Black Charadon brings Heaven to heel

[Qgqqqqq]

Rosier doing anything?

[The Black Sword]

Hanging out in fort Slayer atm:


Need to get the Ritualists here ASAP so that these units aren't just sitting around. I'm not sure if I need Mardero too though.

In more immediate matters though, it seems Dave isn't as passive as I expected.



Fortunately, I have haste and a load of promotions to fight Pyre zombies. A floating eye spys these reinforcements, fortunately zombies can't be hasted so it's not that scary.



I RoF the stack, then retreat everyone else and cast haste and dance of blades.



Being able to take Shock and anti-UD promo is pretty nice, I needed to do this for the first few shock Zombies to get acceptable odds. Then



I started attacking with a promo spare to promo heal after the zombie explosions. I wiped out his stack and EOT, here's my defense:


Hope to raze Dandelion next turn:


Maybe I should wait another turn to time it with this though:

[The Black Sword]

Dave had more mobility promos available than I expected for someone not in Apprenticeship/Conquest but I seem to have held on, barely. I had a quick glance at the new save, though I probably can't play until tomorrow evening, the Infernals are going to have quite a productive turn.

[The Black Sword]

Dandelion plucked.



Sile plundered.



Aldersberg burned.



Emhyr slept.



Merigold destroyed.



Geralt surrendered.



Roche salted.

Sorry Bob. That's certainly the most devastating two turns I've ever had.

I held Bob's stack in Letho:



I don't want to have a fight this turn when blight is going to hit next turn, learned from Arthendain's mishap last time. I'll move in soon though.

My biggest worry is that I have created a monster in the middle of my territory:


Hopefully he stays peaceful until I finish Bob's army.

But that's not all! I'm at war with Dave too:



I didn't realise during his first attack that I could upgrade a mage and then cast a spell a lvl 2 spell. Gey Wind just about held before my 4 mages turned the tide. My Hosts of Einherjar wiped out that stack and then they got to live another turn, so on T136:


That's Zbolub's defenses and I have ~8 Hosts to throw at it.



Who said Conquest wasn't an economic civic?

[Qgqqqqq]

Wow. Very very impressive moves!

Is there any chance of you losing at this point?

[The Black Sword]

It's got to be pretty low right now. There are still some potential problems, Hyborem could do some damage if he chose to, there's now 2 powerful worldspells to contest and 2 Amurite Archmages might put up a fight. Still, I think I'd need to make a lot of mistakes right now to lose.




The major garrisons in the north and south remnants of Nilfgard. These boats were supposed to be a suicide mission but I think I have enough units alive to take one of these areas. Just Regenerating my wounds first.



Another potential problem. A human controlling Stephanos could be very annoying by using that channel to avoid my army. Hopefully I can bait him north though, then hit him with 2 ritualists and some cannon fodder before Mardero finishes.



2 Ritualists put enough Collateral on to give my Hosts odds. I could have finished with the rest of my army in all likelihood but I don't think there's any rush. Next turn Blight damage will have regenerated while Bob will be suffering his effects. Letho should fall and my mages will get access to a couple more roads. If Bob leaves his counter attackers in Iorveth my mages should be able to reach and Blinding Light/Dispel them. Btw, all my summons start off with +30% strength due to Aggressive, a point I hadn't considered before but is really handy. Also, I rolled another sage a few turns ago, which was turned into the Stigmata of the Unborn giving me access to Entropy mana and Rust.



Jim has another galley in port in the south, but that one isn't as annoying since it's not in range of my city IIRC.(Note to self: check if he has air mana). This one could be a real pain in the ass. I upgraded both Beastmen in Maugrim to Sons and put it and Sharku on building Beastmen. I'm afraid there's really no way to defend this long term without taking that port.

[The Black Sword]

Bob pretty much stood still with his forces, though I guess he isn't putting much effort in any more. Anyway, the surviving Hosts, 1 new one and Rosier finish off the garrison here and then my mages get to work.



Commando Lucian even sniped a chariot. There's about 7 units in Yarpin to the SW so I had to leave a bit of a garrison in Letho and Slayer.



I sent an eye up on the south and saw a sizeable force in Foltest so I decided to go up here instead. Only 1 unit in Stennis so I took it with 3 summoned Hosts.



The Host that refuses to die. He razed Merigold, managed to kill a worker last turn to cling to this world and now starts to eat at Phillipa's defences.



Stephanos is channel hopping ... but he could have razed Faolan instead. I'm sure he'll slip up eventually.

[Commodore]

Just...

[The Black Sword]

I can't see the picture.

Bob continues to disappear from the map, giving my units lots of xp, Siegfried is the only city of these left.




A summoned Pit Beast and Host put some good damage on Stephanos but the humans were too afraid to attack:



... and he's going to have a friend next turn ...



I didn't want to raze any more cities and continue to incite the apocalypse but Dave just founded Empyrean here. The plan was almost ruined by one of my mages being heavy and not being in range of the city, but I had killed a barb last turn with a host and he stuck around, I managed 3/4 wins. I didn't have enough spells to put an eye up as well(the barb-killing host checked out the city garrison first), so hopefully there aren't too many horsemen about.

[Commodore]

Gist,

This is an astounding play, well done.