Dammit Karl Sanders is still legit good
So, let us talk about a won game. Basic point of Wasteland games is that you will be gold-starved and gem-starved, and thus optimizing against everything at once is kinda essential. Hiss'ith or whatever (I'll call them my Own Cheapo Tomb Kings) is a Undead mummy nation, with fire-resistant humans and Pale Ones. I did not recruit a single living troop, nor did I recruit any living commander bar assassins.
So, what was the plan.
Chaos3 Luck3 Magic 3 is kind of a given in Wasteland games, as you need events to keep up with fort building and lab construction. I had quite a lot of good events ( in turn 40-50 I got a Treasure almost every turn) giving me variety: I even got a N2F1 Sage that gave me N forging capabilities. Gold was needed because Mummy nations are expensive as heck: my shittiest mage, a E2, went for 140 Gold. I never recruited my highest - tier mage: E2 and random S2\D2\F2 were more than enough to give me variety, plus a blood hero. I got Air 1-2 from Bone Tribe shamans for limited forging.
Those guys where the centerpiece of my initial expansion AND my emergency button for SC-god tier foes. Or other sacreds. The Cursing battleaxe is a awesome weapon for the role, the N9W9 bless was great and gave them excellent survivability and being Mummies they have Wasteland survival so great mobility in the Wasteland map. Sure, my Priests were kinda meh (max H2) but that gave me the second point of my strategy: skellspamming with undead priests. I started skellspamming far later than the other two skellspammers (Spivaz and Tsiis''th) but I wanted some research done before. By the endgame my Priests threw out like 200+ skellies par turn.
As commanders, I employed undead Kings and Bane Lords. Bane Lords were also used as cheapo thugs with Brands, Shrouds and assorted items, but they never managed to repay their cost back. More on this later.
Research was kinda easy to plan. Get Alteration for Maws of the Earth. Construction for Thug equip. Earthquake for room cleaning. Evocation for mass damage with F casters. All was obtained and employed. For cheaper firepower, Blade Wind. Come Conj for stuff, but wasting gems on Scorpions was a bad move and I did it for the lulz. My ideal army would have been a small forces of Guardians on the flanks to avoid their heat aura, with nearby my battlemages blasting away and the Priests blessing. The non-fire resistant army would be on the other flank, employing Banes and skellies.
I got a ton of mileage from Assassins: those 999 crossbows and the Black Bows of Botulfs did a good job against some targets. That and suicide scouts with Medallions of Vengeance to clean up Throne provinces.
So, what happened. Nothing happened. Everything worked like a charm. I got every research when I needed it, all the armies when I needed it, failed just
one battle and mauled my opponents.
I'm blessed with a spawn near two lv3 Thrones and no one nearby. I get first contact with Lapich (Zephyr) and I chat amiably for a while. No need to attack him, he's a good guy. I contact Xoco (Dreaad) and after a while I jump on him. He chainstales and barely fights back. I think the fucked up planning and took a shitty nation.
Fffffffuck.
Whatevs. I get Xoco and clean up the area, getting my research on and events. Spivaz goes on his murderspree and I and Isiloon decide to join forces and maul him badly: he never engages me directly and I siege his cap. I destroy his skellies with Earthquake but his sacreds are simply too good. At the same time I start planning to break the Lv3 Thrones: one is a Great Mother one (ton of Wooden constructs and regenerating Earth gnomes) and the other is the lovely Spring Hawks one (Air 8 Pret chassis there). The Spring Hawks throne needs a ton of work, with several waves of suicidal scouts with Medallions of Vengeance and assassins working on the indie commanders.
Thanks,
Grimwulf. You taught me how to clean the fuckin' things. I hope this warms your heart in cold Siberia.
My first SERIOUS attempt at breaching the Throne was hilarious: the Air 8 Pret spammed Air Elementals and annihilated everyone with Shimmering Fields. I wasted more skellies and assassins to empty his gem reserves. After that, sent in 120 skellies, done.
Mother Throne was more a deal of firepower. Maws of the Earth and Falling Fires. Lost 125 skellies, killed everything else.
The only other "difficult" battles I had where against indie conjurers (Dust to Dust made a number against my sacreds, and some blood mages on the last LV3 thrones did the same with Leech).
I offered to Spivaz vassalage and he agreed, as his armies were the only ones that could fly fast enough to breach my Thrones and break my armies. He was a good man and kept his word even if he could have backstabbed me gloriously in the end.
All said and done, it was a weird game. I had more fun in planning to breach difficult foes with few means (Thrones, Spivaz) than planning wars: no one bothered to attack me at all, for reasons unknown.
GG, guys. Methinks is time for a different ruleset..... maybe that all-UW map.....
:kwanzania:
:russia::cheersmate:
Needs to be a real grueling slug-fest for it to really count.
