Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Warlock 2: The Exiled Part 1: There is a reason I never play an Illusionist.

Many people remember where they were when the Grand Librarian cast the Unity Spell and took control of Ardania.  Sadly this is because many of them did not embrace death properly and came back as the hated undead.  Or escaped. Or bent their knee.

Me? I was not even a Great Mage.  I was just a Researcher in the Temple of Helia when I saw the spells that kept the sun always reflecting into the temple suddenly fail.  Magic, all magic in Ardania, was swept towards one person.  I rushed out of the temple and saw the bolts of darkness from beyond the horizon heading straight to my home. 

Helia saved me, of that I have no doubt.  For before the bolt hit, the sun Herself descended and enveloped me, transporting me to a city built in a desert.  A desert that was on an entirely different plane than my home.  The residents are a mixture of species, all followers of Helia.  Using the knowledge that was gifted to me by Her, spells powered by Her own divinity, I became leader of the city of Matsujaka and vowed to bring Her glory to all of the planes.
From the autobiography of Aulayan.

Welcome! This is the first post of a possible continuing playthrough of Warlock 2: The Exiled.  I have been playing off and on, starting a new game every time I load up the game.  Now I have an idea as to what the game is about and may be able to play for a long while.  Or until I'm horribly defeated by some monstrosity that worships the Moon or something.

My new home

We begin with needing to research a spell.  I have many options, ranging from spells to harm my enemies, spells to help those who are under my command, and divine spells from the Gods.

Of course the first spell I pick is a divine spell. I always play Divine casters. Always.

Next up is choosing what to build in my city.  In Warlock 2, each building you have is actually built on a hex surrounding your city, and you get one building per population unit.  I choose to build a Harbour for the ships (Which is a silly and rather stupid choice) and for the +50% Income Production (Less silly and far less stupid of a choice).

I send out my forces to explore this desert.  My archers immediately find some flying serpents.  Rather glad it was my archers who found them.  And then my advisor suddenly pops up with a quest!  Because in Warlock 2, just as in the real world, your underlings give you quests with a possible reward once it is done.


Thank you, underling, for the orders you're giving me.  

I capture the serpent's home rather quickly, earning some gold for my troubles and tell my city to begin working on some settlers.  Which is exactly when some mean ratmen begin blocking the entrance to my city.  This is what I get for leading a multi-species city, isn't it? Ratmen, always the fucking ratmen.

I, being a newly minted Great Mage, choose the wisest course.  I give them some illusory gold.
The results are obvious in hindsight.

They're defeated quickly, and now my settlers are ready to trek across the barren desert.

Yes, they're towing a boat over the desert.  Future settlers make it look as if the boat is floating, at least.  Speaking of boats, I have one now.
Fighting a sea serpent, as many boats often have to do.

See that bit of what looks like blue sky, near the desert?  Each of these planes are small, very very small.  This amount of water is literally just a river that will go over the edge.  This boat was obviously a very smart purchase by myself.

My troops continue to explore their way around the rather small planet and come across a bridge to another plane.
Look, this game isn't really all that serious.

So I can give them my money, I can say I recognize this in which case Paradox gets sued by the surviving members of Monty Python, I can postpone it or I can frighten the mages with an illusion of a huge fiery monster.

Can you guess which I do?

I'm obviously a very effective illusionist.

I may have only been a Great Mage for a short time now, but the truest way to power is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result, right?

2 comments:

  1. I am interested in finding out more about what the heck this game even is. Mostly how much it reminds you of Master of Magic.

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  2. It doesn't remind me of MoM at all because I never played it. I know, I am no true gamer.

    It's...interesting so far. I Almost put this game as "Sandbox mode" but decided to do the "storyline" instead. (The expansion also had a storyline but I figured do the main one first)

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