Fires of Bhall. Some orcs just want to watch the world burn. [SPOILERS]

[Ellimist]

It's been a long time since I posted info on the empire. HK has activated the cooldown on our peace agreement, so this seems like as good of a time as any...

I have 38 cities as of turn 129, here they are:

First, the core cities, which are centered around my capital of Malacath.

Malacath:[SPOILER]

Meridia:

Boethiah

Peryite

Mehrunes Dagon:

Sheogorath:

Mephala:

Hermaeus Mora:

Clavicus Vile:

Jyggalag:

[/SPOILER]And here are the newer core cities... that is, the cities that lack a warrens:

Lorkhan:[SPOILER]

Vivec:

Phynaster:

Morwha:

Morihaus:

Dagoth Ur:

Tsun:

[/SPOILER]The land to the east/west of my core is centered around my Summer Palace city of Hircine(conquered from yell0w).

Hircine:[SPOILER]

Nocturnal:

Sanguine:

Vaermina:

Azura:

Molag Bal:

Namira:

Nerevar:

Diagna:

Jhunal:

Baan Dar:

[/SPOILER]Finally, there is the land I conquered from Weezel and Mafro. Last turn, I completed the Winter Palace at Zenithar.

Zenithar:[SPOILER]

Dibella:

Kynareth:

Sithis:

Julianos:

Stendarr:

Shor:

Arkay:

Talos:

Akatosh:

[/SPOILER]



And here's some empire-wide info and comparison images:

Demographics:

Victories screen:

Financial advisor:

Graphs:

Score:[SPOILER]

GNP:

MFG:

Food:

Power:

Culture:

[/SPOILER]

[Ellimist]

I've explored a lot of lairs now that I'm at war with the barbarians. I've gotten both good and bad results, and even lost some wolf riders, but the rewards have been nice.

Here are the highlights:

But where did the sword go?



This guy says I don't have to build Soldiers of Kilmorph for my fast Tower of Divination, which lets me get back into AV/StW asap.



Not so distant treasure:






Timor Mask... Nice

[Ellimist]

Turn 133:

HidingKneel founded Order, and Tholal cast his worldspell. He got a nice bit of cash from it, and founded two cities.

Last turn I rushed the Tower of Divination and finished researching Iron Working. Took Mithril Working at the start of this turn:



I already had a source of Mithril mined, and there are a few more sources that currently have farms.

Military buildup so far:






Population growth is pushing my demographics up FAST. It's been 4 turns since I last posted demos, and since then my population has increased by 74(from 290 to 364.)

Demos and Graphs:

I'm keeping a close eye on my opponents. Ichabod and Tholal are building up their forces, but don't seem to be making preparations (yet) for a particular direction. HidingKneel is focusing almost all of his units northward. He's been building Vicars, but for some reason upgraded two Ritualists into Druids.

While I obviously plan to defend my southern border vs HK, I'm also preparing to attack his southern border as soon as the NAP expires. I've been starting nuisance fires in the area to make it less valuable to him, and it's defended relatively lightly. I hope to take it quickly and press north toward his core. I won't be able to make any offensive progress until his worldspell is out of the way, so I'll try to trigger it quickly and then stall his advance until the treants go away.

I expect Ichabod to activate his worldspell immediately, regardless of what I do. At Sithis, I'll be defending with some of my more powerful units and a variety of spells. To Ichabod's south, I'll use a large quantity of of units and a variety of spells. I can probably take advantage of Ichabod's lack of support units to roast, rust, charm and blind his stack. I don't expect him to keep very much in reserve, so defeating the initial wave should do the trick.

Tholal may attack me, or maybe Ichabod, or maybe not anybody. If he attacks me, I think I can hold him off relatively easily. I founded a new city to his north for insurance, and I'm keeping a small force on that border.

[Ellimist]

Does anybody know how the noctis reveal spell works? I'm totally unfamiliar with it.

Can a revealed unit become invisible again?

If I reveal some units on a tile, are other units on that tile affected or visible?

If a revealed unit dies while carrying equipment, is the equipment visible?

Can someone use a spell like ring of fire, rust, or blinding light against units hidden by the Noctis? What about Buboes's enrage spell?

[Ellimist]

T136, the Avatar of War arrives:




The second of the four shall be called Buboes, though the unfortunate survivors of the initial reign of Stephanos will come to know him as the Warbringer... dissent and strife shall reign admidst the lands while he rides along the crest of a wave of [strike]human[/strike] dwarf blood, reveling in the torrent of death and destruction following in his wake.
Men, women, and children of all creeds and nations shall raise their flags for causes long forgotten, battling friend and foe alike, until only scattered survivors on broken fields remain, soon to be struck down by the [strike]horseman's unforgiving blade[/strike] endless waves of orcs...

[Merovech]

That power graph is astounding.

[Ellimist]

That power graph is astounding.

Thanks.

It's now over 3 million power rating in the demographics, and gaining almost 400k per turn. HidingKneel is #2 at about half of that. That pace should continue through at least turn 139.

[Tasunke]

A revealed unit cannot become re-invisible.

However, all units in cities are, of course, visible regardless.

[Ellimist]

A revealed unit cannot become re-invisible.

However, all units in cities are, of course, visible regardless.

Thanks Tasunke.

I'll have to be careful which units I reveal, then.

[Mardoc]

Can someone use a spell like ring of fire, rust, or blinding light against units hidden by the Noctis? What about Buboes's enrage spell?

I'm 100% certain that spells work like normal against invisible units, even the targetable ones like Pillar of Flame. Definitely the area effect ones that you mention do. The only thing that can't really bite you is summons, cause they can't see you either.

Of course, that assumes that they've outguessed you on unit placement. And they still can't attack your units after damaging them, if they can't see them. The only real counter to Nox is to take away your culture by taking away your cities.

Nox made the difference for me in PBEM3 between just being crushed, and a hard struggle for Thoth, despite him having a bigger more advanced army and better tactical skill. If I'd started mobilizing just a smidgen earlier, I think I could actually have held him off.