Lord Drake

Onwards we go!

ts

Lord Ember

I have not completed taking over the local area yet. I need more troops for that. While the war will be decided by soldiers of higher level, in the next few turns I'll need whatever arms I can get to secure the sources of income - the gold I have right now won't take me to the top. Rumors talked about refugees underground, but as much as they can be helpfull, they will need to be fed, so money is my first concern.
Maybe after I hunt down the infidels, Spirit of War will toss some in.
ts

Lord Drake

We are on a tight schedule... we'll see if we make it!

Lord Ember
Instead of gold, Spirit of War gave me choice of a dark spell and mana . A unit who tryed to subdue two underage boars died shamefully. It is day #4, and I still own only two settlements and no income structures. Troops are produced and it got to pay off.
Soldiers!!! We need to give it all, hurry up!
ts

Lord Drake

There were hamperings in the execution of our plan when two units were lost despite having twice the odds in numbers.

Not a big deal...

Lord Ember, another day

Two fights were fought. One was rewarding and satisfying, another was pointless and also left my best riders seriously injured. I made sure tomorrow someone will start to tend their wounds. While I do not follow tight schedule and just try to do my best, such a mistake can delay one's progress by a turn.
Also, with three of the more important units of mine, I forgot to move one and wasted half of a turn with the others two.
Focus, focus, focus!
ts

[Edit: my poor English]

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 08-28-2009 @ 04:16 PM).]

Lord Drake

Draks, bookkeeping is impossible if opportunities keep popping up like this!

We decided to hire the hero, but our production will be one day behind schedule.

Lord Elmor
We capture income structure, another one awaits

ts

ts

Lord Elmor

...Our sages feel something big and definitely good just happened to the Drakes. My spyes report they haste to the SE corner. Hmmmmm.... What can it be? We only know that they did not win a lottery...
...We see that Drakes capital stands naked and only a floating hero is guarding it. Well, maybe we will need to adjust some of our plans...
...Yesterday our zephyr bird snatched a big pile of gold that glittered Eastern of the great mountains. Today it proceeded to capture a mill from Lord Drake and then to finish off a wounded unit awarded a silver medal. He looked like a 3rd level flyer, but now that he's dead we can't tell for sure. Poor bird, it will probably meet death by sword of the mentioned hero, yet it won't be for nothing...

ts

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 08-28-2009 @ 06:30 PM).]

~ Drake ~

DOUBLE DRAKS... A small Zephyr killing our Flyer! The bird was avenged, obviously.

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 08-28-2009 @ 07:17 PM).]

Lord Ember

Insects killed me a dzhinny who did not watch his steps. Extermination scheduled to one of the coming days.
Another quest was received. Apparently, the spirit thinks that taking Drake's capital is an easy task. Methinks I forgot to decline this. With time window of ten days it can be a problem ;-)
Other than that, we reached the culminating point of our great design. Too bad we are still wandering in darkness as about evaluating its quality. Stone, paper and seizers... Dices already rolled, it's just the fog of war that does not let us count the dots.
Really, what does Lord Drake have on his mind? His troops rushed somewhere so fast they even skipped visiting an altar standing next to their capital. Do they worship Order? Or have they discovered some holy grail which is worthy leaving their domain so unattended?
ts

[Edit: my poor English, again]

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 08-30-2009 @ 02:01 AM).]

Dracs

We hatessss Dwarvess...

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 08-29-2009 @ 10:34 AM).]

Lord Ember

Why would one hate Dwarves? They are straighforward fellows who usually mind their own business. I have not had a single fight with them since the beginning of this campain!

Today I received a prize for taking a town - the quest that was given to me two days ago. Yes, I did. Now, Lord Drake can relax, it was not his capital, I just received two quests on the same day The prize was crappy, as usual - I was given a choice between nearly useless spell and a pile of mana, which I can already export even to Dark Elves and Syrons. Where the draks did that trader go?!! Any trader at all, or an alchemist, maybe, please stand up?!

Nevertheless... Yesterday I lost the most important fight I planned from before the day one... And it feels.... Any takes on how does it feel?
Swolte? Anyone? Anyone who reads these rows?
Any takes on how does it feel, may I hear at least a single word?! Please?!


ts
[Edit:] Swolte, I want to fix my installation of the game. I will do it on a turn where no serious fights will occur, both in this game and the other one I play with Naeco.
[Edit:Edit:] Errr, that may also be "where no serious fights seem to occur"...

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 08-30-2009 @ 01:05 AM).]

Lord Drake

Holy Draks, we thought we were the first to reach the underground, but now we are spotting these annoying birds as well enemy domain already close to our newly conquered villages! Our Drake took care of the animal, but the bird took some nasty bites off its wings.

There is much speculation. Could it be that Lord Ember himself is nearing? What the draks is he up to? Some evil genius plan? An evil plan it is, for sure!

We're going to be extra cautious now, hehe... That should make him feel unhappy. As if he doesn't look unhappy enough.

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 08-29-2009 @ 10:27 PM).]

Lord Ember, day 10(? 11?)

So these were the Dwarves of this village who did not give up without a fight... Sturdy guys, I will try to liberate them one day.
Another magical bird of mine got kiled. All it was doing was scouting here and there, snatching some little gold it could lift to provide its struggling fraction, such a senceless, cruell death by teeth of an ice drake... Drakes must not being doing good in this frosty underground, this one just turned almost into an iceckle, and is flying probably to heat himself up a bit...
On the surface, another unit was killed by the insects. This vermin must go. And maybe our local Dwarves must pay me taxes, too. After all, I would like to protect them around the globe. And it does not come cheap...

[Edit:]
Am I looking unhappy? I try so hard to make an impression of just easy-going and indifferent, wearing my poker face #4. Well, I will switch to poker face #2 then.
And the poll is still going on about how you think I feel about mentioned in yesterday's chapter lost. It was supposed to be a riddle, seems like few like riddles, the only answer was Swolte's - "unhappy", hmmm...


ts

Installation fixed, no restartes generated, nice.

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 08-29-2009 @ 11:07 PM).]

Lord Drake

HOLY CRACKLING DRAKS!

So, it WAS an evil and genius plan. The possessed independent made me suspicious...

It seems Mr Ember is already in possession of two incarnates and ready to get more nasty nasties!

Ugh, this does not look good at all, not at all...

Oh, no, you spoiled my riddle, so I have to call it off.
The answer was "PERFECT". I do not think I have a great edge in this game (yet), but feelings sometimes are not rational

Lord Ember

...Then our little birdy flew right into a trap. Our bigger birdies teared apart a drake. Then we arranged a nice fur coat for one of our incarnates...
...They say that tracers work both way. Now I recon the same is true for un-tracers, too...
...And all kind of less signiicant stuff... Recruitments, regroupings, money management, made some noise...
...We advance to the South... I wonder if it is about a big clash...

ts

~ Lord Drake ~

Darn drackin' birds, where do they all come from?

Regardless of the answer, recent discoveries have turned everything upside down and downside up.

Lord Ember

We discover it was Gobbon, not Dwarven village Northern of the city Lord Drake rebuilt and now have probably abandoned. We see an incarnate inside the village, stripped by forces of Lord Drake of his last host. I wonder if we should try and posesss this incarnate... Hmmm, like Russian doll, a way to move more units in the same stack.... Hmmm...
And there is a naval standoff... It all would be nice, without Stone Skin on Drake's galley and all our units moved already...
Part of that we took care of Drake's units left behind and prepare ground for some improvements to our cash flow.

ts

~ Lord Drake ~

Draks, I guess sneaking off in a boat had to get noticed as well by bumping into their navy! There goes stealth...

We are somewhat concerned about the discovery of water walking on some of Lord Embar's units. This does give him quite the range we hoped he wouldn't have...
Regardless, it may not matter. The amount of force he's gathered has us flee for now.

Lord Ember

We got Lord Drake's Yeti seduced. Now, some jobs really do not shine...
Another bird of ours felt into very similar trap. When will I learn? Before the bird died, however, it made to see that Lord Drake sold his rebuilt tower, and that nearby teleporter lays in ruins. What a pity...
An attemp to initiate 3-way free-for-all fight with Lord Drake's troops and independents by a redundent unit failed. Also it seems Ithat snakes became extinct, so much for plans to possess some of them... On a bright side, we captured a small settlement from independents and a bigger one - from Lord Drake.
Are we going to face an invasion very soon?
ts

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 08-31-2009 @ 00:17 AM).]

~ Lord Drake ~

We decided the situation was desperate enough to take some risks. It seems like this may not have been the best idea. Draks, luck is not on our side!

In the meantime, Sleipnir will advance on the Human capitol. A nosy Chaplain was brought down as retribution for our Yeti... well, I guess we would have to have killed two.

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 08-31-2009 @ 08:50 AM).]

Lord Ember

The freshly aquired outpost felt to hands of Lord Drake. We repaid Lord Drake by capturing the rebuilt city in the underground. My bad, I thought FlameBan would lead some flyers above the mountains. But he probably walks ahead of some concealing Halflings, yes, we remember seeing one... The whole role of the Chaplain was to spot them if they try to sneak... He needed no guards for that...
My troops retreat to the capital before superior invaders. We expect more casualties and our income will get shaved...

ts
[Edit:wrong hero mentioned]

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 09-01-2009 @ 06:35 AM).]

~ Lord Drake ~

We do what we can. Another village was taken from Ember and we advance on what is his capitol.

In the meantime, defenses are prepared at the homefront...

Lord Ember

Mighty blows about to fall on us...
ts

~ Lord Drake ~

A good day as a hero joined our ranks and a nearby battle (scratched myself!) awarded me with some nice units from the Spirit of War.
Tomorrow we will be in full possession of the surface lands. We'll see his troops pour through the hole, probably today.

As expected, Ember sold his tower...

Lord Ember

As completely unexpected, the only ones on the surface to greet our tired and dirty faces were Goblin guards. We were so expecting to see them back-upped by some Lord Drake's war machines... However, a scout reported otherwise and we doubted no more, advanced and even captured a mill.
On the other side of the mountains, an order do destroy our lovely capitol was almost issued. At the end, we left it intact. The soldiers retreated, switching to partisan strategy, and those of civilians who remained, gathered in temple, praying for better fate.

We know that Lord Drake won't go away easily... It is one Ancient Drake, and we must watch every step... As we lost most of our possessions, money management becomes tight...

ts

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 08-31-2009 @ 11:36 PM).]

~ Lord Drake ~

At this moment, most of the surface belongs to us. Many of Ember's remaining thugs have been dealt with and I think the only tower standing is my own.

Despite this advantage, we are in grave danger as mighty troops have stuck their heads out from the holes and march towards, what could be, our end.

Since Embers capitol proves of little use (all structures have been sold), it is probably best to stand our ground. Them getting a hold of our capitol would surely mean our end, slow and painful.
Behind our walls, we might be able to hold them off for a while...

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 09-01-2009 @ 00:35 AM).]

Lord Ember

To West of the mountains, the situation is sad indeed. Former defenders are doomed, and leading them hero was killed when assaulted two first-levelers.
To East of the mountains, we stand next to bigger half of Lord Drake's army. It is impressing, but we did not came empty-handed either.
And in the underground, things are just peachy. Sinking down Lord Drakes' galley was only one of a few achievments. It's a bonanza, and it's all ours.

Overall, we are satisfied.
ts

[Edit:] P.S.: Financial crisis is officially over.

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 09-01-2009 @ 01:30 PM).]

Lord Drake

Argh, made some mistake and am in *very* risky position now.

Lord Ember

Big battle of twenty one units took place and Lord Drake went for a little space trip. Results of the battle were a bit worse than I expected. My Mamoth Raider and Butcher got enslaved, on the other hand my Incarnate possessed later them both and enslaving Pitface, too. At the end, only the Incarnate survived (almost unscratched, but without a host), together with our brave general Uther, who made it with his last HP. Should have bought and speeded up Rouge on the last turn...

ts

~ Lord Drake ~

It seems the tables have turned...

Lord Ember does not have a tower, and is therefore extremely vulnerable. My division of Hydra's and rogues could finally be put to use. They were secretly hiding in the mists and now charge the thinned down army of Ember!

Furied and stone-skinned, they were ready to end this war once and for all! With myself, and a flamer added into the frenzy, surely it should end in our favour!

The battle went disappointingly bad for us. The Hydra's proved quite useless, waving their heads back and forth, taking a bird down once in a while. I got a spontaneous migraine from this and decided to watch from a safe distance, not being able to get involved. In the end, Uther did perish, and many more of Ember's troops, but the bastard is still standing, with a wounded incarnate next to him!
Holy DRAKS!!!

Somewhere else, the other incarnate has been taken care of. Considering the bad luck in the former battle, we were very lucky that this one went without any loss.

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 09-02-2009 @ 00:01 AM).]

Lord Ember

I expected the unexpected. Not on this scale, not on this turn... Stupid Succubbusi... What did I pay them for?! Could not spot a whole bunch of enemies hiding around?! They also died in the bigger battle almost useless, seducing none... And how on Earth did get this one nudist Incarnate that always stays in his natural form? He did his job in both battles, but there was so much place for improvement.

The Western front is a disaster. The plan was to bother Drake's heroes, wither them and weaken their side-kicks, and separate them, for Spirits sake! Yet this Drake who seems to make no mistakes caught my Incarnate with almost all the forces of the region united.

Now the situation is "make it, or brake it". While braking can be achieved in a snap, chances for making are not high. I do not want to chose the slower death... Should have pillage the Western region as I was planning... Sun is rising, and I have a desicion to make...


turn received, but not played

If I lose, two things are to be blamed - my decision to send the second Incarnate to the West and luck of any of 4 spells that were planned to be complimentary to my strategy...

I cannot bloody believe it!!!!
I WON! I WON! I WON!!!!

I had a beautiful (as much as my can write anything in English or at all) piece of writing for this case, which became absolutely irrelevant since Recall Hero spell as I found out only works with heroes in your domain. Kinda taken for granted when you are in a tower, troublesome otherwise.
And I found it out only when I was already under city walls with my wounded Incarnate and regenerated Yeti, and after I payed for that Balzur guy all the money he wanted.
So I cancelled the spell, and attacked the defenders - two Fire Cannons, Halfling slinger and maybe there was someone else. I just had no choice, having no movement points. If Lord Drake had any magic available, it was out, and when the dust settled, there was only me and the Incarnate with few hit points (I guess having three artifacts on me helped a lot).

Of my remaining troops, only one Dire Pinguin was able to reach Lord Drake. I don't know if he got lucky or not, but he died leaving Lord Drake with only 2 or 3 hitpoints. Other my troops on the whole map could be counted by fingers, and I moved whatever availabe as close to Lord Drake as possible. One of them was Halfling Rouge whose production I sped up on the day before. On it's way he stopped in Dwarven store, wjust for good measures, and what a surprise, it was full!!! My 102 gold were enough to buy Ballista that could reach just as far as Lord Drake was standing.

The End.

Wow, that was a great game indeed! And what a close ending! Congrats with the victory, well done!

I mind losing, obviously, but losing in this manner is not that bad. I think your strategy was really original, perfectly executed, and also very risky. In one word: admirable.
I really think it showed some guts: victory well deserved!

(He basically rushed with his Wizard and Hero towards the underground recruitment center and SOLD every structure from cities he could capture in his lands. Then, when all the lvl4, lvl3 horrors were bought, boat back through the underground, and using the drill, surface in front of my capitol with his super-army.)

Admittedly, I underestimated you (don't see you in that many PBEM's!). You helped with the map testings for Rocky Divide, and in both games a knight-rush proved unstoppable (you lost against, and won with). Obviously, I was expecting a knight rush! Since I had stoneskin, I thought I would counter that best with some brute force: stoneskinned, furied, poison striking Hydra's! I didn't think that the more vulnerable Flyers could effectively stop a well executed knight rush.

This choice of mine really worked in your favour in this case since Hydra's are slow. Had I chosen a Flyer strategy (more mobility), I predict your extreme strategy would not have worked against me; I would have discovered much sooner you gave up your surface lands and anticipated and fought you much better after I did. In this game, you had the initiative and my Hydra's were practically useless. I invested too much gold in them as they are hard to rush. They even lost me the game against your wounded troop when I had the chance with their silly FC 'spread attack'*.

One mentionable (and unfortunate) event that put a 3 day delay on my surface plans was your zephyr killing my silver medaled Flyer. Granted, it was wounded, but I even deliberately put it there to scare your bird! An attack from you seemed suicide!

Anyway, its no excuse. I think you played and prepared really well. Your zephyrs appeared everywhere, and as KillKenny suggested in the interview, much in this map is about 'information' gathering. You were monitoring everything with those darned birds (Except near the end, where you gave up scouting and I could trap you on occasions... ).

What made your strategy even more admirable was that I actually didn't play bad. By day 7 or so I was in possession of 7 (!!) settlements and ALL nearby income structures (I estimate you had about 3 settlements, and you mentioned having no income structures?). I caught on to your trick quite early, and I knew that the only way to buy all those expensive units, and having all the force there, was to give up on the surface. So, I rushed forward like mad, took all your former lands, and gained some initiative. Unfortunately for me you sold your tower as well. It was hard to prepare for succubes, incarnates, grand heroes, with what I had. And it was harder since you acted swiftly on my tower.
Again, nothing but praise there for you.

I don't like my position at all in the other game, but I hope I will win and we can meet again on the battlefield in subsequent rounds. I'll make sure to play-test the map myself beforehand.
I really like this map. So far, its my favorite! I am actually glad its over, though. This was a stressful nailbiter. More time for organizational stuff now...

Yours very impressed!

* We have some ideas for v15: Give them gas attack and make spread attack a different ability for other units. We may also make it a lvl-4 and have a lesser Hyrdra be buildable.

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 09-02-2009 @ 10:59 PM).]

Thank you so much, sir!

I did not test this map as Ember, however, I understood that you would be prepared very well for knights rush this way or another. I could come with something better due to low level of randomization on this map. I knew that Flyers would be my doom, and this was one of things I hinted when mentioned stone, paper and suizors - many time both sides just take chances.

The Zephyrs really contributed a lot - part of scouting, they let me collect every single pile of spare gold in the both levels of the map, but 3 or 4 you reached before me. As for the attack on the Flyer, my bird, as a few her sisters later, just rushed on a target when it saw the mill and was too quick to fear, until it was too late to retreat. It was as good as dead already, and there was no reason to let your Flyer to regenerate a little bit. Near the end, however, it turned out I sold too much of structures, and could not produce decent troops, so the birds remaining were routed to plain fighting.

Saying that you played not bad is way too humble. I remember scouting that underground penensula with Gobbon village, where you set me four traps with your soldiers, it was beautiful, and luckily I avoided three of them. Having a reason for every unit and its current position - I rememberred your words and I wish I could do it nearly as well in my other games. And by day seven I did have three settlements, but also two local mills, I captured them about day 5 (having no structures was mentioned on day 4). [Edit: I also had an additional town underground by that day, the one near SW recruitment center. I captured it on the way by a regenerating Yeti and helping units that were expected to have a few turns to heal]
I never had to fight independents for other mills/furnaces, but in the last days underground - after you referenced your "tight schedule", I could not risk delays or injuries that I could avoid.

One real setback I encountered was lack of the basic Haste spell that did not let my slower troops to cautch up with the rest, and inability to summon neither Water nor Air Elementals, which you mentioned as one of Ember's advantages on this map. At least, I got the Birds, and not the Lurkers, and Water Walking was usefull, too.

I missed a couple of points - what was your prize for the last quest? And why you did not buy all these Dwarven machines, I thought they were superior against Succubbi and Incarnates?

And thank you for this really good game, it provided me with so much action and stress (it took me almost a day to get to it to make the last turn) that in the end I almost did not mind to lose either, I was pretty satisfied with all the fight I could put.

To meet in subsequent rounds would be nice It will require some hard work, though...

[This message has been edited by Oleg123 (edited 09-08-2009 @ 07:49 AM).]

Thx for the analysis. I fear the media will get a hold of this soon, though. Oh, dear...

I missed a couple of points - what was your prize for the last quest? And why you did not buy all these Dwarven machines, I thought they were superior against Succubbi and Incarnates?

I did! I bought a cannon and two repeater ballistea, summing up to a grand total of 450 gp! The quest gave me two flame throwers (which performed a bit disappointing).

I was also hoping for you to go for a long term plan, ie, get to the big tower-city in the underground. This would have allowed me some breather, and I could probably 'play' a bit more, as currently, your actions mostly dictated mine. I scouted only one incarnate with your wizard, so I assumed there were other troops heading there with that mission!
Had I played defensively (instead of trying to get you between my Hydra's and first Wizard army, we would still be busy)! You would, however, have had free reign in the lands, and quickly gotten an economical advantage. Long and painful for me, so I took some risks.

[This message has been edited by Swolte (edited 09-03-2009 @ 09:06 AM).]

Of course, now I remember the machines. And my second Incarnate - it was wearing a nice fur coat in form of Yeti, that's why it did not show on the snow. I was considering sending some serious forces to the big town, but after you sold the tower and with its ruined teleport, it was not attractive enough. I did capture it later, hovewer, by my scouts/area guards, and it was very helpful for my financial situation.