CoE3 AAR: A Chronicle of the Interregnum

[AngelSong]

Deep spells is so powerful,as astral magic in dominions world.

[Joelz]

Can the amount of special "fortresses" such as the horror overrun city be set up during game creation or is it all random?

Interesting AAR

[Gandalf Parker]

Its all random. But the different social ages have a lot to do with that so the 6 choices will give people a good range. And, the map commands give full control over it if someone wants something real specific.

[Edi]

Originally Posted by Joelz

Can the amount of special "fortresses" such as the horror overrun city be set up during game creation or is it all random?

Interesting AAR

Thanks.

There are a number of special forts in three of the six eras.

The era of the Empire has a Capitol, which is four squares in size and very heavily defended by human troops. Managing to conquer it is almost like an instant win for Necromancers or anyone who uses sacrifices, because it provides massive gold, sacrifice and hand of glory income as well as massive trade income (which can be converted to more special resources in return for golf).

The era of the Fallen Empire, also called the Interregnum, has the Haunted Capitol, demonstrated above.

The era of Monarchy has the King's Castle (named just Castle, like the starting castle of the Baron and a generic Castle). This special castle provides a kingdom wide 25% gold income boost, so it's not a trivial target to conquer.

Dark Ages and Agricultural Period don't have any special castles unless something rare appears at random and Dawn of a New Empire is the same.

[samoht]

I've been pretty excited about this game. Now, after reading the most recent AAR entry, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be calling in "sick" on the 20th. This looks great. It takes the atmospher of CoE2 to the next level. And then some.

[shatner]

What determines if a monster is capable of wandering vs. stationary? I assume both the Horror Ulm and the Slave to Unreason are suppose to stay in the ruined capital as guard monsters, so are those units specifically incapable of movement or is it something scripted to keep them in place? Can they move about within the 4-tile capital location? If something of that caliber were capable of wandering around it would spell doom to pretty much any nation it stumbled across...

For that matter, I don't see a movement stat. How far can units move in one turn? Do any units move further than others, or otherwise have superior mobility (flight, swimming, sailing, teleportation, etc.)?

Also, I'm really enjoying the AAR and I'm looking forward to the next installment. Thanks for doing this Edi.

[Edi]

I'll try to answer your questions as clearly as possible.

General movement rules:
- Standard units have 3 Action Points, Slow units have 2 and Fast units have 4
- Terrain costs 1 or more AP to move through (plains 1, forests 2 etc)
- If moves cost more AP than you have left, the rest is deducted from your AP next turn
- Immobile units can't move (duh!)
- Various movement related special abilities reduce some terrain AP costs

General rules about terrain guards:
- Monsters that guard special terrain do not move
- Animal guards are more liable to wander, and usually only from Ancient Forests
- Monsters spawned in random terrain squares (not special terrain like mines or ancient temples) wander around


In this specific case, based on these rules, we can deduce the following:
- The Haunted Capitol is a special site, therefore its guards don't move (the things it spawns, on the other hand...)
- The Horror Olm is a slow unit (snail icon, last in list), therefore has 2 AP if it were to move.
- The Slave to Unreason is an immobile unit (last icon in list), therefore it does not move no matter what.


So in this case there is no fear that either of those is going to charge out of the capitol gates anytime soon. Poor Barras just doesn't know that, but he knows enough to suspect and is suspicious enough to expect that something else might come out of there.

Of course, there are things like Manticores, Chimaeras, Catoblepas and Dracolions that can appear as random wandering monsters. Starting next to one of those and getting caught unawares can mean instant game over. I remember one test necromancer who got a manticore right next to the Dark Citadel and it attacked on turn one. Got left with one or two crossbowmen out of his entire starting army plus animated undead and that only through a fluke of luck (one crossbow landed a 29 point hit, which allowed victory, just barely).

As far as the next installment, I'll see whether this evening or tomorrow sometime.

[ArkhanTheBlack]

Are there also any 'Epic Spawns' in the later stages of the game?
One thing I loved in Master of Orion 1/2 were special events like gigantic Space Crystals or Space Hydras or a scary Antharen fleet entering the galaxy and wreaking havoc. Then you get the chills: Where will it come? Which planet will it attack? Will my precious super battle ship be able to stop it?
Fall from Heaven 2 also had such events with Orthus, Acheron or the demon lords (Stephanos & Brothers).
I imagine a doom horror or an arch devil entering the lands...
Since such events can be game changing, especially in MP, they probably should be optional, but it would be really great.

[Gandalf Parker]

Yes it has them, but they are not optional.

There is one where undead flood the land attacking all sites. It can totally take you out of the game or it at least knocks every back quite abit.

There is a fungus one of giant mushrooms popping up which can be good for some nations and bad for others.

Troll armies and Dragons can show up in search of gold mines to take over.

And some others also. Not to mention the ones players can write into a map

[ArkhanTheBlack]

Ah great to hear that. I also don't mind that they are not optional. I don't think I would ever deactivate them .