ANOINTED23 Month 2 roundup: The Eternal Battlefield of Karus

February 28, 2023

(Follow-up from here but I'll be summarizing it in the post below. This includes weeks 7 and 8 because I got lazy.)

We've got ourselves a 11-point region to round out February! A battle has proceeded for hundreds of years between the Fifth Regiment of the League of New Volinn (noted as Camp A above) and the Divine Order of Saint Amelia (Camp B). The Regiment's more numerous, but the Divine Order has more elite troops and more importantly, is under the command of General Ingrid, an Anointed general tasked with holding this battlefield. If she were defeated the battle might finally be over, and travel through this region might be safe once again.

Some Region-based stuff:

• The Region Clock here is an 8-segment clock for Cold. Every eight ticks (for fighting at a point, movement between points, picking up things at a location, etc), every Anointed takes 4 unblockable Harm. The clock resets at a sanctuary or at a warm location (such as a bonfire, etc).
• Point 3 is very out there: it takes 4 ticks of the clock to move there from Point 2 and 2 to move there from any other point.
• Movement between point 7 and any point other than 9 is prohibitively hard because of a manned ballista: you'll have to roll something appropriate to avoid death on approach/retreat. On anything except a 6, your Anointed dies. (You can avoid this by going through Point 9, or by getting lucky at Point 5, but we'll get there.)

As for each point:

• Point 1 is the Fifth Regiment's sanctuary: A stone altar sits here, largely untouched with time, with the inscription: "Pray for these warriors, that they may achieve victory over their foes for the cause of righteousness." The path leads to Point 2.
• Point 2 is the back gate of the Fifth Regiment's camp. A handful of Spearmen and Archers are here, but they're not on heavy guard: you could easily get the jump on them. It leads around the far end of the camp to Point 3 (which takes 4 ticks of the clock to travel here, as it's a long way) or through the camp at Point 4.
• Point 3 is the western end of the camp, where the kennels are: 2 Archers and a handful of Guard Dogs (a new enemy created for this Region) are here. You can collect some rope along the kennels here if you're so inclined. It leads to Point 5 (where a catapult can be seen) and 6 (where a bonfire rages). (It takes 2 ticks of the clock to travel to either of these locations).
• Point 4 is the narrow camp of the Fifth Regiment. A large number of Knights (nastier enemies) and Spearmen are here. You can try to sneak through, but it requires several rolls and time. You can also run through to the exit if you're fast enough, but you'll be beset by those enemies the whole way. If you do manage to defeat them, though, you can find a Steadying Glyph (a rune sorcery) and two Holy Waters here. This leads to Point 5 (where you can see a catapult).
• Point 5 is a Fifth Regiment catapult, left unguarded. You can use this to automatically kill enemies at a hex and all surrounding hexes in a surrounding point (there's a 50% chance of hitting a hex or having it divert by 1-3 hexes). Point 7 has a manned ballista that prevents travel to or from it from any point other than 9: if you get a direct hit on it, it's broken, nullifying that penalty. You get one shot. There's also a set of 4 firebombs here. It leads to points 4, 6 (the aforementioned bonfire), 7, and 9 (a Divine Order forward command post) and can hit any of the fights in those hexes.
• Point 6 is a skirmish between a Fifth Regiment Knight, a Divine Order Holy Knight (a new enemy created for this Region), and equal numbers of Spearmen, alongside a blazing bonfire. If you're sneaky or clever enough, you can get them to keep fighting each other, leaving less for you to deal with. The bonfire here allows you to reset the Cold clock. It leads back to 5 and 3, and forward to 8 (a sniper-infested hill overlooking the Divine Order camp).
• Point 7 is a Divine Order ballista team. Two Holy Knights and a handful of archers defend it: once it's destroyed, you have much freer access across the battlefield. You can also get two more firebombs here. It leads to most of the upper half of the map.
• Point 8 is the aforementioned sniper nest: a set of archers up on a hill, guarded by a Holy Knight. When defeated, they make the General fight easier, as she can't call in sniper shots from afar. You can pick up two Relic Scraps here as well, which will make fights in this Region (or the fight with the General) way easier. It leads to Point 7 as well as 6.
• Point 9 is the Divine Order forward command post. Like Point 6, it's under attack; unlike Point 6, it's a little more one-sided in favor of the Divine Order. You can pick up a Herald's Flagpole here, a heavy spear that lets you heal allies a little as its special ability, as well as some spikes from defensive fortifications.
• Point 10 is the Divine Order's sanctuary. A more ragged sanctuary than the Fifth Regiments, but it nonetheless bears the inscription: "Pray for these warriors, that they may achieve victory over their foes for the cause of righteousness." I'm very subtle with my parallelism, as you can see. You can also pick up an Invocation of Vigilance incantation and 2 Holy Waters here.
• Point 11 is the fight with General Ingrid! She's mostly a commander: her actions primarily call reinforcements or let other units act. When you defeat her, you gain her signal horn as a Relic, which lets you give an ally one of your actions once per turn.

And that's a wrap for February! Tune in next month. (I still haven't decided what I'm doing tomorrow from my big list, but I'll pick it out sometime today.)

(Read the original on cohost here!)