Let's Play Age of Wonders III: User Input Required

We have thus far elected not to upgrade any of the buildings at Sexberg, meaning that we cannot produce any units there yet. To ensure that it does not fall when our armies move away, we clear out a second bandit camp (there were two after all!) located on the east coast of the northern peninsula.

While on our way home, we received an offer of service from a human dreadnought.

Look at this smug mug. He even has a monocle! We, of course, hire him right away.

From here, the fastest route home is by water, but we are also a mere turn's travel from Stackelburg. Given that we have all of our forces here, that it would be only a minor detour, and that it would allow us to clear out the Eldritch Pit on our way back, we launch our assault on Stackelburg from the sea. As a human, Per Notchson has the Mariner special, allowing him to embark and disembark without losing all of his move. This allows him to catch up with our army and join it in time to assist with the siege.

Anatomy of a Fight
I've skimmed over most of our battles, but since this was the largest one thus far, I thought I'd give it some attention.



Our army at this time consists of 11 units.

Warbob Sexlizard is both the leader of our forces and our most capable combat unit. Warbob Sexlizard's power comes from Warbob Sexlizard's "prototype rifle," the range weapon of choice of Dreadnoughts. This weapon is almost exactly like that of the musketeers that we can build - it deals heavy damage, but may only be fired once every other round, whereas most weapons allow up to three attacks per round (depending on movement). The advantage to this weapon is that it allows its full damage after movement, allowing Warbob Sexlizard to move into the best position to fire before taking Warbob Sexlizard's killshot. Warbob Sexlizard is also capable of casting Fireball, which does what it says on the tin, and Flashbang, which deals minor damage and can prevent ranged units from firing.

Next, we have our archdruid cohort, Imane. Imane wields an elven bow which has no range penalty. This means that any time that Imane can hit a target, she can deal full damage. Ideal use of Imane, like most archer units, involves having her move as little as possible so that she can hit enemies multiple times from max range.

Per Notchson wields the same rifle as Warbob Sexlizard, but while Per cannot cast Fireball, he can cast Forcefield, giving a lot of elemental damage reduction to a friendly unit.

The strongest non-hero unit in our army is a Draconian Flyer. This is a fast flying unit, which can ignore terrain and easily get into position to flank enemies. They have very high hit points (more than our heroes, at the moment), resistance to ranged attacks, bonus damage against most melee units, and charge, which allows them to deal bonus damage when they move before attacking.

Next we have Draconian Raptors. This is the draconian cavalry unit, which is fairly fast moving and has charge. The special ability of our raptors is the ability to scorch enemies, dealing fire damage over time.

Next up in order of power is our Toadstool Fairies. These are currently our best ranged unit other than the heroes, as they deal a significant amount of damage of all three elemental types. They need to be relatively close to enemies and have an unobstructed view to deal their full damage, but are capable of killing irregulars and most archer units in three shots. Situationally, this means that one of our units of fairies can kill an enemy archer by itself in a single round.

Next we have our Jester. Their weapon functions similar to a musket in that it can only fire once rather than up to three times, but unlike the musket doesn't deal immense damage to make up for it. Instead, it can dazzle the attacked target and units in an area around it, which prevents them from counterattacking or making attacks of opportunity. This makes them work well in conjunction with melee units.

Next in order of usefulness is our last remaining unit of Draconian Hatchlings. These units, as mentioned earlier in the LP, have a ranged attack which enables them to deal only slightly less damage than the Jester, but all of it is fire damage, which is useful against armored targets. Mostly they are used to force the enemies to face a certain direction to allow other units to flank them, but their damage is not negligible.

Next are our Dwarven Deepguard. They receive less damage from cavalry, deal more damage to cavalry, and counterattack before being hit when attacked in melee range. They are also very resilient overall, but so slow that they often never engage at all in combat.

Finally, we have our Halfling Nightwatch. This is a melee unit with physical vulnerability, which is a massive detriment. They are not particularly fast, they deal low damage, and their overall defense is roughly comparable to that of a fairy. They would use them as cannon fodder, except we don't have cannons yet.

The enemy army consists of three units of archers, two units of swordsmen, one unit of halberdiers, one unit of cavalry, and one unit of knights - the human elite unit.

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Spoiler

The fight starts with the guardians of Stackelburg behind a wooden wall. They have most of their units on the eastern flank. The position of the archers allows them to fire on approaching enemies while remaining behind walls which would restrict the line of sight of our own ranged units, and with gaps that their infantry and knights can easily fill.



Since their western flank has only a single cavalry unit defending it, we swing our army around and march it outside of their range until our units are gathered at the west. They begin to redeploy as well, but our (mostly) faster force lets us get a favorable position. We are able to kill their cavalry before the rest of their army gets into position, and more importantly are past the barricades. Our flyers, filling the gap in the front of our army, absorb the brunt of the enemy damage, at which point they fly back and are healed by Imane. We are able to dazzle the infantry as they advance and hold them in place with our fodder units while our flyers and cavalry move past them to kill the archers. With three heroes and a fairy to provide targeted damage, we are able to focus down two units every turn and win with no losses.


Our Hatchlings feast well on the human corpses and grow into a unit of Draconian Chargers, a unit similar to the Dwarven Deepguard. They have lower defensive stats, but move more quickly and have the 'charge' bonus of cavalry. The loss of their ranged attack makes this only a slight improvement.

Now all that remains is to decide the fate of Stackelburg.

Given the size of the city, it would take seven turns to incorporate the populace into our empire. We can 'migrate' the town to Draconians in only two turns, but doing so would be an evil act. Given the mercy that we have chosen to show on neutral units that we grossly overpower, the fact that we have thus far absorbed every friendly settlement peacefully, that we have slain undead while defending fairies, and that Warbob Sexlizard is definitionally righteous, we are currently very far on the 'Good' scale. If we achieve 'Pure Good' before any other faction, we will achieve the 'Prime Good' Empire Quest, giving us a free stack of good units.

Warbob Sexlizard has also levelled up. Twice, actually, but that's not important. What is important is that we have some fine upgrades available.

We have 9 points to spend after using 3 on improving Warbob Sexlizard's defensive stats a bit. Throw Net completely prevents a target from doing anything if it fails a magic resistance check, Pest Control Squad gives all units under Warbob Sexlizard's command bonus damage to animals, fey, and monstrous units, and I think I went over the others already.

So, questions -
1) What shall be the fate of Stackelburg?
2) What shall Stackelburg's new name be?
3) What should Warbob Sexlizard learn?
4) Should we upgrade the fairy dwelling to produce units?

The Eldritch Pit in between Stackelburg and Lizardheim has emitted a small roaming squad of animals, which has moved towards our capital cluster. To answer this, we have summoned an extra Spy Drone, with which we hope to distract them so that they do not take over any of our cities before our army can get to them. We will, of course, burn their home to the ground and slaughter their families en route.