OB07 - The First Shall Be Last

I will play tomorrow morning - so you should have my report when it's tomorrow night for you :) .
 
Nice 10 turns. Rhoanna is totally gassed, we're rolling over her like a thunderstorm, she has no means left to withstand.

But first we dealt our former selves the farewell blow.

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Then we captured Hyll - unfortjnately with no Song of Autumn.

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Next turn the former Elven Capital will fall.

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Malovelent Designs due in 1 too, I suggest splitting up the stack in two and just waltz over the South.

Imhotep
 
I'm baaack ... for a few days anyway ...

I spread Esus to one city. I'm not sure what that will do, but if we lose our Nightwatch we won't have another opportunity to do it.
:confused: Sorry if this is another dumb question, but what does having another religion in one of our cities get us? The only reason that I could think of would be to give us the option of converting for some easy diplo points, should they be needed. But I suspect that I am missing something here ... :dunno:

I'll throw a tentative got it out there, I can play in 15 or so hours but if Conroe is back and can play before this, go right ahead!
Please take it. The forum was down again earlier, and now it is getting late here and I'm a bit tired. I'll plan on grabbing it after Jet.
 
OK, managed to get through without crashing again.

We took 3 of Rhoanna's cities and razed another. We are now in Hippus proper.

Three other things of not happened.

The secong horseman appeared. I couldn't spot him but didn't check at the end of the set if he had appeared anywhere.

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We got this pretty boy.

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Hyborem picked up the crown of command, which gives 20% conversion chance, we have already picked up a berserker and champion from this.

I went Sorcery after Mal Designs, we have 1 turn left (I went 0% for a few turns to get some cash for upgrading some troops to Eidolons). Engineering might be a good choice for the extra troop movements.
 

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Who is up?
 
^^ with the ninja 10 characters! ^^
 
631 - Sorcery. Trade Alteration + Mal Designs + 155 to Charadon for Engineering + Smelting + Stirrups, putting him into WFYABTA.
See the second horseman nearby inside the Hippus borders.
Start Astro.

635 - before Astronomy: 557b -7 @ 60%, or 155b +485 @ 0%.

636 - after Astronomy: 760b -27 @ 70%, or 156b +701 @ 0%. Queued Harbors in the coastal cities with the best trade routes.
Charadon already had Astro.

637 - got a sage and bulbed Arcane Lore. Decided against trying for the Crown of Akharien. It would be 31 turns in Dis, and with no good source of Manes currently, it would be hard to build up a super science city.
Started Taxation.

638 - A dastardly sneaky Hippus Champion retook Yonna.

638 - One of the captured cities (Radonnor) is small, but has the Form of the Titan.
Charadon is out of WFYABTA. I guess that's because he's up to Friendly. Trade Sorcery + Festivals + 895 for Bowyers, then Arcane Lore + 5 for Iron Working.

639 - Notice that War (+3 unholy, +1 Armageddon on kill) is sitting on the ground, in a Citadel, defended by a Worker. :D So much for the second horseman. Mardero gets a new pimp stick.

640 - I break down and raze a city instead of keeping it (Murosbane, size 5.)

641 - recapture Yonna. After the recaptures and Rhoanna drafting there, it's down to size 5. But I keep it so that we maintain control of that strip of land, both for the land count and because it's a chokepoint.

642 Taxation. I researed Taxation at 50% because it's economic, so I figured fast research would pay for itself. But now I switch to 0% to save up enough money to switch to 100%/Scholarship for 15 turns. Start Mithril Working since it would benefit many of our units with no hammer cost, and would be tradeable to Charadon and Alexis.
Raze Ihara, size 5.

643 - Third Horseman, can't see where.

646 - Alexis finishes the Mercurian Gate and declares on Charadon and us, hosing our trade route income. So much for those Harbors. :\

647 - Take the last of Rhoanna's eastern cities. I also razed another small one, but kept two small coastal cities to claim land and build ships. She won't put up any kind of fight if we finish her, but she has been willing to cap for a few turns now, and currently offers a city and some junk techs.

Einon is still at war with Cardith, but has 2 War Chariots and 2 Knights stacked up near Dis. I've started to move a few units back there, and I suggest Dis stay on Longbows.

This is a good place to end my turnset.

Pro capitulation
* Faster, we can start on Einon sooner
* We can probably get a good tech from the cap deal, Warhorses or Blasting Powder or Rage.
* She will defend the sea border by Einon's core - more convenient than us doing it.
* If we convert her she can be a source of Manes and maybe more tech trades.
* We should be able to get her mana if we want it
Con
* She might be hard to convert, since she hates us (-10 razing, just for starters)
* While she's unconverted, Charadon would factor his attitude toward her (+4 civics, -8 Good, -4 heathen) toward us, and then he might not be Friendly, and then he'd be back in WFYABTA. Currently we have nothing on him, but he has Blasting Powder, Rage, Tracking.
* She's so isolated we probably wouldn't get that many Manes from her fighting on our behalf
* Higher land count if we occupy it ourselves

I'm good either way, but I think I favor capping her, assuming we can get Warhorses. The tech would be helpful, and it would keep the game moving.

Either way, we should fortify our eastern coast in case Alexis sends something over.

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I'd be inclined to capitulate her (quicker end).

The other thing we should consider at some stage is that we can cast Hyborem's Whisper and take one of Charadon's cities. Maybe the quickest way to win this game is cast it and take a city near the AV holy city, destro Charadon and go for a religious victory.

Still probably best to head towards Einion next. Him and Charadon are our only threats in the game.
 
I found this screenshot interesting ...

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The lone evil civ likes us ... Everyone else is either furious at us, at war with us, or both. :undecide:

Anyway ... Started the set off by capitulating Rhoanna. Actually did it twice because I forgot to take a screenshot the first time. :rolleyes:

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I thought about taking the War Horses tech, but we would be limited to building 4 of them. The Arquebus' aren't as strong a unit, but we could build as many as we want.

And since the plan was to go after Einon next, I also signed peace with Cardith. It really wasn't that much of a war to begin with. :p

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And then it was a matter of tending to the tedious task of gating our forces back to Dis, in preparation of declaring on Einon. I noticed that Einon had quite a few muskets guarding his border. I suspect that they might not be enough. :D But still, I needed to properly position our units before declaring.

I would later notice an Empyrean Paladin of Einon's, as well as a couple of Knights and War Chariots. Suddenly, I wasn't as confident. ;) Hopefully this wouldn't get too ugly too quickly.

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I also noticed that our border city of Spilan was working on the Soul Forge. Sadly it wouldn't be completed before we declare on the Elohim. Oh well. I gave Hyborem his Cover promotion, rather than a Combat V. Probably not necessary, but it somewhat offset the extra 20% Einon's Blessed muskets would get against our demons. In hindsight, I wish I would have gone with the combat promotion, but I hadn't noticed Einon's Paladins at the time.

Basium picked a good time (for us, anyway) to use his world spell. We'd made peace with the Hippus and we'd yet to declare on the Elohim. Which is fortunate considering that every one of our troops was now wounded after Divine Retribution had been cast. Not sure how many units we lost, but we were missing at least one Mage.

After building up some cash, I swapped us out to Scholarship and bumped up the slider to 100%. Einon didn't understand our plans, and came demanding a tribute. :lol:

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Only 4,000 gold? Is that all? :rolleyes: I've got a better idea:

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Well, not quite. First there were a few more turns of moving our troops around and making sure everyone was ready after the Divine Retribution spell. Then it was time to get down to business. The plan:

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The idea would be to hit the city of Hyol first. This city is basically behind our lines. The city was being defended by a Paladin, the hero Sphener, and a ton of Arquebus'. It is a hornet's nest that would need to be cleared out before we could advance on Elohim proper. We would be going after Hyol with Hyborem and our Eidolons. Given the hills around the city, it looks like we might even be able to make use of Hyborem's Guerrilla promotion. :rolleyes: Meanwhile, our 4 Beasts of Agares would be assigned the task of defending our cities. Basically, the plan was to just turtle up in our cities until our back lines were cleared out.

Well, that was the plan anyway ... Didn't quite work out that way. :wallbash:

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Basically the Elohim world spell (Sanctuary) kicks our troops out of the borders and we can't return for another 30 turns. :wallbash:

If we had a navy, we could probably use the 30 turns to go after Sandalphon. But alas, we have no navy. Not sure where to go with this game. My only idea is to turn the save over to Ralph. :D

And, as fate would have it, this is also the turn that Alexis would decide to finally show up. She'd been quiet the whole set. But her Frigates would arrive just as our troops were booted from the Elohim lands.

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In other news, the Forbidden Palace that someone queued up was completed. Also the undercouncil smuggling resolution passed. We were pulling in a 1000gpt (@ 0%) after that.

The save is attached ... especially for those interested in pressing enter 30 times ...
 

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. My only idea is to turn the save over to Ralph. :D

This far into the game with no Navy, :nono:

I knew I should have been following you more closely...

:spank:

Nice game and I am sure you will manage to rustle up a navy from somewhere...

Ralph
 
We need you Ralph :lol:

All we need is one city of someones and we can teleport masses of troops over.

Probably best to leave Einion for the moment (I'm assuming he won't talk) and turn to another target. We can cast Hyborem's Whisper and go after Charadon or use the one or two ships we have to transport some crack troops across to Cardith, capture one city and teleport some troops across.

Roster
Ozbenno - On Deck
Jet
Conroe
Imhotep - UP
 
I knew I should have been following you more closely...
;) Like, by opening the save? Hey, I queued up a couple boats and shipyards, but we could win Domination in this game without ever using a ship. So you can take your ":nono:" and stick it up MY GIANT, RED, DEMONIC BEHIND! :devil: :D :D :D

Sandalphon took a Kuriotate city that we could attack, but it's well defended and preparing the invasion would not only take up most of the 30 turns, it would spread us thin. Power ratings are Charadon 250%, Einon 200%, us 100%, Alexis 100%, Sandalphon 75%, Arturus 50%. So taking on Charadon now would spread us even thinner. I think Domination or Conquest will still be possible after the 30 turns, just more interesting.

Arquebuses are good, but remember they have competition from cheaper units: Iron Longbows, and (we hope) Mithril Diseased Corpses.
 
Well, I played until turn 670 - so 14 turns to go until we kick Einon's ass :devil: :D . The set however wasn't without some action.

Einon seems to have misunderstood the effects of Sanctuary. Units in enemy land are NOT protected by it, und Sphener isn't that good to hold against a whole army next to him...

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1 Champion and 2 Dead Corpses later Hyborem finished the job:

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Thanks Einon, one care less! :D

I made peace with him afterwards for the cheap price of 200 gold - we can afford it. Mithril Working came in, and it's one of those times you'll love the strategic resource placement generator:

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The single source of Mithril on the whole continent is in Hippus' lands, who even don't know the tech...hilarious!

Have fun guys! We'll soon sport War Chariots and death Knights :D .

Imhotep
 
I can't get screenshots to take due to the hell-fire but the highlights of 14 turns include...

The 4th horseman, Ars Modendi appears.

Cardith is getting absolutely pounded by pretty much everyone but us and passes away.

We research some techs (Armoured Cav, Rage, Guilds, Way of Wise, Elementalism) and are currently on Mithril Weapons

I nick Rhoanna's Air mana.

Peace with Alexis costs 155 gold.

We can declare if we like. I was struggling to get through the 14 turns. Einion has been garrisonning Utigar. We should probably not advance here but let him come to us. Hyborem is set to take Hyol quickly and get back to the front. Sapientia is lightly garrisonned so we should be able to move out from Spilan to here.

All yours Jet.
 

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