So remember all the talk of the nomad cheiftain who was building forces in the south? I was expecting to fight him, but instead he became an ally. "An ambassaor is received from the nomadic tribes to the south. He says 'The Jantri Khali has been proclaimed the Supreme Ruler of all the Khalikha, and speaks for all the clans in all things. If you will ally yourself wih the Jantri Khali, he will protect your army when it crosses his lands!'" I accept, as this reminds me of when the Khwarezmid Empire pissed off Genghis Khan when he sent them envoys. I woudn't want to deal with an invasion from the south when we are occupied with the east.
Also, we get into a couple of quick, unremarkable skirmish with some orcs, which in turn leads us to gaining two warriors called Dayyalu and RK47! The first is a volunteer and the second has been pressed into service.
Most of these skirmishes occurred after the winter months were over, as we pushed our forces south from Paritan and towards the goblin city of Gernok. "Your force is met by a very large group of goblins. In addition, your scouts have sighted hundreds more on all sides! Additionally, several monsters have been sighted in the distance!" This battle would be the largest and most difficult I had fought to date, and I only won after employing guerrilla tactics.
I need to describe the battlefield so that the events of this fight makes sense. First, we are against goblins and giant humanoid monsters, supported by goblin mages in the city itself. The important thing to note is that each of these have ranged attacks that they will stand-off to use, so you need to continually push your melee forces towards them to clear them off the field. Because there are hordes of goblins, this just means you are wiping out one line of goblins, just to put your forces into short range of the next lines missile weapons.
Also, the number of overall goblins we are facing is deceiving as it is only based upon those you can reasonably see. The thick trees hid many of the goblins as they approached our flank, and it appeared that the game also added reinforcements in later rounds.
Finally, the battlefield itself has three north to south running creeks that approach the goblin city when they meet up to a west to east running river. Our forces started out at the most western creek and as we drove south we were continually harrassed by goblins and monsters coming out of the woods from our flanks. Our lead elements sometimes took multiple hits from enemies in the front and others shooting from small, narrow spaces in between forest hexes.
So it was a slow slog coming south, but we were handling ourselves well up until we reached the end of the creek and hit the river. At that point we were exposed to wooded snipers, a strong wall of larger monsters mixed with goblin infantry, and came into long range of the goblin mages who hit us hard with fear and slow effects. This combination proved fatal to us and led to our army's quick destruction.
I reloaded the fight and tried again, this time driving east first to the center creek, destroying snipers in trees along the way. This also had the effect of dragging some of the city forces up north to block our advance. We did better in this fights, but again as we pushed a few hexes south the mages and leftover snipers were able to hit us through the less crowded gaps in the trees.
It was only after the third attempt that our army was successful. I had our forces stay close to the northern border and push directly east to the third creek. The enemy response was sluggish and disjointed, so our cavalry and knights enjoyed picking the goblin snipers off before they could hamper our advance. Finally, the enemy posted their array of forces to our southwest, blocking our advance towards their city but the tree cover between here and the city was excellent and stopped the enemy mages from hitting us, while the enemy was exposed to our archers for the first time.
We decimated nearly a third of their forces without ever being effected by enemy magic. Once we whittled away the enemies exposed to our archers, we charged the remnants en masse with our infantry and cavalry forces. This led to us losing some men from snipers, it put us in range of being able to attack the city after two more turns. It never resulted in that, however, as the losses and low morale resulted in the goblins surrendering.
"You have defeated the goblins of Gernok and captured the city! The Crown of the Westrealm has been rescued by Deuce, the rightful ruler of Aragon!" Supposedly, having this crown reduces random encounters in the west, but I still encountered some.
After that, we took on the dragon, but that battle is quite short. In the first round the dragon rushes up to us, but lacks the movement points needed to breathe his quite devastating fire against us. The mages use fear and confusion spells on the dragon at first and bowmen plink at him. Then, we attack with a bunch of our infantry soldiers led by Overboard, Octavius, Jester, Eryfkrad, Elfberserker, Monstrous Bat, Desktop Commander, SCO and Dayyalu.
This force easily eliminates the threat, which was rich in both gold and experience points. We earn 72,000 experience points and nearly everyone gains a level. "You have defeated the dragon! Everyone hails you for your bravery and skill. Long live Deuce! You get 50 points!" With the gold acquired, I develop every category of every city and reinforce and train each city unit. When we won the battle at the goblin city it also revealed a road east that leads to Tetrada, the seat of the eastern empire.
Unfortunately our victory is short-lived. "Hundreds of goblins have returned to attack Gernok at night! ookouts report hundred are approaching from all sides." I only had the Paritan 1st Infantry and Garnak 1st Infantry against these forces. I had to retreat in the face of overwhelming odds, and just like that Gernok returned to goblin control and our new way east closed off.
Also, so much for the power of the newly acquired crown. Sur Nova is attacked at night by giants, but I had developed two strong infantry companies and a bow unit to defend the city and they were more than enough to take out the giants. The trick against giants is to charge them right away instead of waiting for them to pelt your forces to death with thrown boulders. With that battle we get a second ranger, and thus Crooked Bee is pressed into service.
We now have some trolls to take out near Sur Nova. Along the way our army is also ambushed by goblins and trolls, but we are able to defeat their forces and continue towards the southwest. RK47 searches the area around Sur Nova and finds the troll village where the attacks originate. "Scouts report that there are at least 300 trolls here. They are on a plateau with steep hills surrounding. You have found Trollhome!"
Some of our town developments in lumber piss off our elven allies. "Your logging expansion has caused the elves from the Tranavan forest to force a reduction. They have destroyed some of your buildings and equipment." To avoid pissing them off further we stop lumber development in our cities. After a few more skirmishes on the way towards Sur Nova we gain more fighting men, and thus RK47 and Jaesun are pressed into service.
Our Sur Nova army also scouts to the west and finds the cultists and demons we had heard about. Because our army will not accompany us, I leave them behind to finish the slow march to Sur Nova, then rush forward with all our hero units. Then we enter into the glade. "Scouts report an evil looking cursed place ahead--the signs of evil have terrified your men, but your heroes will accompany you!"
The battle isn't that tough, but in order not to lose any men we have to come in from the south to enter just past the hills that would slow us. From here, the enemy magic is attacking from a long range. Then, I rush forward with my melee units while supporting with my mages casting Slow spells. If you hit units with enough Slow and XHaust effects, their spellcasters are unable to cast on their turns. Irenaeus, Eryfkrad, Monstrous Bat, Kashmir Slippers, SCO, Dayyalu, RK47 and Jaesun lead the charge, while the knights follow behind and stay ready to make a flank attack.
As we get closer we have to spread our forces out in order to better avoid offensive magic that effects an entire stack of units. It is a charge led by Irenaeus, Kashmir Slippers and Jaesun that take out the first enemy priest. Eryfkrad, Monstrous Bat, SCO, Dayyalu, and RK47 take out the others plus the demon.
"You have defeated the priests and demons! Long live Deuce! Many freed captives will happily join your victorious army!" We return to Sur Nova, reinforce some depleted units, and kill off some orcs that stupidly decide to invade Sur Nova while our heroes and main forces are all garrisoned there. After that easy battle, I realize Trollhome is too far away from us to attack and then return before winter starts. Our heroes rest up early and will wait until March to attack Trollhome, then follow that with an attack on Zarnix. I am doing the write-up on part two of this update now, so next update will be pretty soon.
