Part 20: It Ain't Easy Being Green

SynthesisAlpha posted:

But as for Ignatia, let's get an army of say, Sprites, Dragons, Archmages, Demons, and Vampires.

No reason.

Really. None at all.

 Sprites can't actually fly on the overworld map. I'll get the other fliers as soon as I find any, because I sure wouldn't want to explore Saharia without them. 

Anyway, it seems like most people want us to continue as we have been, laying waste to all and sundry. That's fine by me.

It Ain't Easy Being Green



Remember when I goofed and summoned more elves than Ignatia could control, which we then had to garrison so they wouldn't mutiny on us? We may as well go back and get them now. Finally, a use for the Castle Gate spell!



While it costs a week's salary to garrison a unit, it doesn't cost anything to get them back. We just got 62 elves for the price of a Castle Gate.



There is still the small matter of cloning up those Giants. No matter how powerful they are, five of them won't do much on their own.



See why we bought 30 Clone spells now? Clone's effectiveness is inversely proportional to a unit's HP, and Giants have lots of HP.



"Some people look at wandering monsters and see danger. I see opportunity. Opportunity to build an army of giant cloned super-soldiers."



"So you're the hero everyone's been talkin' about. Show me what you've got."

"Brief, to the point, and with a healthy respect for violence. I like your style."



"I'm still going to kick your ass, though."

Villains on Archipelia start to require some serious preparation and strategy to avoid heavy losses. Apart from having almost as many Giants as we do, Mahk is the first villain to have Dragons in his army. Dragons have the highest skill level of any unit in the game (equal only to Demons), the highest damage rating by far, and 200 HP each. They have one more unique quality--

"Sounds dangerous. Better break out my trusty Fireball, then!"

Not so fast. As I was saying, Dragons are completely immune to all magic, including the ranged attacks of Druids and Archmages.

"Awww."

That magic immunity also includes Clone and Resurrect, which will be a disadvantage once Ignatia gets dragons of her own.

"This is just getting depressing. Time to take out my disappointment on those orcs!"







Our Archers put in a decent showing, but we won't need them for much longer.




Our Elves are now hitting harder than Ignatia's Fireball against some enemies, and the Druids can hit even harder than the Elves.



That doesn't mean Ignatia's magic isn't still useful, though! Other characters can't just clone up a whole army like the Sorceress can -- at least, not anywhere near as efficiently. But when fighting villains on the last two continents, spells like Teleport, Freeze and Resurrect become more important than direct damage as enemy armies get bigger and Dragons become more common.





Even with only 6 shots at half the strength of their melee attack, Giants pack a hell of a punch.



"They sure do. Eat boulders!"

"Eight kills? Is that the best you can do?"

"Not even close. Eat archers!"

"But you don't have any archers!"



"I wasn't talking to you."




Round 2 begins. That spell was to get his Gnomes out of the way of our missile units.



Yeah, these dragons are going to be a tough nut to crack. Their retaliation killed 3 knights.



Our missile units spend the round firing on Mahk's giants, taking out half of them. Meanwhile, our Knights finally manage to beat a dragon to death.






"If I hadn't created most of this army with the power of my own mind, they'd be making me feel a little inadequate right now."



Dragon kill #2! Our giants did less damage than our elves to those gnomes before, but against high-skill units like Dragons, Giants are much better.

Over the next couple of rounds, the rest of the dragons go down. And the final kill goes to...



... what the hell? 54 archers managed to shoot down a dragon? Everyone else had softened it up first, but still, this is uncharacteristically useful of them.

"Well, the fight's over. Useful or not, I guess we have to garrison somebody..."

"Hey! I've still got 36 ogres here!"



"Not for long."



Ah, that's more like it. Now I don't have to feel any remorse about garrisoning those archers.



We've beaten Mahk, and earned enough money for 47 Clone spells.

"Or 62 Fireballs!"

"What a revoltin' development."

"Ah, I see you've joined us. I don't suppose you brought a fully-crewed ship with you? Aimola, Moradon and Bargash are all quite insistent that I break them out again."

"Why are you talking like that?"

"Uh, I mean, arrr, matey, we've been scuppered."



Why would I garrison two units, when I only need to garrison one?





All four of these units are in morale group C, which means they get along like a house on fire. We will see the effects of this next time we fight a villain. Barbarians aren't as strong as Knights, but with high morale they won't be that much worse. I could go get some Dwarves to fill up that last army slot, but I'd rather leave it free in case anything tries to join.



Ignatia's stats haven't changed much since last time: the gold from capturing Mahk just about covered the cost of all the spells and troops we bought.



Mahk's map piece revealed a square of grass to the east of the Sceptre. If you don't know where it is already, this piece probably didn't help much.

Where to next, loyal retainers? Should Ignatia capture Czar Nickolai now and earn her final promotion? Or perhaps you'd like to see her explore some more first?

"I'll probably capture someone next time whether you vote for Nickolai or not. I want that promotion!"