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

[Merovech]

Chalid is just one unit, remember.

[HidingKneel]

Chalid is just one unit, remember.

True enough. But, as single units go, he's pretty handy. Especially if you want to fight someone with a numbers advantage.

Anyway, I'm probably not going to in that direction. Because Commune with Nature will let me build four Chalids anyway, who can also entangle, give my rangers poisoned blades, vitalize my territory, occupy defensive positions on peaks, and be rebuilt if they get killed in action. They miss out on Pillar of Fire and the hero promotion, but passive xp from channelling III/potency ought to help make up for that. Also, once I've gotten some vicars and rathas out, I want to convert back to Leaves, to get more ancient forests and build the heros. Or, if I end up having the use the worldspell, I might want to go back to Veil, to run StW while my forests regrow.

[HidingKneel]

Played another turn.

Ichabod sent me a proposal that I strike Ellimist, trying to draw his forces away from the Esus holy city.



Sounds like a good way to lose an army. Here was my reply:



What else? I moved a ranger/hawk pair up to the northernmost edge of my territory, and got a view of Ellimist's core. He's still got nothing in his capital, but I did see this:



So it's confirmed: he teched Malevolent designs, and is building beasts. At least he's not infernal, so those are pretty pricey for him.

Note that the AC is at 39 now. Stephanos might be a concern: I've got a number of cities with 1-unit garrisons. I sent those some reinforcements, but if he spawns in a bad place I might take some losses.

Ellimist still hasn't deactivated our treaty, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe until turn 140. Which means I'll definitely have druids, and the baron, and other cool toys to fight him with. Ellimist will have cool toys to fight back with, though... he has smelting now, so he's probably aiming for ogres.

I'm also thinking I ought to tech engineering soon. Ichabod has mathematics, so I suspect he's going there too (or is already there). Guild of Hammers would be extremely useful, though I doubt I can beat him to it.

[Merovech]

Have you built the Menagerie yet? Has the griffon you caught done anything?

[HidingKneel]

Have you built the Menagerie yet? Has the griffon you caught done anything?

Lion is still en-route to the capital.

Have two griffons now. One was prowling around Ellimist's territory, but he asked me if it was mine and I was forced to admit that it was.

I think those griffons arrived too late to be of much use. Though maybe I'll be able to get some milage out of their ability to fly. With druids on peaks inflicting collateral, it might be handy to have some other units up there with them to clean up.

[HidingKneel]

Alright... been a while since my last update.

So, Feral Bond is in:



Started a grove in Eaca. Grove and ToD are both due in 8 turns, at which point I'll be ready to get me some druids. Of course, to maximize the druidic goodness, I'll be promoting those from priests. Let's check out our options:

Priests of Leaves: The advantage here is that I have a lot of these already, and some of them are very experienced. Druids promoted from PoL have the ability to summon permanent treants. Which I could imagine being handy in some situations, but I think not so much in what's coming up next.

Stonewardens: Druids promoted from stonewardens can cast earthquake, which unfortifies all units in a city. Useful, but not great. Also, I don't have any stonewardens and don't have Way of the Earthmother.

Cultists: Druids promoted from cultists can summon krakens. Useless. Also, I don't have any cultists, I don't have message from the deep. I don't even have fishing.

Esus: Doesn't have priests. Enough said.

Order: Druids promoted from Order priests are like regular druids. So, pointless.

Empyrean: Now we're talking. Druids promoted from vicars can cast Crown of Brilliance, which is a pretty decent form of collateral. Definitely worth having. I've got Empyrean in one city now, and I'll spread it to Evermore next turn. I'll need to convert soon, and get some vicars ready.

But if I'm going to have my druids in a single stack... I don't want them all casting Crown of Brilliance. Most of that collateral will go to waste. Which brings us to:

Ritualists: Druids promoted from ritualists can summon balors. And, of course, retain the ability to cast ring of flames. And I've already got a large number of ritualists, some of them with a fair bit of xp.

Seems like my plan of using druids to snipe at Ellimist from atop peaks would go best with a mix of vicar-druids and ritualist-druids. Maybe two of each.
Deal out the collateral with crown of brilliance, kill some top defenders with balors, let the druids pick up the pieces for some easy xp. At least, that's how it works in theory . In practice, I doubt Ellimist is going to make things so easy for me.

So, what else? Well, this message from Tholal pretty much sums things up:



Ellimist is in a golden age now. I'm second place in mfg, and my production is like half of his. And that's not even figuring in his bonus from warrens. He's also got the Noctis up, so I have no idea where his troops are massing.

My present plan is to go out with a bang. I think he'll be poised to take all of my border cities as soon as the NAP is up (since I'm probably going to be the one to cancel, he'll have right of first strike). So the turn before that, I fire the worldspell. Swap into StW to avoid starvation, and position those treants to screen my border cities while my army masses for an attack on his core. Hopefully with Ichabod and Tholal backing me up on other parts of the map. But I'm the one who's closest to his important cities, so I'll be the one bearing the brunt of this.

Here's an overview of the empire right now:



Built the Shrine of Sirona in Evermore last turn. I know, probably a waste of hammers. But since I've got marble, I only had to waste half as many!

Lion just arrived at the capital. So I can start the menagerie next turn. But I'll probably build an Empyrean temple first.

What else? Teching decisions. Here are the techs that I can imagine being of some use:

Alteration: get me some haste adepts. Don't need it until it's time to fight.

Military Strategy: put a heroic epic in my production center. Production center is building a ToD now, so this can wait.

Necromancy: For sheut stone. It'll take me ten turns to get a settler out there by the sheut stone, so I'm not sure there's much point to this. Unless I'm expecting to actually survive against Ellimist. In any case, not a rush.

Construction: for rathas, and bridges.

Mathematics: As a prereq.

Taxation: Achieve economic dominance for a brief moment before all my cities are captured by the Clan.

Engineering: Extra movement on roads. Guild of Hammers. The first could be useful in the war. The second not so much: I doubt I could get it built before the fighting started, even with a beeline. And Ichabod will probably beat me to it, anyway.

And, of course, I could just shut the science off. Currently that'll let me collect 300 gp per turn. Which I could use to upgrade disciples to rangers.
And I'll need gold for the druid upgrades, in any case.

Anyways, I decided to go mathematics -> taxation first. It'll give me the most immediate benefit. And I want the Ljosalfar empire to reach its true potential before falling apart :rolleyes:.

Another couple of turns I'll get a great person in Evermore. Assuming that's not a sage, I'll get a second golden age of my own.

[HidingKneel]

Another couple of turns played.

A few high notes:

Popped a lair with a ranger and found the Rod of Winds. Nifty. Not going to make much of a difference, but I get air mana from my palace, so why not?

Ellimist is using invisible ritualists to start forest fires on my southern border.

Just a few more turns until I declare on him. Or declare my intention to declare on him, rather. Tholal is on board... I suggested that he send his forces to the former Kuriotate holdings, and he agreed. Sent this to Ichabod this turn:



Should get my next GP at the end of next turn. 75% chance it's a second golden age.

Ellimist's building extra fire and body nodes. Must be teching sorcery.

Meanwhile, I'm teching taxation: 3 turns.

Now that Weezel's dead, I get to watch the barbarians move at end of turn. Which is usually a dull affair. But this turn we got something interesting:



Oy. Well, I've got spirit mana hooked, a bunch of adepts, and plenty of rangers on hand. I ought to be able to take that horseman down if it comes my way.

[HidingKneel]

Another turn played. No screenshots this time.

Converted to Empyrean this turn, and started building vicars. This meant swapping out of StW, which meant a tiny bit of starvation. Evermore needed to lose a size. And I noticed that Ellimist's score was almost exactly 150% of mine. So I rigged two other cities to starve, bringing him above the threshhold for barbarian peace. Does anybody know when that mechanic fires? Is it at the beginning of his turn, or will he have a chance to starve himself?

Anyway, I figure as long as Stephanos is headache for me, he can be a headache for Ellimist as well. Last I saw (before the Noctis got built) he was running pretty light garrisons in the area, so maybe the horseman will have a chance to do some damage.

Got a great prophet at EOT. Next turn: golden age, taxation, and ending my arrangement with Ellimist.

[HidingKneel]

So... apparently my strategem to make Ellimist lose barbarian peace worked :eyeroll: Stephanos was killed, so now Ellimist has the crown of command.

In other news, Ellimist built the Guild of Hammers. His production looks around twice as high as mine, even in my golden age (and that's not even counting the warrens).

Also, he sanctified the marble I was planning to grab. So no point in getting Necromancy. Engineering's probably not worth it either, with the GoH gone.
Taxation came in this turn. So at this point, I see just three more worthwhile techs: alteration, construction, and military strategy. I can grab those in one turn each while saving gold. After that, I think I'll just start stockpiling. And building disciples everywhere that I've got a temple of leaves, to be upgraded to rangers.

[HidingKneel]

Victory at last:



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