And then I had an Enlightment

Unsure of my options, I had went for Alt 8 and then switched to Blood 8. I was starting to discover end-game blood spells and strengthened my blood economy. May be I would find there the tools for victory ? Heliophagus, Rush of Strength, Life for a Life … and why not Blood Vortex ? I started to have hope again.

But, suddenly, while studying all the spells and the map, it struck me. There were many unforted thrones, and I had unlocked both Wizard’s Tower and Three Red Seconds ! If I wanted to go for a throne rush, I had all the tools I wanted, with magic phase attacks, 1-turn forts, and enough to claim 4 thrones at once thanks to an artifact and a bishop fish.

With that in mind, unwilling to fight wars I wasn’t sure to win, I decided to go for it.

The Plan

During the last months of Drakonia, the player told me that he had left his forts unforted, and that, feeling defeat, he wouldn’t change that to leave them open for me. Also, for some unknown reason, Abolethive had never really defended the lake nor its throne hidden on its depths. I had captured it, and had forted it with a Wizard’s Tower.

I had 4 thrones to claim, with already 2 in my hands, the former Orchreil’s one and that one deep under the sea. So 2 were left, and those 2 unforted of Drakonia were screaming the name of Metahedron.

The one on the east of the lake was in a region with no major enemy army around. Ermor had sent there some raiding parties and thugs, but no doom stack to account for. Abolethive had Bandar Log with a decent garrison in the neighbourhood, but I was pretty sure he wasn’t patrolling it and I would be able to trap the troops behind its walls while I was doing my rush.

The other one was just next to Drakonia where Abolethive was busy killing Tiamat’s last armies. Also, it was not that far from Ermor’s armies and I knew I had to send there a strong force to defend it.

So the plan was simple :

• First, send my prophet and his army right next to Drakonia, to capture and claim the Outer Throne.
• Second, send heavy thugs to escort a Broodmaster equipped with the Sword of Injustice to capture and claim the Silver Throne next to Bandar Log.
• Third, have my bishop fish claim the Throne of the First Age down in the deepest abyss of the planet.
• Finally, send Metahedron on the Iron Throne, the former Ochreil’s one, to claim it.
• Meanwhile, send all the remaining troops and mages to defend the other exposed thrones.

Also, I wanted to hide my intentions as much as possible. As a result, I had my bishop fish hide until the last moment thanks to the Amulet of the Doppleganger. In the same fashion, my Broodmaster with the Sword of Injustice hid himself beneath the Silver Throne with a Shademail Haubergeon. Finally, I wanted to give as little information as possible and pre-assaulted the thrones with magic phase attacks.

On the Silver Throne, I sent an Elludian Moonmage scripted to skellespam. If he would ever fail, a heavily equipped Arch Devil was following him to murder anything that would still be there. I also magic phased all the provinces around to cut any means for armies to reach it, in particular the units in Bandar Log. Most raiders were cheap, but they should only meet PD.

On the Outer Throne, I sent my horror harmonica golem to clean up the PD while three Elludian moon mages followed up to help with the defense with heavy skellespamming. At the same time, my Prophet would join stealthily thanks again to a Shademail Haubergeon. Meanwhile, I would take the northern and southern provinces to cut off Ermor from the throne and prevent him to intervene in any way. However there were still 2 big armies, close to it, with Drakonia sending his last army to retake his cap, and the main Aboleth army busy taking another fort. I was confident they would kill each other, leaving me time to close in with my main army.

Finally, the army designed to hold on that throne and a probable Abolethive counter-attack was the best I could muster, with 110 warriors, 8 storm demons and no less than 32 mages. One of them was a sorceress with pen 4 gear poised spam Unraveling as many times as possible. Also to note Fog Warriors and Mass Regeneration to empower the army, as well as the Sword of Aurgelmer, the Soul Stone of the Wolves and the Ankh and, last but not least, a Wailing Winds caster. With that much on the field, the ants would really need to pull out many tricks to take back that throne.

Going for it !!

I devised that plan on turn 70, and it took only 1 turn to get everything prepared. So, as soon as turn 71 I gave the orders and watched the plan unfold.

On turn 72, the raids for the Outer Throne were only met by weak PD and the throne was taken and entirely cut off from Ermor. In the meantime, the Aboleth army annihilited all the remaining forces of Drakonia and killed Tiamat. Even though our cousins brought to the field 250 troops and some decent mage support, the battle was entirely one-sided, the ants losing only a handful warriors and even enslaving some enemies. So this meant that for the next turn it was very possible that the ultimate battle would be above that throne. But in 3 red seconds a mighty Citadel of Power was poised to appear and secure the ascension.

That same turn, the 5 raids in and around the Silver Throne were successful but one. Most importantly, Bandar Log was locked up and the army there would never be able to intervene. Also the roads from Ermor were blockaded and the only threat was a shattered raiding force on top of the sourthern Drakonia fort. Our raider here, equipped with Ember, had managed to kill half the units and most importantly slay the Dusk Elder thug there before retreating. As a result, when the survivors tried to storm the fort they were sent back to the realm of the dead and it was highly improbable that anything would come from there. Furthermore, a Wizard’s Tower would soon rise on the top of the Throne to prevent any bad surprise.

And so after those successes, all did their duty. Ansila, the Prophet of Metahedron from the very beginning of the War, Lando the Broodmaster, Anat the Bishop Fish and Metahedron himself, all claimed the thrones and their powers of Ascension.

And on turn 73, all attempts to stop them failed. The Presence, the god of Abolethive had already accepted Metahedron supremacy in his mind and didn’t even try to do anything on the Outer Throne. Ermor on the other hand didn’t want to let go. He began a full invasion of former Ochreil’s territory with raiding squads totaling about 500 undeads. He also tried a Wind of Death trap on the army poised to defend the Outer Throne … but to no avail, as his pretender was killed by the storm demons … and the few dragon warriors hit by the winds still had a enough years of life ahead of them to ignore the effects. Finally, he had moved his most powerful army of 650 units towards the throne, but too late. Etimmu and a large raiding squad were also headed towards the Silver Throne, but here also they were too late.

With the powers awokened, Metahedron was on the verge of ascension, and all would now bow to him.