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

[Mist]

I meant to post something significant for a while now and kept running out of time. Let's do it in one batch then. Random thought cloud warning

Toth and OO : Next target Mardoc? You might actually want to get involved in that case.

Irgy's map : That's a whole lot of decent land ( triple gems on this map? priceless ). I think this validates the decision not to give up that city spot he wanted.

Toth's broken FP farms : one of the reasons flavour starts are bad. I'm not sure, but I think food figure on demogs is before unhealthiness. Anyhow, Malakim floodplain aristofarms should be banned.

Barb city : Is it on the dot-map?

Diplo status : nothing to add. Shame that Irgy is so removed from the main issue of the times ( Toth ).

[WarriorKnight]

I meant to post something significant for a while now and kept running out of time. Let's do it in one batch then. Random thought cloud warning

Toth and OO : Next target Mardoc? You might actually want to get involved in that case.

I doubt it. Thoth has at least 10 cities, maintenance ought to start becoming an issue even with superpowered Aristofarms. Mardoc's also in OO to counter, and I have a NAP with Thoth for another 30 turns either way. Although I won't be signing any more NAP's without good reason and if Thoth targets anyone else I'll strongly consider getting involved.

Irgy's map : That's a whole lot of decent land ( triple gems on this map? priceless ). I think this validates the decision not to give up that city spot he wanted.

They were all jungled until recently apparently. Still, 3 gems is extremely nice, and has lots of food to go around.

Toth's broken FP farms : one of the reasons flavour starts are bad. I'm not sure, but I think food figure on demogs is before unhealthiness. Anyhow, Malakim floodplain aristofarms should be banned.

Floodplain Malakim farms are definitely painful, they can get up to as high as 5/0/5. Fortunately (or unfortunately) he hasn't got sanitation yet for the last point of food, but it's still a very powerful combination for an adaptive leader.

Barb city : Is it on the dot-map?

No it isn't yet. There is enough room for it to fit, but it does cramp a city on the southern shoreline a bit. I suppose it should go in as I otherwise won't be able to get the Tomb for a long time.

Speaking of which, I have 7 cities with at least 4 decent spots left. There is a spot on nyktorion's border with a mana node and nothing else which will serve as city 12, and I haven't looked at anything after that.

Diplo status : nothing to add. Shame that Irgy is so removed from the main issue of the times ( Toth ).

Ya, ironic that the scariest military player is furthest away from the demogs leader. The Malakim and elves are fighting for 1st place in power, everyone else (including me) is rather pathetic. Once I get Valin and some monks up it should be better, but that's 2nd priority to expansion and growth right now.

[WarriorKnight]

Construction came in end of turn, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that Sanitation will only take 3 turns (2 at 100%, 1 saving gold - I have 195 bpt). I might also go for Sailing before Trade, as even though it's almost useless to me it only takes a turn and is the other pre-req for Trade.

In other tech news, no-one has claimed the free GArtist from Drama yet. I'm tempted to claim him myself (GArtist + Sanctuary = :dancing5 but things like Sanitation and Trade are higher priorities. If it's still available when Drama only takes a turn I'll take it, but I expect it to fall before then.

Tech path BTW is: Sanitation, Trade (and HBR/Sailing), KotE (Alteration?/Divination?), Currency?/Deception?, Fanaticism

[WarriorKnight]

Let's talk about the border with Thoth a bit:



The tactical situation is, well, not good. Thanks to Thoth being a Nomad he gets double movement and essentially a free combat promotion on all desert tiles, and that's all the terrain is between me and him. Clearly I'm going to need to fix that somehow before getting involved, but how?

Spring does turn desert into plain tiles, but it doesn't work on floodplains and Ballinasloe is surrounded by them. He should also should have Scorch which undoes the effects of Spring (although with so much desert out there it probably won't matter). Vitalise won't solve the problem either, it's a slow process and by the time I get Corlindale and unlock it I won't have enough time to Vitalise every tile before our NAP runs out.

The answer is Snowfall. In addition to the crazy collateral that it's well known for, it turns the 9 tiles surrounding the caster to Ice, which conveniently neglects Nomad. The ice is only temporary (it lasts 3-9 turns), but in war that's a long time. It also won't affect the tile yields of my floodplains, but it will for Thoth (since he gets bonus commerce on desert tiles). And the collateral might also be useful. Sadly, I need Corlindale for Snowfall, and I'm unsure if I get to him in the 25 turns left in our NAP.

I'll still want Spring since the city tile is desert and that needs to be fixed, along with a couple of other desert tiles in my borders. (hence the reason I want KotE before Fanaticism). There are 3 other adept level spells that O could use this early. Haste and Enchanted Blade both get unlocked from Alteration and would be very useful (extra movement for all units and essentially a free combat promotion for warriors respectively). Slow might also be useful as I can't imagine that he'll have very many Haste adepts running around to counter it.

In terms of what army will be like, it's still 25 turns away but I'll hopefully have Valin and a few monks up by then to form the base of my army. I'm hoping I can get Corlindale too for Snowfall, but I'm not completely sure about that yet. If I can, then I might even be able to take the offensive against him. (assuming of course I even want to go to war with him on T135, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared)

[WarriorKnight]

The big news for T112 is that Sanitation completed EoT, and my food jumped up by to 170 (increase by around 30-40, clear 2nd to Thoth who's at 200). Glens, Cahir and Slane are all practically at the happy cap so another settler or two may need to be built (along with several workers) while waiting to connect Incense for temple happy and mines as an alternative to farms. Scientists are also a possibility but I don't want to do that without also working some Priests since Prophets are of much more use to me. My other 4 cities are all growing much quicker now.

Next up, Trade. I'd guess it'll take 7 turns to get it and it's pre-requisites.

[WarriorKnight]

Thoth has offered me his only wheat for my surplus rice without a word. I'm not entirely sure why he offered that (I'm 99% sure that I'm the only one with Dreptus) but I couldn't think of a reason to turn it down (even if he does get another wheat up shortly the rival worst on health has jumped up to 59 so it wouldn't make a difference, and my capital is unhealthy anyway).

T113 was otherwise not particularly noteworthy (well aside from getting used to Sanitation farms). Built my first Priest EoT. I wish I could keep him around to bless all my units but Slane needs a temple right now (it has something like 17 surplus food and is size 11). I should also be getting my first monk and Valin shortly, and then I won't be fighting for last place in power anymore.

[WarriorKnight]

I have to post a picture of this:



Woohoo! Watch out world, here comes Valin.

Since I haven't talked about him yet, Valin is a strength 8 horse hero available with Orders from Heaven (the Order founding tech). He is almost an exact twin of the AV hero Rosier, having nothing much otherwise special about him. Still awesome nonetheless.

Now, I don't know yet how I'll want to promote him. Hero will give him 9 free promotions, and a couple of combat promotions will be essential, but after that there are several possibilities. Commando, Blitz, C5, Drill IV, Mobility 2 etc. Any ideas Mist?

Also something I need a bit of advice on is that nyktorion would like to borrow my water mana for Spring soon. He suggested a Air mana loan in exchange, but I'm not interested in Air (only good spell is Maelstrom, but I won't have enough mages to use it effectively and I'll soon have snowfall anyway). His other mana types are of limited use to me also (already have nature, will soon have life and I get that sphere from Devouts anyway, don't really need Earth either (standing stones)). I'm not sure what I could ask from him in exchange yet, aside from a mana type that doesn't come from his palace (having to burn one of his own mana nodes in the process). Thoughts?

[Mist]

Drill is meh, he'll not have enough strength advantage to consistently win combat rounds. If you're not planning to fight swarms of much weaker units first strike doesn't help a lot. I don't remember, can he get Flanking? That would help his life expectancy a lot.

I'd say go cookie-cutter - Combat up to March, Mobility, and a couple spare promos for Cover/Scourge/Demon Slaying depending on who do you end up fighting.

About mana - that depends if you plan to get Sorcery or not. If not, talk to him and agree a future loan of mana you both should find useful that's good on adepts. Enchantment ( blade for both of you, arrows + happy for him ) comes to mind instantly, Entropy ( rust ) and Body ( haste ) are also decent.
If you do plan to go for Sorcery then double life gives you instant Sanctify and shortens time till Disple Undead ( to keep all these sick and flaming zombies in check ).
Or you can just ask him to send a couple of priests your way to build Leaves temples.

[WarriorKnight]

Drill is meh, he'll not have enough strength advantage to consistently win combat rounds. If you're not planning to fight swarms of much weaker units first strike doesn't help a lot. I don't remember, can he get Flanking? That would help his life expectancy a lot.

Your probably right on Drill, strength 8 can be easily overpowered by Tier IV units.

Valin does indeed get Flanking and now that I consider it, it's very tempting. 3 Flanking promotions give +50% to add on to a base of 25% and homeland gives another 10% for 85% withdrawal rate. Not bad.

I'd say go cookie-cutter - Combat up to March, Mobility, and a couple spare promos for Cover/Scourge/Demon Slaying depending on who do you end up fighting.

Dunno about mobility, most of my army isn't going to be moving faster than 3 moves a turn anyway. March might be necessary just for survival (I prefer regeneration although for a hero it's worth getting march). Valin gets Demon Slaying for free and can't get Scourge, but unit counter promotions are so good it's worth saving some promotions for them.

About mana - that depends if you plan to get Sorcery or not. If not, talk to him and agree a future loan of mana you both should find useful that's good on adepts. Enchantment ( blade for both of you, arrows + happy for him ) comes to mind instantly, Entropy ( rust ) and Body ( haste ) are also decent.

I do want sorcery (eventually, although I doubt I'll get it in time to matter) but those options are good either way since it will be a long time before I get mages, and those adept spells are quite valuable.

If you do plan to go for Sorcery then double life gives you instant Sanctify and shortens time till Disple Undead ( to keep all these sick and flaming zombies in check ).

True, but why waste perfectly good mages on Life spells when I can use Priests instead? That's the beauty of Devouts, or more specifically Devout-upgraded Priests. I'll go grab them at Poisons when I can but Corlindale is much more important ATM, and Irgy isn't showing signs of attacking me with PZ's in the near future anyway.

Or you can just ask him to send a couple of priests your way to build Leaves temples.

Another possibility, although I think asking for enchantment or body might be better in the short term, and Leaf temples won't be that important for a while.

[WarriorKnight]

Looks like Thoth has trade:



He has 7 techs on me (the 6 listed and Military strategy) but after analyzing I also have 6 techs on him. They are Hunting, Cartography, Construction, Sanitation, WotWise and Orders from Heaven. Not exactly the best news to hear, but against a Financial leader I'm happy that I'm keeping up somewhat.

Mardoc said he would be getting trade next turn too, but since I'm getting it soon enough anyway I'll hold off until I can see everyone's techs.