[1.02 FE & Master's Affliction 1.02.016] Completed Playthrough (Picture Heavy) [Loss - Roundhouse Kick from Chuck Norris]

Turn 10 - FP 20. Tied for first with Altar. Lowest is Kraxis at 9. Well, as I've seen before Sean's world is friggin' dangerous. Right of the gate, hey look, there's lots of expansion areas. Oh, wait no, look at those mobs... I have a game-ending incursion already from a stack of Ophidians. Eying my territory is another killer stack of Ogres. Have 2 settlements, both of which are building the town defenses but neither will defeat those stacks. Need to research wardens and nightwatch asap, until then will attempt kiting any stacks roaming close. Also will focus on building a 9 stack defensive army just in case. It might be overkill, but cast a couple of Arane Monoliths in a grid to push my boundaries out. This game may be epic - or I'll end up in the belly of an Ogre or Ophidian. We'll see. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Ophidian Threat (100 defense each WTF!, lol):

Ogre Threat:

You are going to love this map. Those Ophies are weak to blunt. My advice is to focus on throwing spearmen at those Ogres. You need to get rid of lairs that close.

Turn 20 - FP 30, highest. Lowest is Kraxis at 14. It's been a crazy 10 turns. There are hireable champions galore past the initial line of monsters. Ran my Shadow Warg through the guantlet and hired an additional 3 champs of which only 1 made it back without an injury. Took a risk and cast an arcane monolith right in the middle of monster territory... mainly to see what happens. None have attacked the outpost yet, but I've set a number of them loose, including a dark wizard. Still trying to kite until I get warden upgrades for outposts and nightwatch for cities. So now have my sov, 4 champs (3 with injuries), and there is 1 more hireable up north. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

You are correct, lovin' it so far. Anxiety level 10!

[Edit] And damnit Sean, I got the rat quest again! I hate corpse spiders... this time I'm leaving it alone for now.

Turn 30 - FP 36, in the lead. Lowest are Altar and Kraxis, both tied at 18. Now have wardens and nightwatch. Building wardens, getting ready to expand to 3rd settlement with a 9 stack of champs and spear chicks. Jesselde came with path of the governor, thus using her to quickly level additional settlements to level 2. One bad thing... capital grew to include a farm nearby, which has cutoff 2nd settlement from building any new improvements. Considering demolishing the farm so can get the nightwatch up there. Killer mobs everywhere outside my borders. Next 10 turns will be focused on 3rd settlement, possibly 4th, and pushing boundaries outward. Cannot really force magnify since I have a long open border with the wilds... Save.

Below is the standard update plus shots of the "A-Team" that's gonna clear this Bi%$h!

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Procipinee (went Mage, may pass the crown soon):

Jesselde (Governor):

Badra (Tank):

Arcturus (Rogue Assasin):

Tearny (Tank):

Hahaha, terrible settlement placement up north. I actually set that up as a settlers trap. Looks like that Iron Mine to your East could foster a decent city though...   

Yeah, I've made a couple of mistakes... only way to get that town to upgrade further is to lower land northwards and free up some space... but not the best use of mana. This sux! This thing could turn out bad very very soon... bears and a dark wizard are right in the middle of my Kingdom.

Can anyone say the word Maul 1,000 times really fast?

Are those Cave Bears able to move? If so, it's a bug I need to fix.

Turn 40 - FP 51 (highest). Lowest are Kraxis and Magnar at 18. Founded a 3rd settlement but that looks like a huge mistake... have bears, wizards, ogres, stalkers, you name it, all running wild in my borders. 2nd city is hamstrung and can't build any improvements due to the capital snaking northward. If that 3rd settlement falls, will retreat to capital and focus on spamming arcane monoliths in an outward circle... and building wardens while I go. I'll position my champs to hopefully run in and loot the lairs thereby cutting off the source of the insanity. We shall see. Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Yep, the dark wizard moved off his lair, the cave bears, and one other but I forget... it was northeast of where Raven's Heart is now. And doh, my diabolical plan of spamming monoliths isn't intended to work... I thought you may have changed something in the design allowing the lair guardians to wander (I know in the last build you made they weren't supposed to move).

Fixed Cave Bear. Also I like Dark Wizards as roamers. It makes the lore of Sovs wandering feel a little more common.

Black Widows are roaming.

Turn 50 - FP 56 highest, lowest is Kraxis at 19. Well, 3rd settlement has Nightwatch now. Crossing my fingers it works... kiting killer stacks on all borders. Need to decide location of next push, I think southeast so capital can upgrade warden on arcane monoliths... most mobs are just too tough right now, and I know time will make it worse. Trying some crowd control to get this line... absolutely crazy. My wardens need double pay. Kinghts of Asok, River Slags, have mercy! Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land (it's like the Zombie Apocalypse):

Sacrificial Kiters Aren't Coming Home:

Nice to see Terrifying is working as intended. I don't want to give spoilers, but black widows are meant to be able to move. ):{

Turn 60 - FP 62 (#1). Last 10 turns have been focused on pushing back monster hordes via some new outposts and wardens with a little bit of kiting. Lowered the mountain range north of Tenfell so I could start building improvements again. Have enough tech now to design a build a tank unit, mid-range hybrid spearmen with some armor, and of course the cheap spear units. Trying to get unrest in line so can carry a normal tax rate - a little low on the gold. Hopefully can build my 4th settlement in the next 10 turns. It's great having the governor to help the growth on the new settlements. I feel like I'm in a bunker with someone laying machine gun fire made with bullets of monsters and ruffians. Wardens and nightwatch, keep doing your jobs! Save.

Kingdom Report:

Lay of the Land:

Holy hell! Despite nightwatchmen, the wandering Dark Wizard decided to attack Raven's Heart... his despair was counterspelled twice by Procipinee but resisted the counter on the 3rd go, got it off and fully healed from 18 hp back to 146 hp. Countdown timer expired, he cast again, tried to counterspell, resisted, and he was up to hit me again from 11 HP when my spearmen got him at the last minute... Jimminy Crickets!

Start of Battle:

Trying to Counter his 3rd attempt at Despair (2 before were countered). Interesting to note - countering the spell does not start the cooldown, so he just tries to cast it again on next turn... which it's only a matter of time before he resists and gets it off.

Post Nuclear Wasteland and Attempt to Bring Him Down:

Skin of my Teeth:

Turn 70 - FP 71. Lowest is Yithril at 40. Attempts at border and crowd control are not working... too many mobs. It's like trying to fight a forest fire with a small extinguisher. I think I failed to destroy some key lairs at the beginning - chickens are coming home to roost. If there's a silver lining - obviously the faction AI is dealing with the same thing. Will keep plugging away but this is not looking good at all... might be able to hold the capital and 2nd city but that fortress is just surrounded and the worst thing is some of the mobs aren't going away. Was lucky to pull off that win against the wizard but if that stack of drakes or bears decides to attack, it's all she wrote... Save.

Kingdom Report

Lay of the Land:

/start rant

Oh man, on turn 73 got roflstomped. Founded 4th settlement, moved full stack of units in to defend. Now this is a pretty infuriating vanilla bug (or if it's a design choice I completely fail to see the logic). Ended turn...

• One spider decided to attack the new city - full defense of 9 units plus city defenders (4 city spearmen, groups of 5) so 13 units defending against 1 spider. Mopped the floor with him obviously with no losses.
• 2nd stack of spiders decided to attack in same turn - this one had 7 black widows. My 9 normal units decided to show for both battles... did the city defenders show for the 2nd battle where they were needed most? Did one brave soul show? Hell no... nowhere to be found. This bug cost me the city, had a fighting chance if the defenders showed. Were they all drunk celebrating mobbing one lone spider? 

I would be fine with logic that dictates if a city is attacked multiple times in one turn, any city defender losses wouldn't show in subsequent battles. Or hell, let em all show each battle. Either makes sense. But them not showing at all in subsequent battles is horrible. Arrgh!

Sean - Chuck Norris has officially kicked my ass (with a name like that shoulda known). Well done, sir. I don't see a way out of this one... going to call it. Hella fun, but that missing city defender nonsense makes me nerd-rage and sucks the wind out of my sails.

/end rant

ALM got p'owned.

Yes, indeed! Munching on a little humble pie, licking my wounds, having some cheese with my whine, ...

I win!                            

Or really the bug wins...

That bug has been reported several times from vanilla playthroughs by me and others. It's a shame that made you quit. One thing I'll say is that this particular bug is rare and not even guaranteed to occur if you reload and kill off one of the armies. That is usually how I handle it. Kind of ridiculous though. I hope at least you learned that the highest settings are not to be trifled with. Next time you should play on immoderate. It's a lot more balanced. This bug is also less likely to occur when you don't have 100+ monsters living with you. 

It's all good. At this point in the game leveraging the city defenders was the only shot I had to expand... outside clicking end turn for 300 more turns and hope I could field an army to fight those mobs. So the bug was a game-killer unless I reloaded, which in hindsight I could probably talk myself into since I consider it a bug (or horrible design choice). I normally try to ironman it and avoid any reloads.

Oh it's a bug. It's one of those bugs the devs can't reproduce and thus can't fix. Why can't they reproduce it? Because the vanilla game has never been in a situation where someone has to attack a city twice. I don't think it's ever come up. 

If only they had implemented better city defense.

Anyhow, I will give you a chance to watch me for change. I am starting my LP tonight. I think you will be surprised at how differently we play.

Cool deal. Looking forward to it.

Not true. 

I have seen this error in vanilla quite often. Few times has been attacked by more than one army at the time. Also you can easily reproduce this error by attacking an enemy city one troop at the time - you will see soon that defending militia is gone (not always after after first battle though). I could provide a save to prove it, but whenever i report a bug and provide a save they are never downloaded, so why bother? 

It is one of those bugs they pretend they do not exist.