[Spoilers] Biggus Decius and the Sucking Vampires (Bobchillingworth / Calabim)

[Bobchillingworth]

Hmm, it occurs to me that PB might simply pile several more CA into the city. Should that happen, I'll get my two ritualists back into Acaia (it was on my part to move them out in the first place), and cash rush a third to completion. Then I'll attack on turn 184 or 185 and use three rings of fire to soften everything up before sending in the specters.

[DaveV]

Busy weekend, quick reply:

How is the Blight unhealth going?

Spectres are the ideal suicide troops; even trading vamps 1-for-1 for CAs is very much in your favor at this point. Be careful not to lose a bunch of units, though. Keep careful track of Hemah - he can kill an army with enough backup. Build your own hawks ASAP - intelligence is priceless. PB still has a big edge in mobility, and speed kills. Keep track of where his stacks can move, in case he decides to go on the offensive.

PB has played a very smart game so far, and must have a plan beyond "let Bob gobble up my cities". If Darrell built an island with lots of mana and unique features, PB is probably camped there already. Maybe he's planning to move his empire there as his mainland cities are eliminated?

Be aware that each settlement you raze will slightly increase the strength of units producted in the AV holy city (because of stigmata). They already have a 32% bonus, which is substantial.

[Bobchillingworth]

Have you heard the story of how, upon having received news that one of his generals lost three legions in the German forests, Augustus Caesar wandered the halls of his palace in a daze crying "Quinctilius, give me back my legions!" ?




Well, replace Quinctilius with "Cull" and legions with "turn", and you'll have a pretty good idea of how I feel right now. Where is my save ;____;

[Mist]

Ever get a feeling you *should* have refused the vassalisation offer and just stomped him to the ground when there was a chance?

[Bobchillingworth]

Yeah, like every other turn. Timing wouldn't have worked out anyway, though- by the time I would have had enough vampires, PB was already on my border.

[Bobchillingworth]

Finally got the turn from Cull, aaaaand I'm not going to make a move this turn :P



Here's why:







PB moved what I think I can reasonably assume to be the vast majority of his military into Feiss to defend. Sending my guys in this turn without ritualist support would have just been asking for trouble. I now have three ritualists ready to move next turn (sadly none have 2 exp), and I added three more vamps to my forces in the city, bringing the total to 30.


The new plan is to next turn move all the vamps to the same forest tile as before, and this time the ritualists too (I'll need to use a haste cast to get them there). I'll also move three of my royal guard to cover. Once on that tile, everyone who can will summon specters, which I *think* the best of course of action is to throw against the city, to weaken the garrison as much as possible to make it a little bit more difficult for PB to counter-attack on his turn. He then has essentially three options- he can stay in the city and then next the following turn get wiped out by three rings of fire, specters, and the vamps, he can attack me and have to chew through three royal guards and a large number of formation vamps in a forest, or he can abandon the city and I'll raze it with a single specter.


I have studied that screen shot and I am almost certain that PB cannot hit any of my cities with that giant stack after I move, even with Sprint. The only one that could be in danger is Acaia if he has engineering. He could also attack one with a sprinted mobility unit, thankfully most of his guys have already used up most of their promos, I think. If I'm missing something here about how he could attack me once I move the vamps in for the kill but after I'm on the forest, please someone, anyone let me know. I think this falls under the purview of "game mechanics", and I've seen plenty of players ask lurkers for worse. I could also guarantee Acaia's safety by leaving a large number of summoned specters behind to defend the town, but that means I won't be able to throw many against Feiss to weaken a counter attack.


So no action from this turn, but I promise you guys that something will happen in the next two =)



Unless Dave objects to my plan, anyway. Dave, if you see any flaws or want me to change course, please let me know and I will probably pretty much do whatever you say, mostly

[Bobchillingworth]

How is the Blight unhealth going?

Forgot to answer this. It's going pretty well, actually. Gave me an excuse to draft a ton and get some needed feeding in, and only about three turns into the blight none of my cities are starving any more, and most if not all are growing back already. About half of my cities are now on granary / smokehouse / herbalist builds; the population loss means that few mines are being worked, so it makes more sense to me to invest in some infra instead of slowly adding a few extra troops to my already massive military. Cities seem to have lost on average about 6 population, which I can regrow easily with my farms and 3X food storage buildings.


Triggering the blight was kind of dumb on PB's part, honestly. I think he built the AV shrine mostly in anticipation of me spreading the Veil to all of my cities- except I have no intention of doing anything of the sort. I only need it in my top production cities for the ritualists, and three of them already have it.

[DaveV]

I have studied that screen shot and I am almost certain that PB cannot hit any of my cities with that giant stack after I move, even with Sprint. The only one that could be in danger is Acaia if he has engineering. He could also attack one with a sprinted mobility unit, thankfully most of his guys have already used up most of their promos, I think. If I'm missing something here about how he could attack me once I move the vamps in for the kill but after I'm on the forest, please someone, anyone let me know. I think this falls under the purview of "game mechanics", and I've seen plenty of players ask lurkers for worse. I could also guarantee Acaia's safety by leaving a large number of summoned specters behind to defend the town, but that means I won't be able to throw many against Feiss to weaken a counter attack.

It also looks like he can jump onto Sareln's road on the cow tile and hit Maron or even your capital . Do you know exactly where Hemah is? Beware of exposing a stack to Snowfall.

When you build your hawks, keep an eye out for an amphibious attack on your eastern coast. PB probably picked OO for more than just Hemah.

[Bobchillingworth]

Dang, totally missed that Saren had built a road there. Grr.


Okay, I still haven't gotten the turn yet, but it does look from my own screen shot like PB could indeed hit Maron, but probably not the capital. If he did, I could some revenge kills on his CA stuck in my territory- they'd be in vamp range, I believe. That might be worth it. Another option is that I could just leave a pile of specters equivalent to the number of raiders units he has in Feiss on the tile 1N of the cow. I think that would cut off his ability to hit me on his turn. That does mean that I can't try to weaken him with many specters, but perhaps I'd just be throwing him exp if I attacked him with just specters this turn anyway, since I get only about 2 specters per CA.


About Hemah, my main fear is that PB will have Hemah positioned just out of view, and he'll be able to hit me with snowfall once I'm on that forest tile. I believe that I'm safe; he would need at least mobility on Hemah depending on where he built him to get him to the city in time, and I don't know if Hemah has even been around long enough yet to accrue the 10 exp needed for snowfall + mobility. I don't think that PB can haste him, since PB lacks body mana last I checked. Sareln also reported that there was no Hemah in sight as of last night's turn, although it is possible for PB to have moved him in since then. I know for certain that PB will get him in place if I wait for too much longer though, so holding off until I get my own hawks is too risky I think. Gotta take a chance sometime!

[Bobchillingworth]

Next turn should be interesting!






Made my move this turn. 10 Specters block PB's access to the cow tile, making it difficult for him to get enough units into my land to raze Maron, and (I think) impossible to take Prespur. I left enough units in Morr to keep him from taking that city as well, even if he wins every combat round. If PB attacks me, I have promoted a large number of vampires to Formation. I also have the three Guard on the defense. Chariot scouts have revealed that PB does not have Hemah anywhere near the city to reinforce, and no surprises on the way.


I think PB will just wipe out some of those specters and a chariot, and then turn tail and run back to his fort for protection. Sareln may be able to raze a couple settlements on his own this turn which PB left empty to reinforce Feiss, so even if PB runs he hopefully will lose three settlements. I'm also starting to work on assembling a small stack to send north to take his settlement near Sareln, which has only a minimal garrison now. Of course if PB stays put for some bizarre reason, then I'll utterly slaughter him.