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

[WarriorKnight]

Did I miss something or has Heisenburg held the save for about a week now?

[Mist]

You didn't miss anything. If it goes like this for some more time, you'll be able to execute him yourself

[WarriorKnight]

Margalard is heading towards Thoth. I doubt he'll be able to do much damage but at least it'll be a distraction. We seem to have only 1 hawk which is nowhere near enough, I guess the other 2 I built were deleted when scouting the Sheaim?

Anyway, big news of this turn is of course the declaration of war against the Sheaim. Two stacks moved in:



The main stack of course. I upgraded 2 of the adepts into mages, one went off to Dispel a nature node I don't need anymore and the other gave Regeneration to my stack. I'm slightly worried about a counterattack with Ritualists and Pyre Zombies collateral damage but given the amount of troops the Sheaim have and Regeneration it should be manageable. Next turn the city should fall and a acolyte will pop the borders so Sanctuary can start to have effect.



Just a minor distraction from the western front, I don't expect these guys to do anything other than to hold some PZ's, but who knows? Longbows on a hill probably won't fall to PZ's weakened by Life 2, but it won't be a major loss if I'm wrong.

Given that we've agreed to declare on Thoth T176, this needs to be a really quick war. I'm unsure that we can make that deadline if Koenigsegg makes it difficult for us (which he surely will). Still, it'll be a fun challenge to try and make.

Tech wise, not really sure which way to go. Altar is looking less and less likely due to the several expensive techs we need compared to the Tower. For now though, I'm preparing to build ToD since we'll need that either way (free tech will help a lot enroute to Omniscience). I choose Arcane Lore for now since we'll need that as well (and opens up SoW for the ToD), although I did consider Military Strategy for the Heroic Epic. I'd like to get Religious Law/Righteousness at some point for Basilica's/Sphener, although saving cash for tower building is probably the 'better' option.

[WarriorKnight]

And some diplo:

Hi Mardoc

It seems that you and Mist have made some deals while I was away. Just to confirm with you, I'm sending you Metamagic and Entropy mana on T170? I would appreciate it if that could be counted as the other half of the sun mana loan.

I believe your hawk scouting for the Sheaim in exchange for Ice mana too correct? That's fine with me, however you should probably know that Heisenburg will lose his source of Ice mana next turn when I take his border city. I will not be able to reclaim the Ice mana for quite a while, so you may want to request the Ice mana before he loses it.

I think that was it. If there's anything else let me know.

Regards,
WarriorKnight

Hi Koenigsegg

Thanks for stepping in to play for the Sheaim. I would have said something earlier but I was away until just recently.

As you may know, I declared war on you this turn. This was in response to a Heisenburg Privateer attack on one of my Caravel's, which broke the NAP we had signed. There is little point trying to convince me otherwise as I won't be negotiated away from this. I'm sorry that you had to come in at this time, but that's just how it is.

I'm available at this address if you wish to contact me.

Regards,
WarriorKnight

In other news, Tower is confirmed as our victory choice. We still need Arcane Lore and Necromancy (with Strength of Will coming from ToD) and then it'll probably be saving gold for rush buying. Some trade offs are available (mainly Guilds for unlimited engineers) but I doubt they're be worth going for. We'll have a total of 7 nodes so we can work on 2 towers at once fairly easily, whereas I can only see 5 for Thoth (although he could have more where I can't see them).

I think the ideal order for us to build the towers is Divination then Elements, Alteration and finally Necromancy. Dunno how long it'll take us to build them yet.

[WarriorKnight]

Message from Thoth with the save:

Good luck against the Sheam.


(Monkeys can enter borders....whooda thunkit....BAD MONKEY!)

Koenigsegg decided to abandon both cities, fair enough given what he's facing against. He also Charmed and used Ritualist Flames on one of my smaller stacks, but it didn't really make much of a difference.

Anyway, I sent a rookie monk to capture Tongurstad and it turns out that some infrastructure survived.



A acolyte brought it out of revolt. Thanks to the gambling house I can keep it from starving while at breakeven, although there's still 9 unhappy faces in there. Some combat workers bought my main stack up to the gates of Graelingvig. Here's the situation there:



Snowfall plus 2 Destroy Undead castings killed all undead units (and damaged everything else) while Valin killed the Succubus. Some longbows who couldn't keep up with my main stack finished off the garrison from Tongurstad (who were running away), while some units up north killed the 2 skels and ritualist nearby. Only enemy units left nearby are the injured garrison.

Over near Skadistad, Koenigsegg retreated his units. I didn't anything to chase those units down, so I took the city and will just hold it for now. Hawk scans show that he has 2 blinding mages near his capital (sun mana from mardoc... but in exchange for ice so since that's canceled I don't have to worry about that anymore). Only other notable units are the nightwatch on the east coast and a tar demon who's in the middle of nowhere. Everything else isn't much of a threat.

[WarriorKnight]

Bit short on time ATM, so only have time for a short update.

Last turn Graelingvig fell. I got ready to head onto Nighoggstad but he's assembled most of his remaining Ritualists and PZ's there just out of range of my stack, so I'm heading south towards his capital instead. He can still reach me with a couple of units though (in particular he has 2 mages that could blind me) so have to see what he does next.

Got this event last turn also:



I get a fire mana from my palace so I took it, but since it's so late it probably doesn't really make a huge difference either way.

Big news this turn though is this:



Thoth took 3 nyktorion cities that I can see, resulting in the AC reaching 31. Blight hits next turn, so I switched everything to health buildings and started drafting again in preperation, but will have to see how bad it is next turn. Of course Thoth switched to StW so he'll remain relatively unaffected.

One of the cities Thoth razed was nyktorion's border city with me (thanks to a commando Ritualist, forgot he went in raiders at one point, have to remember that). That leaves the option of taking the spot myself but I think it might be too late to matter at this point.

One thing confuses me though. Thoth has some assassins, one of which has aeron's chosen. I thought the Malakim couldn't build assassins, so I don't know how he got them but he did research poisons for some reason so maybe that's not the case. It does mean the Malakim have no downside though.

[Selrahc]

One of the cities Thoth razed was nyktorion's border city with me (thanks to a commando Ritualist, forgot he went in raiders at one point, have to remember that). That leaves the option of taking the spot myself but I think it might be too late to matter at this point.

Creative->Financial->Organized.

When did he go raiders?

[WarriorKnight]

Creative->Financial->Organized.

When did he go raiders?

That probably why I don't remember it. Dunno why I thought he went raiders, probably just mixed it up with PB.

[WarriorKnight]

Blight hit pretty hard. I've got most cities under control now but a few will starve down a lot. Fortunately the Sheaim will be dead next turn as I've destroyed their army (despite losing 3 90+% battles) and only have 1 city left. Since captured cities aren't affected by Blight, the captured cities are actually doing decently compared to the rest of my empire.

Necromancy is done, so I'm not sure what to research next. I've put research on machinery due to the GE but sitting but I doubt I'll ever seriously finish it.

Stephanos managed to spawn as well, however he died the turn he spawned so he must have run into Thoth's army. Once the Sheaim are dead the AC should be below 40 so the other horseman won't appear shortly.

[Mist]

T171? That was somewhat faster than I expected, congratulations