AndrewDJ
Warlord
So, I just won a Tower of Mastery victory for the first time (Thessa, Warlord, Large), and my first game where I didn't use the World Builder at least once. I started with Auric Ulvin to my east and Morgoth way off to my south, with Sabathiel, Einion Logos, Cassiel, Tasunke, and Dain on the other continent. Acheron popped up between me and Morgoth, and the continent was narrow enough that he cut off any north/south expansion. In fact, my continent was lollypop shaped, with me and Auric up in the head, and Morgoth stuck in the stick.
Let me say right now that a squad of six mages with Fire II and Spell Extension I makes an adequate substitute for a stack of catapults. With the new 3 of 4 rules for the sub-Towers, I had enough mana on my own lands to build the Tower of Elements. Then I rolled over Auric. With my mages, I was taking about a city each turn--it helped that I'd built one Disciple of Leaves of each of his cities before I declared war, so each time I'd take a city, I could stop the unrest immediately. That got me enough nodes for the Tower of Alteration
After wiping the floor with Auric, I took out Acheron. About then I realized that Morgoth had the only reagents on the continent, as well as the last four nodes I needed to finish the towers of Necromancy and Divination. It was during this war that I made contact with the other continent. I had trade and open borders with them all, until . . .
. . . Two turns after I start building the Tower of Mastery, Sabathiel, Einion, and Dain all declared war on me. Sabathiel was the only serious threat, in second place at the start of the war. Tasunke and Cassiel took advantage of the moment to attack Dain. Joining the war was the stupidest thing Dain ever did; one turn before I finished the Tower of Mastery, the last Amurite city fell to the Grigori armies.
Sabathiel managed to land a force of horsemen and Valin Phanuel on my east coast in the old Illian lands, but all the horsemen managed to accomplish was plundering a wheat farm before my phalanx killed them, and Valin Phanuel went charging off into the interior before being killed by Kithra Kyriel. That was the third most satisfying moment of the game.
The second most satisfying moment of the game was when Sabathiel sent his follow-up attack. His galleon carrying Sphener and some knights ended its move *one* square off the coast . . . and my Archmage sent it to the bottom of the sea with one meteor.
But the most satisfying moment of all: I'd started getting pop-ups warning that Sabathiel was on the verge of completing the Altar of the Luoannatar. So, I assembled all my Summoners, Archmages, Elven Riders, two Mages, Baron Duin Halfmorn, and about six Ravenous Werewolves, and invaded the Bannor. Sabathiel's capital was two plots from the coast, and I unloaded my troops in a forest square. After about three turns of bombarding the city defenses and defenders with meteors and fireballs while fighting off Sabathiel's field army, the Baron took out the last defender, and I razed the Bannor capital. Then I packed up my troops and went home, and six turns later I completed the tower of Mastery. Final Score, 20,971, as great as Great C'thulu.
Looking back, the only thing I'd have done differently was save the one Great Engineer I got for the Tower of Mastery instead of using him on a much earlier wonder. Most of my Great Person pops during the game were Great Merchants(my GNP was running over 1 billion gold), oddly. This was also my first game where I had multiple cities with over 30 population--my capital was at 37 by the end and there were about three others over 30.
Overall, a lot of fun, with the only bugginess occuring about 13 hours in when my Men-O-War and Queens of the Line went black and the polar ice caps turned black with a green tint.
Let me say right now that a squad of six mages with Fire II and Spell Extension I makes an adequate substitute for a stack of catapults. With the new 3 of 4 rules for the sub-Towers, I had enough mana on my own lands to build the Tower of Elements. Then I rolled over Auric. With my mages, I was taking about a city each turn--it helped that I'd built one Disciple of Leaves of each of his cities before I declared war, so each time I'd take a city, I could stop the unrest immediately. That got me enough nodes for the Tower of Alteration
After wiping the floor with Auric, I took out Acheron. About then I realized that Morgoth had the only reagents on the continent, as well as the last four nodes I needed to finish the towers of Necromancy and Divination. It was during this war that I made contact with the other continent. I had trade and open borders with them all, until . . .
. . . Two turns after I start building the Tower of Mastery, Sabathiel, Einion, and Dain all declared war on me. Sabathiel was the only serious threat, in second place at the start of the war. Tasunke and Cassiel took advantage of the moment to attack Dain. Joining the war was the stupidest thing Dain ever did; one turn before I finished the Tower of Mastery, the last Amurite city fell to the Grigori armies.
Sabathiel managed to land a force of horsemen and Valin Phanuel on my east coast in the old Illian lands, but all the horsemen managed to accomplish was plundering a wheat farm before my phalanx killed them, and Valin Phanuel went charging off into the interior before being killed by Kithra Kyriel. That was the third most satisfying moment of the game.
The second most satisfying moment of the game was when Sabathiel sent his follow-up attack. His galleon carrying Sphener and some knights ended its move *one* square off the coast . . . and my Archmage sent it to the bottom of the sea with one meteor.
But the most satisfying moment of all: I'd started getting pop-ups warning that Sabathiel was on the verge of completing the Altar of the Luoannatar. So, I assembled all my Summoners, Archmages, Elven Riders, two Mages, Baron Duin Halfmorn, and about six Ravenous Werewolves, and invaded the Bannor. Sabathiel's capital was two plots from the coast, and I unloaded my troops in a forest square. After about three turns of bombarding the city defenses and defenders with meteors and fireballs while fighting off Sabathiel's field army, the Baron took out the last defender, and I razed the Bannor capital. Then I packed up my troops and went home, and six turns later I completed the tower of Mastery. Final Score, 20,971, as great as Great C'thulu.
Looking back, the only thing I'd have done differently was save the one Great Engineer I got for the Tower of Mastery instead of using him on a much earlier wonder. Most of my Great Person pops during the game were Great Merchants(my GNP was running over 1 billion gold), oddly. This was also my first game where I had multiple cities with over 30 population--my capital was at 37 by the end and there were about three others over 30.
Overall, a lot of fun, with the only bugginess occuring about 13 hours in when my Men-O-War and Queens of the Line went black and the polar ice caps turned black with a green tint.
![[NWO]_Valis](https://civfanatics-data.community.forum/avatars/m/110/110973.jpg?1475248361){kind=avatar}
