HidingKneel horses around with Rhoanna [HAR! I mean, SPOILERS!]

[HidingKneel]

Ouch.

[HidingKneel]

Alright, doesn't look like there's going to be a turn tonight, so instead I'll post a long overdue update.

I got this message from Dave a few turns back:

Not a good turn for you; Ellimist says he killed a bunch of units in your southern strike force, and your eastern force was in range for a couple Cultists. I killed your knight, and had two unlucky retreats against your Beasts (60% and 90% odds to win; you should light a couple sticks of incense on your RNG altar).

Time to talk turkey. You've played a great game, and I think you deserve the win more than Ellimist, much as I admire his diplo manipulation skills (on full display now). I'm pretty much out of this game after losing most of my population and switching to bad civics, but I might still be in position to be kingmaker; if so, you would be my preferred choice. I've been telling the other players that I wanted to make you work for your victory, but I'd hate to see Ellimist steal it away.

My offer: you retreat from DIY Newspaper, leave Despero uncaptured, stop harrassing me with Rosier, and we return to the status quo ante. If you prefer to fight on, I don't think I can stop you in the long term but I'll do my best to make it expensive for you.

And that was a brutal turn indeed. Entirely self-inflicted, too. Somehow I completely failed to notice that his cultists could reach my city. The knight that Dave killed was promoted to Combat IV, March (it used to be a warrior), and Commando. Very fun unit to have around. Doesn't look like he did any other damage, though.

Ellimist is a different story. My mistake there was piling my entire stack into a city that I had settled on his border (where Noctis doesn't hide them), and failing to notice that he had a lot of assassins that could reach the city (at least eight assassins, one of which has Aeron's Chosen). Mardero is a hero with channeling III, which means the assassins go for him first. Ellimist killed Mardero, three ritualists, an adept (which was close to a mage promo), and a handful of other unimportant units.
Then he parked a giant stack on a jungle hill next to the city. Since all my collateral was dead, I couldn't effectively retaliate and had to fall back. He razed two size one cities (that I had planted two turns earlier), but didn't try to press any further north. He probably could have, but he couldn't know that (he's got no idea what kind of units I might have hidden inside my borders). Anyway, the one bright spot of that debacle was that he didn't get my Mage (who I was sending north to convert nodes, and is now down south making Eyes at the Illians.

Anyway, I decided to turn down Dave's offer. I made some bad plays and took some damage, but not nearly enough to make this an even fight. The game will only be interesting if my opponents keep teaming up on me, and I'd rather have an interesting endgame than a victory.

Speaking of teaming up, Tholal has now joined the fun:



He destroyed two small cities on our mutual border that were guarded by a unit each, and captured a bunch of workers (which he then promoted to Beastmen). So that's also a little bit of a setback.

But you know what? It's time for me to play some tricks of my own. Got a Great Sage last turn, so I detached my Commander from Bad Rosier and fired off a Golden Age:



I didn't have many units nearby to respond to Tholal but Horselord + Engineering means I can respond to emergencies pretty quickly. Killed two of his units, and left this garrison:



I don't think he's going to making any further progress.

What else is going on? Tech-wise, I finished Iron Working and started Mithril Working. That'll be finished next turn.
After that, there are a few techs I could see myself making use of. Poisons to field assassins (two can play at Ellimist's game, especially since he seems to be fielding a mostly Arcane army). Arcane Lore if I want to finish a Tower Victory. Maybe something that will give me a free Great Person to facilitate a third GA? None of those is pressing, though. Probably I'll turn science off after Mithril Working and just use the cash to buy mercenaries. Running Undercouncil and in a GA, it looks like I generate about 2000 gold per turn, which is enough for 16 mercenaries. Each of those will be Strength 10 and Move 4 out of the box. Once I've bought enough, I'll pop Warcry to boost that to Strength 11 and Move 5.

I think Tholal is probably the first target. His invasion force seems to consist of bronze-equipped Sons of Asena backed by a handful of Horsemen and Shamans. No source of collateral that I can see (he's running Kilmorph and lacks Sorcery, so his only option for collateral is Catapults), so I think he ought to be a pushover.

I'm slowly pushing Dave back. Razed two of his cities recently, and conquered a third this turn (which he isn't really in a position to reconquer). Position's a little more precarious, though. I'm still hanging on to DIY Newspaper here:



Unclear that I can really afford to continue doing that, though. He's got a bunch of Cultists that he could put on that lake where I can't reach them, and hit me with Tsunami after Tsunami. Not sure why he hasn't done it yet. Maybe he didn't think of it? Seems unlikely.

Actually, I do have a way to hit Cultists on that lake. I've got Astronomy, Iron, and Sorcery. Once I connect Fire Mana, I'll be able to field Arcane Barges. Get a few of those on the ocean to the NW and he can't safely keep his Cultists on the lake.
That's more than a few turns away, but maybe Dave doesn't realize that?

Anyway, the Arcane Barges definitely seem worth it. Have seen several naval skirmishes already (Ellimist sent some privateers to harass me, but I sank them with my own invisible fleet).

Not sure what Ellimist is up to. Seems to be hanging back for now. I've got a good-sized stack ready to respond if he tries to come north:



Probably going to leave him for last, though. The terrain between us isn't very favorable to me, mobility-wise, and he's already demonstrated that I need to be careful where I leave my army. Also, I keep expecting him to have Strength of Will any turn now... it hasn't happened yet, but it can't be far off.

As for my own Arcane development: I'm about 1/3 of the way done with my Tower of Necromancy, and am slowly connecting the mana I'll need to start a Tower of Elements. Progress is slow, but hopefully I can speed the process by capturing additional nodes from the Doviello/Balseraphs. I'll finish the Celestial Compass in a turn or two. Thinking I should also build the Tower of Eyes... war weariness is starting to become an issue. (Running 0% science will also help with that: almost all of my big cities have Gambling Houses.)

So, can I really expect to fight everyone else in the game and win? I think so, and here's the reason:



Of course, that's during a GA. But the #2 figures are also a GA (Dave's still benefitting from Revelry).

[Qgqqqqq]

Mithril requires both techs to use (not sure whether you realise that).

What civics are you in?

[HidingKneel]

Mithril requires both techs to use (not sure whether you realise that).

Suddenly the tech tree makes much more sense to me.

Well, that's a tricky question now. Would I rather have Mithril weapons, or ~60 more Mounted Mercenaries? Definitely the second, at least right now.

Wish I'd realized this when making my tower plans. I could have grabbed Mithril Weapons with a ToD.
(Still not a crazy option. If I can get my mana nodes organized, I could cash-rush a ToD, which would be expensive but still a considerable discount on the tech.)

What civics are you in?

Aristocracy/StW/Slavery/Agrarianism/Undercouncil