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[Aklyon]

I'm fairly sure the stall would happen regardless, the red text on the side counting it down apepared before the event itself did.

[Aklyon]

First pages, Journal the Third of Lord Najesh:
T187 - I had the Scion's diplomat shot in the wasteland outside the walls once it was confirmed it was from them. During war, diplomatic incidents only exist for the living. The Aristrakh are not, and while the Scions probably aren't technically 'alive' either, in this case it was both more expedient and more gratifying to just shoot the messenger regardless. Sadly, with the loss of connected fire mana I couldn't order them burnt as well, and the soldiers have gotten slightly weaker with the lessened amount of death mana.
T191 - The Austrin diplomat demanded we stop trading with the Infernals. I still do not know who they are, and I am in no mood to be permissive. Total diplomatic incidents caused since the start of this journal has risen to 2.

T196 - Another soldier is summoned as they cower in fear and have not even attempted to approach Deathknell yet. Within the city lies 6 Skeleton soldiers, Nofuos, a tomb lord, a barrow archer, and 6 Pale protectors who were upgraded from barrow warriors. Soon, the protectors squad will move out and crush them if they refuse to come to us.
T202 - The Nightwatch reports movement around the nearby cities, but they also report the emberites are foolish enough to involve themselves in multiple wars at once! They have declared war on the Scions too!
T205 - They've also converted to Ashen Veil and taken a scions city. The protectors are moving out, but Deathknell now has proper walls, not just a palisade!
T208 - I heard we have even better knowledge of construction now! That should improve the defiler usefulness...

T210:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is our city. You will give it back!


Some got better at slaying the orcish axemen the Emberites used. Also, border expansion immediately after I hit end turn here.

T211 - The heathen shamans the clan of embers have dispelled our death mana node nearby Tarfah! But they cannot dispel the Mirror of Heaven! Bring out some barrow adepts, I want those shamen burned!

T219 - Azhar has been restored, and with it, additional Death mana. But also, the Necrosages have finished the newest spell research! They said it was an enhancement ritual for our units, I said get to work starting it.
((This one is Sacrilege, if you haven't noticed in all the recent screenshots. The ritual lasts until cancelled once completed, and applies Black Prayer to almost all unit types of mine: +2 Unholy damage and +20% vs Angel units. The effect vanishes after combat but is reapplied next turn if missing.))

T225 - The Austrin declare war on the Clan of Embers! One can only hold so many fronts, hehehe...
T229 - A mediator arranges a temporary ceasefire. We will take this chance to walk over to Heresh, return to fighting them, and reclaim our land once more.

T232:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(("Ashen Veil has been founded in a distant land!" it says...?

I really hope this doesn't mean two sets of Infernals. Also, Sacrilege completed, but I forgot to point it out and don't remember which turn it was at.))

T234/235 - Ashen Veil has spread to Deathknell. I am meh on the subject, as the Aristrakh are both agnostic and for the most part undead. Also, one of my advisors informed me that we have over 10 times the strength of the Scions; shortly afterwards an Infernal diplomat wanted us to war the Scions. I suppose it wouldn't hurt at this point to join them in that.

T237 - As we prepare to retake Heresh, we hear the Scions have been wiped out. A shame.

T239 - The Infernals are now attacking the Austrins. The Austrin counter with...a golden age? Anyway, we are retaking Heresh.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is ours. Get out or be stabbed.


Now we're back to how we were before the assassination shenanigans. Good. But since we're back at war with them anyway...lets take some more for our use.

[EuchreJack]

I imagine their advances and your counteroffensive took it's toll on your population numbers, so best be taking over a few of their cities "to restore balance".   

[Tarran]

Hmmm, I am getting the distinct feeling that only the Illians, Infernals, and you will be left before long.

[Aklyon]

Despite being on the otherside of the map, the Illians are the happiest toward me. The infernals are slowing falling through the smileys towards angryface, and no one else likes me period.

Also EucreJack, Deathknell's pop has very slowly gone up this entire time except for the bit needing acolytes, but youre right otherwise.

[Frumple]

Ah! Yeah, that 20 turn stall wasn't an event. That was the illians' world spell (I think, anyway. Something they're able to do.). Tis a royal pain in the rear, especially earlier on, and something you can expect to see pretty much every game that has the illians putzing around. Fortunately it is a one-shot deal, so it won't happen again.

As for the ashen veil second founding thing, from what I could tell playing with the new version it looks like something that can happen (with more than one of the religions, actually, I think) when you have a civ that starts with a particular religion. Not sure what triggers it, but eventually that religion can get founded more-or-less a second time. No clue if there's any bonuses or whatev' because of it, though.

[Aklyon]

Oh, So thats what Stasis feels like from the other end. I should use it less early next time I play them.

[Aklyon]

I'd planned to update this sooner, but among other things, there was a lot of snow I had to help with. So while I get on with the updating, have a map of the currently visible area.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Azhar is to the south surrounded by quarries.

[Aklyon]

Somewhere within the Third Journal of Lord Najesh:
T243 - They retreat away from Heresh. Quickly we must construct additional troop support, to support both the cities and the attack simultaneously.
T244 - The Infernals offer marble for gold. An odd trade, but interesting enough.
T246 - Two Unseen Blades means twice the scouting of Clan Cities. But apparently they also poisoned some water supplies in while doing said scouting, so even better for us. ((Bonus Unhealth in a city when successful. Costs gold, chance to have your thief-class unit arrested or killed depending on their experience level. Theres also some other actions further down the guild of shadows tree))
T248 - The third and last allocated to us group of the nightwatch is being sent to scout the surroundings, see where borders have changed. I abstain on the Undercouncil vote to declare war on those guys the Infernals are attacking. Later I hear that the Illians voted no, but the two of us are not enough to override the infernals and the emberites, so I shall be more wary. I guess.

T251 - The Illians have completed the Prophecy of Ragnarok, or so says the messengers. Hmm...
T255 - With Iron Working comes the Cryptguards. Far stronger than the pale protectorate, and even better at city attacks. Work begins on summoning them immediately! Augment the others to work as them as well! (15 strength +black prayer bonus = 17 str, along with eternal servitude and +70% city attack compared to the 35% of the pale protector Still only 1 move though.)
T258 - The nightwatch have found the source of the recent Austrin culture apearance nearby: A new city. Decently defended at that, with units stronger than the pale protectors.

T260 - A messenger was defenestrated for telling me we now can write. What else would you call what I've been doing for so long?

T268 - The Necrosages have announced they have relearned how to summon the dark spectre. While they take longer to summon, I am interested to know how much stronger one of them is...

T275:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The army approaches the Austrin city.

((The spectre would be here by now but derpklyon forgot that casting spells at barbarian units uses mana, which delays the summon because its based on your current mana pool))

T277 - This description from one of the scryers of the battle, while not quite as specific as I would hope for, is still fairly good: 'The Cryptguards stab everyone in sight as they conquer the Austrin city, and spot another one very close by.'
But also, I've heard the Nightwatch have assasinated the govenor of the Emberite capital! It will be solved in a little bit I'm sure, but throwing them into a panic is very much appreciated.

T280 - Far too many messengers this day. An announcement about a barbarian named Margalard is sent to me. Very, very shortly afterward, a second announcement arrives that contradicts the first, saying they have died already. Something about engineering the defilers to be more productive and smoothing the roads. The spectre was summoned at last. But of all of them, I certainly approve of the spectre. In fact, we need a second one, I shall tell the Necrosages to get on with it immediately.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

((Spectres that aren't barbarian units are awesome, as you can see from this Dark Spctre here. 2 more mana/turn in upkeep for 5 total and no fodder skeletons created compared to the skeleton, but it retains the +1 affinity for death mana and +20% city attack, starts with +5 Unholy on top of its 13 str, and can cause fear in living units adjacent to it. 2 movement, black prayer applies to it, costs 400 mana each.
It also has a dramatic reverb to the voice that is triggered when you click on it, which is far more evil-sounding than the tomb lord's voice.))

T282 - The Clan of Embers does themselves no favors by smacking my spectre with an ogre. They will just be stabbed even more once we get to their capital as a result.
T284 - [Fury intensifies] (Not what Lord Najesh actually said, but it certainly was his reaction to having the Austrin capital stolen from him right before he could take it by Hyborem. - Head Scholar.)

Current scoreboard according to the game:
Clan of Embers (WAR, apparently stronger than us)
Illians (nearly equal strength)
Infernals (equal strength with us)
Aristrakh (last place unless you count dead civs)

Not the best spot to be in, hmm?

[Frumple]

Hrm. No permanent alliances, huh? Bit of a shame, means you can't go for the hilarity panic option of building the mercurian gate. S'a ton of giggles when you're evil and have that option running.

Should be fine if you're careful about positioning and whatnot, though. S'really easy for that strength measure to wildly fluctuate with a few stupid moves from the AI, hoho.

And yeah, spectres. Their aura is definitely kinda' great. The fear's meh, but that combat strength reduction is golden. Great to have one hanging around for a fight even if the spectre itself isn't being used to attack.

[Aklyon]

Y'know, if I turned perm. alliances on, and were the Infernals, would I still be able to build the gate?

[Frumple]

Yup.

Only requirement is religious law, and infernals can invest culture into priesty stuff just as well as anyone.

E2:I takes it back. Just bulled through an infernal game long enough to get religious law up, and none of my dudecities could build the gate. Shame.

I'd guess that's only the infernals that can't. Astrikah can just fine, at least, as can illians. Maybe it's an ashen veil thing?

E3: Unless someone else beat me to the gate, I guess...

E: Actually, I'm not 100% sure if permanent alliances are even needed. Building the gate puts the angels on your team, which I think operates differently than an alliance? I haven't actually checked, ha.

[Aklyon]

Assorted pictorialized scryings:
T288 - Sorodh hath been stabbed. Tarfah mysteriously not under attack.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

T289 - Unrest intensifies. Lord Najesh quickly throws diplomats at the Emberites, and succeeds.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Notes from Lord Najesh:
T290 - Infernals take over former Emberite city from us. Illians continue to be anomalously friendly.
T292 - Sheelba redeclares war. Should've expected that, actually. No one like getting diplomats thrown at them here.
T294 - Nofuos the Imperishable withdraws from combat with an assassin, into the Portal area. He said he can see through it now and goes through it. ((Theres a walk through portal button now, huh. It threw him to the other side of the map, but I wanted to keep him over here, so it was reloaded to right before trying it.)) I am told the Clan of Embers are ranting about 'glorious octopus overlords' now.

T297 - Sorodh has been taken back by the embers.
T300 - Spectre summoned! Summon another! Also, apparently an entire squadron of Emberites was destroyed near Tarfah.
T307 - They do not attack our cities! Why are they not attacking!? Are they taunting us? Are they trying to draw us out? This is strange. But Deathknell has completed building the Necropolis, and the empire as a whole continues to expand as a result.

[Aklyon]

T314 - Second spectre summoned. Heresh lost to the stupid ogres. Ogres are very annoying to fight.
T318 - Goddamn Ogres. I cannot defend the everywhere when pit beasts are wandering around the outskirts of Deathknell, so now they've taken Tarfah.
T327 - 3 Spectres. Sheelba created some hero I think. Deathknell continues to be massively overprotected to spite all the ogres ever. (3 Spectres, 1 archer, Nofuos, 1 adept, 5 Skeleton Soldiers, and a lot of Cryptguards) Azhar is somehow unnoticed.

T334 - Again, we are down to one city, and I continue to not have vampires because everyone here is evil and not allowing me to actually get that far in the military tech.
T338 - Because I wanted to see how long it would last, I got both of them to agree to peace with me.

T352 - This long, for the Clan of Embers. Also, the Illians created Wilboman, and I'm making more than 200 culture/turn somehow out of one city if I turn on the culture slider. 4 Spectres in Deathknell now.

T355:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Goddamn right you all died, giant stack of stupid normally barbarian-only units controlled by the Clan. Hate Ogres now.

Not sure if I should continue this or not now. I'm down to one city and the Clan has far too many cities (the Ari work much better with many city, not a singular one), and keeping that city removed over 1600 mana and many many turns worth of units from me (Nofuos had died as well, but he reappears in the capital so...yeah). If I can last long enough theres Death Wish, while is similar to Sacrilege, except instead of a bonus to my units, it has a chance of killing a random living enemy unit every turn. Also, since I can apaprently build the Tower of Sorcery, theres some useful Mind Mana research, but again, I need to last long enough to research any of it, and to build the tower is 9 turns of not rebuilding my units.

[Frumple]

Death or dishonor! _{or a new map or something, maybe}

Seriously though, them breaking themselves on a single city can do wonders for building up some high level doomcritters, providing you can keep everything alive. Then you can march (some of) them out and start squishing things.

Out of curiosity, though, why no vamp sword on nofy? Got plenty of metal for it, and I think you've got access. Couple of those handed out could help a lot on defense. Or offense. Pretty much anything, really, that 10% post-battle heal cuts attrition pretty hard. 'Specially when you stack cannibalize on top of it, when it's an option.