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[ENG] Campaign: El Dorado #4 Son of the Sun · Start the game already!

0:18
Once again we are playing the Muska campaign of the last
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Chieftains DLC and this time around it's the fourth mission
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called Son of the Sun. This beautiful title was given
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because despite our best efforts to keep the Zaki or leader of
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the Northern Muska called Quemin Chatocha in check, he has forced
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the Iraka, the spiritual leader of all Muska, to proclaim him
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the Son of the Sun, which pretty much made him a living God.
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The sun God is the most important God in the Muska
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religion, so when Kuomen Chatocha had been declared the
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son of said God, he must have felt very powerful.
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With his ascension to godhood complete, the Saki's grand plan
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is coming to fruition. He is gathering every warrior at
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his disposal for an invasion of the South.
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Not to be outdone, Nemecane is rallying his armies and
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preparing for the clash. It would have been just another
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of the countless wars between the Sepa and the Sake if not for
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one troubling rumour. Assay's latest message speaks of
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a band of foreigners approaching from the North East.
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Pale warriors in metal armour, wielding the Storm God's wrath
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as weapons. They call themselves the
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Spanish, but who are they? Will they be friend or foe?
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Are they as primitive as the punches or are they a divine
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punishment for the Sakis blasphemy?
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Adding to my worries, some of assays correspondence has been
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discovered by the Sakis court officials.
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They have not traced it back to her yet.
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And here I am, leagues away, powerless to help her.
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No matter how many victories I achieve, I cannot shake the
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feeling of a noose tightening around my neck.
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So for context and a little reminder, the protagonist of
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this campaign is Pakan Chica, a mythological character that
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supposedly lived during the time of this campaign.
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And then there's his love Azai, who gives us more or less
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important Intel on the enemy and therefore takes a great risk.
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It seems like she is close to be caught, which is why Pakan Chica
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is worried. Quemencha Tocha is now full of
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energy to continue his conquest of the Mwiska people.
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He's determined to deal a fatal blow to Nemekena and I and is
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about to launch a full scale invasion of the South.
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Our enemy has arrayed his troops in the north across a wide front
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while his elite vanguard is encamped deeper in enemy
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territory. Nemekena is on the back foot and
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seems to have adopted A defensive strategy.
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However, he remains A resourceful commander.
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He has fortified his northern front and deployed his army to
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repel Quemecha Torcha's onslaught.
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And my scouts tell me that the Spanish have arrived in the
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region and as with others American civilizations at the
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time, they had much better weapons and horses.
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Animals than Whisk I have never seen before.
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This is basically all the context we get for this mission.
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There is no explanation as to where or when we are and what
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we're doing. So I guess we're still fighting
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against Quimanchatocha At at some point the Spanish will show
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up. At least we start in the
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Imperial age this time around and finally have a population
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cap of 200. The game hint also tells me that
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the enemy army is expertly commanded and will strategically
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adapt its army to counter my units.
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That's interesting, because I wonder whether there is in fact
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some change in how the AI plays depending on what I do.
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The AI usually does react to my unit compositions anyway, though
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not so much in campaigns. That's true, and more in
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skirmish mode, so I'm curious whether I will notice anything
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at all. Once again, the Temple of the
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Sun is located in the center of the map and whoever captures it
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will gain an increased work rate for the villagers, so I
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definitely want to make that a priority.
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The foolish psyche plans to invade us, yet he left the
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sacred Temple of the Sun lightly guarded.
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Attack it tonight and destroy his illusions.
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We are tasked to recapture the Temple of the Sun.
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When the mission starts, we get control over 80 military units
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consisting of Champy Warriors, Temple guards, Crossbowmen,
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Guayupa Bowman and Slingers. I'm sending these troops
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straight to the temple where Kuomo Chatocha has stationed his
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army to defend it. The battle however, is quite
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decisive in my favour and almost 60 of my men survive.
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There is not much left of what Iraka once was though.
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Only the Sun Temple in the middle still stands.
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All else is in ruins. Excellent work, take command of
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the main army and prepare for the Sakis counter attack.
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This is our chance to be rid of Kewen Chatocha.
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I will protect the Temple of the Sun from any false gods,
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including you, Kemwen Chatocha. With this we have control over
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what was formerly Niemekinen's base in the east, which is
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heavily fortified and stretches along the eastern edge of the
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map. We are given substantial amount
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of resources to get upgrades and even 200 stone to add town
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centers because we only have 22 bills and wants to boom a little
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in order to maintain our army production to make things a
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little harder as I tells us about a new threat.
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I hear troubling rumours from the North, dear.
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The pale foreigners who call themselves the Spanish bring
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destruction and devastation wherever they go.
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Please be cautious. No time to think about that
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though. Kuomintchatacha instantly
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retaliates and sends another wave of his army to retake the
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temple, but my defence is holding.
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He's also sending some siege, but so far nothing to worry
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about. I have to admit that he almost
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took out my castle in the West of my base, but I realized it
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just in time and saved it. It was kind of a simultaneous
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attack. I was actually planning on
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building a castle to defend the temple, but I need the stone to
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repair that castle 1st and maybe pull up some walls.
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However, I got distracted by a new enemy.
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Hidden in these mountains lies El Dorado, the city of gold.
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March with vigor, man. The smell of gold is in the air.
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So these are the Spanish I say warned me of.
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Do not fear the strange visages and terrifying beasts, men.
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Nothing good comes from mistaking men for gods.
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Surprise, the Spanish are here and of course they are looking
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for treasures. They're looking for the mythical
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El Dorado, the city of gold. Little do they know that it is
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only a myth. However, here in this campaign
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where Mencia Tocha is being portrayed as someone who
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collected all the gold he could. So there is lots for the taking.
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Good for me I guess, because the Spanish might want to fight him
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then. We have an enemy in common.
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Valiant Quesada, The Golden City you seek lies in the lands of my
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rival in Emma, Kenny. Help me crush him and El Dorado
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will be yours. The gold you wear is a sign of
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your successful rule. Great, great sake.
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The Golden City will be mine, and I will serve your enemy's
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head on a platter. The sake lies through his teeth.
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There is no golden city in Nemecane's lands.
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This will not end well for any of us.
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Well, so much for that. I got to hand it to Cuomo
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Chatocha though, He was smart to reach out to the Spanish, even
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though quite naive. It's bad news for us
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nevertheless, because now we have to fight against two
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enemies. Make short work of this armor,
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less rubble. They are all that stand between
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US and the city of our dreams. Yeah, that's what I was afraid
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of. This is all happening really
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fast and I just hit my pop cap and started walling up my home
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base, so I feel pressured already.
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So far I've only seen a few very speedy missionaries by the
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Spanish, but those were actually quite annoying.
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They started to converting my villages and I decided to
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research faith because I don't want them to die as apparently I
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was already having heresy probably pre researched as
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conditions of the scenario so the missionaries would actually
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kill when converting my villages.
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I was bracing myself for probably a longer mission so I
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started to scout areas of the map that have yet to be
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discovered and in the very east I have found a monastery that is
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surrounded by stone and gold. So I'm definitely going there
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and fortifying that place. Comencha Torcha has somewhat
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stopped attacking me at the temple in the middle, and this
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does feel like the calm before the storm.
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And that storm was coming much faster than I had anticipated.
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You spill your men's blood in vain.
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Come serve the sun of the Sun instead, and I will give you
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whatever lands and riches you desire.
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That bribe doesn't work on me, of course, and he probably knew
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this because he sent all his army right into the middle.
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And this time the Spanish have joined him with formidable
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forces. Paladins, champions, hand
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cannoneers, basically heart countering everything that I can
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make it as the mwiska. That was very unexpected and I
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have been pushed away from the temple in an instant.
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The Temple of the Sun belongs to the gods, and thus to me as
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well. I think had I not fortified my
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base they would have immediately overwhelmed me there as well,
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but with my fortified walls and castles to protect me, I could
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slowly wiggle down their army to the point where I could slowly
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rebuild my own. It appears that the enemy sends
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their army in waves, so there was time for a brief respite.
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Losing the temple hurts quite a lot though, because holding the
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temple makes villagers 15% more efficient.
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I wanted to take the temple back as soon as possible though, so I
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sent out a Champi warrior to scout how much army
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Kuomenchatocha had stationed there, and to my surprise there
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hardly was any. That confused me a bit, but I
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didn't hesitate and sent a small army to reclaim the temple and a
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couple of villagers to wallet in in the hopes that this would
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delay the enemy from recapturing it.
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I will protect the Temple of the Sun from any false gods,
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including you, Kembo, and Chatocha.
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Still, I was worried a lot. The Spanish forces are so strong
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against me and together with Koemin Chatocha's army spam, I
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needed to come up with a good strategy.
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Too bad I couldn't think of one. No army comp would ever be able
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to deal with all those units. And worst of all, I'm not even
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getting helps, only Pikes. I thought about using monks to
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convert paladins, which would help me a lot, so I added a few.
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My army consisted of arbolesters, Slingers, champy
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warriors, and temple guards, as well as a couple of monks whom I
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instantly put in different control groups.
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I also added five trebuchets and then making a better idea, I
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decided just to go for it and try and surprise my enemies by
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going straight for Quermencha Tocha.
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So my whole army, which was 120 population, actually 128 because
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I sent 8 villagers along to repair my trebuchets in case I
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needed to and you know, maybe build forward castles.
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So 128 population is marching to Quermencha Tocha's base all the
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way along the western side of the map.
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So they hopefully wouldn't notice me.
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And I'm feeling really smart for this unconventional all in idea.
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And once I got close to the enemy base, I started attacking
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his gates with my trebuchets. I tossed my villagers to place a
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castle to give me support from a little hill.
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I put all my army in front of my trebuchets to protect them, and
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while my first trebuchet projectile is just about flying
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in the air and, you know, almost hitting the enemy gates, they
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suddenly open up and the stream of Kuomenchatacha's army is
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flooding out. And I'm like, here we go, this
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is going to be a huge fight, but no, no, no no no, the Spanish
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are here as well. They join the other army and
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flank me from the right. I panic, try to convert some
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paladins, but my monks have already been sniped.
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A trebuchet from Cuomencia Tocha attacks my half built castle,
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which I delete immediately because my villagers have also
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been sniped and I can't repair my castle or keep building it.
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And I'm just completely wiped from the face of the earth.
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No chance whatsoever. I'm down to 72 villagers and the
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backup army I was producing while I was losing my units like
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flies. Not feeling so smart anymore
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after that shameful defeat. I had a little bit of time to
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change plans while rebuilding my army and here's what I came up
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with. This time I'm going to take out
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the Spanish first so they can flank me like that a second
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time. My new army composition would be
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just about the same, except for I'm replacing champion warriors
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and building pikemen instead, and immediately rushed to attack
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the Spanish. Getting closer to the Spanish
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base, I realized that they are not fortified at all.
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There's no walls and just a couple of bombard towers and
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some wooden fortresses which are basically castles.
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This meant that I could take out their buildings faster, much
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faster than I anticipated, and start raiding to kill the
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Spanish economy. I couldn't finish him off in one
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go, because this time Kurmichatocha came in to flank
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me, but I did enough damage so that my second wave would defeat
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the Spanish. That was a major relief.
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One more time I rebuilt my army and finally started the siege on
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Cuomo Cha Torcha. He was throwing everything he
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had at me, but without the Spanish cavalry coming in, I
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could hold my own and slowly, very slowly, destroy him.
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Actually, if I was to do something different, I should
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have taken out his production buildings much faster, because
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much like the Spanish Cuomo, Chatocha does not appear to be
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rebuilding his military buildings fast enough.
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You are an arrogant fool if you think there's anything more than
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a holic victory. Nemecane the Seeper will never
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conquer the sake, and a mortal will never defeat a God.
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Either way, I managed to wiggle down his buildings.
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I killed his economy. I think I defeated him finally.
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Finally. This mission was a tough one.
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It got me totally overconfident and punished me hard for it.
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Actually, my losses were much higher than I thought because it
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seems my commander Nemekena has been defeated as well.
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Your prowess has defeated the Saki and saved our people
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Pakentike my wounds are grave, but I will never regret fighting
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alongside the bravest warriors in these mountains.
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With Nemecana dead, Cuomencattocha had actually
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gotten what he wanted despite being defeated.
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However, life is going to be very rough for him.
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The cursed native tricked us. We scoured the South and found
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no trace of El Dorado, which means it must lie in the north.
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Break camp and March man. The sucker will pay for his
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insolence. Serves him right.
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The Spanish have seen through Cuomencattocha's deceit and
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they're going after him still in search for El Dorado.
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I mean, the poor guys, they came all the way to the Americas to
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fight gold and enslave people, and all you get is lies.
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I mean, you just can't trust anyone who's not Spanish, can
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you? Well, at least they still
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believe in El Dorado. The gods have chosen to punish
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us all for the Sakis transgressions.
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Nemekene is dead, and Quesada has seen through the Sakis
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bluff. He is scouring the land for Kim
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Wencha, Torcha's capital, which he believes to be a city of
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gold, a city he calls Eldorado. Of course, he will never find
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it. There is no golden city.
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Eldorado is a legend born of Spanish greed, a distortion of
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our coronation ritual embellished by tales of the
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Sakis Golden Palace. To make matters worse, there are
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now rumours of a second expedition coming our way, led
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by an adventurer they call the German.
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The madman has doomed us all. That German will turn out to be
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Nicolaus Federman, and I will tell you more about him in the
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final episode of this campaign series.
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So let's focus on what has happened in this episode.
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It is pretty certain that the events taking place in his
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fourth missions are based on the Spanish conquest of the Muska in
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1537. However, that makes the death of
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Nemakhena very antichristic, since he has already died more
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than 20 years prior to these events.
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In 15-40. At the end of his reign,
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Nemakhena took up arms against the northern Muska again, who
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were led by the Zacche Quemecha Torcha.
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The battle of the Arroyo de Las Huertas, as it's referred to as
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today, lasted for half a day, and just when Nemecane was about
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to claim victory, he was hit by an arrow by one of the Quecha
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warriors of the Northern Whisker and died five days later of his
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wounds. They retreated and Tis Que Sousa
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succeeded his uncle as rule of the Southern Whisker until the
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arrival of the Spanish conquistadores led by Gonzalo
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Jimenez de Que Seda, which was 23 years later.
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Until that day, until the arrival of the Spanish, the
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Iraka actually negotiated a truce between the northern and
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the southern fractions of the Muska.
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So pretty much everything that happened in this mission did not
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really happen in reality. As far as I can tell, Cuomencia
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Tocha was fighting a completely different Zipa and he never
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allied the Spanish, quite the opposite actually.
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In August 1537, Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada entered the
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territories of Kuomintcha Torcha.
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The Zaka ordered his men to not submit to the European invaders
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or show them the way to his fortress.
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He wanted to keep the Spanish away by sending messengers to
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the Spanish conquistadors with valuable peace offers while he
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was trying to hide all their golden jewels.
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But the advantage of the Spanish weaponry and the use of the
20:05
horses quickly beat the Muska warriors on August 20th, 1537.
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The Spanish beat the Zarke and the Muska ruler was taken
20:13
captive. By torturing him, the Spanish
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soldiers hoped he would reveal where he hit his precious
20:19
treasures. When Quementa Torcha was finally
20:23
released from captivity, he fled to a neighboring state, where he
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died shortly after. The designer of this campaign
20:30
has taken some serious liberty when writing the narrative, and
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with what little we know about the Muska, I'm a little
20:37
surprised that they chose to change the events.
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Then again, the history of the Mooska is quite tragic because
20:44
as it stands, the Spanish had no problem whatsoever defeating
20:48
them on the other side. That's really no fun to play, so
20:52
maybe it's a good idea to change things and make the Mooska
20:55
stronger than they actually were when facing the Spanish.
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Though I must admit that had the Spanish built walls in this
21:02
mission, I'm not sure I would have ever been able to beat
21:06
them. It was quite clear that they had
21:08
much better military units. This leads me to the next part
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where I want to talk about my experience with this mission.
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Let me start by saying that I am quite torn.
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On the one hand, the story is kind of weird and if I wasn't
21:23
doing all this research I would probably feel a bit misled.
21:28
I mean it's OK, it's not a historically accurate game but
21:31
only an inspired by history. But I've already said that I'm
21:35
also having a difficult time with the motives of some
21:37
characters and this mission was no different.
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Also, my accomplishments from previous missions feel very
21:45
unrewarding. For example, in the previous
21:48
mission we have subdued the Pancha tribes.
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We we conquered 10 neutral Muiska States and yet somehow
21:55
Comencia Tocha grows more and more powerful.
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All the why we are set back. It just doesn't make any sense.
22:03
Then there's another let down because the game hint told me
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the enemy would adapt their army depending on my actions.
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I did not see the enemy change anything about their army
22:14
composition. They were all spamming pretty
22:16
much every unit available to them in typical AI behaviour.
22:21
I'm not sure if this is just because of the legendary
22:24
difficulty or because I also had an AI army composition
22:29
consisting of four or even 5 different units, but I was kind
22:32
of expecting to experience a little bit of different AI
22:35
behavior than usual. That said, the AI did make for
22:39
some excellent moments, and this leads me to the positives.
22:43
When the Spanish flanked me on my surprise attack on Kuomintcha
22:46
Tocha, I was stumped hard. But the timing on it was so
22:51
cool. Same as when I was attacking the
22:53
Spanish and Kwame Tatacha flanked me to defend the
22:56
Spanish. It came unexpected because the
23:00
both enemies didn't just spam unit after unit but instead
23:04
waited and sent a wave of units that was too powerful to beat.
23:09
Come to think of it, maybe that's what the hint meant.
23:13
Maybe I misunderstood it. Maybe they would not change
23:17
their army composition, but their strategy.
23:20
And if I was attacking one enemy, they would shift their
23:24
focus from the temple to something like a defence mode.
23:28
And indeed, they attacked the temple less and less when I was
23:32
focusing down my enemies. And then there was the sneak
23:36
attack on the West side of my base, which I almost noticed too
23:39
late, but these attacks always came after one of them saw me
23:44
attacking somewhere else. So yeah, I'm either overthinking
23:48
what had happened or finally realizing the true design of the
23:53
enemy behavior in this mission. If that was the case, it's
23:56
actually really cool. Well, let me know how it went
24:01
for you guys and if you were playing on a different
24:03
difficulty because I have a suspicion that on Legendary the
24:06
AI is just completely wild when it comes to army production.
24:10
Anyway, the next episode is going to be the final mission
24:13
for the Mawiska, so I'm eager to finish the campaign and get a
24:17
final verdict. I hope you're enjoying this
24:20
series and I'll see you in the next one.