CoE3 AAR: A Chronicle of the Interregnum

[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.

[Tarrax]

So reading these AARs, one thing I noticed is Hit Points (and other stats in general) of units seem to be very low compared to Dominions 3 even for heroes. Is it really hard to keep your units alive? I mean do they even survive 2-3 battles?

[Edi]

The more units you have, the more the chances of each individual unit surviving increase, because the same units don't get hit all the time (since defender always goes first in battle). But if we're talking about the front line units like spearmen, my advice is not to get too attached to them.

[Edi]

After the enemy Sun Priest had been killed, it became obvious that he remains of his army were not worth animating. Too little reward for too high a price, so I sent Gunthamund to see what he could get from the site of the largest with the earlier priest.

Manvale and his spearmen and swordsmen were sent packing home, because I need someone to keep the area clear of pests. Something has AGAIN disrupted things up north, this time at the coal mine. Fortunately I don't exactly have a shortage of iron since I've been accumulating stores over time, but I would dearly like to have a catapult at the citadel. It would bolster the defenses nicely and there is nothing to brighten an invader's day like several hundred pound rocks falling from the sky before he can even get close. The problem with catapults is that while they don't cost a lot of gold, they more than make up for that in the cost in iron.

I myself will be heading south on an exploration mission. It is time to find out where those savages are coming from and put a stop to their incursions. The south is positively lousy with bandits and undead. I hadn't gone more than a month out before my scout again spotted two bands of brigands, one of them big enough to pose a serious threat to anything short of a full army detachment of 10 men backed by archers. This is getting intolerable!

The one piece of good news is that Cernetu has discovered a port town in the north!





The place is held by a rabble of bandits, but Cernetu will make short work of them and I will have finally gained a proper source for hands of glory.

[Edi]

Cernetu gained the port with comparatively little difficulty, though he took some injuries from the surprisingly determined defenders. They had the walls of the fort to protect them, but in the end it was a foregone conclusion.

Things are starting to get back under control now that Manvale has restored the northern mine. Gunthamund conquered another coal mine, taking it from the possession of strange, one-eyed manlike things that were pale as corpses. They look very imposing but turned out to be no real threat.

Just before the onset of winter, there was a troubling new development. The southernmost coal mine was attacked by a joint force of brigands and some kind of manlike monsters like unto soulless but alive. They possess souls, though these are shredded, tattered things and they heal wounds at an incredible rate. They destroyed the soulless guarding the mine with little losses and I have no option but to turn back and eradicate this threat. I should have attacked those brigands on my way south, but didn't, which turned out to be a mistake. I shall not repeat it again.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

What exactly are Hands of Glory? It seems to be some kind of resource like production or so, but I'm not sure if I understood it right.

Combat preparation seems to be a bit easier than in Dom3, therefore you just set where they are located. I've seen back, mid, not sure if I've seen front exlicitly mentioned.

Are there other ways to influence the fights? Something like the spells the mages should use?

[Edi]

*mutters curses*

Retaking the mine was just as costly as I expected it would be and my longdead forces are melting practically before my eyes! At least I managed to ship some soulless from the hamlet to guard it, so the places are again garrisoned, though I would like the garrisons to be beefier.

At least midwinter has seen another new apprentice come to my door begging for instruction and this time I have enough resources to hire him and not be left staring at a lone copper coin at the bottom of the treasure chest.

Cernetu has added another coastal fishing village to my realm a couple of months ago. You wouldn't think it, but over time the catch from fishing generates quite a bit of revenue.


*late winter evening at camp*

"Master look at the sky! I have never seen the foxfires in the sky that strong this far south!"

I looked up from the tome I was studying to see that there was indeed a peculiar light in the sky. Only this was not the normal light that comes from the night sky in winter. I was still running the exercises of a minor summoning ritual through my head when suddenly I felt...

*HUNGER! SOULS! FEED!*

There was something right there next to me, waiting to pounce if given the slightest opportunity! I scrambled back and had the undead form a circle around me as I tried in vain to see the threat.

The summoning ritual slipped from my mind and I felt the threat recede slowly and reluctantly, disappointed. Shaken, I glanced once more at the sky and saw at the same time how the face of the scout had turned ashen.

The lights undulating in the sky had forms moving through them, a faint suggestion of long limbs and razor sharp claws as if glimpsed through a thick mist. The glow and wink of what might have been stars, but might as easily have been the gleam of malevolent eyes...

"M-master..."

"I see them, yes..."

"What are they?"

"I don't know. They feel like the things we saw at the ruins. Magic draws them, so we had best be careful about what we do. No summons for me for a good long while. We must do with what we have for now."

[Edi]

Originally Posted by ArkhanTheBlack

What exactly are Hands of Glory? It seems to be some kind of resource like production or so, but I'm not sure if I understood it right.

Combat preparation seems to be a bit easier than in Dom3, therefore you just set where they are located. I've seen back, mid, not sure if I've seen front exlicitly mentioned.

Are there other ways to influence the fights? Something like the spells the mages should use?

Wikipedia on Hands of Glory

Essentially they are the left hands of hanged murderers, dried and preserved. In CoE3, necromancers burn these hands as an offering to spirits of the Netherworld to gain the services of allies or knowledge (rituals of mastery).

Yes, there are front ranks (e.g. spearmen), so units are placed according to the placement rank, melee units in front, archers in the middle and spellcasters in the back.

As far as mages and spell use, you can select which spells to memorize if you have more spells than memory slots. The mage will then cast random spells from among those memorized, though not totally useless things (Frost against undead which are cold immune, fire against fire elementals or poison resistance against spearman, who have no poison attacks etc.).

[Edi]

All through early spring those lights in loomed over us in the sky. It was a tense time, but as the spring equinox approached, this ill-starred conjunction of the Realms of Power faded.





I can finally breathe easily again. Gunthamund and I have headed south after leaving a squad of soulless at that pestilential brigand lair to make sure that nobody else takes it over and begins preying on my southern settlements again. We have discovered signs of the jungle savages and a farm that previously belonged to them is now in my hands. Gunthamund is moving toward the battlefield that Childerik's scrying revealed so long ago. He will take control of the village next to it, then defeat the undead on the field and reanimate some more troops for us.

At this rate, there will soon be enough hands of glory that I should be able to perform a ritual of mastery to increase my knowledge of the Necromantic Arts to entirely new heights.


Up north, Cernetu has been exploring the wilderness. There was a tense moment when he encountered a horde of goblins accompanied by two trolls that were looking for victims. A single troll would be a challenge to even a death knight, let alone two of them. Accompanied by more than a score of goblins? Cernetu took the wiser course of action and got out while the getting was good. Fortunately he seems to have found another battlefield, which will provide him with enough troops that if he should run into that horde again, he will be able to defeat it. Normally, I would send an apprentice to take care of the reanimation, but I only have Gunthamund and it's too far away in any case, so the death knight simply must bear the cost of reanimation himself.

(Note: Undead are NOT immune to insanity, apart from the lich)

[WraithLord]

Your AAR makes me think - is CoE3 mostly about chasing indies around?- Sounds like a frustrating prospect