Siege of the Necromancer

YOU BECOME a miner returning home to your family after a year in the mines, earning money for backbreaking work. You find your hometown burned and pillaged, deserted except for goblins and a dying soldier.

The soldier tells you that a necromancer named Erid Buul has taken up residence in the lord’s castle, and commands an army of goblins. You’re no paid killer, no doughty adventurer wanting to bloody a sword for kicks, but a hard-working miner pushed too far… and for your burned-out hometown and presumed-dead family, you will have revenge!

Review and Opinion

I’m conflicted on this one.

The story and plot and layout, made for a good book. The diversions and the scope of the castle outside the One True Path, the red herrings that had me trying time and again for nothing important, and the general atmosphere and writing style… quite good.

This book had me in circles for a few evenings before I figured out what I should be doing, then I really appreciated it.

But the combat is just too much, and after many hours I did as I did with Temple of the Spider God. I went to Casual mode, and after a death in combat I would Go Back and Heal Me and try again at the same combat. And in one single playthrough I died of:

• The 2 goblins in that tunnel above the Bay, 15 times. (that wasn’t the winning playthrough, I gave up)
• The ogre in the village at the start, 5 times.
• The ogre in the haradornes room, over 20 times. Naturally, beating an ogre with a 3 Attack and 2 Defence is not intended to be a possible thing.
• Various other goblin fights here and there, totaling 7 more.
• The armored ghouls in the second tower. I used Heal Me to 52 Vitality, died 4 times that way, used Heal Me to 72 and got out with 8 Vitality left. Yes, the best battle was 64 Vitality lost… contrasted with a max of 48 if you play by the rules.
• Erid Buul’s personal guard of undead warriors, 5 times after healing to 48 each time and also having 7 healing potions (118 Vitality in all).

So that’s why I’m conflicted: great writing and a great game layout, with a mathematically infeasible amount of combat. If the combat had been scaled back, I would have enjoyed it more. Or else, there’s some armor with a defence of 6 in here someplace or some way to bypass most of these…

Maps

Publication

Written by Neil Rennison

Illustrated by Dan Maxwell

2010

Book 2 in the series

Other Players and Links

• Tin Man Games’ page about Siege of the Necromancer
• Champskees best path walkthrough over at FF Proboards
• An interview with Neil
• Another interview with Neil