"They are weak. They are soft. They writhe in supposed discomfort at minor penances that the faithful would not even notice. Their sloth will be their undoing..;"



Badass right? That summarizes well how I see the Ardent Mages gameplay. It´s a glasscannon faction.



It´s important to understand the fundament behind "glass cannon", because it not only guides their Military but also the way they produce their different outputs.



Glasscannon is meant to be fragile, because the concept trades off "excess" durability for "excess" intensity. The "excess durability" only makes sense in the very short term - in an extreme scenario in which every single time a unit engages it only has to survive that one battle in order to stay alive forever, any health left above 1 that the unit has after the battle was effectively useless.



At the same time, the "excess intensity" is more relevant to any dynamics the shorter the term you consider - in the extreme scenario I mentioned above, a unit with the ability to instantly kill any opponent at the cost of almost all of its own HP would almost always be the best unit possible.



Things are not extreme, but the different glasscannon effects from the Ardent Mages are very well balanced.



Basically, on difficulties up to Impossible imo, the Ardent Mages are not necessarily Science oriented. They start with a "glasscannon" ability to escalate their science output which allows them to quickly reach the further abilities to then pursuit anything else very quickly. Those further abilities are only further in the sense that they are later in the tech tiers - they don´t necessarily have better effects and don´t cost any different. That means it´s purely a choice based on what you want and what you need.



You are not always bound to a certain Pillar, not even the science one. If you want an economy victory, you reeeeeeally only need the science pillar until you get to the dust ones. The apparently huge "lack" of sciece that will usually follow is just the game adjusting itself to counter your glasscannon tactics.



On endless though, I have not yet managed anything but Scientific. The accumulated benefit of getting to the late techs usually makes it unreasonable to not pursuit scientific if you have the means to.

I have no idea what I´ll try in this game, but if things are not too hard, I´ll try Diplomatic.



What I usual feel the most is the production issue. Your glasscannon units are already cheap to account for the fact you should be getting them to level 2 rather quickly. But buildings don´t get any cheaper unless you do something about it, and I recommend that you do - be it WW heroes, plans or Urces.



More importantly - keep a clear head about what you can do, what you are doing, what you are planning and what is happenning.

I often find myself with a clogged production queue, wishing I had already built half the things there. And then I remember that is a "minor penance" - I´ve been constantly getting techs every two to four turns since always, I have choices in the relation between my production queue and my available Dust that mostly no one else does; so I can´t only reap benefits out of it, right?



Same thought process goes to Military - your units are weak, and will die, and you know what - apparently, they loved every second. Much like the Necrofages, you´re not supposed to care much if you lose units because that means relatively little production lost. In order to get your unit killed, your enemies must expose themselves to many unknown spells and solid, high damage. Don´t cry over a Warlock getting ganged by a couple of Centaurs - laugh over the amount of damage they´re taking and won´t be able to deal with like you will.



Of course that sort of thing "don´t work" when you´re up "mindless" minor factions. "They don´t mind losing the production", right? But that was never the point. The point is that you, from your point of view, have a problem you need to solve, and there are only so many ways you can solve such problem at such time. It then becomes a matter of doing so in the best way possible - even if that looks like an inferior way when you compare it to an incomparable situation like how a different faction would deal with the same issue.



Enough talk for now. To the game. Here are the settings.



Turn 1 - This game started with an interest issue, which was what led me to start this in the first place. This here is what I found when I first moved. It looks like a perfectly good place; however, depending on how I wished to expand, those ruins could end up taking a precious spot for a pillar. It´s useful to serpent district around pillars, but that can lead to problems keeping district levels efficient. A ruin can literally ruin things for you. So I went for this here instead. And here is the tech tree. Everyone need production, and the Ardent Mages need lots and lots of money to keep the glasscannon oilled.





Any thoughts, comments, questions? Please feel free.

Turn 4 - Scouting the region and questing for units. I won´t be putting particular effort into any early deed, although that´s very much possible using Support traits.



Turn 9 - The science boost will keep me with plenty of options.



Turn 10 - Have to go north for quest. Got lucky the Jotus in my region asked for glassteel.



Turn 15 - This would lead to quick fight against tetikes. Cool units, but I´m considering the Geldirus in the west.



Turn 18 - I was hoping that the 15 Gold I would get from settling the region with Geldirus plus 10 I had already found plus the extractor would be enough to get the deed. Fool.



Turn 20 - Already going for those influence pillars on turn 21. Stun is also incredibly powerful for tier 2, but peaks at palladian equipment. Here´s the Empire Plan. With the resources from lucky quests, I could comfortably get the Industrial Megapole in time. Keeping it, though, would be an entirely different matter. Roving Clans neighbors are a comfort in a way, but there are Broken Lords to the west.



Turn 21 - Second city. Keeping the food high and cities close to the water for the essential Dust upkeep. Always need to remember that your income must first cover all your future Pillar plans, and whatever´s left can be used for short term.



Turn 24 - Headed west since Orcs now have double damage because of "cooperative" quest =/



Turn 29 - Discovering my own borders. That is weird.



Turn 35 - Winter. Important to note that now my city seems to be kinda lacking, but I´m producing fully equipped, improved movement level 2 warlocks during winter having just lost a Pop. The science is still high considering the amount of the techs I have, and will get real better real soon. Above anything, my influence - which has been the game I´ve actually chosen so far - is really cool, like Drakken-level cool.



Turn 37 - Decided to just produce the units that will kill the three Quest Orcs in the north and keep Zealots in the sourth looking out for possible prospects.



Turn 40 - Empire Plan



Turn 41 - Capital, second city and third city. I´m headed diplomacy after the Market, but I need to carry a stick anyway. It´s likely I still lose some unit in the incursion north, so garrisons are a must now. Here is the Influence Overview. Not enough to get me Negotiation Tactics probably, but still nice enough.



This is not the approach for a scientific victory, which virtually needs a tech acquisition rate of always 3 turns, but for diplo. If those Drakken get out of hand early, I´m not really sure I can beat them at their game. If I fail, I should probably try science.

Turn 46 - Running from my future "friends" and also hiring Ozek the Chosen.



Turn 48 - Peace out, yo



Turn 51 - Have to rush for the quest in the north so I can settle in the south asap.



Turn 52 - Could have lost my units if Village wasn´t convenient.



Turn 56 - I only bother with quests because the Winter Pillars are really good.



Turn 57 - Planning ahead to get level 2 Pillars by the time I set them up again. They will increase in cost now.



Turn 60 - Empire Plan



Turn 61 - New Pillars



Turn 62 - Diplomatic statuses are important for diplomatic victory, who would´ve thought.



Turn 64 - Winter



Turn 71 - Getting close to the virtual end of the game.



Turn 73 - More friends



Turn 74 - This is always useful



Turn 80 - Empire Plan



Turn 81 - New Pillars



Turn 82 - First thing at tier 4 will be alliances. They´re expensive, so I supose I should be focusing on influence more often now. Here are the Research Overview, which is what I´m worried about, and the Influence Overview and Diplomacy Overview. Things are looking good, especially because the Broken Lords are conquering the Roving Clans.



Hope this helps anyone

Turn 82 - C´mon, friend



Turn 84 - Bye, Cult



Turn 87 - Not much to report, just keeping priorities in check.



Turn 90 - The Alliances were cheaper than I expected. Orange Broken Lords, Roving Clans and Drakken.



Turn 91 - Without Pillars my influence is good enough, and winter is coming, so I´m going for a round of Dust ones.



Turn 92 - Winter



Turn 95 - He´ll come around eventually



Turn 97 - Winter is gone.



Turn 100 - Should probably have tried to finish this during the winter, buying out or something, if I was scientific. And here´s the Empire Plan.



Turn 103 - Back to influence with an extraction in the west. And now my influence is is really high.



Turn 104 - Cool



Turn 106 - Keeping an eye



Turn 108 - Have to build that asap for diplomatic



Turn 111 - New Pillars. The color is not good, but there´s still an Extraction in the west.



Turn 115 - Using that influence



Turn 119 - Influence Overview and Diplomacy Overview.



Turn 120 - Empire Plan



Turn 121 - Not letting anyone go.



Turn 123 - Time to go looking for those ruins.



This is looking pretty good I think.

"Together, we will embrace the agony and make it our servant."



Turn 126 - Just noticed I had to cross the sea for the quest.



Turn 129 - Tech Tree



Turn 130 - The rest of the quest don´t really matter right now.



Turn 131 - Before and after Pillars.



Turn 133 - Diplomacy Overview



Turn 136 - Going for level 3 Pillars, really strong.



Turn 139 - My kids working.



Turn 140 - Empire Plan until the end of the game. Huge source of Diplomacy points.



Turn 142 - Completed that but I probably should have just kept the Influence setup.



Turn 143 - Influence Overview and Diplomacy Overview.



Turn 144 - Have to start increasing my Influence again. After 1k, it´s easy to lose focus and not realise how much you could still be increasing it.



Turn 151 - At least I got the winter pillars. It´s important to note that the Pillars don´t change - if you setup winter versions, they remain winter versions if summer comes, and vice versa.



Turn 154 - I´ve been occasionally building units to sell them when I´m setting new pillars up. Also, Diplomacy Overview.



Turn 155 - Very important building.



Turn 157 - See?



Turn 161 - Pillars.



Turn 164 - There are always little things you miss for some reason during the game. The less of those, the faster you win. Sometimes it´s also hard to tell which are the better choices without hindsight - ultimately, keeping Pillars up is your main strategy and nothing can come in the way of that.



Turn 169 - Finally notice it.



Turn 171 - More Pillars now.



Turn 172 - I had not noticed how fast the Broken Lords were going with economic.



Turn 173 - Stay positive...



Turn 174 - ...but do something.



Turn 177 - Damn impressive



Turn 180 - Meh



Turn 181 - Lots of small diplomatic acts to see if I can get a good enough advantage.



Turn 182 - Now that there´s so little left, I can safely break all my alliances and remake them, giving the AI a bunch of techs or money, in order to spend an awful lot of Influence.



Turn 183 - GG (:



Comments, suggestions and questions are welcome.



As usual, any faction or setting anyone wants to see?