The Communion Confessional

[Huzurdaddi]

Ok I'll admit it: I'm a communion junkie. When communion works it's a thing of beatuty. When it goes wrong it usually goes horribly, horribly wrong. I also think that communion shows the game in it's best light: magic flying all around the battle field, spell effects everywhere it just looks and sounds great.

So I'm doing a little AAR to show case communion. I'll be playing Pythium. And just to have some extra fun I will not be using any gems in this game ( since it would distract from the joy of communion and just cuz you can with communion ).

Actually communion can be done with cheaper armies than I will be using. But these armies get the job done without question and I didn't want to think too much.

So without further ado here is The Communion Confessional.

NB: it takes a little while to get communion going. So if you only care about that go "The Age of Communion".

Also don't try this will the spell mod, while I love the spell mod to death it does crush this strategy since the AI simply LOVES to spam elementals and at 99 fatigue a pop it does not take long for the AI to kill all of your communicants.

[Huzurdaddi]

Setup:
Map: Karan, Indeps:6, Sites:50 all other normal.
Victory: 6 out of 10 VP's

Pretender
Wormfood the Ghost king, Prince of inventions, Patron to Artisans and Lord of the Emerald.

Magic :
Air 3, water 1, earth 4, death 3
Scales:
Order:3 Sloth:2 Misfortune:1 Magic:3
Fotress:
Watchtower

I could have gotten more magic on my pretender by simply taking more misfortune or taking some death but I really did not need it.

The Earth path gives a blessing of reinvigoration. I have looked to see if it makes a difference it should make one but I have not been able to detect it, anyway it seems like a good policy since fatigue is the great killer of communicants. If I could build an E10 SC I would!

[Huzurdaddi]

The 1st few turns are pretty boring and dominated by research and recruiting.

I start in the east in province 47, not as many Farm provinces near by as I would like but that's Karan for you.

I start researching alteration. And I recruit 1 theurg, 1 standard and 2 principes. I patrol with my starting army and set my taxes to 150.

I do this until turn 5 ( sometimes taking a principe instead of a standard ). At which point I am just 2 points away from Alteration 3. I take two theugrs and set them to forging. One makes an ice sword, The other makes an enchanted sword. This equipment is for my Wormfood, combined with his impressive starting defence of 18 this will give him 25 defence.

I also swtich almost all of my research to evocation.

[Huzurdaddi]

Turn 6

This is where the fun begins. To the west I see a farm lands provice with 40 units of heavy cav and heavy Infantry I send my pretender against this. My other adjoining plains provicnes are heavy cav and my normal army could lose to them. Instead I send them to the west through the waste. Perhaps to go to the planes to the north. I attack province 55 containing 20 LI and militia.

The 2nd force is all of the infantry I have created so far plus my starting forces ( 11 principes, 5 standards, 10 hastatus, and some number of Velite ) and I add to that 4 thurges. I script the thurges to cast quickness, body etherial ( BE), BE, BE, BE, cast. I place the Theurgs inside the infantry and I script the infantry to hold and attack.

With this setup my infanty will not be invulnerable, but will be quite difficult to kill.

I script my pretender for : quickness, mistform, ironskin, Mirror image, and air shield.

I set my tax rate back to 100%.

I start recruiting Theurg Acolytes to save on cash.

Turn 7

Success. My SC took his province and so did my army. Sadly my army lost a man. He will be remembered.

My main army will press north to Dathen (74) a plains province with 70 Hi, LI, and archers. Since there are archers I place one token Velite far infront of my forces. No need for the expensive Theurgs to die from a stray arrow.

My pretender presses north as well to Eryx (53) a plains province with 40 barbarians.

I lower my taxes in my new provinces to 80 until they are at 0 unrest. I also add a couple of points of PD.

Turn 8

Success. My SC took his province and so did my army. Sadly my army lost a man. He will be remembered.

My pretender presses north to Typhia (59) which is protected by 30 HI, LI and archers and my army presses north as well to Mud Wood (87) which is protected by 10 blowpipes, bloodhenge druids and blood vines.

I recruit a scout in one of my conquered provicnes to make forts with.

Turn 9

Ouch I lost 4 troops against the blood vines! Both armies take their provinces.

My army presses north to Oak halls (103) protetect by 50 LI, Milita and archers. Since there are ranged units a sacrifical Velite is placed in front. My pretender attacks Meer (62) which is gaurded by 50 HC, LC, and Militia.

I start construction on a watchtower in Dathen (74).

Turn 10

The main army loses the sacrifical Velite, luckily the losses are limited to this.

My main army ( currently only 27 men left! ) attacks Assad (95) a plains province with 70 HI, Milita and Archers.

My pretender presses north to Faerie Cressent (69) guarded by 30 heavy cav and HI.

I commense construction of a watch tower in Eryx (53).

Turn 11

The main army loses the sacrifical Velite, luckily the losses are limited to this. I've just noticed that my usually automatic GK has picked up TWO afflictions limp and lost an eye! Well reggardless he will press on.

My main army ( currently only 26 men left! ) attacks Questria (99) a plains province with 50 HI, Milita and Archers.

My pretender presses west to Ralothia (64) guarded by 70 HI, LI, and milita.

I start recruiting communicants at my new fortress. And I switch to thurges at the capital.

Income: 527

Turn 12

The main army loses two men! It is slowly getting worn down. My GK is successful.

Misforune strikes! Faerie Cressent is overrun by barbarians. Drat the luck.

I also see my 1st gimpse of the computer. Marigon is to my north in province Carnag (112).

My main army falls back to 74 to get a couple of units. And to face off the barbarians.

My pretender goes south to Erfel (53) since there are more farms along that route.

In Questria I have my 1st good fortune: a library! I will have to construct a fortress and a labratory here.

Turn 13

My pretender is successful in Erfel. Erfel has an Inpot End site, which basically renders the province unuseable.

My pretender goes south to Grey Mirks (38) which is guarded by 70 LI, Militia, and archers.

My main army goes to Faerie Crescent (69) to capture it back from the barbarian hordes.

I continue to recruit theurgs at the capital and communicants in all other fortresses.

Income 633.
Treasury: 227

Turn 14

The barbarian horde is turned back by my main army and my pretender takes the province he was assigned.

My main army goes west to Ralothia so that it can move north. My pretender goes fro Holburg. Holburg is strangely defended by 30 Heavy cav/Medium Cav. I guess they outsourced defence!

I beging the construction of yet another fortification this time in Faerie Crescent.

Income: 736
Treasury: 133

Turn 15

My pretender is successful against the outsourced defence of Holburg.

My pretender continue to move west and takes Glimmering Fields (43). I see T'ien Ch'i to the north of this province. Expansion may be comming to and end.

My main amry moves to Summerlands (73) a farm province guarded by HC, MC, and militia.

Income: 822
Treasury: 460

Turn 16

Aiee. A horrible day for the empire. My principes broke before the heavy cav. My Theurges were overrun. A day that will be remembered in infamy. 4 Theugres dead. 16 noble warriors dead. They will be avenged.

My pretender was successful on his side. Glimmering fields now belongs to pythium.

Level 5 evocation was successfully reseached. I will soon extract retribution!

I begin construction of two new fortresses. One in Meer (62) and one in Typhia (59) .

At this point I start searching for magical sites with my pretender.

Turn 17

My pretender found a site! The doom cloud. It explains the massive unrest in this province 156.

I move my pretender for more site searching.

Income: 885
Treasury: 331

[Huzurdaddi]

Turn 18

Betraly most foul. Marignon attacks in Questria (99) and overwelms my province defence.

I start building a fortress in Ralothia (64).

I move my forces into postion to bebuff the attack. I move 4 thurges and 10 communicnats to Dathen (74).

The Thurges are scripted as follows:

Quickness, communion master, falling frostx3
Quickness, communion master, divine blessing, thunderstrikex2
Quickness, communion master, thunderstrikex3
Quickness, communion master, falling frostx3

This should be more than sufficient to destroy any army at this stage of the game.

Income: 832
Treasury: 50

Turn 19

I Marignon retreated. I will press into the lands that are mine by divine right. My main army with 13 communicants, 4 thurges, and 36 men proceed northward.

I bring my ghost King back to Pythium. He will be assigned the task of conquring the south.

I continue to conscript as many communicants as I can.

I build a temple in Dathlen.

Income: 835
Treasury: 9

Turn 20

Misfortue strikes the capital: Ill omens plague the lands.

There was a battle in Questia. My forces engaged those of marignon suffering no losses. The rabble from marignon broke at the 1st sight of my magical might.

The army Presses on into Carnnag ( 112 ) a land long under the oppresive rule of Marignon.

My Pretender moves into Welrydh ( 35 ) a waste province guarded by HI and archers.

Income: 793
Treasury: 25

Turn 21

My army met more marignon rabble and tossed them aside like chaff. No losses were incured.

My pretender took Carnnag. He fought an intesting independent and will spend 1 turn searching this province just in case something turns up. Also this provnice has an unnaturally high unrest.

I have formed another army in Ralothia ( 64 ) . Comprised of 15 communicants, 4 thurges, and 42 men it is my strongest army to date. It will attack Summerlands the land of the empires 1st defeat.

My thurges are scripted as follows:
Quickness, communion master, thunderstrikex3
Quickness, communion master, thunderstrikex3
Quickness, communion master, thunderstrikex3
Quickness, communion master, divine blessing, falling frostx2

I construct a lab in Dathlen.

Turn 22

Both armies are successful. However the thurges did not select the best targets in Ralothia and the heavy cav was allowed to make contact with my men. Due to this miscalculation 3 men died.

Wormfood found a magical site, but nothing of great importance. It is possible that the province is a blood site.

My 1st army presses on to Marignon. The battle will be swift. But the sige will not he has a citadel.

My 2nd army presses on to Ogdan Mirks ( 94 ) home of over 70 barbarians. They will feel the magical might of Pythium.

My pretender press south to Barr ( 19 ) proteted by some 20 men.

Income: 892
Treasury: 19

Turn 23

Misfortune strikes. heavy snowfalls in holburg result in the loss of 100 pounds of gold.

My pretender was of course successful.

The barbarians in Ogdan Mirks ran before the magical might of Pythium. They never even came close to the front lines.

The battle for Marignon was swift as well. However one man was killed by a lucky crossbow bolt.

I see that marignon controls Solam ( 143 ) and I am making no progess against his walls. I move my army from Marignon to Solam.

I move my 2nd army to Florien ( 98 ) guarded by burgmeisters.

My pretender attacks Obalshin ( 12 ) which is guarded by heavy cav. This could be a problem. We shall see.

Income: 1079
Treasury: 1

Note: This is the Apex of Pythium's power in my mind. A couple of armies back by communicants in the early-mid game which are for all intents and purposes invincible. This is why one plays Pythium.

Turn 24

Finally Marignon gives battle in Solam. A handful of knights of the challice and a few casters square off against my communion powered army. It is not even a fight. One knight outflanks the screening Principes and gets right before a theurg before he is electrocuted by a thunderbolt.

The burgmesiters are obliterated by thunderbolts. And finally wormfood is successful once again. Sadly he gained yet another afliction. He is now limp, weakened and has lost an eye. But he will fight on.

My 1st army moves back to Marignon. Somehow he has assembed a sizeable force there including his pretender.

I move my 2nd army to Dubros ( 110 ). And my pretender moves to Obalshin ( 12 ).

Income: 1202
Treasury: 45

Turn 25

Good fortue strikes: Oak hills has it's tax revenue increased by 20 permantly!

The battle in Marignon was swift and brutal. As is really requied by Communion.

Marignon counter attacked in Exibothia with a large army comprised of chaff, knights and casters he easly defeated the province defence.

The battle in Dubros was successful, however Pythium suffered a grevious blow Fenlius the mage was killed by an arrow. He will be missed.

My pretender was successful in Obalshin.

I form my 3rd army in Rolothia, 18 communicants, 5 thurges and 40 men form into battle lines.

My 1st army contines to seige Marignon.

My 2nd army attacks Entwoods ( 124 ).

Income: 1278
Treasury: 331

Turn 26

The battle of marignon was feirce. In the end 6 pythium warriors died. But the destruction on marignon's side was complete. In the battle of entwoods a stray crossbow bolt killed a Principe. He will be missed. And my pretender was successful in Ostmark.

My 1st army continues to seige marignon. However the Theurges start to use their holy power not to seige but to preach the word of god. If we can not break down the walls perhaps we can stuff outt he god iside through the power of faith.

My 2nd army attacks Exlbothia. My 3rd army moves northward to Ogdan Mirks. My pretender moves northward to Eribon. This move could well be his Last for it is defended bn 130 ichtyids and ichtyid warriors.

Turn 27

My pretender is successful. And the battle in Exlbothia is quick as always.

My 1st army continues to siege.
My 2nd army moves to Corbion, just taken by Marignon Last turn.
My 3rd army moves to Florien.
I begin to form up my 4th army.
My pretender moves to Dommen ( 20 ).

I construct a lab in Mud Wood. And a fortress in Grey Mirks.

Resarch update: I have acheived tech 6 in construction I am moving to conjuration.

Income: 1532
Treasury: 555

Turn 28

My pretender was successful. As was my 2nd army. The marignon army in Corbion moved to Entwoods and avoided my army.

My pretender moves to Ossory ( 21 ).
My 1st army will continue the seige/preaching his dominion is down to 2 in his home province.
My 2nd army will Move to the Rift of Zyx ( 147 ) held by marignon.
My 3rd army will move to Dubros ( 110 ) to stop marignon's army if he moves forward.

And I form my newest army my 4th which is comprised of 20 communicants, 5 theurges, and 30 men. It forms up in Grey Mirks.

Income: 1580
Treasury: 599

Turn 29

Good fortune: the defence of Salom was raised by 5.
Marignon assassinates one of my communicants. This is one of the problems with Communion you really can't protect your communicants and they are assassin fodder. You just have to live with it ( unless someone knows a good way to stop it ).
My pretender was successful at taking his province.
My 3rd Army destroyed the raiding force from Marignon with no losses.
And my 2nd army destoryed the army of marignon in the Rift of Zyx with no losses.

My pretender moves to Elderhill ( 23 ).
My 1st army continues the siege/preaching in marignon.
My 2nd army moves to Andoria ( 156 ) which is held by marignon.
My 3rd army moves to Entwoods ( 124 ) which is held by marignon.


My 4th army is setup and scripting is set:
Quickness, communion master, thunderstrikex3
Quickness, communion master, thunderstrikex3
Quickness, communion master, thunderstrikex3
Quickness, communion master, falling frostx3
Quickness, communion master, divine blessing, falling frostx2
And I move it to glimmering fields ( 43 ).

Construction:
I construct a temple in Grey Mirks
I construct a lab in Questria.

Income: 1628
Treasury: 735 ( time to build more! ).

Turn 30:

Misfortune strikes in mud woods my lab burns down.

The battle of Andoria was like all battles quick and deadly. No losses were suffered. The battle of Entwoods was the same. My pretender was also successful.

Good news! The Citadel of Marignon has been breached! I can storm it now!

The 1st army storms Marignon.
The 2nd army moves to Copos ( 139 ) which is as far as I can see the Last Marignon territory.
The 3rd army attacks Black Alps ( 114 ) which is guarded by nightmares and amazons. Usually this would be a difficult battle.
The 4th army attacks Juec ( 39 ) begining the war with T'ien Chi ... they are very outnumbered and so will be out maneuvered for the 1st couple of turns.
Sadly my pretender can not attack Moloch's Scythe since it is guarded by raptors and they would be able to attack him before he could buff. He cay come back with a staff of storms. He moves to Pythium for some well deserved rest.

Construction
I construct a temple in Questria.
I construct a fortress in Devil's Green.
I construct a lab in Grey Mirks.
I construct a temple in Meer.
I construct a temple in Eryx.

Recruitment
In addition to my normal 2 theuges, innumerable communicants, and host of principes, I being recruiting sages in Questira.

Income: 1700
Treasury: 6

It's turn 30 so I may as well give a snapshot of how things are going. I control 38 provinces and almost have my side of the map locked up.

[Huzurdaddi]

The next 12 turns are much like the previous 13, many battles are fought. Many are won. They all follow the same pattern. Except for one

Turn 38

Disater in Arcosphale. The AI surrounded the Enemy pretender with ghost wolves and paralized the pretender thus insuring a very long battle. Communicants don't like long battles. They all died. OTOH he lost his pretender.

You can start communion a few turns before I started in this game I started a little late turn 18. With more farm provinces around your capial and/or settling on less communion slaves and less Theurges you can start a couple of turns earlier. Also you don't *need* Evoc 5 you can do well with evoc 4 ( thunderbolt).

Finally some players perfer to use the more damaging orb lighting than thunderbolt. It costs far less fatigue and does somewhat more damage. It's range is limited though. So you have to be more careful when you script it. Play around with them both to see what you like best.

One thing I'm not a huge fan of is that there really are not many spells past level 5 that help this strategy. The level 7 evocation spell Ice Strike helps a little but it functionally very similar to falling frost. I wish that there were more spells that one could research to enhance this strategy ( Soul Slay/Ensalve mind is one but it really not what I am looking for which would be more in the area effect Category ) without micromanaging gems ( shimmering fields works pretty well if you wish to micromanage ).

[Calistas]

Sounds interesting. I think you waited quite late to attack. I find a block of 25 soldiers (the ones you start with + recruited principes) can kill 30 (easy) to 50 (sometimes) enemy without problems. I would have probably struck out a couple of times, returned to re-arm then continued as you did.

Why not a bunch of lightning rings and combine your comunion strategy with wrathfull skies? There might be a good reason for this me = noob so I don't know

Also, what -exactly- is your standard communion army form? How many of each unit? Any screening units?

Ta!

Calistas

[Tuna]

Huzurdaddi said:
If I could build an E10 SC I would!

Why not?

I've found E-10 cyclops to be quite effient for Pythium. Arm with swords, no need to cast anything and he mops indies without problems thanks to his 30 prot. Later in the game he provides e-11 caster for enliven statues, that means the statues are nearly free. Also, he can be used as drive-by earthquaker and can cast the army of lead/gold to protect the mages.

The downside is no death caster for the nation.

[Huzurdaddi]

Sounds interesting. I think you waited quite late to attack. I find a block of 25 soldiers (the ones you start with + recruited principes) can kill 30 (easy) to 50 (sometimes) enemy without problems. I would have probably struck out a couple of times, returned to re-arm then continued as you did.

I find that they succeed, but they take sigifigant losses. Do you find differently?

Attacking only on Turn-6 is a recipie for disaster on smaller maps I agree. I don't know if would play Pythium on a smaller mar though.

With the body etherial thing the principes went through 10 indeps without resuppling ( or did I sent 10 troops as resuppy once ... I think I did ). Still that's a lot of indpes with little troops.

Why not a bunch of lightning rings and combine your comunion strategy with wrathfull skies?

Well it is super easy to protect the Theurges and the Communicants simply have each theurg cast resist lighting and the communicants will automatically pick it up. The downside is that there is no way to protect your screening troops from the lighting. However if you can get lighting resistant troops ( mechanical men anyone? ) then it's cake to pull off. It does require gems though which means you will probably need a scout with gems to ferry 2 gems per battle ( 3 if you want to actually cast storms ) to your theurges.

Also, what -exactly- is your standard communion army form? How many of each unit? Any screening units?

In this game I was going for 4-5 theurges, 12-20 communicants, and 25-40 screening men. I try for a ratio of 3-4 between theurges and communicants.

You can do it with only 3 theurges and 8-9 communicants. But beware the long fight is the bane of the communicant. If the battle is short and sweet ( 5 scripted spells followed by a host of ghost wolves as they retreat ) then they will live, easily. However if the battle goes on for any thing like 10 rounds it is likely they your communicants will die. Hence in this game I used overwealming force.

Why not?

I find he can not drive around the map with impunity as can the GK. However he can start taking indeps on turn-2 which is nice. How do you script him? What weapons do you give him? What do you find he can take?

[Tuna]

Huzurdaddi said:
I find he can not drive around the map with impunity as can the GK. However he can start taking indeps on turn-2 which is nice. How do you script him? What weapons do you give him? What do you find he can take?

I usually play with indie strenght 7.

He plays a little different than GK-style early sc's: While GK's try not to be hit, Cyclops gets hit but just doesn't care. 30 prot and decent hitpoints mean that he is totally indifferent about the presence of crossbows, bows, swords, spears, etc. The very rarely do any damage at all; when they do, they usually just do one, and as chance of picking up afflictions depend on the damage done/max hitpoints, he almost never picks up afflictions. To answer this question properly I ran 5 test games to turn 30, and when I took unneccessary risks (lances with no equip), his HP's went down well below halfway, but he never picked up a single affliction. Also, fatigue is his worst enemy: When it gets high, there is a chance of armor negating attacks, and that is bad. Very bad. Luckily, he has so low innate encumberance that it doesn't really matter all that much.

On turn 1, research const. leave scout home. Hire theurg.

On turn 2, if I border indies with nothing better than militia, archers and light infrantry, I send him take that province. Just stand very close to the frontline and attack closest. Also hire one theurg and infrantry.

Ideally, there is another similar province next to my capital and third that borders the first one and the second one. On turn 3, hire another theurg, attack the third province with god, forge 2 enchanted swords.

Water swords would provide +2 def, but that is not really all that important as the god isn't relying on def to do his defending, and it would lower att which means longer battles, more fatigue. Water sword and enchanted shield is another possibility, but that not only increases his encumberance to 3, it also halves the speed he attacks enemies, and that can potentially be bad, and the +1 prot he gets from it doesn't really help at all.

Turn 4, attack the second easy province near capital, sneak the scout with the swords to the same province.

Turn 5, equip him and after that he can pretty much take on almost any indies without problems. Except ofc lizardmen and woodsmen blowpipes (they have fatigue attack, correct?). Later, send him flying boots, the ethereal robe and amulet of luck with a scout and he is very potent early sc. Also make him cast summon earthpower for the fatique reduction.

(edit) Oh, by the way, once you have researched some alteration, add both ironskin and stoneskin in his queue. This adds +5 prot, and after that he is pretty much invulnerable to normal troops. (/edit)