[SPOILERS] - Tredje and Mardoc are Sheelba of the Clan of Embers

[Selrahc]

The picture used for Mahala started out as "Barbarian Male 2" in a Baldur's Gate game, so you aren't off base for thinking of her as a male based on the evidence of the pic. She is intended to be female though.

[Katon]

The picture used for Mahala started out as "Barbarian Male 2" in a Baldur's Gate game, so you aren't off base for thinking of her as a male based on the evidence of the pic. She is intended to be female though.

Really? I'd noticed some of the music was from other games (Heroes of Might & Magic 4 has a few tracks in there), but I don't think I'd caught a leader portrait before.

[Mardoc]

Hi guys. Sorry for not updating for the last couple of days. After participating in this game and a PBEM before that I have realized that my interest in a game tends to decline after a while. Hopefully the action we are about to experience will refuel my fire.

Hopefully. At least it'll be something worth talking about .

Four Warriors, an Adept and a bunch of Puppets. For a second I consider moving my stack one tile closer so that I can attack the city next turn. However, would Bob be that careless? He has Haste and could have a big force waiting just outside of view. His power rating is much higher than ours. I decide to wait. This turn I will kill the four Warriors in Coombe View and stay in place. I will feel much safer once Iskender arrives with his six PoL and Tigers (on T123.) And it will be really beneficial for us to have his Hunter scouting the area behind Coombe View.

To be honest I am a bit uncertain how to conduct this war since I have never fought against a human-controlled Keelyn with tons of Puppets. If he decides to put only Puppets in Coombe View I could approach it under cover of Fire Elementals. He shouldn't be able to touch the stack if I do, but it is still risky since I don't know how many units he can bring to a fight outside the city. The most prudent thing to do is probably just to wait for Iskender so that we can move in together. Any thoughts on this?

Hmm. Lots of thoughts, some mutually contradictory .

The first thing I notice, looking at DaveV's excellent power compendium, is that a puppet is worth 4K power, itself. An adept is worth 6K. So just the 8 puppets we see and the adepts responsible for them are 56K power. Add in a minimal garrison for each of his 7 other cities of one warrior, that's another 21K. I'm not sure how much of his 300ishK power we can attribute to techs and population, but call it 50-100K. That only leaves maybe 100K of power left for a strike force waiting in ambush - and if it's more puppets/adepts, they're not to be feared anyway. I think that's a risk worth taking, mostly because we know he's going for Gibbon (well, assuming he told Iskender the truth), and Gibbon himself can equal our forces, given enough time. Meanwhile, our stack has a lot of promotions, copper weapons; it's going to take something massive to crack it.

You can also see that CoL will finish this turn, which is earlier than expected. I will revolt immediately of course, and probably spend a couple of turns hoarding gold for possible unit upgrades and such. After CoL I think I will get Festivals and then head for KotE. As always I value your input on this.

Well, looking at the save, we have actually pretty high happiness caps everywhere but the capital, due to our recently acquired resources. And Aristocracy will have the unfortunate side effect of shinking our food surpluses. I think I would put off Festivals until that's closer, and instead go straight for KoTE. Mysticism will help with our econ anyway as you build Elder Councils; if we ever want adepts to be of any use, we'll need them trained ASAP. (although they can be useful for Haste now, I suppose). Well, ok, really I would go Mysticism, then reevaluate; it's equally good as Festivals for our economy, costs about the same, and opens up options.

[Tredje]

Turn 121:

I summon a Fire Elemental and take a look at Coombe View:

The city is guarded by one Adept and lots of Puppets/Skeletons. Iskender's Hawk has spotted one Adept + 2 Skeletons + 2 Puppets just outside the city. It could be that he has more units further east, but I decide to take a risk and move my stack next to the city. One Fire Elemental kills the Adept in Coombe View (who unfortunately for Bob was first defender.) The two remaining Fire Elementals do nothing, they will protect the stack.

I am gambling that even if he has a force that can hit my stack, he will be unable to do any real damage. Three Str.15 Elementals are guarding it, and they should be able to handle plenty of Skeletons. But perhaps he has something planned, it will be interesting to see. If my stack survives unscathed I can hit Coombe View on the next turn with four Elementals and my entire stack. Even if I won't have enough numbers to capture the city, I should gain a lot of xp (my current aim is to get one of our Sons to 65 xp for the Regeneration spell. I really should have taken that one earlier.)

I won't be able to switch to Aristocracy until next turn due to a recent revolt. Who would have thought we would be teching too fast for our bureaucracy to keep up?

Thanks for the input Mardoc. I decided to do as you suggested and go for Mysticism first. Your thoughts on Bob's military force was also a factor in me deciding to start the siege of Coombe View this turn instead of waiting four more turns for Iskender to show up. Let's hope it pays off!

[Selrahc]

One Fire Elemental kills the Adept in Coombe View (who unfortunately for Bob was first defender.)

Wow. What? An injured, combat 0, channelling 1 adept, defends ahead of combat 1 skeletons. Um. I don't understand.

[Mardoc]

One Fire Elemental kills the Adept in Coombe View (who unfortunately for Bob was first defender.

Ooh, excellent! That's two fewer Puppets and 4 fewer Skeletons he can support!

Although...one thing of note is that he can only replace one Puppet/turn, and the puppets can only replace one skeleton/turn. If you get to a point where you're killing puppets or adepts, we're winning the attrition. If you don't, well, at least we're gaining XP and he's not.

I am gambling that even if he has a force that can hit my stack, he will be unable to do any real damage. Three Str.15 Elementals are guarding it, and they should be able to handle plenty of Skeletons. But perhaps he has something planned, it will be interesting to see. If my stack survives unscathed I can hit Coombe View on the next turn with four Elementals and my entire stack. Even if I won't have enough numbers to capture the city, I should gain a lot of xp (my current aim is to get one of our Sons to 65 xp for the Regeneration spell. I really should have taken that one earlier.)

Yes, it is a risk. I think it's one you can afford, but there's no question it's a risk. I suppose we'll know next turn if it works, or if he was suckering us in all this time.

An FYI - Skeletons are worth 3K power apiece. So 1 adept + 2 puppets + 4 Skeletons adds up to 28K power in the graph. I'm a little surprised we only saw skeletons this round, and only 4 of them, actually. He must have just now acquired Death mana from Serdoa.

I won't be able to switch to Aristocracy until next turn due to a recent revolt. Who would have thought we would be teching too fast for our bureaucracy to keep up?

Thanks for the input Mardoc. I decided to do as you suggested and go for Mysticism first. Your thoughts on Bob's military force was also a factor in me deciding to start the siege of Coombe View this turn instead of waiting four more turns for Iskender to show up. Let's hope it pays off!

Dang! I guess having lots and lots of cities really can outweigh having quality researchers .

And I really hope that in the next 4 turns, you can put a serious dent in Bob's research rate and adept production rate, by taking a city or two . Perhaps if Iskender knows just how easy XP farming will be in this war (apparently), he'll commit more forces, too.

[Tredje]

Wow. What? An injured, combat 0, channelling 1 adept, defends ahead of combat 1 skeletons. Um. I don't understand.

Me neither. I tried mousing over the city with my Axeman/Warriors and then the Skeletons would defend. But against the Fire Elemental it was the Adept. I cannot explain why that was.

[Krill]

Elementals do not take death damage: skeles are therefore S2. An Adept is S3.

[Mardoc]

Elementals do not take death damage: skeles are therefore S2. An Adept is S3.

Well - in that case, Bob's problems got a lot harder . Either he puts adepts where he wants to defend, and we kill them, or he keeps them away but near enough for a puppet to reach where he wants, and then we just have to find them to kill them. Certainly adepts should defend ahead of puppets, with their higher base strength and same channelling promos.

[Tredje]

Turn 122:

A look at Coombe View:

There are now 14 Skeletons and 14 Puppets in the city. You can also see that Bob has an Entropy Puppet that has begun rusting our Bronze Weapons. What do I decide to do? Attack. I figured I could kill all the Skeletons and maybe a few Puppets. And if I just sit outside the city all our Bronze Weapons will be Rusted (which will happen sooner or later anyway.) And I really want to get some xp on my Sons to enable Regeneration. Furthermore if all his Skeletons are killed he can't hit my stack on his following turn. I also realize that to win this war I will need more troops.

I kill all the Skeletons except one and two Puppets and lose one Warrior (at about 90%.) My Son now has 64/65 xp and will get Regeneration. As I am writing this I just realize that I have lent Iskender my Body Mana. Cough... That wasn't very clever. Is it possible to cancel the deal on the next turn? It should be 5 turns since I offered it. I can then reoffer it to him after upgrading my Son.

And now, some comic relief:

It appears that Barnaxus has had a minor accident outside the barb city. Poor guy really doesn't catch a break in these PBEMs!