[Spoilers] Defining the phrase "€˜Hung Like a Horse"€™: Pb & the Kuriotates

[Hesmyrr]

Don't worry, #1001 is number just as unique and awesome as #1000. It is palindrome! #1002, in other hand, what an terribly ordinary number. I hope nobody posts anymore so that we prevent such ignominious disaster.

[Ilios]

Huh?

[Irgy]

Edit: I was looking at 998 replies not 998 posts, I ninjaed the 1k

Well, we all knew post 1000 would be epic, and it didn't technically disappoint

[Rowain]

Edit: I was looking at 998 replies not 998 posts, I ninjaed the 1k

Well, we all knew post 1000 would be epic, and it didn't technically disappoint

Indeed that was a great 1000 post

[pocketbeetle]

Dang, looks like I missed my cue.
Oh well! =)

Turn 189:

Event on loading the save:



I’ve got plenty of happy in Kwythellar, and like hell am I going to let them destroy my mage guild! (I know I know.)
I told the cranky citizens that there’s a war going on, so unless they want to be conscripted, they should be quiet…fast.
Turnlog tells me what I want to know, the Illians are with me.

Interestingly, it looks like I didn’t even get that temporary unhappy penalty:



I definitely chose the second option, as shown by the 3bpt mage guild.
Bug I guess. *shrugs*

I’m not going to create a big screenshot listing locations and stack compositions, you know where the Calabim and my units are already.



Suffice it to say:

• Unexpected move.
  I outlined several tiles that I thought he might move to last turn. I -had- considered the one he chose, but only very briefly (fort blindness I think).
  In retrospect, it was probably the best one, so well done to Bob there.
  
• Mistake though.
  There are only 2 spectres with the vampire stack. The rest are arrayed 1W and 1NW, in an attempt to screen.
  I understand why he’s done this, but it was a bad move - we know that vampires like to hide behind spectres. If he’d kept them all bunched up, some of those vampires would have lived because there’s no way I could have chewed through the whole lot.
  
• Smoke on the jungle tiles 1NE and 1E.
  Means Bob used his ritualists to collateral down the last Goblin archer in that fort, probably killing it with a spectre.
  The smoke property gives -10% defense (taking those two jungle tiles down to 15% defense).
  
• Bad timing for me.
  I have two workers out of action from last turn’s “Bridge over the River Kwai: the Svartalfar edition” construction effort.
  I still lack a Life II mage too. I have an adept with sufficient experience, but he needs a turn to upgrade, which I clearly no longer have.
  
• Bunch of Illian units in Zaonce.
  Nice to have, plus he’s cast Wall of Stone and Inspiration (+2bpt ) in it too.
  

Let’s have one last look at how the two contenders compare:

…and then let’s go for it.

First off, I built two roads using the various workers stored around. One 1S of Zaonce, the other 3SE of Riedquat.



I then moved every single damn unit that could conceivably reach the fight to one of two tiles, and cast Haste on the lot.
Straight away though, before a single combat had even taken place, I’d already made a mistake.



Those CAs in Zaonce were meant to travel around to Riedquat, not join the mercenaries 1S of Zaonce. So long as I didn’t move them into Riedquat and travelled via the Sugar plantations, they would have had sufficient movement and not needed to battle across a river.
So despite what I said to Darkmantle, it would seem that quite a few units would be attacking at a -65% disadvantage after all.
Careless, but I guess that’s what happens when you play important turns late at night. :rolleyes:

I then took a short break to consider the mages at the Body node South of ATM.
If you remember, I’ve got enough arcane units to switch that node to anything I want - so are there any tier I spells that could help me in the fight coming up?
Went through the list, only two stuck out: Chaos I for Dance of Blades (+1 first strike) and Shadow I for Blur (immunity to first strikes).
Slight problem though, they require the Necromancy tech, the one prerequisite to Sorcery that I didn’t bother researching.
Nevermind! Back we go to the action.

You know who strode in first don’t you?
In went Hemah, the imprints of his boots on the path gathering frost, trees exploding in his wake.



At which point he broke his spellstaff and did it again.



The maximum damage caused with a single Snowfall spell was the full 80% to one particularly unlucky vampire, the lowest I noticed was 3% to a spectre.
Looking at the group of (18 ) vampires in the stack, they have an average 2.44 str, implying an average ~60% damage dealt by the dual Snowfall?

Next up were the adepts - the only offensive tier I spell I have is Entropy I: Rust.
I managed to cobble together four adepts, including Roland the Meek, and told them all to fire away.



The Rust spell is split into two parts: the chance to remove the metal weapons and the -10% str effect. Units have a chance to resist each separately, which leads to the turnlog showing a whole bunch of “spell resisted” messages.
Nevertheless, it's a decent spell and around 2/3 of the vampire stack took the full brunt of both effects (interestingly, spectres can also be affected by the -10% too).

Which just left the “Charge!” bit.
Hill Giants and priests go first!



Again this is the vampire Channelling promotions working against them.
Those royal guards were practically dead on their hooves - no way they should have been defending first.
Special note goes to the Stonewarden Rocky - he’s been stuck at 9/10xp for ages, so long that it was getting silly. Glad I could finally get a bit of experience on him.

Now it was time to kill some vampires, and it’s only fitting that a certain CA went first.
Heaven knows what promotion I’m going to pick for him next, now that he’s C5 with a promotion in hand (magic resistance?). Rawr.



And after those initial ~93% battles, I’m afraid it became a bit of a mop-up…
In went Nessus, then Jumbo attacked across the river at 99% odds.
Other CAs from Zaonce joined in, fording the river to fire a deadly stream of arrows.



It became a rout.

A lunatic went in and won.
I sent in the withdrawal CAs and won.
Soon even the adepts were getting in on the vampire-slaying action!



Until finally, it was over.
With an anguished scream the last vampire died, the torn and bloodied ground stopped heaving, everything was still.

There was only one major casualty of the battle:

Poor Pixiefoot.
I got careless. Despite her being both injured and nowhere near the next promotion level, I sent her into a fight with a named vampire and the vicious thing stabbed her in the back.
Don’t get me wrong: it was a 96%ish battle, but I still shouldn’t have done that. She was C4 with the Capture Animal promotion and would have made a great Beastmaster if I’d been patient.

At this point, one of the particularly foul-smelling mercenaries hired from Zaonce last turn stood up and bellowed: “Is that it?!?”.
Unfortunately some of the mercenaries were still unused and had been forced to sit out and watch the fight from across the river.
Bored, they encouraged their supervisor CA to leave the group and go exploring a nearby fire-damaged fort.



A savant.
150 turns ago that was a great outcome, but now, it’s rather meh.

Still bored, and realising that the vampiric spectres were in a state of injured confusion, the mercenaries set upon them to “farm up some ex-pees” as one groupleader said to me.



Buffy and Hemah joined in, a lot of spectres died (meaning their wailing got quieter).



Moving the Zaonce CAs across the river and the remaining units down, the final picture ended up like this:



I’m afraid the Calabim may be in a spot of bother.

Ending turn completed two final adepts (Selrahc will probably take back his mana next turn), ATM’s borders expanded, and Caledor sunk a bunch of hammers into the CoA.



For some reason the AC seems to have gone down.
Not entirely sure why, but it doesn’t matter.


Demographics:

I like being the #1 soldier count again.

Oh, and we need a musical theme for this post.
I had a choice of two good songs, but taking into consideration all the staked vampires, I figured Kansas - Dust in the Wind was most appropriate.

[Square Leg]

Well done - you really are hung like a.... ahem

Turn 189:A savant.
150 turns ago that was a great outcome, but now, it’s rather meh.

Medic 1 for quicker healing?

Oh, and we need a musical theme for this post.
I had a choice of two good songs, but taking into consideration all the staked vampires, I figured Kansas - Dust in the Wind was most appropriate.

Good choice! Your my boy Blue.

[Krill]

I'm getting the feeling someone should post this in Bobs' thread...

Pb, I'm looking forward to the climax of the game now

[darrelljs]

Pb, I'm looking forward to the climax of the game now

Pretty sure that already happened. The rest of the game is figuring out how much pillow talk is necessary before you can leave.

Darrell

[Krill]

I thought that the taking/razing of the cities was the climax?

[darrelljs]

No, that's the cigarette.

Darrell