[spoilers] Delving greedily and deeply into Erebus

[Mr. Cairo]

And here we are, round two between myself, superjm, Auro, and DaveV. 

First things first, my picks:
1st: Beeri Bawl of the Luchuirp
2nd: Perpentach of the Balseraphs
3rd: Auric Ulvin of the Illians
4th: Rhoanna of the Hippus
5th: Valledia the Even of the Amurites
I actually originally had Auric first and Berri third, but I changed my mind at the last minute. I've played a lot of SP games as the Illians, and I wanted to give the golems a try.

So, Beeri Bawl of the Luchuirp.
Beeri is Industrious (+50% wonder production, +25% Mud Golem production, +100% Forge Production), and Financial (+25% Gold, +100% Market and Money Changer production)
The Luchiurp are one of the two dwarven Civs in the game, and I think the better one for MP. The Khazad have the Dwarven Vault thing that requires you to maintain a decent sum of cash or you get penalties, you do get bonuses if you have a lot, but in a MP game, it's just not feasible to keep that much gold unspent.

As far as unique units, both dwarven civs share some unique units which are only slightly different from their 'normal' counterparts, mainly in that they have the 'Dwarven' trait/promotion, which provides the followings:
Double movement in hills, +25% resistence to poison damage, +25% work rate (not really relevant to me). They give access to the 'repair' spell (which requires Enchantment 1) to heal damaged golem, naval, and siege units. There are some other changes to these units as well:

Dwarven Shadow (Shadow): +50% collateral damage
Dwarven Druid (Druid): +1 affinity for Earth mana instead of Nature, and has the 'Crush' ability instead of the 'Entangle'
Boar Rider (Horseman): -1 movement, +40% vs Mounted units
Dwarven Slinger (Archer): no change other than Dwarven trait
Dwarven Hornguard (Knight): -1 movement, +1 attack & defense

The Luchuirp also get a bunch more unique units that are Golems. The Golem trait is a racial one like Drawven and provides the following:
Heals 5% slower in neutral lands, 10% slower in friendly lands (which is why the repair spell is so useful)
Immune to death damage, poison damage, and fear.
This unit is not alive.

The Golem units are as follows:

Mud Golem (Worker): Has 2 defense strength, and works faster than a regular worker. I'm not sure what the actual difference is, but from what I can tell, a Mud Golem takes 1 turn less to do stuff than a Worker. It also doesn't use food when being built, so cities can grow while building them, but this is a downside as well, as I'll get to later. Also, the fact they have a defensive value means they can't be captured and have to actually be killed in combat one at a time, which could be exploited later.
Wood Golem (Axeman): +2 strength, and vulnerable to fire.
Iron Golem (Champion): +4 strength, loses +25% vs melee units
Gargoyle (Longbowman): +1 strength, +1 movement, loses the first strike and defensive strike, gains the Defensive promotion, builds 25% faster with Marble
Clockwork Golem (Beserker): +4 strength 
Bone Golem (Immortal): +4 strength, gains the Cannibalize promotion.
Nullstone Golem (Phalanx): +1 strength, loses the city attack and vs. mounted units bonuses, gains the Magic Immune promotion.

So, while it may seem that these units are all much better than their regular counterparts, they come with a pair or drawbacks:
First of all, they can't use Bronze, Iron, or Mithril weapons, which makes up for their much increased regular strength.
Secondly, they cannot be upgraded to. Each one must be built, and once built, cannot be upgraded. This one is the more serious of the two.

There are also some units that are unavailable to the Luchuirp: the Marksmen, Beastmaster, Ranger, and Horse Archer.

The Luchuirp get a few unique buildings as well, only the first is a replacement:
Sculptors Studio (Training Yard): +1 culture, and 60 hammers instead of 67.
Blasting Workshop: Requires Sorcery and Fire mana, and gives all Golems produced in the city the ability to cast Fireball
Pallens Engine: Requires Divination and Sun mana, and gives all Golems produced in the city the Perfect Sight promotion, giving them the ability to see invisible units
Adularia Chamber: Requires Necromancy and Shadow mana, and gives all Golems produced in the city the Hidden promotion, making them invisible until they attack or cast a spell.

The first of those three Golem ones is obviously the best, and I'm unlikely to build any of the others. It does require sorcery tech, which is a ways into the game, but considering how important the repair spell is going to be, I think I'll be going for magic a lot more than I did in the previous game.

Final thing here, my starting situation this game:


And the first major decision to make with regards to the Mud Golem. Do I grow the city then focus on hammers for the Golem, or do I focus on hammers from the get go, getting the Mud Golem as fast as possible. I actually did a sim to see which is better, and it turns out getting the Mud Golem as fast as possible is the better option.

Anyway, turn 2 has arrived so I'm going to play that then come back to do a report on my opponents civs.

[haphazard1]

Thanks for the overview of the Luchiurp. I have never tried them in SP, so this will be interesting to lurk and learn more about the civ and how it works. Good luck!

[Mr. Cairo]

I've never really played them in SP, so we can learn how they work together :D

Before I do overviews of the enemy (probably tomorrow), there's a couple more things about the Luchuirp to mention, their Hero, and their World Spell:

Their Hero is Barnaxus, a str 6 Golem that requires the Construction tech. he can use Bronze, Iron, and Mithril weapons. Furthermore, for each level of the Combat promo he gets, all golems in the empire get +10% strength. If he dies in combat, the killer gets the "Pieces of Barnaxus", a sort of equipment thing, that if I can recover, I can rebuild Barnaxus in a Luchuirp city.
He doesn't get experience like other heros, so once I get him I'll want to level him up as much as possible.

The Luchuirp world spell is Gifts of Nantosuelta, it requires Masonry, and creates a Golden Hammer in all of my cities. Golden Hammers can be picked up by a unit for +1 strength (however then only way to get the unit to drop it is for it to die), or 'settle' it in a city as a free Engineer specialist.
I think I'll probably wait until I have 4 or 5 cities before casting it, then use sacrificial scouts to move them all to one city for a bunch of engineers, which then can give me some fast Great Engineers for rushing Wonders.

[Mr. Cairo]

we're in the blitz now, only thing of interest to report is that I have met DaveV of the Hippus, so I'll do a little overview of the Hippus now.

Rhoanna is Expansive (+3 health/city, double produciton speed of Settler, Granary and Harbour) and Financial (+25% Gold, double production of Market and Money Changer)

Not bad traits, EXP is always good. But they are certainly more economy focused treaits compared to Tasunke, the Hippus' other leader, who's Aggressive and Raiders.

The Hippus' only unique unit is the Mounted Mercenary, a replacement for the Mercenary, which are only available to the builder of the Guild of the Nine wonder. They lose access to the Cannon and Arquebus.

They have no unique buildings, and lose access to the Alchemy Lab.

To make up for their lackluster uniques, they have a very good (and very focused) Civ trait and World Spell.

Their civ trait is Horselords, which provides a promotion of the same name to all their mounted units that provides +1 movement and +10% withdrawal chance. The Hippus palace also provides a Horses resource, so they always have access to Horses (it only provides 2 sources of mana)

Their World Spell is called Warcry, and it gives all their units the Warcry promotion, which provides the following: can attack multiple times per turn, +1 strength, +1 movement range. It has a 5% chance of wearing off each turn.

Basically the point of the Hippus is to build a bunch of mounted units and use Warcry to get in a devastating first strike. How to defeat them? Well, it's a lot easier with Rhoanna leading them instead of Tasunke, since they don't get Commando from the Raiders trait. Basically I plan to be stronger than them at all times (I hope), then when he attacks someone else, attack him.

Considering the last game, I have a feeling that DaveV has something of a target on his back, and picking the Hippus has done nothing to alleviate that. Maybe we can get a proper dog-pile this time. 

[Mr. Cairo]

And straight away I run into Auro of the Balseraphs:



So, now I'll do an overview of them

Perpentach of the Balseraphs:

Perpentach has the Insane trait, which means that at random points in the game all his three(!) traits will change. At the start of the game he has Creative (+2 culture/city, double production speed of Monument, Carnival, and Public Baths), Charismatic (+1 happy/city, -25 less experience needed for promos), and Arcane (Arcane units get Mobility 1 and Potency promos, double production speed of Mage Guild)\

Insane is a good trait to have, since getting access to three traits is better than two, even if they aren't consistent throughout the game.

The Balseraphs are a very interesting civ, they have a few unique units and buildings, and one of the most annoying Hero in the entire game.

Unique Units:
Freak (no replacement): Str 3, requires Carnivals, starts Mutated (which can give up to several random effects/promos both good and/or bad), can use Bronze and Iron weapons, and can be sacrificed to build a Freak Show in a city (see below)
Mimic (Champion): Lose 1 Str and the bonus against melee units but have the ability to steal random promos from units they defeat. Not sure if that makes up for the reduced strength however.
Harlequin (Ranger): Lose 1 Str and the ability to carry birds, but gains the Taunt ability, which can cause neighboring units to attack into the tile the Harlequin is standing on.
Taskmaster (Assassin): Gains a 25% chance to create a slave when it defeats enemy units
Courtesan (Shadow): Same as the Taskmaster

Insert rant at losing my scout to a tiger when my scout was on a forested hill

Unique Buildings:
Freak Show: +2 Culture, +1 Happy, +1 GP point (Bard). The Freak show can also be added to using slaves, providing a Cage of the race of the slave (Dwarf, Orc, or Elf) which provide an additional GPP, Happy, and Culture.
Arena (Training Yard): Same as Training Yard, but melee, recon, and slave units in a city with an Arena can fight in the Arena. They have a chance of dying, but if they don't they get experience. Could be a useful way to giving promos to a bunch of cheap units in the late game. I think it also provides a temporary happy boost. Not something for MP I think.

They also have a unique building we banned called the Hall of Mirrors. See EitBXLVIII for details.

Their hero is called Loki. He has 2 strength and 2 movement and cannot attack. He is very difficult to kill, since he will always retreat from a battle as long as he has somewhere to retreat to. He starts with a bunch of magic related promos, has no pre-reqs, and costs 120 hammers.
What makes him annoying are his abilities. Like all Balseraph spellcasters he has the ability to create a puppet of himself that is a temporary replica that can cast all its spell (this gives Loki and other spellcasters a bit of extra reach). His other abilities are called Disrupt and Entertain and he casts them on cities he's next to.
Entertain adds temporary happiness to the city and 2 gold/pop of the city.
Disrupt is the opposite, providing temporary unhappiness and reducing the culture of the city. If Disrupt is cast next to a city with no culture, the city flips to the Balseraphs (and like a normal culture flip it can be kept or razed). Basically, I need to keep Loki away from my cities at all costs. If I ever see him I'll declare war on Auro immediately and try and kill Loki by surrounding him.

The Balseraph World Spell is called Revelry, requires the Carnival Tech, and simply starts a Golden Age. seems simple, but a golden age on command is a powerful tool.

[Mr. Cairo]

Just got the warm summers event that dries up a couple tiles in your empire:


It turned the wines tile into a desert, which isn't that inconvenient, but it also turned the hill under my capital city into a plains. Which is a nice little free bonus hammer for a while.

[Mardoc]

His other abilities are called Disrupt and Entertain and he casts them on cities he's next to.

Pretty sure he (or his puppet) has to be actually inside the city. So you can keep him out of your cities by being at war and having your cities garrisoned. I can't remember if you can also keep him out by refusing Open Borders...I seem to think he's got the 'can enter enemy borders' special ability.

The Balseraph World Spell is called Revelry, requires the Carnival Tech, and simply starts a Golden Age. seems simple, but a golden age on command is a powerful tool.

I think it's actually a double-length golden age...there are games where the Balseraphs manage to be in a continuous golden age from when they cast Revelry until the end of the game, by using the GA to produce enough GPP to chain more golden ages.

------

I realize you mentioned puppets along with Loki - but honestly they're deserving of their own section, they're probably one of the best features of the Balseraphs.

Also, I know it's a long section, but you didn't mention their Palace mana. IIRC it's something like Mind / Enchantment / Chaos. Enchantment mana acts as a luxury, and the Mind 1 spell lets adepts (especially adepts with puppets) be an economic build in addition to a military one; I tend to think both of these are strong bonuses that help a typical Balseraph empire.

[Mr. Cairo]

His other abilities are called Disrupt and Entertain and he casts them on cities he's next to.

Pretty sure he (or his puppet) has to be actually inside the city.  So you can keep him out of your cities by being at war and having your cities garrisoned.  I can't remember if you can also keep him out by refusing Open Borders...I seem to think he's got the 'can enter enemy borders' special ability.

Ah yes, I remember now. He can enter cities of civs he's not at war with to cast his spells. As long as I'm at war with Auro, Loki can't do his nefarious deeds in my cities. To be honest I wonder if Loki is even worth it at all in the MP game.

I think it's actually a double-length golden age...there are games where the Balseraphs manage to be in a continuous golden age from when they cast Revelry until the end of the game, by using the GA to produce enough GPP to chain more golden ages.

That would make sense, and is a lot more powerful.
------

I realize you mentioned puppets along with Loki - but honestly they're deserving of their own section, they're probably one of the best features of the Balseraphs.

To be honest, I never used puppets much in the only SP game I plaayed at the Balseraphs, so I can't really say too much about how good they are.

Also, I know it's a long section, but you didn't mention their Palace mana.  IIRC it's something like Mind / Enchantment / Chaos.  Enchantment mana acts as a luxury, and the Mind 1 spell lets adepts (especially adepts with puppets) be an economic build in addition to a military one; I tend to think both of these are strong bonuses that help a typical Balseraph empire.

I haven't really been mentioning palace mana before, but yes, Enchantment and Mind are both pretty good ones to have.
Mine are Enchantment, Life, and Earth mana. Life provides a health bonus, and is used in spells that are good against the undead (Drowns for example), while Earth mana increases the chance of finding resources in your mines (I've had several Gold resources appear within a few turns in a SP game).

A couple more things I didn't mention about my civ:
The Dwarven trait is given to all my living units, including scouts and settler, giving them double movement in hills.
Golems cannot take promotions. Which makes Barnaxus and adepts with Repair even more important.

[Mr. Cairo]

His other abilities are called Disrupt and Entertain and he casts them on cities he's next to.

Pretty sure he (or his puppet) has to be actually inside the city.  So you can keep him out of your cities by being at war and having your cities garrisoned.  I can't remember if you can also keep him out by refusing Open Borders...I seem to think he's got the 'can enter enemy borders' special ability.

Ah yes, I remember now. He can enter cities of civs he's not at war with to cast his spells. As long as I'm at war with Auro, Loki can't do his nefarious deeds in my cities. To be honest I wonder if Loki is even worth it at all in the MP game.

I think it's actually a double-length golden age...there are games where the Balseraphs manage to be in a continuous golden age from when they cast Revelry until the end of the game, by using the GA to produce enough GPP to chain more golden ages.

That would make sense, and is a lot more powerful.

I realize you mentioned puppets along with Loki - but honestly they're deserving of their own section, they're probably one of the best features of the Balseraphs.

To be honest, I never used puppets much in the only SP game I plaayed at the Balseraphs, so I can't really say too much about how good they are.

Also, I know it's a long section, but you didn't mention their Palace mana.  IIRC it's something like Mind / Enchantment / Chaos.  Enchantment mana acts as a luxury, and the Mind 1 spell lets adepts (especially adepts with puppets) be an economic build in addition to a military one; I tend to think both of these are strong bonuses that help a typical Balseraph empire.

I haven't really been mentioning palace mana before, but yes, Enchantment and Mind are both pretty good ones to have.
Mine are Enchantment, Life, and Earth mana. Life provides a health bonus, and is used in spells that are good against the undead (Drowns for example), while Earth mana increases the chance of finding resources in your mines (I've had several Gold resources appear within a few turns in a SP game).

A couple more things I didn't mention about my civ:
The Dwarven trait is given to all my living units, including scouts and settler, giving them double movement in hills.
Golems cannot take promotions. Which makes Barnaxus and adepts with Repair even more important.

[shallow_thought]

Beeri Bawl of the Luichirp is probably my favourite SP combination. Source of some of my best victories and my most memorable defeat. I look forwards to seeing what you make of them in MP.