Yes, but Decius was already furious.
Game diary: Deity, The White Hand (FfH2 with Tholal's mod)
- Thread starter Horatius
- Start date
Yes, but Decius was already furious.
Thanks! I Have been applying them to my current game
Playing as the Ljosalfar (Arendel), standard, tectonics, pangaea.Got into a nasty early war against Balseraph freaks. Turtled up while building hunters and fawns. Got out Silveric. Then erased a rather large stack of freaks from my borders by giving Silveric aquatic and attacking across a river
Then, just as I had a nicely promoted stack and had eliminated all the intruders, Auric decides it time to freeze time! Muahahaha. Let us just say that within that 20 turns I totally pwned ~10 Balseraphs cities, greatly increasing my empire and catapulting me to the top.
Glorious, glorious victory.
I went on to a conquest victory with a huge stack headed up by Flurries, Gilden, Yvain, Beastmasters, the Baron, and Kithra. Eliminating Alexis and Mahala, while Vassaling Beeri, Auric and Decius.
I think its time I moved up to Emperor
Thanks! I Have been applying them to my current game
Got into a nasty early war against Balseraph freaks. Turtled up while building hunters and fawns. Got out Silveric. Then erased a rather large stack of freaks from my borders by giving Silveric aquatic and attacking across a river
Then, just as I had a nicely promoted stack and had eliminated all the intruders, Auric decides it time to freeze time! Muahahaha. Let us just say that within that 20 turns I totally pwned ~10 Balseraphs cities, greatly increasing my empire and catapulting me to the top.
Glorious, glorious victory.
I went on to a conquest victory with a huge stack headed up by Flurries, Gilden, Yvain, Beastmasters, the Baron, and Kithra. Eliminating Alexis and Mahala, while Vassaling Beeri, Auric and Decius.
I think its time I moved up to Emperor
Awesome
Okay, I managed to play 100 turns more.
I felt that the first part of the game was quite interesting and I had fun posting a reasonably detailed segment of it. I think that it was worth it. The beginning of the game can be quite interesting, at least for me.
But I'm just going to deliver the next segment of the game in a more summary like manner, otherwise this game is going to take forever to report.
Anyway, I was thinking of going cartography for city states but I decided to go to code of laws right away. I became sure of conquering Mahala and Decius with a minimal amount of troops and the help of the priests of winter (meaning I didn't have to increase the maintenance costs for units) and getting enough pillage money. Also my capital will be in the middle of my early empire which is nice.
So, while building a few more workers (I will want those cottages and aristocratic farms fast enough and, anyway, I will not be able to conquer workers from Mahala since she will upgrade them all to beastmen before falling), I declared immediately after the peace treaty was over:
Here we go (you know how it is, we're just going to abuse the priests of winter since nothing can resist their icy and deadly gaze at this point of the game):
She tries to counterattack but it's no problem (She probably should have stayed inside her city actually but was attracted by the fact that I only had one warrior in that city):
Thank you:
As you can see, during the 10 turns of peace, she had built another city for us (One of the reasons to make peace was to get a few more cities from Mahala and Decius...):
Auric is ruthless regarding traitors:
Mahala's tech path was okay. Calendar, mining (she had resources for these two techs), bronze working, education (she already had some cottages going) and probably going warfare.
Unfortunately the decision to declare war on us instead of getting more cities just bit her in the behind since we already had quite a few high-level warriors and our priests of winter were about to come into play (otherwise it would have been harder for me especially playing other civilizations).
Anyway, it's time to finish Decius that had already lost the game right in the moment that he placed his second city on my border (which can usually mean the fast defeat of the human player on diety actually...):
Thank you, thank you, thank you:
Continuing:
Not a chance:
After bronze working, we're going towards sanitation. We are also going to use slavery for some quicker building (most of the cities have plenty of food but not many mines really and lumbermilling enough forests takes too long and I still won't have enough hammers; It's better to chop and build more farms – I will want to transition to a specialist economy in the late game anyway). Right now we are building granaries.
We continue the push:
And poor Decius is an early victim in our games once again:
We finish researching sanitation and animal husbandry for the smokehouse and to check for horses. It'll soon be time to be wicked.
We also conquer a barbarian city close to the last conquered Bannor settlement.
We meet Keelyn and Cardith at have tension with each other in another continent south of mine (I'm already calling it mine
).
Then Ethne builds Bambur:
The last conquered city will actually build the temple of the hand before a monument.
Anyway, I kind of face palmed myself because I should have probably attacked Ethne before Decius that was already crippled.
The reason was that after she was the first to get to Runes, she was probably going Arete before bronze working or archery, meaning that I would conquer her easily with just my priests of winter (always unbalanced in the early game).
Still, conquering warriors with just priests of winter is kind of boring so I guess that we will just have more fun conquering her with a horsemen and horse archers' push despite the mistake – because she'll probably be able to build the mines for Iron.
Here is a global glance at the size of our early empire:
I felt that the first part of the game was quite interesting and I had fun posting a reasonably detailed segment of it. I think that it was worth it. The beginning of the game can be quite interesting, at least for me.
But I'm just going to deliver the next segment of the game in a more summary like manner, otherwise this game is going to take forever to report.
Anyway, I was thinking of going cartography for city states but I decided to go to code of laws right away. I became sure of conquering Mahala and Decius with a minimal amount of troops and the help of the priests of winter (meaning I didn't have to increase the maintenance costs for units) and getting enough pillage money. Also my capital will be in the middle of my early empire which is nice.
So, while building a few more workers (I will want those cottages and aristocratic farms fast enough and, anyway, I will not be able to conquer workers from Mahala since she will upgrade them all to beastmen before falling), I declared immediately after the peace treaty was over:
Spoiler :
Here we go (you know how it is, we're just going to abuse the priests of winter since nothing can resist their icy and deadly gaze at this point of the game):
Spoiler :
She tries to counterattack but it's no problem (She probably should have stayed inside her city actually but was attracted by the fact that I only had one warrior in that city):
Spoiler :
Thank you:
Spoiler :
As you can see, during the 10 turns of peace, she had built another city for us (One of the reasons to make peace was to get a few more cities from Mahala and Decius...):
Spoiler :
Auric is ruthless regarding traitors:
Spoiler :
Mahala's tech path was okay. Calendar, mining (she had resources for these two techs), bronze working, education (she already had some cottages going) and probably going warfare.
Unfortunately the decision to declare war on us instead of getting more cities just bit her in the behind since we already had quite a few high-level warriors and our priests of winter were about to come into play (otherwise it would have been harder for me especially playing other civilizations).
Anyway, it's time to finish Decius that had already lost the game right in the moment that he placed his second city on my border (which can usually mean the fast defeat of the human player on diety actually...):
Spoiler :
Thank you, thank you, thank you:
Spoiler :
Continuing:
Spoiler :
Not a chance:
Spoiler :
After bronze working, we're going towards sanitation. We are also going to use slavery for some quicker building (most of the cities have plenty of food but not many mines really and lumbermilling enough forests takes too long and I still won't have enough hammers; It's better to chop and build more farms – I will want to transition to a specialist economy in the late game anyway). Right now we are building granaries.
We continue the push:
Spoiler :
And poor Decius is an early victim in our games once again:
Spoiler :
We finish researching sanitation and animal husbandry for the smokehouse and to check for horses. It'll soon be time to be wicked.
We also conquer a barbarian city close to the last conquered Bannor settlement.
We meet Keelyn and Cardith at have tension with each other in another continent south of mine (I'm already calling it mine
).Then Ethne builds Bambur:
Spoiler :
The last conquered city will actually build the temple of the hand before a monument.
Anyway, I kind of face palmed myself because I should have probably attacked Ethne before Decius that was already crippled.
The reason was that after she was the first to get to Runes, she was probably going Arete before bronze working or archery, meaning that I would conquer her easily with just my priests of winter (always unbalanced in the early game).
Still, conquering warriors with just priests of winter is kind of boring so I guess that we will just have more fun conquering her with a horsemen and horse archers' push despite the mistake – because she'll probably be able to build the mines for Iron.
Here is a global glance at the size of our early empire:
Spoiler :
Estelindis
Chieftain
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2004
- Messages
- 41
Awesome. Decius ended up being my fastest friend in both my attempts at this game (pretty much the only one who would trade tech with me, plus he doesn't take offence when you don't join his war or trade embargo his enemies), so it's interesting to see you take him apart so quickly.
Regarding whether or not you should've gone for Ethne, wouldn't she have just chucked up Sanctuary? (If she did already, I missed it; sorry.)
Anyway, thanks for the updates. Hope you will post a couple more savegames along the way as well.
Regarding whether or not you should've gone for Ethne, wouldn't she have just chucked up Sanctuary? (If she did already, I missed it; sorry.)
Anyway, thanks for the updates. Hope you will post a couple more savegames along the way as well.
We get some nice results from trying to destroy a goblin fort:
I was thinking of getting another great person from the capital for an eventual golden age but I guess we'll just use that GB for that. In this case we will just whip the capital as well for buildings and eventually later try to get an Academy.
We also got festivals and will get writing for libraries.
We will whip health and growth buildings (otherwise you can't use slavery effectively), monuments, markets, courthouses and libraries. Some other stuff eventually. But that's the plan for now.
Let the whip start cracking!
Meanwhile, I decide to start some attrition war with Ethne to entertain myself (her cities are not close to ours and it is unlikely that she has horsemen, so it's okay if I pay attention and abuse the slow spell). I direct the priests of winter to the city where Bambur spawned. Maybe we can catch him while he is still young.
Unfortunately, we are not able to stop the building of the mines (I should've declared before
)...
Look at that - she still didn't have training yards or enough SoKs:
We start whipping some markets:
Oh, if somebody is wondering I built a temple of the hand in that other city because it had too much plain tiles and desert. So, that was a choice.
Btw, river penalty is not to be underestimated:
That was a weird attack, but okay.
I guess we take that city then:
Now that is a city that we are not going to crack with what we have no matter how much we try:
Whip, whip, whip:
Meanwhile we just plunder, choke and try to capture units on the field (Priests of Winter are so good, so good):
Three turns after the last whipping action, with the help of overflow, we get a bunch of libraries very quickly:
Okay, after getting the basic infrastructure that we wanted for the long run its time to go about some war business. Again.
We let the cities grow back up a little then push the slider to 100% and hit a golden age. Because of the libraries we get now the best value out of the accumulated money and the generated commerce.
We get stables and jump to Stirrups and Warfare:
After Archery, chops are better so we will do a lot of it. We will switch to military state, pump horsemen, set our slider to zero and upgrade part of them to horse archers.
There was a little counterattack by Ethne but our priests of winter were on it. Meanwhile, they keep having fun among the Elohim troops (but it seems impossible to capture a single unit...):
Here comes the horsies!:
We lose a bunch of horsemen but we capture that city (I forgot to take a screenshot).
I unfortunately didn't get many withdrawals, but, by the way, random comment, it's always nice to use flanking horses with a leader that has the defender trait since you will have 10% more withdrawal chances.
We learn that the White Hand's influence is quite big indeed already:
Time to start wearing down another city (straightforward stuff with horses):
Nice:
I'm sorry, Ethne:
We decided to make peace to get some cities with less effort. It's pretty much done, though.
We meet some new people and get some trades going:
Falamar seems to be teaching some dwarf a lesson in his continent and in another continent it appears that the Clan are getting it on against the Amurites (let's get ready for 1000 clan units in the late game...).
We also capture 2 barbarian cities and raze another.
We get currency and switch to consumption.
Time to say goodbye to Ethne:
We get trade, go towards mathematics for gambling houses and whip the great library (I can't remember from whom but we got construction from somebody,btw):
I hate this world spell:
A confusing global overview (btw, I forgot to say that Acheron spawned in the east coast of the continent) :
Our relations are good with everybody else and we are trading money and tech.
We switch to caste system and are now racing towards the guild of hammers.
Probably a less interesting report and segment but we have to move forward with stuff.
It is time to turtle up - Or maybe I should declare on those guys below us, any votes?
Spoiler :
I was thinking of getting another great person from the capital for an eventual golden age but I guess we'll just use that GB for that. In this case we will just whip the capital as well for buildings and eventually later try to get an Academy.
We also got festivals and will get writing for libraries.
We will whip health and growth buildings (otherwise you can't use slavery effectively), monuments, markets, courthouses and libraries. Some other stuff eventually. But that's the plan for now.
Let the whip start cracking!
Spoiler :
Meanwhile, I decide to start some attrition war with Ethne to entertain myself (her cities are not close to ours and it is unlikely that she has horsemen, so it's okay if I pay attention and abuse the slow spell). I direct the priests of winter to the city where Bambur spawned. Maybe we can catch him while he is still young.
Unfortunately, we are not able to stop the building of the mines (I should've declared before
)...Spoiler :
Look at that - she still didn't have training yards or enough SoKs:
Spoiler :
We start whipping some markets:
Spoiler :
Oh, if somebody is wondering I built a temple of the hand in that other city because it had too much plain tiles and desert. So, that was a choice.
Btw, river penalty is not to be underestimated:
Spoiler :
That was a weird attack, but okay.
I guess we take that city then:
Spoiler :
Now that is a city that we are not going to crack with what we have no matter how much we try:
Spoiler :
Whip, whip, whip:
Spoiler :
Meanwhile we just plunder, choke and try to capture units on the field (Priests of Winter are so good, so good):
Spoiler :
Three turns after the last whipping action, with the help of overflow, we get a bunch of libraries very quickly:
Spoiler :
Okay, after getting the basic infrastructure that we wanted for the long run its time to go about some war business. Again.
We let the cities grow back up a little then push the slider to 100% and hit a golden age. Because of the libraries we get now the best value out of the accumulated money and the generated commerce.
We get stables and jump to Stirrups and Warfare:
Spoiler :
After Archery, chops are better so we will do a lot of it. We will switch to military state, pump horsemen, set our slider to zero and upgrade part of them to horse archers.
There was a little counterattack by Ethne but our priests of winter were on it. Meanwhile, they keep having fun among the Elohim troops (but it seems impossible to capture a single unit...):
Spoiler :
Here comes the horsies!:
Spoiler :
We lose a bunch of horsemen but we capture that city (I forgot to take a screenshot).
I unfortunately didn't get many withdrawals, but, by the way, random comment, it's always nice to use flanking horses with a leader that has the defender trait since you will have 10% more withdrawal chances.
We learn that the White Hand's influence is quite big indeed already:
Spoiler :
Time to start wearing down another city (straightforward stuff with horses):
Spoiler :
Nice:
Spoiler :
I'm sorry, Ethne:
Spoiler :
We decided to make peace to get some cities with less effort. It's pretty much done, though.
We meet some new people and get some trades going:
Spoiler :
Falamar seems to be teaching some dwarf a lesson in his continent and in another continent it appears that the Clan are getting it on against the Amurites (let's get ready for 1000 clan units in the late game...).
We also capture 2 barbarian cities and raze another.
We get currency and switch to consumption.
Time to say goodbye to Ethne:
Spoiler :
We get trade, go towards mathematics for gambling houses and whip the great library (I can't remember from whom but we got construction from somebody,btw):
Spoiler :
I hate this world spell:
Spoiler :
A confusing global overview (btw, I forgot to say that Acheron spawned in the east coast of the continent) :
Spoiler :
Our relations are good with everybody else and we are trading money and tech.
We switch to caste system and are now racing towards the guild of hammers.
Probably a less interesting report and segment but we have to move forward with stuff.
It is time to turtle up - Or maybe I should declare on those guys below us, any votes?
Should I say no to more cities?
The AI uses this world spell badly. I don't know how the mechanics really work, how the AI evaluates stuff to trigger this world spell, but I always assume that she's not going to trigger it if the difference in power is close when the war starts.
It's more likely to see this world spell when the Elohim get into multiple wars.
There have been games when I conquered most of their cities, made a vassal out of them, afterwards declared on other civilizations and then for some reason the world spell is triggered when I was thinking that it had already been used...
- Btw, how is your game going?
Interesting play, well done. I particularly liked the use of the priests and their ice elementals early on. I haven't done that for a long time, the Illians were my first ever game of FfH2, when I didn't know what I was doing and I haven't played them since so its nice to see a game. Overrunning Ethne with the horses was standard stuff we've seen you do before
My moan about balance
What path to victory do you fancy from here? You have several open now you have that much land and resources. If you go with domination you could probably get enough area from the Lanun and Balseraph landmasses and avoid plowing through the mega stacks the Clan will have against you. I would like to see some naval action / invasions since that is what Tholal's mod is about. Optics, Astronomy and Iron Working for drydocks might be your tech path. You already have the iron needed for frigates so you might just build those to take out the land south of your island.
Do you have any plans for the 6 mana nodes you have? Even if you only turn them into law nodes they'll help your Aristograrian economy Will you stick with that economy if you invade other landmasses? If you intend to the the Royal Guard could be useful.
What about doing the unique Illian thing and generate Auric Ascended? I'm not sure how that helps win the game really (given the cost in research and hammers) but it would be different. As long as you stay away from the civ with Godslayer he'd be very cool (especially with Snowfall ) Your isolated landmass would make the Draw relatively easy to perform. It's up to you but I think it would be nice to see you win that way, using Auric and some naval action.
I particularly liked the use of the priests and their ice elementals early on. I haven't done that for a long time, the Illians were my first ever game of FfH2, when I didn't know what I was doing and I haven't played them since so its nice to see a game. Overrunning Ethne with the horses was standard stuff we've seen you do before My moan about balance
Spoiler :
What path to victory do you fancy from here? You have several open now you have that much land and resources. If you go with domination you could probably get enough area from the Lanun and Balseraph landmasses and avoid plowing through the mega stacks the Clan will have against you. I would like to see some naval action / invasions since that is what Tholal's mod is about. Optics, Astronomy and Iron Working for drydocks might be your tech path. You already have the iron needed for frigates so you might just build those to take out the land south of your island.
Do you have any plans for the 6 mana nodes you have? Even if you only turn them into law nodes they'll help your Aristograrian economy
Will you stick with that economy if you invade other landmasses? If you intend to the the Royal Guard could be useful.What about doing the unique Illian thing and generate Auric Ascended? I'm not sure how that helps win the game really (given the cost in research and hammers) but it would be different. As long as you stay away from the civ with Godslayer he'd be very cool (especially with Snowfall
) Your isolated landmass would make the Draw relatively easy to perform. It's up to you but I think it would be nice to see you win that way, using Auric and some naval action.Estelindis
Chieftain
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2004
- Messages
- 41
Not that well compared to yours. ;-)
When I left off, I was at war with Jonas Endain, who declared on me for no good reason but whose invading naval force I handily destroyed with Snowfall + a few naval attacks before the ships could land and offload their units. I destroyed his national and religious heroes without ever having to fight them directly, so I was quite proud of that. I've let Ethne summon Basium, though, and together they're quite powerful. I think I'm gonna have to backtrack again and be much more aggressive than I even was on this playthrough. (It's just against my deepseated nature and habits to be constantly attacking my neighbours.)
On the plus side, I got through Blight without losing a single point of population (unlike my neighbours). I'd been running a couple of specialists in most of my cities, so I could turn them towards food production easily enough. (Aristocracy is handy, as one can switch out of it to get the extra food back on farms.) Also, I got the Chosen of Aeron promotion for my first assassin, who had been capturing bears for all my cities for the happiness and culture; he was a very versatile unit, and I'd be sorry to see him go... Maybe I'll just continue with my current playthrough and see where it leads. Though I suppose I could do the same with another unit on a reload. Darned indecisiveness!
As always, your posts are very educational and enjoyable! Thanks for another update.
PS: Your last save-game happens just before Blight in your playthrough, but you've just changed civics to Aristocracy and thus can't change out for the food from farms! Gah. Can't remember if you were using Slavery, though, so maybe you'll just whip the cities down to size...
Interesting play, well done.
Priests of winter are unbalanced against the AI. It's pretty sick.
Overrunning Ethne with the horses was standard stuff we've seen you do before
Same old, same old
The problem is that there aren't any real hard counters to things. Where is the spearman in this game?
Early on, the griffon and war elephants have a bonus against mounted units but you'll never get many of those.
The game is constructed in a way that you have to earn promotions so that you can counter things.
But why can I give a promotion that gives a penalty to melee units or archers right after combat one and not to horses? That's the problem.
The game itself gives an incentive to the player to use horses because of this also.
Before magic they are really good and they continue to be good throughout the whole game.
I think that palisades and walls should give a penalty to the withdrawal chances of the attackers.
Maybe I would also give to all the recon line 10% strength against mounted units, so they can be a soft counter.
Conquest victory only enabled for this game. I'm not allowed to have a vassal.
Not really. I will eventually set up a metamagic node so that I can do whatever I want.
Even if you only turn them into law nodes they'll help your Aristograrian economy
That's true, I wasn't remembering that. I probably should use that more often.
I will make a transition to a zero slider specialists economy.
I'm going to build every ritual and special Ilian unit.
Well, the thing is, if you don't attack them they will attack you
. Eventually there is no way around it.Ha,ha, the Chosen of Aeron is always a great unit. Upgraded to a shadow with poison blade and having the right promotions he can actually be a favorite against Acheron.
Anyway, by abusing Snowfall you should be able to win your game. Just don't get caught off guard.
Thanks
BvBPL
Pour Decision Maker
Bunkering down in your continent and going straight to Auric Ascendant would be interesting. It would give the AIs a chance to build up to fight you.
Ah, yes, 
I just re-read your opening conditions. Now I realise I did read them when you first started but had forgot them, hence my questions about path to victory and whether you would be using Auric etc.
It was this line that caused me to think like that.
I imagined turtling up to be a reference to a Tower of Mastery victory, which is something you could choose easily without your self imposed constraints.
If it is to be a conquest victory (and it definitely is; I checked settings), without vassals then you need to capture every city. That might become a bit tedious on a map this size. However, the good thing is we can expect some naval action. I'll draw up a chair and watch.
Please be sure to detail any ship v ship combat. Falamar has OO as his religion so we might even see some magic v ship action, which will be even more interesting.
I just re-read your opening conditions. Now I realise I did read them when you first started but had forgot them, hence my questions about path to victory and whether you would be using Auric etc.It was this line that caused me to think like that.
I imagined turtling up to be a reference to a Tower of Mastery victory, which is something you could choose easily without your self imposed constraints.
If it is to be a conquest victory (and it definitely is; I checked settings), without vassals then you need to capture every city. That might become a bit tedious on a map this size. However, the good thing is we can expect some naval action. I'll draw up a chair and watch.
Please be sure to detail any ship v ship combat. Falamar has OO as his religion so we might even see some magic v ship action, which will be even more interesting.I managed to play until turn 399.
It was mostly management play so I'll just make a quick summary of things without any particular regard to chronological order.
Until people declared war on me, my relations were actually quite good and I had no troubles for quite a while (I also didn't make trouble for anybody allowing them to build up).
This screen reveals some of the trade that went on most of the time during peace:
There was also some technological trading but I was eventually able to get the technological lead and people started fearing that I was getting too advanced.
Regarding wars, Falamar eventually destroyed the dwarf in his continent, and Jonas the Amurites. Jonas then started a war with Falamar but that didn't last long.
Falamar ended up summoning Basium, and Keelyn Hyborem.
Then the following wars lasted for a while:
After many turns the following development happened (with Basium being cocky at turm 338):
Keelyn slowly but surely defeated Cardith, and Jonas, after trashing Hyborem (no one is taking vassals), declares on Falamar (or was it the other way around?
):
Falamar, taking some naval defeats and suffering pressure from the Clan, eventually gives up 22 goal per turn to make peace with me.
But I'm about to build the Draw and then it will be an All War game...
Anyway, for a while Jonas was the one with the technological lead and was even the one to get currency first building the Guild of the nine very early.
To get ahead, I ran republic, scholarship, case system and agriarianism. My many cities became obese and with a lot of six beaker specialists the research production steadily made a climb and eventually approached 2200 beakers (for a short while) at around turn 335 while continuing to build stuff.
Around that time the research and the population in some of my biggest cities took a hit because Falamar declared on me making me lose some happiness and health resources and devote more cities to fast unit production.
I finished researching everything but Righteousness at turn 375.
A good chunk of the research came from bulbing. Although Auric is not philosophical, he still got some decent 35,000 beakers or something through partial bulbs.
I also got a great commander although the chance for that was ridiculously slim. A Command Post is always welcomed, though.
I also built some spirit mana nodes for a little boost in GP growth.
It must be said that if you switch from aristocracy to republic and scholarship without guilds for the use of merchants you may have a little bit of trouble getting money even with a zero slider if you don't have many cottages or trade routes.
At the beginning of the scientists economy I was hardly making any money but a few moneychangers in cities with cottages and the stimulation of trade eventually helped out a lot. Courthouses are also a must.
If you don't really care for trade here is a little example how much money one can get from trade routes in the late game (in this example I wasn't even getting any trade routes from Falamar since he had already declared war):
Anyways, regarding the general infrastructure, almost all the cities got a monument, courthouse, market, granary, smokehouse, gambling house and some other health building (I may have to build dungeons, though).
I also built a bunch of libraries, buildings to build units, of course, and some moneychangers, inns, taverns, tax offices, temples of the hand and alchemy labs.
Coastal cities also got a lighthouse, harbor and shipyard.
I had free forges and obsidian gates.
Indeed, besides the great library I built the guild of hammers, the crown and the nexus. Also birthright regained.
Unfortunately, there was no chance of me getting the celestial compass in time. That was for Jonas.
What was upsetting was losing the blood of the Phoenix ritual. I had life mana for double speed, had put hammers into it and was just delaying it so that I could give the immortal promotion to as much units as possible but I wasn't paying attention to the others' technology progressionand ended up losing it to Jonas (who had the celestial compass...).
Now we have to kill a bunch of Clan units twice...
Oh, joy
It was mostly management play so I'll just make a quick summary of things without any particular regard to chronological order.
Until people declared war on me, my relations were actually quite good and I had no troubles for quite a while (I also didn't make trouble for anybody allowing them to build up).
This screen reveals some of the trade that went on most of the time during peace:
Spoiler :
There was also some technological trading but I was eventually able to get the technological lead and people started fearing that I was getting too advanced.
Regarding wars, Falamar eventually destroyed the dwarf in his continent, and Jonas the Amurites. Jonas then started a war with Falamar but that didn't last long.
Falamar ended up summoning Basium, and Keelyn Hyborem.
Then the following wars lasted for a while:
Spoiler :
After many turns the following development happened (with Basium being cocky at turm 338):
Spoiler :
Keelyn slowly but surely defeated Cardith, and Jonas, after trashing Hyborem (no one is taking vassals), declares on Falamar (or was it the other way around?
):Spoiler :
Falamar, taking some naval defeats and suffering pressure from the Clan, eventually gives up 22 goal per turn to make peace with me.
But I'm about to build the Draw and then it will be an All War game...
Anyway, for a while Jonas was the one with the technological lead and was even the one to get currency first building the Guild of the nine very early.
To get ahead, I ran republic, scholarship, case system and agriarianism. My many cities became obese and with a lot of six beaker specialists the research production steadily made a climb and eventually approached 2200 beakers (for a short while) at around turn 335 while continuing to build stuff.
Around that time the research and the population in some of my biggest cities took a hit because Falamar declared on me making me lose some happiness and health resources and devote more cities to fast unit production.
I finished researching everything but Righteousness at turn 375.
A good chunk of the research came from bulbing. Although Auric is not philosophical, he still got some decent 35,000 beakers or something through partial bulbs.
I also got a great commander although the chance for that was ridiculously slim. A Command Post is always welcomed, though.
I also built some spirit mana nodes for a little boost in GP growth.
It must be said that if you switch from aristocracy to republic and scholarship without guilds for the use of merchants you may have a little bit of trouble getting money even with a zero slider if you don't have many cottages or trade routes.
At the beginning of the scientists economy I was hardly making any money but a few moneychangers in cities with cottages and the stimulation of trade eventually helped out a lot. Courthouses are also a must.
If you don't really care for trade here is a little example how much money one can get from trade routes in the late game (in this example I wasn't even getting any trade routes from Falamar since he had already declared war):
Spoiler :
Anyways, regarding the general infrastructure, almost all the cities got a monument, courthouse, market, granary, smokehouse, gambling house and some other health building (I may have to build dungeons, though).
I also built a bunch of libraries, buildings to build units, of course, and some moneychangers, inns, taverns, tax offices, temples of the hand and alchemy labs.
Coastal cities also got a lighthouse, harbor and shipyard.
I had free forges and obsidian gates.
Indeed, besides the great library I built the guild of hammers, the crown and the nexus. Also birthright regained.
Unfortunately, there was no chance of me getting the celestial compass in time. That was for Jonas.
What was upsetting was losing the blood of the Phoenix ritual. I had life mana for double speed, had put hammers into it and was just delaying it so that I could give the immortal promotion to as much units as possible but I wasn't paying attention to the others' technology progression
and ended up losing it to Jonas (who had the celestial compass...).Now we have to kill a bunch of Clan units twice...
Oh, joy
Jonas also built the prophecy of ragnarok which started to make the AC rise at a good pace.
Where did the horsemen spawn? On my continent of course. Where else in this large map?
Scared the hell out of me since I only had one defender in those cities. Thank The One for horses.
After he had his fun nailing some workers and pillaging stuff I managed to crack him after losing a few units:
Anyway, Buboes had the same fate but not before killing an adept and a group of workers when he spawned.
How about Yersinia? I nailed it with Man O'Wars but I didn't remember that I couldn't pick up the equipment with boats and it just vanished the next turn:
As a consolation, the other evil civilizations end up having a little trouble with their land:
Another thing that happened was Falamar building a city on my continent:
The silly AIs...
By the way, Auric likes pets. Say hello to your new daddy, you little baby you:
To capture it, I used snowfall, assassins and, of course, beastmasters. I also killed Tum Tum in that city:
Soon Acheron has someone to play with:
Kiss, kiss?
The cute couple eventually captured Falamar's city on my continent:
By the way, we also got another beast unit:
Baron Duin Halfmorn Werewolves, Werewolves!
What more happened?
I got the rod of winds from a treasure chest:
I also got surprised by my own ritual because I completely forgot that I was building it just for fun:
Horses and Little Auric Junior elevated to immortal status
took care of business:
Auric Ulvin is not pleased as he is starting to feel that his bastard son may soon take over his place (plot twist?
).
Where did the horsemen spawn? On my continent of course. Where else in this large map?
Spoiler :
Scared the hell out of me since I only had one defender in those cities. Thank The One for horses.
After he had his fun nailing some workers and pillaging stuff I managed to crack him after losing a few units:
Spoiler :
Anyway, Buboes had the same fate but not before killing an adept and a group of workers when he spawned.
How about Yersinia? I nailed it with Man O'Wars but I didn't remember that I couldn't pick up the equipment with boats and it just vanished the next turn:
Spoiler :
As a consolation, the other evil civilizations end up having a little trouble with their land:
Spoiler :
Another thing that happened was Falamar building a city on my continent:
Spoiler :
The silly AIs...
By the way, Auric likes pets. Say hello to your new daddy, you little baby you:
Spoiler :
To capture it, I used snowfall, assassins and, of course, beastmasters. I also killed Tum Tum in that city:
Spoiler :
Soon Acheron has someone to play with:
Spoiler :
Kiss, kiss?
Spoiler :
The cute couple eventually captured Falamar's city on my continent:
Spoiler :
By the way, we also got another beast unit:
Baron Duin Halfmorn Werewolves, Werewolves!
What more happened?
I got the rod of winds from a treasure chest:
Spoiler :
I also got surprised by my own ritual because I completely forgot that I was building it just for fun
:Spoiler :
Horses and Little Auric Junior elevated to immortal status
took care of business:Spoiler :
Auric Ulvin is not pleased as he is starting to feel that his bastard son may soon take over his place (plot twist?
).All right, now to talk about a little bit of the naval action (oh, yeah).
First of all, I want to congratulate Tholal once again for his fantastic work in improving the AI in this area.
They keep the hidden nationality, they harass, they plunder money from your cities, they pillage, they kill your boats any chance they get.
They do try to make naval invasions, although they still don't make it with enough boats and units. Naval invasions have to be well-planned against a good defender.
Falamar did try to make a good naval invasion on me and it could have worked.
More on that later.
Here is the first and proud boat kill (getting rid of some that were plundering me):
For the longest time I think I literally lost one boat for each enemy naval unit that I killed. It was tough, man.
But boat battles are fun; there is more movement, more back-and-forth action if you know what I mean, more I hit you and now you hit me and on we go in the water merry-go-round.
But there is no way that can be showed using screenshots. UncleJJ asked me to portray the naval battles but he'll have to understand that if I tried to make some sort of slide show it would just take too much of my free time and probably wouldn't be that interesting.
Anyway, eventually I have 25 privateers and off I go to surround the continent down below.
Here I am approaching a city without realizing that there was a ritualist inside:
Soon enough my time to plunder and harass starts:
My fun is spoiled when Lanun Man O'Wars start approaching (I don't have gunpowder in my continent):
More annoying is getting some privateers killed by Lunatics without being able to do anything about it. It's kind of silly: The privateer is finished in production at the same time that the AI plays his turn and kills my hidden nationality unit inside the city The hell?
Plunder, plunder, plunder!:
I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to take a peek at the Clan coast:
I also have no idea how that Eidolon was defeated
Falamar declares on me and without gunpowder the frigates do what they can:
But I'm saved, saved!:
Keelyn had just killed Cardith and got a second gunpowder resource in his previous land.
We must thanks her by killing her first eventually, of course
.
Cardith was bribed into declaring on me when he only had one city actually but Keelyn was too fast for us in the end.
I also tried to approach the Lanun coast and I do plunder a pirate port but that doesn't last long:
Holy sh....What do we have here?
Mother of all Krakens! More boats and maelstrom!
They go for a direct attack at one of my coastal cities. Time for some dragon breath and snowfall to wear it down:
Thou shalt not be a pirate!:
I don't think so!
:
That naval attack was nice by the Lanun but Basium has much to learn
:
We actually pick up some more caravels here and there:
And the Clan declares on them and they simply stop coming after me. Like I said before, eventually we make peace.
First of all, I want to congratulate Tholal once again for his fantastic work in improving the AI in this area.
They keep the hidden nationality, they harass, they plunder money from your cities, they pillage, they kill your boats any chance they get.
They do try to make naval invasions, although they still don't make it with enough boats and units. Naval invasions have to be well-planned against a good defender.
Falamar did try to make a good naval invasion on me and it could have worked.
More on that later.
Here is the first and proud boat kill (getting rid of some that were plundering me):
Spoiler :
For the longest time I think I literally lost one boat for each enemy naval unit that I killed. It was tough, man.
But boat battles are fun; there is more movement, more back-and-forth action if you know what I mean, more I hit you and now you hit me and on we go in the water merry-go-round.
But there is no way that can be showed using screenshots. UncleJJ asked me to portray the naval battles but he'll have to understand that if I tried to make some sort of slide show it would just take too much of my free time and probably wouldn't be that interesting.
Anyway, eventually I have 25 privateers and off I go to surround the continent down below.
Here I am approaching a city without realizing that there was a ritualist inside:
Spoiler :
Soon enough my time to plunder and harass starts:
Spoiler :
My fun is spoiled when Lanun Man O'Wars start approaching (I don't have gunpowder in my continent):
Spoiler :
More annoying is getting some privateers killed by Lunatics without being able to do anything about it. It's kind of silly: The privateer is finished in production at the same time that the AI plays his turn and kills my hidden nationality unit inside the city The hell?
Spoiler :
Plunder, plunder, plunder!:
Spoiler :
I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to take a peek at the Clan coast:
Spoiler :
I also have no idea how that Eidolon was defeated
Falamar declares on me and without gunpowder the frigates do what they can:
Spoiler :
But I'm saved, saved!:
Spoiler :
Keelyn had just killed Cardith and got a second gunpowder resource in his previous land.
We must thanks her by killing her first eventually, of course
.Cardith was bribed into declaring on me when he only had one city actually but Keelyn was too fast for us in the end.
I also tried to approach the Lanun coast and I do plunder a pirate port but that doesn't last long:
Spoiler :
Holy sh....What do we have here?
Spoiler :
Mother of all Krakens! More boats and maelstrom!
Spoiler :
They go for a direct attack at one of my coastal cities. Time for some dragon breath and snowfall to wear it down:
Spoiler :
Thou shalt not be a pirate!:
Spoiler :
I don't think so!
:Spoiler :
That naval attack was nice by the Lanun but Basium has much to learn
:Spoiler :
We actually pick up some more caravels here and there:
Spoiler :
And the Clan declares on them and they simply stop coming after me. Like I said before, eventually we make peace.
Falamar builds Genesis but I still can use the Deepening, so it's too bad for him.
It's time to prepare the incoming war and augment the number of our troops (I think I built too many assassins):
After all the research was done we switch to consumption and guilds. We now have many many engineers instead of scientists and also merchants.
It's turn 399:
Here is a glance at my land if you care about:
Here is my military:
I confess that I am sufficiently pleased with my management, but it was inevitable to be a little sloppy sometimes. I mean when you get so many cities you just get lazy.
For example, I just realized writing this that I forgot to build crossbows. That will soon be corrected. After that many units we will also build a few more buildings to get more money.
By the way, the Clan built Nox Noctis (oh crap, 100 invisible Stygian guards - glup). To have a notion where the city with it is we open the global view:
It seems that our goal is probably Pain (how ironic).
Anyway, get ready for a big ginourmous war (Keelyn is first). No excuse for the AI: they are pretty well-developed.
The Draw and The Deepening will happen at the same time.
Auric suffers more and more episodes of madness and literally coughs ice. His ascension is near.
The Age of Ice shall return.
Are you ready for the incoming cold?
It's time to prepare the incoming war and augment the number of our troops (I think I built too many assassins
):Spoiler :
After all the research was done we switch to consumption and guilds. We now have many many engineers instead of scientists and also merchants.
It's turn 399:
Here is a glance at my land if you care about:
Spoiler :
Here is my military:
Spoiler :
I confess that I am sufficiently pleased with my management, but it was inevitable to be a little sloppy sometimes. I mean when you get so many cities you just get lazy.
For example, I just realized writing this that I forgot to build crossbows. That will soon be corrected. After that many units we will also build a few more buildings to get more money.
By the way, the Clan built Nox Noctis (oh crap, 100 invisible Stygian guards - glup). To have a notion where the city with it is we open the global view:
Spoiler :
It seems that our goal is probably Pain (how ironic).
Anyway, get ready for a big ginourmous war (Keelyn is first). No excuse for the AI: they are pretty well-developed.
The Draw and The Deepening will happen at the same time.
Auric suffers more and more episodes of madness and literally coughs ice. His ascension is near.
The Age of Ice shall return.
Are you ready for the incoming cold?
