What is the deal with Hallowed Wood/forest bulding chain for Kislev from both the lore and gameplay perspectives

[Burgerpunk 2020]

The main benefit for the building is the bonus to ambush chance (replenishment bonus isn't even province wide), the regional bonus to farm income has terrible return on investment and really doesn't change much for the incredibly poor early Kislev economy but the description for second tier of the building mentions something about "being guarded by acolytes of Ostankya".

It implies that this building was supposed to also unlock recruitment and increased caps for some type of hero (or maybe units?) related to Ostankya but Ostankya has a whole different haunted forest building chain for recruitment of hags and monsters, she also uses different building chain for the animals (spiders, bears).

The third tier description mentions both Ursunite Priests and Patriarchs but Patriarchs have their own dedicated Orthodoxy shrine building (where they worship all of Kislev's pantheon) also there are actually no Ursunite Priest heroes in the game.

Were there any plans for using this forest building chain for another type of hero recruitment/caps? As it stands the building is only worth building if you need a bonus to ambush chance in a particular province (which is ironically more useful for the three Kislev factions that aren't Ostankya (her faction really doesn't feel like it should be played defensively both on IE and RoC maps).

And on top of that there is also this Kostaltyn skill that increases the cost of Hallowed Woods by 300% which suggests that Great Orthodoxy really doesn't take kindly to this unsanctioned "wild woods worship" of Ursun that they have no control over.

Is this a leftover from some sort of older concepts where there were different plans for Kislev in game but GW did a rewrite/retcon of much of the Kislev lore (which ended up with Kislev becoming a bit of thematical mess)?

[Zeek]

Originally posted by Burgerpunk 2020:

The main benefit for the building is the bonus to ambush chance (replenishment bonus isn't even province wide), the regional bonus to farm income has terrible return on investment and really doesn't change much for the incredibly poor early Kislev economy but the description for second tier of the building mentions something about "being guarded by acolytes of Ostankya".

It also provides +1/+1/+2 devotion, which arguably is the main benefit of the building, especially early game when you are starved.

The devotion and boost to farm income is basically the main point of it. Yes, farm income sucks, but you can spam these buildings at tier 1 everywhere because they are dirt cheap, so the income can add up if you are owning a bunch of land.

Originally posted by Burgerpunk 2020:

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Not sure about any of this. Kislev is still having their lore fleshed out, so it's entirely possible there is or was more meaning to them in this regard, but no one but CA knows for sure.

[Amphibian Artillery]

Originally posted by Zeek:

It also provides +1/+1/+2 devotion, which arguably is the main benefit of the building, especially early game when you are starved.

The devotion and boost to farm income is basically the main point of it. Yes, farm income sucks, but you can spam these buildings at tier 1 everywhere because they are dirt cheap, so the income can add up if you are owning a bunch of land.

With the removal of devotion cost for upgrading the orthodox church building there isn't much of a reason to build it anymore. The church gives more useful benefits than the hallow woods.

[Zeek]

Originally posted by Amphibian Artillery:

With the removal of devotion cost for upgrading the orthodox church building there isn't much of a reason to build it anymore. The church gives more useful benefits than the hallow woods.

I agree, the church building should always be prioritized over the farm/woods.

Honestly, I feel like those buildings are just "fillers" because so much of the Kislev faction revolves around the 3 major cities. I think they should be revamped somehow.

[CrUsHeR]

Ostankya can settle almost everywhere. She doesn't have any campaign objectives either.

So all you do is conquer land, build the farm + market + woods, just to max your gold income.

Don't remember which other source exactly, iirc it is a global stacking bonus from your resource production buildings. And the woods add +50% on top. Basically the farms can get almost the same income as the markets.

Without both in the majority of settlements, the economy is pretty bad.