AAR: Multi-Player After Action Report (Now Discussing Turns up to 13-16)

[LDiCesare]

TURN 12:


I expect to have my capital besieged this turn, to face some burning ones with my minotaurs in the north.
He doesn't attack my capital but instead moves 4 Annointed of rhuax to face my northern minotaurs. Wow. 28 rp lost. I destroy a lab earned in a lucky event in the swamp north of Pangaea. No point gifting it to Abysia. [i]And a good idea to geet rid of it as I won't keep that province and may not see it back before long.[i]
A battle showed me that minotaurs against burning ones will lose in equal numbers, but my 12 minotaurs killed 2 of the 5 burning ones backed by 4 flare-casters. So, minotaurs can stand agaisnt burning ones and deal some damage. That's good to know.
I'm researching to get tangle vines and fire resistance next turn. Some sneak attacks behind Abysia's back to see what we can do. Recruit a dryad, some sneaky monkeys and minotaurs. I bring my prophet back near where her smite and dom spread can be useful. I try to blood hunt a bit more. Blood burst would actually be useful against a few burning ones but it's not like I'll ever research it. I'll face a lot, unfortunately, so I'll more likely stick with long term plans of alteration magic next. And that's really long-term. Abysia spent some PD on provinces at our borders, but not inside his realm, so I'm attacking 2 inner provinces this turn.

Overall, I am slowly losing my territories while Abysia is committing everything to fight me, leaving himself open for Arcoscephale to strike soon. The next updates will reveal how poor a tactician I am but will likely be of little interest to those who don't enjoy the sight of turtles.

[Immaculate]

Arcosephalae
Turn Ten: Sledgehammer

Today’s turn AAR is brought to you by Peter Gabriel. About time I say!

So last time I posted, I was outlining an assault on some crystal amazons after herding all my forces together. I was expecting them to be tough so I threw lots of pixelmen at them.


We do suffer some losses- a lot of mind burns and a few arrows.

Getting back to some diplo.



I actually got pretty nervous about this and wasn’t sure if it was a declaration of war or not. I asked some other players to see if they got similar messages and they didn’t so I expected war. I then wrote to Corinthian to ask him straight up if it was a declaration of war and he said no. But then I asked him for a NAP(3) and he said “he didn’t believe in them for a LP”- which actually makes perfect sense but drove my paranoia considerably.

So yeah…



Remember those philosophers? They are sort of doing what they are supposed to do… hitting the books hard that is… and it seems to be working. Caelum is out-nerding me… but not by a lot.



And here is what the map looks like for a minor corner power.

[Immaculate]

Arcosephalae
Turn Eleven: Separate Ways

Today’s turn AAR is brought to you by Journey.

On turn eleven we are still taking only one province per turn. I do manage to take the province without too great of causalities however.



I also begin construction of a fortress on the province that had crystal amazons.



So we are also planning an assault on a province with a truly large number of barbarians protecting it. I had made a deal with Corinthian to let me have that province- probably he didn’t want to spend the manpower to that many barbs.



Winter strikes. There are two philosophers that gain the ‘diseased’ trait. This will hurt my research rate when they invariably die.


So, by this point I had tested some other arco builds, being very dissastified with the rate of expansion. I conclude that the sloth build for arco may have been viable in earlier version of the game but that the rate of income modification from the production scale is too great and impoverishes the player. Also, it greatly limits he rate of initial growth by limiting the number of troops one can hire. The strength is supposed to be that you save money by researching with philosophers instead of oreids or mystics but I would counter that with a production build you will make a lot more money because you will control way more provinces. The other end of this is that philosophers are old and you lose the research edge with nothing to show for it but dead philosophers; they cannot cast spells. If you choose to do your early research with mystics or oreids, then you can use them in battle… and you don’t lose them to old age.

All in all, I am very dissatisfied with my build but then again, I knew that it would be difficult to expand without an awake pretender and decided to proceed with it anyway. That was a mistake. If I were to do a sloth build again I would have taken an awake pretender. But more importantly, I would have taken a production build. I would be glad to hear someone argue the opposite point but that’s how I felt at this point in the game… and still do.

[dojango]

yeah, I think the big point behind the arco sloth build is that you reseaarch some quick buffs & gear for your awake SC god, turning it into a destroyer of armies as quick as possible (just watch out for turkeys).

[jotwebe]

R'lyeh ~~ Turn 10

Soundtrack: A. Avkhimovich: The Sound Theory: 07. Brainfuzz


TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The triton cannot hear the tritoner;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

~~Wllii'am Bt-Ler Yts, the Poet Mind Lord

Penned to commemorate the worrying happenings in Lake Fortune last
month, this poem should turn out to be strangely prophetic. Worse
things are coming.

In the Great Blue, a Skallhög, king of the sea trolls, has sent one
of his captains to take the province.





Our troops are nowhere near. Our province defence consists of a traitor
prince and his henchmen, all two of them. The attacking army consists
of a lot of sea trolls.



The outcome is unexpected.



Did I write unexpected? I lied.



Not all is gloom and doom, however. On land, R'yeh's finest continue
their foray on land, after having reduced mighty Ermor to picturesque
ruins. They turn north to storm-swept Bolfagon.



The outcome is... unsurprising.



The next target is fair Saeborea. It is defended by cavalry, maybe they
will be more of a challenge.



There is also some diplomacy. It appears that Corinthian (Fomoria)
directed both Bluemage142 (Maverni) and me (R- wait, you should know
that) to the same provinces in his north. Not sure if I mentioned it
already or forgot, but when Corinthian claimed Komoroo/the Isle of
Balor, he suggested me to expand into Numecria/Ermor.

The interesting bit about the geography is that there is no land
connection east from Bolfagon; the peninsula is only reachable via
Numecria. Or amphibious units. Or sailing.

Numecria also is the easiest path for Maverni to reach Fomoria ~~ there
is another connection further inland, but it is via a mountain
province. So Corinthian gains some protection and ideally causes me and
Maverni to get mad at each other.

However, we agree to be flexible about those provinces and work
together if and when we go to war against Fomoria.

This becomes a lot more likely a little later, causing me to revise my
turn. Originally Yöt-Webbogoth had orders to return east and liberate
The Great Blue once he got there (three turns later), but news from
Immaculate changes that.

He reports to have received a threatening message from Fomoria, and
suspects he will be attacked soon. I change orders to send
Yöt-Webbogoth north, where he will build a fortress off Fomoria's coast
and defend against possible aquatic incursions.

Offensive operations will have to be done my regular troops, since I
can't make amulets of the fish yet.

[decourcy]

The poem was inspired. Thanks.

[jotwebe]

Originally Posted by decourcy

The poem was inspired. Thanks.

Just so we're perfectly clear: it's Yeats' poem
The Second Coming with a very slight alteration. It is
awesome, but I cannot take credit ~~ unless you mean the choice
was inspired, in which case picture me nodding smugly.

And with, we continue our rapid catching up with:



R'lyeh ~~ Turn 11

SOUNDTRACK
A. Avkhimovich: The Sound Theory: 09. Uranium-238


Well, not quite as much happening this turn. In R'lyeh the cult of
Yöt-Webbogoth feels secure enough to extract additional contributions
from recalcitrant mind lords.



I bet there's more where that came from.



Immaculate wants water gems. No idea what kind of deal we make.

The battle for Saeborea is indeed more interesting than the conquest of
Bolfagon. Well, slightly.



The army is positioned pretty far back, and the trolls are set to guard
commander, in an attempt to draw archer fire. The mind lords can take a
couple of arrows. It might have been smarter however, to position the
small stuff in such a way that they don't walk directly through the
fire zone on their way to the action. I guess I wanted them to catch
the cavalry first strike if any made it far enough?

It doesn't matter much, though. The attacking heavy cav is enslaved as
they approached and/or dies to the infighting that follows. The
survivors turn back and slaughter the light infantry that was following
them, assisted by atlanteans, lobo guards and mind blasts.



Then they all continue on to the horse archers. REAL horse archers
would proceed to give them a hard time, but these stand around like
chumps and take it. Until they rout.

[decourcy]

I know Yeats, poetry is one of my passions, I liked what you did with it.

In the MP i am in at the moment I am playing Tien Chi and am attempting to do the poet Li Bo justice.

Mike

[Soyweiser]

Originally Posted by jotwebe

The army is positioned pretty far back, and the trolls are set to guard commander, in an attempt to draw archer fire. The mind lords can take a couple of arrows. It might have been smarter however, to position the small stuff in such a way that they don't walk directly through the fire zone on their way to the action. I guess I wanted them to catch the cavalry first strike if any made it far enough?

If you want to catch fire is is usually best to just use one (archery is good in hitting large amounts of groups. (And lucky shots killing commanders, lone troops are usually safe ) and to put it in front, set to guard commander.

The troll walks back to the commander, drawing the archers forward in pursuit.

You do want your arrow catchers to walk trough other troops. Sure it is one turn of missile fire, but otherwise you draw the attack closest enemy troops right toward your commander.

Minor note, the second aboleth is still at risk from stray arrows in this setup above.

[Immaculate]

Roland, Excist,

Whats up with the stales?