|
I would kill for Chaos Dwarves in this game. Ah well, hopefully once Total Warhammer 2 comes out, they'll release them, Ogre Kingdoms and Tomb Kings as DLC or something. Other than Ogre Kingdoms, Tomb Kings and Chaos Dwarves, every other faction that's been in the tabletop game has been released or announced now, correct?
|
#
?
May 23, 2017 13:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 09:06 |
|
|
ZearothK posted:You appear to be somewhat overstretched, but I tend to take the campaign more slowly anyway.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2017 14:31
|
|
|
How does Chaos Corruption interact with our Vampiric Corruption? Do vampires spreading their own corruption simultaneously decrease the chaos flavor?
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2017 15:58
|
|
|
Mzbundifund posted:How does Chaos Corruption interact with our Vampiric Corruption? Do vampires spreading their own corruption simultaneously decrease the chaos flavor? It doesn't, they're two entirely separate things. As a result, the worst-case scenario for a Chaos army is to charge into the heart of Vampire Counts territory, and vice versa. The hordes of Chaos have a hard enough time functioning in a place where it doesn't rain blood, fire, and mescaline; adding "the earth itself is dead, and wants the living to join it" is just the cherry on top. Likewise, our undead legions hate any place the sun shines already. Places where the sun shines 24/e/132, only pausing for lava to erupt from the ground in blasphemous sigils, and any dead bodies lying around became the playthings of the Ruinous Powers before they could hit the ground? Worse. Vampires don't ~do~ holy ground, and when the Northmen come south they bring their gods with 'em.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2017 16:20
|
|
|
Do you like using terrorgheists? I had some fun with an all flying army backed up by dragons and the healing spell.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2017 16:38
|
|
|
Foolish Empire, having Volkmar as the treasurer and Gelt as the Arch Lector. They should switch them around as Gelt can surely just magic gold into existence, while Volkmar is a priest to begin with. However I know nothing of the inner workings of the game so maybe backwards-seeming decisions make sense!
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2017 16:46
|
|
|
Mzbundifund posted:How does Chaos Corruption interact with our Vampiric Corruption? Do vampires spreading their own corruption simultaneously decrease the chaos flavor? It would be funny if they hobbled each other, cause there's only so many disgruntled, desperate folks to become cultists, and there's only so many churches to be desecrated. As-is, I picture a peasant who attends the vile rituals of Chaos on Thursday nights and Saturday nights he attends the profane mass of his dark vampiric masters. Not much else going on in the life of a peasant.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2017 17:51
|
|
|
Precambrian posted:It would be funny if they hobbled each other, cause there's only so many disgruntled, desperate folks to become cultists, and there's only so many churches to be desecrated. As-is, I picture a peasant who attends the vile rituals of Chaos on Thursday nights and Saturday nights he attends the profane mass of his dark vampiric masters. Not much else going on in the life of a peasant. In the average game the Essen area really, profoundly sucks by the endgame, yes.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2017 18:31
|
|
|
Saint Celestine posted:Do you like using terrorgheists? Yeah in the next set of turns I recruit a terrorgheist to Vlad's army. They can be kind've fragile because of their leadership and they're pretty expensive but they do a lot of armor piercing damage and are good against chaos. At some point I'm probably going to give Isabella an all flying army.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2017 19:25
|
|
|
Trujillo posted:At some point I'm probably going to give Isabella an all flying army. 
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2017 19:54
|
|
|
Marmaduke! posted:Foolish Empire, having Volkmar as the treasurer and Gelt as the Arch Lector. They should switch them around as Gelt can surely just magic gold into existence, while Volkmar is a priest to begin with. However I know nothing of the inner workings of the game so maybe backwards-seeming decisions make sense! Basically one unique Empire mechanic is that they got a bunch of offices that they can appoint their lords (i.e. those people leading armies) to, which gives them unique effects. For example, the Reiksmarshal is better at recruiting units (particularly the Reiksguard), the Supreme Patriarch gets a larger magic reserve, and the Treasurer boosts your income. But the way that's included in the game makes things a little silly sometimes. For one, most of the offices have a level requirement. So even the renowned Volkmar and Balthasar Gelt have to work their way up through the ranks like everybody else until they can actually assume the offices they're actually famous for. Additionally, there's no real interplay between the office and the character who holds it. Whether you put Gelt, Volkmar, or just a random-rear end General into the office of Arch Lector, they'll all get the same exact bonuses from it. The only exception is Karl Franz, who always holds the office of Emperor and cannot take any other one.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2017 20:41
|
|
|
This and the Empire LP's have been great and you've convinced me to buy this whenever it goes on sale again. I can't wait to see how this turns out.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2017 15:58
|
|
|
Turns 70-80 The first wave of the Chaos invasion encamps in the Chaos Waste to start drawing in more warriors and tribal raiders.  Encamping takes 25% of your total map movement for the turn so Chaos armies will usually move 75% then encamp unless they're being chased by a stronger army.  Archaeon the Everchosen has two traits, Destroyer and Repulsive. The Warriors of Chaos are a horde faction so they don't take cities, only sack or raze. Their buildings are in each horde, and the more souls they harvest on their rampage, the stronger their hordes will get. As the Undead, you can actually ally with the Warriors of Chaos during the first wave, but that's only because Archaeon isn't here yet. But once war is declared, diplomacy with them is no longer an option.  ---  Research on infiltrating noble houses finishes, which gives a permanent 10+ relations boost with every faction.  Blasphemous Disciples is queued up next, which gives +2 rank to new vampires and necromancers recruited, and opens the way for Deciphering Nehekhara Manuscripts which gives 30% more income to Forbidden Libraries and Necromancer Towers and then Incantations of Nagash which does the same for Vampire Crypts and Vampire Keeps.  The relations boost from Infiltrate Noble Houses and from fighting Bordeleaux and Parravon gets the Red Duke to agree to a defensive alliance.  Karak Ziflin, the Gray Dwarfs, raze Montfort before walls can be put up around it. Almost no dark magic was invested into Montfort yet so it's only an inconvenience. ---   Quenelles, Parravon's last remaining minor settlement is sacked. Occupying it now would slow down the rest of the Bretonnian invasion, and it would be harder to defend than Parravon-Montfort-Bastonne. All of those, plus Helmgart, are within one turn's march from Montfort, so you can defend all four settlements with one army, but Quenelles is a bit farther.  Vlad's army is a bit worn out but is in fine enough shape to launch an assault on Parravon's last remaining castle, Castle Bastonne.  The garrison. Battle Seventeen - Breach of Bastonne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_mhyfPWmvA The battle was pretty heavily in Vlad's favor. I just wanted to show off some of Bretonnia's roster in a smaller scale battle than the last battle against Parravon.   The people of Bastonne are spared. Bastonne was a formerly independent dukedom taken over by Parravon so maybe they'll see the von Carsteins as liberators if shown some mercy.  It doesn't hurt that a Ghost Fence can be built right away by being occupied. Bastonne was a tier 3. By being occupied it gets knocked down to tier 2. Sacking or looting it would've lowered it another tier to tier 1 and a Ghost Fence is a tier 2 building. As long as a provincial capital has a Ghost Fence built, it should be able to repel all rebellions if you fight it yourself. The balance of power bar may be against you, but it doesn't give enough weight to having walls and towers. ---  The Fay Enchantress of Carcassonne abandons Parravon in their time of need and accepts a peace offer.  It could have something to do with the ground crumbling under their feet, giving way to pools of magma. The Beastmen have made Carcassonne their private stomping grounds, leaving a lot Chaos Corruption in their wake. The +5 chaos corruption from characters means they're hiding somewhere in the region.  The Beastmen leave a totem in the ruins of Brionne after they massacre its inhabitants, which gives off +2 more chaos corruption until it's colonized.  "Malagor the Dark Omen, known by many titles as Malagor the Crowfather, the Despoiler of the Sacred or the Harbinger of Disaster is a darkly winged figure of nightmares and destruction, revered by the Beastmen but feared above all by the superstitious of Mankind. To all of Humanity, Malagor is a harbinger of the downfall of all they hold dear." Malagor comes out of the forest to lay siege to Castle Carcassone. ---   Louen Leoncoeur diplomatically annexs the Duchy of Artois. Artois was at war with Mousillon so this will take some of the pressure off the Red Duke.  ---  Webber von Carstein, the Strigoi Ghoul King, moves into the ruins of Montfort after putting down rebellion of Empire loyalists in Helmgart.   To stop Karak Ziflin from brushing Webber aside and clearing out the ruins again, Vlad stands guard at the bridge between Montfort and the Grey Mountain pass.  Isabella returns to Quenelles, Parravon's last remaining settlement, to put an end to them before they surrender to Louen instead.   ---  Reynald Jaeger, the hero of Nuln, retakes Grunburg after it was razed by rebels. ---  The forces of Chaos start to inch their way closer to Kislev, gathering more poor twisted souls to their banner as they march through the territory of the tribal Varg raiders.  Kislev has carved out a strong and wide Empire for themselves but their massive size means their armies are spread out all over. They don't see what's coming or they're so arrogant that they think one army will be enough to bulwark Volksgrad from the approaching hordes of madness.  Mikhail Pozharsky's prayers go unanswered and Volksgrad is the first city to fall, with no help for the cursed city of Praag in sight.   The Vampire who's been stalking the Warriors of Chaos sends an urgent message by fell bat to the royal couple. It's decided that Isabella will continue the dark crusade against the Bretonnians and Vlad will return to Sylvania to muster an army strong enough to crush the Chaos Invasion before the situation gets out of control. It's a long way back to Sylvania so the grave guard and all of Vlad's elite troops except for his personal Blood Knights are transfered to Isabella, while most of the skeleton warriors and spearmen are handed off to Vlad to give to another von Carstein general once he's back in Sylvania. ---  Danette the Devoted tries to bypass Castle Bastonne to try to hit the unwalled settlement of Montfort. This army is even weaker than it looks. Four of their infantry are peasant mobs, who are just below zombies on the list of the weakest units in the game. The now corrupt countryside of Bastonne is also taking a toll on them.  The Red Duke has come back from his string of defeats and used the space we've given him to regain his strength. The army blocked by the Red Duke's banner is a full one, but since Mousillon is only a minor settlement they can't built real recruitment buildings yet so all their troops are either skeleton warriors, spearmen, or zombies, which is fine when you have 40-60 of them.  Now that the von Carsteins and Mousillon are allies, they can be given direction. Bordeleaux itself is set as a war coordination target.  On the next turn, the Red Duke sallies and rides straight to Bordeleaux ---  Turn 75 political map.  Relations.  Diplomatic standings. Pink means ally of enemy.  Vampiric corruption. ---   Karak Ziflin answered Parravon's call to arms, but now Parravon is dead. Even though Isabella's army is a lot stronger after taking the best parts of Vlad's, attacking Karak Ziflin would be a very costly diversion. They're allied with the Empire so it's only a matter of time before there's another war but now Helmgart and Montfort aren't immediately threatened.  ---  When Chaos razes a settlement, it leaves behind a Chaos Rift. My first campaign, I thought chaos daemons were going to come pouring out of these at some point so I rushed to recolonize every settlement Chaos took and it lead to being completely overstretched, but they don't do anything. Maybe when the Daemons of Chaos are added in Game 3.  ---  Isabella moves to help Mousillon whose advance army is beaten back by the Duke of Bordeleaux.   Vlad starts his journey back to Sylvania, blocking Danette the Devoted from hitting Montfort on his way out of Bretonnia.  One of the Chaos sorcerors encircles Praag while the rest encamp around the defiled ruins of Volksgrad.  Balthasar Gelt and Volkmar the Grim have finished their preparations and try to make haste towards northeast Kislev.  They're nowhere near in time to save Praag as Chaos hordes descend and turn it into a pile of cinder. ---  Alberic d'Bordeleaux sees the writing on the walls of his city and retreats to Aquitaine to try to rally the peasantry.  Mousillon takes advantage and surrounds the port.  Alberic didn't run far enough. Battle Eighteen - Attack on Aquitaine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xw19g_Cmug Isabella, her vampire entourage, the wolfs and varghulf take down the gate pretty quickly and go in first to make room for the grave guard. Eventually Isabella duels Alberic and they both bring each other really low. Alberic has a really high weapon strength here so his hits do a lot of damage when they connect. Eventually Alberic is run down in the street by Isabella and trampled by his own horses and the last hope of Bordeleaux is trampled with him. Dannette the Devoted is still roaming the von Carstein countryside but by the time she gets anywhere it'll probably be too late.   The town is sacked and Isabella immediately force marches back to Bordeleaux to try to entice Mousillon into launching an assault instead of waiting them out.   Parravon seperatists rise up in rebellion outside of Castle Bastonne. Bretonnian rebels are probably the weakest out of any faction. The cavalry unit making up most of this rebellion, mounted yeomen, is a very light cavalry, suitable only for attacking enemy ranged units, chasing retreating units off the field or hitting the back of the enemy infantry line and immediately retreating. ---  On his way back east, Vlad passes Webber von Carstein, who is staying behind to help Isabella pacify Bretonnia.   The insatiable hordes of Chaos close in on the seat of the Ice Queen, with Kislev's relief force nowhere in sight. It seems all of Kislev's barking about their land being an impenetrable land of ice was just talk.  ---  Danette makes the same mistake as her liege and walks right into the graveyard that is Aquitaine.    Forgot to save the replay of this one, but it's basically the same as the last battle anyways. This time the town is razed. Now Bordeleaux is really done for. Their only remaining city is surrounded by thousands of angry skeletons and one angry Red Duke and they have no army anywhere.  The Red Duke is feeling confident enough now to declare war on King Louen.   Von Carstein Bretonnia. ---   Kamilla von Carstein tracks down an Exalted Hero of Chaos outside one of Middenland's small towns and assassinates him. There was a 25% chance to wound him, 9% chance to kill him, 62% to fail and 4% chance to be wounded. When a hero or lord is wounded, they'll be off the map for a few turns but will recover. Some skills speed up recovery time. Since it's a critical success, he won't be coming back. The Chaos Invasion isn't just the hordes. It'll place a lot of Chaos heroes scattered around that will sabotage you and spread Chaos. Getting rid of them early will help and will boost relations with the rest of the civilized world. ---  Grimgor Ironhide doesn't have enough on his plate and declares war on Templehof. I feel like he would've been too afraid to declare war on the von Carsteins directly because the difference between strength ratings, so this is the downside of having a vassal. The upside is that hopefully Templehof can take care of the Greenskins infesting the mountains on their own.  As soon as they declare, they get a new Waaagh! which is like getting a free army that follows you around. It's also a sign that at least one of their armies has some momentum going, because you need to win some battles to be able to attract a waaagh!   Zelig is immediately assigned to flushing them out of the ruins of Karak Kadrin before they reinforce. ---  At turn 80, Vlad is almost at the last leg of his long march back to the homeland.  Turn 80 political map.  Relations.  Diplomatic.  Vampiric corruption.  Chaos corruption. When the Chaos Invasion starts, every province starts getting a small up-tick of chaos corruption.  Dark magic summary. The economy is starting to take off now, with +4,200 dark magic harvested every turn. In the campaign, you can choose whether you want to have be more defensive focused with a smaller army and more income to pay for more development and infrastructure so you can support a bigger army later, or you can run be more aggressive with more, larger armies that are constantly raiding, looting and sacking.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2017 22:45
|
|
|
Oh, Kislev. So deeply, deeply inept. I'm looking forward to seeing how a skilled player deals with a Chaos invasion when they have a big east-west border. In my experience, the Northmen are very good at plonking a full Siege Attacker stack wherever is least convenient at any given time. On the bright side, after the collapse of both the Empire and Brettonia, it seems like smooth sailing once the unholy (well, differently-unholy. The wrong kind of unholy) hordes are beaten back.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2017 23:43
|
|
|
Turns 80-90  King Louen confederates with Bordeleaux at the last possible moment, but since Mousillon is already at war with King Louen they take the port-city anyways. The only thing Bretonnia gets out of this confederation is the now homeless Duke Alberic.    King Webber colonizes Quenelles now that Parravon has a ghost fence and can take care of its own defense. --- Durthu, or Oakheart, is an Elder of Athel Loren, a Treeman so ancient that even Ariel’s millennia-long existence pales in comparison. It was he who first forged a union between Elves and forest, and he also who argued with his fellow Elders that the binding be made permanent. In those days, he was ever a friend to the children of Isha, always willing to help them broaden their understanding of the forest and of the Weave. Alas, those days are long gone. Centuries of destruction and carnage have taken their toll on Durthu’s valiant spirit. He has borne witness to the rapacity of blooded fife, and of the wanton destruction it has heaped upon his homeland. He has seen untold acres of trees felled for kindling or from simple spite. Worst of all, he has seen his fellow Elders fall, one by one; some slain by their own foes but most destroyed by the enemies of the Elves.    Durthu becomes the first non-undead to ally with the von Carsteins. Durthu is grateful that the Duchy of Parravon has been wiped off the map and despises the beastmen so much that he's willing to work together with vampires if it means keeping them and Chaos out of his forest.  ---  With the extra income gained by taking the port-city of Bordeleaux, Mousillon is able to field 3 full armies and starts raising a 4th.  Alberic takes refuge in Gisoreux, in the Forest of Arden, as his city is twisted by the Red Duke. ---  Kislev sits on the brink of annihilation as the Followers of Chaos surround the Ice Palace.   The hordes get overconfident and start to spread out, but Volkmar the Grim is waiting in the shadows.  None of the demon worshipers escape his judgment, and the five hordes that the Chaos invasion began with are now only four.  Zelig obediently lays siege to Karak Kadrin. Templehof probably won't be contributing much to the fight against Chaos now that another front much closer to their home has opened up with the Greenskins. ---  Vlad makes it to Eschen without incident, and can now start raising up an army to take the fight to the Chaos Warriors. Webber von Diehl is called back into service to be an auxillary to Vlad and to take some of the skeleton warriors and spearmen from Vlad's army so he can recruit sturdier troops.  Fortress Kislev is just embers now. Their armies are still nowhere to be seen, but it's probably because they're trying to hold back the tide of Skaeling and Varg raiders coming in from the west.  Bretonnia marshals all the strength it has left for a do or die attack on Mousillon.  It turned out to be a huge mistake on King Louen's part, as Mousillonese reinforcements from Bordeleaux run north and start carving their way through the four Bretonnian armies.  When Mousillon is finished, only King Louen's army is left standing, helplessly watching the disaster unfold from the beaches of Mousillon.  ---  Blasphemous Disciples is finished and work starts on Deciphering Nehekhara Manuscripts.   The von Carsteins offer to join Mousillon's war against Bretonnia now that they've just wiped the floor with them in exchange for a full military alliance. The Red Duke happily accepts ---  Avril the Saviour, a Bretonnian prophetess, was trying to reinforce the siege of Mousillon but was far behind the rest of Bretonnia, and ends up standing in an unfortunate position right next to the always bloodthirsty Isabella.    With a generation of Bretonnian peasants and knights piled up in Mousillon's mass graves, there's no one to stop Isabella from taking the Forest of Arden. ---  Vlad stands on the border between Eschen and Essen, recruiting four units of Grave Guard with Great Weapons. The Great Weapon variant of Grave Guard do armor piercing damage and most Chaos units have heavy armor, except for the low tier tribal units like marauders.   Balthasar Gelt tries to make a stand just north of Templehof's border.  The Empire doesn't have a repeat of Volkmar's success and the Empire army lead by Gelt is beaten back and retreats west into the Great Forest.   ---   Gisoreux is stripped off all its wealth and trinkets and afterwards Isabella makes her way towards Castle Artois.  .---  With the Grave Guard with Great Weapons finished, Vlad raises a terrorgheist, a black coach and three dire wolves.   "The diving Terrorgheist, with a terrifying scream, seeds death and havoc amongst its enemies." Terrorgheists are a monstrous flying unit and one of the strongest undead units. They have regeneration, poison attack, cause terror, and do a lot of armor piercing damage and anti-large damage. Their one weakness is their low leadership. With only a base leadership of 40, they can easily crumble, especially if isolated, so you want to try to keep them around a hero or lord if possible to encourage them. With 575 upkeep each, you probably won't be able to afford many of them at once.     "On the field of battle, Black Coaches channel magical energy, making them both stronger in defence and on the charge." The Black Coach is a Magic Chariot that gets stronger as the fighting goes on. It has three buffs that will apply to the Coach after it's been in battle for a certain amount of time. It starts with magic attacks, causes terror, and has a decent amount of bonus anti-infantry and armor piercing damage. The general consensus with most players seems to be that the Black Coach is one of the worst units in the game but I couldn't disagree more. The Black Coach is one of my favorite units, and once it's fully buffed, it becomes a tanky chariot that can be pretty difficult to deal with. My only experience has been using it in multiplayer battles so we'll see if it's underwhelming or not against the Chaos invasion.     After 45 seconds in combat, the Black Coach gets Black Scythes, which gives a 36% charge bonus and +18% to charge speed. At 90 seconds, it gets Unholy Vigour which adds fire damage and 36%+ armor damage, bringing its total armor piercing damage to 122. After 135 seconds it gets Black Nimbus which gives 44% damage resistance and the Strider trait, which means it isn't slowed by bad terrain. All of the bonuses stack and the 44% damage resistance is the biggest one. If you can keep the Black Coach going until the end of the battle it can make a huge difference.  ---  Not the strongest army that could've been brought but Chaos is moving south pretty quickly and Vlad alone is an army of one.  Webber von Diehl and his own host of skeletons follow Vlad's lead into Ostermark. ---   All the remaining factions, ranked by strength. #22 is the one faction that the von Carsteins don't have contact with, the Top Knotz savage orks who are at the southern edge of the map.  Political map, turn 85.  Relations.  Diplomatic.  Chaos corruption.  Wealth.  Public order. ---  The Red Duke finally starts to enact his revenge against his former countrymen who imprisoned him for centuries. Lyonesse is surrounded by skeletons and anyone who could stop them died in the fields outside Mousillon or is currently running north with their tails between their legs.   King Louen leaves Lyonesse to their brutal fate.  One of the Red Duke's generals colonizes the ruins of Aquitaine, giving them control of their first full province, Bordeleaux. ---   Volkmar the Grim and his tattered followers somehow destroy two Chaos hordes, probably because one is a runt and the other is on the Force March stance which causes all their units to start the battle tired.   Vlad sneaks his army north and lays an ambush in the forest. With two points invested in the Ancient Cunning skill, he has a 86% chance of the ambush not being foiled in light forests. If the ambush is detected, Vlad will face the suicidal task of trying to hold off three full Chaos stacks on his own.     Webber hangs back near Essen, ready to reinforce Vlad on the next turn. ---  Volkmar knows that Sigmar can't save him from three full hordes of Chaos Warriors and makes a tactical retreat back to Talabecland.  Vlad's ambush goes undetected and the vile Chaos worshippers walk right into the trap.   An event fires at the perfect time to give every von Carstein unit +6 more leadership. This may be the difference between victory and defeat.  Iber and Egarl are standing within reinforcement range of each other, but Harald Plaguies is off on his own, so Vlad makes an example of him first. Battle Nineteen - The First Wave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJBeUCRKxRA Vlad's ability to vanguard deploy his whole army is especially useful against Chaos. If the army had to start farther back, the hellcannons would've had more time to decimate the grave guard. This isn't a very powerful Chaos army. Chaos marauders are a very light infantry and the rest of the army is mostly made up of javelin throwers on horseback. Aspiring Champions are a strong unit that will encourage the rest of the units around it but there's no real Chaos Warriors or Chosen here and their army breaks pretty quickly.  The reason the video doesn't go all the way to the end of the replay is because there's a little trick you can do once the routing phase of the battle begins if you have any leftover winds of magic. Because there's still two more, stronger, Chaos hordes to fight, Vlad's army congegrates into one small area for one giant AOE invocation of nehek to heal and revive most of the losses. I don't normally bother doing this but here it might be necessary.   The captives are murdered to give a +4 leadership to Vlad's army.   Most of their chariots and about half of their horsemen escape. ---     Webber raises the dead in Essen and drives them north to join Vlad in the next battle.  Battle Twenty - Chaos in Ostermark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULdX_Y4pgqM This one is a real slugging match. Vlad and his army run up first but Webber's army is reinforcing from far off so for a while Vlad is facing both armies on his own. For how much I just talked up the Black Coach, I forgot to micro it for about half the battle so it sits in the middle of my own troops but plays a big role later in the fight in terrifying Chaos off the field. Vlad's army is pretty worn down but eventually so are the forces of Chaos and the Black Coach runs over their sorcerer-general and they break. The second Chaos army's hellcannon is still firing because the Chaos Dwarfs that man the hellcannons are unbreakable and that cannon alone gets 538 kills. I threw two of the wolves away early when they should've been shutting down that hellcannon but there was a lot going on in a battle like this so not everything went perfectly.   This is the heaviest casualties taken so far from a single battle, 3161, but all the important units survived.    Vlad gets the third point in Ancient Cunning, which gives a +30% ambush chance. Light forests and mountains have a base ambush chance of 70% so this should mean that most ambushes never fail. There are some retainers that will increase your chances to see an ambush so it isn't a perfect 100%.  About half of the Chaos Warriors flee the battlefield intact.  What's left of Vlad's army that's still in fighting shape, mostly just the Black Coach and the Terrorgheist, are given to Webber who raises a few more dead before hounding the remaining Chaos hordes.    Battle Twenty One - Rematch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkU2OMiXhjk For some reason I went into this fight thinking it was just going to be a mop up of what was left of these two Chaos armies but they still had some bite. The fight starts with Webber casting Invocation of Nehek on the terrorgheist to heal it back up some. The Black Coach and terrorgheist then work in tandem to do some early damage and take out some chariots before the armies meet. Vlad's army is so depleted that if they joined the battle they would probably be lost, so to preserve them only Vlad runs forward but luckily he's a pretty quick sprinter and gets to Webber's army as soon as the battle starts. The Chaos sorcerer leading them, Egarl, just managed to escape the last battle with his life, so all it takes is one brush from the terrorgheist's claws to end his miserable life. The terrorgheist and the Wight King are almost brought down but with some slick moves and a Nehek on the Wight King at the last possible moment, and a Black Coach charge to the rescue, they survive and Chaos is driven off again.   Out of the 4343 von Carstein soldiers that went into this string of battles against Chaos, only 393 remain, but the losses are much more crippling to Chaos than they are Vampires.    A lot of chariots and horsemen manage to get away, again. This is partly why fighting Chaos and the Varg/Skaeling can be frustrating.  Poor Kislev. They went from being a super power to super dead in about 10 turns. ---    Artois is sacked, because it's hard to pass up 10k dark magic.    Gisoreux is occupied without a fight.  Tired of running, Louen Leoncoeur himself garrisons Castle Artois on the next turn. ---  The horde fought in the first battle slinks away to the west. The Empire should be able to take care of this one themselves now.   The other burns Essen to the ground, which is why I wanted Templehof as a vassal to begin with, so they could take this territory that's very exposed and hard to defend. The last, weaker horde decides to go straight into Sylvania for some reason. ---   King Louen is trapped in Castle Artois, leaving Mousillon the run of the house of Bretonnia. Not to underestimate Louen, Isabella waits and starts constructing siege towers.  Lyonesse falls in a puff of green smoke as the undead are one city closer to total domination of Bretonnia.  Templehof ends the confused horde of Chaos who ran straight into the heart of Sylvania.   The other makes a break for it and manages to evade Vlad and Webber for now.  Vlad returns to Eschen, the biggest grave in the world, to resurrect his army.   One of the keys to dealing with the Chaos Invasion is using heroes to block their armies. It'll reduce their movement so you can catch up to them and kill them. What Chaos excels at most is running away so blocking and ambushes are almost mandatory. ---  The siege of Castle Artois continues, with the Strigoi Ghoul King coming to make sure Louen doesn't try to break out.  Mousillon prepare to cross the threshold into the province of Couronne, the capital of Bretonnia and the seat of Louen's throne.  Houbas leads his army south, but doesn't get far because of the block by the banshee. Vlad should be able to catch up to him now and destroy these obnoxious chariots and marauder horsemen before they have a chance to encamp and rebuild their army. ---  Turn 90 political map.  Relations map. Middenland is starting to warm up to the von Carsteins, and after those battles against Chaos the rest of civilization will start to soon.  Diplomatic.  Vampiric corruption.  Chaos corruption. Trujillo fucked around with this message at 02:31 on May 30, 2017 |
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 01:50
|
|
|
Charles Bukowski posted:This and the Empire LP's have been great and you've convinced me to buy this whenever it goes on sale again. I can't wait to see how this turns out. Thanks, and this probably goes without saying but I highly recommend getting the game when it goes on sale. Even without the DLC there's a lot there, and you can decide once you start playing which DLC you want to get. They're all good in my book except for the Chaos DLC. They're fine in multiplayer, but even CA admits that the Chaos campaign is undercooked. The Beastmen are the better version of horde gameplay. But even without any of the faction DLC, they'll still be available to fight against in the campaign. Every DLC they've released has been better than the last so I've got high hopes for Total Warhammer 2. Doopliss posted:Oh, Kislev. So deeply, deeply inept. Yeah, they'll stretch you out really thin if you've got a long border, but so far the Empire is holding so I guess we'll see. This is the busiest time of the year with my job and I'm moving in a few days and I'm not sure how quick I'll be able to get the internet which is why I just spent half off my one day off to pump out these updates, but I think I should be able to wrap it up in the next few weeks. Trujillo fucked around with this message at 02:03 on May 30, 2017 |
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 01:56
|
|
|
Dang. Bloody battles vs Chaos. i've always found terrorgheists and vargheists to gently caress up chariots pretty well.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 02:19
|
|
|
Chaos chariots and horsemen are just the worst part of the game. They're dumb to fight and you always have to hunt them down after a win.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 02:35
|
|
|
Saint Celestine posted:Dang. Bloody battles vs Chaos. i've always found terrorgheists and vargheists to gently caress up chariots pretty well. And yeah, vargheists are probably my favorite VC unit at the moment, which is why Isabella is just so, so good.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 02:39
|
|
|
Good show!Ravenfood posted:Plus side is that bloody battles mean graves which means decent reinforcement options in the field! Yeah, I had a similar level of attrition against the Chaos invasion in my own Vamps legendary game, but it was fine because Vampires have a really easy time to rebuild armies, specially after a big fight.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2017 03:52
|
|
|
Just finished recording the replay of the last battle, just got to upload them all now. Going to skip everything in between the biggest battles. Should have the end in the next few days. In the mean time, here's a lizardmen v high elves battle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6yZ4aokUic
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2017 01:46
|
|
|
Crush the breathers and/or the warm-bloods.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2017 02:32
|
|
|
It's always a good day when you can see an elf get crushed by a dinosaur.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2017 22:16
|
|
|
Turns 90-100 "The Dukedom of Couronne is a founding Dukedom that lies upon the northern shores of Bretonnia and is the current seat of power of the king's Royal Court. Even in comparison to all the other Dukedoms, the land of Couronne is said to contain some of the greatest horsemen within all of the realms. Such a boast should not be taken lightly, especially within a kingdom such as Bretonnia but it is common knowledge that the people of Couronne are severely obsessed with horses and horsemanship."  When Isabella first stepped foot into Bretonnia, the Red Duke was facing imminent annihilation. Now thanks to Isabella's blitzkrieg through the dukedoms, the Red Duke has taken half of Bretonnia as his personal vampiric fiefdom and controls one of the largest armies in the world. Castle Couronne stands as one of the last three strongholds of breathing Bretonnians, occupied Marienburg and Castle Carcassone being the others.  Something went wrong with the replay of this battle, and since it's just a garrison decided to skip it.  ---  The banshee stalls the Chaos army that escaped the string of battles near Bechafen long enough for Vlad to catch up and finish the job.   ---  Balthazar Gelt and Volkmar the Grim surround an exhausted Chaos force and wipe it out. So far, the Empire has surprisingly done a fair share of stopping the Chaos invasion.   The last remaining horde of Chaos Warriors in sight is stalled outside Talabheim. Having heroes who can block is one of the best ways of dealing with Chaos. If you don't block or ambush them they'll evade you and look for weaker targets.  ---  "The Chaos horde has poured in, a remorseless tide scouring all in its path. Yet even the most savage flood must eventually recede, leaving battered survivors to pick through the flotsam on the ravaged shores. "We are saved!" they cry, heedless of the fact that tides are certain in one respect; they will always rise again. The Old World has survived the onslaught, yet now another wave rolls fort from the accursed Chaos Wastes." How many waves there are and the strength of each wave changes with the difficulty setting.  With this wave comes the Warherd of Chaos, a new group of Beastmen that will have to eventually be exterminated to end the Chaos Invasion. The Warriors of Chaos have to be completely destroyed along with their leader, and the Warherd of Chaos has to be gone from the world before the "Age of Peace" can begin. ---  Alberic de Bordeleaux leads what's left of the Bretonnian resistance from the river port of Marienburg, but the vice starts to close on him. Isabella starts marching towards Marienburg from the north and Webber von Carstein, the Strigoi Ghoul King of East Bretonnia garrisons the pass to the south.  With the odds seemingly in their favor, they make a last ditch effort to break through at Gisoreux.  Battle Twenty Two - End of Bretonnia?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAjmYjSGYek Not much to say about this one. Just wanted to include it does mark the end of Bretonnia as a faction.   Isabella swoops in to the now defenseless prize, the largest trading hub in the world, and Webber sallies out to sic the wolves on what's left of the shattered Bretonnian peasant army.      The once lush, tranquil meadows of Bretonnia start to turn black and blighted and the once proud kingdom turns silent as the grave, save for a tribe of unruly beastmen passing through and a hostile band from Estalia threatening Quenelles.    ---  The Wood Elves, having consolidated into one powerful faction under Orion, couldn't be happier to see Bretonnia fall. Now if only they'd start to leave their forest and fight our common enemies, especially since they dragged the von Carsteins into a war with Estalia that they're not helping with.   The Red Duke was willing to confederate here, but their strength comes from having thousands and thousands of skeletons and zombies that they thrown at the enemy until they join the dead or they're too tired or afraid to fight anymore. Absorbing them would gain some extra income from the Bretonnian ports but because each separate army raises the cost of every other army and it goes up for every army you have, almost all of Mousillon's troops would have to be disbanded. By keeping them as an ally, they'll crush any rebellions that happen in von Carstein cities near them and will use their port income to build up their infrastructure anyways so it's not like it's all a loss.  --- To the north of Bretonnia is the rugged lands of Norsca, where devoted Chaos worshippers sail out to spread their filth across the rest of the world. It'll only be a matter of time before they start coming for Marienburg and Couronne.    Isabella and her army start to sail through the Sea of Claws since it's the quickest way reunite with Vlad now that the campaign against Bretonnia is over. Sailing right by the Skaeling alone is dangerous since all naval battles are decided by autoresolve and the tribal Chaos raiders will usually field a lot of stacks. Being caught out at sea and outnumbered is probably a death sentence. ---  Webber von Diehl is summoned to Quenelles to repel the Estalian attack and raises the dead and some regiments of renown to do it.   ---  Vlad sets up an ambush right along the path that Rulek Sidius will take if he flees from Gelt and Voklmar.  But Rulek stands his ground and gets blown apart by Balthasar Gelt. Rulek's horde was all that was left of the first wave of the invasion. ---  Turn 95 political map.  Diplomatic.  Vampiric corruption.  Chaos corruption.  ---  Battle Twenty Three - Estalian Showdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RVMRgQhUes The Chillgheists get the spotlight for the first time. They're quick to get around and silence the enemy mortars, especially with the banner of swiftness on them, but even taking a few volleys of regular crossbow quarrels and handgunner shots they start to look like they're about to crumble and need to be retreated out of harm's way. Later they kill the group of Empire Knights and run down most of the enemy skirmishers, so they get more results here than I've seen from them before.  ---  The second Chaos wave reaches the mountain pass to what used to be Kislev.  Isabella takes a detour to show the Skaeling the real way to pillage and loot.   Pack Ice Bay is sacked, because razing it would mean Isabella would have to sit in Norsca for a turn. With no time to waste or troops to waste to Chaos corruption, Isabella sails back out in Vlad's direction.    --- Since Isabella needs to cross through Nordland to get to the frontlines, a living servant is sent to treat with the Elector Count of Nordland, Theodoric "Terror of the Norscans" Gausser.   ---   Boris Todbringer, setting aside his petty squabbles with Hocland for now, is also making his way to the frontlines of the fight against Chaos.  But some force just on the edge of the fog of war sends him packing back to Middenland. --- When a vampire spy is sent to uncover what stopped the bringer of tods in his track, a ghastly discovery is made.  Eleven Chaos worshipping armies clustered together around one of Kislev's last fortresses. Even the von Carsteins feel a little bad for the poor souls who are trapped in the doomed Fort. The loose coalition of the living and the dead won't be enough to stop this gigantic gathering of Chaos warriors and tribesmen if they stay together.   Isabella hurries to try to link back up with Vlad who pulls back to the bridge to Bechafen.  ---  Turn 100 political map.  Diplomatic.  Vampiric corruption. Trujillo fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Jun 20, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 02:28
|
|
|
Was going to do one last update with just the few biggest battles to just get it over with but it was too much to try to fit all into one. There's only two parts left though and I'll post them in the next few days. Most of the climactic battles will be in the final update.
Trujillo fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Jun 20, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 02:31
|
|
|
Good stuff, I take it you already have the required amount of provinces for victory? That means all that's left is to kill Chaos and destroy the Empire, ja?
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 03:13
|
|
|
ZearothK posted:Good stuff, I take it you already have the required amount of provinces for victory? That means all that's left is to kill Chaos and destroy the Empire, ja? The only thing from needed for a short victory at this point is the Empire dying. This is from the next update:  Carcassone is still alive at turn 100 but they're about to get Durthu'd, but only killing the Empire and two provinces away from the long victory. The von Carsteins don't even need to actually end the chaos invasion to win so if I had killed the Empire around turn 50 it would've been over a while ago but it would've been anti-climactic to end them that early.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 03:35
|
|
|
It's kinda funny that you don't need to kill the Chaos invasion, since I'm pretty sure those stacks won't just go away because the Empire is now ruled by vampires. Also, 11 chaos stacks.  Holy gently caress
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 10:00
|
|
|
There's a reason every non-Chaos faction's Long Victory has as a condition "Archaeon Everchosen Is loving Dead" that guy is a real jerk
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 16:19
|
|
|
drat. How do you even face down 11 stacks? Ive only ever played this on easy or normal
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 16:35
|
|
|
Half of those stacks are Norsca stacks, which are really kind of lame, and you can break up and eat piecemeal the others. Plenty of those stacks are only at half size, too. As always, large battles favor the Vampires, who can just pull new units straight up out of the ground after a fight with lots of losses.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 16:40
|
|
|
Patience, being willing to give ground, and Banshees working overtime to split them up.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 16:45
|
|
|
Turns 100-115 Instead of staying together as one unstoppable force, the armies of Chaos fan out in every direction. They'll get more plunder and razing done this way but now they can be picked apart.  Fourteen Chaos armies in sight, and this doesn't include the Warherd of Chaos who are moving hidden and all the raiders on the Norscan coast.  Vlad watches from his hidden encampment as Volkmar charges towards the armies of Chaos with his frenzied flagellant army.  Isabella finally makes her way to her first quest battle. "The Beastmen are arrayed in their usual fashion - a random collection of hooves and grunts that bear no discernible sense of order - dangerous, yet chaotic. And there is something different about them this time - they hum with an unnatural radiance, shining with an entirely disconcerting power. Yet despite this, Isabella will not allow them to best her. She will drive them back, destroy them, and from their broken bones and bloodied horns discover their secrets!"  Isabella's pre battle speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFyOzPzomRo Battle Twenty Four - The Dead Wood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLQGxB56U5o This would've been a tougher fight with the army isabella had when the battle became available but that was around 50 turns ago. It's still a closer match than the autoresolve guessed, and I almost lose the two units of vargheists that have been with Isabella since the beginning.  Winning this battle doesn't unlock the Blood Chalice, there's another battle and steps to get to it that I never got around to by the end of the campaign, but I'll show her second quest battle at the end.  "The Beastmen have been destroyed. Isabella and her forces begin picking through the desiccated remains, eventually discovering a horn, thick with foul and pestilent blood, yet glowing with an alluring and altogether otherworldly aura. Though she cannot be sure, the sense of great darkness and dread leads Isabella to believe that this horn is one of the fabled Ruinous Gifts, bestowed upon the Beastmen by the Chaos Gods themselves. Although fascinated by it, Isabella knows that consuming this God-blighted cruor would tear her apart. She must consult whose who know of these things - the dark and twisted Necromancers - to reveal more." I had just recruited a necromancer the turn or two before and was at the current cap which is why I completely forgot to continue the quest chain. ---  Marienburg seems to be on the side of Chaos. They're the one province of the Empire not at war with the Warriors of Chaos and the tribes, so Emil von Korden is going to be fed to the Red Duke.  Gorssel is set as a war coordination target for Mousillon. By having them take Gorssel, it'll give their armies something to do. They'll stand guard here in these wastelands against Skaeling landings and will be close enough to Marienburg that they'll protect it too from northern invasion. ---   Even if my armies aren't near them, I keep blocking the Chaos hordes any chance I get. If you slow one of them down, they'll have to all move slowly to stay together or they'll leave the stragglers behind. Either way it weakens their position.  The warriors of Chaos try to strike out against Volkmar and Gelt, but they have to leave their fourth blocked stack behind.  The indomitable duo of Gelt and the Grim completely eradicate them, and now Azazel Deathmetal stands alone. If that army hadn't been blocked, it might've been the opposite results. The Grand Theologian of Sigmar and the Supreme Patriarch now owe their lives to a banshee.  Another tide rolls in, but as long as each wave is dealt with before it can do any serious pillage and murder, they'll never capture enough souls to improve and multiply their hordes.  The Empire-Vampire coalition starts to muster and push into the Kislev wastes. Zelig takes Bechafen as his new seat of power and will eventually colonize the rest of Kislev if given the chance, but the von Carsteins will need their own northern power base to easier hold the invasion here before it gets out of control.     The former Ice-Fortress of Kislev is taken first. At tier V, you can build a unique building in Kislev, the Bohka Palace which gives some okay bonuses. It might be the single most expensive building in the game though, not sure if that's even worth it. ---  One of the Warherds of Chaos shows itself outside Volksgrad before disappearing back into the dying woods.  Gorssel falls right on schedule and the Red Duke puts down a rebellion against the von Carsteins outside Marienburg while he's doing it.   Our ancient friend Durthu has some pent up anger and now gets to unleash it against the Bretonnians at Castle Carcassone while an unnecessary amount of Asrai protect the King's Glade and the Oak of Ages.  ---  Isabella, Vlad, and the necromancer Reynald Jaeger who lead the defense of Nuln reform their armies. Vlad is given most of the grave guard since he has 3 points in the part of his character tree that boosts grave guard's fighting ability. Isabella is given all of the flying and fast moving units. The idea being that Vlad will be the tip of the spear since he can vanguard deploy his infantry army right up to the enemy, and then Isabella quickly reinforces with her army of wolves, cavalry, and flyers. That way if the enemy is split up you can quickly destroy the army that's in front of you before all their armies join up.       Vlad and Isabella have their eyes set on claiming the rest of the barren north. Reynald goes south to make sure the Greenskins don't launch a surprise attack into the heart of Sylvania and to sack the Zhufbar holds they've occupied to fuel the war effort against Chaos. ---  The Chaos Gods seem to be running out of warriors. This wave is two measly armies. Some in the Empire start to celebrate, thinking that the Chaos Invasion is waning.  ---  Kislev offers a non-aggression pact, but the only reason to take it would be to try to drive a wedge between them and the Empire but they're already allied so there'd be no point.   Boris agrees to allow the undead military access to his lands on top of the non-aggression pact he's already signed. Boris likes vampires more than he likes Hochland now.  The six strongset factions.  Political map, turn 105.  Relations. Most of the nations of the world that still have a heart beat hate the von Carsteins, but the northern provinces of the Empire are warming up to them.  Diplomatic.  Vampiric corruption.  Chaos corruption. ---  With the Fay Enchantress of Carcassone gone missing, the only champion humanity has left is Karl Franz. Once the Chaos Gods are put in their place, Karl Franz will be made into a zombified footstool for the true Emperor and Empresses.  ---  They sat in ambush on their side of the border with the lost city of Praag, and a beastmen herd walked right into the trap. Even if they don't walk right into the ambush, they won't see you so they won't be afraid to come within movement range.  Battle Twenty Five - Akhbarr End-Bringer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IF3rPImnzg This fight was more even than the bar showed again, I think because it underestimates minotaurs. But they're eventually ground down by Vlad's infantry backed up by corpse carts. Isabella wasn't able to reach the battle so in hindsight it would've been better to include at least a few wolves in Vlad's army and not have it be exclusively infantry because a lot of the beastmen escape the battle and with the Warherds of Chaos you really want to put them down permanently.  ---  The newest waves of Chaos Warriors make their way through the mountains to Volksgrad and attract more warriors and mutants as they go. Vlad and Isabella wait hidden on the border with Praag to lure them in.  ---  Political map, turn 110.  Diplomatic. ---  Webber von Diehl, the first Vampire general raised up by Isabella since returning to power, is attacked by an upstart strigoi ghoul king roaming the Stirland countryside. Heavily outmatched and with no where to run, Webber tries to defend himself. This battle was almost 20 minutes long, so I show it most of it in fast forward. I wanted to include it show a bit of what a single unit of black knights and some wolves can do with some micro. Battle Twenty Six - RIP? : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiDx1z4oRVk I think this battle is the first defeat that wasn't an autoresolve. It was winnable but I made a few mistakes here. A wall between the skeleton spearmen and the grave guard should've been formed with zombie spawns so that the spearmen could focus on killing as many crypt horrors as possible. It's the regeneration of the crypt horrors that will ruin you at the end of a battle if you have nothing left to deal with them. But there wasn't a good option for dealing with the grave guard either with their high armor and defensive so it had to be one or the other. Then the black knights stop near the end and let the crypt horrors hit them because I wasn't paying attention for a second and they start to crumble. The balance of power bar was even at that point but I don't think it was winnable by then anyways because Webber was out of regen and the 24 crypt horrors still standing weren't. RIP Webber. He was the third strongest von Carstein general behind Vlad and Isabella, spending most of his nights killing rebellious vampires but they got him in the end. I wasn't expecting the rebels to go after him, he was trying to get to the town I thought they were about to attack. Since he's not a legendary lord or faction leader he's not coming back.  ---  After the death of Webber, the boogeyman of rebels and secessionists in Greater Sylvania, a damsel leads a group of yeomen and peasant archers on an attack on Brionne. Some battles that the balance of power bar is completely against you are still winnable, this probably wasn't one of them so the town is forfeited.   The insidious Fay Enchantress was behind it, but until they upgrade the settlement and get a recruitment building this new Carcassonne won't be able to recruit anything from the backwater town of Brionne. ---  With 3 points into the Ancient Cunning skill, you get a 100% chance to succesfully stay hidden in ambush stance when standing in forest or mountain terrain. Holding the mouse over it will tell you what type it is and the ambush chance. Some lords and heroes have a trait that gives them a slightly higher chance to detect enemy armies so it isn't always 100% but it'll work most of the time. They're not the first to walk into a trap set by the von Carsteins and they won't be the last.   Battle Twenty Seven - The Slog at Praag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcbFpvMMFjc Looking back at this one, it would've been a really good time to throw down a Pit of Shades on the mass of Chaos infantry but I didn't realize there was a minimum range you could cast it at the time and the shadow vampire was caught in the middle. Isabella's army eventually chases off the chariots, hounds and horsemen while Vlad's infantry wears out the warriors. The Black Coach runs down Kylass the Astute and takes his soul and a whole wave of the invasion takes off in a chaotic retreat.   Vlad runs down both of the fleeing hordes and leaves none alive.   The Warriors of Chaos are destroyed for now, but the invasion won't end yet.  Right after Vlad picks through the bones of the last of the Warriors of Chaos, another wave is reported by the vampires sent to the edge of the Wastes as lookouts.   Isabella moves her entourage into the ruins of Praag and starts to rebuild the cursed city while Vlad stands nearby to keep the Varg away from Isabella's now depleted army.  A turn later, with seemingly no forces of Chaos nearby, Vlad settles the ruins of Fort Ostrosk, where the massive throng of Chaos was recently gathered.   Isabella takes a risk and colonizes the ruins of Volksgrad, the first line of defense, hoping to restore it and her army before the next wave arrives.   The walls of Praag and Fort Ostrosk will at least slow down the Chaos invasion, and now undead will regenerate here on the front lines even with all the chaos corruption.  ---  After their rebellion gets off the ground, a Ghoul King named Erich is given a full army of dead Bretonnians to go make an example of Brionne.  ---  The so-called Emperor Karl Franz leaves the conflict zone to return to the safety of Altdorf before even taking the fight to the enemy a single time. He may not even have enough backbone to make a proper Imperial foot stool.  Boris Todbringer lead Middenland's army to ruin trying to relieve the Varg siege of Kislev's last fort and now has to bow to Karl Franz for protection. With Middenheim surrendering their authority to Altdorf, it probably won't be long until Nordland joins them. Since the Empire will gain in strength ranking from absorbing Middenland it might put them in a strong enough position that they can bully the rest of the provinces into doing the same.  Hochland stands diplomatically alone against all the forces of Chaos but have managed to hold on to the port of Erengrad against Skaeling assaults. If the false Emperor won't stand with them in the struggle to determine the fate of the world, the true Empress and Emperor will.   ---   Suddenly and seemingly out of thin air, two powerful Warherds of Chaos simultaneously siege the ruins occupied by Vlad and Isabella's drained armies. For now, they don't attack, they just encircle the ruins and wait. Vlad and Isabella's overambition may cost them their armies and their followers if the Beastmen stop being terrified enough for a moment to attack.   With Reynald Jaegar dispatched to clear the Greenskins from Zhufbar, no one is there with an army ready to rescue Vlad or Isabella.  Webber von Carstein succeeded in pacifying Bretonnia after Isabella left, so his service was no longer required. He may have been stalking Isabella, because he hears the alarm bells ringing at Praag and raises up whatever dead he can there and sets out to save her from the brutish and disgusting Beastmen. ---  Turn 115 political map.  Diplomatic.  Relations. Even Karl Franz is seeing the von Carsteins in a new light. ---         
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 20:45
|
|
|
Glad to see this back in action and excited to see the big conclusion!
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2017 04:26
|
|
|
Oh man, Archaon is gonna have a bad day when he runs into the True Imperial Power Couple.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2017 06:44
|
|
|
glocknar posted:Oh man, Archaon is gonna have a bad day when he runs into the True Imperial Power Couple. I mean, they have insane things like personalities and goals! How could he hope to compete?
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2017 14:52
|
|
|
Turns 115-125 "The Old World despairs, for Archaon the Everchosen, Champion of Chaos, is come and with him the End Times! Once a Templar Priest of Sigmar, Archaon uncovered a terrible secret which drove him to reject his faith and pledge himself to the Gods of Chaos. In their service, he has devoted himself to the world's destruction, defeating all challengers and rising to a position of dominance over all in the Chaos wastes, achieving the ultimate accolade - his dark coronation as the Everchosen; the vessel through which the Dark Gods unite their followers to turn the world into a Realm of Chaos. It is to his banner that the Warriors of Chaos have been flocking, and it is his malign will that now drives them forth in a terrible wave of destruction destiend to sweep all before it. The earth groans beneath the iron-shod feet of Archaon's numberless horde, and with him comes death. Is there any champion of the World World mighty enough to withstand the Lord of the End Times?"    "Although no Daemon's true name can ever be known, there has been talk for aeons of the one called 'Sarthorael'. Like all Lords of Change, the Ever-Watcher revels in his contriving and devious nature, hiding his true manipulative genius behind a screen of erratic and fickle behaviour. Yet Sarthorael is more than a mere Lord of Change - he is one of Tzeentch's favoured, sent to spread mayhem to those that the Great Changer deems deserving. Whilst the world of mortals should tremble when a Lord of Change appears before them, so too should Daemons be wary, for Tzeentch does not discriminate - all are fair targets in his game. And so Sarthorael is sent, watching and waiting, with all the craft and slyness of his master, to judge whether the End Times can really be brought about and, when the time is right, to see if those who stand upon the Chaos Wastes really have the strength to do it."  "Kholek is a Shaggoth of tremendous age. He is one of the first-born kin of Krakanrok the Black, father of the Dragon Ogres. Kholek was present when the terrible pact with the Dark Gods was forged, pledging their race to an eternity of servitude in exchange for immortality. The sagas tell that Kholek’s part in the bargain was such an affront to nature that the sun hid its face behind a bank of stormclouds and has never looked upon Kholek since that fateful day. True enough, Kholek’s coming is heralded by roiling black thunderheads. Where the Herald of the Tempest walks, a raging storm blots out the sun. Like all Dragon Ogres, Kholek is energised and enlivened by the power of lightning, roaring with triumph as crackling bolts of pure power play across his ancient and scaly body. He wears great plates of brass as his armour, the better to attract the tempest’s kiss, encrusted with the patina of age and blackened by soot. In his shadow march the mountain tribes that worship him as a primal god of destruction."  "Sigvald the Magnificent, known also as Prince Sigvald, the Geld-Prince and also the Prince of the Decadent Host, is amongst the most infamous of Slaanesh's favored servants within the Old World, made legend by his prowess on the battlefield and his disturbing yet angelic beauty. Though he appears to be little more than sixteen summers of age, Sigvald the Magnificent has blighted the world for over three hundred years. The personification of beauty on the outside, but rot within, the Geld-Prince rides at the head of an army of utterly devoted followers who would give their lives for him without a second thought. His elite bodyguard bear mirrored shields so that Sigvald might bask in his own divine glory"  ---  Isabella's entourage and her pets must be enough to give the beastmen pause but they probably should've attacked here. Instead they give Webber a chance to raise another batch of dead Kislevites and march them back to where it all began.   Battle Twenty Eight - Varmint at Volksgrad:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfMVE5RD9j8  The von Carstein casualties are three times more than the beastmen but most of it's fodder. The mass of zombies was just meant as a distraction and speedbump but it might be better to spread them out so that minotaurs attacks aren't hitting as many of them each swing.  Volksgrad becomes a mass grave, but there won't be anything special here with only 2,300 corpses.  Isabella gets her revenge and hunts down every last panicking Beastmen before galloping to Vlad's rescue.  ---  Once Archaon and co. arrive, every Human, Bretonnian and Dwarf faction gets the Shield of Civilisation trait and they all start confederating and working together even more until the invasion ends. Undead don't get the trait, but all the fighting and sabotage against Chaos and the Beastmen has endeared the von Carsteins to the rest of the civilization. But as soon as the invasion ends, it becomes "what have you done for us lately," and all the relations bonuses you get for fighting Chaos are gone so most factions will hate you again almost instantly. On top of that, now all the "civilized' factions are allied and closer than ever because of the Sheild of Civilisation so you can go from being the champion of humanity to being invaded by all the 'good' factions from every direction in a short amount of time. ---   Lupio Sunscryer trys again to peel the von Carstein grip from Bretonnia, bringing two armies by sea to Brionne where a welcome party has been waiting for them. But he's brought 10 ranged units and 7 melee and the bats and wolves have a field day in the back line as Erich beats Lupio into the dirt. The five wolves nearly get 1000 kills between them.   The arrogant Estalians attacked without their reinforcing army, but their second army has the same flaw as the first. There are some mods that try to fix the way the AI compose their armies but they may have some weird side effects.  Battle Twenty Nine - Hero: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GRLge_Pkks Wanted to include this battle for a few reasons, one was because it was the first 'heroic victory' of the campaign and second because of the crypt horror takedown at 5:40  ---  Mousillon dealing with the scurvy Skaeling.   Because Vlad's army was mostly infantry, his is in even worse condition than Isabella's when she was surrounded, but now that she's been freed from her own encirclement by Webber she's free to rescue Vlad.   Srui runs for the hills when Isabella answers Vlad's distress calls. Vlad bolsters his army with the only dead available before pursuing.     After the battle, Vlad can reach the remnants of their horde to end it but Isabella is out of range to reinforce and a fight here would risk losing valuable units.  On the next turn, Isabella tries to attack but somehow they retreat in a way that puts them out of her reach, so hopefully the scattered remains of this warherd will be dealt with by a wandering Imperial army. ---  The ground trembles as the real wave of the invasion gets nearer to Volksgrad.  The Empire was too weak and disliked before to confederate with the stubborn northerners but now they start to band together.  A trade agreement is made with our new 'friends' that benefits the von Carsteins 11:1.   ---  The ruins of Volksgrad weren't fortified in time, so the fight will have to happen near Praag.  A fresh Strigoi Ghoul King brings up elite troops from Sylvania to replace recent losses.   The court of Kislev, currently operating in exile from what used to be Hochland territory, sees no choice but to make a treaty of alliance with the dead whose banner waves over their former kingdom. Since they're offering some souls to go with it there's no reason to refuse.  A trap is set behind the bridge between Praag and Volksgrad. Vlad with all his ancient cunning hides his and Reynald Jaeger's armies behind the bridge while Isabella relaxes on the riverbank getting fanned by skeletons for all the Chaos spies to see.  ---  Strongest factions, turn 120. There's no number six because it's the tribe of Chaos raiders who attacks the currently undiscovered Badlands when the main wave of the Chaos invasion starts.  Political map.  Diplomatic.  Relations.  Vampiric corruption.  Chaos corruption. --- "Oh man, Archaon is gonna have a bad day when he runs into the True Imperial Power Couple."   Battle Thirty - Archaon the Everchosewrong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8pQga9j1Ow When the enemy fails to spot your ambush and walks right into you, you can deploy pretty much right on top of them and you can see their whole marching column when you do, so you can line up based on what counters what and get right to killing. Archaon would usually take longer to bring down but the combination of Staff of Damnation and Vanhel's Danse Macabre gives everything in the area +68 melee attack, so all the hits that weren't connecting because of Archaon's high melee defense start landing and his health starts dropping like a brick by the time the vampires swoop in and land the death blow from above. Seeing as how the very first thing their great leader did was lead them straight into an undead massacre, most of the rank and file Chaos warriors make a run for it.    Sarthorael the Everwatcher sees Archaon's headless army running back in their direction and tries to salvage the situation with the help of Kholek Suneater and a Chaos sorcerer Festus Deathdealer.  I just spent 2-3 hours cutting a soundtrack for this battle but the program I downloaded to edit it didn't mention until I was done that it was going to put a huge watermark all over the screen so now there's no music at all.  Battle Thirty One - The End Times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8YDEwU3Tl8 It probably would've been a way different battle if the other two armies didn't force march to get to the fight. If they all attacked as one it would've been a lot harder but most of them walk to the fight and by the time they got to it, it was already over. It's a miracle that Isabella and the two vampires were able to escape from Kholek and the Chaos Knights there. I'm pretty sure Kholek is the single hardest hitting thing in the game. His attacks do massive damage and he swings fast. Isabella crumbled down to about 75 health before the crumbling stopped. Then she didn't miscast when she overcast invocation of nehek that saved the rest of them. Soon after that, all the giants fall and all their heroes are dead or in retreat and the rest of the army follows, except for the Chaos Dwarfs who are unbreakable.      Two of Isabella's vampires go down in the fight, but every battle you win as the undead there's a chance any units lost will come back to life.  Kholek survived the battle by the skin of his teeth. Most of his fellow Chaos lords and exalted heroes weren't as fortunate.  Except for Prince Sigvald who must've fallen behind from stopping to look at his reflection.   Battle Thirty Two - Mighty Kholek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSA4ag61QOk   Reynald is sent to get rid of the stragglers while Vlad and Isabella deal with Sigvald.   ---    It felt like the time was right to confederate Mousillon to show off the Red Duke in battle before the end of the campaign. In the campaign he doesn't have access to the skill that makes him amazing in multiplayer though. Even without that skill, he's still the strongest fighter that the vampires can get stats wise. He can ride a skeletal horse, hellsteed or a zombie dragon so he has that advantage over Vlad who can only ever be on foot.  Maintaining all of Mousillon's armies would cause a dark magic deficit of 14,000 per turn, so all of their armies except for the Red Duke's are disbanded.     The political map after the confederation. ---   Knowing he can't run far, Sigvald tries a lightning strike against Vlad, which cuts Isabella out of the battle but also prevents the Varg from reinforcing him. Battle Thirty Three - Sigvald the Magnificent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7po3WCejBg   The Chaos Gods watch in horror as their champions are cut down and raised up into the armies of the eternal night.   The last group of Chaos Warriors are corralled into a mountain pass, with Isabella cutting them off on one side and Vlad and Reynald advancing from the other. ---  Hochland, the last independent province left in the Empire and ally of the von Carsteins, can't withstand the pressure still being applied by the Varg and Skaeling, and bends the knee to Karl Franz.  Turn 125 political map.  Relations. ---    With the Warriors of Chaos temporarily gone from the world, the Warherds of Chaos will need to die before long or Archaon will return at the head of another host of warriors.  The Strigoi Ghoul King Viktor Ghorst was coming north with reinforcements but makes a detour to exterminate the Warherds of Chaos for good.   While the Warriors of Chaos are still on the field, you don't have the option to negotiate with the Varg or Skaeling, but as soon as the Varg were able to reassert their independence Surtha Elk comes seeking a truce so they can focus on fighting another of their 15 enemies.   ---  The banshee slows Haadh Gore-Horn down enough that Viktor is able to catch up to the runt army in flight.     "As the final breath is torn shrieking from the last Warriors of Chaos, the silence of the grave descends upon the world. The broken corpses literring the battlefield lie motionless, their futile struggles over. Death is the only victor here. The stillness is broken. A chill wind rises, heavy with the taint of the eternal tomb, blows upon the tatters of once-proud banners now trampled into the mud, and the feathers of the carrion birds as they gorge upon the fallen. Such is the way of the world. Great Lords, arrogant in the strength of their arms, vie with each other for dominance, oblivious to the fact that death, patient and inexorable, waits for all living things. Even as many raise their eyes to a golden future, there are those who wish to make the first move and seize it for themselves. The shield of civilisation, which turned aside the deadly thrust of Chaos, is now a heavy and cumbersome thing. Those who cast it aside first will be quickest with their blades - a knife in the back being the surest of all. Comrades who stood should to should on the field of battle now step apart and take each other's measure. Alliances begin to unravel and the storm clouds gather once more." 
Trujillo fucked around with this message at 05:45 on Jun 23, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2017 05:31
|
|
|
Had a lot more written up but when I was almost done I accidentally closed the tab and the draft barely saved any of it.  After this, the Empire didn't put up much of a fight so there'll be one last short set of turns.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2017 05:49
|
|
|
Oh man, it never gets old to see Archaeon the Everfailure just get utterly clowned on. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2017 08:39
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 09:06 |
|
|
Same. It is one of my favourite things in Total Hammer to put him in his place. Congrats on beating the End of Times! Also, almost 300 hours in this game and I had no idea there was that special kill animation for a Lord of the Empire (and I assume all other characters sharing his animations) taking out monstrous infantry. This game.
|
|
#
?
Jun 23, 2017 14:04
|
|