My first master game that I seem to be winning. Alchemy+Archmage, 5 white 4 black. Plan was ghouls give a start, then Stream of Life of massive economy. Then something.
Starting with ghoul spam, I got an adamantium dwarven city first. Used treasure to crank up adamantium golems fast, but before that a couple ghoul hordes swept on. Freya was the first AI, coming at my poorly defended fortress (figured I had to risk it or lose) with bears and sprites. I attacked her stacks and made them mine - cloak of fear is pretty good! Found out I was lucky at the start: Lo Pan was the third AI on Myrror, and they were already tearing into each other with Freya, with Freya winning. My ghouls and undead bears could go through all of Freya's cities, apart from the fortress, which was defended by almost nothing but sprites. Which led to some frustration with my golems now coming up.
Sued for peace with Freya and prepared to strike at the recovering Lo Pan. His fortress was weakly defended so war started with a fortress strike. And was over before he returned. (As a side note, it seems Spell of Return might take too long early game and too short late game) Prepped two stacks to attack Freya's fortress. Which should have been a breeze - except that a nearby nature node extended the aura 2 squares to reach her fortress city! The fight was a really close one, one stack thinned them out, and the second barely won instead of barely lost, only because some sprites decided to suicide after spending ammo - instead of evading and waiting out for the fortress lightning to do the job.
With Myrror mine much earlier I had imagined I could, I set to settle every nook, and hunt for all the treasure. I could only get Stream of Life up on ~ half the cities, and still had treasure to hunt, when Horus started dropping in scouts from Arcanus. Broke a tower, and sent forth airships to scout it out. Found out his cities with Astral Gate, and plugged the spots. Also found out Horus was quite behind of me on power graph, but the other Arcanus AI, Oberic, was way ahead. Oh, and of course Horus and Oberic were allied. Still, decided I had to curb them sooner or not have a chance.
I had found two invisibility items, and -3 save amulet and staff, among others. And Holy Word. Oberic's fortress was guarded by Chimeras, so the plan emerged. The fortress was far from the tower, but airships moved in the supporting hit squad, with War Monk and Mystic X planar traveling to the spot. 2 turns before the strike Oberic just had to cast Survival Instinct! Another hair-raising fortress fight ensued. Luckily this time Mystic Surge only gave a huge resistance bonus, but no Spell Lock!
I was burning Oberic's cities ok with the heroes, and holding on to one with golems and warlocks behind Wall of Darkness. He returned to a city close to my heroes, and was promptly banished again. Fortress Lightning is pretty much the only threat to the invisible heroes, so they need a support squad to be a lightning rod to give them a few turns.
Soon enough Horus declared war. My hero squad was at the time 2 turns from his fortress, which in turn is close to the only broken tower (which I broke), so moving in another support squad was easy. The fight looked easy - but omg what halflings behind walls can take on a prayer! They mostly didn't even have buffs much, except for heroism. Still, another exciting fortress fight carried through (adamantium golems with bless and endurance are good lighning rods). Horus only had 4 central big cities of halfling, so after the fortress they were quickly burned, with one taken. As Horus only had third-grade polar towns at this point, sued for peace.
All the time the field armies of Oberic are moving about en masse. The scale is quite different than with Expert. But they are extremely hesitant to attack the one city I had. I had one half-hearted attack during the entire war, which was started by 2 fire storms, but luckily most of my warlocks survived. This had me enchant warlocks with bless or resist elements (found a nature book). Had an exciting defense against Horus doomstack of 7 water elementals, dervish and (invisible)chosen. The heroes were buffed silly, but doombolts teared them apart. If chosen had magic immunity, I could not defend against them, confirming the need to act early. Wall of Darkness ensued warlocks mostly survived, couple golems easily held the gate. Some elementals had flight which made the fight way more interesting. Had to keep doombolts in reserve due to raise dead heroes.
Oberic is now back in a town my heroes are heading towards. Just got disjunction (for Survival Instinct) so present summons can't protect him. He got earth gate, not sure if from research or treasure. Very rare summons to protect his fortress is pretty much the only potential threat. I recon I've pratically won this one.
Stark difference to Expert is that I can't think of how I could have done this without the heroes and items. Even though I think I got extremely lucky with the start. If the AI was more willing to use the huge army to chip out at my defenses - just to give him some time to bombard with direct damage spells, I don't think I could hold either the city I am keeping nor the tower that is the choke point. Another point is if the AI was aiming to break more towers I would be in much more trouble defending. I am trying to prepare some defenses around each tower in case, but they are second rate compared to the attack stacks at the choke point. And those attack stacks can pretty much take a city, but are consumed in the process.
In summary: I am again awed at what the game was providing. So many exciting fights! And while the start seemed like a breeze, the late game from the other plan turned out great once again!
Starting with ghoul spam, I got an adamantium dwarven city first. Used treasure to crank up adamantium golems fast, but before that a couple ghoul hordes swept on. Freya was the first AI, coming at my poorly defended fortress (figured I had to risk it or lose) with bears and sprites. I attacked her stacks and made them mine - cloak of fear is pretty good! Found out I was lucky at the start: Lo Pan was the third AI on Myrror, and they were already tearing into each other with Freya, with Freya winning. My ghouls and undead bears could go through all of Freya's cities, apart from the fortress, which was defended by almost nothing but sprites. Which led to some frustration with my golems now coming up.
Sued for peace with Freya and prepared to strike at the recovering Lo Pan. His fortress was weakly defended so war started with a fortress strike. And was over before he returned. (As a side note, it seems Spell of Return might take too long early game and too short late game) Prepped two stacks to attack Freya's fortress. Which should have been a breeze - except that a nearby nature node extended the aura 2 squares to reach her fortress city! The fight was a really close one, one stack thinned them out, and the second barely won instead of barely lost, only because some sprites decided to suicide after spending ammo - instead of evading and waiting out for the fortress lightning to do the job.
With Myrror mine much earlier I had imagined I could, I set to settle every nook, and hunt for all the treasure. I could only get Stream of Life up on ~ half the cities, and still had treasure to hunt, when Horus started dropping in scouts from Arcanus. Broke a tower, and sent forth airships to scout it out. Found out his cities with Astral Gate, and plugged the spots. Also found out Horus was quite behind of me on power graph, but the other Arcanus AI, Oberic, was way ahead. Oh, and of course Horus and Oberic were allied. Still, decided I had to curb them sooner or not have a chance.
I had found two invisibility items, and -3 save amulet and staff, among others. And Holy Word. Oberic's fortress was guarded by Chimeras, so the plan emerged. The fortress was far from the tower, but airships moved in the supporting hit squad, with War Monk and Mystic X planar traveling to the spot. 2 turns before the strike Oberic just had to cast Survival Instinct! Another hair-raising fortress fight ensued. Luckily this time Mystic Surge only gave a huge resistance bonus, but no Spell Lock!
I was burning Oberic's cities ok with the heroes, and holding on to one with golems and warlocks behind Wall of Darkness. He returned to a city close to my heroes, and was promptly banished again. Fortress Lightning is pretty much the only threat to the invisible heroes, so they need a support squad to be a lightning rod to give them a few turns.
Soon enough Horus declared war. My hero squad was at the time 2 turns from his fortress, which in turn is close to the only broken tower (which I broke), so moving in another support squad was easy. The fight looked easy - but omg what halflings behind walls can take on a prayer! They mostly didn't even have buffs much, except for heroism. Still, another exciting fortress fight carried through (adamantium golems with bless and endurance are good lighning rods). Horus only had 4 central big cities of halfling, so after the fortress they were quickly burned, with one taken. As Horus only had third-grade polar towns at this point, sued for peace.
All the time the field armies of Oberic are moving about en masse. The scale is quite different than with Expert. But they are extremely hesitant to attack the one city I had. I had one half-hearted attack during the entire war, which was started by 2 fire storms, but luckily most of my warlocks survived. This had me enchant warlocks with bless or resist elements (found a nature book). Had an exciting defense against Horus doomstack of 7 water elementals, dervish and (invisible)chosen. The heroes were buffed silly, but doombolts teared them apart. If chosen had magic immunity, I could not defend against them, confirming the need to act early. Wall of Darkness ensued warlocks mostly survived, couple golems easily held the gate. Some elementals had flight which made the fight way more interesting. Had to keep doombolts in reserve due to raise dead heroes.
Oberic is now back in a town my heroes are heading towards. Just got disjunction (for Survival Instinct) so present summons can't protect him. He got earth gate, not sure if from research or treasure. Very rare summons to protect his fortress is pretty much the only potential threat. I recon I've pratically won this one.
Stark difference to Expert is that I can't think of how I could have done this without the heroes and items. Even though I think I got extremely lucky with the start. If the AI was more willing to use the huge army to chip out at my defenses - just to give him some time to bombard with direct damage spells, I don't think I could hold either the city I am keeping nor the tower that is the choke point. Another point is if the AI was aiming to break more towers I would be in much more trouble defending. I am trying to prepare some defenses around each tower in case, but they are second rate compared to the attack stacks at the choke point. And those attack stacks can pretty much take a city, but are consumed in the process.
In summary: I am again awed at what the game was providing. So many exciting fights! And while the start seemed like a breeze, the late game from the other plan turned out great once again!