HA! I finished it!

[airboy]

^ Congratulations!

[Sir Slash]

Way to go Jason!  :bd:  Great way to start-off the new year by kicking digital butt.

[FarAway Sooner]

Well, it took me 156 turns, but I finally finished off my 4th shard on Eador Genesis: New Horizons.

The Eador game features a brilliant system, and could've been the total successor to Heroes of Might & Magic if they'd just gotten the bugs out of the prettified second release and reduced the grind factor.  I was disappointed with that Masters of the Broken World successor game and, after 200+ hours of game play, heartbrokenly set it aside back in 2014.  It was just the gorgeous girlfriend who tried to break up with me one time too many!

I'd heard great things about the New Horizons mod to the original Genesis game, but it had only been available in Russian.  Somewhere in the last year or two, it's been translated into English, and I found the time to start it back up just before Christmas.  I was expecting a nostalgic romp for an hour or two before the old "Been there, done that" feeling set in and I moved on to something else.

Instead, I've spent about 10 nights out of the last 20 playing it until past midnight!  I guess I know who to blame for that.   

This game is particularly hard because you play it in Iron Man mode.  To revert one turn for a Saved Game, you have to invoke Godlike powers to alter the flow of time--but that costs you dearly in the campaign game.  There's simply no way to save the game.  It's brutal like that.

In any event, when I came to this world and revealed my Godlike presence to my first village of followers, I was stuck with a start in a Swamp province, and it took me FOREVER to break free.  When I finally made contact with the opponent player, I was woefully underprepared.  I'd spent all my resources trying to beef up my Hero and his army, so I had no static defenses.  He was my attack force and my mobile reserve--if he got beat in a first encounter with the enemy, I was canned.   Somehow, I barely staved off his first attack.

At the end of our first clash of major armies, I lost every single unit and was left with only my lone Hero emerged as the victor.  Heroes can be resurrected when slain, but it takes a couple turns and a lot of money--and with all that swampland around my castle and NONE of the strategic resources that one generally needs to get rolling quickly, I couldn't afford the loss.

He apparently could.  I had only one Hero worth the title, and he keep punishing me with THREE Heroes of his own!  My hero and a full army was more powerful than any army he could field, but just barely.  I spent the next 20 turns losing my entire army just to defeat one of his hero stacks with my Warrior hero--my guy was literally the last man standing on the battlefield for at least 10 different battles.  I couldn't get pwerful enough garrisons to hold anything I took, so all I could do was hold onto territory with my Hero and hope he didn't find a way to open a 2-front war on me.

FINALLY, after more back-and-forthing than I've ever experienced in the 30+ scenarios I've won in these games, I was able to get a few good Garrison contracts to seal my front lines and start chewing off his provinces.  I even got one or two of those precious starter resources from a captured province, and at that point, the war of attrition shifted into my favor.

Of the final six battles that I won, I think he killed 80% of my units each time, BUT I was always left with my Warrior Hero emerging victorious from the fray.  As he won each battle, he leveled up, and somewhere around Level 15 I finally managed to turn the corner. 

It was exhausting, but I've magically annexed the Shard, and with it I've gained knowledge of how to build a couple 2nd-level shops to gear up my Heroes, and a Theater to provide the much-needed happiness boost to all my provinces.  Who knew that theater troupes would be so critical to winning a Fantasy 4x game?

[airboy]

Congratulations!

Sounds like a fun, but brutal game.

[JasonPratt]

What is "New Horizons"? I only know of Genesis, Master of the Broken Lands (I have that one), and Imperium.

[MC]

What is "New Horizons"? I only know of Genesis, Master of the Broken Lands (I have that one), and Imperium.

I believe he is referring to Genesis with the New Horizons mod applied.

[FarAway Sooner]

Yeah.  Genesis was the original Eador game, upon which Mast of the Broken Worlds and it's follow-on, Imperium were both based.

Sadly, due to technical problems (which varied significantly by user, but were still rampant and ultimately never resolved for many) and some poor design decisions on the part of the developers, neither of those two follow-ons offered much new besides prettier graphics. 

The New Horizons mod introduced all sorts of additional functionality that was not in the original Genesis game: "Level 1.5" units that fit in L1 slots but are significantly up-powered from base level 1 units but much harder to come by; dozens of additional monsters (new races like Gnolls, Ratmen, and the lawful Alkari; new race build-outs so Orcs and Goblins now have all their own units (e.g., Goblins are as physically weak as ever but more likely to use poison and other devious approaches); retweaking of magic and the introduction of additional schools of magic and spells; various additional buildings, etc.  They also added a much richer variety of quests/events, which MotBW also did but was a major challenge for the original Genesis. 

If anybody wants info for finding New Horizions, give a shout, as I'm happy to share it.

[Sir Slash]

Congrats Sooner on the win. I'd almost totally forgotten about this game, I haven't heard much about it in quite awhile. Very good Sir.  :clap:

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I finally beat the Ithaqua scenario with the flawless bonus for Elder Sign: Omens.  I don't want to know how many tries it took but it has to be in the 100+ region.  I beat the scenario a handful of times in the past but was never able to get the flawless run which unlocks the final playable character until now. 

Fun game.  Easily the hardest win conditions I've successfully defeated in a game on any platform.  All to unlock a street urchin.

[MetalDog]

Very satisfying completing something like that.  Good job by you!  O0

[airboy]

I finally beat the Ithaqua scenario with the flawless bonus for Elder Sign: Omens.  I don't want to know how many tries it took but it has to be in the 100+ region.  I beat the scenario a handful of times in the past but was never able to get the flawless run which unlocks the final playable character until now. 

Fun game.  Easily the hardest win conditions I've successfully defeated in a game on any platform.  All to unlock a street urchin.

I hate you.  Now I know this game exists.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I have it on my phone.  Great little game for travelling.

[FarAway Sooner]

Nice, SDR! 

Helping homeless little street urchins should be its own reward. 

Even if, you know, you're helping them to defeat million-year old, god-like aliens!

[Skwerl]

SDR,

I'm amazed that you were able to beat this game.  I've played it since it first came out and it routinely beats me like a circus monkey.

I salute you!

[Sir Slash]

Yes. Good show SDR.  O0