[Spoilers] Cometh the Messiah - Varn Gosam and the Malakim

[Ilios]

While we wait yet again for Sunrise to play his turn, I've decided to toy around with some calculations re the barb city.

The city will probably be garissoned by two Orc Archers (2/4), and up to four Orc Warriors (3).

Do Barbs built in cities get free experience as on Immortal diff? (we're playing Emperor)

Let's assume they don't.

Tile bleed confirms the city is built on flatland.

Let's assume full fortification bonus.

Archer (4) + 25% (fort) + 25% (city defense bonus) = 6 effective strength.

Now for attack:

Top unit will be a C3 Kilmorph Priest:

Priest (5) + 60% (Combat 3) + 10% (shield of faith) = 8.5 effective strength.

If I'd have to guess, I'd say around 80-85% odds to win.

I really need to ask Cyneheard if I can borrow his odds calculator sheet one of these days...

But the Priest will not be the first to be sent in ofcourse, that honor will go to the Tigers!

All Priests of Leaves should be at least Combat 2, so that's Empower 2 for each Tiger.

Tiger (4) + 20% (Empower 2) + 10% (Shield of Faith) = 6.4 effective strength

Hmm, wow, even the Tigers would have odds against the Archers... (again, assuming no promotions on the barb units)

Barb Warrior?

Warrior (3) + 25% (Fortification Bonus) + 25% (City Defense Bonus) = 4.5 effective strength.

Again, good odds for the Tigers, which should allow me to mop up with the Priests afterwards.

Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that no-one takes the city before I do!

Hunting - 1t
Way of the Forest - 2t
Save gold - 2t
upgrade + move - 1t
move to city - 1-2t

So that's eight turns, or ETA T103-104...

[Mardoc]

Tiger (4) + 20% (Empower 2) + 10% (Shield of Faith) = 6.4 effective strength

I'm very confused by your arithmetic. Are you taking into account a factor I'm not seeing, or are you somehow multiplying 4*1.3 and coming out with something other than 5.2?

[Ilios]

I'm very confused by your arithmetic. Are you taking into account a factor I'm not seeing, or are you somehow multiplying 4*1.3 and coming out with something other than 5.2?

Haha, good spot Mardoc!

I was somehow giving a 0.8 Str increase per 10%, instead of 0.4...

So indeed, the effective Str of the Tiger will be 5.2, so still odds against a rookie barb warrior. (I think barbs on Emperor do get one promo now that I think of it)

[Ichabod]

They get 4 experience when build in a city, at least all the warriors I converted on PBEM IV had 4 xp. So, at least 1 promotion (most of them go combat 1, but I've seen drill 1 as the first promotion on barbs too).

[Square Leg]

I'm not sure about the archers as they are geneally created when the city is founded, but the warriors have been C1 whenever I have seen them on this difficulty.

What Ichabod says about them all having 4xp may be coded in somewhere.

[Ilios]

They get 4 experience when build in a city, at least all the warriors I converted on PBEM IV had 4 xp. So, at least 1 promotion (most of them go combat 1, but I've seen drill 1 as the first promotion on barbs too).

I'm not sure about the archers as they are geneally created when the city is founded, but the warriors have been C1 whenever I have seen them on this difficulty.

What Ichabod says about them all having 4xp may be coded in somewhere.

Allright, thanks guys.

So that means that most warriors will be:

Warrior (3) + 25% (Fortification Bonus) + 25% (City Defense Bonus) + 20% (Combat 1) = 5.1 effective strength.

Giving the slightest of odds to the Tigers. :hat:

I'll probably need to take the city in two turns though, because Combat 2 Priests will have less than 90% odds to kill an undamaged Warrior.

[Ilios]

T96:

It would seem I won't be taking that barb city right away:



Yes, 22 troops, I've counted them. Impressive huh?

More than 90K Power, and after a quick glance at the Demo's:



I'd say more than three quarters of Balseraph troops are moving in, which leads me to suspect Serdoa has a deal with the Calabim, or he wouldn't leave his other flanks so lightly defended.

So, now what?

I give you "Operation Kill the Klownz":



The Orange line is the expected path of the Balseraph troops. They should arrive on the grass hill tile on T98.

I've circled the plains hill I think is crucial to hold. If Serdoa breaks through here, his troops will be very difficult to dislodge because of all the defensive terrain.

So, I already have three Warriors fully fortified there, who will be joined by a Kilmorph Soldier (whom I'll promote to Guerrilla 1), and some more Warriors.
Now, this will not stop that monster stack (my Kingdom for collateral damage!), so I plan to call in some help.
If Serdoa moved inside Malakim lands next turn, I believe I'll have no choice but to fire my Worldspell. Religious Fervor will give me a 5 exp Kilmorph Priest in every city, who will be able to reach the rallying point by the time Balseraph troops reach their hill.
Together with the existing Priests, I'll have 7 Priests in total. All of them will be at least promoted to Combat 1/Shock.

Let's look back to what Serdoa is bringing:



I'd say he only has about 10 decent troops. There's two Combat 2/Shock Warriors, who are the only troops who will have very slight odds against my melee troops on the tile. Then you have the odd Mutated or Combat 1 Warrior. I think the 6/5 Warrior is Diseased (-20% Str?). And I think can spot a Warrior who got the Hero Promotion, which should give it an experience point every turn. No promo's yet though, and I can't see the blue glow, so Serdoa must have gotten it recently.

Let's look back at the tactical map:



After moving to the hill tile, Serdoa will have a number of options.

I'm hoping he either moves west or northwest, so I can move in with the Priests, kill his troops and move back out of range. Rinse and repeat.

Serdoa might choose to hit my hill though. My cheap melee troops will be hit first, because the Priests, like Mages, have a lowered chance of being the top unit for defense. Like I said before, only Serdoa's C2/Shock Warriors will have slight odds, so I expect to win a couple of those battles.

Then the Priests will be top defenders.

Most of the Priests will have a total bonus of 95% when fighting Serdoa's troops (Combat 1 (+20%) - Shock (+40%) - Hill (+25%) - Shield/Faith (+10%)). Or an effective Strength of 9.75.

Therefore, it is my belief that even if Serdoa hits with every unit, I should still keep the tile.

Keeping all those Warriors inside my borders will cost Serdoa an arm and a leg, even while running the Military State Civic.

The North:



The Soldiers of Kilmorph won't be able to reach the rallying point on time, but used some Workers to improve the road network, so they can be ready to hit the Balseraph stack from the north if there is an opportunity.

I considered keeping the circled Thane, but then decided I wanted to be sure all Priests would have 5 exp at least when firing my Worldspell, so he went off to convert Lugh.

Ending the turn gave me a pleasant surprise:



I've finished Hunting with enough overflow for me to finish Way of the Forest in a turn!

It would be really nice if the missionary could appear in Helios, but I'm afraid he'll pop in another city, delaying the Temple of Leaves by a turn (which I need to be able to convert the Lightbringers to Priests of Leaves).

Exciting, isn't it? :hat:

[pocketbeetle]

Nobody replied to the last post, so I thought I'd drop in.

And I think can spot a Warrior who got the Hero Promotion, which should give it an experience point every turn. No promo's yet though, and I can't see the blue glow, so Serdoa must have gotten it recently.

At first I thought you were getting mixed up between the Heroic Attack promotion and the Hero promotion, but you're right, there is one with the Hero promotion in that stack.
You can't get that from the Mutate spell...

Then you have the odd Mutated or Combat 1 Warrior. I think the 6/5 Warrior is Diseased (-20% Str?).

They're hard to see I know, but it looks like the 6/5 warrior is actually Withered, which is a nasty -20% heal, -10% str and -50% xp.
(Diseased is -30% btw)

Most of the Priests will have a total bonus of 95% when fighting Serdoa's troops (Combat 1 (+20%) - Shock (+40%) - Hill (+25%) - Shield/Faith (+10%)). Or an effective Strength of 9.75.

And while I'm on a roll, just pointing out that the Shock promotion is negative to an enemies' str as opposed to positive to your unit's.
Can make a difference, I tend to just think of it as cancelling out two Combat promotions on an enemy unit.

Exciting, isn't it? :hat:

Yes!

Credit where it's due, Serdoa is certainly giving you some respect.
Respect and the chance of a glorious religious war, what more can a true Malakim ask for? =)

[Maksim]

Respect and the chance of a glorious religious war, what more can a true Malakim ask for? =)

A source of collateral damage? :neenernee

[Ilios]

Thanks for the comments guys, especially Maksim's, heartwarming, really!

I apologise for the lack of updates, been a very busy couple of days...

I now understand the lack of posts in my thread the past couple of turns, as everyone holds their breath, waiting for the drama to unfold!

About the Heroic Warrior, Serdoa must have gotten the event ages ago, because he managed to promote that guy combat 5, Heroic Str 2 and Heroic Defense 2. Nine promotions, which needs more than 82 xp!

Last turn, I decided this guy had to go, because he could have easily picked off every unit of mine while fortifying his other troops in the stack on the hill. I had to sacrifice a C2/Shock Priest to kill him, but I think it was worth it.

That turn I also spotted a small Calabim stack (one Moroi, two Dwarven Axes, 5 warriors) moving into position. Well, looks like this is turning into a dogpile...

Sciz told about a Doviello stack moving west through his land. I can only hope this is just a pillaging party, and isn't another player about to hit me...

Anyway, when I opened the save, the Calabim had declared war, sure enough. Not even an official declaration of war, nice guys...

Serdoa didn't move his stack, and is probably waiting for the Calabim unit to join him before moving on.

The top units in Serdoa's stack were now two C2/Shock Warriors. I sent in the Priests, and got pretty unlucky with the first, but he did damage the Warrior to about 0.4 str, which should take him forever to heal, even if he can healpromote it.

The other Priests took out the top units in the stack, not taking too much damage. So equal hammer exchange, but I came out on top, because all Priests are now up for their third promotion, and some are close to their fourth. =)

Here's a pic:



As you can see, I moved six Workers to the hill, and built a Fort, for an extra 10% Defense bonus. Next turn, they will get rid of the forests to the south of the river, to deny the enemy stack coverage should they want to threaten the capital or try to cut of my source of copper.

The Capital has been converted to Way of the Forest, and will finish a Temple at the end of the turn. I've got three Lightbringers ready to be upgraded, and the cash to pay for it. Those Priest will basically give me throwaway troops everyturn (Tiger summon), which will balance the odds a bit against that monster stack.

I'm not quite sure what I'll do next. I could keep research at zero and spam Lightbringers, upgrading them to Priests. Would it be worth it building a Siege Workshop for collateral damage? Something to ponder. I'd like to get Sanitation and Warfare, and then make a massive Civics switch to God King/Religion/Apprenticeship/Conquest, for double promo Priests and a Capital that could probably churn out a Priest a turn.

We'll see...