Now, for the rest of the log, which is to say, what proceeded to happen... Apologies for not editing in pictures. I'm less motivated to do this than I was at the beginning. (Oh, and yes, I put those smileys and formatting commands in as I was writing it, in anticipation of posting it here...
[spoiler]
T35-45, I notice several more things which I should have caught onto earlier.
First, all of the cities are garrisonned with a large number of held units, including a Gym leader, and the leaders are all nasty. Brock, (Pewter City) for example, has Fire and lightning resistance (unsurprisingly, when you think about it) and is a held Iron Golem. Leaving aside the piles of other units (about half held) that he has, that really puts a damper on my plan to rush Pewter City. (Giovonni is even worse: he's a Crossbowman with a full set of Earth promotions, Combat I-V, Empower I-V, and others.)
Second, the barbarians are finally attacking... and, looking at it, a bunch of animals probably isn't going to cut it. I queue up two warriors before the Pact finishes, because I'm going to need them. (Hey! It's defense! That means it doesn't count against the stars!)
Third, I finally remembered Red's Medic promotions. He may be a squishy Adventurer for now, but, when Pikachu takes damage, well, it'd be nice for it to get healed quickly so we can get moving again. Also, any monsters we capture along the way (like, say, the Polar Bear that recently attacked him) can get healed quicker if we want to send them home solo at full health or take them along in the team-stack. I send Pikachu back home to escort some animals and pick up Red. I wonder if I should take more animals along, but they'll slow us down... except everything is hills and forest, so it won't, really.
Finally, I appear to be hitting my unit support cap. I put one turn in of max gold and turned a bear into a dancing bear before going back to teching. I'm pondering whether I should live with it, or whether I should bulb Festivals with my Great Bard. I can get something like 4x the research out of him if I save it for Festivals, but it'll take awile to get there. I'll want it for the happy at least, though.
Leaders:
[Brock]
[Giovanni]
Finally, on T58, I decided that the barbarian crisis was over and it was safe to move Red and Pikachu out of Pallet Town again, to see more of the world. Unfortunately, I fear I'm slipping behind when it comes to tech and such. Well, if I can take them on one at a time because of Trust, then I can deal with that... but most of the wonders and stuff have already been built.
I get the Harpy Event. Actually, this seems pretty convenient right about now, despite my being at happy cap, because I'm about to research exploration and can fix things like that... Too bad I can't quite make the food quota. (I nearly do; one turn, and then wandering barbarians does a population in... but that's 3 food because I'm waaay into sick range.) Time to stop being so stingy about bulbing. Fishing??? WTF? Anyway, one population death, and we're stable. This eventually sorts itself out, and I'm not sure if it was the right decision, but it happened.
Ancient Chants comes in T68. Can we bulb Education with a Bard? We can! Double-revolt into Nationalism and Apprenticeship. City States currently doesn't get me anything but reduced culture. Research-wise, let's get Hunting for hawks (I have a Ratman Scout sitting around) and head for Esus so we can nab Gibbon as our resident Archmage. Sadly, given that someone has built Silvien's Perfect Lyre, I'm confident we can't get another bard from Drama, or I'd go for it. I may have to fill in that hole so I can bulb something more valuable... or just do it to get him off the payroll. Consulting the bulb list, Sailing is above Sanitation, both of which are above Trade, so I'm just going to bulb Drama and be done with it. A theatre will give us some extra happy, given the dyes, after all.
Exploring... Welcome to Mt. Moon: full of Hell Terrain... which, knowing how the Hell Terrain Counter works, is probably receding.
Borders expand again and I conveniently have a second mana node... out of the way where it doesn't waste a tile. :D
Around this time, I start hooking up happy resources, mitigating the harpy unhappy...
Meet the Lanun; get open borders. Map trade, though... not as friendly.
Seven turns from its vastly-delayed completion, on T75, the ELVES manage to complete Pact of the Nilhorn! Argh! This is going to make things difficult. Well, that'll pay for my unit support for the foreseeable future, and I put Shrine of the Champion on, so units I build will at least be boosted. Also, now is when I start seeing if I can get Beast Mastery early enough to steal them.
Hyborem settled within view of our culture... this is the first second city I've seen, actually... He's willing to trade maps and offer open borders, fortunately, so I don't have trouble there yet. Also, yup, Cinnibar Island is Sheaim. They've summoned Hyborem, who spawned on the coast near me.
It appears that several other Civs have gotten Trade, and I am filled with dread. I would really, really, really like to at least manage to get Council of Esus. After Hunting, it's beeline time.
Found Cerulean City. Misty actually looks less terrifying than Brock, but she *is* Mary Morbius. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about this, given my already lack of powerful units.
Finally building cottages after hooking up some happy resources... OMG I NEED COTTAGES.
Sadly, there's nothing but a dungeon near Bill's House. I finally decide to pay 100 gold for Hannah's map with mine in exchange. It was definitely worth it, as I now have most of the map, aside from Fuscia City and environs, I think. Time to go meet people quickly instead of meandering, I think. (My, I seem to have discarded my "visit everyone in order" plan... but possibly still replaced with "beat everyone in order".)
Let's see... Saffron are Amurite. I really should have seen that coming. The Doviello... Fighting dojo. Okay, that also makes sense. Also, it appears that Lavender Town is Barbarian. I wonder what's there. I wonder how lethal it is, too, and that worries me. Vermillion is Malakim. Better than Clowns, come to think of it. Hmm... and the Sidar are ninjas. I guess that makes sense, and won't result in a forested Fuscia City.
BTW, you have two spelling errors: "Fighting Dogo" and "Lavendar Town"
First Cottage! Next goes on plains because I have tons of food anyway.
Second Cottage! Finally building a second worker. That's embarrassing.
Got a GMerchant because the governor kept running a merchant when I wasn't looking... (I wanted production, generally. <.< ) I could bulb HBR, or I could wait, and bulb Trade.
Hyborem offers Bronze Working for Hunting... Hells yeah! That reminds me to see what I can milk out of the AIs. I trade Drama for Mysticism and Code of Laws, with Hyborem. Drama Masonry and HBR from Kandros Fir. Hunting and Drama for Archery, Fishing, (1/3 completed) Writing, and 40GP. I don't know if finishing Writing like that was actually a good idea, but it sets me on the road to double-bonused research on Trade... or so I thought at the time; it seems I'd be missing Sailing, which the Lanun, shockingly, don't have. Nobody has Philosophy, either.
GMerchant goes for currency now. I wish it were Trade, but it looks like Currency is tops.
I double-revolt into Aristograrianism. I would have done just aristocracy, because I feel like I'm hurting for hammers, but... Frankly, with only one of the farms on a plain... You've all done this math before, and it gives me a healthy, which, well, I'm waay into the sick.
Meet Decius of the Malakim... Decius has trade! I trade two techs (Drama and something, but it couldn't have been Hunting) for Trade and Way of the Forests. Somehow, now having trade, which I swear I couldn't trade for last turn but maybe I didn't check at the right time, I can now trade for a whole ton of techs. I thought I'd caught up last turn. Well, I'm wrong, but I can rectify that. Hyborem has Philosophy; I got it for HBR. He won't trade Way of the Wicked, though, so I'm going to have to actually research that. I hope he doesn't snipe Deception from me.
Trades continue to take off:
Kandros Fir: Hunting for Construction (Farms spreading irrigation is the big one here, for me.)
Garrim Gyr: Drama, Hunting, Fishing, 235GP for Knowledge of the Ether, Sanitation, Warfare.
Next turn, Hyborem becomes willing to trade Way of the Wicked for Warfare. It's kind of a bad trade, beakerwise, but I desperately want to get to deception quickly, so I take it.
Let's see Lt. Surge... Paladin? Interesting...
Now, I'm going to break everything forever and go straight south (although it also occurs to me I forgot to snoop Sabrina) to see what Koga has to offer. Also, I finished an Elder Council and (finally) started on a library.
T94: Philosophy and Map for Elementalism from Sandalphon
Finally hooked up Marble... Going to try for the Bone Palace since nobody's hit it yet, for some strange reason, while I contine exploring. Culture and especially a golden age, would be nice.
T98: Sandalphon offers Way of the Earthmother for Way of the Wicked and 80GP. Works for me... Convert the city for a gold for a couple turns, and later build the temple for another happy.
T99, the turn after I meet the Elves, they demand that I convert to Fellowship of Leaves. I accept to keep them from getting unhappy with me. It's a shame I haven't built the temple yet, so I can't build a priest in the 5 turns before I want to convert to CoE.
I capture an HN wolf that I strongly suspect was Elven and promptly declare its nationality. It can keep up and I don't feel like stopping to rest (Pikachu took no damage) so it's just going to tag along with the stack.
Success! Deception comes in T104. Gibbon will be our resident mana node tender and fleshcrafter. (Metamagic II, Body III) When he is no longer needed, he will get some interesting promotions and then be consumed by his own creation. Since we have two mana nodes, those will be the first two we create, before erasing them to replace with something that will give free spheres on promotion. Meanwhile, since I failed to find something to do with it previously, our GMerchant will be turned into a Shadow node, I mean Esus Holy Building. That will have the valuable side effect of sparing my workers any more barbarian indigity. Actually, our next Great Person will likely be a Great Prophet, so I'm inclined to try to get the Empyrean shrine, so we'll be (permanently) doubled up on Sun mana. An Aurealis would be terrifying, then, and I could autopromote most or all of the way through that when I promote Red to a Mage. (Blinding Light isn't bad either, especially when we have to grind through a large garrison...) On the other hand, if I hire 2 Sages, I might get a Great Sage that I can turn into an Academy (or maybe bulb Sorcery, if I didn't have Sorcery prereqs still available, but I think the Academy would serve me much better anyway.)
Also, I captured (and declared nationality of) an Elephant. Pikachu was sufficiently damage that, the next turn, I moved everyone onto a forest hill to heal for 3 turns, which will get everyone to full health.
Great Person T109: Prophet... I'm not hurting too hard for gold right now, so I'm going to hang onto it and see if I can't get a sun mana out of it.
Also traded Knowledge of the Ether and some gold for Message from the Deep from Hannah the Irin. I want to see if I can't convince her to part with Smelting, one of these days, if I trade enough random techs, and that requires being able to trade multiple node-building techs. I got lucky on the conversion roll for OO.
Erica is, unsurprisingly, a Druid... and hah! She didn't even declare nationality on her Hill Giants! If I come back with someone that knows Subdue Beasts, I can steal them away without even declaring on her! That does require having someone that knows Subdue Beasts, though, which has 4 required promotions, but Pikachu has spare promotions and is ready to take that one.
Success for a change, on something I'm building... I built the Bone Palace on T111, giving me 9 turns of much-needed Golden Age. Now, it's time to convert to Esus (no revolution) and frob my civics. [picture] I'm likely about to build a bunch of temples, so I expect my happy cap to skyrocket. I put National Epic in to build so that we can get GPPs faster in the future.
Also, by chance, I spawned a treant from an Ancient Forest, so I decided to finally do something about that lizard lair, given that just about everything here is an animal that they're bonused against. Next turn, there will be a wolf camped out on it.
Actually, I decide to just explore the lair with the wolf... it spawns 3 lizardmen. Hopefully, the summoned treant can cover it, but, if not, well, I do have a spare.
Unfortunately, I got screwed on timing again for building things... Sandalphon went for Esus about the same time I did, and he managed to produce Gibbon Goetia this turn, so I don't get him after all. That leaves OO and Hemah, because I don't think anyone's gotten Arcane Lore yet.
T113, Cardith Lorda completes Nature's Revolt. This is great news! All the non-undead barbarians have now been turned into animals while animals and beasts get +2 strength. I can clean up the tigers that appeared at my leisure.
Also, I decided to go for Honor, before researching Sorcery, to see if I can manage to pull off getting a second Sun node. If I do, the Aurealis will be my attack summon for Red. It's not categorically better with 2 nodes, but it's competitive, and it's available.
Building-wise, my Hunting Lodge is finally finishing up, so I'll be building a ratman hunter... just after I remember to build a ratman scout to get it out of the way. Then, I need to get to work on some health (3T Granary) and Gibbon, in some order.
Finally popped a Great Scientist T117; Academy here we come! Also, with only 3 turns left of GA, I'm going to switch to OO before I forget. On the bright side, now that I'm OO, I can build a temple and then produce Drowns and eventually Stygian Guards.
Finally built a road connection to Viridian City T119. I should get trade routes next turn. :D
Trade Alteration and Philosophy for Divination from Sandalphon T121.
T126: Philosophy and 10GP for Sailing from Hannah to open up new avenues of research trade.
T130: Pop Great Priest: settle for production and gold
T132: Decius offers Mil. Strat. and 25GP for something... I trade a bunch more things to get Priesthood, too.
While off doing other stuff, I hit on the idea of feeding people techs to get them to start running Undercouncil. It will give me a relations boost with them, and there aren't any bad resolutions, if someone else gains control, really. Besides, I might be able to get a dogpile on my rival.
Gifting Philosophy (first stage of scheme) to Kandros Fir makes him willing to trade techs with me again. Alteration, Divination, Elementalism, and Message from the Deep get me Smelting. (Finally! I've been trying to get that tech for ages!) Next turn, I could trade him Sorcery, too, which a Khazad AI should overvalue.
Also, Deception and Honor for Mathematics from Hannah the Irin. Now, when the next undercouncil vote comes around, I can actually get something out of cheap gambling houses.
In a moment of actually looking at what I have, I drown my C2 warrior so he's a little stronger and capable of offensive action. It's true that I could build one (and it would be superior) and I've been thinking that, but, well, drowns aren't actually terribly effective, given the opposition we'll be seeing. I need power units, after all. For cleanup or city defense, though... I have another warrior who is unpromoted and has a promotion in hand, but he was built to feed to a flesh golem, so we'll figure out what to do with it later. Besides, it's not actually worth it for a second one, whereas the first one will fill out my pokedex.
T133: Sorcery comes in and Garrim Gyr declares war...
It looks like I will need to accelerate my plans. Actually, I'd been suspecting that due to scenario length reasons previously: I only less than 30 turns per city to conquer the map as it is, and I won't be using a giant stack of doom, so it will take longer than it would otherwise. It looks like I don't have time to faff around trying to milk the arcane promotions for all they're worth. Instead, I'm going to promote Red to adept ASAP and then turn both of our current nodes into Sun nodes. Then, I can promote Red to mage, and he will instantly get Sun III, because he already has channeling III. Between that and twincast, I should be able to crack the harder nuts with strength 14 (plus 50% for Empower) Aurealises. Later, I can cheese the hell out of nodes for the archmage promotion, if that ever happens. I don't think anyone has Arcane Lore, though, so I'll keep running for it: an extra Great Sage is always handy, and I still want Hemah for a flesh golem... just not as urgently. Then, it's time to get Stygians to round out a proper team, as well as trading (probably) to get tech for Rangers.
But first, I have a war to fight. Pikachu casts Maelstrom. My C2 bear has 96% (best we've got...) odds on the Wood Golem and gets promoted with Mobility I to get from the capital out to the stack. Also, it's now ready to go on campaign. Next up, a catapult which is laughably weak by actual combat stat ratings. I suspect Barnaxus is scarier, so I send in the Drown, after promoting to Mobility, because it's weaker than the bears in the field. Pikachu has Immortal, so in this 91% fight, I'm sending him... but I have lots of promotions and expect to get more, and this calls for some extra strength... promote to Heroic Strength first. 99% odds, and Barnaxus hits his 10% flee and flees with 1 strength left. There are lots of ways I could clean that up, but I probably still need 2-movers, which is a problem. My C1 wolf and bear both clean up another two catapults, and the unpromoted wolf takes another one. In the end, I hit Barnaxus with my ratman scout. It feels like a waste, because I'll never be able to upgrade or consume him because I can't actually replace him unless I build a second Kuriotate city (fat chance, with tolerant!) or I find a way to destroy my hunting lodge (probably not happening either). Nonetheless, I now have a ratman scout with C2, 17 exp, and a pile of promotions in hand. Of the strikeforce, there is now one catapult left and all the units I attacked with are invisible.
T134: Hannah shows up with a huge stack of highly-promoted but damaged archers. I have no idea why. She's 1T outside my borders. I fear she means to attack as well, despite extremely good relations. At least I will get some valuable experience out of this fiasco...
I discover that she's willing to trade me Iron Working for a bunch of techs and 100GP, though, which is a big boon. (It appears I don't have Iron, though... and should have known that from Smelting. Time to start thinking again and go looking for it. Well, well; everyone else does. I really do need to go claim Pewter City.) I want Animal Handling from Arendel, and she's willing to trade it for the huge amount of techs it turns out I have on her, but I need to wait to build a hunter, first. (Obsoleting is crazy, I tell you; crazy!) I can get Poisons from Sandalphon, which I'll need eventually, but it's massively disadvantageous, beakerwise, for some reason. (Sorcery and Necromancy for Poisons) Maybe it'll build up some goodwill? I couldn't even get it from him not too long ago. I also trade Deception and Mathematics for Currency from Decius and a ton of little stuff (including Way of the Wicked, for my diabolical plots) to Kandros Fir for Engineering. I'm still trying to give as many as possible the techs for Undercouncil to see if some join...
I send a bear after the remaining and retreating catapult. Oh, and when I should have been building units, I was building the Shrine of Sirona. Well, it's complete this turn, so I used it to help the bear heal so it had better odds. Anyway, the damaged units all clustered onto Red so they can heal quickly.
T135: Yup; Hannah declares. Good thing I milked her for techs, first, right? or something? As I said, the archers are wounded. I can probably wound them more with a thunder jolt, but let's see if she keeps advancing, first. I can't dislodge archers on hills. No way.
Traded Engineering (which I got last turn from Kandros Fir) to Sandalphon for Republic. Hopefully, that'll boost some of my cottages soon. Also traded Deception and Poisons (the asking price, actually) for Medecine. I'm now down to 7 excess sick instead of 8 excess sick. Maybe one of these days I'll even build some more health buildings.
(Good lord, Blight would murder me... note to self: check the AC frequently; I remember Hyborem recently built the Prophecy of Ragnarok.)
Traded Way of the Wicked for Map and 65 GP from Valledia the Even. Surprisingly, that tech is worth more to her than Alteration.
T136: A hunter is completed. I noticed the AC is at 20. With 3 turns to grow into unhappiness and 3 turns to build a Temple of Leaves, the solution is obvious. Yeah, I could start working specialists, but, with the commerce bonus of a Tailor, 2 commerce actually gets me as much reasearch as a scientist specialist, and I get 45 GPP/turn with exactly one scientist being run.
Since I've got my Hunter, I can now trade for the tech to get Rangers so I can upgrade Pikachu (To Raichu; not sure what he'll be after that... probably still Raichu) and build my keeper Ranger. I trade Currency, Math, Divination, and Medecine (largely random techs I've traded for as it is) for Animal Handling from Arendel Phaedra. I wonder if I can get the next one from her sometime soon, too, though I'll need to have a keeper Ranger built before I do that.
Pikachu evolves into Raichu and casts Thunder, I mean Maelstrom. Now, I need to see how many Archers I can clean up this turn. Also, while looking around, upgrade the Nightwatch to an Assassin. Now, we will no longer need to build an assassin for our bestiary, and we have a unit (albeit a weak one) with Marksman, which could be useful for close defense.
On the suspicion that they'll just go barrelling in, considering they're already damaged, I decide to wait a turn and see if I can damage the archers further with another cast of Maelstrom the next turn, before picking them off. It works, although I see catapults incoming as well. I really need to stop treading water sometime soon, although this will net me a lot of exp. I'm betting it'll save Hannah unit support, too.
Anyway, our Nightwatch-turned-assassin kills the one archer with significant defensive strike capability while being itself immune to such things. (My, that was actually
really handy... I'm beginning to be sold on the idea of having Shadow I or Shadow II available when attacking cities... Shadow II would allow us to bypass walls, too.)
Raichu dispatches one handily, and C2 Bear becomes C3 Bear and destroys another with 98% odds. The rest have really poor and unfortunate odds, so I leave them to either suicide on Pallet Town or sit there looking dumb.
Unfortunately, they sit there looking dumb and what I really want is to kill them quickly. Since it's most expendable, I send the Drown in at 63% odds. It wins! This clears the way for other units (like my C1 now C2 polar bear) to clean up... and good lord; I need to get moving on an actual plan. >.<
Unfortunately, for the last archer, I didn't have any ridiculous odds for expendable units. I did have two wolves, though, so I sent the first one (C2) in at 60% odds. When it lost, I sent the second one (C1) in at 80% odds, which is still lower than I would have liked, and it won. Unfortunately, the wolf pack upgrade still hasn't triggered. Finding a wolf pack in the wild might be nice... This also freed up the tile, which I fear may have been pillaged last turn, because I could have sworn it was a town.
T140, I send my brand new Ranger out to explore the remaining two lairs, because he's completely replaceable and probably going to be deployed. First lair: Gold!!! Workers are sent to mine it. Temple of Leaves (+1 happy +1 health) comes in in 2 turns, and then we're going for the mage guild after all, I think, after rejiggering to production. I have a Great Person coming in, and I am running some scientist specialists in the meantime to get a Great Person sooner. If it's a priest, I think he'll be used for a golden age to speed research and production.
T141: Poisons for Feudalism from Decius.
The other lair held an Acolyte. Now, I'm not actually enormously keen on founding Order, even if it does have some not-half-bad support. What's nice about this is that, sometime, I intend to get Druids (just need to get up the Recon tree...) and then I can upgrade it to an Order-religion Druid who can learn all the command promotions and get added to my increasingly-pie-in-the-sky flesh golem. Our generic ranger is sent out to explore more lairs. Also, based on my income, it looks like I'm finally brushing up against the unit supply cap again.
T144: Exploring (somewhat expendable) Ratman Ranger explores another lair, this time near Viridian City. Plague.
I've been thinking about clarifications on the rules for the Silver and Chrome Stars. The Silver rule says that no units which make a move into a city can be anything but monsters. Casting spells that do damage, of course, is completely legit, as is having summons do the fighting for you. (Just so long as the summoner never attacks an enemy city...) It notably says nothing about fighting outside of cities, if units ever leave them to be fought in the field, as well as saying nothing about homeland defense. Meanwhile, the Chrome Star says that, for offensive actions taken outside your borders, you must only ever use 7 units, of which one must be the starting adventurer. Taken together, it would seem like you would need to do all offensive actions with, at most, a stack of Red and monsters. However, this isn't actually quite true. The thing that is true is that nothing which is not on the monster list can directly attack a city if you want to get the Silver Star. On the other hand, outside of attacking enemy cities, it's safe to say that anything goes, although I've been trying to respect the spirit by rarely fighting with non-monster units.
That brings us to my new assault plan for Pewter City. In 2 turns, Pallet Town will finish a Mage Guild and Red will actually be able to upgrade to an adept. He will then upgrade both mana nodes to Sun nodes, for a total of four. This will allow him to get Sun III automatically when he upgrades from adept to mage, after having taken several promotions. The other promotions he will take are the full combat line, twincast (of course) and Shadow I and II. This last one is because Pewter City has a wall, and Shadow Walk is the most effective way to neutralize that effect. I believe it even neutralizes the cultural defenses as well, which is good, because we won't have any form of bombardment in our team of 7. The team will be filled out by Hemah, who will also have Sun III as a result of the Sun nodes, Raichu, probably the other hunter I have built, and 3-4 suicide Drowns to soften up Brock. Actually, I am inclined to send the hunter firmly home and go out with 4 suicide Drowns. In any event, the Drowns will start with City Raider promotions, and probably Mobility. At strength 5, I don't expect them to do much, but they should be under the influence of Shadow Walk, and City Raider actually reduces the enemy's sizable strength rather than boosting its own meager strength. The fact that I can't get such promotions on Rangers is the only reason I wouldn't go for a full set of Rangers, as they actually have a slight strength advantage, even after the -20% city attack, when compared to bronze Drowns. Hemah and Red's three Aurealis summons should hopefully be able to knock down Brock once he's taken a little damage and lost his stoneskin, and then, from there, well, it'll be mostly cleanup.
The other good news is that, next turn, I'm getting a great person. There's a little over a 10% chance of a Great Sage, in which case I'd try to bulb Arcane Lore directly. Otherwise, I haven't done a GP golden age yet, I don't think, so I should be able to trigger that and accelerate both my research and my production. The AC has stayed stable, but I really need more health buildings, so, before Arcane Lore finishes, I think I'm going to start on an Aqueduct and then an Infirmary. I'll still be short health after that, unfortunately.
Between T144 and T145, the aforementioned plagued ranger gets mercilessly slaughtered by marauding Luchuirp troops who appeared out of the fog on roads over hills. He will be avenged... at some point. Also, the Undercouncil vote came up this turn. I picked Secret Codes. I could use a Great Sage right about now, and I think I'm pretty much done tech trading. (IIRC, it also restricts tech trading to council members.)
The Great Person was a Great Prophet. I Golden Age, but, well, actually, it only shaves one turn off of research. Well, as I said, I could use a Great Sage right about now... 8 turns to Arcane Lore. I shuffle tiles around a bit to take advantage of workshops providing both hammers and commerce and manage to trade growing at all (and one hammer) for shaving another turn off of Arcane Lore. I could do better on the production front, but I have cottages I want to grow.
I trade Feudalism, Poisons, and 10GP for Bowyers from Arendel. They're top techs, sure, and I don't really need Bowyers, but they're also dead-end techs, and I might not be able to get that from her later. (She's also really backwards, technologically, compared to a lot of the others... and I carefully didn't give her Engineering, which could get to crossbowmen, or priesthood, which could let her compete with me when I want to switch to FoL and have Yvain.)
Apparently, I'm the only one who thought that Secret Codes were a good idea.
That, or whatever the hidden price is that I swear I've never seen means I was the only one to afford it. Anyway, now I can't trade techs anymore until I leave the Undercouncil. Fortunately, as I observed before, there isn't anything I can actually trade for anymore anyway.
T145, it's time to play Good News, Bad News.
Good News: Bulbing with the sage got us to 2 turns out from completing Arcane Lore.
Bad News: We don't have enough money to upgrade Red to an Adept this turn. It requires 100+ GP.
Good News: Turning research down to 50% only changed Arcane Lore from 2 turns out to 3 turns out. Putting it back up next turn should get us the rest of the way there, and I'll micro tiles to be sure of it. (The numbers don't add up ... until you remember the prereq bonus.)
T148: First sighting of Cardith Lorda's units. He's got 3 heroes and some minor stuff that doesn't matter. Those heroes scare the hell out of me. I have a coinflip chance to blind them in a few turns, if I recall spell resistances correctly. Sadly, Wilboman is among them, and I won't get Subdue Beasts anytime soon, so there's no chance of my getting him, in the end. I wish I had that promotion available right now, as then I could capture him and use him to nefarious ends like capturing Pewter Citty. Also, they all have City Raider III, so I really can't let them attack Pallet Town.
Arcane Lore came in. 10 turns to Feral Bond. Trading screen says that Cardith already has it, too, so I may have missed out on the Baron, too. That would be unfortunate, seeing as he'd also really help my assault on Pewter City. I'm hanging onto the Great Sage (and eating the 2 maintenance; I blame inflation) in order to be able to trigger another golden age later with him and another GP... and all my Great Sage points came from specialists I'm not working right now.
Nobody has Arcane Lore yet, so I can still wait on building Hemah. Hopefully, I can get him into play ASAP after building the Sun nodes, but that's going to be ~7 turns as it is. Change of plans: Hemah now, Ranger or archery range after, spend promotions on things like summoning an Aurealis. If they dick around and are slow, I can delay him with other builds. I may end up building an Archery Range to draft longbowmen if I get desperate enough. I have no idea how I'm going to beat C5 heroes with things that have both fewer promotions and less raw strength. If they don't dick around and aren't slow, they'll be right on my doorstep the turn Hemah comes out, at which point I should be able to promote him and apply an Aurealis immediately.
Well, casting Maelstrom made them pause... to sync up with more units on the next turn. Maybe I should build assassins to pick off the easy prey (and hopefully a priest or two) after Hemah. Maybe even before, if I can delay it long enough to get a second node in... nah; that's pushing it. Also, thank the Esus for invisibility.
I just checked the Armageddon Counter, though... 27. I'm delaying Hemah, yes... for an aqueduct in hopes that it won't go all the way to 30 next turn and I have time to reduce my sick level, like I'd been doing before the stack showed up.
T150: Cardith Lorda built the Baron THIS TURN. Also, there is an OMGWTFBBQ number of enemy units around now, and they're moving again. It looks like Garrim Gyr is getting in on the action, too, with a stack of Wood Golems. Those, I might be able to handle beind walls. All of it, if I'm lucky, I might be able to blind.
T151: I promote Raichu to Cover to take out Arthenedain. It sends him from 56% odds to ~80% odds. I bank on the Immortal promotion to save my bacon if things go sour. Fortunately, it succeeds, gaining ~25 EXP and killing the stack healer. Raichu is nearly dead, though, so I promote him to Spell Resistance, which I'd been thinking about getting for awhile and give him a Sirona heal. I need to start being careful about promotions now... they'll get expensive, and I have some planned. I also kill a permanent Host of the Einherjar with my polar bear and assassinate a mage. Amusingly, when the attacking stack walked across my invisible stack, a mage cast Enchanted Blade on my Drown which was in my stack. He still can't match any of the enemies here, though.
T152: The now-weakened but still terrifying stack of doom advances next to Pallet Town.
Hemah is trained. I can get an Assassin or a Centaur Charger in 2 turns or a Ranger in 3 turns. If I go for the assassin, I can upgrade him to a Shadow whenever I finally get Guilds, which could be nice.
I also get the following event which might be familiar from FFH2PBEM1: [Circle of Gaelan event 1]
Maybe he's been talking to Hemah, given his backstory.
This is wonderful news, because it means I don't have to worry about getting a chaos node for if I want to do mutation cheese with my flesh golem. I can just give them the Gaelan treatment.
I also came to a realization that I'm lucky occurred to me now, when I haven't finished (or really even started) the second Sun node: I've traded Knowledge of the Ether to pretty much everyone. This means that all of their mana nodes are almost certainly developed. Thus, I'll need to make my other mana node a metamagic node if I don't want my only potential source of metamagic mana to be the Amurite palace. (It occurred to me that this was the case when I saw that the Viridian City mana node was now an Air node.
)
As a result, I upgrade Red to Mage because there won't be any new duplicate nodes and promote him to Sun III the normal way. In preparation for the upgrade, I'd given him Combat I-V, Twincast, and because I could get it, Summoner. According to its description, Summoner just gives Combat I to his summons, but even that is pretty good, considering his summons will now get a total of +70% strength.
Facing off against the stack of doom, Hemah sends an Aurealis in at 45% odds against Wilboman. It dies, but it manages to knock Wilboman far down the list of defenders. The new stack defender, a javelineer, manages to kill my bear while attacking at 97+% odds. I'm really not sure whether I can get a replacement bear.
Next up is Bambur, who is scary as hell. I'd love to get the hero bonus exp, but, well, nobody, not even Raichu, has very good odds against him, and I need to start being judicious about my promotions on Raichu in order to save enough to promote as a hopefully-dwarven druid. My solution is to take Spell Extension I on Red. From his corner on the other mana node, he now has enough range, because of roads, for his Aurealises to attack incoming stacks. One of them has 86% odds on Bambur. That and the next aurealis Red summoned go in and eliminate Bambur and the subsequent stack defenders (a Stonewarden). Raichu hits the next stack defender, and my Polar Bear mauls Wilboman, unfortunately only for about 15 exp. That's still good, but I've seen heroes give a lot more than that when the odds aren't quite as ridiculously good. Hemah and my Drown clean up the remainder of the city-side stack, after an my assassin finishes off the javelineer that killed my bear.
Also, I have to say, this is a brilliant example of just how enormous the advantage to striking when you choose is in FFH. I could never have dismantled that stack like that without the use of spells to soften up enemies and the invisibility granted by the Esus shrine.
I did make one unfortunate discovery I should have seen coming, however. Sun affinity does fire damage. This is a double-edged sword. Unfortunately, Brock is immune, or at least resistant, to fire. I think I might run Hemah and maybe Red up the water tree to get water elementals, which will be more effective against Brock. The options are Red taking building bypass (Shadow II) spells while Hemah takes Water III or the other way around. It's frustrating, after all that effort I put in, to have to actually take three spell sphere promotions, but I think I'll have to do it. I suppose I can later swap the Kuriotate palace out for the Luchuirp one for different mana sometime in the future when I upgrade Red to Archmage and not have to worry about wanting water, because I've been thinking I'll want it eventually anyway.
T153: Gaelan event 2; didn't screenshot it, but I went for the one that keeps us on track for another hero mage.
I clean up the stack of Wood Golems sent after me by Garrim Gyr. No casualties or anything interesting to report about it.
All three of our mages go to set the mana node to Metamagic. The plan is, Gaelan will be the utility mage: He can't cast L3 spells, so he can't make flesh golems, but he can certainly do things like cast Dispel Magic or Mutation, and he won't abandon us when we switch to Fellowship of Leaves. Perhaps promote him for Death whenever it's convenient (like, say, after Hemah takes Body I) so he can summon spectres.
Additionally at 6/4, he will be quite effective on the attack, so he makes for a good homeland guard, where he will be invisible. We did a number on Cardith's forces, what with destroying two religious and one civilization hero, but I'm sure he'll be back for more later. For one thing, the Baron's still out there, and I hope I can subdue and capture him.
T155: Blight! 25 Blight sick, and I was already eating 5 sick from not enough health resources. Well, I can delay the inevitable one turn, if I push finishing the cultist I've been building (to help feed a flesh golem, admittedly) by a turn... and every turn I delay it, the sick goes down by one. Given the ridiculous oases, I might even get away with only losing 1 or 2 population... and I really need to go destroy the Infernals now before they drive the AC up more. Then, I'll take on Brock.
Also, I got the carnival event. I went for another +1 gold, because I have a ton of happiness buildings still to build, as well as, say, settling a tiger. Besides, I haven't been growing, and money is always useful. I mean to build a gambling house one of these days while it's cheap, too.
Metamagic node completes. Gaelan only has exp for 1 promotion so far, unfortunately. Next turn, he can take Metamagic II and we can shuffle nodes so that Hemah can take meatmagic, I mean Body promotions. Red has precisely 3 promotions left, because he killed a unit while defending Pallet Town and therefore has > 101 exp. I guess I know what I'm spending them on, and it looks like I'll need Hemah to take Shadow spheres.
The Prophecy of Ragnarok is in Despero, very nearby. I really should have whacked the Infernals early so I could (1) build workboats because they're coastal, and (2) built a hellhound before it got obsoleted to ranger. Oops. I think I'm going to raze Despero so nobody gets the prophecy and keep Dis in case I want to cityfy it after all.
T156: Still starving... at some point, though, the oases and farms will be able to drag me out of this. In the meantime, I'm maximizing cottage growth and production by taking workers off the big-food tiles and rechecking them every turn to see if I'm good yet.
T158:
Still chugging... units have mostly recovered from Blight damage. My Drown, who was 1exp short of a promotion, explores a lair and gets rusted. Well, then, looks like I'll need to build a forge sometime soon.
T159:
I'm moving people into position for a strike on Despero. Also, I've spotted the Baron sniffing around the edges of my borders, but he seems to be wounded and not keen on entering them. I hope he stays that way for the next 10 turns so I can research Beast Mastery and get Subdue Beasts. I'll probably put it on Raichu, because I know he has the requisite promotions, although I'm probably going to be short when I want to get Earth elementals as well as Air ones as a Druid.
Gaelan and Hemah have been busy shuffling nodes. Hemah now has Body I (and Gaelan has Metamagic II) and they're busy turning both of my free mana nodes into water mana to support an assault on Despero. Unfortunately, it looks like borders are long enough that I might have to declare a turn before attacking, or at least a turn before I can unleash Tsunami from the cultist I've been getting into position to support Red, Raichu, my polar bear and two assassins. (That makes 6 + Red, right?)
Finally, I managed to get food-stable for Blight, and in 2 turns, I'll finish a Smokehouse, for another health. The thins I needed to do to get that are pretty dire, though.
T160: No luck on the Baron not deciding to wander into my territory. Maybe I can get lucky blinding him a few turns to slow him down... I don't think I'll manage to make it to Beast mastery in time unless I put out some sacrificial lambs, though. All irreplaceable units are moved out of Pallet Town so that they're invisible. It's holding action time. (This is probably going to suck on the war weariness front. I may have to build a dungeon.) Also, they have to be weak expendable units, because I don't want him actually losing until I can capture him. So... warriors.
Also, Kandros Fir demanded Bowyers (sure, alright... although maybe I should have refused) and I discovered that he has Fanaticism. I trade for that, seeing as it's the tech for Stygian Guards. He also has Commune with Nature but not Feral Bond, which is confusing, considering I thought Feral Bond was required for Commune with Nature. Maybe I can trade Beast Mastery to him for that. (I can trade with Kandros Fir because he's also Undercouncil.)
T162: I'm building a jeweler for the +20% commerce. Also, I successfully held the Baron, for a change! :D
Oh, and because I wanted maximal chance at doing so, I aborted my plan to kill off the Infernals. For one thing, apparently, the AC went back down to 26. I'm honestly more worried about Horsemen than Blight, even if Blight sucked hardcore... although Stephanos's Crown of Command could be nice.
The other reason to avoid killing the Infernals is, recently, they offered me Open Borders again, and I just hooked up trade routes, for another two 3C routes.
T163: Great Person came in. Great Merchant. I could settle him for a food and gold, but I want to hit the next tech quickly. I've been saving the Great Sage from Arcane Lore for a 2-person golden age. Basically every tile does commerce, and some do hammers, too. It's probably not as efficient as it could be, but that's what I'm doing. I do doubt that I'll be able to get everything sufficiently settled to switch to Fellowship of Leaves by the end of the 9 turns, but, well, you never know... I think a Stygian is coming next after the jeweler. If I do that, I can switch out and go Treant-crazy.
T166:
Jeweler comes in. Just before the turn, the Baron killed one of my warriors. I managed to blind him again, and I'm hoping that prevents pillaging, too, because he's standing on a town. Unfortunately, he'll only actually be imobilized one turn, and I can't manage to get Beast Mastery in any faster, so I won't be able to capture him until he kills another warrior defender. I also finally thought to send my mobility 1 Drown to make contact with the Sheaim on Cinibar Island.
T168: Animal Mastery (kept thinking this was Beast Mastery) comes in! Unfortunately, Commune with Nature is
crazy expensive, so I can't trade for it from Kandros Fir without more techs than Arcane Lore and Animal Mastery. (Animal Mastery is actually relatively inexpensive, as it turns out...) I should probably just beeline it now, because the only techs I really need anymore are that and Guilds (for Shadows). Commune with Nature is 22 turns out, according to my GA-inflated research. I'm betting it'll be longer by the time it comes in, even if my cottages grow.
I cast Maelstrom last turn, and the Baron fortified to heal. Well, I have one unit that can take Beast Mastery right now: Raichu. I feel like it's particularly amusing that I will likely have that spell particularly on a unit that, soon enough, won't be allowed to use it on cities.
This turn, Raichu takes Beast Mastery and moves around to avoid accidentally shocking one of Kandros Fir's Paramanders that are nosing around my land. Unfortunately, Raichu still has <90% odds. Since I've turned my spare nodes into water nodes, Aurealises are much less powerful than they were. Additionally, Hemah has no combat promotions. He summons his Aurealis, which has ~5% odds. He and the Baron slap each other around a bit, and the Baron wins, but is now at around half health. I check Raichu again: 96%. That's more like it! As it turns out, Raichu handily nets the Baron, taking a grand total of 0 damage in doing so. I probably could have gone for the ~80% odds just fine, but I
really didn't want to flub this one. I was nervous enough about the 1/20 chance the Aurealis might kill him, as it was.
Well, now it's finally time to take it to them. Well, soon, at least... If nothing else, I need to build more Stygians or a grove for beastmasters, first. Also, for fun, I cast mutation in the capital on my rated-expendible units. Unfortunately, I didn't get anything good. An assassin got Heavy (+30% strength, +1 terrain movement cost), as did Gaelan, which solidifies his role as backlines-only, because he'll never keep up with the 2 move requirement I'm going to make of any attack team. (My flesh golem won't be allowed to have it either...) Finally, the remaining warrior got withered and nothing else. I think I might drown him, at some point, because I want to upgrade my other drown, which has a ton of promotions, to a Stygian Guard. In the meantime, this turn, I upgraded my Elephant to a War Elephant. Maybe I should name him Donphan.
I decided a S9 unit that can attack cities without penalty is superior to a S10 unit that can't be used except as a stack defender. Now, I just need 1exp so that he's as fast as everyone else.
T169: A brand new Stygian Guard is built. The question is, what do I build now? Options include a second cultist (the better to mutate) a forge, which I've been meaning to build for awhile, or a Grove so I can finally get Beastmasters. I suppose I could go for a Ranger or a Stygian, alternately. I have a rusted promotion I want to remove, so I think I'm going to go for a forge. This has the side benefit of giving Pallet Town a chance to regrow on my ridiculous food resources, especially now that I've got a somewhat higher happy cap from the pile of happy that the jeweler gave me in addition to its commerce boost.
Also, it looks like I'm going to stick with OO somewhat longer. For one thing, I can hopefully attack Pewter City with support from Hemah's Aurealis, as well as using him for support with Shadow II to get around city walls and the like. (I want to say it bypasses cultural defenses, too, but that's not documented.) This means Hemah will eventually need to get to L7. (1 free promotion from Shrine for mobility, plus 6 sphere promotions, eventually for Sun III, Body III, Shadow II) Can do, but it'll take 37exp. I suppose that'll be arriving soon enough, though...
There are only around 300 turns left in the scenario. That boils down to around 30 turns a city, and, with the number of units that the AIs can throw around, I fear even that may not be enough. It's past time to take the fight to the Luchuirp, and with Cardith now effectively neutered, I don't even need to particularly worry about home defense. Besides, my bestiary should do nicely to defend me. (I'm sure Cardith will be back, but there won't be heroes involved anymore...) As soon as, or possibly even before, the Baron has healed all the way, Red will begin leading a crack team to defeat Brock. This team will consist of Hemah (summoning an Aurealis and providing buff support), the Baron, my new Stygian Guard, Raichu, and some pair out of my rusted Drown (once upgraded to Stygian, of course), my War Elephant, and my Polar Bear. I also have a Council of Esus assassin I want to get Chosen of Aeron on, if I can get away with it, before upgrading to a Shadow, but golems are immune to poison and dwarves resist it, so he'd be an embarrassingly weak unit against the Luchuirp. If you count, that's Red and 6 units, and only one of them (the elephant) has only one move. Our War Elephant is at 4xp, however, so if he finds someone to whack, he can take Mobility.
It also occurs to me that I'm in a golden age and therefore should take advantage of that to switch civics. I don't really have any civics I want to switch to, but, since I have a notable happy surplus at present, I switch from Religion to Consumption, which nets me another 2 gold per turn. Considering the fact that I actually do upgrade stuff, and I plan to build more gold-producing buildings Soon™, this seems like a reasonable act, even if it doesn't really net me much. I still have room to grow some, and +10% research doesn't actually net me much improvement, whereas, with my current civic settings, I could probably go without changing civics for the rest of the game. (I probably would have done so anyway, if I didn't have a GA to give me a free civic change, because this one wasn't enormously material.)
T170:
Hemah has enough promotions for all his spells, so I promote him. He casts Flesh Golem just to get it out of the way.
Also, I'm getting impatient, so my strike team leaves this turn. In addition to Red, we have:
Raichu
Baron Duin Halfmorn
Hemah
Stygian Guard (promoted to Mobility with free promotion)
War Elephant (which happens to actually have 2 moves instead of the 1 that an elephant does)
Polar Bear (with CR1 to offset city attack penalty)
Our promoted Drown is going to get upgraded to a Stygian, but, apparently, they fixed the part where he stays undead, so I'm promoting him to Canibalize (requires undead) now. Having a unit that heals every time it attacks could be extremely handy. Unfortunately, he's a few turns behind and has a rust promotion (despite also having Enchanted Blade) that the upcoming forge should take care of.
T172: Our first enclave!
Two more enclaves should arrive in 4 and 7 turns.
Also, the golden age ends, dropping our hammers by a lot and our research by 20-30%.
Our strike team nears its destination... borders are in sight. My spare Stygian waits with bated breath to learn of his brother falling in battle. I, admittedly, sent the weaker of the two out. On the other hand, it has a promotion that will likely go to City Raider I to knock things over easily. I'd love to cast Maelstrom right now, but that *grumble* paramander means I can't do it without angering Kandros Fir, which just isn't worth it.
T174:
Right before this turn, I got hit with a stack of 6 catapults. Raichu killed two of them, defending. Everyone (except the Stygian, oddly) took a bunch of damage, so Hemah casts Regeneration. My stack moves 1 turn closer to Pewter City, and Red's two water elementals clean up two of the surviving catapults.
T175: Arendel builds Kithra Kyriel. I'm going to have to watch out, because I don't want her to get Yvain. I think I'm going to revolt to Way of the Forest as soon as Commune with Nature comes in, at the latest. Also, I'm going to rejigger my tiles for maximum commerce as soon as I finish the forge.
T176: I had to shift around Pewter City again to avoid shocking my allies^H^H^H^H^H^Hfuture targets. (Wouldn't want to anger them too early, after all...)
Red summons 2 water elementals, and, since his aurealis is kind of useless outside of cleanup, Hemah casts Shadow Walk. Unfortunately, summons don't get the benefit. There are two gargoyles that didn't take much damage who are above Brock in the attack order, and my water elementals have terrible odds (<47% and 51% in order) on them, but, unfortunately, the elementals both win. I say "unfortunately" because I'd really, really, like to have my water elementals split for a change. It'd provide more summons which I might even be able to use to soften up Brock. Sadly, no such luck, and both elementals barely win. Nobody has any good odds, and, unfortunately, most of these units are pretty indispensible, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to just sit here again. At least I took out two more gargoyles, and things should ideally pick up next turn. I spread my water elementals out to see if I can lure some units out of the city and away from its 40% cultural defenses.
The forge completes and Pallet Town grows EOT, so I move the cannibal Drown back into the city in preparation. Next turn, I'm probably going to be sacrificing my other Stygian, and he can run to the front.
In between turns, a wood golem from Pewter City attacks one of my (severely-wounded) water elementals... and loses!
Also, Decius captures Lavendar Town. I hope there wasn't something ridiculous there that I should have wanted to get before the AIs. (Of course, if it had a dragon, the AIs probably wouldn't have figured out how to kill it, from what I gather of comments about Acheron. (Maybe that's really because of the Sons, though.
T177: Forge comes in; I really need to build more units, and apparently I'm closer to my happy cap than I thought, so I put a Cultist on to build, because I need more cultists if I'm going to feed one to the flesh golem to give it water walking. At the same time, however, I rearrange my tile usage to maximize commerce output, because I really want to get to Commune with Nature faster. A few cottages need growth, which introduces a slight inefficiency there, but, well, they're going to need to do that sometime. I also really need more health, so I think my next build after this may be an infirmary.
After another Maelstrom, we have even better news: Brock is top defender. Red's Water Elementals get 28% odds on him. Absurdly, the first attack wins, the next one (with 83% odds) finishes off the last Gargoyle, and now the top defender is a Dwarven Slinger that the Baron has 95% odds on despite shadow walk having worn off. He wins, producing a Ravenous Werewolf that promptly runs away from the city.
I really don't like the odds my other irreplaceable units are getting. So, I'm sending my war elephant, which only needs 1exp to gain a level to hunt down a mud golem that's cheerfully building roads, and I'm sending my CR1 polar bear home. That experiment was worth a try, but it wasn't successful. In return, I'm sending the ex-drown Stygian Guard to replace the dead one and my so-far-ungrafted flesh golem as a replaceable unit for the bear.
T178: Of course, the Ravenous Werewolf ends up killing the Mud golem first... Well, so much for promoting the War Elephant. Better luck next time? Given that I have a Blooded Werewolf now, I'm going to keep sending the Polar Bear home, and just bring out the replacement Stygian. It is interesting to note that the bear never attacked anyone while in Luchuirp territory.
The Baron gets March, so that he can keep whacking people every turn and a Sirona heal to bring him back to full health. I'm thinking my next target (which will be a long way off, given he has 5 promotions already) will be Blitz. Then he can attack multiple times if he didn't get too hosed. Raichu does his shocking thing but doesn't attack because he needs some time to heal. Summons knock out several more enemies. The Baron attacking turns a wood golem into a werewolf (don't ask me how that works) but it dies on the city walls.
I also take one turn out of the cultist build to finally build a hawk. Hawks don't count as military units, as it turns out, intriguingly.
IBT, my blooded werewolf gets hilariously attacked by a stack of Luchuirp catapults (who can't kill it, of course) and turns into a greater werewolf with 7xp. Of course, they didn't send a useful unit to kill it at 2.2 strength as a followup. This'll be fun.
T179: Red and the War Elephant attack two of the 3 catapults in the stack, because they're outside a city. (In Red's case, it's because he isn't allowed to attack cities, whereas in the WE's case, it's because I don't like his odds on the city.) 3 elementals dispatch 3 golems. Everyone moves onto Red's new tile, with a water elemental which somehow managed to not get damaged at all as stack defender. (Well, it or the Baron...) The Baron finishes off the last catapult instead of attacking the city because he has the movement to get back on the stack afterward.
The Polar Bear and replacement Stygian Guard meet at the Khazad/Luchuirp border. I know they're both outside my borders right now, but neither is attacking, so I think that's a pretty acceptable place to hand off.
T180: Spiders infested a Luchuirp mine. I really hope they let them be, as that means I could catch one or more spiders, which would be excellent. (I'd love to have 2 so I can make a spider pen with one.)
Hemah recasts Shadow Walk, trivializing a bunch of fights as they bypass 45% of wall defense. Unfortunately, the war elephant is still not getting good enough odds for me to feel confident, even with C2 and shadow walk, partly because of the fact that it's still wounded but mostly because it doesn't measure up well against S11 empowered elementals and S11 promoted werewolves. I think we're retiring that one as "too critical" shortly, too.
Anyway, even with various team members contributing literally nothing, we're almost done. I'm starting to move an ecclesiastic I have sitting around at home forward so that we can get Pewter City out of revolt and productive quickly. Unfortunately, war weariness at home seems to have gone up to 2. This is probably due to ravenous werewolves that died on city walls. I may need to build some happy buildings (and a dungeon) shortly.
T181: Wow, someone finally founded Order. (Remember, I've been keeping my acolyte around for other purposes rather than trying to convert Pallet Town to yet another religion. It was the Khazad. I hope that doesn't mean bad things with regards to Kandros Fir's status in the Undercouncil.
Also, it looks like Cardith has finally put together another stack. C5 raiders champion (that could be bad...), several assassins (some of them hidden; gogo Dies Diei) and a stack of catapults which will be meat for my assassins. Looks like it's time to play zone defense again, though. The short straw for defending Pewter City went to the Stygian I was running up, because he can't get hasted by Hemah.
Since I just got a second Cultist, I had Gaelan mutate them both and won big on the lottery. They both got Strong, and one got Stoneskin, while the other one got poison and lightning resistance. Of course, because of the rules about gaining strength, I'm inclined to build yet another cultist (and maybe not even roll the dice on mutating that one) to merge into the flesh golem for the purpose of giving it water walking, because otherwise Strong won't actually gain us anything. (I have a similar concern with weapon promotions.) Alternately, I can feed it my hawk, which will give it +1 moves and flying, although then it can't use roads. That doesn't matter much when we're trying to get to Cerulean City, though, given the vast expanse of no roads, and I can give it Mobility II as well, later.
T182: Amusingly, I think I might manage to destroy this stack before the reinforcements I hastily (and hastedly, where I could...) sent from Pewter City even get here. On the other hand, I do mean to bring some of them back permanently, so it's not entirely a loss of time if I do.
Gaelan goes up to the stack and casts Dispel Magic, removing the Enchanted Blade promotion (and others, I think) from the Champion. My two assassins destroy two catapults. (Thank goodness roads bypass terrain movement costs; it's the only way my heavy one could get there.)
That Commando champion scares me. He's keeping pace with the rest of his stack, but that means he can pillage each time he advances, too. I really desperately want to take him out, so I promote the warrior I've been saving (to give the golem the Bronze Weapons promotion) to C1 and Shock and feed him to the flesh golem. Somehow, this brings back the withered promotion I thought I'd cured, as well as giving an amphibious promotion I never knew he'd gotten. Maybe it's a side effect from transferring the mutated promotion for the first time. (Yeah, that's got to be it...) Anyway, I cured him because he was on a stack with two cultists, and sent him after the champion, fully expecting him to die because the odds were apparently terrible, but somehow he wins! (The battle: a C1/S Str7 flesh golem against a C4 iron-weapon champion.) A shame; it looks like I'll be working with an imperfect flesh golem.
The two cultists follow up to destroy the top two assassins that were also in the stack. I consider giving Gaelan some combat promotions to kill another one, but he currently has no summoning or damaging spells, and he's more valuable alive than killing stuff.
I get a flash of insight to see if I can convince Hyborem to go to war with Cardith and get WHEOOHRN. That's worrying. He does seem to dislike Kandros Fir more than me, but, well, he's right next to me. I will admit I have been contemplating eliminating him, but, at this point, well, we've got these great trade routes, which would be a lot worse if they weren't foreign.
T183: Success! My Esus Shadow is Chosen of Aeron. Once upgraded to Shadow, he should really, really kick ass, and now he needs a name. (Next tech after Commune with Nature? Guilds, for both Shadows and a big production bonus to the workshops I've been building for when I might want to
really crank production. (It's not like I'd be using that land anyway; I can barely work all the cottages I have built, along with the resource tiles, as it is.)
T184: Great Prophet born... and settled. I'm generally running a surplus, I'll admit, but I can still use the money. I finished a Temple of Kilmorph just now for the same reason.
Cardith seems to have noticed Pewter City. I'm redirecting units that need to end up there anyway back to defend it just in case. I'm actually thinking I'm going to waffle again on Raichu's final evolution, I mean upgrade. After watching how the assault on Pewter City went, it occurs to me that I am likely to find myself continuously wishing for two spellcasts out of him if I upgrade to a Druid for the sake of being able to summon elementals, and currently, he's one of the units I tend to use to wtfpwn defenders. (Along with the werewolves...) As a beastmaster, he'd be even better at wtfpwning defenders, and I'd be able to continue using his ability to capture animals and beasts... and cast maelstrom every turn because there's always at least one priest to heal the damage I'd done the turn before. (Adding a shadow to the team will help with that, however.)
I need a Grove soon, then, but I also need a ranger to keep. (although that'll
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