I think before the switch we might possibly be able to make some mischief such as deleting heroes or declaring war on everyone. Whatever reduces the collective strength of the leading civs and promotes a balance of power, I guess.
480 move our giant stack back into our borders, and form a rear army led by Gilden to take out Valin. I was wrong and we actually have two mages that can cast Maelstrom, so each stack gets one.
Start Feral Bond.
Valin is in Berk.
Ice the great scientist in the hope of getting a non-scientist in 27 turns for another golden age, for short term benefit.
481 Cardith asks us to fight Sandalphon. Maybe the relations bonus would assist with some trade or something, but otherwise the balance of power does not favor our fighting Sandalphon, so I refuse.
Valin is 2 SW of our holy city Hyll: 9 tiles from his previous position, because Einon knows Engineering. At least Valin is not Commando. That would be a nightmare. Still, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to position our rear army when he can move around so fast.
I notice that Cardith and Rhoanna both have Feral Bond (but not for trade).
482 Valin is 1N of our Hippus border city Gaene.
483 Rhoanna asks us to stop trading with Cardith. She would like him, but has -3 from an event and -4 for trading with us
. I refuse in case we can get a trade from Cardith (and because we're making good money from trade routes). I then check and see that she is not currently in war prep, which is good.
Interesting event:
The first option showed no result. I thought the Armageddon bonus might help the Doviello somehow, since they appear to be running Ashen Veil. I sent the crazed Disciple down to Gaene to create a culture bomblet. He ended up going barb before he could do it, but that was still 4 XP for a Swordsman.
Valin disappears into Hippopotamusland. The rear stack is 7 turns away from Gaene.
486 Valin reappears 1 NW of Gaene, and the rear army reaches our former southern border city Yonna.
Rhoanna has learned Fanaticism but is still not in war prep. Cardith has learned Smelting and also vassalized to Einon, thereby making peace with Sandalphon.
487 Valin has crossed paths with the rear army and is now NNW of Yonna. It looks like he might pop out into the neutral jungle zone. I move the rear army back onto the same tile as Valin, and move the front army into attack position. Our border cities will be weakly defended, but the rear army will be nearby. If we lost our new city Elendiwe, that would be OK.
488 Valin is 4W of our Heroic Epic city Bruti. He is just inside our territory. Neutral territory is 1W of him, so I guess that's probably where he'll pop out. Luckily, the jungle will impede his movement a bit. The front army is 2NE of the Elohim city Oriel and the rear army is 1SE of Bruti. I think if we attack this turn, Valin will most likely head for Oriel, taking 3 turns to get there, by which time we'll have it, with reinforcements on the way.
I check for trades before attacking. Einon has learned Priesthood and now will trade Honor as well as Math and Earthmother. Cardith will buy Priesthood for 200 + map, so I do that before declaring.
I declare, and Valin pops 1W, putting him 4 tiles from Oriel. I wonder if I miscalculated, and whether he will reach the city before we do.
IBT Cardith poaches a Worker, oops. Valin chooses to move Southeast toward Elendiwe, killing a Priest of Leaves that was moving to reinforce it. He takes some damage in the process, which makes me happy. I guess he's less indestructible than I feared.
489 Oriel has a couple reinforcements and 35% defence. Lead with Maelstrom, a Tiger, and 3 unpromoted suicide Swordsmen. Then a couple Swordsmen win. Then we have some Warriors left over from Apprenticeship with 2 unspent XP, so I give them city raider and finish. I'd like to develop some city raider units if possible.
IBT Valin attacks Elendive, taking out its lone Warrior, but the dead Priest's pet Tiger is still there.
490 I move the rear army up next to Valin. He and the rear army are both on jungle tiles. I leave a modest garrison in Oriel and advance on Deluoc, which is lightly defended.
491 A free Treant pwns the Kuroiate warrior, revenging the poached worker.
Valin captures Elendiwe from the Tiger defender.
The rear army moves up next to Elendiwe.
The rear mage is eligible for Fireball, but looking at the
spell description it looks like Maelstrom would hit harder, so I do that. I think he should still take Fireball, but I hold off since we don't need it just yet. Valin drops from 5.7 to 4.5. Gilden has no MP left but shows 99.9% attack odds, so I think we're stylin'.
However,
d'oh!
I learn that Maelstrom does indeed injure units 2 diagonal tiles away, such as in the city we just captured.
But it also takes the Arquebus down to 7.5, which gives us a fighting chance. 3 suicide Swordsmen, and we're in. I decide to keep it. We still have a 2-tile chokepoint and the tiles next to it aren't roaded, so we'll have some warning when the counterattack comes in. (Also, I've almost finished building a Hawk.)
492 Feral Bond is in. I had thought the Baron would be prohibitively expensive, but I see that Bruti can do him in only 14 turns. I set the slider to 0% so that we can finish him with a rush buy. Granted, other civs have had the tech for longer, so we still might not get him.
I'd suggest Commune with Nature (probably) or maybe IW -> Animal Mastery. The total beaker cost of both is the same. I think the units from CWN are better (good hero, and I think our Druids can summon Treants). IW does allow lumbermills, but most of our forests are already improved, and we can build workshops on forests (which I started to do on some tiles that weren't already improved.)
Back to Elendiwe. Gilden is 99.9% to kill Valin, who is already down to 5.something, but I lead with Maelstrom and two Tigers anyway to add insult to injury. The second tiger is lucky and takes him down to 1.6. Gilden
boldly does the deed for 4 XP.
A Disciple is one turn outside of Delouc. I used the other Disciple we had to spread FOL into Oriel, but after experimenting I realize that we should use this Disciple for a culture bomblet in Delouc, since it will take the city out of revolt and open the possibility of Treant defenders. That's really powerful! We should build more Disciples.
A Priest and an Adept have move-to orders toward Helion. I suggest burning the Priest on a Temple, hiring a Bard, and hooking up another Fire node ASAP. Then new Adepts would at least get Fire I for free. (Would mages who didn't already have Fire I also get it upon upgrade?)
I built two Hunting Lodges and began a Hawk and Ranger. I started Hunting Lodges in two other new cities, which did not already have any other military buildings, to further diversify our army. I also built a second Mage Guild and started that city on Adepts.
The last few turnsets have been 10 turns. Might I suggest we make them longer? Since we're playing Epic, and FFH has more turns than vanilla to begin with. But I'll leave this one at 12. This is an interesting time, so I hope the upcoming turns will be fun for Conroe, who is UP.
Ozbenno
Jet
Conroe - UP
Imhotep - On Deck
Diamonmdeye
.
Bummer about the iron. I'm curious, though, why Priesthood? This is probably my FFH newbness talking, but I'm rather partial to those fireballs. I rather liked Jet's suggestion of Elementalism ... Any chance of posting your thoughts for us newbs?
And if I'm following it correctly, wouldn't losing a couple of heroes right before we jump be considered a good thing? Assuming we've got enough swords to take on Einon's cities ...
