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

[Mardoc]

Victory at last:

And ten turns until my swift annihilation at the hands of the Clan.

Those are rarer than victories, you know.

[Merovech]

Wooo!

[Mattimeo]

Nice work.

[HidingKneel]

Thanks for the kind words, all:



So, another turn in, finally. Let's do a real update for a change.

First of all, some diplomacy with the Hippus. Not really very interesting, but I want to post it here so I don't forget:



Not that it matters, of course. We're not going to beat the Clan, anyhow.

Speaking of the Clan, it looks like they're getting their hero in right under the wire:



I'm guessing he'll be deleted shortly, so Ellimist can build himself a SotC.

The Clan continues to harass me with forest fires:



Destroyed my gold mine this turn. No big deal, because I couldn't work it anyway without the city starving. But I should prepare the forests to take revenge:



New should put a bunch of treants on the edge of Ellimist's border. Unless, of course, he burns those forests too.

So, when Ellimist lost peace with the barbs, he apparently spawned a wave of invaders:



That would be a great place to train the Baron, if only I had gotten him built a little quicker.

Preparations for war continue:



Finished the ToD at end of turn, so next turn I can promote myself four druids. Also teched military strategy, so Eaca can 1-turn the heroic epic next turn. Not sure if there are any other techs worth chasing at this point.

Got four rathas queued up. They'll be done in three turns, at which point I might convert. Several options:

1) Back to Veil. Run StW for a huge production boost in my cities.
2) Convert to FoL. Promote a satyr, build a few more fawns and PoL, grow some ancient forests.
3) Stay in Empyrean and build more rathas.
4) Tech WotE next turn, convert to Kilmorph, and build a stonewarden or two to cast Shield of Faith on my ranger stack.

Even better would be to found Order and get myself a confessor for my ranger stack. That'd be risky, though: I'd need it to land in a production center in order to be ready on turn 141.

[HidingKneel]

Another turn in. Preparations for war continue.

Got myself a little tech:



Then I got myself a big tech:



Promoted two of my best ritualists to druids. Next turn, I'll promote two vicars.

What else? Ellimist has a spectre in the middle of my territory. I think he must have given the grimoire to a hawk, and the hawk used it this turn.

Got another settler, so I'm going to plant another city that can rain treants on Ellimist. Then it occurred to me: why not let my co-conspirators join in the fun?





Wish I'd thought of it earlier. It's kind of short notice at this point. But Ichabod is expansive, so maybe it's feasible for him.

Anyway, it's kind of irrelevant. Ellimist has iron ogres and mages at this point. I think also arcane lore? (I saw a great sage in the logs recently.) He's also gathered the mana for a tower of divination. I'll bet he grabs mithril working.

I decided to tech Orders from Heaven this turn, rather than shutting down research. Just one confessor will be a serious boost to my main stack. It landed here:

[HidingKneel]

Alright... another turn. Founded Order:



And had just barely enough overflow to do a 1-turn temple in the holy city.
I produced three more rathas at end of turn, so I guess next turn I'll convert to Order and crank out a confessor or two.

Queued up one last settler, to grab a spot along my southern border on turn 140. Otherwise, I'm mostly just spitting out rangers. Time to move them north, I think... I want everyone to have a fortification bonus in Gon Gatha on turn 141.

Here's a screenshot which reveals why druids are awesome:



I promoted my ritualist-druids to Nature III, and they're taking a quick detour to my core to vitalize some floodplains. Should have enough time to do that, get back, cast poison blade, and park themselves on a peak near Gon Gatha.

Oh, and I got myself another cool toy at EOT:



Better keep him away from Gilden.

[HidingKneel]

Another turn in. Converted to Order, built a confessor. Finished my body node. Moving troops to the front.

None of it will matter. Ellimist has mithril now. And sheut stone. His manufacturing is 250% of mine (while we're both running Golden ages).
So if I invest 100 hammers in a ranger, he can invest 250 hammers for 12 axemen (doubled by warrens), which have roughly the same strength.

The power graph has spoken:

[Merovech]

That's an insane power rating.

[HidingKneel]

That's an insane power rating.

Indeed it is.

So, turn 136 played. Here's a curiousity:



That goblin is standing on hell terrain. But there's no hell terrain next to it? How'd it get there? Anyways, I'd better go sanctify that before I swap back to Veil.

My golden age was over at EOT. But Ellimist's is still ongoing. I guess he must have gotten another one, via event or lair result.

But there is some good news:



Don't think I've ever actually had that happen before. Well, kind of irrelevant at this stage of the game.

On the front lines:



I've been gathering everything in Gon Gatha, and building defensive buildings there. But now I'm wondering if that's dumb. Ellimist gets first strike, according to our agreement, and I think he'll just wipe whatever I leave in range. Maybe I should put everything at the spot marked "rally point". I'll have around twenty rangers-upgraded-from-disciples, who can be 5-movers with haste, so I'll still be in range of his southernmost city. He can probably still reach me with his ritualists, thanks to the roads that I was kind enough to leave him . But it might be tricky... he'll have to slog through some treants first, and his melee units won't have enough movement to attack.
And I can fill Gon Gatha up with tigers, treants, and balors, so that he has to commit some forces to taking it before he gets to use my roads.

Even if I can't win this, it'll be a lot more fun if my army gets to see some action before the end.

In other news, the peak where I was going to park my druids is now in Ellimist's culture. Maybe that doesn't matter... think it would it be an NAP violation to wardec on turn 140 and move my druids there without attacking? I could also just use the peak next to the rally point; that might be better anyway.

[Mattimeo]

That goblin is standing on hell terrain. But there's no hell terrain next to it? How'd it get there?

It's surrounded by tundra, right? Hell terrain doesn't change ice/tundra into anything, but can still spread through it. Same with water, I believe.