[SPOILERS] Alignment unknown

[plako]

T51

Loki scouting. 1st goal is to check, if that hut is still around.



There is some activity in the power graphs. HidingKneel adopted same military civics as I've planned at the end of his Golden Age.

[plako]

~T53

HidingKneel declared against Selrahc and there was significant drop in the AC to 4. I guess I need a new plan since Blight probably won't hit anytime soon.

[plako]

T54

AC dropped to 3 and there was significant drop in Selrahc power and Kurios power is raising fast. I'm still not sure how to proceed so I didn't yet convert civics. I'll probably go to war civics after all, but won't slave my cities down. It would have been better to have Blight hit now instead of later since at the moment I have best means to fight against it.

Someone got Prophet and good guess is that the someone was Bob and Infernal Pact isn't far so it might be that big army of Adepts is not that bad idea. I could also go to offensive although I'm not sure about the target. Kurios are strong both economically and militarilly. Ilios is developing his nation well as far as I can tell. Selrahc is basically dead and Lanun will soon be controlled by AI, but keeping far away cities isn't worth it and other potential benefits are pretty minor. I guess it would had to be either Kurios or Ilios. Don't like either of the options at the moment so I guess I just focus on sufficient defenses and profitable expansion.

Concerning Religions Council of Esus makes probably most sense to me to unlock Gibbon Goetia. Nox Noctis isn't probably worth the effort in this EitB version. btw. It is very hard to know what CoE offers since civilopedia entry doesn't list anything else, but Shadow riders. I know they had a special archery unit too, but I don't think it is worth researching Bowyers. Are there some other specialities besides the ones I've already mentioned.

[plako]

T56

Decided to take a shot at insta-mages. I'll build an army of them and see where I can get. Expansion wise my opening has been very bad. I've been focusing on fighting against Armageddon that seems to be at minimum seriously delayed.



I guess Hyborem is somewhere here.

[plako]

So what can I get with Mages. I've just 1 mana node that limits considerably my options. I think it has to be Death. There is nothing better than combination of skeletons and spectres for me. For a second I though about Law node to enable Aggel summon (Host of...), but I need the skeletons way more than a bit better Mage level summon. Other Mana I've are: Air, Chaos, Earth, Mind and soon Life. I've also seen the Mirror of Heaven so getting Sun is a possibility and if I go for Council of Esus, Nox Noctis would provide Shadow. I could also try to found Order since their shrine provides Law that would provide good support summon to protect against Destroy undead.

I've settler ready to settle on top of copper near Tomb of sucellus. I don't have Bronze working, but I hope I can do without with my summons hopefully providing most of the protection needed. Adept is building Death node.

[Notintheface]

T54

Concerning Religions Council of Esus makes probably most sense to me to unlock Gibbon Goetia. Nox Noctis isn't probably worth the effort in this EitB version. btw. It is very hard to know what CoE offers since civilopedia entry doesn't list anything else, but Shadow riders. I know they had a special archery unit too, but I don't think it is worth researching Bowyers. Are there some other specialities besides the ones I've already mentioned.

If I am not mistaken, COE also offers shadows (which don't go away when you change out of COE). This one is particularly useful if you already have an Aeron's Chosen assassin which can upgrade. COE recon troops can also cast heal for cash. I think this is the Grigori medic version (whole stack 20% heal) rather than just a self-heal. COE recon can also go HN.

All this from memory, might not be 100% spot on.

[plako]

If I am not mistaken, COE also offers shadows (which don't go away when you change out of COE). This one is particularly useful if you already have an Aeron's Chosen assassin which can upgrade. COE recon troops can also cast heal for cash. I think this is the Grigori medic version (whole stack 20% heal) rather than just a self-heal. COE recon can also go HN.

All this from memory, might not be 100% spot on.

Intresting. I had to check this out. Couple of the Balseraphs special units are on Recon line that I assumed I would be ignoring.

[plako]

So shadow is just CoE specific unit and Balseraphs have Courtesan replacing it. It seems that only improvement over the normal Shadow is the 25% chance to generate a slave.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

However, Shadows are incredibly late game, and should not be relied upon.

They're more for cheesing the AI, than other players. Think of them as invisible privateers.

[Notintheface]

If you are going mounted it does give you 2 X the number of tier 4 units though.

And if I remember right and the COE recon does indeed give stack heal, it's a very powerful ability. These recon will be able to keep up with the 8 tier 4 mounted.

Problem is with the Balseraphs you don't have an obvious line to aim for. Were you planning to go down the melee line?