Genius Loki (FFH SG)

[Aurorarcher]

Try to fire WS and use GM? It didn't teleport out of Decius' land, did it?

Anyway things are not looking pretty. We need Ritualists right now, and even then we might still not survive.

[NobleHelium]

Sanctuary just protects your borders, no? You still can't cash in a GM in a city of an empire you're at war with.

They really should make those declarations of war a little more obvious. Decius might as well just have called you up to share a random philosophical thought.

[Bobchillingworth]

Finished my set, report and turn coming later.


On the bright side:

* I was able to cash in the Merchant for around 1100 gold.
* I razed a size 17 Decius city and only lost around 7 units across the set.
* We teched Priesthood.


On the other hand:

* Rhoanna declared war on us, and we're probably gonna die.


In sum:

[BRickAstley]

Winning is overrated

[Bobchillingworth]

Perhaps, but I still like to win every now & then :P


I have def. enjoyed this variant, though. Much more challenging than I initially anticipated. The biggest issue is that we have nothing to offer the AI to get them off our backs- if we could just get some breathing room, we could dismantle them one-by-one at our own pace.



We may have a path to victory, but it's going to be an extremely chancey and arduous one. I envision it going something like this-

* Build as many Ritualists as possible, while exploiting the AI to delay popping the WS for as long as we're able.
* Once enough Ritualists have been produced to lock up / kill invading AI stacks, put together a force to start razing outlying Decius cities.
* Tech Divination, convert nodes, start working on the ToD.
* Tech CoL
* Use the ToD to take Fanaticism, build Corlindale
* Sacrifice Corlindale to get peace with all of the AI.
* Limp to Sorcery.
* Slowly conquer each hostile AI in turn. Use Loki to capture the barbarian cities that will spawn in the ruins of their empires.


We have enough gold to tech Div and CoL, so the main factor would be being able to hold out long enough to complete the ToD and Corlindale... which won't be cheap or easy. Basium might immediately redeclare even after forcing peace, but that just means he'd have to be the first to go.

[Qgqqqqq]

It's nearly turn 300, and I think there is a high likelihood this game ends in a Time loss.

[Bobchillingworth]

Isn't that at like turn 500? If we can survive (and play!) that long I think we can at least claim a moral victory


Picture-heavy report for the turn:




Turn opens with a brief reprieve as Arturus temporarily turns his stack around.





I successfully extricated the GM out of hostile territory; Decius tried to intercept it with some Tigers, but they arrived too late and were cleaned up without losses. Two of the Axes turned around and pillaged those forts for a fair amount of gold, then a citadel in Basium's land before getting wiped out.





An AI civ finally proved useful to us for once.





Didn't take the transmutation option, obviously, but I did find the idea of having a 3 copper city amusing.





Floating Eye revealed that Decius was keeping a light garrison in an obnoxious city, so I took a chance and moved in some troops to threaten it. He stuffed several defenders in from his city to the NW as soon as I did, though. Didn't attack out at me, so I camped outside, waiting for an opportunity (this picture was actually taken a turn or two after I advanced).





I also tried to make my own luck by threatening another of his cities with a second stack, which worked fairly well- he retreated defenders from Udgal back toward it.





Then... disaster, as Rhoanna declared on us. She didn't advance any units for the entirety of my set, and hadn't been in WHEOOH mode, so I assume Decius or Basium bribed her in against us. She has at least two doom stacks, with dozens of Chariots, HA and Catapults between them. Loki up until that point had been on a mission to poach a barb city in the north to hopefully offer to one of our enemies for peace. I instead diverted him into Hippus territory to capture Workers with his puppet and distract Hippus units, which seems to have worked so far. The AI isn't intelligent enough to surround him intentionally, but it has so many units it may manage to do so inadvertently anyway.





I was able to take out my frustration on Decius, losing only a few Axes in the process. I left behind a Warrior who spent the remainder of my set pillaging the area, and then retreated the rest of the stack back home. Unfortunately the intervention of Rhoanna meant I couldn't risk our very difficult to replace stacks sacking further cities.





Arturus finally got a clue and advanced deeper into our territory. Haste meant I could shuttle our local stack between both cities, causing his army to wander back and forth between them, at least for a while. Unfortunately, his lack of siege means the stack moves 2 tiles a turn on hills thanks to all units being dwarven. I also killed a strange ministack of four Adepts he wandered unescorted into our territory.





Amelanchier once again proves marginally useful.





Ritualists and a lot of T2 units would be sufficient to wreck this stack; in their absence, we can only pray that Rhoanna remains distracted by Loki and the barbs long enough to not attack us with it until we're ready.





Finally cashed in the Merchant. Decent haul.





Mahala isn't interested in peace. Also, around this point Rhoanna cast her WS, although she still refused to actually attack us. that situation won't last however.





Arturus finally moves to a dangerous location. We can block his path to Aleris with our hasted stack, but if he attacks we'll take losses. I don't think we have much of a choice though, we can't beat him in straight combat without collateral, and if we don't move he'll take the city in a couple turns thanks to his hill movement bonus. He also has another stack incoming from the west...





Basium sends a small but threatening stack from the north east. His AI tends to go for the jugular, and he's Raiders, so we can't take it lightly. Decius also keeps sending Tigers at us through Rhoanna's lands. They aren't a threat, but he'll eventually send more dangerous units that way. Oh, and Mahala reduced Capria to a single city, so she'll be arriving at our south east with elite units soon.



Essentially, we're surrounded by much more powerful foes, and currently reduced to desperately exploiting AI stupidity until we can repel them. We should hold off using our WS until we're right about to lose a city, but that point may come very soon. Once we do use the WS, we might as well try to kill as many of the enemy border cities as we can, to relieve local pressure. Otherwise, for strategy recommendations see my post above. Oh, and keep pillaging Decius, it's def. worth the 16 hammer Warrior investment.


Save emailed to Qg.

[Bobchillingworth]

Also, there might be a real risk we lose by religion. Someone should check the religion tab to see how bad things are.

[Qgqqqqq]

I'm not going to be able to play till my Sunday (US Monday). If someone else wants to jump the queue, be my guest.

[Aurorarcher]

I could play the set if I had the save that is...