Armenia (hilltop with guard towers).

201707222122121.jpg


201707222121221.jpg


201707261747151.jpg

SO

- Which knights' agenda do we support?
- JIHAD!!!!!!!!!
 

Jaedar

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
9,838
Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Let's go asia minoris.

Fighting with templars would be heresy (and surely lose us the racial purity bonus morale point), so we'll go with hospitaliers.
 

Erebus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
Messages
4,763
Pretty cool battle. While it's a pity that this part of the game doesn't offer choices between different plans, the odds being less favorable than in the first part seems to make things more interesting.

I vote for Hospitaliers and Arabia.
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,405
Location
Djibouti
SURAH 7 - LAND OF THE GIANTS

201708011658121.jpg


We accept the Hospitallers' generous gift of Points al-Upgrade and some probably worthless trinket they call a relic.

201708011658231.jpg


Can't really tell whether this is worthless or not, because, as I may have mentioned several times already, I have no idea what "resistance" even is.

Still, no harm in giving it to Sal, right?

201708011703371.jpg


Now, to business.



201708011704221.jpg


Great, desert again.

201708011704311.jpg


And catapults :negative:

Fortunately their guards are pathetic - 2x white company.

201708011705041.jpg


William of Stokesbury's retinue is also pretty pathetic. Except for the one regiment of templars, they are all trash-tier and squishy.

201708011705181.jpg


And then there's William himself. A true giant of a man!

201708011706221.jpg


We'll want to get rid of the catapults with cavalry and position the rest of our men at the oasis guard post.

Remembering sudden catapult target switching, I don't send Saladin in there however.

201708011707051.jpg


The Seljuks obviously start getting clobbered with boulders.

201708011707501.jpg


But eventually they reach the hill and engage the defenders.

201708011708251.jpg


The Circassians follow soon, also having lost a few men to the catapults.

201708011708431.jpg


Obviously one of the fucking seljuk units CAN'T EVEN HANDLE THE WHITE COMPANY, EVEN WITH SCATTER TURNED ON :rage:

201708011709081.jpg


The rest are fortunately good enough to chop up the catapults quickly. And then arrows start raining.

201708011710141.jpg


Check out these cheeky buggers :rpgcodex: They know I can't attack them without support.

Your time will come Soon though you fucking infidels.

201708011710571.jpg


We regroup everyone.

201708011711381.jpg


This left flank looks like an obvious weak spot.

201708011712061.jpg


I send Saladin and Circassians there while our bowmen, boosted by the guard post, turn the enemy archers into pincushion.

201708011712421.jpg


Some advanced manoeuvres going on. I taunt the templars into following Saladin to stop them from capping the oasis.

201708011713131.jpg


First morale failures come about.

201708011713421.jpg


Then finally Rambo of Stokesbury decides to charge into us. For a supposed coward whose intent is to leg it from the desert, he sure is a feisty one.

201708011714411.jpg


Sal and the horsemen meawhile go berserk on squishies.

201708011715111.jpg


:hero:

WHEN SUDDENLY, OUT OF THE FLANK...!

201708011715231.jpg


The hell are you guys doing here lol

meanwhile Asad is getting pounded by the crusader hero, ffs, so I order him to gtfo and then zoom on the situation

201708011716021.jpg


... SWEDEN, YES! :lol:

201708011716381.jpg


After which it's just about only the templars left on the field.

201708011717151.jpg


They aren't long for this world.

201708011717571.jpg


Salaam.

201708011718281.jpg


:hero:

201708011718501.jpg


Easy peasy. The cavalry losses might cost a bit though.

201708011719271.jpg


zing

201708011719561.jpg


Pretty acceptable reinforcement costs. Won't have to kick anyone into the reserves.

Also, we can now recruit Ayyubid Infantry. These dudes are seriously serious despite being just light infantry, and at the same time they are cheap as hell. Their damage is crap, though still better than normal seljuk warriors, but their defensive stats are off the charts, especially ranged defence which is a whopping 60. That's heavy infantry-tier, and considering that light inf usually dies the most to archers, that's really useful.


Some level-ups.

201708011721141.jpg


Was considering scatter, but eh. Light infantry and archers are doomed when these guys run into them anyway. Took masterwork armoire.

201708011721341.jpg


Expert riding to reduce terrain penalties is a no-brainer.

201708011721571.jpg


We still have some spare cash, so I hop on to the upgrade trees and get this.

"WTF ar-Roxor, we don't even have any kaptins yet!" I hear you say, and it is certainly true. However, this shitty ability paves the way to:

201708011722011.jpg


This. Which is something we might want to get.

201708011722071.jpg


Sup, bro. Fancy seeing you here.

The army is now a true family reunion! Nevermind that during the Third Crusade, Turan Shah had already been about as dead as Asad ad-Din :M

Anyway, he already starts at level 3 and with 3 levels of armour/weapon upgrades, which is very gud. He also has access to a bunch of really neat abilities. One of them is new:

201708011722451.jpg


This looks p. enticing and it's a one-point-wonder, but I don't think there's a lot of point in picking it at this moment as our heavy cavalry is usually far away from the infantry. Maybe if Turan ends up on horseback some day we shall consider it. But for now I give him 2 levels of military engineer and 1 of overwhelming charge.


Polotix:

201708011724031.jpg


Wait, you mean the Bedouins AREN'T Saracens? :troll:

Yeah, this is another "get stuff for free" event. Options are p. cool:

- al-Tribe1 will get us Points al-Upgrade.
- al-Tribe2 will get us many dinars.
- al-Tribe3 will get us some junk to give to our units.


Arabia unlocks two new provinces:

201708011724141.jpg


Al-Nefud Desert

201708011724271.jpg


Bix nood.

Sebua is sure going to be pleased to meet up with Turan, the conqueror of Nubia :troll:

201708011724591.jpg


Ah, an escort mission. Get to the Nubian kang, save him from crusaders, got it.

One problem is we won't have our entire army in this mission. Dudes assigned to the second group will have to skip it.

201708011725181.jpg


Jordan

201708011725221.jpg


The traitorous emir is probably the one we evac'd from the map during the Crusader campaign.

201708011725491.jpg


Sandstorm and fortifications sound a bit counter-intuitive to me, cuz I assume catapult ranges get halved here too, but wot do I know.

Pretty vanilla objectives as well. Dig in, wait for the heathens, behead them.

Other missions still include Asia Minor (Hamburger Hill) and Lesser Armenia (hilltop with guard towers).

201707222121221.jpg


201707261747151.jpg

- Which tribe do we welcome into the welcoming embrace of Allah, the sticky-fingered?
- J I H A D!!!
 

Erebus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
Messages
4,763
- Support the tribe that offers us money, of course !

- Let's keep working on our manly tan by going to the Al-Nefud desert.
 
Last edited:

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom