The Age of Decadence Part #11 - You asked for this

Part 11: You asked for this

Part XI: You asked for this

Meet Gaius Brutus, our PC for the mercenary playthrough. He'll show us why a campaign relying solely on combat is an incredible pain in the ass.

The prologue has us assigned as Gracius's guard. Our gear is fine for now, but that'll change soon.

: On my way.

Well, that could've been worse.

Crap. Who will pay us now? At least we can exact bloody revenge.

The assassin isn't hard to kill.

Poor Gracius. Might as well take his stuff, since he doesn't need it.

Notice we didn't pick up the metal sphere? Our PER is too low to spot it.

I'm sure it'll go smoothly. There have never been any complications in this game so far.

: Alright, let's go.

WHO COULD'VE PREDICTED

But seriously, how does Cado stay in business when he's backstabbing everyone?

Alright, time to chop these thugs down.

Again, not a hard fight. Vardanis is there, but don't expect him to contribute -- he does little damage and is certain to die after a few turns. Theoretically you can save him, but I've never done it.

RIP Vardanis.

A sound observation, game.

If you go see Cado, he extorts you on threat of death. Are you surprised?

Back to the inn.

Oh yeah, the money is gone too. Honest!

Off to Feng's.

Sounds good!

Fun fact: My first playthrough was as a mercenary and I totally bought Feng's horse shit. It wasn't until much later I discovered I'd been cheated.

I'll admit, Feng's a damn good actor.

Cassius dies, etc.

Feng sells us a fake ring as a reward. Thanks, Feng!

Time to join the Imperial Guards.

: Why do we have to act like raiders attacking our own people?

Good thing we have no morals!

: Yes.

So. This fight.

It's against two guards in light metal armor armed with axes (one-handed and two-handed), two guards in heavy armor with shields (one has a spear, the other has a sword), and a merchant constantly sniping you with a crossbow.

I hate this fight. Part of the problem is that I don't have enough levels in combat skills to tackle any big fights at this point, my equipment is dog shit, and the guards in heavy armor nullify most of my damage.

Fucking look at this. 7 points of damage and none of it affects his HP. At least his armor gets dented.

Whoops, looks like my AI partners are dead and I'm down to 7 HP.

That's another thing: the AI doesn't seem to have any tactics beyond "attack nearest target." Sure, they're not brain dead (they'll vary strikes, characters with ranged weapons try to stay at range), but it's not like they'll try flanking maneuvers.

I saw this screen four more times after this.

Death Count: 15

After the fifth death, I reloaded an earlier save and spent almost all of my money buying heavier armor and a bigger shield. I also forged an iron axe.

For fun, I decided to walk around town with nothing on.