Engelzels

*"To other tribes, the Engelzels seem like a particularily mean breed of lunatic nomads. In fact, they have one of the most refined cultures in the Square.*

 *Their weird habit of living in moving cities, and their unpleasant tendency to raze those of other tribes may not be appreciated, but they do this for a reason : Only their tiny, holy homeland is deemed worthy of hosting a permanent habitat. Other cities and empires just cannot compare to the magnificent Holy City and its heavenly surrounding.*

 *How would that be evil to destroy a few anthills to erect a metropolis ?"*

## Engelzels

### Starts with

5x5 tiles capital and a wheeltonn

The **Engelzels** have a tiny, hidden territory of untouched nature, nestling the most awe-inspiring city of the Square : The huge and magnificent Holy City.

To allow such otherworldy wealth and beauty, the Engelzels roam the square on **Wheeltonns**, harvesting everything in their reach, and sending as much as they can back to the Holy Land.

The Holy City is an impressive sight : Think a Rivendell skyscraper.

Wheeltonns are not entirely dissimilar, but clearly a lot less elaborate and pretty. Built on the go with cheap basic material and no will to make something aestetically pleasing, they have a slight shantytown (and Howl's Moving Castle) look to them. Plus, obviously, huge wheels.

Engelzels' game are the **blandas** (white ailurus fulgens) that have been patiently bred to be as cute, as strong and endurant as possible. They are too small to cary a human on their backs, though, so the Engelzels instead use frames of sort, with a wheel at the front and another at the back, and a blanda inside each. Running inside a wheel all day long is actually very pleasant for a blanda, as they need a huge lot of exercise to be healthy.
Those cute little balls of fur and stamina are also what powers the huge wheeltonns, only scores of them. Their relatively small wheels drive bigger ones, driving bigger ones and so forth, and finally the huge ones that wheeltonns get their name from.

Because things tend to fall on your head when you live in a moving city, the Engelzels always wear a black round helmet.

## Resources

Even on huge maps, Engelzels terrain barely exceeds the 5x5 territory of their capital.

* No metal
* No crop
* +fruit
* +game
* +fish

## Special rules

### Holy City

* The Holy City starts with a 5x5 tiles territory.
* Starting level 5 it gets both a **wheeltonn** and a *park* for each new level.
* Its territory cannot be revealed by enemy explorers.

There are strict rules and taboos about it :

* The only buildings allowed are *temples* and *monuments* (which you can only build there, by the way).
* It is legal to harvest fruits, game, fish and whales, but growing, clearing or burning forest is strictly forbidden, as it would ruin the inherent perfection of the place.
* Roads are taboo as well. The city can still connect with wheeltonns, any of its tiles working like a road in this regard.
* If the Holy City is conquered (unthinkable as it is), the occupying tribe will use it as any other city. Should the Engelzels take it back (as would be their utmost priority), any taboo building or road would be immediately destroyed.

### Wheeltonns

They are both cities and units.

They boast 10hp per level, with 0a, 4d, 0.5 move, don't retaliate, and have many other specificities. They :

* Cannot go through a forest without roads, and can never climb a mountain
* Can move in water tiles (if relevant techs have been researched)
* Cannot be frozen, boosted, poisoned nor converted
* Regenerate 4hp per level per turn when static. 2hp otherwise
* Have a 3x3 territory
* Don't grow bigger than level 4. Indeed, should they get enough population to grow past that, they instead spawn a **wagon** unit.
* Their earlier bonuses are replaced with workshops.

#### Razing

When a Wheeltonn enters a city under your control, or when it conquers a city, this one is destroyed, goes back to village status, and unlocks a "ruin" bonus.
The territories of surrounding cities remain unchanged, but if one is created or expanded afterwards, it can claim the relevant tiles. As does the wheeltonn itself, by the way. Harvested resources such as fish are lost forever, however features like workshops and city walls (or Mamnee shops) will remain, should the city be regrown.
A conquered city that has not been destroyed is of no use to the Engelzels. It still grants a defense bonus, but does not produce any gold, nor is it able to train units, or has any territory anymore. It doesn't create a trade route either.

#### Wagon

Blanda-powered carts with 2 moves, 0a, 3d and 15hp with the **feeding** skill.
Feeding : Can be discarded in a city (another wheeltonn included) to add 5 population.

## Strategy

The whole challenge with this tribe is to find the right pace of expansion : You will have to conquer some cities regularly, but spreading too quick is sure to give your enemies a chance to retaliate.

The Holy Land is full of fruits, game and fish, so your Holy City should grow quickly enough.

Your opponents are sure to spread their empire faster than you do. You will however be able to cut any unclaimed forest, harvest any fish, fruits or game on your way, and a few conquests (which means : ruins) should grant you some useful stars, techs, explorers and swordsmen, allowing you to seek domination. Late game is likely to be hampered by the growing distance between the holy city and the farthest reaches of your empire, and your wheeltonns will never become huge prosperous cities as some of your ennemies'. Those you haven't destroyed for good or crippled with the lost of their harvested resources, anyway. When the Holy city gets really huge, it will be hard to spawn new wheeltonns, especially if you lost some along the way. So keeping them safe is damn essential. Needless to say, losing the Holy City itself would be a disaster. Some Engelzels would try to take it back, but most would feel too soiled and ashamed to even try. (You'd better try anyway)

You will enjoy some moving catapults and mind benders, as well as land units on sea, which while presumably not overpowerful should be rather challenging for your oponents.

## Additional notes

A particularly vicious spawn might block wheeltonns inside an impenetrable wall of forests and mountains, so I guess the game should avoid this kind of situations. On the other hand, having a hard time getting them out of the Holy Land wouldn't seem unfair to me : After all, is it not supposed to be perfect ?

The starting bonus might appear OP, but remember that other tribes simply send cheap warriors/riders in surrounding villages and are sure to have a second city in a few turns, while creating your first wheeltonn and getting it somewhere it could actually start acting like a city and grow could take a very long time.

This issue could also be adressed with a more Luxidor-like approach, with a warrior instead, and a big fat city ready to spawn a wheeltonn just a turn of two later. Which would you pick ?

A wheeltonn conquering another city is almost certain to be an eyesore, so maybe they shouldn't be able to enter an enemy city (while still razing conquered ones). That would also avoid having to look at a dragon's egg pushing away a level 4 city likely weighting a few megatons "just like that".

With such a weird economy, it's really hard to predict how they would actually fare in-game, so many things about them would likely be different. But at least you get the picture, and your thoughts are most welcome !

## Other Tribes

If you liked this one, go take a look at the others here : Gradokko