[SPOILERS]- Crazy Keelyn is trippin’ Balz: Bobchillingworth of the Balseraphs

[Hesmyrr]

Should I jump off the ship then? I understand your lack of motivation to update anymore, but for same reason I feel guilty about having to leave you (+DaveV) alone in this deadlock.

Edit: Thanks for prompt reply; well, I hope the game turns out the way you wish to be.

[Bobchillingworth]

Hey Hes- thanks for lurking so far =) Please feel free to read some of the other threads, it wouldn't be fair for me to expect you to remain unspoiled and then not provide you with any content.

[Bobchillingworth]

Kind of silly for me to post a new screencap in Kyan's thread but nothing here. Coombe falls next turn, and I razed a Clan city, so this turn represented both the height of my military, and probably the first and only time I'll have any real victory over the Clan. That seems worth reporting to me







The ruins of the Clan's island city. I landed a C IV, Shock warrior w/ the Orthus axe, a regular unpromoted warrior, and the swordsman pictured (upgraded from a freak) last turn- killed two defending warriors, but then the C IV warrior lost on the defense against an axe. Swordsman killed the axe this turn, and yay, I've managed to give the Clan the equivalent of a paper cut before they wipe me out =)


Btw Kyan, I dare you to get a freak this cool


Going to pillage every tile and then maybe raze those barb cities in Sareln's old land, just for the heck of it.

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At Coombe I had the best chance I think I'll ever get to hit the Clan's stack- a big stack of skeletons vs. Iskender and Tredje's units with no elementals covering (they were used to take out my top defenders). So I figured, what the heck, maybe I'll manage to kill something. The results:





All of my skeletons died, none of the enemy did. I even had used Dance of Blades first, heh. This is what I've been assuming would happen if I ever did attack, and why I have kept saying the situation is hopeless. I know that a great army of skeletons looks impressive on paper, but they really aren't, at least not against this sort of force. I didn't even get to fight any of the Sons. I think it would take about 200 skeletons to even get a shot at wiping out this stack, and since Tredje has Regeneration now, that's never going to happen.

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Well, I summoned some new skeletons:






Bringing my army to the greatest height it'll ever have:









Oh and before I forget, a couple neat things I've learned in carrying out my defense.


The first is that you can draft freaks. Even when I could have built swordsmen, it was having me draft freaks instead. Since freaks can upgrade to some versatile units cheaply (only 5 gold to become a swordsman), and get free mutated, this is a rather nice benefit. It also means that the Balz can settle cities, grow them to size 6 or whatever, draft a freak, and then use it to make a freak show which will offset drafting unhappiness and give the culture benefit- might be a nice trick for Perp.


The second is that if you have a mutated adept, any puppets they summon get mutated as well, and therefore be created with several random promos. This is potentially so powerful that I'd recommend mutating every balseraph adept as a matter of course- none of the bad mutations matter on puppets, and some like mobility and light can boost their already impressive range dramatically.

[Selrahc]

Congrats on taking down a city.

The first is that you can draft freaks. Even when I could have built swordsmen, it was having me draft freaks instead. Since freaks can upgrade to some versatile units cheaply (only 5 gold to become a swordsman), and get free mutated, this is a rather nice benefit. It also means that the Balz can settle cities, grow them to size 6 or whatever, draft a freak, and then use it to make a freak show which will offset drafting unhappiness and give the culture benefit- might be a nice trick for Perp.

Interesting. Didn't know that.

The second is that if you have a mutated adept, any puppets they summon get mutated as well, and therefore be created with several random promos. This is potentially so powerful that I'd recommend mutating every balseraph adept as a matter of course- none of the bad mutations matter on puppets, and some like mobility and light can boost their already impressive range dramatically.

This one I've noticed. I'm not sure it's all that useful.
You can't plan for it. If you have a dozen mages summoning puppets, maybe 2 or 3 will get a move enhancing mutation. Now potentially that means putting a few more defenders in a threatened city, or getting a few maelstroms to rake an incoming stack, so it's handy enough. But not really beyond a niche usage.

[Ravus Sol]

So do you have any other last second plans under your belt?

When corruption of spirit comes in will you use the plagued zombies to pass on the promotion to the enemy or anything like that?

You know you could use those ship units to on a epic quest for dungeons to try and pop something to help. Adventurer, Great Person for a Bulb into something? Or maybe try and rush his remaining cities? You might not actually do anything but it's something to perhaps make these turns more fun or annoy the hell out of the Orcs...

[Bobchillingworth]

Last-second plan is to crawl to Hyborem and try to raze as many cities as I can before I die, just for fun giggles.


But no, I don't have any realistic plans to actually survive now.



Yeah, I'm going to play pirate with my little fleet for the time being. Should have brought more units with them... oh well.

[spellman]

Yeah, I'm going to play pirate with my little fleet for the time being. Should have brought more units with them... oh well.

I once had a game of Risk 2210 where I was down to only a few territories and just went rogue nuclear death on everyone else. That was actually way more fun than winning.

[Commodore]

I once had a game of Risk 2210 where I was down to only a few territories and just went rogue nuclear death on everyone else. That was actually way more fun than winning.

Yeah, that's what my gaming group considers the standard turn five closing play. Armageddon: It's fun and gives a great tan.

[Bobchillingworth]

Mardoc made a rather serious tactical error this turn. He seperated one Son from the pack and decided to bombard Jubilee's defenses with fireballs rather than attack or have his elementals defend. That left the situation as follows:









Let's rumble!


60 or so skeletons go in first- the first 50-something of them die in a great blaze of red combat logs, but then the Horns of Win start playing. Next go in the living unit city defenders- occasionally they fight a Son and die, but several score kills. Then the puppets who will expire at the end of my turn move in- most again die against Sons, but still more kills.


End result: I killed five tigers, three warriors, one archer, one priest of the Leaves, one divided soul (plus hawk, I assume) and Iskender's body adept. If I had been able to attack with my adepts + remaining puppets I believe that I could have wiped the stack entirely. Most of the survivors are very close to death, but all of the Sons at least should have a promo now. Will be interesting to see how Mardoc responds. Iskender's guys might be doomed without their haste adept.


Summoned about 50 new skeletons for round two, then ended turn. I'm still screwed, etc. etc. but at least I've managed to kill some stuff on my way out =)

[Krill]

Jesus wept.

60 Skeletons?