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LWE

Lt. General
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Jul 10, 2015
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Another Renaissance mod story, this time with the Arethi Elves.

After the tirbulations Ardania had passed through, it was at the hands of Amberon and his Arethi followers to restore the land.

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The place where the Arethi ended up was cold and inhospitable. On the positive side, the surrounding snow lands were full of animals you could hunt for fur and the iron-rich hills and mountains to the south guarded the land against winds.

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To the south of the hills lay the bloodthirsty domains of the Koatls, Monsters and their High Priest, Tlalocian.

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Nolnithcarn was founded as a fur hunting and iron mining commerce center.

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The eastern lands were warmer. South of them was the small Planestrider republic.

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Alchemy experiments were conducted in the capital.

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The east was settled primary as farmlands, yet the Arethi scholars wasted no time in exploring the ancient barrows southwest of Randith-i-Thirn.

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Archers and Spearmen, running around the slow Turtle, managed to lure it out of its lair that was immediately ransaked.

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Arethi arrows, sharpened by the female elves from their villages, dealt with the furious Magisters of the Uknown Lands.

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The mountains to the south protected the Elven realm from the Koatls.

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Ogres from the west were met with a barrage of spells from the capital defenses.

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Meanwhile, the flying spirit serpents discovered the Sylvan realms to the west of Tlalocian, Dremer colonies to the west of the Sylvans, and undead lands of Circe to the south.

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Dremergog, the "leader" of the Dremer (insofar as the beasts had "leaders" at all), was crude, but clearly unsophisticated. Elven minds could wave webs around the aggressive, but simple beast.

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Unlike Dremergog, the Winter Enchatress was graceful and polite. She agreed to share with Amberon the gifts of freezing weapons and obliterating enemies by creating ice rings.

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Amberon then impressed Dremergog with the Ice Ring power, convincing the beast to share weakening magical poisons in exchange for it.

When the AI actually does spell research, it's usually to the benefit of trading human player, since the AI is far more inept in its magic.

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Earth Elementals, summoned by the Arethi through the Elemental Nexuses, fought the brutal Ogres, as the Arethi archers used the provided elemental cover to shoot the Ogres with arrows sharpened by the female Wood Elves in their villages.

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One of the uses of summoning Fey Serpents is taking lair treasures under the nose of the monsters spawned by them.

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Sometimes, they are lured away from guarding their abodes by the AI, sometimes by your own units... occasionally they can wander away themselves.

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Scouting serpents found something extremely important - Red Dragon Eggs, right on Ardania. They were guarded by the Shadows of Vendral, determined to prevent anyone else from taking control of them.

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The Ogre den was finally ransacked by the serpents, as the Ogres were dealing finishing blows to the Elemental.

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The Shadows force Arethi forces, led by a Healer, to retreat from the east for a while.

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More serpent pillaging.

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Heroic Arethi Spear brigade finally managed to outmaneuver the Shadows and destroy their wicked nest.

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This allowed the Elves to finally found Dolothcarn.

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Another city founded next to Donkey grazing fields was Ath-i-Tirn. Unlike Dolothcarn, it would be a purely commerce city.

With the Earth Elementals as tank role troops, I don't really need the Stubborn Knights, who are usually needed by races which have difficulty acquiring such units.

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The Arethi were too preoccupied with subduing the wild mosters to go to war with the "civilized" ones.

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The Snow Bears retreated before the Elementals and the Healer, allowing the Elves to liberate a Sylvan village from the monsters.

Earth Elementals are the best tank troops in the game, providing both attack power and the shield for ranged troops. They are certainly powerful.

I often keep neutral Sylvan cities.

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First Red Dragons, bred from the Eggs, assaulted the sea crackens, with the healing efforts of Glade sylvans and the Healer, as the Elementals found the Dremer lands from the other side.

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This alarmed Dremergog, and he made his hostile intentions clear. For a while, however, he was too preoccupied fighting the Winter Enchantress to bother sending his beasts to Arethi lands.

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A portal to a snow world was found by Amberon's troops.

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It was clear that the Dremers would owepower the Sylvans.

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Reports made by Jackalope scouts in the snow world weren't too encouraging.

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A Ring of Regeneration was found by the Dragons in a Rouge guild.

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Defeat of Winter Enchantress brought Dremergog and Tlalocian to a head, as they fought over conquered Sylvan lands.

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Only the undead sorcress proved to be a reliable trading partner to Amberon.

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The Red Dragons entered the snow world, eager for battles and loot.

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One of the Ice Maidens of the snow world agreed to serve as Ameron's chamberlain.

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But while the Dragons were outside Ardania, Dremergog has gathered his forces to attack the important city of Tairi-i-Tirn, located next to rich mana fields.

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Good thing there were sturdy Earth Elementals, supported by the Healer and the Glade Guardians. The Sylvan troops planted trees in the city and taught the Elementals proper ways of fighting in the forest (the details of this were rather murky, but Amberon didn't care as long as it protected the city from the Dremers).

Also to the Elves' benefit was that the Dremer summoners were unable to focus, sometimes attacking Krackens in the water, instead of the city.

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Red Dragons in the snow world were shocked to find there dragons even stronger than them.

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Eventually, the Gold Dragon was dead, but at the cost of two Red Dragons.

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Tlalocian joined the war versus the Arethi, unleashing his Gold Dragon at Ithistirn. However, after slightly damaging the defenses, the Dragon for some unknoen reason flew away.

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The defenses of Tairi-i-Tirn were torn down, yet the Elemental defenders remained steadfast.

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Circe and Amberon jointly uncovered the mysteries of Ardania.

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Tlalocian's most powerful troops were not his Goblins or even Koatls, but Svart Rune Seers from the Svart city of Podzemsk that pledged its loyalty to him. Their mighty magic tore down the defenders of Livendell.

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But the Dragon in Iceheim was still not forgotten, as Regeneration restored his life force.

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Tlalocian, in his greed, made a huge mistake. He decided that he didn't want to share spoils with Dremergog, and attacked the Dremer who were sieging Tairi-i-Tirn. This was only to Amberon's benefit.

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Livendell, defended only by Goblin Spearmen, was reoccupied, as the Warlocks of Angil flung curses at the sieging Dremer.

The healing spell in this screenshot would be directed at the defending Elemental.

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The Dragon was still inside Iceheim, ransacking the treasures of Snow Giants.

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In order to breed more Dragons from the eggs, Amberon needed more gold. He dedicated his government to encouraging economists and merchants in order to get the most money out of his empire.

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Nice AAR. Thanks for sharing. Saw this link on Steam you posted, glad I clicked on it.
 
Thanks, Davor. Always nice to see some interest!

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Tlalocian's Dragon reappeared again.

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Immediately, the golden beast met with fierce Elven resistance, and retreated once more.

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Tairi-i-Tirn having an Elemental Nexus of its own improved the defensibility of the city even more.

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Tlalocian's Rune Seers and his Goblin flunkies captured Livendell yet again.

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The latter suffered severe damage at the hands of the Warlocks.

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Unfortunately, it was around this time the last Dragon in the snow world met its end. The barrage of Snow Maiden arrows was just too much even for the red beast.

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Receiving 10 000 gold from Cercei for mana and the secrets of creating artifacts was a major diplomatic coup by Amberon. Now he could easily replenish his Dragon losses.

Cercei refused this trade for 40 mana, but was willing to part with all that gold for 432

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Badlands between Livendell and core Arethi possessions were transformed into grasslands in order to ease the way for Elementals and Warlocks.

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Once again, Tlalocian's forces were thrown back.

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The new Dragons were eager to prove themselves by fighting a Portal Guardian, as Amberon himself started a meditation to become the Master of Elements.

Master of Elements perk gives all your troops some Elemental damage. The AI can also receive it, by a special event.

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Seeing Amberon's new Dragons, Tlalocian agreed to a truce.

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Peace with Tlalocian allowed Amberon to focus his spellcasting on Iceheim, where one of his Dragons heroically gave up his life to defeat a Gold Dragon who conidered himself to be the true master of the Ice world.

There was a larger than usual amount of Dragon Eggs in Iceheim, it seems.

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Realizing the futility of his efforts, Dremergog signed a truce with Arethi, too.

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Once Meta-Teleportation was in Amberon's hands, Arethi researchers were teleported to the cold world. One of their first task was studying a demon rift next to the Calartirn base.

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The Red Dragon Eggs, for most races, don't allow buildings which give research. However, Sylvans are the exception - thus, it were Sylvan, not Arethi, settlers who were teleported next to the Red eggs. Despite the resource gathering malus for cities of races other than the capital one, the diversity of buildings is yet another benefit of a "multicultural" empire.

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Finally, Amberon's dragons found Gold Dragon Eggs. These, besides a building that allows you to build Gold Dragons, provide a building with a large amount of research for everyone. It's the latter I was interested in.

Relations with Tlalocian soured yet again, as the vampire Baron von Bluthofen attempted to capture the Arethi capital on behalf of his lizard master. However, he was met with renegade Koatl huntress Sachi and with something even more horrifying - Dragnoth, a mix between a Dremer and a Gold Dragon that Amberon managed to bend to his own will.

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Dremergog, on the one hand, was friendly towards the Arethi...

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but he also expected to be paid for his friendship - something Amberon grudgingly accepted.

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With the Stone of Mystery gliph, the Spit of Fire would deal some truly awesome damage.

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More trades with Dremergog.

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Finally, Arethi researchers could study Gold Dragon Eggs.

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Dremergog, brutish but stupid, was willing to share secrets with Amberon for gold.

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I'm reading it all :) Keep it up!
 
Nice to see some interest in this game with Renaissance mod.
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Tlalocian's discovery of the ancient secret of the Wings of Eternity did not trouble Amberon too much at first, despite it meaning that the mountain range south of his capital could no longer serve as protection.

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Sachi and the Arethi archers under her command bravely fought against Tlalocian's Rune Seers and Old Trolls.

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But soon, the entire mountain range was swarmed with Rune Seers, Koatl Shamans and other monsters under Tlalocian's command.

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Sachi and the Arethi archers were swept away by the swarm. The ancient defenses of Ithistirn gave way surprisingly quickly.

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It seemed that all was lost for the Arethi. However, Tlalocian suddenly sued for peace, explaining that he was told so by Fervus during a vision. While puzzled by the lizard priest' behaviour, Amberon enthusiastically agreed.

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After this harrowing incident, Warlocks were recruited in order to defend the capital while doing peacetime research.

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Tlalocian changed his tune, demanding tribute, but Amberon was willing to swallow his pride and agree.

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On the far-away Iceheim, research into dragon mysteries continued unabated.

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Sure, Tlalocian, have all you want.

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Cercei fell under the might of Dremergog and Tlalocian, who immediately proceeded to fight over the spoils.

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But a far greater concern to Amberon was the Spell of Mastery.

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Old artefacts in Arethi treasury were disenchanted to fund the Spell.

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In order to obtain more mana, Amberon sent Dragnoth to the world of Ainadra, the portal to which was located in the south of Ardania.

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Among other things, it meant freedom for Sart de Torvega.

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And once enough mana was collected, Amberon wanted to start casting the Spell of Mastery immediately...

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but not before transferring his capital to Iceheim, away from two other greedy Great Mages.

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Tlalocian was clearly prevailing over Dremergog, advancing to core Dremer lands. The Rune Seers in his service were just that powerful.

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But Tlalocian didn't have much time to enjoy his victories.

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This was quite a lucky game. The mountain range protected me from early AI aggression, and the mutual enmity between Tlalocian and Dremergog meant that they were stunted in their war against me. The AI spell research sped me up further. I was also lucky in the snow underworld having so many Dragon Eggs, along with a Sylvan city - these allowed me to win a Spell of Mastery victory at turn 221.

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