Part 5: The Rear Guard

Episode 5: The Rear Guard



We've destroyed all of the Inhibitors, and can now begin our invasion of Kairos proper. Before getting into the next mission, I just wanted to show the effect of our campaign on the strategic map. We've devastated the southern island, but there's still a lot of unspoiled land left for us to put to the torch.



It's time to kill two Dwarves with one stone. The miserable midgets of the Dwarven guard have bested Rhaskos and sent him back to his own realm… where a counter-assault to our own war has been launched.

They're sure to send hundreds of their own to crash against your dungeon walls… make bloody waves then follow Rhaskos to his own domain.

Rhaskos, another underlord, has failed miserably, and we have to come to his aid. Let's not waste any time!



Rhaskos has been forced back to his realm by the Dwarven allies of the Empire… fortunately for you his dungeon remains relatively intact.

By claiming his Dungeon Core you will be given control of all that he once owned. In the meantime I'll learn more of the situation within his own realm.



Taking over Rhaskos' old dungeon will save us a lot of time. It's just to the north of our Dungeon Core, so I have our diggers get on it right away.



While digging towards Rhaskos' Dungeon Core, I claim his old archive, and I discover that he had an infinite gold shrine. Don’t ask me how he let his dungeon get overrun by the dwarves when he had infinite gold for cannons and other defences.

These gold shrines are one of the few things I don't like about War for the Overworld. Some of the missions from Dungeon Keeper 2 gave you access to a gem vein for infinite gold, but it wasn't that common, especially in the earlier missions. This meant that digging through the map for gold was an important part of the game—and a fun part of the game, in my opinion! In these early missions of War for the Overworld, I literally never have to think about digging for gold, and I think that's to the game's detriment.



I seize Rhaskos' old base, which had this giant sanctuary room. We need it to perform a ritual to enter Rhaskos' home realm, where he is fighting the dwarven vanguard.

This eldritch ritual taps into the thread of power that remains within a vanquished Dungeon Core. This nebulous thread can be followed back to its source, allowing you to enter the realm of the Underlord who created it.



In addition to the sanctuary, Rhaskos' dungeon also had another new room type, the alchemy lab, which can be seen on the left, as well as a gateway and an archive.

Begin channelling the ritual now, so you may enter Rhaskos' realm and repel the Empire forces that assail him.



A Crackpot has entered your dungeon. Attracted by the reagents in your Alchemy Lab, these Gnarling-kin will spend most of their time concocting viscous brews… and tinkering about your cauldrons.

The alchemy lab attracts these mad scientist gnarlings. You can spend gold and have them work in the alchemy lab to produce consumable potions with various effects.

Although I like the design of the crackpots and the alchemy lab, I'm not really a huge fan from a gameplay perspective. There are some interesting potions that we can unlock later in the campaigns, but in general, you're probably better off spending your gold on traps and cannons.

Still, in this mission, we have infinite gold and get the alchemy lab for free, so I see no reason not to try it out! I queue up some potions and start the ritual to enter Rhaskos' realm.



An evil force rears up to strike at us! Ready yourselves, lads!

Once we start the ritual, the dwarves take notice and prepare to attack us. Similarly to the level where they introduced traps, we are supposed to hang back and defend against the dwarves' attacks while we channel the ritual. Once the ritual is finished, we win the level.

This time around, I won't be able to just charge at the dwarves and beat them all before they come to us, for a couple of reasons. For one, these dwarven attacks are trickier to deal with than the ones we faced earlier. But a more important reason is that sanctuary rooms attract cultists, and a ridiculously huge sanctuary will attract a ridiculously huge number of cultists. The majority of my monsters this level are going to be complete dead weight.



To make sure we at least get some usable monsters, I build a beast den and a large barracks. With some beasts and a good number of gnarlings, we at least won't be defenseless.



Shove you and your black magic, you bloated dingleberry!

Well, that's just rude.



The dwarves launch a small attack against the western part of our dungeon, but we easily repel them. I already have eight cultists



Since the attack went down without much trouble, I try to strike out against the nearest dwarven outpost.



The heroes are starting to step up their defences a little bit. The outpost is actually guarded and has a couple of traps placed.

That evil bugger is making headway out there! Ready up!



We are making steady progress, but the game is notifying me that the monsters are getting angry about pointless, trivial little things like not getting paid and not being able to rest. I reluctantly give the order to fall back for now before our next push.



Upon our return to the base, I notice that I kind of sort of maybe also forgot to make any food for the monsters, so I build a pigsty. Maybe this will satisfy at least some of all the monsters' unreasonable demands.



While we're recuperating, the dwarves launch another attack. This is a good chance to show off one of our new potions:



Flash Freeze. This potion instantly freezes all units in a pretty large area. It's pretty cool, but unfortunately it only lasts a few seconds, can only be used in your own territory, and it also freezes your own units. This reduces its utility from "near-mandatory" to "ehh".



The dwarves keep attacking more and more frequently, and they've now penetrated the sanctuary. This is unacceptable, because if they keep interrupting our cultists, we'll never finish the ritual to win the mission.



The dwarves attacked through the caves to the east. To prevent this from happening again, I dig out a larger space around that entrance to make room for defence cannons.



This should do the trick. To speed this up, I unlock a new very important spell in the Veins of Evil - "Forge". Each cannon is made from three "defence parts", which are built in the forge room one at a time. The Forge spell allows us to magically create defence parts for 250 mana each. Since mana regenerates very quickly, this is a fantastic way of getting your defences up in a hurry.

You can take your rituals, and your magic, and shove them up your incorporeal arse!

The dwarves are unimpressed.



The cannons work admirably, though, and the dwarven attacks from the east are halted.



But not for long! The dwarves respond by simply blowing a hole through the northern wall of our sanctuary!



The remedy is the same as last time. Add more cannons.



The ritual is complete, Underlord. Activate it now to join Rhaskos in his Home Realm.

Ah, right, there's a bit of blowback when this ritual activates.



Here it goes -

Rhaskos here we come!





Welcome to my home, Underlord.

Or what's left of it.



That should teach those ruddy stonemunchers a lesson they'll not soon forget. If you've still got a bit of bloodlust, send your unholy consciousness across the Aether and enter the realm of Rhaskos, for there are plenty of Empire dogs that still need to be put down.