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Poil
Mar 17, 2007

FoolyCharged posted:

A special little hell for Marcus? Wasn't he the dude the heroes waxed?
He still failed and needs to be punished. :colbert:

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ZeButler
Oct 2, 2013

FoolyCharged posted:

A special little hell for Marcus? Wasn't he the dude the heroes waxed?

Marcus was the traitor Underlord that worked with the heroes, not the one that got suicide bombed.

Enchanted Hat
Aug 18, 2013

Defeated in Diplomacy under suspicious circumstances

FoolyCharged posted:

A special little hell for Marcus? Wasn't he the dude the heroes waxed?

ZeButler posted:

Marcus was the traitor Underlord that worked with the heroes, not the one that got suicide bombed.

No joke, until ZeButler pointed it out, I also thought it was the previous guy, Rhaskos, who was getting sent to hell along with Mira. It just seemed so appropriate for Mendechaus to punish him for no good reason!

I like this game a lot, but they probably should have fleshed out our enemies and the other Underlords a little better so I could tell them apart.

Enchanted Hat
Aug 18, 2013

Defeated in Diplomacy under suspicious circumstances
Episode 12: Subjugation



With such awesome power you were bound to attract the greed of your brethren. Draven, Korvek and Kasita have banded together and plan to steal the artefact for themselves. Defeat them and bend them to your will, for if they join your ranks there will be no stopping your final assault upon the Empire capital.

The last mission where we had to fight another Underlord was really rough. Now let's fight three Underlords at the same time!



Hello, old friend.



We've been waiting for you!

Yes, you and the Kenos.



We'll have it over your dead body…



These fools come for the Kenos Underlord, prove your dominance and crush them beneath your indomitable will… treat them as a warmup for the Emperor.

This mission is a nightmare. With three powerful opponents, it's very easy to get bogged down by fighting a war on multiple fronts and end up with a neverending meatgrinder. The only way to make this not go terribly is to take the Underlords out one at a time.

Now that we have the Kenos, we can summon titans just as Mira did. Unfortunately, so can the other Underlords. I'm not sure why, but that's how it is. Additionally, the Kenos has given us a giant mana pool and very fast mana regeneration. This is very important, as I can't even beat one of these Underlords in a fair fight, let alone three.



I've scanned the area with the vision spell and found a gold shrine. I will need this for the innumerable traps I am going to build.

The Kenos will be mine, then we'll see which of us is truly more powerful.

Your haste will be your downfall, as it has been in the millennia we've fought.

The last few scraps only served to limber me up, this time you'll be the one banished and I will control us forever.

I think they messed this part up - those lines should clearly have been said by two different Underlords. :shrug:



A very standard start to our dungeon. I've expanded to the south-east, away from the three other Underlords. I'd prefer not to reach their territory before I've recruited a strong army.



For once, I am not going to build the smallest possible archive. Titans are summoned using sins, and titans are incredibly good, so we'll want to research a lot of sins as soon as possible.

Hey Korvek…

Yes, Kasita?

Remember when Draven sent those slaves to undermine your dungeon… and your minions ran forward to stop them… but then he froze them in place as the charges were blown and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM died?

Yes, I remember, why?

Oh, no reason. I was just curious.

Luckily, the other Underlords are not terribly good friends. As a result, they will not be coordinating their efforts against us. Each Underlord will eventually attack us, but they won't cooperate and they won't be attacking us at the same time.



At the edge of our dungeon, I can see Kasita's golden dungeon theme creeping up towards us. We have three Underlords that we have to take out, so it seems reasonable to start with Kasita since she is the closest one.

This is a mistake. Kasita is by far the most painful one of the Underlords to fight. Unless you're a much better Underlord than I am, your attack is going to fail, the front will become a bloodbath, and soon another Underlord will break into your dungeon and force you to fight on two fronts.

Some of your minions are revolting! The rest are just disgusting…



Instead, I recommend starting with Draven. He is the weakest of the three Underlords, and in my experience he is the most aggressive. If we can knock Draven out quickly, we'll be in a much better position.



To support our attack, I spend five sins to start summoning a behemoth titan.



I build a quaint little wooden bridge, and the fight is on!



Conveniently, Draven's dungeon core is highly exposed, and is not far from where we started our attack. There's not much space to build traps, so this will be a straightforward contest of strength.

Psst, Underlord. She's been telling us all of your terrible secrets…

Why not show her how strong you really can be, especially with the Kenos at your disposal?



I decide not to take Draven's tactical advice. His units are coming to defend the dungeon core, and it's not an insignificant force.

Maybe you should have prepared a bit better… if you survive I'll be happy to give you a few tips on defending your dungeon.



In fact, they manage to wipe out my initial force and push me away from the dungeon core. But now our first titan has been summoned.

Could one of you give me a bit of assistance? I'll split the bones of the dead with you evently…



The behemoth titan shows up and starts laying waste to Draven's defence forces.



With the behemoth, we push back to the dungeon core. More defenders keep showing up, but in a trickle rather than as an organised force



That's one down, keep at it Underlord!

Farewell Draven. Only the strongest are meant to survive.

Soon after, we defeat the first of the Underlords.



With Draven defeated, we take over his base. Since he is the weakest of the three Underlords, it's not surprising that his base is pretty unimpressive.



Now we need to move on to our second enemy. One advantage of taking over Draven's dungeon is that it allows us an alternative attack route into Kasita's dungeon. I'll be digging a path from the north through this gold ore.



Our workers reach the inner dungeon walls. They're fortified, but we can blow through them using underminers.



BOOM!



Blowing up the northern wall revealed an incantation shrine owned by Kasita. If we can capture this, the combination of our giant mana pool, fast mana regeneration and the spell cost discount from the incantation shrine will make us ridiculously powerful.



I bring up our army and the assault begins. Kasita immediately responds with a force of high-level monsters.

I'm just looking for some entertainment… speaking of, how goes taking care of our mutual problem?



Even with our behemoth titan, there are just so many of them, and they're considerably higher level than our units!



Soon, our assault on Kasita turns into Kasita's assault on our dungeon. I try to slow her down with some cannons, but they are destroyed in seconds.

The only mutual problem WE have is the sound of YOUR voice echoing about both our dungeons.



Kasita then seizes her side of the underground river! This attack basically could not have gone worse!



Once some of our reinforcements arrive, we manage to hold the small peninsula outside Kasita's base using a combination of cannons and liberal use of the lightning spell.



I build a bridge to try to sneak our army around the main entrance to Kasita's dungeon to attack the incantation shrine directly. We manage to seize the shrine, massively boosting our own spellcasting and reducing Kasita's.



Now that Kasita's might has been weakened, we try to push into her dungeon again. We find a treasury and a training barracks surrounded by a river of gold. Why do all the other Underlords have far more stylish dungeons?



Kasita summons a titan to support her defence. It's the defensive titan, so it's fortunately not as strong as the behemoth, but it's nearly impossible to kill.

There's no time for dilly-dallying, prove your dominance!



Our new behemoth titan shows up along with some new monsters. We are just outside the dungeon core chamber, but it's protected by two Midas doors. Midas doors cannot be broken down using normal means as long as the owner has cash. Instead, each hit taken by the Midas door is deducted from the treasury. Once Kasita runs out of gold, the door will shatter, and we will be able to charge through to the dungeon core. Kasita will never run out of gold.



Reinforcements show up on Kasita's side. She has so many units, and they're generally higher-level than ours. On the other hand, we hold the Kenos and the incantation shrine, so I can cast healing spells almost non-stop.



Even with constant spell support, our monsters slowly get picked off one by one. Even when Kasita's minions get knocked down, she can just drag them back to their beds to recuperate. Our units stay down. In the end, only the behemoth titan is left standing.



However, behind the frontlines, we are making slow progress. We have seized this side of the underground river, as well as Kasita's frontmost rooms. I sell off her archive and the ritual chamber to make sure she can't recapture them.



In the end, even the mighty behemoth titan goes down, scratching at Kasita's dungeon core with the last of its strength.

With our army totally defeated, Kasita's titan and her army can march north to retake the edge of her dungeon.



Except not! Traps! After selling off the northern rooms, I filled the room nearest to the dungeon core with cannons. I also added the gargoyle trap shooting the purple laser, which hugely increases the damage taken by Kasita's titan. Where monsters and magic failed, metal will do the job!



The titan quickly goes down. I creep the cannon battery closer and closer. Kasita is a rich Underlord, but we also have infinite gold! Now the chamber outside Kasita's dungeon core is covered in cannons.

I've waited too long for this, finish these fools.



I bring in a new army and a new titan. And this time I know better than to waste my time pounding on the Midas doors. I build three underminers.



Spend your way out of this!



The walls and the doors are disintegrated. The way is clear to Kasita's dungeon core!

I'll melt your minions into rivers of gold! But… could one of you help me knock them out first?



Finally, our toughest foe yet goes down. Just one Underlord remains.



With Kasita gone, we take control of her dungeon. It's no wonder she never ran out of gold—this place is massive and filled to the brim with treasure! And she has her own private infinite gold shrine right in the middle of her base!

She outlived you in the last war, a pity these things don't often repeat themselves.



I don't have much time to enjoy our new base, as I notice that Korvek's workers are already trying to break down our walls. Our workers are repairing them, but we won't be able to keep Korvek from getting in forever.



Instead of trying to stop them getting in, I decide to help them out. I have my workers make an alternative entrance for them - one filled with traps! Korvek's invasion force immediately streams into the cannon room. We are ready for them, and we break their assault. Korvek's army is strong, but now that I control the Kenos, an incantation shrine and three dungeon cores, my mana regenerates faster than I can comfortably cast spells! Our army has also been bolstered with prisoners from Kasita's dungeon, so we are stronger than ever.



Now it's time for our attack.



Based on my experience with Kasita's dungeon, I continue my very successful strategy of expanding with lots of cannons.



Korvek's dungeon is protected by cannons and a wide lava moat. But it is not enough to slow our army that is being constantly healed because of our infinite mana.



We reach Korvek's dungeon core. We steamrolled through his dungeon so quickly and so forcefully that he cannot even mount any kind of credible defence of his core.

Hehehe, we've been fighting for aeons!



We snuff out his dungeon core!



Our army stands around awkwardly for a short while until I realise that the reason the mission isn't ending is that Korvek has two dungeon cores.



One more time! We attack Korvek's second dungeon core. After we destroy it, the mission immediately and unceremoniously transitions to the victory screen.



Now you are as a god! With these three bent to your will, your war against the Empire capital is sure to end in bloody victory.

That mission was painful. Luckily, the next one isn't nearly as hard. Next time, we will finally assault the Empire capital and hopefully end this campaign!

Tenebrais
Sep 2, 2011

Korvek's lines are both supposed to be from Korvek. He is two underlords in one, hence the two cores. It doesn't affect his theme or AI personality outside this mission though.

I think all of the underlords have traits that aren't expanded on more in the game. You didn't catch it in a screenshot, but inside Mira's dungeon core was a trapped priestess; there's story behind that too. I like the game but it does feel like they wanted the plot to be more than they had missions for.

Enchanted Hat
Aug 18, 2013

Defeated in Diplomacy under suspicious circumstances
Oh, really? So they have a bunch of additional lore and flavour stuff that they just never actually mention in the game? That's so strange.

MagusofStars
Mar 31, 2012



What is the "Unleash Kenos Ritual" mentioned in the achievement? That's a pretty awesome spell name, especially given how much other Underlords are going nuts over this Kenos artifact.

Enchanted Hat
Aug 18, 2013

Defeated in Diplomacy under suspicious circumstances

MagusofStars posted:

What is the "Unleash Kenos Ritual" mentioned in the achievement? That's a pretty awesome spell name, especially given how much other Underlords are going nuts over this Kenos artifact.

So, the Kenos does three things for us:

1. It gives us a big bonus to our mana pool and mana regeneration, which is great.
2. It allows us to summon titans (although all the other Underlords could now also summon titans, so maybe that has nothing to do with the Kenos)
3. It allows us to use the "Unleash the Kenos" ritual.

The ritual itself is pretty underwhelming. If we build a large sanctuary room and have all our cultists channel the ritual for a long time, we can unleash the Kenos, which temporarily shuts down all other Underlords' traps and empties their mana pools.

This would be really good against someone who plays the game like me, with heavy reliance on spells and traps, but the AI keepers aren't very good at massing traps or spamming spells. And since this mission is extremely time-pressured, because you want to knock the other Underlords out quickly before they all start fighting you at once, I never actually use the Kenos.

Now if we could use the Kenos to banish people back to the Aether the way Mira was using it, that would be awesome, but I guess we're not that smart!

President Ark
May 16, 2010

:iiam:
when i did this mission i killed kasita last and the kenos ritual was pretty useful for getting past the godawful meatgrinder she had me trapped in

(this was also back when summoning titans was instant which made it way worse though)

LightWarden
Mar 18, 2007

Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!
Couple of other things that show up in this mission:

-The Well of Souls is the last of the AoE murder traps, and damages every enemy inside its good-sized radius. It also works through walls, so you can murder workers as they try to weaken your walls/claim your tiles, or park it behind a bend in a hallway to damage anyone filtering into your murder hole. Once it damages enough things it summons a revenant to fight things for a little while, bogging down your enemies and ensuring that they'll spend more time in the AoE damaging aura.
-The Spirit Chamber is the last of the XP-granting options, letting you channel XP into a unit in exchange for gold per second. You can also use lost souls created in the torture chamber- dropping one onto a creature getting XP in the spirit chamber gives that creature 100% of the soul's XP, so a level 10 soul can turn a level 1 unit into a level 10 unit. Comes in handy in the next mission. The chamber also attracts witch doctors, which are the only other healing unit you natively get outside of cultists.

There are four titans in the game, three of which we've seen in this map:

-The Behemoth was the one we summoned. Probably the best siege-breaker in the game, it can blow through doors and traps due to getting a big damage bonus against them, and also regenerates its health by default, or even faster when it's out of combat. Trains beasts in the arena if you don't give it any assignment. Not fantastic when fighting creatures though since it doesn't get any damage bonus against them. It can walk through lava, but all the other titans can fly so they can cross chasms while it can't.

-The Eternal is the defensive titan Korvek summoned. It's not particularly fast but has an aura that halves the move and attack speed of enemies, and as long as it's alive it absorbs 80% of the damage directed at your dungeon core. It doesn't heal on its own (though it can be healed by your spells), but blocks half the damage directed at it. A gigantic pain in the rear end if it closes into melee with your units. Hangs out in the forge and makes parts if it doesn't have any assignment.

-The Colossus is the shiny gold thing Kasita summoned. It hits fairly hard in melee, but its true power comes from its aura. Any gold that it encounters gets sucked up into your treasury, no matter if the gold is in gold veins, lying on the ground, a blood money statue or even in your enemy's treasury. Its aura also means that any creature who goes down in a fight while in the aura (friend or foe) will get turned into a statue like the blood money spell (and then sucked into your treasury), which means you can lose your own units and not get prisoners. It doesn't heal on its own though- you need to throw gold at it to make it better.

-The Archon is the last of the titans, focused on magic. Has the same HP as the others, so it's not really any weaker despite being a ranged wizard. It heals for 3.5x the damage it does and has an aura that animates revenants out of whatever dies to really push into enemy territory (though you can lose your own units and it means you don't get prisoners). Researches sins in the library when it doesn't have an assignment. Since it can fly, attack from range and heal based on the damage it does it's a great target for your possession spell (which boosts the speed, damage and defense of the possessed creature) and you can use it to snipe various objectives. Its reliance on attacking to heal means it gets shut down hard by an Eternal titan.

Enchanted Hat
Aug 18, 2013

Defeated in Diplomacy under suspicious circumstances
That's interesting, I'll have to try out the archon. Did you play this game multiplayer? In the campaign, the titans are not available for very long, so I've never had the chance to really experiment with them.

LightWarden
Mar 18, 2007

Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!
You don't need multiplayer, you can play with them in skirmish mode against the AI or especially in the My Pet Dungeon mode. Even if you don't have the My Pet Dungeon DLC, you still get 2 of the 8 levels in the base game. There's also the other mini-campaigns- for example the Colossus titan features prominently in the Heart of Gold campaign (since you're playing as Kasita).

Enchanted Hat
Aug 18, 2013

Defeated in Diplomacy under suspicious circumstances
Episode 13: Equilibrium



The day has finally come. We've set fire to everything in the entire empire except for the Emperor's palace.



All your work has been towards this very moment, Underlord! The Empire is in shambles; its army is decimated, its people are paralyzed with fear, and Emperor Lucius has sealed himself away in the hopes that the dark may hide him. Begin your siege of the Citadel, Underlord, and seize our final victory!



Welcome to the site of our final victory, Underlord!

This is the stronghold beneath the Empire's capital city, Uther's Landing.

At its heart lies their dithering Emperor, Lucius. He waits for us in his throne room…

But be cautious, Underlord. A whimpering baby though he may be, he's now fully absorbed the Aum, and is wracked by powers not meant for any mortal… His mind creaks under the strain of it, and madness eats away at him.

In order to reach him and finally destroy the Aum, you will first need to overcome the formidable defences of this stronghold.

We're getting back to basics with this final mission. We start off with two gateways and plenty of space to build, and we're up against the last of the Empire's forces.



Oh my, the Aum has certainly improved my complexion! Magic mirror on the wall, who is fairest of them all?

Scouting with the vision spell, I find a gold shrine to the northwest.

The Emperor is extremely talkative this mission. He's also stark-raving mad. Unfortunately, he's also very strong, so we will need to prepare before we can take him on.



East of the dungen, I find another gold shrine. Now that we've learned a couple of tricks from Kasita, the Underlord with rivers of gold, I have plans that will make these shrines very useful.



North of our dungeon is the main entrance to the citadel.

The keep is sheathed in protective magic… I don't think they want us to get in, Underlord.

Unleash the Kenos to smash through this barrier… and teach them a lesson in hospitality.

I'm warning you, Underlord! The hinges of my mind are falling off by the second. There's no telling what I might do!



We had access to the ritual to unleash the Kenos during the last mission, but it wasn't particularly useful. In this mission, we're forced to use it, so I build a large sanctuary and begin channelling the ritual.



While our cultists work on the Kenos ritual, I do a bit more scouting. I come across an unshielded Empire base to the northwest, near our first gold shrine.

It seems we've stumbled on something… These Matriarchs are channelling a necromantic spell to raise the dead warriors entombed here! This could get out of hand, Underlord. Put these wenches down before they cause a real nuisance!

Mendechaus suggests taking out this base, which seems like a good idea. The priestesses inside are very high level, and defeating them will give us some powerful units to convert in the torture chamber.



To help us out, I'm going to summon a titan. I would normally summon a behemoth, as it tends to cause me the most trouble in the Mira mission, but LightWarden posted about the different titan types in the thread, and apparently the archon is very powerful. I'll try summoning one of those instead and see how it does.



While waiting for the titan, I build up defences around our dungeon core. The first time I replayed this map, the heroes sent a wave of extremely powerful high-level units charging straight at my dungeon core from the east while my units were stuck fighting the priestesses in the north-west, and the heroes actually managed to kill me that way. Now I'm very paranoid about hero attacks in this mission, so I'm going to heavily fortify the east and west entrances to our dungeon core chamber.



The ritual is ready, Underlord. Be wary: once activated, the barrier will only be disabled for a short time… so make sure your minions are in position before you unleash hell!

The ritual is ready, but we are not. I don't intend to attack the main citadel before taking care of the priestesses and getting a few high-level traitor hero units. The hero units in the citadel are going to be around levels 8-10, which means they will absolutely slaughter our units in the level 1-3 range.



We summon the archon titan. This is a ranged caster titan that can summon undead minions from defeated enemies. I have literally never used this titan, so I'm interested to see how well it does.



Now that we have a titan, I'm ready to asssault the base to the north-west. Our giant sanctuary and sizeable library means that our army is unfortunately filled with useless cultists, but what can you do.



Inside the base, we find that the priestesses have summoned an army of ghostly soldiers. Luckily, they are actually very weak and easy to defeat, especially when we have plenty of mana regeneration from the Kenos to heal our army. However, as usual in this mission, the Empire's timing is impeccable: the moment I attack the base, they launch their own assault against our dungeon. But this time I am prepared! Whether they attack from the east or the west, they will face a wall of cannons and blade traps and steel gates!

What have I done to deserve this? I ruled my subjects as I ruled my toys as a child: pulled their heads off when I got bored.



The heroes charge in from the north, which is undefended. :suicide:



I have a few units still in my base, but they are no match for these high-level hero elites. I shower the heroes with lightning spells, but their high health pools allow them to shrug it off. Is this the end?



No. We have a trick to pull. With our two gold shrines, we have a very high gold income, as well as a fortune of 40,000 gold saved up in our huge treasure chambers. Enter the Midas door.

The Midas door is impervious to harm as long as you have gold in your treasury. Kasita used the Midas door to stonewall our powerful invasion force in the last mission. In the end, we were forced to blow up the walls around her Midas door to reach her dungeon core. I quickly install a Midas door in front of our own dungeon core and complete it using magic. The heroes can cause all the trouble they like in my dungeon, but they are not getting past the Midas door before they deplete our enormous gold reserves.



The heroes feebly hit the Midas door for a minute or two, barely making a dent in our vast gold reserves while I strike them with lightning. Eventually the archon titan and the rest of our army return, but by that time the heroes are already defeated.

Pah, worthless! Who trained these morons? Oh, I did.



Behold our new and improved army! These guys are so much more powerful than my regular units, it's not even funny. I'll have them converted as soon as possible, and then use them to storm the citadel.



While our succubi work on converting the prisoners, I send the army back to the north-western base to take out the rest of the priestesses. It is slow work, mostly because the priestesses love to run away and hide behind doors, which makes clearing out this base take ages. After a few minutes, the heroes send another attack wave at us.

Would the next wave of brave fodder please step forward.

Onwards noble soldiers!



Just to spite me, the heroes attack from the north again. This time I am prepared, and I've built a Midas door at the northern entrance to the base so I don't have to fight the heroes in my bedroom. Since the last attack, our gold reserves have swelled to a hundred thousand gold. It would probably take them several minutes to break down this door.

I had better write my last will and testament, just in case. Here, I shall dictate it: Ahem. To my people, I leave ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Since the heroes are trapped in a small hallway outside our base, I decide to try out a new trap.



This is the well of souls trap. The well of souls is an expensive trap that takes a lot of trap components to build, does not do a lot of damage and has a pretty low range. This would normally make it a pretty poor trap, but it has a number of advantages:

- It has an area of effect attack that can go through walls.
- When attacking heroes, the well of souls trap can summon angry spirits to support your defence.

Especially the ability to attack through walls is incredibly useful in this kind of situation. The Midas door combined with the well of souls traps completely shuts down any kind of offense that the heroes might be able to muster at our north entrance.



The well of souls traps summon a bunch of ghost skeletons, but I don't even need them. They shamble around the guard room while the heroes waste away outside the door.



While that is happening, I am getting tired of my army failing to take out the rest of the priestesses. I possess the archon titan and hunt down the rest of the priestesses myself.

Is the end really the end, or the beginning? Or is it the beginning of the end? Or the end of the beginning?

That put a stop to their little experiment in necromancy! Let those Matriarchs witness the undead realm for themselves.



Since there was a hero base to the northwest, I decide to also scout the north-east to see if there is something there that I need to take out.

Underlord, there is a large forge to the east of the keep. They will likely be able to repair any defences you destroy while it is left in one piece.



While I move our army east to take out the forge, the Emperor launches another attack from the north.

Your loyalty will be rewarded if- I mean, WHEN, you return

Look, he's sending more meat for your grinder. How thoughtful!

Off you go. Like lambs to the slaughter.



Again, the heroes find themselves trapped by the Midas door. At this point, the skeleton spirits are getting restless!



Just for fun, I open the door to give the spirits something to do. They make short work of the heroes.



Meanwhile, our army is attacking the forge. At this point, I believe that we have more traitor hero units than actual monsters. The traitors are all very high level, and as a result, our army is ridiculously powerful.



We smash straight through the defences and quickly take out the forge shrines. I can't even capture the battle for the forge, because there is no battle. Any resistance just evaporates before our forces.

Good! Now they have no means of replacing their defences. Push on!

Alas, the clinking of metal on metal falls silent… along with the last of my sanity.



Now that the crypt and the forge have been shut down, only the citadel remains. I position the army in front of the citadel and then unleash the Kenos.

The barrier is down! Get your minions inside before it recovers.



They should not even have bothered with those traps. Our army is huge and unstoppable!



The barrier has returned. There are sealing obelisks to the east and west, Underlord. Pound them into dust, and there should be no energy for the barrier to remake itself.

The barrier quickly goes up again. We'll want to take out the inhibitors before we proceed.

I'm warning you, Underlord! The hinges of my mind are falling off by the second. There's no telling what I might do!



Ah, they've mastered the ancient trick of building a drawbridge. Smash its winches and open a route for your minions!

To further complicate things, we have to take out the winches holding up the drawbridge to the inner keep of the Emperor's citadel.

Who said that barrier was impenetrable? Send them for the chop immediately!



BAM goes the first inhibitor to the west.



BAM goes the one to the east. I cannot overstate how much easier this mission is than the previous one.



The winches holding up the drawbridge are at the northern edge of the citadel. It will be a tough fight getting all the way up there to deal with them.



I'm just kidding, we waltz up there practically unopposed and smash the winches.
.


The drawbridge lowers, opening the way into the central keep for our army. This is it.

Speak clearly! Is the Underlord merely making good progress, or is he literally forging a head? A huge, giant head to consume us all!



Why hello there minions of the Underlord. I've heard so much about you! Would you like a cup of tea?

There stands the boy-Emperor Lucius! I have waited for this.

The Emperor is a very powerful single unit. But we have dozens of very powerful units.



Is it too late to call a truce?



Yes, Lucius, it's too late.

Something's happening to the Aum. I think I'm going to be sick…

It's about time.



My my, the Aum is indeed powerful. With Lucius as my new minion, I can finally confront the goddess.

Are you so certain, Mendechaus? What does your Underlord have to say about that?

Why Kira…



My Underlord has played his part. Now the curtain must fall.

Lucius, destroy the Underlord and retrieve the Kenos!

Yes Master.





What's happening?

Kira, what have you done?!

You'll see.



Do not be afraid, Underlord - you are free of his influence.

Mendechaus did what he does best, and you fulfilled your purpose flawlessly.

Now the people shall build a new country, free of Lucius, free of Mendechaus, and worthy of my name.

Come, this should be as easy as waking up.

Why don't you open your eyes.



Welcome home, Overseer.



The War for the Overworld is over for the moment.

So enjoy the calm clouds and fresh breeze of the Aether. But for you, there are other realms to raze to the ground. Let us continue the game, another day.

:stare: Well, that was surprising. They have actually changed the ending of the game since the last time I played this game! The last time I played the game, Mendechaus betrayed you, turned the Emperor into his new servant and laid waste to all the land after killing you and banishing you to the Aether. This thing about the goddess Kira puppetmastering the whole thing is completely new to me!

To everyone who followed the LP, I hope you've enjoyed it! My aim with this LP was to show off this game as a worthy successor to the old Dungeon Keeper games, which I think it definitely is. If anyone decides to give the game a try after reading the LP, then that would be the best possible outcome.

Bloody Pom
Jun 5, 2011



What a twist!

This has been a fun read, any chance of you covering Heart of Gold or Under Games?

Slaan
Mar 16, 2009



ASHERAH DEMANDS I FEAST, I VOTE FOR A FEAST OF FLESH
I'm not defeated, this was my plan all along!

FoolyCharged
Oct 11, 2012

Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Somebody call for an ant?

Huh, I expected that to be a fake out final mission with a big showdown against the obvious evil vizier for the spoils.

LightWarden
Mar 18, 2007

Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!
Well, you inspired me to pull the game out of my backlog and play through it, if that counts. I had a lot of help from the steam guides, especially the guide to units, spells and structures (though it doesn't cover some of the changes in the latest patches).

Anyways, this mission introduces the last of the Underlord's forces, the most powerful unit on your side- the vampire. You don't attract vampires (or get them from graveyards like in DK2), you summon them with a ritual that also requires you to sacrifice three intelligent beings (enemy heroes or allied minions, it doesn't really matter). Vampires are the strongest unit HP-wise and hit like a truck, plus heal off of their damage and can summon allied undead at level 5. When they hit 0 HP you don't have to worry about them dying, they just respawn at their lair after a little bit unless they're finished off by either the Empire's Huntress or an enemy vampire (though they can be captured and subject to the usual fates of prisoners if you're against an enemy Underlord).

The problem with vampires is that they don't eat food, they eat people from your prison, and high level vampires are pretty hungry. That steady stream of enemy heroes this map throws at you is enough to feed only one or two level 10 vampires, and a vampire who doesn't have people to eat quickly gets unhappy and rebels against you, fighting anything nearby until it's brought down (and subsequently destroyed- you can't imprison and reconvert mutineers).

It's kind of a waste given the pile of heroes the game throws at your prisons when there are so many other fun things to do with them. There's the obvious route of conversion, especially for the level 10 Highguard since they're the tankiest non-boss unit on the Empire's side with both a high HP base and further damage reduction on top of it. But for units like the level 10 arcanist that comes with each wave, if you've had your fill of these glass cannons you can throw one the rack and then click the rack again to set it to "execute". This burns the subject to death and creates a spirit with that unit's XP (multiplied by like 1.5 or 2).

Spirits are invulnerable, invisible and can go through doors, making them great scouts that won't get into fights with the enemy defenses or defender. Low-level spirits scout just as well as high level spirits, but high level spirits have another useful function- if you drop them on a unit that's channeling XP in the spirit chamber, all that spirit's XP goes to the unit. So a level 10 spirit turns a level 1 unit into a level 10 unit just like that. So you can easily use the level 10 arcanist to create a level 10 augre or something.

But that's not all you can do with your units. One of the last things they put into the game with the 2.0 patch that came with the Under Games expansion is introduce the Sacrifice Ritual to the Sanctum. The way Sacrifice works is simple- fire up the ritual, drop three creatures into the glowing pentagram in the center of the sanctum and see what happens. A lot of combinations don't give you anything, but fortunately there's a guide to everything you can summon through sacrifices. In the campaign the sacrifice I use most frequently is Warden + Firebreather + (one of warden, firebreather, rat or pig) since that creates a Vanguard, which is a warden but with something like 90% more HP, and you can do that sacrifice from the moment you unlock the sanctum in a fight against a horde of enemy dwarves.

You can do other sacrifices, but most of the time you need to sacrifice two to three of your units or imperial units to get one new unit so it's frequently about grabbing things you can't normally get for whatever reason. You can also summon some of the novelty units that you see in the campaign or the survival mode, like the giant ghouls or spirits that Draven uses, the arcanist dwarves that appear in the mage mission, or the half-dozen weird Chunders the game has.



(You can see the giant ghoul to the left of the core).

But once you have Vampires then things officially go off the rails. If you sacrifice three vampires (requiring a total of 9 sacrifices) you get one Baby Democorn, which is a demonic rainbow unicorn. Sacrifice three Baby Democorns (requiring a total of 27 other units) and you get a Democorn, which is a tougher version of the Baby Democorn. Three Democorns (81 sacrifices) and you get an Alpha Democorn, which at level 1 has about the same HP as a titan, and at level 10 (which you can easily get through using spirits) has about 7.5x that. It's more of a novelty unit than anything, but if you sacrifice a regular Democorn plus two of the same imperial unit you get the campaign boss version of that unit (and if you sacrifice a regular Democorn plus one imperial unit plus a necromancer you get the ghost boss of that unit- sacrifice a ghost boss with a priestess and one of either a rat, a pig or another priestess and you convert the ghost boss to a regular boss)

Sacrifice a Democorn plus two Highguards?

You get Emperor Lucius.

So you can kill the level 10 final boss with the level 10 final boss.

And the ghost of his dad. And a giant wall of angry unicorn. And a flying chunder and a baby behemoth and...

If you want to gently caress around in this game, open up the sacrifice guide on a separate screen or your smartphone and just mess around on either this map or My Pet Dungeon.

Bloodly
Nov 3, 2008

Not as strong as you'd expect.
Even Lucius's voice lines have changed. He's merely arrogant and imperious previously and practically an Underlord in his own right. As you've transcribed it, he's completely insane.

You were still revealed as an Overseer, mind you.

Bloodly fucked around with this message at 09:42 on Apr 18, 2019

Tenebrais
Sep 2, 2011

Oh, I much prefer this new ending. It much better establishes what Kira was up to this whole time.
Originally Lucius would attack your home realm and destroy you there, but that is a bit anticlimactic if you haven't been building it. And you've got no reason to build it, it's a pure sandbox with no challenges, goals or terrain.

All the setup for this happened in the second Rhaskos mission. He had flashes of memory of being different, ie serving as an Overseer under Kira; it introduced the Aum; it hinted at Kira's intentions to abandon the Empire and start over. Unfortunately the subsequent missions didn't develop these ideas much, you might not have even noticed Kira wasn't opposing you any more. This is what I meant about feeling there weren't enough missions for the story they wanted to tell, since they clearly wanted something more involved than Dungeon Keeper's "conquer the world because, gently caress it, why not". The companion book in the Underlord Edition dlc has more of the lore and background that didn't get used.

Bloodly
Nov 3, 2008

Not as strong as you'd expect.
Book? The Dungeoneering guide accessible from the Extras menu, or something else?

Tenebrais
Sep 2, 2011

Yeah, that thing. Not in the sense of having a section of plot points they never used, just the flavour text tidbits showing they put more thought into this stuff than originally came across. It actually tells you what an Overseer is, for example.

Enchanted Hat
Aug 18, 2013

Defeated in Diplomacy under suspicious circumstances

Bloody Pom posted:

What a twist!

This has been a fun read, any chance of you covering Heart of Gold or Under Games?

I like that the game even offered a twist for me by completely changing the ending inbetween playthroughs! Unfortunately, I haven't actually played Heart of Gold and Under Games.


Tenebrais posted:

Oh, I much prefer this new ending. It much better establishes what Kira was up to this whole time.
Originally Lucius would attack your home realm and destroy you there, but that is a bit anticlimactic if you haven't been building it. And you've got no reason to build it, it's a pure sandbox with no challenges, goals or terrain.

I remember that! My home realm was completely undeveloped, so Lucius just marked through empty stone for a while and then rudely smacked my dungeon core.

I think I prefer the previous ending where Mendechaus and I win the campaign, and he then stabs me in the back. In this version, it's not at all clear what Kira actually does to upset Mendechaus' plans, or if she does nothing at all and or just leaves to a new realm. I'd totally be interested in trying a new Overseer expansion campaign where you play as the Empire, though. The game has a free campaign editor and map maker, but unfortunately, as far as I can see, I can't find a way to set the player to the Empire faction.

KazigluBey
Oct 30, 2011

boner

I would have really loved it if Brightrock Games were the ones carrying the torch of the DK genera forwards with iterative releases, as opposed to the Dungeons series, but I'm really looking forwards to their Project Aftercare thing after how good WFTO turned out. Very rocky development cycle but pretty much a KS/EA success story nonetheless.

tithin
Nov 14, 2003


[Grandmaster Tactician]



Yeah that is a wildly different ending than I remember.

Haven't played the Heart of gold xpac now I come to think of it...

Enchanted Hat posted:

I like that the game even offered a twist for me by completely changing the ending inbetween playthroughs! Unfortunately, I haven't actually played Heart of Gold and Under Games.


I remember that! My home realm was completely undeveloped, so Lucius just marked through empty stone for a while and then rudely smacked my dungeon core.

I think I prefer the previous ending where Mendechaus and I win the campaign, and he then stabs me in the back. In this version, it's not at all clear what Kira actually does to upset Mendechaus' plans, or if she does nothing at all and or just leaves to a new realm. I'd totally be interested in trying a new Overseer expansion campaign where you play as the Empire, though. The game has a free campaign editor and map maker, but unfortunately, as far as I can see, I can't find a way to set the player to the Empire faction.

Force-Skin as Empire, put Hero portals in. They're used extensively in the last "My Pet dungeon" level.

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

So how did Mendy intend to achieve his betrayal of you? You have all the power. He's got Lucius, but as you just proved Lucius is no match for you and your army.

Bloodly
Nov 3, 2008

Not as strong as you'd expect.
Lucius, empowered by the Aum, teleports direct to your Home Realm. He blows up the dungeon as he walks, and destroys your Core. Your minions can't stop him. He's not doing it under any orders, he does it in revenge for what you've just done. "You've caused nothing but death and chaos, now you too will bow to me. Cry! Scream! I want to hear you suffer!"

Let me see if I can find a decent video. You'll also hear old-Lucius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev0rei0EHYg

This will do, I suppose. Very few recorded Let's Plays bothered with the Home Realm(understandably), so you get him walking through and blowing up earth.

Bloodly fucked around with this message at 09:24 on Apr 20, 2019

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seaborgium
Aug 1, 2002

"Nothing a shitload of bleach won't fix"




Feels weird to bump this, but if anyone else wanted to buy this after the LP it's on sale on Steam for dirt cheap right now.

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