Eador: Overlord of Worlds

[Part of the Masters of Eador story.]

The wizard Arzang is hired to attack Erdu's magical shard (which is great for wizards) and does well with the initial sword rush strategy. Progress slows a little when he finds Erdu guarded by many centaur tribes and loses many adventurers fighting through the herd of horsemen.

Finally reached nuke level warfare.

Once he does reach Erdu's castle he unleashes a rain of brimstone (ritual) to soften up the defenses before attacking, and easily captures the enemy fortress. Erdu is captured and sent to magical facilities for study and experimentation. Who knows what one may learn from ancient physiology? Do they regenerate finger nails and sexual organs for example? These are important questions that Nesturs wants answers to.

With no other masters left, Nesturs easily rebuilds the planet Eador and becomes known to the general populace as the Creator and Protector God. For others, the Conqueror and the Overlord of Worlds.

Eador: True Colors

[Part of the Masters of Eador story.]

With only Erdu left, Shinordium is sent to assist his forces on a large unclaimed shard in completing "the talisman". Erdu's lands are encountered first but as allies, Shinordium just bypasses it - heading instead for the powerful local lord who owns 3 castles this time around!

Just to mix things up, the wizard hires a full squad of elven archers from a local mercenary guild (first time Nesturs has seen one) and finds them extremely effective - easily defeating all of the local lords strongholds. It is then, when Shinordium is farthest to defend Nesturs citadel that Erdu shows his true colors and declares war.

The firing squad is super effective!

Fortunately Erdu's champion is a bit of an idiot and Shinordium makes it to Erdu's lands - and castle - in good time. Erdu doesn't even bother defending - he just flees. Nesturs decides its time to end this coward once and for all.

Eador: Masters of the Universe

[Part of the Masters of Eador story.]

With the dragon dead, the next few masters seem to appear in quick succession: Ranadil, a cloud elemental whose only concern is creating a world of oceans, "Nameless" the mysterious shadowy douchebag, and Magnus - the most powerful of the current masters, interested only in knowledge and not in defeating the chaos (by recompleting the world).

I wonder if he "knows" how much of a ass hat he is.

Wizard Eineron is sent to deal with Ranadil and his barbarian and archer armies and achieves this task easily thanks to the magic crystal rich land the elemental has cultivated. Thellaphes has a harder time against Nameless who is guarded by dwarven clans with siege weaponry and a tricksy poisoner but he falls just the same.

Meanwhile the brothers Niredor and Mencor are sent to confront Magnus whose massive lands are tough to navigate due to the mountain ranges inhabited by manticores and hydras. After a long struggle they reach Magnus' castle where Niredor casts a ritual of mass hysteria so that the defenders damage each other and lose morale pre-battle.

Despite that, the archer and centaur guards led by a fireball casting ranger are very tough. Niredor is arrowed to death in the brutal battle and the army of both sides wiped out. Mencor's squad then attacked from the rear and with no decent troops left to defend him, Magnus could do little before Mencor beheaded him.

Eador: Untethered

[Part of the Masters of Eador story.]

Sensing Nesturs rising power, Dorikos sends his dragon cultists to attack the mainland and Thellaphes is on defense duty. He gets off to a good start by befriending a djinn and finding a fireball scroll early but is then hampered in progress by a large ocean flanked by lands occupied by boulder throwing giants.

It takes awhile to build a shipyard large enough to make the crossing and Thellaphes loses most of his units on the shore landing but makes it to the enemy castle himself where the javelin guards give him no challenge. Dorikos retreats back to his world and Thellaphes follows.

Dragons, more OP than magic. Also immune to magic!

It certainly seems that Dorikos sent all his best troops on the offense because there's nothing that can stop Thellaphes from marching right to his front gate and destroying the dragon master's tether to the land, sending the overgrown lizard hurtling through space into the chaos.

Now is a good time to note that all dragons on Eador are immune to magic and are very deadly, which is why Nesturs forces tend to just avoid them. Fortunately Dorikos wasn't really supported by his kin, and ironically it was the dragons godliness (and tether) that proved to be his weakness.

Eador: Light and Dark

[Part of the Masters of Eador story.]

With Ul-Dagan defeated, the master Dorikos - King of all Dragons appears and he takes an immediate liking to Nesturs. With Erdu still allied to construct "the talisman", Nesturs opts to attack Herskil next. Why go for a lesser territory?

The wizard Assagh, who had previously aided in Oinor's defeat, is sent and finds himself in a world of free settlements - perhaps the easiest type of world since they usually have weak defenses and can be bribed with gold. What its low in is magic crystals which forces Assagh to make do with weaker cantrips for awhile.

Even with higher level guardsmen and a centaur ally, Assagh still has to skirt around a Hydra and sneak past some vampires before reaching Herskil's castle - which ironically is guarded by a large band of thieves! Weakened by stone rain, they and their master are no match for the halberd wielders and are all cut down easily.

With Herskil's death, a devil named Adrageron appears as the new master in space - Nesturs sends forth Assagh again - this time onto lands of chaos (demons) where people have lousy morale. Fortunately Assagh is strong enough to solo most of the enemies here, helped out by the exorcism spell and a well placed shipyard. The devil's castle is guarded by strong orcs and a demon summoning scout but they all fall to Assagh's mighty power. The wizard then exorcises Adrageron himself.

Demon lands are not immune to rainbows!

Eador: A Voiceless Scream

[Part of the Masters of Eador story.]

With Dariol gone, two new masters appear in space. Herskil, the Emperor of the Sun (possibly the Lord of Light) and another ancient named Erdu who hates Ul-Dagan's guts. Sensing opportunity, Nesturs allies with Erdu and agrees to help him form his "talisman" that will help Eador somehow. In exchange, Erdu will send a strike team to Ul-Dagan's mainland, as he knows how to bypass the force field.

All that's left is to distract the ancient engineer, so Nesturs sends Cleeren and the wizard Thellaphes to a large unclaimed dead lands shard to try gain Ul-Dagan's attention and it works. Their "landing site" territory is lousy though - and surrounded by water.

Still, the swordsman rush tactic works well and lets them defeat the nearby local lord who seems to have a javelin fetish. Erdu's citadel is nearby and as planned, is so lightly defended it almost falls over on its own. With them gone only Ul-Dagan remains, and his lands are in such a hard to reach spot that it is easier to build a massive shipyard (bigger = more sea hexes crossed) to reach it.

Ul-Dagan's heroes are well prepared when they arrive though, and Cleeren is killed by a surprise fireball from a high level enemy warrior. Despite heavy losses Thellaphes manages to avenge the scout then push forward to Ul-Dagan's citadel and destroy it, evicting him from the shard and back to... nowhere.

Don't mess with Thellaphes!

The plan worked as Erdu's strike team captured Ul-Dagan's mainland, leaving the engineer screaming silently as he fell through space to his eventual destruction in the chaos.

Eador: The King and the Vampires

[Part of the Masters of Eador story.]

Olchyr had just returned to the mainland when Ul-Dagan attacked. The ranger hired the shaman Shelumu and allied with nomadic horsemen to help defeat the invaders, using his magic sword to dispel the evil spirits that stood in his way and finding a powerful spell scroll that would make Shelumu near unstoppable.

Indeed, Ul-Dagan's forces had no chance when the shaman began raising vampires on the field of battle and were quickly evicted from the shard. Alas, Ul-Dagan's still shield prevents any counter invasions so Nesturs attacks the brooding Elf King Dariol instead, to reunite him with Vianta. In death.

Yep, the backstabbing vampire is an ally!

Wizard Shinordium and scout Cleeren find themselves surrounded by elven forest lands - not rich in gold but rich in gems. It is tough to navigate those woods though as the elves are great archers and unicorns quite tough. Fortunately there is a small section of Holy Lands (loyal to the Lord of Light) who again agree passage for Nesturs proxies.

They eventually reach Dariol's castle, weakening it through use of an undead invasion (ritual spell cast by Shinordium) and then attacking it. The King is a gargoyle summoning archer (fortunately not the exploding type) and while he inflicts great losses on Nesturs troops, he ultimately falls in battle.