Uncommonly Good: A Story of Elves

[Gaspar]

Better have been Kyan. Nicolae and I have no lair popping near one another in our NAP. Guess Hash Pipes gonna build jobbers for a little while. Man my luck has sucked this game.

[Mardoc]

Better have been Kyan. Nicolae and I have no lair popping near one another in our NAP. Guess Hash Pipes gonna build jobbers for a little while. Man my luck has sucked this game.

If it is/was Kyan, then that strikes me as an excellent argument to use against Kyan in diplo with Nicolae. That thing could easily have gone south instead.

Also - I would probably add in the garrison from the capital. If we fight and lose, then I could see the Ogre running us over entirely. Remember Barbarians naturally have regeneration to make up for the stupid AI, and he'll be gaining XP with every success he has.

[Gaspar]

BTW, are ogre's melee units? As in Shock works against them? If not, might be smarter to go Guerilla I instead of Shock I.

[Mardoc]

BTW, are ogre's melee units? As in Shock works against them? If not, might be smarter to go Guerilla I instead of Shock I.

The FFHpedia says they're melee. Guerilla might be better, though, just as a guarantee.

[NobleHelium]

Shock is infinitely better if it works. Shock is a "dependent on attacker" promotion, and thus reduces the attacker's strength rather than improves the defender's. -40% of 8 is a lot better than +40% of 3. That's a simplification, since the Ogre has a Combat promotion, so it's actually -20% of 8 vs +20% of 8 and +40% of 3.

And yeah, ogres are melee units. The river reduction is also on the attacker, and it's -50% in FFH I believe. Or it might be -40%. Definitely more than the BTS -25%.

[Gaspar]

16 points for the Grigori, nowt else.

So yeah, as Mardoc and Rawkking have indicated, we're caught between a [strike]Monty Python flick[/strike] rock and a hard place. 8/9 ogre with dead aim at Hash Pipe and the Hippus NW. So it would appear the neighbors nearest west are Hippus and Clowns. Ravus, if I give you a dollar can we trade them for Monks and Adventurers? Well, not a lot I can really do. I dial up a warrior in front of the EC in Hash Pipe. We can get it in 4 by working the Marble hill, though we can switch to RoP next turn probably shave another turn off. No need to promote BB this turn, we can do it next. I also grab one of the capital garrison to head towards the site. Wish I'd built that road. Decide to name the adventuring jobber Barry Horowitz. After the current worker is done, we'll build another jobber in the capital to replace Barry. Realistically, we're going to need ~4 warriors to ensure safety here. Unfortunately, I don't think we can manage that in time. Here's the picture:



I'll get to the Hippus in a moment. The yellow is the path the Ogre can take to the city. The red path is the path Horowitz is taking from the capital to Hash Pipe. Obviously by the time he gets there, he can only clean up a redlined Ogre who has already taken the city. Except he won't be redlined, since as Mardoc mentioned, the barbs get Regeneration innately. The only real hope is that the Ogre does that classic barb thing and dawdles for a while. The worst case scenario is this situation, plus Orthus, now 2T away, popping on our borders. Frankly, I think we're screwed.

Now, the Hippus are even worse. This is the message I received from Rawkking:

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The sounds of galloping hooves is heard over the hills to the west. The elven sentries take up defensive positions among the treetops.

The galloping grows stronger. For what seems like an eternity the galloping grows closer. What’s taking them so long?

Finally, the intruders are spotted on a hill to the west. On foot. Banging coconuts together. Human warriors being followed by what seem to be human pack mules, carrying an absurd amount of gear stop and hail an elf cautiously emerging from the trees.

What appears to be the human’s leader speaks up. “Greetings, long-eared humans! Tell me, who is the lord of thi-“

One of the overburdened human servants whispers into his ear.

“Er, sorry. Greeting, famed elves of Ljosalfar, Elven defenders of the forest! Please, could you tell me who is the Lor-“ more whispers “…Lord or Lady of this castle!”

“We are the horselords of Hippus, led by the Rawkking-king, and we wish to share tales of our explorations of Erebus, as well as negotiate passage so we may make further discoveries!”

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Whenever you get time we can chat about the world at large. I'm a bit worried that your creative culture is going to trap me off from exploring further and force me to head back through entirely explored territory to take the other path, so I'd like to discuss that as well.

Erm, there's no way I'm letting Hippus declare war and send a unit through my city. Why? Well check out that green line. If he declares war and sees the Ogre at the gates, he can just hang out and clean up the mess. So I have to talk him into not pushing further in a way that doesn't belie this situation. Thoughts?

I've still gotten no response from Nicolae as well. Its a very dangerous world to be an elf right now. I was going to post Rawkkings graphs but I don't have the heart for it, so maybe next turn.

[NobleHelium]

Hash Pipe will autoraze because it has not grown. You could try worker bait.

[Mardoc]

In retrospect, I'm very sorry I talked you out of that road. Did you go ahead and revolt to Nationhood/Apprenticeship? If it does the barb thing and waits, we could potentially have 4 warriors in the area, one of which with a promotion when it hits. And there's still the chance of BB winning the first fight, given the right promotions and a little bit of luck.

If NobleHelium is right (and remembering correctly) about the river malus, that might even bump us to better than 50% odds here.

Hash Pipe will autoraze because it has not grown. You could try worker bait.

Doesn't culture prevent that? Its borders will pop next turn.

Worker bait might be worth doing, though, to delay the Ogre and make sure he attacks from flat land so our revenge strike might work.

[SevenSpirits]

Shock is infinitely better if it works. Shock is a "dependent on attacker" promotion, and thus reduces the attacker's strength rather than improves the defender's. -40% of 8 is a lot better than +40% of 3.

This is very wrong.

1) ALL situational promotions (i.e. not Combat N) work the same. Shock, guerilla, they are both a situational +40%.

2) Looking at which base strength the modifier is applying to is completely pointless because the only number that matters is the ratio of the two strengths. See here for more details.

[SevenSpirits]

Doesn't culture prevent that? Its borders will pop next turn.

All that matters is whether it has ever reached size 2 or more.