So, all of you guys with your Dominion 3 talk have gotten my strategy game itch going in a big way.
I'm probably going to have to get that game...
But in the meantime, I've reinstalled the grandfather of Dom3, Master of Magic.
That's an old ('94) Microprose game, which is, to put it bluntly, absolutely amazing.
If there's interest, I'll make a Let's Play of it. Anybody interested in reading it?
It'll be screenshots, text, and WILL include audience participation (if people want to play along, of course). I'm still waffling on doing a narrative or just being informative (although - if I do a narrative, it'll include my brand of humor. You have been warned. )
So - any takers?
I'll leave you with the intro for now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMNk-YlpuBo
Let's Play Master of Magic
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Avoraciopoctules
- Overlord
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Master of Magic was fun. Go for Sorcery... Invisible Flying Warships FTW!
FrankTrollman wrote:We had a history and maps and fucking civilization, and there were countries and cities and kingdoms. But then the spell plague came and fucked up the landscape and now there are mountains where there didn't used to be and dragons with boobs and no one has the slightest idea of what's going on. And now there are like monsters everywhere and shit.
Its hard to pass full in life (white?) magic...
Would be interesting to see you pull of an rainbow mage.
Would be interesting to see you pull of an rainbow mage.
Red_Rob wrote: I mean, I'm pretty sure the Mayans had a prophecy about what would happen if Frank and PL ever agreed on something. PL will argue with Frank that the sky is blue or grass is green, so when they both separately piss on your idea that is definitely something to think about.
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Username17
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There are a lot of ways to make the game very easy. The first way is that if you put literally all of your starting picks into spellbooks from one suit, you get a huge reduction in cost for that magic and you get to start with some uncommon and rare spells. Put all your picks in (for example) Death and you start the game with the ability to summon discounted Wraiths - and Wraiths can pretty much conquer the whole damn world for you.
The more interesting (to me) method of making the game very easy is to start with Artificer and Rune Master, which requires that you have at least 2 picks in three categories of magic. That gives you very little wiggle room, but it does mean that you can buy one of your magic types up to 4 and buy a mastery or that you can buy one of your magic types up to 5, or that you can get a fourth magic school or that you can keep picks at a minimum and start in Myrror. In any case: the point here is that you start with craft artifact and you make artifacts for half as much mana as you get back by melting them down. This allows you to run a mana rate of zero for most of the game, because your unused magic skill each turn can be spent making and then burning +2 swords. Once you get a big enough pile of mana, you can build super artifacts that are better than pretty much anything it is possible to find. Then you do a normal Justice League strategy where your heroes are ricockulous and they conquer the world for you.
-Username17
The more interesting (to me) method of making the game very easy is to start with Artificer and Rune Master, which requires that you have at least 2 picks in three categories of magic. That gives you very little wiggle room, but it does mean that you can buy one of your magic types up to 4 and buy a mastery or that you can buy one of your magic types up to 5, or that you can get a fourth magic school or that you can keep picks at a minimum and start in Myrror. In any case: the point here is that you start with craft artifact and you make artifacts for half as much mana as you get back by melting them down. This allows you to run a mana rate of zero for most of the game, because your unused magic skill each turn can be spent making and then burning +2 swords. Once you get a big enough pile of mana, you can build super artifacts that are better than pretty much anything it is possible to find. Then you do a normal Justice League strategy where your heroes are ricockulous and they conquer the world for you.
-Username17
Need to play again...
Anyone know how to enlarge the DOS Window?
Anyone know how to enlarge the DOS Window?
Red_Rob wrote: I mean, I'm pretty sure the Mayans had a prophecy about what would happen if Frank and PL ever agreed on something. PL will argue with Frank that the sky is blue or grass is green, so when they both separately piss on your idea that is definitely something to think about.
In that case... Let's Play Master of Magic!
You've already seen the intro, but it's not exactly enlightening as to what is going on in there. So I'll start with a few more details about the game.
In Master of Magic, you play as the wizard-ruler of a nation. Your goal is to somehow banish all other wizards to Limbo, so as to have Unlimited Cosmic Power over the two worlds of Arcanus and Myrror.
You have two ways to banish wizards to oblivion. First, you can seize the city in which your target wizard's fortress is located. You will then send said wizard into Limbo - although he may be able to use the Spell of Return to come back to play if he still has other cities. I'll go into more detail on the Spell of Return later on.
Since Master of Magic is a strategy game, you don't get to personnally wade in, lightning crackling at your fingertip. Instead, you send out armies, summoned creatures and heroes to rampage across the world while you lay out curses and spells on the land. I'll go into a lot more details on both spellcasting and world exploring later on as well.
The other way to win is to successfully research and cast the Spell of Mastery. This will send all other wizards to Limbo permanently, as well as give you a nice bonus to your score. Now - this is a lot easier than it sounds. The research and casting costs of the Spell of Mastery are absurdly high, and it's usually much easier just to send waves after waves of troops at your enemies. Unless you're playing for score, that is.
Of course, I'll explain research in detail later on, too.
Still, that's the gist of the game right there. There's no way to explain the awesomeness of it in words - so let's get to playing it, shall we?
The first step is to get a new game started:
As you can see, you can choose the difficulty level, the number of opponents, the amount of land, and the power level of magic.
The difficulty levels are Intro, Easy, Normal, Hard and Impossible. The difficulty level has three effects:
a) first, the power level of the enemy wizards changes. At Normal difficulty, every wizard is roughly equal in power. On Hard and Impossible, the computer-controlled wizards get extra picks (more on that when we get to character creation) as well as a free boost in magic power.
b) On Hard and Impossible, diplomacy becomes significantly harder. The enemy wizards start already disliking you a bit, it's harder to keep them on your good side, and they'll randomly start hating you for no reason anyway. On Hard, you can, with a LOT of work, make relationships work for a while. On Impossible, just assume you're at war with all opponents from turn 1.
(This is actually a weakness of the game, in my opinion. The diplomatic system is fairly deep, but it's inconsequential on Hard and Impossible)
c) Finally, on Hard and Impossible, Neutrals and Raiders are a lot harder, and they target the player significantly more often than the enemy wizards. It's usually manageable on Hard, but on Impossible the game can spawn a Great Wyrm or the like five steps away from your fortress on turn 3.
It's not entirely negative, however. Tougher Encounters mean that you get better rewards for clearing them, and this significantly improves the late-game on Hard and Impossible. Clearing lairs is pointless when the best you'll get is a pile of mana or a random magic item, but picking up an extra Retort or a spellbook is another matter entirely.
Anyway, as you can see, I'll be playing on Hard. Also, I will be playing for score to some extent, instead of just gunning for the enemy wizards.
As to number of opponents: Four is the maximum number of opponents, and leads to the most enjoyable game experience in my opinion. Each wizard has different abilities and plays differently, and so having more opponents means the game is a lot more varied.
Land size is set to average. This is NOT the world map size, but the amount of land (as opposed to water) on the map.
Small usually results in small archipelagos (although I've seen a map that was basically a single medium-sized continent in the middle in the past). Medium usually gives us two or three continents, and Large gives us a huge Pangea-sized megacontinent, or two large islands.
This matters a lot more than it might seem, because water is one of the two things that deter wizard aggression on Hard. The other is the divide between Arcanus and Myrror - we'll get to it eventually.
Anyways - I've set the map on Normal, in the hope that we won't be fighting three wizards from day 1, and to showcase the naval side of things as well.
Magic Power level can be weak, normal or powerful. This sounds like it matters a lot, but what it really means is how much power nodes generate. That's significant, but not game changing. I'm setting it at normal.
Afterward, we get to pick our wizard. Of course, we'll be customizing ours, but I wanted to show this off because the game doesn't use random wizards as opposition. It picks them from the list of unused wizards.
So - for instance, if we picked Sss'ra as our wizard (or even if we just use his picture for our custom wizard), we won't face off against him (her? it?) This does matter - because it means we can ensure that we won't face a specific wizard. So if you really dislike opponents with Death Magic, you can pick Rjak and not have to deal with him.
If we were playing on Normal or easier, we could pick Sss'ra's picture, the Myrran retort (more below), and be certain of not facing any Myrran opposition. However, on Hard, the computer wizards get extra picks, and thus may pick up the Myrran retort in addition to whatever we have here.
In this case, I decided to use Jafar's picture - he's not particularly remarkable in any way, so he's good for our purposes.
And so we finally get to creating a character!
This is where I'll ask for input.
As you can see in the bottom right, we have a total of 11 pick. A pick can be used to buy a spellbook in any of the five realms, or to buy Retorts (the list of traits on the top right).
You can pick up any combination of spellbooks, except that you can't have both Life and Death spellbooks.
Also, some retorts have pre-requisites - they're grayed out in the picture. The pre-requisites are "having X numbers of Y spellbooks"
So - what should our buddy Lawrence (yeah, I changed his name) be?
For reference purposes:
Life Magic is mostly buffs and enchantments, plus some good late-game summons. It's a pretty powerful school
Death Magic is debuffing. Summons are mathematically weaker but often have some specials that make up for it. Plus, of course, Zombie Mastery (I won a game through massive zombie spamming. Game of the Century, man. )
Chaos has early direct damage, good early summons, but nothing good after that. However - they have awesome enchantments later on. The Armageddon spell is probably the second-best spell in the game (and since the best is the Spell of Mastery...)
Nature has early buffs (both raw numbers and specials), some good utility spells, some good enchantments, and later on some awesome summons. It's universally good, but not awesome at anything.
Sorcery has the tricksy spells. Regular summons are nothing to write home about, but you'll get massive mileage out of Phantom Warriors. Also of note is Aura of Majesty - it counteracts the effect of the higher difficulty setting on diplomacy (except the random "I hate you forever" event). Finally - Sky Drakes.
On Retorts:
Alchemy gives two bonuses: first, all our units will have magic weapons, which improves their combat bonuses (but is replicable via other means.) More importantly, it makes it possible to convert gold to power and vice-versa at a 1:1 ratio. Without the retort, the ratio is 1:2 either way. It's the kind of retort that you always wish you had.
Warlord make your units more experienced, and allow them to gain an extra level of experience. Costs two picks.
Channeller reduces upkeep costs and reduces the cost of casting spells away from your fortress. Never noticed any significant increase in cost due to distance. Costs two picks.
Archmage gives you a bonus to your skill level and makes it easier to raise your skill. It basically means we'll be casting more spells faster. It also makes it harder for other wizards to dispel your enchantments. Unlocked by having four spellbooks of one color.
Artificer allows you to create magic items from the start of the game and reduces the cost by 50%. Note that creating item is very expensive, and so that cost reduction matters a lot.
Conjurer reduces the research, casting and upkeep costs for most summon spells.
Sage Master reduces research costs. Note that in a typical game, you'll have enough time to research everything (except perhaps the Spell of Mastery.)
Myrran means that you start on Myrror and can pick a Myrran starting race. Myrror is a tougher place to live in than Arcanus, and so the Myrran Races are "better" (but then again, the opposition is tougher, too). All in all, not something I'd recommend for a starting player. Costs three picks.
Divine Power, Infernal Power, Chaos Mastery, Nature Mastery and Sorcery Mastery basically give a few math bonuses to the relevant realms. Cheaper research, cheaper casting costs, that sort of things. Boring and honestly not worth it.
Famous gives you small a Fame bonus, and doubles the odds of Heroes, mercenaries and merchant coming to see you. That's fairly good but not game-changing.
Runemaster reduces the research and casting costs of Arcane spells (the generic spells everyone get). This is a Very Good Thing: Hero summoning spells, Item-making spells and the Spell of Mastery are Arcane spells (plus other nice spells too.) I'd recommend this pick for a showcase game, honestly. Unlocked by having 3 schools of magic with at least 2 spellbooks each.
Charismatic reduces the cost of hiring mercenaries and heroes, and help relations with other wizards. Awesome at Normal and below, meh at Hard and above.
Mana Focusing increases Mana gains by 25%. Unlocked by having four spellbooks of any one color.
Node Mastery increases the power received from nodes (a decent bonus) and helps with spellcasting in nodes, which can be game-changing. Unlocked by having 1 spellbook in each of the Sorcery, Chaos and Nature Realms.
....
Wow. I was going to do races in this post, but let's wait a bit for that. Let me know what you want me to play.
My pick would be to have 3 of each of Sorcery, Chaos and Nature, with Runemaster and Alchemy.
You've already seen the intro, but it's not exactly enlightening as to what is going on in there. So I'll start with a few more details about the game.
In Master of Magic, you play as the wizard-ruler of a nation. Your goal is to somehow banish all other wizards to Limbo, so as to have Unlimited Cosmic Power over the two worlds of Arcanus and Myrror.
You have two ways to banish wizards to oblivion. First, you can seize the city in which your target wizard's fortress is located. You will then send said wizard into Limbo - although he may be able to use the Spell of Return to come back to play if he still has other cities. I'll go into more detail on the Spell of Return later on.
Since Master of Magic is a strategy game, you don't get to personnally wade in, lightning crackling at your fingertip. Instead, you send out armies, summoned creatures and heroes to rampage across the world while you lay out curses and spells on the land. I'll go into a lot more details on both spellcasting and world exploring later on as well.
The other way to win is to successfully research and cast the Spell of Mastery. This will send all other wizards to Limbo permanently, as well as give you a nice bonus to your score. Now - this is a lot easier than it sounds. The research and casting costs of the Spell of Mastery are absurdly high, and it's usually much easier just to send waves after waves of troops at your enemies. Unless you're playing for score, that is.
Of course, I'll explain research in detail later on, too.
Still, that's the gist of the game right there. There's no way to explain the awesomeness of it in words - so let's get to playing it, shall we?
The first step is to get a new game started:
As you can see, you can choose the difficulty level, the number of opponents, the amount of land, and the power level of magic.
The difficulty levels are Intro, Easy, Normal, Hard and Impossible. The difficulty level has three effects:
a) first, the power level of the enemy wizards changes. At Normal difficulty, every wizard is roughly equal in power. On Hard and Impossible, the computer-controlled wizards get extra picks (more on that when we get to character creation) as well as a free boost in magic power.
b) On Hard and Impossible, diplomacy becomes significantly harder. The enemy wizards start already disliking you a bit, it's harder to keep them on your good side, and they'll randomly start hating you for no reason anyway. On Hard, you can, with a LOT of work, make relationships work for a while. On Impossible, just assume you're at war with all opponents from turn 1.
(This is actually a weakness of the game, in my opinion. The diplomatic system is fairly deep, but it's inconsequential on Hard and Impossible)
c) Finally, on Hard and Impossible, Neutrals and Raiders are a lot harder, and they target the player significantly more often than the enemy wizards. It's usually manageable on Hard, but on Impossible the game can spawn a Great Wyrm or the like five steps away from your fortress on turn 3.
It's not entirely negative, however. Tougher Encounters mean that you get better rewards for clearing them, and this significantly improves the late-game on Hard and Impossible. Clearing lairs is pointless when the best you'll get is a pile of mana or a random magic item, but picking up an extra Retort or a spellbook is another matter entirely.
Anyway, as you can see, I'll be playing on Hard. Also, I will be playing for score to some extent, instead of just gunning for the enemy wizards.
As to number of opponents: Four is the maximum number of opponents, and leads to the most enjoyable game experience in my opinion. Each wizard has different abilities and plays differently, and so having more opponents means the game is a lot more varied.
Land size is set to average. This is NOT the world map size, but the amount of land (as opposed to water) on the map.
Small usually results in small archipelagos (although I've seen a map that was basically a single medium-sized continent in the middle in the past). Medium usually gives us two or three continents, and Large gives us a huge Pangea-sized megacontinent, or two large islands.
This matters a lot more than it might seem, because water is one of the two things that deter wizard aggression on Hard. The other is the divide between Arcanus and Myrror - we'll get to it eventually.
Anyways - I've set the map on Normal, in the hope that we won't be fighting three wizards from day 1, and to showcase the naval side of things as well.
Magic Power level can be weak, normal or powerful. This sounds like it matters a lot, but what it really means is how much power nodes generate. That's significant, but not game changing. I'm setting it at normal.
Afterward, we get to pick our wizard. Of course, we'll be customizing ours, but I wanted to show this off because the game doesn't use random wizards as opposition. It picks them from the list of unused wizards.
So - for instance, if we picked Sss'ra as our wizard (or even if we just use his picture for our custom wizard), we won't face off against him (her? it?) This does matter - because it means we can ensure that we won't face a specific wizard. So if you really dislike opponents with Death Magic, you can pick Rjak and not have to deal with him.
If we were playing on Normal or easier, we could pick Sss'ra's picture, the Myrran retort (more below), and be certain of not facing any Myrran opposition. However, on Hard, the computer wizards get extra picks, and thus may pick up the Myrran retort in addition to whatever we have here.
In this case, I decided to use Jafar's picture - he's not particularly remarkable in any way, so he's good for our purposes.
And so we finally get to creating a character!
This is where I'll ask for input.
As you can see in the bottom right, we have a total of 11 pick. A pick can be used to buy a spellbook in any of the five realms, or to buy Retorts (the list of traits on the top right).
You can pick up any combination of spellbooks, except that you can't have both Life and Death spellbooks.
Also, some retorts have pre-requisites - they're grayed out in the picture. The pre-requisites are "having X numbers of Y spellbooks"
So - what should our buddy Lawrence (yeah, I changed his name) be?
For reference purposes:
Life Magic is mostly buffs and enchantments, plus some good late-game summons. It's a pretty powerful school
Death Magic is debuffing. Summons are mathematically weaker but often have some specials that make up for it. Plus, of course, Zombie Mastery (I won a game through massive zombie spamming. Game of the Century, man. )
Chaos has early direct damage, good early summons, but nothing good after that. However - they have awesome enchantments later on. The Armageddon spell is probably the second-best spell in the game (and since the best is the Spell of Mastery...)
Nature has early buffs (both raw numbers and specials), some good utility spells, some good enchantments, and later on some awesome summons. It's universally good, but not awesome at anything.
Sorcery has the tricksy spells. Regular summons are nothing to write home about, but you'll get massive mileage out of Phantom Warriors. Also of note is Aura of Majesty - it counteracts the effect of the higher difficulty setting on diplomacy (except the random "I hate you forever" event). Finally - Sky Drakes.
On Retorts:
Alchemy gives two bonuses: first, all our units will have magic weapons, which improves their combat bonuses (but is replicable via other means.) More importantly, it makes it possible to convert gold to power and vice-versa at a 1:1 ratio. Without the retort, the ratio is 1:2 either way. It's the kind of retort that you always wish you had.
Warlord make your units more experienced, and allow them to gain an extra level of experience. Costs two picks.
Channeller reduces upkeep costs and reduces the cost of casting spells away from your fortress. Never noticed any significant increase in cost due to distance. Costs two picks.
Archmage gives you a bonus to your skill level and makes it easier to raise your skill. It basically means we'll be casting more spells faster. It also makes it harder for other wizards to dispel your enchantments. Unlocked by having four spellbooks of one color.
Artificer allows you to create magic items from the start of the game and reduces the cost by 50%. Note that creating item is very expensive, and so that cost reduction matters a lot.
Conjurer reduces the research, casting and upkeep costs for most summon spells.
Sage Master reduces research costs. Note that in a typical game, you'll have enough time to research everything (except perhaps the Spell of Mastery.)
Myrran means that you start on Myrror and can pick a Myrran starting race. Myrror is a tougher place to live in than Arcanus, and so the Myrran Races are "better" (but then again, the opposition is tougher, too). All in all, not something I'd recommend for a starting player. Costs three picks.
Divine Power, Infernal Power, Chaos Mastery, Nature Mastery and Sorcery Mastery basically give a few math bonuses to the relevant realms. Cheaper research, cheaper casting costs, that sort of things. Boring and honestly not worth it.
Famous gives you small a Fame bonus, and doubles the odds of Heroes, mercenaries and merchant coming to see you. That's fairly good but not game-changing.
Runemaster reduces the research and casting costs of Arcane spells (the generic spells everyone get). This is a Very Good Thing: Hero summoning spells, Item-making spells and the Spell of Mastery are Arcane spells (plus other nice spells too.) I'd recommend this pick for a showcase game, honestly. Unlocked by having 3 schools of magic with at least 2 spellbooks each.
Charismatic reduces the cost of hiring mercenaries and heroes, and help relations with other wizards. Awesome at Normal and below, meh at Hard and above.
Mana Focusing increases Mana gains by 25%. Unlocked by having four spellbooks of any one color.
Node Mastery increases the power received from nodes (a decent bonus) and helps with spellcasting in nodes, which can be game-changing. Unlocked by having 1 spellbook in each of the Sorcery, Chaos and Nature Realms.
....
Wow. I was going to do races in this post, but let's wait a bit for that. Let me know what you want me to play.
My pick would be to have 3 of each of Sorcery, Chaos and Nature, with Runemaster and Alchemy.
Last edited by MisterDee on Tue May 15, 2012 4:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Having done this a number of times, you really have a limited number of options. Life > Death for the Justice League strategy. Chaos and Nature are more roughly equivalent - personally, I think Chaos is better.
Sorcery 5 is much better than other things because it lets you give your units Magic Immunity. Invisibility is broken, unfortunately - but Magic Immunity is an absolute must to prevent the CPU from just killing your heroes with cheat-tastic Psionic Blasts. So Sorcery 5 is probably better than Sorcery 4 plus Archmage or something.
So the best option is probably:
Sorcery 5, Life 2, Chaos 2
with
Sorcery 5, Life 2, Nature 2
coming in a close second. You can have Web and Warp Wood which are nice for stray secondary battles, but you can't make Flaming weapons or give your hero and Eldritch Weapon or any of the various Chaos stuff which I prefer to Nature.
Other viable strategies tend to include:
Sorcery 4, Life 2, Chaos 2, Archmage.
You lose the ability to put Magic Immune on items, which is awful. OTOH, your spellcasting skill, and thus your mana accumulation rate as well as combat casting rate, is much higher, so you may be able to kill the computer before it can get serious about psi-blast cheating.
Sorcery 5 is much better than other things because it lets you give your units Magic Immunity. Invisibility is broken, unfortunately - but Magic Immunity is an absolute must to prevent the CPU from just killing your heroes with cheat-tastic Psionic Blasts. So Sorcery 5 is probably better than Sorcery 4 plus Archmage or something.
So the best option is probably:
Sorcery 5, Life 2, Chaos 2
with
Sorcery 5, Life 2, Nature 2
coming in a close second. You can have Web and Warp Wood which are nice for stray secondary battles, but you can't make Flaming weapons or give your hero and Eldritch Weapon or any of the various Chaos stuff which I prefer to Nature.
Other viable strategies tend to include:
Sorcery 4, Life 2, Chaos 2, Archmage.
You lose the ability to put Magic Immune on items, which is awful. OTOH, your spellcasting skill, and thus your mana accumulation rate as well as combat casting rate, is much higher, so you may be able to kill the computer before it can get serious about psi-blast cheating.
Chaosium rules are made of unicorn pubic hair and cancer. --AncientH
When you talk, all I can hear is "DunningKruger" over and over again like you were a god damn Pokemon. --Username17
Fuck off with the pony murder shit. --Grek
When you talk, all I can hear is "DunningKruger" over and over again like you were a god damn Pokemon. --Username17
Fuck off with the pony murder shit. --Grek
Ah, let's get the races out of the way too.
Once we've created our wizard, we have to pick a race for him to lead.
All Arcanus races are available at the start, but to pick a Myrran race, we have to have picked the Myrran retort.
So - without further ado:
Arcanus Races:
Barbarians are a fairly bland race. They don't get to build most high-end buildings, and thus only have access to one racial unit. However, they are above-average in power, as their regular melee units get a Thrown attack prior to entering melee combat. This significantly improves their melee fighting power. Their only racial unit is the berserker, a very powerful melee attacker. But since all of their power is melee, expect barbarians armies to run out of steam in the mid-game. A second-tier choice at best.
Gnolls
Gnolls are worse than barbarians. They get less buildings, less units, and grow slowly to boot. Their special unit, the wolf-rider, is fast but lightly armored and not powerful offensively. One of the worst races in the game.
Halflings
Again, halflings don't get to build all high-end buildings. However, they make up for it with their powerful Slingers. Without going into details, slingers are cheap and powerful, and can dominate the game until the late game begins (and still play a role in the end-game). Furthermore, all halfling units are Lucky - meaning they get a small bonus on rolls. A first-tier pick.
High Elf
A race which I've never played, but which seems pretty good. They get to build most high-end building, including Fantastic Stables. They get a bonus to hit from the start, they get a good racial unit upon completion of an early-game building, and their later racial units are devastatingly powerful.
High Men
Another powerful race, but one that struggles a bit in the early game. Getting to their racial unit is a pain as they require the construction of high-end buildings, including the Cathedral which is not something with a high build priority.
Klackon
An interesting race. They don't get to build much, but don't really need it. They get a good mid-game racial unit at a reasonable cost.
The problem is that they effectively get no use out of captured non-Klackon race. They're universally hated by everybody else, and so are better fitted to a genocidal strategy than anything else. Not something I'd play for a showcase game.
Lizardmen
A specialized race. Buildings are below-average, but the lizardmen grow fast and so you can compensate by spawning many new cities early on.
The lizardmen racial units are a good ranged attacker, the Javelineer, and a powerful dragon turtle. Together they can form a fairly good offensive force.
The lizardmen's best asset, however, is that they can swim, which opens many strategic options.
Still, not a good pick for a showcase game either.
Nomads
Another good race. Nomad cities get bonus gold, which is massively useful in the early game. Their regular units are average, but they get horsebowmen early on, who can employ skirmishing tactics to punch slightly above their weight class. Thus, they're pretty good at city conquests. In the late game, the Nomads also get griffins, which provide them with a much needed heavy-hitting unit.
Orcs
Orcs are another mid-range race. They get to build every building, but only get one racial unit (the Wyvern Riders, from the Fantastic Stable). They're a great unit to try out first, preferably on a more forgiving difficulty level.
Myrran Races:
By and large, all Myrran races are playable.
Beastmen
Beastmen are the most normalMyrran race - which make them about on par with the Barbarians or so. Their racial units are decent - Centaurs are basically better Horsebowmen, Minotaurs are powerful units and Manticores fly.
Dark Elves
A slow-growing race that's better in the computer's hands. They get a nice special: every regular dark elf unit also gets a magical ranged attack. Their racial units are the invisible Nightblades (which the enemy wizards see, even if they can't target them), the powerful (and expensive) warlocks, and the Nightmares.
Draconians
The Draconians are basically upgraded lizardmen. Instead of swimming, they fly. Which makes them fairly scary in the early game, but they run out of steam.
Dwarves
Industrious (with the production bonus to prove it) and with extremely good racial units. If you can get a decently large dwarven empire going, there's very little that can stop you. But they're slow-growing.
Trolls
Powerful. Green. Regenerating. Once you get them started, they're a force to behold. But they lack the high-end buildings and thus don't really have a long game.
So - your pick? (I'd prefer High Elves)
Once we've created our wizard, we have to pick a race for him to lead.
All Arcanus races are available at the start, but to pick a Myrran race, we have to have picked the Myrran retort.
So - without further ado:
Arcanus Races:
Barbarians are a fairly bland race. They don't get to build most high-end buildings, and thus only have access to one racial unit. However, they are above-average in power, as their regular melee units get a Thrown attack prior to entering melee combat. This significantly improves their melee fighting power. Their only racial unit is the berserker, a very powerful melee attacker. But since all of their power is melee, expect barbarians armies to run out of steam in the mid-game. A second-tier choice at best.
Gnolls
Gnolls are worse than barbarians. They get less buildings, less units, and grow slowly to boot. Their special unit, the wolf-rider, is fast but lightly armored and not powerful offensively. One of the worst races in the game.
Halflings
Again, halflings don't get to build all high-end buildings. However, they make up for it with their powerful Slingers. Without going into details, slingers are cheap and powerful, and can dominate the game until the late game begins (and still play a role in the end-game). Furthermore, all halfling units are Lucky - meaning they get a small bonus on rolls. A first-tier pick.
High Elf
A race which I've never played, but which seems pretty good. They get to build most high-end building, including Fantastic Stables. They get a bonus to hit from the start, they get a good racial unit upon completion of an early-game building, and their later racial units are devastatingly powerful.
High Men
Another powerful race, but one that struggles a bit in the early game. Getting to their racial unit is a pain as they require the construction of high-end buildings, including the Cathedral which is not something with a high build priority.
Klackon
An interesting race. They don't get to build much, but don't really need it. They get a good mid-game racial unit at a reasonable cost.
The problem is that they effectively get no use out of captured non-Klackon race. They're universally hated by everybody else, and so are better fitted to a genocidal strategy than anything else. Not something I'd play for a showcase game.
Lizardmen
A specialized race. Buildings are below-average, but the lizardmen grow fast and so you can compensate by spawning many new cities early on.
The lizardmen racial units are a good ranged attacker, the Javelineer, and a powerful dragon turtle. Together they can form a fairly good offensive force.
The lizardmen's best asset, however, is that they can swim, which opens many strategic options.
Still, not a good pick for a showcase game either.
Nomads
Another good race. Nomad cities get bonus gold, which is massively useful in the early game. Their regular units are average, but they get horsebowmen early on, who can employ skirmishing tactics to punch slightly above their weight class. Thus, they're pretty good at city conquests. In the late game, the Nomads also get griffins, which provide them with a much needed heavy-hitting unit.
Orcs
Orcs are another mid-range race. They get to build every building, but only get one racial unit (the Wyvern Riders, from the Fantastic Stable). They're a great unit to try out first, preferably on a more forgiving difficulty level.
Myrran Races:
By and large, all Myrran races are playable.
Beastmen
Beastmen are the most normalMyrran race - which make them about on par with the Barbarians or so. Their racial units are decent - Centaurs are basically better Horsebowmen, Minotaurs are powerful units and Manticores fly.
Dark Elves
A slow-growing race that's better in the computer's hands. They get a nice special: every regular dark elf unit also gets a magical ranged attack. Their racial units are the invisible Nightblades (which the enemy wizards see, even if they can't target them), the powerful (and expensive) warlocks, and the Nightmares.
Draconians
The Draconians are basically upgraded lizardmen. Instead of swimming, they fly. Which makes them fairly scary in the early game, but they run out of steam.
Dwarves
Industrious (with the production bonus to prove it) and with extremely good racial units. If you can get a decently large dwarven empire going, there's very little that can stop you. But they're slow-growing.
Trolls
Powerful. Green. Regenerating. Once you get them started, they're a force to behold. But they lack the high-end buildings and thus don't really have a long game.
So - your pick? (I'd prefer High Elves)
One thing you forgot (I think), High Elves produce mana.
So yeah I vote for them too, so you can show more MAGIC.
So yeah I vote for them too, so you can show more MAGIC.
Red_Rob wrote: I mean, I'm pretty sure the Mayans had a prophecy about what would happen if Frank and PL ever agreed on something. PL will argue with Frank that the sky is blue or grass is green, so when they both separately piss on your idea that is definitely something to think about.
Yeah - I forgot about that - Dark Elves too, and Beastmen produce a bit as well I think. Certainly something to keep in mind.
Oh - and for those following at home. I forgot to mention that some races don't like being ruled by other races.
So if I play High Elves, Nomads, High Men and Halflings won't mind me ruling them, but Dark Elves, Trolls and Dwarves will be very upset when I rule their towns - to the point that I don't want to take those towns early on. Everybody else gets is somewhat miffed but workable.
And a fun fact. Klackons hate everyone, but on the other hand they love other Klackons. To the point that they get negative unrest when ruled by Klackons (so as a Klackon, jack up that tax rate.)
Oh - and for those following at home. I forgot to mention that some races don't like being ruled by other races.
So if I play High Elves, Nomads, High Men and Halflings won't mind me ruling them, but Dark Elves, Trolls and Dwarves will be very upset when I rule their towns - to the point that I don't want to take those towns early on. Everybody else gets is somewhat miffed but workable.
And a fun fact. Klackons hate everyone, but on the other hand they love other Klackons. To the point that they get negative unrest when ruled by Klackons (so as a Klackon, jack up that tax rate.)
-
Username17
- Serious Badass
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The game in no way rewards mixed armies or settling territory or doing any of that crap. Cities you capture are going to be way more developed than cities you build from scratch, so there's basically little point in ever even building a settler. Ranged units don't really synergize much with melee units. The only combined army tactics worth a shit are that healers such as priests can give you more mileage out of your other units but aren't personally all that great other than that.
What this boils down to is that at any given time you're going to be fighting with the best unit you can build out of any city that is making units. And for a majority of the game, that best unit will be the overall top end unit of the faction. So since High Men have far and away the best unit in Arcanus (the Paladin), the High Men are the best. Hands down.
For a demonstration game you should probably actually use the Nomads. They build all the stuff, they make bonus money, they have the second best unrest profile in the game (Halflings are the natural rulers of Arcanus, but they don't make any high end units).
-Username17
What this boils down to is that at any given time you're going to be fighting with the best unit you can build out of any city that is making units. And for a majority of the game, that best unit will be the overall top end unit of the faction. So since High Men have far and away the best unit in Arcanus (the Paladin), the High Men are the best. Hands down.
For a demonstration game you should probably actually use the Nomads. They build all the stuff, they make bonus money, they have the second best unrest profile in the game (Halflings are the natural rulers of Arcanus, but they don't make any high end units).
-Username17
Well, you can get some mileage out of combined arms, notably in city defense against spell-happy wizards and in city assaults. But mostly I think the longbowman's interesting as a very early racial unit, for that initial rush to expand. But maybe it doesn't work out in practice - I've never ran the High Elves.
Settling has exactly four uses: 1-Running up the score; 2-Blocking a one-tile passage; 3-Creating a beachhead on a new continent if it's inhabited by Klackons, and 4-creating a combined slinger/hammerhand production center for that protracted war against Sss'ra if you don't want to go with a "sterilize Myrror" strategy.
That said - I think you're probably right about the High Men (with perhaps the caveat that the Halflings have an easier early game, and it's much easier to lose in the early game.) But for a demo game I'll try something else.
Settling has exactly four uses: 1-Running up the score; 2-Blocking a one-tile passage; 3-Creating a beachhead on a new continent if it's inhabited by Klackons, and 4-creating a combined slinger/hammerhand production center for that protracted war against Sss'ra if you don't want to go with a "sterilize Myrror" strategy.
That said - I think you're probably right about the High Men (with perhaps the caveat that the Halflings have an easier early game, and it's much easier to lose in the early game.) But for a demo game I'll try something else.
Try Alt-Enter.Korwin wrote:Need to play again...
Anyone know how to enlarge the DOS Window?
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
Also, two Nature books are good - Earth Lore is very handy.
Everything I learned about DnD, I learned from Frank Trollman.
Kaelik wrote:You are so full of Strawmen that I can only assume you actually shit actual straw.
souran wrote:...uber, nerd-rage-inducing, minutia-devoted, pointless blithering shit.
Schwarzkopf wrote:The Den, your one-stop shop for in-depth analysis of Dungeons & Dragons and distressingly credible threats of oral rape.
DSM wrote:Apparently, The GM's Going To Punch You in Your Goddamned Face edition of D&D is getting more traction than I expected. Well, it beats playing 4th. Probably 5th, too.
Frank Trollman wrote:Giving someone a mouth full of cock is a standard action.
PoliteNewb wrote:If size means anything, it's what position you have to get in to give a BJ.
I think your assessment has some issues. Frank is correct that humans are the best race because they build the best unit - but that doesn't mean you're best off starting with humans...
The important thing about Elves is the +0.5 mana per population. So if you're going Justice League, that's awesome, because it raises your spell skill which snowballs into all kinds of awesome.
Also keep in mind that Lizardmen wogs are +1 heart. That's a major power not to be sneezed at; you can conquer a few cities early on with Lizardmen spearmen and then it hardly matters that you're lizardmen, does it? Except they have a poor unrest profile.
And, yes, the swimming is a major power.
Nightmares have the same problem as Pegasi - either your opponent can hurt them (in which case they are cavalry with only two models, not a great deal) or they can't. If they can't you maybe win except that your zots are so weak that you can't kill anything with them.
Agree about Barbarians.MisterDee wrote:Ah, let's get the races out of the way too.
Barbarians are a fairly bland race.
The point with Wolf Riders is that they are very powerful for when they are built in the game (very early). If you go Gnolls, you are gambling that you can capture several other cities which will then make better stuff for you.Gnolls
Their special unit, the wolf-rider, is fast but lightly armored and not powerful offensively.
Yes, Slingers. Also, Halflings make extra food which is a better bonus than many high end buildings, once the game gets going.Halflings
Slingers
Actually, Pegasi are kinda lame. By the time you get them, the computer invariably has counters. Longbowmen are nearly as good as slingers, though.High Elf
The important thing about Elves is the +0.5 mana per population. So if you're going Justice League, that's awesome, because it raises your spell skill which snowballs into all kinds of awesome.
What Frank said.High Men
Paladins
I agree about Klackons. You can win with Stag Beetles, which is good because that's all you get.Klackon
As Frank said - go one or the other.Lizardmen
The lizardmen racial units are a good ranged attacker, the Javelineer, OR powerful dragon turtles. Seperately they can form a fairly good offensive force.
Also keep in mind that Lizardmen wogs are +1 heart. That's a major power not to be sneezed at; you can conquer a few cities early on with Lizardmen spearmen and then it hardly matters that you're lizardmen, does it? Except they have a poor unrest profile.
And, yes, the swimming is a major power.
I agree that Nomads are a good showcase race.Nomads
Another good race. Nomad cities get bonus gold, which is massively useful in the early game. Their regular units are average, but they get horsebowmen early on, who can employ skirmishing tactics to punch slightly above their weight class. Thus, they're pretty good at city conquests. In the late game, the Nomads also get griffins, which provide them with a much needed heavy-hitting unit.
Like Nomads and Halflings, Orcs have a good unrest profile. The argument can be made that this is the only thing that matters.Orcs
Orcs are another mid-range race. They get to build every building, but only get one racial unit (the Wyvern Riders, from the Fantastic Stable). They're a great unit to try out first, preferably on a more forgiving difficulty level.
Beastmen basic units are on-pair with elite units for other nations. Don't bother with minotaurs - just conquer everyone with swordsmen.Beastmen
Beep! Wrong!
Warlocks are an inspiration. Nightblades are okay. The other Dark Elf units are poor - their zots are an insult at only one bip each they don't hurt anything that matters.Dark Elves
Nightmares have the same problem as Pegasi - either your opponent can hurt them (in which case they are cavalry with only two models, not a great deal) or they can't. If they can't you maybe win except that your zots are so weak that you can't kill anything with them.
Also Draconian models only have 1 heart each. The Draconians are actualy upgraded barbarians, with their breath weapon.Draconians
The Draconians are basically upgraded lizardmen. Instead of swimming, they fly. Which makes them fairly scary in the early game, but they run out of steam.
Dwarves make extra hammers and also extra gold. Like beastmen, you don't bother building elite stuff (maybe hammerhands, but they're not actually that high level), you just conquer the world with dwarf swordsmen or maybe hammerhands, then when you have some high men cities you have your dwarves make trade goods to buy cathedrals so the high men can make paladins.Dwarves
Industrious (with the production bonus to prove it) and with extremely good racial units. If you can get a decently large dwarven empire going, there's very little that can stop you. But they're slow-growing.
Trolls have an absolutely abysmal unrest profile (as bad as Klackons, I think), which is their real problem. So again, you take some trolls and you go and conquer some real cities to make art and culture for you, but the other Myrran races are all better at this and mostly make better high end stuff themselves, to boot.Trolls
Powerful. Green. Regenerating. Once you get them started, they're a force to behold. But they lack the high-end buildings and thus don't really have a long game.
I also prefer High Elves - because they make bonus Mana which I can use for my hero equipment economy, and Longbowmen are made out of an economic building.So - your pick? (I'd prefer High Elves)
So - I'm attempting to write this up as a story. No guarantee that it'll be any good. Gameplay comments in italics.
Chapter 1 - Under the Skies of Arcanus
Lawrence Chatham was, by all accounts, a pretty smart young man. Not a genius by any means, but overall a bright kid, the kind who could always take a situation apart and find the best angle to play.
Of course, that required that there be a good angle. Waking up following an evening filled with tequila was probably as hopeless a situation as anyone could imagine. Larry rolled over, hoping against all odds that he could go back to sleep, or at least die.
"Wake up, Lord!" a shrill voice erupted near his head. "Your destiny awaits!"
"Huh? Wha?" Larry moaned, pawing at his face to clear his vision. "Who the... YEEAARGH!"
Standing before him, a mere foot away from his face, was a red... thing. A small horned creature, somewhat human looking, grinning manically.
"What the fuck?"
"Welcome to Arcanus, Lord!" the small imp bowed deeply, then continued. "You can call me Vernon. I'll be delighted to answer your questions, but I think you'll want breakfast, first."
-----
"Let me get this straight. You've whisked me from home because apparently, I'm destined to lead the Nomads to dominion over the world of Arcanus." Larry had listened to Vernon's long-winded explanation as he ate breakfast. First in disbelief, then, as Vernon demonstrated that magic truly existed by ridding him of the morning-after headache, in wonder. "And Myrror, of course, mustn't forget Myrror. The way I'll do that is by mastering magic, something that you say I'm uniquely suited for even though it doesn't exist on Earth. And just to make it better, there are other wizards out there who see me as a threat and will gladly send me to Hell if I give them half the chance."
Vernon nodded. "Right. You say we have armies, right. Let's go see them. What did you say this place was called, anyways?
This is the World Map. Function buttons on top, info window on the right. I'll explain the buttons as they come up.
Of course, the world isn't explored yet, so it's all black everywhere. There is fog of war in this game, but there isn't any special visual effect for it. You just see units appears when they are in your field of view.
At the moment, we have two units in the city, fifty gold, and no accumulated mana.
Note the small pile of rock west of my city. This is a Ruin, a type of encounter. If I send troops there, I will find out if there are monsters in there. If there are, I'll have the option of fighting them or waiting until later. If I defeat the monsters, or if there are no monsters in there, I get a reward. The reward is commensurate to the risk.
"Anyway, this place is a dump."
This is the City view. The city image below shows that we already have a few buildings up: a Smithy, a Builder's Hall, and Barracks. The first two buildings only enable additional buildings to be built, the Barracks allow Swordsmen. We also have our fortress and our summoning circle.
Above the city view, you can see the city stats: It's a nomad city with 4000 inhabitants, growing by 70 every turn. At 5000 persons, we'll get a fifth citizen icon. Currently, we have four: three farmers and one worker.
The city produces 6 Food, 4 of which are being consumed by our troops and our citizens. Food doesn't accumulate, so it's an absolute limit on how many units you can field.
The city also produces four production points (used to build buildings and units), four gold, and nine power.
"You say I'm ruler here? Well, I want to see some improvements. I mean, we're going to war, right? We need some industry!"
On the way out of the room, Lawrence took the time to glance at the small vanity, covered in the books Vernon claimed contained the secret of ultimate cosmic power. His reflection showed that although his headache was gone, he'd still need to find a razor, or Arcanus would have to live with a hobo for a ruler.
This is our character. I've picked three spellbooks of each of Nature, Chaos and Sorcery, plus the Runemaster and Alchemist Retorts. Having three spellbooks mean that I'll have access to one Very Rare spell in each school, which I felt was a cool thing to do in a demo game.
"THAT'S our army?" Larry exclaimed in disbelief after a thorough review of the troops. "This is just a dozen dudes. Half of them just have pointy sticks!"
Those are our troops.
Their stats look pathetic, but they're not as bad as they might seem. The stats are for each figure in the unit. As the unit takes damage, the number of figures drops. So a fully-healthy spearmen unit attacks six times (with a value of 1 per attack), while a half-health spearmen attacks three times only.
Now, they're still pretty bad troops. Just not as bad as you first thought.
As a side-note, multi-figure units benefit a lot more from buffing spells, as the buff applies to all figures.
The troops glowered at Larry. Larry glared back, then realized that although he apparently had the potential to become a great wizard, these guys had the certainty of sharp metal and pointy sticks. "Fine, then. Let's lead these men to glory. Sword Squad! Head south and find out if there's anything around. Spear Squad, head west!"
As the troops headed off into the distance, Larry turned to Vernon. "So, what else is there to do in this town?"
This is the research interface. You get to pick which spell to research next among eight choices. As spells are researched, new ones appear to replace them. Note that while your repertoire is set from turn one, there is some variance in which spells appear on any given research opportunity. That means that if you see a spell in the list, you'll eventually be able to research it, but it might not be available the next time you pick which spell to research.
"Studying, really?" Larry complained after a few days. "That's all I'm going to do?"
The last few days had been extremely boring. The nomads clearly didn't want anything to do with their new leader. They obeyed, and that's it. Ruling was turning out to be an extremely lonely job.
Even the occasionnal good news from the Squads could only cheer Larry up so far. "Looted a tomb. See attached chest." Gold was quickly losing its novelty.
Vernon sighed. "Yes, Master. You need to become a great wizard, and lead the Nomads. Your talent already start to show!"
"That's bull, Vernon. Sure, I can make some imaginary soldiers appear. How good is that?"
"It better be, Lord. We have received dispatch from Spear Squad. They have stumbled upon a tribe of lizardmen. They voted and will attack in two hours."
And this is the battle interface. Our troops are in the bottom right, the enemies are in the top left. The city is not just decoration: if the attacking unit reach the city, they'll start to kill off citizens.
Note that I'm up against enemy swordsmen, who are more powerful than my spearmen. But this is a neutral city, not under a wizard's dominion, and so they have no spellcasting support.
Combat is turn-based, with each unit moving according to its speed and spending half its movement point when they attack. When an attack occurs, the enemy also counterattacks. This means next to nothing now, but when it starts to matter I'll go into more details.
"What do you mean, they voted? Aren't they supposed to obey me?" Larry shrieked.
"Well, they asked me, and you were busy, so..." Vernon smiled contritely. "I've set up a magic mirror so you can watch the action, Lord."
"Man, Spear Squad is going to get trounced. These lizards look tough, and they have swords." Larry concluded after a few moments' study.
"You know, you could help them, Lord." Vernon shrugged. "You can send spells through the mirror if you want. Perhaps those Phantom Warriors of yours, or maybe that protection spell you've been practicing?"
Those are the spells I can cast. Those that are grayed out are spells I can't cast because my skill is not high enough (or for which I don't have the mana.) I'll go into powerbase and skill and that stuff next update.
"Really? Let's try the Warriors, then. I want to see how well they do." Larry got up, excited at the chance to do something. That he could save lives if he succeeded was a bonus.
"Great! It worked!" Larry shouted as the Phantom Warriors went through the lizardmen like a knife through butter. The Warriors were flimsy creations, but their spears lasted long enough to punch through the enemy's armor. By the time the last warrior disappeared, the only work remaining for Spear Squad was to finish off a pair of wounded warriors. "LA-RRY! LA-RRY!" The men shouted as they charged to finish off the defenders.
The Phantom Warriors spell is a basic Sorcery spell. The Warriors are incredibly flimsy, but their weapons are Illusory - meaning they ignore armor unless the opponent has Immunity to Illusions or True Seeing on. Should they survive the battle, they vanish.
And remember when I mentionned how figures are important? At six-on-six, those swordsmen would have murdered my spearmen. At six-on-two, my spearmen take out the unit without suffering any damage.
You get this choice after conquering a city. Razing the city nets you a bit of gold, with a large Fame penalty, and the city disappears. Otherwise, you get the city, a Fame bonus, and a token amount of gold. Unless the city is something you really don't want to manage, or if you don't think you can hold the city, it's better to keep it.
"So, Lord, shall we wipe off these abominations from the face of Arcanus?" Vernon asked hungrily.
"What? No!" Larry replied, shocked by the sudden change in his otherwise genial assistant.
"Oh. Well." Vernon deflated in a second. "Oh, I see, you want to enslave them! Of course, your will shall be done, Lord!" the small imp continued after a moment, his smile returning. "I shall see to it immediately!"
The red demon ran off the room, leaving Larry to consider this new development.
Chapter 1 - Under the Skies of Arcanus
Lawrence Chatham was, by all accounts, a pretty smart young man. Not a genius by any means, but overall a bright kid, the kind who could always take a situation apart and find the best angle to play.
Of course, that required that there be a good angle. Waking up following an evening filled with tequila was probably as hopeless a situation as anyone could imagine. Larry rolled over, hoping against all odds that he could go back to sleep, or at least die.
"Wake up, Lord!" a shrill voice erupted near his head. "Your destiny awaits!"
"Huh? Wha?" Larry moaned, pawing at his face to clear his vision. "Who the... YEEAARGH!"
Standing before him, a mere foot away from his face, was a red... thing. A small horned creature, somewhat human looking, grinning manically.
"What the fuck?"
"Welcome to Arcanus, Lord!" the small imp bowed deeply, then continued. "You can call me Vernon. I'll be delighted to answer your questions, but I think you'll want breakfast, first."
-----
"Let me get this straight. You've whisked me from home because apparently, I'm destined to lead the Nomads to dominion over the world of Arcanus." Larry had listened to Vernon's long-winded explanation as he ate breakfast. First in disbelief, then, as Vernon demonstrated that magic truly existed by ridding him of the morning-after headache, in wonder. "And Myrror, of course, mustn't forget Myrror. The way I'll do that is by mastering magic, something that you say I'm uniquely suited for even though it doesn't exist on Earth. And just to make it better, there are other wizards out there who see me as a threat and will gladly send me to Hell if I give them half the chance."
Vernon nodded. "Right. You say we have armies, right. Let's go see them. What did you say this place was called, anyways?
This is the World Map. Function buttons on top, info window on the right. I'll explain the buttons as they come up.
Of course, the world isn't explored yet, so it's all black everywhere. There is fog of war in this game, but there isn't any special visual effect for it. You just see units appears when they are in your field of view.
At the moment, we have two units in the city, fifty gold, and no accumulated mana.
Note the small pile of rock west of my city. This is a Ruin, a type of encounter. If I send troops there, I will find out if there are monsters in there. If there are, I'll have the option of fighting them or waiting until later. If I defeat the monsters, or if there are no monsters in there, I get a reward. The reward is commensurate to the risk.
"Anyway, this place is a dump."
This is the City view. The city image below shows that we already have a few buildings up: a Smithy, a Builder's Hall, and Barracks. The first two buildings only enable additional buildings to be built, the Barracks allow Swordsmen. We also have our fortress and our summoning circle.
Above the city view, you can see the city stats: It's a nomad city with 4000 inhabitants, growing by 70 every turn. At 5000 persons, we'll get a fifth citizen icon. Currently, we have four: three farmers and one worker.
The city produces 6 Food, 4 of which are being consumed by our troops and our citizens. Food doesn't accumulate, so it's an absolute limit on how many units you can field.
The city also produces four production points (used to build buildings and units), four gold, and nine power.
"You say I'm ruler here? Well, I want to see some improvements. I mean, we're going to war, right? We need some industry!"
On the way out of the room, Lawrence took the time to glance at the small vanity, covered in the books Vernon claimed contained the secret of ultimate cosmic power. His reflection showed that although his headache was gone, he'd still need to find a razor, or Arcanus would have to live with a hobo for a ruler.
This is our character. I've picked three spellbooks of each of Nature, Chaos and Sorcery, plus the Runemaster and Alchemist Retorts. Having three spellbooks mean that I'll have access to one Very Rare spell in each school, which I felt was a cool thing to do in a demo game.
"THAT'S our army?" Larry exclaimed in disbelief after a thorough review of the troops. "This is just a dozen dudes. Half of them just have pointy sticks!"
Those are our troops.
Their stats look pathetic, but they're not as bad as they might seem. The stats are for each figure in the unit. As the unit takes damage, the number of figures drops. So a fully-healthy spearmen unit attacks six times (with a value of 1 per attack), while a half-health spearmen attacks three times only.
Now, they're still pretty bad troops. Just not as bad as you first thought.
As a side-note, multi-figure units benefit a lot more from buffing spells, as the buff applies to all figures.
The troops glowered at Larry. Larry glared back, then realized that although he apparently had the potential to become a great wizard, these guys had the certainty of sharp metal and pointy sticks. "Fine, then. Let's lead these men to glory. Sword Squad! Head south and find out if there's anything around. Spear Squad, head west!"
As the troops headed off into the distance, Larry turned to Vernon. "So, what else is there to do in this town?"
This is the research interface. You get to pick which spell to research next among eight choices. As spells are researched, new ones appear to replace them. Note that while your repertoire is set from turn one, there is some variance in which spells appear on any given research opportunity. That means that if you see a spell in the list, you'll eventually be able to research it, but it might not be available the next time you pick which spell to research.
"Studying, really?" Larry complained after a few days. "That's all I'm going to do?"
The last few days had been extremely boring. The nomads clearly didn't want anything to do with their new leader. They obeyed, and that's it. Ruling was turning out to be an extremely lonely job.
Even the occasionnal good news from the Squads could only cheer Larry up so far. "Looted a tomb. See attached chest." Gold was quickly losing its novelty.
Vernon sighed. "Yes, Master. You need to become a great wizard, and lead the Nomads. Your talent already start to show!"
"That's bull, Vernon. Sure, I can make some imaginary soldiers appear. How good is that?"
"It better be, Lord. We have received dispatch from Spear Squad. They have stumbled upon a tribe of lizardmen. They voted and will attack in two hours."
And this is the battle interface. Our troops are in the bottom right, the enemies are in the top left. The city is not just decoration: if the attacking unit reach the city, they'll start to kill off citizens.
Note that I'm up against enemy swordsmen, who are more powerful than my spearmen. But this is a neutral city, not under a wizard's dominion, and so they have no spellcasting support.
Combat is turn-based, with each unit moving according to its speed and spending half its movement point when they attack. When an attack occurs, the enemy also counterattacks. This means next to nothing now, but when it starts to matter I'll go into more details.
"What do you mean, they voted? Aren't they supposed to obey me?" Larry shrieked.
"Well, they asked me, and you were busy, so..." Vernon smiled contritely. "I've set up a magic mirror so you can watch the action, Lord."
"Man, Spear Squad is going to get trounced. These lizards look tough, and they have swords." Larry concluded after a few moments' study.
"You know, you could help them, Lord." Vernon shrugged. "You can send spells through the mirror if you want. Perhaps those Phantom Warriors of yours, or maybe that protection spell you've been practicing?"
Those are the spells I can cast. Those that are grayed out are spells I can't cast because my skill is not high enough (or for which I don't have the mana.) I'll go into powerbase and skill and that stuff next update.
"Really? Let's try the Warriors, then. I want to see how well they do." Larry got up, excited at the chance to do something. That he could save lives if he succeeded was a bonus.
"Great! It worked!" Larry shouted as the Phantom Warriors went through the lizardmen like a knife through butter. The Warriors were flimsy creations, but their spears lasted long enough to punch through the enemy's armor. By the time the last warrior disappeared, the only work remaining for Spear Squad was to finish off a pair of wounded warriors. "LA-RRY! LA-RRY!" The men shouted as they charged to finish off the defenders.
The Phantom Warriors spell is a basic Sorcery spell. The Warriors are incredibly flimsy, but their weapons are Illusory - meaning they ignore armor unless the opponent has Immunity to Illusions or True Seeing on. Should they survive the battle, they vanish.
And remember when I mentionned how figures are important? At six-on-six, those swordsmen would have murdered my spearmen. At six-on-two, my spearmen take out the unit without suffering any damage.
You get this choice after conquering a city. Razing the city nets you a bit of gold, with a large Fame penalty, and the city disappears. Otherwise, you get the city, a Fame bonus, and a token amount of gold. Unless the city is something you really don't want to manage, or if you don't think you can hold the city, it's better to keep it.
"So, Lord, shall we wipe off these abominations from the face of Arcanus?" Vernon asked hungrily.
"What? No!" Larry replied, shocked by the sudden change in his otherwise genial assistant.
"Oh. Well." Vernon deflated in a second. "Oh, I see, you want to enslave them! Of course, your will shall be done, Lord!" the small imp continued after a moment, his smile returning. "I shall see to it immediately!"
The red demon ran off the room, leaving Larry to consider this new development.
Last edited by MisterDee on Wed May 16, 2012 12:32 am, edited 6 times in total.
OK - strategy time (and audience participation.)
I'll be finishing up the Sawmill over at Damascus pretty soon. That's one of the pre-reqs for Horsebowmen, but it's also a good early building so in the interest of getting the LP going, I decided to just get going.
But now that I have the time to ask - what should we do next? I'm fairly well set up on mana and cash, and there's no aggressive wizard nearby, and so I think we can keep building up our civilization instead of building up crappy defenses.
On the other hand, I've been pretty lucky with the ruins and caves so far, and capturing Mudspray. So I'm worried that the Random Number God will get angry if I push it. Getting some good defenses ready seems like good sense (but then again, with Phantom Warrior I can hold cities fairly easily as long as there's an unit in.)
And of course, at some point Granaries and Farmer Markets are necessary to support the troops.
I'll be finishing up the Sawmill over at Damascus pretty soon. That's one of the pre-reqs for Horsebowmen, but it's also a good early building so in the interest of getting the LP going, I decided to just get going.
But now that I have the time to ask - what should we do next? I'm fairly well set up on mana and cash, and there's no aggressive wizard nearby, and so I think we can keep building up our civilization instead of building up crappy defenses.
On the other hand, I've been pretty lucky with the ruins and caves so far, and capturing Mudspray. So I'm worried that the Random Number God will get angry if I push it. Getting some good defenses ready seems like good sense (but then again, with Phantom Warrior I can hold cities fairly easily as long as there's an unit in.)
And of course, at some point Granaries and Farmer Markets are necessary to support the troops.
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Avoraciopoctules
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Can you recruit some of those lizard dudes now that you captured their city? That could improve defensive and offensive capabilities.
EDIT:
Maybe. I've never actually played this game. In general, investing in food and defense sounds like a good idea.
EDIT:
Maybe. I've never actually played this game. In general, investing in food and defense sounds like a good idea.
Last edited by Avoraciopoctules on Wed May 16, 2012 3:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
Build Granaries and Farmer's Markets first thing. Sawmill first is sorta okay, but not ideal.
Assuming you have any appreciable troops at all, each Granary turns at least 1 farmer into a worker - which is worth 1.5 hammers base. That's more than you expect your Sawmill to make entil your city is making a baes of 15 hammers (!).
Then on top of that, the population bonus from the Granary is going to be worth +1 pop fairly soon, which is good for another 1 hammer plus the taxation from the extra guy.
Build the granary and the farmer's market.
Assuming you have any appreciable troops at all, each Granary turns at least 1 farmer into a worker - which is worth 1.5 hammers base. That's more than you expect your Sawmill to make entil your city is making a baes of 15 hammers (!).
Then on top of that, the population bonus from the Granary is going to be worth +1 pop fairly soon, which is good for another 1 hammer plus the taxation from the extra guy.
Build the granary and the farmer's market.
MisterDee wrote:OK - strategy time (and audience participation.)
I'll be finishing up the Sawmill over at Damascus pretty soon. That's one of the pre-reqs for Horsebowmen, but it's also a good early building so in the interest of getting the LP going, I decided to just get going.
But now that I have the time to ask - what should we do next? I'm fairly well set up on mana and cash, and there's no aggressive wizard nearby, and so I think we can keep building up our civilization instead of building up crappy defenses.
On the other hand, I've been pretty lucky with the ruins and caves so far, and capturing Mudspray. So I'm worried that the Random Number God will get angry if I push it. Getting some good defenses ready seems like good sense (but then again, with Phantom Warrior I can hold cities fairly easily as long as there's an unit in.)
And of course, at some point Granaries and Farmer Markets are necessary to support the troops.
BUILD GRANARYMisterDee wrote:The city image below shows that we already have a few buildings up: a Smithy, a Builder's Hall, and Barracks.
Who's going to start the Occupy movement. So you'll need a shrine real soon.MisterDee wrote:At 5000 persons, we'll get a fifth citizen icon.
And destroy buildings.MisterDee wrote:The city is not just decoration: if the attacking unit reach the city, they'll start to kill off citizens.
A sorcery node's worth of those fuckers can eat an unprotected Incarnation.MisterDee wrote:The Warriors were flimsy creations, but their spears lasted long enough to punch through the enemy's armor.
No, with the default taxes the extra guy will turn rebel.DrPraetor wrote:Then on top of that, the population bonus from the Granary is going to be worth +1 pop fairly soon, which is good for another 1 hammer plus the taxation from the extra guy.
Just a note to mention I've played enough to create a Chapter 2. Making the write-up will take longer, but the gaming is done.
And no spoilers, but we're gearing up for an interesting early game.
Of note: yes, we can now recruit lizardmen. Which creates a conundrum: I really wanted to showcase the naval options, and having lizardmen available sort of make the whole "build a navy" step a waste of time and ressources.
And yeah - Phantom Warriors are hardcore in sorcery nodes, because of that bonus they get for being a sorcery Fantastic Creature in a Sorcery node.
And no spoilers, but we're gearing up for an interesting early game.
Of note: yes, we can now recruit lizardmen. Which creates a conundrum: I really wanted to showcase the naval options, and having lizardmen available sort of make the whole "build a navy" step a waste of time and ressources.
And yeah - Phantom Warriors are hardcore in sorcery nodes, because of that bonus they get for being a sorcery Fantastic Creature in a Sorcery node.
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