RBPBEM FfH V [SPOILERS] Sareln of the Amurites

[Selrahc]

How does the puppet mechanic work?

Puppets are very weak units that can use any of the spells that the mage can cast. They do it in a very slightly weakened form, damage spells are a little less deadly, summons spells have -20% strength.
For Perpentach it doesn't really matter. But for Keelyn each puppet sticks around for two turns. So it ends up doubling the cast power.
Example

Turn 1. Mage summons puppet A. Puppet A casts spell.
Turn 2. Mage summons puppet B. Puppet A casts spell. Puppet B casts spell.
Turn 3. Puppet A Disappears. Mage summons puppet C. Puppet B casts spell. Puppet C casts spell.

And so on. After the first turn, the mage will always be getting two spells cast.

If they're all casting summon spells like summon spectre then they will all be sticking around for two turns as well, which means that if necessary and your summons aren't being instantly sacrificed you can get 4 times as many summoned units out per mage as someone without puppets and summoner.

With twincast or enchant spellstaff involved things get even more crazy.

Puppets also give a little tactical flexibility, since they can move around independently.

[Sareln]

Looks like it's a summon that can cast, and gets all of Loki's promotions. Am I missing anything other than the Balsareph getting bonus T2 casters early?

Mouseover says "Loki only", Civilopedia says "All Balsareph Arcane Casters".

[Mist]

Mouseover says "Loki only", Civilopedia says "All Balsareph Arcane Casters".

Civilopedia is right. It was Loki only for early versions, but got expanded to all Balseraph. And yes, twincasting Balseraph archmage ( under Keelyn ) with Ice can pull out 8 snowfall capable units.

[Selrahc]

Civilopedia is right. It was Loki only for early versions, but got expanded to all Balseraph. And yes, twincasting Balseraph archmage ( under Keelyn ) with Ice can pull out 8 snowfall capable units.

Uh... All civs with ice mana can create 8 snowfall units. They just need liches.

Casting snowfall 8 times seems kind of stupid though. The damage will be maxed out after the first two or three. Or after one if you've prepped the area with maelstrom.

Casting dominate or a powerful summon spell though? That stuff doesn't get any worse in numbers.

[Sciz]

Heroic Twincasting Summoner Enchant Spellstaff Liches and Archmages ftw

[Sareln]

Alright, so Bob is going to be an awesome summoner, keep him off his mana nodes, maybe knock him out of the game in the early-mid game, and life will be alright. If we get to the late game, we'll need to come up with a way to deal with the horde of summons. We can worry about that later.

As to the here and now, I'm going to have the see the start position before planning the opening. I think that I'll be trying to run more with cottages than aristo-farms and abuse the +50% production from the capital to use it as a unit pump (adepts & vicars). Since we're going to need some rather heavy beaker investments, I think it makes sense to use the first Great Person slot on a Great Sage for an academy in either the Capital or an amazing commerce location, whichever is more presentable.

[Nyktorion]

Another little perk of puppets (which is why I mentioned domination specifically in my first post): when puppets cast domination, only the casting puppet risks their mind III promotion; the original caster will keep it in any case.

Staying alive in the early game is going to be difficult if I have Clan or Sheaim for neighbors. I'll need to talk with them a lot more than I talked with Selrahc in game 1, hopefully to get something hammered out, or to know that I need to be massing warrior/axes...

Overall the game plan is to get to KotE quickly and then shift the beeline to a rush to Empyrean. All the Empyrean techs (HBR/Trade/Way of the Wise/Honor/Philosophy) only total up to 2090 base beakers. Sorcery is 2000 base beakers, and each of the prereqs are 640 base. The "having multiple prereq bonuses" don't let you come out ahead in the race for fast Sorcery. Boyer beeline isn't even worth talking about with Boyers costing 2400 base beakers all by itself.

Once the Empyrean is founded pick up conquest for military state and draft continuously as I research arcane techs for the rest of the game (maybe stopping by for ironworking and boyers at some point later).

Do you already have any specific plans on how to use KotE while teching towards Honor and shortly after getting it? Do you plan to use adepts as early support your warriors/radiant guards with haste, and maybe skeletons (if you add in the necromancy tech)?

The important thing to notice here is that both the Radiant Guard and Firebows (a longbow replacement) are draftable for 1 and 2 pop each. I'll want to leverage this as the Amurites to get the meat shields necessary to stand in front of my mages, occupy cities, and clear out collateral'd stacks. Ideally, I want my drafted units to have at least 2 XP if I plan to draft firebows, so that they can take Fire II immediately. Finally, note that the Radiant Guards can use weapons and only require the Empyrean in the city. This means any city will be able to draft Guard if you follow the Empyrean. If I have a source of metals, these will be my primary draft target.

Supplementary note: Firebows can use (bronze and iron) weapons, too, and can also learn Sun II at 2 XP later in the game (after Govannon is built and learns Sun I), so they might well completely replace Radiant Guards in the further future.

[Sareln]

Amurite palace mana is Body/Fire/Metamagic. the Level 1 spells are Haste/Blaze/Floating Eye. I don't really have a plan for Blaze, but Haste and Floating Eye will let me keep a solid watch on my borders and move troops around as they're needed. Because my mage guilds are so cheap, I don't think the Catacomb Libralus is going to be a justified build for me, but I'll keep myself open to the possibility.

Really, I get KotE first before Empyrean so that I can start gaining passive adept XP as quickly as possible.

Firebows will require archery ranges to be drafted, so they probably won't ever completely replace the Radiant Guard, but they'll do quite fine once I can produce them in bulk. If I'm eventually running agrarianism + sanitation, I think I can keep my cities growing at a fast enough pace for continuous draft.

[Nyktorion]

Since we're at the topic at adept XP, I'll take the opportunity to point out two special ways for the Amurites to gain their arcane units additional XP which have not been mentioned yet:

• Their world spell, Arcane Lacuna, gives all existing Amurite arcane units XP based on the number of upgraded mana nodes they control. Additionally, this prevents all rivals from casting any spells for some time (I think it's 14 turns on quick speed). This should be very convenient in case Sareln ever gets into a fight with the clowns, because it throws all that puppetry stuff we have been talking about for a page out of the window.
  
• Their unique building, the Cave of Ancestors, also lets all arcane untis start with extra XP:
  
  This makes it quite realistic to produce wizards right out of the gate. However, with military state and agrarianism (rather than apprenticeship and conquest) as civic choices, the XP collected by those early adepts should still be very welcome, I think.
  

[Sareln]

Since we're at the topic at adept XP, I'll take the opportunity to point out two special ways for the Amurites to gain their arcane units additional XP which have not been mentioned yet:

• Their world spell, Arcane Lacuna, gives all existing Amurite arcane units XP based on the number of upgraded mana nodes they control. Additionally, this prevents all rivals from casting any spells for some time (I think it's 14 turns on quick speed). This should be very convenient in case Sareln ever gets into a fight with the clowns, because it throws all that puppetry stuff we have been talking about for a page out of the window.
  
• Their unique building, the Cave of Ancestors, also lets all arcane untis start with extra XP.
  
  This makes it quite realistic to produce wizards right out of the gate. However, with military state and agrarianism (rather than apprenticeship and conquest) as civic choices, the XP collected by those early adepts should still be very welcome, I think.
  

Cave of ancestors is nice, yes. It used to be the total number of unique nodes they control. Is it still that, or is it just total number of nodes period?

Arcane Lacuna I was viewing to save for the Balsarephs. If we ever got into a fight a 14 turn window in which I have spells and he doesn't is worth far, far more than the XP generated.

I view Cave of Ancestors as a very late-game build most of the time, just because I'd rather have the 2 extra adepts it would cost to build most of the time.