CoE3 AAR: A Chronicle of the Interregnum

[Edi]

The floating horrors were slain with ease with Cernetu's help. It was a pleasure to watch him wield bane fire against the things, though I am annoyed at the losses they inflicted on the longdead.

Once that threat was eliminated, we parted ways. Cernetu will go south to eradicate the brigand lair and rejoin me later. That black charger of his can move much faster than anything on foot.

At the cusp of summer, as spring was fading, the Colossus once more called my attention to its location, this time east of its pedestal.





It appears that the brigands I thought my rival had eliminated had instead escaped and are still a menace and the Colossus blundered into the midst of their camp on the plain.

I left the giant to deal with these vermin on its own, but soon my stone servant called my attention back with insistent force, accompanied by an unfamiliar note: Distress!

I linked with the statue just in time to receive an impression of resignation and failure. I felt the Colossus lose balance as its foot detached from the statue and the ground rushed forward. Impact...and the link that had been there for these years was...gone.

Somehow these outlaws found a way to harm it and the Colossus is no more. It's ruined body lies on the plain less than a week's travel from the base on which it had stood for centuries beyond counting.





I was not far north when this happened, at the site of the hamlet where that feathered priest met his end. We spotted the campfires of the brigands to the southeast and there are not quite as many left as there were before.





Soon there will be none left alive. If there is a way to snuff out their souls after death, that is what I will do to them!

There would be an opportunity to reanimate more troops at this site, but I dare not do it at this time. It is time to focus the increase of my troops on summons. Cernetu, being an accomplished necromancer on his own, can reanimate things in an emergency and he will do so on his return from the south if it is necessary.

[Edi]

It is the middle of summer and right now things are looking well. Cernetu has taken control of the brigand lair. His return route swings him out east past a lake to get him out of the forest and explore the surrounding environs.

He encountered a band of brigands on his way.





They obviously thought to ambush a lone knight and claim his equipment and horse, but bit off slightly more than they could chew.. It seems the woods down south are positively lousy with brigands.

I also found another apprentice looking for work and this time I had the funds to hire him, even though it emptied the treasury. Then again, it was 74 gold coins well spent. Now I can have him make full use of the remains of the various large battles in and around my territory.

[Edi]

Most of late summer was spent eradicating pests. I slew two bands of brigand stragglers between midsummer and autumn and Cernetu himself ran into another large band of brigands.



He had already been wounded in the first battle and a group of nearly a dozen brigands attacked him from ambush. After slaying three, he managed to disengage long enough to call a band of longdead to his aid. The first few were cut down by the brigands but bought Cernetu time to call more and after that the result of the battle was a foregone conclusion. In the space of two months, Cernetu has singlehandedly slain 14 brigands and outlaws.

However, he needs at least the entire autumn to heal from his injuries. Tough he may be, but not invulnerable. More's the pity...





The soulless I left defending the hamlet out west came under attack by more horrors like the ones we slew on the plain.



Fortunately, they prevailed with the loss of but one. However, being animated undead, soulless lack healing powers and their injuries are permanent. That group is in sad shape and needs reinforcements.


The beginning of autumn also brings with it a surfeit of frustration:



Having just hired a new apprentice, there is nothing but a gaping hole where my treasury used to be and THEN comes a wizard, hat in hand, asking if I have work for him. Yes, yes I bloody well do! Only not quite enough funds to pay him up front and the bastard doesn't accept payment in several installments!



It's especially aggravating, since wizards of the Golden Order usually don't have anything good to say about those of my discipline, so I would dearly have loved to have him as part of my staff. They are very useful and Manvale could have used some help.

(In this recruitment preview, the stats of the wizard can be seen, but his magic and item slots are obscured, since wizards do not reveal their secrets to anyone but those who hire them, nor do they advertise what treasures they may carry. This prevent min/maxing on the basis of what spells a wizard for hire may have and forces a serious consideration of whether to take advantage of an offer. Assuming one has the funds in the first place. Wizards often carry items and quite a few times the item may be more valuable than the wizard himself, depending on the circumstances.)



There was also another scruffy goblin chieftain and his band of archers, who while useful, were given short shrift when there was the wizard to negotiate with.

(The goblin archers appear in green because they are mercenaries who appear along with the chieftain. Mercenaries may only be recruited once, like commanders, even if you have several citadels. Once recruited, they disappear from the list.)


I have planned a rendezvous with Manvale and Cernetu and Mavale is on his way. With all the various wildlife and brigands nearby exterminated, he should be safe enough on his own for this little stretch. Cernetu has taken refuge at a mountain where he can enjoy the advantage of defensive terrain if something should be foolish enough to attack him.

[Edi]

I finally managed to meet with Manvale and take possession of the spell scroll he had. There were two spells inscribed on it, an apprentice level incantation and another, more powerful one. I have now mastered both. The first spell was meager and useless spell for summoning a single soulless in combat. The second...




Soul Vortex is a more powerful version of Life Drain and quite, quite useful in battle, far more so than many other spells in the Necromantic school, even though those others are nothing to roll one's eyes at either. I pronounce myself quite delighted with this turn of events!

Also, it seems like with winter once more in the offing, the middle of autumn sees everyone and their dog scrambling to find shelter. I got two more offers of service, but once more, my treasury hold not nearly enough.




Not sure how much use a Hedge Wizard would be. Their magic has great variety and little focus, though they can provide one with a nasty surprise on occasion.

The assassin, on the other hand, him I would very much like to hire, but the cost is prohibitive. A pity, because I would have found very, very many things for him to do.




(Assassins work as part of a regular army, but their assassination weapons are used at the start of combat before any other attacks take place. The only things that work before assassination are prebattle effects, which only things like demon lords and such possess. The strikes rear attribute means that the attack is made on a random target in the rearmost row of the enemy army, so it is quite possible to kill an enemy mage. Especially if there are no other things in the rearmost row.)


However, there has been a most annoying setback. Apparently Cernetu didn't manage to eradicate every brigand from the south, since someone has retaken the brigand lair and I expect that sooner or later we will see more of them making a nuisance of themselves.

[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.

[Doo]

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

[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.