The Candlekeep Annex: RPed Baldur’s Gate No and Low Reload Adventures

[Alesia_BH]

This is what happened to Alastria exactly. Same context, too, on a Potion of Firebreath run. The only difference was that in Alastria's case Diarmid connected with a crit before Alastria made it out of range or recovered her aura.

I'll definitely be rethinking my Potion of Firebreath use in that battle going forward. PoFs do excellent damage but they're dicier than the alternatives. At the very least I intend to be much more careful with them from now on.

 

[Borco]

Congrats! That was a smooth ride! And your commentary is insightful and fun to read!

Thank you! I'm glad you've enjoyed the run so far - so have I, as well as I've enjoyed sharing it with all of you.

Agreed!

You're definitely at the point where I see a success in your future, Borco. Your execution is consistent and you're doing an excellent job of planning and analyzing.

I'm worried that there may be a problematic knowledge gap in the end game, especially with a sorcerer, but that may just be because I haven't seen much of your ToB play. Maybe you've done some off thread work that leaves you well prepared there. In any case, I look forward to following Iona's adventure. Congrats on a fine BG1 run!

Cheers,

A.

Thanks for the support! Although I'm afraid you're absolutely right about ToB - I'm completely green in that area and, ironically, the main reason for that is the no-reloading community. I had completed ToB probably twice before I took an interest in the Bioware forums and, you know, once you go NR it's hard to go back. Because of that, I haven't played almost any ToB (apart from WK) in the last 10 years or so and therefore my chances are indeed miserable. I'll be content with getting Iona past SoA and anything else would be a bonus. But irrespective of how far we get, I'm planning to allow Iona to continue through ToB off-thread to get better acquainted with the content.

Borco, does your version of SCS have the modified Energy Drain?

I need to experiment more but it may be a game changer, especially for sorcerers.

I don't think it does, honestly. IIRC there are only very few spells that get modified in v34 (Breach, Insect Plague, plus some tweaks to MMMs, Skull Trap, Harm, Mantle/iMantle, PW: B, Project Image/Simmy).

 

[Borco]

This is what happened to Alastria exactly. Same context, too, on a Potion of Firebreath run. The only difference was that in Alastria's case Diarmid connected with a crit before Alastria made it out of range or recovered her aura.

I'll definitely be rethinking my Potion of Firebreath use in that battle going forward. PoFs do excellent damage but they're dicier than the alternatives. At the very least I intend to be much more careful with them from now on.

Bummer, I can clearly see how quickly that must have happened. And you're right about the Firebreath use (plus there's also MST to be mindful of when fighting mages).

 

[Alesia_BH]

Thanks for the support! Although I'm afraid you're absolutely right about ToB - I'm completely green in that area and, ironically, the main reason for that is the no-reloading community. I had completed ToB probably twice before I took an interest in the Bioware forums and, you know, once you go NR it's hard to go back. Because of that, I haven't played almost any ToB (apart from WK) in the last 10 years or so and therefore my chances are indeed miserable. I'll be content with getting Iona past SoA and anything else would be a bonus. But irrespective of how far we get, I'm planning to allow Iona to continue through ToB off-thread to get better acquainted with the content.

Yes. That's what makes solo no reloading tricky. The endgame is the hardest part but if you always end your adventure when you die then it's also the part that you'll see the least.

For a number of years Saros and I were the only ones who had documented solo successes with difficulty mods, SCS and Ascension in my case, IA in Saros's case. My advantage was the Ascension Solo Challenge, which had given me an incentive to explore the endgame with reloads. Saros's advantage was that he was an experimenter. He'd play battles over and over again until he found an optimal solution then he'd leverage that knowledge in his runs. The experimentation approach is the most powerful, ofc, but it always felt wrong to me, contrary to the spirit of the challenge. That's one of the reason why I've historically made a point of switching up my characters between runs, to insure that I'd always be presented with new challenges, even if had recent experience with the endgame.

I always respected Grond0's approach. He had never completed the game before he started no reload play and his first victory was in the thread. That approach takes a long time though- longer with SCS and Ascension. I'm not sure anyone has done that or anything close with SCS-Ascension. If you persisted in playing as you have, you would be the closest that I'm aware of. That would cool, but it would probably mean that your first success is still years away, tbh.

By now I feel like you have the skill set to complete the challenge. All you need is the endgame experience. If you are committed to gaining some endgame experience with Iona, we'd be happy to support you in that. As a reminder, this thread is designed to encompass minimal reload runs, too. If Iona does fall, you're welcome to keep posting on her, if you like. I could see myself posting on Alastria alongside you, if you take that option. We could turn it into a mini Ascension Solo Challenge, basically. Even with reloads I think those runs would be sufficiently interesting to warrant sharing. It's hard to get a solo transmuter through the Ascension endgame on any difficulty setting and there haven't been that many sorcerer success over the years, at least not on insane, if that's how you intend to go.

Cheers,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Bummer, I can clearly see how quickly that must have happened. And you're right about the Firebreath use (plus there's also MST to be mindful of when fighting mages).

Yeah. Going forward I think I'm going to employ a slightly overbroad rule of thumb here: No PoFs in the Sarevok fight unless you're wearing a helmet.

 

[Alesia_BH]

SCS's v35 Energy Drain in action.

It drains 5 levels, without offering a save. Crucially, it ignores magic resistance, making it super useful for transmuters. The casting time is 0 when wearing Vecna.

Against enemies that are immune to intelligence modification Alastria goes Energy Drain x 3, IA and Planetar at L9. She scouts with Farsight, sends the planetar up ahead, and then sends in her PI under IA. The PI clears any spell protections with Ruby Rays and then dumps her Energy Drains. In Niz's case, that brought him down to level 8, at which point he's fairly harmless, save for the breath weapon. He just needed two more Energy Drains after that, a simple task for the real Alastria.

A sorcerer or a specialist mage with HLAs as special abilities could basically just walk up to Niz and insta-kill him with a single touch (ie- 5 Energy Drains under IA, each at casting time 0).

Is this OP? Probably. Playing a transmuter I'm not about to say no to a spell that ignores magic resistance, but this feels like a bit much.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Alastria's Game:

Say goodbye to Jon-Jon!

This was a death free run, although I wouldn't call it a no reload. I allowed Alastria to test methods on a few occasions. Specifically, probing for vulnerability to either Intelligence Modification or Level Drain. I could have gotten the same information from CRE files, which is what I would have done in a proper run, but it still doesn't feel kosher to me.

In any case, this turned out to be pretty straightforward, actually. All I had to do was relax some of my restrictions. Notably, allowing Mirroring and heavier planetar use. Most late game foes were killed with either mind flayer form, Energy Drain or the planetar. The exceptions were Kangaxx (Dragon's Breaths) and Jonicus in Hell (BBoD under Time Stop).

My sleep schedule is kind of whacked these days, so I think I'm going to play for the rest of the day, with the intention of keeping myself up until a reasonable time. I expect Illasera to straight up murder Alastria, but we'll see. All I need to do is dupe her for one round to get my offense going. Alastria V1 used Limited Wish bunnies for that purpose but I'm pretty sure that's not a thing anymore. The bunnies are blue now, not green.

Best,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alastria v. Illasera

I'm not 100% certain that I'm going to cover Alastria's ToB run, but I've decided to share the Illasera battle, if only for my own reference. This fight had been tricky for Alastria v1. Happily, Alastria v3 breezed through without a scratch.

The plan here was super simple. Alastria took her buffs then conjured a PI to call in some summons- specifically four djinnis and a planetar. We chose djinnis for the ProMWs. Once all five summons were on the field we had the planetar dispatch the PI. Alastria then touched the statue, triggering the countdown.

During the countdown phase the summons buffed themselves, with the exception of two djinnis who were intended to serve as juicy targets. Meanwhile, Alastria conjured a BBoD, to be paired with Pixie Prick in the off-hand. Her last move was to summon a Misled. The summons were positioned to the south. The Mislead was left slightly to the north, within Illasera's sightline.

We were ready. Or at least I hoped. In the end it would all come down to Illasera. If she ignored all the distractions and zeroed in on the real Alastria ASAP, things could get ugly. If she granted us just a few round segments, enough to get out of sight range, I was confident we'd win.

Fortunately for us, Illasera vanished immediately, giving Alastria the time she needed to sneak away. Here we see the summons running distraction amidst Alastria's Wilting chain. Meanwhile, Alastria waits, BBoD in hand.

I kept my eye on the battle record. As soon as Ilasera's name appeared, Alastria edged forward, revealing Illasera's position and confirming that she was targetable. The battle has barely begun, but we're on the verge of checkmate. Alastria casts Time Stop. If she gets it off we win.

Success! Once her first Time Stop started, Alastria closed with Illasera and engaged. Playing it conservatively, we cast a second Time Stop after a single round of engagement. After two more full rounds of attacks under the second time stop, Alastria cast Time Stop again. That was all she needed.

Were I to do this again I'd tweak the battle plan in two ways. First and foremost, I'd use DuHM. I totally forgot that Alastria had recovered that ability. Second, I'd drop a Farsight in the vicinity of the summons so that Alastria could confirm Illasera's targetability and position without entering Illasera's sight range. With those amendments this is a solid plan, worth reusing.

Best,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alastria v. Gromnir

How's your day been, everyone? Mine was all:

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Strange as it seems that was it, more or less exactly. I've been trying to stay awake to normalize my sleep schedule. To that end I've been playing BG with my mind flaying transmuter, Alastria. And since I'm in Peru, I've been drinking coca leaf tea instead of coffee. Point in fact, drinking coca leaf tea isn't the same as doing cocaine- dosage makes a difference and the difference here is dramatic. Nonetheless, Gene's little proclamation is probably more applicable to me, today, than it's ever been to any other human being in history. I'm willing to bet on it.

Actually I take that back. I feel like some cartel bloke probably nailed that at one point or another. And then there's the Incans. Lots of Incans. I guess I'm just a pretender after all. I'm ok with that. It's for the best. I'm content to be average in this domain. Average or slightly above.

For real, though: Alastria got her munch on in Sardush.

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Alastria may be a terrible mage but she's an outstanding melee fighter. Flipped into her mind flayer form, with her Enchanted Weapon + IH + Tenser's trigger active, she cuts through mooks faster than any character I've played. At 8APR most enemies fall in a quarter of a round. She's brutal.

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Thanks to SCS's nerf to Wilting, Alastria has taken to using a Symbol: Stun x 3 Chain against undead.

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That synergizes nicely with her Shapechange pre-buff. Flip and nip, game over. No need for the trigger here.

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Against Phyldian we decided to pull the trigger. I'm not sure she requires a +3 to hit, but it seemed possible. In any case the Tensered form would be helpful in the next area.

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And indeed it was.

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With her enemies dropping so fast this got a little boring on my end. Alastria was having a grand ol' time though. She was all:

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Thanks to her ProMWs, Grominir's mage slowed us down a bit- enough that our Tenser's ran out before we could finish the orogs. Since we planned to rest before the second floor encounter anyways, we decided to drop a planetar. Fully buffed Alastria easily outpaces the planetar. Unbuffed the planetar wins. Alastria did sneak in the last kill here, though.

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On the second floor I decided to let Alastria cast for a change. It seemed like a good experiment in advance of Gromnir. That worked out nicely.

We went with a Symbol: Stun Chain here, mostly as a flavor pick. Wilting would have been the stronger play, ofc.

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We followed the standard formula here: buff self, debuff enemies, blast away.

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In honor of Iona's use of Burning Hands at L1, I loaded Alastria up with Shocking Grasps. This is a style pick, but it is kind of fun to dump six consecutive Shocking Grasps on whatever poor bloke wanders too close during an IA. I could see myself doing this again.

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Onto the mage. PW:B followed by Skull Traps. Shocking grasp finish for the final soldier.

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So: What did we learn here? Alastria is first and foremost a melee fighter, but she can pump out some spell damage. All told, there's enough hurt in her book that she doesn't need to fiddle with PIs or Simmys, at least not against Gromnir. All we need to do is dump the book and then pull the trigger for the finish. That should do it.

Here we see Alastria to the south, locked and loaded with IA active.

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A Karun the Black Time Stop interrupted Alastria's opening IA, but we were prepared for that exact contingency. All we needed to do was get the planetar down and fill in our buffs. Our second, post Time Stop IA would bring the hurt.

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After taking down Berena et al with a Skull Trap barrage, and tying up the southern casters with a planetar, Alastria checked on Gromnir. Badly Injured, huh? I agree, Alastria: that is interesting. It's time for that Tenser's trigger.

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But first: IH on the planetar.

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Followed by DUHM and a BBoD.

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Next the Fireshield: Blue + Fireshield: Red + Stoneskins Sequencer.

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And finally the IH + Tenser's + Mislead Trigger. Your days are numbered Gromnir. Naturally, Alastria would have went with Shapechange over BBoD if Gromnir were vulnerable to intelligence modification. He is not.

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Sorry we couldn't get you one last serving of brains, Alastria, but it still feels good to full buff chunk a berserker in melee, right?

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And for the finale? The coup de grace on Karun the Black? Shoutout to Iona. No pressure, but you should totally finish him off with Burning Hands, Borco, lol.

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Best,

A.

 

[Borco]

Strange as it seems that was it, more or less exactly. I've been trying to stay awake to normalize my sleep schedule. To that end I've been playing BG with my mind flaying transmuter, Alastria. And since I'm in Peru, I've been drinking coca leaf tea instead of coffee. Point in fact, drinking coca leaf tea isn't the same as doing cocaine- dosage makes a difference and the difference here is dramatic. Nonetheless, Gene's little proclamation is probably more applicable to me, today, than it's ever been to any other human being in history. I'm willing to bet on it.

I've just spilled my (coca-free) morning coffee, lol!

Anyway, congratulations to Alastria on making it to ToB and past the first few challenges - she's looks like an unstoppable war machine and I love it to the bits! At the same time, I appreciate that the lack of Abjuration requires a wholly different mindset and more careful planning. Shutting down potential threats before they actually become real threats seems a super efficient strategy, but the margin for error could be significantly higher. I presume it may be actually closer to playing a some sort of rogue rather than a mage. And I can also see how the modified Energy Drain fits into that approach and still meet the fair play criteria.

Kudos for including Shocking Grasp, Trasmuters' favorite, on the menu! And rest assured that Iona's taking notes.

 

[Borco]

I've also noticed that Alastria has graduated to her mage avatar!

 

[Borco]

Quick update on Iona's game (she's been working towards this moment her entire career):

 

[Alesia_BH]

I've also noticed that Alastria has graduated to her mage avatar!

Lol. I'm glad you noticed.

She switched when she got the Staff of the Magi.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Alastria's Game:

I tried out an oldie but goodie from Alastria V1s kit: Contingency: See Enemy- Teleport Field; Chain Contingency: See Enemy- Projected Image, Limited Wish, Mislead. It still works. SCS enemies aren't scripted to ignore the blue circled bunnies. They'll still chase hasted rabbits around a telly field, leaving the PI free to blast away and the caster protected by Mislead.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Alastria's Game:

SCS's Shocking Grasp isn't just a flavor pick. It's positively useful- especially for transmuters. Alastria killed the brimstone in Yaga-Sura's lair by Energy Draining him and then finishing him off in melee under Tenser's. While I was in proximity to him I decided to dump the Shocking Grasps on a whim. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they all landed.

That led me to check the SPL file and, sure enough, the damage is labeled non-magical. You'll definitely be seeing more Shocking Grasps from Alastria going forward.

Spoiler

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alastria, Human Transmuter: Yaga-Shura's Enclave

There have been times in this adventure when I've coveted abjuration spells. Not here. Not now. These days it's good to be a transmuter. Alastria has all the tools she needs.

As per usual I made a point of emphasizing the alteration school in Alastria's battle plans. Here we see the opening battle. We got the party started with one of Alastria V1's favorite contingency setups: Contingency- Teleport Field; Chain- Limited Wish, Projected Image, Mislead.

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Next, Alastria's PI buffed herself and then amped up the field density, layering in four or five Sphere of Chaoses, along with a complementary Malison. With apologies to the bunny-wunnies we pumped out a few Cones of Cold, too.

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Between the repeated saves against Sphere of Chaos at -6 and the Cones of Cold, giants were popping left and right. Shocking Grasp and Wilting took care of the stubborn ones.

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All clear. Thanks for the assist, bunny-wunnies. Glad to see that a few of you made it.

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Since the real Alastria's book was still loaded we moved on. Alastria always stocks a few Power Words to negate potential threats. Here we see the real Alastria firing up an Improved Alacrity against the next batch of giants. That southern giant was a little too close for comfort, so he got a PW:B.

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Time to setup the field and flip. Eating brains amidst a multilayer Sphere of Chaos is Alastria's happy place.

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Thanks to the return of DUHM Alastria is free to skip her Tenser's trigger in minor encounters.

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The other side encounters were more of the same so we'll skip forward to the great hall.

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Since the SoA dragons were immune to intelligence modification, I figured the brimstone would be too. Nonetheless, I decided to go with a buffed and Tenserd mind flayer here. I figured we could clear out the giants and deal with the brimstone later. Alastria had a clear aura throughout this encounter, but we probably should have used a Greenstone Amulet charge. If this were a proper no reload I surely would have. There's a maze trap nearby.

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The giants and fell cats went down in record time. The Tensered mind flayer is more than a gimmick.

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Once the last giant croaked we skedaddled and re-organized our book for the brimstone.

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The plan here had been to Energy Drain the brimstone to death. Something went wrong, though. I'm not sure what. The PIs Energy Drain and Shocking Grasps didn't connect. This Energy Drain, for example, was a dud. I don't see a spell protection in place.

Spoiler

Whatever. Brimstones are level 23 creatures. With the real Alastria packing 3 Energy Drains, we'll be fighting a harmless kitty once this Time Stop ends. A Tensered Alastria, wielding Firetooth and Pixie Prick under IH should have no trouble at all.

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And there we have it. Yet another kill for the alteration school.

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Best,

A.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Alastria, Human Transmuter: Yaga-Shura

In her showdown with Yaga Alastria had three goals. She wanted to kill the big fella. She wanted to destroy his army. And she wanted to do it all with style. In the end, I'd call her adventure a mixed success. She met the first two marks. The third, not so much. Alastria started strong, style wise, but she petered out in the end.

We began the fray by nicking Yaga with The Victor. So far, so good. The Victor is an elegant choice here.

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A few rounds later Yaga returned, flanked by his lieutenants. Alastria awaited her moment and unleashed her plan. She opened with an IA, casting straight from her book. She followed with a PW: Silence on the mage and a restrained barrage, tapping levels 1 and 3 only. Fortunately, levels 1 and 3 were all we needed to clear the summons and put a dent in Yaga's lieutenants, most notably the mage.

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Remember what I said about destroying Yaga's army? It's showtime. Shapechange: Mind Flayer; Sequencer: Fireshield: Red, Fireshield: Blue, Stoneskins; Trigger: Improved Haste, Tenser's, Enchanted Weapon

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Time to meet the real me, y'all. The Lieutenant Fighter falls first.

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Followed quickly by the Lieutenant Cleric.

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And there goes the Lieutenant Thief.

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What now? Yaga is immune to intelligence drain and we're Tenser locked out of our spells. I suppose all we can do is put the hurt on Yaga's army. Sure, they respawn infinitely but infinity is no match for a full buffed mind flayer.

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Let's mess'em up and make it look pretty. What do we think, everyone? Job well done?

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Some of you may thinking: Um, sure, but what about the Sphere of Chaoses? Good point. And I'm with you. Unfortunately we didn't have room for Sphere of Chaoses due to my totally lame and unstylish plan for finishing Yaga.

Once Tenser's expired we fell back and conjured a PI. The PI then took point: IA-> PW:B -> Cone of Cold x 6

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We're on to the second PI now- second or third, I'm not sure.

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Planetars were used for distraction when needed.

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With Yaga at near death, we let the real Alastria cast from her book. Here we see Alastria refreshing her buffs in preparation for a melee finish under Tenser's.

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Alas a Cone of Cold finished him before we got the chance. Oh, well. I still haven't thought of a more stylish end to this encounter, but I definitely think there's room for improvement.

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Best,

A.

EDIT: I decided to redo this for additional style points. This one is a winner: wielding a Black Blade of Disaster, in a triple Ice Storm, under Fireshield: Blue. Much better.

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We got a bigger body pile this time, too. More giants, at least.

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[Alesia_BH]

Quick Note on Alastria's Game:

This may be the strangest battle record entry I've ever seen.

Does anyone know where the peasants are fighting zombies on the Siege Camp map? I looked all over and I couldn't find them.

 

[Serg_BlackStrider]

Quick Note on Alastria's Game:

This may be the strangest battle record entry I've ever seen.

View attachment 15134Does anyone know where the peasants are fighting zombies on the Siege Camp map? I looked all over and I couldn't find them.

Not sure about zombies but I have a vague memory about peasants there and here they are: on the bridge, fleeing from some soldiers.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Not sure about Zombies but I have a vague memory about peasants there and here they are: on the bridge, fleeing from some soldiers.

Yes. When you first arrive the peasants are fleeing soldiers. I always assumed they left the map after that. Evidently I was wrong. Instead they pick a fight with some zombies. Who knew.