Fall from heaven SG - High to Low

[Jusos2108]

While checking the save, I noticed couple of things:

• Check out the Ilian Champion next to Sliktor, doesn't it look familiar!
• Chalid is alive and well 2SW from Censura.
• Evermore need more culture.
• The tech to be 'oracled' is a bit more trickier matter, because we have several options:

1. We research Arcane Lore (16) and take SoW (46 turns, archmages) or PTtE (42, obsidian gates).
2. We take machinery (30, crossbows) with it and receive a free GE.
3. We research Mithril Working (33, mithril) and take Mithril Weapons (50, Phalanxes) with it.
4. We research Mithril Working and Theology (34) and take Divine Essence with it (50, immortals, BotP!)

I guess we need to vote, please put them in order from best to worst!

 

[Ichabod]

Just some commetns before I vote:

1st. What's the BotP again, I can't remember.

2nd. Even considering that archmages are very good units, how many turns are we from getting an adept/mage to the necessary xp? And what mana types do we have? Law, mind, earth, spirit, nature and we will need sun for the tower -> are the spells worth it?

3rd. Theology won't help us much, since the level 3 order priest spell doesn't help with combat (well, they have to ability to take the 3rd command promotion for 50% chance of converting defeated units and also the heal spell... so is not like they are useless or anything).

4th. I thought about using it to hurry mithril working to get the +2 melee unit strenght fast. But we can tech it by ourselves in the time we'll take to build the tower, so...

 

[Brian Shanahan]

Champion was a thorn in my side for 15 of those turns.

Two things I didn't mention in my "report" from yesterday are, 1) Einion and Varn are now at peace with Auric, which means it's us against him and 2) Alexis has vassaled to Varn (we were in a 2 turn war with her).

On techs my personal favourite is PTtE simply for the obsidian gates, they make logisitcs a lot easier. So order for me is:

1) PTtE,
2) Mithril Weapons,
3) Divine Essence,
4) SoW,
5) Machinery.

Just going on what I think to be the most useful for us.

@Ichabod BoTP= Blood of the Phoenix, free immortal promo for all existing units. Useful but not essential IMO.

 

[Jusos2108]

My own vote:

1. Divine Essence
2. Mithril Weapons
3. PTeE
4. Machinery
5. SoW

I put DE first simply because it will be very useful, if we start the great war on turn 500.

 

[Ichabod]

My vote is the same as Jusos':

1. Divine Essence
2. Mithril Weapons
3. PTeE
4. Machinery
5. SoW

The thing is, I think we should tech Mithril Working now to empower our white weenies (is this right, Fleme? ). Our strenght is in quantity, not quality right now.

Axemen/champions with mithril weapons + catapults can go very far, specially since the AI is not vey smart. But we need a lot of catapults, so I'd keep the HE city in this duty for a little longer.

So, if we're going to tech Mithril working, might as well save the tower to get Divine Essence, since Mithril weapons doesn't give us anything as good as it.


On a totally different subject:

Be careful about upsetting Varn Gosam. If he declares on us, we're doomed. If you get the chance to bribe him against someone (Sandalphon would be nice... Arthurus and Perp not so much, since it'd only give him anohter vassal) or bribe someone against him, do it.

But now that I think about it, we're going to declare war on him soon So, what I think we should do is: leave Auric alone for now, since I don't think he's going to send a stack against us (maybe to recapture one of his cities, but that's not a big problem), and take the bulk of our army to attack Varn Gosam.

We'll need to think of a strategy to kill Chalid. Catapults won't scratch him and we don't have another form of collateral damage. Since the defender unit doesn't get damaged by the catapults collateral. we'll need good units to soften him up. Well, if we are lucky, his chanelling promotions will make him not defend the stack, making him vulnerable to their collateral damage...


This game is going to have an epic ending, that's for sure!

 

[Fleme]

I've never cared much for Obsidian Airports so my votes go:

1. Mithril Weapons
2. Divine Essence
3. Machinery
4. Strength of Will
5. Pass Through the Ether

Granted that Mithril Weapons needs Mithril to function which can be as scarce as 3 resources per map - I've honestly had a large map with 3 sources on it - I'm confident that we'll find one either within our lands or on the large island.

And the mages we have are by no means weak. They work wonders in boosting our own stack and disabling the enemy with those types of mana.

As far as mage development goes, however, we're not likely to see proper casters on the field any time soon so those shouldn't be emphasized too much. If I could venture a guess, I'd say we won't get a single Archmage in this game but even regular mages would be just fine with say... Blinding Light.

 

[Ozbenno]

If we're going to declare on everyone then Obsidian Gates will be necessary to manage multiple fronts so...

1. Pass Through the Ether
2. Mithril Weapons
3. Machinery
4. Strength of Will
5. Divine Essence

 

[Jusos2108]

By scoring the votes 0-4, the results are:

1. Mithril Weapons 16
2. Divine Essence 13
3. PTtE 12
4. Machinery 6
5. SoW 3

So MW it is!

 

[Fleme]

I'll try to play tonight.

 

[Fleme]

Played a very uneventful 21 turns. I murdered our old superman, Aurics champion at the cost of 3-4 axes on the second turn.

The first thing that was actually interesting was due to a Ranger I built to finally clear those Dungeons in our land. He was completed on the last turn of my set and investigated the closest dungeon with this result:

So, whoever starts the grand war gets to do so in a Golden Age, courtesy of yours truly. There are quite a few of those dungeons left in our territory, so make use of that Ranger.

Finished Fanaticism and started Paladin builds all over - switched to Order soon after and started on Sphener and Valin - they'll all be finished in 10~ turns.

Tower is being built in Astrum (best hammers) and will complete 1 turn after finishing Mithril Working so we can choose Mithril Weapons right away.

I built just champions and a few cats plus a few adepts and acolytes. The mages we'll have are going to be just fine with a good selection of boosting spells including Stoneskin, Courage, Loyalty and both Charm Person and Blinding Light for offensive/disabling uses. Sure, they're no spectre-casters but excellent for our purposes.

The party on the island has moved deeper with Donal fighting pretty much every battle. Even the animals are too strong for the adeptlings but they're leveling regardless.

 

[Ichabod]

Well,

If we're going to declare war on everyone next turn, I suggest we switch to Crusade and fire the world spell. The units we get should defend the border cities near the Malakim, Ljosalfar and Elohim.

Since Varn Gosam is at war with Arthurus, I guess he's SoDs will be busy elsewhere.

We need more hawks to scout every direction and detect where we are going to be attacked. After the initial waves of our enemies, we can start conquering them with demagogs + catapults. I think we should finish the Ljosalfar first, either razing both their cities or trying to hold them (which won't be easy).

Defeating the Malakim in their desert territories will be tough. We need some kind of collateral damage apart from siege, but I don't think we'll get it soon enough to be useful.

Be very, very careful with Chalid. That's why hawks are so important.

Once we get mithril, our life will be significantly easier, since our demagogs will turn into strenght 9 units. Ah, we should build a flagbearer for each of the stacks to give our units the morale promotion.

Good luck for the player who is up for this bloody task.

 

[Ozbenno]

I think I'm up. Won't be able to play until tomorrow night so any thoughts can be given before then...

 

[Fleme]

We're very ill-prepared for a world war if you ask me. The armies we have are some 20-30 units and while firing up the Crusade will yield a nice return in units, I still don't think we're ready for it. That doesn't mean we can't do it, but I'm not saying it's the advisable thing to do.

The thing about Arturus and Varn is interesting though. I didn't mention in my report but Arturus actually took one of Varns major cities which was soon followed by Varn taking one of Arturus' - and not the same one - so they changed cities with each other.

Still, if Varn plays smart, however unlikely that is, he can cripple us in our tracks with some smart use of even the simplest units such as Rathas and Radiant Guards.

Personally I'd wait out for Mithril for the declaration but if a decision was made on t500, then by Junil, that is the turns we declare on.

There's a settler and a ship in the northernmost city ready if we don't have Mithril and there's a source on the island. All workers are doing some meaningless tasks because there's nothing meaningful to do.

And this! If you do fire up the war and the golden age, make sure Astrum doesn't get out of wack and produce the oracle before finishing Mithril Working. Additionally, we're already bleeding money and that'll be even worse when all trade is cut off and will change the dynamic between Mithril Working and the Tower finishing. I wish we had Mercantilism for that little bit of extra for when the war starts.

Oh and since I'm blabblering already, the Ljosalfar quit their submission to Varn so Arendel is actually a very plausible target if we want to take the initial steps of the war slow.

 

[Jusos2108]

Valid points Fleme, but if we would well be prepared for the war, then we would have already won it and then it wouldn't be a challenge.

 

[Fleme]

I'm not trying to influence the decision as it was made already but there's no sense for me to skip trying to be the voice of reason when I can't be a part of the war myself!

In all honesty though, the war won't change things too much since we're in a perpetual war with Auric already and Varn is committed to Arturus. Only thing that might change is that Einion might throw something at us so moving a small stack to Astrum might be a smart thing to do. Additionally, you really need to cut the production in Astrum since I assume the golden age will really ruin the dynamic between the techs.

The war might theoretically get progressively harder as the AI's will all get bonuses in diplo for being in a war against us but realistically once our mithril machine gets going, I don't think they have anything to stop us.

Make sure to have graphic reports of the war since I won't be a part of it for the next 100 some turns - heck, I might even not get to play anymore!

 

[Jusos2108]

I promise that my report will as detailed as possible including screenshots with drawn battle lines, etc. Check one of my stories from the Stories & Tales -section to see what I mean.

 

[Ichabod]

Can't wait!! This will be Epic!

 

[Brian Shanahan]

Can't wait!! This will be Epic!

Of course that was the consensus on speed!

 

[Ozbenno]

Hey all, I got as far as loading up the save and looking around before RL got in the way again. I'm just not going to be able to continue in this game sorry.

Did notice that Donal is far away from the front if we're going to declare on everyone next turn...

 

[Ichabod]

Hey all, I got as far as loading up the save and looking around before RL got in the way again. I'm just not going to be able to continue in this game sorry.

Did notice that Donal is far away from the front if we're going to declare on everyone next turn...

No problem. If things get a little calmer and you want to get back, just say it.

Yeah, it'll take a while for us to bring donal back. But at least he'll be well promoted.

Ah, just an idea: How about we make 10 turns per player from now on? This way, everyone will get to play the war and the turnsets wouldn't take that much time for whoever is up to complete.