Fun game today.
As you can see by the graphs, the Lanun had gained a rediculous lead ... yet somehow my military was still about the same size (and possibly a bit bigger .. depends on how much fire-bows count towards power vs Stygian Guards. If Tholal buffed their rating amount, then its quite possible that I had less Firebows than I had Stygian Guards)
But actually, come to think of it, I can just check for myself (I can give you, probably, a full military roster)
The turn I attacked was probably one of the most opportune moments of doing so.
1) Just a handful of turns ago, the Ljosalphar had declared war on the Lanun. At first we thought perhaps they had just gone mad, and Gekko thought I had bribed them ... but starting to think it was due to his insane Power to GNP ratio. (Something that exists in almost every Lanun game btw
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2) Gekko had left very light garrisons in his southern cities, bringing almost everything to the north and east (while I am to his west). Made fireballs a bit more effective in the early years of the war. Also, I think his capital had maybe 5 units or so in it at the time that I captured and razed it. More than once had I razed a city with a reinforcing army not but 2 tiles away (so close, yet so far away). Sometimes though, I had enough movement to kill the army after taking the city ... but ofc I would have suffered more losses had they been able to take advantage of the city defenses (not to mention potential fortification values)
3) I used Arcane Lacuna a turn before the war (or maybe same turn). This disabled his tsunamis, meaning I didn't have to circumvent the Oceans. Also meant any other casters I didn't know about had become completely useless. Yet I think that priests of overlords were his only casters because at some point before the war I saw that he hadn't even researched Knowledge of the Ether yet.
4) Nox Noctis ... was his. Or was it? He built the Mercurian Gate in the same city as Nox Noctis ... effectively ridding himself of the protective mechanic. This allowed me to kill massive armies in the field (and heroes too iirc, although only the Baron was a true victim of his thinking he still had nox protection) that I otherwise would have to have fought in the trenches (city squares). Honestly, I think its awesome that not the whole freakin team gets the benefits of Nox Noctis, and it makes sense from a coding perspective ... but still. I could see how that was a bit of a trap
Perhaps there should be a better Civilopedia strategy section on the Nox Noctis for this sort of thing? Honestly, I thought he knew that he lost the Noctis protection, so I didn't think of saying anything, but had I known that he didn't know (before the war), I would have probably told him. Truth be told, I didn't realize it until just now. It explains why he left Baron by himself ... although tbh he didn't have much of an army left by that point anyways, so that's why I didn't realize it even during the war. I guess I figured he would have noticed while I was killing his units on the field, but I think that he may well have thought he was still getting protection so long as the Mercurian Capital lay untouched. I mean Hell, I thought he had protection too until my pre-war scouting revealed that I could see units in his territory. (whereas earlier I could not). This clued me in before the invasion even began that it was lost ... but I just assumed that he knew as well. Its one of those things that would be easily detectable in a PBEM, but in simul sometimes those things can slip for a whole game.
5) His Army. His main offensive stack was as far away from my border as it was ever going to be. Just turns earlier, it was near Bolans along the border ... but then it went off to fight the elves. Sure it was just in Bruti (the local elven border city), but since the rest of the Ljosalphar cities were so empty, I figured that he would have just sent a much smaller force next time, after healing. He already brought his Shadows back to the front, (or they were headed in that direction at least- to me), so I felt safe to assume that he too could tell that the war was already 'over'. After the game, it seemed safe to assume that the only real threat he felt (from the elves) was from the treants of the world spell.
6) My Army. It was not the perfect army, but it was good enough to get the job done, and that's what matters. It wasn't much fancy either ... the first RoK hero, a bunch of firebows, and 2 adepts. One adept for hasting and another for eyeballs. These were the only 2 adepts I had built in the entire game, and this wasn't long after I had built my final one (maybe 10 turns later). I didn't waste time building extra adepts to construct any nodes ... my strategy needed no nodes. First I made sure that I had my body1 adept for hasting, as I figured that would be most important in the early stages of the war. (ie, before at least one city got razed). After that, I did some eyeball scouting with my 2nd adept ... including noticing the light garrison in the capital city (1 warrior at the time), and the remaining forces of the elves (basically nothing).
As you can see by the graphs, the Lanun had gained a rediculous lead ... yet somehow my military was still about the same size (and possibly a bit bigger .. depends on how much fire-bows count towards power vs Stygian Guards. If Tholal buffed their rating amount, then its quite possible that I had less Firebows than I had Stygian Guards)
But actually, come to think of it, I can just check for myself (I can give you, probably, a full military roster)
The turn I attacked was probably one of the most opportune moments of doing so.
1) Just a handful of turns ago, the Ljosalphar had declared war on the Lanun. At first we thought perhaps they had just gone mad, and Gekko thought I had bribed them ... but starting to think it was due to his insane Power to GNP ratio. (Something that exists in almost every Lanun game btw
)2) Gekko had left very light garrisons in his southern cities, bringing almost everything to the north and east (while I am to his west). Made fireballs a bit more effective in the early years of the war. Also, I think his capital had maybe 5 units or so in it at the time that I captured and razed it. More than once had I razed a city with a reinforcing army not but 2 tiles away (so close, yet so far away). Sometimes though, I had enough movement to kill the army after taking the city ... but ofc I would have suffered more losses had they been able to take advantage of the city defenses (not to mention potential fortification values)
3) I used Arcane Lacuna a turn before the war (or maybe same turn). This disabled his tsunamis, meaning I didn't have to circumvent the Oceans. Also meant any other casters I didn't know about had become completely useless. Yet I think that priests of overlords were his only casters because at some point before the war I saw that he hadn't even researched Knowledge of the Ether yet.
4) Nox Noctis ... was his. Or was it? He built the Mercurian Gate in the same city as Nox Noctis ... effectively ridding himself of the protective mechanic. This allowed me to kill massive armies in the field (and heroes too iirc, although only the Baron was a true victim of his thinking he still had nox protection) that I otherwise would have to have fought in the trenches (city squares). Honestly, I think its awesome that not the whole freakin team gets the benefits of Nox Noctis, and it makes sense from a coding perspective ... but still. I could see how that was a bit of a trap
Perhaps there should be a better Civilopedia strategy section on the Nox Noctis for this sort of thing? Honestly, I thought he knew that he lost the Noctis protection, so I didn't think of saying anything, but had I known that he didn't know (before the war), I would have probably told him. Truth be told, I didn't realize it until just now. It explains why he left Baron by himself ... although tbh he didn't have much of an army left by that point anyways, so that's why I didn't realize it even during the war. I guess I figured he would have noticed while I was killing his units on the field, but I think that he may well have thought he was still getting protection so long as the Mercurian Capital lay untouched. I mean Hell, I thought he had protection too until my pre-war scouting revealed that I could see units in his territory. (whereas earlier I could not). This clued me in before the invasion even began that it was lost ... but I just assumed that he knew as well. Its one of those things that would be easily detectable in a PBEM, but in simul sometimes those things can slip for a whole game.5) His Army. His main offensive stack was as far away from my border as it was ever going to be. Just turns earlier, it was near Bolans along the border ... but then it went off to fight the elves. Sure it was just in Bruti (the local elven border city), but since the rest of the Ljosalphar cities were so empty, I figured that he would have just sent a much smaller force next time, after healing. He already brought his Shadows back to the front, (or they were headed in that direction at least- to me), so I felt safe to assume that he too could tell that the war was already 'over'. After the game, it seemed safe to assume that the only real threat he felt (from the elves) was from the treants of the world spell.
6) My Army. It was not the perfect army, but it was good enough to get the job done, and that's what matters. It wasn't much fancy either ... the first RoK hero, a bunch of firebows, and 2 adepts. One adept for hasting and another for eyeballs. These were the only 2 adepts I had built in the entire game, and this wasn't long after I had built my final one (maybe 10 turns later). I didn't waste time building extra adepts to construct any nodes ... my strategy needed no nodes. First I made sure that I had my body1 adept for hasting, as I figured that would be most important in the early stages of the war. (ie, before at least one city got razed). After that, I did some eyeball scouting with my 2nd adept ... including noticing the light garrison in the capital city (1 warrior at the time), and the remaining forces of the elves (basically nothing).
![[to_xp]Gekko](https://civfanatics-data.community.forum/avatars/m/74/74677.jpg?1475248346){kind=avatar}
During the Treant summons, I think I would have mobilized my forces towards the border ... but then retreated once the Treants went away. I'd probably keep my Shadows in ljos territory just tearing up, while otherwise just defending the border. Maybe I'd attack with a small, mobile army if I saw an opening.
