During most of the invasion, I wrote a kind of journal so I could look back and see what went which way. Let me share a few things so you can see the invasion from my perspective, and then afterwards feel free to share your stories.
First, though:
The PlanFrom the very first day, this invasion had a plan. The plan was to have two attack vectors, the sons and the minions. The sons were spawn of Overlord and could be re-created at will, with a max of 3 active at the same time. Basically, you could kill them as much as you wanted, they'd always come back. They served no actual invasion purpose, were for roleplaying (because the minions were from day one decided to not interact with humans except by killing them). And of course to make everyone focus on the wrong thing.
The minions had their succession set up from the start:
- Nightfall of (direction)
- Midnight of (direction)
- Darkest Hour of (direction)
After this, there would be the option to win back parts of the Blight.
So much for the plan. Here's a few collected notes from the journal. I've xxx'ed out a few names and not used all the notes I wrote down, but most is here:
DecemberObservations on how the players deal with the challenges:
Much discussion about trusting the sons (basically the only Daimons talking to them, as Overlord essentially only ridicules them and the other leaders are entirely silent). But still easy to make them think the sons would be on their side. Hehehehe
Quick joining up end ending of wars, surprising. Some good cooperation. Distrust between some realms remains, but overall, very good.
Trouble of keeping track of basic facts that would be entirely possible. Location of the various Daimon leaders is often unknown or unsure, even though I take pains to make them obvious - wherever they go, they loot, preach or do something else that generates messages. I believe that, except for times spent in the Blight or the few rogue regions, the players could have a perfect timeline for who was where when if only they would share the available information.
They try through scouting, but simply getting the region lords (who get the looting messages) to sharing all such events would be more effective.
Religion spread very successful. Daimon Worship is now the largest religion on the island, though I cheated a bit with making it dominant within the Blight regions, but that is entirely ok in the game story and if I had spent the past 6 or so months manually spreading it there, I'm sure I would have at least as much spread.
Very little organised resistance, and so far nobody seems to even try estimating the spread of Daimon Worship. The sons are largely left alone, except in the north. I need to step it up and make them see the negative region effects of a hostile religion.
First humans are coming around and joining, but very, very slowly. May change if I get more dominance. The south is ripe for that.
Misinformation is spread and never cleared up. The wiki is horrible. It still says that Daimon Worship spreads without priests - yeah, it does. So does every other religion in the game. Or that 1st Son is an infiltrator, which he isn't (confusion caused intentionally by a player, who plays an infiltrator, looted the tax office while in the same region as 1st Son and that deed was pinned on the NPC...)
Scrolls: There are a *lot* of Banishment scrolls still left over from the last invasion, but they are mostly in the hands of a few individuals - who have not said a word so far. Apparently they are hoarding them (especially
xxxxx) for when their own realms come under attack.
JanuarySomeone has figured out what's really going on resp. the blighting, but is not being listened to.
FUD by the sons works like a charm.
The stones thing takes too long. I'm not sure if I can still turn it around properly, we'll see.
Interesting to note that again, someone had the right idea almost immediately regarding the CS of the new Daimon forces - and yet it remains ignored. There was a player present for the battle in Getheseme, so the information that the true CS is much lower could be available - but it isn't.
They are still moving the portal stones around. But it seems they're now in the hands of one person. I hope he uses them soon...
They are starting to notice the discrepancy between scout and battle reports and start to realize that the CS values are faked. Good. :-)
Ah, just now the same guy who already was on the right track before has noticed it again. I wonder if they'll listen to him this time. If only they would be a bit smarter - checking a map against his theory would explain to them in a second why Overlord is so focussed on Ulallo. And they could easily see where I'm going to hit next.
TO of Ulallo almost complete with no humans army even in sight. And nobody talking about it, either. I fear many in the north don't even realize it is going on. This is going to be a shock to them this evening.
Looks like a lot of the island is going to go down. I never thought I would manage that. Right now, my bets are on the south being entirely lost and the north doing well, maybe even reclaiming some blighted regions.
Some already are [frustrated]. They don't realize that Overlord is waging psychological warfare as well as conventional one. But I can't tell them without it losing its effect and becoming a mockery of itself.
FebruaryThey've finally figured out the Blight mechanics, and it seems to be common knowledge now.
Information flow between realms is still horrible. North is rampaging through the north and half the realms are unaware. Overlord has moved into Tindle and none but Fronen seem to be aware, even though I moved him the slow way, no teleport. Enweil, IVF and Riombara never even told the north that they had lost sight of him!
Oh yes, and
xxxxx auto-paused. There goes 80% of the Daimon Banishing scrolls that the player base owns.
xxxxx should be named a hero of the Netherworld.
AprilThey've finally managed to kill a Darkest Hour, finding their long-sought-after way to undo the Blight. But, apparently, they haven't yet realized. Someone wrote a message pointing it out, but not much of a reaction.
Funny.
Interesting. No offensive planning. Even though most should have realized that killing the minions is the key to undoing the blight, there is no plan to jointly attack one of them and destroy him. Instead the focus on Overlord, defending their cities, everything else but that which really makes a difference.
Ah! Finally, after Ossmat, some players are actually trying to mislead and trick Overlord. Took 'em long enough to get that idea. :-)
They know that killing off the Daimon leaders will save them, but they do absolutely nothing active to accomplish that goal. They are strictly on the defense, trying to save their cities, etc. What-would-Tom-do? Run suicide attacks against the Daimons and hope for a lucky hit, while gathering your armies to crush them in the field.
They managed to gather huge armies in Pomatim, because Overlord challenged them to a battle there. Why can't they gather those same armies to go and kick out the two Daimon leaders? Same in Riombara. They go defending their precious capital and while they do, Midnight of the South will simply blight all that is left of IVF and Enweil.
