[Spoilers] Hidden in the mist - gtAngel plays Shekinah of the Sidar

[gtAngel]

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[gtAngel]

Shekinah of the Sidar


Alignment: Neutral
Hero: Rathus Denmora
World Spell: Into the Mist - all units become invisible

Creative: +2 culture per city, double production of carnival
Arcane: Free promotion (Mobility I, Potency) for arcane units, double production of mage guild

Specialists produce one extra resource of their type (Engineer/Great Engineer +1 hammer, Sage/Great Sage +1 beaker, etc.)
All recon units can use Divide Soul (with Knowledge of the Ether)
Level 6 units can wane, allowing them to settle in a city as a great person
Ghost - UU, replaces Assassin: Same stats as Assassin, but can use hide to go invisible and get +1 first strike

[gtAngel]

So why the Sidar? Well to put it franky, because I love the theme of invisibility, mobility, specialist economies, and the Sidar just fit all of that. I picked Shekinah instead of Sandalphon mainly because I absolutely adore the creative trait. I abhor making monuments and making early dips into religion when I don't plan on using it as a core aspect of my army. Plus, I love the extra flexibility when it comes to placing cities - I can be aggressive or greedy and creative assures that I will be able to abuse those city locations.

I would say the Sidar's weakest trait is that they have no benefits to strong direct combat units. I don't have anything super strong on the melee, archery, mounted, or religious trees. Sidar have extra mobile recon units, and Shekinah has more effective arcane units, neither of which can stand up in a direct fight that well.

So my plan is get quick adepts to make use of the arcane trait, and then look towards the Recon, archery, and mounted areas of the tech tree. Recon because of the synergy with the Sidar, Archery because it's along the way and the strongest defensive tree, and mounted because it's a strong combat section of the tree, but has strong mobility as well.

Basically, I don't want to fight a head on engagement ever. I want my recon units to kill everything that ventures out alone or is a weak part in the defense. I want my archers to keep the enemy from ever killing me, I want my mages to support my troops in whatever their aims are, and I want my mounted units to strike at the heart of the enemy.

As for economy, I plan on going for heavy aristofarms. The Aristocracy/Agrarianism combo is definitely very strong, and Sidar benefit from a farm based economy more than anyone else because of their improved specialists. While two Balseraph farms means +1 hammer/+6 beakers, two Sidar farms means +1 hammer/+7 beakers.

Of course, this is all subject to change. For example, if I find that my nearest ally is Auric Ulvin I will probably go into panic mode and skip early adepts altogether in order to make a more formidable defense. (Alternatively, go for an alpha strike with some divided souls.)

Anyway, over the next few posts I'll size up the enemy Civ/Leader combinations as best I can. Hopefully I can attract some lurkers and we can all have fun!

[gtAngel]

Auric Ulvin of the Illians


Charismatic, Arcane, Agnostic
Gains Aggressive if first to find Letum Frigis

Ah the cold-hearted Illians. They're a nasty civ to fight in a war, because their homeland is often covered in useless ice that simply makes them stronger. Early on they have access to three Priests of Winter, which are an extremely potent force. I'm looking to see the Illians either rush someone nearby or use the priests to cow their neighbors into huge concessions. At least we don't have to deal with stasis - that can really screw you over if you get unlucky or don't notice the rush in time.

I really don't want them to find Letum Frigis first, because that extra combat I is very very strong, especially if they can get that on their priests. I am scared of the str 6 priests, I don't want to see str 7.2 priests.

Outside of early rush tactics though I'm not particularly scared of the Illians. I would rather keep them friendly though - their land is pretty useless in general, and it's good to have a rushing civ as your friend.

The only other real trick the Illians have is the deepening, which is a large annoyance. Hopefully by then I have some great people up and running, maybe even some wanes if I'm really lucky, and I can survive more easily than anyone else by making my gnp come from people and not tiles.

Overall I don't want them as a neighbor, but if I can avoid the PoW rush I'm not very scared of them.

[gtAngel]

Perpentach of the Balseraphs

Creative, Charismatic, Arcane, Insane

Balseraphs are all over the place. They've got some arcane power with puppets, some synergy with a few religions, and a bunch of random extra units. Freaks are probably the most notable unique unit - they replace axemen, come with random promotions, and can turn into a happy/culture building.

Overall I expect Balseraphs to be the most annoying for me. They can fight back in the culture war very easily and are more likely to for mobile units than anyone else, considering they have special recon units and might have arcane or raiders at different points.

However, the Balseraph's strength's are related to their weaknesses. They have three traits, but their traits are unreliable. They have a lot of special units, but nothing really amazing. In fact, a lot of their unique units are weaker in a direct engagement.

I would rather not have the Balseraphs as my neighbor, as I expect us to overlap quite a bit in what we want to do. That never works out too well - we'd be fighting over the same land, the same allies, and the same goals. However, it wouldn't be terrible to be nearby - they aren't a huge threat on their own, so I don't need to worry too strongly about them rushing me or anything like that.

Their world spell is revelry, a double length golden age. It's very strong, but as with most Balseraph powers it isn't focused in any single area. It improves them generally, and that is where I need to find my advantage. Specialize into their weaknesses.

[gtAngel]

Thessa of the Ljosalfar

Expansive, Arcane

Thessa is the strongest builder in this game. The elven economy is noticeably stronger simply because they can have huge cities with ancient forest powered cottage spam. With all of the bonuses available, this is far superior to anything except perhaps me getting extremely lucky with wanes and great person wonders.

Expansive arcane is also a strong set of late game traits. Expansive will help her early, but it really bears fruit late game when you have more cities than everyone else. Early on the difference between two and three cities might be a 2/2/0 tile or two. Late game it might be a total difference of 40/40/120 or some other ridiculous number. Arcane also helps early, but really shines later in the game when you can have huge armies of arcane units.

Overall, I would love to have Thessa nearby. She won't be able to pose much of a threat until she gathers some steam, and I can use that time to boost ahead of her and take advantage of my tech/production advantage in the mid game.

The only two things I have to worry about is cheesy Gilden play and cheesy March of the Trees play. I don't expect either one, but they can both be very strong if I don't see it coming.

Ideally we would be neighbors, peacefully coexist for a 120 or so turns, and then I can get a NAP from my other neighbors and attempt to throttle her. The best time to strike is probably any time before she has a lot of ancient forests up, so before or shortly after she researches way of the forest. I have to be careful though, because I'm not that great of an aggressive civilization. Really it would be better to get an ally against her who can do the brunt of the frontal engagements, while I assassinate workers and reinforcements.

[gtAngel]

Decius of the Calabim

Organized, Raiders

This is definitely the Civ I am most afraid of. Calabim Vampires are exactly what I don't want to face. They are mobile (haste, raiders), extremely powerful (can't assassinate), and summoning spellcasters (can't survive a siege.)

Basically, my worst nightmare. Decius is a strong leader as well. Raiders is an amazing trait for warmongering. It forces everyone else to limit their own mobility by avoiding roads, and gives you a lot more mobility in fighting. Organized means that he can easily pay for any empire he collects, and gives him cheaper Gov. Mansions to power out a ton of production.

I do not want to be anywhere near this monster. I want the Ljosalfar to be between us (Ljosalfar because it will greatly slow him down, since they have forests everywhere.) If I have the opportunity to kill him I will probably be willing to sacrifice quite a fair bit in order to do so.

The most ideal situation would be allying him or having him bogged down by wars all game. I think I can out build him as Sidar, but I don't think I can out war him. So being on his side lets me run ahead, and having him fight wars all the time holds him back.

I really, really, really do not want to be next to him unless he has another target nearby. I think I could maybe convince him to kill the Ljosalfar before he kills me, just to keep them from spiraling out of control, but I'm pretty sure I'm the second best target for him.

Perhaps I can trick him into underestimating me. I need to keep in mind that I'm a huge unknown in terms of skill level, so I have a lot of freedom in negotiations. I'm new to multiplayer, but I have a lot of knowledge about the game, and the PBEM format plays to my strengths. Hopefully I can use this to either force out concessions or keep people from pressing me too hard. If I enter into discussions very confidently I might be able to scare out some concessions from people who expect me to be a meek little dove.

Wouldn't it be hilarious if I could threaten the Calabim!

[Commodore]

Nice analysis! Will be lurking with interest. How do recon and arcane lines work in concert?

[gtAngel]

I think I'll take a quick look at religions and what they offer for the Sidar.

Ashen Veil:

The biggest benefit to going Ashen Veil is the powerful collateral you get. Ring of fire is pretty amazing. Savants can upgrade to mages, which is nice as well. You can summon Hyborem as well, although I don't plan on doing that.

While AV is a very strong religion, I don't think I would get much out of it. I would have to tech up to reach it, potentially trigger an early blight, and all for some collateral that I can get from some air or fire mana with my arcane mages. I just don't think it's worth it for Shekinah. Even though Sacrifice the weak is great with a specialist economy, I just don't want to invest so much into a tech I don't even want for my main army.

I think Calabim, my most hated enemy, will go down this route eventually. Sacrifice the Weak is simply too good for vampires, and all of the Veil benefits are good. Even blight isn't as bad for them, because they can starve down their cities intentionally to avoid the downside to dying cities.

Analysis: Calabim will grab this, I will not.

Council of Esus:

Ooh boy, my favorite. CoE is a lot different than other religions. You benefit from other religions in your cities and you don't need to do much of anything down the religious branch of the tree - you use techs I want to get eventually anyway. It also lets you get Shadows and Shadowriders, both of which I really enjoy using and fit into my unit composition plans.

The other big benefit is Gibbon Goetia. He's a hero archmage available at sorcery, which is pretty amazing. Even using him for early vitalize is good, although you can easily abuse the early T3 spells, especially with twincast. If I can cheese it out, he can also take over an enemy civ for a turn (at the cost of his life.) While I'm not expecting to be able to use that, I am keeping an eye out because that would be hilarious and very effective.

CoE also has three more huge features. First, it's extremely easy to spread, even among other civs. Just get some Esus unit into a city and have a bit of gold, and voila, Esus city! Secondly, Nox Noctis is fucking amazing. All of your units are invisible in your borders, which makes your territory much safer and threatening to enemies, plus you get vision on all Esus cities around the map (that might just be from having State religion or the holy city, I'm not sure.)

Finally, something really tricky I hope to abuse: When you declare war on someone, and you have CoE as your state religion, your units stay in their borders. I see some pretty huge alpha strike potential.

I don't really expect much competition here either. Balseraphs might go for CoE, but that's not a huge problem. If they rush it I might want to fight them in order to guarantee myself Gibbon and Nox Noctis, but that's a road I can go down when it shows up.

Analysis: I want this. Balseraphs might fight over it, but probably not.

Empyrean:

Empy is a very strong late game religion. The priests aren't all that special, and none of the benefits are that huge. However, the high priests have their extremely powerful crown of brilliance, and the religion unlocks Chalid Astraken.

Really though, it doesn't synergize with my game plan in the slightest. I want strong mobile forces, and I want them in the mid game. I simply cannot afford to wait forever just to get strong direct fighting units.

I do have to watch out though. Empyrean is very good against Esus, and against anyone who tries to abuse Hidden Nationality or Invisible units. I don't really expect anyone to go for this though. No one really wants this in particular. Calabim want AV if anything, Balseraphs could always go anything but I think they need more midgame power, Illians cannot get religion, and Elves want their Fellowship of Leaves.

Analysis: Probably not going to be seen.

Fellowship of Leaves:

Speaking of which, here's the elven religion. Your forests upgrade into extra food forests that can spawn defenders, you get the guardian of nature civic which adds obscene happy and health, and generally is good for people (elves) who like forests (elves), like perhaps the elves.

I do not like forests that much, so I don't have any reason to stop her aside from woodsman II promotions potentially. Balseraphs might grab this if they have the lane for it, but I doubt it. Elves will likely rush this for the protections and economy it offers.

Analysis: Elves

Octopus Overlords:

This is somewhat of a niche religion. If the map seems extremely water based I might actually grab this, because it has huge benefits if everyone is on the coast. However, more than likely if I see too much water I'll just grab a water II mage and be all set.

OO does have a lot of power on the sea, and units strong enough that you can actually afford to focus on religion. It synergizes with the melee branch of the tree more than anything else, because drowns and stygian guards can use metal weapons. The priests are super good against anything coastal, and are a huge pain. It also sucks for me, because my mobility is less useful when the enemy can walk on terrain that I cannot intercept them on.

OO also has Hemah, the second hero archmage. He comes later than Gibbon does, but his summons can kill, and he has the Hastur's Razor ability to randomize damage. Mostly a niche ability, but it's something.

Once again, Balseraphs might go OO. It's a good dip religion, but also a good dive religion. You could grab a couple cultists for the collateral and water walking, but you can just as easily keep the religion for a long while and utilize their special units, heroes, and buildings. Calabim might make a stop here if they need water walking, but I don't really expect that, and I definitely don't expect them to stay. Elves will stick to their trees, and Illians just get to pray to Auric.

Analysis: Calabim / Balseraphs might take a dip. Balseraphs might also take a dive.

Order:

Order is weird and not used that often. At the priest level you just get bonuses for your troops, rather than a special ability unto themselves like collateral or summons. Their fighting unit isn't amazing - either. Order excels at, well, generating order within your empire. You can reduce maintenance costs, increase happiness, and increases unit production.

I don't really know when you would want to go for order to be honest. Maybe as a late game tech switch - once you have an empire, switch to order to control it. You definitely don't benefit too strongly from rushing order, that's for sure. Nothing it gives early is that much of a help on it's own.

Once again, Balseraphs are the most likely to go order, but I really doubt I'll see them go for it. Order is such a tech investment that only feels that useful when you are already winning, and even then at that point you should want defenses, not more economy. I suppose if Hyborem gets summoned and wreaks havoc Order gets a lot better, but I still don't expect to see it at all.

Analysis: Don't expect to see this

Runes of Kilmorph:

Runes is a lot like OO. It comes early and is pretty useful. You get strong melee units, some utility melee units, and a priest with a decent ability. Almost more importantly, you get gold. Lots of gold.

The gold really helps run an empire early on. Before maintenance costs get too high extra flat gold income is great, and can often cover everything and keep you on 100% science until you can more effectively deal with maintenance. Arete is also nice if you have extra gold or mines, as both can be used to increase production.

However, unlike OO, Runes really falls off hard. None of the heroes are that good. You get what, a regular melee unit that can cast enchanted blade? The high priest can unfortify units and destroy improvements. You still never get collateral.

Runes is a really great dip religion though. Get it somewhat early and use it while you need it. Then, as the game progresses, either switch religions or move out of the religious tree altogether.

I expect Balseraphs to grab this if they go for any religion at all. It's just really good to grab. I would even say that unless you're on a super aquatic map or you're trying to rush some tech, that you might as well grab this before diving into OO in most cases.

Analysis: Balseraphs might stop here for a bit, especially if they grab spiritual in a trait switch.

Edit: Hoo boy, this is a wall of text. I'm going to work on breaking this up a bit.

[gtAngel]

Nice analysis! Will be lurking with interest. How do recon and arcane lines work in concert?

Buffs and collateral. The important spells I'm looking for are Fire I, Fire II, Spirit I, Shadow I, Shadow II, Body I, and Body II. I can eventually stop using mages for Shadow I, Shadow II, and Body II, but for a while I need mages. (Shadowriders can cast those spells for a small gold cost.)

Fire I lets me remove Elven forests and annoying jungle.
Fire II lets me avoid treant spawns and replaces catapults.
Shadow I lets me avoid defensive bonuses.
Shadow II lets me avoid more defensive bonuses.
Body I makes my entire army more mobile.
Body II keeps my army topped up on health, even while moving.
Spirit I also keeps my army topped up on health, and counters fear.

All of these spells are really useful for an army composed of recon/mounted units. They let me get in and attack with an advantage, while keeping my units healthy enough they they never need to fear a counterattack.

Keep in mind I have arcane, which means all of my arcane units are going to have mobility for free. This means they can somewhat keep up with my more mobile recon/mounted units. If I wasn't going to use arcane units I would need to use catapults instead, or I would simply never threaten a city ever. So I might as well pick a catapult that can get promotions for free, can potentially wane into a great person, and can buff my units.

Also, this makes an eventual Gibbon Goetia pickup a possibility. I'll have the tech and mana nodes for him to be useful.