Alpha 0.7

Ertso-Tianeti

The campaign climbs out of Kakheti into Ertso-Tianeti, the upper valley of the Iori, opened by defending Outer Kakheti. Hold Tianeti, the seat of the Cholokashvili mouravis, while raiders come over the forested Kakheti ridge from the east and up the Iori from Bochorma. It lasts ten nights, and the first nights grow fast.

The forest of the Kakheti ridge hides the raiders: in it they march slower, but your towers and archers can't see them. Too high and cold for vineyards, the valley lives from its houses and its flocks: the Pharekhi, a sheepfold on the pasture slopes, pays at dawn. Pshav guards come down from the north on night 4, and Tush archers on night 8.

Captives

Taking captives was the business of the raids, and now the raiders do it. The Lek captive-taker comes for people, not plunder: he seizes a villager from a Darbazi and runs for the gaps in the forest. Only your lord is fast enough to catch him. Kill him and the captive is free: walk your lord to them, and they follow him home.

Every captive brought home pays 2 coins and counts for your score. A captive carried off over the ridge costs their house its next dawn's income, counts against your score, and is remembered: they will be sold at the market of Akhaltsikhe. Zhaleti's church of St George is a refuge: no one can be seized from the houses near it, and freed captives brought there are safe.

The assault on Bochorma

After the ninth night the raiders fall back to Bochorma fortress with their captives, and the last night is fought there: you attack. Every soldier still standing comes with you to a camp below the fortress. The raiders have raised towers that shoot your people, guards hold the ramps, and the captives wait in pens.

Carry your bands' flags under the towers to bring them down, break open every pen with your lord once its guards are down, and take the keep to win. The best Koshki you had at the last dawn stands by your camp, and the camp hires fresh bands for coins: four Tush archers or four Khevsur swordsmen for 25, four horsemen for 15. If your lord falls, or the raiders' sallies burn the camp, the assault is lost, and you can try it again with the same soldiers.

Two extra levels

Two extra levels open beyond the campaign, and both are short and hard. Each lasts fourteen nights, and every night brings far more raiders than the campaign ever does. Khevsureti opens once you have defended Tusheti, its neighbour to the east, and Kazakh once you have defended Outer Kakheti.

Extra levels have their own colour on the region map, so you can tell them apart from the campaign at a glance. On extra levels the red arrows show who is coming, but not how many: only a question mark.

Khevsureti

Khevsureti lies north of the main ridge of the Caucasus, in the gorges below the tower village of Shatili. Raiders come down three gorges toward the Sasakhle on its hill. There are no camps to train soldiers here: you hold the gorges with towers alone.

You start with very few coins and no soldiers at all. The only help that comes is two bands of four Khevsur swordsmen, who come down to the Sasakhle on night 12.

The weather is as dangerous as the raiders. Every night is harsh: frost falls on the first night, on the last and on most of those between, mist comes often, and some nights bring rain and mist together.

Two rope walkways cross the middle mountain between the left road and the right one. Only your lord and your soldiers can cross them, so you can reach the far gorge quickly while the raiders must go the long way round.

Kazakh

Kazakh lies on the open steppe of Qazakh, where the road from Ganja to Tbilisi crosses the Khrami by the Red Bridge. Here you hold two places, the Sasakhle and the bridge, and if either falls the level is lost. The opening scene shows you the bridge, as Hereti's shows you the Eklesia, so you know from the first day what you must guard.

Raiders come down from the north and cross the Kura at three fords. On a night of rain the middle ford floods and nobody can cross there, so the raiders must take the other two.

On a hill in the north-west, above the ford roads, you can build a signal fire. While it burns, raiders on the plain below march slower, so they will try to put it out. A wall can close the ramp up to it.

Coins and buildings are scarce: you start with 13 coins, and the steppe has room for only two Darbazi, one Venakhi, two Monaspa, one Moisari and one Sajinibo. Koshki stand only on the Sasakhle's hill and by the fords. And every night brings about a third more raiders than before.

Bosses and raiders

Khevsureti ends with Malachi Kokhta-beladi, a Dagestani war-chief named in Georgian documents of the 1750s. He brings rock down on your Koshki and calls his bands from the passes. Badly hurt, he plants a war banner: raiders around it strike harder and march faster until you cut it down.

Kazakh ends with Agha-Kishi of Shaki, the son of Haji Chalabi, who comes up the Ganja road to claim Qazakh. He charges down the road and tramples your soldiers, and his blows fall three times as hard on the Red Bridge. Badly hurt, he sets the steppe alight around him.

The Bahadur is a new champion of the raiders, with great strength and a great deal of health. At half health he flies into a rage: he moves faster, hits harder, and his roar stuns everyone of yours around him.

Two new raiders lift the others. Every raider near the standard-bearer strikes much harder, and every raider near the drummer marches much faster, though both are weak themselves. They march out first and follow the biggest band of raiders near them, waiting for it to catch up, so bring them down before the band arrives.

Weather

Frost is a new kind of weather that comes down off the main ridge. At nightfall a third or more of your Koshki freeze and stop shooting; stand your lord beside a frozen tower for a few seconds to thaw it. The cold also slows your lord and soldiers by a quarter.

Rain and mist can now come on the same night. Together they bring the worst of both: your people slog through the mud and strike more slowly, and every bow and gun reaches less far.

Buildings

The Beacon Koshki is a Khevsur watchtower with a signal fire on its roof, built only in Khevsureti, for 12 coins. It shoots burning arrows, and its fire keeps it and the towers around it from freezing. A faint ring always shows how far its warmth reaches, so you can place your other towers inside it.

The Magharo is a mine dug into the mountainside of Khevsureti. It is rich at first, then the seam runs thin: 5 coins at the first dawn, then 4, then 3, then 2 every dawn after. Deepening it opens a new seam. If raiders bring one down, its powder goes up.

Balance

The Mouravi's Sheteva charge is stronger, comes round every 10 seconds, and sweeps a much wider path: it turns toward the thickest knot of raiders, strikes, throws aside and stuns everyone in its way, and ends with a sweep of the spear all round him.

The Dedopali's dambacha pistol hits harder: 20 a shot instead of 15.

The Khevsur lord now cuts fewer raiders with each blow: besides the one he strikes, his sword reaches at most two others. He is also a little frailer, with 96 health instead of 105.

Two more lords are now earned rather than given: the Dedopali, queen of Kakheti, joins once you have defended Inner Kakheti and its royal seat at Telavi, and the Khevsur once you have defended Tusheti, as Khevsureti opens. The Tavadi is with you from the start, and the Mouravi still joins with Hereti.

Interface

The Guide and the encyclopedia have a new way to move between their books and pages, made to work on phones as well as on larger screens.

The version history now has its own pages, where every update is written out in full. The popup on the main menu shows only what is new since your last visit, with a link to these notes for the rest.

New arrows point the way: a cold blue one toward every frozen Koshki out of sight, and a small red one over every captive-taker dragging a villager off.

Allies are announced the day before they come: their entry joins the encyclopedia with a bubble at the side of the screen, and the dawn message says that help is on the way. A raider you first meet by surprise, on a hidden road or called in by a boss, shows its name as it appears and gets its bubble at the next dawn.

Fixes

The Qazakh horsemen and Agha-Kishi's turban are no longer cut off at the edges of their pictures, and the rope walkways are drawn where you actually walk across them. Pictures in the side bubbles and the Guide keep their shape instead of being squeezed into squares. Many smaller improvements come with this update as well.