King Arthur - Rightheous Christian Very Hard Playthrough

[rk47]

"Step forth, Arthur of Pendragon," the old sage speaks.

There was no hesitation. The runes etched on the blade glowed as the youth reached for it.

With a mighty grip, the blade was drawn from the stone.

Gasps of disbelief and murmurs of awe filled the hall of kings. The crowd were unsure how to react as the blade shone brighter.

And brighter still. Blinding the crowd momentarily. When the glow dissipated, the skies grew dark and thunders boomed overhead to add further confusion.

Soldiers ran into the hall with fear in their eyes, bringing reports of monstrous hordes amassing in the forests. The mood darkens as accusing glances fell upon the youth with the blade.

"You've doomed us all!", a noble shouted.

"I must leave immediately to defend my kingdom!", another added.

The lords left, anxious to defend their holdings. Only the youth and his brother stood behind. The sage nowhere to be found.

"Kay, what about Cornwall?" the youth finally spoke.

"I doubt the peasants will react calmly to this news. Expect looting and pillage in the province."

"We need to do something about it. I am responsible for this."

"I'd blame Merlin, brother. But he is nowhere to be found, we must deal with this ourselves."

"Do what you must. And may God forgive me for what I've done."

One year later...

Welcome back to another King Arthur's LP. Let's see if I can still finish this LP. I'm trying this on Very Hard difficulty, which is unlocked after beating the campaign once.

Let's recap our first hero, Sir Kay's ability and take stock.

Three types of Knights exists: Warlords, Sages and Champions.

Warlords like Sir Kay carries army support skills while Sages excel at spell casting and Champions are melee monsters.

However, each Knight gains unique set of General Skills, which makes some much better than others. Sir Kay carries Cloud of Arrow, Healing, and Anti-magic. He also comes with Fog of Avalon. The rest aren't really that great.

General Skills highlights:
-Cloud of Arrow causes archers to temporary shoot 3 arrows instead of one. Effectively tripling their damage output. I'll be pumping this exclusively for Sir Kay to power through the early game.

-Healing isn't a bad skill. It heals every unit's percentage hit-points over time, lowering casualty rate.

-Anti Magic adds resistance to magic over an area. This isn't a bad choice to counter area damage spells, but low priority for early game.

-Fog of Avalon could be a nice skill, it affects weather, reducing line of sight and maximum archery range. The biggest issue is that it consumes a lot of mana and is extremely situational, keeping in mind that it also affects our archers as well. Not a great skill.

Statistics breakdown:
Leadership: I'd rate this as the poorest return on investment. Reducing an army upkeep cost is nice but not necessary. If it actually reduces recruitment costs, it would be more worth it. Keep in mind, though, some quests do reward a sizable Leadership like avoiding text adventures army battles or diplomacy options.

Reign: Another poor investment for a war leader. It gives more yield for provinces under the Knight's rule.

Adventure: Mixed bag. It increases an army's movement point, and awards bonus EXP for completed text quests. It might be worthwhile to make Sir Kay a superb Adventurer to have a very mobile army, but it's not really a priority. Adventure also plays a part in 'stealth' options during text adventures like tracking / stealing.

Fight (Combat): Very, very good returns. It improves hit-points and damage output for the knight and his attached unit. Making it VERY tempting to attach a skilled Fighter to an archer squad. However, heroes can't fire bows, so he can't gain much EXP. Champions and Warlords should pump this to gain more edge in combat and rack up EXP from direct kills. Also, constant use in text adventure duels.

Magic : Depending on the class it might be worthwhile to pump more magic to increase mana capacity. Sages would hunger for this since mana cannot be regenerated without special skills or equipments. Also keeping a round number to ensure maximum amount of skill usage is critical since mana is refilled after every battle. Magic is also available as an option in some text adventures.

Overall, I'd rate Sir Kay as a very average knight to take. There will be better choices later on. Also, I skipped past the first two tutorial battles and straight towards the first quest.

What is unique about the King Arthur's campaign is the somewhat branching campaign that rewards(or punish) players differently for each choice they made. Also, siding with differing sides and solving quests in certain manners will grants a morality shift towards Good/Evil and Old Faith/Christianity. You can ignore the quest altogether and just go on a rampage throughout the whole Britannia, but if you want that, go play the Saxons DLC.

But the loose structure of the campaign tends to mess up beginning players if they trigger certain conditions too early, forcing them to reload or struggle through with lesser resources. I look forward to their sequel to expand more of it.

Winter season comes, and it's the only time of the year when you can increase your stats and skills.

Units gain experience and level up accordingly. At the 5th & 10th level, you can pick an unique unit trait. It makes keeping veteran units alive very rewarding and losses more painful since replacements are more expensive! I have Sir Kay the Cloud of Arrows skill to increase the archers damage output at his first level up and improve him Fight ability.

 

[rk47]

Milord, I bring news.

What of?

King Mark of Dumnonia seeks our aid against King Idres of Dorset.

King Mark sounds most familiar to me. Tell me more about him.

King Mark is a close friend of your late father, Uther Pendragon. He is a man of true honor and well-loved by his people.

What of King Idres?

That man is a tyrant. The recent cataclysm brought by the releae of Excalibur made him see fit to attack his closest neighbor. He is nothing more than an opportunist.

A servant enters the throne and announces the arrival of a messenger from King Idres.

Send him in.

My name is Sir Glais, and I bring a message from my liege, King Idres of Dorset.

You may speak.

My generous liege offers a temporary alliance against King Mark of Dumnonia. In return we shall reward you with a huge sum of gold and an artifact from our treasury.

A most interesting offer...

And once King Mark falls, what then? Will you point your sword towards us?

Nay, let our enemies come. Our two kingdoms will work as one and share powers as equal.

You must take us for fools.

How dare you insult our Kingdom!

Tell your liege, we reject his offer and will stand on King Mark's side.

You are nothing but a coward! You will regret this decision!

Not so fast.

No. Let him go. We'll face him in battle.

As you wish.

God be with you, Sir Kay.

Sir Kay gathers his men and marched towards Sir Glais' men who were encamped within Dumnonia's borders.

Sir Glais forces is much smaller than ours. This is our first non-tutorial battles and casualties are permanent. In the beginning, we are only given basic units: Cavalry, Footmen, Heavy Footmen and Archers.

Basic breakdown:
Cavalry: Not to be mistaken with their heavily armored counterparts, they tend to be softer, yet faster. Rely on these horses to flank and capture victory points. They also work on trampling light infantries in a pinch, just don't count on them to suffer zero casualties.

Footmen: Basic infantry, lightly armored, cheap and terrible at everything yet can perform better than heavy infantry in forests.

Heavy Footmen: Heavier, slower, and packs more punch. They should work as shock absorbers against charging horses. They're too slow to be used offensively, rely on the enemy coming at your archers instead, just don't get caught out in rough terrains, they get heavy penalty for it.

Archers: Slow, long range bombardments. No other game made archers this fearsome. A homage to Heroes of Might & Magic Range Superiority, two volleys from these units would drop roughly half of a unit. The only counter to these ranged death from above are weather, magic, some forest covers, or speed, expect these guys to level up faster than the rest.

This map has 5 VPs. Capturing majority of the VP will gradually lower enemy morale. Hitting zero morale will rout the army completely. Casualties also hammer down the morale bar. So rack up kills and control the battlefield to seize victory.

Each Victory Points has a unique property. I'll go clockwise from 12. 12 has an anti-magic spell. At 3 o clock, there's a sanctuary for blessing. The 6 o clock is a tomb of the saints, which gives bonus to Christian leaders. At 9 o clock is a Lightning shrine, capable of insta-gibs. The VP at the center will prevent any magic from being activated in it.

Since I start on top left. I send a lone cavalry to cap the lightning shrine will the rest proceed to the 12 o clock VP. If Sir Glais is stupid enough to proceed to the central VP, I'll bombard him with my archers.

Which he totally did. I quickly activated Cloud of Arrows and target his archers. His infantry is distracted by a lone footmen I sent to ambush from the forest. From the top left, Sir Glais marches his infantry in the open. Not a threat at all.

We wiped his archers with minimal casualties. Stripped of his range options, we can now pull back the archers a bit to the southeast. Then pop our hiding infantry from behind to cover their retreat with a nice ambush bonus. Sir Kay will push northwards to wipe out any stragglers.

With most of his melee units locked in combat and outnumbered, we just have to grind them out as archers pick on those who are not engaged in melee. We can't risk friendly fires. If you pay attention to the bottom right map, my cavalry is busy capping other VPs to help speed up the morale drop.

XP Reward and more detailed casualties, as well as loot rewards are given here. At times, you may even end up with an artifact as a reward. Notice that archers get the lion's share of the EXP.

With that objectives completed. We gain King Mark's army and his whole province, including himself.

 

[BeRse]

very nice, thank you

 

[rk47]

King Mark joins us and bring several army to our fold.

Most importantly, we've gained a second Knight of the Round Table! King Mark is a Champion and is blessed with Dragonstrike.

Unique General Skills that might be of use:
-Breathstealer: A potent combination with cleave. Vampiric effect for a duration. Enhances survivability in mid game. Whether this translates as additional damage or not is unclear, but all I know it has a bad-ass blood-mist effect when triggered.

-Invisible Shield: Immunity to Archers. Very handy when you want to charge down archers in the open with cavalry. But not top priority.

-Dragonstrike: Instantly causes damage to closest enemy soldier for huge damage. They never really give specifics on damage, but I read it as 'fixed big damage potential'. With a small MP cost of 40, the only drawback is its slightly long cool-down and fixed damage. Unlike Cleave, it is not affected by any attributes, so early game, it provides a better punch compared to Cleave.

Another attractive feature is the 'fire and forget' nature of this spell. At times heroes may get stuck when targeting in a horde, wasting precious seconds of Cleave and damage output. With Dragonstrike, just get close and cast it for maximum effect. This is quite effective if you attach King Mark to a Cavalry and play him as 'Dragon-bomber' with trample and Dragonstrike.

Our next quest will take us to another text adventure wherein we will try to find out how to restore Excalibur's power.

I suppose since we're Christians, we should seek aid from the abbey.

That's a steep. Money is quite limited at the start, but since I'm going Rightful, I'm paying the price.

Three options were there to take...or four:
-Getting the abbey's help by paying or by threat. (2) +Christian / +Tyrant
-Rescuing the Druids and others attacked by brigands +Rightful +Old Faith
-Torture Sir Kay to death for information. ++Tyrant

The turmoil continues, and King Idres, not discouraged by his earlier defeat, set his sights against the Kingdom of Somerset. We shall be forced to choose a side soon.

But for now, the Lady of the Lake awaits.

Let's talk to the elders first.

Tell me of the recent battle.

A good deed deserves another in kind.

We could always use more soldiers. I pay the price.

Let's check the site of Sir Gareth's fateful battle.

I lead my army in.

Let's follow them.

Whoever they are, they're dead now. I think it's time to seek out the druid.

This answer will determine the morality shift, and how easy the next battle would be. I choose the Christian option. If you choose to gain the respect of Old Faith, you will gain an Artifact.

If you had the artifact, you can choose to wait till the Fog disappears or not. This time, we have to choice but to engage in the fog.

 

[rk47]

Our first encounter with Giants and Wargs, as well as strange infantry.

Not a good weather for our archers.

Best to set up an ambush.

When the giants are at the edge of our archers radius of fire, Dragon's Eye is activated.

The Fog will impede our range, but as long Dragon's Eye is active our archers can shoot true.

If we can take at least 3 of them out, it's going to be a huge help.

Success!

The rest of the infantry will have to get ready to face them in the forest.

The wargs charge from the east, our cavalry and infantry attempts to intercept.

Shifting archers to the west. While the rest of the army tie the enemy up.

Several wargs made it through. The archers will have to employ some desperate shots. Several archers died, but no big loss.

Let's see if we can fire arrows at these brutes while our light infantry surrounds it.

Well, big mistake. The giants died, but our infantry stack did not survive.

But hey, victory!

Four infantry unit died in friendly fire, it's a pity the archers didn't get experience for shooting their own friends.

 

[rk47]

That's two hundred dead. May their souls rest in peace.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:6-7)

There is truth in your words, Sir Mark. Amen.

The three knights gathered their wounded army and returned to their king's side.

What news?

The price was high, but the blade is alive once more.

Finishing this quest will enable collection of taxes and signals the official end to the tutorial part of the game. Armies will now have upkeep costs, recruitments are enabled and annual taxes are drawn. By now you should have assigned Sir Kay to rule over all the provinces you've captured to draw more taxes from his Stern trait. Special locations in world map will also give benefits and effects.

I...thank you, Sir Kay. Much has happened since you left.

Of that, I have no doubt. Evil plots constantly. What news of Dorset, my Lord?

King Idres launched an offensive, but King Bertram's army stood firm. But he is weakened, and a second wave is ready to strike within three season's time.

I fear ours shall take roughly the same time to replace our losses as well.

Use the winter time wisely, the kingdom is still unstable without a Stronghold.

As you command, your Majesty.

I worry if we do not choose a side soon, they might cast aside their differences and point their blades at us instead.

While I highly doubt King Bertram's treachery, your concerns are duly noted. We shall make proper preparations over the winter.

As you recall, we've gained the service of a small remnants of an army for 1,000 gold in the previous text adventure. It's a Tourney Knight unit.

It will compliment our depleted force nicely. King Mark will be given command of this heavy cavalry.

A Champion is generally suited for close combat role, and none excels at getting him there at faster speed while providing staying power than a Heavy Cavalry unit. While slower than light cavalry, they pack more punch and hit-points which leads to deadlier trampling.

2000 HP, baby. But they can get very expensive to replace.

Sir Kay will be an archer general focusing on Fight & Cloud of Arrows. Once Cloud is maxed, we will go for other supporting skills.

King Mark will be devoted to Dragonstrike 4/4, then we'll improve his passive skills to improve his unit damage output and magic resistance. Yes, it's OK to leave him without Cleave since Dragonstrike works well as a substitute.

Sir Gareth is a standard Sage issue with 3 point spread over Dragon's Eye, Dragon's Breath and Curse of Shadows. It's a tough choice on what to improve first. Dragon's Eye is a situational spell, while Dragon's Breath is instant-kill and additional points improves its mana efficiency. Curse of Shadows damage potential is huge when it hits rank 3.

HOWEVER, I decided on a 'huge utility' investment that takes only a point or two to shine in early game. Look at his unique general skill, the Hold spell is definitely a bargain. 100 Mana for 120 seconds of FROZEN status?! Sign me up buddy! I'm also attaching him to an archer squad to add a little bit of damage (5% from his 1 Fight) and HP because his role is reactive, not active. He's not gained a level yet, so Hold will have to wait.

That's all the time I have for update tonight, see you tomorrow and enjoy this preview, as we take on King Idres' army.

 

[rk47]

Pre-battle, attackers are usually given a choice of battleground to take place in.

Unless you sport all-archers, do not even attempt to take on the River maps. It's horribly imbalanced with terrible choke point archer massacres and VP domination for the defenders.

I chose Green Woods Edge instead for a mix of Plains, Forests and Hill. Even though I've played this game extensively, I still cannot remember the maps layout by heart until the map loads.

Looks like we start in a harder spot. We're going to have to send a fast unit to capture the lone village to the west. While the rest of the army march to secure two VP to the south.

The opening move is usually the most exciting because the battlefield is so open and full of possibilities. And in clear weather, you can spot the enemy troops from quite a distance. Sir Mark and the cavalry unit will rush towards the Village. The rest secures the other two points.

The enemy also deploys their fastest units to capture the village and sends the rest to meet the bulk of our forces.

With their greater numbers, they can afford to sprinkle more soldiers around to secure VP.

King Idres' cavalry reaches the village first! We need to dislodge them!

Instead of securing the point, the lone cavalry retreated to the forests upon spotting our superior forces! How fortunate!

We secured the village quickly, knowing that the enemy would come soon.

Our main forces is sending a lone footmen unit ahead to capture the VP on top of the hill. No sense in risking our whole forces being bombarded by archers.

Finally, the enemy returns to attack the village. It's time for battle!

Both Sir Mark and the light cavalry unit combines to take on the enemy.

Good time to bust out Dragonstrike!

Our lone footmen successfully captured the VP and retreats under fire by the enemy archers, sustaining several casualties.

For with fire and with his sword the LORD will execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain by the LORD. (Isaiah 66:16)

Both men and their horses burned.

Suddenly, night fell. And I decided to re-position my army to a better position. The Sentinels will march to give relief to Sir Mark while Heavy Footmen will stand guard with the archers. Strangely, the enemy did nothing throughout the spell effect.

By the fourth cast, Sir Mark is out of mana and had to rely on his steel. The saving grace is that his close vicinity to the village continues to replenish stamina.

Sensing that VP domination is not possible, the enemy pushes his main army southwards. Sir Gareth replied with a Curse of Shadow to weaken their archer columns.

It's best to start exchanging fire when the Curse of Shadow is in effect to score free hits while they scatter.

I also instructed my heavy footmen to break from cover and march forward in wedge formation to take any advancing columns in the open.

And guess what? The enemy sent a light infantry column to attack Sir Mark. I broke off Sir Mark and our wounded cavalry from engagement to get some range and then....

An easy trample and they lost almost half of their men. Then we start chewing them up while our Sentinels arrive.

To deal with their exhausted cavalry.

On the other side of the map, three of our heavy infantry unit tie up their heroes, while our archers continue to barrage the oncoming enemy columns, with Sir Kay's Cloud of Arrows, of course.

Our heavy footmen is getting cleaved to pieces, but I can take heart that the archers remain untouched. We can still perform hit and run.

I focus fire on the spear men to the left, while our last light infantry held the oncoming column from the right.

Ignoring the closest infantry stack, I decided to disengage one of my heavy footmen and start an archer barrage on the enemy hero stack.

While Sir Mark mops up. I'm surprised at his resilience, but then I remembered his artifact. The Helm of Phoenix that grants 2 HP per second.

The two surviving heavy footmen watch as an anemy hero falls to a barrage of arrows. That's one down.

Uh oh. The other two heavy footmen unit is not doing so well. I give the orders to break off as the archers take aim. But both units did not survive the escape, they got cleaved when they turned their backs wiping out both units.

A heavy price to pay.

Notice units that suffer heavy casualties got almost no XP? Yeah, they only reward kills. But the artifact reward is a sizeable 50% magic resistance armor. Let's hope we can recover our strength after this one.

 

[rk47]

King Idres' reign ended and Dorset falls into King Arthur's realm. Sir Kay's army returns to Dumnonia, exhausted, but triumphant.

But there is little time for rest.

The populace whisper news of an impending battle between two brothers, Sir Balan and Sir Balin. Rumors spoke of Sir Balin's quest for a magical sword, which instead possessed him with an insatiable bloodlust.

I will need more forces. The treasury is nearly empty, but there might be another alternative. An exiled noble from Logres has sent an invitation to his wedding. Perhaps I may be able to seek help there.

I've never heard of a prisoner given the privilege to wed.

Tell me more of Sir John, the lord of this castle.

A devout Christian? Then he might a worthwhile ally. Come, let us enter the castle.

Hail, Sir John. I am Sir Mark of Dumnonia.

It's time to meet the groom.

Very well, I shall let your messenger take me to your quarters.

Tell me of your plans in Wessex, Prince Cedric.

Why would you plot against your future father in law? Is this how you repay his kindness? By deposing him? You are not worthy of my aid!

I shall accept your offer of those men, many thanks, Sir John.

This cavalry is basically an upgrade of the basic horsemen with slightly higher HP and same speed. With these two, I should have enough force to attack Sir Balin. Sir Mark rejoins Sir Kay's army.

Winter arrives and trainings bear fruit.

Rank 3 Cloud of Arrow for 60 second of triple damage.

Rank 2 Dragonstrike to smite our foes.

And finally, the Hold spell!

Looks fine to me. We're ready to stop Sir Balin!

Recap of Text Adventure:
The Seeds of War is related to conquest of London. These are the possible outcome that I know of:
-Logres plot will involve the garrison being reduced, due to scripted war with Saxons.
-Wessex plot will cause the whole province to revolt, allowing you to take it by battling the rebel forces yourself or bypass it to strike at London.

These two plots will give Tyrant points. Also, Sir John will react negatively. You can quell his anger by promising a Christian province, or sack his palace for extra stuff, or leave.

Pretty nice options overall.

If you ignore the Brother's quarrel and let it expire, Sir Balin will kill his brother and go on a rampage in your province. It's best to tackle this one early. The extra hero helps you a lot.

 

[rk47]

Sir Balin's forces is smaller than I thought, but we shouldn't discount a level 5 Champion ability to cleave our forces to bits. Engaging Sir Balin in melee should be done as a last resort.

I split my forces up. The infantry will stay behind the archers while the cavalry will prepare to charge from the right. This map has no VP and is a straightforward encounter.

Sir Balan arrives with his Golden Gryphons unit, but I consider this a non-factor. He is too slow to participate.

The enemy is approaching our archer's firing radius. It's time to spring the trap.

Sir Kay invokes the Fog of Avalon, while Sir Gareth blesses our army with Dragon's Eye to pierce the thick fog. Our cavalry will begin their charge as our archers open fire on their brigands.

Sir Balin's unit is within view. I can't risk him getting too close...and so Sir Gareth's Hold spell will come into play.

There we go! Sir Balin is now helpless as our Cavalry makes its charge and inflict free damage!

We bypass Sir Balin's frozen units and focused on their light infantry columns. Our sentinels march forward to cover our archers as they take aim at Sir Balin instead.

He didn't live long.

Sweet. Aside from joining us, Sir Balan also brings additional troops.

Sir Balan thanks Sir Kay for his aid and offers his services.

I welcome you to our ranks with open arms.

I am honored to serve such a righteous cause.

What of your brother?

That man is no longer my brother. A spirit has taken over, and it resides within this sword. I would like to request your aid in removing its curse.

Later..

Welcome back, my knights! I see Sir Balan is safe.

He has joined our cause and request our aid in removing a curse.

Yes, while you were away I've assigned scribes to discover more about this cursed sword. They say a far away monastery might possess the ritual to do so.

I think we have very little time, with the matter of stronghold unresolved.

You are correct, Sir Gareth. That is why I have another alternative.

Do tell.

A group of druids in the province of Sugales may be able to remove the curse as well. Once the curse if lifted, gather your forces and assault Viroconium in the province of Powys.

That is the stronghold of the Old Faith, why do we start there?

I agree with Sir Kay, setting up a Christian Kingdom in that area is dangerous, the populace do not worship that faith. They may rebel.

Not to mention the neighboring Welsh Kingdom will not stand idly if we declare our intention as a Christian Kingdom.

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law-a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. (Matthew 10:34-36)

You speak the truth! Let the word of God spread amongst the disbelievers. These heathens cannot deny the existence of our God when we defeat the armies of the Old Faith in their own turf!

Count me in as well, brother.

Very well. Assemble the army and march towards Powys!

Sir Balan is a Champion and starts with Rank 3 Cleave and two other skills. His unique skills are very ordinary and nothing stands out unlike Sir Balin's. However, his ruler traits is VERY useful. Glorious Leader & Just.

Glorious Leader reduces recruitment cost for the province he controls by 20%. There's a trick to exploit this trait to the fullest. Assign him to the province where you are about to start the recruitment, enjoy the 20% discount and return ownership to a more productive Knight once you've spent the gold.

In short, having Sir Balan permanently reduces all recruiting expenses by 20%! Awesome.

Just leaders grants +3 loyalty to all provinces he controls, offering lesser chance of revolt to occur and increases taxes. So my verdict: he's not as amazing as Sir Balin in combat, but he is effective in other ways than just combat.

The above quest can be ignored safely with no penalty. It gives a decent reward, a wife for one of your knights, after a tough battle. But it's entirely optional and I decide to just skip it. I'll be splitting the update here, since the image limit is reached.

 

[rk47]

Our morality is Righteous enough to unlock Yeomen, a spearmen unit with armor piercing and excellent resistance against trampling. But I have no free slot in my army. And they're not that great anyway.

The Golden Gryphons is an elite Righteous Heavy Infantry with high stamina, attack power and defense. But I just hate having to crawl around with them. They end up being too late to get into the action and had to settle for a passive role.

Siding with King Bertram will also unlock another quest. One that is VERY rewarding and offers a non violent solution.

This is an opportunity we cannot miss.

I agree. I'll see to it at once.

God bless, Sir Mark.

Such terrible destruction. There must be some survivors!

Then there is no time to waste! I must find that Ranger.

Quickly, surround them. I want this resolved with as little bloodshed as possible!

You are my war club, my weapon for battle with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms, (Jeremiah 51:20)

Lead me there, King Bertram's heir must be with them.

I have an obligation to rescue the prince, yet I cannot risk my own army for the Viroconium Crusade. Perhaps I can negotiate.

Our current treasury is 10,000 gold and 16,000 food.

Is there any other way we can pay for the release?

I refuse to be used for your evil deeds, take your gold and set all of them free.

As far as I know, this is the best outcome you can get from the quest without a single loss of men and gaining a giant unit.

Other possible outcomes:
-Accepting the price first time will make the leader raise the price to double.
-You can also battle them if you want the experience points.

Giants. Huge lumbering giants. Innate magical resistance, 2500 damage per strike. 10,000 hit points each. They come in trios per unit and is very effective at causing mayhem. They're not as fast as Cavalry but can outrun most light infantry due to their large strides. I attach them to Sir Balan for impressive damage and hit-point boost. This has a reverse effect of making the hero more vulnerable. He has less units protecting him, yet the bonus to raw giant damage per strike is amazing.

King Bertram cedes control of all his provinces and our realm grows as Sir Kay's army march northwards towards Viroconium.

 

[rk47]

The unsuspecting province of Sugales welcomes King Arthur's army, unaware of its hostile intent. The Circle of Druids is near, and the cleansing of the sword must be accomplished first.

Very well. I will see what I can do of the abbey.

It seems unlikely such a small band of believers would risk building an abbey in the middle of an Old Faith territory. There must be a reason behind it.

Hmm, perhaps the townsfolk would know more about these refugees.

They have abandoned Him completely.

"Their land is full of idols;
they bow down to the work of their hands,
to what their fingers have made." - Isaiah 2:8

Is there anyone here who knows where are they now?

I swear upon my name and one True God that I shall protect you and your kin shall want for nothing. *hands some gold*

I am here to help.

What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?

And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. - Matthew 18:12-13

Take heart, one day you shall return and our King shall bring out His True Glory upon the lands.

Now, it's time to meet the weaponsmith.

All that is left is to find that Pagan Enchantress. Assuming that this whole pagan ritual will succeed.

And that wraps up the Cursed Sword - Old Faith solution. In my previous playthrough I did the Christian path. It's a minor morality shift that can easily be neutralized later.

The Old Faith Cursed Sword quest has several different options to take, but the most major one is if you tell the Sidhe Enchantress that these men are not slaves, she will offer you another choice: Stay with her for whole 2 years. The hero on the quest will do so. After 2 years have passed, he will gain a sizable EXP and learn the Lightning Bolt spell.

It might be worthwhile for a high Adventure hero to do so and take advantage of the free level up and Lightning Bolt. But I decided not to do so cause I'd like to grab Viroconium soon.

Next update: Viroconium!

 

[rk47]

The reward is a good magic weapon with a locked potential.

Sword of Pendragon
+2 Fight
+2 Leadership
+2 Cleave Skill (Locked)

Certain weapons have an additional effect with conditions to unlock. I wouldn't give this sword to Sir Kay, because it requires 300 melee kills. And +2 Cleave will boost Sir Balan's offensive bonus greatly. A rank 6 Cleave will allow him to hit 7 soldiers at once!

The path to Viroconium has an optional diplomacy quest to accomplish to lower the number of defenders. It's recommended to do it. Just like the Seeds of War is meant to make conquering London easier, the Heirs of Viroconium is there for the player to exploit.

The follower of the Old Faith wants gold, while the Christian side places high value on Artifacts, making him very easy to convince.

I gave him a Cooldown -15% artifact and some gold to convince him to stand down. You could also throw in a few more artifact to have his sizable army join you. He will also join your roster. I tried this in another run and couldn't maintain the upkeep. It's not recommended. The horses combined with a second army will eat into our treasury.

Also, Viroconium is VERY easy once I figured out how the AI works in Stronghold. They are VERY dismal. And since they have open borders treaty (Friendly) with me, I decided to just rush straight to the Stronghold.

With the Christian Prince army out of the way, Sir Kay's army declares war at the gates of Viroconium. They have Welsh Archers, Welsh unit with innate magic resistance, but lower HP.

Here's the biggest issue with stronghold maps. The town is a deathtrap. Narrow passages, forcing tight, slow columns of army moving through the streets. And the AI never fails to take path I charted from their starting point. The solution is simple: bring archers to point X and commerce the slaughter.

There are three VPs in this map. Grab the outermost VP with a fast cavalry and sit back. Just keep the cavalry behind archers to destroy anything that survives the archer massacre.

The AI tried to be clever by splitting into two. But left three archer units clumped together.

Perfect for Curse of Shadows. :smug:

Then it's archer barrage time as they run the gauntlet.

As usual, Fog of Avalon, followed with Dragon's Eye to wipe out their archers.

If they get too close, execute shoot and move as I pull back the archers.

While they are occupied, I sneak in cavalry through a couple of back alleys to capture a VP. It's a hardly used road, to be honest. But if we can get majority VP, the faster we can drop their morale.

Continue the archer parade all the way till outside the city. Shoot and move + Cloud of Arrows.

Ninja Cavalry is almost there!

By now all enemy units chasing our archers, the archers themselves are almost out of stamina. Low stamina = low damage and movement speed.

Perfect time for the rest of our fresh troops to spring their ambush outside town as we establish 2 VP sneaky captures. :smug:

Mission Accomplished.

The role of Excalibur is then revealed - both London and Viroconium were once a great Stronghold, which now lies in ruins. It can be brought back to its former glory if an artifact of great power is used as its foundation. And for that, Excalibur served its purpose.

Camelot is born.

And we won an artifact too! Sweet.

Mournblade
+2 Fight
-30% Unit Attack Rate

This is an extremely powerful artifact. 30% off attack rate quickens archer reload time by 2 seconds! It's the perfect weapon for Sir Kay's killer archers.

We've dealt a huge blow to their power and established our Stronghold. It's not over yet, there's still another hostile army left in Gloucester and another province to conquer.

 

[unmerged(242988)]

Super! Respect!

 

[rk47]

Thanks.

Capturing Viroconium rewards us with 2 DLC heroes. They won't be playing much of a role, however there are some redeeming features in them, especially in Very Hard game.

Sir Lucan is a Warlord, he starts with a bad mix of skills that doesn't really make him fit as a pure battle Warlord. Sure, he got Dragonstrike as an unique skill, but points in Liege (+10% province income) and Seneschal (-5% recruitment cost and upkeep) makes him a prime candidate to stick to governing rich provinces.

Solution: Throw him to a monastery landmark that gives 10% Hero EXP per season and have him rot there and rule over productive provinces.

Sir Alymere is a VERY GOOD Champion, not as good as Sir Balin, but definitely better than King Mark. Why?

Unique skill: Hold and Dragonstrike. I may swap King Mark with him in the future because that will allow him two roles: A melee Cleaver or a key unit shutdown with Hold.

The remnants of the Old Faith army wants their Stronghold back and attacks us during their turn.

Let me say it up-front: The AI is not very capable in attacking Strongholds, however, with the right spells, they can and will inflict heavy casualties.

First. Leave the slowest unit behind to capture the starting VP. Then send two fast cavalry to each of the other two VP to start the morale pressure. Of course, prioritize archer positioning up front during the setup phase. They need to get there quickly and setup the massacre.

Setup archers at X, while the fast cavalry capture the other VP ASAP. The enemy will approach through ONE path only.

Their lone cavalry charge ahead of the rest under protection of Invisible Shield. Our arrows can't penetrate that magic shield. We're doomed.

Yeah, right.

We'll just shoot something else while the heavies take down anything that survives our bombardment. Their morale plummets.

Their hero got too close and had to be neutralized with a Hold. Target practice.

They know they can't win.

Goddamn, look at all that wasted troops. I guess we stripped them of their weapons and send them all home.

Everything looks rosy. With two major forces decimated, they have nothing left to protect their last province. Expect a mop up job next year.

 

[rk47]

Upon conquering your first Stronghold, these two quests will trigger:

Finding Merlin will push you towards an alliance with the Welsh Kingdom and Old Faith.

Dealing with Sir Caradoc will seal an alliance with the Saxons and opens the path towards Christianity.

Both of these choices will not permanently lock you towards Christian/Old Faith path, but will affect the future bride of King Arthur. Also, these two quests have no time limit, feel free to settle other issues and gather strength before taking them on. Because doing it too early while unprepared will screw you over.

Winter Hero progress report:

Sir Kay unlocks Rank 4 Cloud of Arrows and will plan towards Protection against Magic. This is to prevent Archers from being destroyed by spells.

Rank 5 archers gains a perk. I can choose between:

-Masterwork Weaponry: 15% increase to damage
-Masterwork Armor: 15% increase to armor
-Aimed Shot: +50% shot damage but +50% shot delay, can be turned on and off.

I picked Masterwork Weapons.

Sir Mark maxes out his Dragonstrike.

Sir Gareth improves his Curse of Shadows.

The main reason to capture a Stronghold, is to gain access to research and laws.

Only 4 laws are available at the start at the Chancellery. You must research additional laws if you wish to implement them. They provide bonus and drawbacks.

Lordly privileges is useless. It increases your knight's loyalty but lowers your province income.

Monopoly is great. It reduces mining income by 30% but increases trade by 30%. Since we have very little mining income, there's more gain to implement it. I activate it.

Forced labour can be very useful if you need extra income. You gain more annual taxes, at the cost of more expensive recruitment and longer recruitment time. If you can keep casualties to a minimum, the bonuses will pay off handsomely. Since we're on VERY HARD mode, I'm not going to activate this.

Reserve unit is the opposite, you recruit cheaper, but province annual income suffers and loyalty drops. Not worth the trade in my opinion.

They also give a projected balance of Income and Expenses for both gold and food. It's quite apparent that we're not in good shape at all on the food department but there's not much we can do. Horses consume more food but I like horse units.

This is the research screen, it's divided into three: Military, Law and Kingdom

This is where you plan upgrades for your units.

Archers > Longbowmen > Master Longbowmen should be prioritized.

Ignore the light footmen upgrades, since in most of your playthrough, you should be using Sidhe / Christian Light infantries which are easier to acquire and usually more effective.

If you have need of heavy infantry, it might pay off to proceed towards Breakshields path. But like I said, I dislike their price and slow speed compared to Cavalry, which is more flexible and faster.

Spear unit is a mystery to me. On one hand they are good defense against heavy units and cavalry with trampling resistance and armor piercing traits, but heavy units usually die to arrows due to slow movement. Since I have plenty of Cavalry, and intend to use them as a makeshift anti-cavalry and mobile attack force, I decided not to use pikemen at all. Why do I use horseback units as anti-cavalry? Simple, they're immune to trampling. Buy a little time for the archers to reposition and then retreat quickly as the arrows fly again.

I pick the Longbowmen upgrade first. You can queue multiple upgrades, but since gold is in short supply, I can only do one at a time.

I choose to totally ignore the Law research for the time-being. After Longbow research is complete, I might go for Kingdom upgrades.

King Cadeyrn, the deposed monarch of Viroconium wishes to purchase the freedom of his hero.

It's a good offer, I take it. The wife is a good pair with Sir Kay.

+Honest means more mining income.
+Miraculous reduces recovery time, should the hero falls in battle, to zero.
+Just increases loyalty of all ruled provinces by 3.
-Flirtatious is a minor negative trait that lowers all knights loyalty.

We wipe out the remnants of King Cadeyn's forces the next year and gains another province.

The Vision. It's a long quest chain with good rewards and massive battle at the end of it. Definitely worth putting off Wrath of Sir Caradoc to settle it.

Another aspect to Stronghold development is building structures. Just like research, building queues can only be set during winter. So pick your upgrades wisely. I always prioritize Towers of Knightly Deeds. It gives 1 free skill point to all heroes and will considerably increase their effectiveness.

I should prioritize disaster-preventions Kingdom upgrades almost immediately. These random disasters have negative effects to the provinces, and may sometime require a battle or lots of resources to quell. For 3000 gold and food research fee, I can remove these headaches, permanently. Well worth the price.

While all this is going on, the King of Murcia enters Bedegraine Forest, this event will trigger regardless of whether or not you did Into the Deepwoods.

I'll add more updates later.

 

[Kjeld]

Excellent, I love the roleplaying between all the knights
A few comments :

- Aside from their obvious usages (armor piercing, anti trampling units), Spearmen are better in "hard" terrain than cavalry or heavies. Plus, if I remember correctly, they get a better bonus from formations than other types of units. So it's kind of situational, but I tend to use them as beefier light infantry, setting the battle in woods or hills, where they can really murder heavier troops.
Royal guards have impressive armor on top of that and they can really do well against most units on hard terrain (although with their low hit points, curse of shadows or ghosts murder them). Huscarls are great too, with good offense and hit points. Basic spearmen are meh. Yeomen are nowhere near end game material, but they are cheap and decent at the point in the game you get them. DLC welsh spearmen are very good too.

- Disaster prevention technologies are indeed high priority, however, disasters can have their uses if you don't mind paying the extra food and gold, as they are a early and easy way to get rightful/tyrant morality, so it can make sense to delay those researchs a bit (to get other basic stuff like roads, spies ...). However I am more used to play in normal difficulty, where I can actually spare the money and food

 

[unmerged(257014)]

WoW your guide is perfect man, really helpful

You should make a fan site with this content or a PDF guide, you know a more easy to navigate guide

Great work! bookmarked for future references

 

[rk47]

I apologize for the long stretch of no update, but this week's will be very hectic work period for me and I am under pressure to perform. I try to update but it'll be very slow. The stress of Very Hard difficulty and workplace conspire to slow the updates.

I will bring Sir Alymere, the Divine Legendary Champion (DLC) hero to our main force. But first, let's give him a quest to bring him up to speed.

The King would like me to investigate this 'vision' a hermit saw. I place not much belief in superstition, but orders are orders.

Blast it. Perhaps Ambrose would know more.

Very suspicious.

I've got you. Now, tell me the truth and you will not come into harm, boy.

An ambush? It's not much of an ambush now once I know about it. I better keep my eyes open.

Time to go see this Seer, then.

I've been expecting you! Taste steel!

For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalms 1:6)

Very well, I'll see what I can do.

This crystal ball holds great importance. A life is involved and the kingdom itself is at risk. Would you not lend me the artifact?

I'm glad you are a man of reasons.

Here are your coins. Now give me the answers I need.

Interesting. This artifact really does work. I suppose I shall return it to the church.

The outcome of this quest is very interesting, it does not place a quest marker in the world map, causing a great deal of players to miss out or discover the next step by accident. Solution: Travel north of West Mercia borders near the Bedegraine Forest.

Strategy Corner & Suggestions:
I would like to highlight at this point of the game, once you've conquered the Stronghold, the game will advance at your own pace. Take your time, this is your chance to prepare your army and heroes for a massive campaign after completing either Wrath of Caradoc or Return of Merlin.

Clear up your quest log, conquer smaller kingdoms at your pace. West and East Mercia is easy to take once their King disappears into the forest. Follow up by attacking King Cynric's domain. But in one playthrough, the Saxons kingdom will intervene, if you do not stop, they will declare war on you.

Another thing to take advantage of is the special locations in the map:
10% Hero EXP bonus per season is fantastic for heroes. But take note, the enemy heroes are also scaled to your heroes highest level, so plan accordingly. Starting a major campaign with maxed out Curse of Shadows and Dragon's Breath might be ideal, but when the Welsh army comes with the same, it could be painful.

You may also exploit the Tourney Camp for 5% army experience bonus per season. This is excellent to build up a veteran army, but keep in mind of the increasing upkeep cost! Have them led by a decent leader to keep costs down.

The peaceful times are also useful to research spells, upgrades and develop Camelot, I feel this is where Neocare is too generous with the time given. Time seems to stop here until you took on the major quest to advance the plot.

It might make the game too easy, so I try not to abuse it too much. I will try to complete the Vision quest line with the time given.

Until the next update!

 

[rk47]

You've returned, what news?

Troubling. The hermit is in the clutches of the Sidhe, his knowledge may be the key to darker designs.

I see. Are you prepared, Sir Alymere?

Always.

Take command of these Champions and join Sir Kay's army. Deliver this instruction to him to settle this matter at once.

At once, Sire!

I see. Most troubling news. If what you say is true, then we must proceed to West Mercia and begin our search there.

That will prove difficult.

Why is that?

King Aethelred disappears in the depths of Bedegraine forest, and our open borders treaty was dissolved, Mercia is now divided into two.

Then we have no other options but war.

I offer my place in the army. I would like to pay my respects to my brother's grave.

Very well, brother. Welcome to the army, Sir Alymere.

I am honored, Sir Kay.

The construction of Knightly Tower completes that winter, and our heroes can spend an additional skill point.

Sir Kay is given Masterful Strategies to lower casualty rates by 5%. A good skill, in my opinion.

Sir Gareth perfects his Curse of Shadows.

Sir Mark bolster his Armor of Faith. It's a nice passive skill, providing 20% melee damage reflection and 20% magic resistance at rank 2.

Sir Alymere mastered his cleave and gains Rank 2 spell of Daylight from an artifact.

I will not attach any hero to the Giants and instead give command of the Champions to Sir Alymere. Champions are one step above Tourney Knights in the upgrade tree. Join me in my next update as we take on the Vision!

 

[rk47]

We've received a sizable Rightful morality shift so far and accumulated enough points to unlock three perks. The first perk is pretty useless, it allows us to cut army upkeep to zero, but it cannot move and the province it is in will have its income cut.

The second perk boosts food productions in all provinces.

The third reduces army upkeep by 10%.

We've delayed the attack long enough, West Mercia must fall!

Two archers, three light infantry? Too easy.

With two Hold casters, we can shut down all their ranged archers. Plant a Cloud of Shadow for a guaranteed kill while the other one gets shot to death.

What about their light infantry?

What light infantry?

I love horses!

Good loot! Horn of Courage grants +2 to Sound of Courage skill. It restores 30% stamina to troops within large radius. It can be quite useful for prolonged battles.

Sir Kay will get it. The amulet of magic goes to Sir Gareth. Another quest in West Mercia is Sir Dagonet.

This is an interesting mini game.

Ever played a text-adventure maze game? I've mapped the solution using pen and paper. However, it starts to show wear and tear, so I decided to make a JPEG version that is clearer.

You start from red square. Should you deviate from the black square paths, you will fall and return back to the starting point.

The answer will determine whether or not Sir Dagonet joins you. Naturally, we picked the Christian one.

Sir Dagonet will not join Christians. If you want him to join, pick the Holy Grail option. The Fomorian Helmet armor piece is a 3,000 Hit-point bonus artifact. Very useful!