OK, a billion things happening at once, let's go over everything to summarize:
Tower of Divination:
I get Spirit from my palace, Law from my shrine (which I'll have built T136 at the latest), Sun from Mardoc starting from T135 (for 10 turns, when that runs out I'll build a node) and I'll build a Mind node. That's all the Divination spheres so I'm able to start ToD by T136 at the latest. I'm guessing it'll take around 20 turns to complete, so it should finish shortly before my NAP runs out.
(ToD has same hammer cost as Winter Palace)
As for the free tech, well I've been planning to take Righteousness from the beginning and don't have a reason to change that yet, although Theology is another option (don't have any lvl6 Priests though). After it's complete, I should be able to complete Sphener shortly after the NAP runs out. Since he's a strength 16 hero with various Medic, Arcane and Divine abilities, I have a feeling he'll be very useful.
I also hope I can get some Paladins, but given that I need Iron and therefore Iron Working before I can build/upgrade them and therefore it's less clear if I'll have them by T160.
Corlindale:
I'm building Corlindale. He should be complete EoT135:
What spells will he get? Good question. Aside from the ones he starts with (Mind, Earth and Spirit 1) here's some I'm considering:
Both nyktorion and Mardoc have asked me about sharing our mana around for the free promotions (Life/Nature and Water respectively). While I don't plan to use Life promotions as I get them for free on Devouts (when I can bother researching them, still not sure when that'll be though...), I have agreed on a deal to get the other two mana, which allows me to get free Water and Nature one spells on Corlindale and any adepts I build in the next few turns.
Mana:
I have a lot of mana trades going on with everyone. Here's a summary:
Irgy:
From me: Enchantment, Death? (death is the mana i give him for free, but he hasn't put a time constraint on it.)
To me: Entropy, Ice
nyktorion:
From me: Water, Enchantment, Nature/Life?
To me: Body, Metamagic, Nature/Life?
Mardoc:
From me: Nature/Life, Water
To me: Sun, Water
Out of the mana I receive, Ice will be needed for Corlindale, Nature, Life and water will be for the free promotions (as I described above), Metamagic will be for Dispel Magic when I eventually get mages, Sun is for the ToD and the rest (Body, Enchantment, Entropy) are for their adept spells.
Ice could be useful as an adept spell too, but Mardoc says that Thoth's military goal is Iron chariots and I wouldn't be surprised to see Thoth turn Raiders on T146 so it won't be as effective. (although personally, I think he's aiming for Ratha's and we can expect to see Chalid before we start).
I'm slightly worried about my Nature mana, as all three of my 'allies' have requested my source at some unspecified time in the future. I'm hoping they won't be difficult and all request it at the same time.
Speaking of resource deals, the other 2 trades I have currently are Ale for Pearls with Mardoc, and a Corn for Gems with Irgy once I get my second Corn connected. I hope I can trade my excess sheep with Mardoc for something later on.
Army:
My main army currently consists of Valin, 2 monks and a Confessor. Very scary I know, but enough for now. They just popped a dungeon that's been siting in my borders for 100 turns (got a supplies, not bad. Probably make him build a temple somewhere). Next thing they'll do is capture another barb city, since the barbs have been kind enough to save me a settler:
Corlindale will probably join in taking the barb city. Only problem is that it only appeared a turn or two ago and so it'll take forever to grow to size 2.
I'll swap to Military State and Conquest in a few turns and that will surely help my military.
Tech path:
I just got currency for the trade route and Consumption. Current tech path is:
Other techs that could be backfilled when I get the time are:
After that, I'd like to get IW and Animal Mastery. I may get sorcery at some point depending on when I get enough potential mages. Then it's probably a race for the late game techs.
Might as well post a Demographics screen while I'm here:
In global news, Thoth declared on Irgy and killed Rosier! Seems he fell victim to Tsunami. That massively sucks for him, and by extension us (although it does give Irgy a more personal reason to join the dogpile). Since it's unlikely that Irgy will be able to build Mardero or Abashi he'll probably only going to be able to supply mages. Just wish Irgy would've been more careful without a NAP.
Tower of Divination:
I get Spirit from my palace, Law from my shrine (which I'll have built T136 at the latest), Sun from Mardoc starting from T135 (for 10 turns, when that runs out I'll build a node) and I'll build a Mind node. That's all the Divination spheres so I'm able to start ToD by T136 at the latest. I'm guessing it'll take around 20 turns to complete, so it should finish shortly before my NAP runs out.
(ToD has same hammer cost as Winter Palace)
As for the free tech, well I've been planning to take Righteousness from the beginning and don't have a reason to change that yet, although Theology is another option (don't have any lvl6 Priests though). After it's complete, I should be able to complete Sphener shortly after the NAP runs out. Since he's a strength 16 hero with various Medic, Arcane and Divine abilities, I have a feeling he'll be very useful.
I also hope I can get some Paladins, but given that I need Iron and therefore Iron Working before I can build/upgrade them and therefore it's less clear if I'll have them by T160.
Corlindale:
I'm building Corlindale. He should be complete EoT135:
What spells will he get? Good question. Aside from the ones he starts with (Mind, Earth and Spirit 1) here's some I'm considering:
- Ice3 - Snowfall, extremely painful collateral spell, probably will be my only source of collateral in the war unless I get desperate and build some cats
- Nature3 - Vitalise, Gives him something decent to do while at peace, helps buff up food poor places (and gets grassland floodplains in Ballinasloe!) Also useful since Nature2 gives Poison Blades which is a recon unit buff, and since I plan to use rangers it will be a very nice buff.
- Water3 - Water Elementals: Considered only because they have water walking, and thus can counter Thoth Cultists. However, if I get build enough ships by T160, I won't need these since I would rather be using Snowfall then using archmage summons.
Both nyktorion and Mardoc have asked me about sharing our mana around for the free promotions (Life/Nature and Water respectively). While I don't plan to use Life promotions as I get them for free on Devouts (when I can bother researching them, still not sure when that'll be though...), I have agreed on a deal to get the other two mana, which allows me to get free Water and Nature one spells on Corlindale and any adepts I build in the next few turns.
Mana:
I have a lot of mana trades going on with everyone. Here's a summary:
Irgy:
From me: Enchantment, Death? (death is the mana i give him for free, but he hasn't put a time constraint on it.)
To me: Entropy, Ice
nyktorion:
From me: Water, Enchantment, Nature/Life?
To me: Body, Metamagic, Nature/Life?
Mardoc:
From me: Nature/Life, Water
To me: Sun, Water
Out of the mana I receive, Ice will be needed for Corlindale, Nature, Life and water will be for the free promotions (as I described above), Metamagic will be for Dispel Magic when I eventually get mages, Sun is for the ToD and the rest (Body, Enchantment, Entropy) are for their adept spells.
Ice could be useful as an adept spell too, but Mardoc says that Thoth's military goal is Iron chariots and I wouldn't be surprised to see Thoth turn Raiders on T146 so it won't be as effective. (although personally, I think he's aiming for Ratha's and we can expect to see Chalid before we start).
I'm slightly worried about my Nature mana, as all three of my 'allies' have requested my source at some unspecified time in the future. I'm hoping they won't be difficult and all request it at the same time.
Speaking of resource deals, the other 2 trades I have currently are Ale for Pearls with Mardoc, and a Corn for Gems with Irgy once I get my second Corn connected. I hope I can trade my excess sheep with Mardoc for something later on.
Army:
My main army currently consists of Valin, 2 monks and a Confessor. Very scary I know, but enough for now. They just popped a dungeon that's been siting in my borders for 100 turns (got a supplies, not bad. Probably make him build a temple somewhere). Next thing they'll do is capture another barb city, since the barbs have been kind enough to save me a settler:
Corlindale will probably join in taking the barb city. Only problem is that it only appeared a turn or two ago and so it'll take forever to grow to size 2.
I'll swap to Military State and Conquest in a few turns and that will surely help my military.
Tech path:
I just got currency for the trade route and Consumption. Current tech path is:
- Divination - Need to build Mind node for ToD and eventually a Sun node also
- Warfare - Military Strategy and Conquest civics, will revolt into both plus Consumption shortly after getting this
- Alteration - Need to build Enchantment node for Enchanted Blade and various trade agreements
- Optics - Privateers to counter cultists
- Animal Handing - Rangers
Other techs that could be backfilled when I get the time are:
- Archery - Lumbermills, although I don't expect to have many thanks to elven neighbours
- Drama - Culture stuff, but no free Bard anymore (Thoth probably burned it on a GA) so of questionable benefit
- Honor - Empyrean temples, although Thoth has the holy city and it's very low on the priority list
- WotForests - FoL temples, like Honor has a very low priority
- Necromancy - Need to build a Death node for Irgy at some point, doesn't help me directly though
- Military Strategy - Heroic Epic, not sure where to put it yet or when I'll even get to build it
- Poisons - Devouts, not important unless Irgy attacks, which I'll then need them to counter PZ's, plus it's rather expensive for a backfill tech
After that, I'd like to get IW and Animal Mastery. I may get sorcery at some point depending on when I get enough potential mages. Then it's probably a race for the late game techs.
Might as well post a Demographics screen while I'm here:
In global news, Thoth declared on Irgy and killed Rosier! Seems he fell victim to Tsunami. That massively sucks for him, and by extension us (although it does give Irgy a more personal reason to join the dogpile). Since it's unlikely that Irgy will be able to build Mardero or Abashi he'll probably only going to be able to supply mages. Just wish Irgy would've been more careful without a NAP.