The Ascension Wars

[Calis]

A Short Overview

This one should be a doozy.

I just received in the mail today my copy of Dominions 2: The Ascension Wars. For those not familiar with it, it's a Turn-Based Strategy game with some RPG aspects tossed in. It's not really like any other TBS game out there though, it's hard to explain, even more so because I've yet to play it..which we'll get into later.

The basic premise of the game is, there are several Pretender God's each leading a horde, the last Pretender standing will ascend to Godhood. So it's just a big King of the Hill game.

The kicker is from what I've read, is how the variety in how this can be accomplished and the general depth of the game play in general. There are over 1000 different units in the game, I believe over 600 spells, 100's of magical items you can forge to give to the commanders of your armies, and tons of random events. From what I've read I would basically compare it to a game like Nethack or any of the Roguelike games in the sheer amount of options you have. People after months and months of playing are still running across crazy new things they never knew.

Ok, I'll be honest. I know little to nothing about this game. I did it for a reason, after I played through the tutorial that Bruce Geryk put up for the Demo, I knew I wanted to do a dynasty on it. I also wanted the dynasty to go from the slant of me not knowing anything about the game, so I'll be learning as we go.

I should warn everyone though, I'm a notoriously bad game player in general, strategy games in particular. I've been a gamer for years, but yet, I've never seemed to become good at them. So this will be twice as painful as a normal person learning the ropes. Secondly, this game is supposedly very difficult, and the UI is a huge obstacle to overcome as well. So I'm not picking an easy game to start out with, I'm hoping the dynasty will make me take things a little slower, and think about what I'm doing more.

That's about my extent of the knowledge on the game, from now on I'll be jotting down things as I learn them, just installed the game and patched it up. I’m almost ready to roll.

Please, if anyone has any questions ask away. I probably won’t know the answer, but I’ll do my best to hunt it down for you, and I definitely welcome any strategic advice when the game gets under way, as I imagine I’ll need all the help I can get.

I know this was a pretty weak overview of the game, but that's really all I know about it, hopefully the rest will explain itself as we go.

Next up I'll be creating my Pretender God!

[Calis]

There are 17 playable races in Dominions 2. About half are different variations of humans, and then the rest are way out there. I do a quick once over and the the one who jumps out on me are the undead. Who doesn't love the Undead? They seem like as good of a race as any to start with. They're already dead, so I won't feel too bad bringing them to ruin.

Deciding on a Race

All right, we start off by picking the Ermor as our race. The Ermor were once a human race that conquered most of the world. The Priests of the race become a wee bit too power hungry though, and eventually began delving into dark magic. This spiraled out of control until finally Death himself was accidentally let loose. It was a great price the Empire had to pay to stop the massacre. The old Ermorian religion was gone, and in its place now stood a Death Cult, whose sole purpose was to keep Death at bay. They must regularly perform rituals or else Death will once again be allowed to rampage through the world again. They have gained some benefits from this unholy union though, as the Priests of Ermor are able to raise the dead to fight for them. This will turn out to be very handy from what I understand, as the undead don’t eat, so no worry of supplies, and they never rout, which is good and bad depending on how you look at it.


The Avatar

Time to pick a physical form for my Pretender next. There are all sorts of choices here, I can make him a Dragon, Sphinx, Phoenix, Archmage, Titan, all sorts of goodies. It looks as if I start out with 500 points and each of these forms cost a varying amount depending on the power. I want to go with an undead form to match my army, and then I find my choice is clear….

Prince of Death

The Prince of Death is a demon prince sent by the Lord of the Underworld. He is winged and shrouded in death, and his goal is to rid the world of the living so his undead brethren can rule. That’s the type of can-do attitude I like to see! It says here his mere presence causes the dead to rise from their graves to fight, so this sounds promising. His one weakness is his undead state, which means Priests have the possibility of banishing him from this world. That doesn’t sound too good. We’ll stick with him though. He’s going to cost us 50 points.

Now we will name our Prince of Death, and I think it only fitting that his name be Gertbeef.

Ok, we’ve got 450 points left and several things to set up still. Lets give him a bit of magic to work with next. There are eight schools of magic in the game: Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Astral, Death, Nature, and Blood. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory what the focus of each is.

Magic
Our Prince of Death starts with 3 in Death Magic, so I think it best that we pump that up some more. I go ahead and bump it up to 7, which leaves us with 370 points left. Lets give him one more path. I think I’ll go for Earth, as that will give us the ability to forge some magical items and such. I put 3 points into that, and that leaves us with 270 points.

Dominion
Ok, next up we set our dominion. I guess I should’ve explained this early, as this seems to be the foundation of the whole game. Dominion is basically the influence your God has on the people. Higher dominion means more people belief in you, means you’re more powerful. Your Pretender’s stats will actually change depending on the dominion he holds in the province you’re in. So it’s VERY important. If you ever reach 0 Dominion, the game is over.

Ok, so setting up dominion you have a couple of scales.

Order/Turmoil
Productivity/Sloth
Heat/Cold
Growth/Death
Fortune/Misfortune
Magic/Drain

Now how frigging cool is this. There were 17 races I said right? Underneath these scales there is what is called “Special Dominions”. I click on it, curious. It pops a list of different styles for the Ermorians. One jumps out immediately at me, Ashen Empire. This will cost me another 50 points but it sounds tasty! The Ashen Empire changes the history a bit, the Ermorians didn’t survive their brush with death, and are now dead themselves. This special will automatically create undead for me without the use of a Priest, also I bring death with me everywhere I go, reducing population, crops, basically just laying waste to the land I rule. Now this is what I like to see! I’m liking these guys more and more as we go!

I go ahead and bump up Fortune a few notches and do the same with Magic. I leave everything else at the default setting. I don’t want to mess with this too much to start with.

My dominion starts at 3, and I decide to raise it up 3 more. So we have a base dominion of 6, I have no idea what this means though. It's taking away points though, so I'm guessing it's good to raise it.

Castle

We get to pick a Castle next, our defensive structure. I spend 60 points on the Ermorian Citadel, which gives us twice the defense of our other choice, and only costs 1/4th more. That seems like a good deal, and after this transaction we have 8 points left. I hate to waste points, but there’s nothing else I can raise to get rid of the points, so it looks like they’re going to waste.

Finishing Up

This finished up the creation process. I get a nice message when I hit finish.

All praise Gertbeef, the Adversary, God of the Dead, The Teacher of Philosophy

Teacher of Philosophy? That seems a bit out of place, but hey..we'll take it. When I'm not busy raping and pillaging the land, I'm giving lessons on the meaning of life. I do like Gertbeef the Adversary though, got a nice ring to it.

[SirFozzie]

Interesting.. ,.got a link?

[WSUCougar]

I just loaded and played the demo. It seems like a rather unique and intriguing game, in the old style of strategy substance without the glitz and glamour. I'll be following this one!

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Interesting.. ,.got a link?

dola

Since I happen to know this one and have it as one of my "favorites" here ya go, SirFozzie: Shrapnel.com

[Godzilla Blitz]

The buzz on this one has been hot. I've been following this game for a while, but the $50 price tag has kept me from buying. I look forward to reading along. It'll help me decide whether to buy or not.

Looking forward to it!

[Calis]

For those of you trying out the demo or pondering it. I very highly recommend following THIS walkthrough. The biggest complaint I've read of people on this game has been about the interface, but I think first impressions are very important. It's a bad decision by the devs to not have any form of a tutorial in the game itself, but that walkthrough will help you not be overwhelmed right off the bat.

Godzilla Blitz- Yeah, the price tag was a big stepping stone for me also. I just finally decided to give it a shot, after reading enough praise to convince that I can easily get my money’s worth and more from this sucker. We’ll have to see though.

The Final Touches

I’m battling a case of insomnia tonight, so I sit here at about 2:30 starting the game up. I’m not entirely sure I’m coherent right now though, so be warned.

Ok, so I need to select a map. I just go with the first one in the list, because I really don’t have a better means of selection. I go back and see that 8 other races have been randomly selected to play with me and set to Difficult in the AI. I don’t think this will do at all, so I bump down the AI a notch. I’m looking for time to understand the mechanics of the game, not a beat down by the computer.

The first map on the list happens to be Aran, the story being it was destroyed by a magical disaster that turned the kingdom into a barren wasteland several centuries ago. This means half my job is already done! There are 107 provinces total in this once, and 11 of those are under water. Lets do this thing.

I get a list of preferences next, I really have no idea what they do, and just go with the defaults for now. Just get me into the game!

We're Ready to Rock!

[Calis]

And So it Begins….

Turn 1

As I fire up the game itself I’m greeted with a couple of messages. Pretty generic start of the game stuff, the Supreme God has disappeared, blah blah, time for the strongest among the people to ascend. You get the point.

I close out of that and take in my surroundings. I’ve been placed in the Northeast corner of the map, which I take to be a good thing. I have a river bordering me on the Northeast, a large strand of woods to the Southwest and West, and one province in between me and the Ocean on the North and Northwest. I think this is a pretty good starting place, we have obvious areas of expansions, and some good geographical defenses to slow down any approaching armies.

The Commanders

I take a look at my commanders next, I’ve only been given one aside from Gertbeef the Adversary, and that is Khamul the Censor. Censors were the judges in the old empire, now brought back and adorned in rusty platemail and wielding rather nasty looking battleaxes. A biting cold surrounds them, and it says they have very leathery dried skin, meaning they can soak up a lot of damage. Khamul looks like your average straight up Combat leader, he’s not going to be good for much else, but that’s probably enough. He right now has 2 squads, one has 11 Longdead Velites armed with Spears and Javelins, and the other 9 grunt Longdead Legionnaires armed with spears and decked out in ringmail.

Brief Look at Ermor's Armed Forces

I go ahead and set up the position of my armies now just in case. Now in Dominions 2 you’re not in direct control of the battles, but you can watch a replay. What you are in control of though is placement and can give some basic orders to your men. Such as telling them to just retreat if attacked, telling archers to fire and flee, telling units to protect commander, etc…I’ll leave the orders up to the computer for now, but I’ll set up placement. Not a real difficult set-up for me, I place the Legionnaires in the front center of my army, with the Velites behind them, and put Khamul slightly back and on the left flank, and put Gertbeef slightly back and on the right. I’m not overly concerned about leaving the commanders exposed this early, as I think they should be able to handle themselves rather easily against any independents we run into. I hope I’m not overestimating them.

Studying Up

Gertbeef will be chilling out this turn, so I put him to researching magic. Now we went over the magic paths earlier correct? Ok, when it comes to researching you research by school. This is the old D&D Standard type stuff with a few twists: Conjuration, Alteration, Evocation, Construction, Enchantment, Thaumaturgy, and Blood Magic. I put our Prince of Death to work on researching Conjuration, because at Level 1 in Conjuration he can then summon a Black Servant. This is a creature made out of pure darkness, and would be perfect for a scout, which we lack right now. Gertbeef is good for 14 research points per turn, and to hit level 1 in Conjuration we need 20 points, so we’re in good shape right now.

There’s not a whole lot else we can do this turn. I’m not overly anxious to invade any of the surrounding provinces without a scout to check things out first, I’d hate to lose an army this soon in the game. I’m afraid I might be digging myself into a hole early though by being complacent, we’ll find out soon enough I suppose. I notice now that the catch to my Ashen Empire theme is I can’t recruit ANY units. This is going to make things tricky.


Wrap-up

Ok, not much excitement in round 1. We need to get our hands on a scout and then we can begin rampaging the nearby provinces to expand our kingdom. I set Khamul to patrol the province to stamp out unrest, which is pretty much pointless for us right now as there is none, as no one is alive, but have to keep him busy with something, and our Pretender is busy in the library pouring over scrolls and such.

[Calis]

Turn #2

Ok, no news as we start Turn #2, I suppose that’s a good sign. The first thing I do is go into my army setup screen to see if we got any new toys this round. It appears that what we get for freebies is randomized as I see a couple new faces in the screen. The one that really grabs my attention is the Knight of the Unholy Sepulchre who has risen from the grave to help fight the good fight. He’s decked out in full plate, huge tower shield, with a lance and broadsword. He’s also mounted atop a skeletal steed in corroded barding. This guy looks tough. I notice a special symbol also and click on it, it says that he’s an Unholy Troop and can be affected by prayers from our Priests. That would be a good thing I think, if we had any Priests.

Ok, so now it’s time to get to setting up the armies. I made a decision that we just can’t sit around waiting for a scout to start our expansion, we’re going to take a risk. Khamul the Censor will be moving out this turn to expand our kingdom. So I move the new troops under his command. He’s now standing strong with 13 Velites, 15 Legionnaires, and 1 Knight along with 1 just plain ‘ole Longdead. I put the Knight and Longdead into a new squad and make their sole purpose to guard the Commander in battle.

I’m going to keep Gertbeef researching so we can have our scouts next turn.

The Conquest Begins

Ok, time to make a decision on where to invade. I finally decide that I’ll head NW first and take the province up against the Ocean first, Histyra. It has a plus to luck, which would be nice, and the income seems about the same in all provinces around me. I’ll circle around from there and begin building a buffer from my capital. Khamul’s Horde is set to move out!

The Battle for Histyra is next!

[SirFozzie]

Heh. I bought this and Coliseum from Shrapnel Games. Looks interesting

[Calis]

Turn #3

As we start our 3rd turn, we’re bombarded with quite a few messages, I give them a quick once over.

-Our research in Conjuration is complete! Good, now we can get our scout!

-We see that Atlantis, Pangea, and R’lyeh have appointed a prophet to help spread the word of their Pretender. This is something I need to look into myself. I plan on waiting until we can get a hold of a Priest though.

-Lastly there was a battle in Histyra! I decide to watch this one, see how our boys faired!


The Battle for Histyra

As we arrive at the battlefield we spot one lone archer, perhaps 10 militia, a commander, and what looks to be 2-3 Heavy Infantry. We should hopefully make short work of these guys, emphasis on hopefully. As the infantry clashes in the middle of the field, it quickly becomes apparent that they are horribly overmatched, and they quickly rout. Their Archer continues to lob arrows at us rather ineffectively and Khamul’s Horde descends on the remnants of the Indy army, the lone Archer and the Commander and his retinue. It’s a bloodbath to say the least. We manage to only lose one Velite in this battle, to the 13 men lost by the opposition.


Learn Something New Everyday

Boy is my face red. I just happened upon something I think I’ll find rather helpful. I happen to click on Gertbeef and set him to casting a ritual spell. Only when I do this do I realize that this is where I get the meat of my armies. I see all sorts of goodies I can summon. As of right now, I need three things; a scout, a mage, and a Priest. The Scout’s duty is obvious. The Mage will be used to help research and cast these summons hopefully, so Gertbeef can be tasked with more important things. The Priest will be there to preach the good word, and hopefully he can do this blessing thing. I decide that it’s more important to free up Gertbeef than to have a scout, so I set him to Reviving a Dusk Elder.


Khamul's Horde Marches On

I’m going to leave Khamul’s bodyguards in Histyra to watch over things and move the rest of the Horde South into the Woods of the Lovendalon province. I don’t believe we have the time to waste sitting around building up our defense in each province. I’m going to try and quickly build us a strong foothold on this continent. I really need to build a scout though.

[Calis]

SirFozzie- Sweet, glad to hear you bought it! I'll admit I still don't know jack about the game, but it seems like it's a blast. There's just so many things you can do, I don't have the patience to do it justice in this dynasty. Have to tell me what you think of it, and if a few more people can be convinced to try it out, we'll have to get a PBEM game going.

Turn #4

We start with a few messages from our sponsors.

-Gertbeef has cast Revive Dusk Elder. I think that one is pretty self-explanatory.

-An unexpected even has occurred in Histyra. Uh oh, this could be trouble. I click on it, slightly worried at what I’ll find, I wasn’t overly pleased with leaving a newly conquered province with such a small garrison. Luckily it’s good news! A trader’s guild has been founded and will permanently increase gold revenue by 25 there! That’s not a bad deal at all.


-Lastly, you guessed it..the Battle.

The Battle of Lovendalon

As we enter the battlefield I’m a bit surprised to see a large group of Lizardmen present. Not sure exactly how many, but looks to be near 20 with a Shaman leading them. This might be a bit of trouble.

The first volley of javelins from our Velites hits the Lizardmen very hard, taking down what appears to be 3 or 4 of them. We only had time for one though before the armies clashes in the center of the field. When the melee was entered in full, I got a little more nervous. These Lizardmen could fight! I saw Legionnaire after Legionnaire fall under the swords of the Lizardmen. When all looked lost though, the Velites let loose another volley of Javelins, decimating their ranks. They quickly routed after this, but the price had been paid. We’d lost a good portion of our army in this fight.

We lost 8 Legionnaires in this battle, and took down 17 Lizardmen and 1 commander. Not the smashing success we’d hoped for, but a success nonetheless. The downside is that Khamul will need to re-stock up his Undead before moving on, so we lose a turn of conquering.

Help Arrives!

Ok, Plaguetongue the Dusk Elder has joined our cause now! I immediately set him to summoning a Dark Servant for us. Finally we'll have our scout, and hopefully next turn I can summon a Priest, then can get back to researching.

The 2nd Horde of Ermor is Activated

I put our newly recruited units under Gertbeef’s command. He now has 3 units under his command, the 1st consisting of 4 Knights, the 2nd filled with 11 Legionnaires and 2 Longdead. The final unit has 3 Velites in it. I set the Legions to the center front of the battlefield, with the Velites behind them alongside Gertbeef. The Knights will be on the extreme left flank with orders to attack the rear ranks of any enemy we encounter. Hopefully we can catch some Commanders back there and get things over with quickly.

We finally have some good info on surrounding provinces to go off of. Directly South of where Khamul’s Horde lays is Sleepy Wolds, another wooded area. Our intel leads us to believe there were only be token resistance. We expect there to be roughly 10 Woodsmen defending the province.

So Lets Think

Ok here’s the plan I’m thinking of. Gertbeef moves out with his newly organized army and strikes at Sleepy Wolds. He has the forces to easily conquer this province, and this would give Khamul the opportunity to move back to Ermor proper and rebuild his army.

I think next I need to start plotting out some longterm strategy, set some goals and decide how I'm going to get to them. I'm already at a point where there are several things I want to have done, but I don't have near enough commanders to make them happen. Time to prioritize.

[Calis]

Turn #5

The News

-We receive a message from the nation of Vanheim. They have declared war on us. Well, this was a bit sooner than I expected to begin warring with another nation. Time to get our war on!

-Plaguetongue has summoned a Dark Servant.

The Battle of Sleepy Wolds

We hit the battlefield and are immediately riddled with arrows shot from the 12 Woodsmen defending the province. They also appear to have a Druid with them, who starts off the battle by casting a blessing on his troops. Hopefully we close the gap fast, or this could be trouble.

Our fearless Pretender Gertbeef begins summoning skeletons to add into the fray. Our Knights are quickly trying to flank the enemy and get to the Druid before he can begin doing real damage. Unfortunately they’re not quick enough, as the Druid begins casting banishment spells on the battlefield, which is very rough on an all undead army. He only manages to get one casting off before the Knights plow into him, quickly downing him. The remaining Woodsmen were quickly routed after he fell.

We lost 6 units to 13 killed.

A Few New Faces

Ok, as the turn begins the first thing I notice is Sidsheku the Censor has enlisted into our ranks. It’s always good to have another commander. I also see Nightworm our Black Servant, and quickly send him to the East to scout out the Dust Fens. I add Sidsheku to Khamul’s Hordes and I’m actually going to make him a more frontline troop.

I put Plaguetongue to work on summoning an Arch-Bishop. We’ve got to get back to researching soon, we’re falling behind on that note for sure. I’m starting to realize that this Ashen Empire subset of Ermor I selected does have some downsides.

I send Gertbeef back to Ermor, we’ll allow him to restock up on Troops next turn and then head out again.

Khamul's Hordes Marches Again
I restock Khamul's Horde with some new units, including ac ouple of firsts. We get a Ghoul and a Soulless. We add them to the Horde and then send them off to secure the province to the Southeast of our capital, Fanligia.


Pondering on Vanheim

I see no signs of Vanheim either, which worries me. This means they have the advantage in information, they know where I’m at, but I have no clue where they are.

I think our best bet right now is to finish conquering the provinces immediately around the capital, and then begin to solidify our position a little bit. Start focusing more on research, and gathering intelligence on the area. We’ve got to find out where Vanheim is at, and quick. My guess would be they’re to the Southwest of us, as I see a province there where I have negative dominion. That would obviously lead a person to believe that another Pretender is exerting their influence there.

[Qwikshot]

This game looks promising, shame I can't immediately download it though...waiting for it will be near impossible.

[klayman]

I think I might have to make a purchase.

[Calis]

Qwikshot- Heh, I know what you're saying. I HATE having to wait a couple days to get a game, I'm very much an impulse game player, hard to maintain that for long.

klayman- So far I'd highly recommend a purchase if you're a TBS fan. This is so far looking to be one of the best I've seen. Having a blast with it.

Turn #6

-We get our Arch-Bishop, woohoo!

The Battle of Fanligia

We run into a handful of Heavy Infantry, a couple of Crossbowmen, some light Infantry, and a commander. It was a costly battle for us, as we lost 9 units, but in the end we triumphed and routed the Indy armies there.

Our Future Prophet...

Askator is our newly raised Arch-Bishop and I’m going to bestow upon him the honor of being Prophet to Gertbeef. I’m not sure exactly what benefits this bestows, but I know it’ll give him some bonuses, and allows him to spread dominion like my Pretender. Should be pretty handy.

Scouting

Nightworm reports back from the province of Dust Fens and tells us there is a pretty good-sized force defending the Province. There are 30 troops mostly consisting of Soulless and Longdead Horsemen, and led by a Mound King. We’re going to need to stock up a bit before taking this province.

Nightworm is sent North to check out The Sinks, a swampy province on the coast. I’ve read that Swamp provinces have a much higher chance of having magical sites in them. Magical sites work like this, most of your ritual spells use gems of one sort or another. All of my summonings so far, those have cost Death Gems. Luckily my main province started out with a site that created +10 Death Gems per turn. You can’t cast the good spells without gems, so they’re very important.


The Commanders

I notice up North in Histyra we’ve received a new commander, Leperlove the Mound King. That’s a rather interesting name. I stock him up with a few Soulless and Ghouls and set him to patrolling the province. I do the same with Khamul, and I send Sidsheku back to Sleepy Wolds to pick up the troops that have been created there.

Gertbeef and Plaguetongue will both continue their researching this turn.

[Calis]

Turn #7

-An unexpected event has occurred in Ermor. An Earthquake struck killing many people(No loss there, did our work for us!), and destroying our temple. Doh! That one hurts a bit, that’s going to put us down some cash, and waste one of our Prophet’s turns building another.

-Patrolling troops in Fanligia have killed 11 filthy brigands and troublemakers. Good work boys!

Nightworm Reports

Nightworm reports back from the The Sinks, and spotted another province with 30 troops, consisting of Woodsmen Blowpipes and Bloodhenge Druids. The Druid thing frightens me, that means more banishment spells. My poor Undead! It says 5 huge Dark Vines were seen towering over the army. I’m not sure what the hell that means, but it sounds like trouble. I send Nightworm to Histyra, with plans to have him continue West and check out those provinces, and then move South to hopefully find out where these Vanheim scoundrels are at.

A New Face

A new Censor showed his face in Ermor. Screech…frigging Screech? I’m not even sure what to say to that. I stock Sidsheku up with troops and move him up to Lovendalon to pick up some more. We’re going to need all the troops we can muster to take these last two provinces. Khamul is going to continue patrolling for now.

Nothing much more to say about this turn, it’s unfortunate that we’ve had to waste a couple of turns, I really was hoping we could cruise to taking the surrounding provinces, I didn’t expect such resistance in the provinces.

Gertbeef Prepares for War

I have decided that Gertbeef himself will lead the attack into the sinks. We have a Dominion of 3 there already, which means he should be pretty powerful, and will hopeful go a long ways in assuring a victory. I’ve been placing all the units created in Ermor under his control, and he now has an army of about 30 units under his control right now. He should be ready soon.

Rebuilding
I set Askator to the task of rebuilding the Temple in Ermor that was crushed by the Earthquake. We can’t let a silly thing like a natural disaster get in the way of spreading the word of Gertbeef!

[Fonzie]

Excellent read, Calis. I'm ready to join the Hordes of Gertbeef and the lovely death he brings!

[SirFozzie]

Death to the disbelievers. Glorious Death to all!

[Calis]

Fonzie- Glad you're enjoying it, I'm trying to figure out the best way to go about laying out this dynasty, so hopefully it'll tighten up soon. I don't have much time to think on that though, as I'm trying to learn the game. I'm hoping the excitement level will pick up a bit here soon, so it's a bit more interesting to read.

SirFozzie- There's about to be a whole lotta death to go around soon. I'm just hoping it's the disbelievers doing it.


Turn #8

-Researching in conjuration is completed! That’s good news, should give us a few more nasty summons to work with!

-The Patrols in Histyra have rousted up 6 rebels and disposed of them, that’s what I like to hear. We believe that to be the last of the remaining dissidents in the land.


Scouting

We move Nightworm South from Histyra to scout out the land of Bithyne. It'll be a while before we're ready to invade their, but I want to have a good idea what's surrounding me.


The Armies Mass

I move Khamul and his (Depleted)Hordes back into the capital, we’re going to consolidate all of our forces under the supreme leadership of Gertbeef the Adversary! We’ll need all the power we can muster to conquer the provinces of Dust Fens and The Sinks. Those don’t exactly sound like the sort of places people should be fighting wars over does it?

The Prophet

We move Askator the Prophet into Sleepy Wolds, he’ll begin work on a new Temple to Gertbeef’s greatness next turn.


The Wailing Lady

We’re going to try something out, I set Gertbeef to summoning a Wailing Lady this turn to use in our upcoming battles. It says Wailing Ladies are the spirits from the old Empire who are weeping in lamentation over the destruction of the Empire. Their sorrow is impossible for the living to bear. They will drop dead at the sound of her wailing. What’s not to like? Mainly I just want Gertbeef to do something a little more exciting than researching this turn.

Wait a Second...

Actually, that would be stupid. Gertbeef can offer 14 points of research per month, whereas Plaguetongue only offers 8. Either of them is able to cast this summon, so it would be quite a waste to have The Adversary do it. So I’ll set Plaguetongue to working on that, and let Gert continue to research Conjuration. I got a little Pretender happy there.

Next turn we will launch the assault on The Sinks! We'll finally see the one true God of Aran in action!

[Calis]

Turn #9

Only news coming into this turn is that a Wailing Lady has been summoned. Lets put her to work!

Organizing The Horde

Ok, I decide we’ll bring both Gertbeef and Khamul along on these conquests. I actually should’ve brought our Prophet, that was bad planning on my part, we’ll work with this though.

Gertbeef now has 5 squads under his command.

1st Cavalry- 8 Knights of the Unholy Sepulchre
2nd Irregulars- 13 Longdead Velites
3rd Infantry- 8 Longdead Legionnaires and 4 Longdead
4th Infantry- 12 Longdead Legionnaires
5th Irregulars- 12 Longdead Velites

Khamul has under his command…

6th Banshees- The Wailing Lady
7nd Infantry- 15 Longdead Legionnaires
8th Cornucopias- 4 Velites, 2 Ghouls, 4 Soulless, hell..he’s got a little bit of everything in this squad. 14 units total.

So we’ll be bringing 87 units into the upcoming battle total, those are almost 3 to 1 odds. I think this should go well, if the banishment spell doesn’t demolish our army.


Deploying the Horde

The 1st Cavalry is put on our extreme left flank with orders to cut into the rear of the enemy.

The 3rd Infantry will be positioned in the left center of our force, with the 4th in the Center. Khamul’s 7th Infantry will be holding down the Center for us with his 8th Cornucopias on the right center. The 2nd and 5th Irregulars will be placed behind the frontlines slightly. The 6th Banshees will be placed right in the center of the 7th Infantry.

Khamul will be given orders to enter the fray and melee a bit himself, and Gertbeef will mostly hang back and work his magic.

Scouting

Nightworm reports that Bithyne has about 30 units present, mostly Knights and Milita.

Misc. Orders

I set Askator to building a Temple in Sleepy Wolds. I put Plaguetongue back to researching.

Finally and most importantly, I set Gertbeef and Khamul to lead their Legions of the Dead into the heart of The Sinks. Our first true test will follow shortly.

Next Up: The Battle of The Sinks!

[JeffNights]

[quote=Calis]Turn #7

It says 5 huge Dark Vines were seen towering over the army. I’m not sure what the hell that means, but it sounds like trouble.
[b]QUOTE]





Thats a great line. also a great read so far!

[hoopsguy]

Echoing other people here, this has been a fun read so far. Count me among the people giving serious thought to a new purchase.

[tucker342]

Great read!

This sounds like a very interesting game, I might have to check out the demo.

[sachmo71]

Word. Finally got the demo working...now if I could just fine $50...

[Coffee Warlord]

Sigh. Making me spend 50 bucks, bastard.

FOFC has caused me to spend more money on computer games then anyone else, ever.

BUT! I'm trying the demo first! I have a feeling that I'll be ordering this tomorrow, though.

[Calis]

-Glad to hear people are giving this game a shot! I think you'll enjoy it, I have so far. I once again highly recommend following the tutorial I posted a link to earlier, as the interface seems to be the thing I see turning the most people off, but I think following the tutorial got me used to it, and I'm having no problem with it. Looks like we might convince enough people to start up a PBEM game sometime! That was my master plan.

Turn #10

-We found a handful of magical earth gems in Lovendalon. We’ll take ‘em.

The Battle of The Sinks

As I hit the battlefield, I get my answer as to what the Dark Vines are. They are some mean looking suckers. I see a lot of Bloodhenge Druids along with their handy dandy Blood Slaves. They also have about 15 Woodsmen Blowpipers with them. This one could get ugly, that’s a lot of Druids, and I have no clue how tough these Vines are going to wind up being.

Gertbeef gets things rolling by beginning to chain cast Raise Skeletons to bolster our numbers even further. The 1st Cavalry quickly moves up the left flank of the Woodsmen, hoping to strike at the Druids in the back of the pack.

The Druids keep on casting some Sabbath Slave spell, I have no clue what’s going on. They’re killing Blood Slaves to do it, but I’m not seeing any effect from it. I do start to get a little worried when the whole sky turns red. I’m guessing that doesn’t bode well for us. Just as the Red fog rolls in, our Cavalry plow into the back ranks of the Druid forces.

The Vines have hit our first ranks of infantry at this time also. I soon realize these Vines are no joke as they start mauling my frontline troops. Even better, my Irregulars keep launching Javelins INTO MY OWN TROOPS! I don’t think they’ve hit an enemy yet. Finally the 1st Cavalry finishes up the Druids and comes to help out with the Vines who are having their way with us right now. We finally begin to bring them down.

When all is said and done, we lose 16 troops to the 31 lost by the Druid forces. Not a bad day’s work, and not near as difficult as I assumed the battle would be.

Scouting Report

Ok, I completely forgot to move Nightworm last turn, so he’s still chilling out in Bithyne. I go ahead and send him South this turn.

Commander's Orders

I send Leperlove on the march from Ermor to The Sinks. He’ll be in charge of getting the population there under control, and defending it while The Hordes move to Dust Fens.

I switch the focus of our research from Conjuration to Construction for now. I’m curious to see what kind of cool items we can forge with this skill. Plaguetongue is told to continue researching.

Askator is moving to Fanligia now, with plans to build another Temple of worship to Gertbeef’s greatness.

Screech is left alone, because I refuse to have a commander named Screech do anything of importance.

The Hordes are moving South to Dust Fens, we'll have another good sized battle next month. I'm feeling pretty confident though after this last one though, so we should be ok.

[Calis]

Turn #11

The Battle of Dust Fens

We enter Dust Fens to teach the Undead there the error of their ways. Our poor lost brethren. A Wight Mage leads them. I’m going out on a limb here and saying he will be no match for The Adversary.

They begin the fight by charging us with a squad of Longdead Horsemen who are quickly disposed of. Their Wight Mage keeps casting Decay on my troops, I’m not sure what effect that would have on Undead? Gertbeef fires back with Flying Shards, which appears to be some large boulders he flings deep into the enemy ranks. It didn’t seem to be overly effective, but it looked impressive.

Ughh! Damn them, our Wailing Lady got a little overzealous and charged into the ranks of Soulless defenders, and were destroyed. What a waste, I should’ve put her in the back before this fight, that was my mistake. She’s not effective against Undead. We wipe out the remaining infantry, and our Cavalry chase down the fleeing Wight Mage and dispose of him. Dust Fens is ours, and should make a lovely vacation spot.

We lost 10 units, to 38 for the enemy, that’s a pretty good ratio.


Commander's Orders
I set Askator to building the Fanligia Temple ‘O Gertbeef.

I put Khamul in charge of Gertbeef’s 3rd and 4th Infantry, and then move him back to The Sinks so he can search for any magical sites present. I’ll send him back to the capital after that is accomplished to continue researching. Khamul is put to the task of patrolling our newly conquered province.

Nightworm is sent further West, with the hopes of making contact with Vanheim, or another enemy nation. We need to gather some sort of idea as to where our opposition is. It might be time to summon another scout.

I set Plaguetongue to the task of summoning another Dusk Elder. I want some more help on the research front.

Eye to the Future

Ok, we’ve managed to clear everything directly connected to Ermor, so I want to start being a little more selective with what we conquer, and make sure we have the capability of defending any province we capture.

We’re doing pretty well money-wise right now. We don’t use cash for anything really aside from construction, so if I have enough to build Temples everywhere, I’m happy.

I put our remaining commanders to the task of stamping out unrest in our Empire, and call it a month.

[fantastic flying froggies]

by Calis
...I should warn everyone though, I'm a notoriously bad game player in general, strategy games in particular. I've been a gamer for years, but yet, I've never seemed to become good at them....


...Screech is left alone, because I refuse to have a commander named Screech do anything of importance....

Hmmm, no need to say anymore.

Great read though ! Got me looking at the demo, you bastard !

[Raven Hawk]

Wow! This game looks like a vast suck-hole for my time.

{click} BUY

And SirFozzie . . . tell me what you think about the Colliseum game. That looks interesting, too.

[hoopsguy]

Does the game give you an option to rename your guys? Surely Fonzie's offer of servitude in your armies would be more suitable than Screech.

[Calis]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

Does the game give you an option to rename your guys? Surely Fonzie's offer of servitude in your armies would be more suitable than Screech.

Unfortunately no. This was what I was hoping to do first, was rename all my commanders after the folks reading the dynasty, but when I got the game and began searching, came to find out they removed the ability to do it.

I guess there was some issues with people changing up names in multiplayer games, little trickery.

[fantastic flying froggies]

What, nothing happening in the Dark Dominion of Gertbeef today ?

I demand a refund !!!

[Calis]

Originally Posted by fantastic flying froggies

What, nothing happening in the Dark Dominion of Gertbeef today ?

I demand a refund !!!

Patience Grasshopper.

I'm stuck at work for another 7 hours or so, but there will be a couple of turns posted after that. I'm trying to take this dynasty nice and easy, I burnt myself out when I did my FBCB dynasty, lesson learned.

I've got a few ideas I want to try out, this work day can't end soon enough!

Hopefully I'll be unemployed soon, and then I'll have plenty of time to work on it.

[The Afoci]

I could make a phone call for you to get you fired.

[thealmighty]

In order to fully integrate FOFC with this dynasty, might I suggest you begin calling Khamul the Censor by the semimythical "thealmighty."

Other characters may be renamed in a similar fashion, of course.

[Calis]

The Afoci- As tempting as that is..I believe getting fired from the Air Force would result in me spending some time in a Federal "Pound me in the Ass" Prison, something I'm not keen on doing. Thanks for the offer though.

Originally Posted by thealmighty

In order to fully integrate FOFC with this dynasty, might I suggest you begin calling Khamul the Censor by the semimythical "thealmighty."

Other characters may be renamed in a similar fashion, of course.

Actually, this was an idea I was pondering. Wouldn't be too annoying to keep a list of commander name and their FOFC counterpart.

Some names would work combined also, e.g. Fonzie the Nightworm, fantastic flying froggies the Plaguetongue, etc...

So what the hell, lets get some FOFC interaction here. Give a shout if you want to be a commander in Gertbeef's Horde of the Dead!

If there's a commander already present that you'd like to replace, just let me know. Otherwise I'll just go down the list, and add folks as new commanders are brough back from the grave

[Qwikshot]

Me...me!!! Pick me!!!

[WSUCougar]

No, not him. ME!

[sachmo71]

ME! ME!

[Coffee Warlord]

ME!

[Qwikshot]

Quiet you, I was first in line...FIRST but it's okay wherever I'm placed, because I broke down and ordered the game...so I'll be sing "Please Mr. Postman" for the next few days. It'll be nice to have to keep me occupied since the Eagles are done.

[thealmighty]

Actually, I am the ORIGINATOR.

[Calis]

Sheesh, just get news that my bank from back home let all my account info get compromised. I'm only 1800 or so miles away, hope I don't get hosed. I hate banks.

Anywho, back home from work and getting ready to eat in a few then play a couple of turns, lets try and setup our new naming convention first though.

Gertbeef stays as is, that goes without saying. I mean, his name is Gertbeef.

thealmighty Censor- Khamul the Censor
Qwikshot- Sidsheku the Censor
WSUCougar the Prophet or WSUCougar the Archbishop of Eldregate if you're not into the whole brevity thing- Askator the Prophet
sachmo71- Plaguetongue the Dusk Elder
Coffee Warlord the Leperlover- Leperlove

thealmighty gets his dibs on Khamul since he was the originator, and Cougar gets the Prophet position because I need to be on good terms with him for his Combat Mission dynasty. The rest I just went down the list.

Ok, that leaves one commander without a name. The infamous Screech! We need more folks to step it up. Take one for the team! I'll be pumping out a bunch of commanders in the near future, some of them might not be too glorious of a position though.

sachmo- I'll give you the opportunity to switch to Screech if you want, for a while at least as our Dusk Elder you'd be stuck researching. Quite a while probably, but when that was finished, you'd be a bad mutha. Might be boring though, so if you'd like to switch to a frontline troop, lemme know. I'll keep the last slot open until you decide.

If anyone is unhappy with their selection, I think there'll be plenty of chances to "switch" up if you want. I think the amount of commanders we'll be bringing in will be much higher than the readership, so everyone should be good to go.

I think soon I'll be at a point where I'm comfortable with the game, and then I'll start taking some advice from our Generals as to what we should do. I might also look into throwing a few pics up so you can get a better idea of what's going on.

[Calis]

Ack, I completely forgot about our loveable Dark Servant Nightworm! Completely missed him since I just checked our provinces for commander's, forgot about him hiding out behind enemy lines.

So there's another option for anyone who wants to switch/hop on.

[Calis]

Turn #12

You know, I think I failed to ever mention that the turn system in this game is simultaneous. That’s a pretty important thing to mention, it’s not the traditional IGOUGO.

Alright, for at least this turn though, we’ll assume sachmo71 has assumed our Arch-mage position.

-sachmo71 has summoned a Dusk Elder, gives a little extra help with the researching, I plan on getting as much help as we can on this.

-Our troops manage to take care of a large number of rebels in our provinces as well.

-In Lovendalon a handful of Nature gems has been found. Sounds good to me, we need all the gems we can get.

I set our new Dusk Elder to the task of summoning another of his kind, and put sachmo71 back to researching.


More New Faces..

Two new Mound King Commanders have shown their faces as well, Manhate and Yglrod have joined us.

Preach On

I move WSUCougar the Prophet into the Dust Fens to hopefully teach the masses the one true way.


The Horde Moves

thealmighty and his Hordes are sent from Dust Fens back to Ermor. He’ll be restocking and leading the conquest of Bithyne shortly, a province that just annoys me by it’s location. Lovendalon is a very small, narrow province, and is the only thing between Bithyne and us.

Gertbeef is set to the task of searching The Sinks for magical sites, hopefully he can scrounge something up.

Contact

Nightworm reports back with some big news. He has spotted the Arcoscephales. Sheesh is that a bitch to type. They appear to be expanding East, which would mean that very soon we should be butting heads. I send Nightworm into their territory to get us an estimate on numbers.

Screech and our new Commanders are left alone, as I don’t have the troops to give them right now, and nothing else needs to be done.

-Hmm, going over this, I almost wonder if we should’ve maybe placed the FOFC posters as Commanders of groups instead of individual commanders. This would solve the name problem, and I think at the rate commanders are put forth, might make more sense. Seems like it’d be easier to do, but we’ll see how this goes. Maybe it will become second nature for me to associate one name with another.

That wraps up our turn, nothing too exciting happening this round.

[Calis]

Turn #13

-Another Dusk Elder is raised for researching purposes

-Gertbeef has searched The Sinks and found nada. Damn, was really hoping he’d find something.

-More brigands killed in The Sinks, Coffee Warlord and his men are doing their job well up there!


They Just Keep Coming

Another commander pops up to serve us, a Mound King that goes by Arik Illum or some such nonsense. We’re being overrun with commanders now!

Gertbeef moves back to Ermor, he’ll be put back to researching next turn.

The Good Father

WSUCougar is erecting a Temple ‘o Worship to Gertbeef in Dust Fens, further spreading the good word.


Qwikshot is moved back to the capital also. It has been decided he will join thealmighty for the assault on Bithyne.

Scouting Arcoscephale

Interesting. In the first province of the Arco’s(That’s what we’re calling them from now, screw typing that out), he finds absolutely no defenders. This a sign that they’re stretching themselves to thin early? I’m not sure, I tell Nightworm to keep on searching, we’ll find out how much firepower they really have. Right now it appears we have a two province buffer between their territory and ours, that’s not a whole lot, war is bound to happen soon.

Once again, a quiet turn. Things are heating up though, next turn we'll ready our forces for the march on Bithyne, and then start preparing the defense of our Southern borders for the inevitable battles with the Arco's.

-Another thing I should point out, because I just noticed both Qwikshot and thealmighty have earned Heroic Abilities. In the game there is a Hall of Fame, which holds the Top 10 Experience earning Commanders. For making this list, you get a randomly assigned bonus, that bonus grows bigger and bigger the longer you're on the list. It of course goes away if you drop out. I should also add that Pretenders are not counted in HoF, only the other commanders.

Qwikshot- Heroic Quickness. Rather fitting isn't it? This gives you extra action points and actions per turn in combat.

thealmighty- Heroic Toughness. Increased number of hitpoints, can never have too many of those.

I should also note that through the course of being in battles, commanders and units can gain experience levels, or stars actually. Qwik and thealmighty are the only 2 Generals so far who have earned a star on the field of battle. The other guys will get their chances all too soon I’m sure.

[Calis]

Turn #14

-Coffee Warlord and company has disposed of 6 more bandits in The Sinks. He reports back that the land is now safe and orderly. Nice work.

-We’ve gained a level in Construction magic also, getting closer to trying to craft some uber items.

The Horde Marches Again

thealmighty and Qwikshot begin their march towards Bithyne. They’ll be attacking with a force of 91 soldiers between the two, should be an easy victory for our boys. They won’t be ready to attack until next month though.

The Warlord Earns his Army

I move Coffee Warlord to Ermor to stock him up, looks like it’s time for him to lead an army of his own. He did a fine job clearing out the riffraff from the Sinks, and we'll need all the experienced leaders we can get on the Southern front.

Testify

WSUCougar the Prophet marches to Lovendalon to begin work on a Temple there next month. For every 5 temples, it raises our max dominion by 1, and this will be our 5th. Cougar might get a chance to lead a host of his own soon, as I think he might very well be our best General with the Priestly magic mixed with the bonuses for being Prophet.

Scouting

Nightworm reports back from within Ascor territory, and says he found another province with basically no defense. There is one officer and a few henchmen present from his accounts. Looks like we’ll need to keep searching to find their main host. I decide at this time that Nightworm can’t do all the scouting by himself, so I task sachmo71 with summoning another Black Servant to help him out. Nightworm will continue on through Arcon’s territory doing his thing.

Research

To finish up, I set the research to 20 for Construction and 11 for Conjuration. 20 Construction will get us to our next level, might as well keep Conjuration up also.

[hoopsguy]

I would be happy to take on one of the roles in this dynasty. Whatever works for you - one of the newer commanders or Screech just to get that name out of play.

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by Calis

Cougar might get a chance to lead a host of his own soon, as I think he might very well be our best General with the Priestly magic mixed with the bonuses for being Prophet.

Oh, go on. :o