[spoilers] coldrain is trapped within Hunter's Dream

[DaveV]

And do I remember wrong, but isn’t there supposed to be an event to bless a high level assassin with favour of Aeron with a special promotion? I have a level 7 Ghost after killing Hyborem, so I should get the Aeron’s Chosen promotion for free?

I think there's a delay of a couple turns before the Aeron's Chosen event triggers. Also, it can only happen one time per game, so someone else could conceivably have beaten you to it.

[coldrain]

Thanks for clarifying, the only other player with poisons is Auro, so maybe he got Aeron's Chosen ahead of me? I did see a high level hunter of his some time ago with a floating eye, maybe he upgraded it.

Some quick comments on the overall war situation:
Looking at the Kuriotate front, me and Cairo outnumber the army Aurorarcher has stationed in Eclipse. The problem is Hemah (summons earth elemental for defence) and that if we wanted to attack, our armies would need to close in first within a first strike range -> Auro would have the opportunity to use maelstrom, blinding light and disposeable summons against us, and he could then back away to safety, or if there are enough units available, maybe even thin out our stacks enough that advancing becomes impossible afterwards. So instead Cairo and I sit tight in Avelorn and Auroarcher does the same in Eclipse.

The Ljosalfar front has seen more deadly combat, but it looks like xist10 is holding on for now, although he has lost some cities several turns ago. Bing could maybe help there a bit more. The Lanun still has best economy and largest military power, so our coalition needs to figure out a way to do some real damage.

[coldrain]

Turn 129
 
Burned the city of Bat:


I had left my army a bit closer to the enemy territory in previous turn, but still outside of spell range of Aurorarcher. I used some of the captured workers from Infernals to build couple of roads, then my hasted mages could use maelstrom, fireballs and send in summoned Einherjars, plus return to safe distance afterwards.

Unfortunately I forgot to pillage the newly built road, so in theory Aurorarcher could send in hasted mobility chariots to attack my main stack. Unless Cairo sends a centaur to pillage the road, which I asked him to do in the diplo thread.

[coldrain]

Aurorarcher managed to capture and raze Naggarond on T134. I saw two privateers near the city ruins, plus some Cultists and a drown:


I killed two Cultists and the drown with fire mages. To have enough range, I had to leave the mages on the coast afterwards:


I brought some DS and archers for defence, and summoned Einherjars, so I should be relatively safe, unless Aurorarcher has more ships beyond the vision range of my floating eye. Raging seas world spell is a possibility too, I actually don’t remember how much damage it does, or if it can kill units outright? Should have tested that before playing my turn… Let’s see if I survive intact or not.


Hmm, Cairos capital was defended with only 3-4 swords, so Aurorarcher could have razed it too by landing on the highlighted tile with chariots and a haste adept, then cast haste and promote the chariots mobility 1 + 2 (he is CHA with Form of titan), giving enough movement to ride all the way to Kwythellar. Come to think of it, maybe I should warn Cairo of this possibility if he doesn’t spot it by himself first?

And how is my situation? Army maintenance is crushing my economy, otherwise I’m doing ok. I mean, I’m still behind in production and crop yield compared to the other bigger empires, but I have the most mages available after the Lanun, I think. Now I also have three shades in capital, where I plan to build Bazaar of Mammon soon (picture is from previous turn):


The Bazaar would grant +100% gold income in the city, but takes about 9 turns to complete. Not sure if I can afford to stop producing military there for now.

[Qgqqqqq]

Should have replied earlier - raging seas can kill units. From a website that seems trustworthy: Mean 75% Cold damage to all non-Lanun units, 25% chance to destroy improvements in coastal tiles

[coldrain]

Turn 142

Thanks for the clarification. Aurorarcher decided to retreat from the range of my fire mages, so my units remained unscathed. He is now raiding the coast of Bing.
I just completed Bazaar of Mammon, giving additional +100 gold per turn when saving gold:


Also joined a new shade as great engineer (from a Ghost that killed some barbarians in south tundra) to speed up production of Tower of Divination. Ten turns to go until I get my own archmages. Plenty of time for Aurorarcher to thwart my plans… I’m absolutely paranoid about a possible landing by Lanun near my capital, that’s why I keep a sizeable garrison there. A medium sized mage stack stays further south, from where it can move with haste to counter attack any potential landings or hostile ships that stay too close.


National epic was completed some turns ago in Altar of Despair, seven turns until next great person. Hopefully I get something other than a sage, so I can launch a two-person golden age. Not sure if building the epic in a coastal city was the best idea. Heroic Epic was built too, in Cathedral Ward.

[coldrain]

Turn 145
 
It sounds like xist10 will receive the brunt of Aurorarcher’s army very soon. To try and do something before it is too late, I moved my assistance army at Cairo’s lands to here:


My forces are on the forested plains tile, and I sent some summoned units to block the open terrain in front. I calculated the potential movement of the Lanun units, and I should be out of range of blinding light there, but maelstrom or spell extension summons could hit me. Also, the swordmen near Eclipse should be too far to reach.

If Cairo moves his mobile units (about 30 chargers and 10 centaur archers) with me, then the following turn there could be an opening to do some damage. He should also move in haste mage and regen mage at least, for better mobility and healing from potential maelstrom damage. This is kind of a sketchy attempt, as Aurorarcher could just bombard us with summons and retreat a bit further back with his actually valuable units. His engineering movement bonus is a difficult advantage to overcome.

Meanwhile at the home front, Tower of Divination is about 40% complete:


So if the game lasts another six turns, I will get my hands on archmages. I fear it is already too late to stop Aurorarcher (and maybe has been the case for a longer time), his military and economy situation is way ahead of our combined coalition. Still, I would like to try and do something to create pressure on this front, as it seems like Auro has sent the best units against xist. For example, I haven’t seen his archmages or the war tortoises near my forces. Demos after ending turn:


And my current list of active units:


30 mages is nice to have, but if xist is indeed facing 70+ units at his doorstep, even I could do little to stop them, especially against the engineering movement bonus. Oh, and Aurorarcher seems to be building sun mana nodes and got Dies Dei, so his archmages are presumably summoning aurealis elementals? They have +2 affinity for sun mana, so should be at 16 strength by now? Haven’t seen any myself, but why else would he build so many sun nodes.

EDIT: And forgot to mention, several turns ago a gold source popped near capital. Quite nice!

[coldrain]

Turn 151
 
A couple of turns ago I got a great person from the national epic city and started a two-gp golden age:


I swapped to total war civics:


Both arcane lore tech and Tower of Divination were set to complete end of T150. Meanwhile, this stack of Aurorarcher was waiting for the treants of xist’s world spell to disappear:


I had sent a recon adept with floating eye, and a small support force of about 10 units (some chariots, mages and Divides souls) to the Ljosalfar lands, taking cover in the city of Dendrom. Then on the current turn of T151, ToD completed and I chose strength of will as free technology:


Unfortunately I had to squeeze out my reserve of gold to finish arcane lore as pre-req in time, so I don’t have any money available to promote archmages immediately. I need to save gold for a turn to afford it.
As treants disappeared, Aurorarcher captured the capital of xist and sent mobility horsearchers to almost clear out my support force:


I cast blinding light and rust to the mounted stack before retreating to the east, into Bing city:


Surprisingly many of Auro’s units resisted the blinding light. Has he completed Tower of Alteration without me paying attention? Or I maybe I had too high expectations for the spell.

I’m now worried that Bing might fall quite quickly if he misplaces his Succubus units or Mobius witches. XIst will for sure be eliminated in a couple of turns, if Aurorarcher chooses to prioritize that. Xist has resisted invasions bravely for a long time now, unfortunate that me and Cairo couldn’t find a way to break through at the other front in the meantime.

I start to turn back my sizeable stack in the Kuriotate territory, in anticipation of potential fall of xist + Bing:


Cairo has enough centaurs and mages to hold against the forces Aurorarcher has left in Eclipse. I do leave a couple of units, including a recon adept, to have information about army movements. Sent some proposals for mana trades, as next turn I want to promote the first archmages, so free promotions would be nice.

My realistic approximation of the chances of our coalition stopping the Lanun: Less than 5% on a lucky day. I do find the game still interesting, I want to see if I can stabilize the collapsing front with archmages.

EDIT: I also converted to Fellowship of Leaves at the start of the GA. Now xist brought a priest of Leaves and built a temple with it in Forbidden Woods, thanks for that!

[Qgqqqqq]

(Belated) thanks for the updates!

[coldrain]

Turns 152-154
 
Xist10 was eliminated by Aurorarcher, thanks for playing! Not looking too great for the rest of us either. The fight continues, I want to send my army into action before the game ends. On T152 I upgrade the first two archmages:


I traded my gold for Bing’s enchantment mana, plus I have another source from palace and I swapped my own two nodes to enchantment too -> experienced mages receive spell staff ability for free when upgraded to archmage. Some of the mages had a lot of accumulated xp, so I could afford to promote to fire lvl 3 and spell extension 2 immediately. Bing left his Mobius witches quite forward, so definitely within the range of most of Lanun units in former xist10 lands:


Bing captured a city (and cleared out some units), but those will most likely be only temporary successes, until a counter attack is made by Auro. At the same time, Bing has completed the repeatable Sheaim ritual to raise Armageddon counter, so the second rider of doom, Buboes, spawned south of Cairo:


Then on T153 I upgrade rest of the allowed archmages, bringing the total to four:


They joined my main army, which marched from the Kuriotate territory back home, in anticipation of needing to go help the Sheaim (and xist10, but too late now). I switch mana nodes to fire, in preparing for more regular mage upgrades next turn. This was the turn when the under council resolution of “declare war against Bing” went into effect. I had voted no, but seems like I should have defied the resolution. I had only a small recon force within the Sheaim lands, so not a huge set back. I sent a peace deal offering immediately.
 
On current turn of 154 armageddon counter keeps climbing and the third rider Yersinia enters the world:


Cairo now has both riders knocking at the gates. I noticed a naval force, including the Black Wind lurking near my coast:


I have stuffed my only coastal city full of warriors and some summons. Also a couple of mages will stay near Cathedral Ward (heroic epic city), which can send fireballs if those ships venture too close. I move units around, promote some adepts to mages, and I have enough movement to bring them to Forbidden Woods:


This stack in the picture is about 90% of my offensive units in total. Some more archers and reserve mages stay in other cities and a few units remain to keep an eye out near the super city of Avelorn. Bing didn’t send me open border deal after peace was declared after the under council debacle, so I now sent that proposal. Aurorarcher pressed forward and captured the capital of Bing:


Next turn I can send the main force to assist, if borders are opened. My plan is to use the spell staff promotions on the archmages on a suitable moment to effectively have 8 fire elementals for a first strike, if Aurorarcher leaves his stack(s) within range. My archmages “loaded” their spell staves already on T152, so I can now use them at any moment necessary. If I checked right, the strongest summons of Aurorarcher are aurealis elementals, which have base strength 6 + 3x sun mana affinity, but crucially that affinity boosted strength is of fire damage variety -> my fire elementals are immune to fire damage where as aurealis are not. I should therefore get 12 strength elementals against his 6 str, if I can get a jump on his mage stack. Or alternatively, some other units will defend first against my fire elementals, in which case I could pick off units little by little. I just have to be very careful not to leave my own stack within first strike range, which is difficult as I still don’t have engineering completed. Demos in spoiler: