Cav's Place

Last week’s run was Wednesday, and it went just well, with the new shoes no longer causing any issues at all, and really feeling that they help, both in the sense of absorbing the shocks better and actually pushing my legs back up a bit. The time was 47:46, with sector times of 4:17, 5:03, 5:51, 4:25, 4:53, 5:50, 4:26, 5:06, 6:01 and 1:54, making for lap times of 15:11, 15:08 and 15:33. Interestingly, I didn’t just cover the first lap in the same time as the week before, but had the exact same sector times on it as well! On the other hand, the second lap’s second sector was particularly fast, but I didn’t quite remember the exact time after the previous sector, so I was thinking it was possible that the exact time was 4:53.05, but I’m not sure.

But the main point of this post is this week’s run, which was Thursday evening, starting just after 6:30 PM and finishing just moments before 10 PM. First evening run in a long time, but I wanted to be able to prepare and have the best conditions I could find for this, not considering the number of people in the park as that much of a problem this time, since I was going to be slow anyway, so I meant to take the moments when others would be in my way as cues to slow down instead of trying to weave around and squeeze through as fast as possible. And the conditions were indeed good, next to no wind, the temperature also very much all right, not wet even though it had rained a little bit earlier, which was unexpected according to the forecast, but the few small puddles were in the usual places and likely not caused by that.
The day didn’t start well though, since I got up just before 9:30 AM, when somebody started drilling. It was very on and off, but I couldn’t just keep staying in bed if it didn’t seem like I’ll be able to sleep properly, so took the opportunity to make more tea and eat some more pasta, then got back in bed at 10:40 AM, actually sleeping better after that. Woke up to pee around 12:45 PM and for good just after 2:30 PM. Then it was a matter of preparing, filling the second half-liter bottle with the new tea, after having filled the first at night, trying to see how to best put everything in the backpack I wanted to take and trying to move around and run in place a bit with it on. Had at first asked dad for something I could put around my waist, but couldn’t use what he had, so meant to try using that backpack, yet gave up on it as well just before leaving, when it was clear that the straps would rub my skin raw through the t-shirt, and the weight of the bottles moving with every step would be an issue as well. So I just gave up on it and put the bars and gel I had bought in a small plastic bag and the keys, one 1 RON bill, my ID card and a little note with dad’s name and telephone number listed as emergency number in another, to make sure nothing could slip out of my pockets without me noticing. Then put one bag in each pocket, took one bottle in each hand and went out. Had also meant to bandage my toes again, but gave up on that as well, as even so it was 6:20 PM by the time I went out the door, some ten minutes later than planned.

As you can see from the duration and preparation, this was a long run, 11 laps around the lake to be exact, so what should be 35.2 kilometers, though there is some error margin at such a distance. The target time was three and a half hours, and I was comfortably inside it, finishing in 3:26:38! Specifically didn’t check sector times, never even looking at the time at those specific points, checking at others when I wanted to get an idea of my pace, just so I won’t even try to remember them, since it’d have been impossible to remember all and it’d have been entirely pointless anyway. Did check the lap times though, and those were 17:27, 17:44, 17:16, 17:50, 17:57, 18:23, 19:12, 18:42, 20:38, 20:28 and 21:01. May have hit the button a second or so early at the end of lap five, so it may be 17:58 for that lap and 18:22 for the next, but I’ll list them like that and otherwise they’re all accurate. Had set a target of staying just under 18 minutes per lap for as long as possible, thinking I’ll be completely safe if I’ll manage it for the first eight laps and in trouble if I won’t even manage it for the first seven, so laps one and three were too fast and things started to go wrong from lap six, being very wrong on lap seven, but in the end it worked out just fine and by quite some margin.
There was time lost to eating and drinking on laps four to ten, as I ate the protein bar on lap four, the high carb bar on lap seven and the gel towards the end of lap nine, and drank on laps five, six, eight and ten, about half a bottle each time, probably somewhat more the first time, slowing to a walk whenever I did this and struggled to get something out of my pocket and then put the rest back in, seeing as the bars and gel were in that bag and it was a whole lot harder to do it while holding the bottles as well. Also lost a few more seconds at the start of each lap after it got dark since I had to stop to check the previous lap’s time under a light, usually doing so more than once, to be sure. Know I could still see the time of lap five normally, but can’t quite remember whether I first had to stop after lap six or seven. Still, while all of this explains the difference between the first three laps and laps four and five, and also between lap seven and laps six and eight, since I struggled a fair bit to tear the packaging of that bar, the difference between the first five laps and the next three show that I was tiring, and from lap nine I was absolutely crushed, having hit the wall around the end of lap eight, so after about 25 kilometers. As for the last lap, while there was no more eating or drinking, I had something in my right eye that really bothered me and I tried to get it out a few times, which I think was also the reason why I pretty much stopped at one point and found myself rather stumbling to the left and almost falling, making me decide to just keep going from then on, keeping that eye closed when it was bothering me too much.
Those last ten kilometers were just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other step after step, my legs hurting and burning and getting ever heavier as other body parts were going numb. At one point I even had a cramp under an armpit, though it’s possible that holding the empty bottle there while getting something to eat had something to do with that. Often I was counting, the distance left, the time left, as much as I could estimate it, breaths, sometimes simply counting. Was setting myself points to reach that got ever closer to each other, calculating them as distance to the end or simply points on a lap, to always have goals I could believe I could reach, the end seeming so far away. And yet I was still noticing how slowly others were running. Sure, there were some who were way faster than me too, but even on the last lap I easily overtook at least one couple that seemed young, not sure if not others as well, since I wasn’t noticing much at that point anymore.

What I signed up for next month really hit me after pushing through it all and finishing that run. You mean I’ll have to run seven kilometers more, in the morning, on next to no sleep, likely in the sun and with the temperature increasing all the time? That’s just frightening, and it seemed completely impossible and I just wanted to give up; on the way back I was trying to see just how I’ll tell dad I won’t be going and he paid the fee for nothing. Calmed down a little after a while though, as I was starting to recover just a little bit that evening, and switched to thinking I’ll just do it once, cross running a marathon off my bucket list, and that’s it. The plan before this run was to alternate, run both this year and then the half in one year and the full marathon the next, but now I don’t think I’ll want to put myself through that if I’ll manage to finish it the first time, especially if I’ll stay inside my target time too. But who knows what I’ll actually end up doing…
That walk of one kilometer or so back from the park felt awfully long that evening though. Somehow got myself up those stairs, drank the last little bit of tea left in the bottles, probably because it had mostly turned to foam at first, and then almost broke down crying. It just hurt too much, I was too exhausted for anything and just didn’t know how I was going to get back. But did know that if I stopped my muscles would seize completely and I’ll really collapse screaming, so I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, careful not to stop even when waiting for the light to turn green, circling around a little instead. Going up the stairs once I reached the building wasn’t quite as hard as I feared, but the moment I sat down in the kitchen it really hit me, could hardly either move or sit still, and trying to get my shoes off was pointless at first, needing to give myself some time before managing even that. My legs were in pain and on fire and there were pins and needles everywhere else, even in the muscles of my face or my stomach or diaphragm.
The shoes really did their job though. I was worried about what I’ll find when I’ll look at my feet, but there was nothing wrong. Still have bruises under two toenails, but there were no new ones, nor any blood or blisters anywhere. There was one toe that bothered me a little at one point, but I changed the position of that foot just a bit while running and it seemed to have been enough, and taking a moment to arrange my left sock a bit pretty early on also seemed to have been enough for another small issue I was feeling at the time. My left ankle also seemed fine, though I still feel a bump there after hitting myself almost a month ago and it does feel just a bit uncomfortable now. And I guess that changing the position of my left leg while running just a little bit was enough to reduce the problems with that knee as well, as it had started bothering me pretty early but felt quite fine after that, at least until the muscles calmed down a bit and I could feel other things…

One thing I noticed was just how dirty the air in this city is. I had just washed my hands and face as soon as I could do so, struggling to manage even that at the time, then a while later put a dry hand on the back of my neck and it felt like a piece of furniture not dusted for at least a month, and it was the same with my ears, my nose, which I guess I hadn’t washed too well that first time, or the exposed parts of my head, which hadn’t been covered by the cap. And it was almost midnight when I finally managed to get that thing out of my eye, as it was only then that I finally managed to hold it open and stare down for long enough for it to clean itself properly. Don’t think I want to know what ended up in my lungs…
Also not sure I really want to know what went on inside me in general that evening, or what may still be going on, though today I finally feel that I’m recovering. Made more tea as soon as I could and drank it that evening, then took a bath after midnight, then ate, trying not to rush. Was wondering whether my digestive system will work well enough, but I guess it did, as there was a tiny bit of nausea that night but I kept everything down and nothing seemed unusual in what came out the other end the next day either. Breathing still took some effort and there still seemed to be some issues with my sight even when I went to bed, but the issues with my eyes may not have been caused by the effort anyway and otherwise I was starting to feel better, with the numbness and the pins and needles gone and my legs being somewhat usable again.

Couldn’t sleep much that morning, unfortunately, waking up to pee for the second time around 9:15 AM and being unable to get back to sleep despite trying for a while, so got at most three and a half hours at first, possibly not even that. Got back in bed around 4:30 PM and got up for good just before 9 PM, but more tea and watermelon, plus my kidneys probably being affected by this as well, meant I still kept waking up to pee even more often than usual. I was just so exhausted, completely drained, only seeming to start to recover after eating that night, but it was interesting that my muscles seemed to be rather beyond hurting. They had hurt before running, and then of course it had been awful during and just after the run, but then they just didn’t anymore, and still don’t. The one issue was my left knee, or more specifically a spot on its left side, which hurt pretty badly yesterday, but by now that’s much better as well. And now, after managing to get some seven hours of sleep this morning, spending some eight and a half in bed, waking up a few times but only needing to get up to pee once, I’m not feeling exhausted anymore either. In fact I feel unexpectedly well; thought it’ll take me longer to get here. But, of course, now I must make sure to keep taking it easy and not push myself too soon in any way.

To get back to last week now, Thursday was quite messy, literally, since dad cooked and on top of making a complete mess in the kitchen, which is the norm, he also clogged the drain of the kitchen sink. In itself, that also wouldn’t be unusual when he cooks, but this time it was clogged so badly he couldn’t unclog it that evening despite taking it apart, leaving me unable to even wash stuff there or do much of anything, and with the things that are usually under the sink and various other items spread all over the kitchen. Good thing I wasn’t planning to make a salad that evening anyway, so just ate what I had and washed what I used in the sink from the small bathroom.

Dad sorted out the drain issue the next day, but more relevant for this post is that I went out then to buy some things for the run planned for this week. Dropped off the recyclables on my way to Kaufland and Carrefour, checked prices there, also had a look at Hervis and spotted a gel that was cheaper than the one I had in mind to try and which would have required me to go a lot farther anyway, but didn’t buy anything just then, instead going from there to Auchan and getting the high carb bar and a couple of other things from there. Then got off the free bus from there earlier and went back to Carrefour and Kaufland, still getting nothing from Carrefour but picking up that gel from the Hervis that’s right there, and the protein bar and a couple of other things from Kaufland. Meant to get one of those very cheap cereal bars as the third thing, to try that as well, but had checked out these bars when I first had a look through Kaufland and when I went back I saw that some had been discounted due to expiring relatively soon. The discount was only 30%, but they weren’t expiring quite right away either, so I grabbed one. Wanted to go to the farmers’ market too, but it was late already, so gave up on that idea that day. Had passed through the other one on the way to Auchan, but didn’t buy anything then. Noticed that the recycling machine next to that market was working then at least, but the one from Auchan was still broken.

Last Saturday I had to choose between writing a personal post and pushing to finish the book I was reading, and chose to read. Could have actually finished that night, but left a little bit, to finish it the next day and post the quick review then as well. Had to do that before the evening, because then I went to a “free shop” that was announced, dropping off a jacket and a pair of pants my parents had to give away, plus an old clock they had brought from my grandmother’s and wanted to throw away, four rolls of old fax paper and a few books my dad also wanted to throw away, the April to August issues of National Geographic and their calendar for this year, two old but unused packs of playing cards which I got with some issues of FHM way back then, and three bookmarks from this bookstore I prefer to buy from. As usual, saw nothing I wanted to take, nearly everything there being clothes, shoes, and a handful of purses and accessories. In fact the only other items when I got there were a book, a pack of playing cards and a few bottles of nail polish, two older people who came as I was looking over the books in the “alternative library” that’s also there adding a couple of pieces of jewelry and a small decoration on that table. Spent some 15 or 20 minutes there before heading back.

Monday could have been ugly, since dad again started leaving closet doors open, and for that matter also the bathroom door now that he mostly finished the other changes he insisted on making there, to let the cats go there, and of course I close them as soon as I spot this, and when I woke up I saw an angry note on the kitchen table saying I had closed Micky in the closet and that he kept telling me not to close doors unless I see that the cats are elsewhere. Right, and I keep telling him to stop leaving them open and letting them in; we both ignore each other and keep doing what we’re doing. But I can’t figure out how I could have missed the fact that Micky was there when I saw that door open after coming back Sunday evening, because I looked, also moved my old running shoes, which I had just put there, to a spot where I thought they’d be less likely to get damaged by the cats when he’ll let them in again, and there didn’t seem to be any trace of her. But indeed, when I looked again that day, after reading the note, there was cat hair everywhere, some things were moved a bit, and those shoes of mine looked like something had been placed on them, or I guess more exactly like a cat had sat or pressed on them. If he only found her when he woke up that morning, it means she was there for 12 hours or more, but I didn’t notice any shit at least. Then again, if I did indeed close her in there, I had even failed to notice a cat, which is far larger than a cat’s shit. And piss would be a lot harder to notice…
Was thinking that if he’ll get back before I’ll leave to go to the farmers’ market, there will be a shouting match, while if he won’t I’ll be leaving an angry note in return. But he did get back before I left and we both ignored each other; I went right out, he stayed in the living room. Then he mumbled a hello when he came to get some water after I got back and was washing dishes, repeating it after I asked what did he say, so I mumbled hello as well and he left, then said a few more words when he came to the kitchen again a bit later. No mention of the mess from either of us, so I guess that was that. And I did spend some time with Micky before he got back that day, I guess as a way to apologize if needed. But the way to not risk them being closed in is still to not let them go there in the first place!
As for the market, definitely had to go because I wanted certain things for the salads I was going to make those days, before the run, and ended up putting something I bought then in the pasta I cooked that night too. There was a somewhat uncomfortable moment though, when I saw some pretty good cucumbers at 1.50 RON / kg, when others were selling the rather soft ones at 2 RON / kg, only noticing after saying I wanted all of them that they were being sold by that old woman I usually know to avoid, because she has one of those old scales, not an electronic one but balancing weights and the products. When I realized it, I stared for a moment, meaning to walk away, but she had already placed the weights and was asking if 2.50 RON would be all right. I eventually said to make it 2 RON, meaning that she should take some cucumbers off, but she took it as me haggling, paused for a moment, then said that was fine, not taking any off. And in fact it was fine, because I weighed the cucumbers on another scale and it said 1.35 kg, so just about exactly the amount for 2 RON.

After that I meant to take it easy, but Tuesday I did 200 squats at once and my upper leg muscles didn’t like that too much. Had to do 200 because I knew I won’t be doing any Thursday, and did them Tuesday just so it won’t be too close, but while I did 200 in a day plenty of times before, either preparing or making up for such a missed day, that was the first time I did them all at once instead of in two series of 100, and the next day there were some consequences. Might have still gotten away with it though, but Wednesday, other than stuffing myself both in the afternoon and at night, I also stood in a bad position, straining those same muscles, while washing the garbage bin in the bathtub, and then of course did the regular 100 squats that evening as well, leading to those muscles hurting a fair bit from then on. And they still hurt the next day, which was the reason why I left myself the option of delaying that run until Friday until almost the last moment. But I didn’t delay it after all.
Still, while I was taking it easy otherwise and since I had just made a backup, Tuesday I also finally got around to installing Vivaldi, which I’ve been meaning to do ever since using it while using Linux for a while almost two years ago. Still like the customization it offers, but still can’t find plenty of the options found under Security and Advanced in Internet Explorer and which I want to be able to set. But what really makes it unusable as the main browser is how it renders fonts and resized images, the images being blurry and the fonts really hard to read, especially by comparison with what Internet Explorer displays. At the same time, after looking for a way to fix the really messed up colors Vivaldi had for everything at first, I figured out how to apply the same fix to Firefox as well, so images finally look right in that too, years after the problem appeared. In case you’re wondering, you need to set Force color profile in Vivaldi and gfx.color_management.display_profile in Firefox to sRGB, because the default profiles are wrong.

And this was even more trouble than it’d normally have been to write due to my keyboard having issues with the space bar. Had been noticing the occasional double or missing space, but since the space bar is harder to press than the other keys and I press on one side of it, close to the edge in fact, I kept thinking that maybe I wasn’t pressing enough or, thinking I hadn’t pressed enough the first time, was pressing again without really realizing it. But it started happening too often and last Wednesday evening I actually checked, pressing right on the edge and seeing it happen more than once every ten times. Usually I get two spaces, still happens even though I try to not press right on the edge anymore, but there may also be some moments when it doesn’t register the press at all, though that only seems to happen when it’s right on the edge. And the key isn’t straight anymore, it’s clearly lower on that side, and since I see that it just has two springs, one on each side, I’m guessing that the one on that side just got weaker due to being the one being pressed all the time and it makes it wobble, since it’s not a mechanical keyboard and that second space actually comes a bit after the first, so a fair number of times it appears after I type the first letter of the next word. But it’s still under warranty, so should take it to be fixed, whatever the issue is… The problem being that I may have noticed some issues with other keys as well, but very rarely and really don’t know whether it’s the keyboard or the way I press. The left Alt may behave oddly more often, but it’s hard to properly test.

Somebody posted today on a group about those on another group taking the Political Coordinates Test, so gave it a go as well, since it definitely seemed very similar to Political Compass and I wanted to see whether the result will differ significantly from the one I got the last time I took that one, in 2014. So this is what I got:

Your political coordinates are:
· 80.6% Left, 75% Liberal

On the economic axis, the result is pretty much exactly the same, 80.6% compared to what would on the same scale be 80.0%. On the social one, on the other hand, this says I’m much more liberal, 75% compared to what would on the same scale be 55.4%. Of course, didn’t take that one again since 2014, but that old result seemed quite accurate and my position on the social axis had changed very little over the years in that test, so I doubt it’ll be too different if I’ll take it again and don’t care to. Then again, I didn’t notice many questions that struck me as relevant for this axis in this test I took now, so there are differences in what’s being asked, and I guess this one doesn’t include many things I had to think about.

Note: The review refers to the edition included in Sword, Steam and Sky: Four Book Fantasy Bundle.

Excellent writing, interesting setting and characters, and quite a relief to see the focus staying on the main characters and only a couple of times briefly switching to the scheming going on elsewhere. The flowery descriptions are written so well that they’re a notable positive aspect, the dialogues are natural, believable, and the same can for the most part also be said about the characters. It’s somewhat unpleasant that, despite being part of the group all along, those guards remain generic, expendable and largely ignored, but the main characters have very different personalities, with facets, layers and pasts that are gradually revealed, as their interactions and bonds become deeper. You will get to cheer and even actually care for most of them… Or at least I did.
The problem, however, is the postapocalyptic setting. Fortunately, at least in this book, there are only glimpses of it, so I could largely ignore it and not let it detract from the rest, but I could have really done without it, perhaps only mentioning something about it a few times in order to explain some details about the setting, and the fact that the action takes place on Earth, not on some fantasy world. That’s a matter of taste, of course, as I simply dislike the genre, but To Journey in the Year of the Tiger would in pretty much any other way be the start of a good fantasy series, yet, however occasionally and briefly, it insists on jarringly tearing the reader away from all its other aspects, from the atmosphere and even the mindset that suits reading such a book, and jumping into something entirely different and, at least from my point of view, out of place. Definitely makes me dread what’s coming.

Rating: 4/5

Actually even a day before writing the review for Disciples, I got back to Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic. Last save was on December 27, but I knew what I was supposed to be doing, so after at first reloading a few times due to losing heroes, before getting a good feel of their actual strength again, two days later I finished that scenario and therefore also the Nomad campaign, then moved on to the next one, which I sure started very badly and due to missing what I was actually supposed to be doing went at it the very, very hard way, and if there was a second hero available at first there definitely was none by the time I could push the enemy back enough, which will hurt me for the rest of this campaign. And now that I could finally get back to what I should have been doing over 150 turns ago, I forgot what I had been told, and made some bad decisions as well, then just decided to go with it to see what happens before I lose my armies, ending up not saving and going back to the save made last night when I’ll get back to it.
But that’s not the only reason why I just want to quickly write this and get it over with, the other one being that yesterday I also started reading To Journey in the Year of the Tiger, which I got a while back after picking up a bundle that was free at the time. Yes, that means I decided against getting right to The Way of Kings after all and starting with something which I have to read on the computer, but either way there are two things I want to get back to as soon as I finish writing this. Wouldn’t have bothered with it at all now, but since yesterday dad finally did something he said he’d do two and a half months ago and I kept that day out of the posts written at the time in order to write about the whole thing when it’ll actually be done, I guess I should get it out of the way now and get back to playing and reading later.

I’m referring to the fact that on June 12 I bought a new light fixture for the bathroom, meaning to switch to LEDs there as well and therefore complete this switch as much as I’m able to, leaving just the other bedroom and the living room, which aren’t my business, to use CFLs because the fixtures have small sockets and LED light bulbs with those sockets are too weak. The bathroom light kept having issues for a long time anyway, the neons starting to take a very long time, even one minute, to turn on, and not because of the tubes themselves, so I eventually used the opportunity to replace it, but that problem tended to appear and disappear on its own and after I asked dad whether he’ll replace the fixture if I’ll buy the new one and he said yes it just started working well again and he kept putting it off. He took the cover off that fixture, which let all the moisture get in there and likely led to what happened these days, but otherwise as long as it worked he didn’t seem to care about replacing it anymore, and even a few days ago, when one of the neon tubes apparently stopped working as he was doing some other work in the bathroom, he just replaced that one with another one we had around. But then it just stopped working completely, Saturday, and I think there was a bit of a flash just when it tried to turn on then, both neon tubes seeming to no longer work when I tested them after that, which seems to imply a short. Still had to take a shit and even a shower using a flashlight that evening and Sunday, but this finally prompted him to replace it with the one I bought.
Admittedly, the fixture I bought does seem intended to be hung from the ceiling, but in the store they had it on display on the wall, so that should work as well. When I went to the store and asked the guy how to set it up he said he didn’t know though, but assumed it was simple and I shouldn’t have problems. Yet I did, or dad did, not figuring out how it could work with what we have on the wall and dismissing my suggestions at first, and when I sent the store a message to ask for some instructions, as the product itself comes with none, they just ignored my message. So it was just left here in my room until yesterday, when dad did end up using my simple suggestion of just hanging a wire from the two screws we have there and hanging the fixture with that wire, just tying the ends together above it so the fact that there’s no way to work behind it won’t matter either. The problem is that he wanted to put it lower than it’d normally be if the wire would be straight, to still cover the hole the cables come through, and that and the fact that he used another wire than the one I had in mind means it’s not actually on the wall, but hanging at an angle. Using the metal bar he intended to use at first could fix that, if it’d be used to hold the wire in place, but probably not if he insists on leaving it lower. Another suggestion I had at first was to just tear up the old fixture and hang this one from its back, which should have sorted out all these issues, but it would have indeed looked ugly.
But we can fix it better at some other time, maybe after I’ll have a look and try to do it myself, since what I didn’t want to try was to make the contacts, especially since the cables coming through the wall are too short for this fixture and they had to be connected to other little pieces and then those had to be connected to it. Not quite happy with the amount of light generated though, but I knew it’ll be a fair bit less and I can manage, and it definitely is better than something that no longer worked at all, or took so long to start when it decided to cause trouble. Just hope whatever caused that one to fail, especially this last time, was just a problem with the fixture and not something with the wires, such as a risk of an occasional short somewhere in the wall, which would cause this one to fail as well and I definitely want to avoid that.

Since I had left everything else about June 12 out of previous posts as well, I’ll also add here that I went to buy this fixture after running that day, and that’s quite a walk even if using the metro, since there’s no stop anywhere in that part of the city, so I left at 2:30 PM and got back around 6:45 PM, and it was pretty hot too. Spent the later part of that walk looking down, since I’d have still needed 0.05 RON to be left with 1 RON after making the purchase, and it was just as I was on the street this shop is on, just a bit before reaching it, that I found a 0.10 RON coin. Then I got to the store and made the purchase, also opening the box and looking at the parts of the fixture as I was asking how to fix it on the wall and not being given any help. Spotted something that looked like rust in one place, and as soon as I mentioned that the guy brought another box and opened that as well to let me have a look, but when I saw the same thing in the same spot there as well I realized it was probably some glue and said I’ll get the first one after all, so I won’t get the parts of the second one out as well in order to check it. The guy said it didn’t matter, but I just took that first one anyway, and the LED tubes for it.
Then I had a look through the farmers’ market that’s on the way back to the nearest, or more exactly least distant, metro station, eventually getting a few tomatoes, aiming for half a kilogram, which was what I could afford with what little I still had, but being unable to get close enough and settling for what showed up as 475 grams. May have given the girl 0.90 RON instead of 1 RON though, not quite sure, since I dug the coins out of my pocket and was getting embarrassed and just wanted to get away. Not that there wasn’t a quite clearly awkward moment anyway, when as I was looking around a little girl came to me and grabbed my pants, really holding on as I tried to move away. Looked for her parents, seeing someone selling there who seemed to be there with her and who came to tell her to leave me alone after a moment. But she was pulling really hard on my pants while she was holding on, making me wonder whether she was trying to steal from me or to distract me while a pickpocket meant to come from behind, but that thought almost made me laugh, thinking that if they’d be looking for money in my pockets I’d search along with them.
Before leaving the market, stopped somewhere and checked the LED tubes as well, and put them in the fixture to make them all easier to carry in the bag. Also noticed that one was very dirty when I did that, and wondered whether it had been that way when I got it or I had dirt on my hands after putting them on something in the market, but seeing as it seemed very hard to even wash off when I tried to do so when I brought them here, I guess it was that way all along and I didn’t notice when I bought it. Was a bit worried about that, but it doesn’t seem to be a problem, even though I couldn’t clean it and it was therefore put in that way now.

Other than that, Saturday I found a note on the kitchen table asking whether I could go to Auchan to get cat food, so I did, getting bread and yogurt for myself as well while I was there and ending up a few coins short and wondering whether I’ll find them in or around the machine, since I could use that to pay then. Spotted one coin under a shelf, then took my chances with the rest and did indeed find even more in the first machine I tried to pay at, if admittedly the second I looked at because the first one was broken. But before all of that, took a detour on the way there to check another recycling machine that was supposed to be near this other farmers’ market, the one I go to when I want apples. But while I did find it, I also found that it wasn’t working either, and the one at Auchan was still broken as well, after all this time. The company they belong to still hadn’t replied to my e-mail asking about the one at Auchan by then, but when I sent them a message on Facebook mentioning this other one as well they did reply… Only to ask at what time I tried to use it, saying they wanted to check something. Still nothing else after I answered the question, nor about the one from Auchan, so no idea what’s going on.

After finishing the campaigns in a month, I poked on and off at that series of “Divine Empire” scenarios for a full year before finally finishing all 21 of those as well. In addition, I played all 18 of those scenarios where this was an option with the Undead Hordes, the remaining three, which were the 18th, 20th and 21st, being played with the Empire (Humans). So certain details about the campaigns, or those specific to the Mountain Clans (Dwarves) or Legions of the Damned (Demons), may be a bit sketchy in my mind by now. But I did take some notes, so anything important should be covered, at least if I noticed it in the first place. I only played with mage lords though, so I won’t know anything specific to warriors or guildmasters.

I again find myself reviewing a game, and in fact a fantasy TBS game, that I can say I enjoyed at least to some extent, but finding it difficult to think of the specific reasons why. For a turn-based game it is, of course, crucial to create that “one more turn” feeling and Disciples does do that well enough, sometimes making me lose track of time while playing. Couldn’t play for hours in a single stretch though, due to a bug I’ll mention later, but when a scenario caught me, or I just wanted to finish it, I’d just quit when I needed to and then get right back again and again. Plus, I not only finished the campaigns in what for me is a pretty short amount of time, but also decided to go through that series of scenarios that’s actually longer than all the four campaigns put together and, while admittedly after a much longer amount of time, actually did so, which should count for something.
There were some interesting scenarios as well, for example the last one from the Legions campaign, or some of the last “Divine Empire” ones, though that unfortunately did not include the very last one. While playing the campaigns it was also pretty nice to see that the races required pretty different approaches, yet all could work once you figured them out. I mean, the Undead are supposed to be the hardest to play with, but after really struggling through the campaign I found that I had learned to play them so well that I preferred them for the “Divine Empire” scenarios, and it was while playing their campaign that I also won a scenario by conquering the enemy capital, even though you’d probably think that, despite the relative weakness of the units, the Empire would be best suited for that. Even did it while still being far from figuring out how to make the best use of the Undead, what units and advancements to pick… Which is in fact another positive aspect, the low number of different units that you can recruit being compensated by what happens when they level up, the significant improvements and the fact that their traits may even change significantly based on your choices, offering a sense of advancement that provides motivation to keep going through the early part of scenarios in order to reach those later stages.
But maybe the main thing that made me keep going was a sense of comfort, if I may use the term, given by the Guardian defending my capital city. Sure, enemy capitals are defended in the same manner and completely defeating an enemy is extraordinarily difficult, so they’ll always pester you to some extent, but defeating the enemy lords is not normally a requirement for victory and having this protected capital means that you can explore and keep your better units on the move without worrying that you may lose everything if an enemy slips past you. And the fact that resources are obtained according to who owns the terrain also largely does away with those silly moments seen in other games when mines or other resource-generating locations keep changing hands. Rod bearers can still do something about this, and using them effectively, especially early in a scenario, is crucial, but for the most part you can focus on exploring, advancing and achieving the objective.

If that’s pretty much all I can say in favor of the game, now comes the easy part, the negative aspects… Though I guess I could start with something that’s more of a missed opportunity, a lack of a potential positive aspect, because if it’d have actually bothered me I wouldn’t have gone through any scenarios after finishing the campaigns, if I’d have done even that, and considering the other issues I definitely wouldn’t have enjoyed it to any extent. I’m referring to the leaders and the combat. For one, leaders are weak, being somewhat comparable to level two units of their type at level one but then advancing very slowly, so regular units with a similar amount of experience will likely overpower them, one consequence of this being that it’s mandatory to choose the Leadership ability whenever it’s offered. But on top of that, there are little tactics involved in actual combat, having little to do except to simply keep attacking and hope the random number generator determining hits and misses won’t go too much against you.
Moving on, could get to the story next, which obviously caught my attention so little during the campaigns that I remember pretty much nothing of it by now, nor did I mention it in the notes I took. Still, at least that means it wasn’t in itself a negative aspect, and what atmosphere the game could create, in large part through the graphics, as aged as they are by now, did give the sense of a struggle and the need for survival, which can provide sufficient justification to go through fight after fight. On the other hand, the “story” of the “Divine Empire” scenarios seems to be nothing more than some lines of text thrown there largely as an afterthought, hardly offering anything positive in the sense of an actual story and being worse at providing useful information than, well, actually providing said information directly.
Speaking of those scenarios, a decent story would have been important not only to make it easier to put up with starting over time and time again, not even being able to take one leader and a few items from the previous scenario, as you can during the campaigns, but also to get you through those that pretty much share the same map, with only a few small changes. They did put some effort into the final ones, though the very last one apparently didn’t take the flaws of the AI into account and is therefore a complete joke, but before that point… Let’s just say it’s all right in small doses, which is why I took so long to finally get through all of them, giving up for months at a time because it was getting quite tedious to do pretty much the exact same thing multiple times in a row without even any decent story as motivation. Why couldn’t they have found a way to make this series of scenarios, which is basically the Gold Edition’s additional “campaign”, into one or more actual campaigns, I don’t know.
Since I mentioned the AI, it definitely won’t be winning any prizes. Sure, the game’s hard enough even so, and the AI also has advantages to make up for those failings, such as units automatically gaining some experience each turn or quite obviously knowing my armies, and possibly those in ruins as well, without spies, but seeing it consider wards and immunities as the same and waste attacks randomly attacking units with either is messed up, and it doesn’t even keep track of which wards get used up, so instead of attacking a warded unit again in order to actually deal damage, the odds seem pretty evenly split between it doing so, attacking another warded unit, and attacking one with immunity to that kind of attack, if all are present. It also seems to spread spells and summon attacks around if multiple leaders approach, often not causing enough harm to matter if it doesn’t have access to the powerful spells, and at times it even summons in the wrong place, having the summoned creature need to go around other armies to reach the intended target, or at times be unable to reach it at all.
Getting back to the advantages the AI has, there’s also one which I consider to be a bug, and that’s that it definitely keeps some of its gains, such as unit experience or advancements or summoned units, obtained after the end of the player’s turn if the autosave from the end of that turn is reloaded. However, such bugs go the other way for the player, since if you level up a leader at the end of a campaign scenario and then reload the starting save for the next one, you will not get to choose the new ability again. When you first start the scenario you will get the choice, but if you reload that starting save you won’t get it anymore, so you’ll lose an ability. Not sure if I tried it with reloading a regular autosave at such a time as well, as I specifically avoided doing that after noticing this bug. Then again, found the fact that you get to choose the new ability at the start of the next turn after a leader levels up instead of immediately to be quite unpleasant in itself.
Back to bugs, while I obviously can’t know whether this has to do with the version I played, from GOG.com, or with my specific system or anything else, the one I found most frustrating was that one that made me unable to play for more than about one hour at a time. The exact time varied, I think I saw as little as about 45 or 50 minutes at one point and maybe up to an hour and a half at another, but typically after a little over one hour the game crashed. Not sure what caused the variation, but the crash always happened when something moved on screen, meaning units on the map but also the animation of at least one of the Hordes’ “Dragon” damage spells, if not others as well, and I think always when it was my turn. Fortunately the autosaves meant that I never lost much even if I did forget to quit before it happened, though reloading an autosave did mean offering the AI some slight advantages, due to the other issue mentioned above, and it was annoying either way.
As for the little things, the sounds for the Undead sure are annoying, with the Banshee possibly being the worst. Believe it or not, this is the first thing I wrote in my notes about this game, the Hordes’ campaign being the second I played, and despite playing 18 “Divine Empire” scenarios with the Hordes as well I never got used to it. Nor did I get used to how long animations feel after a while, or to the focus being moved to the capital city at the start of each turn, or to each summoned creature that you happen to have taking its time dying before that. Getting a message for each item taken instead of a list if there are more taken at once also gets tedious, as does needing to move, including when buying or selling, items one by one. And it’d also be useful for the guard stance to be saved instead of only in effect for the current turn, so selecting the next leader would only cycle between those you mean to actively use.
In addition to that, diplomacy seems rather tacked on, not offering some useful options, and the descriptions of the lords only being listed there likely means they may not even be noticed. On another note, campaign scenarios won by transforming a certain percentage of the map seem odd, because you may well need to avoid winning too soon in order to level up your main leader or find the best items to take to the next. And having the area controlled always listed at the top of the screen but having to toggle between displaying the available resources and seeing the minimap is a strange, and simply bad, design choice… As is the lack of any sort of grid, to let you figure out how far armies can go, or that the attacker always flees on turn 11 of a fight but there’s no turn counter anywhere. And I do wonder how can they possibly justify making human archers more accurate than elven ones, and for that matter making the simple archer, a basic unit the Empire can recruit right away and which also attacks at a range, have the second most accurate attack in the entire game, becoming the single most accurate one when it quickly advances to marksman.

After all of that… Disciples: Sacred Lands is not a bad game, and the scenarios added in the Gold Edition do give you more to play if you so wish. It’s a simpler game than others in the genre, being pretty light on both tactics and RPG elements, but the Guardians and the way resources are obtained allow you to focus on what you need to do, and advancing your units and leaders and getting through difficult battles may be sufficient motivation… And it pretty much needs to be, since the story isn’t and there are plenty of reasons for frustration that you’ll need to put up with, including bad design choices and some bugs. But expectations, including about interface and features, and also about AI, were somewhat different back when it was released, so some leniency may be in order if played, and reviewed, now.