/cyoa/ - Choose Your Own Adventure

>>1620

I remember this.

It spawned soo many cheap knockoffs.

CYOA's that are inspired by other CYOA's are cool, CYOA's that are a re-theme of other CYOA's are cool.

CYOA's that are a re-theme of a previous CYOA where the new theme is basically the same as the inspiration make me scratch my head.

>>1628

>its very possible that my current army would decimate most of my enemies

I'm not feeling it. You plan on fighting off every other lord. I hope the guards we're purchasing off the follower list isn't supposed to be our army, because that's an absolutely paltry amount. But if it is then spending money on troops is a swell idea, except you need to spend even more. You've also got dragons to worry about, and what are you going to give them as tribute? You can't trade your lumber for food and riches, you got Hold Fast.

I mean we all know the classic history of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. It didn't work so well. But you ignored the issue of resource management in your own country so I got the feeling you're not going to enjoy the winter yourself either. And if the king's army is massive imagine how big all the lords' armies together are.

>>1632

>I mean we all know the classic history of Napoleon's invasion of Russia.

Okay, lets ignore that Napoleon was closer to being something like the king's army greatest commander, and that Russia was the cold country that would be my Tundra…

Yes, I can see myself winning against them. I have enough power (and the magic) to do so. If I only had 200 Footmen and 30 Archers, what you said might have been the case. But it truly isn't, I easily have control over more magical power than all the kingdoms surrounding me in "Hold Fast" have, and most of that magical power has direct combat appliances on them. Even if some surrounding kingdoms have a Witch, its unlikely they can even stop me without angering nearby pious kingdoms with demonic sacrifices. And mostly, I do not expect a witch to challenge a Umbral Drake in terms of power.

Since you mentioned the invasion of Russia, I wanted to note that my Tundra gives me giant military advantages, I seriously don't know why you dislike it. I don't think the King's armies will give in to a cold, but I can easily see anyone invading me as mentioned in the domain bonus, and I have good amounts of natural resources too.

And as for the Dragon Pair, I forgot I took that disadvantage in the middle of my build while I was redoing it. I'd say I would capture any enemies knights and sacrifice their souls/blood to demons for gold while gathering power for myself, but elementals and dragons are unlikely to leave defeated enemies alive.

>>1628

I think you're drastically overestimating the power your elemental magic is going to give you. Your own magic is not especially powerful, being that you need two shards just to be on par with the elementals, and the elementals themselves are costed similarly to groups of 50 footmen, 30 archers, or 20 cavalry. They have prerequisites, so it's fair to assume they're slightly more powerful than these, but even so, you're expecting your elemental power to be a difference maker but it actually represents less than half of your total combat power, and it's concentrated into just a handful of creatures (four elementals, your apprentice, your drake, and your witch - you are frozen in ice in a remote location and can only participate in battle at all because of your bond with your drake, so you and your drake cannot split up) which means that your standard infantry/cavalry/archer force is actually the more valuable wing of your army, because it can be split up. You've also chosen an adviser who can't help you in war. Plus, your domain is completely dependent upon trade to survive, let alone thrive, but you've chosen complications that make an enemy out of all neighbors and require you to have a steady supply of hoard-ready wealth or else face the wrath of two powerful dragons. You've spread your magic so thinly that your drake's magical prowess is likewise spread thin, and you've poured everything that drake has into magic, making him useless as heavy cavalry, since his umbral type's weaknesses, exacerbated by his being a drake, make him quite fragile in direct combat. Your other major magical resource is Demonic Magic (and the related witch), which can't always be controlled, which is particularly troublesome when one of the many enemies at your doorstep is a demon lord who can almost certainly seize control of your demons from you and probably isn't going to wait around until you've mastered the art before he attacks.

Plus, your cult is not legitimized in the eyes of your people because you do not have the priestess, which means that the only guaranteed worshipers you have are those four cultists, their twenty groupies, and a "small group" of non-combatant worshipers. Although it is unclear, the priestess' cult-synergy bonus, and the fact that 2,000 or 4,000 people is not the kind of number you think of when you hear "small group," strongly imply that your peasant followers are not automatically part of your religion if you take the Worship or Cult options.

I'm pretty sure you're fucked.

>>1620

>Housing

City in the sky. Great defensive capabilities, almost impossible for normal armies to get there without getting shot down by airships.

>Domain

Forest. Easy to grow food and keep subjects happy.

>Advisor

Steward

>Perks

Intimidation

Telepathy

Natural Leader

Gold

Diplomat

>Followers

Knight(4)

Guildmaster

Master Worker

Blacksmith

Apprentice

>Dragon

Didn't pick

>>1620

I'm going to take an Island Undercity. I'm also going to point out here that the only domains that grant extra people are Desert and Tundra, which you would expect to be the least populated regions. Whatever, I'm running an island undercity, undercity because it gives a nice perk and is extremely defensible, island because I get to live on a motherfucking tropical island. Or at least a half-hour walk from one. Basic economic gameplan is to become a trading post, exchanging the abundant natural resources both above and below for stores of fresh water and food, to be kept sealed safely underground in the event of poor rains or famine. Seeing as how I have both abundant mineral resources, plenty of lumber, and exotic food, I rather expect I'll be running a trade surplus in a hurry, which I can use to make my undercity and underpalace generally more decadent and opulent.

Now, for adviser, I really want to be god-king (though I won't be taking the Worship perk for optimization reasons, but that doesn't stop me from running a cult that worships me, it just means I don't get god powers out of the deal), so I'm going to go with the Priestess because she can legitimize my cult. She comes with lots of added bonuses, too: A morale boost to help deal with the cavalcade of complications, healing magic that is otherwise hard to come by when you're an evil bastard, and she can set up a public education system for the parts of the population that aren't mostly cattle for my undead and demonic armies.

I mentioned earlier I wouldn't be taking Worship. That's because Vampirism nets me Diplomat and Blood Magic for free, which means I'm actually up by one shard even before I consider the whole "immortality" thing. I don't even have to kill people, I just need to have my state religion run a vampire Red Cross. Diplomat and Blood Magic are both really useful perks, too. It does require that I take Demonic Magic, which is one of the less useful classes of magic and I'm ambivalent as to whether it's worth a shard on its own (Necromancy nets you a similar set of minion options without the risk of revolt), but since it helps me snag the three-for-one Vampirism perk, I'm willing to call it a profit. Especially since I live in the underdark, so it's not like the sun is going to be a common problem for me. The only major drawback here is that I will never be able to enjoy the beauty of my island backyard under the daylight. Never be able to see how the water is so pure and transparently blue under the sun. How the jungle looks with the light of day shining through the leaves. At least it gives me good fodder for the prerequisite vampire brooding.

>>1637

>cont

With the leftovers I'll take Cult, Necromancy, and Enchanting. For followers, let's start by getting defense squared away. 240 skeletons should be more than enough to turn every entrance to the undercity into an unforgiving wall of pikes five ranks deep with plenty left over to serve as archers to rain down missile fire from the rooftops if we're forced to retreat into the city and make our stand there. Now throw in four death knights, each one leading one company of 60 skeletons. That's 8 coins total, since I have the Gold perk free with Undercity I have 6 left.

Now two merchants for trade and two ship captains to keep the merchants safe. I also need a blacksmith to properly equip my skeleton hordes, which are otherwise lightly armed and armored. He'll want to focus on training lots of blacksmiths early on so that we can rapidly rearm. With the last coin I get a diplomat for sweet trade deals.

This is a good start. I have a powerful economy, a sizable army of undead cannon fodder, equipped to extra power, led by powerful and intelligent death knights, all perfectly loyal. Since the skeletons don't need any training, they can be part of the workforce during peacetime. Since they don't need any food, they are free labor. Their morale penalty to the peasants is counterbalanced by my priestess. I can use my Enchantment on the death knights to bring their already top notch gear up to supernatural levels. At sea, I have two secure trade routes and I can bring the merchants home, empty their ships, and staff them with skeletons instead which, in addition to my existing ship captains, gives me a four-ship navy.

But I'm just getting started, because a lot of these complications can be pretty easily thwarted if you're clever.

>>1638

>cont

>Dark Riders

Now it's unclear how many of these things there are or how powerful they are, but what is clear is that I have a cohort of pike-wielding skeletons and four death knights blinged out with enchanted weapons. If I can't beat these guys, then they're nigh-unkillable, which seems a bit much for a 2 coin threat. Granted, many of these complications are bizarrely costed. In any case, with these two coins I'm going to snag a master mine worker and a guildmaster of blacksmiths to help multiply my blacksmithing advantage and further improve my economy.

>Orc Bounty Hunter

So first of all, I'm a vampire. The first vampire. This dude knows how to bag blood magic users, but he doesn't know a damn thing about my brides or my immunity to poison and disease. To help patch up any lingering security flaws, however, we'll throw in a troop of fifty infantry guardsmen, mostly to serve as guards who can intelligently raise an alarm, a captain of the guard to coordinate them, and with the spare coin get a bard, for extra economy and more morale. I do have an awful lot of skeletons, so more morale is always helpful.

>Mad Elementalist

The Burning Man is driven by the disembodied voices that speak to him to burn down my kingdom. In the underdark. Made of stone. Good luck, mate. Option B is that he tries to torch the surface, which is why I'm spending the two coins on a ranger and a set of ten hunters to snipe him after he gets started. Up top he'll claim one or two tiny thorps before being hunted down, down below he might kill two dozen people before the guards summon a sleepless patrolling death knight to run him down.

>Sister Sorceress

I'll need a spymaster on defense duty and a pack of 20 cultist groupies to handle this one. A couple of the cultists will infiltrate her group, while the others are dispersed through other organizations. The guild, for example, or infiltrating the crews of merchant vessels.

>>1639

>cont

>The Assassins

I can have a total of five coins out of this one, three stealth clans and the two-coin infiltrator clan. Everything that guarded me from my sister will guard me from the infiltrator clan, and everything that guarded me from the bounty hunter will guard me from the stealth clans. This is five free coins. I'll use them to buy an apprentice, two missionaries, and two clerics. The clerics help entrench the religion at home, the missionaries sail with my merchants to get converts abroad. They're to coordinate with the merchants to optimize the order in which they set up missions and monasteries. They must begin by getting converts from kingdoms which are non-pious but trade-vital, then they can spread into pious trade-vital kingdoms. Since the non-pious kingdoms have already been converted, the pious kingdoms could face serious trade problems if they close borders in response to my missionary efforts. Once all trade-vital kingdoms have a strong presence of my religion, I no longer need to care. Meanwhile clerics increase piety at home, keeping peasants loyal, heal the sick and injured, and set up religious schools.

>Rebellion

My cultists and spymaster find out who's responsible and my skeleton hordes bring the hammer down. Use the coin to buy another unit of skeletons, bringing the total number up to 300.

>Abholoth

Okay, so now we need to address a common misconception: Cthulhu is not a significant military threat. In the Call of Cthulhu, a crew of sailors accidentally release Cthulhu and almost all of them are killed as he emerges from R'lyeh, with only two survivors, the captain and a single shipmate. Then the captain rams his steamboat into Cthulhu's head and he's beaten for at least a year. So I take three of the shards and buy myself a behemoth red dragon with intimidation, hatchling, improved breath weapon, and dragonriding. His being behemoth means that if he rams not!Cthulhu in the face, then canonically speaking not!Cthulhu loses.

Honestly, the hardest thing about this complication is the Army of the Sea, which is of ambiguous size but presumably quite large. On the beaches they'll present easy targets for my behemoth red dragon's orbital artillery, once they reach the jungle they'll be getting picked off by ranger-led hunters, and if they actually reach my undercity then they can go ahead and try to get past my skeleton phalanxes. This all kind of feels like cheating, particularly since they come right out and say "direct confrontation would be unwise," but the problem is that the actual capabilities of the monster are never stated except insofar as it's obviously very similar to Cthulhu, and Cthulhu is canonically extremely vulnerable to direct confrontation.

After buying Godzilla, I have a spare shard, which I'll spend on Earth elementalism.

>>1640

>cont

>Monster Invasion

There's two ways into my city. Across the ocean where Godzilla can roast you and through the tunnels manned by my skeleton hordes which, by the way, are growing: the four coins from this are being used to buy up two more death knights and an extra skeleton unit. Remember back in the rebellion when I bought a skeleton unit without a death knight commander? We're solving that problem. With the spare coin we're getting an earth elemental, we'll see why in a bit. Anyways, we're up to 360 skeletons led by 6 death knights plus my hunters and guards. Any attempt to invade by sea will be lucky to even reach the shores and any attempt to invade through tunnels has numerical advantages nullified. There's only one problem: Enemy warlocks. The orcs seem to have quite a few, and buying up enough to resist them is undoable. Permanently, anyway, but since I've got rather a powerful economy, have the Diplomat perk plus a diplomat follower plus two merchants giving me trade partners who wouldn't want to see a link in the route disrupted, I can go ahead and rent some wizards for the duration of the fight. Provided they come at me through the tunnels. If they come oversea, I can just rely on sinking most of the invading force with Godzilla and sniping the remaining warlocks as they pass through the island.

>Demon Lord/Lich Council

Alright, so demon Ghenghis Khan is off in the far East somewhere, but he's chewing through all the kingdoms between him and me with thousands of riders at his back. What's a guy to do? Well, I have two decisive advantages. Number one, I have lots of friends. Economics, diplomacy, and Godzilla have been the cornerstones of my reign. Number two, he's a cavalry force. Tunnels and beaches are the only ways into my domain. I'll spend two of my eight coins from this guy on another two earth elementals, the real use for them is still coming but the general utility of masters of earthbending in tunnel fighting should be obvious. Four more coins will be dropped into two more merchants and two more captains to guard them, making my navy more powerful, giving me more trade partners, which means both more people who'd rather I not die and more money to hire mercenaries. The last two coins go into diplomats, who further increase my diplomatic sphere of influence.

Now, the question here is whether these complications happen simultaneously or sequentially. Each has benefits and disadvantages. Skeletons can be regenerated using other people's boneyards and I'm sure "corpses" as a trade good run pretty cheap. Plenty of thieves and the like, and plenty of poor or cheapskate families who'd be happy to be paid for the "burial" of their loved one rather than the other way around. So if these complications are sequential, it means that I can fling my skeletons into combat and replace losses afterwards no problem. Particularly against the Demon Lord here, I can deploy about 240 of my 360 skeleton force (and we're not done yet!) in every single battle he fights on the way here, and rely on the remaining 120 to hold the island against raiders in the meantime. If it's simultaneous, then I need those skeletons at home to deal with invading orcs (and etc.), but on the other hand the Demon Lord is going to have to fight the Army of the Sea if he ever makes it as far as my island.

Either way, the Demon Lord is going to be undone either by tunnel-fighting or naval combat, if my skeleton armies deployed to allied kingdoms and subsequently assisted by Godzilla don't do the trick first. He's a behemoth, we can stick our war camp on his back. In fact, the earth elementals can build permanent fortifications on his back (this isn't why we got them, but it is another nice side effect).

>>1641

>cont

The Lich Council goes basically the same way. Like the Demon Lord, they're everybody's problem. Unlike the Demon Lord, they're starting on my doorstep, however they again face the problem where either they tangle with Godzilla or they fight through my tunnels. If they fight through my tunnels, I can hold them until my allies arrive for reinforcements. If they tangle with Godzilla, they're going to lose a lot of troops to that, they'll lose important troops to hunter assassins, and then they'll have to fight through my tunnels anyway. The sheer numbers brought by the Lich Council, and the fact that they start by attacking you rather than chewing through Poland first, make them at least as dangerous as the Demon Lord despite being costed much less, but I think I can beat them anyway.

The four coins are spent bringing total troop count up to 480 skeletons with 8 death knights. Ghostly enemies are fought off with silver weaponry, supplied kindly by the blacksmith's guild and my trade empire, and pikes are fitted with zombie guards, metal plates about three feet out that prevent impaled zombies from shambling any closer. If there's time, I'll completely re-outfit my skeleton legions with tower shields and gladii to account for the fact that pike walls don't work as well against enemies who impolitely refuse to die when impaled and may have to be stabbed repeatedly before they stop moving.

>Dragon Pair

You remember all those earth elementals I've been investing in? They're going to wait until these dragons are asleep in their cavern lair, then drop the mountain on them. All my death knights will be on hand to mop up. Sure, each dragon is more powerful than any warrior, but they're outnumbered 4:1 counting both the three earth elementals and the six death knights (and counting!) and the dragons just had a mountain dropped on them. Once the dragons are dealt with, the earth elementals will sift out the gold from the rubble and directly into my treasury. I'll use my shiny new shard for form changing. Because hey, why not?

>Merchant Inheritor/the King

Everything from the Demon Lord applies double here, particularly since I'm using the 8 coins this brings to bump myself up to 720 skeletons and 12 death knights. Unfortunately, I can't take Hold Fast. Many of my anti-invasion strategies rely on having lots of allies to help me out and most of my economy is trade-based. Now if I could count on sequential complications, I could just use Godzilla and a skeleton strike team to make the king say uncle before the lack of trade become critical, but if Hold Fast were to trigger along side Lich Council, or Demon Lord, it'd be the end of me. So I can't risk that.

The Merchant Inheritor specifically may be able to prevent my allies from bailing me out, but he has a relatively small number of troops and is very likely to approach by sea, which means he'll have to face off with Godzilla and my allies will be unnecessary.

>>1642

>cont

>Force of Nature

Okay, so they've got about 2000 doods and a spirit of nature whose perks are similar to my own first five picks. Which were Demon Magic, which is not very useful and mainly acquired as a prerequisite for Vampirism, which is mostly helpful as a way to snag both Diplomat and Blood Magic simultaneously. I have not only the Diplomat skill but also three diplomat followers, am part of a trade network that will doubtless be disrupted if Gaia wins this battle, and have been diligently working at spreading my religion to anyone open to conversion, so I think I win on the diplomacy front. Most, if not all, of my allies are on hand to help me out. The answer to Gaia's Blood Magic is twelve fucking death knights. I also started with Necromancy, which is the same skillset the Lich Council had so I'm already prepared for it. Cult is countered by my spymaster and my own Cult, and Enchanting is countered by my own Enchanting, and also by twelve fucking death knights. We haven't even gotten into the extra perks provided by my complications, namely Earth Elementalism (with three minions), Form Shaping, and Godzilla, which Gaia does not benefit from - she only gets five.

With the six coins I will first buy a thirteenth death knight and, satisfied with my grotesque round table, I will pour all the rest into skeletons. For those counting at home, that's 1,020 skeletons led by thirteen death knights. The difference-maker here is going to be Godzilla and Enchanting. Specifically, I will give my hunters enchanted arrows which, when they strike a target (including the ground or a tree), cause a bright flash of brilliant blue light. The blue light being easily differentiated from natural light, this will be the targeting system for Godzilla. If the battle lasts long enough that Godzilla needs rest, he'll rest on one of the nearby desert islands. My navy will take shelter in friendly ports and used stored gold to buy and deliver food to Godzilla for as long as they can until battle's end.

>The Underdark

So, after I spend these two coins on additional skeletons, my forces are bulked up to a solid 1,140. Plus thirteen death knights, three earth elementals, my four brides, and my apprentice. The Drow have a force that might number as much as a thousand. They lose.

>>1643

>cont

>Crusade

Holy War is the most bullshit complication in the entire CYOA. Well, maybe Abholoth in the opposite direction qualifies for how much it gives you in exchange for what appears to be a fairly easy complication. It does require you to have a three shard dragon to ram into Abholoth himself, but that pays for itself and then some. Holy War has the opposite problem. The gods sling the equivalent of four fucking thousand coins of troops at you, two orders of magnitude higher than you could possibly afford. The only possible defense is to drown the problem in shards, which you get none of whatsoever for taking the complication.

Crusade, on the other hand, is pretty damn simple. Just like every other army, their routes in are the beaches or the tunnels, which means they get to dance with a giant army of pike-wielding skeletons in narrow spaces where they're impossible to outmaneuver or else they get to dodge Godzilla and my hunters before descending to the Earth and fighting through some tunnels anyway.

With the three coins, I'm going to get another set of skeletons, just so I have a nice even 1200 of them, then the Lawful Neutral flavor of the scholar angel to hang out in the library in my Godzilla castle mostly so that her calming aura will prevent Godzilla from going insane from his close encounter with Abholoth, and then I'll get a witch. The lack of one has been bugging me for a while.

>Sundries

So, Rogue Telepath can be taken care of by my alert town guard and my small army of death knights. Thieves Guild is zonked by my Spymaster and my Cultist infiltrators. Enemy Wizard shouldn't be much a match for the combined might of my witch, my apprentice, and myself. With one of the coins I'll buy a ghost, just so I can have an invisible alarm system in my castle, with another I'll buy a living armour bodyguard, and with the other three I finally have some spare coins to buy fun stuff, having dumped all the rest into making a completely impregnable and unstoppable domain. I'll snag a pirate captain, who apparently does not cause trouble with the neighbors the way bandits might, and point her at any kingdoms who refuse to trade with me for a steady income of gold and slaves. Then I'll grab 30 slaves and a succubus. With the pirate captain bringing in steady genetic diversity, I should be able to create a breeding population of blood dolls for myself and my brides. Plus, I have a succubus. Rather than bother with keeping her satisfied I'll probably just chain her to a wall. She can hardly complain about my being evil.

>>1644

>cont

Final build:

-Necromancy

-Demonic Magic

-Enchanting

-Cult

-Vampirism

-Blood Magic (free with Vampirism)

-Diplomat (free with Vampirism)

-Gold (free with Undercity) (14 coins)

-Earth Elementalism (from Abholoth)

-Form Shaping (from Dragon Pair)

-2 clerics (12 coins)

-2 missionaries (10 coins)

-1 scholar angel (9 coins)

-1 guild master (8 coins)

-1 guard unit (50 men) (7 coins)

-1 captain of the guard (6 coins)

-1 hunter unit (10 men) (5 coins)

-1 ranger (4 coins)

-4 merchants (0 coins)

-4 ship captains (-4 coins)

-3 diplomats (-7 coins)

-1 spymaster (-8 coins)

-1 master worker (-9 coins)

-1 blacksmith (-10 coins)

-1 Godzilla (from Abholoth)

-1 witch (-11 coins)

-1 bard (-12 coins)

-1 living armour (-13 coins)

-1 pirate captain (-14 coins)

-2 slave units (60 slaves) (-16 coins)

-1 cultist unit (10 cultists) (-17 coins)

-20 skeleton units (1200 skeletons) (-37 coins)

-13 death knights (-50 coins)

-1 ghost (-51 coins)

-Monster Invasion (-47 coins)

-Crusade (-44 coins)

-Demon Lord (-36 coins)

-Rebellion (-35 coins)

-The King (-29 coins)

-Assassins*3 (-26 coins)

-Disguised Assassins (-24 coins)

-Dark Riders (-22 coins)

-The Underdark (-20 coins)

-Force of Nature (-14 coins)

-Orc Bounty Hunter (-11 coins)

-Sister Sorceress (-9 coins)

-Lich Council (-5 coins)

-Enemy Wizard (-3 coins)

-Rogue Telepath (-1 coins)

-Mad Elementalist (1 coin)

-Thieves' Guild (2 coins)

-Merchant Inheritor (4 coins)

Seems I did some math wrong. Sounds like an excellent excuse to buy even more skeletons.

>fin

>>1648

>You certainly have the power of the First Vampire

Not what the CYOA says. CYOA says I am the first vampire. Now, this CYOA is generally pretty sloppily constructed, but did the OP forget that the player is the first vampire when statting hunters, or did he mean "progenitor vampire" when he said "first vampire?" Well, unless he shows up to clarify, what he said was first vampire. How do hunters find out how to kill something that doesn't exist yet? Who the fuck knows, but the bounty hunter doesn't, because he's only described as being prepared for magic users.

Even ignoring that, he's an orc in a non-orc city incredibly densely packed with skeletons under orders to kill any orcs they see, because there was an orc invasion. The skeletons probably can't kill him, but they are damn well going to alert things that can kill him to his presence, including my ghost, which can follow him around without making any noise until he's in my citadel, then give away his position to my living armour, my brides, plus any death knights or my apprentice who might happen to be around.

>They could entrap a important guest in the ship so you were forced to use your skeletons on them.

I have a few flaws to point out in the orcs' "trap someone on a boat" plan. The first flaw is Godzilla. The next couple of flaws are also Godzilla. Even if their fleet manages to actually get close enough to the docks to actually capture anyone, and even if they happen to be around when an important guest is at shore rather than in my city, and even if this guest happens to be so important that I can't torch the entire ship and tell his homeland that the orcs killed him, then I can just fry all their support ships with Godzilla and then have my navy storm the ship with the guest.

>You're in a City in the Sky.

You're confused. I'm on an island, not in the sky, and my undercity borders the underdark. Islands big enough to sustain large populations almost always have mountains, because they are mountains, partially submerged. This is especially true because my island contains gold mines and a network of tunnels underneath. If it were a pure sand island, neither of these would be possible. A sufficiently large city could spread from a mountain to underneath, but my city is 2000 people, which is actually really small, so it's fairly safe to say the entire thing is under the mountain. Even if it isn't, I can just move my people (again, only 2000 of them) into the tunnels beneath the dragons' lair (which is likely near the top of the mountain anyway) before collapsing the mountain on top of them.

If my island somehow has gold mines and an undercity but doesn't have a mountain big enough to pulverize dragons, which is theoretically possible, so sure, then I can just seal them into their cavern while they sleep and keep my earth elementals on rotating shifts keeping them trapped inside until my scholar angel informs me that the dragons must have reached the point of starvation. If I'm not confident in that, I can open up a small gap in their prison just big enough for Godzilla to fill the entire chamber with a never-ending stream of improved behemoth-grade fire. He might not be agile enough to fight them directly, but if they're trapped in their lair and he's just filling it with fire, he doesn't need to be. I could also just use a skeleton bucket brigade to fill the cavern with water and wait for them to drown. Or I can build up enough enchanted ballistae bolts until my skeleton soldiers can darken the skies with them and spam them at the dragons. Or I can just swarm them with thirteen fucking death knights. Or I can just not take the complication at all, because I don't actually need the spare shard, I'm just killing these fuckers pretty much because I can.

>>1625

>>1644

There are valid points here and there, but does anyone even HAVE the font this CYOA uses? If so, that would be nice.

>>1661

It's darn close to arial.

>>1667

If someone's going to revise the CYOA, in addition to what's already been mentioned, please change the complications so that the size of their army is #1 explicit (there's no indication whatsoever how big the monster invasion or king's army actually is, which makes it hard to plan for) and #2 not dependent on the size of your own army or population. The way desert and tundra are the only ones who get bigger populations is weird to begin with, but the way they get double-fucked over by nasty invasion is bullshit. Likewise, the way the lich's army size is tied to your own. It's basically telling anyone who bought the swarms of weak soldiers instead of small cohorts of strong ones to fuck off because the enemy's army is arbitrarily as large as yours.

Also, the population is ridiculous small and seems to have been set under the impression that most or all of a population can be mobilized for war. The actual number of people who can be mobilized for war is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-20%, depending on various factors, which means that the 400 rebelling peasants in the tier two revolt option is literally your entire available militia under the very best circumstances.

Overlord CYOA

Complications

Abholoth (+4 shards)

Mutation (+2 Shards)

Dragon Pair (+1 Shard)

Monster Invasion (+4 Coins)

Holy War (+5 Coins)

The Demon Lord (+8 Coins)

Coup (+2 Coins)

The King+Hold Fast (+16 Coins)

Assassins x3 (+3 Coins)

Dark Riders x3 (+6 Coins)

Force of Nature (+6 Coins)

Orc Bounty Hunter x3 (+9 Coins)

Sister Sorceress (+2 Coins)

Lich Council (+4 Coins)

Enemy Wizard x3 (+6 Coins)

Rogue Telepath x3 (+6 Coins)

Mad Elementalist x3 (+6 Coins)

Chilled Existence + Thorn of Cold (+4 Shards)

Thieves Guild x3 (+6 Coins)

Merchant Inheritor x3 (+6 Coins)

Totals: Shards=11, Gold=95

Housing: Cliffside Castle (+1 Shard)

Domain: Island

Advisor: Familiar (+1 Magic Perk)

Shards: 17+1Magic Perk

Perks

Magic Perk: Demonic Magic

Muscles (16)

Cult (15)

Diplomat (14) (Hypnotic Gaze)

Study (13)

Necromancy (12)

The Mind (11)

Telepathy x2 (9)

Enchanting (8)

Blood Magic (Vampirism)

Alchemy x2 (6)

Elementalismx2 (Fire-Mastery) (4)

Natural Leader (3)

Form Changing (2)

Shadow Bending (1)

Immortality: Vampirism (0 Shards) Grants “Hypnotic Gaze” and “Blood Magic”

Followers: 100 Gold

Fallen Angel x5 (95)

Apprentice (94)

Cook (93)

Captain of the Guard (92)

Squad of Guards x5 (87) (60 archers, 150 footmen)

Knight x5 (82)

Ranger (81)

Unit of Hunters x3 (78) (30 men)

Ship Captain x3 (75)

Diplomat (74)

Spymaster (73)

Master Worker x3 (70) (Farming, Mining, Construction)

Blacksmith (69)

Beast Master (68)

Dryad (67)

Harem (64) (Various types of song and dance, various types of art)

Pet Dragon (54) (Dragonborn: Umbral, Magic (Blood Magic), Human Form, Bond, Hatchling, Intelligence and Cunning)

Takwin x2 (52)

Witch (51)

Bard (50)

Black Knight x5 (45)

Pirate Captain (44)

Slaves x2 (42)

Cultist x4 (38) (Wind, Earth, Water, Fire)

Cultist Group x2 (36)

Nosferatu x2 (34)

Blood Knight x5 (29)

Lesser Vampire (28)

Thrall x2 (26)

Zombies (25) (40 undead)

Death Knight x10 (15)

Succubus (14)

Demon Warrior x10 (4)

Umbran x2 (0)

Character Name: Alexius the Thrice Cursed

Dealing with complications!

Thorn of Cold will be dealt with through a combination of my dragonborn and familiar (took Bond for a reason). The dragon can use its magic and my familiars advice (through me) to break me out. The thing never said it was impossible to escape, just hard to find. Everything else happens after that. Mutation 2 and Chilled Existence will be cured with a combination of all my magics, but mostly an Alchemy/Blood Magic/Necromancy ritual to break the curse/return my form. I’ll just use Telepathy to deal with Coup. I can just kill the leaders before it even gets going. I’ll convince the Sister Sorceress to join through my charisma or hypnotic gaze. Or I can just make her one of my brides. Assassins are simply a non threat. With the power I can throw around the most they can do is die at me. Dark Riders, Orc Bounty Hunters, Enemy Wizards, Rogue Telepaths, and Mad Elementalists are again, non threats. I’ll fight the Dark Riders and Orc Bounty Hunters, my Demon Warriors can fight the wizards, Blood Knights will deal with the telepaths, and Death Knights will butcher the elementalists. I would expect zero casualties. I’ll feed the Thieves Guilds to my Nosferatu and build up their numbers.

Now, I intend for Abeloth, Dragon Pair, Monster Invasion, Holy War, The Demon Lord, The King + Hold Fast, Force of Nature, Lich Council, and Merchant Inheritor(s) to cancel each other out. All of them belong to different factions, with different goals, alignments, and purposes. And all of them want the same patch of clay. I’ll just sit back and watch the holy forces battle Abeloth and The Demon Lord while the humans, monsters, dragons, and nature spirits kill each other off. No matter who wins each fight, they’ll kill each other too. During the fighting I’ll just camp out in my super fortified castle training and studying (and building up those forces that I can grow through infection). I can nuke anything that get too close and everyone else has more important targets than me. Sure the peasants are fucked, but who cares about those guys?

And also, that’s why I have pirates and slaves. I can just rebuild after all the gods are done killing each other. I could also probably pick up the Philospher’s Stone using the human armies as sacrifices. Maybe even kill enough to pick up a variant Demonic Form without the catch too.

>>1807

>If I have enough invaders they'll cancel each other out.

I dunno man. If the choice was real I wouldn't try what you're trying.

>>1807

I thought you had an plan but you didn't.

You made a few mistakes: You can't take both complications on a single block. That is, Chilled Existence + Thorn of Cold isn't possibly, the only exception is The King+Hold Fast. That's 10 Shards for you(Or 8 if you choose Thorn of Cold instead).

Ignoring all the other mistakes in "everyone will end up fighting each other"…

if Aboloth happens to win the conflict(He's already on your shores, while others are marching for you, so I'd expect you had a contingency plan anyways), what will you do? How do you move the country?

>>1810

"Shrugs" That's one less shard and it really needed a gold to shard conversion. So i lose hypnotic gaze.

>>1808

As I read it, Abeloth will take time to actually awaken and show up, it's just that he will be summoned no matter what.

And on the lot fighting each other; It's why I chose to be a fortified location in part of an Island chain. All I would have to do is evacuate the civilians to my citadel and wait this shit out.

Dragon's Pair explicitly says the lizards are aggressive, fight together, and are looking to nest in my territory. Abeloth is an immediate threat. The Nature spirits are Fae and tied to the land. At worst all they'll do is keep the invaders off my islands as long as possible. At best, they'll be a solid shield until I need to kill them. Their goal is the explicit repulsion of "invaders". The spirit itself would likely help against Abeloth.

Now I don't see these guys actually stopping Cthulu. Slowing him, yes. Stopping him…eh. But at this point everything else out to have shown up.

So the way I see it going down is the merchant inheritors agree to a cease fire and join up with the king's army. A joint human force if you will. I'd seed islands in their path with zed and noferatu to slow them down and build up my numbers, but I'd make sure they make it to the orcs in time.

Now, the Orcs goal is to occupy the land. And they are suicidally committed to this goal. I can let them slam into the natives, The Army of the Sea, and get fucked by the titans.

The council of liches would probably pull out when they saw the shit going down, but if they don't, that's why I brought the fallen angels.Take out the liches, take control of their armies.

Since my sister joined me and added her army of magical followers (equal in value to 100 coins) to my own, I have little doubt I could blitz the liches.

At this point in time, I'd see the island chain as being in my enemy's hands, with me just holding my capitol. However, the demon horde and holy army ought to have shown up to see a fuck ton of undead everywhere, orcs on half the islands, dragons rampaging, and an eldritch abomination rising out of the see.

The Demons will fight for shits and giggles and the Angels will fight because it's the "right thing to do"

Once the dragons are dead I'll rez them as my dracolichs and this entire time I've been training and studying with no upper limit on my physical strength or magical power.

As soon as Abeloth is driven off I'll kill the war god when he's still weak, hopefully draining his power. And then I'll turn my attention to the Demon Lord. I'll probably blitz him too, killing and draining him as quickly as possible.

At this point Abeloth, the war god, the demon lord, the dragons, and the nature spirit should probably be dead. My islands should be a smoking ruin (why I brought the dryad) and their armies should be in disarray. Now, I unleash my swarm of nosferatu I've been building up since the start of this fight. The bats will go island to island purging each one before moving onto the next. My non human forces will follow behind with my human soldiers and fallen angels holding the capitol in my absence. My dragon will be there to inform me of shit going down and I'll pretty much be mopping shit up at this point.

>>1916

Faceless goons don't have plot armor.

I wrote a story

Abholoth (+4 Shards)

Mutation (+2 Shards)

Dragon Pair (+1 Shard)

Monster Invasion (+4 Coins)

Holy War (+5 Coins)

The Demon Lord (+8 Coins)

Coup (+2 Coins)

The King + Hold Fast (+16 Coins)

Assassins x3 (+3 Coins)

Dark Riders x3 (+6 Coins)

Force of Nature + Angered Natives (+7 Coins)

Orc Bounty Hunter x3 (+9 Coins)

Sister Sorceress (+2 Coins)

Lich Council (+4 Coins)

Enemy Wizard x3 (+6 Coins)

Rogue Telepath x3 (+6 Coins)

Mad Elementalist x3 (+6 Coins)

Throne of Cold (+3 Shards)

Thieves’ Guild x3 (+3 Coins)

Merchant Inheritor x3 (+6 Coins)

Total Bonus Shards = 10

Total Bonus Coins = 93

Housing: Dragon’s Back

Advisor: The Familiar (white cat with red eyes)

Shards: 15 + free magic perk

Perks: Muscles (14), Cult (13), Diplomat (12), Study (11), Demonic Magic (free magic perk), Necromancy (10), The Mind (9), Telepathy x2 (7), Enchanting (6), Blood Magic (free from Vampirism), Alchemy x2 (4), Natural Leader (3), Form Changing (2), Shadow Bending (1)

Immortality: Vampirism (-1 Shard, Hypnotic Gaze + Blood Magic for free)

Coins: 103

Followers:

Apprentice (102)

Fallen Angel x10 (92)

Captain of the Guard (91)

Squad of Guards x4 (87) 120 archers

Knight x4 (83)

Ranger (82)

Diplomat (81)

Spymaster (80)

Master Worker x2 (78, areas are: Construction, Mining)

Blacksmith (77)

Dragon x3 (47)

Takwin x2 (45)

Black Knight x4 (41)

Cultist x4 (37, one in each element)

Cultist Group x2 (35)

Nosferatu x5 (30, 50 total)

Blood Knight x5 (25)

Skeleton Gang x10 (15, 600 total)

Death Knight x5 (10)

Harem (6, 30 total, skills in poetry, art, massage)

Thrall x2 (4)

Cook (3)

Bard (2)

Slaves x2 (0)

Dragons: 4

Behemoth: Type: Skeletal, Perks: Intimidation, Enhanced Breath, Bond, Hatchling

Drake: Color: Red, Perks: Enhanced Breath, Dragon Riding, Bond, Hatchling

Drake: Color: Red, Perks: Enhanced Breath, Strong Scales, Bond, Hatchling

Dragon Born: Type: Umbral, Perks: Magic, Human Form, Bond, Hatchling (free), Intelligence and Cunning

My Plan Bitches: First off, I exploit the combination of The Familiar and the fact I’m bonded with four dragons, all of which are absolutely loyal to me to neutralize Throne of Cold. The Familiar tells me where I’m hidden, I send the thoughts to my Dragon Born, they lead my babies to rescue me (this is where the Human Form comes into play). The fact that she would have two other dragons backing her up during the search means that no one is going to say no and they out to have enough magic to get rid of the ice.

Now, I’m currently in a really, really bad place. Mostly because of the Mutation. I’m in constant pain, I can’t think straight, and I can’t rule directly. I need to deal with that ASAP. I’m more than willing to bet that a combination of Blood/Demon magic, Alchemy, Necromancy, and Enchanting can offer me an out.

>>1920

Next, I deal with Dragon Pair. All the other Complications take time to either occur or deal with; this one ought to be pretty simple. I kick the shit out of them. I start with telling them to fuck off and come and take my loot if they want it. Considering they’re dragons they ought to take the bait. Once they show up I have my three mobile dragons waiting out of sight and let my Behemoth send me the visuals on them. At this moment I launch the ambush, having my soldiers on the ground firing off projectiles/shooting magic. As the dragons come around for a pass, my dragons and I launch our attack. My goal isn’t to directly kill the dragons, but rather force them into range for my Behemoth to kill. If possible, I’d like to recover the female’s body, cut it open, and capture any fertilized eggs. Once the pair is killed (casualties should be limited to the plebs and archers, anyone with value would hide during this event), my Behemoth lands and I have the plebs excavate the dragon’s loot (if they keep any I feed them to the Nosferatu). While they do this, I munch on the essence of the dragons and hopefully their brains.

Then I promptly nope the fuck out of my starting location. This should deal with Force of Nature + Angry Natives, if it does not I simply wait for whatever the fuck is sent after me and burn it alive with my dragons in what is essentially an air born drive by. As a point of order, I devour the essence of at least one of each race represented here (if possible, the strongest and most attractive of each race) and if possible, the essence of the Force itself.

At this Point Monster Invasion has likely conquered the lands where my Behemoth used to live. I promptly send a highly rude and sarcastic letter declaring my independence from and wishing the best of luck in reclaiming the hell hole I’ve left behind to The King. Hold Fast, Merchant Inheritor, and Thieves Guild should likely be dealt with at this point. If the guild is on the dragon itself I simply mind read the commoners until I find the leaders and feed them to my vampires, dragons, or plebs (depending on my mood and how far along I’ve come with my magic/how hungry anybody is at the time). For Assassin, Orc Bounty Hunter, Enemy Wizard, Rogue Telepath, and Mad Elementalist I wait until they show up, kidnap them, and then promptly eat their brains. Form Changing lets me gain their knowledge and I have a convenient group of skilled individuals from whom to learn. I don’t think Dark Rider will be able to affect me and if they can I’ll simply have the Fallen Angels use their minor smite and then move in with a combined Vampire Knight/Death Knight kill team and finish them off.

I imagine that Sister Sorceress will reveal herself to the Coup, she does want to rule, and if they can kill me, they’re a threat to her. Either way I just spy on the traitors until they give me just cause to investigate my sister. At this point I seduce my sister (yay for incest) and turn her into a Vampire Bride. I have Diplomat, Hypnotic Gaze, The Mind, and Natural Leader at my disposal, it really shouldn’t be that difficult since she just wants power. Now, the leaders of the rebellion are mad an abject lesson. I publicly rip them apart using Form Changing, Blood Magic, and my super strength to make it particularly brutal. Marshalling my forces, I conduct a purge. All members of my forces are to be converted to my Cult, and the 103 coins worth of magical followers are be bound by magic to my service until they join my cult as well. My end game is complete guarantee of loyalty from both my warriors and my plebs.

At this moment, the only standing forces of any significance are Holy War, The Demon Lord, Abholoth, the Lich Council and any surviving human and monster forces. They are all conveniently in the lands I abandoned way bake when and fighting each other to death over it. The angels would identify Abholoth and the demons as a major threat, the undead, greenskins, and humans are all butchering each other over the same bit of clay, and I’ve done absolutely nothing to anger any of these groups up until this point.

>>1921

First off, all members of my forces now belong to my cult and are fanatically loyal. Secondly, I turn all key human units (my diplomat, spymaster, captain of the guard, blacksmith, master workers, bard, and ranger) into lesser vampires. I have my knights’ finish training their squires and turn them into Blood Knights. I make my Apprentice a second vampire bride (she will not be forced, I may be evil, I’m not going to start raping people). With my forces organized I begin a campaign of destruction. My goals are 1) to acquire as many shards as possible 2) to recruit The Priestess and the Demonic Secretary while making the former my third vampire bride 3) acquire a golem workshop and master golemancy 4) create, improve, and then utilize a philosopher’s stone. This goal is only complete once I can create a stone that gives me unlimited (if not completely used up) enhanced magic. I will make several redundant stones, if possible I will merge them to make a stronger stone 4) master all aspects of elementalism 5) train my Muscles to as high a level as possible while gaining combat experience 6) summon, kill, and devour the essence and brains of the demon that granted me vampirism (this is flexible, if it’s too powerful I’ll kill it later) 7) find a homeland for my empire. It must be a highly wealthy and highly defensible location. A magically powerful location is desirable (I do not need to conquer it now) 8) create a Weapon (war spear, ~350 cm, black shaft, as powerful a head as I can get, preferably an adamantium/dragon bone tip, the spear itself will be granted as much in the way of power and magic as I can get my hands on) to serve as a tie to the mortal plane. The tie will be to a focus point and will be changeable or removable. Cost is no issue. 9) to devour the essence of as many species as possible 10) Grow and train in both martial skills and magic as much as possible. This is a general goal and I’ll work on it as I can.

I’ll open my campaign by placing cultists in as many kingdoms as I can, as quietly as I can. My targets will be poor locations with large numbers of disaffected people. They’ll identify possible recruits and locate both potential and talented magic users. My second move will be the simultaneous abduction of as many magical powerful children as I can get my hands on. Thirdly, I will then begin using my shadow power to locate, mind rape, devour, and/or enslave as many potential magical threats as I can. This part will be a lightning campaign and very non-subtle. While I draw attention to myself, cultists will be locating ruins and places of magical significance while further spreading my religion and identifying my targets (see points 1, 2, 3, 7, and 9). During this time, my dragon-born, apprentice, and sister will begin spreading plagues of undeath and vampirism in any vulnerable areas they can target. Necromantic and demonic cults will be used as cats paws to minimize the threat to themselves while I pull in any major attention. Once my forces are in place to overthrow a nation I will personally ride my dragon to overthrow each location while gathering my recruits. Individuals who I find worthy and are sufficiently (fanatically) loyal to me will be placed within my personal army. Plebs will be used as either foodstuffs or a labor force. My worshippers will rule these lands and prepare to create my empires homeland. With a massive force of undead now on the field I move to secure as many of my remaining goals as I can (shards, magic, etc. etc.). The undead buy me the time I need and once my preparations are complete I hammer out peace treaties/vassalization of a wall of human nations (I’ll burn any that refuse with my dragons).

With my forces ready, resources gathered, and army prepared I halt everything. I send out spies to force any nearby and uncommitted forces to join the massive six way war (with things being as bad as they are I doubt they’ll have time to hunt me down). Absolutely everyone that can join this war, will join this war. While those forces are moving I tear down the citadel on my Behemoth and rebuild it. The entire thing is to be rebuilt from the ground up, construction will be sped up through magic and superhumanly strong beings assisting in the building. I’ll ensure that as much magic is infused into each and every piece of material used as possible and this thing should be absurd in the power and wealth required to build it (I’ll use forced labor if I have to). Since this will take some time, my undead and nosferatu will be summoned to the Six Way War. Their targets are any and everyone, minor necromancers will keep my undead from taken from me.

>>1922

Once my new citadel is finished being built I’ll prepare my main army. They’ll consist of (at least) 250 cultists of each element, 500 black knights, 500 blood knights, 1000 death knights, and 2000 demon warriors. This will be my personal army; however, this force will be supplemented with tens of thousands of lesser undead, as many nosferatu as I can deploy, ghost and living shadow scouts, swarms of imps, flights of succubi, and as many umbrans and nightmares as I can summon/create. My personal guard will include ten fallen angels (if I recruit more, they’ll serve as officers for the human forces), ten takwin, and thirty specially enhanced living armors.

The citadel will include my throne room, necessities for housing my men, three dragon roosts (for my lesser dragons), a library, all forms of workshops necessary, a vault housing my artifacts and wealth, and any other forms of necessities. The defense force will be made up of takwin, living armors, and constructs bound to the citadel.

My real drive into the Six Way War begins now. I’ll lead my forces and crush the Lich Council, devour their essence, absorb their power, and take command of their undead. At this point I’ll butcher the Monster Invasion up until they submit to me. With my combined forces I’ll now push on and finish off all remaining human forces in the area (that aren’t loyal to me), this includes the Merchant Inheritor, The King, and Hold Fast. With the attention of the remaining armies on me, I push towards The Demon Lord and I engage him in single combat. My goal is to kill him in single combat, devour his essence, and gain command of his forces. With these new powers and his men under my command I’ll press the angels, again force their leader (the war god) into single combat and kill him, devour his essence, and force the surviving angels to swear fealty to me or I’ll devour them all. With my new powers and warriors I’m now prepared to push on Abholoth. I’ll throw my lesser undead, demons whose loyalty is in question, and nosferatu against its followers, butchering them to the last. After that I’ll commit as many non sentient troops that I have left, excluding umbrans, and clear a path with what should be tens if not hundreds of thousands of undead/demons and let my Behemoth hit Abholoth itself in the face until the damn thing dies. The enhanced breath perks should really pay dividends here.

With everything else but my men dead, I’ll crown myself the Demon God, recreate a Weapon that’s both visually identical and far, far more powerful to my former weapons (it will use my demonic and divine powers) and promptly conquer every remaining mortal kingdom while corrupting/converting as many of the angels as I can. My end game is to devour all of the gods, conquer hell, and master all of the magics of that world before creating an empire capable of sustaining itself and investing into science as much as it can. While this is going on I’m going to take my brides, my now far, far, far, more powerful dragons and go exploring the multiverse. Of course I’ll learn as much magic as I can along the way and eat as many powerful people as I can. If possible, I’d like to pop over to the nasu-verse and pick up some magical circuits (or make my own) along with defining exactly how each type of power works while expanding the lot of them.

>>1620

>2000 people

The creator really underestimates the size of medieval settlements and domains.

So I have a handful of noble houses that are of the gentry class. I either rule a town that is dependent on trade from neighboring domains for food or my castle has a village around it at best, with the rest being rural.

Complications:

CULT OF THE SEA + ABHOLOTH

THRONE OF COLD

DRAGON PAIR

MONSTER INVASION

REBELLION

THE KING + HOLD FAST

DEMON LORD

CRUSADE

LICH COUNCIL

ASSASSINS x3

MERCHANT INHERITOR x3

GUERILLA RANGERS

ORC BH x3

TELEPATH x3

WIZARD x3

ELEMENTALIST x3

SISTER SORCERESS

DARK RIDERS x3

84 COIN TOTAL

13 SHARDS

Housing

City in the sky

Domain

Island

Secretary

Demonic Secretary

I'm taking City in the sky because its so easily defensible. Taking "Island" as my domain presumably puts the location of the floationg City over open waters. Imagine having to attack a floating city using sailboats? Thats crazy easy to defend. I have some sort of magnetic elevator, so trade ships and other vessels should be able to be tended to, if I want it. I long considered getting The Priestess, to legitimize my cult and get Worshipped instead of Vampirism. However Vampirism was just better. No caveats about my immortality, and free magic and Diplomat etc. If I'm not going for Worship, I dont really need The Priestess. In her place, I took the Secretary, because of the semi stealth build I'm going for. She can help me manage my kingdom, aswell as help with strategy.

13 shards

(13) Behemoth Dragon

(10) Giant Dragon

(7) Necromancy

(6) Cult

(5) Demonic Magic

(4) Vampirism

(+) Diplomat

(+) Blood Magic

(3) Shadowbending

(2) Formchanging

(1) Telepathy

84 coins

Civilians 24 Points

Maintenance 3 points

1 Blacksmith

1 Cook

1 Unit of Hunters

1 Slave (30)

Pretty straightforward here, the hunters are to scout and protect the villagers initially from whatever bandits I may have on my islands, aswell as the natives, until I can get back from my frosty throne. Blacksmiths repair and make steel stuff. Cooks cook. Slaves are mainly as sustenance for the vampire population on the islands. Raiders will get more.

Trade & Production 11 points

4 Guild Masters

1 Master Worker

4 Merchants

2(+2) Airships for the merchants (plus two from Housing benefit)

Since I've got almost literally the whole world against me, I need a strong economy and manufacturing base. I've got four Guild Masters in my town, and since the loss of them would damage the economy of the whole kingdom, I'm sure they'd be quite reluctant to attack just from that.The merchats use the four airships, while I'm producing more, to trade goods and transport people to and from my floating islands. I'm supposed to get a bonus to tourism too, but I guess thats not happening until the wars are over.

Intelligence and Propaganda 13 points

5 Harem (1 basepoint, 1 to increase size by 10, 3 points to teach language skills, interrogation skills and usage in mind-altering drugs)

4 Diplomats

1 Spymaster

1 Bard

2 Cultist group

The idea is that all four diplomats will get their instructions from my demon secretary and spymaster, and then go with the merchants to their destination. There, they will increase my influence and get better deals for me. Cultists will spread out and infiltrate important organizations, again on the secretary and spymasters instructions. The harem will be used to extract any potentially beneficial information from tourists, visiting diplomats and citizens, while the bard will spread propaganda about my greatness.

Military 59

Warriors 16 coins

5 = 1 Captain of the Guard with 4 Squads of Guards (90 archers and 50 footmen)

1 Knight

6 4 Blood Knights

4 Lesser Vampire

2 Nosferatu (20)

I dont really have a powerful military conventional military. They're mostly for keeping the peace, and defending against initial native attacks until myself and the dragonborn can dispose of all the natives. Three squads of guards are archers, the last is one of footmen, and a knight to train them and keep them up to date. The lesser vampires are my brides, and should be stronger than normal ones. The blood knights are my personal guard.

Magic users 6 coins

4 Cultists (1 of each element)

1 Apprentice

1 Witch

Two elementals to control the winds around my islands, and a mix of magic talent, with a witch providing hexes, and the cultists pool their magic into what I'm sure can be pretty cool stuff. The apprentice follows me wherever I go, learning and doing shitty tasks for me.

Raiders 5 coins

4 Pirate Captains

1 Bandit Leader with 2 Bandit Gangs.

The pirate captains will each use their ships to pillage and raid enemy trade vessels and coastal villages, taking slaves (myself and the other vampires need a lot of blood) and riches back home. The bandit gangs will be sent out on one of the first airships, with instructions to raid whoever is being an asshole to me at the given moment. My merchants can easily fence whatever they bring back.

Dragons 30 coins 6 shards

3 shards Behemoth Dragon

3 shards Giant Dragon

20 coins x2 Drakes

10 coins x1 Dragonborn

Yep. Five dragons.

Dragon 1: Bronze Behemoth

Bond

Enhanced Breath

Magic (Necromancy)

Strong Scales

Dragon 2: Red Giant

Bond

Hatchling

Dragonriding

Intimidating

Dragon 3 & 4: Blue Drake

Bond (free)

Enhanced Breath

Spiked

Strong Scales

Elementalism (Ice/water)

Dragon 5: Black Dragonborn

Hatchling (free)

Magic (Shadowbending)

Elementalism (wind)

Bond

Intelligence and Cunning

Combat strategy.

My most pressing concern is the icy carbonite block I've been stuck in. But what most dont have that I do, is five dragons bonded to my mind. Everything I see, they see. Dragon #5, the Dragonborn, shares my shadowbending magic. She should be able to shadowbend into wherever I'm at, and call the cavalry. The dragonborn is intelligent and cunning, and pooling all the magic I have at my disposal, the four elements through the cultists, electricity, the different kinds of magic, witch and the dragon breaths I'm sure a way can be found to get me out of there.

I'd catch a ride back home, because I've got Abholoth at my doorstep. But honestly.. Dragons. Standard combat tactic using my dragons is that my Bronze Behemoth, which can fly even up into space, acts like a sort of artillery, with very long range lightning bolts delivered where I command them, through bond. It also knows necromancy, to help boost me in my necromantic spells to raise the dead from the battlefields. The Red Giant dragon is my personal mount, and it shoots fire and is scary as hell.

The two blue drakes are excellent swimmers, which helps in the underneath around my floating islands. If hostile ships approach me, which they must if they want to try to attack me, my blue drakes can make short work of the presumably wooden ships. With Enhanced Breath, their water jets cut through steel, and spikes with strong scales makes for a very difficult opponent to take down. My dragonborn is a clever one, and likes the dark as much as I do. I wont be stepping out in sunlight anyways, so she doesnt need to either. She will Shadowbend with me to assassinate targets, and using wind magic I'm sure her acid spit could be terrifying.

Complications

Admittedly, nearly all of these complications can be solved through dragons. Complications The king + Hold fast, Lich Council, Crusade, The Demon Lord, Merchant Inheritor and Monster Invasion all require enemies to have some form of transport, presumably seagoing vessels. My Blue Drakes would have a field day. Swimming around under the ships and using their water jet breaths to break the keels of the ships. I suppose the Demon Lord could fly with his wings, and the undead army from the Liches could walk on the ocean floor, but.. Dragons. The demon lord would get water shot at him from the Blue Drakes, and then the Bronze Behemoth will zap him from outer space. I'm stuck fighting a rebellion aswell, but I cant imagine that having my dragons destroy demon lords and void creatures wouldnt give me a boost in popularity. Either way they'd know not to fuck with me. Sister Sorceress should realize that she should fuck off too, or she'll get zapped aswell. I could potentially make her an ally through my vampirism though. I just need to get close enough.

I'm also being attacked by nine other magic users. Three wizards, three telepaths and three elementalists. Being on a floating island helps with seeing when they come, because from their descriptions, they like to make an entrance too. I have a lot of magic on my side too though, and before long I should be devouring their knowledge through Formchanger and Blood Magic. There are two dragons however, that think they can challenge me and demand tribute. They can fuck off. The tactic against the two dragons is to have the Blue Drakes shoot water at the dragons to act as a conductor for the artillerystrikes from Bronze Behemoth. My mount, a red Giant, should be able to fry them up pretty good too, with its enhanced fire breath. Once zapped, the theory is that they'll be stunned and my Blue Drakes can pull them down into the blue, drowning them. The Drakes have Stronger Scales so they should be able to survive much deeper depths and the attacking dragons seem to be Red dragons from the description, and would not tolerate water well at all. Theres also the Dark Riders to deal with. They only come out at night, and me and my dragonborn loves the night, so I think they'd be shit out of luck if they were trying to kidnap my citizens. Similarly, the Guerilla Rangers have nothing to put up against myself and my dragonborn. We can shadowmeld, see perfectly at night, and easily bloodbend them to death from the shadows. It'd literally be a bloodbath. Afterwards my Red dragon can go and burn the shit out of their village or whatever, since I'll know exactly where it is from the combination of bloodbending, telepathy and formchanging. The Orc Bounty Hunter and assassins are presumably already here, or are sneaking their way onto my islands somehow. Either way, I'm nearly invisible in shadows, and my telepathy would tell me wherever someone is really. I cant be jumped, and well, I have five dragons.

>>1938

Hey Anon, I noticed a couple issues. First off, your drakes don't get the Bond perk free, secondly, how do you acquire the elevator?

It also seems like feeding your dragons (the behemoth and giant) would be rather difficult if your only real food source is the ocean (the giant would probably eat multiple whales itself).

The CYOA also states that only you can slay the Demon Lord, what's your plan to kill him? I'm assuming that as it was explicitly stated that only you can kill him that you must be the one to strike the killing blow.

In general I would question how you would deal with things if your dragons were slain. Additionally, what would you do if you were forced into personal battle?

On that note, I was the author of >>1920 would you mind giving me your thoughts on mine?

Complications:

Deformity +1c

Dragon Pair +1S

Abholoth +4S

Cult of the Sea +1c

The Warlord +4c

Coup +2c

The King +6c

Angered Natives x2 +2c

Lich Council +4c

Enemy Wizard x4 +8c

Sister Sorcerer +2

Housing:

Cliffside Castle +1S

Domain:

Coastline

Advisor:

The Familiar +1 MPerk

= +6S / +30c / +ExtraPerk

Perks: 5S+6S

Enchanting -Free

Runic Armor -1S

Muscle -1S

Natural Leader -1S

Intimidation -1S

The Mind -1S

Followers: 10c + 30c

Scholar Angel -1c

Angel x2 -10c

Captain of the Guard -1c

Squad of Guars x4 -4c

Knight -1c

Troop of Cavalry x4 -4c

Blacksmith -1c

Guild Master -1c *Metallurgy

Master Worker -1c

Ranger -1c

Unity of Hunters x2 -2c

Living Armor x2 -2c

Pet Dragon x3 -10C/-6S

1-Bronze and Brown Dragonne

Dragonriding

Inteligence and Cuning

Spiked

Strong Scales.

2-Golden Behemoth

Bond

Benevolence

Enhanced Breath

Hatchiling

3-Golden Behemoth

Bond

Intimidation

Strong Scales

Hatchling

>>2032

That's a lot of complications.

Are you sure you're up for it?

>>2034

3 Dragons,2 of them are behemoths that don't require food and the other is for mounting.

>Dragon Pair vs My Dragon pair + Me and my riding dragon + 2 Angels

Even if the behemoths ain't fully grown because of "hatchiling I should be able to bribe the Pair.)

The mind perk allows me to indentify the nobles and my "evil sister".Both intimidation and benevolence from my dragons lower any chance of rebelions and fuck the natives.

My Living Armors and Angels can help me deal with The Wizards.

As of me having the angels would be that I was the apprentice of a paladin and got highly burned after helping the Dragonne save 2 dragon eggs from "poachers".

After claiming my domain and discovering ancient texts of the art of soul enchanting I Bound my own souls to a really good armor,ataining imortality whitout giving offense to the gods as the angel on my library told me after asking.Not only that,but they are really happy on having an immortal servant.

And no undead Army can stand in front of the combined might of SolarBreath from my dragons and the holy light of the angels.Not to say that I could learn those light powers in time.

The King and his generals would likely run away from the dragons,if not from fear of insulting the gods who gladly lend me their might angels who not many in this world can rival…But of course the real trouble would be the unworldly beings from the sea.

From that is to pray The Hunters can keep the peasants safe while in my "capital" more guards and kniths are being trained.

And that at least the Mountain sized protectors of my realm are able to stop Abholoth.

>>1620

+5 Shards, +10 Coins

>Housing

Cliffside Castle (+1 Shard)

>Domain

Mountains

>Advisor

The Familiar (one free perk)

An unusual spider that alters its size, family, and genus on a whim.

>Perks (Shards)

Demonic Magic

Necromancy

The Mind

Form Changing

Elementalism: Air

Elementalism: Water

Natural Leader

>Immortality (Shards)

Lycanthropy

Makes for a nice surprise against assassins and overconfident warriors.

I never infect others and personally eliminate any werewolves hunting in my domain.

I don't mind helping the afflicted find a cure, but they will remained quarantined until that happens.

>Followers (Coins)

Druid

Fallen Angel

Cook

Captain of the Guard

Squad of Guards

Ranger

Blacksmith

Diplomat

Skeleton Gangs (x2)

Death Knight

Ghosts (x3)

Imps

Succubi (x2)

My inhuman buddies and I will deal with the uncommon while the guardsmen will handle the mundane day-to-day affairs.

As the years pass, the peasantry will think nothing of the death knight visiting the blacksmith for repairs or imps accompanying late-night guard patrols.

>Complications

A Dragon…Pair (+4 Coins, +1 Shard)

Monsters (+1 Coin)

Dark Riders (+2 Coins)

The dragons will be the immediate concern followed by any surviving eggs. It may take weeks, months, or maybe a year, but their line ends here.

Once those two are out of the way, I'll uncover the mystery behind the dark riders - their goals, origins, etc. - and eliminate the threat.

The goblins and trolls will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Their extermination will depend on their behavior. I expect the goblins to be a bit more reasonable after I kill the dragon pair.

Finally, a cozy pagan kingdom that's worth protecting.

Complications:

Mandatory - Monsters - will slay their chiefs and take their army as my own, thus bolstering my ranks

A Dragon +4 coins - temporary allaince to take down the Abholoth

Size/Type:

Giant Red

Perks:

Intimidation

Enhanced Breath

Intelligence and Cunning

Strong Scales

Warlord +4 coins

Rogue Telepath +2 coins - defeat her, then train her, she then forms a school to train more for my army, she marries the Elemental in a grand ceremony and I give her away

Old Witch +1 coin - kill that old bitch

Orc Bounty Hunter +3 coins

Mad Elementalist +2 coins - free him from the malevolent influence then agree to train him to become stronger, he then forms a school to train more for my army, he marries the Telepath in a grand ceremony

Abholoth +4 Shards - first target, kill it and gain fame and prestige throughout all the kingdoms

Housing:

City in the Sky - 2 free airships

Domain:

kind of irrelevant as my city is floating well above the ground, but I'll take Island

Adviser:

The General

Perks: 5 shards +4, each perk cost 1 shard

Telepathy + Telekinesis for 1 extra shard

The Mind

Study

Alchemy

Gold - +4 coins

Natural Leader

Elementalism

Immortality: cost 1 shard

Philosopher's Stone

Followers: 10 coins +20

Captain of the Guard - trains my Guards

Knight - trains my cavalry

Cook - head of household staff

Guild Master - liason of the harbour guild; shipwrites, fishermen, naval merchants, etc.

Spymaster - Director of CIA

Diplomat - Ambassador to the kingdoms

Ranger - trains my Hunters and Scouts

Cleric - Spirtual adviser

Druid - Department of the interior and envormental conservation

Paladin - liason with army and clergy

Blacksmith - master blacksmith, manufactures weapons and armor for troops, trains an army of blacksmiths for that reason

Master Worker

Squad of Guards - 30 Archers

Squad of Guards - 50 Footmen

Troop of Cavalry - 20 Medium Cavalry

Unit of Hunters - 10 men

Ship Captain - for one of the Airships

Pirate Captain - for the other Airship

Takwin - perfect wife

Pet Dragon - see below, I named him Puff, he's a magic dragon that lives by the sea (-10 coins)

Size:

Dragonne

Type:

Bronze and Gold

Perks:

Dragon Riding

Intelligence and Cunning

Hatchling

Benevolence - will fight only if needed, such as to defeat the above complications

>>1626

Most viable build in the thread.

>>6550

Battle Plan

I should not know of the existence of the assassins and disguised assassins at first. However, reading the minds of the people around me is something that I would do regardless. With "the mind" perk the assassins and orcish bounty hunter will have extreme difficulty getting the jump on me, and with telepathy the disguised assassins will be found. My alchemy skill will allow me to create panaceas to counter any poison. My dragonborn, whom I share my senses with, will be my bodyguard - but with my tremendous close-quarters combat potential I am fairly certain that I alone could rip the head off of the the orcish bounty hunter with little trouble.

The mad elementalist and rogue telepath are insane and would not work together with my other enemies. My elite forces and I would be far too much for them to handle by themselves. The enemy wizard and the paladin family may work together, but they'll still be crushed. The paladins have no way to counter my flying forces and the wizard would be focus fired and outgunned if he tried to match us spell for spell. The old witch will not live long. We'll have a good old fashioned witch hunt, but unlike the past only the guilty will burn. With telepathy I'll know.

The lich was said to have twice as many undead as I have military units. I have 193 human soldiers and 5 magical creatures. That means the lich is coming with 396 undead. Most will be skeletal warriors and zombies, with the occasional death knight mixed in. It's questionable if they could even touch my elite forces - they would need more than bows to reach us in the skies and zombies would be useless.

The cult of the sea and the monsters are weak threats that may become larger threats in the future. I have enough human forces to keep the scattered monsters in check throughout my territory. When I've dealt with the other threats to my realm I'll take care of the cult of the sea personally. I'll bait them out. When they come ashore to gather sacrifices I'll fry them with lightning magic or just tear them to shreds with my claws. I'll deal with the dark riders in a similar way. I'll spend a few nights in the various areas that they've been known to frequent and ambush them when they show themselves.

The biggest challenge by far will be the dragon pair. It was stated that the enemy dragons are "much too agile" for a behemoth dragon to combat effectively, which allows us to know the size class of them. They cannot be of the giant or behemoth class, or they would not be agile enough to evade a behemoth. Therefore, they must be of the drake or dragonne size class. At that size, they will not be able to quickly destroy my stronghold. They will also be vulnerable to ballista fire. I have a master worker that I put in charge of making siege weapons just for these dragons. I will have numerous ballista waiting for them if they dare to show themselves. To make things more dangerous, some of those ballista bolts will be coated in concentrated hydra poison, straight from the mouth of my dragonborn. I may mix in some alchemical poisons as well. So, even a glancing blow could be fatal. My witch will hex and curse the dragons to make them unlucky. My elite forces and I will stay behind the cover of stone walls and shoot lightning from open windows. My archers and footmen will be manning the siege weapons. Come at me, bitches.

Immortality

I chose werewolf immortality because it was one of the few forms of immortality that did not require me to do some monstrously evil act. Elemental form was tempting, but I value the strength, speed, and senses of a werewolf highly. The other 'good' forms of immortality were undesirable. One with nature restricts my freedom by tethering me to the wild lands. Worship is high risk high reward. Worship is also high stress, since I would have to constantly worry about and maintain enough followers. As a werewolf I can flee in my domain falls and retain all of my abilities.

General

I've got a cook to make delicious food, a cleric to heal wounded troops, and commanders to train and manage my troops. Merchants will travel by land. Bandits will be driven away by rangers and cavalry. My diplomat will deal with neighboring countries. My spymaster will gather intelligence and root out enemy spies. I'll also root out enemy spies with telepathy. I have master workers assigned to farming and mining. The fruits of my mining efforts will be put to use by my blacksmith. My troops will be well-equipped. My witch will serve as a magical adviser and hex/curse my enemies.

I miss the days when people put a lot of thought into their builds and wrote a detailed plan about them. Posting a bare build with no plan leaves little room for discussion. Scrolling through this old thread was nostalgic.

>>6551

>As a werewolf I can flee in my domain falls

should be "flee IF my domain falls"

<housing

The City in the Sky is quite nice.

<domain

The Forest. Since my building is above it, clearing it won't be a problem. It also will be hard to invade. Guerrilla tactics in a home-field advantage forest are a bitch.

<advisor

The Steward will definitely be my right hand. I'm not looking to make too many waves, he'll keep things on an even keel.

<perks

I'll take Elementalism twice, for earth and water. Also. Form Changing and Enchanting. The enchanting will let me arm my people against magical or supernatural attacks.

<immortality

My final shard will make me One With Nature. I am the forest and the streams, bitches.

<complication

Putting the complications first, I'll take 3x Assassins and Disguised Assassins. What are they going to do to an entire fucking forest? Sure, they might have some sort of magical defoliant but I'm still in the earth beneath that, and once they start acting against me their cover's pretty much blown and the earth will swallow them. I am a huge swath of countryside just saying come at me bro. Hell, I'll take the Orc Bounty Hunter too, and I'll just give him my head. It's not like I need it for anything. An easy plus eight coins.

<followers

First, I'll take two more Airships. A total of four seems to be good for trade and diplomacy with plenty of other holds without being so much it seems like a possible armada. I'll want a Scholar Angel, mine shall be an enlightened city. I'll take two Rangers and two Units of Hunters to glean resources from my forest. A Guild Master in woodworking and a Blacksmith will give me a fine industry. I won't need to eat but the Steward does and a Cook will be good for entertaining guests. Two Diplomats and two Merchants, bandits are a low probability on airships. I'll spend the rest on four Bards, to attract tourism and keep the populace in good spirits.

Hmm

>>6552

Plans are for the weak!

This is a high quality thread

>>6925

Posting a list of choices without the slightest explanation of why you chose them is for the boring. It's barely readable and non-discussable.

>>6939

Agreed.

That said I feel like this CYOA hints at a lot of cool systems but then doesn't deliver. Like it mentions morale a bunch, and keeping neighboring kingdoms happy or upsetting them, and army and population sizes, but doesn't give you a lot of ways to alter them, besides buying some fairly small units or individuals… sad. May do a build at some point I suppose…

>>6958

I trade my mountain castle for one along the coastline. I think healthy trading will promote the growth of my empire. I should have enough power to defend my lands too.

>>7695

"You may pick one complication form each group that is enclosed"

Dude, you totally broke it.

I'm not sure but form your text for the two witches, you probably picked both complications, making your build invalid.

Other than that I can tell because "45 SURPLUS COINS" Or even worse 1 Surplus Shard

>>1620

*fortified castle

*forest (+20 hunters)

*advisor: familiar (can direct all the beast of the forest + 1 free perks)

*perks: (5shards) +1

-intimidtion

-natural leader

-elementalism: earth+ and water

*immortality: elemental form earth

*followers: (10) +13

-Fallen angel (-1)

-paladin (-1)

-cleric (-1)

-druid (-1)

-scholar angel (-1)

-2x squad of 50 footmen (-2)

-squad of 30 archer (-1)

-captain of the guard (-1)

-knight (-1)

-2x troop of cavalry (-2)

-ranger (-1)

-2x unit of hunter (free)

-ship captain (-1)

-spymaster (-1)

-blacksmith (-1)

-beast master (-1)

-dryad (-1)

-harem+ (-2) they got new skills such as languages, coocking, homecare, daycare, massage, waitress, dance, singing, musical instrument, sculpturing, painting, interrogation

-witch (-1)

-2x earth elemental (-2)

-slaves (-1)

*dragon:

size: giant +1perk

colour: bronze

perks: (4) +1

-human form

-enhanced breath

-dragon riding

-bond

-strong scales

*complacation:

-orc Bounty hunter +3 coins

-assassins +1 coin

-paladins +1

=>they want to kill me, i am imortal and before reaching me they would be killed so many time

-monster and monster army +3 coin

-enemy wizard +2

-mad elementalist +2

=> they will not be easy to put down but not to hard

-angered natives +1 i doubt they would be able to break into my castle

-thieves guild +1 with my spies and familar i should be rid of them quickly

>Palace

>Farmland

>Noble

>5x gold (+20)

>cook

>bard

>28x harem for a total of 290 bitches

>thieves guild