AAR: End of Days (name of mod) - Shambhala (faction)- vh/vh

[Hussarknight]

Good story.

I never heard of this mod before, but it seems interesting. Will try it when I'm looking for something new.

Before I hit end of turn I always list my settlements sorted by public order rating.

One small question. How do you do this? It would be very useful in my RTR Roman campaign.

[Subrosa Florens]

HussarKnight, from the Faction Summary scroll, go to Lists, and in there select the Settlement tab. If you click on the Public Order column heading it will reorder the settlements by their public order rating, from highest to lowest. It is a very handy way to keep track of where you need to raise or lower taxes based on order.

Severous, If you follow the link to the EOD page you put in your first post, in the first set of screenshots there is a picture of a Satanae general named Bael ~ Lucifer Incarnate, who has the Anti-Christ as a trait, and Lucifer as a retinue member. He sounds like a cool general to have on your side. I am guessing his appearance is scripted.

[Selifator]

Great to see another one fallen for the temptation of mods. I have downloaded this mod and am about to find out if working for the devil really brings a bigger paycheck.
And as always Severous, you have made yet another great AAR. Of all stories at RTWH I read yours probably the most. Keep it coming

[Subrosa Florens]

Christian Mythology is not something I am very interested in, but I have to admit that End of Days looks like a very, very good mod. The units are imaginative and very well done and the premise is very well executed. Both the Buddhist and Satanae factions look very appealing to me. I may end up downloading it and giving it a go anyway.

Very good work Halie!

[Selifator]

Well, the only big negative are the rebel forces. I think that they all have the same units skins. So even if eastern and western rebels have different unit cards they have the same skins. It's a bit dull compared to the many rebels in vanilla.
But this is a cool mod with lots of flavour. I especially like Albion, since they are really a military crusade faction. Lots of crosses and shiny weapons

[Severous]

Hello.

I think this mod has scripted events that help build a situation of having key characters for each faction, equipped with excellent retinue/weapons, so you head for an awesome climatic battle..good vs evil.

A small update.

My main general and faction leader has just received an unusual and powerful retinue. A sword.

I stopped to add up the various retinue effects. The big number that caught my eye was the battlefield morale. +8 in total.
Perhaps this is necessary to counter the Satanic forces who will have morale/scare effects on my troops?
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Ive been sending many generals into Africa to use their Buddha conversion effects on the islamic towns I am capturing. Thinking it was the last Islamic region I got lazy in this battle. Lost two generals in street fighting against a militia spear unit.

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A new enemy. Spanish..Hispania faction. They have modded units including proper phalanx units which is a first for any BI game Ive played. Main excitement is Carthage. Its the second of three Strategic cities I need. Its now in sight and lightly defended.

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As cash flow has improved Ive invested in a few more ships. They have explored the Islands. Here is an interesting and frightening situation.

-A really strong Satanic stack commanded by a 6* general. It includes new Vampire units that look tougher than the other Satanic forces so far encountered. Maybe Satan has gone though a form of Marius reforms now the anti-christ has been born?
-I thought the town garrison was rebels. Very different and interesting crusader type units. Only later did I notice it was Albion faction. They were not fighting. I would like to help Albion and hinder Satan if I could. But Satan controls the seas...I soon after lost that ship.
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And here is Rome. A diplomat who has wondered for years over Russia and Greece has made it into Italy. BI was dead boring when fighting for Rome. It had no SPQR armies to defend it. Here in this mod there is a big defending force.

The Papal Seal units cost €0 to maintain. So perhaps this defending army gets bigger and bigger as the game goes on? I need to capture Rome to win.
--

Sev

[Kamos]

I've played as the Seal new units will cost and those armies are frozen till a scripted event that should take place soon for you(I think). Also since Albion is based out of England and Northern France don't expect much of a delay even if they go to war.

[Subrosa Florens]

When your spies investigate a stack could you show the details scrolls for more of the Satanae units? I am dying to see the stats on the Vampyre Headhunters and Spearmen.

[Selifator]

Stats for Headhunters and spearmen. Vampyres are quite good units and they have nice background.

[Severous]

Hi

Those are big images Selifator. If you post lots more it would assist slower downloaders if the image type/size was lower. Thanks for the stats....I didnt have images of both units and I dont like to keep a lady waiting.

Only three pictures here. Weekend ahead so should have some more soon.

The quote here made me laugh. Aristotle, some significant religious book...no ...its time for something completely different.....


I now know where the last Islamic region is located. Sicilly. This sea battle was important because my faction leader with all the special retinue was abord. Despite more ships its no means certain on vh battle difficulty that this was a win. I didnt want him being rowed all over the med by sailors fleeing for their lives.


I did have one of the requested images...it has the Vampire spearmen stats.

Also shows a Satanic leader and his retinue. Soul collector...nice one.
My two HA units are fighting two full Satanic stacks that are besieging Albion owned Crete. Not a snowballs chance in hell...but I cant let Satan gain such a strategic region without a decent fight.

[Subrosa Florens]

Thanks for the info cards guys. The new units are intriguing.

The faction heir is a Satanic Spartan I see. Interesting combination. I keep expecting to see a Satanic Mechanic...

[Severous]

The End of ‘End of Days’.

Soon after our capture of Carthage the Albion faction went to war with us. It landed this army and besieged Carthage. So a sally battle occurred with our faction sallying forth from Carthage. Albion has a lot of heavy cavalry, good infantry and no missiles.


A close up of the Albion Generals bodyguard. They wait for us to stream out of the gate.


When you flank the besiegers in a sally battle it causes them to chase you. The chase is about to begin.

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A little later and I saw a bug. I’ve seen this once before in a RTW succession campaign. The enemy commanders picture in the battle odds screen is missing. In its place is a bit of the previous screen. The commander of the enemy should be a western spearmen image…like the one I’ve pasted into the screenshot…

Ive not fought many western spearmen so don’t know if this is going to occur again. (The eastern spearmen work fine). Also bugged…on the battlefield the western spearmen battle standard was white..no design on it at all. Looked like it was routing..and when it did rout there was no change to the standard…it was already bright white. Maybe a small single oversight was responsible for this..or it was just a glich for this battle.
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An event of some significance. End of Days. There is something real spooky going on here. Read the event…and then see the message in the bottom left corner that fell down over end of turn. Coincidence?

I had just introduced plague into Rome. My spy had picked up plague in a pestilence-riddled town in Southern Italy. The spy has infected Rome.

And for the rest of the ‘End of Days’ prophecy….how many generals are in my army? Four like foretold. And do they bring war to Rome? You bet.


The Papal armies have good archers, very good infantry with 2 hit points, but no cavalry. The Papal generals are Knights on foot. They also have Onagers. No ordinary RTW Onagers, instead its a sort of 1st Cohort with special eagle/cross standard.


Here are those Papal Knights I mentioned. Foot soldiers who now regret not having horses.


Capturing a cross from the Onagers has the same effect as capturing a Roman Eagle in regular BI.

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The second battle against Papal Seal was also long odds against. Here the battlefield is viewed from behind their lines. My plan is let them march to me. Let their infantry pass through the forest and into the open. Their artillery cannot follow into forest so will be separated. I plan to run it down with generals, and then seek out archers. Meanwhile the HA will focus on the backs of the Pikemen. They are the least armoured and should result in most kills before the ammo runs out.


Heavy cavalry charge the artillery.


The job has been done on the artillery. That’s another Cross captured. Now running away to avoid archer fire and help prise open the Papal formations so I can pick out and charge down the archers.


Later on..and the archers have just been isolated and charged. In the distance HA are shooting up the Papal infantry.


Knowing ammo would run out I had to charge down phalanx/heavy infantry whenever I could.


The best of the enemy left until last. Masses of cavalry converging on the last Papal unit. Foot Knight bodyguards again.


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Docks here are busy. Loads of sea battles against satanic ships. This is vh/vh so autocalc is stacked against me. I have to gang up ships for favourable results. Even when I win it’s often at the cost of half the crew gone. I wont retrain all the ships this turn…just the two silver exp ones. Once full strength they will provide silver exp replacements to other ships before going back into retraining themselves. Many ships are now 2 or 3 silver experience.

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The battle for Rome. It was a Papal sally battle. Whilst they sallied I went in over the wall using a siege tower. Opened a gate and a weak horse archer raced into a deserted central Rome and held the plaza for 3 minutes. A second HA was used to decoy and delay the Papal troops trying to recapture the plaza.


As soon as the 3minute timer ran down I was offered to end or continue the battle. I don’t often end it immediately…but did on this occasion.

I now own Rome and exterminated many thousands. The ‘End of Days’ prophecy was now complete..and the end of the campaign reached.

20 regions, Alexandria, Carthage and Rome are mine. That was the victory condition. Here is the victory screen with an option to play on.

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Satanic forces still dominate the central area of the map. Should I continue and take them down?

Hope you like the campaign and that I’ve portrayed it in a positive light because it deserves it. Very atmospheric and lots of attention to detail. I really enjoyed this mod. Well-done to the mod team.

Cheers. Sev

[Subrosa Florens]

Congratulations!

Very sneaky of you winning that last Papal sally battle the way you did. Severous the Cunning indeed.

I say continue on and destroy the Satanae. I would like to see more of them.

[Halie Satanus]

Congrats on reaching the victory conditions. You've 'blitzed' the campaign which I know is how some people like to play, but your missing out on a lot of the work we put in to the mod.

The victory conditions are part of the game but the goal should be to defeat the Satanae, they are after all the focal point of the mod. I'd be interested in seeing if you can take them out. Or you could try one of the other factions who have Satanae regions as part of their win conditions, Or as the Satanae themselves.

Anyway I'm glad you enjoyed the mod and from reading it I think we did well on the immersion factor. In truth there is only one (kind of) scripted event, but you've actually finished before it happened, anything else you thought was scripted was just coincidence, which was kind of spooky.

[Severous]

Hi

Here is the start of 'Part 2' of my End of Days Campaign - Destruction of the Satanae.
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Many years ago a Satanae captain by the name of Halie Satanus had been heroically despatched at a famous battle at Hatra.

Two days ago in a forum not far from here a grey skinned man had muttered words hardly heard due to hands covering his face. Words from a ghost of the long ago despatched Halie Satanus. Words of significance. Words of a friendly nature yet also words of Challenge. There can be no rest, no fame, without destruction of the Satanae.

The 40year old faction heir Dhiman had heard these words and also those of a witch. Destroy the Satanae. It was clear what must be done.

Dhiman the Horseman, skilled from many cavalry battles against Satanic forces, must destroy the Satanae. It would be his lifelong quest. Aged 40 now…what time does he have left to live….20 years?...any more and its borrowed time.

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BUT. From across the seas comes a command that dutiful Dhiman must heed. From his father and King “There must be no aggressive expansion against Satanic lands until you possess the holy relics. You must wait until you receive my gifts before you start your crusade”

The elderly faction leader transfers his followers and relics to Dhitika and bids him to ride like the wind to distant Antioch. To pass the relics to Dhiman so he can commence his quest.


How many of Dhiman’s 20 certain years will be lost waiting for the relics to arrive? Will he still be able to complete the quest? Will they even arrive?

One more request, a wish of an old man, “Come visit me in Rome when the Satanae are gone. A father and son should be reunited after great deeds”.

---
So the 2nd part of my AAR starts with these constraints.
- Transport the Holy Grail from Rome to Antioch then
- Destroy the Satanae in the lifetime if Dhiman then
- Visit Rome (keep Faction leader in Rome and try to keep alive)
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How’s that for a campaign storyline and objective?

Sev

[Severous]

“A long journey starts with the first step”

Dhitika the Grail bearer must make a careful first step. Rome is plague infested. He will not place his feet there. It would not be an auspicious start to be infected when bearing such responsibilities. Relics that are needed for a holy war against Satanic forces must move eastwards as quickly and safely as possible.

Scattered boats have not had time to prepare a proper escort or convoy.



The second step was to head for the coast and board a ship. A few uninfected troops were all that could be spared to act as guards. Ahead lay a Germanic fleet. An uneasy peace might not be enough to keep Dhitika safe from attack. The green area show how far the stack aboard ship can move…that’s important…how far the stack can move.


Click on just the boat in the stack and its remaining movement points are shown. You can move the entire stack this far…move much further this way. Other ships position themselves along the route that must be taken.


If you split up a fleet of ships, Admirals, agents and armies leave on the last ship. Never on earlier departures. Here the transport ship and another fresh ship are together. Enough movement points remain for the first transport ship to leave the fleet. This leaves the Grail carrying Dhitika on the remaining ship. That’s a fresh transport with lots of movement points remaining. Understand?

The first part of my quest, transport of the relics to Antioch, is not going to involve much riding. It’s going to have lots of sailing.

The new ship moves our Grail further. Another complex exchange of ships goes on here resulting in our group being aboard another fresh transport and able to move south of Syracuse.


North of Rome to South of Syracuse in one turn. Not too bad.

Germanic held Malta lies ahead. Hostile Hispanic fleet to the northeast.

How to get to Antioch now?

- A super strong fleet of four red Satanic ships has appeared from the east. Satanic forces control the Aegean and I suspect all the Greek coasts. I cannot head due east safely.
- To the south the 4* Spanish fleet is near German Malta.
- I reluctantly head west towards Carthage in order to hop across to the African coast in safety. There are a few ships there to take part in the convoying. Indeed all along the coast of Africa the shipyards have orders to build boats. Everything that can is put to sea to help convoy or defend the Grail carrier.

We stumble upon a hidden Albion fleet. Fortunately it was weakened after previous heavy fighting near Carthage.


After beating it again it rowed straight back to Carthage for a third battle. It had some help this time. An unusual allied battle at sea.


An expensive win. It will cost a lot to replace all those lost men.


Our Grail carrier would end the next turn on the north coast of Africa and the turn after that off Sidon. It had been a quick transport via a relay of ships. Transfer between ships had occurred multiple times per turn. Rome in Winter 698…Sidon in Winter 699. Dhiman the Quester(?) was near Antioch. WAR in earnest will commence in summer of 700. No more dates with 6’s in them. The sign of the beast is going to be no more.

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Elsewhere…
Briton does have some missile troops. Well did have some. A second naval invasion at Carthage is crushed.

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Faction leader wants a quiet life to maximise the chances of seeing his son complete his quest. Moving into plague infested Rome at the age of 60 was perhaps not his wisest move. Gloves coming off against Germany. We have several borders with Germany.

“A good war is better than a bad peace”

13% of the German besiegers killed by towers before we open fire. Wall towers are taking a terrible toll on the Germans. Huge cities take up more of the battlefield. Easier to catch the enemy with your wall towers.


Sometimes with big armies in sally battles there is not enough room to flank. Here the space opens up for the first time. Having a flanking force will cause the German line to disintegrate.

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Cash reduced those last three turns. I had been investing around €40,000 surplus cash into extra building queues at the end of each turn..but thats nearly all gone. No captured cities to loot and a huge ship building programme to support. Ive already started to disband weaker ships now that the important relic convoy has passed in safety.

An expanding empire will re-balance the books..Id better get cracking.

Sev

[Severous]

The Shambhala's first objective is complete. The Holy Grail has been transported from Rome to Antioch. In three turns via a relay of ships the retinue of the faction leader has now reached his hier Dhiman the Horseman.


I hope that ship ferry technique is a useful new tip to readers.


So its Summer 700 and the crusade against the Satanae begins.

The first battle is by Dhiman against the Satanae beseiging Tarsus. A Satanic unit that Ive not fought before. Black Knights. A 2hit point type of heavy cavalry.


Another new Satanic unit. Vampyre Harbingers. A good attacking type of infantry. Reminds me of the Gallowglass of the Celts.


Time to kill or push this Satanic leader out of our region. His Satanaic traits give him a total of 25% conversion to Satan effect. He is stopping this region converting to Buddhism.


By the end of 700 two Satanae regions in Turkey will be ours.

[Severous]

Hey!. Its that Halie Satanus again. They say you cant keep a good man down. My best assassin will do his best....


Various agents scouting Turkey for me. No serious Satanic stacks found. Rapid expansion possible.

The satanic faction leader has total traits of 30% conversion to Satanism. He is not a nice person to have in any region. After this battle the faction leader is no more. Well not in Turkey. Spies report a new leader has been appointed and is in central europe.

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I cant control my gains in Turkey. Riots unavoidable..so I might as well jack up taxes to the full for the turn of riots. After one turn the religious unrest will have reduced and control will be possible. Checking the city list prior to end of turn revealed Antioch had slipped down to 65% order. A quick tweak to tax and recruitment queue and it was 70%+ again.

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Sod em. The garrison of Sodom (Pergamum) sallies. 4 horse and 3 missile units will keep me on my toes.


My heavy cav types get a good charge into Satans light cav. They didnt know what hit em.


Its not for nothing that crusading 'Dhiman the Horseman' is now known as 'Dhiman the Conqueror'. Think that title is earned after ten victories.

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One of the few remaining wonders of the world has been modified. Hell Mouth.

Wonder if anything will happen if I capture the region. Nothing did..that I could see. Rhodes is looking tough.
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My horsemen keep the gate open so they can fire through it.

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I would spend a few turns wondering how to capture Rhodes. Biggest battles of the campaign coming up next....

[Severous]

A little bit more.

What to do on Rhodes? The Satanic forces occupy all the squares next to the city. So I cannot assault. Nor can I bribe...it might be cheap enough due to only one unit as garrison but a diplomat cannot negotiate from a ship. Assassins have killed the best enemy 4*general. Now left with a 1* but a low chance of success. How best to attack.? What would you do?


Here is one stack. It has four types of cavalry.
In terms of difficulty to kill:
- Satanic Generals = 9 (Very Heavily armoured 2 point cav)
- Dracule = 6 (Fear inspiring 2 point cav)
- Vampyre Cav - 5 (Fear inspiring 1 point cav. Medium Armour)
- Light Cav - 2

Theres a fifth type of heavy cav
- Black Guards = 8 (Heavy armour 2 point cav)


My main character Dhiman is nearby in Ephesus. He is about ready to move on now after having captured and kept the lid on riots at Ephesus for a couple of turns. But how best to play?

I decide to land 6 units of cavalry archers onto the southern tip of Rhodes. But not attack. If I attack the enemy will have 3 or 4 stacks. If I let them attack me it will at worst 2 stacks.

They didnt attack at Rhodes. Instead they attacked at Constantinople (renamed Gehenna).

Also my faction leader in Rome has died. No more father and son reunion at the end of this campaign...well not with the father being alive. My main chacter Dhiman is now faction leader. He must not die.
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Heres a close up of the Satanic bodyguards. High armour make them hard to kill even with these experienced archers firing from above and behind. The cav have what looks like a dragon wing instead of an arm. It provides a shield.

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Over the end of the second turn on Rhodes the Satanic hordes attack. Two armies against me. 6,600 against my 600. odds 1:10 against.


Oops. There routs one of my units. Got tangled in melee. Not a good thing for a horse archer to do.


A bit later. In the oposite corner. We have just got the enemy general and have warmed up a bit. Ammo holding up ok.


Back up in the other corner again. Dracule routing after a volley or two.


Didnt expect to kill them all. But managed to run the timer down and kill many. Only Black guards left..thats them in the picture.


Immediately after that battle the Satanae send another stack. Better odds this time 1:8 against.


I couldnt see the satanic general at first. Hes riding on the faces of three horses. Good animation on the cavalry.


Finally. Our faction leader lands with two more units. Now 9 units strong they attack. There can be no running the clock down.


Rhodes was soon ours.
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We are now on mainland Greece. The first big battle on the road to Thessolonica.
Dhitika was the carrier of the holy grail from Roma to Antioch. Because of the very high personal security rating he gained lots of bodyguards. Even though he has handed over the relics to Dhiman, Dhitika retains his oversized bodyguard.


Thats it for a couple of days....

[Severous]

Hi

My guys are the good guys...no matter which faction I play. Im exterminating and enslaving for the greater good. Im destroying enemy culture temples to help prevent long term unrest. Short term suffering and pain is necessary. Thank god this is only a game.


A short update.

A rare night battle.

Being missile dependent I prefer to fight in the day as I believe night time reduces missile attacks/range. But here I faced multiple Satanic stacks which included one with 6 heavy cavalry units. I went for night battle to prevent reinforcements. I could take on the cavalry enemy army alone without also having to worry about multiple stacks of enemy reinforcements.

My heavy cavalry is forward. Bait to lure out the enemy cavalry into my waiting horse archers on the hill.
--


After that battle I besiege Thessolonica. The Satanae garrison sally immediately. This will be the next battle I fight tonight. Only two cavalry units in those armies so my forces should be safe. Just a question of finding enough arrows to kill all those enemy.