Some notes from a game as the Malakim I've been enjoying...
1. If (via Genesis) a forest manages to grow on a tile with mana, the unit who builds the node on the tile will be able to chop down the trees.
2. The Elohim were inundated with the Veil early on and joined the ranks of Evil.
3. Having no religion is pretty awesome, nobody hates you for it and you can get lots of culture and money from it!
4. A point of confusion: currently Sabathiel is leading the board and I'm following him up. We're both good, I'm following the Empyrean and he the Order. In a distant 3rd is Alexis following the Runes. When the Overcouncil votes for a new leader it is between Saba and Alexis, what gives?
5. If you use that Empyrean spell that reveals hiddens and such on a pirate ship who is blocking a port then you won't be able to kill him without going to war and the damned blockade will hang around longer...

Some notes from a game as the Malakim I've been enjoying...
2. The Elohim were inundated with the Veil early on and joined the ranks of Evil.
3. Having no religion is pretty awesome, nobody hates you for it and you can get lots of culture and money from it!
4. A point of confusion: currently Sabathiel is leading the board and I'm following him up. We're both good, I'm following the Empyrean and he the Order. In a distant 3rd is Alexis following the Runes. When the Overcouncil votes for a new leader it is between Saba and Alexis, what gives?


The AI will just join whatever religion it gets first in my experience good or bad though good civs are weighted more towards "good" religions

You get the most culture from religion and is one of the major benefits really oh and there are heroes and people with the same religion will like you more, each religion has it's own benefits for example runes of kilmorph is best for gold.

You'll get a vote in the overcouncil...eventually, I don't really understand it sometimes but thats just how it works.

Some notes from a game as the Malakim I've been enjoying...
2. The Elohim were inundated with the Veil early on and joined the ranks of Evil.

I've noticed that civs that adopt a religion that doesn't fit (veil for good civs, order for evil civs), just because it's the first one to spread to their country, will often jump at the chance to change back to something more fitting. So if someone had spread the Order to Elohim land soon enough, in my experience they would have changed to it.

^^ They would probably change towards the good religion if it was more prominent in their empire, since their weighted towards the good religions more than evil, neutral civs are funny sometimes as they change from good to evil and vice versa during wars because of their city's being taken.

What is weird about the council, is that I had a vote and was the head of the council when I was w/o religion, then I changed to Empyrean and suddenly Alexis is on the ballot.

Without religion you get +1 culture per religion, excepting Runes which gives you a coin. It was something I never noticed before. The thing with the Elohim was just kind of funny, more than anything else.

Eligibility is by your total population, I think. If you have a smaller population than Alexis and Sabathiel, you're not eligible, even if you're only slightly smaller and way ahead in tech and thus have a higher score.

Do you have Dies Die, or Sabathiel. Dies Die garenties elligability for the election.

5. If you use that Empyrean spell that reveals hiddens and such on a pirate ship who is blocking a port then you won't be able to kill him without going to war and the damned blockade will hang around longer...Yeah, units that have their Hidden Nationality promotion removed should probably have their blockading cancelled.

Do you have Dies Die, or Sabathiel. Dies Die garenties elligability for the election.

I pretty sure that Dies Diei and Nox Noctis have not guaranteed eligibility for several versions.

Speaking of voting in the councils, does anyone else think it's strange that votes don't need a majority to pass? I always find it strange that sometimes a vote will pass with 1 of 3 votes. Even 1 of 2 votes is not a majority, and should not pass.

Speaking of voting in the councils, does anyone else think it's strange that votes don't need a majority to pass? I always find it strange that sometimes a vote will pass with 1 of 3 votes. Even 1 of 2 votes is not a majority, and should not pass.
Really? Have to cheak that out when I fix my computer.

Speaking of voting in the councils, does anyone else think it's strange that votes don't need a majority to pass? I always find it strange that sometimes a vote will pass with 1 of 3 votes. Even 1 of 2 votes is not a majority, and should not pass.

Yup, it's wrong too. getting 2 of 4 votes should not be a majority. I've never seen anyone else complain about it though. I usually take the undercouncil civic since all its options are good so I usually don't complain.

However, on the occasions I use the overcouncil civic (and don't have control of the council), it becomes a real problem once the leader is outlawing mana and forcing council members to declare war on his/her rivals.

I've noticed that civs that adopt a religion that doesn't fit (veil for good civs, order for evil civs), just because it's the first one to spread to their country, will often jump at the chance to change back to something more fitting. So if someone had spread the Order to Elohim land soon enough, in my experience they would have changed to it.

Very true. One game, I used the WB to place Order priests in the Elohim lands. At the time, the Elohim were FoL for their state religion. However, as soon as I spread Order there, they switched. Elohim like Order. And Sheaim like AV, etc.
However, 2 religions are unnerused, namely CoE and Empyrean. The AI never seems to use CoE. I unnerstand why, really since it has no priests and the AI is braindead bout how to use half the sh*t anyway, least of all CoE. Still stupid tho, since the Svaltafar specially are sposed to use it. (Check the pedia.) As for the Empyream, the AI only uses this if no other religion is estabkished in their lands.

I pften see the AI use CoE, but remember that if your not CoE, you can't see if they are.

I pretty sure that Dies Diei and Nox Noctis have not guaranteed eligibility for several versions.

No, they haven't. Read the pedia entries, people. Certain heroes, however, do grant +1 vote on Overcouncil.

I pften see the AI use CoE, but remember that if your not CoE, you can't see if they are.

Yes, but I always see the AI use FoL, etc. Is CoE such that it can mascarade as nother religion?

Actually, that's not so.
Each religion has one civ that strongly favors it, and one that weakly favors it. (strong and weak being relative).
Svartalfar have the same tendency to adopt Esus as Sheaim the veil or Ljo the Leaves, although tech preferences may be a different matter.

That's pretty much how I unnestood it, man. Wat I meant is why don't I ever see the AI adopt CoE? Does it masquerade or somethin less I'm CoE? Cuz the Svaltafar should favor CoE based on their pedie entry, but they never seem to have anythin but FoL (or sometimes OO, when I spread it to em; or any religion but CoE).

If you see them with nothing, they are probably Esus. If you see them with something else, they are that, I think--I don't think it is set up to show a false religion, just none. It probably has to do with the ai not having a specific missionary unit it can spam, and not wanting to lose happiness from civics, etc.

Well, that otta be fixed so at least the Svaltafar have CoE.

Well, that otta be fixed so at least the Svaltafar have CoE.

They do convert to CoE. Quite often, actually; Faeryl loves to beeline Deception. CoE is almost always founded by Faeryl or the Calabim in my games, and generally converts to it. In fact, I haven't seen Faeryl following Leaves in ages.

Unfortunately, the AI is particularly bad at spreading CoE because they really don't understand the "Spread Council of Esus" spell.

Well, every game I play, Faeryl isn't CoE. And, yes, the AI suck as spreadin CoE. NOther thing to be addressed by Kael as far as the AI go.

Faeryl likes to found the ashen veil in my games....

Faeryl likes to found the ashen veil in my games...

That's happened to me too.

Makes for fun times when you can't see where Essus is hiding out, especially when you're trying to find the holy city so that you'll stop getting ambushed by invisible armies...
I've had the Balseraphs mostly founding AV recently. They even beat the Sheim to it. Seemed kind of odd for them, but then again any kind of organization seems odd for a bunch of crazed hedonists.