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

[Bobchillingworth]

Haha, just got news from Sareln that he razed PB's southernmost settlements! Perfect, with the loss of Feiss PB will no longer of hawk coverage over my cities.

[DaveV]

: popcorn:

[Bobchillingworth]

Looking back at my screenshot, I wonder why I didn't just move all of my specters to cover Sareln's land & the approach into my core. Very... odd move on my part, since those spooks aren't doing anything useful just hanging out with the vamps. I guess my reasoning is/was that if PB does decide to try to raze Sareln's city or Maron, I'm guaranteed to grab several CA kills, and those towns are expendable.



Yeah it was :P

[Bobchillingworth]

All-in-all, it ended up being a fairly boring turn:






PB abandoned the city and I burnt it. He retreated his men to his mountain pass fort further in former Hippus lands, I should have pursued him by ending turn with my stack on the ruins of Feiss but I wanted to play it cautiously and wait until hawk support, so I went back into my territory at the end of turn.

Now that I have my own hawk (with a hunter completing at the end of turn 186), I can get back to the offense. I sent my "onerous" peace terms to PB, hopefully he replies before we actually get in a major fight and I risk losing more than just a scouting chariot. I really want to hit Selrahc now, since he suspects nothing and spy hawk coverage from Sareln reveals that he has paltry border defenses.

[Square Leg]

Update your thread Werewolf!

[Bobchillingworth]

NO IM A VAMPIRE



Sorry, as seems to be the case for a lot threads for these games, my lack of updates in indicative with my frustration with both how the game is going and my performance. There's not a lot of joy to be had in writing detailed reports on how the war effort has stagnated and my economy is a disaster.

PB is an immensely frustrating opponent to face. He lies, he ignores my communications while constantly probing for information, he outmaneuvers me both diplomatically and strategically, he makes brilliant use of Fabian tactics, and he's about a ten-thousand times better than the AI opponents who have consisted the sum of my experience with FFH outside of this game. If nothing else, he has certainly taught me some lessons in humility that A: don't overestimate your own strength, and B: being able to whoop deity AIs means nothing in FFH vs humans.


Anyway I'm starting to make mistakes tactically, and this game appears to be clearly lost for me, without either PB or Selrahc having a clear lead of their own to win. What I badly need to do is fight Selrahc while I still have most of my military and his defenses are low, but I can't do that with PB obviously unwilling to make peace. I have some military plans, I'll post them later should I actually seen an opportunity to make a move. My cities are all regrowing from the blight, but they aren't doing so nearly quickly enough to feast on them or even work mines to replace my losses.


Dave, if you want to take control over this mess, please let me know!

[DaveV]

PB ... makes brilliant use of Fabian tactics

I had to look this one up; my first thought was of the 1950s pop singer.

Dave, if you want to take control over this mess, please let me know!

Sorry, I'm pretty busy with work & personal stuff. I'm sure the turns are very time consuming right now, and I just don't have that time available. Don't lose heart: a war of attrition works a lot better for you than it did for Hannibal! Bear in mind that you can do a lot of damage by sending a stack of spectres on a pillaging mission (you can even delete them after pillaging).

[Bobchillingworth]

Okay, no problem, I'll slog through as best I can. PB finally sent back a reply to my peace proposal confessing what I've already known- that he's been out to get me the entire game. Didn't saw why but I think that's besides the point now.


Sadly Sareln reports that Selrahc has moved a large number of troops southward. Surely they are there because PB tipped him off that I was seeking peace and he would be next... the question is whether they're about to double-team me.

[Bobchillingworth]

Answer: Yes, they were / are about to double-team me. I may have been able to talk Selrahc out of it and into brokering a peace deal between me and PB.... or next turn may see the Mother of All Battles. I'll post a major update around then. Next turn may be delayed for a while, since Selrahc doesn't want to move until he receives a reply from PB, for reasons which will become clear once I update.



LURKER QUESTION: I should probably know this, but it's a combination that I just haven't used much- although the game warns you not to have both the Veil and the Order in the same city for lore reasons, is there any actual in-game [i]penalty[i] for doing so?

[DaveV]

A quick cut-and-paste from the game text file:

<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL</Tag>
<English>A riot has broken out between Order and Veil worshipers in %s2_city.</English>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL_1</Tag>
<English>Order the local militia to arrest the Veil rioters.</English>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL_1_HELP</Tag>
<English>[ICON_BULLET]50% chance to remove the Ashen Veil from the city[NEWLINE][ICON_BULLET]5 turns of [ICON_HAPPY] in Order cities[NEWLINE][ICON_BULLET]5 turns of [ICON_UNHAPPY] in Veil cities</English>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL_2</Tag>
<English>Order the local militia to arrest the Order rioters.</English>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL_2_HELP</Tag>
<English>[ICON_BULLET]50% chance to remove the Order from the city[NEWLINE][ICON_BULLET]5 turns of [ICON_HAPPY] in Veil cities[NEWLINE][ICON_BULLET]5 turns of [ICON_UNHAPPY] in Order cities</English>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL_3</Tag>
<English>Do nothing, let the people determine their own fate.</English>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL_3_HELP</Tag>
<English>[ICON_BULLET]25% chance to remove the Ashen Veil from the city[NEWLINE][ICON_BULLET]25% chance to remove the Order from the city[NEWLINE][ICON_BULLET]50% chance of -1 population</English>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL_4</Tag>
<English>Throw everyone into the Dungeon until they calm down.</English>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL_TEMPLE</Tag>
<English>Order worshipers in %s2_city threaten to burn down a Temple of the Veil.</English>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL_TEMPLE_1</Tag>
<English>Order the local militia to help burn down the temple</English>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL_TEMPLE_1_HELP</Tag>
<English>[ICON_BULLET]The Temple of the Veil will be destroyed[NEWLINE][ICON_BULLET]50% chance to remove the Ashen Veil religion from the city[NEWLINE][ICON_BULLET]5 turns of [ICON_HAPPY] in Order cities[NEWLINE][ICON_BULLET]5 turns of [ICON_UNHAPPY] in Veil cities</English>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL_TEMPLE_2</Tag>
<English>Do nothing, let the people determine their own fate.</English>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL_TEMPLE_2_HELP</Tag>
<English>[ICON_BULLET]50% chance the Temple of the Veil will be destroyed[NEWLINE][ICON_BULLET]50% chance of -1 population[NEWLINE][ICON_BULLET]50% chance to remove the Ashen Veil religion from the city</English>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL_TEMPLE_3</Tag>
<English>Send the local militia to protect the temple.</English>
<Tag>TXT_KEY_EVENT_ORDER_VS_VEIL_TEMPLE_3_HELP</Tag>
<English>[ICON_BULLET]5 turns of [ICON_HAPPY] in Veil cities[NEWLINE][ICON_BULLET]5 turns of [ICON_UNHAPPY] in Order cities</English>