Green as they come: Hiding Kneel plays the Ljosalfar [SPOILERS]

[HidingKneel]

A guide to recent developments and their rating:

Ellimist beating me to the Grimoire ( ). So he's now unlocked top-tier units, while I'm still a few turns away from my first tier three units.

Diplomacy with Mafro: () He was in favor of most of my proposal (the part where I give him a city, build a road for him, sent him hawk intelligence, etc), but not the part about the sheut stone and the mana exchange. You know, the parts that actually help me in addition to him . But he took the city anyway! And now it's all hell terrain, with forests stripped away, even if I do get it back. (Hey, anybody know what happens to the free infernal buildings if he gifts the city back to me?)

Diplomacy with Ichabod: () Ichabod finally got back to me. Apparently he has a NAP with Ellimist until turn 140. That's bad, very bad, but not as bad as it could be. Ellimist hasn't deactivated our NAP yet, so I won't be fighting him until at least turn 120, possibly later. And my worldspell alone would buy me five turns. But I suspect I'll be either out of the game or crippled by the time Ichabod is in the picture.

Diplomacy with Tholal: () He's expressed some displeasure at my summoning Hyborem and bringing about blight. And is miffed that I based hawks in his cities, but refused to trade maps. I suppose that's understandable; I'd have traded maps with him if I hadn't made that promise to Ellimist.

Ellimist is settling that area to my north, where he dissuaded me from settling earlier (). Doesn't violate the letter of our agreement, but certainly the spirit. Kind of like me supplying Weezel with bronze. So I can't fault him for it.

What to do? Well, I guess the same thing I was going to do anyway: try to build a big army, and do as much damage to Ellimist as I can manage when the time comes. Rangers, ritualists, adepts. Maybe some disciples of leaves that I can have around to promote to rangers, when it's time to turn science off.

I can still aim to get to Commune with Nature via a tower, I'll just have to tech feral bond by hand in the meanwhile. Which is doable: the tower's going to take me a long while anyway (maybe longer than I have).

I think Ellimist really did a number on us all, diplomatically. Stepping back for a moment: he's been the frontrunner all game, controlling two cores instead of one. Then he convinces Tholal, Weezel, and me that we need to fund his war against Kyan, setting back all of our tech plans. He then signs a NAP with Kyan. Kills Weezel while he's got a NAP with me, and presumably he'll kill me before he has to worry about the Hippus.

Maybe there's something to be said for turning the diplomacy off .

Anyways, trying to win this game by conventional means looks like it will be too stressful. So I'm just going to declare that my new goal is to finish the menagerie before Ellimist kills me. I think I've got a good shot.

[HidingKneel]

Finished teching animal handling. Adepts aren't in position to start converting nodes yet, so 1-turned horseback riding to give them some mobility promotions. Meanwhile, we suffer through blight and do our best to prepare for our inevitable crushing defeat at the hands of the Clan:



Also: Ellimist built Rosier, then founded OO. Well, at least he'll have to give up Rosier if he wants cultists. I don't see why he'd bother with that, though. He probably has Malevolent Designs now, so he could just steamroll all of us with ritualists and Beasts of Agares.

[Commodore]

No chances of using the March offensively? Plop cities, pop borders, boom?

[HidingKneel]

No chances of using the March offensively? Plop cities, pop borders, boom?

There are tons of forests on the map. But I won't be able to get cultural control over anything close to Ellimist's core, which is mostly cleared of forests now anyway. I think I could do some damage that way, but not very much.

Evermore's got a settler cooking, and I think I'll send it here:



Firing March from that location will certainly let me kill that new size 1 city that just sprouted up. And maybe give my main stack a temporary treant escort when they march on Ellimist's core.

But I'm thinking the main thing that the worldspell will do is give me some defense. If it does come to war, I'm planning to throw my full weight into an assault to the north, and I'll rely on treants to garrison my southern cities.

So, what else is going on in this game? Somebody got Aeron's chosen last turn. I think Ellimist; I saw an assassin in his stack earlier. He still hasn't marched on Weezel's capital, but I think it's a matter of a turn or two (I see a bunch of ritualists there now).

Teched divination this turn. Will have adepts at three mana nodes next turn; I'll start them on law, sun, and spirit nodes. Then I'll start building a tower with Weezel's mind mana; hopefully I'll be able to secure my own source before Ellimist kills him.

My golden age is now over. But! I did get this fellow at the end of turn:



Hmm... it would be great to fire another golden age. That'll require another GP. Who is on the way:



Blight's a good time to work specialists, since starving cities don't need food anyways.

So, here are the demos now that Ellimist and I are both done with our golden ages:



Finally, one bright spot:



A lion hiding in a forest, soon to disappear into hell terrain. I suspect I'll capture him between turns. And then I'll be able to bring him home via my road network. Just might get the Menagerie finished after all.

[HidingKneel]

Turn 113 played.

Not much to report. Weezel still has two cities, both of which are reduced to size 2 by the blight.

Our adepts started on sun, law, and spirit nodes. The last of those will be done in 4 turns, at which point we can start our tower of divination, assuming that Malakim are still in the game.

Our first ranger is out. More coming, but it'll be slow, given the damage that blight has done and the fact that we're no longer in a golden age.

Our hunter captured the lion, and is leading it back to Evermore.

Ellimist still hasn't cancelled our arrangement, which seems strange to me. I mean, he'll be able to crush me. But I don't think he'll be able to crush me in 15 turns.

I think I made a big mistake by letting him conquer the Malakim. If I'd cancelled our arrangement immediately, I could be bolstering Weezel with giant tiger stacks. Of course, I'd be fighting Ellimist to my north, too. But at least we'd have a fighting chance. By the time I do get around to fighting him, I suspect the tiger stacks will have a lot less military relevance.

Teched trade at end of turn. Thinking code of laws -> currency next.
Or maybe way of the wise -> honor (Empyrean temples seem like a reasonably infra build for cities to recover from blight while I'm still running conquest, and my terribly unrealistic druid plan will require an alignment swap.)

[HidingKneel]

The Malakim have been eliminated. Hyborem is next, probably within the next turn. I think he's down to a wounded Hyborem and an imp. At which point, Ellimist will capture four more cities. How many does that make, now? I've lost count.

Weezel, when you read this, I'm sorry I didn't help you more. In retrospect, I should have deactivated my NAP as soon as Ellimist declared on you. Or maybe before that. And we probably never should have given him that gold to fight Kyan... an actual conflict between them was the only way our empires would ever have had a chance.

One bit of good news: with ritualists, I was finally able to safely clear out the goblin fort in my territory. Got myself a decent prize for my trouble:



Now, ten turns ago, that would have been worth a holy city. Now, not so much.

Teched Code of Laws last turn. Currency due at the end of next turn.

I did my last turn of starving this turn; only Evermore lost a size, and it'll be ready to start working food tiles next turn. I'm thinking I'll swap conquest for foreign trade. I can't stop building military, but I do want to regrow. (And, of course, I need to stay in StW if I don't want to lose a lot more population to the blight).

AC's at 39, so Stephanos is just around the corner. That could be trouble for anyone but Ellimist.

An overview of our empire, as it starts to rebuild after the blight:

[HidingKneel]

Another two turns played. Ellimist still hasn't deactivated our NAP. Still not sure what he's waiting for. As it is, it's probably already too late to avoid fighting the elves and the horselords at the same time. He can probably win that fight, but still.

Diplo from all corners. Ellimist doesn't send messages, but keeps asking to trade maps. I've been refusing the requests. Don't see any reason to help him at this point, since I'm almost surely next on the chopping block and I've got no use for his maps in return.

Finally heard from Tholal again:



It's a tactic I was thinking about. I think I can lose about 30 points per turn by starving my cities. But I'm not so keen on doing that. First of all, it'll hurt me a lot. And losing peace with the barbs probably wouldn't do Ellimist a lot of damage, at this stage of the game. I guess it means he can't hire units from goblin forts, but I suspect those units aren't going to play a big role in the endgame.

Mafro is down to one city. But it's separated from his core by burning sands, so it might take a little while for Ellimist to reach. Still, I'd expect him to be eliminated in the next turn or two. Mafro requested that I gift him another city, but I declined. I don't see how it'll do me much good, and could do me a fair bit of harm: not only would I lose a productive city, I'd probably lose a lot of production in other cities due to the spread of hell terrain. Which, by the way, I need to start dealing with: it's starting to destroy the forests by my southernmost city. Fortunately I've got life mana and a team of mobility adepts.

Speaking of which, I ought to get mind mana hooked up next turn, at which point I'll start a tower of Divination. Should be able to get it built in 16 turns.
If I'd been more on the ball, I could have done better than that, by stowing away some overflow like I did for the Grimoire. In any case, I suspect that I'll finish the Tower. Even if Ellimist deactivates next turn, I ought to be able to defend the relevant mana nodes for at least a couple of turns with the worldspell, if nothing else.

Got the following tech at start of turn:



Swapped out conquest for foreign trade, so I can start to regrow my cities. They get four trade routes apiece, so now would be a good time to expand. If a war wasn't coming, that is. Still, might want to get a few settlers ready to make the most of the worldspell, when it's time to fire.

Hawk flight over the former Malakim territory reveals some orc forces:



I suspect that's a good bit of his power right now. It's scary, but not completely overwhelming. By far the most dangerous unit is that assassin: it's got Aeron's chosen and is carrying Hyborem's gela.

But I suspect Ellimist is going to bring a lot more force when he goes after me. I expect Mardero and Beasts of Agares will make him nearly invincible. At least he doesn't seem to be going down the metal line: no smelting, so no eidolons on the horizon (unless Tholal loans him iron for some incomprehensible reason).

So, what now, tech wise? I can think of a number of things that might be useful:

way of the wise -> honor to unlock Empyrean
alteration to build a body node.
construction to allow rathas, once I switch to Empyrean
mathematics -> taxation to boost the economy
feral bond for the Baron, and to prepare for my Commune with Nature slingshot

And, well, as long as I'm going Empyrean, I ought to at least consider another super-weapon in the tech tree: Chalid. Not sure if Ichabod is planning on building him. He doesn't have religious law yet, so I could probably win a race if I wanted to, since I have a stronger economy right now. But racing Ichabod sounds like a bad idea: if we're going to have any chance against Ellimist, we don't want to waste each other's resources. So I just dropped him a line about the idea:



For the moment, I went with Way of the Wise at 50% science. I'm planning to stay in sacrifice the weak for at least another ten turns, but I might as well get started building some Empyrean infrastructure, so I'll be able to build some rathas quickly after I convert.

[HidingKneel]

Another turn played. Mafro is out. Ellimist still hasn't deactivated. So now it's time for a countdown... 9 turns until I deactivate myself.

It occurs to me that one reason he might be stalling is the Nox Noctis. Maybe he wants to make sure it's in place before he's fighting another war. I'm not sure this is good reasoning. Right now he has a tech edge, but the tower of divination will make a huge difference.

I anticipate that druids will be amazing on this map. I'll promote them from vicars, so they can cast crown of Brilliance. There are peaks everywhere, so I can keep my druids safely out of reach while dealing collateral. And when they're not needed on the front lines, they can vitalize my territory (so much terrain to be improved on this map).

Started my Tower this turn. Looks like I'll get it done a turn quicker than I thought: 14 more turns after this one.

What else? Diplomacy!





Not sure I can afford to go for Chalid either. That's six turns of breakeven teching right now. And it'll be completely wasted if I convert back to FoL. Then again... if Chalid makes the difference between losing to Ellimist and not losing, it's worth six turns. I'll have to think about it.

Teching honor first, though. I think feral bond next. I'll need to get a grove built ahead of time, and maybe I can get some xp on the Baron before he's needed on the front lines.

[Tasunke]

sounds like things are getting interesting

[HidingKneel]

sounds like things are getting interesting

I dunno. I think Ellimist is going to steamroll us. Especially if he gets the Noctis built...

So, another turn in. Ichabod is talkative all of the sudden:



Looks like he decided to swap civics after all: the event log says he's adopted city states and consumption.

Here's a look at the forces Ellimist is keeping on my southern border:



Up north he's got just about nothing, but I assume that'll be changing in short order. I don't quite have vision on his capital, but I assume he's got something cooking there.

So, honor came in at EOT. Present tech plan:

Feral Bond -> necromancy (if I get a settler to grab the Sheut stone north of Zholub) -> construction -> alteration.

Then maybe engineering... especially if the Guild of Hammers hasn't fallen by then.

Should get another great person in Evermore in the next ten turns or so. Slight chance it's a second sage; if not, I'll fire a second golden age.

Oh, and here's a screenshot that should have been in my last update:



Aggressive settling and planting of trees? Oh yes.