We explore our land, and make a plan for the Nymph:

day 1: seduce a Wolf Rider - completed;
day 2: seduce a Druid;
day 3: seduce an Eagle Rider;
day 4: seduce a hero

etc.

It should be hard to be a Nymph...

TS

[This message has been edited by Idealistos (edited 11-14-2006 @ 09:12 AM).]

Good luck seducing that Druid! We gave it a try ourselves, but it didn't work out. Apart from that we had a very good first day. We are set up well for tomorrow.

******************

Agreed, I won't use the area guard trick.

This is a WL game, yes?

Good Luck!

Uncle Fugly appears in the north and does excellent work on his first day.

Bad day, as we lost a Druid and a Ranger in a battle that could be delayed. However, another Druid is successfully seduced, so there is kind of balance.

TS

I've registered in WL yesterday (at least I've posted in the sign up thread), so that this game can be a WL game. Do we need to register it now, or only tell the result when we finish?

[This message has been edited by Idealistos (edited 11-17-2006 @ 01:04 PM).]

Various units on the surface, plus two heroes underground have joined us. All of them are trying to capture enough income structures to make my income positive.

TS

Uncle Fugly moves underground and makes some new friends.

I myself move aboveground and make a friend of my own.

Our army grows, though it could grow faster. The hero who has been released from the prison today, failed to seduce a Shaman. All 5 or 6 attempts have failed...

TS

Two battles today, the two tomorrow may be a bit tougher.

We've started the digging, with some nice results. The only problem is that the underground army is too small.

On the surface, we've captured an outpost. But our income is still negative

TS

More battles than we thought. Everything went fine, however, and we picked up a nice item and some more troops.

Tomorrow we'll have to find a way to rescue a damsel in distress.

We've lost a Satyr in a battle, but in return we've got two significant units. It means, we can proceed.

TS

Some annoying news: an indie ranger is loose behind our front lines. I don't think it can do much permanent damage, but I don't want to deal with it now; too many important battles coming up.

Perhaps later we'll attempt an introduction to the Lady of Pain. That would be fitting.

There is one more annoying thing, Cruel Grumshank. I've sent you to void today. Though it might be more than an annoyance...

Anyway, my strong army is in your land, and there is no adequate opposition visible. It looks like your army is unprepared for such an attack. And this is understandable, since a rush like this is quite improbable. Actually, I've been extremely lucky this time.

TS

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time! My worthless scouts will be drawn and quartered!! Er, if they weren't already dead, that is.

I've got a little plan; let's see if the elves do the right thing or the wrong thing.

We've sent Grumshank to void for the second time. It is suspicious that he has left his tower alone. Maybe it's a trap?

TS

Maybe you should have thought of that before you attacked so rashly! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

No, actually there's no trap. It's safe.

Or is it?

The fastest turn ever. First, my Unicorn has come underground and captured the capital of Orcs, and then found Grumschank in a corner. Then, my heroes have attacked him and succeeded.

TS

Once again, sorry for my rush. I thought I'd only make you defend your capital, so that I could explore everything on your side. But then I saw your army to the north from your cavern and decided to attack your capital.

Besides, it looks like Elves are more suitable for a rush, because of three (later four) entangling units and the Cardinal (I've hired his stack for 330 gps or so). While Orcs are better for a later game, because of Weaken and a few units with Seduce.

Would you like a rematch? On this map again, or on any other small map with two players. Besides, I might start a new game on River Arne (see this post), you may join if you like.

[This message has been edited by Idealistos (edited 11-21-2006 @ 01:57 PM).]

Noora - Turn 1 -

Where is the Druid waiting to be seduced? Instead, the Life Node is guarded by three Fairies and two Unicorns. How are we supposed to deal with them?

On the other hand, we already have a Life Node thanks to Queen Noora, who has defeated the guards with just a minimal help (two level-one units that haven't done any damage to the enemy, and have died very fast).

TS

A little different beginning this time. Node, furnace, and up!

Doing basically same things as the last time, but having more troubles with the guards.

The pixies have been killed thanks to our Pixie Entanglers. Their Entangle Strike works fine.

TS

Moving along, but we're not happy to see the sorceress/succubus/stone golem already in our territory.

What a stupid mistake... I've confused the Cardinal with the Avenger, and in result my Avenger has the silver medal, but the Cardinal has been nearly killed.

Other things are going fine though.

TS

Making progress, but still not where we want to be, money-wise.

The Cardinal has the gold medal now, so that everything goes as planned.

TS

[This message has been edited by Idealistos (edited 12-03-2006 @ 09:37 AM).]

The sorceress and her friends are still at large. It looks like we'll finally be able to deal with them tomorrow.

******************

By the way, how do you keep getting a Cardinal so early? When I played the first few turns, I didn't come across one. Don't answer if it'll give anything away.

[This message has been edited by Henrysix (edited 12-03-2006 @ 04:13 PM).]

We could run out of mana, but the diggers have found some mana crystals, and this problem is solved. Our gold income is negative too, but we don't worry much about it. There are more important things to focus upon...

TS

Mana's good, gold is good. Is the army good enough?

First blood to us as we down Noora's bird. Second blood (and lots of it) will probably go to Noora.

Maybe you wonder why I didn't tell the Bear and the Ticks to join my army? It's simply because I didn't want to pay their upkeep for one day

Anyway, even without them, we proceed towards the west. As the last time, we have the Cyclops and the new hero in our army. The enemies are close, but will they attack?

TS

Now that the attack on Shiroc has gone horribly wrong (Why didn't I know Grasp could affect flyers? BIG mistake), the answer would be... no.

After that disaster and having considered the strength of Noora's army, we have changed our strategy. It's a strategy I like to call RETREAT! RETREAT! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!

We've done what Grumshank's units had failed to do, and so we've got a new hero and one good unit, plus another hero that has joined us after we had released him from the dungeon. Now we can see the Grumshank's forces, and we prepare for battles.

TS

What concerns the Cardinal, this time I knew where he should be (though he was wandering around the temple), so that I summoned my Unicorn somewhere in that area. Last time, I've got him somewhat later, also because I didn't have enough money first, but he stood still.

Btw, what is going on with our FFL game? Has Nerull already done his turn?

[This message has been edited by Idealistos (edited 12-06-2006 @ 12:52 PM).]

No battles today, thank you! We prefer our battles underground.

****************

No, I don't think has played his turn. At least I haven't received it. I think he is pretty busy these days and doesn't have time to play every day.

Nosaj has been killed, meaning that Grumshank's northern army is weakened. Nevertheless, we're approaching his capital, in the same time trying to solve our financial problems.

TS

Two goblins tried to destroy Noora's scouting Unicorn. Not only did they lose, they gave it gold medal status. That about sums up our day.

Sums up the whole week, actually.

Where is the enemy? Two large armies have misteriously disappeared, and they haven't been found by my numerous scouts... This is partly a good news, as Grumshank's capital is ours now. But we still fear that the united army will emerge from the underground right when we expect it least of all...

TS

I wouldn't worry about it. You seem pretty hard to surprise.

Quoted from Grumshank:

Am I?

Anyway, we descend underground, and prepare for the worst. We've only met a Tick so far, but we suspect there is more than that out there.

TS

We have decorated the underground for our visitors. Surely they will take their time and admire the scenery rather than rushing onward to visit our last town.

Aboveground, it seems we've surprised Noora enough that she has left her tower. Interesting.

Not sure my army likes the decoration. These strage plants hurt some of my units (though my healers can cure the wounds made by the thorns), but they do slow down my army. Strange that Forestry ability doesn't work now (bug?)

Queen Noora is safe, though she had to flee from the capital. We'll get to your Black Knight and your Spider some time!

I wonder why your capital has been so undeveloped. Have you started selling all buildings as soon as you saw my army coming?

TS

We hope the Evil Woods do some real damage to Noora's troops. I wonder if they will turn around.

*************

Yes, there is something weird about hexes that are both Dirt and Dense Vegetation. It seems Forestry does not negate the vegetation, but Cave Crawling does. This may be happening because of the Evil Woods I cast, but I think it's any vegetation. There's something similar with hexes that are both Dirt and Hills; units with Cave Crawling ignore the Hills penalty.

And yes, I started selling buildings when I saw I couldn't stand against your army.

One of Noora's scouts made it through the woods, so we have destroyed it. For good measure, we have cast more woods to make sure progress remains slow.

Aboveground, Noora's rescue force was not unexpected, but it showed up a little faster than we would have liked. It would have been good to hold on to her capital for another turn, but it was not to be.

I doubt either one of us is doing very well on either gold or mana.