Angry Ants + Aboleth brains, a deadly cocktail …

As I could expect, Aboleth moved his victorious army from Bandar Log to meet mine above The Promised Land. They just had beaten an army of dragons, why not try with another … (battle turn 53)

My army was the same it had ever been for several turns, with about 80+ Dragenheim warriors, my Prophet, an Antimagic Golem, 3 Dragons, and no mage support. On his side it was another story with 350 ants and no less than 40 mages !

And this time, his magic that had felt irrelevant up to now showed its power. As soon as the battle began, the Fury of the Hive was unleashed, enraging the ants to easily overcome my warriors defense (+4 Att), along with sharpened claws (Weapons of Sharpness), while they were made really tough to kill with Mass Regeneration, stone skin (Marble Warriors), and an insane luck (Will of the Fates). And if that wasn’t enough, his mages threw a massive mind barrage that fell unto my troops with unrelenting Soul Slaying and Paralyzation on top of the usual Mental Shocks. By the end of the battle, those mages even enslaved some of my warriors and sacreds that they later used as bodyguards …

There’s not much more to relate as the battle was a complete disaster. I lost almost all of my troops, my golem and the 3 dragons (the young Nefarian and the heroes Viserion and Ancalagon). Only my prophet was lucky enough to get out, and get a chance for revenge.

At that moment I knew that I was in a precarious situation : on one side I had super strong army of ants that had an open way to my capital and, on the other the Ochreyuans, seeking vengeance and destruction. I just couldn’t fight both at the same time and had to make a choice. Weighing my options, I finally took the decision to commit a large force to stop Ochreil once and for all before the Aboleths could reach my capital. With all my mages in the vicinity, I was confident I could stop them here while beating my 3-eyed enemies.

On the positive side, my first wraith lord was online and the new UW campaign on good tracks (he had reconquered half of the lake after I gave it up) – at least as long as he kept his policy of minimal commitment here into the lake.

“Drako Morghulis”, All Dragons must die …

On turn 54, Ochreil’s next move looked obvious, his raiding had put him in position to concentrate all of his forces in Vath (117). I had myself prepared to meet him in the vicinity and all my important forces were in range, in particular all of my Crystal Sorceresses that in a show of power had just managed to entirely soul slay 33 foolish indie troglodytes that had raided their fort … And with a force of 60 warriors, 20 sorceresses and my last 7 dragons, facing about 150 troops, most of them pretty average, I was was pretty confident. The only question was his pretender, surely some good soul slay would take him out if he tried to make a last stand.

And so on turn 55 was the battle of Vath. The sorceresses immediately began their work and unleashed the power of Thunder on the Ochreyuan army. A lot of good mages and troops died to the onslaught and many started to flee. However, the dragons threw themselves in the middle of enemy troops and most of them met a dire fate, surrounded by muscled 3-eyes beasts that didn’t give a shit about those beasts and murdered them merciless. That was exactly what I had feared at the very beginning of the game when I looked at those troops stats … why did I send them into this trap ?

However, with the deaths of so many troops and leaders struck by lightning and angry dragons, as well as the sight of the fearsome beasts, most of the Ochreyuan army began to rout … but their pretender. Enraged by the killing he had gone on a berzerker rage and started to cut to pieces the dragenheim warriors surrounding him. Afraid by the monster, they too began to rout and soon all the Dragenheim units had fled, leaving almost only the scary Myrmecoleon master of the field. Surely this half ant/half lion creature had some connection with the Aboleths and was following their example at killing dragons…

In the end, the dreams of the revived Dragon Might were now just that : dreams. Of all the proud dragons that had fought the glorious wars of Dragenheim, only one had barely escaped and all others laid dead on the field. This was the end of one dream, but another was still very vivid : that of Metahedron ascension.

And so in spite of this huge and sad loss, the enemy army had suffered tremendous losses, losing no less two third of his mages and troops while during his capital had fallen to the undead hordes that very same turn. Also, apart from the dragons, my losses had not been that high and I could still muster a decent force to finish off the survivors.

Deadly tune for Ochreil’s pretender

After that battle, I wanted to finish Ochreil’s once and for all. I supposed he’d gather again his troops in Vath with his pretender and so sent my survivors too, along with a fresh batch of sorceresses to make up for the lost communion slaves.

However, with his pretender almost all alone in Vath, I had a unique opportunity to get rid of him and remove the last real threat from Ochreil. I ordered my mind hunter to take him out while I sent there my horror harmonica golem. While the mind hunder killed an enemy mage, we can only imagine what will be the last memories of the mad Myrmecoleon in his future prison in tartarus. A frantic, scary, horrific harmonica music, surrounding him and overloading his ears with fear and despair. Creatures of terror dancing on this tune while shredding his body to pieces. He stood no chance, and the deadly music sealed his fate.

And as expected, he had sent his remaining troops and mages to join his pretender and the now gone province defence (second battle of Vath, turn 56). Here, my sorceresses were ordered not to lose time with thunder, but instead soul slay everyone. Direly weakened, outnumbered, his frail force was wiped out and only a handful of mages escaped. Ochreil’s army was no more, the next step was to cleanup this mess.

Preparing for Dragenheim

While I was putting an end to the Ochreil’s last stand, the ants had not been idle. They easily took back their fort in Sofekte, even breaching it in only 1 turn what it had taken no less than 3 turns with my former, dead, army. I felt a bit disgusted by my weak sieging ability compared to my opponents, and started to understand it was a real weakness that would plague me till the end of the game …

However, when he had taken Sofekte, I knew Dragenheim was next and started to draw plans. With main armies being engaged in the north, I wasn’t sure they could intervene on top of the city along with the PD. As such, I decided to fight at the last possible moment, with troops coming from the neighbouring provinces. Dragenheim was in movement range of my Crystal sorceress factory, and several other fortresses with additional troops and mages, all could come in when the time would come.

I used the little time I had left to conquer as much of the lake as possible. First my sea trolls finally got the fortress of White Water on turn 56 while the Wraith lord got 2 more UW provinces. Those trolls would then move on the shores of Dragenheim to intervene for the defense of the cap. It is also to note that I trapped another mind hunter here with a stealthy eludian moon mage … Native stealth on astral mages is nasty !

I also noticed at that time a very powerful artifact that could help a lot in the upcoming battle : the sword of Aurgelmer. I was far from Alt 8 and Will of the Fates looked like something I wouldn’t pull anytime soon. But that magnificent sword, for the cost of only 60 astral pearls just casts it at the very beginning of every battle for free ! With that new toy in my hands, I knew I increased the survivability of my armies by a lot, and didn’t hesitate to pour those 60 pearls into it.

Dragenheim’s breached !

And so by turn 56 his big army was already on the outskirts of Dragenheim. 300 ants and 40 mages, all gathered for one goal : put down the dragons and make them pay for their sins against the Hive.

At this point, with Ochreil’s last army destroyed and Abolethive army at the gates of Dragenheim, I could estimate myself lucky : I had eliminated one of my enemy just in time to face the other one. I then ordered all of my units to converge inside my capital to prepare for the forthcoming decisive battle.

And the ants had no time to lose and were thirsty for vengeance. On turn 57 he had made the move, his army was besieging Dragenheim and had already breached it.