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In Progress Let's See the World Die. Dominions 4.

Helly

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Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
Guyz. Less rules, more DEATH VIKINGS FUCK YEAH !!!
 

Johannes

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What happens when two opposing armies attack a neutral province?
First in fights the neutrals then the second in fights the first (Or weakened neutrals if first failed.)

I was gonna type a long answer about how knowing movement phase turn order resolution and using it to your advantage (Setting up "defensive move traps" based on where you expect someone to go, as complicated as it sounds) is the biggest thing people need to learn to 'git gud' at Dom MP but apparently Dom4 dun changed all that so I dunno.
I don't think anything's changed in Dom3 -> 4 in this respect.

Dominions 3 had a slightly different turn resolution sequence. But I don't think there were any major changes. It was somewhat uncomfy to change the way of thinking, fight the old habits and such (e.g., in Dom3 the Very First thing was recruitment, in Dom4 it is research, etc), but the new TRS isn't that different.
unless my memory is going retard again
Whether Research or Recruitment goes first has never any relevance to the player.


Movement was changed to be slower, so that moving from Normal to Difficult Terrain and vice versa slows you down. In Dom3 only Difficult -> Difficult gave penalty. But nothing to do with turn resolution.
When I said turn resolution, I meant how no battles are fought and no provinces change hands, until everyone has moved etc
And that stuff is unchanged.
 

Berekän

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Finally had some time to get up to date with this LP, excellent work so far! You'll probably bring some more players to future codex games, which is always a great thing.
 

Grimwulf

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Finally had some time to get up to date with this LP, excellent work so far! You'll probably bring some more players to future codex games, which is always a great thing.

Thanks. I had an experience of attracting new players to the game. A sad one, unfortunately.

Back in the day I used to dive into Dominions map editing. One thing led to another, and Teh Abomination was born:

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Took the initial pic from deviantart, and worked on it with my incredible photoshop skillz. Then I went to russian imageboards (national 4chan), and started gathering players. They called me crazy, of course. But some were interested. So we made a jabber conference, open for everybody. Eventually pro-players came. One of the first residents, a True Guru of the game, had a talent of teaching noobs. In fact, he was so effective at that, that it took barely a week for any newbie to become a vet. He, and some other pros, helped me to balance the map. I say "helped", but in fact they did all the work, for their knowledge surpassed mine a great deal.

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It was hard. The map was massive, over 500 provinces, with a LOT of custom features, "neutral nations" (basically, neutral forts with custom-made defence, which I was going to play as a "game master"). Every province had my little touch to it, custom names included. Many had preset unique magic sites, but the real magic was in borders.

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Sjorn river, one bigass province, that allowed to access any coastal province from itself.

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Knochen Tafel, or "Bone Plateau" - a highground plain, that could only be accessed from three entry points

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Epic Mountain Ranges

Too much to fit them in single nostalgia post.

Besides, I insisted on very unpopular initial settings, like Very Hard Research, and maximum neutral strength of 9. This was intended to be a very long and serious game, with a lot of diplomacy and roleplay. In fact, the Major winning factor in this was diplomacy, so pro-players and noobs could play with equal chances to win.

The conference was loud 24 hours/day. 20 registered players were up and ready. We all played blitz-matches via hamachi, and pbem matches via llamaserver on other maps. Which I used to slightly modify as well.

But I used to be a dick. I refused to show the script to anybody until we gather 26 players and start the game. Nobody minded, since we had other maps to play. Meanwhile, I was adding new features, beta-testing it myself, looking for players and polishing balance. It took me fucking MONTHS of everyday work to write this script.

Then my laptop drowned. No backups. Only the images from rus chans were left. End of the story.

Sorry for offtop. Update is coming withing next 24 hours!
 

Grimwulf

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Hm? A report from Jon Snow so early? Something unexpected must have happened!

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For fucks sake, Jon.

TURN 8

LATE FALL IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE ASCENSION WARS

Remember Rockbone, the Prophet of Agartha? Guess what,

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Agartha will be a pain in my holy ass in late game. If someone thinks I’m lucky to have a Throne near my capital, look at them:

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Now that’s luck!

Agartha is ridiculously easy to play on this map. Not only it gets easy-to-defend position underground, but can also pwn Arcoscephale any time in early game. EA Agartha has lot of decent amphibious units, including powerful priests. They just need to surround Arcoscephale from all sides, by grabbing those underwater provinces, build some temples, pray some turns, and voila – classic domkill. Don’t even have to fight them. Not every nation can build stuff underwater, but Agartha can. Where is your god now, Alexander?

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No shit.

So what’s the big deal with getting those Thrones in early game? You need 7 to win the War, so why bother claiming them so soon? To make it short: there are three power levels of Thrones in Dominions 4 (only 2 levels on this map). The more powerful the Throne, the more points it gives, and the more heavily it is guarded. But most importantly, every Throne gives you some benefit.

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Let us hope that other Thrones won’t give up so early.

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Goddamit. I hate C’tis with passion.

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Throne of the Stars grants them 2 astral pearls per turn, dominion spread +1, and ritual range +1. C’tis doesn’t have any competition in the Middle East, and has some means of countering BoT, including competent death mages. Thankfully, cold-blooded lizzurds can’t withstand cold climate, so I’m supposed to have the upper hand vs C’tis in midgame.

What other news do we have this month?

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Aaand Penda doesn’t find a thing either. Tough luck indeed. Construction 2 is available from now on, and there are several artifacts I need right naw, but I can only afford an Owl Quill or two.

Codex Troll had some trouble during last encounter.

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Chillmoor wasn’t affected by our dominion at the time we attacked it, that’s why barbs there had more balls in battle (9 morale). I thought that Crispy would compensate this difference by spamming Frighten spell. I thought wrong.

Barb chiefs don’t use tactical approach. They both charged at Codex Troll, ahead of their own units. Thus, one of them got reckdt on turn 2.

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“Grimwulf, you drunkard. It says -24 hp! Barb chiefs have only 15. This one survived, and even has 7 hp left. Wtf?” Oh, shuddup. I told ye that I haven’t played in ages. Something went wrong. Mistakes were made.
I have no idea.

Codex Troll is my fuckin’ Prophet! He doesn’t just give up. And while Crispy tries to frighten them barbs (to no avail), Troll casts Smite on the same barb chief, Irnifried. Again.

He resists.

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Who does he think he is, defying God of the Gallows like that?! Both barb chiefs literally jump on our spears (reach: 4) with two-handed swords (reach: 3), fucking EVADE them somehow, and one of chiefs (not wounded one) even manages to slice a human serf warrior in half. On the same turn!

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A quick note on the weapon reach: the longer – the better. In this situation, we could have prevented their attack with spears, if DRN was good. It wasn’t. Details on mechanics in manual, as usual.

Once barbs get close enough to you, things tend to get bloody. This battle was no exception. Three more serf warriors fall under mauls and giant swords. Irnifried, that stubborn savage bastard, refuses to die, and even manages to wound my huskarl. Badly. (“Diseased” affliction) Others do not run either, even after we kill most of them.

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Eventually, they break. Codex Troll can’t let Irnifried go unpunished. He Smites the running barbarian chief again.

Irnifried resits.

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Huskarls and Helhirdings chase him furiously. Epic barb chief gets wounded again, but survives. More so, he goes berserk (morale +99). With 1 hp:

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With two wounds:

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He goes fucking berserk. His army routs, his pussy friend-chief routs, the whole world around him routs, even the Heaven routs, even Allah routs. Still, he decides to go berserk on me.

What? You’re waiting for some kind of miracle to happen? Well, don’t. We are playing Dominions here, not some popamole fairy tale. Irnifried was surrounded and finished off.

However, fate is cruel. Remember the huskarl, who was hit by weakened Irnifried? “Diseased” affliction may “spawn” new afflictions with time. Strangely enough, huskarl got a new wound immediately after the battle.

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“An eye for an eye”, indeed.

That was rather unpleasant to watch. Any good news? Jon?

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6 heavy infantries here. Could be a supportive army. Moving to Sentry Forest. Jon’s primary task right now is to watch any Vanheim battle, and report it to me. Right now, I need to know what blessing do they use, to prepare some counter for it. If Vanheim attacks Sentry Forest next turn, Jon Snow will see the whole battle (not participate in it, of course).

Everett will forge an Owl Quill. The jew in me cries and struggles, but I have to do it ASAP, even if I don’t have a Dwarven Hammer yet.

This turn I spend all the money on SVD (Special Valkyrie Division). I have enough for 5 valkyries:

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And one Dis to lead them:

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Want me to name her after your mom? Just say so in comments.

All right. Serious business:

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Dead Snows. Attacking it now is probably suicide, but a man needs to act VIKING from time to time.

Has Grimwulf gone nuts?? Find out in next update!

Yes.

If you are curious about actual plan, I’ll meet ya on War Council meeting, under spoiler. This month we will focus on Dead Snows only, no global shit. If you don't care - see ya next time!

Shit. You got me. I have no plan.

Basically, we just hope for the best. If we win – cool; if not – damn. But at least, this defeat will make things interesting.

However, we do have a drunken excuse of a plan.

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1. During first turns we buff ourselves and debuff the enemy. Codex Troll blesses everybody, Vanir commanders cast Holy Avenger, Crispy and Penda do some Frightens, Balgruuf and Troll finish the preparations with Cermon of Courage.

- Divine Blessing is obvious;
- Holy Avenger will help a great deal if witches try to cast something direct damaging – in that case HA ends the battle instantly;
- Cermon of Courage (allied units morale boost) and Frighten (enemy units morale penalty) are needed against barbarians. If they retreat first, we’ve got ourselves half of victory. If we run first instead, then we’re screwed.

2. Midturns will be the hardest. If we can hold our ground until barbs retreat, then we might have a chance. Shieldwall should just bare it against phantasmal warriors for some time. Yes, they are hard to hit and never retreat, but their weapons are phantasmal too. Meaning, they must pass a check against magic resistance in order to inflict damage. And even then, dmg output is not that big. All we have to do is wait for cavalry to succeed.

3. Endturns are all about cavalry. On right flank we have 4 experienced helhirdings from Codex Troll army. They are ordered to attack Wanda and her bodyguards at turn 3. On left flank, we have Codex Troll, Penda and two helhirdings, ordered to attack Meliath on turn 4. As you know, “hold and attack” order makes helhirdings to hold 2 turns and attack on 3rd. If you need them to accompany commander's attack on later turns, you have to order “guard commander”. Now they will wait for Penda to make his move.

We don’t know which of the Witches commands phantasmal warriors, but it is most probably Meliath (possibly, Wanda commands a small bunch of them). As soon as she retreats or dies, they will dissolve. And the battle will be over.

Anything can go wrong at any moment. That is why Balgruuf is ordered to stay behind and improvise. If, for example, Meliath starts raising undead, Balgruuf will cast Banish on them. Being a H2 mage, he should have enough power to fend off small groups of them.

Judging by Everett’s report on Dead Snows, the witches are able to cast Personal Luck (Alteration 1 spell) and Stoneskin (Alteration 2 spell). Let us speculate! What if neutrals are granted not with specific spells, but with specific research schools? It would mean that the witches have all the arsenal from Alteration 2 school. But not Alteration 3 school, because in that case Wanda would cast Ironskin instead of Stoneskin. What are the most frightening things we have in Alt2 for F1E1S2D1 and A2S2D3 mages?

- Lot of self-buffs. That’s good, because the more turns they waste on Twist Fate, Skeletal Body and different Resistance buffs, the better. They don’t have a chance against Vanir elite horsemen in melee, no matter how much buff they do. Waste of turns for them – more chances for us.
- Some non-significant short-range buffs and debuffs, like Armor of Achiless (destroys Protection of a close target), Weakness, etc. I can deal with that.
- This one troubles me a bit:

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Wanda cannot cast this spell. It requires D2, and she has only D1. But Meliath has D3, which means 45 magic damage at point-blank range. No magic resistance helps against this one. Neither does it miss. If we kill Meliath fast enough, or make her retreat before we engage hand-to-hand, the we’re good. If not, then goodbye sweet helhirding/Penda/Codex Troll – whoever be the first one to reach her. Glamour may help, though.

There is also a possibility that cavalry won’t attack rearmost and charge at whoever the closest, as usual. Although, it isn’t likely. Commanders have very high morale, plus I’m gonna cast Cermon of Courage a lot. The discipline should be fine.

If shieldwall falls, Crispy’s fucked. Balgruuf could escape, due to being mounted. If shieldwall stands, the casualties will be severe anyway. Things don’t look good from here, but screw it.

Let’s kill some witches.
 
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Grimwulf

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Another little off-topic. Codexer hoverdog proposed to organize a pbem among newbies and mediocre-tier players. If anyone's interested, I have no problems helping and organizing the whole thing. This thread will be used as a temporary measure. If people would be interested in joining this pbem, I'll create another thread.

How to play pbem, a mini-guide:

The game page is here: http://www.llamaserver.net/gameinfo.cgi?game=IHNIWID
MA Aran, all settings are llama defaults, except for research (standard) and Worthy Heroes 1.21 mod.

I've set 6 players max. 5 players should be enough to start, though.
Now yer actions are:
1. Create a Pretender God in Game Tools. Don't forget we play MA.
2. Go to Game Tools - User Data Directory. In opened window choose Savedgames - Newlords. There you will find Pretender file. If you've got a shitton of Pretenders already, be sure to find the right one (check the manual on how to do that, or just delete Pretenders you won't use).
3. Once you find the file, send it to
pretenders@llamaserver.net
Type in the topic:
IHNIWID
4. Create a new folder in savedgames. Name it "IHNIWID".
5. Once all players gather, and the game starts, llamaserver will send you turn file. Download it to "IHNIWID" folder.
6. Start the game, choose "Play Existing Game", there "IHNIWID". Make yer turn, bash dat "E" button (end turn), and quit the game.
7. In yer "IHNIWID" folder you'll find a .2h file (list of given orders). Send it to
turns@llamaserver.net
8. Once all player send their turns, the server will host dat shit. Then you'll receive new turn file. Return to 6 and repeat until you win

Why ICHNWID? Coz hoverdog proposed this earlier.
I-Have-No-Idea-What-I-am-Doing-17.jpg

And please, if you want to join the game, write me in pm or here, in this thread. Coz I have no idea who is Abysia guy. If he isn't a Codexer, I'll have to exculde him.

Oceania is me. That's an underwater nation - they all suck in EA and MA (except for MA R'lyeh). I'll just make some crazy experiments, like the one in this LP, and not really hoping to pwn somebody. Honestly.

Followers of LP can make use of Table of Contents in first post. This way you won't have to read unrelated to LP posts.

:avatard:

God, the SP games I've played so far, I've put far, far less thought into the tactics. This is interesting. Carry on. +M

Frankly, you don't need to put that much thought in the whole thing. I just find it highly entertaining for myself. When I do this little analyze/planning/deduction thingie, and then find out that I was right about smth - so much satisfaction. :codexisfor: Even if it doesn't matter at all.
 
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Berekän

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And please, if you want to join the game, write me in pm or here, in this thread. Coz I have no idea who is Abysia guy. If he isn't a Codexer, I'll have to exculde him.

That's me :M I was waiting for the new thread to pop up.
 
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Good times with Doms 3. Used to play Archoscephalae at late ages and RP their decline as they served a mad god.

Did Doms 4 add anything special?
 

Grimwulf

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Good times with Doms 3. Used to play Archoscephalae at late ages and RP their decline as they served a mad god.

Did Doms 4 add anything special?

Plenty of things. Balance, for one. A lot of new content stuff, like nations and units. Other things (short version):
1. New terrain-related mechanics, involning special mt. and river crossing system (map-specific).
2. Some of major balance changes:
- Research in general takes more time and effort by default.
- Fort building is different from Dom3. No one-turn fortifications here.
- Luck trait is nerfed.
- All weapons now have different types of damage (slashing/blunt/piercing).
- Raising/Lowering taxes function is deleted from the game entirely. For greater good, I say.
- The Ashen Empire of Ermor is now in MA and banned in many pbem sessions.
3. Thrones of Ascension! A glorious new feature.
4. Disciple nations. It is now possible to play with allies, and set several nations worship one Pretender God.
 

Grimwulf

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Sorry, guys. Sometimes I get carried away with all those details and descriptions. Dead Snows report turned out to be so long, that I just have to make a separate post for it now. Turn 9 is coming next update.

If you don’t wanna read that kind of detailed reports in the future, say so in comments. I’ll try to keep it to myself then.

BATTLE OF DEAD SNOWS

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Formations look almost as I wanted. It’s somewhat tricky to compose them, while commanders and squads are based in three different provinces.

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Wanda casts Personal Luck, instead of Stoneskin. When it comes to neutral magic users, I can only speculate. The principles behind their spell arsenal, and priority in spell casting, remain widely unknown to me.

Meliath casts Raise Skeletons. No big deal, I saw those neutral mages summoning undead plenty of times. Raise Skeletons summons three longdeads per cast, randomly equipped. Being undead, they never run, but Balgruuf is able dispose of those tiny groups easy-peasy with “Banish” spell. But then…

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My own damn fault. If only I ordered Everett to stay ONE TURN in Dead Snows battle before retreating.

Wanda is a D1 mage. Normally, she can’t cast Raise Skeletons (D2 spell). However, there are several tricks to pull this off. One of them is using a death gem to gain a one-time magic boost. Details in manual.

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Some spells require magic gems in mages inventory, in order to be cast. If casting mage has enough gems (and not given “conservative gem use” order), he will also boost his magic school and/or use gems to lower fatigue hit. In some cases, mages spend a SHITTON of magic gems just to cast a single combat spell.

Smart and sober Pretenders usually send guys like Everett ahead of their main forces. He engages big hostile armies and makes them spend all the good stuff on him (a script is a script – it works the same in any battle). A trigger, if you will. Dominions is a game about learning your opponent, and countering his tricks, at least with such primitive means.

Back to Dead Snows.

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Meliath continues to spawn skeletons. Wanda casts one more spell, Animate Skeleton (a weaker version that summons 1 longdead) and faints (106 fatigue). With Wanda out of the game for a while, and Meliath having 73 fatigue already, our chances seem pretty solid. Kinda?

One more mechanics remark: Cold 3 and Drain 3 scales both make casting harder (more fatigue usage). Dead Snows was only slightly affected by our dominion, but the effect is already devastating. Meliath uses tons of death gems to lower fatigue, but it’s still 73 on TURN 3. So our scales are not that “negative”, when you look at them from another angle.

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28 men in our shieldwall are prepared to stand their ground. Nothing in the world can… I’m just fucking with you. If you want some drama, watch the previous video again. I’ll just give you numbers:

13 men, 15 vanir vs 53 barbs and 33 phantasms. 28 vs 86. Looking at that now, I’m starting to doubt my own sanity.

I just hope fucking cavalry makes it in time. As soon as they finish off a couple of fainted witches, the battle will be over.

Ok. Time to get ready. INCOMING!

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Excellent use of spears! Front line of barbs couldn’t hit us EVEN ONCE, because of weapon reach and favorable DRN. Unfortunately, this check only works once per unit. Still, shields + spears is best defensive equipment you can find for regular troops.

Meanwhile, Crispy goes KILLING SPREE with dat Flying Shards spell. This one is very situational: best used by experienced earth mages vs unarmored, shield-less, “tight” enemy groups. It wasn’t much use during first turns, when barbs charged forward with a rather spread “formation”. Slashing damage is also very neat against bare flesh. One of the barbs survived the spell, but he is now legless. SINISTER.

Counter-attack!

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Holy Me, why do I love Dominions violence so much? All those little numbers give me a boner. As you without any doubt see, people die. Blood is everywhere. Skulls are pierced, limbs are chopped off, everybody cries, adrenaline pumpin’. Typical viking day.

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NO, you fucks! Helhird ignores my orders AGAIN. Humans have a hard time holding against phantasmal warriors, but that was perfectly ok with me! They were supposed to be sacrificed, in order to win some time and distract those spectral fuckers. I knew that helhirdings are able to destroy them without a scratch, but it would take forever. Sigh. At least Wanda isn’t going anywhere.

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Meliath began to cast Raise Dead instead of Raise Skeletons, all of a sudden. Soulless warriors are not much different, but with D3 Meliath can summon 12 of them per cast. Not to mention that her death gems can empower this even further. Besides, it’s an Enchantment 4 spell, no less. The bitch is just full of surprises, eh?

Some of our guys get wounded and killed, but we’re holding. One of our serfs is now legless too (Limp + Crippled wounds, total movement speed is 2). Can you imagine this guy crawling side-by-side with shieldwall, raising his shield and poking enemies with his spear? Now THAT’s the spirit.

Left flank cavalry decided to ignore the orders too. Codex Troll, Penda, and 2 helhirdings charged into barbarian horde like bloodthirsty raving beasts. There goes my plan. So long.

Balgruuf ignores undead skeletons, which are still pretty damn far, and casts Cermon of Courage on right half of shieldwall (serfs fighting phantasms). Good call. They are balancing on the edge right now, ready to flee at any moment.

Crispy rocks.

The dead are walking!

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So far... so good? If I told you that I was expecting my shieldwall to be THAT effective, that would be a fucking lie. Good thing barbarians are unorganized brutes. If they attacked me in line formation, they could easily surround me with those numbers.

Turn 5. Barbarians refuse to retreat. And despite my defense-effective formation, all the shields, spears, and mirrored images, if a barbarian hits you – in most cases you are dead. Like that human over here:

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The legless one should consider himself lucky (yes, he is not dead, yet).

Wanda kinda regained her conciseness, but immediately fainted again (135 fatigue) after one more Animate Skeleton. Meliath is out as well (108 fatigue).

Some barbs retreat. YARR!

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As I mentioned earlier, morale checks are squad-based. Obviously, barbarians were split into several squads (2 barb chiefs in this fight). Did we actually get ourselves… an advantage?

Meanwhile, Balgruuf starts banishing them skellies, who came close enough by now.

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Started with right flank. Yet another good call, for we are much weaker there. Phantasms are tricky to kill, and serf’s morale is still critically low there.

The rest of the barbs retreat.

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Crispy’s Flying Shards and huskarlar javelins made some bloody contacts with running away savages. Good.

Now we just need to finish off phantasms and skeletons, and go for witches.

Some turns pass. Still struggling to fight all those phantasms and skeletons. And Meliath doesn’t make it easier for us.

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It takes so long to fight these hordes, the witches manage to recover fatigue back to below-hundred.

Most of the zombies start wounded. What did you expect? They are all fallen warriors, left to rot under the snow. Makes them somewhat less threatening.

Turns pass. Balgruuf and Crispy run out of breath. Even if they didn’t, the enemies are too far, for their spells to reach them.

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We are slowly closing in on Meliath. Very. Slowly. I just hope Codex Troll and Penda don’t run out of fatigue, fighting all those undead. The latter never get tired.

Shieldwall is left behind. Too slow. Too exhausted.

Helhirdings from right flank finally got to Meliath. Don’t ask me why they went for her, and not Wanda. My guess is because they are in Troll’s army, and thus inherited some bad habits from him. So, they begin to slaughter her bodyguards, when suddenly…

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:what:

I swear, the crazy witch has just lost it. Completely lost it. Instead of running for her life, she spent her last bits of fatigue and air gems on Shock Wave spell, damaging her own units, and risking to kill herself.

Illusions were dissolved, but all helhirdings survived, and even were lucky enough not to get any wounds. But that was as close as it gets.

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VENGEANCE TIME!!!

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Bodyguards were too afraid of frenzied and pissed off helhirdings. They abandoned Meliath, who didn’t have any stamina to even crawl. Left by her men, she was laying in snow, helpless and doomed.

Meanwhile, Codex Troll was leading the shieldwall against hordes of undead. Or what was left of them.

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Both him and his people were tired by the end of the fight. Thankfully, the magic that kept undead animated, died with Meliath. It was over.

Wanda regained her senses (95 fatigue). Good timing. Because Penda and his helhirdings went for her personally.

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It’s funny how 7 bodyguards of Wanda managed to perform better than 20 bodyguards of Meliath. DRN was on their side that day – they covered Wanda’s retreat with cost of their lives.

And thus ended the Grand Battle of Dead Snows. No other neutral army will give me that much trouble during this War.

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I never expected it would end so well. Apart from one legless human, and four of them dead, the only real loss was one huskarl.

From now on, Codex Troll and Penda are the greatest warriors in the world. Among the living ones, at least.

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Besides, I got myself a Throne of Ascension! And a damn good one, too!

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50 gold doesn’t seem like much now, but they make a real difference, when you have no other means of making money. It’s good to have it early on. It will take some time to obtain Draupnir.

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The gems and additional dominion spread are more than welcome, too.

Still. That day we lost a Vanir, our very first in this War. He fought honorably, and will be remembered. He is in a better place now.

May his drinking horn be always full of mead.

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SerratedBiz

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Favoritest LP in a while. Keep it up.

Did Wanda escape? You make it sound like her bodyguards covered her retreat, but in the aftermath screen both sorceresses appear to have died.

Edit: or did you write at one point that independent armies always wipe after retreating?
 

Grimwulf

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Favoritest LP in a while. Keep it up.

Did Wanda escape? You make it sound like her bodyguards covered her retreat, but in the aftermath screen both sorceresses appear to have died.

Edit: or did you write at one point that independent armies always wipe after retreating?

Yep, Azira's answer right. We didn't kill Wanda on the battlefield, didn't get any xp for her, and will never see her again. The last one makes her techically dead, for all we care.

But when you think of it, she might be a manwhore of some Ulm warrior-chief by now. Who knows?
 
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Grimwulf

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TURN 9

EARLY WINTER IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE ASCENSION WARS

Please excuse my guest here. Seems like he received some bad news.

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Seath, you phat-ass mutha, I can’t see my messages! I need them naw!

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Kash-tash-vash got a Throne too. Yes, probably the one next to Caelum capital. Throne of Night is worthless in early game, unless you want to conquer some underground or deep-underwater provinces.

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I can imagine Hephasteos of Agartha reading this message, clapping his blasphemer hands with joy. Yeah, if that Throne was claimed by Sauromatia, they could deliver some major trouble with their awesome sacreds. Given some time and effort, Sauromatia could grab Agartha’s capital pretty early with good blessings and Throne of Night, methinks.

Why do I even care? Any other news?

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Zer-phi-ric? Was your mom a Caelum bird-whore or something? I’ll call you Zephyr.

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Oh, you brought 4 air gems as a gift to your Lord? How nice of you. Now, what was yer business? “Unveil the secrets of Mist Covered Highlands”, here in Helgate? All right. Go on.

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… Your FULL name is Idiotic Fucking Sunuvabitch Zephyr. You'd better remember it.

Since you are here, we need some building activity in Helgate. Gordon’s gonna finish Palisades in two turns, and we need laboratory and temple to hire stuff.

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A quick remark on temples and labs:

Lab costs 500gp, and allows access to national treasury – a global pool of our artifacts and gems. Research can only be done in lab. Any commander that has any magic path, except for H path, requires lab to be hired.

Temple costs 400gp, spreads faith, allows to perform blood ceremonies for those nations who can (we can), and grants additional point of global dominion for every 5 temples built. The starting one in capital counts as well. Besides, any commander that has H magic path requires a temple in order to be hired.

All Helheim commanders, except for scouts, have both magic and holy paths. Apart from svartalves, but they are capital-only anyway. That means that I need at least Palisades (600gp), lab (500gp) and temple (400gp) to build a new research centre. 1500gp – bloody expensive, if you ask me.

Fortification in Helgate is most likely the only one I’m going to build.

500gp out of 520gp I previously had, go for lab in Helgate. The rest is used to hire minimal PD (province defense) in Dead Snows, and bump it up to PD 5 in Helgate. Still worried about sudden Caelum attack there.

Time for Dead Snows aftermath. Making army decisions like a King:

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- 4 veteran (level 2 each) helhirdings stay with Codex Troll; other 2 helhirdings go with Penda;

- Balgruuf takes two soldiers with afflictions, and goes back to Helheim. Those two are one-eyed, diseased huskarl (wounded by Irnifried); and legless human serf, survivor of Dead Snows battle. The first one is slowly dying; the latter is going to break my shieldwall formation due to low movement speed. They will be assigned as temporary royal bodyguards.

- Penda takes all the rest serf warriors (8 in total). Being a better leader, he can provide higher morale boost for them. Besides, Codex Troll will be able to sneak into hostile provinces when needed, without those humans.

- Codex Troll takes 8 huskarlar with him, Penda takes 5.

All in all, C. Troll commands 12 men now, while Penda leads 15. Shite, I’m really balancing on the edge with those incredible numbers. Now to movement orders:

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Everett finished crafting Owl Quill (which goes to me, of course), and now goes to Helgate. Only priests can build temples, and we need it by the time Gordon builds Palisades.

Balgruuf goes back to Helheim with wounded guys.

Codex Troll claims dat Throne.

Crispy does one last site searching before returning to Helheim. I need him at forge or research table. Guess I’ll have to hire more svartalves for gem search.

Penda attacks Frozen Hills. Could be troublesome, especially if Ulm attacks it too. But we should be fine with Valkyries support. Led by Selvaria Bles.

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Oh, shuddup. Even Vikings need some weeaboo injection occasionally. From now on, Selvaria is Helheim’s waifu. That’s official.

Earlier I said

Formations look almost as I wanted. It’s somewhat tricky to compose them, while commanders and squads are based in three different provinces.

Which is embarrassing as fuck. Because when you click on the province you are about to attack, and press “y” button, you get this:

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And thus can easily micromanage formations. I never knew that before, and would probably keep doing it the hard way. Thankfully, Lizzurd Lord of C’tis from this post read my previous update and emailed me with this hint. All credits go to him.

A moment of RAGE tho: why isn’t that stuff listed in the manual? This could AT LEAST be included in “Hotkeys” section. You Illwinter guys just love to watch us players suffer, eh?

Time to see Jon’s report. I hate this part.

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Vanheim decided to expand south, after all. Why am I so lucky all of a sudden? Vanheim, Caelum and Ulm could easily rush-attacked me, but none of them bothered to try. I’m not saying they could wipe me out completely, but I definitely expected more aggression from them.

Maybe Vanheim will move even further? Conquer the island, and shove his troops right up Marverni’s arse. Or even move them south, to Sauromatia.

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That one is stretched, but still. I wonder what is Sauromatia’s bet in this one?

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Astral Pretender. Maybe even S9 – all three titles are seemingly astral-ish. I guess it’s not the worst pick for Sauromatia, but all depends on Pretender skillz. Can’t say I hate them all that much. After all, they know how to treat lizards properly – ride the damn bastards.

Jon Snow won’t do anything this turn. Just hide in Sentry Forest and wait for Vanheim to attack it. Gotta get a glimpse at their forces, blesses, spell arsenal, etc. Any info will be golden.

Time for a quick overview.

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Everything seems to be fine, except for unrest level in Resting Shore. No negative events there, our dominion is strong too. Order scale is positive, and it’s been some time since we grabbed it. Unrest should not be that high. It could mean only one thing: enemy spy.

It’s not Vanheim, tho. Their scouts are just as bad as Jon Snow. You need Spy trait in order to raise unrest. Their national heroes can’t do it either, as well as any early summons.

But the same goes for Marverni, Ulm, Caelum and even Kailasa. And nobody else could reach this province by turn 9 and do some unrest raising. All right, this starts to piss me off. One of my neighbors could receive a spy commander by random event – then mystery solved. OR it could be someone’s Pretender God with “chaos power” trait. Don’t see any other options.

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Frankly, it’s not that hard to believe in “hostile Pretender sneaking around our lands” theory. Something's preventing our candles from spreading as fast as they should. Something's causing unrest. Besides, I’ve seen crazier stuff from AI.

Gonna watch it for now. If I see decreasing dominion and increasing unrest next turn, I’m gonna send some Valkyries for GOD HUNT.

SEATH, you crazy backstabbin’ dragon. Move your butt from my message screen!

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JEESUS, whoever that is, GET OUT ALREADY. What de ff?

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Fuck. Not now.

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I wasn’t ready for this. Arena event at Turn 9. This winter only gets bloodier.
 
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