[SPOILERS] Balseraphs: A Guide to Mis-Management (by Kyan and TT)

[Kyan]

fail NAPs are fail

I genuinely haven't a clue what you mean by this, but thanks for the bump

[Kyan]

You still could, to protect other headphone users' hearing.

Apologies again. Corrected. In red. AND CAPITALS.

RED CAPITALS

And, wow. I don't think you belong in a newbie game. A shark among the minnows.

Really? What have i done, in game terms, that's been skilled thus far?

I chose AH because i saw cows and that's what i would have done in BtS, was stubborn and didn't change as i was loathe to have wasted research then i just got super lucky with the lizardmen and horses.

Huts haven't been so lucky thus far. One map and a few golds. The only area i think i've done well in is diplomacy but the lizards sure helped with that. Everyone is terrified of my power. Talking of power, does my griffon give me points?

[Kyan]

I'm really spamming this thread but that's a bi-product of my life at the moment. I intend to respond to every post and yet also do updates but i rarely know how much free time i will have. As a result, i keep my posts fairly short but there are a lot of them.

Onto this turn: The big news was capturing the griffon on the interturn. I moved next to him onto scrubs (had ~96% odds) and let him attack me over the river (although, being flying, i assume he ignores that negative malus?).

I think his best use would be to find and significantly harass the Elves and Sheaim. Thing is, i haven't a clue where they are. Ocean is to my east but the land does bend around it slightly to both the north and south and Rawkking mentioned land to his east so i had a brainwave. I got Brian on chat and asked him, based on unique resource locations, approximately where in the world the mirror of heaven was. His answer was dead centre, towards the bottom...

That knowledge combined with the known fact of the Maelstrom being to my immediate east (another Brian gem) makes me think i have an inland sea scenario. Maybe Yggdrasil isn't on an island after all ( Brian!) as my Elohim chum thinks? I therefore suspect the sheaim and Elves are off to the east so griffon will head that way and play around.

What are the limitations of a hidden nationality griffon?

Will the barbarians attack it?
Can it enter borders without declaring nationality?
Can it open lairs/dungeons?
Can it pop tribal huts?

[Kyan]

I'm so freaking dumb. I forgot to say we also met The Grigori this turn. I sent them a friendlier than usual first message including details of all civs we've met and rough ideas of where they were located including offering to arrange a meet.

I didn't tell them where we were however

The idea is they think im their chum so there's less chance they suspect that the next griffon i capture (which is heading there way) is mine. I can't send it towards Rawkking as he knows i have the lizards so would work it out, plus we have a NAP and that would be breaching it whether he found out or not.

[Bobchillingworth]

Hooray for thread subscriptions!



The griffon will indeed give you soldier points. Quite a few, actually- 12,000. So 1 & 1/2 lizardmen :P I don't think that anyone who looks at the power score without knowing what your military consists of will want to mess with you for quite a while


Regarding your questions:

Will the barbarians attack it?

Yes. Watch out, even normally laughable poison goblins will have odds, due to being recon units with a vs. animal bonus. Stick to mountains / water tiles if you have the option.

Can it enter borders without declaring nationality?

Yes! This is one of the reasons that makes them such great animals to have. Camp on someone's mountain or lake tile, and they'll have to cover every civilian unit in range with at least two guards (or a hunter or something tough).

Can it open lairs/dungeons?

Indeed. Goes great combined with the strategy mentioned above. If you swoop in & pop a lair next to someone's capital or whatever, you'll have good odds of either getting something nice for yourself or forcing them to deal with any nasties you spawn.

Can it pop tribal huts?

Yeah.

[DaveV]

Note that barbarian griffons will never enter player culture, so the moment you do so, you reveal the unit as player-owned rather than barb-owned. You can take advantage of this by hovering near someone's borders and charging in to snipe some workers (the other player will think his workers are safe).

If you fly over water, watch out for sea serpents!

As to my "shark among minnows" comment: if I had ever done my FFHPBEM1 summary, I would have said that Pocketbeetle was playing a multiplayer game while the other participants were playing their usual single player strategies. You have the ruthless mindset of a multiplayer vet, and I have a feeling that's lacking in some of the other players.

[Ravus Sol]

Moving into a rivals culture does reveal the Griffin as not running on Animal-AI and thus Player owned. But if you find the Elves or Sheaim with it won't they know it's yours by them suddenly having contact with you in game? Unless you try and lie and pretend a scout was near them and died. Pretend the Griffin killed your scout? *shrug*

[Kyan]

Moving into a rivals culture does reveal the Griffin as not running on Animal-AI and thus Player owned. But if you find the Elves or Sheaim with it won't they know it's yours by them suddenly having contact with you in game? Unless you try and lie and pretend a scout was near them and died. Pretend the Griffin killed your scout? *shrug*

Hmm, if it's HN, does it actually 'meet' us officialy?

If so, perhaps i should harass Grigori instead?

Grigori sent me a blunt email confirming that they know we got lizards vs dwarves events and they want a long term NAP. I politely said no but pointed out that if i was going to go aggresive why would i choose the adventurers rather than the scary warcry horses...

Smiley Jim got 7xp by popping a barrows. What's the best promo's for him? If you tell me to get combat 1 and wait for hunting for subdue- i *will* chuckle.

[Bobchillingworth]

You don't need to wait for hunting to get animal capturing on a scout- AH works just fine


Capturing animals could be a good idea, although scouts are so weak that stuff like Griffons will probably just kill them regardless of promos. I typically like to give them flanking, since in FFH units will retreat on both the offense and defense.

[Ravus Sol]

More loki-like creatures to annoy the rivals with fleeing skills could be fun. I'm afraid I don't know about HN keeping you invisible or not. Probably needs to be playtested to check.

Speaking of Loki when abouts were you hoping to unleash him? (I'm pretty sure you mentioned it before in passing.)