New Content Discussion [SPOILER]

[Ahman]

Hello there! It has been a long time
Can you tell me which chapter starts ahead of the second books? I don't wanna play chapters that cover things that happened in the second books that I already played a long time ago.

 

[Zergy]

@Ahman, if you are refering to the True story of Arkain? The First Book Era of Arkain begins from Act 1 to Act 4. You can see the Act's titles from the chapter Titles. Starting from Act 5 and beyond that is were the 2nd books happen. Unless you want play the Classic Arkain bundle which you can see from Shar Dundred's profile Page: Resources.

Note: The Old Campaigns are not supported anymore.

 

[Ahman]

@Ahman, if you are refering to the True story of Arkain? The First Book Era of Arkain begins from Act 1 to Act 4. You can see the Act's titles from the chapter Titles. Starting from Act 5 and beyond that is were the 2nd books happen. Unless you want play the Classic Arkain bundle which you can see from Shar Dundred's profile Page: Resources.

Note: The Old Campaigns are not supported anymore.

Lol, I just checked the last available mission; act eight chapter 5. It's where Ronald Van Durce takes out lord Genethas. We're still yet to cover all the things that happened in the seconds books? Damn. I thought we'd be way far ahead of these events by now.

 

[Zergy]

More Chapters, both old and New ones (AKA True Story Exclusive), are still coming mate. Yet, the master of Arkian has been quiet for the past week. I guess he has other affrais to attend to before coming back to Arkain to continue his work.

 

[nchp1903]

Lol, I just checked the last available mission; act eight chapter 5. It's where Ronald Van Durce takes out lord Genethas. We're still yet to cover all the things that happened in the seconds books? Damn. I thought we'd be way far ahead of these events by now.

Technically, a lot of things changed, gameplay-wise and story-wise, so it's not fair to say that they are still the same events as in the Second Books. There are also a few no-build chapters between them to connect the story together and to give the players some R&R, so go play them.

 

[Ahman]

Technically, a lot of things changed, gameplay-wise and story-wise, so it's not fair to say that they are still the same events as in the Second Books. There are also a few no-build chapters between them to connect the story together and to give the players some R&R, so go play them.

Yeah, I saw some new characters here and there. By the way, what is the fate of Blen in the new story?

 

[nchp1903]

It's in The Dish Best Served Cold. I'll put a spoiler tag in case you change your mind and want to play it by yourself.

He was tortured by the Royal Army to near death and kept in captivity by the Golden Guard. Then either Zoia or Rath will finish him off, depending on player's choice.

 

[Zergy]

He was captured and tortured by the Golden Guard to near death, and then either Zoia or Rath will finish him off, depending on player's choice.

Really? I thought some Royal army soldiers tortured Blenn?

 

[nchp1903]

Really? I thought some Royal army soldiers tortured Blenn?

Ah shit. You're right. My memories failed me again. I edited the post.

And I just noticed that Inara's Spiders now benefit from armor upgrades. I don't know when this change was made, but I'm pretty happy about it.

 

[Navy45]

Just finished Gnoll island.

Couple of bugs :

• No envenomed projectile upgrade researchable for the gnoll assassins despite it being greyed out.
• The Bloodhound's attack speed upgrade is still in the barracks despite the unit having been moved to the totem.

Overall, very similar to the original but the different roster is quite usefull.

• I like the new abilities for gnoll casters. The wardens are still close to human priests but have a bestial feel to them. It makes them more unique. (though now their mystics are in competition with the warlocks as disabling casters rather than with the necrolytes as damage dealers. Well, more options is always good either way)
• I went with Amari's leadership and her followers are better than shieldbearers.

Overall, I struggled way less than in the SOB. I don't know if that's because of the changes or because I know the map. Still, the golden strategy is rushing the south base with starting units while rallying more, liberate the harpies for havoc and use the pillage money to repair the damages in our base afterwards. Then focus on the giant base in the north-east.

It's a bit of a shame that both leadership give us better options for melee than the gnoll units. Hopefully the next level will give us a gnoll king leadership to help with that ^^

...Still, of all levels, I must say I expected to find something hidden behind trees in this one

 

[LISBOAH]

My review of Act Eight, Chapter Six:
- "... put an end to your race..." You have been doing a good job so far. You burned their undefended home, you let the surviving warriors escape by zeppelin, a portion of your army got slaughtered by two clans (the Darkmind and Ironthunder Clans), and another portion also got slaughtered by the growing alliance.
-Considering that the Imperials are planning to leave Arkain to its fate of being slaugthered by the demons, the promises of a Gnoll Kingdom are 100% empty, even if the Gnolls had agreed to this.
-Nothing to add regarding the actual mission, since it's very similar to the one from the SOB. The hardest part is defeating the Redfist bases spread acros the island. After doing this and destroying the generators, all I have to do is release all the harpies at once and let them deal with the Redfists stationed in the center base.
-I hope that we get the chance to kill Zelech in this version. He likes to boast and all, but he flees once things go sour.

 

[Jongyi233]

My feeling about the overall roster of faction.
Dominion is the most diverse of them. Too much diverse I would say. They are already too many units to choose from even when they were just orc clans. Now several race have joined and their roster is overwhelmed and overloaded. Too many units to choose from even without counting murlocs and pigmen.
Undead followed the second place as they are also pretty diverse with several nexus and cool units. Addition of undead demons and dark elves also give undead pretty interesting rooster
Now Ironfist, as far as i see, is least diverse among them. If you are Ironfist fan, you have cool ironfist units, some dragons and elves to pick. But their rooster is a bit too limited compared to orc and undead.
Goldenguards, Redfist, Imperial Regiment, Kingdoms and Orders exist. But they are often the punching bags and you don't get to play most of these units in most chapters. And these factions don't become integrated into Ironfist (human). So if you are ironfist human fan, you are there for hard times. Most of human factions are punching bags and get slaughtered everytime in story. Goldenguards boys got killed in almost every chapter they involved so it became very predictable. And these diverse human units don't really become part of Ironfist empire so you never feel your favourite faction is growing like you do for dominion and undead. Most of the time, you are stuck with just ironfist units without diverse roster.
That is just my two cent, overall Ironfist (the protag faction of human) is the least diverse with very limited options.

 

[Plantpaladin]

Ok coming from a fresh playthrough. Another orc air mission!
Hard mission, the Redfist has tougher units generally. Attacked the first North East base and then the attack wave, lost some. Did some normal attacks before gradually transitioning to zepplins who is amazing in this mission. Keep your melee at home after losing enough to build 4-5 zepplins
Biggest threat is their pyromancers that will aoe down your zepplins if you are not careful.
Did rest of east base releasing harpies take the heat off your zepplins.
Cages->Casters->Archers->Castle->Peasants->Sanctums->Barracks->Other buildings.
Middle base hero has starfall and really high attack dmg, bait out starfall if alone without harpies.
Killed the castle,peasants and some units and towers.
Help out your base with zepplins if you need more gold, get up to 6 zeppelins and repair.
Do south base to stop their waves and get more harpies for final push, once hero teleport away you are basically done.

Anyone actually done this as a ground mission?
Why does enemy hero cast flamestrike on air?

 

[Apprentice Darkmoon]

Review of the new mission:

• The Redfist is surely the most hypocrite faction all over Arkain. They dare to attack the gnolls and demand them to side with them against the orcs and their allies? When their time comes, I'll enjoy it.
• I saw a path blocked by fire.
• The talk within Amari and the gnoll king is more deep and serious. Of course a good ruler won't send his people to war, but Amari and her speech about change convinced him, for now.
• And of course the pirates and mercenaries arrived. I wonder what Zora have to say to the orcs, Merlon is alive so what kind of dialogue will she have with the green-skins?

Gameplay:

• If you feel ready, you can launch a started attack to one of the Redfist bases with your initial troops so you can weaking their future attacks.
• If Amari or Grofzag took the Book of Zyainor in the previous mission, you'll have a tool of additional damage.
• Free the harpies inside the bases, so they can aid you in destroy it.
• Gnoll spellcasters are your best friends in this mission.
• I choose Amari's boni to have more damage at disposal.

Also, I saw the gnoll assasins don't have their poison upgrade, and you can't research it. Oh, and why are there grunts with Grofzag instead of the seariders of the Deathbreeze clan?
I'm looking foward for the next missions. Good job to all.

 

[LISBOAH]

The Redfist is surely the most hypocrite faction all over Arkain. They dare to attack the gnolls and demand them to side with them against the orcs and their allies? When their time comes, I'll enjoy it.

The greatest accomplisments they achieved were burning the orc islands, that were moslty undefended, and killing Rangul and Ephrog, who were all by themselves. These guys trained and planned for years for one purpose only, and they suck at it. They even had the support of the Imperial Regiments, the Salrians, the Dwarves, and Daric's mercenaries, and yet they suck so bad that they make the Golden Guard look competent.

I saw a path blocked by fire.

Well, these islands are implied to be bigger, and the Redfist probably were trying to isolate the orcs from gaining the support of the rest of the Gnolls.

And of course the pirates and mercenaries arrived. I wonder what Zora have to say to the orcs, Merlon is alive so what kind of dialogue will she have with the green-skins?

Knowing how some of the humans in Arkain are, they probably lied to her and told her that Merlon was killed.

 

[Apprentice Darkmoon]

Knowing how some of the humans in Arkain are, they probably lied to her and told her that Merlon was killed.

If this happens, it would be understood why Zora will not help the mercenaries later, and even why she didn't care about the fate of the lightning guardian and his forces after all the speech and talk.

 

[LISBOAH]

If this happens, it would be understood why Zora will not help the mercenaries later, and even why she didn't care about the fate of the lightning guardian and his forces after all the speech and talk.

True.
And she's a pirate, how can a fleet of pirates be useful in a war that's occuring in the mainland? The orcs and their allies have no supply lines that can be disrupted, and the harpies and dragons can easily deal with the ships.

 

[nchp1903]

I'm a bit late to the clear, so everyone's already reviewed the mission before I do. I'll just review everyone else instead.
Anyway, Zelech murdered a few gnolls, busted into their homes, captured Gran, and now he offered them an alliance? He could have just...convinced them in the first place? This guy is literally what will arrive at my door if I order Harmos and Birram on Walmart.
And I like how Amari corrected herself from "we" to "I" in the last cinematic. I understand that she don't want Rangul and Sas to share her achievements, but damn, how could she have left out Okri and Grofzag?

It's a bit of a shame that both leadership give us better options for melee than the gnoll units.

Ackshually, I've done the math. Assuming that +3 melee, Bloodhunt and Golem Power are already researched, and assuming our enemies are mostly Heavy-armored, which they actually are, we'll have those results:

• Against Hardened Skin: Bloodhound is the second best, losing out only 1 DPS against Crystal Golem with Grofzag's Boni, or third best if you count Fanatic 100% crit chance. With LV3 Command Aura, the gap is even closer, making their damage almost identical.
• Against 10 armor: Bloodhound beats everyone, even better than Fanatic on 100% crit chance. Same case with LV3 Command Aura.
• Against both Hardened Skin and 10 armor: The same case with Hardened Skin.

Basically, Bloodhounds with Bloodhunt are insane, scale better with damage bonus, cost less food than a Crystal Golem, high movement speed, can Pillage, and you don't need to waste a Boni on them.

And Brawlers are extremely bad. Their DPS only spikes up during Frenzy, but even then, Red Priests can just use Abolish Magic on them (the same reason why I don't include Bloodcry in my calculation). In a perfect world, they'll have Frenzy on all the time with Okri's Rage of the Exile, and then, they'll deal more damage than Grunts and occasionally Rippers.

As for the source, I used an Excel sheet with a ton of damage calculation formula I looked up on Liquipedia that you don't need to know because Math is boring Gardon told me in my dream.

Attacked the first NE base

Please forgive me, but at first I thought you meant Night Elf base.

Anyone actually done this as a ground mission?

Pretty easy with Bloodhound+Warden spam. Redfist expansion can be broken through with starter force. For the main base, lure out the guards. When they dwindle, sneak in and break a Harpy Cage while you destroy their production structures, to stall the remaining guys. Repeat that a few times, and boom, the base is gone.

For extra style point, save 7-9 cages until the end and unleash them on Zelech. He deserves that.

The greatest accomplisments they achieved were burning the orc islands, that were moslty undefended, and killing Rangul and Ephrog, who were all by themselves. These guys trained and planned for years for one purpose only, and they suck at it. They even had the support of the Imperial Regiments, the Salrians, the Dwarves, and Daric's mercenaries, and yet they suck so bad that they make the Golden Guard look competent.

The Redfist has insanely strong units, but they fail almost everytime they go against an actual enemies. I kinda pity them, honestly.

Same case with the Golden Guards, so I'll just borrow a comment from Jay's video to voice my thoughts. "Oh, so you're a fan of the Golden Guard? Name every Golden Guard captain."

That is just my two cent, overall Ironfist (the protag faction of human) is the least diverse with very limited options.

Gameplay-wise, yes, you're right, but story-wise, it fits Gardon's attitude of "Fuck you, I'll do everything by myself." Besides, he's not exactly the most trustworthy person for dissidents from other factions to join him, but they'll instead join Kerrel and Rengar or something. Maybe the rest of the Grey Guards are assimilated into the Ironfist? I'm not sure.

 

[LISBOAH]

Anyway, Zelech murdered a few gnolls, busted into their homes, captured Gran, and now he offered them an alliance? He could have just...convinced them in the first place?

He probably underestimated the Gnolls' intelligence... as usual.

The Redfist has insanely strong units, but they fail almost everytime they go against an actual enemies. I kinda pity them, honestly.

Maybe because they lack in the tactic and strategy department. These guys could have won had they bothered to not kill and burn everything they see. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Gameplay-wise, yes, you're right, but story-wise, it fits Gardon's attitude of "Fuck you, I'll do everything by myself." Besides, he's not exactly the most trustworthy person for dissidents from other factions to join him, but they'll instead join Kerrel and Rengar or something. Maybe the rest of the Grey Guards are assimilated into the Ironfist? I'm not sure.

Seeing that the Kingdom's soldiers were the ones that tortured and killed Blen, plus some of them sided with Genethas during the civil war...

 

[Plantpaladin]

Ok ty for answers.

Pretty easy with Bloodhound+Warden spam. Redfist expansion can be broken through with starter force. For the main base, lure out the guards. When they dwindle, sneak in and break a Harpy Cage while you destroy their production structures, to stall the remaining guys. Repeat that a few times, and boom, the base is gone.

For extra style point, save 7-9 cages until the end and unleash them on Zelech. He deserves that.

I guess you can just use normal army on final base since they dont seem to rebuild troops that much.
Its like the Undead attack on Salria, or Dead Forest. Easier with fliers but you can do without if you really like the pain or is better than me at micro.
Using the zepplins on golems brought back memories of wyvern hunting infernals from Blizzrds original orc campaign.

 

[Jongyi233]

The Redfist has insanely strong units, but they fail almost everytime they go against an actual enemies. I kinda pity them, honestly.

Same case with the Golden Guards, so I'll just borrow a comment from Jay's video to voice my thoughts. "Oh, so you're a fan of the Golden Guard? Name every Golden Guard captain."

Redfist and Golden Guard exist only to be punching bags of everyone. They exist only to highlight how cool Orcs, Ironfist and Undead are. They got some more depths to their characters in true story though. I just wish they are more than just killing fodders for protag. Redfist, Goldenguard achieving some success to their goals would make story a lot more interesting.
Demons also fell victim to that category. They are supposed to be harbingers of destruction but no. They feel like they are just there to be slaughtered by protags narratively.
Killing demons and/or golden guards/human every mission is kinda getting repetitive. Come on, give us some chapter to kill orcs for the change.
However, having depths to Van Durce (who was recently an arsehole) in true story, Redfist a little bit more than genocidal maniacs is a big W narratively. I am also curious how story of Inara will go.

 

[nchp1903]

Redfist, Goldenguard achieving some success to their goals would make story a lot more interesting.

I mean, they achieved a lot of stuffs, mostly the Golden Guards, but it all happened off-screen. Those fortresses and bases didn't build themselves.

Come on, give us some chapter to kill orcs for the change.

I feel like we're having that soon, with how the Gorthog and Inara plot is going.

Demons also fell victim to that category. They are supposed to be harbingers of destruction but no. They feel like they are just there to be slaughtered by protags narratively.

Story-wise, they stab their own asses too often. If the Souleater team up with the Blooddrinker, no politics involved, Aridon, Rangul, and Selior would have been sacked by the Demons all the way back in Act 4.

 

[Lazarator]

This chapter was challenging and fun. Since I'm a perfectionist, I had to destroy the enemy buildings first before releasing the harpies.
First of all, I have build about 10 more Peons (they're called Runt, but I said Peons so that you can understand me better) and I started tower spaming and building some tanky troops (Crystal Golems the most), I picked the (Grofzag's) Golem upgrade. I haven't built a single air unit throughout the entire chapter. What I did build is Golems, spell casters and Demolishers and that's it.
I started attacking by picking off the enemy troops south of my base (the middle-western part of the map). Then, I slowly made my way south until I destroyed that first enemy base, which was piece of cake in comparison to the huge eastern base (which is consisted of two enemy AI).
After destroying the south-western enemy base, I returned back to my base, I remained there until I restored my troops and rebuilt my defensive towers that got damaged / destroyed during the absence of my main strike force. Then, I started moving east. I made it to the generator, destroyed it, then I started laying siege on the first eastern base. My first two attacks were unsuccessful. I lost Amari during the first attack. Afterwards, when I launched my third attack, I was also making some extra units, mostly weaker ground troops, some Crystal Golems and Rock Golems, as well as some extra spell casters that have died (I gotta admit, that damage boost from Warden surely made my attacks efficient, so I trained about 5 of them). I used spell casters mostly to heal my troops and to stun the enemy tankers, which was very helpful.
During the attack, I've had some tough time breaking the Redfist defences, but eventually I won. While my tankers were taking the most punishment, I kept my Demolishers busy picking off the enemy Pyromancers (who were the most annoying spell casters of the whole game, in my opinion. Seriously, they kept stunning pretty much any unit of mine, which was irritating, but also challenging), while at the same time my weaker troops were defending Demolishers from behind, in combination with spell casters, who remained behind most of the time. The first eastern base was the hardest, the enemy was very strong, but as soon as I destroyed the Castle and killed the surrounding Peasants, I felt a slight relief knowing I've destroyed another base, which meant some easier time for me.
The last base was the easiest. Seriously, it was easier than the first base I attacked in the south-west. I didn't even use my usual force - I attacked with Brawlers instead of Crystal Golems and, with the aid of released harpies, I destroyed the last enemy base.
Now, speaking of the central base, the harpies did the most work. I think 5 cages being released at the same time is enough to defeat the defenders around the cage of King Gorehowl.
Overall, the chapter was very challenging, especially since there aren't orcish units that I used while playing SOB (mostly Necrolytes) and the restriction of gold resources. But it was fun to play. I enjoyed it and I'm waiting for another chapter to try out.

 

[Navy45]

Dominion is the most diverse of them. Too much diverse I would say. They are already too many units to choose from even when they were just orc clans. Now several race have joined and their roster is overwhelmed and overloaded. Too many units to choose from even without counting murlocs and pigmen.

I don't think the dominion's roster is a problem. Having a lot of options just makes it so that many combinations of troops are possible but you can also always rely on the same units and it should be mostly doable (like you could ignore all the bearmen and gnolls and still be fine). I remember a forum where people talked about the units they used primarely throughout the SOB and it's interesting to see that there were many different compositions and that, despite the huge roster, almost all units were used by someone.

 

[nchp1903]

I remember a forum where people talked about the units they used primarely throughout the SOB and it's interesting to see that there were many different compositions and that, despite the huge roster, almost all units were used by someone.

Makes me wonder if there's a unit that no one uses at all, not limited to the Dominion, simply because it's not strong enough or fun enough to use.

I'm thinking of the Fighters, Lieutenants, and the Ballistae, which fits this category, for me at least.

And also units that appear the least in the campaign can also be a fun topic to talk about. Like the Impalers and the Enslavers.

 

[Ahman]

It's in The Dish Best Served Cold. I'll put a spoiler tag in case you change your mind and want to play it by yourself.

I'm not sure if I'm gonna play these chapters. Every chapter is like facing the headquarters of that race and their strongest force, then after tryharding and killing thousands hohohoho turns out they were just a mediocre portion and minions of someone else. Next chapter, fighting 6 bases producing units 24/7, win it hohoho ho you just beat some peasants, prepare for 7 bases next chapter and on it goes.

 

[nchp1903]

It's fun for me.

I like Shar's approach of "Here. The mission is to destroy this thing. Figure out how to do it by yourself."

Imagine if Blizzard was to made A Dish Best Served Cold.

"The objective here is super unique. There are five Golden Guard castles we need to destroy, each castle is guarded by a progressively stronger force of enemy."

And if I were to say it like you do, I can badmouth just about anything.

"Oh, football. Watching a bunch a dude running around kicking a ball and boom, they win one match. Now they have to do the same ten more times to be the best."

"Oh MOBA games. Ten dudes running around, tryharding and killing each other until one side's main structure is gone, then queue up then do the same thing again."

Everything can be simplified and generalized in this way, from an outsider's perspective. But for Arkain specifically, when you play a map yourself, learning how the A.I work, slowly working towards the objective, and seeing how the enemy's impenetrable defense being withered down... Now that is satisfaction.

 

[Plantpaladin]

This chapter was challenging and fun. Since I'm a perfectionist, I had to destroy the enemy buildings first before releasing the harpies.
First of all, I have build about 10 more Peons (they're called Runt, but I said Peons so that you can understand me better) and I started tower spaming and building some tanky troops (Crystal Golems the most), I picked the (Grofzag's) Golem upgrade. I haven't built a single air unit throughout the entire chapter. What I did build is Golems, spell casters and Demolishers and that's it.

Overall, the chapter was very challenging, especially since there aren't orcish units that I used while playing SOB (mostly Necrolytes) and the restriction of gold resources. But it was fun to play. I enjoyed it and I'm waiting for another chapter to try out.

Impressive! A pure ground strategy that dont rely on sniping harpies! You certanly have better micro than I do.
Sounds like a Sc2 mastery achievement!

Amaris miss chance being lvl 2 instead of 3 and both versions nerfed really hurts as a ground force. I also put the new point in anti armor aura because it was always on.

 

[Lazarator]

Impressive! A pure ground strategy that dont rely on sniping harpies! You certanly have better micro than I do.
Sounds like a Sc2 mastery achievement!

Amaris miss chance being lvl 2 instead of 3 and both versions nerfed really hurts as a ground force. I also put the new point in anti armor aura because it was always on.

Thank you. To be completely honest, I am not much of a SC fan. Hell, I never even played SC
Speaking about micro, it's all about keeping the spell casters alive, which is relatively easy in this map, since the enemy doesn't have siege weapons at all. That gave me enough space to just move around with my casters, healing my tankers and stunning the enemy tankers. I also used Cyclone on the enemy Crusaders when they get close to my Demolishers (because the enemy units just love moving behind the frontline and attack my siege troops as soon as the AI registered my siege troops have been given the attack order) while my tankers were busy attacking the deeper infrastructural part of the enemy base. The only problem were the enemy guard towers, which can focus down my casters (but not every time, though), so they have to be picked off by Demolishers as soon as they get in range to attack (at least that's how I did).
Speaking of Amari's abilities, I can only say Amari and Grofzag are the best combination when it comes to the offensive strategy. When I attack the enemy, I let their frontliners get close as many of them as possible, then I use the mass chance on them and immediately shout with Grofzag. Those two debuffs are the best in combination with Amari's passive armor decrease aura. That's why I leave the Shadow Wave (Q ability) to the end. What I also did is attacking multiple enemy units with Amari that are close to her, because of Amari's orb effect that reduces the enemy unit armor by 5, which was huge.
All the time while the troops were fighting, my spell casters have been healing my troops and giving them the attack bonus (the attack bonus spell I didn't put on auto because the casters might put it on other casters, which would be a waste of mana, so I had to manually cast it on my frontliners), while at the same time they were stunning the enemy tankers. The Demolishers were sniping, first the annoying Pyromancers, then the buildings. Of course, my units were taking a lot of damage from Pyromancers' Rain of Fire, especially my casters, but that's where the healing ability comes at its best use.

 

[Zergy]

Sorry for the late review of this Council. I have been juggling things between the Warcraft 3 World editor and my life. But I did manage to play the new chapter on its initial release, but I just want to point out some major flaws to map first.

1.) No Gnoll Assasin poison bolt upgrade was found in any of the Buildings.


2.) The Bloodhound upgrade is at the Barracks??? Even though the unit can be found and was moved to the Totem???
3.) 2 Rune Braces items? Really Shar, Come on! Give us something more useful than some anti-Magic Bracelet... That only gives us 30% magic resistance.
Also, I would not forget how good the Gnolls are. But the full review will be released once the Master of Arkain meets the demands of fixing these issues that we, Zergy and Lenard, encountered.

Oh, and Lenard got something to say.

Lenard: The Gnolls... They are... They have the Wolf Regiment spirit. I love them already! Blood Hounds are Definitely going to A- TIER for us, Zergy!

Zergy: Lenard. Don't spoil our Ranking system yet! The book isn't finished! And yes... The Gnolls somehow embodied the Wolf Regiment but minus the Btich Zoia...

Lenard: Ah, yes. Apologize. Going back to analyzing then...

Anyways... Thumbs up to @Shardundred. Iz, not the Pigmen chapter and so we wait for another release again...

Lenard: Oh, did someone say Pig? Are you going to have some Lechon?!

Zergy: Lenard! Dili pa gani... Mo hulat pa ta sa next Release... Dumb Brute!

Lenard: Hmp... Gigutom na ko sa Lechon...

 

[Shar Dundred]

The bugs will be fixed, the item stays.

 

[VastanX]

The bugs will be fixed, the item stays.

ALL FATHER SHAR HAS SPOKEN!

PRAISE ARKAIN!

 

[HuanJuan]

I'm late for the party, but here I am, Dogs of War.

I prepared myself for the ultimate battle

• where with the Gnolls we had no gold mine, just only a Goblin shipyard to trade wood for gold
• in an island full with red pink skin fierce warriors, especially the Conquerors!
• Only had a portion of the island under our control, in the shores of gnoll island, feeling the waves of the ocean, the desperation to fight or die, a Last Stand...

Until I got the intel, that stated the harpys are caged, and waiting for us to free them. They are so useful against that old man pyromancer - cow*rd! He teleported himself, but where? I don't know! -, that basically they did the job done, without us.

Ladies and Gentleman, Glory for the Harpys of Gnoll Island! The Real Saviour of the Situation!

That was the case, until the pirates came, and we have another fight at our hands again...

 

[Ahman]

It's fun for me.

I like Shar's approach of "Here. The mission is to destroy this thing. Figure out how to do it by yourself."

I played 3 chapters in a row from the beginning of act 7, it was pretty good. I enjoyed them on easy difficulty, looked balanced a bit. Until I played chapter 3, that is. Not so great units, versus the headquarters of the Golden Guard. Felt like invading their final bastion of defence, headed by Van Durce himself. Pretty silly tbh. Had to cheat my way out of that crap, and cleared that base completely in seconds. I probably could do the chore after a few charges, given that I beat the other surrounding small bases of the side quest. On chapter 4 now with Merlon and his shenanigans.

Spoiler

Those guys are all dead, I'm pretty sure. Feels like we're still far away from what happened at the end of the second books, I think. Cuz I remember that I played all of these chapters before.

 

[Jayborino]

I am working real hard to avoid spoilers from this thread, but I am once again asking what happened to the Grey Guard. The faction never experienced an actual defeat and we see other regiments fighting without a general such as Dragon Regiment in Rock and a Hard Place.

 

[Karmondia]

I am working real hard to avoid spoilers from this thread, but I am once again asking what happened to the Grey Guard. The faction never experienced an actual defeat and we see other regiments fighting without a general such as Dragon Regiment in Rock and a Hard Place.

It's never outright stated, but I think most of the high ranking officers were imprisoned along with Blen for treason, and the ones who remained were so small in numbers, they merged with another human faction (probably not the Royal Army). As far as I know, canonically, 80% of the Grey Guard died in the Pearl of Lor, fighting against Genethas, but I might be wrong.

 

[Lazarator]

I am working real hard to avoid spoilers from this thread, but I am once again asking what happened to the Grey Guard. The faction never experienced an actual defeat and we see other regiments fighting without a general such as Dragon Regiment in Rock and a Hard Place.

You can see a small portion of Grey Guard troops in a chapter Horse and a Rider (I think that was the name of a chapter where you play as orcs alongside centaurs) and you can see them defending the first upper base, as well as a small base of Grey Guard that is stationed between the upper and a middle human base. They didn't have a hero, though, so we can assume the army of Grey Guard has been mostly imprisoned with their leader Greymore, while the other, small portion, has been put to defend this upper base of this centaur chapter. That's where I saw them.

 

[Mochi King]

You can see a small portion of Grey Guard troops in a chapter Horse and a Rider (I think that was the name of a chapter where you play as orcs alongside centaurs) and you can see them defending the first upper base, as well as a small base of Grey Guard that is stationed between the upper and a middle human base. They didn't have a hero, though, so we can assume the army of Grey Guard has been mostly imprisoned with their leader Greymoore, while the other, small portion, has been put to defend this upper base of this centaur chapter. That's where I saw them.

Not sure if that was the Grey Guard. I just thought of them as another portion of the Salrian Army.

I am working real hard to avoid spoilers from this thread, but I am once again asking what happened to the Grey Guard. The faction never experienced an actual defeat and we see other regiments fighting without a general such as Dragon Regiment in Rock and a Hard Place.

Didn't they merge with the Golden Guard? I was told this when I asked about it.

Review of the new mission:

• The Redfist is surely the most hypocrite faction all over Arkain. They dare to attack the gnolls and demand them to side with them against the orcs and their allies? When their time comes, I'll enjoy it.
• The talk within Amari and the gnoll king is more deep and serious. Of course a good ruler won't send his people to war, but Amari and her speech about change convinced him, for now.
• And of course the pirates and mercenaries arrived. I wonder what Zora have to say to the orcs, Merlon is alive so what kind of dialogue will she have with the green-skins?

-Yep, they really are. But I understand their pain and loss. Just sad that the only chance we get to play these characters is through the secret chapter.
-it's good that amari secured their allegiance. not with deceit like what vanessa did(for the greater good of course)
-hopefully, she meets her father before being interrupted to battle. just hoping good ol' merlon doesn't die on us (but he definitely will since its in the canon novel).

here's some things that i'm hoping (though they're just pipe dreams tbh)
-the black dragons, said to be the only one with a queen, will also have armor similar to the swamp dragons. if not, atleast empower them with shadow magic to give them more difference to the other dragons (sand, red, swamp)
-some of the blueprints of marin used for the ironfist. (since its a waste for that technology to just die after the fall of van durce)
-a human faction within the tribal dominion under vanessa. (kinda like slaves that the orcs spared for their interests like the ones that made the shieldbearers)
-real renegade undead against aridon (he deserves it tbh).
-more backstory on the demons and their politics. (also more story on maronogin and how he managed to make the souleater legion the powerful legion it was.
-a backstory on the holy grail. (if possible, the other emperors like senarion cuz his amulets are strong af(van durce and duke redfist have them)\

i have a lot of questions regarding lore n stuff, but regardless, i wanna respect the creators and their work. (mainly because it's interesting how the story goes)

 

[nchp1903]

i have a lot of questions regarding lore n stuff, but regardless, i wanna respect the creators and their work. (mainly because it's interesting how the story goes)

You'll have the chance to ask soon, since AQT is just around the corner, after the next chapter, which is the end of Act 8, I think.

And now I just remember that I forgot to jot down the questions I was supposed to ask, so now I don't know what question to submit anymore. Oops.

 

[Lazarator]

Not sure if that was the Grey Guard. I just thought of them as another portion of the Salrian Army.

Yeah, well they're not called "Grey Guard" anymore, since they've merged with the army of other kingdoms, in this case with salrian army. Plus, those troops have the same stats (and maybe even the color, I'm not sure) as the Grey Guard had, which made me think they are the ex-grey guard troops.

 

[Shar Dundred]

The Grey Guard was nowhere near the battles in Salria.

 

[Mochi King]

The Grey Guard was nowhere near the battles in Salria.

Master Shar has spoken. I honestly want to think that the remaining survivors are split in half. One with the Golden Guard (since van durce likely wants them to be redeemed and the other half with the Ironfist since the regiments' original purpose was to defeat demons, not orcs or other enemies. But the canon was that all were taken in by the Golden Guard.

 

[Plantpaladin]

My guesses
Major undead storyline right now is Bonelords. "Rebel" is on hold until atleast cannon and probably demon.
Bonelord vs Destroyer(or whole remaining team and one dies) Would establish the Bonelords as dangerous to the orcs. First guess.
Bonelords vs Beastlord? Tragic, was it possible for him to come back had they not intervened? Second guess
Bonelords vs Salrians? Already done, people who do the orcs bidding for them.

 

[Navy45]

I don't think we'll see anymore of the bonelords before they appear against the orcs since I don't see Gorthog being killed off so quick and there's only so much they can genocide before they reach the orcs (and since it's kind of a sneak attack, I don't think they'll engage some orcs prematurely)

My guess would be it's a fight with the souleater legion involving Ornasion or something else completely involving Haran tel Kazor since it's been a while since we've seen him. I wonder if it'll have a link with the plague in Rengar mentionned in the short stories (I don't think we know exactly when it started).

 

[nchp1903]

Recently there are scenes from Tales being incorporated into cinematic. I wonder if the same thing will happen in the next chapter, but if incorporated into gameplay instead, that will be cool.

If it's a no-build mission like other exclusive missions, I'm rooting for Kazardius action, or Galareth or Rahandir. Those guys are good damage dealer with some form of crowd control, and can be quite fun to play as.

 

[DD Mikasa]

Kinda late on this one (like ive been on the other updates) but i am kinda bummed the first gnoll island mission wasn't touched one bit from the original state, its the same old tug of war of the redfists attacking you endlessly and you turtling up untill the point you have enough space to destroy the redfist bases by simply attacking the harpy cages that overrun the red fist bases. IF anyone tried it, are the new units the ones that come with Amari's upgrade worth it? I kinda went with a gnoll cavalery and healing priests spam and managed after a hour and a half to out do the red fists.

 

[nchp1903]

Kinda late on this one (like ive been on the other updates) but i am kinda bummed the first gnoll island mission wasn't touched one bit from the original state, its the same old tug of war of the redfists attacking you endlessly and you turtling up untill the point you have enough space to destroy the redfist bases by simply attacking the harpy cages that overrun the red fist bases. IF anyone tried it, are the new units the ones that come with Amari's upgrade worth it? I kinda went with a gnoll cavalery and healing priests spam and managed after a hour and a half to out do the red fists.

I did the math, and while Rippers are good, when you put them against fully upgraded Crystal Golems/Bloodhounds, they're not so good anymore. As for ranged options, haven't done the math yet, but Converters should be fine since Assassins don't have Envenomed Spears, and War Mechs don't have the health regeneration from Grella, so good luck reparing them manually.

War Zeppelins are of course good, but they're just Destructor clone so I always try to consider other options.

 

[HuanJuan]

War Mechs don't have the health regeneration from Grella, so good luck reparing them manually.

Nothing is so nice and simple, than bringing minimum of 50 peons with you, when you assault against Conquerors.
The best picture I imagined! Thank you!

By the way, I'm kinda not interested with the New Order units. It's just somehow "Meh" to me. I mean, they are good on their terms, but somehow I don't see any fantasy in them.

 

[Jayborino]

Well, I'm all caught up minus Dogs of War and it sounds like the story in that one is not changed in major ways. I have recordings for the Act 8 missions, but won't release them until later when I'm ready for the entire act. Now I can finally read/interact on the New Content forum, oo la la! Here are my retroactive thoughts on the maps.

The Southern Realm - Surprisingly difficult to keep production up until you can take a base in the mid-lower map since attack waves + Redfist spawns will pick off your reinforcing units. Bull Regiment base has no hero (makes sense now in retrospect) so it's easy pickings. Build new production there to avoid supply lines being busted up. Probably best to manipulate when the Golden Guard activates using some game-y tactics. Good map, 10/10 Destroyer scenes.

Long Live the Queen - My old favorite, it's hard to recapture the magic of the map events, but this one is still very good. Solid gameplay though maybe a bit too dependent on RNG with the mutiny timings. The state of your new allies can vary wildly from 'can cling to life until you get up there' to 'instantly suiciding their units followed by base destruction'. Renegade Red Guard seems to mostly shut down even if you save their core base, which used to happen in SHB also, not sure if this is intentional or maybe they are just expected to always die anyways. I went through stages of grief with the Lera/Mina swap and now am finally over it. Lera is an artifact of the books era where she as a character really represented player narrative choice, which is probably why I clung to her so much. At this point she probably could be completely replaced with Mina Trueshot from the start, with Mina being the extra hero in Betrayal if you don't destroy her base. Salana now joins the boundless ranks of people wanting revenge.

Horse and Rider - Quite difficult if you fall out of offensive momentum timings. Top or middle bases to start are obvious but middle is way more preferable since Flammedus can defend against top lane attack waves. Purple's attacks are a wild card on where they end up going. I actually quite like this setup where it's mostly built waves with some spawns versus mostly spawns like in Betrayal and Pride of the Empire. The enemy is more unpredictable, which is a lot harder. You can trigger the Murloc event by getting too close to the Redfist base with a scout, which I did and regretted since it was a big waste. Not sure if some failsafe could be put in to increase the requirement to trigger it rather than a basic location breach with even a single unit. Without the Murlocs, the Redfist base is possible but incredibly difficult to break due to their # of production structures. Gold mine in the trees is maybe a bit too deep in and feels a little silly. This map can go two ways: if you're in the jet stream, you'll coast right through to victory. If you aren't in that specific path to victory, you'll get dragged out to sea by a rough current and drown. In other words: attack timings and which bases to destroy in what order feels a little too narrow.

Rise of the Guardian - Faction and Character info in the Quests tabs are incorrectly flipped. Map is the same as the original from a gameplay perspective I think, but a much better fleshing out of Harmos and Vail. Vail existed earlier in the story, but probably could stand some earlier screen presence given her importance. Interesting Kenos dialogue too; he seems surprisingly chill that Imperials are being betrayed across the continent and is like 'oh well, I guess I'm supposed to go after the Orcs so I'll keep doing that' lmao. I would expect the Regiments to be circling the wagons at this point and falling back in with van Durce.

The Legion - Felt great to play after Maporino, I'm not sure if it's because I had full map knowledge this time, Shar has made updates, or both. The extra gold mine to the right is a massive boon and now I'm not sure if it's even necessary since the attack waves stacking on each other has been fixed. Vanessa being captured again is interesting, but also, where are my Shieldbearers?? I liked the idea in SOB how the # of Orc frontliners have actually been reduced substantially over the course of the story, so we gotta start putting them in some heavy armor.

Army of Bones - Purposefully easy to properly introduce the Bonelords. When recording this, I compare this to a late season of a tv show where the antagonist finally unleashes their strongest henchman. Henchman shows up and has an episode that makes it clear they are ruthless and stronger than what came before. Many times, Henchman is a double-edged sword, oops. I even considered NOT doing the optional objective though I doubt it's actually a saved choice. Not sure if Bonelords know or care that weakening the Salrian royal family is actually helping the Orcs.

The Great Hunt - Probably the most story progression and lore revelations of any map for quite awhile. Multiple bait-and-switches! One clan chieftan is killed then is brought back, only for another clan chieftan to unexpectedly be killed. Iron Thunder is still a based clan that will add a lot to Amari's alliance once they fall back in with the others. I am very happy to see some Tregakh factions being set up. Amari will probably be way more open to Gorthog's splinter group than Rangul would have been. I'd imagine Zairmak knows a lot more about all of this, but has never been prompted to explain any of it. Seems like Pigmen are fully out of the picture given the abandoned/burning tents around the map.

Lords of the Golden Guard - I am not mad at the # of new characters introduced. Overall this is an excellent setup for the upcoming fortress battle climax. All factions are much more fleshed out for how they end up where they are, their motivations, and who is aligned with who than in the SHB and SOB.

Upcoming underground map scares me, but it sounds like it'll be awhile for Act 9. Let's review all the revenge subplots!

Tregakh > Aridon, Brian
Volarian > Rangul, all Orcs
Inara > All Humans?
Dorbric > Gorthog
Gorthog > Dorbric, Inara, Tregakh
Okri > The Destroyer
Salana > Ferdal, Gardon
Gardon > van Durce
Dorten > All Imperials
Kenos > Zairmak
Saphira > Renova
Zarin > Rangul, all Orcs
Ornasion > Kersidar
Aedale > Volarian
Rath > Blen
Lisara > Ebira

We can rename the series Revenge of Arkain.

 

[Plantpaladin]

I don't think we'll see anymore of the bonelords before they appear against the orcs since I don't see Gorthog being killed off so quick and there's only so much they can genocide before they reach the orcs (and since it's kind of a sneak attack, I don't think they'll engage some orcs prematurely)

My guess would be it's a fight with the souleater legion involving Ornasion or something else completely involving Haran tel Kazor since it's been a while since we've seen him. I wonder if it'll have a link with the plague in Rengar mentionned in the short stories (I don't think we know exactly when it started).

Undead vs Demon like Dead Forest sure. Dark elves vs Demon would be something new.
If we cant progress bonelord storyline then what is the characters not linked to the "rebels" doing in the meantime?