[SPOILERS] Iskender and the Sidar

[Iskender]

Can tigers become shades? I'd imagine so. From a fluff perspective it's a little nonsensical. Shades are near dead spirits of the Sidar, who guide the still living. I can't imagine a tiger passing on all that much profundity.

Alas, tigers can't wane. I appreciate their xp nonetheless - a city raider III tiger will have decent odds against an average Balseraph skeleton.

So did he become the first unit to break the XP requirement then?

If so, congrats.

Thanks! I'm waning him as soon as I'm done with Form of the Titan.

Looks like the war against Bob goes pretty well with having plenty of summons to feed on. Seen you've got your next actions planned ahead once Bob falls and...well, i've got nothing to add here. Though one thing i'm curious about is the current situation with Serdoa and his role in the likely event of post-balseraph war against the clan.

Serdoa willbe able to repeat Bob's skeleton trick, to a lesser extent obviously, but with the aid of Luchuirp Rathas the SoI should have a hard time conquering the north. I believe Serdoa and SL have struck some kind of defensive alliance. SL should get Empyin a few turns, he's getting Horse from Serdoa so he doesn't even need to bother with Animal Husbandry to get Rathas.

Another option do deal with the SoI would be a PZ suicide attack, but Serdoa's power rating has been flat at about 60k for at least 50 turns. He built a Planar Gate in the capital, but no signs of a Moebius Witch yet (they're worth 12k points).

Regarding your economy, will Sanitation be enough to mend it and put you back on track?

I have about 20 farms, adopting forest economy proved to be painfully slow, mostly because almost every priest had been sent to fight. Additional food will allow cities to grow quickly to the recently increased happy cap (due to Ale and Furs) and then run a merchant and a sage. Still not enough to avoid collapse if I went for Military Strategy and/or Poisons next, so instead I'll research Writing and Mathematics and grab the Bazaar.

[Iskender]

T127:

Ocells has been razed. No Esus for the Balseraphs.

Bob sent yet another pack of puppets and skeletons. I wish I could milk it but there's more important stuff to do, so I hit it only with a couple of tigers. This is my stack after moving:



See how nicely it overlooks both Coombe View and Argenteria? That's not the best part though. That's the best part:



Bob was so obsessed with defending Coombe View that he completely ignored Argenteria. The plan was to fork both cities forcing Bob to spread the skeletons, but with Argenteria that weak it's possible to conquer it next turn if Bob doesn't reinforce it with skeletons and he won't if he can't get puppets into the city ie. because there's something big and fiery blocking the way.


That's what I suggested Tredje:

[COLOR="Silver"]Hey

Thanks for Regeneration. Too bad Haste works only on the caster's stack. I'll cast Enchanted Blade on your warriors when I don't have to cast Haste.

I parked on the hill. Bob can reinforce Argenteria next turn, but we can make it a suicide mission if you position elementals N and NE of the city (the red arrows) and cut the road 2N of Argenteria (so the puppets can't go 4-1-haste-3, and also the northern skeletons can't reach the blocking elementals). The arrows are pointing at the city, but the elementals shouldn't attack this turn so they remain at full health and block better. If Bob won't get puppets into the city I'll be able to raze it next turn

Iskender


PS I just noticed that the earth node is also roaded so Bob could move the northern puppets 1-haste-3-3. You could pillage the earth node road or the oasis road with the 3rd elemental. That would expose the stack but only to several skeletons and the puppets.
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Dereptus is ready EOT, Sanitation in 3-4 turns.

[Iskender]

T128:

Argenteria has fallen. A couple of tigers thrown at the city was enough to give priests 99%+ odds. The finishing blow was dealt by a Divided Soul, guess why




Bob keeps spamming skeletons and moving them around the map in a seemingly chaotic fashion. Although this time he's got enough of them close to my stack to seriously threaten the priests, so I asked Tredje for extra defense.

[COLOR="Silver"]Argenteria is dead. We can revisit Coombe View now. You could move 1N and pillage the desert road NE completing isolation of CV. I we don't join stacks I could really use 2 elementals for defense - Bob will be able throw 20 skeletons and 30+ puppets at me this turn.

Wanna trade Sugar for Cotton?

Iskender[/COLOR]

Bob adopted Military State (and not Slavery) two turns ago, that's what he needed Warfare for. Obviously he's getting more and more concerned about support costs of skeletons, but Military State or not they are going to be an increasing burden to his economy.

I asked Tredje to trade luxuries, reluctantly, as I don't want to make the Clan any stronger, but at the moment neither Seroda nor SL have anything to offer in exchange for Cotton or Furs.


Clan Great Engineer has been spotted:



How did he...? Nevermind. If I were the Clan I'd use the guy for the Mines of Gal-dur. That might be Trardoc's plan as well, combined with warrens and whipping (they've built a conspicuously large number of granaries).

[STRIKE]Plakoleg[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]SquarePlako[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]Squakoleg[/STRIKE] The Luchurip founded Honor.

EOT is disappointing as usual. I've bloomed 7 tiles so far, but no upgrades yet despite most of new forests being worked by cities with FoL temples.

[Iskender]

T129:

Founded Dingly Dell, city #7.


Siege of Coombe View begins. I asked Tredje to lower the city defenses to 45% so that my odds on the skeletons increase from 96% to 99% (many thanks Sareln for the calculator! )




Current Balseraph forces:



Balseraph skeleton spam has worked very well so far. It's been 10 turns of war and we only managed to raze 2 cities. I'm sure that if Bob had been allowed to train Gibbon he'd have been the winning side now.


Skeletons are costly though (EOT screenshot):



Notice that Balseraphs are in Golden Age and their GNP is heavily boosted by culture. It'll get even worse once Coombe View is down. My unit maintenance & support (with 9 tigers) is near 50, inflation adjusted.

NAP with the Clan extended to T150.

[Iskender]

A message from Tredje

[COLOR="Orange"]Hi,

Just spoke to Bob. He says he suicided all his Skeletons on our stacks (and killed nothing, hehe). Coombe should be easy pickings now. I want to keep the city, so if you want to kill the defenders for xp it might be best if you leave the last one so that I can capture it on my turn.
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Skeletons didn't kill anything, but the log says a dramatic story:



Enough skeletons were able to get through the elementals (EDIT: Tredje left no elementals for defense OUCH), archers and axemen to hit SoI and priests, even tigers. Most of the priests were somewhat damaged so the chance of them dying to skeletons must have been more than minimal.

The most badly damaged priest was left 2.6 health and one of the tigers at 1.0.

Only 4 skeletons, 5 puppets and 3 adepts were left in Coombe View. Still, getting rid of them was tough because only one priest and one tiger were left undamaged. I promohealed every unit and hit with the most promising tiger (@93%). It won, then its buddy won at similar odds exposing first skeleton to a shock priest. After that it was mostly 99%+ battles, one 91% for the most damaged priest and two 75% for the mopping up tigers, all won.




I left the city with one puppet, hasted the stack and moved towards Jubilee. Check out them veterans:


(I'm already picturing them as 7gc/1food on legs)



Had Bob left the Orthus Axe in the mainland he probably would've killed some of the invading units. Instead, as Tredje says, he used it to boatkill Hezickul, apparently with success. From my point of view it couldn't have gone any better - the Clan will be a little bit weaker in the end and the Axe is not being used to boost skeletons str to 4.

War weariness hit this turn. Only one unhappy face, but if I keep fighting summons with summons it'll soar.

Sent Tredje this:

[COLOR="Silver"]Phew... at least he didn't have the Axe in Coombe View. Some fights have been really close ones. How's your island city?

One puppet left in CV. I moved SE to possibly move NE-haste-NE next turn.

Lots of skeletons around. We could fork Jubilee/Hexam or Jubilee/Gaudium next. Hopefully Bob soon won't have enough commerce to support the army.

Do you have war weariness? I just got my first unhappy face, more will surely appear if we have to fight the skeletons. I suggest to trade Furs for Gems to keep it in check for a while.

Iskender[/COLOR]

Also, finally:



EOT: Discovered Sanitation, completed Form of the Titan. Still no forest upgrades.

[Iskender]

The Clowns strike back!

Bob sniffed an exposed stack and thrown skeletons+puppets to weaken it and then freaks and warriors to kill redlined units. He managed to kill a priest, the adept and the divided soul (with a hawk). The Clan lost some warriors and archers - the SoI hid behind Channelling III.

Once again: phew... could have been much worse. Still, losing the DS+hawk a future Great Merchant and one of the three Body adepts hurts. A replacement adept along with 2 rookie priests and 2 warriors will strengthen the stack next turn. A replacement Divided Soul will be trained in the capital in 2 turns. As of turn 133 the combined invading stack looks like this:



And there are again 40+ skeletons in Jubilee.

EOT: War Weariness unhappy faces increased to 2. First new forest->forest upgrade.

[Iskender]

T134:

Licking wounds. The adepts have been found dagerously (for them) close to Jubilee. I hope Bob will get overconfident after killing my hawk and makes a tactical mistake with the adept stack. Send Mardoc this:

[COLOR="Silver"]Adepts located. If they stay in the area next turn, we might have a chance to corner them. Those 2 workers in Jubilee might be trouble, I don't like them standing there.

The Balseraphs are nearing economic collapse. They're making 20-30 gold at 0% research now. If we pillage the Winery SE of Jubilee we'll deny the city 3 happy faces. Their Golden Age will end in 7 or 8 turns.

Iskender
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Speaking of the Bals: Bob discovered Corruption of Spritit last turn. He'll likely try to make an emergency switch to Hyborem. Considering the shape of Balseraph economy at the moment the only way to do it would be to bulb Infernal Pact.


Sidarland:



Breakeven research is now close to 50%. During the Golden Age I'll grab Writing and Mathematics, build Public Baths to make a buffer for war weariness (now I'm relying on trading luxuries with the Clan and carnivals+tigers) and for specialists in the future.

[Iskender]

T135:

Bob sent another wave of skeletons killing one of my tigers and, as Mardoc later confirmed, a Clan archer.

The adepts did stay in place though and that's very good news.

[COLOR="Silver"]Another wave of skeletons ground to bone meal. No casualties on our side I think, except one tiger. According to the log Bob had 36 more skeletons to throw at me after redlining your elementals and warriors. Apparently he believes he's got the initiative at the moment - he didn't even move the adepts! Roar!

Let the slaughter begin! If Bob moves the adepts to Jubilee next turn then we besiege Jubilee. If they try to escape along the coast we move SE-E and kill another 3, additionally forking Guell and Gaudium. I'll do recon with hasted tigers next turn.

When Bob sees he's losig adepts he might try a desperate attack with 40 puppets and all the skeletons. I think it'd be wise to play it safe this turn and, after the killing, move back all three elementals to defend the stack.

Iskender[/COLOR]





[COLOR="Orange"]One casualty - I lost my last archer. Still not nearly as bad as it could be.

I followed your recommendation and killed three adepts. The
Elementals didn't even take damage! I'm guessing Bob thought he
blinded us entirely by killing your Divided Soul.

- Mardoc[/COLOR]

Three adepts down that's six puppets and nine skeletons less to worry about.


I must admit I'm enoying this war a lot. It doesn't resemble a typical FFH clash with a decisive battle and a mop-up, but is more like standard Civ MP (I guess, I've never played vanilla Civ MP unless you count Alpha Centauri) or like a game of chess, with many opportunities for each side to gain or lose advantage. So far I believe we've had the upper hand, but Bob, after the initial period of despair, have been putting up a good fight.

The real winner so far is of course Square Leg. He hoped for a dragged-out conflict but I'm positive that neither him nor any of us believed that after 15 turns there'd still be no definite winner. The Dwarves have grabbed KotE and Sanitation despite working a very resource-poor land:



They replaced the Balseraphs as GNP leaders and will no doubt soon dethrone me in food - my forests can't really compete with sanitation+construction farms.


EOT: Two new forest upgrades, yay! Workers have resumed lumbermilling. Third unhappy WW face:



See the guy below the unhappy citizen? That's Fleabite counting coppers!

[Iskender]

T136:

So, Bob decided to move the adepts to Jubilee. With nothing better to do I checked out Gaudium:



Two warriors and 3 skeletons in the city and my ubertiger had good odds so I attacked. The tiger lost, but his not so uber but still CR3 brother hit at similar odds and won. Then the cubs killed the rest and somehow burned the city while bringing back 197 gold coins.

I didn't consult the raze with Mardoc, but he shouldn't be angry about it. Anything that hastens Balseraphs prolonged demise is a good choice.


So the stack is standing next to Jubilee and sees a puppet trying to sabotage Pool of Tears:

You stop that!


The puppet is undone, but there are more in Jubilee:



This is going to be difficult. My main concern is to protect the priests - all 5 of the initial party are shadeable (the 6th was killed). If Bob in a fit of despair throws all Jubilee garrison at us he might kill some or maybe all of my priests. Mardoc must surely feel the same about the SoI, so we're forced to keep high defense (ie. 3 elementals) at the cost of not bombarding the city, giving the adepts and skeletons time to fortify. I should be able to kill a few adepts at ~96% next turn (odds almost too risky for me) and Mardoc a few more hopefully slowing the adept-puppet-skeleton momentum.

To Mardoc:

[COLOR="Silver"]The adepts are in Jubilee. I razed Gaudium with tigers. It was too weakly defended to ignore it.

I guess it's your call whether we lay a siege now or go for Hexam/Guell. I'll test what are my priests' odds on adepts with different fortification/defenses bonuses.

No units spotted outside Jubilee (other than those 2 skeletons N).

Iskender
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[COLOR="Silver"]
OK, I should have odds around 96% on adepts if you lob one fireball at Jubilee defenses and take out the three warriors with elementals. Two fireballs would be better, but with 120 units in Jubilee we'd rather not hide behind only 2 elementals. In fact, you might save the fireball for the last SoI and summon another elemental instead in case the others get killed/damaged.
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Domestic stuff:

Two priests and a warrior fed on a barbarian stack that was maneuvered into the desert.




EOT demographics:



Square Leg discovered Warfare, he can now grab Military Strategy from under my nose if he wishes to. Maybe I should have discovered it just to deny everyone the free general. Too late now. I still have to get the tech sometime later for the Heroic Epic.

[Iskender]

I'm unable to upload screenshots for some reason so I'll make a full update at a later time, but this is what happned this turn:

Bob suicided all adepts, puppets and half the skeletons into our stacks killing one priest and one tiger. He lost the metamagic adept as well, so I cast Into the mist and remained in place while Mardoc moved on to capture Guell.

Bob built Rosier and the Luchuirp entered Golden Age. Not via the free Great General, I still might have a chance to grab Military Strategy first.