Quote:...so does this mean you are going for Auric Ascended?
If I possibly can, then I will.
In the same way that the early game was focussed around getting a priest rush out, I would dearly like to get Auric out and in play in a real and competitive game. That is a much more difficult goal though. We'll have to see.
I would delay a tower victory nearly indefinitely if it looked like I could accomplish the Ascension. Just tell the others to delay their attacks on me
Quote:About how far from being able to complete the rituals to Auric's ascension are you at this point?
About a billion miles.
The Ascension ritual requires Omniscience tech, the most expensive technology in the game. Ominscience requires Commune with Nature, another prohibitively expensive tech, and one which has almost no use at all for me. It also requires Strength of Will, a prohibitively expensive technology as well, albeit one I have much more cause to research since it unlocks archmages. At the moment each of these technologies would take around 40 turns or more of sustainable research, although that will obviously decrease as the economy improves.
Once I've researched Strength of Will I can create the Draw, a very expensive ritual. What do I get in return for creating it? Why I lose half my population, heavily damage my units, and am locked into permanent war with all other civilizations of course! It also lets me begin work on the Ascension (Once I've researched Omniscience)
The plan would be to take the draw up to one turn away from completion and leave it. Don't trigger it before its needed.
Once Omniscience is researched and the draw completed, then the Ascension can begin. This is again a massive massive project. One of the most hammer intensive in the game. Outstripped only by the Bane Divine and Glory Everlasting projects, which can best be described as "Silly Expensive".
It's all a massive outlay. I'm probably less than halfway to completion, and should be easily able to win by Tower of Mastery if given the time needed to attempt this.
The one thing you really want to get if going for Ascension is the Divine Compass. It drops the hammers needed for any rituals by half, which gives them a much more reasonable cost. Unfortunately it would require heading up yet another branch of the tech tree. Albeit a much less expensive one. Not sure if it would be worth it...
Quote:I understand when Auric ascends a godslayer will be created to counter him. When that happens does the game alert the Illian player to which civilization or unit receives the godslayer?
Can the Illian player kill and capture the godslayer for themselves? Would Auric be pretty much invincible if you can destroy or capture the godslayer
The Godslayer goes to the player with the highest score who is not allied to the Illians. I think the promotion shows up, if you watch carefully. Maybe not though. I've never actually seen it, so I'm fairly sure it can't be captured.
The thing to remember is that Auric is not a fighter so hopefully you won't get in a fight with the Godslayer. He has S60, but with no promotions that is a lot less than it may seem, and will easily be killed by a determined mob of enemies. The best way to use him doesn't involve him getting into any physical combat at all.
Auric is pretty fast, with 4 movement and ignores terrain. He has the spell Snowfall, jacked up to godly levels. Its range, power, targeting and lethality are all increased. Auric's avatar ability means he will nearly always defend the stack, so he needs to be as far from the frontline as possible. Being 5 tiles away from the front, means that Auric can dart in to 2 tiles radius, cast his spell and dart away again. Hopefully onto impassable terrain. His spell kills units in the radius that are injured, so the thing to do is to soften up a city with Maelstrom and/or Snowfall, then use Aurics "Godfall" to kill everyone. It works whether there is one defender or five hundred thousand, and I can guarantee that Snowfall/Snowfall/Godfall will work to annihilate anyone in radius who isn't immune to cold or magic. Godfall conveniently ignores friendly units as well, so the forces you used to soften up the defender are left unhurt.
I'll go into that strategy more if I ever get the Ascension completed. But suffice to say, Auric is not unbeatable but he *is* game changingly powerful.
Is Auric Ascended even worth it? I would say this game could actually provide a case where he is. If I'm able to lock things down into a late game stalemate then I would have a guy ready and able to break through it in my favour. Of course maybe not. More likely I'll be dead before any of this comes to fruition, and we'll be living in a new age of darkness or dragons.
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