[SPOILERS] Beyond the Shadows with Mist and Ellimist - Varn of the Sidar

[Ellimist]

I played the turn before work today, but didn't have time for photos.

I promoted the first Agent Smith to shock and sent him in at 27% odds to weaken Mortheus, and...

He won. Erm, okay. The other Agent Smiths just watched as it all went down.


So now what to do with the axe? Maybe we can use our worldspell to hide a group of warriors equipped with it and ambush the priests?

[Mist]

So now what to do with the axe? Maybe we can use our worldspell to hide a group of warriors equipped with it and ambush the priests?

Yes, but don't do it just yet. It's pretty easy to forget Sidar *have* a worldspell worth the name so if he happens to set off without hawks we can pop it once he's close and then jump him.

[Ellimist]

I think we all know how this is going to end. Mist and I had tried to negotiate with Serdoa, but the terms they requested were pretty extreme.

So now we have visitors:

The home team:

I think we can actually drag this out for quite awhile, but I can't think of a good plan to actually destroy the priests. Perhaps if we can force a stalemate we can get better peace terms?

I haven't actually played the turn yet. I want to discuss with Mist first about possible tactics, such as invoking our worldspell, as well as how we should spend the promotions available right now. The decisions we make this turn will likely be more consequential than any subsequent decisions.

[Mist]

No hawks? No hunters? Really?

Fire the worldspell, hide all the agents we have now. Tactical map ( phear my mad paint skillz )



Red squares are desert, Ice Elementals can neither move or be summoned there.
Black thunderbolts are max range of the priests, elementals can move one extra tile on top of that, but not on the red squares.

The plan -

1) We road the FP northeast from the capital ( both worker in range and with movement to do it )
2) We fire the worldspell and stage all units on the blue star to keep them out of the city and away from the scouts sight range.
3a) If Serdoa is cautious and moves to any of the crossed off thunderbolts, we can't do anything next turn.
3b) If he moves south of the river, we promote Amphibious >> Combat >> Drill, give axe to the weakest agentr and go banzai throwing them one after another
3c) If he moves north of the river we promote Combat >> Drill and do as above.

Even accounting for elementals, with the axe and on the flat we will do some serious damage and will be safe from elemental counterattack on account of standing on the desert. Depending on how the initial attacks go we might have to keep a number of warriors back in the city, but we should probably go for broke. If he's not careful ( and doesn't promote in advance ) there's an outside chance for a clean sweep here.

[Gaspar]

No hawks? No hunters? Really?

Fire the worldspell, hide all the agents we have now. Tactical map ( phear my mad paint skillz )

The thunderbolts were a nice touch.

[Ellimist]

I just tested. Scouts can't see hidden. There's no reason to hide the units from it. I wish we had a few more warriors now that we see he only brought the 3 priests.


Only 3 of our units can take promotions, and amphibious seems like a waste. I also don't think drill is the right move here. We have access to guerrilla(+40% defending in the city), or shock(Elementals are melee) if we want to go the route of attrition. Or combat if we want to

I would say that Serdoa is nearly certain to first go 1SW with the priests next turn. At that point, the first priest or ice elemental to advance closer will be able to see Neo, due to the hill. Let's give him a little credit and assume he knows he can't summon/move the elementals on desert, and will move the priests to either E-E or E-E-N of the city.

From his point of view, the best plan of attack would appear to be to head straight SW to the corn, then if the river is a problem move W-W to SW of Neo.

Would we be better off moving some units to the corn this turn? If he moves south of the river we don't need amphibious, if he moves north of it we can road and still attack(but across the river).

Overall I agree that the FP northeast of Neo is probably the best staging tile. Our warriors will become visible as soon as they attack so that tile will not be vulnerable to counterattack by the elementals.

I would prefer if we discussed things a bit more before we play this turn. We have only 7 warriors. Our 3 promotable warriors will all have to score kills on the priests to end the threat. If it's possible to make this possible next turn, I want to give ourselves that chance.

[Ellimist]

I'd like to set up a sim tomorrow and see what the possibilities actually are. Or what our odds/duration are for scenarios like attrition.

[Mist]

Ok, I'll hold on on playing the save until you can test some stuff

I just tested. Scouts can't see hidden. There's no reason to hide the units from it. I wish we had a few more warriors now that we see he only brought the 3 priests.

We can move everything forward then, workers included. That helps a lot.

Only 3 of our units can take promotions, and amphibious seems like a waste. I also don't think drill is the right move here. We have access to guerrilla(+40% defending in the city), or shock(Elementals are melee) if we want to go the route of attrition. Or combat if we want to

Attrition/defense is not an option, most of the combat modifiers are applied to defenders, if we manage to catch him out before he promotes we'll have *much* better odds. Therefore shock/guerrilla and all other defensive options are probably a waste, we do not have a much of a shot defending.

Amphibious is a 40% difference if attacking across a river, that's 2 combat promos. So if it comes to attack across a river, it makes plenty of sense.

From his point of view, the best plan of attack would appear to be to head straight SW to the corn, then if the river is a problem move W-W to SW of Neo.

You might have a point here. But if we split stacks we loose option of recycling the axe. Staging on the floodplain south of mana node puts us in range of all his possible destinations, staging on the corn leaves us with a risk of not catching him if he does go through the desert.

I would prefer if we discussed things a bit more before we play this turn. We have only 7 warriors. Our 3 promotable warriors will all have to score kills on the priests to end the threat. If it's possible to make this possible next turn, I want to give ourselves that chance.

Sure.

[Ellimist]

I set up a sim of our situation. The HP values are as close as I could get them for the priests. Our only wounded warrior will be close to full health after 3 promotions so I didn't bother with his HP.

I think we'll pretty much have to guess correctly which side of the river he will move to. Our 4 fodder warriors won't be able to take a promotion, and the damage they are able to inflict will be very relevant.

We should also keep our warriors 1N or 1S of Neo. If he parks the priests adjacent to them and then casts slow, there goes our whole attack. He's likely to play a little cautiously once he sees we've used our worldspell and the city is empty.

If we're actually hoping to eliminate the threat here, we'll have to swing for the fences. If we had more warriors we could afford to hedge our bets a little, but as it is we have the bare minimum to have any chance at all.

There's also a chance that a bluff can work here. Once we cast our worldspell and see which side of the river he is on, we can approach him and see if he's ready to offer better terms. He won't know how many warriors we have or how well promoted they are. He won't know what side of the river they are on. Depending on how he moves, we may be able to scare him. Who knows, we'll probably have odds to kill 1 or 2 priests even if we'd lose overall. Even if he thinks he'd win, is he willing to do it at the cost of 2/3 of his super-units? We can modify the sim to the situation and email him a copy(I don't think that violates any rules), and see if he likes his chances.

[Ellimist]

Wtf?

What is he trying to do? Move next to the city on desert and summon ice elementals?

We might have a shot here.

I left the warriors where they are and built a road to the east of them. I promoted the wounded one to combat 3(2 promos remaining) so that it could fully heal at end of turn.

Non-hidden warrior completed at end of turn, with another one ready the following turn.


See if you can get a NAP with the Hippus. I'd hate to take out the priests and then get killed by them. It's win-win for them, it does nothing if the Illians destroy us.