Bearly Competent: Armello absolute newbie DAR (Complete)

Started by JasonPratt, September 05, 2015, 05:54:05 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

JasonPratt

INTRODUCTION





I know our king united our four clans, to stop our warring among each other, years ago. We have agreed to stay behind the walls of our own lands, allowing the Lion to hold and protect and guard a zone between us. And I agree with that decision, for between our struggles over the land between us, we had laid it waste and opened the door to Rot!




And so the seasons passed in peace, year after year after year.













But what if the king should die? What if he goes insane?




What if the Rot disappeared because the king had taken it into himself, to save the land, and now in his age he is weakening?





For there are signs in the land between us. Signs in the court of the king, of creeping instability.

Our king begins to tyrannize the lands between. The lands of friendship, of the treaty, of Armello. His troops are still strong, strong enough to stop us still from fighting there, even if not strong enough to push across our fortified walls and into our own kingdoms.

The four kingdoms will surely be sending agents into Armello to search for peace. Not armies. Something subtler.




{BLEEP} subtlety.

I'm a bear. With a giant double-shod tree-trunk club and the skull of a killer beast supporting my manhood.

!!THERE IS NO WAY I CAN LOSE!!

...wait, there's another bear?
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

PART 1 -- BEARLY BEGUN

Yeah, I'm not going to do a narrative DAR, even though the game is quite 'narrative' in its design. (I can't wait to show my nieces, maybe next week after they return from vacation.) But to explain game mechanics and such as I go, I'd have to break character so often there's no point even trying. I indulged in some narrative for the introduction. So there.

The first rule of Armello is, don't talk about the goofy camera zoom visual handicaps.




The second rule of Armello is, don't talk about the goofy camera zoom visual handicaps.




You will play the whole game at just the right distance of a moderate zoom, AND YOU WILL DAMN WELL BE GRATEFUL FOR IT! Because mumble mumble metagame cough hack.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The game is played on a fairly small hex board, mostly made of semi-randomly generated and randomly placed terrain hexes, surrounding a five-hex central castle (which you can see in that screenshot, not sure how that works but it fits with the other six-sided hexes -- like a soccer ball perhaps?)

There are always four players, any of whom can be human instead of computer, and effectively two more players, both of which will be played by the computer. The way the game mechanics are set up, one of the four main players will always win within a semi-random number of turns; which is why the map isn't overly large, just large enough to wander back and forth across it a few times before the game ends. Which is fine.

The four main players, whether human (in multiplayer) or AI (in single-player) are heroes from four animal tribes with heavy fortifications edging on the central play area. This central neutral zone, Armello, is where all the game is played.

Currently there are four animal types: wolf, rat, rabbit, and bear.

Each species or tribe has two heroes, one male, one female. Each hero is distinct, so picking one would seem to lock out another player choosing that one -- though this is my first game so I might be wrong about that. I was certainly wrong in my expectation that each game would feature a hero from one of the four types! Having chosen a bear hero, I thought the other three animal kingdoms would be represented, but the computer randomly chose the other bear as the other hero!

So in my game, these are the four players, the other three being AI:




The lady rat assassin, the lady bear (so two bear tribes), and the male wolf.

Each hero has eight stats, four of which can be seen when picking your character (they'll be on the bottom left side of the main screen): Fight, Body, Wits, and Spirit. Each hero has fifteen skill points, divided up among those stats, with no stat being worse than 2 or better than 5. In a way there's a 16th point which can be assigned with the second of two items; each hero gets one item from two separate sets, either picked or randomly assigned, which helps mix things up in the game. Only four items are unlocked for new players, but new items in each set are unlocked for achieving various win-goals. In my case, as you might be able to tell from that screenshot, I chose a jade ring which would give me 3 Magic if I end any night turn in a forest, which is pretty important since I'm a fighter-mage character; and then since my magic skill (Spirit) is kind of meh, I chose a ring from my second optional set to bump my spirit one point up to 4. (In case you're wondering, the most potentially balanced starting character is the female wolf, who has 4,4,4,3 stats, and can pick the same ring to bump her Spirit to 4.) The bears start with the best Body skills, at 5.

Each hero not only has different skill capabilities to start with, but an inherent special ability. In my case, I gain +1 to fight until the end of my turn for any spell card I cast. The female bear fights with her spirit strength instead of fight strength, if she's in battle with a Bane or some other Rot creature (though I don't recall seeing any such thing other than the banes. Maybe the king counts later; a hero might count under certain conditions.) I forget what the other two do.

Bears and Rabbits are Day creatures, and so get one fight bonus during Day turns; Wolves and Rats are Night creatures, ditto.

"Body" translates directly to maximum health points; the other three skills translate to how many dice you can roll during different kinds of encounters, although those dice numbers can be heavily modified in various ways. "Wits" affects how many cards you can hold at a time (3 in my case); and "Spirit" also affects how much magic you'll generate every two turns. These stats can be permanently modified during the game, making the character stronger or weaker. I don't know what happens if, or whether, a hero's "Body" skill reduces to 0; impossible, or out of the game? Impossible is my guess, since the game is set up so that no one can lose until the final turn, only be set back a bit or be penalized in various ways.

Once the game starts, four more stats activate. Each hero has a gold income which generates at the start of each day, and which can be used to pay for various things (usually weapon or trickery card activations). The most recent hero to walk into a town will earn 1 gold from that town at dawn, unless something happens to the town. This number naturally tends to flux a lot during the game.

Magic points are used to pay for other things, especially spell effects. The points recharge at dusk. Gold and magic carry over, so if you don't spend them for a few turns you can accrue a lot.

The last two stats are Prestige and Rot. Roughly speaking you get them for doing good or evil things, though Rot can also be picked up by fighting Rot creatures and failing. Rot usually has disadvantages, and a hero who has too much Rot will become corrupted, taking damage every turn (like the king) and being destroyed by walking onto holy ruins. Prestige usually has advantages, which I'll discuss as the game goes on.

Turns cycle back and forth between day and night (though seasons also seem to cycle around, as an aesthetic effect. My game started in winter with little snowflakes in the air etc.) Each morning the king loses one health point, though in rare ways he can regain some. The king also enacts a law each morning, randomly choosing from two randomly drawn possibilities. However, the hero with the most prestige can choose from the two randomly drawn laws instead. (The king randomly selects a hero from tied prestige I think.) Each evening the king gains one rot point, which can make him harder to fight against, and my impression is that this makes his law declarations randomly worse. He also moves his troops around at night; he has four, and I think they respawn on occasion. Banes (rotting undead vultures) will spawn from rotted ruins at night and move around, too, independently of the king's troops; they can and will fight each other, although neither one can win the game.

Each hero starts the game choosing from three randomly drawn quest cards, the location for which is then randomly dropped on the map, and which is usually invisible to other players. Reaching these quests will always grant some stat improvements (depending on the quest), and a player may choose to gamble some currency points of various sorts on picking up a useful item or minion. Once four quests have been reached, a final quest will be generated at one of the four courtyards of the castle, which is the only way a hero can get in there.

The game ends when one player wins, and there are four ways to win.

1.) The Kingslayer win. Fight the king and defeat him. This requires the fifth quest (to enter the castle). The king is immune to hostile magic from outside (not sure about healing magic yet, and not sure about hostile magic from within a courtyard.) Banes can't get in, only heroes, so Banes can't win this or any other way. Wolves are the most likely to go for this, but each animal could buff up and try it. (Sana the female bear has only 2 fight to start with, so she'll probably try something else unless she's desperate.)

2.) The Spirit Stones win. Spirit stones are found at holy ruins and as rewards for quests -- I think each of the four quest opportunities will always grant one Stone quest possibility to choose from, but they'll also randomly spawn and can be picked up by anyone (except a bane which would be destroyed, like a corrupted hero, by going into that hex). Once the fifth quest opens a castle courtyard, a hero with four stones who reaches the king will win automatically without further fighting; don't know if that means curing the king or disintegrating him or what. Bears tend to go for this win.

3.) The Prestige win. Often the easiest win, this one doesn't require confronting the king, and so also doesn't even require finishing the quest trail! It only requires that, if the king dies naturally -- which will happen eventually one morning -- the hero has the highest prestige score. I don't know what happens with tied prestige yet. Tied game? Some other score is compared, and then another? If all 8 scores are somehow tied?? Rats and rabbits tend to go for this win, but any animal could try about as easily, since prestige is gained for doing anything they're naturally competent at.

4.) The Rot win. The hardest win, designed mainly so that players who have had bad luck all game still have a chance to come back and win it all. Rot usually creates health and other problems; but if you can gain Rot faster than the king (who always gains 1 Rot a night) and confront him with a higher Rot score, you'll win without a fight. This requires opening a courtyard with a fifth quest. Rats are a little more likely to try to go for this win on purpose.


There are a number of other details to the game, but I'll discuss them as I go.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

BanzaiCat

Thanks for doing this. I have my eye on this game.

JasonPratt

#3
PART 2 -- Bear Necessities

Actually starting the game now.




Here I am playing as Brun, starting in the... well, to me it looks like the southern corner, but the compass says it's the Northeastern corner. (You can see the hex selection icon around my bear.) The rats are rightward, the wolves are directly across the middle kingdom, and the, um, other bear kingdom is leftward. None of these can be seen in this screenshot, and if I zoomed out there would only be clouds and crap. Another thing you can't see from this particular screenshot is that, the day having started, the king has lost his first point of life. He has nine points, so unless he somehow gets healed a bit (and I'm not entirely sure that's possible), the game will be over no later than the start of Day 9 when his last health point deducts. Currently he has only one troop in his castle and others are randomly scattered nearby; they're also bears like me, btw, though not as chunky. ;) We'll see them later.

I was mistaken earlier about the seasons changing during the game; for this game the season will be winter, which I think only affects the aesthetic. This is my first game and I'm not sure if they're always set in winter (as in, "The Lion in Winter") but I doubt it. What does happen, which is pretty nifty although I didn't understand it until I was watching the video back through, is that as each player takes a turn (I presume they're randomly assigned at the beginning and I don't recall the turn order ever changing), the sun or the moon crosses the sky changing the lighting and shadows across the land! I've been assigned to go first (possibly because I'm playing single-player against three AIs), so I always start early in the morning.

The dice haven't favored us with any nearby towns. As long as I'm behind the walls of the bear kingdom I'm safe, but neither can I attack or affect anyone in any way. The two entry hexes in front of me are clear plains -- each hex has a semi-randomly chosen local name by the way, which is another way this game simply drips atmosphere. A little farther off are a couple of holy ruins, which will heal a hero by one health point (or kill a corrupted hero immediately), and which occasionally spawn spirit stones at night. Well, the ruin directly in front of me two hexes distant is holy; the other may be just a dungeon. I don't recall, and I'm taking screenshots from a Shadowplay video.

There are also a couple of swamps visible from my starting position; they damage all heroes one point for passing through. A mountain range is visible at the far extent of the screen, and we'll be getting to that soon.

Because I have a Wit score of three, I drew three cards to start, one from each category of Fighting, Spells, and Trickery. You can't see them very well at the moment, but they're on the far left edge of the viewscreen. They cost gold or spirit usually to play; I'm starting with four of each (as you may be able to see in the stats on my lower right side). The most helpful one at the moment also happens to be the most visible one, and we'll get to it soon.

Here's a closer look at my stats.




The AP 3, refers to action points, which really means movement points since this is a game where you move to fight. Using cards (including for attack) costs no action.

I could look at my inventory from this screen, but I don't have anything in it yet (well, other than the two perqs I selected before gamestart, which can be seen again here). Inventory will always be applied cards; there are two columns with four slots each for gear and for minions. Equipping gear or minions over an occupied slot tends to throw away the current gear or minion, although I'm sure I saw an ability (from the rats' tutorial I think) that saves them for possible usage later.
Each hero randomly draws three quests to choose from at the start of the game. Each time a quest is finished, a new random three will be drawn; and after the 4th quest, the 5th is always to enter the castle at a particular point (randomly chosen by the computer I think.)




Those are my starting options: a wit quest for a minion, a fight quest for gear, and a spirit test for a spirit stone.

Whichever one I choose, once I reach it I will DEFINITELY gain +1 permanently (unless some effect takes it away later ;) ) for my Prestige stat and for whichever stat the quest called for. The only way I can gain the loot reward however is by beating the random chance roll. I'll show that in play later.

My general strategy for this game, since I'm starting with decent Fight and Spirit scores (partly due to taking a perk which bumped my spirit +1), is to aim for a Spirit Stone win, picking up any Fight capabilities along the way in case I have to go for a Kingslayer win. My wits aren't that great, and while it would be nice to pump them up a bit, I only have sixteen turns to play in (well, eight turns but each has a night and day phase, so in effect 16.)

This will come back to haunt me later, but in hindsight it's still a good plan.

Consequently, I choose "The Right Way" as my first quest in order to try for a Spirit Stone.

The game promptly plops it most of the way toward the rat kingdom. I can't even show it properly on the map at full zoom, and that's not counting the stupid anti-vision zoom-out effect, sigh.




Thank you Armello designers. Thank you ever so. We'll see a little more of this closerup later, but the dumbass wintercloud effect makes it hard to plot strategic movement properly. There's already a legitimate fog of war effect in the game, so why bother with this? No idea.

The only terrain that slows a hero down are mountains, but if you receive a melee fight in them you get two extra shields for defense which is nice. Forests make any hero invisible while you're in them -- that's the fog of war effect, and that can be extended in several ways, sometimes in different ways for different hero types or according to cards being played.

I don't want to lose a point of health for nothing (going through that swamp) -- although that's a legitimate strategic option for speed's sake -- and it would be nice to pick up a town or two, which I can do by going around the swamp. The king's guard won't be hostile unless I attack them, but I have to be careful they don't blunder into me while I'm in a forest -- there ought to be an option about refusing a fight if that happens. (Both sides would have to refuse the fight of course.)

Okay, I'm going to start by spending some Magic points to upgrade my speed.




This won't help me even slightly at first, but will help me on my next two turns -- an odd and often confusing gameplay mechanic, when every other spell or effect I can think of happens immediately even if it lasts more than a turn. But the result is that I can only get this far on the first day:





Whereupon I can see more clearly that those are holy ruins to my left, and not a second town slightly out of my way. Thank you ever so much, game designers, for making the zoom-out feature confusingly obscure! Just like how in a real board game, standing back to get a better look at the map is worse than useless!

All right I won't gripe about that again for a while. The other two cards in my hand are a bit easier to see now. Forest Moss will cure any target of two points of Rot; and Merry Thieves will set up a Peril on a hex so that a hero who enters it and fails will lose two gold, which will be given to the poorest hero (possibly back to the one it was stolen from!) That one isn't very useful to me, so I'll most likely burn it during a test. More on that later.

Every one else takes their turn, which for simplicity I'll skip over mostly henceforth, although Thane the Wolf hero runs into one of the King's Perils -- several of those are scattered on the board at the start, and there's one on a mountain in between me and my quest area, which I'll have to decide soon whether to risk.

Winter night arrives, with the King picking up a point of Rot -- which mainly allows him to mess with any heroes who have Rot but less than him, should they dare fight him -- and a Spirit Stone pops into being at a holy ruin near the Wolf kingdom. Not much I can do to get that yet. A Bane arises from one of the rotted ruins; it'll flop around on the board attacking everyone (except other banes) until someone puts it down, but it's far enough away I'm not concerned with it yet.

At the start of each turn, whether day or night, everyone draws enough cards to fill up their Wit slots. I want to buff up for combat as soon as possible, so I draw a Fight card and pick up a nice Ranger's Cloak, paying the gold to equip it, which gives me a few more stealth options. The description suggests I've gotten my understanding of Stealth in Forests wrong -- maybe it's only at night normally, while the cloak grants it day or night.

Moving into the nearby neutral town collects it to add +1 to my gold income every dawn (assuming I still have it by dawn, which I probably will), and then I have to decide whether to spend 2 AP risking the King's Peril in the mountain, or risk attacking the king's guard outside (who aren't stealthy in a forest even at night apparently) which will put a bounty on my head and make him send guards after me.




I'd rather not ticc off the king, so I'll take the slower mountain path and risk the King's Peril.

Perils are traps on the map, which come in various flavors -- I think the perils are always visible as such on the map, but normally there's no way to tell what kind of peril it is, or how strong, until you step on it. As the name implies, they're hard to beat, and will miff your stats temporarily if you lose.




This one turns out to be a Hidden Trap (duh), a Wit 3 Peril -- most Perils are against Wits, and I'm not so great in that regard.

The strength of the trap, 3 in this case, means the computer will roll three dice and post up the result, a shield, night, and day in this case (or defense, sun, and moon, whatever). The type of trap, Wit in this case, refers to the stat I'll be using to roll dice against that roll. I have 3 Wit, so I get three dice. I have to match that roll, one face each, in order to win, which is pretty dang unlikely. Even having more dice than the strength of the Peril would be hard to win against it; having fewer dice than the strength means the win is impossible!

Fortunately, I can choose one card to burn to help me. That "merry thieves" card isn't the sort of thing I care to use, and it has a Sun on its upper right hand corner, signifying it can be burned to guarantee one of my dice will roll a sun. I still only have one chance in eight of rolling both of the two other faces, and as expect I lose, meaning I lose one hit point and also lose my remaining action point (I had 4 instead of 3 thanks to that haste spell earlier). So I'm stuck on the mountain for the rest of the night, but on the other hand I haven't aggro'd the king and my defense should be really good. Also, as a spellwarrior, I've got an extra +1 to Fight for casting that Haste at the start of the day, which will be good until dawn or until someone fights me whichever comes first. (That combat effect isn't as handy at night because it only lasts until dawn, by the way.)

Comes the dawn of Day 2; everyone gets their gold income; the king loses another health point; and two more of his mechanics kick into gear. First he offers the hero with the most prestige (or randomly selects between ties perhaps) to choose between two randomly drawn declaration cards. Sana has the most Prestige so far (at 1), and whatever the other card was, she picks a pretty decent one: any hero with Rot suffers -1 Prestige loss. She and I are the two least likely to pick up Rot, so hey that's fine. Then the King starts moving his troops, which happens first thing every dawn starting on Day 2. (The banes move first thing at night.) Zosha the rat heroine attacked one of the guards last night, near the town I camped at, so they go after her this morning; she survives but not unwounded.

My two cards drawn this morning (back up to Wit 3) are a Throwing Axe, which does 2 damage to any creature on the map one hex adjacent, and Feral which if cast will temporarily increase Fight +2 but Wits -1. Very handy if a fight is on the way and Wits are unlikely to be tested soon.

Since I still have a turn of Haste to play with, I run over to pick up a town previously collected by Zosha, and then run back to my first Quest area.







I'm going to pick up +1 Spirit and +1 Prestige in any case, but the reason I'm here is to try for that Stone. I risk paying 2 magic points if I lose, and I have 4 (and they'll be recharged at dusk anyway), so that's no big deal; but I only have a 40% chance of winning because my Spirit is only 4. Still, that's why I'm here, and win or lose my Spirit will go up to 5 meaning any spirit peril or quest will be easier later.




Unfortunately, I lose. Argh. The loss of a couple of magic points isn't so bad, but not getting that Stone might have screwed my chances of winning the game!

But maybe I can pick up a stone for free later to make up the difference.

So ends my first Quest for this campaign. Four to go? -- or will someone win before I even get that far?
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

#4
PART 3 -- Bear Skinned




My questing career in this game isn't starting out so great...

It isn't possible for some reason to see the stats of the other players right at the beginning of the game (or so I recall unsuccessfully trying; maybe my memory is bad), but here they are now.










Yep, the king has stats, too, just like the players. He's a beast in combat, although as the game goes on he naturally becomes more of a glass cannon. But punching through his defenses is still a nightmare.

Because of the way the User Interface is (currently) designed, you can take some actions during the turn of other players rather than watching what they do, and that includes calling up the new quest menu and selecting one. Unfortunately, it's possible to do this by accident at super-inconvenient times.

Such as, for example, when Zosha, taking her turn, reclaims that town we've been swapping back and forth, and then hops over to attack me!




Notice the nice late-winter-day coloring and shadows, by the way. Also, some player has helpfully (for various values of "helpfully") dropped a peril on that swamp between me and home, even though I never have to go home, just in case I or anyone else am desperate enough to take the hit-point loss for going through that swamp.

Why would she do this? Partly to keep me from interfering in her plans nearby, and partly as a chance to increase her prestige and decrease mine. I think she has a bounty on her head from fighting the king's guards, too, so if I win I'll get that bounty, which is nice, but first I have to win.




This is the combat screen; the computer is in the process of adding and subtracting dice to roll based on various things. I start with 4 dice because I have a fight of 4 but I'm gaining a die because it's still daytime and I'm a Day clan. She starts with 6 Fight dice (for some reason) and owns a piece of equipment which will take away one of my dice. And then various other preliminary effects are set up, I'm not catching them all here.

As part of setting up preliminary effects, we can choose to burn one card from our hand to ensure one of dice ends face up the way we want it. I press the button to pull out the cards so I can look over them for any I want to sacrifice; and decide not to do so.

But then I forget that I don't use the B on my PC/XBox controller to cancel that menu, but another button instead. Oh, B cancels it, but it also bring up the dang quest choice menu, which can't be gotten rid of without choosing a quest. IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT!!




I KIND OF HAVE OTHER THINGS ON MY MIND AT THE MOMENT QUEST GOAT OR WHATEVER YOU ARRRRRRGGHGHH!!

So, Zosha and I roll our dice. Each die has six faces, which result in different things. Crossed swords adds an attack; a shield adds one defense against any incoming attack; Day and Night and Wyld (good magic) and Rot (bad magic) have various effects on each other's attack and defense depending on the situation at the moment. If we both had Rot points in our stats, the player with the most Rot would dominate the other player through their Rot, meaning the dominant player would add as many extra dice to their pre-roll as the Rot score for the less Rotted person. This is one way the King hits harder and defends better in combat as the game goes on, even though he has fewer hitpoints to shave off before he dies.

Anyway, I kill her, which in this game isn't fatal, it just means she's wounded enough that less active agents invisibly following her around on the board pick her up to carry her back home and be healed: starts over next turn back at the Rat kingdom fort.

The Banes flap around for a while, and the king's guard put at least one down; and more importantly for my purposes, a new spirit stone fitzes into existence at a holy ruin not very far away (back in the direction of my kingdom).




The Spirit Stone quest this time is a Fight Quest, which is probably yay: I'm a decent fighter already, and if I time it right I can be pumped up better for the quest. And it turns out to be not too far away from that other Stone that appeared tonight. So maybe I can pick up two stones with one... bird?




Yeah, well, that Bane will probably be gone by the time I get there, and I'm both a good fighter and a good mage, so I feel good about my chances.

I decide to plot a course over that direction which will give me a chance to protect a town of mine from being taken by Thane on his turn.




That's him two hexes... uh... look, I'm the only human in the game, all directions are relative to my camera which I can't rotate anyway. I hearby declare the top of the screen to be the north side of the map. He's that blurry figure in the town two hexes northeast of me.

Now, the drawback to doing this is that Thane gets one combat bonus at night, plus he's a better fighter than I am, AND if he approaches through the woods (which he does) he's going to attack me with surprise. Which he does.




The upshot is that he has six dice to attack and defend with, and I only have two. And only 3 hit points at the moment thanks to previous fights.




The result? He rolls three defenses, meaning my two attacks can't get through at all, and three attacks to my no defenses, sending me face down in the muddy town-road snow.




And so off I go home to recoup.




Dawn of Day 3. Most of us are tied at 2 Prestige, thanks largely to Thane's little ambush last night -- I would have had 3 and he would have had 1, otherwise! But the king randomly chooses me anyway SO THERE WOLFYGRIN, GO LICK YOURSELF!

The first choice is kind of terrible for everyone, myself included, so I go with choice #2: the king raises a fog across his kingdom for the day, giving all heroes Stealth in all territories until next dawn or until they're spotted in various ways.

Aside from the prestige reshuffle I don't care about the loss, since my current targets are equally still nearby.

First I go north to get the spawned stone before someone else picks it up.




And then I spend my last action point going into the forest in case that wolf wants to try this again in daylight. The Quest stone is north of my note in that screenshot, so it's equally distant whatever route I take, and I'd rather not lose a point of health through that swamp.

Unfortunately, the wolf had the same idea I did -- camp in the forest until night -- and we ambushed each other (apparently due to the fog). The upshot is that he and I lose a point of health; but I cast "Feral" in case he wants to try following up that draw.




Thane leaves a peril behind to block my path (thanks a not), then goes northeast to murder Sana the bear, then he and Zosha trade blows and knock each other out. Which is hilarious!

Night falls, and fortunately Thane left a Spirit Peril behind instead of Wit, since I'm currently down to 2 thanks to the Feral.




None of my cards can help me by burning, but I have five dice to roll, and between them they manage to get me through.

Since the bane moved off my quest hex at the start of the night, I decide to kick a bit of his ass if I can, and save the quest for daytime (when I've got an extra fight point). I spend gold on sending someone to whack it with a throwing axe, but then in the fight I can't land any good hits. But I'm not much worse off for trying.




You'd think after the mutual slaughter last night I'd be ahead on prestige, but Sana must have finished a quest before being murdered by Thane, and while that lost her prestige she meandered out last night to fulfill another quest which happened to be near her territory. So she's way ahead this morning -- and takes the option to have all the current Perils on the map salted with rot and poison by the king. The other option must have been terribler.

With all my cards gone for various reasons, I draw three new ones this morning: Wyld Weed, which will heal for 2 points; Wake the Trees, a peril which I'll probably burn for its shield; and Longbow, which gives me one attack penetration through a shield during a fight, and which I promptly pay to equip.




The king's troops don't finish off that Bane I wounded last night, so I go in for the win.




No kill like overkill.




On to the quest. Where I learn that my Day Fight bonus only applies in an actual fight, not for quest purposes. Dangit! Only 40% chance to win.




Aslan wept.

Three chances at stones in my first two quests, and I've only got one.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

#5
PART 4 -- Abearrant Behavior




It is becoming increasingly apbearant that I suck as a hero.

I cast healing on myself for 2 points, and move up to capture a town, burning my last card to help fail a wits pickpocket peril along the way, losing 2 gold.

Oy. Going to be a long night.




A quest rabbit hops along with news I can use. I have to admit that, during the game, I completely forgot I ought to be checking what kind of test will be called for. Otherwise I might have tried something other than to go for a Wit test, seeing as how I have epically failed my prior two quests, and only picked up one stone along the way because God took pity on me (and I beat the wolf to it. By being killed first. By the wolf.)

Because this game hates me, I'm not surprised to learn the quest is all the way on the other side of the kingdom. Sigh.




Halfway between the Rat and Wolf Kingdom fort gates (north and east of that screenshot respectively.) You can see part of the King's castle southwest. I'm about the same distance on the other side of the castle directly opposite. Nor is there any way to go through the castle.

The good news, such as it is, is that (unless maybe there's some trickery card allowing it) no one can steal my quest; so when Thane meanders over to that hex he's oblivious of its importance.

And then he and Zosha mutually kill each other again. BWAHAHAHAHAHAA1!!

Night falls, with Sana nearby giving me the stink eye; and with another stone fotzing into existence at a holy site feasibly along my route to the Quest! Sweet! And I can get there before Sana.

I'm out of cards, so I draw 3. Brazenberry Ale, which is like a weaker version of Feral (+1 Fight, -1 wits, for one turn or until after the next fight); Shining Steel Sword (adds +1 sword to any battle); and Regeneration (+2 health restored per turn for the next two turns.)

I can't equip the sword yet because I'm out of gold, but I do cast the regen; which will give me +1 to Fight for a while; and I did pick up 1 Fight permanently at the last quest (though not a Stone), so I'm decently monstrous at 6 Fight right now; and that'll be effectively 7 during the day! Zip down to pick up the Stone at the rune -- and then for no clear reason I decide I want that other town near Sana's clan, too, moving me farther away from my Quest location. {headslap}




Day 5 dawns. I'm tied with Sana for prestige, but the king randomly chooses her. Dude, I have two great big stones, and she only has one! Do you have no common bro-sense?? IT'S A TRAP!! Oh well, you're crazy and sick.

Which he then proves by giving Sana a choice so terrible that the least ugly result must have seemed to be to spread plague in all the settlements of Armello.

My card draw for the day miraculously validates my insane decision last night to try to pick up another town this morning.




That plague will give me Rot and poison, but that Cleansing Wyld will heal me afterward. Also, I equip the sword now that I have to gold to do so.

As it happens, the plague isn't automatic. I do have a chance to roll against it, with 6 dice (+ 1 because daytime).




Still not such great odds, but I beat the peril! -- clean the plague, collect the town in fealty, and then head north with the idea of working my way around the castle to the west-and-north.




Sana zips along (she must have cast haste previously) to pick up a treasure from a dungeon south of me, and then moves north -- to attack me!




We each trade three damage, but don't knock each other down.

I draw a divination card that night, which I think allows me to see hidden heroes at some distance. Mostly it's going to help me pump up my Fight score at night when I cast it. Which I promptly do.

When night fell, a Bane whacked Sana, so I figure I'll take the opportunity to deal with it while it's nearby.




Instead we end up overkilling each other, ending my turn for the night. Sigh. Also, being killed by a Bane gives me a point of Rot. Sana walks out of her fort and picks up a spirit stone, which popped up that night, as though she's kissing the game between turns. SIGH!




Despite all that, I'm ahead on the prestige as Day 6 dawns: I lost to the Bane but also beat it, so I didn't lose anything.

To be honest, I choose a pretty devious declaration from the king's insane choices this morning: he graciously poisons all heroes until the end of their turn, meaning they'll take one point of damage every time they move! They can pay four gold for the antidote; but I can cast my Cleansing Wyld and poom! Ahahaha!

I also drink my Brazenberry Ale to pump my Fight up for the day, since I don't expect to need my wits! Then I suddenly realize I didn't notice the peril north of me on my path around the southern corner of the castle to my quest locale (still far away). Dangit. I can either take a definite hit point loss through the swamp, or hope the Peril isn't against Wits...




...argh. Fortunately, I can get three dice for it being Day, even though I only have 2 wit (thanks to the ale). Also fortunately, it's only a Wit 2 peril, so I only have to match 2 dice.

Unfortunately, the glowy effects on the top right of the cards make it a little hard to tell what's printed there, and what looks like a shield turns out to be something else (a sun now that I can see a still shot of the flickering animation), so I waste that Divination burning it. And then I lose the rolls anyway. Fortunately, it's morning so I have plenty of gold to pay up for the loss. But still. I park until dusk near that very first town I captured at the start of the game; currently owned by Thane, I think.

Sana meanwhile has lucked into getting all her quests near her home gate, and so plods like doom toward her final quest at the castle courtyard.




Which she somehow aces, giving her permanent access to challenge the king. She doesn't have four stones, so she must be going for a Kingslayer win. She also earns a bounty by invading the castle grounds, so anyone who whaps her (which Thane gets in position to try once night rolls around and their bonuses shift) will earn gold as well as swap prestige points.

Since I only have 2 Wits at the moment, I can only draw 2 cards; Wyld Sap for really good healing (+4 health) and Cursed Lands which adds +1 to any peril's difficulty. The good news is that that's a Rot spell, so I'll be able to burn it while freeing Thane's town from the King's Plague.



Despite my high spirit score and settling one of the Rot dice by burning that card, I still fail the test and end up poisoned with 1 Rot. SIGGHHH!!!!

Sana takes her shot at the King for the win...!




Yeah, no; Sana only has 3 Fight, and actually has a little Rot which the king can use to power his own dice up. She escapes with her life, barely (bearly! :D ), and he isn't damaged further.

Whereafter Thane immediately pounces on her from the woods, finishes her off, gets the bounty, and invades the castle himself!! Crap, both of them have finished their quest trail? Maybe not, maybe that particular courtyard of the four (quartyard?) is open to everyone now; I notice Thane doesn't need to pass the Quest Test to get in! Hm.

Zosha then runs into me in surprise in the woods at night; mutually ambushing each other. This gives me a chance to flee into another nearby town, whereupon I instantly run into another plague peril which due to evading an ambush I guess I instantly lose... what.

SIGHHH!

But I got two towns, and Zosha dies with the dawn, since she's so rotted now that she takes one damage each sunrise like the king (and she had only one hit point left.) She's basically screwed because she doesn't have enough rot to attempt a Rot win, and her body isn't strong enough to let her get far on the map before she dies from Rot and goes back home, and her prestige is crap.

Fortunately, Sana sacrificed her prestige to attack the king, and then another point in being beaten by Thane. Who has also been infected enough with Rot that he takes a point from sunlight damage, too. So when Day 7 comes...




...Thane and I are tied for prestige, and I'm randomly up as prestige leader (or possibly because I didn't just pick up a bounty by invading the courtyard like Thane. Ha ha!)

At this point my best bet is to try to hang on to my prestige while protecting the king -- or while zapping him from a distance (although this turns out to be impossible, as I learn). So for the declaration pair today offered by the Lion, I self-sacrificially choose to put a bounty on my own head (as prestige leader) and call all guards back to the castle!




Where they promptly gang up on Thane and send him back to the Wolfort. Hee hee hee hee heeee.

My Wits have restored to their usual crummy 3, so I can draw two new cards; Mirror Image (which will be handy in a battle) and Tanglevine (which I can sacrifice for a shield off a die).

Since I'm currently poisoned and a bit Rotted, I chug the Wyldsap for 4 points of healing (actually 3, as that fills me up), and not only plod into a new town to take it from Zosha (already free of its Plague peril, thanks Zosh!), but cast a Mirror Image on myself before going into my final Stone Quest.



Because I am dirt stupid in real life, with or without a Wit score 3.

That's because I have completely disregarded what the test is going to be: Wits. I didn't have any way to buff those, but casting Mirror Image was purely a waste: I'm not likely to be fighting anyone this turn, and even if this was a Fight quest it wouldn't have helped.

So imagine my disgusted self-slappy surprise when I see this.




One chance in three to win. When I have won exactly none of my three prior Quests, in traits I'm much better at. At least I'll be better at Wits no matter what happens, and I'll have an extra prestige...




...what? I WON?!

HAHAHAHA!!!!

Not that this is going to help me in the slightest.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

PART 5 -- Be(w)ar(e) the King!




Yeah, somehow despite everything, including a real-life lack of wits, I survived that quest by my wits. My reward, aside from a 3rd Spirit Stone and another point of prestige, is a 4th Wit and so a 4th card slot.

Which would be nice except that at least two opponents are trying to win the game, and the other one will be bitterly hassling me as I try to leave her corner of the Middle kingdom.

Night falls as Thane and Sana work their way back toward the King's court for one more try. Time for me to pick another spirit quest and hope for the best.




Wolf spider, eh? Sure, I've got decent everything right now, let's take him on!




Seriously, game?? All the way on the other side of the dang map again??




The Zosha craps out of nowhere to kill me again.

Which effectively uses my turn that night to teleport me back across the map and heal me completely, at the loss of only one prestige.

...uh, THUS THE DEEPNESS OF MY STRATEGY BECOMES APPARENT, YOU SHREW!

(Note: rats are not shrews, even though they kind of look like them in this game.)

(Note: this was not actually my strategy. But I'll use it.)

Sana meanwhile makes it back to the courtyard, but fails to dislodge the guard prudently posted there (since there's an obvious hole in the defenses there now.)




Day 8 dawns, and somehow I'm still the prestige leader. But it's close. Thane and even Zosha could still edge ahead of me during the next two turns; and Sana could by sheer luck somehow succeed in her insane Kingslayer plan, since at this point that's her only hope of a win.

Realistically, I have no hope of getting a Stones win now; probably not a Kingslayer win either; certainly not a Rot win. But if I just stay actively competent for the next two turns, and hope neither Sana nor Thane manage to get one point of damage on the king during the next two turns, I could pull out a Prestige win.

You may notice some flaws with this plan, based on what has happened previously in my game so far.




Oh, right, I have to pick from one of the King's horrible dilemmas. I'm going to go with the bet that makes my opponents a little bit weaker for trying to go for a Kingslayer win.

After the shennanigans with the shrewwoman last night (some of which I didn't bother reporting), I redraw cards this morning, to get two Moonbites (which do one point of damage at day, two at night), a Rite of Wyld (which damages a target in proportion to its Rot), and a lightning bolt. Sweet! I can't play any of them at all, until sundown, because I spent all my magic last night trying to tame the shrew!

She was acrobatic.

Ahem. Moving on.

Nothing to tell really; I just move up west of the castle toward my final Quest.

Sana somehow drives out the guard from the courtyard, but doesn't have enough strength to attack the king until after dusk.

Not sure what Thane is up to. Trying to get to Sana no doubt.

Zosha casts a spell from the other side of the map, which allows her to tunnel up in front of me!




She promptly plops on my Quest plot like she knows I'm coming there, which she very well may -- that's a Trickster ability.

I'm being stalked by an acrobatic shrew woman looking for more action tonight after she wiped me out the night before and sent me home to recover.

This game, y'all. This game.

Considering that she has managed to kill me in every confrontation so far, I can understand why she likes her chances. In her own slinky way, she's going for the win tomorrow morning, figuring Sana will fail in her fight, figuring I'll have to try to fight her at night, and fail, trading a prestige point to her, and then hoping Thane steps on his tail or something else. Or maybe if they have identical prestige, she'll win on some other deciding factor. (I don't know what the deciding factors are.)

It's really a stunning plan. Or completely accidental coincidence.

Oh well. The final night falls, Banes spawn, I'm up first.

And I have been given the tools for a plan.

Step one: Wyldwhap a nearby Bane, doing damage proportionate to its Rot.




I like this plan.

Step 2, pick up some prestige and possibly a fourth stone at my quest locale. Granted, it's night, but I just cast a spell, and I won a Fight quest earlier, so I've got 6 Fight skill. I should have a 60 percent chance...





What.

What??

Oh spit, it's a Body Quest. I've got Body 4 (max 4 hp), so I only have 40% chance to win it.




Of course.

You know what. I don't even care. I couldn't win with those stones anyway at this point, and I got my prestige (and an extra body point for all the fat lot of good that'll do me). That's all I need! {sniffle}

And her, I need her, that shrew snickering with her knives as she waited to quest for my body again. Which is why I Moonbit her before I wandered in. 2 points of damage, she only had 2 health remaining (having lost a point thanks to her Rot infection, skanky thing.)

Up three prestige, just like that. Boom.

Thane falls foul of some prestige problems, and goes to zero; apparently thanks to Zosha, since she still gets her turn that night. Leaving Sana with the final thrust! Can she beat the King!




Snorf, no it isn't even close.

Day 9 dawns, but not for anyone's turn.

No, a new day has dawned.

For the king died at dawn.




And when all was said and done, despite my blunderbearing around, I was overall more competent than my competitors by a decisive amounNO DON'T ASK WHAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED HAD THE KING LIVED ANOTHER COUPLE OF DAYS IT DOESN'T MATTER THIS IS MY WIN AND AND AND I EARNED IT SOMEHOWwwww!!!

Ahem.




Which the game promptly took away, because the damn quest system was still prompting me to activate my fifth quest, which I accidentally did when I opened the y menu to check final stats and then closed it with the B button.




NO! NOOOOOO!!! BEWARE THE Beeeeeeee...

No way to play the quest now of course; no way to get rid of it; no way to advance to the accolades; the win doesn't officially count, I have to quit the game without it.

B. Stands for bitter. Bile. Also, some Bitching.


Still. Great game! :D Still needs a bit of polish and some UI tweaking, obviously. Gorgeous dark storybook atmosphere. Well worth the money being asked even when not on sale. Probably better to play it by mouse (even if you're not playing a rat, ba-dump-tish), rather than by console gamepad, until that broken B cue is fixed.

And now at last my tale is done;
from puns of bears I'm bound to run!
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Freyland

Good game. Well-written, as always.

Some corrections:
The kings guard are dogs
The king, and any corrupt being, gain hit points by slaying opponents.
Almost certain you can enter the castle at any time, not just when you finish your quest line.
When a courtyard peril is beaten, it stays gone.
Don't forget you can scroll the map, so you still can plan ahead. (Hate the fog, makes the game look like crap)


JasonPratt

Quote from: Freyland on September 07, 2015, 06:09:13 PM
The kings guard are dogs

The reason I thought they were bears (aside from vaguely looking like bears, moreso than dogs), is because during Sana's tutorial they treat her as though they're sorry to chase her out as a fellow creature of X kind.

QuoteThe king, and any corrupt being, gain hit points by slaying opponents.

I was going to say my gameplay shows different, but come to think of it he never killed anyone. He just knocked them back and they were finished off by someone else. Anyway, good to know for the future, thanks!

QuoteAlmost certain you can enter the castle at any time, not just when you finish your quest line.

I'll test that at some point, but come to think of it that Sana tutorial didn't have her finishing her quest before trying the courtyard, did it?

QuoteWhen a courtyard peril is beaten, it stays gone.

Yeah, I inferred that from when Thane hopped in after backstabbing Sana, since I did check the reply and saw he didn't have to do the four dice-matching thing.

QuoteDon't forget you can scroll the map, so you still can plan ahead. (Hate the fog, makes the game look like crap)

True, I just happened not to show many screenies of that.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Quote from: jomni on September 07, 2015, 07:46:49 PM
Pretty graphics.

And my screenies don't do them full justice! The winter night and overcast winter day lighting/shadow effects look much clearer in-game, for example.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!