A Tale of Fire and Blood

[Bossemanden]

Originally posted by General Tacticus:
And finally there was an opportunity to retrain the palace staff. Experienced servants had become few over the years – but now the new ones were being trained to acceptable standard. The majordomo opened one eye. “More wine !”, he told the slave girl he was personally training at the moment. Yes, they were coming up nicely, although there was still room for improvement. “I shouldn’t have to ask !” he scolded her…

Peace was good.

And it would not Last forever. Now was the time to enjoy it.

“Come here”, he ordered the slave girl…

Hmm the Majordomo is becomming too relaxed for his own good. It seems he needs the fear to keep on his toes.
A saying comes to mind: "When the cat is out the mice play on the table" (a more or less direct translation from Danish).
Anyway keep up the good work. Looking good so far.

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Bossemanden:
Hmm the Majordomo is becomming too relaxed for his own good. It seems he needs the fear to keep on his toes.

Agreed. I suspect he's going to come to a bad end soon.

A saying comes to mind: "When the cat is out the mice play on the table" (a more or less direct translation from Danish).
Anyway keep up the good work. Looking good so far.

Actually, that's interesting, 'cause there's a French saying that goes (direct translation as well): "When the cat's away, mice dance"

[Psitticine]

There's an English Version too: "When the cat's away, the mice will play." I wonder where the expression originated?

In any case, I think the Major-Domo had also better hope for a long campaign. His god will get bored once the world is won, and that might not be good for the ol' M-D . . .

[ January 27, 2004, 18:39: Message edited by: Psitticine ]

[ExitJudas]

in danish: "når katten er ude danser musene på bordet" --> "when the cat is out, the mice dance on the table".

Oops sorry PhilD, didn't see the danish reference. Oh well. Now at least you can see how its spelled in danish

[ January 28, 2004, 08:34: Message edited by: ExitJudas ]

[Norfleet]

It sounds like Tacticus has hit the stable point, where you're no longer really credibly threatened by any AI opposition, and can more or less sit there indefinitely and power up. I'd suggest empowering up to Astral-6 or so, putting on the the Starshine, Crystal Coin, and/or Ring of Sorcery/Wizardry, and wishing your way up to 10-all+power, just for kicks. Wish up some clones of yourself, too, and then go nuts.

[General Tacticus]

I don't know about that... According to the score graphs, Ulm and Tien Ch'i have as many provinces as I do, and R'lyeh is just behind. I have about one-third the gold income of Ulm (which put him at about 2500g/turn !), my gem income is on par with Tien Ch'i, and I am third in research... Ulm also has a good number of castles.

But it's true that with Atlantis and R'lyeh serving as buffers, I have no credible threat in North America. Atlantis seems to be no threat, R'lyeh just might pull off some dangerous void summons.

On the other hand, I cam muster some really heavy blood summons myself, since I have blood 9, an income of about 60 blood slaves a turn, and a 40% reduction site. I have 2 Arch-Devils, 2 Fallen Angels, and one Ice Devil, just for starters. And I haven't even tried the 2 biggest summons yet ! I am working my way through the Artifact list, my Pretender is off searching the Empire for site.
Actually, I am ramping up for a devastating, multi-pronged, overwhelming attack on Ulm. Caelum will be dealt with whenever I'm bored, Atlantis and R'lyeh when I can cast Thetis blessing and don't need the buffers anymore...

Meanwhile, I watch Man die. Apparently he lost his capital a few turn backs, has only one or two provinces left, and his God is shooting up in the Hall of Fame diing gloriously every other turn He already has 609 kills to his name, not bad

[Norfleet]

I've been through a great many games against the AI, and I can clearly recognize the symptoms: You've got a more or less secure border with fairly passive opposition that seems otherwise occupied...even in the case of one of my Jotunheim games, when Pangaea was absolutely massive and occupied all of Europe and West Asia, having an absolutely massive army and more than twice my provinces. Of course, eventually all hell broke loose when the shooting started, but by then, I was certainly ready for it.

One of the things AIs have traditionally done poorly in is concentration of force. Once your position is fairly stable and consolidated, in your case, the Americas, the AI won't pose a really credible threat unless he's absolutely supermassive.

As a nice sidenote, if you can get some fairly cheap death-4 mages, you can cut loose with the Ghost Riders and the AI won't realize what the hell is happening: You can sack province after province, then just roll in and take it over without a fight, by leading with a bombardment of Ghost Riders. Eventually, you'll accidentally arrive at the same time as an AI's force, and that might start the war in his eyes, but by this time, you're probably already on his front doorstep....and you haven't lost a single unit. Even if he knew what was happening, it would STILL be a good strategy, modelled after the classic German blitz: Bombers, tanks, infantry.

[ January 29, 2004, 19:47: Message edited by: Norfleet ]