Test games played

[Nelphine]

As mentioned previously, ghouls are only a problem when used as the focus for an extreme early rush. Defeating all 4 AI before towers are allowed to break (though obviously you'll need to break them).

Realistically, that means you need to be able to defeat the first ai basically as soon as you meet them (it doesn't have to be quite that fast, but should be close). That means you need enough to take a fortress by early 1403. That means, you need a full stack of ghouls by that time, and you need to have been conquering other things in the meantime, so you need to have also summoned replacements for any other losses. You also need to assume the AI will have 9 ghouls defending, so between that and fortress lightning, 9 ghouls by themself won't be enough. You need something to let your stack beat theirs. Focus magic, resist elements, relying on getting strong undead from lairs, something.

So, in ~30 turns, you need to summon and at least partially buff ~10-15 ghouls.

I don't think you can realistically do that without a lot of retort stacking (spellweaver and conjuror and at least 2 off realm books at minimum, probably more. I know I'll usually also do cult leader and heavenly light as well, tactician and specialist are also major choices.)

Recall also, playing a 'ghouls' game, means you basically need nothing else (except combat spells) from death until very rare summons, so since already planning to win before 1415, and therefore before very rares, more books literally does nothing.

[Seravy]

Uh, so that's not very compatible with testing curses and necromancy items.
I guess I have to pick one or the other then... ghouls can wait.
Especially as that plan sounds like another instance of Spellweaver abuse. Not worth testing before we decide on changes to that retort.

[Nelphine]

Interestingly, I'm playing a version of it right now where I forgot spellweaver. It's 1404 and I haven't killed an AI yet, but I'm setting up to possibly be ready to take out 2 ai in the near future. It's definitely slower than with spellweaver, but still, I'm pleasantly surprised how it's going.

Edit: given how strong conjuror is, I'm not overly surprised. If you spend 5 years spending almost all your overland skill on summons, conjuror is basically the same as spellweaver. (Actually this is probably good for comparison). Then instead of 25% more power, you get a bonus to research and maintenance.

Overall, it's close to exactly half of spellweaver, but only for certain spells. Given that comparison, spellweavr definitely feels too strong.

But then again, reducing by 25% is more like increasing skill by 33%, so it's actually more than half. So spellweaver isn't that much too strong.

[Seravy]

Well, this turned out to be a short game.
First werewolf attacked the skeletons lair - found like 5 night stalkers but the werewolf killed them all. 240 mana, a Ranger hero, and a Heroic Heart spell found. Nice!
Also had Orihalcon nearby, and planted both my settlers on it.
Lizardmen wizard built right next to my capital, on a pop 25+ river area with mithril. Attacked them, I already had 3 wolves, more coming, plus the hero and 30 casting skill (started with Archmage this time), so why not. Razed the city. Then I intercepted a stack of bears. Hey, Nature Node aura, that's not good... but I still won, fear against the bears, good. Heroic Heart nicely counters Psionic Bast as they can only use it once. So next stack to intercept is weaker, 2 sprites and 2 bears. Can't fight that near the node as my only source of ranged attack is the hero who has Resist Elements but needs a turn to cast it, but they are a tile further away. It's an Arcanus node, it isn't very likely to extend that far...well, it did. So I lost my entire army, game over.
Conclusion, aggressive strategies are high return, but also high risk. But you can't let that stack hit your capital either after starting the war...
Oh, well, I guess I can try to sleep at a reasonable time for a change.

[Seravy]

Uploaded my last Gnoll game : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRP2MgQh...e=youtu.be

[Seravy]

My current game, first half : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wl9U9P8...e=youtu.be
This time I tried something new : I used a notepad to add comments directly during recording.

[Nelphine]

February 1412. Aggressive Perfectionist AI on expert, still has 2 sprites in their capital. (Along with: The sage, the beastmaster, the dervish, a magician, and 3 gorgons.)
AI has 7 nature, 2 life, 2 sorcery, tactician.

Overall, I think the fortress is probably fine right now, but given it does still have sprites this late, that probably doesn't bode well for where it was, in say, 1409 before the gorgons came around.

[Nelphine]

Trying to test the new plane shift, expert difficulty. Conquered all nodes/lairs on Myrror (my home plane) by 1409. (Biggest contribution to this was finding Jaer the Wind Mage relatively early, and being able to skyrocket around the map; but I had started producing air ships within a year of finding him, so *shrug*. However, clearing Arcanus is certainly only possible due to him; by that time, he is move 10, which is obnoxious.) Built 9 stacks and cleared the towers in 1411 (only defeated the strongest (4 archangels/4 unicorns) one because the 4 archangels kept chasing my airship (which they couldn't catch) instead of attacking the units that were actually strong enough to hurt the archangels, giving me enough time to whittle them down; that stack is the only stack besides my doomstack that has any buffs; 5 of its units have holy weapon, and that's it. Made the mistake of sending my doomstack after a tower with colossus - turned out it was 3 colossus with 6 cockatrices - which was a complete waste of the doomstack). Researched first very rare (Charm of Life.. so expensive in research!) in 1412. Killed one Myrran opponent, other is peaceful, so never bothered fighting him. Will also finish clearing all nodes/lairs on Arcanus in 1412.

My Build: Rich minerals, Halflings; Myrran, Warlord (because Crusade only matters with Warlord!), Tactician (wasted, I shouldn't have bothered - an extra life book would be far more important for the extra rare and very rare since I'm trying to test plane shift; but worse, I think the only time the extra defense did anything at all was when my very first swordsmen solo'd a troll city (8 swordsmen and shaman), and that only means I might have needed a second swordsmen; considering the solo swordsmen took 0 damage in the fight though, it probably wouldn't have mattered even then. But it does mean the heroes guarding my fortress are stronger, so that's helpful?), 6 Life, 2 Chaos (Found: 3 Life, 2 Nature; no idea what very rares this has given me, but getting change terrain, transmute, web has been huge; and with life, I've gained prosperity and inspirations and holy word. I already had all the uncommon life spells, but I also managed to pick up star fires with the extra life books???)

Very tempted to try this build on Master, without warlord or tactician, and just take more books (yes you heard me, I might try a city troop build with 11 books! I'm pretty sure the end of the world is nigh). On Lunatic, I'd take Omniscient as well, so only 10 books, and it would probably require a lucky start (adamantium for at least one of the starting 3 cities, which is actually more common than not on Myrran Rich, but ALSO a strong fortress with at least 2 ores). No idea what 10 books I'd take though, since on Lunatic, I wouldn't bother worrying about very rares, so probably a fairly even split between chaos, nature, and life. Then again, chaos isn't really doing anything at all (I took it for flame blade and chaos channels, but literally haven't cast chaos channels yet - didn't even get it until clearing Arcanus - and only used flame blade 8 times, including 4 combat castings, and literally never used another chaos spell), so maybe a few death as well for omniscient.

I've got sanctify, but have never been able to cast it; still casting city enchantments, and will be for many years to come. Unfortunately, that doesn't bode well for how effective the spell actually is. But spellweavers on small land sizes might find good use for it.

Now, my opponents:
Raven (7 Nature, 2 Life, 2 Sorcery, Tactician), Aggressive Perfectionist
Jafar (10 Sorcery, 1 Chaos, Myrran), Peaceful Pragmatist
Sss'ra (6 Life, 4 Chaos, Runemaster)

Raven is about 90% of my overall (85% of army strength, 90% of power production, 75% of spell power)
Jafar is about 60% of my overall (50% of army strength, 60% of power production, 70% of spell power)
Sss'ra is about 50% of my overall (30% of army strength, 65% of power production, 60% of spell power)

All 9 towers have strong, but not super strong stacks (no buffs at all, only 8 units each) guarding them. My main doomstack (one of only 2 stacks with any buffs, aside from heroism on heroes and endurance on transports - and even then, the main doomstack definitely isn't megabuffed. They periodically lose buffs, and I haven't bothered replacing them for years) can conquer anything it feels like (it didn't go after the archangels; if it had, they would have killed the 4 archangels/4 unicorns without a loss, and quite possibly without taking damage) but I haven't gone to war with any of the wizards in so long that I have no idea if they can actually use spells to at least hurt the doomstack.

My goal is to see if/when the AI will start using plane shift; and once they start using it, whether it's potentially dangerous.

All my cities (except my fortress, which also has heroes) on Myrror will eventually be guarded by ~1 swordsmen, 3 spearmen, and 4 decent units (still no buffs). All the nodes are guarded by 1 spearmen. I won't keep any floating stacks on Myrror. (Note, it will probably take till at least 1415 to get my 4 decent units in all cities. until then its just the swordsmen and few spearmen.)


However, my concern is that still the AI will never actually declare war due to my army strength (it's growing faster than all 3 AI, and since I recently got transmute, will probably be growing faster than all 3 combined, from a mere 6 cities producing units without casting any unit enchantments), and so it won't even matter if they have plane shift. If that is the case, I will arbitrarily declare war on all 3 if I get to the point where I see all 3 using plane shift.

[Nelphine]

I think in an idiot. I settled 6 cities in arcanus, so, now I don't think the AI will use plane shift even when they research it. Bah. I'll have to declare war without knowing if they know the spell.

[Seravy]

Part two of my current game being uploaded right now : http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/forum...hp?fid=251