Part 15

Update 15

Last time I found the entrance to the barbarians home territory and Kilburn was about to talk to the welcoming committee. Meanwhile Troyan was building a secondary army and Antoine was almost eaten by a demon. Teamwork!

Day 24:

The welcoming committee storms away from Kilburn. Their armies are fairly even in strength and one has another stack of zounds of goblins. Let’s see if I can attack both this turn.


Didn’t I beat him earlier? It’s times like there I miss my archers.


The cavalry start us off good. They do a demonic 666 in damage and wipe out the wolves.


On the second turn we close in.


The cavalry open on the ogres, their retaliation kills one. I doubted whether they should attack the goblins or the ogres. Ultimately I chose the ogres since the cavalry were the only ones who could reach them this turn. In addition, the ogres would’ve done a full power hit on them on their turn.


The paladins tangle with the Cyclops, fortunately they aren’t paralyzed by the counter attack.


As expected the goblins attacked the cavalry and are almost killed on the retaliation.


I wish these guys did more damage.


The rogues finally help.


The paladins kill the Cyclops and I hope that everyone else can finish off the Ogres. Considering the excellent damage from the swordsmen, the answer would be…


Yes.


Victory is mine.


It clashes with his threads, but we’ll take it! It’s a +1 to attack. Kilburn also learned how to attack better by watching the barbarians. Level up and attack +1. He’s becoming quite formidable. With 5 attack, 8 defense, 4 spell power and 1 knowledge. He’s just a big dumb brute.


And the other guy is just in range, how convenient.


So his army isn’t quite as strong as I thought, but this guy has spell power. I can smell artifacts!


His lightning bolt seriously hurt my paladins and I discover my cavalry are blocked by bushes.


The rogues are the first of my team to attack for a change.


He cast slow on my cavalry so I dispel it. With his spell power it would've slowed them down far too long for my liking.


Have you ever noticed that the wolves wear a band around their ankle?


The Cyclops neuters my rogues. But I notice that the enemy hasn’t fled yet. I need to kill their trolls. If I can do that with my swordsmen, the pikemen and the cavalry have a small chance of killing the Cyclops before it can move.


I kill the trolls.


The pikemen love seeing a plan come together.


And the cavalry is always on time.


Victory!


Prizes and a level up with a defense +1. That necklace gives him a +4 to his spell power. I wish he could cast spells more than once. My army has been thinned pretty heavily. Time to regroup and attack.

Troyan starts moving up so she can help guard the pass while Kilburn is resupplied. I want to believe I’m stronger than them now.

Day 25:
Everyone runs around and the enemy stays where they are.

Day 26:

Time to resupply.

Day 27:

This is much better.


I can see a romance subplot from a mile away. Kilburn presents his necklace to Troyan in the desert surrounded by the zounds of corpses. Romance isn't dead. Her army isn’t as strong as Kilburn, but her spell casting is much better, so she needs this necklace to make up for having a weaker army.


Meanwhile I build a pyramid just in time for a new week.

Day 28:

Crodo visits the shrine to verify my strength…


Crodo buys some units for Troyan to use and heads back. Everyone else heads to the other castles.

Day 29:

Lots of snow here.


A junction.


Really? That’s the name you want to go with?


I purchase another thieves guild and have another look. That’s not so bad. Time to get my first enemy castle.


Crodo gave the units for Troyan to Yog since he can run faster in the desert.

Day 30:

So close, but the wall isn’t knocked down. The AI saw me coming and bought some trolls for defense.

We can easily beat them…if we can knock the walls down.


You know the story.


The trolls use a strange hadoken-like throw to kill my few archers.


The shield is down start your attack!


Unfortunately it’s a one man hole and the only man near it are the swordsmen. On the other hand, they just one hit killed the Cyclops.


The 15 ogres attack and kill one. The swordsmen retaliation is a lot more.


Finally another hole in the wall and the paladins get to work. They kill the trolls in a single turn.


These guys are eager. They deal 636 in damage overkilling the ogres to a large degree.


And with that we take control of Baywatch and Kilburn levels up again. Defense +1.


A fresh batch of spells for the dumb knight and off he goes to kill some more.


The shape of the explored map reminds me of something. Anyway, I wanted to cast view mines, but I discovered that I apparently have view towns. You can see we are now slowly penetrating the enemy territory, my next goal will be to go deeper and take the top castle. After that we'll speed up and go even further into enemy territory.

Kilburn stays in the castle for now. Troyan is on her way to reinforce the position so he can leave the castle without worries of it being taken back.

Day 31:

Even if orcs are bad, that's still a lot.


I added some orcs as a lightning rod for this battle. I hesitate between casting caste on the swordsmen or casting lightning bolt on the orcs.


I ultimately choose lightning bolt, 10 down 100 to go.


Using two large unit opposite each other is fun, my cavalry attack. The enemy blinds them, followed by a counter attacks and their dogs die to my cavalry.


Who needs haste.


Abracableed!


I’m happy to report operation lightning rod was a success, the expendable orcs are dead and my normal army is across.


We don’t attack the orcs, but we do block them. At the cost of two cavalry, because the AI just lightning bolted them. We should be able to wipe the orcs out this turn and claim the enemies artifacts. Considering this hero has 8 attack the odds are that he has at least one. A quick bless on the cavalry and go!


The first attack almost kills halve of them. They like this feeling and want to try again.


The paladins finish the job. You know, if there is one thing that these skirmishes show is that the speed advantage of the high level knight units really works to their advantage. Having your two strongest units always go first is good.


The balance of power slowly shifts towards me.


Yes, you deserve a medal for this. That’s a +1 to morale.


That pretty sword is a +3 to attack.


“You know what? I’ve learned something today.”

And with that Kilburn goes back into the castle, waiting for Troyan.

Day 32:

Kilburn scouts a little, but nothing else happens. Back home new reinforcements are sent to Kilburn.

Antoine is on the job! Try not to get eaten please.

Day 33:

Yog actually passed Troyan and delivers some much needed cannon fodder archers.


Time to tip the scales.

Day 34:

That’s weird, I thought populations only doubled during "weeks of", but this is just a +5.

Goons to the rescue!

I couldn't find it in the manual, but looking it up on the internet this is indeed what happens. I can't believe I never noticed that.


Look a new castle, lightly defended and at the start of a new week.


And the walls are down in the first turn.


They do have 42 wolves.


Kilburn wants a new fur coat for his bling.


The ogres die second.


And the archers kill the trolls in a single shot. Attack +1.


We buy some quick defenses and off we go. I don't expect them to actually defend, but it will prevent the AI from hiring new units if they take it back.


Crodo is still around and helps by picking our next target. I'm going left, despite currently moving to the right.

Day 35:

Troyan finally arrives.


Antoine is almost there with Kilburns reinforcements.


I suppose all those huts explain the massive amount of goblins the enemy had. Yog meanwhile moves to capture mines and guard our latest castle.


Our town is under attack!


This army has good morale.


They slowly kill off my defenses.


This hero has enough strength to withstand attacks from ogres with paper defense units.


We barely made a dent in his army.

Day 36:

Kilburn, would you kindly kill him?


Yes, he would.


I even cast spells.


The cavalry charge the orcs and I realize I may have been too keen.


This is confirmed when the enemy immediately retreats. Yog takes the castle and Kilburn heads further in land.


You can see another enemy near the edge.

Day 37:

I would say that the AI is out of good heroes as there is a weak knight before me.


The enemy comes to us.


Their goblins have a morale boost and cross the field in a single turn.


When the Pikeman looks into the mirror he sees the wolf. They are pretty much opposite. While the pikeman has mostly defense the wolf is all offense. These fast units attack twice per round like the crusaders, but please make sure the counter attack has already been used, because they take punches just as well as flying little girls. Because of that, they tend to die in droves.


I immediately notice the lack of offense and defense on Troyan in these battles.

The Barbarian level 4 unit. Ogres as mentioned earlier are big slabs of meat. While a bit low defensively they do have good HP (having 10HP more than the level5 cavalry) to make up for it. In addition they hit hard. Fortunately, they are ssslow. They make great garrison units and can protect archers forever.


Still an easy victory and a +1 to spell power.


Antoine joins in the festivities by scouting around a bit. He has a decent enough army in the reinforcements but he'll probably pass them on to Kilburn at some point.


And with Antoine arriving on the scene I stop this update. Next time I probably finish this map and prove that I am the strongest in this land…at the moment!