Aww I was gonna say he was a horrible mutant that regenerated, but yeah Dakk is right. Nature-5 magic on your pretender gives blessed units 10% health regeneration per turn in battle. Next post, relatively long:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Mid Spring-Nergash, while searching for sites, made his way to Sermioc and is establishing a lab to create facilities for training Smiths. Knave and his knights were part of their first battle this month and he and his cavalry performed admirably. His flaming sword struck fear in to the hearts of the Ermorian troops who survived the heat.
Fire and Frost brands good staple weapons. They do decent damage (I think, anyway) but the main appeal is that they hit all of the units in the square being attacked. This means whoever has it equipped gets to hit more than one opponent at a time, which is key when you're equipping thugs and supercombatants.Also, Dagan's contract is ending next month and it seems it will not be renewed. The money being saved will go towards training troops in Sermioc. After this month and one more we should have enough of an army to resume the offensive against Ermor.
Late Spring-One last relatively peaceful season before we resume our attacks. We are still under nearly constant raids by Ermor, but we sustain no permanent losses from them. The people of Fever Fens, where the fortress of Ulm is located, are ready for our attacks to begin and have donated additional funds to guarantee victory.
These events are always great. I love positive luck scales.Also, Rath, one of our two active Priest Smiths seems to have caught a disease while fighting off the Ermorian raiders. Wallin, the Master Smith trained in Astral magic was able to create a shroud which bestowed regenerative powers from my mastery of nature magic upon Rath and halted the progress of the disease. We won't be able to cure it for some time, but at least he won't die from its wasting effects.
Disease is a nasty affliction that decreases HP by one every turn until it kills the unit that has it, plus it has a chance of giving more afflictions. Regeneration stops the HP drain (but doesn't bring them back up to full health, have to cure it for that) and greatly decreases the chance of them getting more afflictions.
This was a sad month indeed. Dagan, the mercenary sage whose contract had recently lapsed was hired by Ermor. It seems they then decided they had no need for him and sent him, alone, in an attack against Cerne. He did not survive.
I have absolutely no idea what happened here. The AI just does weird things like this sometimes.The fortress at Sermioc was completed several months before Nergash was able to construct the laboratory, so the opportunity was taken to expand the Ulmish spy network. Stene, one of these newly trained spies has been assigned the task of investigating the great desert to the north of the Stone Grave Mountains.
It's quite large and I'm not sure if it's actually WORTH taking over. So far all I can tell is that it's a barren wasteland full of lots and lots of barbarians. I'm curious where those domain candle are coming from, though.In addition, the army is finally large enough to move out. 26 flail-wielding infantry have been trained in total, about half with black steel plate armor and half without. They're moving to Cerne to take Ermor's southern province first.
Research Update:I took a break from Construction to get Enchantment 3 so I could make myself a Death-1 mage if Nergash ever finds any death sites. It's better than having to rely on a 10% random pick from those shaman. Back to Construction now, though. Gotta push to level 6 or maybe even 8 to get the really good items.Mid Summer-There were no attacks from Ermor this month. I'm unsure whether that is a good sign or a bad one, but we can only continue to muster our forces as we have. It seems Ermor's influence remains pervasive however, even when their troops are not attacking, and Eshten has also caught a disease. A shroud is being made to protect him but if this continues a better solution may be required. I can feel my influence, boosted by the preaching of the new Iron Faith, beginning to extend into Ermor itself. In fact, I would be surprised if the unnatural powers of the Ermorian priests lasted through the entire length of the coming attack.
It looks like my domain's hitting them harder than I thought it would. I can't actually see where their remaining domain is, which means they'll probably lose within a couple months even if I don't attack. But where's the fun in that?We will launch our attack next month and perhaps march on Ermor itself the month after that. In addition to our other troops, we have begun training Ulmish crossbowmen to reinforce the flail-wielding infantry and Knave's black knights. Stene has discovered a tribe of amazons lead by a Garnet Sorceress in the desert. It may be worth establishing contact with them after our war with Ermor is over.
Late Summer-Late summer brought a month of successes and discoveries, as well as some troubling news. A previously unknown nation, R'lyeh, sent a bizarre tentacled messenger that crawled out of the water neighboring Ulm to deliver a declaration of war.
As the AI are wont to do, I get a declaration of war before I even SEE a province owned by them.Cerne was defended, likely for the last time, against an attack by Ermor. The victory was so absolute that only one Ermorian commander managed to escape.
They had a pretty large force, as usual. I think this was a combination of forces from their capital and one of their provinces. 
We've got a smaller force, as usual, but it's our entire army plus province defense and some extra Smiths I grabbed for an extra punch.
The Smiths did a really good job whittling down their troops before they even got close, so it was no contest once our troops actually met.
Morale was high in the wake of the attack and the troops were finally ordered to cross Ermorian borders and take Ministra, the southern province of Ermor.
Finally, Nergash found a magic site that solved two problems. It seems a stream in Epernia was cursed and had been spreading disease in the province. He managed to find the source and tap it for magic gems, but could not stop the spread of disease. Regardless, knowing that this is the source of the recent disease outbreak will help in preventing future spread.
FINALLY my first death site. It's a pretty good one actually, as long as I can get out of here ASAP. Once I'm done with Ermor I shouldn't have to keep anyone here, so the disease spreading should be pretty moot.Our attack in Ministra brought victory.
Well this isn't so much a battle report as it is showing off what cavalry can do! I set everyone to hold two turns then attack, with the cavalry targeting the rear, and voila: 
They got a pretty good surround on the Ermorian troops, rounded them up and squished them. Unfortunately they had some slingers who, while they are completely terrible shots and do crap for damage, still get lucky sometimes. They hit Obscuro and killed him in one shot, even through his illusions. It's a bit sad, but he was basically just a glorified spy at this point anyway. Also, Knave got into the Hall of Fame and immediately became obese.
Not a great ability, but more hitpoints and strength are good and I can always do something about encumbrance later. The encumbrance isn't really all that terrible on him anyway. Eshten guarded Epernia with ease against a group of barbarians that Ermor had hired, as well. Reports from that area indicate that Ermor has taken a new province to the west of Epernia. Since Ermor itself remains too large of an obstacle to overcome, the army is being routed around to the north to take the remaining provinces. Newly trained reinforcements will meet them along the way and with the additional troops they should be able to overcome anything Ermor can throw at them.
Author
Topic: Dominions 3 LP - Time to take out some indies! (Read 19718 times)