Open Game: Sandalphon

[Jet]

Settings: 0.41h, Tectonics 30% water, Small, Normal, Emperor + Increasing Difficulty, No Tech Brokering. All victories enabled. 10 AIs: 2 random good, 1 random neutral, 2 random evil, 5 random random.

Mandatory variant: the human must win by Domination or Conquest.

Optional variant: on the first turn, declare either that you will never adopt City States, or that you will never adopt Aristocracy.

Suggested reporting schedule: every 100 turns, post a screenshot, save, and description of the last 100 turns.

 

[Senethro]

All those plains is why I don't understand the love for tectonics.

 

[Onionsoilder]

All those plains is why I don't understand the love for tectonics.

I'm a fan of Tectonics on 70% or 60% water, as it makes much better continental maps then any other script. When playing on the other settings though, other mapscripts are better. I would prefer to play on Pangaea or Lakes for something like this... But I suppose I will give it a shot.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

I would play and I even dowloaded it, but people have so many different mods and modmods and modmodmods that it's impossible to find something I can play on the forums since I only play Kael's versions.

 

[Onionsoilder]

I would play and I even dowloaded it, but people have so many different mods and modmods and modmodmods that it's impossible to find something I can play on the forums since I only play Kael's versions.

This IS Kael's version.

 

[Onionsoilder]

Optional Variant: Never Adopt City-States(Agristogarian is too good to pass up)

I'm at turn 294 now. I didn't like the starting position at all, so I headed south till I found a nice little valley with floodplains. Technology path went Agriculture -> Calendar -> Education -> Crafting -> Mining -> Bronze Working -> Deception -> Guilds. Declared War on the Khazad. After founding CoE and building Gibbon, I got Divination and build a Mind node to give him Domination. Started Dominating the AI's units, and eventually conquered the Khazad. Turned my attention to the Luchuruip, who ere stronger. Dominated more of their units, then Gibbon lost Mind III. I gave it to him again, and continued Dominating. Unfortunately, Twincast doesn't work with Domination, so I wasted a couple promotions there. I think I might Wane him if he loses it again.

Right now I'm working on the Eyes and Ears network to get all the techs I'm lacking, them spam Shadows and harass the AI to get more Shades(Only gotten 6 by this point). However, the Luchuruip are being very annoying with their golems(they can actually cast Fireball with the latest patch) so I'm taking a break.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

This IS Kael's version.

Ooo... must be a new new patch... I just updated last month lol.

 

[Onionsoilder]

Ooo... must be a new new patch... I just updated last month lol.

Yeah, patch H. It was released yesterday.

 

[Bill Bisco]

Well I started a game and my strategy was to beeline for FoL and go City States for a lot of cities. Unfortunately this was a horrible strategy. I was very strapped for gold and ended up behind in technology. Although I made the Great Library and the Catacomus Libralus, my tech and military were still far subpar. Rivals started asking me for free techs, I said no to Garrim Gyr, and evidently that caused my destruction as it appears in the save 217 AD.

In that game I got the Bard event very early on and decided to keep the Great Bard, I told my capital to build a settler and during that time, my people's anger lessened allowing my city to grow. I also got a free Lizardman from an event which i converted to a shade and made into a Great Engineer.

But alas, my teching was too lethargic, and I paid the ultimate Price

 

[Emptiness]

I think I might Wane him if he loses it again.

Switch to another religion and he will abandon you, then switch back to CoE and rebuild him. He will start over at 0 xp and you can repeat your cycle of mayhem.

 

[Onionsoilder]

Switch to another religion and he will abandon you, then switch back to CoE and rebuild him. He will start over at 0 xp and you can repeat your cycle of mayhem.

Oh... too late. Good to know for future games, I guess.

 

[Bill Bisco]

Bill's Sandolphon Part 2

After failing at Beeling FoL and realizing my folly, I finally admitted the truth, that in an insane scenario, with a subpar start, against deity level production and commerce, there is only one strategy to go: Chalid

My Strategy was very simple, only make cities that are necessary, beeline for RoK since there are 2 dwarves, capria, Rhoanna, and others who will love RoK.

Before Founding RoK, I got the Lizardmen vs. dwarves event and had a Lizardman join my team. The event was strangely appropriate as I was inbetween Clan and Dwarf Lands. My initial strategy was to harass the AI to make them lose a large number of turns. I stole 3 workers from Arturus, I'd declare, steal a worker, run away, make peace, declare again, etc. A thing to note is that when you first get the Lizard vs. Dwarves event, your power score goes up, so AIs are likely to make peace with you. I killed off Garrim's scout, preventing him from contacting Capria and others on a continent away. The Picture below is when my Lizard buddy attacked Jonas, man, 3 workers at once, he got the 4th worker too btw. No idea why he didn't run away. Oh and their picture on the screen looks like a regular worker due to my game settings, but they are goblins all the way.

Spoiler :

Dangnabbit, curses, a few turns away from RoK, and some other civ founds it. Well that's ok, cause temples of Kilmorph give us a much needed gold boost and priest boost for a great Priest later on. The City Vetus, in the lower left corner was captured by my own Lizardman. Man, was Garrim Gyr really sore about that. But, My lizard buddy stunted Garrim's growth

Spoiler :

Actually here's a list of what my Lizardman buddy did:
Stole 3 Workers from Arturus Throne
Killed 2 Warriors of Arturus
Killed Cardith Lorda's Great Merchant
Killed Garrim's Scout
Stole 4 Workers from Jonas Endain
Killed 4 Warriors of Jonas
Killed 2 of Garrim Gyr's Warriors defending Vetus
Killed 1 Mud Golem hanging out by a conquered Vetus

Spoiler :

For all his deeds, my fine Lizardman received a Name. Lagordas Lizardtongue. I kept him around a lot longer than I expected, there were just so many Civs to mess up. However, I eventually got Bronze Working, and while my Lizardman friend had a lot of promotions and was fearsome indeed, he was nearing the point where he couldn't harass effectively annoymore and that function would be taken over by superior armies.


But that's okay, because I had discovered the Empyrean!!!

Spoiler :

And about 50 turns later, Chalid himself

Spoiler :

My First Target with Chalid and the Radiant Crew was the Orcs, cause they were easy to kill and kinda annoying. They would always send 2 or 3 warriors to the edge of their borders to look around or something, i have no idea, but they just had to die to righteous Pillars of Flame.

Spoiler :

Man those Orcs are so dead.

 

[Bill Bisco]

While Chalid, the Radiant Crew, and Empyrean Priest Man were taking down the Clan, the Orc Barbs took my outermost city. There were about 6 of them, and unfortunately my copper warriors on a hill were not enough. With improved AI comes a loss of cities. However, it really didn't matter, the city gave a resource i didn't need, and taking down Jonas was more important.

Spoiler :

And at last, Jonas had been defeated, hahahahahaha. And now I found out Keelyn had the RoK holy city. KEELYN! She must die! I must get that gold.

Spoiler :

Now, I wanted to Attack Basium/Capria, however doing so would be foolish, Basium had Iron Angels and Basium himself, and with the hero defending rules, Chalid would not defend the stack to protect the Radiant Guard, and with the new AI, I feared that even a buffed Chalid would not be able to survive an assault against Basium's and Capria's forces.

However, remember Garrim Gyr? While I was attacking Rhoanna and Keelyn (those 2 are weak and need to be taken out quickly). Garrim Gyr attacked with a force of over 120 warriors!! Dear lord! A human would never be able to afford the inflation cost for that!

Spoiler :

Yeah, and in case you didn't know that, that's Valron, the city I had originally taken from the Luchiurp. This is quite interesting how in the previous game, I did not kill Garrim's scout or take this lower city, and in this game I did. Take a look at the massive difference in strategy Garrim employed. No Golems to be seen except for Barnaxus.

 

[Bill Bisco]

I sue for peace from Garrim, and he finally accept, I give him some token techs, hoping to be left alone

Spoiler :

While in the middle of a war with Rhoanna, Keelyn decides to declare on me, whatever.

Spoiler :

First Hippus city Taken by Chalid and the Radiant Crew.

Spoiler :

Keelyn has a big stack of Archers, and conquered the city the barbs conquered from me far away from Keelyn's main territory. Luckily I had enough rathas and Radiant Guards to stop the assault.

Spoiler :

But I keep my eyes on the prize and conquer Rhoanna.

Spoiler :

Arturus demanded that I teach him Philosophy, and now we're friendly apparently. We can trade techs now.

Spoiler :

Unsurprisingly, Garrim broke the peace treaty and conquered the Empyrean Holy City, he lost some warriors but not enough.

Spoiler :

Meanwhile, I inflict heavy damage on Keelyn, Jubilee is within my sights, and hopefully I'll get more gold from the RoK holy city than I did from the Empyrean one.

Spoiler :

Arturus Throne declared on Garrim Gyr for some reason, leaving behind his captured holy city with few defenders. Now I can get it back and get my economy back in shape (for awhile anyway).

Spoiler :

 

[Bill Bisco]

Long tale short, I conquer all of Keelyn's original cities and she finally is willing to give me all her techs to sue for peace. Garrim comes for a third city of mine and I get about 8 radiant guards to defend. I stopped building Rathas because they take longer to build than the Radiant Guards. They killed 38 or so more Luchiurp warriors so the original 120 is down to about 66.

Chalid and the Radiant crew are racing to go back to destroy Keelyn's last city and to then take out Garrim Gyr.

Khazad has captured a city of mine that was captured by Garrim Gyr. Arturus is not giving it back.

Cardith Lorda's strategy is to harass me by invading my land with 1 swordsman. I promptly kill them.

I have access to Iron and can now build champions. My dilemma is do I build rathas for 7 str 3 movement for a higher cost, radiant guards for 6 str at a low cost, or Champions without blinding light for a medium hammer cost.

Attached are saves:

 

[Onionsoilder]

I've sorta given my game up. It's lost most of it's appeal, and my shadows, while powerful, can't really do much conquering. More of a harassment thing... but nothing I could use to really take cities. I was never a fan of conquest in the first place, so I contemplated forgoing the rules and aiming for a ToM, only to realize out of my 11 cities in my whole empire... I had ONE mana node.

 

[loffenx]

Great story Bill! Almost made me want to try the save out myself, though I fear I'd make a short show on the new deity lvl.

 

[Bill Bisco]

Thanks loffenx,

After I had taken all but 1 of Keelyn's cities, I took a look at my Gold rate. yeah, that's a 58% inflation rate, and it's really hurting. One thing to remember about Deity games is that in the beginning you heavily invest in Great Sages, and later you heavily invest in Great Merchants, cause if you're not careful, you'll lose not to the enemy but because you can't afford your troops. This is why Deity games are heavily biased toward hero and elite units that can score a bunch of kills in one turn.

Spoiler :

A screenshot of newly conquered Balseraph territory. Yay!

Spoiler :

A Keelyn dies without much of a fight. Her big stacks are all dead now including her last minute Archer stack. (who invades with archers anyway).

Spoiler :

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Now that Garrim is making Slingers and Golems, his armies are much smaller and less scary.

Spoiler :

Apparently Garrim doesn't understand that Golden Hammers are more useful if they're used. Oh well.

Spoiler :

Well since there's excess Hammers, I'll just give one to Chalid, oh and there's a text key error too. Ah well.

Spoiler :

Bye-bye Garrim. I've also met Falamar whom I didn't know existed. This is Tectonics with 70% land. And small for Tectonics, is HUGE for me. Conquering the world is going to take a bit longer. Man, does Falamar have a lot of cities and a high score.

Spoiler :

Arturus declares war on me. I can't say I blame him. I was about to declare war on him. He steals a city I conquered from Garrim. I'll get it back soon.

Spoiler :

Yeah...your army of Hunters and Adepts led by Bambur. Yes, you will die by Chalid and the Ratha crew.

Spoiler :

 

[Bill Bisco]

Yeah, that's a pretty big stack of horsearchers near the former Orc cities. I expect Capria to declare on me.

Spoiler :

Chalid now realizes that its more efficient to convert the current city defenders to his cause, and then use them to guard the captured cities. Look at these nice Dwarven Adept converts to the way of Chalid.

Spoiler :

Bye Arturus, yeah, yeah, whatever. If Chalid wanted to conquer other Planes of Existence he could.

Spoiler :

Rathus Demora is pictured hanging out with Chalid. I only recently built him because I traded Svartalfar Religious Law for Poisons and change. One funny thing about the Sidar is that they do much better with Horsearchers than they ever do with Assassins. Overall Rathus is only helping a little now.

Spoiler :

Well Capria and Basium declared on me and took over the cities that I took over from Jonas. While this isn't good, it's far from really hurting me. As long as Chalid is alive, I'm good to go for conquering the world. The only thing that can hurt me is if they take my capital, and even that isn't a death blow. I still have plenty of cities to stay alive with.

Spoiler :

Yeah, that's Donal Lugh, in the middle of my territory, by himself. He died that turn. I also built Ride of the Nine Kings that turn, and my Rathas and knights now start with 16 xp and Morale.

Spoiler :

Cardith put a big stack of Centaur Chargers near the border while I was in the middle of a war with Capria and Basium. I really didn't want to deal with both of them. Chalid can't be in two places at once ya know.

You know what Cardith wanted? A city, any city. See Cardith was really angry at me when I killed his Great Merchant early on. He's never forgiven me for it. Every diplomacy up until now was asking for a city. In Cardith's fabulous brain, killing a great merchant = owing a city. Well, I gave him a city, the northmost barbarian city that I took after beating Arturus Thorne. Of course for Cardith it's a settlement, and he can't build anything in settlements and it gives no resources, and is very far away and is completely undefended.

I'll take it back when its time to kill Cardith.

Spoiler :

Oh, what's that Capria and your army of City Defender Horse Archers? Oh yeah, that's Chalid in my capital, with 3-7 first Strikes. 11 Str, and a ridiculous % bonus on a hill. He took precisely 0 damage from your attack.

Spoiler :

And two turns later, how big is that 44+ stack? Yeah, that's the power of Chalid.

Spoiler :

The AI has a terrible habit of sending out Heroes by themselves to die. Hint: Valin is not an expendable unit. But now he's dead. Oh well.

Spoiler :

 

[Bill Bisco]

Now after I brushed off Capria's attack, I took back the cities she stole from me, and begin my assault on her and Basium. Now, lookee here. Basium with 2 Axemen, and an Angel. Basium obviously doesn't understand that this is Chalid that he's dealing with. Basium needs to strike fast and hard, not wade in the middle of territory thinking he's safe.

Spoiler :

Yeah, that's right Basium. You're Dead!

Spoiler :