[Spoilers] Peace and Purity - Einion Logos of the Elohim

[WarriorKnight]

The talk with Nyktorion got me thinking, the other civs are probably in the general direction of the Unique features. Something obvious but I missed it.

So there's probably someone W of us but there also might be someone SW of us. Couple of additional possibilities for civs to be. I hope the Bannor or Lanun are in one of those spots.

[WarriorKnight]

Lost my scout to a Griffon and I'm sending my warrior even further away from my capital to pop a hut. Someone also has 9 food, which I'm not even sure how someone gets that.

Ah well, things should be better soon....somehow.

[WarriorKnight]

Hut gave some gold, so I have a nice bankroll now.

Someone is on size 3 (lanun?), 3 people on size 2 (including Nyktorion) and us and someone else size 1. I would just add up the scores and find out who but I'm lazy.

[WarriorKnight]

I lost my warrior to another Griffon, so now I officially have 0 soldiers.

Good thing I have a worker now.

[WarriorKnight]

Dear WarriorKnight, wise monk of the Elohim,

we have promised to inform you whenever we meet any new nations. By this promise, we would like to inform you that we have just met a Bannor scout to the north of your settlement/to the west of our settlement.

may the friendship between our two civilisation last for a long time,
Nyktorion of the Ljosalfar

Interesting. There is a long line of peaks to my north though, so he might be a bit too far away to attack early. Losing scouts suck.

[Selrahc]

I lost my warrior to another Griffon, so now I officially have 0 soldiers.

Just like a nice peaceful Elohim should. Obviously the game is conspiring to force you to play the Elohim as a lovely friendly builder civ.

[WarriorKnight]

Just like a nice peaceful Elohim should. Obviously the game is conspiring to force you to play the Elohim as a lovely friendly builder civ.

I may be peaceful but I'm not stupid (note: lurker thread will disprove this statement ). The Elohim have to, uh, cleanse the land of these infidels since they have very little economic bonuses to do anything else, although given the distance between everyone and wildlands, I'm not sure how successful the rush will be. Still have a bit more time to decide though.

[WarriorKnight]

Moar Strategy-

Time to talk religion. I'll need to pick one some at some point since the Elohim focus on disciple units and the Devout can upgrade into good priests, so it might as well be now. Firstly, the ones that aren't worth it:

CoE - The hidden nationality on recon units or Nox Noctis could be useful, but CoE as state religion? Gibbon is obsoleted by Corlindale and Shadowriders aren't worth not having priests. In short, nah.

OO - This powerful religion just doesn't work well with the Elohim. I don't have any coast near me, Devouts don't upgrade into Cultists and Hemah is uneeded thanks to Corlindale.

FoL - I can't see FoL working well as a permanent choice with non-elves. Even though the priests are nice, the heroes are late and Nyktorion will easily beat me to it.

RoK - While I usually go Runes early with the Elohim before switching to something else, I have other early priorities this game and thus someone else will beat me to all the good stuff here. Namely the Mines (although getting Spirit Guide on Bambur and killing him before switching is fun too, although that works with any religious hero). If I'm not going to rush this could be an option early.



So that leaves 3 different possibilities:

AV - I generally stop by at AV at some point in SP to summon Hyborem and build the Grimiore before switching to something else. With the Sheaim bound to go for AV (and therefore will summon Hyborem) and no easy way to get Resurrection, there's no need for it to be a permanent choice but it still might be worth going for at some point.

pros:
-Awesome Priests
-Infernal Grimoire
-summons Hyborem (Elohim view Hyborem as a positive since they gain so much from him)
-early Rosier
-Elohim have best way of keeping AC down (negates biggest disadvantage of AV)

cons:
-can't use Devouts
-Need archmages for Resurrection, which is the least efficient way
-Sheaim will want AV for sure, and benefit from high AC more than anyone else



Empyrean - A powerful religion for sure (and it also best fits the background for the Elohim if we want to be crazy/stupid like that). If we go for this we'll want to get Theology quickly (ie. via ToD or the Grimoire) for Resurrection High Priests (and Crown of Brilliance too).

pros:
-Chalid
-Can upgrade Devouts
-Dies Diei
-Rathas
-Awesome High Priest

cons:
-2nd level spell is rather poor
-No economy help
-probably lots of competition?



Order - If we go this way, we'll want to get Righteousness quickly for Sphener (and Paladins). Since Righteousness also unlocks the 6th layer of the Altar, if we want to go for that victory then we should go with Order (Although I don't think Altar victory would work, 7th piece is way too late).

pros:
-Easy spreading
-2 great heroes
-Can upgrade Devouts
-Fairly Good Priests
-probably less competition
-fastest way to get Ressurection (via Sphener)

cons:
-Reliquary is wasted on Confessors (Confessors naturally start with Spirit Guide)
-casting Bless on Corlindale is extremely easy to do and is a surefire way of letting assassins kill him
-need to get Iron if we want to use Paladins
-minimal economy help

[Mist]

Something that just struck me. That elven scout might not have had visibility on our city square since it was behind a forested hill. We should have probably done less panic and more bluff back then... Oh well, at least the deal was indeed generous

Anyhow my input on religions - this map is huge. All three choices are good, but Order would allow us not to pay maintenance costs on all those hundreds of cities we're going to have eventually. Tempting.

[WarriorKnight]

Something that just struck me. That elven scout might not have had visibility on our city square since it was behind a forested hill. We should have probably done less panic and more bluff back then... Oh well, at least the deal was indeed generous

I don't think it was that bad. The problem is that we had Sanctuary, and so either we could avoid casting it and possibly die or cast it and wonder for the rest of the game if we could have gotten away with not casting it. If we were anyone else, bluffing probably would have been better.