Re: Turbocharged AI vs Humanities Last Hope - Running
 

A bit of info about SemiRand.

The provinces around your capital will be have standard indies, outside of this the provinces can have tougher indies. The toughest will easily beat a "standard" early expansion group. Always check the scouting report as the picture on the map won't always show the worst in the province. The number of indies in a province can be higher than normal. Also if a indie castle is under siege you will have to beat the siege force and a force inside the castle. The force inside the castle can be larger than the siege force.

From experience, any indie province with Devils in it should be left alone in the early game. There can be mini-SC's, such as the dragon that regenerates too many HP per turn.

Caution is advised if in doubt. Send in a commander set to Retreat and positioned at the rear of the set-up box.

Re: Turbocharged AI vs Humanities Last Hope - Running
 

Haha, I think becasue my starting spot got moved from 200 to 186, it kinda of messed up my neighbors. I've got an anry of trolls next to my starting spot, but also, 200 seems empty. I can handle it, I think :)

Re: Turbocharged AI vs Humanities Last Hope - Running
 

Endo, please give us a heads up when you get your turn 2 in so we'll know the turn is cycling.

Probably a good habit for everyone to be in, posting here when you're the last to take your turn, unless dom3minions server can send people emails letting them know when a turn cycles?

Re: Turbocharged AI vs Humanities Last Hope - Running
 

I thought there was gonna be a delay of four days? Anywho's just posted my second turn. On of the choke points near me has 210+ Ryleh troops...I can't take it but doubt anyone else will be anytime soon :}.

Turn 3 posted as well

Re: Turbocharged AI vs Humanities Last Hope - Running
 

No need to wait the entire limit of four days every time, especially on these early turns.

Re: Turbocharged AI vs Humanities Last Hope - Running
 

Sorry Endomorphious, probably my mistake. I will be leaving for a work trip tomorrow (at time of posting, I'm in Aus so currently eating my porridge before going to work :) ), it will last three days.

Just had the WORST battle ever. Standard Machaka looking indies, on the very first turn the indies shoot arrows and cast a single Vine Arrow. My guys retreat. Total and utter moral check fail. Also my commander was injured by the volley of arrows, gets the Limp affiction. Doesn't make it off screen. I'd cry if I were five years younger.

For the civilians back in the home province I'm going to say it was a battle-viewer fail, the commander actually bravely died in the first volley and thus the auto-rout. I'm the king of propaganda ;)

Re: Turbocharged AI vs Humanities Last Hope - Running
 

Holy crap, I hope my guys did a better job than that! Stupid work keeping me from checking!

Re: Turbocharged AI vs Humanities Last Hope - Running
 

It might be a good idea to have a think about our general strategy.

Apart from Mauxe (Caelum) at 195 and myself (Tir na nOg) at 157 everyone else is separated by AI.

Thanatus del Dragos (Fomoria) at 186 has (possibly) a harder chance of linking up with Endomorphious (C'tis) at 18 due to essentially passing through 2 AI's, than linking with me through 210.

Hrum (Kailasa) at 36 possibly is the most hemmed in of the humans.

Mauxe probably has the best start with a shared border with me at 157 and a single AI target south.

We can hope Atlantis gives some strife to the other AI's.

If any human is aiming to cast a global they should declare it to everyone, thus saving research races between players.

Is there anyone unable to forge Hammers. Does anyone want specific items they can't easily forge? (Pendents of Luck for non-Astral nations?)

Re: Turbocharged AI vs Humanities Last Hope - Running
 

My kings have sailing, so I might be able to jump over Atlantis. But I have more immediate threats. Like I said earlier, my starting spot got a little messed up since I was moved from 200 to 186 and half of my adjacent independence to my castle are of the unusually powerful sort. How tough is a draco lion? How about 50 trolls? My growth might be a little stunted for a bit.

Re: Turbocharged AI vs Humanities Last Hope - Running
 

Turn 4 is up!

Agree, wouldn't hurt for us to talk about strategy.

Globals: I'm not beelining for any globals, though given that all my best summons are astral based I'll be looking to put up the astral gem generating ones (Stellar Focus in the medium term, and ultimately Arcane Nexus). That plus clamming should give me a more than healthy astral income, which will power my late game.

Tackling AIs: My medium term goal after grabbing as many indies around me as possible will be to stomp the AI on the southern continent that sits between me and C'tis (endomorphious). I want a border with someone friendly, and I think this will be the easiest way to get it. From the monkey perspective, the southern AI dies first. Or at least gets marginalized. If he gets stomped down to a tiny size, then he can be contained and ignored.

I don't like the submarine Atlantis AI. I don't have a plan for him yet (it'll probably be thugs / SCs), but those amphib nations can be a real pain. I'm just hoping he doesn't cause too much trouble until our research is high enough to provide some solutions.

Hammers: I can make hammers, once I've researched some constr. It wasn't the first thing I was going to research, but it's obviously on the list of things I must have. If noone else has easy access to earth paths, I can make hammers for you guys - I'll want some gems from you guys for them though. No markup though, I'll trade them to you at cost (which should be 12 gems once I've got my own hammers). :)

Trolls might be a problem. Or they might not. The trolls you get from the earth summoning spell are meh unless you buff them (big bags of regenerating hit points, with low att/def values - like 10/9 ?). The AI ones in Semi-Rand might be less crappy though - they might have some stars, or be a better class of unit to start with. And even the crappy ones can be a problem for units that don't have high enough def; Str22 + decent weapon means they will one hit kill most human troops. You went with a bless approach though, right? If you send enough sacreds you'll probably do well against them, but scouting might be in order. I like Doo's suggestion about sending a commander to attack with orders to retreat. Get some info - find out what you're up against before going after a (potentially) tough province like this one.