Uncommonly Good: A Story of Elves

[Man Behind the Mask]

Not much to say on the turn, although I will give one final appeal to spend the two turns to finish the Elder Council before moving on to the Hunting Lodge. I think the extra 20+ beakers will be worth more than scouting with Hawks two turns sooner. If you don’t finish it now, when will you slip it in?

Save arrived after my bedtime last night, so it would be helpful if you can let us know what civics the Balseraphs are running, please?

That diplo message is pretty personal, so I’m not sure any comments would be much help. We do have quite a bit to talk to him about (/confront him with), but we should open the dialogue first. I’d include Epic Lair popping as a relevant and legitimate “bone” but we can get to that later.

I like the bit about “pantomime villain” – I’m tempted to edit “Boo! Hiss!” in after every mention of Kyan/Clowns so far in this thread.

Hopefully to come later today… C&D rundown on the Balseraphs, and the special feature on just why we should be so scared of rampaging clowns.

[Man Behind the Mask]

Here is our rundown on my history of the Balseraphs, made a little easier to follow by the fact that they often top the demographics

Turn 0 – Settled first turn, with full 9 first ring tiles. The plot has 33 out of 37 land tiles in the first three rings. Starting tech is Agriculture, and it looks like they went worker first.

Turn 8 – The infamous dwarves vs. lizards event. The Balseraph power score shoots upwards.

Turn 14 – Capital to size two (working a 3 food tile after worker completes the same way we did)

Turn 16 – Growth to size 3 and they are actually the slowest civ to reach a second tech.

Turn 18 – A 12k jump in their power rating

Turn 19 – A much quicker third technology and their capital grows again

Turn 20 & 21 – Land points for the capital

Turn 27 – Another tech (8 turns gap)

Turn 31 – Third ring land points

Turn 32 – Capital grows to size 5, after finishing…

Turn 33 – … a settler to make the Clowns the first civ to two cities

Turn 36 – Second city grows, and there’s another 12k jump in power

Turn 38 – Second city to size 3, and also their fifth technology

Turn 40 – Another tech discovered

Turn 42 – Capital grows to Size 6, and a third city is founded

Turn 44 – Capital grows again to size 7. Soldiers drop by 12k but immediately recover next turn

Turn 45 – The snowball is now rolling, as technology number 7 is in and the third city grows

Turn 47 – Balseraph cities are now sizes 7, 3 and 3 (next best total population at this point is 9)

Turn 49 – Another score rise from pop growth

Turn 50 – Another 12k loss in power, not replaced until Turn 53

Turn 51 – Another technology (6 turn gap)

Turn 52 – Land points for city 2, showing it had the full 9 first ring tiles

Turn 53 – Their capital is the first in the world to reach size 8

Turn 54 – Their third city grows to size 4, and land points show the second city has 10 of the maximum 12 tiles in its second ring.

Turn 55 – Second city to size 5

Turn 56 – Two new Balseraph cities are settled at the same time, although their total land area only increases by 14 tiles.

Turn 59 – Yet another technology, and the two new cities grow to size 2

So we’re looking at the Balseraphs having cities at size 8, 5, 4, 2 and 2. They’ve researched eight new technologies, and have a large army bolstered by animal captures (it should be noted that many animals actually count as zero soldier points).

As we have the graphs, I could be diligent and try to put a name to each of the techs based on their research rate, but does anybody care?

[Mardoc]

That reply looks fair to me, Gaspar.

I think I disagree with you, MBTM, about the Elder Council/Hunting Lodge priority. Kyan's found us, he's not really friendly, he's apparently got a huge animal army - I would feel a lot more secure once we have a Hunter built. The only argument that would convince me is that when you're behind, you have to take some risks, and econ really is above all else. Well...I suppose it partially depends on Kyan's relations with everyone else, whether he needs then as a home garrison or not. It's been a while since I've seen Hash Pipe's capabilities - maybe we really can do both. And I would hate to lose production to decay, that's true.

[Man Behind the Mask]

Happy to go with whatever Gaspar decides. I think if it was more than 2-3 turns for the Council, or quicker than over a dozen turns for Lodge+Hunter+Hawk, then I would definitely agree with Lodge first. I just felt that banking benefits we were close to now would be more valuable than waiting.

But that’s not what I’m here for….




[SIZE="6"]The Crazy Clowns[/SIZE]

Disclaimer: No Custard Pies were harmed in the making of this post.

The Balseraphs have a number of unique units and buildings that make them a scary proposition, especially in the late game. Harlequins, Taskmasters, Courtesans and especially Mimics all have their definite benefits, but are not especially overpowered. The Hall of Mirrors is a curious and potentially dangerous unique building, creating a random, temporary (I believe extra turns for Keelyn), illusory, copy of an enemy who is outside the city at turn-start. The Arena looks like a combination of Training Yard and lottery, but some of its bigger benefits relate to other Clown capabilities.

The opportunity for the Balseraphs to abuse mechanics begins with the Freak (available at Festivals). Much more expensive than the warrior, despite having the same base strength, it’s possible to actually think of the freak as more of a building than a unit. For the paltry cost of half a carnival, the Freak Show is a good and efficient addition to a city. However, there’s also the chance that the mutant turns out to be one of the lucky few with very positive characteristics, at which point they can be upgraded for a small cost into ANY of the non-mounted combat lines. That means a Heavy & Heroic Defence Freak can become an amazing city defender Archer, or a Light & Mobility Freak can be a Taskmaster that hits from 4 tiles away. For those not blessed with amazing luck, there’s always the Arena to turn an average product into a well promoted weapon. There’s a lot of RNG involved, but the ability to create a unit with a few (random) promotions and a stock of XP is something that just isn’t readily available to the other civilizations, especially so early in the game. Oh, and Freaks are draftable with the right civics, so a food heavy/happy capped economy can churn them out quickly.

Puppet Spam

This, however, is the crux of the matter. A summoning leader of the Balseraphs is in a very enviable position to mess with crazy stuff. Being able to keep two puppets alive at the same time means that Loki or an Adept can have inspiration running in two cities, giving a little boost to research. However, that’s not what there really is to worry about.

As Mardoc noted a little earlier, there is a strong incentive for the Clowns to get some Death Mana, giving adepts the ability to summon skeletons. This is especially effective because summons can appear as long as you have the appropriate number of units with the right promotion, but don’t disappear if that maximum cap subsequently drops.

Here’s a quick example of what can be achieved with just 5 adepts:
Turn 1: Summon 5 puppets, who summon 5 skeletons
Turn 2: Summon 5 new puppets, 10 puppets summon 10 skeletons.

That’s all there is to it, and the adepts and puppets can now go and do something else. With only 5 units to start with, there are suddenly 30 units in play.

The only saving grace here is that skeletons are weak and puppets are pretty useless in combat; any “real” defenders in a stack will almost always be taken out before the skeletons or puppets actually get involved in the fight. That doesn’t mean that the summons won’t soak up collateral damage, protect wounded units, leave a city standing for one more turn, or be very valuable in any mobbing attack.

And what can else you do with lots of summoned units? Kill them off deliberately! Summons can be sent into the Balseraphs’ Arena to do battle. Every battle adds a happy face for three turns and the timer stacks. That means that the 15 skeletons those five adepts generated can be swapped for 45 turns of +1 happy, making the very pessimistic assumption that they ALL die. With a few turns of investment, you can basically up the happy cap by 1 in a city for the foreseeable future. Obviously, any successful skeletons can gain promotions in addition to the Combat1 they get from the Summoner trait.

When you start puppet spam with an archmage, things begin to get really silly. With twin-casting Gibbon:
Turn 1: Summon 2 puppets, who summon 4 Elementals
Turn 2: Summon 2 more puppets, and they all summon 8 more elementals
Turn 3: First 4 Elementals expire, but the replacement puppets summon another 8, leaving 16 potentially in play.
Turn 4 onwards: The cycles repeats and the opposition player cowers in fear.

None of these elementals are illusions, because the puppet promotion overrides Gibbon’s Illusionist – hence they can all kill.

So, is it broken?
• Freaks are uniquely interesting, but the element of luck and the capabilities of some other civ’s units probably mean they are just competing in the “overpowered” category like so much of the FFH mod.
• Bob has admitted that the Skeletons-Arena trick is exploitative at best, and asked to have it removed by the RB Paring Mod, so I think that is a tentative “Yes”.
• I’ve gone back and forth several times on whether Puppet Spam is broken. Once the Clowns have produced enough Adepts (and that is not a very big number) it would be almost impossible for a single civ to support the army required to chew through all of the puppets and summons in a single turn to actually make good progress in a war. Your only hope here is a good supply of Destroy Undead to remove skeletons. Puppet Spam with some second level (i.e. non-death) summons doesn’t really have a counter. Puppet-Twincasting Archmages to counter-attack and eliminate the stalled enemy army make the thought of a successful assault positively dreamland. Any mechanic which completely requires an overwhelming dogpile to be beaten does feel too much. What we’re really talking about is the ability to suddenly have a number of units in your army that is far, far, larger than you have actually built, without any of the usual penalties for “rushing” production. On that basis, I’m going to declare that this IS broken. There are some counters, such as mobility to fork several targets or chase down the Adepts/Mages, and I hope that I’m wrong about this being so hard to defeat. The one saving grace is that while this tactic will work well with the added movement when defending, it’s only dangerous on the attack once the Clowns get to Mages, and get the right mana in play.


And to lighten the mood a little, the clowns don’t always get it their own way – link

[Mardoc]

None of these elementals are illusions, because the puppet promotion overrides Gibbon’s Illusionist – hence they can all kill.

Really. That's...special.

I’ve gone back and forth several times on whether Puppet Spam is broken. ... On that basis, I’m going to declare that this IS broken. There are some counters, such as mobility to fork several targets or chase down the Adepts/Mages, and I hope that I’m wrong about this being so hard to defeat. The one saving grace is that while this tactic will work well with the added movement when defending, it’s only dangerous on the attack once the Clowns get to Mages, and get the right mana in play.

I think, all in all, I agree it's broken - but it's the *interaction* between summoning and puppets that breaks the game; neither piece is absurd in its own right. Summoner doubling the effectiveness of your adepts and mages is reasonable. Puppets doubling them is reasonable. Twincast doubling a Hero's efforts is reasonable. All of these give a significant boost to a unit, at a cost - it's a unit generally susceptible to assassins, there's often maintenance included, and summons typically are lower strength than equal tier units, with fewer promotions and less flexibility. Oh, and summoner is something you get instead of an economic trait, so you'll tend to have fewer mages, later than everyone else.

It's when you multiply them all together and have Gibbon creating 16 Tier III normal summons, or a handful of adepts able to crank out enough skeletons to defend any spot through sheer numbers, that it becomes broken. And the test of it is that I don't think Perpentach or the Sheaim are especially broken in their treatment of summons, only Keelyn.

Now, despite it being broken, we're going to have to try to deal with it. How?

[SIZE="6"]Take the fall[/SIZE]
[SIZE="1"]I need an image banner for this new series on handling our opponents roughly, to edit in[/SIZE]
Handling the Balseraphs
Well, the first most obvious piece seems to have been obviated through other factors - outexpand, out tech, and out ally the Balseraphs. Or kill them early. We'll have to look at the map later (or maybe soonish with Hawk aid), but I suspect that of being the primary culprit, not anything in particular about the Clowns. Still, perhaps they'll run out of good land and anger their neighbors enough that they won't be entirely our problem.

A minor piece that would work against the Adept level of this - fact is, Str 3 Skeletons aren't especially worrisome unless present in truly overwhelming numbers. But every Skeleton costs the same unit maintenance as a, say, Str 4 Combat I/Shock warrior. If someone were to try a choke or war of defense, it'll cost the Balseraphs a lot more than it would cost the other party. This seems to have been mostly obviated by the lizard luck, allowing Kyan to be secure from the horsemen without summon spam.

Destroy Undead will work, of course, against the undead, and we ought to get it easily on our Mages, with two sources of Life mana to play with. Stack-affecting collateral is our friend in general - Maelstrom, Tsunami, Ring of Flames - these let us turn stacks of whatever summon Kyan chooses into simply XP. Our own summons will help, but of course we can't match the puppeteers. We also need to remember that the point of an army is to defend or take land; the destruction of the enemy army only matters when conquest becomes easier as a result. If we can immobilize or outmanuever a horde of summons, then we can achieve our goals while ignoring them. (Slow, blinding light, etc would help).

If we can recruit the Sheaim, somehow, Pyre Zombies will kill a stack of any size.

Assassins are our friends. Major, major friends. They'll probably target Puppets before the underlying adept/mage, but first - only one new puppet/turn/mage is a lot easier to deal with than 2 new summons/turn, and second, there's no particular reason to expect the puppets in the same stack as the mage. We'll want to get a Nature II mage so all our assassins can have poisoned blades.

So are tricks that take away spellcasting abilities - Charm, Blinding Light...take away the spellcaster and the summons will crumble. Similarly, any unit with the right resistances or promotions to leave the spellcaster as stack defender is a friend of ours. We need good and early scouting, and an eye on Kyan's mana (he starts with Air, Mind, and Chaos, only air gives a summon and only at archmage level), to help with this; he's likely to pick one, maybe two types, and stick with them, trying to stack affinity. If Kyan tries to deal with this by instead keeping the spellcasters' stack separate, then fast units are our friends.

Interestingly, chokepoints are our friends, if chosen properly. We can only kill one summon/turn/unit when we're attacking, but on the defense, we can kill as many as Kyan's willing to throw at us. The trick, of course, is to make sure we collateral them first, and ideally prevent him collateralling us. And to stack up sufficient bonuses that he can't break through - forts, cities, Treetop Defense adepts, good terrain. Add in some priests to heal the units quickly and we're in business. Fortunately, summons are so strong and tempting that he's not likely to have much collateral, figuring instead to just hit us with a million skeletons. Taking a maelstrom promotion is two promotions that could instead have been granting bonuses to the summons.

Constant battle can limit the damage done - a spellcaster with puppets can eventually stack up a lot of summons, but it takes time. This assumes we have enough healing to recover between rounds, but if we can kill all the summons in a turn and 1+ puppets, we'll eventually catch up to the rate of production. Attrition is very sensitive to the starting armies - one more spellcaster than we have attacking units, and we'll never catch up; one fewer and we'll win, gaining a lot of XP in the process.

What does it add up to? Killing the Balseraphs in the cradle is a chance that's been missed, and we're probably not the civ to do it, anyway. We need either a way to affect a whole stack at once, preferably a lethal way but immobilization will do, or we need a way to make the stack irrelevant while we go about our business, or we need a way to preferentially target the spellcasters who, after all, tend to be relatively weak. And who tend to require time to create, and gold, and hammers.

The best thing about the Balseraphs in this game, though, is that summon spam is such an obvious choice, they're almost certain to focus on it. We can focus our efforts, once we deal with or make peace with our neighbors, on counters, and not have much worry of him going for something else that our army would be weak against. To put it another way, he's got such a big rock that we can afford to invest in paper instead of generalists.

Anything else? I'm sure there are more ideas, this being FFH. We need to think about them.

[Gaspar]

That is some impressive stuff, gents, though -5 points to Mardoc for not including a picture for an episodic post.

I'll comment on that later. In the meantime, I had a chat with Kyan that I figure I should share with you all.

[COLOR="Orange"]Kyan: Hi, i won't assume you're free to chat, but just wanted to say that your email was appreciated
Kyan: also, i understand your point. I'm very competitive (shock!) myself, i would probably react to me in the same way heh.
as for this game, i can understand your view and that's cool. My lizard won't be harassing you regardless. He'll be on his merry way after finishing healing.
we do have two mutual neighbours though, so being opposed isn't always the only option [/COLOR]
Gaspar: Its np. I've been pretty rash in some of these games, I let my competitiveness get the better of me. I don't see any good reason why we should have some blood feud, most of our interactions have been positive when we've talked directly.
[COLOR="orange"]Kyan: that was my opinion too
but, we both want to win, so yeah, competitiveness comes out on both sides i guess[/COLOR]
Gaspar: I'm sure that's 90% of it
Kyan: 10% is us both being arseholes most of the time?
Gaspar: lol, that sounds about right
[COLOR="orange"] Kyan: in this game, you are probably right to have similar gripes to pbem12 by the way
its not balanced at all[/COLOR]
Gaspar: yeah
Kyan: looks pretty though. Ravus spent a long time making it look realistic, rather than anything else
Gaspar: one of my lurkers is really good at C&D and put together a decent idea of what everyone elses land looks like off graphs
I have very elvish looking lands, I'll give Ravus that
[COLOR="orange"] Kyan: ha, so your ded lurkers are useful?
krill just abuses me in my thread
TT went awol on turn 2[/COLOR]
Gaspar: that sounds like Krill as a dedlurker
[COLOR="orange"] Kyan: get used to him, its just his way
you want directions to the other civs?
can give a crude map drawn via paint if you want?
if thats allowed
*you get used to him, i meant[/COLOR]
Gaspar: yeah
he brings a lot to the table, but he makes you pay for it
[COLOR="orange"]Kyan: ill draw you that map now then, gimme 1-2mins
paint isnt fsat [/COLOR]
Gaspar: ok, np
[COLOR="orange"]Kyan: if it helps, my capital itself wasnt amazing either (goblin fort inside the culture which is fun)
but the expansion opportunities are nice, albeit cramped[/COLOR]
Gaspar: I had to move since my original capital had no food
we didnt ask for a balanced map, in fairness
I'd be happy with a couple more commerce resources though
[COLOR="orange"]Kyan: thats true
i dont have any commerce resources hooked up at all
both sheaim and hippus had big ones at their capitals[/COLOR]
Gaspar: thats not a half bad sketch, actually
Gaspar: have you found acheron yet?
[COLOR="orange"]Kyan: yeah
south west corner
grigori and elohim both have backfill land from what i understand
me and the hippus are literally on top of each other
that closer than that map indicates actually
we met on turn 2[/COLOR]
Gaspar: wow
Sheaim and I are pretty close, as you can see, but the jungle slows things down a bit
I think I met Nic on T8
Kyan: yeah, worst possible combo for you i guess. since they will want BW anyhow
Gaspar: yeah, I was really excited to find out the zombies to my south and the horse-rushers to my west
Kyan: well, for what its worth, i have both of those and the grigori with adventurers
Gaspar: I guess there really are no good neighbors in FFH
Kyan: elohim and you would have been preferable!
Gaspar: ha yeah
I'm pretty cuddly for the first 150 turns or so
Kyan: so, i should make sure to visit you before then?
Gaspar: well
by my calculations
Kyan: only messing, that would be very silly
Gaspar: I'm expecting you on T185 or so
[COLOR="orange"]Kyan: if going for conquest, i cant see how i can possibly go for you early
trees make anything messy and ill have every other player at my doorstep[/COLOR]
Gaspar: only question is whether the Chronic has been renamed to Weedalot or the ChronicApocalypse or something
(if I'm catching RG and Nicolae's naming schemes correctly)
[COLOR="orange"] Kyan: ? you lost me
oh, chronic is your capital?[/COLOR]
Gaspar: point was that my lands could be Hippus or Sheaim by the time you get there
yeah
[COLOR="orange"]Kyan: sorry, i havent seen the name
camelot, spamalot and pramalot so far, so who knows with that one
i dont understand the sheaim theme[/COLOR]
Gaspar: I think Nicolaes is based off some terrible Christian Fiction novels
Kyan: new york and i forget their second city name
Gaspar: no offense if you're into that sort of thing
[COLOR="orange"] Kyan: oh, im not
well, having the sheaim as a nearby neighbour might not work out too bad
they havent had the best start[/COLOR]
Gaspar: no
they havent
Kyan: and they're FAR too far for me to do anything about it
Gaspar: got a lucky academy though, so thats pulling him up a bit
i got an adventurer which would have been nice
but lost him to a spider getting him home
[COLOR="orange"] Kyan: ouch
i guarantee he wasnt one of mine[/COLOR]
Gaspar: was too early for that I think
though you got lizards T8, yes?
Kyan: something silly like that
Gaspar: its pretty impressive. I don't think i've seen that leveraged quite as well as you have yet though
[COLOR="orange"]Kyan: well, kinda
i got the animals, but most dont give power rating it seems
which defeated the purpose, as i dont actually want to fight, i just dont want to be attacked[/COLOR]
Gaspar: yeah, the power rating is all over the place
once you get past the age of warriors you really can't tell much from it
Kyan: warriors? pfft, freaks are where the fun is at!
Gaspar: lol
Balseraphs are a lot of fun to play. I can't pick them though because they have too many distractions.
Kyan: haha so very true
Gaspar: Thats why I went elves, you really have to focus to make them work
focus is not my strong suit
[COLOR="orange"]Kyan: elves were my second choice
micro to victory[/COLOR]
Gaspar: hippus and elohim were my backups
Kyan: balseraphs looked far more fun though, so i figured we'd give it a awhirl
i actually had a plan from the start, which i now know wont work
Gaspar: yeah, that seems to be how it works
[COLOR="orange"]Kyan: to build freaks, chuck them into arena, and promote the super xp ones to adepts then mages
but freaks dont promote arcane which wrecked that[/COLOR]
Gaspar: yeah
can play some fun games with the arena if you have disposable units though
[COLOR="orange"]Kyan: yeah, i read that one in bobs pbem5 thread
only the duration seems to stack though, not the happy faces [/COLOR]
Gaspar: i didnt, since im dedlurking orcs there, but mbtm paraphased the relevant portion
thats a little less broken at least
Kyan: yeah, +1 happy and you need a unit around so just kinda niche i guess
Gaspar: i sometimes feel like I could play 100 games and learn something new everytime. theres so many quirks to the mod.
Kyan: on this map, i might be needing these skeletons!
Gaspar: haha
Kyan: you will be the only person im not neighbouring eventually i think
Gaspar: lucky me
Kyan: haha
Gaspar: well, this being FFH, I'm sure somebody will conquer somebody who's neighboring you before all is said and done
certainly seems to favor offensive war more than base civ does
Kyan: so.. you're taking out zombies or horses?
Gaspar: well
I certainly won't win anything staying in my crappy starting area
but I'd sure like a 3rd option on that multiple choice exam
Kyan: do you not have a backfill area?
Gaspar: I do
I can probably get up to... 7 cities peacefully
Kyan: ah right
Gaspar: thats not a winning hand
Kyan: and nope
Gaspar: part of the problem is the area between me and RG is pretty barren
[COLOR="orange"]Kyan: see, i can potentially get more, but every city is towards someone else
zero backfill[/COLOR]
Gaspar: I'd pretty much need vitalize to expand west
Kyan: yeah, landbridge between me and sheaim is all jungle
Gaspar: thats my situation in PBEM14. Its diplomatically challenging, but it has its advantages
Kyan: my favourite type of map (excluding pbem12 )
Gaspar: lol
[COLOR="orange"]Kyan: although, without those lizards
i'd be bitching a lot
animals have allowed me to expand and hold[/COLOR]
Gaspar: yeah
the need to defend has slowed down my expansion. well that and the normal slow elvish start
Kyan: good luck!
Gaspar: alright, thanks. im sure well have more to talk about again.

I didn't edit that at all, so if I have a spoiler in there, alert me to it.

Here's the map Kyan gave me:

Legend:
yellow= desert
blue= inland sea
pink= hippus (paint doesnt have enough greens)

Fairly well confirms our suspicions.

Thoughts?

[Mardoc]

That is some impressive stuff, gents, though -5 points to Mardoc for not including a picture for an episodic post.

I'll get to it...the general theme of countering our enemies seems worthy of promoting to episodic stature, anyway . Just, um, gotta play my turns in PBEM 6, and 5, and 10, and the SoTS game, and I really should get some turns in on the FFH adventure outstanding...but one of these nights I'll be done fast enough to have time for banner-making

Thoughts?

Well, in no particular order:

• IF we can arrange it - and it would probably have to be us, no one else is likely to manage enough contacts - Kyan's in an excellent geographic position to be dogpiled
  
• He won't bother us 'with his lizardman' - I think that phrase was chosen carefully. Although he might keep animals outside our borders to maintain deniability, in which case I swing back to MBTM's camp and say finish the darn Elder Council. .
  
• Alternately, if we find a good way to counter Kyan's summon of choice, so we're not scared...it sounds like he'd gladly help us carve up either of our neighbors
  
• But be careful; I wouldn't be surprised if his fishing on 'who ya gonna kill' was intended to be passed on. Seems like you saw that same potential.
  

[NobleHelium]

Animals are Hidden Nationality. So, yeah. Watch out for [renamed] spiders in particular until we get a hawk. But we should finish the EC either way.

[Azoth]

The Balseraphs have a number of unique units and buildings that make them a scary proposition, especially in the late game. Harlequins, Taskmasters, Courtesans and especially Mimics all have their definite benefits, but are not especially overpowered.

Interestingly, chokepoints are our friends, if chosen properly. We can only kill one summon/turn/unit when we're attacking, but on the defense, we can kill as many as Kyan's willing to throw at us. The trick, of course, is to make sure we collateral them first, and ideally prevent him collateralling us. And to stack up sufficient bonuses that he can't break through - forts, cities, Treetop Defense adepts, good terrain. Add in some priests to heal the units quickly and we're in business. Fortunately, summons are so strong and tempting that he's not likely to have much collateral, figuring instead to just hit us with a million skeletons. [...] The best thing about the Balseraphs in this game, though, is that summon spam is such an obvious choice, they're almost certain to focus on it.

I am going to flag Harlequins as a potential threat. The Harlequin Taunt spell causes nearby units to attack the Harlequin's stack. This means we may not be able to rely on chokepoints; our units will leave their cities, forts, and Treetop defenses to attack an incoming stack. This is particularly bad news for our elves, because we'll likely be attacking into adjacent +50% defense Ancient Forests and +75% Ancient Forest hills. Of course, summon spam is so tempting that Kyan may never make it to Animal Handling and Harlequins...

This, however, is the crux of the matter. A summoning leader of the Balseraphs is in a very enviable position to mess with crazy stuff. Being able to keep two puppets alive at the same time means that Loki or an Adept can have inspiration running in two cities, giving a little boost to research.

Actually, with a good road network, Loki can Inspire three cities:
Turn 1: Loki casts Inspiration in City #1.
Turn 2: Loki steps outside, summons Puppet #1, and returns to City #1. Puppet #1 marches to City #2 and casts Inspiration.
Turn 3: Loki steps outside, summons Puppet #2, and returns to City #1. Puppet #1 marches to City #3 and casts Inspiration. Puppet #2 marches to City #2, recently vacated by Puppet #1.
Rinse and repeat.

And what can else you do with lots of summoned units? Kill them off deliberately! Summons can be sent into the Balseraphs’ Arena to do battle. Every battle adds a happy face for three turns and the timer stacks. That means that the 15 skeletons those five adepts generated can be swapped for 45 turns of happy, making the very pessimistic assumption that they ALL die. With a few turns of investment, you can basically up the happy cap in a city for the foreseeable future. Obviously, any successful skeletons can gain promotions in addition to the Combat1 they get from the Summoner trait.

I had no idea this was possible. Interesting.

When you start puppet spam with an archmage, things begin to get really silly. [...] None of these elementals are illusions, because the puppet promotion overrides Gibbon’s Illusionist – hence they can all kill.

This is why we must conspire to deny Gibbon to Kyan. (Hopefully, we can win before he gets to Archmages.)

I know we cannot afford too many diversions from our tech path, but extra religions are a very good deal for Spiritual leaders. Nox Noctis alone is worth the cost of Deception, never mind Gibbon denial.
(If that looks unlikely, we should really push the Hippus there.)

Beyond that, Kilmorph is an obvious pickup for the temples: +1 happy (+1 extra for Gems) and +2 gold for 40 hammers combines the benefits of Carnivals and Markets for less than half the price. I would even recommend Order: let other players reach for Smelting and Iron Working for +1 strength on select units; once we have Priesthood, we can pick up +1 strength on all units (even Tigers, I think.) Not to mention Bless does extra damage against Spectres and Pit Beasts. Remember, the religions technologies come at fraction of the cost of later technologies, such as Animal Handling, Sorcery, and Fanaticism. I say we skip one of the expensive late game techs but pick up every religion. (Naturally, we don't need to spread most of these religions to more than one city.)

Here's the map Kyan gave me:

Fairly well confirms our suspicions.

Thoughts?

If true, then we can probably trade with either the Elohim or the Grigori over coast. (I seem to remember our C&D department said that one of those players founded their capital on the coast.) When we send our Hunter west, we should clear path to their territory with Hawks. It would be worth our while to trade palace mana, especially the Elohim water.

[Gaspar]

T61:

Score increases: Balseraphs 19, Nicolae 6

Based on a 3-2 count (MBTM, Azoth, NobleHelium for, Me, Mardoc against) I switched back to the Elder Council in Hash Pipe.

And that's about the turn. I moved the workers at Hash Pipe to the tile 1E of the cow, where they'll start a cottage next to it, then switch over when AH comes in. Over at The Chronic, the workers stacked up to complete a cottage there. After this cottage, I'll have them start pre-improving some tiles at the new city site, since the capital is at happy cap and won't be able to work an additional tiles until WotF and/or Calendar comes in. Hence, seems most logical to get to work on a few tiles the new city will be working soon.

That's really it. Sadly, these are still largely mash enter turns. Another cottage turns into a hamlet next turn, that's news!

Here's the inside of Hash Pipe, since someone indicated they wanted to see it:


And here's demos: