ROTQM13: Rolling Over The Quintet's Magic

[Ozbenno]

How about Tool Of Junil!

 

[King Bulrush]

As my last update was wery short, here are a few more thoughts on strategy:

- As other people mentioned already, we need a great prophet and we need him yesterday. Unfortunately I don't know much about farming great people so I could not do much during my turns except remove a sage specialist from a city, so as not to polute the GPP points with it. In the meantime we might as well start maximizing commerce in Vallus (the holy city)
- We need to put 4 disciple units on ice to accumulate XP for future upgrade to priors. On the other hand, all our disciples start with potency so no need to preserve individual acolytes as some people suggested previously. We might even sacrifice an acolyte to pop the borders of Deluoc. (This would be instantaneous and get rid of the resistance too). Also, we need to start developping Deluoc wiht an eye on building the gate there.
- We should not build temples outside the core cities for now except when absolutely necessary. Once we have fanaticism we can send confessors from the core cities to found temples and get a Crusader in exchange.
- Speaking of Fanaticism, I choose it as our next tech, but it is very expensive (takes 38 turns at the current research rate. Perhaps you might want to research other techs first. I though that we should rush fanaticism as it gives acces to the Mercurian gate, to our civilization hero, and to one of our UUs, and to the cursade civic.
- Where to found new cities? After taking Deluoc I suggest we also take Utigar instead of foundign the B2 city, as Utigar is in a very good position and saves us a settler. After that we can fill up the space in the south between the core and these outposts. On the other hand, I think we can ignore Dirage for the moment as there is no sign of an enemy presence in that area.

That's it for now. I will try to make time and write another post about long term strategy in the next days.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

- We need to put 4 disciple units on ice to accumulate XP for future upgrade to priors. On the other hand, all our disciples start with potency so no need to preserve individual acolytes as some people suggested previously. We might even sacrifice an acolyte to pop the borders of Deluoc. (This would be instantaneous and get rid of the resistance too).

True. But like he was a special event spawn so in the interests of story telling we should give him a name and make him our semi hero.

- Speaking of Fanaticism, I choose it as our next tech, but it is very expensive (takes 38 turns at the current research rate. Perhaps you might want to research other techs first. I though that we should rush fanaticism as it gives acces to the Mercurian gate, to our civilization hero, and to one of our UUs, and to the cursade civic.

Honestly at those gains I say it's worth it. Unless we desperately need some other tech like we needed fishing a while back I say stick with it. This said, I would suggest following it up with construction to get castles. Those will make defending areas much easier.

- Where to found new cities? After taking Deluoc I suggest we also take Utigar instead of foundign the B2 city, as Utigar is in a very good position and saves us a settler. After that we can fill up the space in the south between the core and these outposts. On the other hand, I think we can ignore Dirage for the moment as there is no sign of an enemy presence in that area.

I agree. It's in a good position and honestly the only reason why I put B2 there was because I didn't know that forts in this mod count as culture and thus reduce unit maintenance. So I wanted to get those fort spots within a BFC to keep upkeep down. But since that's not necessary neither is B2.


This all being said I think we can actually ignore that city for now. The whole peninsula is not strictly required for our defensive needs as we can garrison those chokepoints with just B1 present (for reinforcements really) and leave that area for a later stage of expansion after we've secured both sides.

 

[Ozbenno]

I'm on board with Fanaticism. Another hero won't go astray and Crusaders will be handy in the wars to come.

 

[pholkhero]

Road to Deluer, Bear to Deluer and acolyte Deluer-ward

Spoiler ok name? :

cripes that's small; it says "The Hand of Junil"

Tom: it finished a WB; I decide to let it grow to 7 and build a temple as well; they should finiish about the same time so we can get to pop 8.

Vallus: temple>library; also set up a priest here even though i started the library (chose that for the bulbs and lack of money cost)

del needs a lighthouse, but could be good prod city, if small/slow growth.

I also sent our scouts south to hawk-eye the area to watch for incoming armies.

t310: Othmar BIDL

yellow scout found and tracked:

Up north, our Warrior holds off a 3-skeleton assault; he's granted HIll 1.

312:
scout found these pleasant fellows on the Southern Road:

and begin to retreat our scout while using the hawk to watch them (note: they begin to move NW towards us along that road)

314: torr: confessor>archery
We now have a dual attack! There's a new ministack of 2 axes and lizard barbs up north, plus the fire horde down south. I decide to send the confessor north to help, with some more axes. maybe our confessor could take Command and hang out to take out/convert barbs as they come?

note: fire horde down south still somewhere, but we lost vision as I tried to get cute and lure the fire boys into the Bels scout, and ran into a scorpion:

having more exp at this mod than i, you can assume how that went

Perp adopts Conquest; I converted Del as well
and renamed that Acolyte as the Voice of Junil

316: a promo for vallus came up: I left it for now
318: confessor at Deluer also got a promo that i left.

scouted Besph (to our S/SW, beyond the B sites):

3 freaks and warrior

320: casting Bless before this turn made the ministack of barbs turn around
Tom: Temple>Hunter; GProphet coming here, too...80ish turns, iirc.

And someone new:

 

[pholkhero]

Ozbenno
King Bulrush
pholkhero >> just played
Tinadafish >> UP NOW
PPQ Purple >> On Deck

 

[Tinadafish]

The start of my most recent reign was quite a banger.

Spoiler :

I briefly considered using the dancing bear to be as a distraction but I figured the townspeople would never forgive me if he came back roasted. Much better to sacrifice an axeman to the fel flames of Ares I thought. Minus that 1 tragic loss the pyre zombies were sent back to the ground they came from and I didn't see any more sheiam for the rest of my reign.
Continuing to the west I spotted where Loki made his haunt.

Spoiler :

Asides from that and an offscreen maelstrom there isn't much interesting though, a bit to the north and I conquered the barbarian city there with the army my predecessor had generously left me, as my hunter marched north to join the victorious occupation though he met Larry, Moe and uhh some other guy I guess?

Spoiler :

Finally we finished researching fanaticism (may we ever serve Junil) and around the same time news of dark mages contacting the very demons of hell we escaped came with a warning of that very apocalypse finding us once more.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

So overall the plan is:

1. Build the mercurian gate in Deluoc.
2. Found B1.
3. Make more eagles to scout better.
4. Build up some defensive armies to plug those chokepoints. I am thinking say one axeman and one priest per spot.

Anything else?

 

[Ozbenno]

Nice work all, I can't stand Pyre Zombies!

Plan sounds good, building up defences and armies sounds good, won't be too long until someone sends through a decent force. Have we built Heroic Epic (or even researched the tech)? Warfare and Military Strategy would be good research if we haven't got them and the Heroic Epic in our main hammer city.

Ozbenno >> On Deck
King Bulrush
pholkhero
Tinadafish >> just played
PPQ Purple >> UP NOW

 

[pholkhero]

he met Larry, Moe and uhh some other guy I guess?

modders refuse to take a stand in the curly-shemp-curly joe debate

edit to add: if you're not familiar

 

[PPQ_Purple]

I'll pick the save up today and play than.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

And it's time for another update, this time in Purple.

Another year, another sigh. Here follow the war diaries of the Bannor as ruled by the color Purple, blessed be its saturation.
A year into the reign our scouts detected the cultist motherland out in the west. The color Purple was uneasy about this. Their armies would likely be upon us sooner rather than later. But at least now we knew where their home was.

And, as anyone who has burned houses down to the ground for fun and Junil will know knowledge is half the bonfire.

Spoiler Also there is apparently a highly skilled barbarian hill giant standing there. :

But those are concerns for another day. For by the time the eagle flew back to deliver the news of our discovery we got more pressing concerns.

Spoiler A wild Amurite army appeared. This time with Soldiers of Kilmorph and Bombur. :

Also, there was a barbarian fire mage of some sort that came from just south of the city and had to be murderized from our hero. In spite of our apparent success the great color Purple became exceedingly upset at this news. For days afterward his hues could be seen shimmering as if muttering Acheron.

In related news, the lair near Dirage began spawning lizardmen and had to be cleaned out. Unfortunately the warrior sent to do so contracted the plague.

Spoiler At least it's not contagious. :

Back to our regular broadcast enemy armies began encircling Deluge with intent to bypass it, or surround it, or something. Valin put up a valliant fight managing to murder several of the vile Soldiers of Kilmorph. Our confessor, being for some reason the highest odds combat unit better than even the axeman joined in earning him self a nickname in the process.

Spoiler It's turn 342 and things are about to get worse. :

As all this was going on the color Purple ordered a rapid conscription and training program. Also known as drop the research slider to zero and build a bunch of warriors to upgrade into better units. With many of our cities NOT having archery rangers or training yards this allowed us to rapidly build up a cadre of archers to send to the front lines. They are currently massing at Ventry. It is highly recommended that this process continues. As it is much, much faster to train units this way.

In the turns that followed Valin and Mage Slayer sallied out several times. Each time inflicting heavy losses on the fiendish Amurites.

Spoiler Unfortunately an army of killer clowns appeared from the south to reinforce them. :

But where is a will, there is a way. And with an ever growing army of warriors trained up to proper fighting standards by means of copious defense spending on its way the city only need hold out for a little longer.

That is of course if the next government builds plenty of axemen. For the color Purple has fallen silent. And now it is your turn.

 

[Tinadafish]

Holy Junil the tides of the dark powers are seemingly unending, may unceasing harmony and order bless the purple for keeping our people safe. Perhaps I should have saw my relatively peaceful tenure as a calm before calamity and not blown the kingdom's budget on researching excessively elaborate rituals.

 

[Ozbenno]

Roster:

Ozbenno >> UP NOW
King Bulrush >> On Deck
pholkhero
Tinadafish
PPQ Purple >> just played

 

[Ozbenno]

Can we switch civics to Crusade yet (enabled by Fanaticism??). That would give us some Demagogs with which to pursue the crusade.

Otherwise interesting times indeed. If we have enough troops holed up in Delouc, we should be right until they send accursed magic users against us.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

Can we switch civics to Crusade yet (enabled by Fanaticism??). That would give us some Demagogs with which to pursue the crusade.

Otherwise interesting times indeed. If we have enough troops holed up in Delouc, we should be right until they send accursed magic users against us.

Crusade stops us from building any non military units and buildings. And I am not sure we can switch out of it easily when the crisis is over. I wouldn't want to get locked into it permanently. Someone needs to test it.

 

[King Bulrush]

I think we need iron working for demagogs (same as for champions). We can build flagbearers now if we went into crusade.
By the way, did we build Donal Lugh yet? Also, can we build crusaders? They should be our best available infantry now.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

I think we need iron working for demagogs (same as for champions). We can build flagbearers now if we went into crusade.
By the way, did we build Donal Lugh yet? Also, can we build crusaders? They should be our best available infantry now.

Donal is being built in the capital as we speak.

As for crusaders no we are not. The simple fact is that we don't have the time to actually build a proper army the conventional way as decent units take 15+ turns to build. Instead I went with the high speed low drag way of building warriors which only take 3-5 turns and upgrading them for 110 gold each. But we can't upgrade into crusaders. The logic being that having 3-5 archers or axemen beats having 1 crusader.

For that reason I would advise NOT building any training yards or archery ranges in any further cities. We only need those in the one city that we are going to use for cash upgrading our armies.

 

[pholkhero]

excessively elaborate rituals.

but will we do while the capital burns?

we may be good for now, but we should also think about what happens if another stack shows up in the west. maybe chop some of those forests so the invading army doesn't have so much def bonus if they're going to continue to bypass the city, if we can get out of the city that is. let's hope the stream isn't unending so that we can't develop the city more. perhaps settle a crap site on a good def terrain to act as our fortress city.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

From what I gather they seem to be massing around the city rather than bypassing it. Mainly because I kept sallying out with Valin to make their life miserable.Either way right now I say we need to mass an army of axemen and archers and destroy that horde ASAP. Than focus on plugging the marked spots. If we can get say 2 archers and a priest on each spot that should be able to hold off 4 axemen I think.

The question is only if we should rush for construction to get castles for those spots or toward warfare to get blitz for Valin.