The Orc Clan: Following the Princess Rule

[Ravus Sol]

Neither of them update their thread enough.. do you know what the deal is with them? Is Mr Yellow just flat out working for Mist? Why?

You know I can't actually recall when I convinced myself that Mr Yellow was Mist's vassal. Or I should say, I can't recall just one particular event. I can recall when I became certain of my suspicions.

Early on Mr Yellow showed his hand by not EVER contemplating aggressive action against Mist. Yet seeming to be getting nothing out of this agreement. Mist on the other hand was so on the ball diplomatically that he was angling around my end-game plan in our very first discussion.

I think I also attributed it to Mr Yellow's breaking of the alliance. It's obvious he blames me for it and there is no point trying to convince him otherwise. My own view on the matter is quite different. To me Mackoti was a threat but the first horseman only an annoyance. Yes I got greedy and anyone smart would have pegged it but I could have been confronted and a negotiation could have gotten trade concessions out of me.

The Horseman spawned in Mist's land, not Mr Yellows. Even to Mist this shouldn't have been a threat, just an annoyance that would de-rail plans. The outcome? Mr Yellow pulls all of his Horse Archers out of the alliance to go defend Mists lands. I think this when I became certain. I'm sure Mr Yellow doesn't view himself as a vassal but in my eyes his actions are always benefiting Mist more then himself. To me that's a vassal. Whether it's willing, coerced or manipulated.

[Ichabod]

Maybe Mist is supplying the Gold to pay for Mr. Yellow hordes with his shrine?

Anyway, just letting you know that I'm here and willing to take over when needed.

[Ravus Sol]

Jesus. I mean seriously JESUS.

I have obviously never played against humans before. Why? BECAUSE I SERIOUSLY UNDERESTIMATED THE ATTACK POTENTIAL OF CULTISTS

[Ravus Sol]

And now my internet posts without me clicking the post button and then kicks me off line.

Thank god for my paranoia making me cut everything before I ACTUALLY try posting myself.

Jesus. I mean seriously JESUS.

I have obviously never played against humans before. Why? BECAUSE I SERIOUSLY UNDERESTIMATED THE ATTACK POTENTIAL OF CULTISTS.

EDIT:
What the hell now my computer is posting things without clicking the post button?

Anyway. There 3 cultists within striking distance of White Mountain. I settled a ritualist there last turn thinking it's on a hill, it has walls, surely it won't need more then 3 defenders when the cultists are all down to 3 str through ring of fires.

No.

somehow three cultists with 3 strength are powerful enough to kill my defenders with no loses. That's. Well that's insane. In fact not just no loses. minimal damage as well. One got away with no damage at all. I feel like i've been kicked in the teeth. Why the hell am I going for a complicated Angel play when Cultists are THIS good? I'll post more later.

[Ichabod]

Did they use Tsunami to lower your defenders strenght? Tsunami can really be nasty.

[Tasunke]

3 Tsunamis + 3 regular attacks via cultists...

I can see it.

[Bobchillingworth]

Yeah, even a few tsunamis can bring all of a city's defenders down to like 10% health, at which point pretty much anything can kill them.

[Selrahc]

Tsunami has an 75% damage cap. It's brutal.

[Ravus Sol]

75% damage cap... *sigh* I really do feel I've made a sub-par play now. Even if i detour to get some cultists of my own after this it will take ages to get up the OO Infrastructure to spam the units I need.

An Army of Cultists, Edilon-Cultists and Stygian Guards would cake walk over every coastal city.

-

At the moment I'm just limping to Angels and their lovely Iron and War mongering. 6 turns to Fanaticism. Wish I could push the tech slider higher but my economy is once again in tatters due to being back in Runes and the Cultists destroying my improvements near the coast.

One is coming round from the east. I don't fear just one razing my cities but he will safely destroy all the mines and towns. Just need to hold out...

Still no sign of Mackoti Army. At this point I have to assume he isn't redeploying somewhere otherwise I would have seen hints of it with my hawks. Logically the thing for Mackoti to do would be to push into Amelia but I have no idea what deals they have. Thus once again I can't anticipate the future due to political blindness.

Mr Yellow sent the places he wanted cities. Thankfully no drama as he doesn't want a place I already have. But his map does show he hasn't spotted my western expansion.

Even with producing 4 Settlers for Yellow I can still produce 14 SoK's to rush the gate in time. Which really shows you how LITTLE it costs me to pump out Settlers.

It's really hard not to start counting my chickens before they hatch. I have nothing to do really until the Gate is built and it's tempting to plan out future attacks now. Of course Mr Yellow could stab, Mackoti could walk in with a giant Cultist army. (he doesn't have Fanaticism so no Stygian guards.)

I wish I could trust Mr Yellow to honour his NAP. I think he might as long as I do nothing. But I feel if Ichabod pushed the angels into war against Mist to get Angels take out the weakest player Mr Yellow would just NAP stab.

Mackoti and Sareln are fortresses, I don't know wether they plan to explode outwards or turtle up. Cracking them open will be hard. Sareln hasn't even used his panic button yet. Focusing on one just hands the game to the other. Them fighting themselves gives me time to make a comeback. Of course we all know that.

A part of me thinks we need to lure them to us. Even with the Angels in play we might be able to push the AC enough for them to worry? I think Razing Rune cities boosts the AC so Mist and Amelia are juicy targets. Mist by land and Amelia by sea. Need to look up the details of razing to push the AC. If you don't get much it wouldn't be worth it.

What you want is a Domino effect, weaken one of the big two enough for the second to try and get in on the war and then backstab that one. Unfortunatly neither of them would fall for that.

Sareln is keeping a large Priest army on my borders. If I could snipe that I could force him to use his panic button and weaken his army which would take longer to replenish then my own.

Mackoti has lots of water border cities which a Water strike force could go for. Alternativly I could go by land via Amelia. Fighting there would minimise Esus Shrine invisability. But if i pass peacefully through Amelia's land why would mackoti come out? If I attack Amelia would that draw Mackoti out? A part of me has been thinking that Mackoti needs Amelia's metamagic mana if he wants to turtle up and go for a tower victory. Don't think I spotted any unclaimed mana nodes in the north. Tower is the easist for everyone at the moment.

Except me. I have one mana node in the second biggest empire in the world

Anyway this is just a stream of thought as I can't really find the passion to update until the Angels appear. If I pull that off i'll do a summary of the whole empire.

Final thought: What the hell are those two horsemen doing? I havn't seen a event that says they died yet.

[Ravus Sol]

Okay so here is an old screenshot of White Mountains defeat. Poor city. I did some damage control afterwards.

At the end of the day this wasn't that big a tactical loss, but it was a morale one.