Not many screenshots taken, but this was a very interesting game. I played it out in a series of objective based sessions, which was a satisfying way of taking chunks out of what was at times an uphill struggle. So, my notes on the sessions.
Session 1: The Wolfman of Alcatraz
Session 2: Baring the Fangs
Session 3: A Wolf in the Fold
Session 4: Full Moon Falling
Session 5: The Old Run Around
Session 6: It will end in Fire.
Session 7: Lupus Dominus
![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot0136.JPG]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25413680/Civ4ScreenShot0136.JPG)
Religious Victory T266.
White Star of Werewolves
Purple Star of Paradise
Fantastic game Bob, I really had a blast playing it.
EDIT: I could have finished around T230, but I'd forgotten to spread AV to a city, and by the time I'd done so the bloody Mercurians had climbed above 20% in pop. Grr. Still, got a nice epic climactic battle out of it.
Session 1: The Wolfman of Alcatraz
The first sessions goal was to escape from Limbo.
Which I found incredibly easy. In fact, better than easy, over the course of the Limbo dungeons I encountered 4 different Lizardmen vs. Dwarf events. By the end of the journey, I had a very high promoted Baron, and one of the two original werewolves (Ginger) was actually slightly ahead of him, while the other was also good. More importantly, I had acquired 2 extra greater werewolves, and 4 extra blooded wolves, along with an Ashen Veil Savant and 4 lizardmen(Who had been used as fodder to weaken any particularly tough opponents). I'd deleted the supplies in the first 5 turns though, since they were murdering my economy.
In Empire news during the early game, I quickly pushed out to 5 cities in a diamond arrangement and sent a small pillage force to the Luchuirp... who entirely ignored it. It proceeded to wander around their territory burning everything.
After the first session, it was T89 I had an economically weak but nicely growing empire, a crippled Luchuirp and an infeasibly large number of werewolves. Things were looking good.
Which I found incredibly easy. In fact, better than easy, over the course of the Limbo dungeons I encountered 4 different Lizardmen vs. Dwarf events. By the end of the journey, I had a very high promoted Baron, and one of the two original werewolves (Ginger) was actually slightly ahead of him, while the other was also good. More importantly, I had acquired 2 extra greater werewolves, and 4 extra blooded wolves, along with an Ashen Veil Savant and 4 lizardmen(Who had been used as fodder to weaken any particularly tough opponents). I'd deleted the supplies in the first 5 turns though, since they were murdering my economy.
In Empire news during the early game, I quickly pushed out to 5 cities in a diamond arrangement and sent a small pillage force to the Luchuirp... who entirely ignored it. It proceeded to wander around their territory burning everything.
After the first session, it was T89 I had an economically weak but nicely growing empire, a crippled Luchuirp and an infeasibly large number of werewolves. Things were looking good.
Session 2: Baring the Fangs
This was by far the shortest of the sessions. The objective was to kill the Luchuirp and the Bannor. It didn't quite end up working out...
But stage one was fine. The Luchuirp crumbled with ease, getting another Blooded Werewolf promoted to greater in the process. Promotion priority for the greater werewolves at this stage was March. The numbers were swelling, with the Baron and Ginger smashing any overly tough opposition at 95%+ odds.
With the Luchuirp cities added to the Empire and the Burgeoning wolf numbers, the tech rate properly crashed. I'd so far pushed towards the military state technologies for city raider, and now worked slowly slowly slowly towards veil. The initial crash made me choose to raze my next conquests. Possibly unwisely.
What caused a setback however... were Paladins. I sent the werewolves into Bannor lands and the S15, C5 Paladins were an immense roadblock. The Holy boost from order was an immense boon to them. I couldn't figure out how to easily take them down quickly.
So I didn't. I left the Bannor lands. The pack sought easier prey.
But stage one was fine. The Luchuirp crumbled with ease, getting another Blooded Werewolf promoted to greater in the process. Promotion priority for the greater werewolves at this stage was March. The numbers were swelling, with the Baron and Ginger smashing any overly tough opposition at 95%+ odds.
With the Luchuirp cities added to the Empire and the Burgeoning wolf numbers, the tech rate properly crashed. I'd so far pushed towards the military state technologies for city raider, and now worked slowly slowly slowly towards veil. The initial crash made me choose to raze my next conquests. Possibly unwisely.
What caused a setback however... were Paladins. I sent the werewolves into Bannor lands and the S15, C5 Paladins were an immense roadblock. The Holy boost from order was an immense boon to them. I couldn't figure out how to easily take them down quickly.
So I didn't. I left the Bannor lands. The pack sought easier prey.
Session 3: A Wolf in the Fold
And easier prey they found. Session 3 was a straightforward clear out of the Elohim and Malakim, helped immeasurably by the fact that they were very fond of moving their own high power paladins out of their cities.
It was a very good breeding ground for the werewolves. I was only using greater werewolves in the attacks, unless facing a tough top defender who needed to have a bit of damage applied, but there were enough workers running around undefended that I got a nice spate of Blooded wolves.
I lost a few Greater Wolves on annoying battles meant to get them promoted, but gained an equal number. More importantly, my top 3 wolves were now invulnerable. Ginger, Father Wolf and the Baron had over 300xp each and with the scourge promotion and city raider 3 were now getting 99% odds even against paladins.
I left the Elohim and Malakim lands with 20 blooded wolves, 5 greater wolves and the Baron, as well as a lot of slaves and captured workers that had been promoted into battlemasters, a Doviello feature I was happy to possess. Time to check in on Basium...
It was a very good breeding ground for the werewolves. I was only using greater werewolves in the attacks, unless facing a tough top defender who needed to have a bit of damage applied, but there were enough workers running around undefended that I got a nice spate of Blooded wolves.
I lost a few Greater Wolves on annoying battles meant to get them promoted, but gained an equal number. More importantly, my top 3 wolves were now invulnerable. Ginger, Father Wolf and the Baron had over 300xp each and with the scourge promotion and city raider 3 were now getting 99% odds even against paladins.
I left the Elohim and Malakim lands with 20 blooded wolves, 5 greater wolves and the Baron, as well as a lot of slaves and captured workers that had been promoted into battlemasters, a Doviello feature I was happy to possess. Time to check in on Basium...
Session 4: Full Moon Falling
It was at this stage, that several massive setbacks occurred.
Firstly, my planned attack on Basium. I had thought to swiftly eliminate the Angel, before rounding back on the Bannor for an easy game. Both plans had a sting in the tail however...
The first thing to occur was the Mercurian Massacare. The Werewolves with commando forged ahead of the pack, and burned a weakly defended expansion city, the pack of blooded wolves and Battlemasters and Wilfred the slow Great Wolf slowly moved towards the core. Surely nothing could endanger them?
Well I was dead wrong in that assumption. A stack of hundreds of Mercurian Angels scoruged them from the face of the planet. This was to be my first sighting of the Mercurian stack of doom, that was to give me some incredible tactical problems later on.
Well, my 5 remaining Wolf Lords didn't want to stick around to face that right now.. Time to move on to Light Blue pastures, that had been left behind a while ago.
They stopped to raze another Mercurian border city on the way.
And that took the AC over 40...
![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot0135.JPG]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25413680/Civ4ScreenShot0135.JPG)
And the horsemen of the Apocalypse tore down the walls of creation to attack me.
Well, my Dwarven cities were taken from me very quickly, and I started moving up actual Doviello troops for their first military action, a proposed Apocalypse rumble in Dwarven lands, when an even bigger blow arrived.
The Bannor hadn't been sitting idle while I killed their friends and desecrated heaven. They'd been getting ready for war. A Bannor deathstack of around 70 units appeared near my borders, with cats, Sphener, Valin, Donal, Paladins... a legitimately scary stack. Better than the trash I had to protect my empire. Iron Battlemasters and uncured diseased corpses? Ugh. Even the starting Crossbowmen weren't likely to be good enough.
I moved the entire force in the homelands to the border city before the fight started. Every single worker was upgraded into a military unit. The wolf pack were called for defence, although with their mighty defence 2 they didn't do much to help. I had not a bean beyond the city that was up for a battle.
And I lost. The 40 units I had defending the city died. The Bannor razed it and started moving towards my entirely undefended core diamond. I was feverishly pumipng out Sons of Asena for upgrade but I could tell it wouldn't be enough...
At which stage the Bannor army disappeared.
Because the Great Wolves hadn't been idle. They arrived in the Bannor homeland and munched on their paltry defensive stacks. Their cities fell before the wolf pack like wheat before a thresher.
And in the Capital, they discovered a meeting of Angels. Sabathiel of the Bannor and Basium of the Mercurians both died defending the last Bannor city. The leadership of Heaven had been wiped out, and the Bannor, heavens sword, had been eliminated.
All that remained was a final devastating battle against the hordes of the Angels.
Firstly, my planned attack on Basium. I had thought to swiftly eliminate the Angel, before rounding back on the Bannor for an easy game. Both plans had a sting in the tail however...
The first thing to occur was the Mercurian Massacare. The Werewolves with commando forged ahead of the pack, and burned a weakly defended expansion city, the pack of blooded wolves and Battlemasters and Wilfred the slow Great Wolf slowly moved towards the core. Surely nothing could endanger them?
Well I was dead wrong in that assumption. A stack of hundreds of Mercurian Angels scoruged them from the face of the planet. This was to be my first sighting of the Mercurian stack of doom, that was to give me some incredible tactical problems later on.
Well, my 5 remaining Wolf Lords didn't want to stick around to face that right now.. Time to move on to Light Blue pastures, that had been left behind a while ago.
They stopped to raze another Mercurian border city on the way.
And that took the AC over 40...
And the horsemen of the Apocalypse tore down the walls of creation to attack me.
Well, my Dwarven cities were taken from me very quickly, and I started moving up actual Doviello troops for their first military action, a proposed Apocalypse rumble in Dwarven lands, when an even bigger blow arrived.
The Bannor hadn't been sitting idle while I killed their friends and desecrated heaven. They'd been getting ready for war. A Bannor deathstack of around 70 units appeared near my borders, with cats, Sphener, Valin, Donal, Paladins... a legitimately scary stack. Better than the trash I had to protect my empire. Iron Battlemasters and uncured diseased corpses? Ugh. Even the starting Crossbowmen weren't likely to be good enough.
I moved the entire force in the homelands to the border city before the fight started. Every single worker was upgraded into a military unit. The wolf pack were called for defence, although with their mighty defence 2 they didn't do much to help. I had not a bean beyond the city that was up for a battle.
And I lost. The 40 units I had defending the city died. The Bannor razed it and started moving towards my entirely undefended core diamond. I was feverishly pumipng out Sons of Asena for upgrade but I could tell it wouldn't be enough...
At which stage the Bannor army disappeared.
Because the Great Wolves hadn't been idle. They arrived in the Bannor homeland and munched on their paltry defensive stacks. Their cities fell before the wolf pack like wheat before a thresher.
And in the Capital, they discovered a meeting of Angels. Sabathiel of the Bannor and Basium of the Mercurians both died defending the last Bannor city. The leadership of Heaven had been wiped out, and the Bannor, heavens sword, had been eliminated.
All that remained was a final devastating battle against the hordes of the Angels.
Session 5: The Old Run Around
Session 5 was an oddly listless session after the near elimination and intense moments of Session 4.
In the Empire, a single Mercurian ranger massively hampered rebuilding efforts. Taking over 2 cities. The situation was eventually dealt with.
Buboes and Yersinia both spawned, and thankfully went after the angels, dying in short order.
The Greater Wolf pack had a crazy time. I had a few blooded wolves without promotions who sat at the edge of Mercurian terrain, sniping lone angels.
And the Wolf Lords... well they ran. Or perhaps a more precise term is that they harried. The Death stack was swelling numberm, but the Mercurians were loath to split it up and the Wolves could outrun it with ease. So they did just that. Picking off cities where they could. Swelling still further in experience... I couldn't think of a way to take on that Death Stack.
The session ended without much resolution.. an AC on 69, some of the snipe wolves becoming greater and many Mercurian cities torn down.
In the Empire, a single Mercurian ranger massively hampered rebuilding efforts. Taking over 2 cities. The situation was eventually dealt with.
Buboes and Yersinia both spawned, and thankfully went after the angels, dying in short order.
The Greater Wolf pack had a crazy time. I had a few blooded wolves without promotions who sat at the edge of Mercurian terrain, sniping lone angels.
And the Wolf Lords... well they ran. Or perhaps a more precise term is that they harried. The Death stack was swelling numberm, but the Mercurians were loath to split it up and the Wolves could outrun it with ease. So they did just that. Picking off cities where they could. Swelling still further in experience... I couldn't think of a way to take on that Death Stack.
The session ended without much resolution.. an AC on 69, some of the snipe wolves becoming greater and many Mercurian cities torn down.
Session 6: It will end in Fire.
And then the Armageddon started kicking in for real. Driving end game events in a rather cool way.
During these events the wolves kept their running up as they had the previous sessions, gradually whittling away the Mercurian territory, while the Mercurian death stack numbers swelled. Eventually the snipe wolves were promoted March and Commando and joined their brethren to form the Magnificent 7 wolves. Doviello slave battlemasters were littered around the terrain as sentries on forest hills, where the Mercurians seemed loath to attack them.
At AC70, Ars Moriendi started a campaign of attack, draining troops from my empire, and forcing me to hire tides of mercenaries. He didn't take any cities though.
At AC80, the hellfire barbs weren't much of a problem.
At AC90, the Avatar Spawned. The maginificent seven were enraged. Without me to guide them they sprang onto the teeth of the Mercurian death stack. Only The Baron, Ginger, and Oz survived.
The avatar himself pushed on into my realm, but it seemed both he and Ars Moriendi were content to sit and watch. Content with the destruction caused. They stopped attacking entirely, sitting on my borders in a slightly creepy way. I could finally start stockpiling troops.
The remaining 3 wolves managed to raze the last two non-capital cities of the Mercurians, triggering AC100.
I called the session there, before ending turn and seeing who would survive. I knew already that the angels would be unaffected.
During these events the wolves kept their running up as they had the previous sessions, gradually whittling away the Mercurian territory, while the Mercurian death stack numbers swelled. Eventually the snipe wolves were promoted March and Commando and joined their brethren to form the Magnificent 7 wolves. Doviello slave battlemasters were littered around the terrain as sentries on forest hills, where the Mercurians seemed loath to attack them.
At AC70, Ars Moriendi started a campaign of attack, draining troops from my empire, and forcing me to hire tides of mercenaries. He didn't take any cities though.
At AC80, the hellfire barbs weren't much of a problem.
At AC90, the Avatar Spawned. The maginificent seven were enraged. Without me to guide them they sprang onto the teeth of the Mercurian death stack. Only The Baron, Ginger, and Oz survived.
The avatar himself pushed on into my realm, but it seemed both he and Ars Moriendi were content to sit and watch. Content with the destruction caused. They stopped attacking entirely, sitting on my borders in a slightly creepy way. I could finally start stockpiling troops.
The remaining 3 wolves managed to raze the last two non-capital cities of the Mercurians, triggering AC100.
I called the session there, before ending turn and seeing who would survive. I knew already that the angels would be unaffected.
Session 7: Lupus Dominus
Only Ginger survived. I was glad it was ginger though, as she was by far my favourite of the wolf pack. She had over 800xp at this point, and with the weapons of Buboes, Stephanos, Yersisnia and a Jade Torque was essentially unstoppable except by the death stack.
With the mercurians having one city, protected by around 1000 units, I started looking into victory options. And found one that seemed like a gimme.
Religious Victory.
The AV already had 76% of the world, a little population push and I would win. Ginger returned home.
Unfortunately, the angels weren't so compliant. As I left they founded a second expansion city and with both expanding together I couldn't get the Veil percentage above the 80% threshold.
Ginger was going to have to kill one last city.
I got a gang together. Diseased Corpses, Ritualists and Mercenaries. A rag tag motley crew for the last assault on Heaven.
And they marched.
On the borders of Mercuria their leader, the Wolflord Ginger, slipped away.
As they marched into Mercurian Lands, they were engulfed by a horde of angels.
Because the role of the Crew, the first and last great army of the Doviello, was as angel bait. They'd distracted the Angelic horde at the cost of their lives. Meanwhile, Ginger had snuck past and burned down the Mercurian capital.
The Veil ruled 80% of the population. Heaven was defeated. The Age of the Wolf was on hand.
With the mercurians having one city, protected by around 1000 units, I started looking into victory options. And found one that seemed like a gimme.
Religious Victory.
The AV already had 76% of the world, a little population push and I would win. Ginger returned home.
Unfortunately, the angels weren't so compliant. As I left they founded a second expansion city and with both expanding together I couldn't get the Veil percentage above the 80% threshold.
Ginger was going to have to kill one last city.
I got a gang together. Diseased Corpses, Ritualists and Mercenaries. A rag tag motley crew for the last assault on Heaven.
And they marched.
On the borders of Mercuria their leader, the Wolflord Ginger, slipped away.
As they marched into Mercurian Lands, they were engulfed by a horde of angels.
Because the role of the Crew, the first and last great army of the Doviello, was as angel bait. They'd distracted the Angelic horde at the cost of their lives. Meanwhile, Ginger had snuck past and burned down the Mercurian capital.
The Veil ruled 80% of the population. Heaven was defeated. The Age of the Wolf was on hand.
Religious Victory T266.
White Star of Werewolves
Purple Star of Paradise
Fantastic game Bob, I really had a blast playing it.
EDIT: I could have finished around T230, but I'd forgotten to spread AV to a city, and by the time I'd done so the bloody Mercurians had climbed above 20% in pop. Grr. Still, got a nice epic climactic battle out of it.
