Part 25: You Can't Always Get What You Want (But Sometimes You Can)

Time to go exploring!

You Can't Always Get What You Want (But Sometimes You Can)



Saharia has lots of little treasure-filled areas that can only be reached by travelling through the desert. If we had to use Time Stop to get to them all, we'd need to prepare a lot of spells. Fortunately, that's what flying is for.



Demons! We're in luck. If it had been a non-flying unit, we'd have had to leave them behind.



Demons fly, have a skill level equalled only by Dragons, and do decent amounts of damage. I'll show you what else they can do when we take on Magus Deathspell.



"Ooh, a cave! I hope it's full of dragons!"



Sadly, this one is just a tunnel.



20,000 gold worth of spells is a good haul. It's a pity we're never actually losing enough troops to justify resurrecting them.



Now this is the kind of treasure I like to see. Ignatia isn't really using anywhere near her full spell capacity right now, but pretty soon she's going to want to fill up completely on Clone spells and go nuts.



You cannot fly; we do not want you. Fuck off and begone.



First castle of the continent! I bet that signpost is going to say something mocking.



We shall see about that, signpost. We shall see. _{Ignatia, when we have found the Sceptre, have every signpost in the kingdom burned. They must pay for their insolence.}

"Normally I'd be all for burning things, but you're starting to scare even me."



"The black wind begins to blow..."

"Wrong Magus, dipnuts. Oh, and just so you know, I'm coming back for you once I have a contract."



Believe it or not, this still isn't the best treasure we're going to find.



This is the only place in the game that you can only reach by flying. In theory, if there were non-flying recruitable troops in this treasure spot and you recruited them and were stupid enough to dismiss all your flying units while you had no Town Gate or Castle Gate spells left, you'd be permanently stuck here. So don't do that.



Oh boy, a sign. What wondrous words of wisdom will this one have to impart?



I direct you once again, signpost, to the Time Stop counter at the bottom of the screen.



Another 8 demons. As long as you can fly, Saharia is a great continent.



"Ooh, a necklace!"

(The sign says "Treasure Trough".)



"... I think you're going to want to check my stats."



"Now I am become fiery death, the destroyer of worlds."

The Amulet of Augmentation is an instant 5-point boost to Spell Power. For the other classes, it means their magic is finally good for something besides teleporting yourself and your enemies around the map. For Ignatia, it means 33% more destructive power in every spell.



"Oh, that's right, we were supposed to be exploring the continent, weren't we? I got sidetracked by all the fiery death there for a minute."




As you can see, we've got a long way to go before we've picked up every treasure on Saharia.



What have you in store for us next, King's Bounty? One treasure guarded by half a dozen monsters? Bring it on!



Okay, this is actually a decent amount of treasure.



... wow, if this cave has Dragons, it's going to be the best treasure haul ever.





Scratch that, it already is the best treasure haul ever. Spell Power boosts are the best random treasure in the game, and they're found almost exclusively on Saharia. Unfortunately, I only found one on the whole damn continent this time around. King's Bounty!



And the cave is in fact full of Dragons, to boot. I fully intend to have Ignatia abuse Raise Control to recruit every one of those before taking on the next villain.



Castle #2, and another sign to go with it.



Damn it, signpost, if you're going to be useless then at least be interesting about it!



"Tremble in fear, mortal! It is I, Urthrax Killspite, lord of all demons!"

"Oh, hey there, Mr. Demon King."

"I sense a distinct lack of fearful trembling."

"I'll be coming by later to ruin your shit. I've still got a continent to explore. See you!"

"Hey, come back here! I wasn't finished taunting you!"



More flying monsters who are just itchin' to join us! Hooray!



Vampires have 30 HP each, so-so damage, and a very useful ability: for every point of damage they do, they're healed by 1 HP. This healing can revive dead Vampires, but unlike Ghosts, their numbers can never increase above what they started the battle with. They also don't turn into Peasants at the worst possible moments. Overall, they're a solid unit, apart from being undead.



Holy crap in a sidecar, the awesome flying units just keep coming.



"I shall call you Mini-Me."

Even at low morale, having a flying unit that can shoot fireballs twice per battle is just peachy keen. It's kind of a pity that once they're out of fireballs they can't really do much, though.



Given how many Clone spells Ignatia's going to end up buying, this is as good as finding 6000 gold. Since gold caches only go up to 5000 even on Saharia, that's very good indeed.



A dungeon! This one was full of Vampires, but I didn't buy any because they cost 1500 gold each and it's much cheaper to clone them.



A wagon (full of either Barbarians or Archmages) and a sword! On Saharia, the treasure never stops!



Sure enough, they're Archmages. Cloning is still more efficient than recruiting, though, so we're passing them by. Time to go fetch that sword!



The Sword of Prowess increases all damage inflicted by your army. It beats a discount on boat rental, that's for sure.



This had better not be another tunnel.



I approve of this development. I've seen three dragon lairs in a single game before, but I'll be happy enough with two.



If that last dungeon was full of Vampires, then I bet this one has...



... Demons! Again, though, it's cheaper just to clone them, so this would only be useful if we hadn't already found those groups of demons who wanted to join us.



And here's the last castle on the continent, which must contain Arech Dragonbreath. Unfortunately, the game doesn't let you land directly in front of a castle, so we'll have to burn a few Time Stop spells to get here.



There's also this treasure (and undoubtedly insulting signpost) in the middle of the desert, some distance to the east of the castle. We'll grab this as well.



This is true, but it won't be for much longer.



Not the best treasure on the continent by any means, but it more than covers the Time Stop we used to get here. Now, on to the castle!



"What is that buzzing noise I hear? Could it be that that withered old fool Maximus has sent some pests to annoy me? Go away before I decide you are worthy of my attention."

"You're in for it now. Just you wait until I get a contract for you. Don't think you'll escape my wrath just because you're not flammable!"



It would be appropriate if the cave just outside Arech's castle contained Dragons, but sadly, it was not to be.



Oh, and another mocking signpost. If we tried to attack him with our current army, or even with the huge army we've got garrisoned back on Archipelia, this would be true. Which is why we're not going to do that.



We've now collected every treasure and located every town, castle and monster lair on the continent. (There's nothing but desert in the unexplored parts.) Time to end the update with today's stat check and vote!



After doing a little cloning, we're going to use these troops to beat at least one villain.



Ideally, I'd have liked that spell power to be a few points higher, but these stats are quite satisfactory.



Only three villains to go. Their map pieces won't tell us much more about the location of the Sceptre, but it's sure going to be satisfying to kick their asses.

So, loyal retainers, the choice falls to you once more. Who do we capture first: Magus Deathspell, or Urthrax Killspite?

"Choose whichever you want, humans. It will make no difference. I am sure that either of my underlings will be more than capable of destroying your pitiful army."