Okay back the next day and Looking around at what we're gonna do. We're always gonna hit the end turn button. I feel like with the We can play We're gonna end up kind of long and money and low in creatures. I'm already I'm sitting here on 90 grand so I think I'd like to invest and The more I think about it here the more I feel like here's in the factory where we should actually do that So we can upgrade the serpentarium Clancy can plant a town portal back here And get the advanced totals or the crimson totals It is 20 crystal is the only problem. I also want the gantry and that is 20 crystal So we can decide on those two towards the end of the week, but I definitely think we should get the watchtower But the gunslingers up on the crest look at that there they are Yeah, so they're watching over the entrance to the castle ready to snipe at anyone look at them here gunslingers these guys So high attack, okay defense plenty of shots huge damage 45 health tier six, but in addition to that you can't shoot them without them shooting you first preemptive shot Very cool upgrade Reasonable cost the bounty hunters then have unlimited preemptive shots And look at that cool artwork that's gonna be added once we do the extra parapet so I think that's all feeling pretty cool and Pretty much the end of the week. I'm not sure what we're doing with this woman Let's leave it there for now. We're not sending anyone else out into the world We could release jury out of here. That might be worthwhile. It's a pretty small investment Wolf Raiders Just feels like something worthwhile. Yeah, I feel like her movement will be far far better as well if she's commandeering these soldiers instead of the Dark worlds, so that's good. Yeah, we can always talk her back in again if we have to next day I don't need to invest anywhere else yet. What else have I not done that I have to do the wings Can maybe start investing in this although the crystal is gonna become a Constraint, there's also a mage tower which never got built worth bothering to start saving mages as well I've crystal again Let's just do this Low regret constructions. What does a guild do again trade creatures for resources? That's interesting I really need the tunnel Okay Happy there red is upstairs hiding from me. Oh Oh, that's interesting.  That's the what was that girl's name who died here? Winona she reveals just this because they met at the top of the gate In addition fire is on her way south To kill to make her so she is the tan hero that still remains and What do we want to do to make her? Probably just run away. I don't think it's worth running up here throwing to make her away Let's draw fire out of position resources are resources after all Edwards the harpies maybe she might still get caught there Jury Judy I gotta go all the way around there. Look how much more move she has it's walk in the park They could be crystal up here What else could there be crystal crystal crystal that down here the tan mine that was never I just spotted that I should have spotted that before but I think we just make a beeline for that in fact jury if you Grab a few more soldiers and we can just get past these ocean ins and other things as well That is worthwhile I have the money. Let's do this not faster these speed five Speed is an issue Speed five boys. I'll let you go speed seven. Should I take the gobbers? Ocean ins Let's take them to die instead of the bullfraiders By our spell book as well She hasn't Yeah, we want to get you down here this doubles maximum spell points. Let's just make for that Pain what were you doing educating yourself? Sure on a beach or not Okay, we know that red is upstairs his core back standing there. He is right So core back is standing here This could be a very very powerful scalp. We pull this off Let's come to here with plan to do that That's for the stuff that's going on up here This guy's easy his we decided his mission was just to get educated and get the hate hate shout of here So let's just do that gallops through the snow boom enlighten me And then just leave. I don't need you to speak to anybody There's no scholar or any other kind of stuff. Is there any handover of artifacts though that should happen? Yes, Solmia has a bunch of Good stuff to give you so you can either do that now or I can wait until after Sam has unlocked some more stuff There's crystal there. So that's Yeah, look at all this amazing gear So I mean good book prepared for that tomorrow Okay, lots of dread nights won't have morale. So Just attack that fight as as it comes 46 of them quite well spread out though Okay, and I didn't split my 17 stack into the small stacks. That's mistake. Okay, there's no morale risk with these guys So really really I'm just waiting with everyone. I want to waste the Naga's turn I'm hoping it's just like one stack kills one stack and then yeah, we just get to act first Let's see. Does this is this a kill? It's only six to nine that I actually end up killing. It's a little uncomfortable This one definitely messed up by not having these guys Ready to go. I think can I bless everybody and then haste the Naga's?  Let me just make that change because we do want those extra stash right crystal is great You don't need that artifact Am I doing this for the XP? Put them back in again I think I will And I'll give the angel to Clancy and you can just leave it somewhere. Oh, there's crystal in here, too.   How does it even act? So who's left after I've done all this? Gargoyles fly away up here. What could I do to this guy to be mean to him? I don't want to waste any spell points weakness. Maybe Blind is a complete solution. I think it's big stuff Magic arrow kills a couple Really sure here. I mean What should we do? Blind make sure of it. Well, let's have a look so eight by 160 but modified back down to practically nothing I've got 35 defense I probably will lose the three gargoyles. I think that I'm happy to lose the three gargoyles. I am to spend spell points Well, she's nearly topping out. There's all the resources Yes, I'm level 22.  That's it Sam is finished. He's finished learning stuff and Yeah I'm here Let's do this one angel.  I'm never gonna give that angel to Thane like I'm never he's never getting it. She's just dismiss it So on the basis that the angel will ruin my moves on the turn after So me I can get back to about here. You should still get there just about this doesn't feel amazing going so far out of my way On the other hand Okay, so it's actually quite an important meeting here in the snow So me is carrying a lot of our income Upside he's bringing back to the rest of the faction Okay Some of which you'll be able to give to Clancy before he he goes Okay. Yeah, the idea is that these guys are going their separate ways up here So I can gallop off in that direction now So I think my reading of that is that this is how far I would get Like I'm gonna get to there. That's fine then All right, I'm still here. I did this. I want this because of the crystal Crystals are real premium now. Isra We thought about coming up here to challenge core back, but we're not going to actually think Isra is the person I want to fight core back. I Do I do think that's right? I think I want this fault of ashes Because my current income of these is already three I get to go up to four Which almost feels like vanilla level Power except I am paying 50% more for every Firebird and every Phoenix. That's okay. Where was that? Well, is that he that's it here you see that new graphic looks like it was always part of the game Been part of the game since 1999. No, no hasn't Just invented for Horn of the Abyss. It's beautifully Isra stay where you are There are no errands to run That you can do and then come back quickly Not necessary. Okay, so you stay put Serena Like the having a hero here. I really like having a hero here where thinly stretched as it is okay, one last look at the Factory Just to check what money we might want to spend do we want to drop the 20k to get that started 20 crystal to get that started Well, don't really need to decide yet. I can't upgrade them both on day one though to be fair. I think Just to Control things. I am gonna do this upgrade Here's 20 crystal that I know I'm gonna want to spend with Clancy So let's do it Up on the hill The glass house is added on top of the Serpentarium And we now have these incredible Crimson coattails look at that Okay, so it's a flying Hydra health 200 it's weaker than a Hydra tag-and-defense is similar Speed 15 is nice and you do get this cool invulnerability without skipping a turn Which I'm hoping will be really fun. So looking forward to to that Okay, ending the turn confidently happily Come on back. What are you gonna do stand there stand there indecisively? I might be losing my girl. Yes. I am Let's have a quick look at pyre 13-7-8-2. Yeah, she's still a junkie junkies that a hero like after tan after we took the stronghold tan basically Do I even get to live I do And one I spoke to the head of the happy hags And I'll make my merry way Yeah, ragtag army. I mean it looks a bit scary, but it actually isn't So to make her still alive for us to rehire Nancy's ready to do that. So soul me it finish that errand Come to come as far as you can so that we don't disrupt Clancy Clancy meets with soul mirror in the snow Greetings friend Greetings I bring you take the angel Happy with this he can spend the rest of the game with this on his finger. Yes happy Clancy uses the town portal and where we're going. We're heading to New Delaire If we're probably gonna drop the angel off. Let me check. What am I gonna do with him after I get here? Now he's gonna take the angel as well Clancy takes the stronghold stuff back to the stronghold then uses the sea captain's hat To jump in a boat over here So that's my idea now, which means I have to speak to you again, so we leave Take these guys. I don't want them anymore. I'm gonna be Mr. Stronghold Okay, and I'm not gonna see any I'm not gonna see anyone Okay, and this so I am going to So with this loadout, I'm gonna be Mr. Stronghold. I think that's better, and I don't I'm no I'm done with the coals We had it's been a great time. Thank you for traveling with me You know he That's the main of the head codle mournfully as he says goodbye to Solmere It's his destiny now. Solmere goes back to New Delaire Clancy Goes to the stronghold to Old Delaire Here I am and I'm ready to go down and do this now actually if I don't want to wait for day one But I kind of do want to wait for day one Could have sold the angels here actually in the freelancers guild that could have been interesting I could do these jobs while we're waiting Don't learn first aid. I don't think so. No crystal is the thing we actually want and Money sells some gems. It needs me to be careful on gems as well okay Dury continue with your mission. I don't think I want How many thumb birds am I getting tomorrow? Another nine actually would be pretty nice Remember we'll plan for jury to rerun debut again with him Before the start of the boy he sets off Then what are you up to man? Do this learn to defend yourself And an arbitrary which one's I'm picking. I think I do want to stick my head up here Foreback is still there blocking Which I have to say is impressive. Oh They're not connected. Okay, cool another library as a red. Okay, but red does control the region It's been interesting to see here. Can I get to the library before I get tagged? This might have been a bit reckless. Do I need to think about the tactics? Maybe go tight formation here This could be an interesting fight this one. Hey, she's staying put Isra stays put Somiya cannot enter the gate Sam continues her journey Throne of fire elementals No morale Same again, but we'll do the split. Yes and no And we've taken our position on the crest of the hill here perfect vantage point for Murder haste what we want right off the bat. That's great wait No morale risk here precision.  Sometimes I scare myself It's value from long range expert ballistics kills five of them. That's great. It's really really good. Oh 5000 experience Crystal is precious. Do we open the box in this configuration? I guess so Yeah, what are we gonna do here? They're just gonna slow me down. I can't use them on any hero anywhere. I Just say no, thanks Just say no, thanks. There's they've got no hope right Not even gonna art 24 gems fantastic Worth a quick look Really going out of my way now. Am I happy to just miss what's ever down here? We know if there's no subterranean We've been a bit of a hurry if I'm honest how much out of my way is that for the CS up a bit decadent Well, it is Sam, you know, she is a bit full of herself. I think I was here. I Think with investments, I think we can still wait. The only real question is gantry I don't think I want to spend crystal on my mage guilds Unless I could maybe chance my arm at dimension door She is a scholar as well I try for that And then I could go library Okay, I think I want to do that see if I could unlock by the fly or dimension door and then I get a second shot at it That's good use of the crystal and then I can still get the gantry Let's do that. I feel like it's more likely to appear here in the tower Oh, there she is the fifth story of the guild. Let's have a look magic mirror Talk about a whiff, okay the whiff punish End it there Lost to me. Do I need to bring her back? Do I want to bring her back instead of bringing to make her back? I think I'd like to do this. No, wait, give me desert troops. I've learned this the hard way give me one Give me two movement six leave the slow stuff here and Then you can visit the Derek's go visit Derek Jones because you haven't said hi to him in a long time Still with the legs. I Think that's better with Tamika. Who cares? Do we just let her die? What did she have? Let's just quickly check what she had Nothing level two But that's it level two bit she'd visited a lot of Somehow she has five attack. I don't know how she has five attack She must have visited some coliseum that's something. Okay Leave it there Red is in the water and that's really good. That's actually Good for us because it means we might be able to get a really powerful hero out there and have a cool naval battle Now we get a good look at what Tans really wanting to do quite Fixed Tans wagon we let them live Are we gonna live to regret that? Where is ten? Who are you? No, see it's still still so strength strung out Measly sort of army Whoever I sent through here will destroy her she couldn't even get past the iron golems in the tower But are there now? Glancy That's where he is now. He's at the trading post plants my man He's waiting for day one I do I do I'd like to be here and Someone brings me all the fresh troops Let's just go for the mine and let's leave Let's leave an annoyingly Large enough army here for someone to have to deal with In fact, let's leave them all here because it's quite important resource Probably won't be taken off us now. I can get to here day seven on day one I can get to bit of a waste of some of his time, but Can't see a more elegant way to do it. This is all fine Nothing to build here or buy And I might just ride forth with I'll leave these troops behind as defenders Ride forth to everybody else Now Sam, do you want to finish doing this because we were having quite a lot of fun watching you do your thing a horde of manticores? Yeah, I think for this fight. Let's reconvene Because it's possible. There will be some nasty sized stacks for us to deal with here Yes, that's tenable. I doubt we're gonna do better. Let's try. Oh, it's one stack Okay precision helps prayer helps Unfortunately, it's he's too fast now to be buffed by the others. How many do I kill? 24 to 37 I hedge against morale on these Let's see Did get the haste Okay, I won't hedge. That's not gonna matter.  And plus these guys.  I'm messed up here. I'm gonna lose some of these genies Slight mishap. How much magic magic resistance they have? No, they have damage resistance Okay, now I can defend him.  Oh I love the death animation there. That's just great Two giants just okay And ensnared unicorn whinnies in fright murmuring soothing words. You set her free snorting and stabbing her front hoof once she gallops off and leaves the boasting of the unicorn this combos with the other thing plants he has here and There's some other thing as well into a combo artifact Not gonna play towards that. I don't think all I might look up what it does Plan a go through the portal go and destroy 10. I think that worked to our advantage So me your plan was to ride to New Dalar where? I'll bring them over here so you guys can see we can upgrade Crimson coattails look at that seven of them serious serious Now before I ride off. I think the question is how do I get this stuff to think? Because then is the factory? hero So he's currently up here. So case in point. Let's continue his Development the red hero that was here ran away. I learned even more stuff the attack skill actually I'll try and buy a cannon Let's buy one an experiment Grand does attack siege walls. I'm gonna buy one Something tells me I need to be an artillery though to really get Everflowing crystal Seems nice. Do I have any logistics at all? Do you have expert logistics? Kind of want to do these things. So there's obviously an inferno in the area around here Maybe somewhere to get to you though Closest ways through here So he can get there by galloping south And then I after I visited Derrick Jones Jones. He's like Hey, I got where have you been? I have a thousand gold go on get out of here Our guy's still never been permitted to enter the school of war himself. He's a mentor and a teacher only But I can get back in here with the legs and then I'll Gallop South give soul near the next week's worth of troops Which all seems very good. I'll have to let the gunslingers build up a bit before we Try them out. I think Not this week. I'm gonna say no to the gantry this week. I'm gonna say yes to the halfling grenadiers So we'll buy them up next week and take them south Anything else we want to do I don't think so He's a whole day early, but I can't really afford to walk off the pattern with the gargoyles and the angel I have to stay on the road with these with the angel So I'll just get into position now. It's a bit wasteful And you're a day early as well be a day early guys. We'll just waste the day. It's okay. It's not ideal It's all right Right, you'll be there in time. You've got the legs your Also going to waste Your time do I have time to do this day six day seven Day one Yeah, I actually think he does have time for that he does Double your spell points man Isra is still in a standoff against callback happy enough to leave her where she is No other investments are necessary At this time unless we want to maybe upgrade this I think I'll do that Two grand's not too bad. All right energy elementals online and we're gonna do the library see if we could get a fantastic Air spell at tier five. Let's cross our fingers Yes Yes dimension door online unlocked now Dimension door cannot be taught You have to see it for yourself like the matrix Who in our empire can learn it? Sam can learn it She was gonna go to the tower anyway Isra can learn it. Yes he can plans he cannot learn it and Bane can so three of our big four can learn the dimension door, but they have to get to the tower It cannot be taught So we have to think about how we're gonna do that That's very nice very very happy upside of Having invested 15 crystal to basically get there that is fantastic. Thane is an air mage as well So he's gonna cast it really effectively How do I get him back there? I'm wondering should I get him back to the tower to learn that? She's not gonna get anything done, right? She's just gonna die to whoever she runs into All right, let's leave it there. Yeah callback leaves tan consolidates There's a hero running around messing with our area there where the sulfur is Cassiopeia does come closer to the portal Orange hits the border of the there's a boat out here with orange. Do I need to be worried about? Sorry, it's up here Cassiopeia is interested and in addition to that Yeah, you Nagash the joke the walking joke has mummies. I do not fear Nagash at this stage Right, jury. Oh, you can just give him this now. Yeah, just do that. I believe these ones I'm done Okay, so what I'm thinking what if he goes there now? It's day seven now. I'll put him here day seven Tomorrow I go in by the staff run to here. I'll be too exhausted to help you There's not much point. Yeah, like I may as well go come around here. That's something useful. I can do I can also just reveal this area Coastline, okay. Yep So it's just the insane power-finding of logistics. I'm just leveraging here even though like it looks so far To get him 200 spell points before he sets off is just awesome Uh, right day seven you're in position you're in position Further in fact you can do this for me. That's useful. Oh Crystal just happens to be the exact thing I wanted Sam Your big move now is to come to the tower. Let's just do Thane first though This is too good. I have to do it a throng of no man. Let's see how these troops fight tooth Okay, I started coughing there when I saw how many 239.  Movement seven. They're kind of like a Pegasus. Oh, and she's However, I know a very special spell All chain lightning. I can only kill 10 per stack with that though. We're doing this kills 19. Let's go Crack oh One two three four and arched over and hit these which is a perfect set for it to hit Okay, it kind of hurt but he's we've got some work to do. Let's wait on wait on Wait you guys hit the defend button Did stuff there be good You're the only stack that's taking damage I think we can just hit the defend button be happy on movement seven same as you Okay, so should I to stay out of the way should I come down here and hit this stack? And then we've got arc lightning next turn which hits them first Seems good to me Yeah, let's do that. Lovely first striking damage Angel has a great time as well. The only problem is turn one My angel needs to get out of the way And then I go arc arc arc And it's 50 50 as to who that's gonna hit but yeah, so we could do that and then fly away again Okay, let's do that the sound of his sword as it swings the whistling sound of death Angels are just like the most terrifying unit There's only three of them. But like how good was that already? We do the chain lighting first, right? Oh, man, that's good This kills so many models. So we did do this here and then these guys both get to pile in on it but then I repair right Offer up the automatons and say look do your worst Could be wrong Just on the basis that the Well, I mean that's just hilarious Wait, yeah, that's excellent. That's that's what we wanted to see Okay, so yeah, it's 18 and I do blast my own armadillos. That's a second time in the campaign I have made that particular mistake Didn't need to hit the defend button with the armadillos in that location Um What the heck just happened there? Oh, nothing. It was just uh, some weird animation going on. Um, heal you or heal you I don't Think that is too much Is this an attack I want to do? I will take casualties So I don't think I'm doing that Yeah, I think I do actually have to do this attack. I don't really like it much, but Two died and against the 39 I think I can make this attack and not lose an angel in response. I think I've worked that out, right? So strong That is insane. They are so strong Um happy with this attacks the cannon She kills these You just hit the defend button. Oh the cannon did blow up something earlier. Yes. Okay, right didn't repair Pain is new at this Taking shelter from a storm in a small cave. You notice a small patch of crystal in one corner Here is you discover that the patch is really a cloak and when you break a piece of it off It mysteriously grows back and you take the cloak with you Well, good on you man They were they were unfortunate losses let's say So six automatons more than we were supposed to lose there It's a proper haircut to that stack which really Is quite calling Do we need to come further this way? I don't think so Should we centralize? Yes, we want to rendezvous pick up the insane army. Yeah, let's centralize now I'm gonna chase after whatever red hero that was he's obviously a weaker hero than me You're standing in the way Sam you're ready to return Do it now To cloud fire Sam who started life As an iron worker Still wears her welding mask in combat Strides into cloud fire And into the mage guild At the very top after spending all day ascending the stairs to the very tips of the ultimate Tower in the most magical Town in the history of the game She comes upon the library and walks in There she learns And if we go into her spell book There it is Now she isn't an airbage and she doesn't have a lot of spell points So it might be a good idea to spend the night here It is day seven I think that's gonna be pretty good for us Just stack your stuff up again. Let's change those giants into titans And I think Serena Give me the golems And I can grab you one more giant tomorrow You spend the night here Sam and Get up to 110 spell points. We're not going to be able to spam dimension door, right? Whereas Thane is probably going to be a bit better. Isra is going to be the best one It's really whoever has that cool helmet that Solmia's carrying is going to be the Person who gets to leverage it the best You guys are in position. You're in position. Isra has nothing to do In the conflicts We don't need to do anything In the We're done there. We're done there. We're done everywhere. I'm not building the gantry this week. It's a conscious decision I don't need to upgrade the watchtower until I'm ready to buy the guys Nothing here probably do these cool halfling grenadiers you're gonna do that day one Bring it on Thane don't die Let's call back himself and I am exhausted. So is he got a bit too greedy Got a bit too greedy and now I have to fight him when I'm really not ready Okay, let's wait Wyvern's wait Okay, let's wait. Everyone's waiting. Okay, cool That's actually quite good These guys are gonna have to do something So one thing we could do is offer the armadillos up Do your worst That's quite bad. Actually your worst is actually quite bad. It turns out that's It's annoying Okay, so I could haste here. I think still just do nothing with these Hit the defend button and then it's actually on their turn on the angels turn.  It's a chance. I'm gonna accidentally blow it and lose thane completely here All for the sake of wow, so I would have actually lost the hero. Um, can I Surrender You'll you'll exchange 11 grand and I get to keep my engineers This seems fine.  I think I pay 11 grand for that thing. Yeah, thanks core back. I'll take you up on that I do lose the automatons.  He might be Really how did you make it that far? How did you make it that far? Joking. So me I've got one good chain lightning 200 I wind up my sleeve actually three and five I'm gonna use my one good chain lightning here. I do you think I've got a chance of living through this Right.  I mean who knows it's possible and how annoying It's a good waste of spell points All right, well Kill a black dragon here It seems okay, right? Hit them before they hit me. I didn't kill one sometimes the game Is mean Right, what does that mean? Okay, I'm back Now we don't want to get hit by them if we can help it They're kings. Okay, I didn't see that right What do I what have I got left but a good chance of killing that last black dragon? Let's do that before it acts Okay, actually that's not bad These girls do hurt. Yeah, they hurt quite badly. What can you guys do? I'm 24 left and kill most of them If I do the maths on this, I might just be able to survive She can deal about 60 100 and something damage She's she's the meanest stack at the moment actually Yeah, I've got a chance of winning this You're out of the game if I flow over here and do this I think I'm winning It's not how I want it to Deal with Cassie up here. Obviously I lost another one So I lose four, oh man It's so so good But then Why the battle result? The logistics on Cassie up here. I mean how she got me from there Is Thane dead? He's alive And actually I get to hire him back here. So that's something Right our entire one entire faction of our entire One entire wing of our entire faction just got obliterated. We lost half the codles and all the automatons Which basically makes The factory infeasible And now it's all about the stronghold and the tower And the clock flux I think we're almost giving up on the factory that means So Solmere was here waiting But look at what's here. There's only two more of these now Like the stacks are just not there Thane when he gets rehired will have 70 of those girls. Let's just check 68 of them well He's got 68 of them 27 of those I think all I know for sure is that Sam is galloping out of here today with um With the Titans So by the Titans up to 19 by the Nagas. There is no way I'm not doing that Like I'm absolutely doing that I don't need the golems. I will take the genies as well See how fast our money does it does go This isn't a big enough stack to matter anymore So I'll leave that for other people Give it a 15 maybe it's just something to have This is not a stack I want to fight core back with Okay Now in order to Punish what just happened And come down and take this town with her very very quickly. I think that's what needs to happen Okay, she knows the dimension door. She isn't a scholar. So I'm sticking here It's just if that wanted to happen first, but Yeah And before I do that Solmere after his victory against Kassapia does still have these artifacts and he does still want to give them to Isra Okay Before we do that. I'll start with Clancy because I need him moving And in a boat these are just value that I'm always taking at this point Cyclops is a nice big stack Okay, 60 grand left need to be a bit careful Take the birds I think maybe these guys can stay Because as a power stack 40 50 of them isn't going to be quite enough relative to the other things I'm doing So I think I'm happy with that. He's got the admiral's hat and I want to Summon a boat which maybe I can do today. We'll try He's got the hat on. Yep Let's give it a try. This was always the plan Summon boat he tried but failed Try again. I wonder if that's because there aren't any boats When you're a novice water mage. He's a nothing mage The boat needs to exist, right? So is there any way that we could get a boat? From here or from here actually. I've never flagged it. So I'm thinking maybe He's got to come down here, but could I do a d2 or buy a boat? See if I can make that work Is that low regret? I think it is because I have she's not going there.  I can do this. So get the boat. Clancy can you do it now? Yes, eventually he gets it. All I burnt there was spell points. I didn't actually burn movement So that's fantastic. He just barely gets in the boat But it did lose quite a few spell points to make it happen. I hope this doesn't corrupt soulmere too much We aren't buying factory today So I want to get Isra the staff So she'll need to come to here to get it and That already uses 500 So That's a thousand. I don't actually think she'll make it. She won't shoot. She won't she'll get to here and then gallop back to about here So I think that means we aren't leaving the conflicts today I don't really want to fight out in the open here against callback. Although How can he get to me? So I've got a choice. I can either play it safe Oops um I can either play it safe or Gallop forth and let soulmere catch me up tomorrow. Actually Sam's got to leave. Sam's got to come running out of here anyway So before she does that We go to the gargoyles as well Leave a couple behind and then take them. Seems good Okay She's doing that Serena's exhausted. That's right. So I'm coming up here anyway. So soulmere can talk to me So let's do this Callback basically is gonna get Murdered here by one of my two best heroes. That's that's that's my motivation I think soulmere gives her all the stuff.  So you may as well wear it for now Move everything else over even the club Because isra doesn't have good weaponry. So she's gonna get this cool shield good club all that stuff. Um But not the codles.  So isra I Can't do that either without abandoning the conflux What I really want to do is gallop to there Stand on callbacks old square Say to him look what do you want to do here because I'm going to come and find your fortress Sorry, sorry that keeps happening But I'd rather have all the artifacts and stuff Okay, how much more powerful might be I'm missing a shield and a sword And the cool power artifact Look 49 grand left. What do I know I'm buying? I'm buying these I am buying these because they're gonna be good With what I'm trying to do which is just outlast with earth elemental Six becomes 10. That's just an awesome stack And then I have to make a decision about phoenix's that's more expensive than it used to be So that's 20 merc. It's all my merc But what else am I doing with my life? Thane can wait another he's waiting another day anyway So I think we go for it Ooh upgraded pyre look at that Get the birds. I mean I built the vault for a reason, right? Sure spend our money So isra is formidable already without the artifacts But I don't really want to Fight core back without them What am I missing out on plus five to defense and about plus five to attack Plus three to power Is that worth sticking around for or should I just Go for it like sam's gonna get to here I'll use about half her moves Can is for a ride out or is there a risk? But I accidentally give up the con blocks I think this is sketchy, but maybe okay Leave the army behind right Ride out with something like this Stand here sam comes down The whites will need to die Sam will need to pick up the army for you. No, that doesn't work. Does it? It doesn't work Okay, my plan doesn't work because I've put them all back Because sam has an army of her own She's just bringing the artifacts. Well, I push the boat out here and leave the complex undefended I think I'm gonna do that Get these additional soldiers I need another 3600 And that way we are spending all our money. Okay, just do this Okay, I see he's on the edge. Phoenix is in the middle. I don't have to be in the middle Against hydras and all that kind of thing I think I would quite like them on the edge Put the stodgy stuff to the edges You know, I don't really want the wyverns attacking these on turn one Because if I wait for example slow, he hastes they get a nice hit on the phoenix is that kind of thing? I'm not going to be too greedy. I'm just going to stand here And then back home. I have some Defenders Not really Something okay, jury This is something to do. There's we'll do it. Uh, there's an underground here. I've already flagged that I guess go to the seeing stone jury might end up mattering Agar has to stay put I think I want I don't need to visit that derrick yet Particularly derrick the only last thing to do then is um Get thane back I don't have enough money for thane Sorry apologies thane That's actually quite an expensive trade. It felt in the 20 gems for two grand I felt like quite a bad trade right Here he is. He's back We've got these angels actually that's really good Thing is he's exhausted two spell points Okay, so he's just going to hang he has learnt dimension door So that's like welcome back and welcome back Yeah, I can ride out but with two spell points and there's nowhere to replenish So let's just hang and then I'm thinking he can come through this portal here with factory Soldiers when we're ready to actually make that investment Okay, that's the day of recovery. Let's see what red does. What are you doing call back? And I've got a hero down the bottom there Must go back and check that call back runs in through here comes down Stays in the area Doesn't fly off tan is defending itself goes through the purple portal Good presence here Purple purple purple doing things. Okay Let's just see. Do I know who that is? Uncharted territory Maybe clancy can find out Um, the other things that are happening are tan is Building up some sort of semblance of defense and bron is challenging Okay, that's all good to see Because while they're doing that they're not bothering us There's is right. She's ready to go. Okay.  Let's start with the easiest one first, which is this guy. I see land land hoe Be a bit careful. This is a really powerful hero I need to be sure that jury can use the tier 1 to 4 troops here to Let me take that gamble Right, because we know that call back is the best hero Yeah, okay, cool. I'm out on the water doing something with a meaningful army So that was kind of a bit of a submission Um, okay, that's done Sam Final destination is this way No ifs or buts Not changing my mind now. Didn't see anything that makes me want to change my mind Here she comes Does she need to pay a visit in here for any reason? No, because the mage guild doesn't have anything she wants She's learned all the skills magic. She's gonna learn Right. Yep So she meets with isra Sam and isra meet once more I feel like there's deja vu here that they've met in this in this place before they both have boots on Now You take the necklace Take this incredible shield Take this Club Okay, so we only got our attack to 13, but we did buff our defense nicely Um, we never gave soul mere the orb of air, but Why don't you take that for now? Lady bird of luck So we messed up a little bit soul mere I mean there's only one shield you could ever wield and now sam's got all these shields that I can't use With this thing of silence I think sam wants to cast bless and slow whereas isra She might be more casting earth elemental and implosion Then again expert slow is going to be very good against callback To give me time to do implosion. So maybe I'll take it off Who knows I might have to surrender at some point Yeah, so there's some good artifacts here that soul mere should have probably kept I mean Now crown of knowledge hang on. We're not done here boom Although is it doesn't have time to She doesn't actually have time To get to the 230 Which is a bit of an issue Okay, so that is a meaningful tweak to isra's capabilities Let's go carry out the plan callback. I'm calling you out He's down here. So I need to fly back We want to force callback Back so we know the town is on a road Just going one hex at a time here Okay, it's got to be around here somewhere So callback is here. If you also fly over and fight me today Then that's perfect. That's that's what I'm angling for Right sam. So I've got my two best heroes in the area Callback could come down in through here. You can't do too much damage down here. You'll get lost, you know By which time I'll have thane reeducated Right jury You have wisdom. Did I give you wisdom? Seems odd Just the fun of it. I think it's a bit too late for scouting now. Um I think we should start investing in jury. She might just be important Come back and get some soldiers Now at 14 grand in the bank, I'm guessing that's not enough To Get all the things we want It's not going to be right Okay, so I really should have I should have gone and seen the derrick should have gone and visited him Got regret now got derrick regret Somi is time's going to get wasted as well Uh, well, okay. Here's a question for you. Where is thane going? He'd like to go through here ASAP Okay, he'd like to do that right now Now he could do that with The codles the engineers Okay, if all I'm buying is codles and engineers I can afford that Is there any more money I can get? No Okay, is that worth doing codles engineers Gets me to 10k and then I buy just as many more of these as I can reasonably afford And we get them on his way codles Engineers There's also 110 halfling grenadiers available That's 5k These cost 5k So I'm probably short about 7 grand I'm just gonna spend Let's spend Wait, stop go to the bank. I keep forgetting this thing. Give me a free 2,500. I love that That helps. I love the bank. I just keep getting to you Do all this. All right buy these guys as well. Let's start experimenting with these grenadiers Got them. I've got them How many of them?  Can't wait to see what these guys capable of Maybe a little late in the game, but uh That late never Let me keep some armadillos I guess The slots on Solmere aren't uh In high demand He comes south He delivers That's one thing about Solmere. He always delivers Okay, Thane Anyway, he's having a good day. Look at this Oh The two genies meet in the underground Thane learns earthquake forcefield and fostering and teaches clone media or shower Greetings. Well met old friend I see that you are level 21 while I am only level six Thane's like my friend. This is the way the cookie crumbles Some campaigns they love us in others Not so much In order to maintain Solmere's speed Will we give him three engineers? Okay Thane meanwhile see how good it would be if Thane had one of those good shields. That was such a bad mistake Now all our best stuff is with both heroes above ground there. I really messed that up Yeah, that's regrettable Okay, and I feel like what we want to do is Keep the halflings alive Okay, so if we do this we allow the halflings to get surrounded by the Armadillos So I think that's fun and then Oops, sorry. Sorry. I'm gonna put him there Something like this anyway. There you go. Solmere. You can be the cloak guy The genies partways See you again my friend. Is Thane well equipped? So is Thane well equipped to Be a nuisance down here. Can he win this fight? I feel like with chain lightning he can't the problem is Yeah, I'll need to do quite a lot of chain lightning, but I think I can I don't want minotaurs that would be bad for morale Currently have two creature towns two town types I could go and do these things to get that's a fantastic pendant I can beat those ogres, so I could do that instead of trying to conquer Is it killing taric chasing after weak heroes they'll just run away from me It doesn't have as much value Anyway, come here. Let's decide On the other side We'll decide on the other side Solmere Return to here you come to here Serena you come to here um What I want to do with Serena is Have her handy Right and have these golems handy to defend the stronghold against that red hero I am out of money. How much would it cost me to buy these boys? Only not the two grand I'm in money spending mode Why not nine more? That's pretty good Yeah, so she's available just that's gonna be quite good. We give her the logistics Uh, I'm here Sam, what'd you get to here? Right, let's end the turn Here she comes reveals himself Are you a runner or are you good? Okay Didn't see what callback did. Okay tan just hit the library Is that my library you just visited? Well Thane's come to here if I gallop back Didn't actually think that she would come that close if I gallop back could Solmere Get anywhere near you Serena Cannot get to you either Tan knows this area quite well I feel like if I put bodies in here, she'll just run away It's probably what I'm gonna need to do though. Okay, let's start on the water Um The hold is sanctuary now. I think I can take these on Uh, particularly if I maybe do this and this Yeah, we'll try that It's disappointing Uh, first and first and foremost, who is this? Nobody Okay, just a runner Hobbes tower tells you everything that's fantastic. That's almost the perfect item Let's continue. Let's do plan a first. We didn't actually see what callback did We didn't see any movement from red There's the town Take it pretty easily. I think Okay So i'm thinking maybe what we should do with sam is come down to here And then that way callback Callback and fly to here. That's the problem.  I think I'm just gonna go for the Main building lower tower I'll go for the upper tower Now you guys can fly straight over Well, I just let you do that. I think I will right Could kill them 300 damage We just do that Give them a haircut That's actually quite annoying All right, let's everyone wait Um shoot them Yep, and they usually do wander out Give them a nice uh reason to do that And kill the mighties I'll just start with them They're like that getting bring down by mighty gorgon Um What I want to do here now now that that's still alive that thing Um, I'm really surprised that that lived actually I must have minrolled I must have rolled really low Though I just keep hitting the arrow tower What am I trying to get done?  So let's just go For the gate Change my mind Gets the gate The hydras died of this I don't actually think I need any more spell points Oh, they don't die? What about that? Can I stand here? Yes I thought I might be losing one then You do this and then the lizards die to archery That's better, that's okay Can't some come back Sticky heading Grab some defense I assume it's a fully finished town Completely gold or cross the board It's their hometown Um Cool Okay, what is in the mage guild if I can find it? I knew that already You knew these things? Okay Okay, so we've got the town but we don't know what's in the area She could come down here I could leave some soldiers behind I have to decide how to hedge against callback Coming in taking my town off me Which would be a problem I do have to mention Dor on this girl Once per day for each hero You may teleport your hero So she's not an air mage So she can only do it once Do what you said you were gonna do and just defend it That's just that's just a no-brainer I think Just defend it There's even a few more Pick up these little guys as well She can go in there actually Yeah, think about that Stay put Don't build anything We're all good We're okay here She'll run off She'll just disappear That's annoying though that she has leverage in the library I'm annoyed about that I think that means they mean gets to continue This is high value I love this artifact It's plus three to morale and luck Which is just gonna be excellent I probably should flag that Someone should come through and Can you annoyingly be my guy in the area? Yes, this is annoying Can't fight the guards I mean I could if you help me if you get me some dudes How are we gonna do this? Could I fight the guards? Well I could fight the guards with the whole army So come to about here Let's make sure you don't die Slow them down a bit but that's fine Let's just make sure you're unkillable The only thing I'm worried about there is death ripple Purple heroes have death ripple Oh what do I do here? Do I do this?  I mean sell me and they're not gonna do it now I don't have any spell points to do it with I'm not thinking clearly I want sell me to kind of be the bait though I want them to If they want to come and kill him They're gonna have to deal with Thane So I think there is some logic in it I wanted them to come do these things But I don't have time I need another Jabarcus There grab these Like these solvers and do these things Check out Purple obviously has a town up here But it's okay All right so Thane You are gonna do this But let's just make sure we don't Leave it open for Bron or someone else to come galloping They think they're losing this I think And I would say now they probably are actually We're gonna do this job first Little bit of lag there Right You have jobs to do As always Go do them Okay Juri you've got maybe an easy decision You could come here First No come here Because I'd like you to have a big enough army to kill Aiden I don't really want him sniffing around here And this isn't big enough army of course Something like this I need to get better at fighting with these Wolf Raiders I'm gonna see what all the fuss is about I've obviously been doing it wrong all these years Come south South is where it's at Right back to our prime question We've conquered their Town I was hoping to provoke Corvac into a confrontation Do you have the option with Sam To dimension door But I need I need to know what I'm dimensioning into I can't just dimension door into A thing As long as I'm near this I'm near the I'm near here But that's the same distances from there to there Anyway So the other thing I could do is Hang out Just wait in the area until Corvac returns Reveals himself Like I could wait here And that way if he returns Comes down here I don't really want him to take this I don't want to be so far out of position That I can't get there before him So is she necessary So in theory, right? He could be in a boat He could be back here I might not have succeeded He might have come He might have dimensioned or into here Just don't know Israel could stay the night and get to 230 That's pretty good Let's do that Let's do that with Israel That's our decision made The only thing then is Could send a hero up this way Is that good Israel would need to jump to the bottom Now that I've done that Who do I have? Intius Just always good Elementalists just always good So little downside Rashkar I don't like Intius is good Let's do this Let's get Intius Intius immediately Goes up One defense He's a bloodlust dude At an early age is mastery of fire And in a spot with a troop of entertainers Some believe he was the son of a fire elemental One night he felt a calling Left his profession There's a lot of people in the complex who felt a calling Quite random Um Israel's like welcome Intius And he's like Could I please have some soldiers And she's like No Who? Who are you taking? I can't spare any of these You're gonna risk his life with one Pixie I think we actually are Because skeletons will slow him down These guys slow him down I don't want to But I can't spare him one of these So I'm gonna send him off Not knowing a hell of a lot And your job is to scout It'd be different if we had some fortress troops We would definitely want to Um All right, well you're gonna get stuck in the small barn here Intius if you do that so Bane's waiting Just don't know what to do with Sam I'm thinking maybe can she just do this and hang out Let's just do that Do you know who Sam is? She's the terpits Let me know if you guys know what I'm talking about Come back here Intius you still had a bit of moves left Any other Stuff I can hire yet another hero Got one Two No I can't No Because I'm here Okay, all right End it End it all A new stink That's not cool back there is it? That's that's that other guy Who is that? I needed to check who that- See she just runs off Yeah Who is that? That guy who's just standing there Just check that I meant to check that last time Oh check him out Floriburt Never seen him That was the expression on his face He's like That's right I'm Floriburt It's a pleasure to meet me Tell me Oh Okay, but people have been out here already Is that a hand? I think that's the huge tower of awesome As you go to to get amazing A-offs and stuff What should I do? If you visit a shipwreck that's already been visited It's not very good I didn't expect there to be this much It all just Yeah, well we did cast Viewware at the beginning of the game It was a big gap here So I think this is all just nothing down here Based on that Can you cast View? Okay, that doesn't tell me anything Because I was hoping it would show me where the mines were But that's not the case What's that there? There's shipwrecks But they've surely been visited by That orange guy I just come up here now don't I? To try to help? Campaign? I mean I'm not really I can't even land on here All right Water matters Useful Let's have some fun now Come on A throng of ogres is gonna go down Let's experiment What can Thane do with his new army? 155 of these things And I do have some delicious spells to cast I have become a decent air mage So that's a good start Chain lightning is 570 Which doesn't kill very many at all The angel of codles, they're gonna need help, aren't they? So I think what we do is we do Fire off the chain lightnings But then we blind One of the biggest stacks towards the It's like a clone Clone these Let's start off with chain lightning We want it to arc over to that stack Actually should I use him maybe? Just wait Gonna put the angel here So the angels are gonna take the hit Boom Okay, so we took 35 damage Or give nothing of interest Yeah, this is good We're gonna end up blinding this guy As he approaches They are good or ogres Great ballista Great Oh, super Look at that 12 I can kill with 100 So these guys are a thing You can just Do where you are Pretty low regret on this Although chain lightning won't be as Saucy Do I need to chain lightning again? I actually don't think I do I mean I'm worried about morale No, they're neutral morale Why are they neutral morale?  Now the crack back will hurt enough To make me not want to I don't need to Yeah Okay, the grenadiers Fantastic He might even survive Just two ages away Okay, you, I can safely burn this down Lovely Angels are too small I think to do much I don't really want to do this attack I don't think Well, actually, should be safe enough, right? Should be safe enough Let's say I kill 10 You hit me back with 19 19 Yeah, so I'm not gonna lose one So I think it's safe This could be a bit reckless But I think it's all right I'm trying to save spell points here Took 71 damage I can maybe finish these guys now 94 I think it's all right I got the first aid coming as well That shot there won't hurt Will I hedge? Yeah, I might just hedge 81 points of damage with expert first aid It's brilliant Wait on, wait on Is that a kill? No It will be next turn Let's just do it with the codles Excellent 500 doesn't do much now This thing's great Responding to cries for help You find river sprites Making a sport of dunking an old man Feeling vengeful You rescue the man And drag a sprite onto dry land for a while Sprite, uncomfortable in the air Gives you a magic pendant to let him go This text must have been written Before Armageddon's Blade Because sprite is a word That's used to describe something else now It gets the pendant of courage Plus three to both Luck and morale For this army is delish The knowledge is well served The Cyclops stockpile We're going to need to expert haste everybody And then I think it works What are the stacks I want for that? One, two, three, four, five I think I need How many stacks do I need? One That's kind of one stacked together The angels, well Two angels against maybe six cyclops Or something is probably fine Yeah, we do that with expert haste, right? Do I have expert haste? Ah, I'm still only advanced Well, that's a nuisance, isn't it? Let's have a crack at these first Oh, you silly Belize The king goes next after this He could walk over and hammer these in amatime I go here Yeah Go do this This is fine Yeah, yeah, yeah I do this a couple Yeah, I've messed up here I thought I had expert haste But even with expert haste, these stacks aren't big enough Um, I think the right answer is to bolt this fellow It's not particularly good She can get up there and finish him off What do you have your turn towards the end? And I act before you So he's going to run up there and block that And I think this girl runs to Here for safety Who's going to fight this guy? Yeah, I'm going to body block him then All right, so the armadillo is going to stand there He's body blocked This guy's going here Um, this guy acts last So we just don't want him to be in range That's the key thing So let's bring her to here I can finish this off Yeah, I finished this guy off Die What? Oh, I miss... I figured that out, I thought... Who's this guy? That's him Okay, actually what happened there is the turn order swapped It did swap on me I had this all figured out I thought these armadillos were supposed to ag next Block him That's very regrettable That's really bad Oh, that was not worth it Right, I'm here mucking around I should be killing Tan Is my army good enough to do that? I think they think it is I mean, in a siege, this isn't going to matter I'd rather just have a big stack of these Don't need the clover Don't need the hero I would beat red elementals pretty handily here It's a chance that hasn't been unlocked in the red tower It's might be worth a look Somiya is on a mission to annoy purple Alright, Intius You're going to get bogged down up here, man You really are Come round, let's have a look Yeah, he's so slow on the swap Isra has to leave today She can't stay here Okay, as long as she stays on the path She gets to do this Well, I mean, we knew about all this, right? Since my point, her continuing south Where is Korbak? He still hasn't shown himself What can Sam do? Sam could emerge here to mention Daughter there Just for the scout We just have to be sure Korbak can't surprise us Just don't know where he is Yeah Jury is going to come south and kill Aiden That should be safe enough Should have stopped there I could have had 44 spell points Oh dear Smithy Once again, Jones, he missed out I think this week Alright, money's building up again I'm thinking we could I mean, if Korbak doesn't want to fight me There's not much I can do I can't force him to the table I mean, I can do things like this To just stay in the area That's not useless, alright So, Intius, the problem we have Is that Intius is making it so that Serena can't Do anything I think for now I'm happy enough, she has to stay on the road A trotious movement off the road here No investments, all the towns Are fully kitted up now The only thing is maybe the gantry Or Thane, maybe Okay, getting ready for this fight here Maybe that first Okay, he doesn't know how dead he is There he is, there's my boy Korbak Okay, two questions Let me just check who is messing around Hear that portal Fyre has come to here She goes through She lands here Okay, so that doesn't matter And then the next thing I wanted to check Was Korbak himself Oh, we ran back into the shadows Did he, is that him there? No, he came to here Sam Oh, can you get to him If Sam comes to this Here, she'd have to de- No, no, no, he's in the bottom underground He's here Should I chase him? Pretty tempted to chase after him To try and bring him to combat He can't go underground, you'll have to run along here To mention Dora over to here Chase and do the same thing Or I can be waiting for him with Izra Here So we've got him pinned Right, if he turns and runs this way If he runs over here to Dimension Door Over to here, he'll have to face Izra Okay, if he comes underground He can't take the conflicts There's no way Yes, this is what I'm doing He reveals himself You are mine, I'm not Dimension Dooring today What if I cast Dimension Door To get myself onto the road Gallop down and crush him What happens? Dimension Door I think I can Dimension Door to anywhere I can see Which would be here Are we doing this? Leaving this off so that I can go expert slow Oh Okay, I think we can do this I think we've got him Pride cometh before I fall Let's be really careful here And we make sure his archers die I think he has Cyclopses Okay, there is a legal radius There she is She's got him Let's go Coreback You are mine Right, Wyverns are at the bottom Gorgons are at the top, Cyclops at the top So I want my Well, I'm going to have tactics over him anyway Um Yeah, I'm going to put my Titans up top Leave a gap so that I can clone And I'm either expert slow Or I'm, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is on Are we ready? Air spells do extra damage I mean I might as well equip it Glorious victory, good start Right, I'm going to get myself together here I think we're ready to begin I don't think Coreback is going to have expert dispel Or certainly expert haste So expert slow turn one is cool And I'm going to plan to clone the Titans onto this hex Once he's run out of either magic arrow Or the Cyclops are dead Oh no, wait, am I a clone girl? Am I a clone girl? Okay, start the combat We pump up the Titans Counter strike is not great Kills 16 to 24 right off the bat Should I slow everyone now? Seems amazing Why wouldn't I? What are my choices? I've got amazing choices here I can expert slow I could expert bless I could clone right now And that Kind of feel like he should wait I can kill most of these So if I go expert bless right now The Cyclops die These guys all walk to the middle That's not as good as expert slow I have 20 here Let's start Okay, that's a waste Love lust is pretty good You guys aren't here to do anything You're waiting Okay, he did have expert, wow Okay, but that cost him 5 Spell points I do act first next turn according to the thingy here Naga's left to wait Okay, well that's fair enough Fair enough, well played by him Okay, ooh, my next turn He won't be able to do it again So what I'm thinking is We just do it again Because you run out of spell points Slayer Why don't you guys wait Blessing Naga's is no good Oh guys, come on Hop back Stay where you are Okay, we lose both of our That's good, look at him Let's get started on the mighties Is that the biggest stack 30x70 is about 2,000 Actually they're stacks the meanest On the other hand This is a kill I've got a chance of killing the Why have I had someone try to do that? Great That's the end of his spell points Very, very good Okay Now you are acting next turn But I'm going to clone the titans I'm going to clone the titans And it's just going to be so nice I could jump out here And do some damage But this is just too good Alright, here we are Blown I only got one stack here Much of a muchness these two If I get out of the way Can she do anything? He's had his turn But really Can't do what the mighties Will I just stand here? I think so 1, 2, 3, 4 Get ready I did lose 12 Okay, well that's what they're there for Oh of course he has a ballista I never thought of that That's actually kind of annoying What should I do now? I could bless everybody I don't really want to waste another clone I think he's...  Yeah, come to here Callback, what are you doing mate? You didn't flee 19 Titans I lost 5 and 40 I just killed the best hero And I get the angel wings Callback, why didn't you run? I just got called downstairs there for A few minutes I'm still trying to take this in Unless I click the OK key here And we find the shackles of all That might help explain it I don't get why he stuck around Why he thought 27 basilisks Could continue Anyway, we knew he had angel wings He gets to fly around for free As a hero of might That's fantastic, we can actually give them To Isra So she doesn't need to go On my own dimension door now Shield of the damned is really good What else have we got here Nothing, something Deadman's boots Sphere of permanence Your units are immune to the dispel spell Archery by 15 Tome of air magic Every single air magic OK We're going to give that to Isra That's just fantastic Buckler, total pendant Tome of water magic Man, orb of silt I already have an orb of silt I think Shaman's puppet is amazing This thing is Very, very good Shaman's puppet Look at all this I'm just I can't believe it We killed Corbac He didn't have the shackles of war Why, why didn't he run Why Corbac, why This is just getting bonkers We have so much stuff now Look at this I'm going to go ahead and put them on Angel wing What does this thing do, plus 6 to defence Armour of wonder Units are immune to dispel That's quite good I already have that Archery skill by 15 Angel feather arrows Have that already Every air magic Spell I can also have every water magic spell That gives me water elemental I do not need the bow string I don't know why she's got that Skull helmet Isn't very good What does this do, plus 3 Immune to blind, we found that out I mean, she already pretty much knows Every important water spell She doesn't need water walk now Rare was the one she was probably missing Forgetfulness might be relevant at some point But it's quite late in the game For that to matter now with her composition The way it is We lost the gargoyles, but wow I can't believe The way that panned out Desperate for her to meet up with Isra again Because we've got some incredible artifacts to pass on Feel though like Now Now what are you going to do, red? Like I've taken your town, I've killed Corbac What's left to be done? Look at this guy, Tancred Astral is alive and he has giants We don't know where he is, he may have some useful stuff Okay There's ghost dragons, black dragons, pyre Astral has to be defeated, she's got decent attack now Power Orange has towns, but no Orange does have kingdom army strength Okay, okay, good Alright, so there's plenty still to be done We haven't won the game, but we've broken red We've absolutely broken them Now again, we want to Just centralize, get sensible Probably get both our good heroes Down to This library And I need to get over to you so that I can teach you Fly And mention door It's the best way to do that, should I run to here? Tomorrow I'll hop over, yeah, that's what we're going to do now Okay, do I keep this army? Yes Intius maybe comes and does these things eventually Okay, this is all fine Just wow What do I have up my sleeve? I've still got two slots, can you believe it? There are mighty Gorgons Right, okay Come to here Look at her flying over the terrain Ah, it's delightful Her army is still insane She's still going to be able to beat so many other Enemies, although Spell points are a bit of an issue Ah Loving this, absolutely loving it I've got to get to Isra, there's no other way, but once I get to her Dimension door over, we swap We swap notes, I don't need to Dimension I can fly over actually Yeah, and then I'm the one who keeps the angel wings Brilliant, brilliant turn Intius, you've got to be here for day End of day 7 So you've got time to just quickly check here Perfection No one in that boat Okay, a couple of interesting things here That the girls could do if they wanted to But probably not essential I'm going to need to even dismiss Intius now Come back here anyway man Alright, 6 7 Thane Oh, wow Wasn't here for a coffee Will I do this first? I think so, I've got them besieged I just have to decide whether I want to actually do the attack Fire elementals I still don't have expert haste I think I'm going to do it What's the prize again? Firebirds Firebirds are the prize I'm going to say no, because I don't really want Firebirds They'd be useful for this fire, wouldn't they? I have insane morale, so the morale is not a problem Yeah, like if it's 3 firebirds Why wouldn't I do that? Yeah, let's get the firebirds 105 of them Alright, who's You can't trust this turn, I want to think I've since figured out I think I'm just tasting the armadillos And we're all getting out of here And we'll kill the top right hand 2 stacks So I can come and hit Whatever, yeah, I'll be fine So come here Do this I could have done it in vulnerability, actually It might have been fun I just don't think I'm losing one I just don't think I'm losing one Yeah Do this Do this I know I'm using a flame thrower And maybe they should be immune to it But I'm very grateful that they are not Okay, well That's just the thing, the turn order flicking around Again, there's something, it's bugged That's definitely wrong He was not supposed to go next At least he doesn't attack, right? Thank you, can't keep these guys alive Case in point 184 I don't really want to move into range So on the armadillos turn, I can move out of range Yeah, so I could come here And go in vulnerable when I do that So they're shimmering, the scales are shimmering Oh, very nice How good is good luck It's good Is he ours? Just do this I'm not taking lethal retaliation So what does good luck triggering do? Good luck shines And they deal 335 How much damage did they deal before? Okay, so 235 became 335 So they dealt an extra 50% You get a bonus 50% damage It's pretty good Do nothing Do nothing, do nothing Ah, they killed four, that's pretty good All right, vulnerability has worn off Well, that was worthwhile Three fire birds, welcome aboard They are actually going to be useful In the Conflict Ahead Which is happening right now Can you tell me if there's anyone there? There is a hero in there Okay, but it's one week's worth of quite poor troops Very vulnerable to chain lightning I can't think of a good reason to not just get this done Maybe Solmere, can you reveal any more information? I'll get you down to the warehouse Where does that lead? I've never stuck anyone's head up through there Do I really want to risk his life? Level 6, some good artifacts It's just that he could be one-shotted I'm actually not going to risk him Just, I think from a flavor point of view He's just too important to me Maybe you got the sulfur But I don't need that too grand Okay, yeah, let's do this fight I think turn one chain lightning off the fire birds Am I a ballistics guy at all? No Three viable stacks All the halflings die Who is back here? Just some nobody? Okay, yeah, so the grenadiers are all dead To the halfbarrow tower In the first five seconds Halflings! All right, that's a pretty good action Okay, need to be a bit careful What am I trying to get done? 620 Working its way through These stacks are all in the 300s So I think we just do that We don't overthink it Look at that So the fight will go a little bit longer We're going to waste this halfling in melee Against that dragon If we get a chance to I'm going to wait here with you Wait with you Okay, we don't get a chance That's actually a shame Wait How long is that blind? Last five turns, actually pretty nice I don't want to lose my first ATT Okay, there's a chance the first ATT survives Against them, if I do this That helps Okay, that's actually quite good for us One less stack Oh, good god This is very good Kill zero still, so we're going to get breathed on Well, can I actually kill one?  No, maybe Maybe the cannon can do it Oh, few Alright, that's okay Another dragon artifact I think for flavor reasons We should be looking to try to get this now That's this dragon Get this thing going Red dragon flame tunnel, we need the crown There's a green crown and a green tab art Until we have them both, it's not worth getting too excited I don't think Happy for him to come in Get the experience There's the mana vortex Why isn't he It's already been used this week That's going to be useful Thane is exhausted, should he stay here for the night? Isra is going to have Here The tome of air magic She's just going to be unbeatable Once she has that Okay, we've still got Clancy Let's have a quick look at him before we sign off I'm going to guess that this is just a morale hit Let's have a look I thought it was worth a gamble Okay, that cancels out the boy I'm just not going to visit these Other people have got here before me School of magic, plus one spell power All knowledge for a grant Could do that Let's finish these heroes off Uh He faces Aiden In the Wastes Okay, we're both spellcasters They have huge morale I think if he's going to do magic arrows on my dudes That's just the way it's going to be I don't think this stack needs to be any bigger So let's just wait It's a lightning bolt Okay, and it used A hunk of his It did use a hunk of his mana Let's just come to here I don't need to waste these guys Uh, yeah, no, I don't need to waste them We just need to get this fight over with quickly So that's a hundred Uh Yeah, that's less than a hundred I have a 60-point lightning bolt Myself So if I kill this, what if I blind that? Could I do that?  About 120?  Like, you can lightning bolt For great value And with a crappy hero like Aiden I'll exit Legion So we're getting a signal, aren't we? Then got the Oceanids coming up I think we want that type formation to get that going I'm wishing I'd done this now It's the Oceanids You probably can't blind an Oceanid One more turn, one more turn Okay, I don't know where that is Only 43 What do you guys have, speed 8? I have speed 9 Alright, everybody wait Do you guys have morale? They do have morale That's interesting Okay, should we just try to kill one with Lightning Bolt? You guys are all just in the way I'm not, I'm obviously not There's no point using you guys Well, this is maybe okay No need Big stat comes and does this Probably not going to need that now I'll take it anyway Experience They have a deuce of stores, I probably can't do them Okay, right, I'm going to leave it there Thanks for watching guys Broke the back of red there Man, we've really unlocked things Interesting to see how the game plays out from here We've sort of overextended again Hopefully we stretch the canvas It's not too thin We can keep our towns Keep orange and purple at bay And see if we can finish red off as well So, going well


Good morning Hank, it's Tuesday. Yesterday was World Refugee Day, so I thought I'd share a story of a family I met while I was in Jordan. Mufak, Nada, and their five kids. Mufak was trained as a butcher, but he'd become a successful entrepreneur in Syria, but then he had to leave everything behind in 2012 to escape the fighting, and after four years in Jordan where refugees are not legally allowed to work, the family's savings were depleted. But when I met them back in February, they were excited because they were about to be resettled in the United States, specifically Rockford, Illinois. You may have heard it's easy for Syrian refugees to get approved to live in the U.S., but it's just not. There are many, many layers of background checks involving all kinds of investigations from iris scans to fingerprinting to lots and lots and lots of interviews. In the case of this family, all told it took more than two years, but at last they'd been approved. We've never been to the U.S. before, Mufak told me. We're very excited. We can't wait. Nada told me, I hope Americans will welcome us. I hope we do not disappoint you. So a couple weeks ago, Roseanna and I went to Rockford to catch up with the family. Life Magazine once said, Rockford is as nearly typical of the U.S. as any city can be.  It was great to see the family again, and we enjoyed an immense and delicious lunch together, but the dislocation of the move had clearly been difficult. From the language, to the weather, from the healthcare system, to the grocery store, to the appliances, everything was different. Nada explained one profound change to me. In Jordan, she said, if we needed to go to a shop, we would find public transportation. Here we have to have a car or know someone who has a car. She began to cry as she told me she missed her family and was struggling to get used to life so far from them. Her son comforted her and then told me, mom also cries whenever messy scores. Everyone in the family is taking English classes. Mufak will soon begin working as a butcher. The kids are in summer school and starting to learn to read and write in English. In short, the situation is complicated and hard and hopeful, like a lot of our lives. But I'd argue that in every way, socially, politically, economically, we are lucky to have this family in our country. To be a refugee is to be politicized. Too often we're told that because of their ethnicity or religion, refugees are threats that our civilization is fundamentally incompatible with their civilization. But of course, that imagines culture as a discreet, unchanging unit, which it isn't, and it also ignores the facts. The fact, for instance, that American soldiers in the Revolutionary War included Yusuf Ben Ali and Bompit Muhammad. And the fact that today more than 3 million Americans are Muslims, from Dave Chappelle to the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars to my U.S. Congressman, Andre Carson. Nada told me she hopes not to disappoint us. Well, I in turn hope we do not disappoint her. When I asked one of Nada's nephews, who's been in the U.S. for almost a year, what he liked most about his new home, he said, the law. At first, the translator and I were both confused. We thought he was saying the Arabic word for God, but he was saying the law, which had not existed in Syria and which had prevented him from working in Jordan, was what he liked most about the United States. His family did not come here to change the law. They came to be protected by it. Hank, last week, UNHCR launched a global campaign called With Refugees, asking people to stand with refugees by signing a petition, calling on governments around the world to, one, ensure every refugee child gets an education, two, ensure every refugee family has somewhere safe to live, and, three, ensure every refugee can work or learn new skills to make a positive contribution to their community. I hope you'll join me in signing that petition. There's a link in the doobly-doo below. And just one last thing. That statue in downtown Rockford of the White Guy with the flag and the fireworks? His name is Joe Moreno. His parents immigrated to the United States from Italy in a time when many Americans believed that Italian Catholics with their loyalty to the Pope could never be real Americans participating in a democracy. And now Joe Moreno is a symbol of American-ness to the people of Rockford. We contain multitudes which has always strengthened us. Hank, I'll see you on Friday.


Hey everyone, welcome back to Nintendo Prime and to the 129 of you that saw the original video I put out today. Hey, congratulations. I hope you enjoyed the nice two minutes plus of that video that ended up being dead silent because Adobe Premiere kind of decided that it doesn't like part of my footage, even though it liked it in playback, it liked it for a certain extent of time and then for some reason, right at the end of rendering the video, it decided, you know what, poo poo on you, we do not like that audio. So yeah, I was looking into re-rendering the video and getting it back up and in looking back at it, I realized, you know what, it was a half hour long video. We don't need a 30 minute video for that discussion which was about games running on Switch and this and that. So let's have a slightly altered discussion here today. And this is going to be about the perceived problem with the Switch in 2022 and that's being that the Nintendo Switch hardware is extremely dated. And a lot of this comes from the idealization that, hey, it's 2022, the Switch is struggling to hit 720p, let alone struggling to hit 30 FPS, even Nintendo's own games or obviously we can talk about frame rate drops of breath of the wild back in the day, we can maybe excuse that as it was a port job made for different hardware but even when you look at games today like Pokemon Legends, RCS or Arceus or however you pronounce it, yeah, there's frame rate dips in that game. Of course, it's also made by Game Freak and we could talk about how they might not be the best developers in the world but that's neither here nor there. There are so many examples of Nintendo's own games struggling to hit frame rates that you don't have to go that far on the internet to actually discover it. So oftentimes we equate this to being third party problems but really specifically just talking about frame rates in general, just trying to hit that consistent 30 FPS. Nintendo's own offerings have this problem. In fact, they even use like techniques in Kirby and the Forgotten Land where they take like the far off things and make them move at like 15 frames per second way in the background which looks a bit jarring when you pay attention to it. So look, Nintendo's even doing tricks because the hardware they have is not capable of giving them the exact rendering technique and the exact frame rates they're hoping to get at least in terms of what they're developing behind the scenes. So even Nintendo's own games seem to be having little bits and little sacrifices and little changes here and there to make up for the fact that the hardware is just not quite powerful enough for even Kirby. So when we look at the Switch today it is fair to say in 2022 the hardware is pretty dated. It is using a chip, the Tegra X1 that came out in 2015 everybody. Like this is a while ago, seven years ago the Switch came out in 2017. The product has now been out for five years and we are in the midst of the sixth year of Nintendo Switch. And to all the criticism saying the Switch isn't powerful enough anymore, I say, well it is but also it should look dated because we're five years removed from it coming out. If you actually look at console cycles over the years the typical console cycle goes anywhere from five to seven years, closer to five years but seven years has happened in the past Nintendo Wii, et cetera. So we've seen seven year console cycles but no matter which way you look at it whether you're looking at the typical five year cycle or the typical seven year cycle the reality is Nintendo Switch is kind of smack dab in the middle. We're in the sixth year of Nintendo Switch right now we are at the point that new hardware would be coming. It's just we don't know what that new hardware is yet. I think the frustration with the Switch hardware for some gamers, some core gamers right now because I think the general populace they don't really care that Kirby is it has sacrifices in the background. I don't think they care that legends Arceus sometimes chugs for the most part most consumers seem to just not even talk about this. So I don't know that the frame rates are a big concern for the general consumer but there are a lot of core Nintendo gamers that are kind of like, hey, you know what? It would be nice to have something a little bit better and obviously the outsiders let's not even get on the fans of other systems that will just take any opportunity to bash Nintendo. In general, even if they had a powerful hardware there'd be something else they would pick out to attack because it's always something. They got to find a way to puff their chest to our systems better. Your system might be on top for sales right now but our system is superior. You can't get Elden Ring. You can, I mean could get Elden Ring and say it would run well but it could run Elden Ring. But that's neither here nor there. This switch is using data hardware at this point. It's 2015 hardware in 2022. We are at whether we like to admit it or not. Whether Nintendo likes to admit it or not. We're approaching the end of the switch. We are closer to the end than we are to the beginning. I know Nintendo's always, we're at the middle of the generation. Yeah, you know what they originally said that we are in the middle of the generation at a financial briefing, get this, in 2020. Then they said it again at a financial briefing in 2021. Then they said it again at a financial briefing this year in 2022. Nintendo has been saying for at least not four calendar years but four separate years at different investors meetings that the switch is in the middle of its life cycle. I'm sorry Nintendo. No matter what you want to define as the middle, you don't get to pick four different years, not 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and say all of those are the middle. That's not all of the work. The middle has a defined area. Now the middle can sometimes be a two year period. As an example, if it's a six year console cycle, you can then argue that years three and four are the middle. If it's a five year cycle, it's year three. Seven year cycle, year four, et cetera. So you can have a two year middle. That is something that is possible but we're talking about four different times you said it when the calendar said 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. So no matter what Nintendo tells you unless we're looking at a 12 year console cycle, this is not the middle anymore. We're beyond the middle. The middle's behind us. Whether that middle was year three, year four, year five or now year six, it doesn't matter. The middle is behind us, okay? So we are past the middle. We are closer to the end of the Switch's life cycle than we've ever been. And I know there's a bunch of bangers coming out right now. The Switch is selling like gangbusters. And you know what, 2023 ain't looking half bad either we're kicking it off with Breath of the Wild too. So the Switch realistically is looking like it's in a very strong position even heading through at least the first half of 2023. Maybe even the second half depending on what games are coming. Maybe we have a new Mario Kart game. Maybe we have a new Mario game, right? There's a lot of things a new Donkey Kong could be coming. But here's the deal. The reason that we need to recognize that the Switch is now past this halfway point that the Switch is really closer to the end than it is to the beginning is because it's okay to just admit that yeah, the Switch hardware feels a little bit dated because it is. And that's okay. It's not actually a problem that the hardware's dated. Guess what? The PlayStation 4 hardware and the PlayStation 4 Pro hardware was pretty dated in 2020. And that's why they brought out the PlayStation 5. Same for the Xbox One and Xbox One X. Same for the Wii U when the Switch came out. The Wii U, you know, the Wii U and the Wii U came out. The hardware's dated. It's a fact. Based on current performance of hardware and based on current performance of even Nintendo games, the hardware has aged. And that's okay. We're still getting amazing games. We're still gonna continue to get amazing games. And what I love about what Nintendo's doing here is Shintaro Furukawa is bucking the trend. Usually when we get to the sixth year of a platform, if a platform happens to be fortunate enough to last for six years, we don't have any games. You know, Splatoon 3 coming up, we wouldn't have anything like that happening. Zero by Chronicles 3, Bayonetta 3, Breath of the Wild 2. We wouldn't have any of these big games coming in old school Nintendo mentality, but we still do. You know what this reminds me of? PlayStation. Sony, towards the end of every generation, seems to always be firing all cylinders. They're selling 20 plus million units per year. They're releasing their biggest games. In this case, Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Shishima. And I think there was like two or three other big games that happened in 2020 for them. And obviously they quickly poured it over to PlayStation 5 and released Ultimate Editions and 4K Editions and all of that. But the point is the final year for PlayStation 4, and it really felt like the final year because it seems like they just stopped making them all together because they can't make enough PS5s. So why make more PS4s? Let's just keep, you know, put all our manufacturing in PS5s. Fine, really abrupt end of the PS4. Usually you're still producing PS4s for another couple of years into the PS5 generation, but hey, no one predicted a pandemic at the time. So whatever, Sony just kind of cut their losses and said, yeah, we're kind of done making that. Let's just focus on PS5. But here's the thing, Sony always ends generations strong. They released their best games on that hardware at the end, right before they're about to launch something new. Now, I'm not arguing that Nintendo is going to launch new hardware this year, whether it's a mid-gen refresh or even a next-generation Switch. My argument isn't that they're gonna launch it this year. They could, if they were Sony, they would. But what I am saying is 2023 is looking quite interesting because 2023, we will have crossed six years of Switch. We will be in the seventh year. Switch sales are still going to be strong. I don't think they're gonna be as strong as this year. I think we're gonna be looking at a dip. Maybe we actually are finally looking at sub 20 million per year. Maybe it's closer to 15 to 18. But we are under a new president at Nintendo, a president in Shintara Furukawa that's talked about the cliff, talked about Nintendo peaks, and then they just fall off the cliff when the next hardware comes. They just stop pushing the current hardware all the way up until the new hardware comes out and then they hope that new hardware will reinvigorate the market. Shintara Furukawa has spoken at length about how he doesn't wanna let that happen. And obviously he talked about supporting the system long into its lifespan, having a longer than usual life cycle, which technically being six years in is already gonna be a longer than usual life cycle. My proponent to you, my proposal is it's cool that the Switch feels dated. It should. All hardware towards the end feels dated. When they replace it in 2023 with a brand new system, it ain't gonna feel so dated anymore. And that's kind of where I'm leaning here. I feel like Nintendo's perfectly set up the pull of Sony because what Sony does is with all their best games coming at the end of the generation, this leads, by the way, to Sony having a fantastic start to the next generation because everyone wants to see these new great big games on that next hardware because they make sure it's backwards compatible and it has extra features and all that. And what happens is because the PlayStation 4 is so popular, leaving the PlayStation 5, people wanna get that next one. PlayStation 3 is so popular, leaving the PlayStation 4. What's the next one? PS2 and the PS3, PS1 and the PS2. This has been a consistent thing and what it's led to is consistent sales. Sony has been able to maintain at least 80 million in sales on all four of their major home consoles. Nintendo's only been able to do that one time. Well, not twice if you count Switch and that was with the Wii before, now with Switch. And there's no consistency to it. The Nintendo Entertainment System wasn't doing it. The Super Nintendo didn't do it. The N64, the GameCube, none of them did that. There was no consistency. You know what the consistency was? Here's the NES sales and then everything is just downhill from there. No consistency. PlayStation has three of their four, maybe eventually four of the five with PS5, but now it's too early to tell, above 100 million units in sales. Nintendo will love that consistency and they do it by hitting you hard at the end of the generation. Now, Sony typically has a slow start to the beginning of their generations because of that. And what's unique about Switch is because the Wii U flop, the Switch had a strong start to its generation and now can have a strong start to the end of the generation. And the funny thing is they don't necessarily have to have a slow start at the beginning of the next. As long as they keep this hybrid concept and no longer are doing handheld and home console games on different platforms, if they keep the hybrid situation going, they actually can be making more games than ever before and actually have a strong start to the next generation as well. Imagine launching with a 3D Mario game along with Mario Kart 9 or 10 or whatever they call it, Cross. Imagine they launched that three months into that system coming up. And then follow that up with the next Fire Emblem game. Follow that one up a little bit later with a new Luigi's Mansion. And then obviously another Pokemon game. Like there is so much set up here for Nintendo to have a very strong start to the next generation. While still having a strong end to the current generation. And I know none of us wanna have the conversation. We're all afraid. We're all afraid to talk about the end of the Switch. But it's coming faster than we realize. Oh, they just released the Switch OLED. And Nintendo knows they can't rest on Switch. They can't milk the Switch until nobody wants it anymore. And expect to still be able to kick off their next generation with big numbers. They can't have all these big games come out now and then the first half of next year. And then just let the Switch die out for a year and a half before they release their next system in 2024 or 2025. Nintendo knows that they need to change the narrative. And to change the narrative means doing something different. So instead of worrying about the Switch's performance this year and worrying about that, we don't know what the next Switch is gonna be. And worrying that the hardware is weak. Look, think whatever you want. Reality is we're closer to the end than we are at the beginning. Nintendo knows that. Nintendo's already told us they're working on new hardware. They weren't saying that back in 2017. They're saying that now because they know. Hey, we gotta get to that next generation. We gotta not fall off the cliff and we want that transition to be seamless. We want sales to stay the same. So let's say next year they're only gonna move 15 million Switches. What's that matter when they launch a new platform that fills in that gap with another five to six? There's their 20 million in sales. So my proposal here is that Nintendo knows what they're doing. Next year is going to be next gen. And we go from there. And Nintendo just ends this generation stronger than they've ever ended a generation before. I am Nathan and Rebel Jance from New Zehner Prime. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll catch you in the next video.