Let's Rip Off Something Awful - Dark Omen or No Love For 56K

[puppyonastik]

Thanks for the update Jasede. Was quite a boring mission, but your experiments kept it amusing.

 

[Jasede]

I hated it. Oh, it's fun to play, but there's only so many times killing a troll is entertaining. Stay tuned for the next one, it's hilariously harsh. Not as bad as the serpentine slops before the trolls, but -FOUR MOTHERFUCKING ARCHER UNITS- all aimed at the advancing troops.

But I like to think I found a rather cute way to deal with it. >_>

 

[Sovy Kurosei]

Use the missile invincibility shield you picked up a couple of missions ago? Blind firing mortars? Teleport wizard and burninate the countryside?

 

[Nael]

I have to say I'm enjoying the hell out of this thread. it's a great read for a slow day at work. Keep up the great work Jasede.

For those having trouble getting this to work in XP has anyone tried using Dosbox (i'm just assuming this is a DOS based game due to it's release date)? Another solution might be to try running it in Win95 mode from the shortcut option available in the "Options" menu for the shortcut. I have never had too much success with the latter option but Dosbox works well for most old games if you know how to tweak the settings. Funny story while i'm on the subject... I always had problems with my nVidia 7800GT running old DOS/Win95 games, Dosbox or no but when I recently upgraded to an 8800GT all my old games run without flaw and WITHOUT any kind of hacking tomfoolery. Guess y'all just need to upgrade yer shit to play ancient video games :D

Anyways, thanks again Jasede for helping pass such an agonizingly boring day.

 

[Jasede]

Chapter 12-2 - Vae Victis

Welcome back to Let's Play Dark Omen! We got some exciting missions ahead... well, I lie: one exciting mission. While I have more done and uploaded, I can not really find the time to write the reports to them just yet, so let's continue watching Commander Bernhardt on his important task: getting to the Hand of Nagash before the undead manage to free it, thus empowering the Dread King.

Last time we watched him and his men fight some trolls with his old friend Ragnar, who decided to join our cause out of gratitude. The men are weary from all the fighting, but we can not rest just yet. We must make haste to reach the Hand of Nagash in time! Days pass as our forces travel through the abandoned, frozen north, too harsh for anyone but the hardiest of men and monsters to settle there. Suddenly...

Undead hordes on the road ahead!
:evil: Hack... them... to... PIECES!

Battle 18 - Porcupine

A fun battle. We're up against the undead who want to stop our march onto the glacier. They have a well-defended defensive position, but more on that later.

Remember how Vladimir said he'd join us? There he is, Vladimir, Ice Mage extraordinare with a Rooshen accent. He's about as powerful as Luther, except that most undead have a weakness against fire and will take more damage from Bright Magic than ice magic. Nonetheless he's useful even though you will see I tend to neglect him. His presence is crucial this battle. Why?

Those two spells! The first is a (relatively) long range cold attack spell that tends to hurt a lot, the second is... that's right, a castable shield of Ptolos!

Here's the situation from what we can see upon deployment: undead archers defending a skull screamer catapult, nestled atop some hills. Not good, for us. Now you will say: but Jasede, why not teleport your wizards there and kill the catapult? And I answer: because none of them got their respective teleport spell this battle! Or the last battles, for that matter...

We deploy the troops in a visually appealing semi-circle. I like it. The AI tends to go for the biggest threat first: the cannon, the mortar and the archer. Should they attack us we can easily charge into the undead's flanks.

Now all we need to do is to actually make them attack us!

First, our wizards get a chance to shine. The ice mage casts his protection from missiles spell on Luther.

Who, unafraid and unharmed, walks through a hail of arrows, close enough to cast a firestorm on an archer unit, wreaking havoc!

This pisses off a whole bunch of undead... but wait, what's that? Undead chariot?

Archers! Mortar! Wizards! Cannon! Magic weapons & banners! All fire! The undead chariot is a horrible enemy. He's like a troll, except non-regenerating, tougher, stronger and horribly fast. Take them down as soon as you can or pay the price.

They seem quite weak against the ice spells of Vladimir though, for some reason, and hence we dispatch this one before it comes too close for comfort. There's still a huge undead horde advancing, though.

Some undead horsemen managed to break through and engage Fletcher and his crossbowmen in melee. I don't mind. Why would I? This allows my cavalry to charge into their backs, killing them quite a bit faster than they would have if they had needed to fight them head-on.

Now it's just a matter of mopping up the few survivors. Nothing exciting happening, except in the last shot: the necromancer tries to kill our flagellants. Too bad they are protected by dispel magic! Ragnar's men blow the Horn of Urgok and the necromancer flees from the map. At least one of the foes finally has some sense! Please notice that the three ogres killed a whole regiment of skeletons without losing a guy. All alone.

Intelligence reports we still have a few archers and the catapult left. Please remember that this catapult can annihilate whole regiments if it scores a direct hit. The only disadvantage? It can't aim worth shit on moving targets. What we need in this situation are brave elite commando troops.

Fletcher and his men fit the bill! Protected with both the shield of Ptolos AND the ice magic that protects from missiles, they set out on their dangerous task. It's 12 men against about eighty skeleton archers and a catapult.

Success! The brave men do not get hit by the catapult and manage to destroy the skeletons who manned it.

Let's kill the other archers the same way.... OH SHIT! RETREAT RETREAT~

Faster! I click "charge" like crazy so the wizard and the crossbowmen move a tiny bit faster south.

Whew! We make it just in time!

Oh boy.

The tornado-storm thingy spell is surprisingly good against wraiths too! Weakening them helps loads since even though not too powereful, wraiths can sustain lots of punishment.

Impressions from the melee.

This might very well be the only magic weapon in the game that isn't hidden- some skeletons carry it. We'll check it out later.

The rest is easy. Shield of Ptolos alone might not be enough, but combined with the protective ice magic, the crossbowmen just rape those archers. Those two regiments of four are going down.

Three of four.

And the last are killed by some massive assault the melee troops can gather experience. Misison complete!

Not bad.

Not bad at all!

I don't want to hear any comment about elven archers being better than Fletcher's men. I want to see those pointy-eared fags pull this off, fearlessly slaying archers while a dozen of arrows are just barely being repelled by some flaky shield and an ice mage's spell that flickers weirdly.

Here's the sword we found. Sweet! It's like another banner of wrath, but even better: it makes the wielder ignore enemy armor. Yes, that's right. Enemies with 5 shields? We fight them as if they had none. Now I want you to remember that the flagellants do a TON of damage IF they manage to pierce armor...

Bright wizard close to level 2, Morgan close to level 3 (the final level), Fletcher too, and Ragnar and the ogres about to make their first level soonish too. We're pretty well off. Also, loads of cash. I hope the game actually will offer something to spend it on soon. :/

To be continued! Stay tuned: next time we finally see the Hand of Nagash!

 

[Brother None]

You know, you may be boastful of your manliness for picking manly crossbowmen over faggity elves, but you're still leaning on two friggin' wizards to win your battles for you. Seriously, how poofed up is that?

Just kidding, good fight. Your flagellants should be extremely amusing to watch from now on.

You prefer the shield of Ptolos with your crossbowmen over the flagellants? Crossbowmen can duke it out with stationary archers once the battle is finished, true, but flagellants could charge and wipe 'em out right quick.

 

[Jasede]

I am abandoning this since apparently I am just here for the attention. If someone wants the savegame, tell me.

 

[Sovy Kurosei]

You can't abandon this LP. It would look like you are trying to get attention by causing drama.

 

[Shannow]

You were? And here I was you were trying to entertain us with something interesting because the rest of the Codex seems to consist of right-wing faggots and and drama queens.
Seriously though, there has been little of interest for me on the codex lately. If you abandon this thread "little" might diminish to hardly anything...

Your choice but I ask you to reconsider.

 

[Sovard]

Goddamnit Jasede, put up a bestiary shot of the Undead Chariot.

Oh, and stop letting these assholes get to you.

If you see me tell you to tone down, I'm being honest. A lot of these guys are here because they are miserable, and want to share that with everyone else. You are one of the few people who tries to provide some amount of value. Never forget that.

 

[Jasede]

Fine, I'll finish the campaign. There's only six or so missions left, anyway.

Also, no bestiary shot of the chariot: it does not exist in the game. I could draw one for you, though, but I warn you, my drawings of circles look exactly like my drawings of squares.

 

[Sovard]

I could draw one for you, though

I demand this and an appropriate description of danger levels and inherent bonuses

 

[Sovy Kurosei]

I could draw one for you, though,

What about this? Did it up today for this thread since somebody asked for it.

 

[Jasede]

Rofl! I am speechless. This is going in the first thread post. I like the SA vibe this thread has. B-) I owe you one, Sovy~

Stats of the chariot, at least those that matter:

Strength 5
Toughness 5
Wound 3

This basically means: ouch.

 

[dagorkan]

Jasede, have you considered banning yourself? Or you could just post in this thread and Strategy Games and not post in other parts of the site.

 

[pkt-zer0]

Also, no bestiary shot of the chariot: it does not exist in the game.

What's this, then, eh? (I prefer Sovy Kurosei's version, tho')
Description from the EXE file:

"These horrifying contraptions are constructed from bone and sinew and are pulled by Skeleton steeds. They inflict tremendous damage when charging enemy troops and will never flee from hand-to-hand combat. Undead Chariots are evil and unnatural machines which cause fear and are immune to this type of psychology themselves."

So I'd think it's in there somewhere. Check the multiplayer army creator thingy, perhaps?


Anyhow. Keep up the posting, it'd be a shame to see an awesome Let's Play of an awesome game get cut in half.

 

[Sovard]

Chariot!

Great work, Sovy.

Good stats on it, too, damn.

 

[Sovy Kurosei]

Thanks guys.

 

[Jasede]

We should hook you up with a custom title for your hard work.

And... other... rewards. (>_>)

 

[Sovy Kurosei]

I only drew one picture.

When is the next installment going to be posted? The people want moar.

 

[Jasede]

Tomorrow. And you could be more appreciative of rewards.

 

[Sovy Kurosei]

I'd appreciate some rewards. B)

Better?

 

[Cedric]

<3

 

[Sovard]

Native American Guinea Pig? WTF

 

[Nael]

Native American Guinea Pig? WTF

Someone's never played Wizardry 8