Let's Play: Lords of Magic

[IGdood]

Hello, this is skitarii here.

If you remember me you might have seen me making a post or two around SF, but most of my posts have been in this section of the forums. I've been doing a Let's Play of a popular strategy game, Empire Total War. Most of you would probably be horrified at the amounts of units lost, giving that in Fire Emblem losing no units is a good thing. Well that LP is...on hold now, since the game keeps crashing on my computer for some reason I cannot explain.

So, I've decided...what other game can I do a LP of that I can get my fellow forumites involved with? Well, how about a very old game, by a now-defunct company named LORDS OF MAGIC.

You're probably thinking, what the fck is this game? Well, I forgot when it came out, I believe in 1995 or something. I don't know, before Sierra was famous for its city-building games, it had Lords of Magic.

This was the day when game manuals got over 200 pages of material, half of which was lore (I have the manual to LoM somewhere, I can't remember for my life where) and the other half was on directing your units around. This game was unique in that it had dynamic soundtracks, yes, the soundtrack changes as you move your cursor around on the map and it also plays depending on whether you're winning or losing a battle.

I will be playing this game with a mod, which fixes many bugs and adds in a shitload of new features, most of which I don't know of, so I guess you can call this a blind-ish playthrough. I haven't touched this game in about 4-5 years. I hope you enjoy. Let's begin.

This is the title screen. The resolution is pretty small. I'll be using a custom map to make things more interesting. The standard map accessed via the Lords of Magic option is a bit easy, I believe.

So I randomly choose a cool-sounding map. Hope this goes well.

So, let me do a quick breakdown of the unit types in this game.

Units are divided into Regular Units. Champions and Lords, and Legendaries. I will explain the middle.

Champions and Lords are special units that lead your parties. They can be of the Warrior, Mage, or Thief class. A Lord leads your Faith (country), and can ascend to higher levels than Champions. So, a Lord is an expansion of the Champion group. Losing your Lord is pretty much game over.

Warriors are your bread-and-butter, simplest units. Their job is to spearhead an assault on enemy forces and let the weapons do the talking. They sport the highest defense and offensive abilities (physically) of all three classes. However, that's pretty much it.

Mages are a weird bunch. Their attacks are weakshit, and they can barely take more than a few hits, if at all. Spells have to be slowly researched, and mana is limited. However, they can be the difference between losing all your units in a wipeout or screwing up an enemy force without losing a single unit. Spells are dependent on which side you pick, which I'll explain in a bit.

Thieves are also a complex bunch. For one, they cannot take hits. Their physical and defensive stats are mostly shit until properly leveled. However, they are the deadliest sons-of-bitches in ranged combat. Also, they have the ability to use Stealth on the battlefield, rendering them invisible. They can also one-shot enemy Lords and Champions, provided they can sneak up close WITHOUT being detected AND FROM BEHIND. So yes, with lots of micro, thieves can FUBAR the enemy.

Here are the eight Faiths (countries) of the game universe, Urak. Let me list them all. Opposite faiths are archenemies of each other, no alliance is possible, I believe.

The 4 elements: Oldest Faiths in the universe according to Lore.

Water - A well-balanced race. Has the strongest Navy in the game (no shit), other units are pretty much balanced in all stats. That is their strength and their weakness. Also a female-dominated society known as the Amazons.

Earth - A slow, defensive race. Populated by Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings. Units are slow as hell, but their defense and attack ratings are over the top, provided they could actually get to you.

Fire - A race hellbent on offensive capability. Units can't defend for shit, and they're not fast either. Will carve you up a new one if they get to you. Spells are pretty much damage damage damage. Populated by Fire Giants, humans, dwarves, and fire demons.

Air - A race on speed and offense. Also can't defend for shit, like Fire. Except their offensive capabilities aren't that great either. They're lightning fast, with units able to fuck up your missile units before they can get their second shot off. Spells are also pretty damaging and supportive, I believe.

Water vs. Fire. Air vs. Earth.

The other 4: The newer Faiths, one of which is the Big Bad in this game.

Order - Based on the Crusader knights and medieval Europe. Consists of humans only. The lads believe in Order, that all things should work as planned and together....yeah. Anyways, pretty strong offensive and defensive capabilities, like Earth, but faster. Spells work on supporting your men rather than damaging the enemy.

Chaos - A barbaric bunch, kinda like Fire except they trade a little bit of attack power for more HP. They believe in fighting, fighting, and living chaotically. Spells are also very chaotic, dealing random shit to all sides.

Life - Believe in preserving and extending...Life. Basically the typical good guys in a game. They also happen to be Elves. Melee units suck balls, ranged units are the best in the game....or maybe second best. Wear yellow.

Death - The prime evil of this game. They just kill for the sake of killing and for their dark god, Golgotha. They happen to be Dark Elves. Hahaha..... Units are the balance of agility, attack, defense, except maybe a little low on the defensive and Hp side. Spells are designed to fuck the enemy up, especially if there are dead bodies on the field. Skeletons/Shades can be raised from the dead, decay damage can be inflicted on the enemy. Basically losing units to these guys while a Death mage is present is not good; the dead bodies can be used to raise forces midbattle.

Because i just want one archenemy in this game instead of two, I pick Life. Plus, the portrait's pretty hot. I set the difficlty to medium, but I want to try something new. I click Custom.

This takes me to a starting party customization screen. Instead of using a pre-assigned party, I get to choose what I start with. I decide to add a Order Thief LORD to my party. Usually I'd start out with the typical low tier Life units, but I want to try something fresh. Besides, I'm not sure if the Order Faith will have a ranger in this playthrough....anyways whatever. This could be a bad thing. Only two units, and no meatshields. And they're both melee-incapable, mostly.

I therefore name myself Skitarii. My real life self is more suited for a mage, but I've been swimming a lot recently and I've gotten kinda physically fit, so I can pass off for a Ranger, I suppose. Besides, rangers aren't very fast in this game. They're more like a tough thief, fitting in with the style of Order. They also use crossbows, and I love crossbows.

Well...let's hope i made the right choice...

So basically the story of the game is that the Death faith has gone on the warpath. They've fucked up the world and have sown death and destruction across Urak. Our job is to kick their asses, and take out their leader. It seems the game has assigned the name "Imari" to my Life Lord.

i take a look at their stats, and then i get a headache. I'm sure only the top 6 boxes are important.

From left to right, up to down: Melee Attack, Melee Defense, HP, Movement Points, Mana(?), and Missile Attack and Missile Range. Note that I have much better melee capabilities, so I guess this means I'd make for a good tank...? Oh yea, note the L and H signs. L denotes that this person is the Lord of the Faith. If the Lord dies, its game over UNLESS you have an heir. I'm the heir. If Imari dies, I become the new Lord. If both of us die......game over.

I start off in a weak spot. Two units, and thats it. A party can form 3 slots at most. Imari and I are both Lord classes, so we're in the leadership section of each slot. One slot can have up to 1 Champion/Lord and 3 other units. More on those units later.

The grey flags denote that the building is a random encounter. I'll get to clearing them out later. For now lets visit the capital city, where you get everything done.

The capital is pretty much your method of getting resources and healing your party instantly. (For great fees, of course)

Okay, to my bottom right are my resources. The guy with the knee up represents Fame. Fame can be used to attract followers (if you have a great temple liberated) and pretty much make yourself awesome.

Beneath that is a guy with a raised hand. That's a follower, you use them to train units and put them to work in the capital city to get you more resources. They only come up if you gave a great temple, which I don't.

The blue crystals are...crystals. They're mainly used to buy anything magic-related, and are used to pay the salary of magical units and mages.

Gold is gold, which I have 16 of. Used to pay the salaries of ranged units and thieves; also to buy other resources...

Ale is....used to pay the salaries of melee units and warriors, but that's pretty much it.

Lets explain the different buildings. The market is where I go to sell resources for gold. The temple is where I go to buy crystals with gold, and to get my party healed. Exorcism is used if someone's cursed my party. The Magistrate is where I go to beg for gold, spending Fame in the process. The Tavern is where I go to buy Ale with Gold, or to spend Ale holding parties to gain Fame.

This is the Thieves Guild. Here is where I hire missile units and thief champions.

Things to learn:

Missile units - typically have shit melee capabilities, and the missile units between Faiths vary in stats greatly.

Scouts - Can see pretty far on the map, otherwise not meant for combat. Will probably be OHKO'd. In this case, the Life Faith uses the Brownie, which is like....a little elf thing?

This is the Barracks, where I hire melee units and a ship.

Melee Infantry - Stats vary depending on Faith. Life infantry suck balls, but are sorta fast. Melee Infantry may seem to have low defensive stats, but they actually have an innate melee resistance, which means they negate 1/3 of melee damage dealt to them. They're weak against missiles.

Cavalry - Stats vary depending on Faith. Life cavalry are pretty fast bastards, but otherwise suck everywhere else. Cavalry are resistant to missiles but flinch harder than other units. (more on flinching later)

Ships - Stats vary depending on Faith; oh yeah, Fire's ships are the worst. Water has the best. Ships are used to transport units across bodies of water.

This is the Mage tower, where I hire mages and summon Creatures.

Life mages are pretty focused on support and healing. Not so much on the damage side.

Creatures are pretty special units. I think they're resistant to magic. They can be missile, melee, or something else altogether with a gimmick or two. They come in two tiers for each Faith.

Dryads are just shit. Shut up, I don't care if they don't wear much, they suck. Period.

Here's a overview of each Faith. I can estimate what resources they have, and their opinion of me. I can also gauge military power. However, I haven't met the other Faiths yet...

The good faiths (Air, Water, Life, Order) have pretty positive relations.

Here's a report on Death.

This is the Great Temple. I have to liberate (cleanse) this place, or else I can't get followers. Without followers, I won't be able to get more units.

Legendary Units can be summoned here, I'll explain.

Tier 3 Creature - Usually a very powerful unit, mostly melee oriented. Comes with a gimmick or two, and very expensive.

Legendary Unit - The best unit the Faith has to offer, can only be summoned once. If killed, cannot be summoned ever again.

Lets take a look at combat. I order my party to move down to a hamlet, which, good thing, is just level 1. Hopefully the occupants aren't too difficult....

Here's the battle screen. If a Lord has a retinue, they would appear next to him/her. Well its only two of us...against...

Fuck. Did I mention that regular units appear as 3 on the battlefield? Well my thieves should be able to outrun them....hopefully.

I unpause. Lets do this.

And stealth my thieves. The enemy will freeze in their tracks since they can't see me. Oh well, time to reposition...

I move myself over to the right, and Imari stays in the north. I unstealth one of them at a time, so the enemy goes after me. They chase me, Imari shoots. They chase Imari, I shoot.

The scouts die first, since they are pretty fast and can tie up my guys. Even if they can't do shit to my thieves, My thieves will waste time blocking their attacks while everyone else catches up.

Close call. Good thing I can dodge attacks to some degree, and I have pretty good defense.

After a wild goose chase, they start dropping.

Since I don't feel like shooting, I engage in a melee with the last remaining skeleton. The Ranger pulls out a knife for close combat.

Exp! No level up...

Well here I can at least see how close I am to leveling up. I can also rename units here as they come available. However, since this isn't like Empire Total War, I'd ask if you would like a unit named, please don't make it a joke name this time, unless its a good joke name.

Since I'm really tired at the moment, I exit the game.

I hope this LP is good.

[eclipse]

Awww, I can't have something as funny as the Chainsaw Brigade?

Ah, well. . .

Since this is a Sierra game, in honor of it, you're naming my unit Rosella.

[Integrity]

I've never actually seen this game played.

PUNCHY FUCKER NAMED INTEGRITY PLZ

[Parrhesia]

Thief of either Air or Chaos, whichever involves the most out-and-out archery of the two. Furetchen, naturally, is the moniker of preference.

[Acacia Sgt]

Alright then, call one of them Acacia. No idea on what, though, as I don't know what conforms your army...

[IGdood]

Awww, I can't have something as funny as the Chainsaw Brigade?

Ah, well. . .

Since this is a Sierra game, in honor of it, you're naming my unit Rosella.

Well, you can have something fnny, but I need an actual name. For example: Rosella the "-insertfunnyhere-"

I've never actually seen this game played.

PUNCHY FUCKER NAMED INTEGRITY PLZ

Right, I'll make you some melee thing.

Thief of either Air or Chaos, whichever involves the most out-and-out archery of the two. Furetchen, naturally, is the moniker of preference.

Well, we'll see if I actually encounter an Air Thief Lord or Chaos Thief Lord. Its most likely the AI may have randomly chosen the Warrior or Mage branches.

Air Thief Lords have the most highest-pitched of voices, heheheheheh. Chaos thief lords are fucking sexy though....and throw rings in battle.

Alright then, call one of them Acacia. No idea on what, though, as I don't know what conforms your army...

I don't know, we'll see what I get.

[eclipse]

Rosella the Single Princess (i.e. as long as it's female, it'll fit).

I miss Sierra!

[Soren37]

Captian Soren the 37th.

Spelled that way.

And a mage would be cool, especially a Medic.

Edited October 18, 2010 by Soren37

[IGdood]

Rosella the Single Princess (i.e. as long as it's female, it'll fit).

I miss Sierra!

Well, there's not that many female units in this game, and Soren down there is asking for a mage.

Remember, a party can only have 3 champions, right now I've already got two. So, I can either rename Imari to Rosella.....

Captian Soren the 37th.

Spelled that way.

And a mage would be cool, especially a Medic.

.......or....well....Life mages make for the best medics (resurrection). However, I'm not going to encounter a Life mage LORD because I've already chosen a Life THIEF Lord. Most likely I can only get a Life mage CHAMPION.

So I forgot to explain this, but Lords have a level cap of 15(?) Champions can only cap at 12. Who knows, every Faith has about 15 or so spells, maybe some of the other Faiths have good healing spells too.

....Oh wait, Furetchen's asking for a Air Thief or Chaos thief. Hmmm... maybe I can focus on two parties? Hmmm.....

Edited October 18, 2010 by skitarii

[eclipse]

If you're going two parties, that would be awesome!

If for some weird reason you can't fit Rosella in there, put her dad Graham in there (it doesn't matter what he does, because he's had to do it all).

[IGdood]

SO previously on LoM, I was busy clearing out hamlets of Marauders, aka the "bandit" faction of the game. They hate everyone, even Death, and are used for Exp points. Skitarii is wounded, so I end a few turns to recover my HP.

Next hamlet!

Slaughtered? I'll have some LAUGHTER!

Trolls and Dark Halberdiers? DARK HALBERDIERS!? These are the infantry units of the Death faction. Whatever. TIME TO SNEAK AND SHOOT.

Because I'm a clumsy fucker I tend to get detected (red circle) and get chased around. The trolls punched me, and the halberdiers stabbed me. I'm also a pretty slow guy.

Anyways, after a ton of running around, I manage to win. Yeees level up!

I autocalc the next hamlet because its probably the same format of enemies (2 melee, some scouts) and I'm lazy and had to study for college.

[IGdood]

And now its a level 2 hamlet. Because I'm too lazy I decide to autocalc to see what would happen.

LOLWUT

And with very little health left. I end another few turns to rest up and heal.

Time for another hamlet. Cleanin' house!

ELVEN ARCHERS, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Also, check out those stats of theirs. 1 melee attack, 1 melee defense. SIX HP. HA. HA....HAHAHA.....

I stealth while the game is paused, and send the two lovers partners down.

I shoot the archers first because they're Elven Archers, supposedly one of the best ranged units in the game. See that depleted health bar on me and Imari? They FUCKING targetted me during the brief moments of getting detected....and HIT. I think I've taken about 3 arrows, Imari took 4.

Eat arrows and crossbow bolts, you fucks.

The others are the next to go.

DEY DEFEATED.

I autocalc the next encounter because I was lazy.

I explore around, and....find a village under control by marauders. Villages, when captured, can have useful benefits. You can construct a building of either your own Faith or of the faith bordering that village. So since I'm life, if that neighbor is Air, or Water, etc, I can construct an Air/Water Thief's Guild, Mage Tower, or Barracks and use their units.

And what the fuck? My friends?

FUCK THERE'S TOO MANY OF THEM. RUUUUUUN!!

STEALTHED FLEE MODE!!! That's the yellow button my cursor is floating over. If a unit reaches the flag without dying, then it counts as a successful "Escape."

I can't take on anything above level 2 with just these two characters. I raise an army with whatever little resources I have and decide to go for the Great Temple. When training units, you can either use a Follower resource or hire a Mercenary. Mercenaries cost little to purchase, but get more expensive to pay as they level. Follower-troops cost a lot to train, but their upkeep costs do not raise with level, I think. Anyways I get a shit ton of infantry to act as meatshields and a dryad, who is a ranged Creature, tier 1, and Elven archers.

Well this gang shouldn't be too hard....oh wait whats that thing behind the statue..?

And my forces are sorta separated...

FUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCK ITS A MOTHERFUCKING DEMON, a tier 2 Fire creature. My chances of victory just dropped to 20%.

Meanwhile, the infantry are holding off those Orcs.

ARROWS FLY! I've lost 40% of my force, I think.

RUUUUN! RUN FOR IT! THE DEMON IS UPON US.....AAAAHHHHHHHHH

In all the action I forgot to pause just to mouse over this fucker's stats. CHECK OUT THAT MELEE. My infantry never stood a chance. Also, He's carrying a ranged attack in the form of a whip in his right hand, although the range is bad. He's not even hurt!

FLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

It counts as a defeat, and to add insult to injury, one of their units levels up.. I get no experience points.

Well, lets try this again. I've got no more resources, its either get in there or forever hold our peace.

Alright assholes, lets dance. Those green ugly fucks are Goblin Archers.

I shoot them first. The one weakness of the demon is that its slow. However, normal ranged attacks can't even hurt it. Therefore, I use the target button. Its called "Aimed Attack." Basically instead of letting off 4 arrows every 20 seconds you let off one arrow every 8 seconds for increased damage. Accuracy isn't boosted, I believe. Since Imari has extreme range, I let her shoot.

And because I'm a coward and a useless ranger, I flee the battle.

Leaving Imari to fend for herself...

A lucky critical hit cuts that bastard's HP by 40%.

ALMOST DEAD.....15 minutes later.

TAKE THAT MOTHERFUCKER

What's this?

Faaack. Not that much exp, but 13 followers are a welcome addition.

Yes yes yes I should even rename Imari to Princess Roselle for this very purpose.

And these are the two captives who join my cause. An enchantress (Life Mage) and a Life Warrior. Meh.

PEGASUS RIDERS!?

TO THE STRONGHOLD. I ASSIGN FOLLOWERS TO GIVE ME RESOURCES.

I SHALL WAIT FOR MORE FOLLOWERS. With the great temple liberated, every 7th turn of the game I will get followers. However that means I've missed quite a few cycles...

I put the enchantress in the library so she can research spells. I choose defensive spells.

Hmmm....16 turns? However, later on I find out that she has the level to work at 4 man days per turn, so its 4 turns.

By the way I need names for generics.

Edited October 20, 2010 by skitarii

[Integrity]

Generics need names? Let me sleep on this one.

[IGdood]

Huge update incoming.

Some spell descriptions of stuff I've researched. The chance of me having a Life Enchantress in my party's gonna be pretty low....though

Life spells usually have the opposite effect on Death units.

The basic attack spell.

Yay

I decide to rename Imari. She is a true Lord recognized by the people now after the Great Temple. So...she is now ROSELLA THE SINGLE PRINCESS. Wait...single? WHAT ABOUT MEEEEEEEE?!

Lets go break into that Large Estate. Notice I've got a unit of Elven Staffmen (Life infantry, think of FE Myrmidons) and a unit of Elven Archers accompanying me. The white blips beneath their pictures show what level they are. They need names.

Let's get in there. STORM THIS HOUSE.

Not a bad matchup. Centaur Swordsmen, Elven Archers, and a shitload of Sprites (the blue fairy guys).

WHY ARE THEY SO FAST!?

I move Rosella a bit back. She's losing health from those fucking Elven archers. Here I'm wondering why Group 2 (Skitarii and MY archers) isn't doing anything. Turns out, see that green elevation? Its blocking the arrows. Fawk.

Rosella takes a few more arrows, and the Elven Staffmen are cut down to a man.

The Staffmen dead. One centaur swordsman wipes out to archers before being subdued. (Ranged units who are too close to an enemy will pull out a knife instead of shooting.) So its just Skitarii, Rosella, and an Archer.

I manage to win the shootout by having myself take shots to the face. I decide NOT to go to the basement.

Sucks for you, Staffmen. I'll train up some more.

I run out of movement points....I wanted to get back to the capital for some healing.

I wasn't sure what to do next, I didn't want to go attack the basement without melee infantry support, so I plop the guys in the Thief's Guild. Because Rosella and myself (I'll refer to Skitarii in the first person) are of the thief class, we can "add" experience to the guild. This means that future recruits trained from this building will come with some experience, in this case 880 points. This makes leveling easier if I somehow lose a lot of soldiers.

Only 5 followers!? WHAT!? Because I haven't done much in the past 7 turns, the turnout is so small....

Hey who's this?! Could it be?! The Thief Lord of Chaos? I attempt to talk to her, but ran out of movement points.

Instead she makes contact with me. I dislike you.

This is the parley screen. She is THREATENING me and demands a unit of Elven Staffmen. Fuck you. I do not accept.

I go for a renegotiate. Lets talk about diplomacy. This is a basic game, so there isn't any complex AI here. okay.

So, the buttons on the left set the tone for this negotiation.

Plea - You're begging for something.

Gift - You're giving them something.

Trade - You'll give and take, no relationship boost.

Demand - You want something. This can hurt relations.

Threat - Fuck you, I'm stronger than you so give me what I want. This really hurts relations.

You can demand spells, units, buildings, artifacts (items that may be found as loot from high level encounters) and give those too.

I decide to give them shit they can't use like a Life spell.

Kthxbai.

Moving on...let's get the basement. And I have to manually move my forces to it.

Feh, easy.

I get my archers to target their archers. Infantry will hold off all those trolls and goblins.

40 seconds to kill 'em all.

Level ups across the roster!

I spot a party of marauders ready to cause trouble. Time to die.

YOU WILL BE FORCED TO DIE.

I'll explain the basics of terrain. Each faith's units have some sort of speed advantage or disadvantage when it comes to terrain. I'm on a meadow. Undead/Death units move at half speed on a meadow because they're emo fucks. Its too happy for them. So, most likely they'll just get picked off by my archers.

They're dying...dying...dying.

ROSELLA THE SINGLE DEFEATS...

A spell description!

Let's move up to Level 3 encounters.

Still mostly easy, but they have a champion....and the annoying sort.

I take arrows to the face from that thief, and the Staffmen make short work of the trolls. Dey be trollin', and I be stealthin to preserve my health.

Rosella one-shots her.

More level ups! And a scroll! Let's see what it does.

Not very useful unless I'm staying in one spot... Plus, Rosella and I can see pretty far since we're thieves.

[Acacia Sgt]

Okay so... I take one of the Staffmen then. Call it Acacia.

[IGdood]

Fame just keeps coming my way. I'm loving it.

Sending the lads back to the guild, I notice some fucker from the Fire nation sneaking around. Fire's thieves have the worst sneaking skill.

MOAR.

I upgrade my capital. Upgrading it allows me to upgrade the surrounding military buildings.

See? A wall.

I decide to upgrade the wizards tower.

Thus unlocking.....Unicorns? Fast, decent stats, bit on the weak side.....may have a random chance of getting blessed armor (defensive buff) when getting attacked.

uh oh....does this mean that the Chaos Great Temple was already owned by Chaos? That could mean that I won't be able to get them to join me....(more on that later)

Now with a well-trained force, its time to move on beyond the borders of Life. I revisit that village where I fled from many days ago.

Stop begging. Make your last words, then sleep.

You guys don't look so intimidating anymore.

We'll bash your heads in.

HA! I'm on an elevated area, and they have to walk around the green area to get to me. I put myself on the front line because I'm pretty awesome in melee too, and I let them bottleneck themselves.

POINT BLANK CROSSBOW IN YOUR FACE YOU HORSE FUCK

DRYAD IS THROWING A FIREBALL. That does nothing.

HEH. WHO'S LAUGHING NOW?

THIS VILLAGE IS MINE.

Because the party stationed here is led by thieves, the only thing I can build is a thieves guild. The choice of an AIR guild means that the neighbor of this border is the Air faith.

And I am correct. That's their mage tower, and their great temple!

Meanwhile, I recruit a Unicorn and Life cavalry to join my group.

It'll take 2 turns for them to get here....

Lets go storm that gold mine. If I capture, I can get more resources per turn!

In the meantime, I upgrade my barracks. While no new units are unlocked, it raises the maximum capacity for Derlon to add his experience to the barracks.

Level 5? Shouldn't be too bad.

Ah shit, an Air mage.

My retarded attempt at charging my cavalry to flank that mage fails and they all die a horrible death from the Sprites. Meanwhile, the main battle engages down there.

I emerge victorious and send in the melee troops to kill that asshole. He was dodging arrows by walking around.

Look at teh loot!

6 gold per turn? Well that beats having to put 6 followers in the market.

Aww, the shield is useless. Warriors only from the Order, Chaos, Death, and Water faiths.

Let's go liberate the Air Temple, because I'm a nice guy. Shouldn't be very difficult.

Eh....what a starting position.

That's quite a horde of enemies we have here. I'm worried about those two fellows on the bottom. Its a golem (punchy fucker) and a rock troll (extremely punchy fucker)

The initial wave of trolls gets beaten down by concentrated arrow fire and staves to the head.

A few of them come in from above, but those staffmen should do a fine job. See that blue ring on that one staffman? He got jinxed by the air mage from the previous battle, and I didn't rest a turn to get rid of the spell. Rosella and I are getting ready to target that Rock Troll. Hopefully the other staffmen can hold him up.

He goes down, along with the Staffmen. Now there's that Golem to worry about.

The unicorn dies. I send the remaining Staffmen to take out those archers while I tank the Golem because I'm a badass motherfucker.

EAT KNIFE. I DON'T CARE IF YOU HAVE A STONE SKIN BUFF.

OW. YOU PUNCHY FUCKER.

Job done.

No level ups? What!?

Okay, so because the Air peoples have a positive relationship with me, by liberating their temple they have JOINED my faith. I now OWN their capital and some of their units AND their lord. Here's hoping that the air lord is a thief so Furetchen can have his request satisfied.....

MINE.

FAWK. The Air Lord chose the warrior path...

Well Furetchen can still be a Air Thief Champion....but....a fugly one.

I take a look at the air capital, and assign followers accordingly.

To replace my losses, recruit a unit of Air Infantry (FUCKING EAGLES) and name them Janaff. Weak shit melee, awesome speed. Plus they fly.

[eclipse]

HAH, Rosella strikes again! Thanks for putting her in!

(it's a reference to another series by Sierra, and she's done pretty much every job possible, for the sake of the games she's in)

[IGdood]

Okay so... I take one of the Staffmen then. Call it Acacia.

I'll rename them when I play the game again.

So now what? Time to explore around, I suppose.

Meanwhile, an Air Thief has joined my side...I send him to look for the Order great Temple.

I find an Order Warrior (paladin) and parley with him.

I give them many gifts and candies so they would love me. When the time is right I shall liberate their great temple and they shall join me.

Great Temple found!

I spot a Death Thief (assassin) lurking around. Fuck you, you're dead.

His name is Yaab. Time to die, bitch.

He tries to stealth and make a beeline for the flag area. Janaff's flock pecks him down and everyone else opens up with their arrows.

I move on to get another village to join me. Ar they taunting me?!

I know those sprites are going to make a beeline for my archers, so I put Janaff and co. on that hill to intercept them.

It works brilliantly.

And its time to wipe the floor.

VICTORY

Some turns later.......TIME TO LIBERATE THE TEMPLE OF ORDER

2 Death Warrior Champions, orcs, and zombies. Pah, the only people I need to worry about are those two lizards.

I go invisible...I have a plan. <--- "I have a plan" is an in-game quote by Skitarii. :D

I SUBDUE Sorek with a fist to the head. The graphics happened to glitch...he's actually unconscious, but somehow the game didn't make him go through a "falling down" animation.

Because subduing breaks my cover, they start going after me. See that shadow? That fucker's a Shade, tough and able to throw dark balls of shit at you. BUT, because I am so badass, I stealth again and SUBDUE the other asshole, knocking him off his lizard. In this fashion I just took out two lethal opponents without having to go through a straight fight. The rest is cakewalk, except for the Shade.

ALL UNITS, FOCUS FIRE ON THAT SHADE

Cakewalk. Properly used, Thieves are the ultimate.

GLORY! VICTORY!

ORDER JOINS ME

Their lord is some legendary knight, whom I rename Integrity, so he's a champion. However...why the fuck is he level 11? That's HIGH. Check out those stats! He can probably take on a Fire Demon unscathed.

By eclipse's request, I name a unit of Order Knights "Graham." Don't ask me how humans fathered an elven girl.

And with that, I bolster my army.

Rmembering Soren's wishes, I name this old guy CAPTIAN SOREN THE....something. Low-leveled, probably will need lots of babysitting. I savescummed so many times because the other portraits of the Wizard were just utterly horrible.

He knows first aid. =) Maybe he knows other healing spells for IN-BATTLE use.

Should I let him research?. NO! HE'S SLOW. I'll level him up, then maybe replace him with Integ in my main party.

So I switch Integrity out and bench him in the barracks. (Sorry!)

Except whatever experience could be conferred has already been. I'll have to upgrade the stuff soon...

[eclipse]

Oh geez. . .well, Graham's back, and it looks like he's still doing it all!

(for the sake of his single daughter)

[IGdood]

Oh geez. . .well, Graham's back, and it looks like he's still doing it all!

(for the sake of his single daughter)

HA! He'll Jeigan tank for her! WHY IS SHE SINGLE. jk

[eclipse]

Because good princes are hard to find (unlike her brother, who easily found a princess in distress).

[IGdood]

But I am a GRAND ranger. Therefore, I am awesome.

[Soren37]

I am a medic! Glee!

[IGdood]

Small update, hmmhmm....

This is what I get for not garrisoning my buildings. I lose them. But that doesn't mean I lose control of the Air capital. I just lose additional followers if its the 7th turn and I don't own the temple.

Its time to level Captian Soren up. Let's head on to a statue.

Alright, lets do this.

Eh, weaksauce, except for that possible guy on a tiger and those glowing fire thingies.....(elementals?) in the back.

Let's see what Soren knows. Righteous Bolt, the basic attack spell of Order Wizards. With only 10 mana, that means he can only do like.... 3* 5 spells meaning....15 damage? That's barely enough to kill ONE unit. Since he's level 2, 1/3 * 2 = 2/3, which I believe is rounded down.

Hmmm.. Righteous Cause. Now this is a useful buff.

Soren buffs me. =)

I use the rest of Soren's mana on Righteous Bolt, and I watch him blast TIGERMAN.

-swchizwizzzz-

The archers take care of everyone else. At this point I forgot I had to name the Staffmen....FUUUCK SORRY ACACIA

Regular units hit max level at level 5.

I MUST BE FAMOUS

A defensive item is like this is best given to Soren.

Hm, a scroll. Let's me cast this spell one time.....

Damn, I can't liberate Chaos' temple. That means Furetchen won't be getting his Chaos Thief Lord. Well Furet, you're gonna have to settle for a champion. CHoose your character, and light your own destiny.....

MORE FOLLOWERS, GOOD

I NEED MOER CRYSTALS

LOOK AT ALL THOSE ARCHERS.

SOREN GET OUT OF THERE

2 arrows to the face and Soren's health is down quite a lot.

Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaah

Because I'm thinking what to do next I put the party into this Guild.

WHAT

RETURN MY CAPITAL TO ME ASSHOLES

YOU SHALL NOT USE MY GATES AGAINST ME

Soren goes on fury and casts Righteous Bolt repeatedly at the Orc Warlord

He dies.

Graham and Co charge and take out the rest.

I upgrade the Order capital to level 3.

The walls get even bigger!

I also upgrade the wizard tower.

[IGdood]

And a long belated naming. Elven Staffmen.....agile infantry, flinches quickly if taking a hit, fast attack speed, weak on the defense and attack. Occasionally may deal a Crushing Blow, which is based on the HP of the guy taking the hit.

I decide to test Integrity's combat abilities out by sending him to beat up some Marauders.

They charge Integrity.

SWAARM

4 minutes later.

They didn't even scratch him.

Soren needs a bodyguard. What better bodyguard than an empty suit of armor that trows javelins and reminds us of FE 10 soldiers?

I name him DOOD from a friend's request.

I also build a special building. When Graham reaches max level he can come here for a treat.

I also build a special building for Life; it'll help if I get hurt pretty badly.

DOOD joins up with the party.

Let's help out the Water faith next!

And a quick change of hands. I've decided I'm gonna wipe Fire off the map because I dislike them.

HA

2 turns....

A marauding party gets in my way. Die, fools.

Long story short: They don't survive the arrows shot at them.

For shits and giggles I let Soren beat them with his staff.

Because everyone else is at max level, only we three champions get experience.

I upgrade my Life Capital to the max level, and the surrounding buildings.

Bah.

MUDDIED WATER? THAT's nothing, we have a BP OIL SPILL

FIRE WARRIORS. Check out that pitiful 4 defense.

I give one nifty artifact to Soren. Its a scroll, which allows ANY champion, even non-mages, to cast spells. The scroll has only 2 charges, so a mage wouldn't need to use mana. It recharges every turn also. In this case, this scroll allows him to use feather sword, which would work wonders on Janaff and Air Faith units.

I also give myself a Poison scroll, which is pretty useless.

JAVELIN IN YOUR FACE BITCH

I stealth myself for no reason.

JANAFF DOES NOT EAT SWORDS.

Water Temple cleansed.

No level ups.

Blah blah blah

Hmm....Bluewave, eh? She'd complement a party of Furetchen and Integrity. By the way Furet, you still haven't decided....

Obligatory shot of hot water mage reading books.

What? A seagull!?

A holy spring...hmmm