In the last entry I had fought my way to the Necrophage region of Saradh, destroyed the city there, and converted a local village to complete a stage of my faction quest. My armies were returning victorious. The next stage involved searching some ruins, which would be easy enough - but I need Palladian ore, a rare resource that I currently have no production in, even with my many converted villages. Time to head to the diplomacy screen to see if anyone has some they're willing to part with.
The Broken Lords (they're 'Worried' now - scared about having weak armies and due to enemies in their land. Maybe they're being attacked by someone else? I'm a little surprised they haven't asked for help if so; we're meant to be allies after all. In any case, they don't have any Palladian. But look who does have some!
It seems my war against the Necrophage has made me a new Blood Brother, in combination with our mutual friends and peaceful relationship. They're willing to give me all their Palladian ore and a ton of Adamantian ore plus an old tech, all for the privilege of allying with me. There must be some condition involved in alliances that I'm missing - perhaps I'm going to end up dragged into some war in the future against my will? But even then, they can hardly force me to actually participate, and I only have one city to defend (though I should establish a force to defend my distant converted villages).
With the Palladian ore in hand, Andom the Seer beelines to the ruins. Meanwhile, back in Saradh the Necrophages have gathered a huge army to attack the converted village there - sucks to be those folks right now, but they've served their purpose for the greater good (or whatever our final goal turns out to be). I'm lucky they didn't muster a set of armies like this when I was besieging the city.
With the Palladian ore in hand, Andom the Seer beelines to the ruins. Meanwhile, back in Saradh the Necrophages have gathered a huge army to attack the converted village there - sucks to be those folks right now, but they've served their purpose for the greater good (or whatever our final goal turns out to be). I'm lucky they didn't muster a set of armies like this when I was besieging the city.
It's with a little trepidation that I give the order to search the ruins - I'm almost expecting some kind of battle, but it just unlocks the next stage of the quest. Research 10 techs from the third age, huh? Well, I've already done that. Quite a while ago, actually.
Next step - have five different minor factions converted. If that means at least one village, then I have seven at the moment. We will see. Andom the Seer goes to complete an old quest relying on the magic sword he's equipped with, luckily it's not far from Citadel. A slightly dumb requirement calls for Antom to only be accompanied by two units when he starts a fight with some guardians... but when the battle actually starts, the rest of his army that I detached can still come on as reinforcements. It would have been easy enough anyway, so I auto-complete it.
Most of my converted villages have six units in garrison now, which means any new units they produce are automatically put into armies on the world map. Since they don't have any special equipment, I'm just selling them to the mercenaries (that's how it's described, but I don't think they're actually adding to the number of mercenaries available).
It does indeed only require one village - but before it registers as complete, I get a message saying that the Wild Walkers (whom I recently made an alliance with) have got to the first stage out of five for their own victory by faction quest. That was how I won in my first game as the Wild Walkers, but I can't remember the details now.
Most of my converted villages have six units in garrison now, which means any new units they produce are automatically put into armies on the world map. Since they don't have any special equipment, I'm just selling them to the mercenaries (that's how it's described, but I don't think they're actually adding to the number of mercenaries available).
It does indeed only require one village - but before it registers as complete, I get a message saying that the Wild Walkers (whom I recently made an alliance with) have got to the first stage out of five for their own victory by faction quest. That was how I won in my first game as the Wild Walkers, but I can't remember the details now.
My next quest stage involves building an improvement. I'll have to rush these things as fast as I can now - I only hope there isn't anything else which involved excessive travelling. Luckily Citadel is doing very well, and I have upgraded the City Center District to level three, making use of one of my special Cultist powers to have level three districts.
The Necrophage offer a truce with some Palladian ore, which I accept happily, not that they were really a threat over on the other side of the world.
The Necrophage offer a truce with some Palladian ore, which I accept happily, not that they were really a threat over on the other side of the world.
I spend almost 2000 Dust to rush build the Shrine of Whispers in one turn - I have more than 5000 left afterwards, so it's no pressure on my treasury. Things go in a rush from here - the next step calls for two Preachers to reach level six and one Cultist hero at level nine - again, I've already achieved this in my war against the Necrophages. After that, it calls for the City Center in Citadel to be raised to level three, which is also already done.
And with that, I complete my faction quest, gaining some special tech boosting converted units, and the ability to build a game ending wonder - the Temple of the Earth's Core. Unfortunately, at my winter construction rate it'll take 139 turns to build. But soon it will be summer, and we'll see.
I get a new quest, about looking into the changes in our world of Auriga - I suppose this is the quest to win the game, that the Wild Walkers have reach the first stage of? I wonder if I triggered it by finishing my faction quest, or if it's time based or something. We're at turn 184 now, and summer returns. If I put all my people into production, I can finish the Temple in 43 turns. I'm going to go for it.
My hero Tinu the Chosen III continues to help here, and a new upgrade boosts the production of Citadel from 588 to 609, shaving a turn or so off the production. I focus my research on improvements that can boost our productivity, and send Andom the Seer out to convert any village he can find to further boost our production. I spend our reserves of Titan Bones to get an extra +50%.
My hero Tinu the Chosen III continues to help here, and a new upgrade boosts the production of Citadel from 588 to 609, shaving a turn or so off the production. I focus my research on improvements that can boost our productivity, and send Andom the Seer out to convert any village he can find to further boost our production. I spend our reserves of Titan Bones to get an extra +50%.
It's now, in this late stage of the game, that I finally figure out how to see the conversion costs for a village! You have to right click on the village with your army selected, and you get a separate popup screen with the different options (talk/bribe/convert/attack) and their costs. Andom is going around bribing and converting villages, but I think I'll move him back to Citadel in case anyone tries something rash to stop me winning.
The Roving Clans, Vaulters and the Necrophages also reach the first stage of a quest victory, but I'm not worried about that anymore. If someone else had started a wonder victory like me I would, but there's been no notification.
The Roving Clans, Vaulters and the Necrophages also reach the first stage of a quest victory, but I'm not worried about that anymore. If someone else had started a wonder victory like me I would, but there's been no notification.
I reach the fifth era of tech, and pause my construction of the Temple for one turn to build a Production Line. This provides a huge production boost from 843 to 1062 - only 17 turns left. The return of winter sets us back a little, but not as much as I'd expected.
I'm just running down the clock now, selling excess converts and nodding along as the rather silly Broken Lords keep breaking and renewing our deal to share maps and vision.
At turn 201, the world looks quite different in some ways, but similar in others. No-one has really tried to expand onto my continent, and Citadel has never been threatened. Even the Broken Lords haven't properly expanded, perhaps due to their slower, awkward growth system (I don't know the exact details of it, having not played as them).
At turn 201, the world looks quite different in some ways, but similar in others. No-one has really tried to expand onto my continent, and Citadel has never been threatened. Even the Broken Lords haven't properly expanded, perhaps due to their slower, awkward growth system (I don't know the exact details of it, having not played as them).
It is turn 215, and Andom returns just in time to witness our triumph.
And that's it. I'll do another post summing up my feelings throughout the game, because they've been back and forth a bit, in terms of enthusiasm for playing more. I'll also go into more detail about the final score graphs, which are perhaps... misleading? I was the third weakest player in the game, and way below the top two. Yet I had a pretty much unimpeded path to victory. Hard is only the middle difficulty level (there are three higher ones), so I wouldn't be surprised if that's a big factor. But for now, I hope you've enjoyed reading!
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