Elyrion Question/Strategy

[Flushing]

I understand that I shouldn't put lumbermills on forests so that I can use animal sanctuaries but then it slows down my production of dragons, which are already slow to field (egg, baby, adult).

How to players build to get dragons quickly and have access to beasts?

The only thing I came up with is to build animal sanctuaries on cities that don't have the resources to support dragons anyway but to build lumbermills on resource rich cities.

Thanks guys

[Potato Demon]

I don't play Elyrion... but I'll give my answer.

Sanctuaries are really nice for economy, dragons are big good superunits. Early game you wanna get your military up and running via sanctuaries, then you'd focus on dragons.

Like- look at it this way. The reason why a Giant's worth dumping city upgrades into is because of how much immediate value and pressure it gets you, whether it be offensive or defensive. The reason why a Centipede's worth the city upgrades is because it's a great offensive unit that'll do a lot for you. But... Elyrion dragons take a while to get up and running. As ya said. So I imagine the strategy goes something like this.

1. Ensure a good position via early control and getting your Sanctuaries up. Be a bit patient with it, you will get value. Learning how much you should focus on units/tech and how much you should invest in sanctuaries is a skill you'll pick up by just- playing Elyrion.

2. Defend your Dragon Eggs with your Sanctuary boosted economy.

Summary: So like- focus on your smaller units first to defend your cities, then out-economy your opponent with sanctuaries. You get some REALLY nice payoff in the late game with dragons, so as long as you can survive 'til the late game and stay in a solid position you're good.

One strength of Elyrion is that ya wouldn't have to take risks... in terms of offense and taking opposing cities anyway. Of course ya still want to take opposing cities, but there's not nearly as much pressure for Elyrion to do so as there is with other tribes. Seeing as just how *MUCH* you're outeconomy-ing your opponent in the late game. And on top of all the units you're flooding the board with, ya have enough stars to rush out dragons with lumber huts.

There's no fast way to get dragons... and in a multiplayer match, focusing on dragons early game will give your opponent plenty of wiggle room to overwhelm you before you get your military up. But... there is an exception to this.

✨Isolationist Elyrion!!!!!!!!✨✨🌈

I thought of this after thinking back on some single player games I played with Xin-chi. WAY back when I was playing this game back in middle school. Y'see, if you're in a multiplayer match and you can get people to NOT target you... then you can pump out dragons. This only applies to like- 9 player matches though. Maybe a 4 player one on a continents or lakes map. If no one sees you as a threat... and at the same time you're not SO easy to conquer that people are gunning for you... then you can build up your military while everyone else is fighting each other and start taking land bit by bit 'til BOOM. All of the sudden you're dominating the board. I won an online game like this one time with Xin-chi Philosophy rush. Opposing player that ended up being dominant was Cymanti... I demolished them ^^// (with a really cool mindbenders and knights setup, of course. Also had a buncha giants from how great my economy ended up being. Also used defenders I think... legit just had a line of 'em to plop onto opposing cities. Eventually I wore their units down so much that I just- grinded out the game and outlasted them. I outproduced and overran the Cymanti player. Their Doomuxes couldn't keep up and no matter what they produced I produced more. I was sieging their cities just about every turn, so they had less cities to build units on.)

You can apply the same logic to Elyrion. They can pull off an Isolationist strategy like this really well because of their late game economy and how good dragons are. You can just sit in the back... grab tech... build sanctuaries in one or two cities... then have one with like- border growth that'd dedicated to getting multiple dragons (probably your capital, since there's a good chance no one'll see it. And it's so far back that you can protect your dragons pretty well 'til they finish growing). Elyrion has great resources so even if ya don't get great forest spawns somehow... mining/forges will do you a lotta good. Heck, even farms can top off your cities if you somehow have nothing to mine. Farms/Lumber huts and saw mills is amazing even with *eh* forest spawns. So like- your capital can be a really nice spawning ground for dragons, and your other cities will be your sanctuary economy boosters. Oh also roads. Your capital benefits a LOT from roads and that's a really good way to get dragons. So it's even more ideal as your dragon producing city.

Of course, this isn't doable every game... but I do really wanna try out this strategy now that I've been gushing about it. The key is coming off as a non-issue to all the other players and not being worth spending resources on to attack, but not being SO much of a non-issue that they just take your territory for free.

Also, never try this if you spawn in the middle of the map. This is only doable on a corner or on an island. If you spawn on the middle just go full aggro. Forget about dragons and start pumping out units and taking cities best ya can, and hopefully diplomacy your way into other players not attacking you. Dragons can only be built fast if you're going for an isolationist strategy, if you can't do this then the only option is to focus on surviving the early game.

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Note: All of this is just my advice. There is absolutely no issue with just rushing down dragons every game. If it's your strategy and you're getting fulfillment out of it, then that's dope ^^//

Also, on single player I imagine you can get away with pumping out dragons early a lot more... especially with the continents spawn locations. But like- instead of going based on the logic of "This city looks like it's better for sanctuaries, this city looks better for sawmills". It should be "This one city can get me multiple dragons, these other ones will be the economy that helps me boost this one dragon producing city with the extra stars". If ya wanna pump out dragons faster. EVERY city putting out dragons isn't a realistic goal. You can do it much faster with a buncha dedicated sanctuary cities, and then one city in the back that pumps out like- five dragons from roads and lumber huts.

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Basic laundry list of tips and tricks :P

1. Your capital is the best Dragon producer. Roads increases it's population by a lot and this can easily make up for bad resource spawns.

2. "Multiple sanctuary cities, one dragon producing capital" is a good motto to go by. You can't pump resources into more than one city at a time... well- you can. But it's pretty slow. So... why not let your other cities get you the stars you NEED for those resources and pump everything into your capital?

3. Your Polytaurs can be used to take early cities and get a good footing in the early game. Past that though... they can fall off. So use 'em with purpose. Refocus into other things after you've gotten your use out of 'em, let 'em power your sanctuaries after they stop being useful. ALSO, if the worst thing happens and your opponent seems like they're gonna take your city... your Sanctuary has about five different Polytaurs you can train. Gives ya some nice defense should it come down to it.

Though... Polytaurs are kinda expensive now. This means you can't just throw 'em around like they're free. But if you need 'em or ya see something you can do with one, then use 'em. Preferably though, you always wanna be using another unit. Seeing as Polytaurs power your Sanctuaries and cost 3 whole stars. Also takes a bit for Sanctuaries to respawn 'em.

Going heavy on Polytaur offense early game'll tank your economy... which you need for dragons. So they should be used sparingly if you wanna get dragons as fast as possible. Early Polytaurs can still be AMAZING don't get me wrong, if you can snag cities with them you otherwise wouldn't have they're very much so worth it. But... you aren't training any dragons that way. For training dragons you wanna go for economy insteada expansionism. If you're so focused on expanding as fast as possible that ya don't have any stars left over for your dragon producing city... then you can't really use dragons that game.

[Flushing]

Thank you

[Potato Demon]

ye ^^