AAR: Age of Miracles (Sar Elad)

[Agrajag]

Hi, and welcome to my AAR: "Age of Miracles"
This AAR will log my adventures in a game where I will play the nation of Sar Elad, a new nation by Nerfix, that resembles byblical Israel.
The mod isn't 100% complete, there is still an unexplainable bug with PD and only few pretenders available, but it will be fixed. Hopefuly by the time the AAR is done
Nerfix has worked hard on this mod, so I hope everyone will love it. He also tried to keep it balanced, so maybe it will eventually be admitted into the MP scene :O
And maybe my AAR will help make it so

I'll try to update the AAR with atleast two turns per day, sometime during the day. This means I'll probably game ahead of the last reported turn to keep a buffer of turns in case I don't get to play for a while.
This AAR won't be Role Play oriented, but rather a narrative of events and decisions, I'll try to clarify the reasons for why I'm doing what I'm doing, but also add in some flavor so it doesn't get too boring.
Feel free at any point to make remarks of any kind, if you think I should change style or form, or want to suggest strategies or ask why I'm doing what the hell it is I'm doing, or even just to tell me how much I rock (very little, I assure you)

With the introduction out of the way, let us begin!

Pretender Design
I've only played one game with Sar Elad (because the mod is new), so I'm not that familiar with the units and what they can do.
This is why I'll go for the simple strategy - a bless strategy. Its also a good idea because so far Sar Elad doesn't haven't that many pretenders available, so there isn't too much flexibility in pretender design.
Bless strategy in mind, I pick a tried and tested W9 Blue Dragon. I want a high dominion for my blesses, and I won't get much use out of my pretender, so I'll just Imprison him for the extra points.
I take dominion 7, high enough to recruit many blessables, but not too much, so I can afford good scales (which I'll need to properly support a bless strat).
With a heat preference of Heat-1, that leaves me 5 ticks of the scales.
I take Order-3 (quite obvious why), Magic-1 (since last game I struggled with research until late in the game), Productivity-1 (blessables can get resource intensive) and Heat-1 (guess why )
I name my god "Ka'hol" and recieve the title of "Lord of the Waves, God of Courage, King of Rain", sounds pretty awesome.
God in hand, I start a new game.

Map Choices and stuff
I don't want this to drag on for too long, especially since my last game in Silent Seas ended up taking over 70 turns to complete, so I'll just take Silent Seas again (I like how it is designed).
I name the game "Age of Miracles" - to remind me that this is the AAR game after I won't play it for several months
I pick Sar Elad and add in two more AIs, for a total of 3 AI players. I leave them on Normal, again, so the game won't take too long, but also because I'm not that good, especially with Sar Elad with which I only played one game.
I put the first AI on Yomi, my blessables have blades that deal x3 damage to demons, so this will be a pushover nation for me, so atleast I'll get one nation before I'm gone
The second AI is Caelum, because battlefield magic is the biggest weakness of my blessables, and Caelum excels in that. Admittedly, I my blessables get 25% Shock Resistance, but experience tells me it is useless against most spells.
I'd put the third one on Tien Chi, but that would mean I'd be setting up an exact copy of my last game, so I go with Arcoscephale, which will rival my Astral skills, and far outweigh my puny research skills.
And I leave the behaviours on random for some variance.
In my last game I left everything on default settings, so this time I'll make sites a bit more common (55), and independants a bit stronger (6).

Now I'm done and the AAR can (finally) begin!

[Agrajag]

Turn 1
I am told that in the beginning there was chaos, but I'm smarter than that, I was in the beginning and I know what happened. But I'll let it slide.
The World:

My starting recruitment will consist of as many Lohamim Mekudashim as I can produce (5) and a Melumad.
Lohem Mekudash:

Melumad (that is a 100% +1FAWE random):

As you can see, the Lohem Mekudash is pretty strong, which is why I'm (ab)using him
The Melumad is an efficient researcher, but still a pretty lousy one, I'm only getting him because I'm poor.
From the first screenshot you saw I prophetised my first commander, this is because he is names Elysha, a name similar to the English Elijah, which is the great Elyahu!
It might also have to do with him going to lead my blessables and needing the holy paths to bless them. But maybe not.
I sent the Saiar (a scout unit) south so that I don't have to see his ugly face near me, or to scout out the bottleneck, whichever suits your fancy.

[Agrajag]

Turn 2
Strange, a nation named Sar Elad proclaimed some dude named Elysha as their prophet. Who in their right mind will let someone names Elysha to be a propeht?
My Saiar (also named Elysha O_O) is sent further to the west to scout the bottleneck.
My new Melumad is named Sason and gifted in Fire, so I'll just rename him F Sason and set him to research Conjuration (for AR).
Did you know that in ancient times renaming someone was a show of dominance over him, and it is not uncommon to see someone renames by his superior in a show of dominance.
This means that renaming Sason is actually just me showing him who is boss.
I look around and see the independants around me are pretty strong, so I'll just recruit some more Lohamim Mekudashim, and another Melumad with the spare change.
I set Elysha (the prophet) to preach, since he has nothing better to do anyway.
The World:


Like I said, two turns per day, so I'll stop now when the tension is low
Again, feel free to comment (especially since if this AAR will be ignored I will just stop and be really sad )

[Nerfix]

Cool, an AAR on a nation I modded.

I can't wait to see what way you play the nation.

[Agrajag]

Thanks for saying something Nerfix

Turn 3
No Events, how unusual, must be that Order-3 kicking in.
Seeing that The bottleneck is clear, and seeing some Evil Dominion to the South, I send my Saiar south to investigate.
My new Melumad is here, and in a show of dominance he is renamed "A Yonatan".
Quite interesting, since Yonatan means "God Gave", and I did indeed give him a name.
Yonatan is sent the Library at once.
Elysha is granted 10 Lohamim Mekudashim to lead, and sent North to combat some weak independants, which will soon depend upon me.
My recruitment line is refilled with Lohamim Mekudashim and another Melumad.
The World:

[Agrajag]

Turn 4
A proclamation for Caelum! Apparently this Caelum place thinks that some Tempest Lord named Bastavaray is worthy to be a prophet of some weak god named Zwago.
I wouldn't get caught dead with a prophet named Bastavaray. Then again I would be hard to catch anyway, what with me being in prison, and also me being almighty.
Meanwhile, the batlle in Ladakh Sanctuary went well, only 2 men lost to the enemy's 38.
Me:

Them:

Them(running):

Satisfied with the results of the battle, I look in my crystal ball set to the world map and see some interesting information.
Apparently, the wretched nation of Yomi has settled right to the south of the lands of the great nation of Sar Elad. We'll see how long they'll last there.
The Saiar which brought me the valuable information is sent to do some more scouting along Yomi's lands.
Elysha is sent to conquer another province to his west, the way he handled the last battle, he should make short work of them.
This might be a good time to boast of Elysha's enormous skill which led him into the Hall of Fame and earned him Heroic Strength.

A new Melumad has arrived, and is swiftly renamed E Dan and promptly sent to research, quite amusing since Idan is also a name.
7 more Lohamim Mekudashim are called for, and another Melumad as well. At this point I regret not putting that point in Growth instead of Production. I should have known better since Sar Elad is basically designed around light infantry.
The World:

[Nerfix]

Mmm, good going. Yomi could be a good target but you better be careful as they can field something else than demons also.

[Agrajag]

Turn 5
Ah ha, so the Yomian weakling have declared their prophet, a puny Dai Oni named Masakazu.
I pity the fool who names his son Masakazu!
And in other news, the battle in Mazovia went well, only 2 casualties. I am however quite disappointed with how my Lohamim Mekudashim did, or more precisely, didn't.
To avoid such further issues I'll just give my prophet some more of them (By moving him back to the capital to pick up the new guys)
Meanwhile, Elysha (the Saiar) discovers that Yomi isn't up to anything, so I send him further in just to make sure.
And as a last touch I quickly rename my new melumad to E Yhudah and recruit a Navi, which is an awesome mage, and a great leader for future holy armies (since he has H3)
Navi (That random is 100% +2FAWE):

The World:

[Agrajag]

Turn 6
So, my scholars are actually up to something, they managed to come up with an extraordinary discovery (Conjuration-1). I'm unimpressed.
Other important news are that Caelum has appeared to the north-east. They haven't declared war, so I won't get too defensive, but I won't be caught off guard.
Yomi on the other hand has made some minor progress, which sends Elysha the Saiar back north.
Elysha the prophet however gets sent south with some extra Lohamim Mekudashim he picked up.
With this setup:

My new Navi is disappointing, he got 2W as his random, the most useless of all options. Still, I rename him to W Ysas'har and set him to research, untill he'll become target practice later on.
My recruitment consists of 7 Lohamim Mekudashim, a start for my next army.
The World:

[Nerfix]

Hmmm, Conjuration, do you have something in your mind?

And it seems that there won't be enough living space for you and Caelum in this continent...

Oh and better luck with your next Navi.