Quick report for now - no time for a detailed report (possibly till after Monday).
I didn't finish my game (as the title suggests).
I popped Letum Frigus' Aggressive Bonus, because this was a custom map; I feared that there would be some nasty surprises that would require every advantage I could get, but it turns out it was completely unnecessary.
Rushed for the Priests (built around T80), and immediately sent them to stake Flauros. Then they went for Jonas, then for Os-Gabella's empire on the eastern shore. After that, they barged through some Infernal cities that were in their way towards Tebryn Arbandi. Then they went for Os-Gabella's remaining empire on the Western shore - She built Rosier, which didn't make much difference, honestly. Hyborem's allies were completely wiped off the face of Erebus on T144.
Clever touch with the Burning Sands wall blocking the remaining 3 Infernal cities. I had enough promotions on my Priests to get Resist Fire to bypass it, but just as I was about to take the promotions and move into Hyborem's borders, I saw (with a Hawk) his huge Diseased Corpse/Hellhound/Warrior stack on Odio's Prison move towards them. So I called off the attack.
Now, this wasn't that long into the game. Hyborem had an awesome army due to the fact that I burnt down every single Ashen Veil city in existence.
Apparently, this had the consequence of completely crippling his economy, as he never seemed to research any tech at all since the fall of his last remaining ally till the time I stopped playing (after I settled around half the map in peace).
Hyborem never moved his units out for any offensive or even attempt to claim more land beyond his 3 protected cities after I eliminated his earlier cities and his allies, instead preferring to send out Savants to spread AV to barbarian cities. Nice free XP for my priests.
I could have just spammed settlers and win a Domination Victory easily, since I was well close to the limit, but I didn't. This was because I had thought that the closing day was on Monday.
Well, anyway my main complaint is that the AI completely sucks big time. Hyborem never attacked me, and the AI couldn't stand against the might of 3 lone Priests (with their Ice Elementals) and the occasional Mobility Javelin Thrower that accompanied them when he was not busy pillaging the countryside.
Also, I was pillaging the Eastern Os-Gabellan city with one of my starting Javelin Throwers for ages before it was finally killed off. Must've burned down several towns before he was taken down, despite being badly injured for a long time.
And Hyborem seemed to be deciding his movements with the rolls of an 8-sided die.
After Hyborem's last ally fell, the Priests were busy pillaging the countryside - This was crucial in resurrecting my completely tanked economy (broke even at 0%), and allowed me to continue to research at 100% science for many, many turns.
If I had the patience to play it out and avoiding the easy Domination Victory, I'd have tried to go get all my best units (Drifa, Wilboman, all the highest tier units, Ice III Archmages and High Priests) and boat Hyborem - it's not as if he was ever going to attack me with his huge stack of junk anyway. But it was too boring, even for autopilot play. Stopped a little shy of T200 - kept wavering on whether to just finish the damned game by planting settlers on the remaining land or just abandon it altogether, till I missed the deadline.
Also, I happened to pop a Thane from a Dungeon and founded RoK in Garduk. Eventually i popped a GProphet from another lair, and built the Tablets of Bambur.
Too bad I didn't get a Zealot for OO and Necronomicon. Water-Walking would've been totally awesome. I would've probably tried to build the Rites of Oghma project to get some nodes, if I had the time and Strength of Will (to finish the game, and the tech, too, heh).
By the way, what do Necrototems do? I never built a ship, so I never found out. And what does the Tormented Souls feature actually do?
Screenshots will come later, when I have the time.
I didn't finish my game (as the title suggests).
I popped Letum Frigus' Aggressive Bonus, because this was a custom map; I feared that there would be some nasty surprises that would require every advantage I could get, but it turns out it was completely unnecessary.
Rushed for the Priests (built around T80), and immediately sent them to stake Flauros. Then they went for Jonas, then for Os-Gabella's empire on the eastern shore. After that, they barged through some Infernal cities that were in their way towards Tebryn Arbandi. Then they went for Os-Gabella's remaining empire on the Western shore - She built Rosier, which didn't make much difference, honestly. Hyborem's allies were completely wiped off the face of Erebus on T144.
Clever touch with the Burning Sands wall blocking the remaining 3 Infernal cities. I had enough promotions on my Priests to get Resist Fire to bypass it, but just as I was about to take the promotions and move into Hyborem's borders, I saw (with a Hawk) his huge Diseased Corpse/Hellhound/Warrior stack on Odio's Prison move towards them. So I called off the attack.
Now, this wasn't that long into the game. Hyborem had an awesome army due to the fact that I burnt down every single Ashen Veil city in existence.
Apparently, this had the consequence of completely crippling his economy, as he never seemed to research any tech at all since the fall of his last remaining ally till the time I stopped playing (after I settled around half the map in peace).
Hyborem never moved his units out for any offensive or even attempt to claim more land beyond his 3 protected cities after I eliminated his earlier cities and his allies, instead preferring to send out Savants to spread AV to barbarian cities. Nice free XP for my priests.
I could have just spammed settlers and win a Domination Victory easily, since I was well close to the limit, but I didn't. This was because I had thought that the closing day was on Monday.
Well, anyway my main complaint is that the AI completely sucks big time. Hyborem never attacked me, and the AI couldn't stand against the might of 3 lone Priests (with their Ice Elementals) and the occasional Mobility Javelin Thrower that accompanied them when he was not busy pillaging the countryside.
Also, I was pillaging the Eastern Os-Gabellan city with one of my starting Javelin Throwers for ages before it was finally killed off. Must've burned down several towns before he was taken down, despite being badly injured for a long time.
And Hyborem seemed to be deciding his movements with the rolls of an 8-sided die.
After Hyborem's last ally fell, the Priests were busy pillaging the countryside - This was crucial in resurrecting my completely tanked economy (broke even at 0%), and allowed me to continue to research at 100% science for many, many turns.
If I had the patience to play it out and avoiding the easy Domination Victory, I'd have tried to go get all my best units (Drifa, Wilboman, all the highest tier units, Ice III Archmages and High Priests) and boat Hyborem - it's not as if he was ever going to attack me with his huge stack of junk anyway. But it was too boring, even for autopilot play. Stopped a little shy of T200 - kept wavering on whether to just finish the damned game by planting settlers on the remaining land or just abandon it altogether, till I missed the deadline.
Also, I happened to pop a Thane from a Dungeon and founded RoK in Garduk. Eventually i popped a GProphet from another lair, and built the Tablets of Bambur.
Too bad I didn't get a Zealot for OO and Necronomicon. Water-Walking would've been totally awesome. I would've probably tried to build the Rites of Oghma project to get some nodes, if I had the time and Strength of Will (to finish the game, and the tech, too, heh).
By the way, what do Necrototems do? I never built a ship, so I never found out. And what does the Tormented Souls feature actually do?
Screenshots will come later, when I have the time.