Intro:
I'm currently playing a long running PBEM game (I think it's like a year long by now) with a friend of mine. Terra map, fast speed, me playing with Ljosalfar and Amelanchier as a leader. Him, playing Amurites and Dain Caswallan as a leader. We've played for a long time with a non-agression pact, but we know that sooner or later, when we both agree or get rid of the CPU opponents, we will clash and fight each other.
We're now at the 214 turn. And I'm gradually starting to fear that he might beat my ass when the time of conflict comes. So what did I think, being a newbie to the game? Come and ask people at civfanatics for help!
I want to share the game with you and listen to your advice. I'll try to keep you updated on the game if it's interesting to you, just to see how things are running.
The Game:
OK, so the game map looks like this:
(click on it to enlarge, also if you can recommend a better hosting than imageshack I'll thank you)
The "political map" is like this (Cultural borders are somewhat blurry because of conquering and warfaring, but you can see it more clearly at the mini map):
I'm the Ljosalfar, green, on the west of the "Old World" as we like to call the continent. Illians are north-west to me, and Sidar north-east. On my east, it's my friend with the Amurites, purple color. To his east, there are the Basium, white colored, they are his vassalls. To the Basium's north, there are the Clan of Embers, losing territory fast to the Amurites, and to the north-east of the Clan of Embers, there are the Khazad, who used (up until one turn ago) to be the vassalls of the former.
On the "New world", ie, the other continent, I've got some cities and there are the Hyborem, corrupting a big part of the continent with their fires and broken lands.
In the islands to the south of the Old World, there is my vassall Decius with the Malakim, at their safe hideout since they were wiped out from the Old World from my friend (he styles himself "Lord of Fire"). I've also got two cities on the biggest one of those islands, because I saw two mana nodes and I wanted to get hold of them (I also wanted to have a forward base from where to monitor Lord of Fire from the south). And that's it, since the Balseraphs were destroyed by the Lord of Fire in an earlier war.
I've got solar, mind, fire, nature, life, body, air, metamagic and water mana.
Metamagic comes from the trade to Lord of Fire, in exchange of a nature mana of mine.
Mind and fire mana comes from Decius in exchange of a fire mana I have.
I'm also building an earth mana node as to build the tower of the elements.
(So I have in fact 2 nature and 2 fire mana).
The current situation in the game is quite complicated. I've been in an on/off war with Auric Ulvin for ages, although we are in a cease fire right now.
Sandalphon is a peaceful neighbour, usually sandwiched between Auric Ulvin and Sheelba, with whom I've traded quite a bit.
Basium doesn't even speak to me and is under control of Lord of Fire.
Ditto with Kandros under control of Sheelba, in the last turn he's become free again because of the War against the Orcs (I'll expand on that) but still doesn't like me.
Decius is a bit of stable, not advancing. He keeps researching whatever I tell him to, and trades with me some of his stuff.
The Hyborem in the New World declared war on me some turns ago and they marched with a huge Army of Darkness against Nueva Intranquilo Town. Luckily they were repelled by hastily hired mercenaries, along with druids and experienced champions (entangles is THE spell). THey, however, keep harassing my cities in the new world and hindering my growth there. I don't send my main army there because it takes a while to get there and things could get "hot" in the Old World while they are there.
The Lord of Fire and I started playing as kind of allies, trading technologies, resources, etc. Now we're in a kind of cold war setting, with no agressions allowed, but not cooperating. We haven't defined to the exact detail the extent of our non agression pact (more on this later, on the War against the Orcs), but what is generally agred on is that we can't attack each other unless we decide we are allowed to do so on mutual consensus and leaving a buffer turn time (we've talked about 10 turns after we agree about it). And we know that sooner or later we'll come to blows, of course.
This is my trade screen with Lord of Fire, so you can see that he clearly has the advantage technology wise:
The War against the Orcs and the Pillaing Incident:
Sheelba was until now one of the major powers of the Old World, but she came into conflict with Lord of Fire and is receiving a serious beating. She has already lost most of her cities, including her capital, to Lord of Fire's armies.
I thought about taking advantage and attacking her as to take some of her cities and not allow Lord of Fire to take them, so he wouldn't grow too powerful. Unfortunately, I've got a peace treaty with her that still has 3 turns to go, and she has already lost most of her cities as I said. Even the Khazad broke their vassall pact with them Orcs.
The Pillaging Incident involved my troops on the border of the newly conquered cities by Lord of Fire. Roaming no-man's land, I decided that if I couldn't get a hold of those Orc cities, I might as well make some money out of the conflict. As the towns and farms where in no-man's land (because the newly conquered cities were still revolting and hadn't projected their cultural borders) I pillaged a lot of those tiles. However when I sent the turn, Lord of Fire told me what he considered that to be a violation of our non-agression pact and that his cities as soon as they would rever to their non-revolution state, would starve and become smaller, and that he was going to declare war on me and kill my troops.
I told him that I didn't know he would consider that to be an infringement of our non-agression pact, and as my troops were scattered and not ready to battle (I had a big stack all scattered around nearby tiles to pillage them in just one turn), I would replay the turn and not pillage them. In all honesty, I considered that a bit of a dick move, since you can't compare the damage done to you by pillaging tiles around newly conquered cities to destroying your main army because it's in a weak state (as I said, all scattered and not buffed up for combat, not fortified, etc).
So now I'm determined to build a decent opposition to Lord of Fire and come back on him.
My Royal Advisors: You.
My domestic advisor screen looks like this:
I'm currently researching Strength of will.
As I said I'm building an Earth mana node so I an build a Tower of the Elements on Guillecity, my capital.
On Guillecity I'm currently building a Network of Ears and Eyes (sorry if that's not the correct names, I've got the Spanish version of the mod, hopefully you'll understand which wonder is which).
On Tropicalia I'm building the Bloof of the Phoenix ritual, because I want to be the one to get it before Lord of Fire and so all my troops can get the immortal promotion.
I'm thinking of building the Soul Forge on Un Abrazo Ville as to boost it a little bit, but it's got a bit of an unhealthy penalty, so I don't know if it's too wise to do it?
My militarly advisor screen looks like this on my troops:
And on Lord of Fire's troops that I can see:
Basically, while he overscores me in militarly might and in researched technologies, I've got more culture and better production. Also my religion (FoL) is followed by more people than his (Empyrean).
The thing is that, from what I've seen, he's got a lot of Vicars, Firebows, Champions, he's got chariots, archmages, crossbowmen, mages, and on top of that, his Basium allies.
Meanwhile I've got druids, beastmasters, lot of longbowmen (my main defence line), Yvain and Gillen Silveric, some champions, horsemen and lots of adepts (16), but just one mage with fireball. I don't know why my adepts gain experience so slowly, which makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrongly.
He can throw a lot of fireballs to soften up defences on cities and then attack and conquer them easily (that's how he's beating Sheelba's ass, as far as I know). Govannon is involved in all of this, because I'm not too sure what he's capable of, but I think he might teach Fire magic to his units so that's the way he gets lots of fireballs.
I'm afraid of that because he's next to me and if the time to wage war arrives, he can easily burn all my forest and even if I cast my world spell, he would be able to summon my treants to ash as they are vulnerable to fire.
On the other hand, I don't know wether to attack Auric Ulvin or Hyborem. Hyborem are weaker, but I know that if I attack them, first I have to travel to the New World (thus leaving me weakened on the Old World) and each blow I deal to them reduces the Armaggeddon Counter. Is the AC counter going up good for me or what? From what I know it expands broken lands territory so I was hoping that it would crept up on Lord of Fire's kingdom while I'm able to vitalize (with Yvain) my territory and keep it nice and clean.
Auric Ulvin looks tougher to beat, but he's maybe my best option to expand to the west.
So, how could I prepare to battle against Lord of Fire?
If you want more info about the game or anything, feel free to ask.
Thanks a lot in advance!
I'm currently playing a long running PBEM game (I think it's like a year long by now) with a friend of mine. Terra map, fast speed, me playing with Ljosalfar and Amelanchier as a leader. Him, playing Amurites and Dain Caswallan as a leader. We've played for a long time with a non-agression pact, but we know that sooner or later, when we both agree or get rid of the CPU opponents, we will clash and fight each other.
We're now at the 214 turn. And I'm gradually starting to fear that he might beat my ass when the time of conflict comes. So what did I think, being a newbie to the game? Come and ask people at civfanatics for help!
I want to share the game with you and listen to your advice. I'll try to keep you updated on the game if it's interesting to you, just to see how things are running.
The Game:
OK, so the game map looks like this:
(click on it to enlarge, also if you can recommend a better hosting than imageshack I'll thank you)
The "political map" is like this (Cultural borders are somewhat blurry because of conquering and warfaring, but you can see it more clearly at the mini map):
I'm the Ljosalfar, green, on the west of the "Old World" as we like to call the continent. Illians are north-west to me, and Sidar north-east. On my east, it's my friend with the Amurites, purple color. To his east, there are the Basium, white colored, they are his vassalls. To the Basium's north, there are the Clan of Embers, losing territory fast to the Amurites, and to the north-east of the Clan of Embers, there are the Khazad, who used (up until one turn ago) to be the vassalls of the former.
On the "New world", ie, the other continent, I've got some cities and there are the Hyborem, corrupting a big part of the continent with their fires and broken lands.
In the islands to the south of the Old World, there is my vassall Decius with the Malakim, at their safe hideout since they were wiped out from the Old World from my friend (he styles himself "Lord of Fire"). I've also got two cities on the biggest one of those islands, because I saw two mana nodes and I wanted to get hold of them (I also wanted to have a forward base from where to monitor Lord of Fire from the south). And that's it, since the Balseraphs were destroyed by the Lord of Fire in an earlier war.
I've got solar, mind, fire, nature, life, body, air, metamagic and water mana.
Metamagic comes from the trade to Lord of Fire, in exchange of a nature mana of mine.
Mind and fire mana comes from Decius in exchange of a fire mana I have.
I'm also building an earth mana node as to build the tower of the elements.
(So I have in fact 2 nature and 2 fire mana).
The current situation in the game is quite complicated. I've been in an on/off war with Auric Ulvin for ages, although we are in a cease fire right now.
Sandalphon is a peaceful neighbour, usually sandwiched between Auric Ulvin and Sheelba, with whom I've traded quite a bit.
Basium doesn't even speak to me and is under control of Lord of Fire.
Ditto with Kandros under control of Sheelba, in the last turn he's become free again because of the War against the Orcs (I'll expand on that) but still doesn't like me.
Decius is a bit of stable, not advancing. He keeps researching whatever I tell him to, and trades with me some of his stuff.
The Hyborem in the New World declared war on me some turns ago and they marched with a huge Army of Darkness against Nueva Intranquilo Town. Luckily they were repelled by hastily hired mercenaries, along with druids and experienced champions (entangles is THE spell). THey, however, keep harassing my cities in the new world and hindering my growth there. I don't send my main army there because it takes a while to get there and things could get "hot" in the Old World while they are there.
The Lord of Fire and I started playing as kind of allies, trading technologies, resources, etc. Now we're in a kind of cold war setting, with no agressions allowed, but not cooperating. We haven't defined to the exact detail the extent of our non agression pact (more on this later, on the War against the Orcs), but what is generally agred on is that we can't attack each other unless we decide we are allowed to do so on mutual consensus and leaving a buffer turn time (we've talked about 10 turns after we agree about it). And we know that sooner or later we'll come to blows, of course.
This is my trade screen with Lord of Fire, so you can see that he clearly has the advantage technology wise:
The War against the Orcs and the Pillaing Incident:
Sheelba was until now one of the major powers of the Old World, but she came into conflict with Lord of Fire and is receiving a serious beating. She has already lost most of her cities, including her capital, to Lord of Fire's armies.
I thought about taking advantage and attacking her as to take some of her cities and not allow Lord of Fire to take them, so he wouldn't grow too powerful. Unfortunately, I've got a peace treaty with her that still has 3 turns to go, and she has already lost most of her cities as I said. Even the Khazad broke their vassall pact with them Orcs.
The Pillaging Incident involved my troops on the border of the newly conquered cities by Lord of Fire. Roaming no-man's land, I decided that if I couldn't get a hold of those Orc cities, I might as well make some money out of the conflict. As the towns and farms where in no-man's land (because the newly conquered cities were still revolting and hadn't projected their cultural borders) I pillaged a lot of those tiles. However when I sent the turn, Lord of Fire told me what he considered that to be a violation of our non-agression pact and that his cities as soon as they would rever to their non-revolution state, would starve and become smaller, and that he was going to declare war on me and kill my troops.
I told him that I didn't know he would consider that to be an infringement of our non-agression pact, and as my troops were scattered and not ready to battle (I had a big stack all scattered around nearby tiles to pillage them in just one turn), I would replay the turn and not pillage them. In all honesty, I considered that a bit of a dick move, since you can't compare the damage done to you by pillaging tiles around newly conquered cities to destroying your main army because it's in a weak state (as I said, all scattered and not buffed up for combat, not fortified, etc).
So now I'm determined to build a decent opposition to Lord of Fire and come back on him.
My Royal Advisors: You.
My domestic advisor screen looks like this:
I'm currently researching Strength of will.
As I said I'm building an Earth mana node so I an build a Tower of the Elements on Guillecity, my capital.
On Guillecity I'm currently building a Network of Ears and Eyes (sorry if that's not the correct names, I've got the Spanish version of the mod, hopefully you'll understand which wonder is which).
On Tropicalia I'm building the Bloof of the Phoenix ritual, because I want to be the one to get it before Lord of Fire and so all my troops can get the immortal promotion.
I'm thinking of building the Soul Forge on Un Abrazo Ville as to boost it a little bit, but it's got a bit of an unhealthy penalty, so I don't know if it's too wise to do it?
My militarly advisor screen looks like this on my troops:
And on Lord of Fire's troops that I can see:
Basically, while he overscores me in militarly might and in researched technologies, I've got more culture and better production. Also my religion (FoL) is followed by more people than his (Empyrean).
The thing is that, from what I've seen, he's got a lot of Vicars, Firebows, Champions, he's got chariots, archmages, crossbowmen, mages, and on top of that, his Basium allies.
Meanwhile I've got druids, beastmasters, lot of longbowmen (my main defence line), Yvain and Gillen Silveric, some champions, horsemen and lots of adepts (16), but just one mage with fireball. I don't know why my adepts gain experience so slowly, which makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrongly.
He can throw a lot of fireballs to soften up defences on cities and then attack and conquer them easily (that's how he's beating Sheelba's ass, as far as I know). Govannon is involved in all of this, because I'm not too sure what he's capable of, but I think he might teach Fire magic to his units so that's the way he gets lots of fireballs.
I'm afraid of that because he's next to me and if the time to wage war arrives, he can easily burn all my forest and even if I cast my world spell, he would be able to summon my treants to ash as they are vulnerable to fire.
On the other hand, I don't know wether to attack Auric Ulvin or Hyborem. Hyborem are weaker, but I know that if I attack them, first I have to travel to the New World (thus leaving me weakened on the Old World) and each blow I deal to them reduces the Armaggeddon Counter. Is the AC counter going up good for me or what? From what I know it expands broken lands territory so I was hoping that it would crept up on Lord of Fire's kingdom while I'm able to vitalize (with Yvain) my territory and keep it nice and clean.
Auric Ulvin looks tougher to beat, but he's maybe my best option to expand to the west.
So, how could I prepare to battle against Lord of Fire?
If you want more info about the game or anything, feel free to ask.
Thanks a lot in advance!
![[to_xp]Gekko](https://civfanatics-data.community.forum/avatars/m/74/74677.jpg?1475248346){kind=avatar}
