Elohim Guide

EverNoob

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Elohim Guide 0.41
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This is an update of my 0.40 version of the guide.

As always, contributions and comments welcome :)

Table of Contents


Overview
The Elohim are a good-aligned human civ. Their defining traits are Tolerant and Defender. By default they can build all standard units in the game, except the Assassin which is replaced by the Devout. Except for the Devout, all their unique units, buildings and abilties are acquired along the divine tech path.

The Elohim are particularly strong against undead and demon units, and have a unique ritual to lower the AC as well.

Diplomacy and trade play vital roles in Elohim games. They are mainly geared toward the peaceful victories, especially the cultural and altar victories.

Though the Elohim are quite capable in war, they do suffer from extra war weariness. The Elohim palace gives a +20% war weariness penalty. However there are ways to deal with this.

Because the Elohim have access to all standard human units and buildings, they can be played in many ways. This post is more of a general guideline.​

The Tolerant Trait
The Elohim are the only civ with the Tolerant trait. When you acquire another civ's city either by conquest or culture flip, it retains the ability to build units and buildings of the original owner. While it doesn't make the Elohim warmongers per se, it makes the spoils of war extremely rewarding.

This is the only way for the Elohim to get Assassins.

The downside is that acquired cities can't build Elohim units or buildings. Which can be a disadvantage in certain cases.

You can't build another civ's heroes.

You can build another civ's palace, however you lose your original palace doing so since you can only have 1 palace at a time.

Tolerant is a potentially powerful trait and makes every game unique, as it depends on what civs you end up acquiring cities from. The ability to build other palaces is a huge benefit. It gives you access to other types of mana and certain civ wide palace effects (ie: Lanun +1:food: in water tiles). It also makes the Tower victory easier.

Some players claim that Tolerant invites the Elohim to be warmongers. I say it makes them very good rulers. When playing at high difficulty, the AI will declare war on you anyway. And even if your objective is a peaceful victory, some conquest is necessary to have a respectably sized empire at higher difficulties.

Unique features on the map
At the start of the game, the Elohim know the location of all the unique features on the map. Though the usefulness of this ability is unreliable, it makes a huge difference when you're lucky enough to have certain unique features nearby.

The most useful ones at the beginning of the game is the Remnants of Patria, Yggdrasil, and the Dragon Bones.

Spoiler Basic Info :
Starting Tech: Ancient Chants

The Elohim have access to all regular buildings and units, except Assassin which is replaced by the Devout.

Unique Buildings

Elohim Palace:
Produces Spirit, Nature and Water mana.
Also gives +20% war :mad: in all your cities. This prevents the Elohim from being hardcore warmongers.​

Reliquary:
Available at Way of the Wise
100 :hammers:
+2 :culture:, +1 :yuck:, +1 priest :gp:
Bestows Spirit Guide to units. This is a multi-purpose building, as it provides :culture:, :gp:, and special abilities.​

Chancel of Guardians:
Available at Priesthood
120:hammers:
+25% city defense
20% chance of bestowing Defensive to units.​

Hero

Corlindale:
Available at Fanaticism
0 :strength:, 2 :move:, arcane unit, 300:hammers:
Starts with Hero, Channelling I-II-III, Earth I, Mind I, Spirit I

Corlindale starts with alot of free promotions and can specialize in as many as 4 magic spheres.

Focusing on Mind and Spirit sphere he can quickly gain Domination and Trust. Trust helps you stay at peace to continue your builder strat. Domination is great spell for wartime. That leaves room for 1 more magic sphere at your discretion, though I highly suggest Nature for Vitalize. The Earth sphere for Corlindale sucks, unless you turn him into a Lich.

Usual "default" Corlindale is Mind III, Spirit III, Nature III. I often leave 1 promotion extra in case Mind III gets resisted.

Also, he has a special one-time ability to force a peace treaty with every civ who is currently at war with you. However you have to sacrifice Corlindale. Thematically it's a cool ability, but I've never been in a situation where sacrificing him was worth it...if it weren't for Resurrection! :D

World Spell

Sanctuary:
Forces every non-Elohim unit outside your borders, and prevents them from entering your territory for 30 turns.

The ultimate defense for 30 turns. However don't be fooled, it's also a good offensive world spell. With Sanctuary active, you don't need to defend your cities, which leaves all your units available for offense. Just leave your newly captured cities empty and keep going. Like alot of World Spells, this one is best used mid-late in the game because more stuff can happen in 30 turns the later you are in the game.​

Unique Unit

Monk:
Available at Priesthood
6 :strength:, 2 :move:, disciple unit, 120:hammers:
Starts with Demon Slaying and Medic I

The Elohim jack-of-all-trades unit, with no building requirements to boot. Is useful for attack and defense. In the early game he's good for spearheading attacks, and later he remains useful as a mobile grunt/medic unit or against Demon units. The only thing he can't do is pillage.

As of patch "z" Monk can be upgraded to Paladin or Immortal.​

Devout:
Available at Poisons
Replaces Assassin
5 :strength:, 2 :move:, recon unit, 120:hammers:
-50% city strength
Starts with Life I, Channelling I
Can see hidden animals
Can explore rival territory
Upgrades to Shadow, Priest of Leaves, Confessor, Stonewarden, Vicar

The Devout is a non-assassin unit. A generally useless unit in itself, except that he can upgrade to a priest unit, retaining Life I. This grants priest units access to the Life spells, Destroy Undead being the most useful one. Especially when fighting against AV, OO and Sheaim units.

Note that the Devout can only be upgraded to Priest of Leaves, Stonewarden, Confessor, or Vicar. As such it favours FoL, RoK, Order, and Empyrean.

However, even if you don't research Poisons you can still upgrade Hunters directly to Priests.

As of patch "z" Devout can be upgraded to Vicars too.​

Starting Strategies
First thing to do is switch out of Pacifism since it slows down Warrior production.

The Elohim start with Ancient Chants, which gives them easy access Mysticism or Education.

God King vs Aristocracy:
First tech to research is either Mysticism or Agriculture.

Mysticism first works best in a forested area. Starting economy is driven by God King (GK) and Elder Council.

Agriculture first works best on flatland next to fresh water. Followed by a beeling to Aristocracy.

In general, Agriculture first works better with Ethne since Aristocracy is all about grabbing as much land as you can and farming it. Mysticism first usually works better with Einion Logos because his Philosophical trait allows for an early specialist economy. The big deciding factor is terrain.​

Early game military:

Barbarians shouldn't be too much of a problem due to Defender. Just keep the fighting within your borders.

IMHO Horsemen + Archer (then leading to Horse Archer) is the best overall choice. Mounted units are the only ones that truly benefit from the +10% withdrawal of Homeland, and you can build Archery Range faster. It also naturally leads to Stirrups for Horse Archer. Unfortunately this is resource dependent.

Monks via Priesthood bulb around turn 100-120 is possible with Einion. Monk are strong and fast when you get them early but the main disadvantage is they are expensive, plus beelining Priesthood is bad for your long term economy.

Ever since the Hunting :science: cost increase, Hunters is only a viable option as an early military unit for Einion Logos. Try to get 4 Hunters to lvl 6 so you can upgrade them to high priests.

Axemen are usually the last choice as early military. Usually because there are no Horses around, or you need Bronze Working to clear jungles.

The cornerstone of Elohim military strategy is high city defense. This allows for more offensive units and gives you more time to respond to attacks. Forts also make good additions but aren't strictly necessary. Wall of Stone is nice if you have Standing Stones or founded RoK, but usually isn't worth building an Earth node for. The highest city defense I've ever gotten is +150%, with Ethne.​

Leader Specific Strategy
Ethne The White:
Creative, Defender

Creative makes early land grabbing alot easier, usually resulting in a larger empire. It allows newly captured cities to get up and running faster, as well as making them easier to defend. All of which makes Ethne more suited to conquest, either by military or cultural means.

Ethne's advantages are mainly in the early game:
  • In terms of economy, Creative lets you place cities in optimal locations and access resources more easily.
  • In terms of military, more culture means higher city defense and larger borders. Large borders forces opponents to cross more space to get to your cities, which gives you more time to respond to sneak attacks. The Homeland combat bonus also covers a larger area.
Aristocracy-Agrarian is the usual civics for Ethne, Republic-Liberty if going for cultural victory. When terrain permits, an early beeline to Aristocracy is often the best course.​

Einion Logos:
Philosophical, Defender

The double production of Elder Councils and Library are all in line with being a good builder. Einion Logos is the leader most suited to the Altar victory.

Usual early civic is God King to speed expansion. In those cases, early economy is based on an early Academy, Elder Councils and Sages.

Because of the benefits of the Altar of Luonnotar, Einion should usually run a specialist economy with an emphasis on Sages AND Prophets, even if not going for an Altar victory. The Great Library is also a good wonder to build.

Once God King outlives its usefulness, City States or Republic are the usual alternatives, combined with Scholarship or Liberty. Aristocracy is suboptimal since is reduces the amount of specialists.​

Corlindale
The biggest benefit of Corlindale is access to archmage spells without having to research arcane techs.

As of 0.34, units with 0:strength: are no longer targeted by marksman units (Assassins, Shadows, etc). Which is a complete reversal of fortunes for Corlindale. He now makes a great front line archmage, since Assassins won't target him! It's still almost impossible to level him past lvl 10 though.

Corlindale starts with Mind I, Earth I, and Spirit I. Which makes specializing in those spheres natural for him. But since he's no longer vulnerable to assassination, you no longer have to restrict yourself to buffing spells. Anything goes with Corlindale now.

Using only palace mana, he can cast Trust and Vitalize. Those 2 spells are very powerful for peacemongers. Or twincast Water Elementals if you want a more combative Corlindale.

However, Corlindale's true potential is unlocked with the Resurrection spell (Life III). There are many nifty tricks with Corlindale using Resurrection:
  • Cast Peace over and over. (needs to be verified for 0.40)
  • Build Corlindale with Spirit Guide, then get him killed so his xp transfer over. Corlindale must be killed in combat for this to work and this only works the first time he dies.
  • Build the Shrine of the Champion.
  • Corlindale is always resurrected at lvl 1, which means you can change his magic spheres each time.
There are various ways to get Resurrection:
  1. Druids or FoL/RoK/Order/Empyrean High Priests upgraded from Devouts. High Priests require incense, except RoK which requires gems, and Druids require neutral alignment.
  2. Religious heroes: Sphener, Yvain, Hemah, Gibbon Goetia. Yvain and Sphener start with Life I so don't need Life mana. Hemah and Gibbon require Life mana to get Resurrection.
  3. Archmages. This is the longest and least efficient method, and requires reagents.
Specific Strategies/Tactics
Settling the Arctic: Since you're guaranteed to get Vitalize via Corlindale and Nature mana from your palace, you can expand into snow and tundra.

The Reliquary: Spirit Guide is powerful when combined with the Altar for training religious grunts (Monk, Paramander, Crusader), or Ride of Nine Kings with mounted units.

The Devout:
The Elohim's Assassin replacement seems like a pointless unit...until you look at what it can upgrade to.
Code:
                                --- Confessor --------     -- Druid
Scout -- Hunter --             /                      \   /
                  \           /---- Priest of Leaves --\ /--- Paladin
                   -- Devout -                          -
                  /           \---- Vicar -------------/ \--- Eidolon
     Nightwatch --             \                      /   \
                                \-- Stonewarden ------     -- High Priest
                                 \                      
                                  - Shadow
Basically it tranfers Hunters and Nightwatch into the Priest line of units. With the added bonus of a free Life I promotion.

First of all, it allows priests to gain the Life II promotion for Destroy Undead. Ideal against the Sheaim and AV. They can also eventually gain Life III for Resurrection when they upgrade to T4 disciple units.

Second, Devout ungraded from Nightwatch can enter other civs' territory without open borders, cast Mask and kill workers/pick off units without declaring war.

Third, you can get Hunters or Esus Devouts, level them up fighting barbarians or fighting under hidden nationality up to lvl 6, then upgrade them to high priests without having to wait for regular priests to level up passively. You can quickly get Luridus (Empyrean) this way. This is the main benefit of using Hunters as early military.

Or else Hunters and Nightwatch can be upgraded to Druids. If you're neutral, you can get religious Druids with access to lvl 3 divine spells.​
 
Nice guide. I never realized how useful Corindale was... I always thought of him as a second-rate hero. Can you remain in perpetual peace by using Peace + Resurrection + Peace + Resurrection... etc?
 
Great Guide Evernoob.

I have a question though. If you upgrade a Nightwatch through Devout to Priest of leaves, cast mask, enter another civs territory and cast Summon Tiger. Does the summoned tiger also have mask or does it cause an automatic DOW?

Keep up the good work:)

Edit: Never mind, jut realized that only recon units can mask (blush)
Please ignore this post heheh.
 
Can you remain in perpetual peace by using Peace + Resurrection + Peace + Resurrection... etc?

Yup :D though it's more useful for bringing down the AC than the peace. Cuz by then you'd have some form of T4 unit and can handle war pretty well.



I have a question though. If you upgrade a Nightwatch through Devout to Priest of leaves, cast mask, enter another civs territory and cast Summon Tiger. Does the summoned tiger also have mask or does it cause an automatic DOW?

I think if you cast Mask while he's a Devout, and then upgrade while he's still hidden nationality, then the priest will keep his hidden nationality. I haven't tested this though. In that case the Tiger he summons should be hidden nationality though. Unfortunatly the priest would get killed pretty easily since he'd be constantly hiddden nationality. Maybe if you ungrade the Devout so something hardier like a Druid or a Luridus.
 
Few things to note:
Trust can only be cast once - give it to Cordindale, use it, then kill him.
Priests only get life 1 if upgraded to from a devout. If you upgrade a hunter to a priest, it will not get life 1 as it never became a devout. (note, I may be wrong here, but I am basing this off of other unit upgrades, not the devout).
The elohim no longer see unique features right from the start of the game. This was changed to happen on turn 1, allowing the feature regenerate map to be re-enabled.

-Colin
 
Go, Evernoob, Go!:move::goodjob::move:

I like the new section about the devout quiet much, but iirc it can also upgrade to marksman and it ignores borders. What i know for sure is that the devout also starts with channeling 1, which will not only allow priests to cast sanctify, but also increases the rate they gain xp in the same way that potency does.

i will comment on the rest later. And i love this guide.
 
I like the new section about the devout quiet much, but iirc it can also upgrade to marksman and it ignores borders. What i know for sure is that the devout also starts with channeling 1, which will not only allow priests to cast sanctify, but also increases the rate they gain xp in the same way that potency does.

Hmmm I didn't realize Devout could upgrade to Marksman. It never occurred to me so I never tried. But in the pedia entry it doesn't say it can. Has anybody tried it?

Cool I didn't know channeling 1 stacked with channeling 2...that might explain why I thought my priests were leveling up kinda fast. So in that case you'd always want priests upgraded from Devouts instead of just training a priest straight out.
 
Or else Hunters and Nightwatch can be upgraded to Druids. If you're neutral, you can get religious Druids with access to lvl 3 divine spells.
Is this saying that if you upgraded a hunter/ranger with Empyrean unit religion to druid, it could cast Crown of Brilliance? Without Elohim/Devout too.
 
Short Version: Hallowing of Elohim may provide "have your cake and eat it too" Ashen Veil. Particularly with Celestial Compass.

Long Version: I recently finished a game as the Elohim wherein I adopted AV. Because my army was mostly living people, I didn't want the AC to hit 90, and I certainly didn't want it to hit 100, but I still wanted to build Meshamber and Madero (by the time I got to those techs, Beasts and Eidolons were unnecessary as my army was sufficiently otherwise stocked with tier IV units).

The great thing about the Elohim with AV was that I could keep the AC in the low 80's by building Hallowing of the Elohim in four or five cities at once. It got close, and I had the option of sacrificing Corlindale (and it would have been a true sacrifice because I had no life or metamagic mana and didn't realize that devouts could lead to that - thanks Evernoob), but never had to take the plunge. One thing that helped was building Prophecy of Ragnarok as a denial tactic and not building any units in that city. However, I also wanted to keep the AC high because about 30% of my troops were Sheam summoned units. It is onerous to keep building a 600 hammer ritual, especially without the celesital compass, but I managed to get a double golden age (started one, then three turns later got another one from an event... that pretty much decided the game).

In terms of flavour, it is great having an elohim berseker, a brujah, and two Kazhad berserkers running around. And why build Phalanxes when you can have Stoneskin Ogres instead?! On the note of the Clan of Embers, this bizarro-world game had them adopting Order, summoning Basium, and fighting my AV Elohim. That helped kickstart my "this mod is so vast" realization.
 
I think their world spell is very strong, it allows you to use all of your units save one for each city in a war without fearing retaliation (for 30 turns). Somewhat late in the game, 30 turns can seem pretty much forever. It's much more impressive as a tool of war than I thought it would be at first sight.
 
I totally agree. I used their worldspell offensively in that game. Once you cast it, you don't have to worry about garrisoning, and once you take a city, you can leave only injured units there to heal while the stack moves one, because they can't take it back.
 
I was under the impression that only cities within your borders when you cast the spell. All subsequent conquests therefor lie outside of the protective wall and have to be protected normally.
 
All I know is that in 0.41g, I invaded the Clan of Embers and left cities virtually undefended (i.e. wounded siege trains and wounded city-raider-promoted champions). They attacked my smaller "bait groups" but didn't attack those cities, which were within two squares. I suppose it is possible that they just chose not to attack, but to me it seemed as though they could not.

Even if I am wrong, absolute protection for your starting borders remains a huge advantage in a war of aggression.
 
Sanctuary applies to all your cities, even newly conquered/built cities. I know a wall appears around your original cities when you cast the worldspell, but it's only for looks. That's why it's a great offensive worldspell too.

Thanks for the clarification.;)
 
I strongly recommend Elohim for someone learning the game because you get to see other civs' units.
 
An interesting alternative is the nasty good Elohim. Use the fellowship of leaves to delevop lush cities and then push up the armageddon counter with the Prophecy of Ragnarok. Whilst your wannabe evil opponents suffer blight then worse, you can expand your expire mercilessly. What's the use of spirit guides if you never push your troops into battle?

If (when?) things get out of hand you've all the tools to regain control of armageddon and repair your land. Don't be afraid to set the armageddon clock ticking.
 
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