They are coming.
HELGATE: THE LAST STAND
Brace yourselves.
This time our side makes the first move, because we are the ones who's holding the ground.
Shooting towers didn’t do any damage at all.
The buffing begins. Air Shield is essential when fighting that many archers.
Crispy lands Legions of Steel rather precisely.
First turn buffing gradually comes to an end.
Archers make their shots. Time to show those noobz from shooting towers how it’s done.
Valescere misses; ArtB one-shots a lizard warrior.
Gaya summons lesser air elemental that attacks our provokers immediately.
Enemy archers didn’t fire any arrows this turn, for some reason. Except for few. Including Martiya.
No luck this time. By the way, what I didn’t say about Thunder Bow (but it’s stated in the description), that not only it delivers direct lightning damage on hit, but also summons additional lightning bolt on square it strikes. This time Martiya missed.
Enemy non-flying infantry moved a bit closer, along with non-flying archers.
Our towers made another round, killing unlucky enemy archer.
The buffing rages on.
Huskarls try to kill that elemental with javelins. One javelin connects (15 damage). Archers fire their bows too.
ArtB’s arrow hits tribal warrior; Valescere damages an Iceclad. No frags this time.
Gaya casts Quicken Self, for some idiotic reason (he’d better used that last air gem to summon another elemental). He is at 90 fatigue already.
Old age is incompatible with my dominion scales. At least this problem has been dealt with. Now Caelum forces has no mage or priest support, only Martiya and his Thunder Bow.
… And a whole legion of archers.
That miss like motherfuckers.
Not a single arrow connected, including Thunder Bow. Well, what did he expect? It’s not the most accurate toy in the world, one Eye of Aiming alone isn’t enough to use it effectively.
Hostile infantry moved a bit closer. Wolves are the first ones to enter the fort, apart from dat air elemental.
The narrow entrance should slow their advance, and win us a turn or two.
Next turn commences. Shooting towers still suck, but at least they hit something.
This turn didn’t start so well. Since our commanders act before Caelum’s charge, AI has chosen pretty damn useless spells to cast. Skalds mostly cast Aim/Steal Breath, while Vanjarls perform Sermons of Courage. Others follow the script.
First Terror casting wasn’t very precise, but still delivered morale hit upon several ogres and stuff.
At least some skalds cast Charge Body, which is gud. Grimgravy casts Holy Avenger, which is surely better than Sermon of Сourage in these circumstances.
Archers shoot another one. Valescere misses, ArtB hits a Blizzard Warrior that barely survives (chest wound and 1 hp left).
When I was scripting 14 huskarls to “hold and attack”, I kinda forgot that we move before Caelum in this battle. So they moved out of the circle before Caelum infantry charged.
How gloriously bad this is. Now the huskarls are surrounded, and there are birds inside the circle.
As you can see, Gaya summoned one last air elemental and totally fainted (161 fatigue).
Volley of arrows incoming. GIT DOWN
Half of connected arrows were friendly fire. But most of them missed, including Thunder Bow.
And the melee combat begins. Birdman make their attacks.
One human serf gets killed instantly, one of huskarls receives a minor leg hit, even Crispy gets one in his tiny arm.
The best iceclads of Calum are in the center of our circle. Three of them went for me, and I was THIS close to death right at this moment. Twist Fate spell protected me from one of the attackers, and Valescere covered me from two others.
One icelad hits an illusion, but another one manages to land a hit and pierce brave Vanir’s body with spear. Valescere gets an affliction, but stands firmly. Unlike human serfs, who get butchered like pigs in a slaughterhose.
But then, yet another birdman attacks Valescere.
Surrounded by two Iceclads and one Spire Horn Militia, Valescere gets pierced twice now. Two afflictions, no Glamour effect, 5 hp left. Any human on his place would be either dead, or routing.
The initial charge continues. A couple more huskarls receive minor hits, Crispy’s zombies are pwnd gradually, others mostly avoid Caelum attacks.
Although, one Raptorian Militia gets EXXXTREMELY lucky and one-shots a skald near Grimgravy.
Which is pretty bad for Grimgravy, for he is alone and surrounded now.
Unlucky raptor attacked a skald and triggered Charge Body buff. Stupid Caelum shock trooper was insta-killed.
Grumpy occasionnaly gets a hit or two, but he’s got enough hp not to worry about it too much.
Non-flying infantry are breaching dat entrance!
Some of them have bows, which they try to use on the run. Killing their own troops.
Our shooting towers did just a bit better, marking start of turn 4.
The counter-attack begins. Zephyr the Cloud Mage made my face change with his jew-jitsu.
Fuck Zephyr. So. IT FFFFFFCKIN BEGINs!
All that damage doesn’t even fit in message screen. It’s Heavan. Although, our surfs suffer too. You can also see that Spire Horn Militia mostly doesn’t give a shit, having some resistance to lightning. But Iceclads suffer a lot. And Iceclads are still Caelum’s best in this War.
The counter-attack continiues. Some skalds cast Shocking Grasp; Helkarls do their Frighten thingie; Crispy lies on the ground unconscious; Harkon goes full melee.
Most of the skalds went for melee too. Which isn't bad at all - we need to preserve fatigue. Ulfric Stormcloak perform a truly glorious beheading on one birdman, while his horse mangles another one.
Hel, even I go melee myself. Coz I don’t carry dat quarterstaff just for gud looks, and Valescere can use some help with those Iceclads.
Feels gud.
Grimgravy shows everybody pure art.
Once again, all the damage and mayhem jes doesn’t fit in a single message screen (I scrolled it to the upper-most part). None of our units were damaged. 7 Caelum units were killed instantly, much more were severely wounded.
Grumpy is hard to keep a track on. He moved several times during this turn in no particular order (Grumpy-Huskarl-Huskarl-Grumpy-Grumpy-Huskarl-Grumpy-Hirdman-Huskarl-Grumpy-Grumpy-Grumpy – you get the idea). And trampling isn’t reported in message screen for some reason. There is a kill count meter on every commander, but not on regular units like Grumpy.
But rest assured – the drunken mammoth DID trample A LOT of canaries.
Huskarl’s performance was absolutely devastating. A lot of these brave Vanir warriors were injured by initial attack, but that didn’t affect them one bit.
Starving army is a useless army. When I said they are barely standing on their feet, I was dead fucking serious.
And no, this is not the worst of their unit. Amrav should have send his armies on expansion towards Kailasa and C’tis, find some supplies, return his warriors back in shape. But he was so obsessed with this War, he sent them to dead and empty province of Helgate.
Now you see what you see. Huskarls have absolutely no problems finishing off these cripplies. Have to watch out for healthy Iceclads, though.
Van Scouts don’t give up. Both of them pull up a decent fight, facing best of the best of Caelum shock troopers.
Grumpy’s KILLING SPREE never stops. He tramples his way forward.
You’ve got to have Big. Bronze. Balls. If you want to fight Helheim. The birdmen have vaginas instead.
Some are attacking, some are retreating. Those who stay can’t do any damage – their numbers are too low, and condition is too bad. I guess we can call that a victory over initial wave of enemies.
Of course, the fight isn’t nearly over. Mammoths, non-flying infantry, archers, remains of the inial wave – we are still severely outnumbered.
Their archers still cannot take down our provokers (serfs and zombies). AI has problems with archers units since times immemorial.
Shock troopers from initial wave kill some more serfs from the inner circle. Iceclad attacks Valescere, but grievously wounded Van Scout dodges this thrust.
Unlike fainted Crispy, who can’t dodge anything.
Zephyr was killed. Ain’t worth a screenshot, pesky human.
Enemy infantry moved closer.
And that covers turn 4. Having fun yet?
Turn 5 begins with shooting towers. Useless as usual.
Skalds and royal skalds cast Shocking Grasps or just fight what’s left of them in melee.
LundB is looking gorgeous again.
I’m in awe.
Lord Harkon keeps the blood of our enemies flowing, too.
Ulfric Stormcloak kills another two in melee.
As for me, the time has come. TERROR!
The spell affected lot of birds. They are all at negative morale now.
More Shocking Grasps from Vanherses. Grimgravy mangles unlucky birdman with dat Dwarven Hammer.
Our infantry does equally good. Natural killers.
And so is ArtB!
And if somebody thinks that Valescere is done for, think again.
Killin’ birdmen like a true Vanir he is.
Most of huskarls couldn’t reach any bird in melee, so they threw javelins towards our circle. All javelins missed, except for a single one.
That was very close to a sudden and embarrassing death. But I’m fine, no afflictions or anything, and still 12 hp left. A mere javelin, sticking out of my chest. Just a flesh wound.
Hate to admit that, but Grumpy was effectively countered by Caelum. The drunken mammoth is fully focused on air elemental. It’s very hard to inflict physical damage on ethereal target (that includes trampling), and even when Grumpy succeeds – the elemental just shrinks, but not dies.
The rest of shock troopers retreat. We did it!
Our provokers are killed by savages and hostile arrows. Grumpy gets more wounds, but he’s alive and doesn’t flee yet.
But then…
Why, lizzurds, why? I hate you! It was the worst possible end for turn 5.
Next turn. Shooting towers finally manage to kill a couple enemy archers. Skalds and Vanjarls take this short break to buff. Some cast Steal Breath upon lizzurds. I perform another Terror.
Frontmost infantry have 0 morale now.
Grimgravy doesn’t buff, though. Grimgravy pwns humans.
Van Scouts make the shots. Valescere kills a lizzurd, ArtB kills a human.
Huskarls rush in and form a shieldwall. I’ll see how these fucking cripple-pussies are going to break through this.
… Fuck. I forgot they have a trampling Air Elemental.
Even though it usually tramples illusions, the air elemental can break formations easily. Our spontaneously-formed line isn’t a line anymore.
Then the fucking MADNESS started. Enemy archers fired the largest volley yet. Arrows were hitting EVERYTHING.
It was looking horrible. We were hit by normal arrows, ice arrows, lightning arrow from Thunder Bow – as well as our enemies. Martiya didn’t care.
Our huskarls were too scattered to pull up a solid defense. Some were frozen by frost bows too. Fuck.
Turn 6 has started. LundB performs Sermon of Courage on the fron part of our circle, while Harkon throws a lightning bolt at ogre. It doesn’t deal any damage, unfortunately.
Most of skalds and royal skalds are unconscious already. Those who are not, faint this turn. Only Vanjarls, Van Scout, and myself are still and below-hundred fatigue.
Ulfric casts Steal Breath for some forsaken reason. Thankfully, I’ll be able to hard-script lightning bolts after this fight.
I charm the same mammoth that Ulfric targeted. An EXCEPTIONNALY great mammoth, I must say. Experienced and non-afflicted, the only one of his kind in the whole hostile army.
Grimgravy understood my idea quickly, and performed Sermon of Courage on our new mammoth.
Dat mammoth has 10 morale now, which should be enough til the end of the combat.
Huskarls mostly hit Air Elemental and fail to hurt it horribly.
Valescere didn’t fire his bow this turn, for some reason unknown to me. He just made a step back. Morale check wasn’t failed, and stepping back is actually normal for “Fire and Keep Distance” script, but usually it doesn’t prevent actual firing. Strange.
ArtB himself kills another lizzurd.
The enemy counter-attacks, killing some huskarls and damaging my new mammoth.
Yet another insane volley of wooden/frost/thunder arrows.
New mammoth is no more, and last surviving huskarls are barely holding. But at least that last volley made a lot of lizzurds retreat.
And we’ve got ourselves a new problem: Airya Temple Guards. These extremely slow elite Caelum units are all experienced, and non-afflicted. Once they reach enemy ranks – they are able to inflict formidable damage, while having enough protection to withstand friendly fire.
Well. They have reached us now.
But frankly, ogres could pretty much finish off our huskarls without their help.
Turn 7. Shooting towers SUDDENLY inflict considerable damage.
There are still a couple of skalds with 98 fatigue, so they are able to cast one last farewell spell. Steal Breath it is.
LundB casts Sermon of Courage on Ulfric and faints (100 fatigue).
Harkon casts Lightning Bolt and still stands, although barely (92 fatigue).
Ulfric casts Steal Breath and misses. But at least he’s not fainted yet (92 fatigue). I cast Paralyze on mammoth, and still have powder in my ass (61 fatigue). Grimgravy casts Steal Breath and faints (109 fatigue).
Four last huskarls attempt to cause a bit more damage before death. Vanir never run.
ArtB wounds a human badly. Valescere one-shots a lizzurd.
Three more huskarls die during infantry attack.
Being not right in the head, Martiya gives an order to shoot the last one with arrows. One huskarl, surrounded by Martiya’s own men…
But here is the funny thing: the arrows killed a lot of Martiya’s men, but not him. Wounded, but alive, the huskarl dodged several mammoth tramples, and lizzurd attacks and made it to next turn.
Turn 8. Almost no hope left. But glorious death is reason enough to keep fighting.
LundB regained consciousness for a while, performed another Sermon of Courage and fainted with 108 fatigue.
Harkon casts Lightning Bolt and faints with 100 fatigue.
Ulfric and freshly-recovered-skald perform Steal Breath on one mammoth, while I charm another.
Ulfric faints with 113 fatigue.
Last huskarl misses, most zombies miss as well. But at least this mammoth I’ve charmed tramples lots of their people.
ArtB misses, Valescere hits an archer, who barely survives this shot.
They kill our last huskarl, and focus their attention on mammoth. While their own mammoth MORALE FAILURE, hurray! Some of their infantry flee as well.
They finish off last zombies, and butcher charmed mammoth. Their mammoths manage to do major damage while routing, but still not enough to cause massive morale failure.
It looks like we are out of options. What happens next?
Volley of arrows, that’s what. This time – aiming straight at us, the last defenders of Helgate.
Good news: the arrows didn’t do shit to us, except for minor wound upon one of my personal bodyguards (no afflictions). All thanks to Air Shield buff.
Meanwhile, mammoths trample archers on their way outside. Some of them even attack each other in desperate attempt to go through.
Turn 9. Some of us regained consciousness. Two royal skalds cast Frighten upon enemy infantry that didn’t rout, another royal skald summons skeleton. I cast Terror on these motherfuckers.
Ogres have -7 morale now.
ArtB wounds a Blizzard warrior, Valescere misses. I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. Melee combat is about to commence.
But what’s that?
Commanders retreat? Can it be?
The archers fire chaotically.
A lot of friendly fire. One skald dies, fainted Harkon and royal skald are pierced by arrows too (no afflictions).
Another part of their infantry flees, including terrified ogres. Mammoths trample more archers. Our breathless skalds receive numerous hits from humans, lizards and Airya Temple Guards.
Grimgravy’s chest is pierced by human’s spear.
Turn whatever. Shooting towers land more hits, Holy Avenger from Harkon hits a mammoth, we are barely alive.
LundB pulls his last bits of strength together, and throws a Lightning Bolt at the most dangerous Airya Temple Guard.
I throw a Cold Blast (another new spell from Evo2 school) and kill another three enemies.
Badly wounded Grimgravy, surrounded for the second time, casts Shocking Wave.
ArtB wounds a birdman, Valescere kills a human.
Then, finally
The enemy routs. Every. Single. One. Unit.
EXCEPT
two cursed-by-all-gods-and-pretenders-lizzurds, may they forever rot in oblivion, suffering the worst possible tortures and torments.
They killed Grimgravy.
And it was over.
They ran. We were shooting their backs with arrows and lightning bolts. The lizzurd that killed Grimgravy didn’t make it either.
We have won. But at what cost?
So many dead, it’s unbelievable.
Valescere won’t live through another month, I’m afraid. He is still alive at the moment, but nothing can be done about his wounds.
And we’ve lost Grimgravy. He is attending The Great Feast now, and won’t be forgotten here in Helheim. I’ll make humble memorial sections for everyone who enlisted and died during this War. You can find it in op-post.
Thank you for your brave and loyal service, Grimgravy
We shall meet again.