This session was brief, as it was just the second half of the cycle opening sequence. I had another battle with the Ur-Fleece, except this one was a flash back, despite me now having more advanced equipment. A bit odd, but basically a re-run of the last session’s battle.

I’ve changed my game layout for this cycle so that the Nymph summon cards that I might use are stored near the area of the board where they might be of use, i.e. the battle summons are on the side of the battle area, the map related ones are by the map. This way, I might actually remember to use them.

It took more time last week to pack away the cycle 4 stuff and get out the cycle 5 stuff than a normal gaming session.

Still, I was all set to go this week and so the first session threw me straight into a battle with this cycle’s boss Primordial. I did ok, but the objective isn’t to kill it, it’s to run away. The battle also takes place on a moving board (i.e. the terrain all moves in one direction) which simulates a chase.

Also most battles this cycle will take place underwater, which at the moment means I either win in two rounds or run out of oxygen and drown. Wasn’t a problem today, but it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

I’ve now finished cycle 4!

In this session I was supposed to have a normal Primordial battle (simply due to timeline progression) the same turn I triggered the end of the cycle final battle, so I just skipped the normal battle. I’ve done those plenty by now and I really wanted to finish the cycle on the 26 week mark.

The final battle was suitably climatic, with me getting plenty of buffs thanks to the side-quests I’d completed. The battle itself went reasonably well until after turn 3 or so when I just auto-lost. There’s a rule which I unlocked earlier in the campaign where four terrain pieces are removed per turn, starting from the centre of the board. Once all the terrain’s gone, I loose. I also drew a location and wounded it which removed all the terrain from the edge of the board, so I had no terrain left and technically auto-lost. But the fluff is that my Titan’s need this terrain to climb on to as the fight is actually fought at high altitude. But all my Titans had climbed on to the Primordial by this point. So it made no sense thematically for me to loose, plus I’d had no control over this outcome, so I just ignored it and played on.

I really enjoyed this cycle’s theme of Persia being obsessed with infinite economic growth and it ruining everyone’s lives. Has some strong parallel’s with capitalism and current government rhetoric which hit home.

So the main baddy from Cycle 3, the God Helios, spontaneously resurrected themselves a couple of sessions ago. Today I fought him – he was slightly weakened but still very powerful. Most of his level one AI cards resulted in an Obol draw just for being hit (50-50 chance of death). Most level two AI cards resulted in incineration (i.e. instant death). When you wound him, he nearly always teleport away, making it hard to keep hurting him.

In the end I managed to take him out with the loss of only one Titan. But the rest were out of fate and at the very limits of survivability.

It was nice to use this model again, as I’d only needed to get him out the box once before.

This gaming sessions was the final showdown with this cycles pursuer primordial. It played out much like the normal battles, except there was a lot more terrain and it’s curse ability, which I have been ignoring, was more powerful. Given it had been upgraded, I thought I’d better play with it. Basically, one Titan began with the curse. The cursed Titan could not attack and was unlikely to be targeted by the primordial in return. Passing on the curse to another Titan gave the original Titan a small buff. Once every Titan had been cursed and it couldn’t be passed on again, all Titans die and I loose. So it essentially acts to limit the duration of the battle and means I only ever have three Titans that can fight.

Despite the curse, I managed to win pretty quickly. A very lucky critical on a level three body part really helped. In the end I only lost one Titan to an unlucky hit that inflicted the Death 2 state (i.e. the Titan automatically dies after two rounds).

In this session I gained a doom token, triggering progression to the final doom card and progressing the bad side of the main story.

Midas (yes, the Midas who’s touch turns everything to gold) came and offered me a deal whereby he’d use his money to solve all our problems (ending cycle 4 and unlocking cycle 5). I was actually tempted, as it would allow me to start cycle 5 next week and I’d stand a chance of finishing both cycles in 2026. But the completionist in me didn’t like it, and I don’t trust the game designers. I suspect if I took this option I’d be allowed to start cycle 5, but with the rest of my game resetting or some other penalty.

Anyway, I turned Midas down and he turned out to be a fraud. The Babelian Lunacy attacked again, killing Midas and taking me into a repeat of last week’s battle. I decided to take what I’ve learned from last week and try my best to win it without killing the primordial.

I was very careful to only attack from outside just enough to fully open up the eternal staircase and the vantage points. When a level three body point came up, I ensured the titans in the staircase attacked it. That meant I wouldn’t inflict a wound but could still progress up the staircase. All was going well – I’d got one titan on to a vantage point but hadn’t got a second even at the start of the staircase yet. Then I got really lucky. A critical hit allowed me to teleport the second titan on to a vantage point immediately. Then the third primordial attack targeted both titan’s on the vantage points. It did a lot of damage, but both survived and got a free bonus attack (see photo). These bonus attacks allowed me to get my two wounds from a vantage point and thus win the scenario.

This session was a scheduled fight with the main enemy of the cycle, the Babelian Lunacy. Having killed it last time round, it now is always level 2. This made every location harder to wound and introduced a time mechanic where each round it destroys four terrain pieces (restricting mobility and ending the game once the terrain pieces run out). Had I been playing with friends, we would also have been forced to all speak in a different language for the battle (that’s the sense of humour/difficulty the game designers have).

Know that I know actually dealing 12 wounds and killing the Babelian Lunacy only makes it stronger in future battles, I realise this battle is virtually impossible. To win, I’m supposed to unlock the full endless staircase (requiring I inflict four wounds), then get at least two Titans to the top of the staircase (requiring two or three wounds inflicted each), then deal a further two wounds from the top. I.e. Inflict 10 to 12 wounds without inflicting 12 wounds. Also by the time you reach the top you’re likely to have wounded most of the level one and level two body parts, so you’re on to wounding level three locations which do two wounds at a time.

Needless to say, I lost. I did ten wounds getting my Titans in to position and then struggled to wound the remaining level three body locations. In the meantime I had Titans dieing one by one.

On the plus side, I reckon I’ll be finished with this cycle in four more sessions, given I believe I have four more fights to win to end the story. That will mean I’ve finished cycle four in six months and will have exactly six months left to play through cycle five.