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

Archeron and Drifta should be a mean pair of sidekicks for Auric and the items of equipment you've picked up should make them exceptionally tough. How did you get your beastmaster the Subdue Beasts promotion needed to capture Archeron? Did you level up some rangers on bears? Incidentally I've just captured Archeron in my current immortal game with the Lanun and I'm about to sail over to take out Beeri and Basium.

The naval action looks really exciting. I particularly liked the use of the Kraken (Falamar must have a druid or a speaker) and the spell casting from the ships... wow. That's how I managed to get a good kill ratio against privateers and frigates in my game, I use cultists and fireballs to soften up the enemy ships before my frigates go in. But I can also use boarding party promotion to the capture ships . My ships have been hit by ritualists and fireballs from the shore and by cultists water walking but I have yet to face an enemy ship using spell casters. In your game it was probably just an invasion force that had a few mages with Maelstrom rather than how the AI intends to fight naval war even though it is very effective.

 

A great update, very interesting stuff.

Of course if you did smaller updates more often it wouldn't take as long each time

Thanks for posting

 

Great updates. I have a real appreciation for how long that must have taken you. Personally, after reloading (again!) to before Ethne summoned Basium and taking her out early, and then taking most of Cardith and Keelyn's continent, I feel like I'm totally worn out from this game.

Incidentally, in my game, Cardith was evil (Veil) and had vassal'd Keelyn (Good, Order); Jonas attacked her in time to raze some of her cities and settle on the land, but otherwise that half of the world is mine. I also took out Hyborem when he spawned beside me, slew all the Horsemen and took their stuff, and captured Brigit, Acheron, Tum Tum, and a boatload Sons of the Inferno / Disciples of Acheron. (My super-assassin takes on the beasts, while a High Priest of Winter wearing the Crown of Command fights other living units.) Also, Auric Jr (who I made a horce archer and then a knight) was the one who ventured into the Ring of Carcer. Good times!

Re. that Lanun city in the north, I had loads of people trying to settle there. Are they that desperate for fur?

This game has given me a real appreciation for the power of the Illians in a high AC situation, given that Temples of the Hand can transform a city's tiles into land that is impervious to the spreading of hell terrain. I actually find myself imagining that Auric, in spite of being so evil, is the only force that can truly "save" the world from the power of fiery hell, even if that means plunging it into ice instead. Seriously, it's like this game has transformed into A Song of Ice and Fire. It's not like your dramatric opening didn't have enough sex for it.

 

To finish this off: after the hit from the Draw on our economy in several ways we switch to aristocracy, consumption and military state. Cities grow back fast enough.

it's time to ascend auric and crush the opposition:

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Advancing further:

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What the bloody hell is this?

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A puppet!
A puppet?
A puppet.

Puppet.

I cannot believe it. Is this the old phalanx versus tank thing all over again?...

That's just insane.

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Although the war just took about seven or eight turns, we killed so many units that war weariness went through the roof...

Falamar is incredibly annoying and tough in naval battles:

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We approached the enemy coast carefully:

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here we go:

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Defensive posture! Pray for no tsunami!

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Get the hell out of the game:

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Prostrate yourselves!

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(I don't know why but the thing that stands out to me the most is the beard, lol)

That's right - The Biggest, the most powerful, the most devastating, the most unbalanced, the most sickest, the most ridiculous, the most obscene, the most Godlike, the most, the most, the most (fist pump) f*** yeah! unit of the game has come.
Chalid who? Pfff......

Your opponent has more than 1000 units? That's no longer a problem when Auric, the Solver and Destroyer of late game stalemates, arrives.

Bow before Auric Ascended. Your one true God.

With a warp, Auric's ominous shadow immediately hovers over the crumbling Lanun empire:

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A deadly vortex sucking everything into its icy center:

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we lose Acheron at outrageous odds, but with so many battles going on it is not unusual to end up seeing such results:

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He was not a true Ilian, anyway.

Auric leads the continuing charge:

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Nothing bypasses my boat perimeter:

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The power of divination:

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Time to walk the plank:

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Nice Druid, thanks a lot:

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We complete our set of technologies by exploring the pool of tears in the middle of the ocean. Perfect!

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Time to use Stasis (this time a permanent one...) so that we can handle the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of invisible clan units.

We take good care approaching their coast. Caution is needed. Fortunately they don't seem to have many boats ( they probably lost a bunch fighting the Pirates) and they don't know how to use Walter walking units to establish a defense perimeter. the hell terrain seems to have hurt them as well.

We approach the city where their biggest stack is.
Consists of almost 280 mages, almost 400 skeletons (?), more than 150 specters, about 150 Stygian guards, something close to that in cultists, more than 60 ogres, about 70 longbows, more than 60 rangers, priests of leaves and tigers and and and...

Anyway, approaching that city we either kill or are killed.

What to do? Not a problem.
Our priests and archmages cast snowfall, our druid casts tsunami and Auric, oh yes,
Auric destroys,
crushes,
obliterates
~ 1000 units in one fell swoop with his very cold cold breath

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We sweep those survivors with an amphibious assault.

We warp a bunch of arquebus to defend the city:

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the clan tries to retake it but is unable to and we warp even more arquebus to the city. the intention is to trade units during stasis. They'll suicide plenty of units. The AI doesn't know how to make a planned attack with tsunami first otherwise it would be impossible to hold the city.

meanwhile we move by sea towards another full city (I'm not stepping into the field just yet, am I insane?)

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Auric is just broken (and rightfully so)

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We must not fear Pain (?) and take over Nox Noctis. How many more units can they have? (glup)

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Not many. Without the invisibility we now can see that they don't have much more than 100 units left. I am disappoint... (lol)

Djinns are bad asses with this many mana nodes:

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We remember to rescue poor Brigit:

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Krakens or not, we got this:

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Wheeeeeeeeeeeee:

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Bye,bye:

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Almost all of the cities have a Temple of the hand and worship the true religion.
The world is ice.
Auric is your God (Bow now!).

Do not believe the story of the scenarios.
The shadow of the White Hand rules over everything.
There is no escape.

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Nice game! Auric Ascended certainly is awesome, though obviously not worth the trouble if you're not just showing him off.

 

If you are behind and on the ropes, the draw will probably hurt you too much.
If you are way ahead, then you probably will not need him.

If everything else is equal, Auric will make you win tough games that otherwise would not be possible to win.

He is the solution against the AI late game heavy unit spamming.
Only he and he only can kill 1000 units in one turn with the click of a button.
A God is a God

 

Any idea what you will play next?

 

I don't have any plans.

 

Where was the Godslayer?

 

I've just finished a noble conquest with Auric Ascended, but no one had the godslayer in my game? Was it an old feature?

 

I was not paying attention at the end any more, but it was probably with a Clan unit. Maybe it died at sea.

 

The way the Godslayer works is that it is placed invisibly somewhere in the world, belonging to the Non-Illian civ with the highest score.

For a human, it's normally a short jaunt to pick it up. For the AI it is doubtful that they will have the wherewithal will get their incompetent little hands on it. If they have a quick land route they can grab it. But the sword will often appear on an island or otherwise outside of the AI's sphere of direct influence, in which case organizing an expedition to grab it is not going to happen.