January 12th, 2011, 13:53
Posts: 6,712
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Joined: Apr 2004
Bobchillingworth Wrote:More vampires complete every turn, but a couple production cities are stuck on infra builds for the moment- I need those veil temples for ritualists, and one city has to build a mage guild.
Yay - the vampires have almost caught up to bloodpets!
Bobchillingworth Wrote:I also need to regrow a couple cities- my score is actually falling due to all the feasting.
Why do you care about score? It looks like PB is driving down the AC a bit, but it will go rocketing back up if you start razing cities. You should use feasting and drafting for a dramatic decrease in city population when you go on the offensive.
Bobchillingworth Wrote:I have been scouting Feiss, or whatever PB's closest former Hippus settlement is called, every turn with a specter. I think PB has taken this as a sign that I'm going to strike there, and so he's stockpiling lots of CA- about ten in there now. Which is exactly what I want; if he groups them all together, then when I do attack, I can do a lot more damage to them all at once through collateral.
It looks like he's using his desertification strategy again - you should go through the grasslands and jungles in the north if you can (and use his roads against him!).
January 12th, 2011, 16:04
Bobchillingworth
Unregistered
I don't care about the score itself at all, but that it's falling rather than gradually increasing through natural population growth is indicative of overfeeding. If I eat my cities down too far, then my science suffers, my production suffers (fewer mines worked), and any other vampires I produce get diminishing returns from feasting, weakening them.
January 12th, 2011, 17:26
Posts: 6,712
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Joined: Apr 2004
Bobchillingworth Wrote:I don't care about the score itself at all, but that it's falling rather than gradually increasing through natural population growth is indicative of overfeeding. If I eat my cities down too far, then my science suffers, my production suffers (fewer mines worked), and any other vampires I produce get diminishing returns from feasting, weakening them.
... and if you get hit with +20 unhealth, they'll starve down to even lower populations than they have now, and you won't have anything to show for it.
January 12th, 2011, 20:09
Bobchillingworth
Unregistered
Yeah yeah, but the blight isn't coming yet. When it does, I will be able to deal with it immediately because I can draft and the drafted units may commence feeding the turn they appear. Until then though, not giving cities time to recover from constant feeding is just sloppy play.
Question for you, Dave- how many city Raider III units should I take in my main vamp stack, proportionally speaking? Every vampires gets mobility and death II; for most after that, I've gone for CII and Formation, or just nothing at all (as in, they have the exp but I haven't selected anything else yet). Formation for at least some is a necessity so that they don't get murdered in the field, but when it comes to taking cities I feel as though I should have some city raiders, especially in case PB purchases mercs (he has the Guild) or builds LB. I'm not sure how many to make, though.
January 13th, 2011, 05:05
Posts: 6,712
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Bobchillingworth Wrote:Question for you, Dave- how many city Raider III units should I take in my main vamp stack, proportionally speaking? Every vampires gets mobility and death II; for most after that, I've gone for CII and Formation, or just nothing at all (as in, they have the exp but I haven't selected anything else yet). Formation for at least some is a necessity so that they don't get murdered in the field, but when it comes to taking cities I feel as though I should have some city raiders, especially in case PB purchases mercs (he has the Guild) or builds LB. I'm not sure how many to make, though.
Only a few, I'd say, especially if you have some Ritualists for collateral. I'm a big fan of going straight up the combat line, since it's the most versatile promotion and it boosts the strength of your spectres. Once you've done a mass spectre suicide, your vampires should be able to finish off the wounded units even without city raider. A couple city raiders to take out the toughest defenders might make sense.
January 16th, 2011, 13:41
Bobchillingworth
Unregistered
Turns have been moving slowly lately. Anyway, just wanted to comment that my power has risen to about a specter shy of PB's as of turn 177 
I know that I've been talking a lot about crushing PB, but I am starting to wonder... now that my power is high enough that I don't think that I'm at much risk of being overrun anymore, is there any real reason why I shouldn't open up a secret dialogue with him, sign an NAP, and then wipe out Selrahc? PB got on my target list initially because he was close to Iskender, who I wanted to assist me in a joint assault- but Iskender is gone, and I'm just planning on razing the former Hippus cities now anyway, so I don't even have the excuse of fighting PB as a landgrab. Selrahc is so low in power, and gives no indication that he suspects anything... he's awfully tempting as a target.
January 16th, 2011, 15:13
Posts: 6,712
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Bobchillingworth Wrote:is there any real reason why I shouldn't open up a secret dialogue with [PB], sign an NAP, and then wipe out Selrahc?
With what goal? Are you planning to use his icy terrain to improve your chances in the inevitable faceoff against PB? Since Selrahc sounds unlikely to backstab you, I think you should proceed against PB. The profits from that attack (razing and pillaging) should put you firmly in the driver's seat.
January 16th, 2011, 15:22
Bobchillingworth
Unregistered
Idea behind attacking Selrahc is mostly that he would be easier, and I can actually keep some of his cities (the ones with tons of forests could go to Sareln, those without ice stay with me). I could of course pillage him as well. It would also give me a larger border from which I could strike at PB, and give Cull a more convenient target for his trebs. Also Selrahc will get considerably stronger the longer he's left alone, whereas I don't see PB getting much more powerful aside fromm adding some knights or something.
Anyway, just a thought. I'll probably send an email to PB the turn I declare offering him a peace deal heavily weighted in my favor, and if he accepts then it's on to Selrahc.
January 16th, 2011, 21:07
Bobchillingworth
Unregistered
Hmm, I post here about maybe attacking Selrahc, and the lurker thread gets about four new replies. Either it's people discussing whether that would indeed be a good move on my part (or why I haven't been targeting Selrahc to begin with), or laughing at my assertion that I'm probably safe from an attack at the moment. Maybe both PB and Selrahc are planning to attack me and everyone's going "my god, how little he knows!". Or laughing at me for thinking that my military is strong enough to take anyone on.
I'm guessing that the chatter mostly is something along the lines of "why doesn't he attack Selrahc", though.
Anyway, this has been idle metagaming with Bob! Lurkers are free as always to suggest random courses of action here... 
January 16th, 2011, 21:21
Posts: 12,510
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Bobchillingworth Wrote:Anyway, this has been idle metagaming with Bob! Lurkers are free as always to suggest random courses of action here...
Well, you could always assign each opponent a number, and every turn roll a die, and declare war on the opponent you roll while backing off from everyone else.
Or you could go find a DDR video, and use that as a guide for how to move your vamps, cycling through the vamps as the song cycles through. 
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