Sorry for delay. I actually finished it in the one session, but it was an interactive one, and I wanted to put up a better fight in terms of reporting than before.
Okay, so I inherit the game in a worrying, if not immediately alarming position. Sheelba is marching big stacks around, but crucially she is distracted by the Malakim and Kuriotate wars. There are low garrisons on our borders, and I see an oppurtunity here. If we can raze the southern site in particular, they will be less likely to move on our (exposed) southern possessions via Thessa's lands, and the more we can funnel them, the easier they are to slow/pick off.
Therefore I move up all units in the area to Lodente here, cutting off reinforcements, and whittling away, until there are enough throwaway units to allow this:
And this:
Razed, of course.
I signed peace with the Kuriotates:
Which helped fund us to Necromancy. We birthed a Great Sage partway through, but I chose to put him on ice and save gold for the rest. I'm not sure how much we want Sorcery, tbh, as we don't have many high-xp adepts - though the ones we do are very high - so I'm leaving it for the group.
Saw this when looking through trade screens for the Malakim:
So I think they must have recaptured their second city? Very good sign nontheless, and helped a lot. I'd mostly drafted Javelin Throwers before, but this meant that Axemen were of much more use, and I drafted many more of them. That, a ton of micro, and jumping into agrarianism helped rescue us from blight.
We inflicted The Deepening on the rest of the world, putting them in a worse position. We need it though, as Falamar is in a commanding position, with ~twice our pop, and many, many more techs. We should work to do as much as possible to keep him on good terms - which might involve warring Cardith again.
Traded maps around a lot.
Iron Axes, pulling almost everyone down, and Sheelba's sparse garrisons enabled this:
And eventually:
I kept. I've no idea if that's the right decision, but the monument swayed me. With it, we should be able to culturally dominate Sheelba's main link to us, giving us LOS on the area, and attracting most invasions to a site which is a) on the hill and b) mostly surrounded by rivers.
She sent massive stacks towards it, but Slow+ripping up roads allowed me to split them up, and kill tons. Unfortunately, I lost something like 4 axes to take down skeletons at good odds.
We're in a good position, now. I thwarted off a few pokes via Acheron (and killed Orthus
) so we definitely shouldn't ignore that, but for now it looks like his army is bisected by Malakim/our culture. I'll note that if we do manage to take Timberling, we definitely shouldn't keep - culture clash with Falamar is asking for trouble.
I actually started to turn a node into Entropy. Whilst I get the reasoning for Death, I think Draft and Unitspam of our own means it's not so necessary, and we don't have enough Adepts anyway. Entropy would give the general malus, and take Bronze from the most dangerous enemies, the Chariots. If we go the sorcery route, the other one should definitely be Meta, at least briefly.
Watch out for Ljolsofar revolts in Evermore. Had none so far, but odds aren't pretty. (This is why it's spamming Warriors)
Remember that Haste strips Slow.
Okay, so I inherit the game in a worrying, if not immediately alarming position. Sheelba is marching big stacks around, but crucially she is distracted by the Malakim and Kuriotate wars. There are low garrisons on our borders, and I see an oppurtunity here. If we can raze the southern site in particular, they will be less likely to move on our (exposed) southern possessions via Thessa's lands, and the more we can funnel them, the easier they are to slow/pick off.
Therefore I move up all units in the area to Lodente here, cutting off reinforcements, and whittling away, until there are enough throwaway units to allow this:
And this:
Razed, of course.
I signed peace with the Kuriotates:
Which helped fund us to Necromancy. We birthed a Great Sage partway through, but I chose to put him on ice and save gold for the rest. I'm not sure how much we want Sorcery, tbh, as we don't have many high-xp adepts - though the ones we do are very high - so I'm leaving it for the group.
Saw this when looking through trade screens for the Malakim:
So I think they must have recaptured their second city? Very good sign nontheless, and helped a lot. I'd mostly drafted Javelin Throwers before, but this meant that Axemen were of much more use, and I drafted many more of them. That, a ton of micro, and jumping into agrarianism helped rescue us from blight.
We inflicted The Deepening on the rest of the world, putting them in a worse position. We need it though, as Falamar is in a commanding position, with ~twice our pop, and many, many more techs. We should work to do as much as possible to keep him on good terms - which might involve warring Cardith again.
Traded maps around a lot.
Iron Axes, pulling almost everyone down, and Sheelba's sparse garrisons enabled this:
And eventually:
I kept. I've no idea if that's the right decision, but the monument swayed me. With it, we should be able to culturally dominate Sheelba's main link to us, giving us LOS on the area, and attracting most invasions to a site which is a) on the hill and b) mostly surrounded by rivers.
She sent massive stacks towards it, but Slow+ripping up roads allowed me to split them up, and kill tons. Unfortunately, I lost something like 4 axes to take down skeletons at good odds.
We're in a good position, now. I thwarted off a few pokes via Acheron (and killed Orthus
) so we definitely shouldn't ignore that, but for now it looks like his army is bisected by Malakim/our culture. I'll note that if we do manage to take Timberling, we definitely shouldn't keep - culture clash with Falamar is asking for trouble. I actually started to turn a node into Entropy. Whilst I get the reasoning for Death, I think Draft and Unitspam of our own means it's not so necessary, and we don't have enough Adepts anyway. Entropy would give the general malus, and take Bronze from the most dangerous enemies, the Chariots. If we go the sorcery route, the other one should definitely be Meta, at least briefly.
Watch out for Ljolsofar revolts in Evermore. Had none so far, but odds aren't pretty. (This is why it's spamming Warriors)
Remember that Haste strips Slow.
Erebus in the Balance - a FFH Modmod based around balancing and polishing FFH for streamlined competitive play.
. That's now 2/3 for me! 
.
