CoE3 AAR: A Chronicle of the Interregnum

[Edi]

That sad little town at the edge of nowhere turned out to be a greater boon than I had expected! Once all the business of establishing control had been dispensed with, I finally had time to take a good look around with my senses and it seems these murderous sea worshipers had been busy little killers indeed.

The presence of the dead in and around the town was considerable. So, not only did this place open the trade opportunities for me, it would also provide me with the troops that I have so long been lacking!

Toward the tail end of spring, I performed the rites of raising the dead as my servants and they came to answer my call:




I left the contingent of soulless to remind the townsmen who their lord and master is and headed out with the rest of my new warriors. By late summer I had made my way close to the outskirts of the ruins of the Imperial Capitol. I discovered another ancient temple, guarded only by what seemed a single weak spirit of the dead who have lost their way.



Close by there is also a swamp inhabited by a giant sized man-eating toad. Useless places even at the best of times, and this one doubly so. Well, Pantariste would probably disagree, since she uses all sorts of strange things growing in fens just like that for her concoctions, but she has her own hands full with the Bakemono and the dwarves who have been harassing her.

I had not quite up my mind about trying to acquire the temple for myself when the Colossus once more called my attention. It usually does not do this and has proven to be a most inefficient guardian of my southern realm, but this time there was cause enough and more.





The Colossus had spotted an army approaching from the south, a formation of strange and barbaric warriors the likes of which even it had never seen before. It is led by a man dressed as some kind of tribal leader or mystic, with feathers aplenty in his headdress and jewelry and tattoos in abundance.

Though this leader is human, the main force of his soldiers are creatures half man and half toad that walk upright and wield spears. The force is bolstered by what appear from all indications to be slaves overseen by a few human warriors. A strange bat-like creature flies to and fro ahead of the force, possibly as a scout, so they must know magic to control these beasts.

The most troubling aspect of this army is that it seems this barbarian has knowledge of the Realm of the Dead, because his advisor is a spirit form the Netherworld, though of a kind I have never seen. It would be most inconvenient if it turned out that this interloper is a necromancer in addition to whatever he is otherwise.







Whether or not I take the temple, I must hasten south to deal with this new threat.

[Edi]

The middle of the autumn is once more seeing the leaves fall from trees, but it is a much less dismal occasion now than it was a year ago. Considering my position right outside the lair of the horror that lairs in the ruins of the Capitol, that could be interpreted many ways... *chuckle*

The environs of the destroyed city are swarming with undead. There are small groups moving across the land, posing a hazard for anyone not sufficiently prepared. I was set on retaking the farms and hamlets around the plain where I found the Colossus, but I had to change my plans somewhat.

Those painted savages and their toad men are still somewhere in the near vicinity, the restless dead pose a threat and if I try take on everything, my troops will be whittled down in short order. On top of that, I nearly walked into an ambush that had the potential to decimate my troops, even as numerous as they currently are. Only that woodsman I hired as a scout prevented me from blundering headlong into it. There is a well organized band of brigands led by renegade military scouts preying on settlements and they had set up an ambush in a hamlet formerly in my possession.

Since defeating the brigands first would leave me weakened before facing those worshipers of...what did they call it? Yes, the God of the Four Faces, I decided to first move to take possession of the battlefield southeast of the Capitol. It was defended by a fairly sizeable band of lesser undead led by a wight. However, as always, there is a complication.



The wight is merely the lieutenant and the true power on that battlefield is a wraith, a far more dangerous undead. I wish I had one in my ranks, but I'm just going to have to destroy this one. They are notoriously independent minded and there are no magical means of persuading them to change allegiance. If I still had only human troops, I'd stay away, since the mere appearance of a wraith is enough to send men fleeing for their lives, screaming in terror. Fortunately the living dead do not have such concerns. I must remind myself to give that scout a pay raise, since it was him once more who noticed that all was not as it seemed at a casual glance.

(Narrator's note: The pay raise is part of the story. There is no unit upkeep.)

The presence of the wraith is an annoying setback, but there is also some good news:

A most capable fellow by the name of Manvale presented himself at the gates of my citadel and offered to work for me. Hiring him cost the price of a squad of swordsmen plus a scout thrown into the bargain, but despite this sudden bankruptcy, I consider every last copper of it well spent.





My new lieutenant and seneschal is a local hero of some note and can well take over the more mundane duties of managing the holdings and he can hold his own in a fight if he should come face to face with brigands. I still need to gather group of underlings for him, since this area is far from pacified and holding off a bandit or two is a far different proposition than facing large groups or entire wolf packs.

Moreover, Manvale seems to have come into possession of a spell scroll in his travels, which is an unexpected boon. It is of absolutely no use for him, but invaluable to me, as it will probably contain the knowledge required to learn more incantations. I must arrange to meet with him face to face at once!

[Edi]

I lost a couple of spearmen and some longdead on my assault on the wraith and its minions. Of my original contingent of spearmen, I have only four left with my army. Two more are guarding the citadel and I shall send these veterans with Manvale when I meet him. They deserve that much, especially after standing up to the wraith without flinching.

The battlefield was just as rich in pickings as I thought:



There is a strong presence of the dead here, which allows me to substantially increase the size of my army. Right then...





I feel a little shaken after reanimating these minions and I must at all costs avoid the need to have to do so again. However, now my forces are significantly bolstered and I can eradicate the annoying nuisances that have made administering my holdings and trying to get anywhere an exercise in frustration.

And very soon now I will have enough hands of glory to summon a powerful ally, which should make things much easier.

However, everything is not well, at all. Pantariste is dead.




A barbarian horde has invaded her lands from the south or southeast and what remains of her holdings are meager indeed. What with the brigands, hostile wildlife and constant harassment by Bakemono and the dwarven allies of the late Commius the Druid, she had no resources to stave off another well organized enemy.

Pantariste herself fell guarding the stone tower she had captured from an unaligned lord, though she did manage to slay all but one of the barbarian attackers. Small comfort, since that force comprised only a third of the invading horde. I only got the news later. Pantariste's apprentice Andromedeia is the only leader the Androphags have left and her troops are few.



The other troops my ally has left are concentrated to the defense of her forest tower.




The barbarians are lead by the chief who gathered the horde in the first place, Jordanes, a battle scarred veteran of many a vicious skirmish. One could almost call him crippled...




This force is moving on Andromedeia and when they catch her, she will die. Were she a full Witch and knew the right kind of spells, she could at least hurt them severely, but as things stand, her fate is already sealed.

And if Jordanes and his warriors are not enough, his second in command, leader of the barbarian horse, is on the move with more troops.





Huml and his men are moving to assault the forest tower. I fear I am soon to lose my ally while facing one intact alliance and the survivors of two more. If I do not manage to gather more powerful forces quickly, my prospects are bleak indeed.

[Edi]

Winter has arrived. The last days of autumn emptied my treasury literally to the dregs as I hired a squad of swordsmen to protect Gunthamund on his journey to reanimate the remnants of that savage Priest King's army and then added another scout for good measure so he isn't taken by surprise by sneaking things.

I had already moved northward on the eastern outskits of my territory when we got word of more of the savages coming from the south. This lot is lead by another priest type, this one with a headdress of red feathers.





And once more it's a race to the south and to destroy another invasion. Just as well, since there is absolutely bloody nothing up here in the north.

[Edi]

I have no recollection whatsoever of what happened in midwinter. My army was supposed to move south, but when late winter came around, I was still precisely where I had been at the end of early winter. The scout and spearman tell me that I acted erratically and refused to go anywhere. Most odd..




(Insane commanders appear pink when selected, deep red when not selected but viewed. They also appear in pale red text in the unit overview. They refuse any orders as long as they are insane.)


The enemy savages destroyed the soulless garrisoning the farm where their king is serving as fertilizer and I can only hope that this unexpected delay does not prevent me from crushing this interloper. I must find a cure for my unexpected lapses as soon as possible. I need more Hands of Glory!

[AngelSong]

Barras The Vampire?
Nightwalk,blood sucker^^

[WraithLord]

"rank: back" + "assassination, strikes fear" - reminds of good old disciples

Great AAR. Thank you.

[Edi]

By the time I really realized where I was, which was exactly where I had been midwinter as well, it was already spring and my army had sat out in the cold, twiddling its thumbs and doing nothing. Or more precisely, the spearman and the scout had, the undead had just stood around, like frozen statues. I had, apparently, been investigating the differences between how the bark of various different trees behaved in the cold.

*shakes head*

I have GOT to get a grip...

In any case, having wasted two entire months, I spent the next three force marching southwest to meet the jungleborn threat.

I left Cernetu behind, since he is more useful scouting the northern frontier. That area is currently tame enough that he can do it on his own without a lot of risk and I don't need to tie up troops up there. The death knight also took care of that annoying blue mushroom growing in the forest. Took him half a month to chop and burn it down, but at least it's gone.

When I finally arrived south, there was more than one enemy army in place and I had my work cut out for me, even with the help of Manvale and Gunthamund. I would have to choose which one to engage first.




In the end the choice was easy. The northern force was both weaker and poised to wreak havoc in my rear echelons and perhaps even threaten my citadel, necessitating a chase if left to its own devices. Crushing it first would give an opportunity to reanimate more troops both after the battle and again on the way south at the farm. Let us see how this self-styled jungle king and his army of slaves fares...







The battle went more or less as expected, though Manvale almost got himself killed in the opening exchange of blows. He is going to have to sit the next battle out, because I paid far to much for his services to lose him to carelessness.

We lost a few more longdead, but apprentice mitigated things a bit by inspired and proficient use of the Bolt of Unlife spell. Excellent choice against unarmored targets, kills them and then reanimates them to serve the caster.




The second enemy army with that red-feathered priest tried to sneak around the mountain on the plain to rendezvous with his now deceased ally, which gives me an opportunity to crush him immediately afterward. With Manvale and his men staying out of this fight, Gunthamund will have to reanimate the fallen from the last battle, even though there are not quite as many as I had desired. Well, it cannot be helped.




While Gunthamund reanimated half a dozen longdead and half again that many soulless, Manvale's men made a flanking maneuver back the way the savages had come and regained both the farm and the hamlet for us and denying vital resources to the enemy.





And now it is time to engage!





As soon as the battle began, I became painfully aware that this would be a dangerous affair indeed. The enemy priest has some kind of fire magic and wasted no time making good use of it. Fortunately he decided to target one of the soulless in the front rank. Had he aimed it at the back of my army...

However, then it was my turn and I had been itching to test the efficacy of Soul Vortex in battle. and it was efficacious indeed!





Nearly a third of his front line was killed outright or rendered near-dead from the lifedrain and my own energy and health surged in equal proportion.

Half of his monsters lay dead after the first clash and it was our fortune again that the next incinerating strike from the sky found another soulless instead of worthier targets. Some few losses later the longdead ranks closed in and hacked the lone remaining winged jaguar and its master to pieces.

Another invasion repelled, though recovering my forces to their previous levels of strength is once more going to take a while.

[Doo]

So healing is the same as in CoE2 in that it can take a few turns to fully heal a unit?

[Edi]

Originally Posted by Doo

So healing is the same as in CoE2 in that it can take a few turns to fully heal a unit?

Unless they have fast heal or regen, yes. Healing is 10% of HP (rounded up) per turn, 50% of HP if you have Fast Heal and immediate if you have regen.