What's up with Loki ?

[civ-wrecked]

I haven't seen this before and I'm getting so frustrated I'm going to quit the current game even though my score, at 4300, is way above the second best civ at 1670.

The problem is that Loki keeps following me and converts my newly-captured cities into his cities. After the 3rd (or 4th) city, I declared war and got the Balseraphs to capitulate and become my vassal.

But that actually made it worse since now Loki can convert my cities into his and there's nothing I can do about it. I've lost 7 or 8 cities to him already this way, it just makes no sense. I just captured some big cities from the Khazad including the capital after killing a busload of troops and a few turns later those cities just become Balseraphs'.

I played many games with the Balseraphs before and this is the first time I lose cities to them this way. Is there anyway to deal with this other than using the world editor to delete Loki from the game ?

 

[Emptiness]

You can use Disciples (of religions other than Ashen Veil) to give your newly-founded or newly-captured cities a culture burst, which will prevent Loki from converting them immediately. (The conversion takes place when Loki decreases the culture in a city with zero culture.) Also, spreading a religion (other than Runes of Kilmorph) to the city will provide it with immediate culture production, which can prevent conversion. Of course, you'll need to either have no state religion or else have the religion that you spread as your state religion, since non-state religions don't provide culture.

If you can't produce Disciples, for whatever reason, then you can immediately purchase a Monument in the city to give it culture production. That won't help with conquered cities, though, since they have an unrest period. If necessary, you can raze cities instead of capturing them, and then settle a new city in the area.

 

[civ-wrecked]

You can use Disciples (of religions other than Ashen Veil) to give your newly-founded or newly-captured cities a culture burst, which will prevent Loki from converting them immediately. (The conversion takes place when Loki decreases the culture in a city with zero culture.) Also, spreading a religion (other than Runes of Kilmorph) to the city will provide it with immediate culture production, which can prevent conversion. Of course, you'll need to either have no state religion or else have the religion that you spread as your state religion, since non-state religions don't provide culture.

If you can't produce Disciples, for whatever reason, then you can immediately purchase a Monument in the city to give it culture production. That won't help with conquered cities, though, since they have an unrest period. If necessary, you can raze cities instead of capturing them, and then settle a new city in the area.

Thanks, that helps a lot. I'll bring along a few disciples with my army then. The doc says that the Disrupt spell can decrease the culture of the city by up to 3. Doesn't that mean that the culture will be back to 0 after a few turns even if I use the disciples for a culture burst or spread the religion ? So, far, I think he seems to manage to convert only cities with 0 culture though. Those with a bit of culture seem to be OK even though I see him in there for several turns trying to spread unrest. However, I've lost track of which cities are converted and when !!

Maybe I will just start a new game anyway since I'm using Ashen Veil. I will just make sure that I destroy the Balseraphs the next time .

 

[Emptiness]

The doc says that the Disrupt spell can decrease the culture of the city by up to 3. Doesn't that mean that the culture will be back to 0 after a few turns even if I use the disciples for a culture burst or spread the religion ? So, far, I think he seems to manage to convert only cities with 0 culture though.

I don't recall Disrupt lowering culture by more than 1 per turn, but I could be wrong about that. You'll definitely want to use the time that the culture burst grants you to be building up some culture production in the city. One religion and a monument will be +3 , and at that point the worst he can do is prevent your culture from increasing. If Loki threatens to convert your city before you can build/buy the monument then you'll need to use a second Disciple to keep the city.

The production cost of these Disciples is annoying, of course, but it's better than losing all your new cities to the Balseraphs.

 

[Tholal]

Up to 3 is correct. However, culture gains happen before movement, so if your city is producing any culture at all, Loki will never be able to convert it. Also, the AI specifically looks for cities with 0 culture.

 

[Pickly]

You can also kill Loki by surrounding him with units, that way he won't run away. (Since you're at war with the Balseraphs anyway, might as well get rid of that guy.)

 

[Sheogorath]

No one can kill loki, only loki can kill loki, just ask loki

 

[Pickly]

Not in a strategy thread, please.

 

[civ-wrecked]

You can also kill Loki by surrounding him with units, that way he won't run away. (Since you're at war with the Balseraphs anyway, might as well get rid of that guy.)

That's great. I didn't realize that. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Goodwill]

You can also use hidden nationality units. If you park them in the city he cannot enter it, though they do run the risk of having to defend from any foreign units that may wander near. Privateers in coastal cities work really well for this since land units cannot attack them either.

 

[Emptiness]

If you have one or more naval units with hidden nationality in a city, and no non-naval units in that city with hidden nationality, then a non-enemy unit that is able to pass through your territory can enter the city and all the hidden nationality naval units in the city will be automatically destroyed without combat.

 

[Selrahc]

You can also use hidden nationality units. If you park them in the city he cannot enter it, though they do run the risk of having to defend from any foreign units that may wander near. Privateers in coastal cities work really well for this since land units cannot attack them either.

Loki can't withdraw from cities. Let him go into a city, then attack him with Hidden Nationality units. No more Loki.