How to solve castling effect?

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by PvK:
Is it a problem without a SC VQ involved? Seems to me adding cheap-o castles everywhere costs about as much gold as it's worth for a one-turn delay in sacking a temple, and little other benefit. Also, by taking a wimpy castle type, your home province isn't particularly well protected, either.

Nope. SC VQs have an entirely seperate issue: It works just as well with SC GKs, SC Allfathers, SC Carrion Dragons, SC Natarajae, or even perfectly mundane SCs like flying Bane Lord squads, Ice Devils, and Elemental Nobility, particularly Air Queens.

VQs are fairly easily swatted if you expect them to show up, and even if they're immortal, every beating dished out yields you a castle that an SC alone is hard-pressed to take back. The strategy is, in essence, brittle: It's hard to break, but when it does, it shatters.