Game diary: Deity, The White Hand (FfH2 with Tholal's mod)

[Horatius]

I got a request for a game with the Ilians and that's what I'm going to do now.
Expect a harder and longer game this time.

We will play a large continents map against 9 civilizations. Normal speed and conquest victory only enabled. The rest is standard and Acheron will be in the game.

We have the goal of building all the rituals and using every single Ilian unit. The whole world must end up frozen. Drifa must be proven as the greatest of all dragons. Auric must become a higher being than The One.

The only gameplay restriction is that we are forbidden to have a vassal.
With the exception of that, everything goes.

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«Auric wandered through what was left of the caverns for days, slowly going deeper into the mountain, turned back over and over by blocked passages as he was pressed on by spirits that didn’t see the labyrinth as it was, only as it had been. He knew he was being watched, men from past ages, living ghosts that remained at this sacred place even though their god was gone. The people he would later call Illians. Auric even saw the bodies of others that had walked here before him, killed by the Illians. But they would not attack him. When Auric found the heart of the mountain, he stood outside and looked through the broken archway that lead into it. Not even the Illians dared enter the chamber. When Auric reached out to detect anything divine or arcane in the chamber there was nothing. Echoes of past deeds, visions of a great sword with 21 glyphs on its blade, but nothing real. No danger, nothing worth making this trek, nothing worth even stepping over the threshold to enter the room. But he entered anyway.
Three days later, Auric Ulvin came out of the chamber, he was no longer the disheveled boy of Auspire, the teenage prisoner of the Shadowed Vale, the son of a widowed farmer’s wife. What he was is now is not clear to anyone, and Auric never spoke of what occurred in the chamber, but he commanded the obedience of the Illians when he came out.
“Once you had been the greatest of scholars and priests, tributes were paid to you by all nations. You think those days are past, you dream of the return of your lord and I tell you, he will not come. I am your lord now, forget what you have lost, and think only on what can be gained; follow me and I will return your glory. This world will be yours again.”
They heard Auric’s call, and they followed him».

It begins:

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[Estelindis]

I've started this and it's a lot tougher than your last game. ;-) Doviello and Bannor are on either side of the Illians immediately, both packing much more military punch. It's hard enough to protect the capital, let alone expand. However, if one doesn't expand, one's research and production are severely limited.

I got the harpy bard event at a fairly early stage and immediately used Clairone's great work to make Garduk's culture known far and wide. Unfortunately, this simply brought Mahala's jealousy to the fore, and soon afterwards she declared war, attacking with a large warband of beastmen and wolves. My capital had five warriors defending it. Two survived the initial attack, and one of those was killed at next opportunity by some of Mahala's survivors. I had another warrior in training; he took his weapons in hand and rose to meet the invaders' challenge in the very instant that my last warrior was defeated by the attackers. The new recruit took a risk and attacked the sole remaining beastman, who was badly wounded. He then escaped quickly back to the capital's encircling palisade.

Production went back to warriors for a while before it returned to a Temple of the Hand to engulf the forest around Garduk in an eternal cloak of white. I was largely able to repel Mahala's aggression against my city, but didn't have the might to venture outside the capital to stop her from pillaging the few small improvements my worker had managed to build.

By now, both Mahala and Decius had many growing cities all around me. It took the rise of the priests of Winter and their powerful ice elementals to turn the tide against Mahala and capture her closest city. Having the military advantage now temporarily, I left one priest in the captured city, another in the capital, and sent the third with a settler and some warriors to found my second Illian city. The forces Mahala has sent against me since then have mostly been kept at bay with the freezing force of ice; the slow spell means that the number of units who can actually manage to attack is just about manageable by the defenders (now divided between three cities). The Illians are very much at the bottom of the table in terms of score. I wonder just how much I can turn this around in the time to come...

I'm not experienced at playing at higher difficulty levels, so I'll be interested to see how much easier you find this challenge. ;-)

 

[Horatius]

I've started this and it's a lot tougher than your last game. ;-) Doviello and Bannor are on either side of the Illians immediately, both packing much more military punch. It's hard enough to protect the capital, let alone expand. However, if one doesn't expand, one's research and production are severely limited.

What you just experienced IS the deity start with cultural tension. Early cultural tension means early war. The other deity games were misleading for those who don't have experience with that difficulty because we were lucky enough to spawn in a corner of the map.

Here you are between two civs and you are the weakest - so get ready to be a punching bag.

There is no way to win this 100% of the time. One bad battle and Sayonara.

Still, the Ilians are the civilization that has the easiest (read: least hard) time dealing with that kind of early pressure.
The Ilians are capable of winning a diety All War game, that's how tough they are.

I confess that I rerolled the map until I had a start between two civilizations to show how to deal with this (normally you will reroll until you have an easy start, but hey).

I got the harpy bard event at a fairly early stage and immediately used Clairone's great work to make Garduk's culture known far and wide.

I'm sure that you realized that this was a mistake.

Unfortunately, this simply brought Mahala's jealousy to the fore, and soon afterwards she declared war, attacking with a large warband of beastmen and wolves. My capital had five warriors defending it. Two survived the initial attack, and one of those was killed at next opportunity by some of Mahala's survivors. I had another warrior in training; he took his weapons in hand and rose to meet the invaders' challenge in the very instant that my last warrior was defeated by the attackers. The new recruit took a risk and attacked the sole remaining beastman, who was badly wounded. He then escaped quickly back to the capital's encircling palisade.

Production went back to warriors for a while before it returned to a Temple of the Hand to engulf the forest around Garduk in an eternal cloak of white. I was largely able to repel Mahala's aggression against my city, but didn't have the might to venture outside the capital to stop her from pillaging the few small improvements my worker had managed to build.
By now, both Mahala and Decius had many growing cities all around me. It took the rise of the priests of Winter and their powerful ice elementals to turn the tide against Mahala and capture her closest city. Having the military advantage now temporarily, I left one priest in the captured city, another in the capital, and sent the third with a settler and some warriors to found my second Illian city. The forces Mahala has sent against me since then have mostly been kept at bay with the freezing force of ice; the slow spell means that the number of units who can actually manage to attack is just about manageable by the defenders (now divided between three cities). The Illians are very much at the bottom of the table in terms of score. I wonder just how much I can turn this around in the time to come...

At what turn are you?

I'm not experienced at playing at higher difficulty levels, so I'll be interested to see how much easier you find this challenge. ;-)

It's not easy. These starts are much more difficult than on BTS, even if in general BTS is a slightly more difficult game.
- But if I'm lucky enough I'll try to make it seem easy.
But I can also lose, though. If I do lose I'll post it anyway.

Expect a very tense early game. But an early game on MY terms not the AI's.

 

[esvath]

How come popping culture invite Mahala's wrath? Is there any connection between high culture and high animosity from AI?

 

[Horatius]

How come popping culture invite Mahala's wrath? Is there any connection between high culture and high animosity from AI?

On deity the AI is more likely to declare war. Culture tension is a big deal if someone is stealing or can steal tiles from someone else.
Cultural tension and the early weakness of the human player are more than enough for a declaration of war, specially from a warmongering civilization like the Doviello that will resolve such problems with war, not with cultural buildings.

 

[Horatius]

Auric commands the building of the first settlement, meets Decius and spots his first two settlers.
Auric also commands the development of ancient chants to power his inner divine energy and the training of Warriors. Auric foresees an inevitable early war:

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As expected, Decius settles close to Auric's territory and the tension immediately starts sparking:

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Auric meets the Elohim on the south and brushes aside the loss of a scout. What he can not ignore is Decius's arrogance - Auric observes the provocative move with his stern and penetrating eyes of ice:

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Auric finds the Doviello on his left. It seems that the surrounding land is already being occupied:

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Will Auric be able to make the Doviello follow him and his high purpose? We will see.

Mysticism will soon enlighten all the Ilians' minds and they will properly recognize and reverence
their God King.


Meanwhile, Auric prostrates himself in front of the city's humble altar and chants mysterious verses.
Louder and louder, faster and faster the chant grows; Auric's eyes seem to melt into an inner and snowy cloud and his frenzied body convulses on the dirty ground.
Suddenly – A HORRIBLE SCREAM! - and he stops.

The people around him rise with a new vigor although everything around them seem to stop and stagnate.

It is said that when the Illians awake, the world sleeps, and when the world sleeps, the Ilians awake:

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No one opposes Auric.

 

[Estelindis]

What you just experienced IS the deity start with cultural tension.

I see. Clairone's 4K culture bomb was definitely a mistake, then. It'd be interesting to go back to before I got her (on turn 40) and see how things would've worked out if I hadn't done that.

At what turn are you?

At the time I posted, I was at turn 160. To be honest, based on your declaration of war against Decius on turn 20, I think I've allowed myself to be far too slow and have let the game get away from me. The initiative has passed to other civs, it seems (though I've continued on to entirely wipe out Mahala, at least). I'm just not used to acting so quickly before I've even had the chance to build up my civ that much. (I mean, the Hannah/Infernals game was different; she was isolated on the map and all I really needed her to do was summon Hyborem, so I could beeline for that and ignore a lot of other starting concerns.)

As an amusing side-note, the game-world in which I find myself is almost wholly evil. Even Ethne has converted to Ashen Veil. Those Veil Bannor are being really aggressive about spreading their religion. ;-) It does mean that, generally, whenever I gain an advanced tech along the religion line (which is mostly where I'm concentrating, for the sake of the Illian rituals), most civs are willing to trade multiple less advanced (but very useful) techs to me. Maybe I shouldn't be doing that, but I don't see how the Illians are going to survive with just one tech line.

Anyway, thanks for posting the next stage of the game. I have no idea how you're going to make this work with two warriors in the Garduk area and three in Vallus (given warriors' advantage when it comes to defending cities), but I look forward to seeing the results! Hopefully you will indeed make all this look very easy and I will learn a great deal from my mistakes.

EDIT: I've tried again from just before turn 40, and the difference is amazing. Mahala is wiped out by turn 150 (without me losing one of her cities to the Elohim as I did in the first game). Still probably way behind in terms of where I should be at this stage, but it's better than it was.

 

[Horatius]

At the time I posted, I was at turn 160. To be honest, based on your declaration of war against Decius on turn 20, I think I've allowed myself to be far too slow and have let the game get away from me.

Don't assume much on that declaration. I only did that because of stasis and because I could steal a worker on that very turn, otherwise I would wait until enough warriors. Still, it's always interesting to see a declaration of war at turn 20, isn't it?

The initiative has passed to other civs, it seems (though I've continued on to entirely wipe out Mahala, at least). I'm just not used to acting so quickly before I've even had the chance to build up my civ that much.

Too many times you'll have to fight first to be able to build up. Once you get used to it you'll see that deity is playable with all the civilizations.

As an amusing side-note, the game-world in which I find myself is almost wholly evil. Even Ethne has converted to Ashen Veil.

Awesome

Those Veil Bannor are being really aggressive about spreading their religion. ;-) It does mean that, generally, whenever I gain an advanced tech along the religion line (which is mostly where I'm concentrating, for the sake of the Illian rituals), most civs are willing to trade multiple less advanced (but very useful) techs to me. Maybe I shouldn't be doing that, but I don't see how the Illians are going to survive with just one tech line.

That's fine but I would bet on military production. I don't like to play catch up in terms of tech. I'd rather try to pound them before they get too strong. You can then tech up faster once you have more cities.

Anyway, thanks for posting the next stage of the game. I have no idea how you're going to make this work with two warriors in the Garduk area and three in Vallus (given warriors' advantage when it comes to defending cities), but I look forward to seeing the results! Hopefully you will indeed make all this look very easy and I will learn a great deal from my mistakes.

My thoughts for the last screen shot:
- hit stasis once Vallus has two population so that we are able to conquer it later and not raze it.
-steal a worker and prevent Decius from connecting his cities with roads.
-stop reinforcements from reaching his second city.
-conquer it once you are ready before stasis wears off.

Because of stasis, Decius will not be able to build new warriors guaranteeing that we will conquer his second city. Because he has just a few warriors, no production and has to deal with barbarians he won't counterattack right now.

There is no hurry to conquer the city. I'll grow my capital until it can build warriors in three turns and then I'll take it with just enough.

You see, because the AI built a second city right on my border it's inevitable that it will steal tiles and declare war on me.
Should I let the AI attack me when it is ready to do that forcing me to stay inside in my one or two cities while it continues to expand and eventually kills me (not really because the Ilians will have priests of winter, but it would be a much slower and harder game - (and how about if you don't have priests of winter, hmm?)) or should I go ahead and take the AI's second city and try to cripple it early?

I've played (read: lost) enough games to know that the later tends to be better. The AI will just spam and spam from its capital to try to recover the lost city, but because it's typical reaction is, indeed, to spam as hard as it can (just warriors and scouts), it will not expand and tech effectively - a much much better situation (assuming you can defend, of course).

Hence, my decision.

EDIT: I've tried again from just before turn 40, and the difference is amazing. Mahala is wiped out by turn 150 (without me losing one of her cities to the Elohim as I did in the first game). Still probably way behind in terms of where I should be at this stage, but it's better than it was.

I assume that Mahala declared anyway but not so quickly this time.

Killing a diety civilization by turn 150 sounds like a good game to me. You should probably have at least five cities, right?

 

[BvBPL]

I got the harpy bard event at a fairly early stage and immediately used Clairone's great work to make Garduk's culture known far and wide.

I frequently receive that event early in the game and it is almost never worthwhile to take the bard that early because your happy cap gets shot to hell w/o any resources or what not. On the other hand, if you just received a great bard apropos nothing, I’d settle him for the gold income

Production went back to warriors for a while before it returned to a Temple of the Hand to engulf the forest around Garduk in an eternal cloak of white.

Why? Building the temple freezes over your rivers and floodplains, denying your commerce and this start has some good river arrangements. Was there a reason to build the temple?

Having the military advantage now temporarily, I left one priest in the captured city, another in the capital, and sent the third with a settler and some warriors to found my second Illian city.

I don’t know if I would have split up the priests. The priests have a lot of synergy being on one square because their medic promotions and ice elementals mean a wounded one can rest for a turn, gain back a fair amount of health thanks to the medic promo of the other, and still summon an ice elemental. Don’t forget to boost their combat promotions to empower the ice elementals.

 

[Estelindis]

Don't assume much on that declaration. I only did that because of stasis and because I could steal a worker on that very turn, otherwise I would wait until enough warriors. Still, it's always interesting to see a declaration of war at turn 20, isn't it?

<snip>

My thoughts for the last screen shot:
- hit stasis once Vallus has two population so that we are able to conquer it later and not raze it.
-steal a worker and prevent Decius from connecting his cities with roads.
-stop reinforcements from reaching his second city.
-conquer it once you are ready before stasis wears off.

Because of stasis, Decius will not be able to build new warriors guaranteeing that we will conquer his second city. Because he has just a few warriors, no production and has to deal with barbarians he won't counterattack right now.

There is no hurry to conquer the city. I'll grow my capital until it can build warriors in three turns and then I'll take it with just enough.

You see, because the AI built a second city right on my border it's inevitable that it will steal tiles and declare war on me.
Should I let the AI attack me when it is ready to do that forcing me to stay inside in my one or two cities while it continues to expand and eventually kills me (not really because the Ilians will have priests of winter, but it would be a much slower and harder game - (and how about if you don't have priests of winter, hmm?)) or should I go ahead and take the AI's second city and try to cripple it early?

I've played (read: lost) enough games to know that the later tends to be better. The AI will just spam and spam from its capital to try to recover the lost city, but because it's typical reaction is, indeed, to spam as hard as it can (just warriors and scouts), it will not expand and tech effectively - a much much better situation (assuming you can defend, of course).

Hence, my decision.

Thank you very much for the explanation. I see your logic now. Personally, I waited to use Stasis until Mahala declared war on me, but I can see how it would give you an overwhelming advantage against an early civ. And, really, founding Vallus so close to your borders was a declaration of cultural war that could not go unanswered... A bit like my culture bomb. Hmm, it's all fitting together now...

I assume that Mahala declared anyway but not so quickly this time.

Killing a diety civilization by turn 150 sounds like a good game to me. You should probably have at least five cities, right?

Yes, she declared eventually, but I was better prepared for her by then.

I conquered her four cities, leaving me with five, yes. Once my economy stabilised sufficiently, I founded two more in order to claim copper, some raw mana, and a few other nice resources. I now have seven. Things are proceeding quite nicely for now (teching towards theology for my high priests and strength of will for my archmages; Ice III, yummy). I'm going to come to blows with Ethne and Basium eventually, though. (Cardith, on another continent, summoned Basium in the first game, darn it.)

I frequently receive that event early in the game and it is almost never worthwhile to take the bard that early because your happy cap gets shot to hell w/o any resources or what not. On the other hand, if you just received a great bard apropos nothing, I&#8217;d settle him for the gold income

It was actually worth it at the stage I got her, because Garduk's population was three but its happy cap was eight. Taking the bard put it just at its limit, and it wasn't growing so fast that it would overtake that in the next few turns. Anyway, as it turns out, I actually had a save right on turn 40, so I went back there and settled the harpy bard instead. The extra gold really helps out, since research can be kept at 100% for a good deal longer.

Why? Building the temple freezes over your rivers and floodplains, denying your commerce and this start has some good river arrangements. Was there a reason to build the temple?

Originally? Because my lone city was being attacked by a large group of Mahala's forces and I wanted the 10% Winterborn strength boost from the ice terrain. I was badly outnumbered, and I felt that even a small percentage applied to my defenders could make a difference. (I'd already built a palisade, but didn't have time to research masonry and build a wall before they'd be upon me.) It might be bad strategy in the long run, but getting defeated utterly by turn 50 is probably worse.

I don&#8217;t know if I would have split up the priests. The priests have a lot of synergy being on one square because their medic promotions and ice elementals mean a wounded one can rest for a turn, gain back a fair amount of health thanks to the medic promo of the other, and still summon an ice elemental. Don&#8217;t forget to boost their combat promotions to empower the ice elementals.

Yes, I boosted their combat. I also had them take March as soon as possible, which meant that they were actually able to attack directly and with an ice elemental each turn and be fully healed in time for the next turn. They were a three-person wrecking crew initially, I promise. I just split them up after I had captured one of Mahala's cities (as I wasn't equipped to take them all at that stage in the first game, and I was afraid of a flanking attack against my capital while my good units were in the field. Unjustified fear, as it turned out.)

On my reload, however, I built a few more warriors in Garduk and had them pick off some of Mahala's wolf packs for experience. I lost one on 89% odds, but I ended up with two warriors with combat 4 and melee 1. In addition, I got the dwarves vs. lizardmen event and picked up two axemen from that; they joined in the wolf-fighting action as soon as they could get back. So, this time, I was able to add four very experienced melee units to priests' stack, and was able to conquer all Mahala's cities very quickly. Now I'm no longer at the bottom of the scoreboard... But I'm only ahead of Keelyn and Hyborem, so that's not saying a huge amount.

 

[Horatius]

I almost always build the temple of the hand if I'm going to wage war early. Homeland with Ice gives a very nice boost - that's one of the things that makes the Ilians so hard to crack.

Besides, I'd rather use a priest to bulb philosophy than tech it directly. Your technology progression will be much better this way, even with the loss of the river commerce (your goal is to conquer other cities with the priests of winter anyway).

 

[Horatius]

Oh, I forgot to say that Ice doesn't matter against the Doviello since their units are also Winterborn.

 

[Estelindis]

Oh, I forgot to say that Ice doesn't matter against the Doviello since their units are also Winterborn.

*face-palm* Of course!

 

[Horatius]

Turns pass. Garduk grows and also the number of its warriors while others slumber.

The time comes when enough young Ilian soldiers are willing to sacrifice themselves to take the enemy city:

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Sacrifice is not in vain when it augments the shadow of The White Hand's influence. Auric approves of their deeds and their beautiful deaths.

Auric's worker builds roads and tries to establish a trade route to Mahala.
As it is too difficult right now to even try to break Decius's capital, Vallus builds a monument and Garduk tries to grow once again before returning to a quicker training of warriors:

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Auric is officially worshiped as God King among all the Ilians. They will faithfully follow him wherever he goes with the utmost trust.


Stasis eventually wears off. Auric's power is not strong enough to hold it forever. Yet.

The enemy removes himself from the forced sleep and gathers troops for a counterattack.
Decius will amass as much warriors as he can to liberate the conquered city:

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It is time for a defensive war. If Auric wins the upper hand during the attrition he should come out victorious.

Auric demands the learning of mining so that it will be possible to build faster what is needed for the White Hand sacred ritual and increase production for the war. Besides there's a lot of forest to chop around the capital and there is also two calendar resources near the second city that require mining first. The capital is almost reaching its happy cap and will not need any farms for a while. Farms and cottages would be hard to build and maintain while staying under pressure.

Auric builds the Temple of the Hand to establish a center of law and ceremony so that all the people never forget what is their duty and true religion and to strengthen their muscles on the hard ice.

A priest will also be selected to choose (bulb) three worthy disciples of ancient Mulcarn to become the chosen cold ones, the memories of the old Frost Speakers, the Priests of Winter, the stoic leaders of Auric's Army.

But, again, Decius' troops approach Vallus. What to do?
Auric must actively use tactics to wear down the enemy stack whenever it's possible to prevent Decius from gathering a large conquest group and also to augment the experience of his Ilian soldiers. Everything but staying put inside the cities:

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The enemy goes around Vallus attracted by the possibility of harassing our worker and Auric kills another unit:

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A shower of Ice surrounds Garduk. It is the first sign of the returning of the lost Age:

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[Horatius]

Auric's first (female) worker attracts (showing some leg?) the enemy units to the vulnerable ice while the second city builds another worker for the future:

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Oh, Ice burns indeed:

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The enemy keeps coming:

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Just a few more turns pass, more hostile troops keep arriving, the Ilian Warriors slowly but methodically gain promotions and Garduk tries to finish an elder council while stopping, with enough confidence in the minimal defense, the soldier's production to keep in check the maintenance costs. Auric still wants some research in action (balance, balance, balance):

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Auric tries to prevent enemy reinforcements from reaching the units patrolling the forests to the left of Vallus, whatever the cost:

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Auric's army becomes progressively stronger and an Ilian soldier distinguishes himself from the common lot:

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It is revealed that the soldier is named Little Auric Junior, Auric's unacknowledged bastard son from an affair with a temple priestess (Auric, you dirty dog).
Cold leaders also need hot love.


Meanwhile, speaking of love, some enemy troops, weary of the hard and lonely soldier's live, fall prey again to the worker's wicked charms:

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KABOOM, BABY!:

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Never trust a wicked woman.

Auric takes care of the last enemy inside his borders for now:

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Auric is confident with the ten warriors that he has, many of them very tough already, and Garduk builds another worker.
Also, Auric gifts some ice mana to the Doviello, his faithful tundra brothers that have Ethne as their worst enemy, to bring both people even closer.

But here comes more enemy units:

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Again, Chione (the female worker) shows her snowy skin and sings a siren song trying to attract Decius's troops to a deadly trap of ice:

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BAM!:

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With the situation perfectly under control, the stern and cold faces of the Ilians are actually capable of cracking a warm smile for a moment.

No one beats the Ilians on their ice homes!
Their tough life makes them tougher than such lowly soldiers *spit* capable of being seduced by women's wiles.

Is it time to counterattack, brave people?


Oh... wait...

What is happening?:

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Auric's deadly face seems shaken for a moment. He makes use of all his willpower to not lose his cold composure to the irrational rage aargh that tries to take over him.

- Treason! Treason! Treason!

(to be continued...)

 

[Horatius]

What caused Mahala, the savage woman, to declare war in spite of having the same alignment, Ethne as her worst enemy, and trade goods from Auric?
Petty jealousy, we say, and the incapability of accepting Auric's rejection of her subtle advances.

Well - here comes the Pack!:

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But Auric is not impressed and the Doviello are the first to suffer casualties:

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The appearance of the first Great Prophet, with all of the war movements going on in almost every turn, seems to be taking too long even with pacifism (- only inside the undisturbed city, of course), but soon, yes soon, he will emerge and prophesy the coming of the White Hand's true resurrection to higher power:

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The Pack is so hungry that it even goes through a raging blizzard to attack Vallus:

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The Great Prophet of the White Hand emerges:

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The Ritual is started inside the most recondite caverns and Garduk, despite the war, prospers:

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More enemy troops start arriving but the Ilians are never afraid:

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Decius stops sending troops to be spanked realizing that his people is falling behind.
He acknowledges the Ilian might and is pacified:

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He is lucky that Auric is meanwhile busy with other nuisances.

Mahala suffers some defeats but now pushes with the evil twin brothers:

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Ah, but the Doviello start doubting themselves and, respecting the experience of the Ilian warriors, they actually retreat:

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They foresee their incoming doom:

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The Doviello keep entering and leaving the Ilian borders, hesitant about what to do, afraid of the strong defenders.

No wonder, for Auric's rule is blessed by the stars themselves:

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With their home territory under control, soon the Ilians will be able to finally increase their commerce.


At turn 94, the Ilians complete the mysterious Ritual.

Three men (if men they can be called), the followers and bringers of Winter, emerge slowly from within the icy waters of Garduk's river.
Their passionless faces present themselves to the awestruck people and, as they step forward, their cold breaths and bodies chill the surrounding air that envelops them like a snowy mist.
Their eyes, bright snowflakes, too difficult to stare at, will now show the path to the Ilian Army:

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It is time to think of attacking the enemy territory:

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While more warriors are being quickly trained, the deadly Priests of Winter slow, kill and press forward:

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Some units from both nations die, but the Ilians come out ahead and continue to put the pressure on:

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The twin brothers perish and Mahala offers a deal:

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You can certainly do much better than that, woman. What do you think of this:

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Almost a dozen units are killed. What does she have to say now:

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Well, well. Her attitude is certainly starting to change.

Unfortunately for her, Dumannios, Riuros and Anagantios do not tolerate or show mercy to traitors and command their merciless troops to move forward:

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But things are not simple. Asena's sons move in Garduk's direction and the Priests of Winter are constrained to split their forces:

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With the sacrifice of many an Ilian warrior, the threat is destroyed. Although some losses could have been avoided with more patient tactics, Auric's intention is to counterattack as fast as possible before the enemy can rebuild their troops:

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Only four units on that city now - go, go, go:

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Meanwhile, although it lost some units, the stack that was left with the task of choking Mortensholm continues to wear down that city and prevent reinforcements from approaching it or coming out of it:

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Opportunity!:

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Mr. Son of Asena, say hello and goodbye to Little Auric Junior's humongous tool:

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After the beating from Little Auric Junior's club, the city prostrates itself before Anagantios' deadly and icy gaze:

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Bow before Auric, you savage woman!:

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No one opposes Auric.

Soon, all of Erebus will learn to placate him.

 

[Horatius]

A save state.

 

[maglock]

Wow! That is some truly inspiring gameplay there!

Perhaps you could explain to the audience how some of those tactics work? Like using workers as bait, forces splitting and containment of cities etc.

Totally advanced tactics compared to my mediocre Monarchy skills. ie Grab stack go bash heads against nearest city.

Enlighten us!

Edit: Also I notice the rather interesting use of trade demands, like forcing Decius to switch to Pacifism! and causing Mahala to stop trading with Decius. This is way above Monarchy strats!

 

[Horatius]

Wow! That is some truly inspiring gameplay there!

Perhaps you could explain to the audience how some of those tactics work? Like using workers as bait, forces splitting and containment of cities etc.

Hi there, thanks for your comment

No big deal, really. The AI will usually try to move its troops into tiles that have defensive bonus like forests and hills, but it is also attracted by the possibility of attacking a vulnerable unit and stopping a worker from doing its thing. Basically, the AI does know something about harassment, although it's just not very good at it.
You have probably noticed that if you are in a war with somebody close by that have horses you always have to be careful with your workers. They will really try to get any vulnerable units.
So you simply take advantage of that tendency.
The Ilian units have 10% more strength in the ice which adds to their 10% homeland promotion, so I just used a worker to try to attract the enemy troops to those tiles for an easier time defeating them.

Working for promotions is also what you need to do when the AI has more production than you. I'm willing to sacrifice some warriors so that others get leveled up.
If possible, you should also try to prevent the enemy reinforcements from eventually creating a large stack with which they can mob your cities.
Soon, my troops gained enough promotions and Decius got crippled with the attrition by consistently spamming weak units that died quickly while teching too slowly.

It's kind of funny to win a war by playing defensively but that's what can happen in certain situations.
Not a single enemy unit attacked my cities, not one, it was always my units attacking theirs. Staying put inside the cities is a big no.
This is why I don't tend to build palisades and walls and many archers. If I'm forced to stay put inside the cities I'm already losing. Of course if your empire is already big and your units are everywhere then building defenses will help against sudden backstabbing.

When I decided to attack Mahala I had to split my forces to defend her counterattack but I still left some forces to choke one of her cities. I was just trying to make her split her forces as well while trying to catch reinforcements to that city and from that city. Afterwards I easily conquered the other city that was not being choked (and in that precise timing more vulnerable) because the AI was trying to reinforce the other city (actually it eventually also tried to send reinforcements from that city towards the other one being conquered, but I didn't allow that) and I made my counterattack move fast enough.

If you split your forces you may also force the opponent to split theirs. You just have to figure out if that is better for you or not.

Totally advanced tactics compared to my mediocre Monarchy skills. ie Grab stack go bash heads against nearest city.

Hey, there's nothing wrong with that if you have the numbers Bash away!
I didn't have the production to do that here, though.

Edit: Also I notice the rather interesting use of trade demands, like forcing Decius to switch to Pacifism! and causing Mahala to stop trading with Decius. This is way above Monarchy strats!

You should always try to get the best deal possible. I was running pacifism at that time to try to get a great prophet, so obviously, with that war under control, I only accepted peace when I could force Decius into it as well.
Causing Mahala to stop trading with Decius creates attrition between them and will prevent one from asking the other to join a war against me for a while (that's probably what happened when Mahala declared war on me, I believe).

Hopefully these comments helped some.

 

[Aline]

Somewhat generic question, but wont making some one stop trading with the AI make the AI also angry at you?