Slime Squisher
Posts: 419
Joined: Monday, 12th September 2016, 16:25
Thursday, 10th August 2017, 22:35
YAVP: HOGl of Beogh. 1st Slime, 1st streak, 1st oneandwon
http://crawl.xtahua.com/crawl/morgue/damerell/morgue-damerell-20170809-163049.txt
I'm pretty smug about this one too, even if a HO heavy armour monster-whacker is a wee bit easier than kitties and I had some pretty decent luck with artifact armour. I didn't expect to win a class/race combo first time (indeed, to win a given race first time full stop), nor to win any two games one after the other. I was lucky to do so; there were some definite close calls and sloppy play which I happened to get away with.
I think it helped that the previous game, a FeYred, was kind of similar in that you've got this cloud of allies - but Beogh offers all kind of advantages in that all your allies come with you, they gain strength as you go, you can upgrade them with spare artifacts, and you even have a chance of resurrecting them when they get killed. Furthermore, if they do get wiped out you are still a heavily armoured axe maniac and not a naked cat.
As it happened my orc pack mostly gained in strength until Depths, where they gradually attrited away. One orc warlord, Bogward, survived that and the rigours of Zot, but he heroically sacrificed himself on an unexploded panlord on the orb run. One obvious mistake I made is that, in spite of training Throwing, I got almost no mileage out of my massive supply of javelins from Shoals, even once my orc pack thinned enough to make it practical. I suspect 72 kitty games have given me bad habits (in particular, at the start of this game I had to keep reminding myself to actually check out weapon and armour drops...)
I tend to go Gladiator rather than Fighter these days. The Fighter's potion of might is nice, but the Gladiator's nets can deal with multiple nuisances.
I don't know that there's much to say about the early game, which was pretty plain sailing once I converted and started to get followers. I had a bit of a nervous moment in a transporter vault of undead on D:9, but bravely hid behind my followers and made it through. Orc turned up on D:9; I suppose one might try and increase piety first and do Orc later to get more followers, but I decided I would far rather do Orc immediately than chance my arm in Lair. Orc was pretty undramatic as I recall and I now had a vast horde at my disposal.
I hit a labyrinth on D:11. Now, you don't get to take your followers into portal branches, but I felt I was pretty firm without them and headed in, flattening the minotaur and getting a reasonably respectable freezing randart mace to deal with hydras. I also hit the Lair entrance.
Lair:3 gave me the +5 ring mail "Deck" {Regen+}, which I used for a lot of the game - I later found a CPA, but had to enchant it up a bit before it was obviously superior to this ring mail.
I finished off the main dungeon, finding the ring "Ukhaanaz" {+Fly rElec rPois Str-3 Dex+3}, which made Snake look like an easy proposition - it's pretty easy anyway with hordes of allies and now I could be pretty sanguine about nuisances like shock serpents or naga ritualists attacking me personally.
After Snake, Shoals seemed like it might be OK with the Beogh ability to walk on water. I found a +8 randart trident on Shoals:1 which was a brilliant ally gift; I kept passing it on to new followers as the old ones died because of how effective an ally with a reach weapon seemed to be. I took another chance on a portal branch in the form of an ice cave on Shoals:2, which got a bit sticky with the horde of monsters at the end. Shoals:4 killed a few of my named followers but didn't really cause me a problem, and Vaults would replenish them. I got the usual lifetime supply of javelins, but made an error in that I largely forgot to use them, even when my orc pack was thin enough it was practical. I blame forgetting about Throwing on playing 72 kitty games.
Vaults:4 had a wizlab on, which I decided to take a look into; it was the Chambers of the Cloud Mage, which were almost laughably easy. The persistent fog means the ranged attackers there are relatively ineffective and they are flimsy enough a strong melee character can chop them up with ease.
I thought I'd do Elf next. It wasn't really difficult, but cost me more allies and also didn't yield much in the way of loot. Next was Depths, which frankly was horrible. Every level seemed to be a twisty maze that filled most or all of the available area, and I kept running into giants and dragons in corridors in a way that meant my allies got chewed up whether I advanced or retreated to try and find better terrain. As discussed above, only one of my followers survived Depths.
I bought an enchant weapon on Depths:5 and went back to a trove on Vaults:2 I'd thereby got the (otherwise useless) +8 demon whip for; this gave me some consumables and the amulet "Zual" {*Slow +Inv rN+ Regen+ Dex+4}. With a decent supply of haste I was willing to chance it on the *Slow and used this for the rest of the game.
However, Depths did yield the hat of the Alchemist - which with plenty of AC I was willing to use (especially since I could now keep my +5 ring of protection on more or less full time) and the gauntlets of War, which are always nice to have.
Having cleared out Depths I now had my favourite, the 3rd rune problem. I said in my last YAVP I never do Slime because I've never done Slime, and it seemed like time to break that duck, especially with a ready source of rCorr+rMut. I'd read some worrying stuff about Slime but actually it was pretty straightforward. I intentionally left my surviving follower and Beogh-granted allies behind on each level of Slime in order to preserve them to use them in the final fight, and arranged to fight the Royal Jelly in a corridor with might/haste/agility; it only lasted a few rounds of combat and its surviving allies went down easily enough. I found the +1 crystal plate armour "Hofar" (worn) {Str+4 Dex+5 Stlth-} in the loot rooms; my regular CPA was +5 or so but the stat boosts were far too good to pass up.
I worked my way down through Zot without difficulty, but halfway through remembered to spend all my spare gold on consumables. This let me haste with impunity on the orbrun. Zot:5 was a bit of a slog with 4 ancient liches and 5 orbs of fire on the way to the orb, but I'd been enchanting up my antimagic battleaxe and it made short work of them.
Once I had the Orb I had to kill another orb of fire but otherwise escaped Zot:5 without difficulty. I saw three panlords - one on Depths:4 who couldn't reach me in time; one on D:11 who I Holy Worded and then bravely ran away from leaving Bogward the Survivor in the way - I tried to recall them when I reached the stairs, but they had already died; and one on D:9 where I found myself surrounded, so I Holy Worded again then laid into them with the antimagic battleaxe, which polished them off suspiciously easily. After that I was home free.
- Code:
1650245 damerell the Axe Maniac (level 27, 269/269 HPs)
Began as a Hill Orc Gladiator on Aug 7, 2017.
Was the Champion of Beogh.
Escaped with the Orb
... and 3 runes on Aug 9, 2017!
The game lasted 09:38:07 (69821 turns).
damerell the Axe Maniac (Hill Orc Gladiator) Turns: 69821, Time: 09:38:08
Health: 269/269 AC: 42 Str: 25 XL: 27
Magic: 7/7 EV: 23 Int: 8 God: Beogh [******]
Gold: 112 SH: 0 Dex: 37 Spells: 26/26 levels left
rFire + . . SeeInvis + b - +7 battleaxe (antimagic)
rCold + + . Gourm . (shield currently unavailable)
rNeg + + + Faith . v - +1 crystal plate armour "Hofar" {Str+4 Dex+5
rPois + Spirit . u - -2 hat of the Alchemist {rElec rPois rF+ rC+
rElec + Reflect . c - +2 cloak {MR+}
rCorr + Harm . P - +3 pair of gauntlets of War {Slay+5}
rMut + S - +3 pair of boots "Enlo" {rElec rN+ MP-9}
MR ++++. l - amulet "Zual" {*Slow +Inv rN+ Regen+ Dex+4}
Stlth .......... e - ring "Zegionel" {rC+ Dex+7}
Regen 1.0/turn w - ring of see invisible
MPRegen 0.1/turn
@: no status effects
A: walk on water
0: Orb of Zot
}: 3/15 runes: serpentine, barnacled, slimy
a: Smiting, Recall Orcish Followers, Give Item to Named Follower, Resurrection,
Renounce Religion, Evoke Invisibility
You escaped.
You worshipped Beogh.
Beogh was exalted by your worship.
You were not hungry.
You visited 11 branches of the dungeon, and saw 54 of its levels.
You visited 1 bazaar.
You also visited: Labyrinth, Trove, Ice Cave and Wizlab.
You collected 7765 gold pieces.
You spent 7653 gold pieces at shops.
I'm pretty smug about this one too, even if a HO heavy armour monster-whacker is a wee bit easier than kitties and I had some pretty decent luck with artifact armour. I didn't expect to win a class/race combo first time (indeed, to win a given race first time full stop), nor to win any two games one after the other. I was lucky to do so; there were some definite close calls and sloppy play which I happened to get away with.
I think it helped that the previous game, a FeYred, was kind of similar in that you've got this cloud of allies - but Beogh offers all kind of advantages in that all your allies come with you, they gain strength as you go, you can upgrade them with spare artifacts, and you even have a chance of resurrecting them when they get killed. Furthermore, if they do get wiped out you are still a heavily armoured axe maniac and not a naked cat.
As it happened my orc pack mostly gained in strength until Depths, where they gradually attrited away. One orc warlord, Bogward, survived that and the rigours of Zot, but he heroically sacrificed himself on an unexploded panlord on the orb run. One obvious mistake I made is that, in spite of training Throwing, I got almost no mileage out of my massive supply of javelins from Shoals, even once my orc pack thinned enough to make it practical. I suspect 72 kitty games have given me bad habits (in particular, at the start of this game I had to keep reminding myself to actually check out weapon and armour drops...)
I tend to go Gladiator rather than Fighter these days. The Fighter's potion of might is nice, but the Gladiator's nets can deal with multiple nuisances.
I don't know that there's much to say about the early game, which was pretty plain sailing once I converted and started to get followers. I had a bit of a nervous moment in a transporter vault of undead on D:9, but bravely hid behind my followers and made it through. Orc turned up on D:9; I suppose one might try and increase piety first and do Orc later to get more followers, but I decided I would far rather do Orc immediately than chance my arm in Lair. Orc was pretty undramatic as I recall and I now had a vast horde at my disposal.
I hit a labyrinth on D:11. Now, you don't get to take your followers into portal branches, but I felt I was pretty firm without them and headed in, flattening the minotaur and getting a reasonably respectable freezing randart mace to deal with hydras. I also hit the Lair entrance.
Lair:3 gave me the +5 ring mail "Deck" {Regen+}, which I used for a lot of the game - I later found a CPA, but had to enchant it up a bit before it was obviously superior to this ring mail.
I finished off the main dungeon, finding the ring "Ukhaanaz" {+Fly rElec rPois Str-3 Dex+3}, which made Snake look like an easy proposition - it's pretty easy anyway with hordes of allies and now I could be pretty sanguine about nuisances like shock serpents or naga ritualists attacking me personally.
After Snake, Shoals seemed like it might be OK with the Beogh ability to walk on water. I found a +8 randart trident on Shoals:1 which was a brilliant ally gift; I kept passing it on to new followers as the old ones died because of how effective an ally with a reach weapon seemed to be. I took another chance on a portal branch in the form of an ice cave on Shoals:2, which got a bit sticky with the horde of monsters at the end. Shoals:4 killed a few of my named followers but didn't really cause me a problem, and Vaults would replenish them. I got the usual lifetime supply of javelins, but made an error in that I largely forgot to use them, even when my orc pack was thin enough it was practical. I blame forgetting about Throwing on playing 72 kitty games.
Vaults:4 had a wizlab on, which I decided to take a look into; it was the Chambers of the Cloud Mage, which were almost laughably easy. The persistent fog means the ranged attackers there are relatively ineffective and they are flimsy enough a strong melee character can chop them up with ease.
I thought I'd do Elf next. It wasn't really difficult, but cost me more allies and also didn't yield much in the way of loot. Next was Depths, which frankly was horrible. Every level seemed to be a twisty maze that filled most or all of the available area, and I kept running into giants and dragons in corridors in a way that meant my allies got chewed up whether I advanced or retreated to try and find better terrain. As discussed above, only one of my followers survived Depths.
I bought an enchant weapon on Depths:5 and went back to a trove on Vaults:2 I'd thereby got the (otherwise useless) +8 demon whip for; this gave me some consumables and the amulet "Zual" {*Slow +Inv rN+ Regen+ Dex+4}. With a decent supply of haste I was willing to chance it on the *Slow and used this for the rest of the game.
However, Depths did yield the hat of the Alchemist - which with plenty of AC I was willing to use (especially since I could now keep my +5 ring of protection on more or less full time) and the gauntlets of War, which are always nice to have.
Having cleared out Depths I now had my favourite, the 3rd rune problem. I said in my last YAVP I never do Slime because I've never done Slime, and it seemed like time to break that duck, especially with a ready source of rCorr+rMut. I'd read some worrying stuff about Slime but actually it was pretty straightforward. I intentionally left my surviving follower and Beogh-granted allies behind on each level of Slime in order to preserve them to use them in the final fight, and arranged to fight the Royal Jelly in a corridor with might/haste/agility; it only lasted a few rounds of combat and its surviving allies went down easily enough. I found the +1 crystal plate armour "Hofar" (worn) {Str+4 Dex+5 Stlth-} in the loot rooms; my regular CPA was +5 or so but the stat boosts were far too good to pass up.
I worked my way down through Zot without difficulty, but halfway through remembered to spend all my spare gold on consumables. This let me haste with impunity on the orbrun. Zot:5 was a bit of a slog with 4 ancient liches and 5 orbs of fire on the way to the orb, but I'd been enchanting up my antimagic battleaxe and it made short work of them.
Once I had the Orb I had to kill another orb of fire but otherwise escaped Zot:5 without difficulty. I saw three panlords - one on Depths:4 who couldn't reach me in time; one on D:11 who I Holy Worded and then bravely ran away from leaving Bogward the Survivor in the way - I tried to recall them when I reached the stairs, but they had already died; and one on D:9 where I found myself surrounded, so I Holy Worded again then laid into them with the antimagic battleaxe, which polished them off suspiciously easily. After that I was home free.
Ascension reports with too many words since 2016.