[Spoilers] Cometh the Messiah - Varn Gosam and the Malakim

[Ilios]

Lots of questions! But none that I can think of how to phrase in a manner that's both 100% spoiler free and 100% non-suggestions. So, um, just know that I'm on the edge of my seat over here and will appreciate any details you care to share.

It's worse because I'm rooting for you, and I've found that's when I'm most likely to slip in other games, so I'm keeping my lips sealed as much as I can bear.

No problem, I appreciate the comments, and the fact that there are still people rooting for the forces of Good!

Hey, can you give us the entire list of technologies that you have so far?

Sure, here's something I posted a while ago:

Sure, no problem:

Agriculture
Calendar
Mysticism (one turn in Exploration, but then changed my mind)
Exploration
Crafting
Mining
Way of the Earthmother
Bronze Working
Festivals
Cartography (could have skipped this, but at the time I was seriously considering sending troops into Luchuirp lands)
Animal Husbandry
Archery
Fishing (to supply Sciz with my Copper)
Philosophy

I'm currently researching Code of Laws

Future tech path (bound to change)

Priesthood
Hunting
Writing
Masonry
Construction
Way of the Forest

So, of the future tech path, I grabbed all of them except Writing.

[Thoth]

Cartography (could have skipped this, but at the time I was seriously considering sending troops into Luchuirp lands)

If you were planning on heading into furrin parts, why spend beakers on a non-military tech?


(and btw: I'm definitely rooting for you in this game. )

GO! GO! MALAKIM!

Kil'em'orf!

[Ilios]

If you were planning on heading into furrin parts, why spend beakers on a non-military tech?

Not sure I get this, do you mean I should not have bothered with Open Borders if I wanted to send troops to fight the Doviello in Luchuirp lands?

Anyway, I'll have recuperated the invested beakers in a bit, thanks to foreign trade routes...

(and btw: I'm definitely rooting for you in this game. )

GO! GO! MALAKIM!

Kil'em'orf!

I'd have expected nothing less from you, my good sir, but appreciated nonetheless!

Kil'em'Leaves!

[Ilios]

T101:

After sending on the T100, I realised I had made a grave mistake. Two of my Workers were about in the open, and sure enough, when I opened the T101 save:



The Calabim used Burning Blood on a Moroi (giving an extra move amongs other things), allowing it to kill two of my Workers (I'm assuming they deleted the Workers). But to add insult to injury, the Moroi went barbarian during the interturn (possible every turn once Burning Blood is used), allowing the Moroi to move AGAIN, and kill a green Priest of Leaves (C1 and in a forest)!

Oh well, live and learn!

Anyway, another Priest mopped up the Moroi.

On the Calabim/Balseraph front, I continue to take out the top defenders with my Shock Priests. I also start sending in the Tigers. They have negligable odds to win, which means the opposing unit will get very little experience. I manage to damage the top defenders, which, knowing how slowly they'll heal, effectively takes out the unit.

Lanun forces show themselves:



Alright, aside from that Saverous on steroids, I can live with that stack. No Medics, no collateral. I hope Amelia thinks she'll take mature cities with that little units.

Anyway, a cunning plan has been formed, which I'll expose next turn.

The Vampires are now second placed Crop Yield...

[Thoth]

Not sure I get this, do you mean I should not have bothered with Open Borders if I wanted to send troops to fight the Doviello in Luchuirp lands?

Anyway, I'll have recuperated the invested beakers in a bit, thanks to foreign trade routes...

Urf. Chalk it up to alcohol. I thought you had meant invading the Luchuirp.

[Ilios]

Urf. Chalk it up to alcohol. I thought you had meant invading the Luchuirp.

Hmm, maybe I should have just done that!

T102:

Sent more Tigers to their graves (I hope killed summoned units do not add to War Weariness!), and sent five more Balseraph/Calabim to their makers. There are still about twenty units left, which means I killed around fifteen up to now.

The result:



A big thanks to whatshisface in some thread for showing me you can actually show the individual units in the Military Advisor screen...

So I was ready to use a Kilmorph Soldier to hurry production of a Catapult:



Oh right, can only hurry Buildings...

No matter, I now plan to use two Soldiers to hurry an Archery Range in Horus. By the time the Lanun stack reaches the city, I will have upgraded three Warriors to Archers. They still won't stand a chance against Saverous, but will at least be able to damage him, and will give me some time to bring a catapult into range.

As you can see, I'm researching Warfare right now, which will allow me to promote those Archers to City Garrison right away.

I expect the Lanun to head for Horus, so the plan is to draw them in, make sure the city has enough defense so only Saverous takes out a defender. Then I'll hit the stack with a Catapult, followed by heavily promoted Priests. I put a turn of research into Way of the Wise last turn, and can finish any turn now at 70% research.

Way of the Wise will give me access to Order religion should I choose to head for it, but more importantly, will allow me to promote those Priests to Demon Slaying (Saverous is a Demon unit, right?). Saverous is a Melee unit as well, so that will give him a hefty -80% Strength. He'll still be strong, but no longer untouchable.

If Amelia decides to play nasty, she could divert her stack northwest, and head for En-Kai instead. She has Animal Husbandry, which is only one tech removed from Horseback Riding and the Mobility promotion. I'm not going to assume the Swordsmen have used up all of their promo's, which makes me very nervous indeed, because nothing could stop her moving right next to En-Kai in a turn, and jump over the river and attack the city the turn after.

To take this into account, I'll have to move the Priests to the circled tile so they can cover both Horus and En-Kai. I'm going to assume the Calabim/Balseraph stack will then move northwest. I will then need to move units back into the Capital from the Fort, leaving the north open to attack. I'm not sure I'll be able to move the Priests back in time to threaten the stack...

I've been paying less attention to the trade screen, so I was surprised to see this:



I might open up an earlier save to check when the Calabim got Trade (which works like Alphabet in BtS). Not sure why they headed for it though. Extra trade routes? Access to Chariots (no Construction though)? Did they want to land the Empyrean religion? Or did they simply want to be able to see which techs everyone has?

Anyhow, the Calabim are up Sailing, Sanitation, Writing and Trade (obviously).

The Malakim are up Animal Husbandry, Archery, Masonry, Construction, Mysticism, Philosophy, Priesthood, Way of the Earthmother, Way of the Forest.

No Feudalism (so no Vampires) yet.

[Ilios]

T103:

Serdoa threw a couple of Warriors at my stack, and got lucky, killing a fully fortified Guerrilla Kilmorph Soldier (getting a total 75% Defense bonus), after it had already killed off an attacking Warrior. Don't really know why Serdoa attacked, or why he then stopped attacking.

Anyway, on my turn I continued throwing Tiger meat at the BalCal stack, and then sent in the Priests. Unfortunately, I lost a heavily promoted Kilmorph Priest at 90% odds, you will be fondly remembered, God of Stinky Feet!

The other Priests cleaned up their quota of Warriors, resulting in this:



Considering there were around 35 units initially, I'm finally breathing a little easier. There are only six full strength units remaining in the stack, and are the weakest units left in the stack. If I didn't have a Saverous shaped problem in the south, I think I would be able to kill off the stack in a turn or two.

I've considered sending that screenshot to Amelia, to show her she won't get a lot of support in her attack, but I think I'll try to take out her stack first. If no new monster stack appears from the east, I will capture and raze Amelia's northern city, and sue for peace. I really need to wean her off the unholy alliance, because with Uberfish apparently heading into Dwarven lands soon, I'm all out of reliable allies. I don't think Sciz will be able to fend off a combined Doviello/Ljosalfar attack...

At least Sciz has finally switched to Aristocracy, tripling his GNP figure.

Ending the turn finishes my first Catapult, which is renamed:



Obviously!

[Maksim]

Wow!

I'm quite impressed by the meat grinder that the stalemate in the east has turned to. From the looks of it, I'm still not sure why Balseraphs\Calabim never went north-west to Lug**, but are content to sit there and let your priests gain experience points.

Are you building more Priests\Lightbringers anywhere at the moment? You seem to be missing one or two.

Also, whilst I greatly appreciate having a unit named after myself, may I suggest a slight change of "ks" to "x", so as to be more understandable:


Whatever happens, we have got
The Maxim gun, and they have not.


Best of luck!

[Maksim]

And as for the second catapult (surely there must be a second catapult!), may I suggest Reason?

[DaveV]

I hope killed summoned units do not add to War Weariness

They do, with one very specific exception: temporary summons that die while attacking do not cause war weariness. So your tigers are just like any other unit as far as causing war weariness.