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

[WarriorKnight]

Been a while since I had an event:




Another non-eventful event (but half of them are like that). This one puts out all fires in my land. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I don't have any fires in my territory and probably never will unless the Sheaim fire their worldspell or something.




First in food and GNP, last in MFG. I'm happy with that.

[WarriorKnight]

Alright, it's been a while since I've done a in depth look of something from the Elohim. My first one was about Monk rushing, but since I'm not going to be doing that anymore it's kinda obsolete (Monk's are still a solid T3 unit though).

Anyway, this time I'll look at the other Elohim UU, the Devout:



As explained at the beginning, the Devout is an assassin who doesn't have the marksman promotion, but instead has Channeling & Life 1, can explore rival territory without OB and can upgrade into a good priest. No marksman means that the Devout is not really an assassin at all, so how is it useful? (speaking of which, if it's not an assassin, why is it unlocked at poisons? doesn't make any sense)


As I see it, there are a couple of ways to really make use of this unit. Firstly, you can abuse the 'can explore rival territory' to it's limit. By getting the Council of Esus religion, a Devout can harass people with hidden nationality and pick off workers and undefended units and such. It's much more effective in SP though and probably almost useless here, since anytime you capture something you'll have to delete the Devout or risk being exposed.


It can be used as an easy way to get Sanctify. If Hell Terrain is spreading like mad it's an excellent way of stopping it.


The main reason though is to upgrade into a priest while keeping the two promotions. This means priests can promote to Life 2, Destroy Undead (since the Sheaim are my neighbors, it may be very useful) and High Priests get Life 3 (although I don't think I'll get Theology before the game is over). Also Channeling 1 gives a 'potency' effect which gives Priests experience faster than normal and a higher cap, definitely useful.

The downside of upgrading Priests this way is that they don't start with Altar experience. Each layer of the Altar (there are 7 total, although I don't think I'll get past 4 or 5 before the game ends) gives 2 starting experience to Divine units which, in a game where starting experience is rare, is very useful. (This is why the Malakim are great, Lightbringers with high starting experience can upgrade into any of the recon, divine, arcane or OO melee line, keeping the experience)

The other good thing about upgrading this way (that I can think of) is that since a recon unit is promoting into a divine unit, I could give the Devout some recon only promotions before upgrading, and Priests keep those promotions after upgrading. I could tell you some of the promotions I'm interested in, however I'll open the floor to my adorable lurkers.

Quiz time! :dancing5: : :2dance:

The Question is:

Which 3 promotions am I potentially interested in a Devout having before being upgrading into a Priest? (that Divine units cannot normally get)


I'll give whoever guesses each promotion correctly first a cookie (yes, 3 whole cookies!). If you get stuck and need help, I'll give a hint out but then no more cookies get awarded after that (cookies don't grow on trees you know, you need to work for them ).

[Ilios]

Which 3 promotions am I potentially interested in a Devout having before being upgrading into a Priest? (that Divine units cannot normally get)

I'll take Sentry, and I'd like you to name a river after me (cookies, really!)

Also, you're Lightbringer theory is slightly off, but I won't correct it here, because I don't want to alarm my PBEM 2 rivals...

[Selrahc]

Promotions that Recon units can get?
Mobility 2. Subdue Animal/Subdue Beast. Sentry 1/Sentry 2/Perfect Sight.

For a slightly more off the wall theory... Aeron's Chosen.
For a theory that doesn't make much sense, Marksman. It doesn't make sense since it is only available *really* late in the tech tree.

[WarriorKnight]

I'll take Sentry, and I'd like you to name a river after me (cookies, really!)

Sorry, that's not right. Disciple units can already take Sentry 1, and why take Sentry 2 when I can use hawks instead?

What wrong with cookies? I guess I can name a river after you, but you got to guess correctly first. (what's so good about naming a river anyway?)

Promotions that Recon units can get?
Mobility 2. Subdue Animal/Subdue Beast. Sentry 1/Sentry 2/Perfect Sight.

For a slightly more off the wall theory... Aeron's Chosen.
For a theory that doesn't make much sense, Marksman. It doesn't make sense since it is only available *really* late in the tech tree.

You can't have 8 guesses in a single post! That just takes the whole fun out of it (for me). But since you taken out most of the competition, I guess I'll cough up.






You managed to get two of them correct (nope you missed the last one), so I'll explain the ones you got right.


Mobility 2 is one of them. Getting 3 move priests? That let's them keep up with Monks and other 2 move units, so it's quite useful. Every Priest should have Mobility 2.


The other one was Aeron's chosen. I didn't think it was that easy though (you rightly called it off the wall).

For those who don't know, Aeron's chosen is a scripted event. The first assassin (or Devout, in my case) to reach level 6 (24xp) activates the event and subsequently gets the promotion. It's quite awesome, giving an additional 2 Unholy strength and it heals the unit by 20% after beating any living unit (along with an immunity to fear and first strikes). The problem is that Assassin's don't have good upgrades into Tier 4 units, either Marksman (needing precision, mithril and a level 6 unit, not worth it) or Shadows (needing CoE and Guilds, a long way from the recon line).

The reason I want it, aside from denial, is so I can can change it from an assassin only promotion to my natural unit line (disciple). I got to ask this, have you ever used an Aeron's Chosen Paladin? I doubt I'll be able to get Iron and Righteousness before the game is effectively over, but it's still something I want to do for fun, if nothing else.

This is why I want to research Hunting. Get one hunter up to 24 experience on animals and then upgrade it to a Devout when I grab poisons, immediately claiming the bonus. Hawk scouting is useful too.

[WarriorKnight]

Finished the settler for my third city and an Elder Council in my second city. Both cities are now at the happy cap. I'll need to build Dreptus at some point for Ale (likely in my second city).

I wonder what everyone's reaction will be when I adopt Aristocracy? That'll be fun.

Also Sciz killed Orthus. I would have thought that he wouldn't have dies that early with a map this big, but I guess if he spawns right outside someone's borders it can't really be helped.

[Ilios]

Yes, Mobility 2, that's what I meant...

[WarriorKnight]

Yes, Mobility 2, that's what I meant...

Sure you did.

You know, there's still 4 different promotions and one prize left. It shouldn't be that hard to guess which one left is the last one, if you still want that river named after you.

[uberfish]

Blitz

[Selrahc]

Blitz

Priests can definitely get Blitz.


I think it's Flanking 1. That stacks with Defensive, so it could be worthwhile.

I was initially thinking it was poison blades.. but I don't think that sticks with a unit when it changes unit type.
Literally the only other thing I can think of is Woodsman, which I guess could be good for fighting elves.
EDIT: After some rooting around in the civilopedia I figured out the fourth one. Scourge. That might be nice... but only if someone else focuses heavy on the divine line.