Intercept beastmen forces before they reach Al Zahbi!

A variant of this message comes up before every Besieged when the approaching army moves from "Preparing" to "Advancing" status. But... does it mean anything?

I have a few times gone out into the areas bordering Al Zahbi and waited for the beastmen forces. I see them coming, but they ignore me. They don't aggro, and they don't even slow down if I take offensive action. It seems like the warning to "intercept the enemy forces" is just flavor text. Unless... is there something I am missing?

There was a time you could actually kill them outside. The ones you killed wouldn't show up during the big fight. This was also when the monsters zoned into the city in small groups and could be bottle necked at the gates.

It got too easy with lines of BLMs and RNG's sitting on the walls while the melees stood right inside the entry areas. So SE "adjusted" it and made everything WTFOMG hard, teleported you to a random start location and the enemies immediately inside the city banging down the door to the AC.

i always wondered what would happen if i atked them out side the city durning an advance... guess now i no'

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Originally Posted by saevel

There was a time you could actually kill them outside. The ones you killed wouldn't show up during the big fight. This was also when the monsters zoned into the city in small groups and could be bottle necked at the gates.

It got too easy with lines of BLMs and RNG's sitting on the walls while the melees stood right inside the entry areas. So SE "adjusted" it and made everything WTFOMG hard, teleported you to a random start location and the enemies immediately inside the city banging down the door to the AC.

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Yeah I remember the first Besieged I ever saw was over almost immediately after it started. I remember when they had everyone's location randomized. It seems silly though that they made them invincible outside the city.

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Originally Posted by Zarchery

Yeah I remember the first Besieged I ever saw was over almost immediately after it started. I remember when they had everyone's location randomized. It seems silly though that they made them invincible outside the city.

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Because people would kill them off outside the city and that would prevent the besieged from being much at all. SE's answer was two fold, they made the ones outside invincible and then leveled then into the IT+++ range.

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Originally Posted by saevel

they made the ones outside invincible

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And yet the in-game dialog still urges us to "intercept" them.

Can you not kill the NMs on the way to town anymore? Back in the day we used to farm Trance Belts and Genie Gages of the troll NMs.