Turbocharged AI vs Humanities Last Hope - Running

[Doo]

With no graphs its creepy, not knowing how the AI's are going and wondering if you will come up against a Juggernaut.

I'm developing a real fear of the dark...

[endomorphious]

I was the last to process on last turn so just letting everyone know I'm done. New turn posted as well. The NPC's just keep getting tougher and tougher. Found a celestial emperor with an 8 and a 9 in magic paths and a @$$load of magic items. Just a touch of curiosity is there ANY way to charm these guys? This Emperor would be worth gambling 10-15 charm capable units dying. Is there a tip or trick to do it for C'tis?

With any luck I'll be building my second castle soon. Seem to have found the -heim's Capital they have a Colossal Head. Money is soooo tight I really hope the AI's hold off on any rushes against me. Research seems to be going VERY slow compared to SP games. I've only reached midway in const 1 so far.

[NTJedi]

Originally Posted by endomorphious

Found a celestial emperor with an 8 and a 9 in magic paths and a @$$load of magic items. Just a touch of curiosity is there ANY way to charm these guys? This Emperor would be worth gambling 10-15 charm capable units dying. Is there a tip or trick to do it for C'tis?

Dispossed spirits to paralyze yet not kill the target while nature mages are spamming charm. Also other units to keep him busy which won't kill the target such as vine men(not vine orgres).
However the tough part would be reaching level_7 Thaumaturgy before one of the AI opponents carelessly kill this treasure.

[endomorphious]

Thanks Jedi. With the number of really notable npc commanders I've seen in such a short time I'm fairly tempted to pursue this tactic.

[Gandalf Parker]

You might also add fly or blink (or those sandals) to a mage so they can jump to the back of the enemies forces and are more likely to target a commander with the spell.

But I find that Charm or Hellbind Heart are spells that work best in one-on-one situations. Scripted to a seducer, or an assassin, or used in the Arena.

You still might want to invest some army into knocking out some of his support units in case the spell causes him to do battle with his own troops. But I still get better results this way than trying to use such spells in combat.

[Hrum]

Turn 10 is up.

Endo, what magic paths did he have at 8 or 9?

The craziest indie province I've seen so far down in my neck of the woods is one to the NW of my capital. A lich leading ~50 undead (longdeads, ghouls, skeletons, etc) is the filler. There are 5 fossilized warriors hanging with that lich (size 4 undead, with prot 27 on the body, 20 on the head, MR15, Mor18, Att12, Str22). And along for the ride are 2 basilisks. Never encountered any basilisks before - that gaze is scary! A rg20 aoe5 attack, w/ prec 100, it does 15 AN damage! The good news is that MR negates, but still. Ow. So, I don't think I'll be attempting that province real soon.

I guess I should acknowledge the province w/ ~120 devils, amazons and fire elementals and fire snakes too. It's led by an arch devil and some demonbreds. I haven't even bothered to do a retreat scout on that province, it's too ridiculous for me to worry about yet. Also, no point in bothering with the retreat order for a province like this. Devils = dead scout on turn 1 of combat.

[endomorphious]

Just finished my turn but one more player left. That Celestial Emperor was lvl 8 astral and honestly dont remember the other, although I'm thinking it was nature.

Building my first castle this turn. NO money for anything else ...did find a nice batch of sites in my last province total of 5 gems produced from that one. Hit con2 so gonna load my pretender up with a horror helm, barkskin amulet, eye shield, errm and something else i think..cutting into my research for a turn but with how tough these indies are turning out to be, I really don't want to gamble him without some insurance.

I really want to work on the suggestions given for charming. So I'm gonna try and work out a plan for that. I don't think I can reasonably work my way into using hell bind heart due to NO blood access. Would very much like to trade for some blood slaves. Not sure what the usual gem per blood slave ratio is typically in trades?

I'm thinking a group of 10 C'tis shamans with boosters to N3 spamming Charm. With vine men as guards so as not to kill the lovely future slaves. Should I equip them with Vine shields as well? If I can get enough blood slaves I'll work on making BlackHearts, but rather hate the idea of "wasting" them on the shamans. Isn't there a Summon Succubus spell? Can't seem to find it in the manual.

Hmmm alot of mental energy on a secondary objective...lol need to focus on what will work against the giants when it finally moves to war.

[Mauxe]

I just took an indie fortress.
so that was nice.

[Hrum]

Originally Posted by Mauxe

I just took an indie fortress.
so that was nice.

Nice! I'm jealous!

Turn 12 is up.

Congrats to TNN for picking up the Renegade Sage. I guess I didn't bid high enough.

AI intel in the south:

Atlantis has made landfall - he's got a pair of provinces on the coast of the southern continent (on NE coastline - provs 65 & 68).

Niefel's southern fort (22) has so far only managed to expand into 5 neighboring provs (that I can see, moving scouts up to see if he has done more westward expansion crawling the southern edge of map); he hasn't done any northward or eastward expansion in the last few turns. Looks like he's blocked from expanding further north on the east side of the great north-south river by 2 provs: 1st is the province I previously described (fossil warriors and basilisks) and the 2nd is a troll province (~40 trolls).

As of turn 12, I've got 11 provinces. In a few turns I will have conquered all of the indies I reasonably can at this point, and the easiest expansion at that point will be through an AI. My choices are Abysia to the east or Niefelheim to the west. I'm just starting to scout Abysia; I've got eyes on his fort at 54 and he hasn't done any expanding south, not even the provs neighboring his fort. I think Niefel is the way to go, since he threatens both C'Tis and I. Atlantis has a pair of provinces along the coast to the north of me, but I have no intention of starting a war with him.

My first fort just started going up last turn (turn 11), but it's a hillfort so it's cheap and quick to build. My research has been really pitiful, but now that my income is starting to be decent, I should be able to crank out a few forts and pick things up. I'm stumbling along towards alt3 (once I'm done researching alt2, that is), and then I'll start on construction research so I can get hammer production rolling (and I can kit out thugs). And oh yeah, site searching. I should get on that.

Last turn the monkeys and the sacred yavana, along with their newly recruited human light infantry (arrow catchers!) defeated a province defended by several sages and a great sage. The great sage was an astral mage of tremendous power (s7, 8 or 9 - not sure if the path boost from communion or banner shows up..? he was showing s10 thanks to the gear), but the spells he chose to employ against my forces weren't all that effective (mindburn spam). The monkeys were pleased to relieve him of 3x slave matrixes, a crystal matrix, a starshine skullcap, a banner of the northern star and one pair of boots of the messenger. Not a bad haul. I suppose with enough research there might have been a way to turn him to the service of the monkeys and their god, but that wouldn't happen any time soon so it was decided to put him to the falchion and let the monkeys take his stuff. Slave matrixes are shiny.

[Thanatus del Dragos]

Atlantis has made landfall on my continent too. My growth has been slowed due to the Trolls on my doorstep, but in 2 turns, I will have researched Alt1 and Evo2, and will send in 3 giant kings spamming thunder and 15 giants and 15 unmarked to destroy them all.