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After winning newbad2, I was going to step back and let more new people fill in the slots. But then it ended up with 1 free slot and Arcvasti graciously let me take it. I didn't want to kick Technowolf out of Agartha (though they did offer to let me take it, which was cool), so instead i went with a totally new nation: Atlantis: Frozen Sea  Lore-wise I think these guys are really cool. Despite being underwater starts in previous ages, LA Atlantis is now a land start made up of refugees from their kingdom after a magical alien cthulu cult started taking over the ocean and driving everything insane. However, one of their big goals is to go back and reclaim the ocean, where they meet up with scattered Atlantians who stayed hidden in the deeps. This split between the refugees and those who stayed is shown in their units and I think it gives it a lot of cool flavor.  But first is my god, who is, admittedly, pretty boring. I only have cap-only sacreds, and most of my battle mages aren't sacred, so I didn't really have a big need for a bless, and what I did take was mostly small boosts to keep my big important mages safe while casting. The magic itself was more determined by what I wanted to cast in the future, rather than any real bless thoughts. Instead, I went in heavily on scales. Atlantis likes it cold for a ton of reasons, including that their coastal forts are made of ice (which melts if the temperature gets above neutral), so that was basically required. My land troops are even more resource intensive than Agartha's are, so productivity 3 was also completely necessary. And then I have magic to boost my research and luck because I had the points and didn't want to get hurt by indies as much as I did last game. In general, my nation is very heavy on water and death magic, but I can get good access to a very solid amount of magic from other schools once I get underwater. Additionally, my troops almost all have magic weapons and temperature dependent armor, which opens up a few useful strategies. My big cap-only mages can also sail, meaning that I can dominate areas around the water even more as I can just skip right across provinces, or lurk in the deeps, ready to pop out when I see a chance. Overall, I think I have a solid base to work with and that Atlantis looks like a really fun nation to try out.
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Jan 16, 2020 04:55
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Technowolf posted:After lightless aeons in the Cthinema depths, the peoples of Agartha, though victorious, learned that their victory came at a cost: the new low-flow toilets didn't work as well for them as the old ones did. So they schemed, and planned, and discussed ways to improve their plumbing situation until the very discussion became sentient. Alex0080 posted:Long Ago, Master Asia, in a bid to not be simply cast into the deepest, darkest crevasse in existence for the foreseeable future, threw his lot in with Your Local Theatre Presents: the God of Agartha in the hopes of having a place of honor among the table of the coming Pantokrator. And for some time he did, although the complete lack of light, with the exception of all the movie screens, was very uncomfortable for someone who had lived under the sun for so long. Because of this, he used his magical might in secret to form a miniature sun and hoarded it to himself. As with all secrets, the cat eventually fell out of the bag, ironically during a screening of Cats the movie. Your Local Theatre Presents: heard a complaint from the audience and blasted them, and the walls, to smithereens, revealing the forbidden light. For his transgression, Master Asia was punished, transformed into a being of cold, and locked away, never able to attend a theatrical event, and thus see light, for as long as the Pantokrator still ruled. But now the wheel has turned once again, and Master Asia has returned to try his hand at Godhood one more time. I love these so much.
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Jan 17, 2020 05:28
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Atlantis Turns 1-3 My screenshots are a bit sparse for now, but they’ll get more detailed in the future. Turn 1  Because I forgot to put names on for a while, here’s what I see turn 1. I’m pretty happy with this spot since I’m right in the middle of all of this water. While it doesn’t need to be absolutely ASAP, I do want to get underwater quickly to start recruiting my main battle mage. However, the real bonus is that, once I get one of my big mages out, I can sail across the water and grab some extra provinces that would otherwise be out of reach. This turn I just recruit a Tungalik (basic mage) and a bunch of Mournfuls, send my scout into Renthale, and prophet my default leader. Turn 2 Only thing that happened was that everyone declared their prophets. I didn’t get a screenshot of the surrounding provinces, but I got relatively lucky and didn’t have anything too threatening in my cap circle. I have a choice between going for more income in Kark or Renthale, or going for resources in Hall Woods. Because all of my good troops cost incredible amounts of resources, I head for the woods with my starting army. Turn 3   The expansion went okay. I lost a sacred and a bunch of my cheap Seal Hunters, but the actual staying power was pretty much intact. I have the party circle around and send them to take Jome next turn. And now, since everyone else is doing a big overview at once, I might as well too. Like quite a few other nations in the Late Age, Atlantis can almost be thought of as the combination of 2 separate nations, with Atlantis being pretty solidly split between above water and below water recruits. The land recruits are all cold resistant and use ice to build things while the under waters are essentially tailor-made to fight back against the cataclysm that is LA R’lyeh in Dominions’ lore.  To start, the basic land mage is the Tungalik. They are not very good mages, though they are sacred. Their main roles are to lead early expansion parties, bless units in big armies, and sitting in your forts researching.  The real star of the land are the Angakoks, who are my slow-to-recruit, cap-only mages. They’re expensive as hell but are absolutely worth it. High water lets you dominate underwater with easy elementals and buffs, death lets you use nasty evocations (you won’t have nearly enough of these to spam skeletons effectively), and the cross path opens up the “Stygian” spells which synergize really well with the nation. Their randoms are also almost all great, with air being the absolute standout because it unlocks even more useful cross path spells. And then, to make them even better, these guys are also able to sail across the water with their army, letting you hit provinces a lot faster, reinforce armies or hit enemy armies with surprise attacks. Once I can afford it, I’ll be recruiting these as fast as possible, because they’re the real core of the faction.  As for above water troops, there are a few varieties with differing protection and resource costs, but the main ones I’ll be using are the top-of-the-line Ice Guards. They are incredibly resource expensive, for what appear to middling defensive stats. However, their gimmick is that they have Ice Protection 2, which boosts the effectiveness of their armor by 2 for each tick of cold (and decreases it by 2 for each heat), which makes them incredibly bulky when it’s cold. The shield ones especially, since their effective prot can reach nearly 40 if they use their shield. Additionally, they have magic weapons at base, which is a very nice bonus and is key to the synergy with the “Stygian” spells from the Angakoks.  Next up is the sacred. It’s cap only and just okay. They don’t have ice protection, and have pretty low prot in general, but do have some bonuses. The big one is that they come with special magic weapons which can permanently decrease the strength of an enemy if they inflict damage. It’s not useful in general fights, but can be something fun to pull out vs. an enemy pretender or attempted super-combatant.  The final relevant land recruit is the Mournful. They’re decent troops, and don’t have ice protection, but have absolutely garbage morale. Their main use is to expand in the early game before your dominion spreads, which they are pretty good at. They can also be decent bodyguards because they’re big enough to fill multiple squares around your mage.  Going underwater, the only recruitable mage is the Forgiving Father. They’re somewhat expensive and aren’t sacred (so they have pretty high upkeep), but are very solid mages. They start off with good enough paths to use underwater, but their real bonuses are their crosspaths and the fact that all of them have astral, and so can be used as communion members/masters. Thanks to that, it’s pretty easy to slot in whatever random one to get off a big variety of spells. They also recruit at regular speeds, so they’ll end up being my main battle-mages once things get going. Also, they have increased defenses against going insane in R’lyeh’s dominion which is a nice, if not relevant, bonus.  And finally, there are the main underwater troops. Statwise, they’re either just a step above indies (the infantry) or pretty over-costed for what they get (Unsleeping). However, what they do have are poison barbs on their armor, which poison anyone who attacks them with a short weapon (basically a sword or smaller). Conveniently, most of LA R’lyeh’s troops are slaves with really short weapons, so they’ll often end up killing themselves before they can kill your troops. I probably won’t be recruiting too many of these this game, as the underwater and land recruits of many other nations massively out-class them, but they’re at least still options.
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Jan 20, 2020 19:22
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Atlantis Turns 4-5 I somehow didn't screenshot either of these turns. I took Jome easily and kept going around the cap circle to grab Renthale too. From there, my party moves to take Kark and finish off my land cap-circle, while I send a 2nd party to start going north through Hall Woods. I don't want go underwater quite yet, just because there's more competition for land provinces, so I might as well grab what I can and then circle back around.
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Jan 21, 2020 04:39
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Atlantis Turns 6-7 Turn 6    My expansion party in Kark goes well, but I bounce off of some Bloodhenge Druids in Mag. I probably would've been able to barely eke out a win, but the druids repeatedly put all of my mournfuls to sleep while the Dark Vines killed them. Definitely not ideal, but at least I didn't lose the mage too.  I also see Marignon's god expanding to my south. It makes sense that they'd take an expander since LA Marignon is most vulnerable in the early game. This does make me think that their capital might be connected to that lake to my west, since they usually have a coastal start. It could be a pain because that opens up lots of ways for us to butt heads with our sailing if things go to actual fighting (which they probably will).   And lastly luck keeps things coming in. After last game, where events usually meant indie attacks, boars, or more fertility cults, it's nice to actually get good things. As for movement, I bring the beaten mage back to the cap to make another party, and my intact one goes underwater to get that last province by my cap circle. Turn 7 Another turn I missed screenshotting, somehow. Nothing too important happens. The underwater party captures it with little trouble. I send it north to grab another water province, while my resupplied mage moves back north to beat up the druids next turn.
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Jan 23, 2020 14:15
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PurpleXVI posted:No lie, waiting for that battle report to come in was a real butt clencher, because if I had miscalculated that one I would've been out a prophet and, as mentioned, TC would likely have enveloped me. No kidding, losing your prophet this early would've been a massive pain. Good for you that things worked out.
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Jan 26, 2020 00:55
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Atlantis Turns 8-9 Turn 8 Another turn I didn’t get screenshots. Instead of generally talking directions, here’s a map with all of my nearby provinces. Edited just because it’s from the current turn.  Okay, a few corrections from turn 7. I did not send the party from Kark to take it. I had that party head south to Valrest, which they took without trouble. On the tick to this turn, I had that party move to take Olm, which they also did with few losses. I also had a separate party consisting of the beaten Tungalik and some reinforcements move into Sea Stag lake and take it on turn 7. I then sent them north to take Good Water, which they took this turn with few losses. For movement this turn, I have the Good Water party move to take Emerald Lake. Additionally, I recruited my first Angakok this turn, who will be sailing over to Mag to beat up those druids that beat me before. Finally, I have the party in Olm move to take Wacce. Eagle-eyed readers might notice that Jomon’s capital is right next to it. I did not realize that, and was originally hoping to grab Wacce to be an eastern sailing point, especially because I saw that Jomon had already taken the Blue Moss Forest. I also had recruited an indie commander in Sea Stag Lake, and I set him to building a fort there to unlock my underwater recruits. Lastly, diplomacy-wise, I found a new neighbor: Erytheia, who had taken Nashen. We negotiated borders and agreed that he’d get Nashen and the province below Wic Forest, while I would get the Desert of visions and Wic Forest itself, leaving the throne for whoever took it first. We also agreed to not fight over the lakes for now. I’d take the ones north and west of Nashen, they’d take the one east and the small one to the south. I realize that essentially all this did was cede ownership of the eastern lake, but I think that’s a fine price to pay to not have them threatening my cap circle. Turn 9 .jpg) The screenshots are back! .jpg) .jpg) The lake and druids both fall, though I took more losses than I thought I would because the druids kept putting people to sleep again. .jpg) Now for Wacce. First, I take it with one lost Mournful, which is a great result. .jpg) And then Jomon bumps into me with a squad of Ashigaru! Thankfully, I stomped the party pretty solidly. Though I won and cleared the province, I didn’t realize that it was in Jomon’s cap circle so I apologize for the bump and leave it undefended for them to take. I mostly didn’t want to fight them because there were a lot of provinces still available for expansion and they took Heat 3 scales (like most people would). Without a later spell (Wolven Winter), I have no way to reduce the temp in their provinces, so my ice troops would get slaughtered if I didn’t win by the time spring came around. .jpg) For my only event, I get even more extra gold and a small boost to luck on my cap. Still loving these scales over misfortune.  Thanks to my diplomacy limiting options, I send my prophet to take Wailwind Waters and move the other party to take the province north east of Mag next turn.  I also have my Angakok move to take the Faraway Sea. It’s a bit risky thanks to the extra losses from the druids, but I’m still confident that I can do it. Lastly, I see that I will soon border Pan. That’s a little less than ideal, because Pan is Pan, but still something I can work with. I won’t reach out just yet, but probably will in the next turn or 2. OOrochi fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Jan 26, 2020 |
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Jan 26, 2020 04:54
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Donkringel posted:The dark vine battle screenshot is posted twice and the Jomon battle screenshot is missing. Thanks! Fixed it.
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Jan 26, 2020 16:33
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RBA Starblade posted:This is a dumb question but in the battle summaries, what does the 'sword' column represent? It can't be number of kills, it never adds up to the other teams' fatalities. It is kills. There’s just often things like friendly fire, in battle summons, or people dying to things like bleeding or poison. The sword is only added if a unit directly kills another one.
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Jan 27, 2020 21:33
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Atlantis Turns 10-11 Woo, back to full screenshots! Turn 10 .jpg) Have a few expansion battles and a lot of events. .jpg) First up is Mictlan’s first pitch. Might need some more workshopping before it’s ready for the market. .jpg) .jpg) Both expansion battles go off without a hitch. I lose a few of the guys in Faraway Sea to poison, but that’s fine. .jpg) .jpg) For events I have 2 good ones and then 2 that boost sloth in random unimportant provinces. .jpg) And finally, we have the 1st arena match. I’m a bit bummed that it’s happening so early, because it’s unlikely anyone will send anything good. Also because one of the giants could pretty easily win if they bothered to send a big guy. For future movement, I have my Angakok in the Faraway Sea start building a fort down there to get another mage facility going. Since I’m barely going to be recruiting troops, the state of the province itself doesn’t matter. I also have my prophet continue taking the lake, hitting the far eastern part. Lastly, I move parties into Hall Woods and Jome. The first is to support the Angakok next turn to take out the vine monsters, and the 2nd is going to go take the province north of the throne. Turn 11 .jpg) A pretty uneventful turn. Jomon took Wacce back with a few Ashigaru, but no fight because I didn’t leave any PD behind. .jpg) My only expansion battle goes well, slaughtering the shamblers and only losing some leftover trash from my starting army. .jpg) And, sadly, my valiant scout didn’t have any success in the arena. Cut down in his prime by an evil TC commander.  I’m 1 turn away from my first UW fort, which’ll open up some important mages.  2 turns away from my first land fort, which is in a great spot to have tons of resources. Only downside is that it’s made of ice because it’s on the coast.  And then 4 turns away from a 2nd underwater fort. My next goal is to get another land fort up, and I’m thinking Mag is a solid spot. It has good population and will have a lot of resources from the 2 forests. You can also see that my Angakok and reinforcements are moving into the Waywoods to take it before Pan can. Also, the 2nd party moving from Jome to the small forest above the lake and a scout moving from the cap to go ping the throne next turn.  And over in the east, I decide to go on land. If I go into the resting heights, I’ll probably bump with Gath’s pretender which would be a lot of pain for not much gain, because it’d just be back in like 3 turns anyway. So instead I go into Tirannea. It’s blocked by the info box, but Bogarus’s capital is to the NW of Tirannea. They haven’t cleared out their cap circle yet, so I’m hoping they go for Ragden instead of Tirannea, but I’m confident that my ice prot will help me out if we do bump. Overall, I’m pretty happy with my game so far. I’ve gotten a good number of provinces and there are still plenty of available ones nearby. I’m working on 3 forts before year 1 is even up, and I’m even building up a healthy gem stockpile thanks to 2 Lava Lake sites in my cap circle (+1 W and F Gem). I also have a few weak looking neighbors that I can easily hit with a sailing attack once indie provinces start running out.
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Jan 29, 2020 05:00
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Atlantis Turns 12-13 Turn 12 .jpg) Have a lot of battles this turn. I also researched a level of evocation so my mages could do something besides casting skeletal body on themselves during fights. .jpg) .jpg) Two of my expansions go entirely without incidents, only taking casualties with my bone-wearing units. .jpg) But there’s my riskier one that puts me near Bogarus. The first fight goes totally fine. .jpg) As does the bump with Bogarus. This was possibly one of the fastest battles I’ve seen while playing Dominions. .jpg) Because right after blessing the Assartuts, my prophet fries the Bogarusian leader’s brain with a smite, routing the spearmen. I did feel a little bad for the bump, but it wasn’t his cap circle so I don’t feel too bad. .jpg) And my only event gets me another battle, where some wolves get chased off by my PD.  For next turn, I set to move into The Hole. For whatever reason, at the time I was absolutely confident that the river was on the other side of the province so I didn’t need to worry about Gath’s god. As is evident in the screenshot, I was wrong.  Over in the west, I move into the lake with a small party to hit a much weaker province than the Broken Ocean. I also send a scout to ping the throne in Sailor’s Heaven. Since it’s so close to me, it shouldn’t be too hard to stake a claim to it. Turn 13 .jpg) I continue having pretty busy turns. .jpg) First up, I found a site for more water gems. This brings me up to 6 water per turn, which is great because I’ll need lots of them for later battles and keeping the temp down. .jpg) I see Gath’s god fighting, which is a bad sign since I was so sure he couldn’t get there. .jpg) And the fight goes predictably poorly. At least my prophet survived. .jpg) And my Assartuts did steal away a pretty large chunk of his strength which is never coming back. .jpg) .jpg) My other expansions go much better though. .jpg) Thanks to the presence of a Tungalik, my freshly recruited commander gets scared to death by a ghost. No starting a new fort for me this turn. .jpg) And finally, here’s the report from my nearby throne. Mostly militia, so this should be a piece of cake. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) The three boosted wizards don’t look too bad. Likely just extra skeletons and a few water elementals. I can cut through elementals thanks to my magic weapons, so that shouldn’t be too bad, probably just take a few extra casualties.  For moves, I’m retreating my prophet UW in case Gath decides to send those giants down and grab Tirannea. I’m also debating starting another fort there on a future turn, mostly just to have a safe sailing spot on that side of the lake.  I’m combining 2 parties to take down the amber clan in the Broken Ocean. I’m also a little dismayed to see a Marignon fort right next to the throne with a decent sized garrison. I might have to end up fighting them earlier than I’d like to.  And lastly, I’m being really cheeky and pushing my luck by sailing over to Belegor and trying to grab another province that Bogarus could reasonably claim. I could probably beat off any of their expansion parties thanks to the cold, but it’s still a little bit of a risk. OOrochi fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Feb 6, 2020 |
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Feb 6, 2020 05:50
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Atlantis Turns 14-16 Turn 14 .jpg) A slow turn overall, though my UW fort did finish its upgrade. .jpg) I took the amber clan province with a decent number of casualties. The province would let me recruit their units, but as an amphibious nation I have no real need for purely aquatic troops. .jpg) And my 2nd expedition into Bogarus's area is successful as well. .jpg) And the big event of the turn is a free lab in that isolated eastern province!  I'm not passing up a free lab and I was thinking of building a fort anyway, so I decide to risk Gath's attacking me and start building an ice fort with the remaining commander.  I move my underwater forces to keep taking the lake near Marignon. The 2 Angakoks stay where they are to search their provinces so I can get some more gem income.  And my mountainous fort starts getting a temple and fortress upgrade so I can start pumping out more Tungaliks for research and more troops in general. Turn 15 .jpg) Another slow turn. I did find a basic death site in Jome, which is nice. .jpg) The lake clearing continues to go well.  Taking another gamble by going for a heavy cav and crossbowman province in the heat.  And in the lake I move my Angakok to keep searching as I gather forces to go take that throne next turn. Turn 16 .jpg) Continue being slow. I see 2 throne claims including one from Mari, which I'll take as a good sign. If they took that recently, then they probably don't have an army nearby to threaten the throne between us. .jpg) I take some decent casualties, but get the knight province without too much damage. .jpg) The fort near me is mostly militia, so I'm betting that this army + some water elementals should be able to take it without too much trouble. Counting on my magic weapons to let me cut through whatever they summon without taking too many losses. Otherwise, I generally pull back a little to start deciding on my first war target.
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Feb 12, 2020 01:44
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Atlantis Turns 17-19 For whatever reason, I only have screenshots of turn 18. Turn 17 In and of itself, not too much happened. I took the throne province with only a few losses, but noticed 2 bad things. A: It was too hot for me to start building a fort, because it’s summer and Atlantis builds stupid ice forts on coasts. B: Marignon had a quite sizable army in the province right below it, including their god, and the fort was in their dominion. Discretion being the better part of valor, I decide to pull my units off of the throne and back into safety. I do leave a single captain behind for if and/or when the temperature falls. On the off chance that Marignon doesn't attack me. Turn 18 .jpg) I was right! Perfidious Marignon did attack my peaceful captain! .jpg) With a sizable force too. I don't think my group could've taken them even in cold 3, just too many enemies to fight, including the god. .jpg) But then Marignon was even more aggressive and sailed another party across the lake to hit Jome! It's annoying to fight someone else with sailing too. Especially when it's on the lake their cap borders, so they can easily pop out reinforcements. At least the force itself is small enough to probably kill without too much trouble.  As you can see, they're sitting on the throne. I doubt they'll move off of it this turn, since they probably want to claim it and then start a fort.  To that end, I'm going to move my main army to retake Jome with some extra reinforcements. From there, I can either chase the raiding party or potentially sail over to Marignese territory and start taking their things in retaliation.  And lastly, I'm building a lab and a fort in Hippocampus' Fortune to secure my hold on the lake. Also, diplo-wise, Erytheia and I had decided on a defensive pact against Marignon a few turns ago. This attack means that they'll join the fight against Mari too. My hope is that they'll harass Mari enough to draw more forces down there, enough for me to retake the throne (eventually) or at least make some headway without having to fight big masses of troops in the heat. Turn 19 Another turn without too much going on. Marignon pulled their raiding party back and didn't advance, so I retake Jome without any trouble. However, the real event of the turn is this:  Yes, that is Bogarus's god getting attacked and killed by Pythium's Hydras. Apparently, Bogarus added 3 levels of astral magic to his Irminsul, which allows the normally totally immobile tree to teleport with a pretty cheap and low research spell. The Irminsul is one of the units renowned for being a huge pain the rear end to kill due to its HP and regen, so it could've been an nasty surprise. Unluckily for Bogarus however, the province they teleported into was then attacked by Pythium's hydras with an absolute hellbless. Instead of maybe doing things to do damage, the tree sat there and unsuccessfully tried to panic the hydras and an ever growing pool of skeletons as they slowly killed it. RIP Bogarus's dream of the Irminsul that walks. Now, other than it being a notable for just being a god death in general, meaning the nation is probably weak and without a bless, it's also notable because both me and Marignon border Bogarus. And seeing a weak target instead of one with an army nearby, Marignon offers peace, they keep the throne, and we both go beat up Bogarus instead. Because that was almost certainly a war I would either lose or at least have a ton of trouble with, I agree instantly. In the interest of not totally screwing over a diplo partner (and also teammate in a different dominions game) I let Erytheia know the change of plans, and they say they'll probably take a piece or 2 out of Bogarus as well. Thankfully, due to my sailing I can very easily reposition my forces over to hit them in a few turns, and, due to Bogarus's cold 3 dominion, my guys should be about to have a field day vs the generally underpowered Bogarusian basic units.
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Feb 15, 2020 04:30
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Atlantis Turns 20-22 Turn 20 .jpg) And we're back. Last time, Marignon and I agreed to a temporary ceasefire so we could both go beat up the now-godless Bogarus. .jpg) But the perfidious Marignese immediately attacked me anyway! According to the player, that was just a misclick, but it still makes me a bit wary about leaving absolutely no troops in the area. .jpg) I also get hit by an attack from Erytheia. Just a mystic, suiciding into my PD for some reason.  But if we look closer, we can see that they have a very accusatory name. They'd said they were going to scry the throne Mari took before the ceasefire, and it turned out that Marignon had moved an astral mage onto the fort in the meantime, who proceeded to feeblemind this poor mystic. Ah well, after some reassurances about what I saw, Erytheia doesn't seem too peeved about it. .jpg) For the only notable event, I get a W3 mage and some pills to bring down small groups of troops UW. Too bad I have tons of W3 mages and all of my troops are already amphibious.  Thanks to my sailing, I'm able to pretty easily collapse a big stack of troops by Bogarus. I'm also moving to ping the throne and take the Cursed Land with a smaller force as well. I also get Marignon's word that they'll be moving their troops out of Jome and leaving no PD, so I'm sending a small group of guys to go take it back. Turn 21 .jpg) First turn of the offensive against Bogarus. Good to see that Mari didn't leave anything behind too. .jpg) My merman pinged the throne, doesn't look too bad. A lot of jaguar tribes and a good number of random wizards. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) But only one has the paths for anything other than lesser elemental spam, which my guys should be able to take out without too much problem. The one guy will either spam big elementals or probably flaming arrows for the slingers. Neither should be too bad, but the flaming arrows could do a number on my glaive-troops.  For moves, I'm sending an Angakok and Tupilak, with a few guys to block for them as they summon water elementals, to start taking the rest of the lake.  Erytheia said that they'd be moving to where Bogarus's big army is now, so instead of going there or getting stuck on the cap, I'm going to head south and grab the throne.  My formation's a bit of a mess, and I really should've put the shield guys in front of the glaives, but here's what I'm going in with.  Lastly, I had one of my heroes pop up this turn. He's neat, since it's a guy riding an undead bear. But pathwise, he really doesn't get me anything new or do much besides be a good leader for footslogging armies. Still, I'll start sending him north to search some sites out and gather up troops from my forts. Turn 22 .jpg) No counter attacks from Bogarus, and a lot of battles this turn. .jpg) But what's this? There's an event in one of my provinces, and it just so happened to be the one my new hero had moved into. .jpg) RIP Sialuk T21-T22. .jpg) And then to continue the bad things, there were a lot more ichtyids than I expected, and summoning elementals doesn't really matter if a bunch of enemies just go around them. What's even worse is that was an air randomed Angakok, who will be both very important and in very short supply in the future. So good job me. .jpg) At least in good news, I took the throne without too much trouble. Lost a few ice guards to elementals, but the majority of my deaths were just due to leaving shield-less troops in the front. .jpg) I also get an event on the new throne, giving me a free lab too! love to save both money and time thanks to the luck lottery. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Compunding Bogarus's worries, we can see that all of the other players are closing in as well. Pythium's hell-blessed hydras especially blending through the PD, even if it is cold. After the turn ticked, Erytheia summarized Bogarus's situation like this:  I'm also told that Erytheia doesn't want to go any further, which I'm cool with, and that Marignon simply wants the one fort they're sieging so they'll leave the cap to me. I pretty rudely accused Marignon of just wanting me to get my army stuck on it while they attacked me back down by the throne, despite our ceasefire being supposed to hold until Bogarus was dead. But after a bit of rightful indignation on his part and some apologies on mine, I agree that I might as well go for it.  For moves, I go to kill the hero-killing woves, and also move my big army up to link up with a secondary force in Ragdan, and then to Bogarus which I'll hopefully be besieging by turn 24.
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Feb 22, 2020 23:49
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Donkringel posted:Has this game finished yet? Nope. We’re currently at about turn 60.
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Mar 4, 2020 21:11
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PurpleXVI posted:I will always respect Biggs for his spite finishers, those gems and items always end up somewhere to gently caress up his killers. It adds spice to the game. For sure. Spite is always such a wonderful part of the game if you start going down. Atlantis Turns 23-26 Turn 23 .jpg) A pretty quiet turn as I consolidate a bit before moving in on Bogarus itself. .jpg) Erytheia beats up some basic troops from Bogarus. .jpg) I take revenge on the dogs who killed by hero last turn. .jpg) And then see Bogarus fight off some wolves as well. That looks like a pretty big chunk of PD they’ve invested in. Though it’s still just basic Bogarus troops and the fight will be in cold 3, so I’m not that worried.  Here’s the situation around Bogarus. Everyone nearby has agreed to leave the cap to me, so I’ll be taking my time with it. And despite what this picture says, I decided to wait 1 turn and bring one more Angakok with troops up from Atlantis this turn instead of attacking. .jpg) Also, this turn I found a very neat site in one of my lake provinces. Earth and water gems are very appreciated, but what makes it interesting are the recruitables. .jpg) .jpg) Lore-wise, these are some of the last descendants of EA Theredoros, and their stats reflect it. They’re generally slightly worse all around than their sacred troop and basic mage. However, they are still amphibious sacreds recruitable. The Strategis also reduce unrest wherever they are, and the Saos go berserk when blessed. If I had any type of useful bless for a troop, I would gladly recruit as many of these as I could. Sadly, I’m already amphibious and don’t have a strong bless so I’ll basically ignore these for about 30 turns. Still, I’m always glad to find unique or rare sites like the Isle of the Saoi. Turn 24 .jpg) Just about as quiet as last turn. I do claim the Silver Throne, which is a pretty nice one to get. It allows me to get Adepts of the Silver Order, which are A2 S2 mages that get a random from AFWS. While I’m never going to have them in huge concentrations, their cross paths are really nice for unlocking things and I might be able to use them to cast some big spells later on. .jpg) The only fight was a basic kraken that my PD drove off.  This turn I’m actually heading in to Bogarus. Three of the Angakoks are set to spam elementals and the Forgiving Fathers are communioned up to kill people with acid spells.  I’m continuing to have Angakoks ferry troops up north and am also having my prophet follow the group with a refill of water gems since the AI loves to blow as many of them as it can in any single battle. I have a fort and lab that are both going to finish over the tick in Mag and the fort on the throne is only a bit behind that. The one in Mag will be especially nice because it will have quite high resources so I can make it another hub for troop production. Turn 25 .jpg) 2 battles this time! .jpg) The first one is vs. Bogarus’s PD and goes quite well. My only 2 real casualties are actually due to friendly fire from one of my Forgiving Fathers. The PD itself only managed to kill some skeletons summoned by off-script Angakoks. .jpg) And then over in the western lake I continue to have trouble with the Ichtyids. I really have no idea what I was thinking with this fight  But to finally clear the lake I’m sending a small party from Atlantis to avenge my moments of stupidity.  And then up north I’m preparing for the long haul on Bogarus’s fort. One notable thing is that I transferred all of the troops off of my Angakoks and onto basic leader. That’s so that I can have the Angakoks preach Bogarus’s dominion down. It’s not strictly necessary, but it’d be nice to have their god weakened if it does come back before I take the fort. Turn 26 .jpg) And now, to wrap this update up, we have the quietest turn of the set. .jpg) I’m doing decent damage to Bogarus’s walls, but 750 defense is a lot to work through, especially with human sized units.  In the west my lake clearing party continues advancing. It’ll also be nice to have them in the lake as a deterrent to Marignon. They might not be able to beat a real army, but I’ll be able to threaten 2 cap circle provinces from UW and Marignon won’t really have any way to stop me from at least harassing them if/when we start fighting again.  And in the east, I notice something a little disconcerting, namely that it’s hot in Tirannea. .jpg) Because my nation has stupid ice forts, that means that my fort will start to melt. If I’m not careful and don’t cool it down semi-quickly then this can result in permanent damage. .jpg) To that end, I’ll change my research priorities a bit. I was originally going to rush down evocation for the nice death and acid spells, but instead I’ll be taking a detour down alteration.  Specifically to get this spell. It’s 5 water gems a pop, but it reduces the temperature in a province by 3 points and kills a small amount of the population. While it’s obviously not ideal to cast it on my own provinces, it will let me save the fort and will be very important when I fight someone who went with a heat dominion instead of cold (i.e. basically everyone but me and Bogarus). .jpg) And finally, thanks to my abundance of fire gems, I empower one of the F random Forgiving Fathers in fire. The big thing this lets me do is forge Rune Smashers, which require F2 W2 and give a pretty large bonus for the wielder’s spells vs an enemy’s magic resistance. While I’m not going to be a massive Mind Hunt nation, there are still quite a few nasty spells I do have access to that will benefit from it.
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Mar 5, 2020 14:46
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Technowolf posted:More people should realize that whenever they talk to Purple it means he's already decided to traitor them, and should really just traitor him first. Truer words have rarely been written
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Mar 5, 2020 19:16
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Atlantis Turns 27-31 Turn 27 .jpg) Not too much going on this turn. I get my Forgiving Father up to F2, research more alteration, and nearly crack Bogarus’s cap. .jpg) I do get a pretty nice boost of gold from a luck event though.  On Bogarus’s cap, I keep preaching down the dominion as I siege and bring in a few mournful for reinforcements.   And to demonstrate my need to get Wolven Winter, I see that both my throne and adjacent fort are waaaay too hot. I can’t even upgrade the basic palisade on the throne until it cools down.  I also see Marignon’s god and a decent army sitting on a nearby fort of Pythium’s. Interested to see how the hellblessed Hydras do vs a bunch of solid troops. Turn 28 .jpg) One more quiet turn. I summon some cave grubs, which are super useful siege chaff. Their main issues are that they require a cave to summon and are quite slow. However, with sailing I can negate that 2nd weakness pretty easily and get them to wherever I need. I also finally research Alteration 4 for Wolven Winter so I can save my forts.  The only notable movement is that I try to once again clear out the indies in the lake. Hopefully 3rd time’s the charm. In diplomacy news, since Marignon looks to be busy fighting Pythium, I reach out Pan, Erytheia, and TC to see if they’d be interested in fighting them once my NAP ends. Pan sounds pretty noncommittal, but Ery is very interested, and TC sounds like they could go for it too. Turn 29 .jpg) I get some evocation magic, working my way up to my big death spells and finally crack Bogarus’s cap. .jpg) I also take 1 of the remaining lake provinces. Much easier when I have more than 3 guys. .jpg) .jpg) And here are the results from Wolven Winter. It kills some of your population, so it’s not something you’d want to cast a lot on your own provinces, but it’s not cripplingly bad. And now my forts aren’t melting!  I ping the fort, just in case Bogarus has something hidden up their sleeve.  And then move one of my Angakok’s back home to help protect me against Marignon. Turn 30 No battle/event screenshots this turn, but not too much happened. Bogarus was pretty sparsely defended, so I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to take it this turn. I also did finally kill the indies in the lake. .jpg) However, one big event of the turn is that I get my 2nd and final hero! As a unit, Mother Hydra is nothing too crazy, just a big blob of HP. Her real use for Atlantis is that she’s another unit that can claim thrones. Her H4 is notable in that it’s tied with only a few other units as the highest in the game, but it doesn’t do anything too notable otherwise. Turn 31 .jpg) I keep going up evocation, with a quick beeline through construction to get access to some magic items. Also see Gath claim another throne. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) The storming of Bogarus goes quite well. I take a few casualties from friendly fire from my mages, but overall a pretty great result. RIP Biggs/Valhelmethead and his horrendous luck in newbads. .jpg) Most of the events are pretty negligible, but the luck lottery happens again! This time it’s an absolute ton of gold, some gems, and a very nice item that I wouldn’t be able to make for quite a while. The Banner of the Northern Star auto-casts a spell that makes all astral mages (both sides) 1 level stronger in astral magic. It’ll be a nice boost for when I run around with more Forgiving Fathers in battle. In diplomacy I start talking to a lot of people. Mostly about Gath, and seeing that they currently hold 4 thrones out of 7 needed to win, I cast around and see if Erytheia and/or TC would be interested in going after them instead of Marignon. However, Erytheia has a much smaller border with Gath than I thought and TC, through the chaos that is diplomacy nearby Purple, has just NAP’d Gath and is going to fight Mari with Mictlan. So, it looks like killing Marignon is the order of the day.  To that end, I start making moves on Marignon. I was originally going to siege down Glade Woods because it’s already cold. However, thanks to info from Erytheia that Marignon’s expecting me to do that, I make a different decision. Instead of what the screenshot says, I move my big army to take Ebys. I’m expecting Marignon to attempt to harass me with the army from Glade Woods, so hopefully this will catch them and cut them off.  And then I bring some reinforcements up including a set of cave grubs from across the lake. They’ll most likely meet up with my main army in the Mountains of Mist.  Over in the west, I move my guys to maybe harass some of Marignon’s forts. I also have a group of Forgiving Fathers entering the lake from the north so they’ll be safe and available for future fights. OOrochi fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Mar 15, 2020 |
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Mar 15, 2020 17:32
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PurpleXVI posted:I once put the Amulet of the Doppelganger on the Eater of the Dead, a literal mountainous pile of rotting corpses, and used him to make seduction attempts against enemy commanders. Makes me wish he’d keep that ability if he went rogue. Imagine that running around totally uncontrolled.
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Mar 18, 2020 18:23
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Atlantis Turns 32-36 Turn 32 .jpg) No actual fights this turn, though I do get a good chunk of research done. Marignon didn’t leave any PD in Ebys, so I just took it. .jpg) I also got a solid chunk of gold from events. A slave collar (which automatically removes any magical abilities the wearer has) too, which is less useful.  In the west, I move my small force back to annoy Marignon proper. While they seem to have some good armies spread out, there doesn’t appear to be too much around the cap.  And in the east I keep going after more of Mari’s territory. I also have a small-ish group coming from Mag to defend the Cursed Land, in case Marignon decides to go south instead. .jpg) Here’s my current research situation. I still don’t have the greatest feel on research rates overall, but I feel like I’m doing pretty well right now. I’m running up the Alt tree to get some resistance spells since Mari has a lot of fire magic, then it’s up Ench to get my special remote assassin spell, and then back up Evo for my biggest battlefield spells. Turn 33 .jpg) Lots of spell casting this time. There’s also the message from Mari, making me think things aren’t going too well over on the other end either. .jpg) Also see a throne claim by Utgard. I believe that this was one they stole from Gath. Since Gath is a big scary blood nation, I’m all for more people fighting them. .jpg) And in even better news, my god wakes up! I don’t have particularly much for it to do just yet, but will soon be putting it to good use forging things. The only battle isn’t even worth showing, just me crushing a few points of PD with no losses.  I’m a bit worried about losing my cold dominion over on this edge, so I have 2 indie priests pop over and start preaching. They obviously won’t stop anything big, but should at least help keep my cap circle my dom.  And I keep moving my main stack westward to grab Saborea, hopefully before Mari can get any sizable reinforcements into the area. I also move a force that I’d gathered near Bogarus to go siege down the fort in Glad Woods in a turn or 2. Turn 34 .jpg) I reach Ench 5, so I now have a solid, if a bit expensive, remote assassin in my back pocket. I also keep using wolven winter to keep the temp low on any of Mari’s nearby forts. I have ~13 gems a turn in income, so it’s not even making a dent in my stores either. The only fight was just me crushing a single point of PD on the fort.  In the east, I move to storm Saborea and then besiege Glade Woods. In cold 3, I’m confident I can pretty easily deal with any troops that I’ve seen in the area.  In the west I’m probably being overcautious, but I move an army to Ligrea, to threaten Mari’s cap and the throne. This move is more to stall for a turn than anything though.  Because in the lake, I’m moving a bunch of Forgiving Fathers and my ice troops to be adjacent to the throne and hit it next turn. There’s also essentially no defense in Nardago, so I’m sending a random event Ichtyid lord with a few atlantian infantry to go annoy Marignon for a bit. Turn 35 No overview this turn, since I missed the screenshot.  I did take Saborea with no trouble, and Glade Woods had only a few points of PD that were swept aside. I’m going to hold here a turn to cool down nearby provinces again. I still haven’t fought much of Mari’s troops, so I’m expecting them to be somewhere nearby and I do not want to risk accidentally fighting in H3 scales.  In the west, I’m going to take the throne back, There look to be a solid number of troops between it and Boar Woods, but I’m feeling confident. I also start building another fort in the Hungry Sea and then another one over in the lake by my other throne.  Diplo-wise, I get some confirmation from Erytheia that they will hit Marignon over this tick as well. they send me the map of what they’re looking to get (marked by the stars). I’m a little skeptical about wanting the throne and the other citadel too, but agree for now. I’d rather have another person to take some heat than fight for it right now. Turn 36 .jpg) Good chunk of battles this turn, including what look to be a few assassination/magic phase ones! .jpg) Also a message from Marignon. I’m taking it that they won’t just roll over, at least. .jpg) The first battle is a few horrors sent at where I’m building a fort. Thankfully, my boosted PD was able to fend them off without issue. .jpg) The besieging of the throne begins. I do love taking almost no casualties in fights like this. .jpg) Now, for an interesting thing, Marignon sent a disease demon to kill my Ichtyid Lord leading that small raiding party. That’s bad because it means they have both the research and mage to cast it, and they can be quite annoying. It also means that my little party has no leader in its force, so it doesn’t move back to the safety of the lake. .jpg) And thus my little raid is totally annihilated. However, there is one bright spot in this. Marignon has some demon knights, which are very powerful troops that can cause fear and initiate chain routs. They’re also very fast and have a bunch of attacks.  But my troops all had poison barb armor, and demon knights are not, in fact, resistant to poison. So, though my raid got destroyed I’m still very happy with it.  On the west, I see that there are quite a few troops in Boar Woods now. Even in cold temperatures, I doubt I’d be able to win a 2-1 odds fight. Especially with more than half of that being crossbowmen. I move some more reinforcements from Atlantis and my mountain fort to boost my numbers a bit.  And in the east, I’m glad I did not go stumbling around without thinking. Those are 2 armies that my scouting report says are nearly 300 troops each. My plan is to just sit here for a sec, upgrade the fort, and figure out how I can get them separated.  At least, that’s what I’m trying to do until Marignon posts this in the main chat and then reaches out to me. Apparently Erytheia joining in on the dogpile was enough to make him want to kill them on principle. He says that they’ll just go kill them instead, and will leave any provinces they do take from Ery undefended. Just asks for me to hold off attacking for a bit in exchange. Considering that there are a lot of troops near me, I agree to hold off, on the condition that I keep the throne I’m currently sieging, which he is cool with. There’s no explicit turn limit, but in my head I’m thinking I’ll probably hold off for around 5 turns. That’s enough time for the big groups near me to clear out and will mean that it’ll probably be getting colder again if/when I have to fight a big force of Mari’s.
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Mar 27, 2020 03:26
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Smiling Knight posted:Late, but I have to say that the LA Atlantis fluff is appropriately metal. After two ages of all the underwater nations slowing getting destroyed by starspawn, having Atlantis decide we're taking back the oceans and we've learned to resist insanity from beyond the stars by never sleeping kicks rear end. Oh yeah, I think it’s so awesome. Especially because the Atlantans have essentially had their civilization destroyed twice by R’lyeh before figuring out how to fight back.
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Mar 27, 2020 16:10
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Dang, that's a lot of Gibbors. Also, lol at the bless that self-owns. Auras seem to do that quite often compared to any other bless
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Apr 1, 2020 01:31
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Atlantis Turns 37-41 Overall a bit of a slow period as I hold off on attacking Mari for a bit. Turn 37 .jpg) A small turn, no interesting events or anything. .jpg) I do get incredibly lucky with one of my Angakoks. Due to their randoms, getting D4 on one is only about a 0.625 % chance. And this is great because it makes it a lot easier for me to unlock the immortal D summons since they only require D5. I make sure to immediately rename him to “I have D4, Very Important”.   On my northern edge I just have my army sit there and preach, while in the south I send a few extra reinforcements down to take the throne as I ping it. I know Mari said I could take it, but I still don’t know what’s actually in it right now. .jpg) Speaking of Mari, their vengeance against Erytheia seems to be off to a solid start, as they beat back a solid bunch of hoplites. .jpg) Meanwhile, my scouts managed to catch part of the monkey-giant war going on. Patala had their mages spam paralyze and got all of Gath’s big guys including both their Divine Blessing Caster and their Firestorm caster. So their otherwise absurd Se’irs just melted under a hail of archer fire. Turn 38 .jpg) .jpg) The only notable thing that happens this turn is that I get an event for a free Siren. They’re a neat mage who have a unique method of assassinating coastal commanders by luring them into the sea to drown. There’s no fight if they fail, so it’s a pretty safe method of harassing people. .jpg) My ping of the throne shows that it’s essentially empty so I set to storm it. And I also get to see Bandar kill a bunch more of Gath’s mages and research monkeys. Turn 39 .jpg) .jpg) We have Mictlan begging for gems and things. I don’t send them anything, but I do hope that they do as well as possible. A weaker or distracted Pan is one more neighbor I don’t have to worry about. .jpg) I take the fort with 0 trouble, as expected. Since it’s so close to my capital, I have Mother Hydra move to claim it for me next turn. .jpg) I also get lucky and have my fort PD fight off an attack from the Throne of Gaia. Even the basic snow warriors are head and shoulders above your average indie on cold 3, so I shouldn’t have too much to worry about from the Gaia attacks overall. .jpg) Mari had been sieging Pythium’s cap, but abandoned it to go after Erytheia. So instead TC goes after it. We’d been talking and I’d sort of considered trying to press for it on my own, but it only gives 3 N gems and 1 S, which I don’t really need. So I didn’t offer any objection to letting TC have it, especially since it’s one more neighbor I’m not in immediate conflict with.  In the north, I’m going to be storming the fort in Glade Woods. There were only a few basic troops of Marignon’s in it before I started the siege, so it shouldn’t be too bad.  And finally, we can see 2 of Marignon’s very large armies that I am quite glad I didn’t have to deal with. If nothing else, that’s a lot of crossbow bolts that would be headed down-field during each fight. You can also see Erytheia’s flag in the lake. After seeing all of Marignon’s forces closing in on one of their armies, Erytheia performed what they called a Dunkrik Maneuver and tactically maneuvered what they had to safety underwater. Turn 40 .jpg) A lot of relatively disappointing magic searching on my new throne, and a spate of assassinations. Also the arena, which Gath unsurprisingly won with one of their giant leaders. (To my shame, I forgot to send anything) .jpg) .jpg) I think Marignon might’ve gone AI right about here, which would explain the random assassinations. Thankfully, they were both in cold 3, so my captains did not care about their weapons whatsoever. .jpg) .jpg) And continuing the assassinations, I have a random skeleton attack one of my Angakoks because they found a specific D site. Thankfully, it’s still just a basic longdead so he dispatches it pretty easily. .jpg) The fort storming goes well, which is always good to see.  Because my eastern border with Erytheia is pretty secure, I move the guys out of the fort to go reinforce my stationary army, since I plan to attack Marignon next turn. Turn 41 .jpg) No fights of my own this time. .jpg) Though I did get to see Gath lose a few more research monkey mages to a Gaia attack.  And continuing on Gath, I can see that Patala’s big monkey blob is currently sieging Gath’s fort that borders my lake. I would absolutely love for them to take it, because I feel like they would have a much harder time blocking me from the throne on the other side than Gath would.  Up north I finally get things moving again and move to attack Marignon. I made sure to chill multiple provinces of theirs, just so it wouldn’t be totally obvious which province I’d be attacking. The plan right now is to ignore their big army on the throne and race up north to get the provinces near their capital. I’ll also be moving troops in south from my capital, so they should be able to meet up before too long.  And finally, here’s a quick overview of my lands. I’m definitely not the biggest right now, but I feel like I’m probably near the top. I’m also quite happy that I’m either touching or nearly touching so many thrones, since that will come in handy if I try to make a lunge for the win.
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Apr 1, 2020 05:24
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Kurr de la Cruz posted:Been loving this series. Ramc told me to post this, so here you go: That's amazing!
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Apr 3, 2020 04:23
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gonadic io posted:Asphodel's dryads losing assassin is such bullshit That’s really dumb. If anything, it’d be more thematic for them to be able to assassinate people than regular dryads.
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Apr 3, 2020 21:37
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Atlantis Turns 42-46 Turn 42 .jpg) Biggest news of the turn is that I bought 50 water gems off of Mictlan for 15 gold a pop (750 total). We’d been negotiating after I’d already submitted my turn 41, so I wouldn’t have been able to pay him until the tick between 42 and 43. Purple said that they’d just send me the gems early and would trust me to pay later. I had 50 gold spare this turn, so I threw it in as a bonus and thanks for sending them early. .jpg) The big reason I wanted the gems was so that I could cast Maelstrom. It’s a gem-generator global that you don’t necessarily see too often because it’s all the way down at Evocation 8, is solidly expensive, and has to be cast underwater. For that, though, you get 27 gems a turn (15 W, 5 S, 3 A, and 1 of everything else) which is the most of any gem-generator. I have pretty easy access to a mage to cast it and could really make use of all of the gems it’d get me, so it seems like a no brainer to cast it. (I was strongly considering casting Ghost Armada instead, which is a silly global that makes ghost pirates attack anyone who borders a water province, but decided against it since it wouldn’t really help me in any way) .jpg) I continue taking provinces from Marignon. .jpg) Lose Hall Woods to yet another indie attack. Seriously, sometimes I feel like there’s a hidden modifier or something to make provinces more likely to be attacked. .jpg) And then watch as Marignon sends a lot of crossbowmen to bother Erytheia.  I keep moving towards Marignon itself, making sure to take out that temple between me and Pythium as well.  I also move to besiege the citadel below the crystal throne and send another cheap raiding party to take more provinces.  And finally go to take back Hall Woods again and move a W4 Angakok under water to cast Maelstrom next turn. Turn 43 .jpg) Lots and lots of battles this turn. .jpg) Also, Erytheia cast Stellar Focus. It’s an interesting global, in that it’s incredibly cheap to cast with a correspondingly small benefit of 5 astral pearls a turn. Because it’s so inoffensive, it’s typically thought to not be worth the effort to dispel, especially since the dispeller could just cast their own version for the same cost as a dispel. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) None of the battles are actually that crazy, just my troops smashing through PD or light opposition. There is one notable battle though. If you remember, last update I got a free Siren from an event. I decide to have it go mess with Marignon over by Erytheia since that’s an area with a lot of water and commanders running around. Since Marignon has no amphibious commanders, it should be easy for her to get a few kills, right? .jpg) Wrong. Apparently Marignon got an Azure mage (who is a water mage and can breathe under water) from an event and my Siren had the wonderful luck to target him first and then get eaten by summoned sharks. RIP. My events are all pretty minor gem or gold gains, or me casting wolven winter on forted provinces.   For moves, I’m continuing to advance up towards Marignon and am reinforcing my army in Boar Woods in case Marignon sends a bunch of soldiers at it.  And in the east, I can see that Gath has quite a large stack of their sacred giants where Patala had been sieging. It really is quite inconvenient that Gath got their first, because I would’ve loved to put a fort their myself and have easy access to the underwater throne. Turn 44 .jpg) Not as many battles this turn, but I did get Maelstrom off without a hitch. .jpg) .jpg) I’d fired off a few Tupilaks to stop Marignon from moving around so much. One bounces off of a Marignese hero, the other obliterates a blood mage. .jpg) I see Marignon’s god running around with a really small force. If I catch it in the cold, I’m pretty confident a small-ish army could kill it without too many casualties now. .jpg) .jpg) And I also keep smashing more of Marignon’s PD.  At this point, I remember that supplies are actually a thing and notice that my army just below Marignon is starving. If an army starves for 2 turns, then they start to get diseased which is basically a slow death sentence for anyone it happens to. So to fix that, I split off part of my army to move backwards and get supplies safely while sending an Angakok with a few supply boosting items across the lake to help out he ones staying still.  And finally, here is my gem income graph for the turn. As you can see, casting Maelstrom was an MASSIVE boost to my income and it should pay for itself pretty quickly. Turn 45 .jpg) .jpg) Start the turn off with a new message from Mictlan. Certainly seems like they’ve got a lot going on. To be honest, I’m hoping that they’re able to stay alive for as long as possible, since that’ll keep Pan and anyone else involved distracted. .jpg) Continuing the global news, Pan gets a global up with the gem-generator Mother Oak. It’s not too hard to cast, with a relatively low research cost and is pretty easy for most nature-heavy nations to have a mage reach. I’m honestly a bit surprised that it hadn’t gone up beforehand. Still, Pan of all nations can make great use of the nature gems it gives, so it’s definitely something to be a little concerned about. .jpg) .jpg) I fire off 2 more Tupilaks and get 2 kills. .jpg) And then Marignon tries to get in on the assassination action but their assassin gets killed by a cast of Frozen Heart. .jpg) .jpg) My two battles go well, crushing a bit of PD and successfully taking the fort below my throne.  Now that I have my supply issues covered, I have my main army and a supporting party advance on Marignon’s capital, while I send my formerly starving group to go besiege the fort in Queen Forest. Lastly, my army from the fort in Boar Woods moves to hopefully kill Marignon’s god, if it doesn’t move. Turn 46 .jpg) Nothing too crazy this turn. Though Tien Chi finally stormed the fort in Pythium and put an end to Danger Noodle and their gloriously hell-blessed hydras. .jpg) .jpg) My Tupilaks continue killing. .jpg) .jpg) My 2 secondary armies keep advancing. .jpg) .jpg) And Marignon’s capital PD falls pretty quickly. .jpg) Sadly, Marignon’s god did not stay still and instead attacked another of my provinces.  No matter, I’ll keep chasing it with my army from Fenatice. I’m also moving my army out of Queen Forest, just because I’d rather not take the extra casualties from fighting the Boar in a hot province if I don’t have to. Instead, they’ll pop down and take Mari’s lake province.  And to wrap the turn up, I see that Erytheia hasn’t made much progress taking provinces in the east of Marignon. Since they’ve been sitting there for a while, I decide that I might as well take advantage of it and go for them my self.
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Apr 4, 2020 19:48
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Atlantis Turns 47-51 Between turns 46 and 47, Erytheia posted updated graphs that can be seen here. They made sure to remark on every category that I was leading or near the top in. Thankfully, because I am neither a blood nation nor big scary giants, and I did not commit the cardinal sin of taking an early lead, everyone seemed to mostly ignore my position. Turn 47 .jpg) I continue to beat up Marignon. .jpg) Notably, the army with their god in it did not end up moving  So the big pig ended up freezing and then getting hacked apart by ice guards. .jpg) .jpg) I beat Mari’s PD in 2 more provinces, including the lake to their west. .jpg) TC apparently had the idea to try and take the lake was well. Sadly for him, skeleton horsemen cannot carry the day. However, because I don’t really care about the lake and I’d rather keep TC semi-friendly to me, I agree to essentially roll off 2 dice to see who gets the province. I roll a 1, TC does not, so I’ll be popping back out of the water this turn. Most of my events are pretty minor, but there is one very important one: .jpg) In addition to getting me an absolute ton of gold, the real prize of the event is the Treelord’s Staff. It’s a nature booster, and is one of the rare ones that boost a path by 2, which opens up tons of new things for me. Thanks to this, I have access to things all the way up to N5. My income isn’t enough to really compete for the globals, but this does still get me some very nice spells including a relatively cheap immortal summon.  With my forces on the cap, I feel pretty confident and go to storm Marignon.   While I decide that Erytheia has left the eastern area alone for long enough that it’s up for grabs and move to take the citadel at Whiteport. Turn 48 .jpg) This one is pretty much just more cleanup. .jpg) .jpg) A few assorted battles go well .jpg) .jpg) Including the storming of Marignon itself. There really wasn’t much left to fight against. But there’s also this small battle described in 3 pictures:    Yeah, a single random fireball routed the entire small stack, meaning that that mage lives to get killed another day.  For moves, I send my Angakoks to sail back and relieve the new siege on Boar Woods. If I’m lucky that army of crossbowmen will move there too and I’ll be able to wipe out AI Mari’s forces pretty much entirely.  And I keep siegeing Whiteport down and try to take Summerbay again. As a note, I also use my earth gems to cast the global Riches from Beneath. It boosts your income and resources depending on your dominion value. Since my troops are strong, especially with my buffs, but resource intensive, this seems like a very solid idea for me to cast. Turn 49 .jpg) Overall a pretty uneventful turn. .jpg) I see Gath lose what I assume is a thug attempt to a decent group of Patala’s. .jpg) My Angakoks crush that sieging force in the Boar Woods. .jpg) .jpg) While Erytheia steals my chance for vengeance against the mage and then fights off my troops for good measure. .jpg) Most of the events are pretty unimportant, but I do get a free fort in the lake next to Marignon. Slightly annoyingly, it’s a giant palisade that I cannot upgrade, but I’ll still totally take it. My only two notable moves are to storm Marignon’s fort in the west next to the lake, storm the fort next to Mari’s throne. I’m planning on hitting Marignon’s throne next turn. I know Erytheia said that they wanted it, buuuuuut it’s a lightly defended throne right next to a big army of mine. If Erytheia sends a big army at it I might reconsider, but from what I’ve seen they don’t seem to have enough forces in the area to actually go for it on their own. .jpg) Because I have a big W gem income, I decide to pivot my research towards Vengeful Waters. It’s one of the most effective defensive globals in the game, since it sends water elementals after enemy commanders in my dominion and water elementals are very dangerous. Turn 50 .jpg) .jpg) Start the turn off with Mictlan proclaiming victory yet again. Pan’s defenses on our border seem to be pretty thin and Marignon is just about dead. Plus, they have a big border on the lake so I can hit tons of spots at once with no warning. .jpg) I see what looks to be the last bit of Marignon’s army take a province next to the capital. Hilariously, the only casualty is a thugged out succubus that dies to a friendly xbow bolt. I also notice that there are only 4 commanders in the stack and none of them are particularly tanky. So to that end, I ready up and have a few of my Angakoks cast Send Tupilak on the group to decapitate them. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Otherwise I crush the forces in Mari’s forts and province. .jpg) And then get another event for a good chunk of gold and a very situational item.  For moves, I go and send my army at the pre-chilled throne fort in Laria   And I otherwise shuffle troops around to hit Pan next turn. Turn 51 .jpg) A turn with terrible news! .jpg) .jpg) TC, after I graciously vacated the lake for them, rudely overtook my Maelstrom with their own Gift of Health! That’s a massive pain because Maelstrom was really expensive to cast and I need the gems to keep casting Wolven Winter so I can’t easily save up to recast it or Vengeful Waters. In effect, I also partly caused this because my Riches from Beneath took the last slot on the global list. Still, I am very annoyed. Also, my 2 Tupilak casts kill 2 of Marignon’s leaders and the stack itself does not move. .jpg) .jpg) Erytheia’s smallish force beats Marignon’s defenses and then gets smashed by my much larger army. .jpg) I get a 3rd big gold boost from an event, with another random item to boot.   Now that I’m besieging Mari’s final throne, I’m moving to attack Pan in multiple places at once. Up top I have a bunch of guys and a group of Forgiving Fathers move to take the throne in Troban. And across the lake, I sail to go take the border fort in Cerne and then hit the woods instead of the fort in Silver World. The reason for that is that Pan has left one of their heroes, Taurotyrannos, mostly unguarded in the open. Taking out a unique unit and powerful mage is worth potentially letting an army of mostly Satyrs run around in the unimportant area west of Marignon.  I also have 2 more Angakoks send Tupilaks at Marignon’s stack and then send some random event trash at it to hopefully rout them without an actual fight.  And as a final move, I have another group move out of Queen Forest to hopefully take the throne in Lithia next turn. For whatever reason, neither Utgard, Pan, nor TC have bothered to take it yet so I’m hoping it should be an easy fight.
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Apr 9, 2020 03:03
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PurpleXVI posted:Out of curiosity, did my proclamations and battle reports posted contribute to your decision to attack Pan? Or would it likely have happened either way? They certainly helped me decide to launch in so quickly. Pan was probably my best target anyway due to the thrones and that the lake gave me a large safe area to attack from but seeing that they’d lost a bunch of guys made me want to swoop in and take advantage of it. All of my other targets were some combo of friendly-ish, had no easy thrones, and/or were hostile to Gath. Or was Gath, but I wasn’t going to fight them if I could help it.
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Apr 9, 2020 15:13
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Jeez Purple, with the amount of big fights you’ve been getting in you just might be the protagonist.
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Apr 10, 2020 00:47
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Technowolf posted:That's right, I've won my first Dominions game as LA Atlantis. Interesting that you really went all in on the scales. Since getting to S4 and D4 isn't that hard for Atlantis did you really use your god itself for much in the game?
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Apr 13, 2020 20:31
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Tuna-Fish posted:It's imprisoned so only out at the 3-year mark or so, and when it does come out, it can teleport, it's an innate caster with high prot and decent HP, and if you give it a ring of sorcery, crystal coin and 6 pearls, it can cast soul drain (at +2 pen, +3 in own dominion). That's fair. I feel like I'm usually a bit skeptical about immobiles killing armies until I get my butt kicked by one.
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Apr 13, 2020 22:39
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Agh, knew I forgot to do something. I'll go over it a bit more when I get my turns up, but I will say that Purple's betrayal and coalition with Utgard was pretty much expected. Khisanth had been the one player who had been repeatedly pointing out how many thrones I had or was near, and had been doing it for a few turns by the time I checked in with Purple. They also seemed to be the only player that had forces in the area that could oppose me in a reasonable amount of time. Dr. Kyle Farnsworth posted:I admire Purp because their entire gimmick is being a joyful backstabber but every time someone is like "Hmm, but surely this time they won't backstab or betray me" Hey, you never know when they'll instead betray your expectations and be a faithful ally.
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Apr 14, 2020 18:16
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Starting to catch up, but that's a lot of turns to do at once. Should have the next group up in the next day or 2. Atlantis Turns 52-57 Turn 52 .jpg) The invasion of Pan commences! But first, some cleanup of Marignon. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) My Tupilak kills the last commander in Mari’s big stack, so my Ichtyid squad clears them without a fight. Then a secondary squad clears that last province of theirs, functionally killing them. .jpg) Of course, their god decides to come back this turn and easily clears the PD on Marignon itself. No big deal, since the AI won’t ever abandon a siege and the boar can’t do any damage to the walls. I’ll just leave it until I kill the nation. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Over in the west, I clear out Pan’s PD and a bit of their troops, including the Black Bull, a B3 hero. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) And to continue the pressure, I rename a woodhenge druid to make me remember his purpose. A treelord is literally a giant sentient tree, who’s also a powerful nature mage. There are 3 unique ones and this spell lets you summon them on any forest in range. They can be a real pain to get rid of on defense, since they’re bulky, can cast spells quickly, and can’t move so they can’t lose morale and retreat away. Conveniently, Pangea’s capital is in a forest province and is in range.  For movement, I’m going to keep sailing around and concentrating forces as I can. No need to let Pan potentially catch a smaller army if I don’t have to let them.   And I also go to reinforce my siege of Pan’s throne and then storm Marignon’s final province on their throne. Turn 53 .jpg) The invasion continues. .jpg) .jpg) Gath claims 2 thrones to put them equal with me. .jpg) And my Treelord crushes the PD on Pan’s cap without any trouble. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) As I continue taking more of their provinces. .jpg) The storming of Marignon’s throne went off without a hitch, leaving them with no remaining provinces.  Though Marignon’s troops still siege their capital, In the words of a certain martial artist, they are already dead and will disappear into the ether at the end of the turn.  And for movement I keep sailing around. If Pan tries to block me by attacking directly, I’ll dodge them by heading to Ornur while my other army attacks the fort. If they stay still, I’ll be able to take advantage of my innate dark vision in the cave fight. Turn 54 .jpg) .jpg) Start off with more hype from Mictlan. I’m sure that they’re appreciating my attacking Pan. .jpg) I also summoned another Treelord on my throne. Annoyingly, this one starts out old and immediately got afflicted and turned mute, cutting his very useful N5 down to a much less useful N3. So instead of keeping him around I’m going to keep rolling the dice on transforming him into a fun chassis. .jpg) .jpg) Pan fights back, but only catches PD. .jpg) I also discover a downside of treelords. Pan tried to break out and fight it off. It beat the army just fine, but one of the Fall Bears got put to sleep during the fight. Instead of doing anything useful like trying to kill it, the treelord spent the entire fight trying to panic the sleeping bear or putting the bear back to sleep if it woke up. This went on until the turn timer hit and it killed both of them. .jpg) And then to top off the bad news, TC beats me to the nearby unoccupied throne. That’s a lot of sacred cav there too, so I can’t just easily snipe it away. .jpg) .jpg) That said, I do still make some progress.  And Pan tries to kick me off of their throne, which does not go very well for them.  I move to go take and defend Silver Wold, retake the Two Woods, and have a secondary force move to defend Marignon if Pan goes after it. Turn 55 .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Start off with some throne claims, one by me and one by TC. .jpg) .jpg) I beat 2 more instances of Pan’s PD and kill another one of their heroes.   I do a bit more scrambling around the lake and start advancing into Pan from the north.  I also take a peek over at Gath’s UW throne. It has fort but no actual defenders, so if I can get there it shouldn’t be too tough to take. Turn 56 .jpg) .jpg) A lot of site searching as I waited for a turn. I also used my D4 Angakok to get my first immortal Lich! D gems are really useful, so I probably won’t have a ton of them, but I still like getting a few Liches and/or Wraith Lords when I can. The muted treelord turned into a lion, which is okay but nothing special so I have him cast transformation again. .jpg) .jpg) Pan sends a few magic phase attacks at me with mixed results. .jpg) .jpg) And they also beat up some more of my PD and my event Ichtyids. .jpg) .jpg) But I beat their attempt to retake the Silver World .jpg) .jpg) And then beat a few more small forces.  I pinged the throne and there was not much in it, so I move to storm it.  And then with that stray Pan army out of the way I go to storm the Silver World and move in a bit further north. TC’s throne is pretty much undefended, but I don’t want to risk a war with them just yet. .jpg) I also move to make a very nice artifact that I was quite surprised to see had not been taken yet. It boosts both Air and Astral magic, as well as pretty dramatically increasing ritual ranges, with a small (~10%) chance of being horror marked each turn someone holds it. I’ll be putting it to great work. .jpg) Finally, here is the throne situation. I have a mini panic when I think that Gath is sitting on the Throne of Bureaucracy, but it turns out that Erytheia grabbed it instead. That’s much less concerning in the near term at least. Turn 57 .jpg) Lots more battles with Pan. .jpg) .jpg) Pan takes a few more provinces back .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) While I conquer even more of them, including the fort in the Silver World and the throne at Troban. .jpg) .jpg) Thanks to my 2 boosters, my Silver Adept is able to cast the global Dark Skies. And because I have a solid air income with only a few uses, I just dump in as many gems as I have to make sure it stays up for a bit. .jpg) Also, my former treelord turns into a giant eagle this time. I’m totally willing to stick with this chassis.  My only really notable move is to try and block off a force of Pan’s centaurs from moving further in.
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Apr 15, 2020 02:08
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Akratic Method posted:Wait, why is tree bird now? There's a nature spell called Transformation. When cast, it turns your mage into a random animal chassis. Since it's not too expensive, I had my old treelord cast it and transform for fun.
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Apr 15, 2020 04:24
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Okay, now to catch up. Atlantis Turns 58-64 Turn 58 .jpg) .jpg) Start off with a successful cast of Dark Skies. Since my dominion is pretty strong, it’s going to be pretty hard for anyone to invade me without chunks of their army running away. .jpg) Pan sends some horrors at me, though they don’t too much. .jpg) There are a bunch of battles against small forces of Pan’s or Pan’s PD. I take a casualty or 2 from most of them, and take a good chunk of provinces and besiege Pan’s cap with an actual army.  I keep taking provinces, move to reinforce my sieging force on Pangaea, and send Mother Hydra up to the nearby lake so she’ll be ready to claim TC’s underwater throne when I take it.  And over in the east I start really gathering forces in Valrest. Erytheia’s throne (formerly Agartha’s throne) is inside sailing range from the province, so I could hit it in one move. Hopefully Erytheia leaves it somewhat lightly defended so I can snap it up. Turn 59 .jpg) A few more battles as I start cleaning up Pangaea. .jpg) .jpg) Pan attempts to break out of their cap and fight me on the open field. My boosted protection, morale decreases, and massive cold fatigue damage means that I only take a few casualties as his units either freeze in place or rout. My communion of Forgiving Fathers also now loves to spam Enslave Mind, so I steal a few of Pan’s random troops and commanders as well. I’m not exactly sure why they broke out instead of holing up for a last stand in the fort, but I’m definitely not complaining. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) I clean up a few more provinces. .jpg) And see what looks to be Pan’s last army besiege one of our former border forts.  I ping the fort in Pangaea itself as I have another scout ferry some gems forward to the army.  While I attempt to block Pan’s last army from rampaging through my core provinces. If they do move, I have armies nearby to block them, and if they don’t I’m confident my army in Lama can deal with what they have.  Over in the east I get a bit concerned about Gath. I’m seeing a lot of goats running around and I’m sure that there are even more in areas I can’t see. Though they’re a bit far away for now, I think I’d have trouble getting enough forces in my area to oppose them if they tried to attack me in the area near Bogarus. That said, I might not need to fight them at all if I can grab thrones quickly enough. I currently need 3 more thrones and have access to 5. One of them is Gath’s underwater throne shown in the bottom of the photo. As Atlantis, I’m pretty strong underwater, so I’m pretty confident I could grab it from them without too much difficulty. I’d just have to fight through the fort in Terryn to reach it.  Another one is lightly defended one held by TC in Lithia. If that fort hadn’t finished this turn, I probably would’ve gone to grab it with my force in Omur.  And the reason I would’ve done that is because Pan’s throne in The Barren Crags is up for grabs, and I don’t think anyone could beat me to it right now.  And the 3rd easy throne is another TC held one in the Typhian Sea. They haven’t built a fort there and essentially have no defenses so I should be able to grab it at will.  And finally, there’s Erytheia’s new throne across the lake. I don’t necessarily want to fight their big communions if I can help it, but I think it’s pretty likely that I could crack the fort and take it before they retaliate. As long as Agartha keeps them distracted at least. .jpg) And finally, I’m not 100% sure if this was due to a glitch or not, but I just felt the need to show off the absurd amount of resources my capital has right now thanks to Riches from Beneath. Turn 60 .jpg) I keep popping out immortals with Liches and Worm Mages. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) I take a few more of Pan’s provinces and clear their sieging force off of my fort. Those snipers seem to consistently do a number on my Forgiving Fathers, even with some buffs. .jpg) Though they do keep raiding and take another province back. .jpg) I ping their capital fort. Without that force they broke out with, there’s not too much to threaten me here. .jpg) Their god could do some nasty things with blood and astral, but doesn’t have any pearls or slaves. That could obviously change but I’m hoping it doesn’t. .jpg) The other notable unit is a Hamadryad. They’re pretty powerful nature mages (basically a slightly weaker, non-unique treelord) that start with a bunch of harpy bodyguards. Nature magic is generally very supportive, so without a big army to back up I’m not that worried about it.  For movement, I’m sending some guys up to threaten the Barren Crags throne next turn. I’ll also be storming Pangaea itself.  And then I’ll continue gathering forces to threaten Ery’s throne if/when I think its advantageous. Turn 61 .jpg) A good chunk of things happen this turn. One slightly annoying thing is that Pan dispelled my Riches from Beneath! While it’s not crippling, and I definitely preferred them to do that vs dispel Dark Skies, it’s still a pain. Other things are that I have Mother Hydra claim my recently taken throne, and TC casts Mother Oak. Generally a bit late for a gem gen global, but it’s cheap so I can see the reasoning. .jpg) Also, a thing that I’ve never seen before occurs. I was building a random cheap artifact sword and it turns out someone decided to build it at the same time and beat me in whatever tie breaker decides who gets it. .jpg) .jpg) Pan attacks me in a random province and attacks me in Pangaea again, but I fight both attempts off. .jpg) And then the storming of Pangaea goes well. Not too many casualties at all.  Pictured: The last moments of Pan’s god. .jpg)  I also have a notable event in the lake by Marignon. Despite only building one fort in the lake, events have now given me three free ones. Though the troops and mages from the event are all purely aquatic so they won’t be of much use.  After a brief moment of indecision, I decide to move the my forces from Oakbeach south to go after Lithia.  While my group from Pangaea goes after the throne in the Barren Crags and the groups in Copos and the Royal Green head north to make moves on TC’s underwater throne. Turn 62 .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Start this turn by receiving a mission and a lot of things from Agartha. Definitely can make use of most these. There are also a bunch of small battles as I continue eating up Pangaea, though none really worth showing off.  I move to besiege Pan’s throne in the Barren Crags and also split my army a bit. Partially to keep taking Pan’s provinces, partially because the army was starving and I’d rather not have everyone get diseased.  A bit more north I move to get next to TC’s throne and keep Pan’s forts under siege.  And I, totally inconspicuously, keep sticking things in Valrest. It’s a very good thing that all of my guys resist cold, because a preemptive cast of Murdering Winter could otherwise do a ton of damage to me. Turn 63 .jpg) Comparatively not too much happens. Mostly more cleanup of Pan. .jpg) Though they did put a ton of money into the PD on their throne. But without mage support, it still falls pretty easily. .jpg) .jpg) I get lucky with a 1/15 chance for one of my Worm Mages to get a level of earth magic. I use a cheap booster I had sitting around to make one of my favorite artifacts, the Soulstone of the Wolves. It’s expensive, at 65 gems to make, but I have a very large N income thanks to Pan searching their territory. The artifact itself auto-casts the spell Howl in battle, which is always helpful and can be really nasty if your opponent doesn’t expect you to throw it out. Additionally, it also lets whoever holds it cast a 15-gem remote attack spell that summons a werewolf and 15 wolves (or 30 in a forest). While it won’t beat armies, it can pretty consistently beat PD and can be used to take provinces, block movement, kill lone mages and just generally be annoying. It’s also great because you can ferry it around through labs, so it’s very easy to get it where you want it to be.   I gather forces right next to TC’s thrones. Both of them are lightly defended, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to take either of them.  I see that Erytheia has a pretty sizable army right next to their throne. Definitely makes it a bit more difficult to snipe the throne away. Right now all I can hope is that they move it away.   With that army sitting there, I decide to change things up. I have one of my Silver Adepts gateway a bunch of Cave Grubs over to Tirannea. I’ve had a small-ish sized force sitting there to deter Gath and Erytheia for a while now. I’ve also built the artifact the Flying Ship, which lets the user fly with an army for a good distance. And conveniently, Gath’s UW throne is within range for me to fly a force from Tiarannea to the throne in one move.  And finally, I’ll be doing a few things in Valrest. I have quite a few Angakoks in the area to sail over next turn. I also have my treelord-turned-eagle loaded up with N gems and another fun artifact: the Amulet of the Doppleganger. It makes the user stealthy and lets them attempt to seduce enemy commanders in the province. So for a cost of nearly 50 gems, I’ve basically made an inferior Dryad. Still, it can be fun to load random things up with the amulet and it can definitely help if you manage to take out important commanders. Additonally, I have my god there, summoning one of the Kings of Elemental Earth. They’re powerful earth mages who can do lots of useful things, from strong in battle buffs to useful rituals like spawning a full castle out of nowhere or assassinating people with Earth Elementals. My god can do this too, but it’s nice to have more options. Turn 64 .jpg) A bit of a quiet turn in comparison, but that’s mostly because it’s a prep turn. .jpg) .jpg) There are a number of further battles vs. Pangaea, including taking the throne and another fort. .jpg) Mictlan also rudely sends a few vampires to kill my mercenaries. I am absolutely shocked that Purple would attack me after we just had a friendly chat. .jpg) Interestingly, I also see that Jomon made a move to get a foothold in Erytheia’s lake and then fought off the force Ery sent to kick them out. .jpg) Helps that they have one of their heroes, who they’ve really invested in. Jomon’s been in a pretty poor position for most of the game, so I’m really hoping they can stick down there.  For moves, I advance on TC’s thrones. If I get both of them, then I win. I also have backup plans of Gath’s underwater throne, which should be easy, and Erytheia’s throne as a backup backup. Though I don’t move to hit either of them this turn. .jpg) And, just because I’m feeling a bit cocky, I send this out too. With 3 likely shots and 1 slightly less likely one, what’re the odds that I can’t pull it off?
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Apr 15, 2020 21:50
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Kobal2 posted:It's pretty amazing to me how good Ice Guards seem to be, as chaff goes. I mean I'm sure the deathball snowball effect plays a part there, and Assartut seem to be more killy (but a LOT more deathy too). They do cost quite a lot for your average chaff at 16 gold and 32 (or 39 for the shield) resources a pop. But they're almost certainly still undercosted for what you get. I've also been essentially spraying water gems through a hose to freeze any fort or area that looks to be a significant fight with Wolven Winter, which gives them an extra 6-ish armor. And most of the fights against anything more than PD have also had Stygian Rains up, which gives my guys another 15 prot against non-magical attacks. So a big part of the reason that they survive so well is that they're running around with 29-ish (or ~40 if they block with the shield) prot vs people who attack with like 16 damage attacks. Lord Koth posted:Oh, right, they've got a fairly good and inexpensive assassination spell that's unique to them AND easily researchable, in a modded game where the typical universal assassination spells have either been basically nerfed into uselessness or are incredibly high on the research tree. I totally do agree with what you've said, but the gimmick of the newbads are that they're totally vanilla. So though I do have the Tupilaks, all of the other spells like disease demons etc. are available too.
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Apr 16, 2020 00:18
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Kobal2 posted:Well, all of this is true... But they also only have 2 magic paths (I'm not even rating their F/A/E access, that's fake ; S is mere W communion fodder). And if one of the two (D) is one of the Three Big Lategame, they don't really have a hyuuuuge access to it anyway ; and the other becomes kind of dickless as soon as the enemy gets some form of cold mitigation. I'll disagree with the FES access being fake. While you're not going to get a lot of non W rituals out of them, Forgiving Fathers can totally cast the big combat spells in a communion. 1 master and 4 slaves will get you a firestorm, army of gold/lead, or any of the astral spells that aren't Unraveling, Arcane Domination, or Master Enslave. While you're not going to beat out like Erytheia or Arco in terms of spammability, you can definitely get what you need out of them. The A access is fake though. But that's okay, because it gives you Wailing Winds and Winds of Death on any A random Angakok with a skull staff and 3 gems, and those are ridiculously useful. Lord Koth posted:Like what's the Fire equivalent to Wolven Winter? I thought there was one, but skimming through spells I can't find it. It's Breath of the Desert, an F3 A1 evo 4 spell.
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Apr 16, 2020 02:05
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Hunt11 posted:It has been a while but I can't think of many nations that have access to those paths. There aren't a ton. Assuming you meant for Breath of the Desert, in LA basically only Ragha, Bogarus, Erytheia, and Phlegra have the crosspath before very late game or empowering, and only Ragha could do it without a booster (unless you get absurdly lucky with an Erytheian royal). Snipee posted:Also, it looks like it knocked out one of their globals? Nah, Pan dispelled one of my 2 globals during the previous update, so there was just a free slot.
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Apr 17, 2020 05:11
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Atlantis Turns 65-68 Tun 65 .jpg) Oh boy, let’s see how this goes. Turn starts off with me claiming Pan’s final throne. .jpg) And Someone really tries to kill one of my Angakoks with Vengeance of the Dead. Thankfully, their death paths and good magic resistance make it pretty difficult to actually kill them for a while. .jpg) .jpg) I win a few small fights, including a quick magic attack on Mictlan. .jpg) Continue to get bothered by Mictlan’s vampires. .jpg) .jpg) And I witness TC absolutely wreck an army of Gath’s over by one of Gath’s thrones. Admittedly, TC committed a lot more to the fight but it’s still a pretty huge victory. .jpg) .jpg) But the real events of the turn are my throne pushes. I teleported a Golem into TC’s underwater province, mostly to hide my army. The Golem isn’t too crazily geared, just 1 cheap artifact sword, and the rest were things Agartha gave me or I’d gotten in random events. In retrospect, it would’ve been a much better idea for me to have sent this to TC’s other throne. Anyway, my army moves in to the province and occupies it without any problems. .jpg) Attacking the other throne goes well too. Only PD defending it, and I have enough cave grubs there to crack it in 1 turn.  There were only like 3 Ancestor Smiths in here and neither TC nor Utgard have forces nearby that could stop me, so I’ll just storm it. .jpg) My flying ship attack on Gath’s underwater throne starts off well. The cave grubs will let me crack it in 2 turns, and I’ll use the free turn to teleport in a few Forgiving Fathers to help the storming. I’m not expecting Gath to be able to put up much resistance down here though.  For other movement news, I have my golem pop out of the water to hopefully catch that army of barbarian horsemen. With the lifedrain from the Athame, Quickness, and a bunch of astral boosts, I’m pretty confident that it could take them out if they don’t move.   Over in Erytheia, I send my army to sail over to their throne (and have a guy cast Wolven Winter to cool it down) as I have a bunch of assorted mages jump into the lake itself. Erytheia’s big army is still there but I should hold all of the thrones I need next turn, so I might just be able to have a fun big fight to end the game. I have just enough siege strength in the sailing group that I should be able to crack the fort in 1 turn and storm it next turn too. I also have an Angakok that I kitted out to be a very basic thug cloud trapeze into Embracer, just to give my army a spot to retreat to if things go very wrong. I also send out all of my research mages near the Erytheian border to attack, just for fun. I’m not sure if I had maxed it out by now, but I’m essentially finished with research by this point. Turn 66 .jpg) AKA “The turn where things start to go wrong” .jpg) .jpg) Start the turn with my countdown continuing and Patala sending back some sass. .jpg) And I have Mother Hydra claim TC’s underwater throne. .jpg) .jpg) A treelord that I sent at Mictlan for fun beats their cap’s PD, but a werewolf raid does not beat their hordes of slaves. .jpg) And Mictlan’s Vampires keep beating up PD. .jpg) I take what should be Pan’s final non-fort province. I’d love to knock them out fully, because that would let my cold dominion spread through their lands really quickly and provide me some support if the game continues. .jpg) But they cling to life with a final group of 5 Centaur Sages who beat my stolen Pan troops and take another province. .jpg) .jpg) And I see another battle between Gath and TC, which goes a bit worse for TC than the first one did. Gath brought a lot of magic to this fight and it paid off well. .jpg) For throne things, my invasion of Erytheia goes well. The throne’s PD falls and there are not nasty surprise patrollers. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) And all of my other battles against them go off without a hitch as well. Heading over to TC’s fort, I spy a curious sight.  TC’s god, with a good chunk of gems and a bunch of lighting-immune zombies have teleported in before I stormed.  TC throws out enchantments that cause constant lightning bolts to strike the battlefield and poison to spread everywhere. I was not necessarily expecting this, but think that my troops should still cut through, even if there are a ton of losses.  But then another mage of theirs throws this out. I, like a fool, had stuck a few Mournful into my larger squad because they were sitting around. Mournful have terrible morale. They lower the squad’s average morale, it routs, and then everyone else runs too. .jpg) Not the proudest moment for Atlantis. But that’s okay, I still have 2 other shots at thrones. I’ll still be storming Gath’s almost totally undefended throne. Hopefully Erytheia also moved that army away from their throne and I can just take that one.  They didn’t move the army. Something must have tipped them off that I was going after thrones. I also calculated my siege strength to be too low, so the small force of crossbowmen they kept inside the throne fort was enough to keep the walls standing.  That’s fine. I’d rather not risk my army if the game’s not in the bag so I’ll have my big stack retreat a bit and I’ll regroup at the bottleneck between my territory and Erytheia’s, maybe if I threaten their cap they’ll move their army away from the throne or something.  Over in the west, I see an army of Utgard’s that very much can fight off what I have in the region. I have most of the survivors of the storming retreat back to the Silver World where I have reinforcements coming from my capital. I do move to keep a token force on the throne and also move to take TC and Utgard’s lakes because I am amphibious and they can’t stop me.  A 3rd complication now is Mictlan’s army right next to my newest throne. This one is not as bad, solely because I already have the throne. In the cold, with the morale penalty from my global and backup from my spells, I’m pretty confident that my troops could grind through whatever Mictlan can throw at me. Especially because I can throw out things like Antimagic to keep me safer from Blood Vengeance.  And finally, I move to kill Pan once and for all. I storm the fort in White Peaks, have PD in the surrounding areas, and am moving in to take their province. Turn 67 .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Start off with even more messages. My countdown continues, Patala sends out more sass, and Mictlan turns into a cartoon. .jpg) Utgard casts Wild Hunt too. This isn’t too bad, necessarily. I do have a lot of guys in forests, but the only real issue this causes is that, because my throne near Bogarus is in a forest, I can’t keep any Angakoks directly inside it. But that’s okay because I can just keep them in the lake nearby or in my capital instead. .jpg) Pan’s Centaur Sages survive another day. .jpg) Erytheia’s stack of a lot of mages kicks my token guard off of their throne. .jpg) .jpg) I’d sent 2 Tupilaks at TC’s throne. Sadly, neither one gets a kill. .jpg) And then Utgard rudely knocks my token group off of TC’s fort. A hilarious thing that I didn’t realize happened was that TC also had their god break out of the fort to kick me out. He was kitted out to expect a few small guys, not a bunch of angry giants. So the giants squashed him. The god was twice-borned, so he just came back as a Wight Mage, but it’s still funny. .jpg) Over in former Pan, Mictlan advances their army on the fort. That’s a bunch of sacreds, but I still feel confident. .jpg) .jpg) And over on Gath’s throne, I’m greeted by some surprise guests before I storm. A Seren and a Kohen Gadol, kitted out to thug a bit. The Kohen’s especially annoying because it has an armor that auto-casts Soul Vortex, which drains the life from anyone nearby. .jpg) I win, taking a decent amount of casualties and using all of my gems on water elementals and buffs, but that’s fine. That’s probably all that Gath can send down here, so the throne itself should be easy.  But surprise! Gath has another friend for me in the fort, a brand new Golem! .jpg) It buffs for 2 turns and then casts this, which constantly damages all non-mindless (aka non-golem) units in the battle. Without gems, my Angakok goes off script. And, being a death mage with 2 or more paths, it spends the entire time summoning skeletons, who the Forgiving Fathers then spend their turns buffing instead of doing useful things. .jpg) Eventually, the Astral Tempest kills the Ice Guard, causing the mages to run away and then die because there are no friendly provinces nearby. RIP to my backup throne attempt, my 40 gem flying ship, and a bunch of other sundry things too. .jpg) .jpg) And then to top things off, I start getting hit by the Wild Hunt attacks. They don’t do much of importance right now, but it’s still annoying. With that, it’s time to start fixing things. .jpg) I realize that I have no air random Angakoks by my capital to defend that throne, so I have this guy in the Pan throne fort kitted out and told to break out with some guards. .jpg) His job is to cast this spell as many times as he can before he gets nicked. The ring he has will then teleport him back to my capital, safe from harm and ready to be used again.  Over in TC, Utgard has a big army sitting on the throne. If I’m lucky, they’ll decide to take it for themselves instead of just fighting me. Either way, I keep gathering forces in the Silver World to help fend off an invasion.  Erytheia’s throne is currently not really an option. If I’d been thinking clearly, the smart thing to have done would’ve been to consolidate all of my forces in the lake, then march on the throne again while I had mages from my cap and nearby forces rain remote attacks on the stack.  But instead, I’m panicking a bit about declaring war on the whole world and failing all of my throne pushes, and I notice Gath’s other throne. They’ve kept it pretty lightly defended throughout the game, so I decide to go after it instead. I have my big army plunge into the lake nearby to make its way down. Turn 68 .jpg) And I continue to scramble on this turn. .jpg) .jpg) Patala keeps mocking my countdown and I declare to the world that my lunge failed and that they can resume their regularly scheduled in fighting. I think they’ll buy it. .jpg) .jpg) My army on the underwater throne starts getting hit by Vengeance of the Dead casts and Forgiving Fathers are a lot less good at killing dead guys than Angakoks are. But on the plus side I do finally kill Pan’s sages and an Angakok freezes a Succubus from Mictlan. .jpg) Mictlan also kills my treelord without much effort. I only belatedly realized that they’d need gems to do anything more than be annoying and had a scout move there this turn with gems. Just a bit late.  On the throne province, the guards hold up pretty well and my Angakok gets 2 full casts of Wind of Death off before a beast bat bites him and he disappears to my cap. .jpg) Pretty acceptable casualty ratio, I’d say. .jpg) I also have a second idea to deal with Mictlan’s stack. Murdering Winter is great at killing people sized units with no cold resistance, which is conveniently what Mictlan has lots of. It’s expensive at 40 water gems a pop, but should be worth the price. .jpg) Sadly for me, Utgard does not take the throne, but instead moves north. That one Norna casualty is from the heat aura of a Devil. Really proves to me that half the time auras will screw you over instead of help. .jpg) And Utgard launches another Wild Hunt attack on me. Thankfully my Angakok’s guards stick with him and they fight off the pretty weak attack.  With Utgard on the move, I consolidate guys and try to figure out my options. I think the key for any fight would be to get them inside my dominion to kill their leaders’ morale. Because the vast majority of their units are cold resistant, my basic strategy of freeze things and stab the icicles probably wouldn’t work too well.  Over in Erytheia, I keep moving toward Gath’s throne. I couldn’t sail down because I’d abandon the Forgiving Fathers, who I think would be very important to any future fights.  I also start moving basically everything I have in the area towards the throne in the Forest of Springs.  Because I see an army of Gath’s on the border. Se’irs and Gibbors are both great counters to my strategy of “be really tough to kill and then slowly stab the enemy once they pass out from exhaustion” and Gath’s player has been really good about bringing any and all supplementary magic that they can to a fight. I know that this is relatively small for now, since there are more Sages than Se’irs, but I still want to be really careful and not lose my throne if I can defend it.
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Apr 17, 2020 05:12
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Atlantis turns 69-75 Apologies for the smaller images, I forgot to change my upload dimensions. Turn 69 .jpg) Let’s continue scrambling. .jpg) TC hits me with yet another cast of Vengeance of the Dead. Since it kills an Angakok, I decide that I really need to do something about it.  So I decide to stack magical domes. Typically, they’re a bit of a double-edged sword, since they’re decently expensive and block your spells too. But I have a lot of gems to work with, vulnerable guys, and a specific area I need to defend, so I put enough gems in to make them last until a few turns after the Cataclysm. One dome has a 50% chance to block a spell, and the other has a 30% chance to block it and then blast the caster with cold damage. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Mictlan and I harass each other. I steal some provinces from PD with werewolves, they steal one of my Forgiving Fathers. .jpg) Sticking around that area, I see what is one of the most disappointing casts of Murdering Winter I’ve ever seen. 13 units was not worth 40 water gems at all.  So I do some masterful diplomacy, banking on Purple’s desire to betray everyone one more time. They refuse my generous initial bribe, but we work things out so that they’ll take a few of Pan’s former provinces before attacking TC. I don’t care about the provinces and really don’t need them, so I jump at it. My main goal is to just get Purple off of my fort so that I can resupply and bring in a few reinforcement mages in case Utgard manages to make it up here. .jpg) Speaking of Utgard, their army continues north from TC’s throne. .jpg) And they also give me a personal affront by invading a lake. That’s my space!!! .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) I also get hit a million times by the Wild Hunt. The Angakok is an annoying loss, but the rest aren’t that big of a deal. .jpg) Over in Erytheia, I keep moving down the lake. Seeing that I’ve moved off of the throne and have no interest in fighting them otherwise, I reach out to see if they’ll go back to being friendly. To my massive surprise, they actually agree to it as long as I return all of the territory I’ve taken. I’m totally fine with that, on the condition that I can move my army south out of the lake, and they’re good with that. .jpg) And the in final battle of the turn, I take Pangaea’s last fortress and province. .jpg) They leave us with a haunting message, but my frozen fishy heart is unmoved.   Over in Gath, I see them gathering a very large army and continue scrambling to get defenders to my throne. I almost certainly won’t be able to beat that army in a straight up fight, especially with the Gibbors, so I plan on sending as many remote attack spells at them as possible to wear them down or just annoy them. .jpg) And then, thanks to Arcvasti, I have an idea about an incredibly stupid boondoggle I can do as a backup plan, involving the Forgiving Father I previously empowered in fire. Turn 70 .jpg) My research is almost capped out, with the only things left being blood and about 200 rp in Conjuration. .jpg) But to continue the plan from last turn, I empower that Forgiving Father, now renamed to his new purpose, once again in fire. .jpg) And this is to let him make this artifact with the boosters I have. See, one of the problems with the Monolith pretender chassis is that it only has 1 slot to hold a booster, so it’s hard to make it a much better caster than it starts off as. And this artifact specifically fits that slot and boosts astral by 2 levels instead of 1. Then, if I can empower my pretender once in Astral magic, I can have them cast Wish. But I wouldn’t be wishing for Armageddon or anything like that. No, my backup plan is to wish for a Doom Horror because Doom Horrors are A) hard to kill and B) eat thrones if they sit on them. So if everything goes absolutely terribly, my god is going to move into the lake and pray for one of these guys to show up and not just decide to eat them. Then send the horror at Gath’s underwater throne and hope that it sticks around long enough to eat it. .jpg) .jpg) Over by TC, my domes already start proving their worth by blocking 2 of the 3 spells that TC sends at me, while the 3rd is resisted. .jpg) And I hit Gath’s big stack of Gibbors with a cast of Leprosy, diseasing about half of them thanks to a ton of penetration boosting gear on my Lich caster. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Over by Utgard, I take a few of their provinces and they continue marching towards Pan’s former throne.   However, thanks to hunger and my Dark Skies, his units have pretty terrible morale. The giants will just berserk if they’re hit, but the leaders could still be scared off. But I’d rather not fight them at all if possible.  Over in the east, Gath is still gathering their units. However, I notice that my cold is almost spreading into The Hole, which would let their giants cross the river and attack at the same time as the Se’ir. I don’t want that, so in addition to the remote attacks, I use a Silver Adept to cast the heating counterpart to Breath of the Desert, the hat counterpart to Wolven Winter, on the caves to keep them warm. .jpg) .jpg) I also have an Angakok set up to move into Tirannea and patrol. My original plan was to get a cast of Bone Grinding off, hoping that it would trigger massive routs among Gath’s mages while my random guard troops stayed alive long enough for them to run away. But it turns out that you can’t boost your level by more than 1 with just gems, so it won’t work exactly as planned. I keep moving things near my throne and finally have my big army surface to either defend my throne or draw Gath’s army away as I threaten theirs.  Speaking of threatening thrones, TC has a solidly large army of horsemen massing near 2 of my thrones (one of which is hidden behind the options in the top right) and I need to figure out what to do with it. I start retreating everything in the area that’s not already on a throne towards one as I also attempt to ping the advancing army.  And I also make another half-assed grab at the throne in Lithia. I’m only sending 2 worm mages to take it, so it’s no loss if they die. And if they do hold it, I’ll have the guys in the lake to siege it and maybe draw some attention off of my other thrones.  In a move that definitely wouldn’t be possibly stabbing Erytheia in the back, I put a bunch more guys lead by a few Angakoks in Valrest, which is still just a sail away from Erytheia’s throne.  And I really, really, really hope that they decide to move this army between turns. Turn 71 .jpg) Between turns I traded a few blood slaves and nature gems to Mictlan to replenish my stock of water gems. I also got in touch with Jomon and sold them the furthest east province in my lake for 25 air and fire gems, and another 5 and 4 gems respectively a turn. They wanted to get underwater and had been having a lot of trouble with Erytheia, I needed more gems waaaaay more than I cared about an unforted province. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) My domes keep proving their worth as they block attacks from TC. I talked with them later, and despite this continuing for the rest of the game I don’t think I killed a single one of their mages. But they’re still keeping my mages alive so I’m happy. .jpg) I also took Lithia without a fight. They didn’t bother investing any PD in it, which is fine since only the fort itself mattered anyway. .jpg) One of my many werewolf armies (I think I had 5 or 6 of them roaming around now) runs into a stack of TC’s that moved next to my UW throne. The leaders all had water breathing items and the longdead horsemen are amphibious. .jpg) .jpg) So I decide to have some fun with my golem and kit it out to teleport in, cast 2 defensive buffs and then Solar Brilliance. It’s a battlefield enchantment that can blind all units and can really quickly destroy massive stacks of undead units.  Meanwhile over in the east, Gath advanced on my fort with just their army of Se’irim and were met by my kitted Angakok. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) They have lots of nasty mages with boosters. But just look at that morale! If I’d been able to cast Bone Grinding, so many of them would’ve just run screaming.  Instead, my mage just casts Wind of Death. But because he’s geared and has gems, it triggers Gath’s gem usage so I figure that I still came out ahead. .jpg) I only actually kill 2 of the Kohens, but taking gems away is fine. .jpg) Realizing that that was my only air mage in the area, I resupply that Angakok with gems and give it the newly reforged Flying Ship to hit the army at Tirrannea again and hopefully be even more annoying. .jpg) Back over in former Pan, Mictlan had accidentally left a Vampire Lord sieging the throne last turn. So this time I decided to break out in a bit of force, just to make sure that anything else that was left behind didn’t stick around. .jpg) And back to Utgard, I saw that they decided to take my fort instead of continuing their advance. Inspired by Ramc’s locking down a fort with spells, I cast a few remote attacks at it. If they win the fight, Utgard’s army will be stuck inside the fort for a turn at which point I can hit them with a few spells that are hard to target like Melancholia.  In the hopes of still getting an easy throne or protecting my other ones, I move more guys towards Lithia.  With Gath, I don’t know what their plan was, but I at least made it so that they’d need 2 turns to reinforce their army, and anything that delays them reaching my throne is a good thing.  And over in TC I just want to show how silly the number of werewolves I have out is. I don’t know why they’ve been able to survive and win so many fights vs. PD, but I count 5 different parties on this screen alone. Turn 72 .jpg) Lots of things still happening. My domes block 3 more spell attacks from TC and the 4th is resisted. .jpg) My golem also unsurprisingly annihilates the group of horsemen, though it does get blinded itself. Honestly, I didn’t think golems could even get blinded so I was quite surprised. .jpg) .jpg) I also get attacked by an army led by this thugged out Gift of Reasoned Celestial Soldier, which is neat. .jpg) Over near Lithia, I discover that Utgard did not put any province defense on my former fort at all! So my weak magic attacks just occupy the province and keep their army stuck in the fort. I strongly consider hitting them with a bunch of spells but decide that I can use the gems better elsewhere. .jpg) In Tirannea, my flying Angakok comes in, casts Wind of Death, burns Gath’s gems again, and catches a scout that was ferrying more in as well. .jpg) Right next door, Jomon finally gets their foothold underwater. A bit late to do much, but still nice for them to have.  And just to the north, I see that Erytheia has moved their big army south. After checking to make sure that they’d be attacking Gath’s throne and not me  I decide to make a go of it again. I felt a bit bad about it, but my buildup was pretty obvious and the game was in the balance. In addition to 2 Angakoks and a bunch of ice guard sailing over, I have a commander cast Call of the Wild on the province and have 2 Silver Adepts loaded up with gems teleport over. Hopefully they’ll sweep the PD aside so that I don’t have my full army comp revealed before the actual fight. .jpg) .jpg) And to make sure that I can actually storm it this time, I have my god and Oreigenes (who needed a massive range boost to hit the province) cast Crumble at it. The fort only has 500 wall strength, so it should just crack the fort instantly. .jpg) And if it fails, then 8 turns are probably just enough to set the Doom Horror plan in motion before everything falls apart. Turn 73 .jpg) I start this turn off by capping off my research. Hooray! .jpg) And a remote attack of mine against Gath succeeded! This was an attempt to trap Gath’s army of Gibbors in their fort, just like Utgard. However, I’m a moron and forgot that the army from this fight does not stick around afterwards so the Gibbors just walk out like normal. .jpg) I also pinged them with 2 Angakoks this time, though I didn’t have a good reason to send the 2nd one along since it wasn’t geared at all. No kills this time, but I do still use all of their gems.   I also see Erytheia attack Gath’s throne province. Things start off a bit unbalanced.  And then proceed to get even more so as Erytheia’s apparently unscripted communions goes through gems like candy. .jpg) .jpg) They do win, but a bunch of their mages are now undead Soulless instead of living beings.  And for the most important part of the turn, the battles at Doven. First off, there are quite a few guys worth of PD and they slaughter the wolves I sent in. Thankfully, the air elementals are able to rout them quickly.   Because both of my mages failed morale and would’ve routed off the field if it weren’t for the fatigue from summoning. .jpg) And then, because I luckily won the magic phase attack, my reinforcing army is able to block Erytheia’s attempt to reinforce the throne. The 6 remaining Daduchoi retreated into the fort, but I feel like I have a real chance at this. .jpg) .jpg) To help out, I have my god, kitted out to cast a Master Enslave, and an Angakok with a billion water gems teleport over. They’ll serve to defend the group that’s storming this turn, and the Angakok could follow up as needed if I fail.  I also send even more reinforcements to Valrest to attack it next turn and cast a bunch of Tupilaks at the province for good measure.  I send one more Wind of Death Angakok at Gath’s big army in Tirrannea, mostly keep pressure up more than anything, and keep shuffling guys around to have them ready to reach the throne without being in interception range of Gath’s army.  And in the west I send a bunch more reinforcements to Lithia, including a good amount of Forgiving Fathers with gems. I’ll at least be more prepared if TC decides to gateway their god in again. .jpg) .jpg) I also get hit with an inconvenient, but expected, attack from Herne, who kills my Angakok flying around with the Flying Ship. I’d used it to get a lot more guys inside my throne fort, but wasn’t lucky enough to avoid the angry hillbilly. Turn 74 .jpg) .jpg) A lot is going on this turn, especially magic. .jpg) .jpg) To start, I see that Gath’s big army retreated, leaving just a few devils behind. They still manage to drive off my Angakok and capture my fortress though. .jpg) Utgard’s army turns around and makes for Lithia. .jpg) .jpg) And Erytheia attacks me with a wonderfully thugged out Lumber Construct of all things. It’s even carrying 2 artifacts, including the sword that Erytheia beat me to forging. .jpg) .jpg) I also see Erytheia storm and take Gath’s throne. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) But to start the meat of the turn, my Tupilaks take a decent chunk out of Erytheia’s throne defending mages. .jpg) .jpg) Though they fire back with magic of their own. I got pretty lucky with the order of spells here, since the disease demon could’ve feasibly killed an important commander. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) I also have other magic attacks attempt to block any possible avenues for Erytheia to get more reinforcements to the throne.   For the battle itself, neither side is huge. There are a few summons, but it’s mostly just basic troops on either side, with mage support.  I take some casualties from the Fire Drakes but overall cut through them without too much trouble. .jpg) But then the waves of Erytheian elementals hit and they quickly rout my guys. .jpg)  But thankfully, I managed to do enough damage to force a morale check, and thanks to Wailing Winds, all of Erytheia’s commanders broke, causing a mass rout. But many of them are still passed out.  .jpg) Over on the left, you can see a steady stream of my guys flooding out of the fort. Even my mages have broken. But there’s one thing that I totally planned. See, it turns out that Winter Wolfs, which I only summoned on a whim because it’d be a fight in the cold, have a very strong Cold Aura. Enough for 5 of them to slightly overcome the cold resistance on both of the Angakoks and make it so that they basically couldn’t recover fatigue.  .jpg) So eventually Erytheia’s mages wake up and run, while my guys sit there, dead to the world, and I win the battle due to what would otherwise have been massive incompetence.  And that’s that. I have the throne I need to win and my god is sitting on it, ready for the claim. Turn 75 .jpg) .jpg) Victory! Still a lot going on, but the only interesting thing for me was my final showdown with Utagrd outside of Lithia.  Their quite large army  Vs. my not quite so large shamecube.  Things don’t necessarily look too good as the giants close in.  But I had Time Stop in my back pocket! Now I should be able to use my communion to get off at least 1 or 2 strong astral spells and maybe turn the tide of the fight.  But no. The mage decides to ignore my script and instead just cast bladewind a bunch at the nearby Frost Fiends. He does kill quite a few of them.  But it’s not enough to stop the giants’ advance and my army falls apart. .jpg) .jpg) For the difference in numbers, I’m pretty happy with the final fight. And it really just serves to show how absurd Atlantis’s troops are in the cold that they could stand up to that many giants at all. .jpg) But with the end of the turn, I have all of the thrones I need and victory is achieved! (A little bummed that I didn’t actually get to use my crazy Doom Horror plan though).
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Apr 21, 2020 16:06
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