All these sims assume that Bob adds one axe to his present forces, and that he doesn't see us coming and promote them (that would make Mardero a lot tougher... right now he's only C3). They also assume that the Mercurians bring all available 2-movers, except possibly Basium (including that angel that killed the elephant).
Without Basium, it went like this:
Battle 1: Lost one angel, five axemen. Killed all units except Mardero, who was redlined. Kuriotates easily mop up.
Battle 2: Lose one angel, four axemen. Killed all but three infernal units, redlined. Kuriorates easily mop up.
Battle 3: Mercurians conquer the city. Lost the Valkyrie (temporarily), one angel, and three axemen.
Battle 4: Lost 2 angels, 2 crusaders, and ten axemen. Eleven defenders remain in the city, all redlined except for Mardero. The Kuriotates are just barely able to clean up, losing one centaur in the process.
Battle 5: Lost three angels, five axemen, and the Valkyrie (temporarily). Killed all but three units, redlined. Kuriotates easily mop up.
Here's how the battles went when Basium was available to help:
Battle 1: Lost one angel, two axemen. Conquered city, with Basium personally killing Hyborem.
Battle 2: Lost no units, take city. (Series of amazingly lucky battles, including an axemen taking out an unwounded Rosier.)
Battle 4: Lose 5 axemen. One redlined defender remains in city. Kuriotates easily mop up.
Battle 5: Lose 4 axemen, one angel. Mercurians conquer the city, with Valin killing Rosier personally.
So: Basium makes a difference, definitely. But probably not as much of a difference as the RNG's decision about how much damage Hyborem takes.
Of note: Chalid is almost completely superfluous. His Crown will only matter if the opponents have a decent amount of health left, which they almost certainly won't after being hit by the Mercurian stack. The one exception was the battle that went really badly: without Chalid we probably would have lost several centaurs to Mardero.
Note: extra style points are available for Basium killing Hyborem or Valin killing Rosier. But extra Valkyries may be available if we use angels to take out Bob's heroes, instead.
What happens when you include him promoting fully? Still a rout?
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
HidingKneel Wrote:Note: extra style points are available for Basium killing Hyborem or Valin killing Rosier. But extra Valkyries may be available if we use angels to take out Bob's heroes, instead.
With having never spent a turn as anything but Good, thwarting two plans for Armageddon, building every Empy and Order hero, and the first RB DRAGON...surely we have enough style points? We certainly need Valkyries more than we need a few more XP on our heroes.
Quote: Wait a sec... you know what I forgot to include in my sim? Mercurian paladins . Okay, this is going to be a rout, Basium or no Basium.
Yeah, I expect Str 14 units with +60% vs Demon might make a bit of a difference here .
Merovech Wrote:What happens when you include him promoting fully? Still a rout?
Honestly - it's going to depend almost entirely on the RNG for the Worldspell. It's possible for that to kill Mardero outright, or to barely scratch him. There's only so much we can predict.
edit: Well, and one more thing that might perhaps abort the plan - the tile inside Basium's borders that we need for the workers to be able to have a move left to road, has started accumulating Infernal culture. I don't *think* that Bob has much culture, but if he does manage to flip the tile, well, workers don't get commando. If that happens...well, we reevaluate.
Alright... ran the sim five more times, with the paladins included. Three times I captured the city with the Mercurians, without Basium's help.
Two times, things went badly. Both because I did something stupid, which we shouldn't do in the actual game:
1) Beasts of Agares are some of the strongest defenders, and paladins are some of our best breakers. But attacking a beast with a paladin is very risky.
I took one battle at 90% odds, lost, and suddenly there was a fully healed beast in the city, and nothing to break it with (strongest attackers had already moved).
2) With all those drill promotions, if Hyborem is lucky enough to survive mostly unscathed, our axemen will just bounce right off him. In that case, we need to throw stronger units at him first.
The lesson of both defeats, I think, is that we should keep paladins in reserve, to throw at Hyborem. (Rosier and Mardero are good targets too, but Hyborem is the one that can rack up the highest body count if we get unlucky.)
Mardoc Wrote:edit: Well, and one more thing that might perhaps abort the plan - the tile inside Basium's borders that we need for the workers to be able to have a move left to road, has started accumulating Infernal culture. I don't *think* that Bob has much culture, but if he does manage to flip the tile, well, workers don't get commando. If that happens...well, we reevaluate.
Ooh... good catch. Bob gets bonus culture from each city with AV in it. Which means all 6 of Bob's cities, one of Thoth's, +2 for the infernal palace. And a 20% bonus from his AV temple, bringing him to 10.8 culture per turn.
But: on the Mercurian turn, that tile says 50-50. On the Kuriotate turn afterwards, the tile says 51-48 in favor of the Mercurians. So I think we'll be okay.
Plako hasn't made a move yet, but he's got two archmages in that stack now, both promoted to Earth III. Which means my airship plan might not even get the job done: even with iron, nightmares, and bless, a centaur charger won't have odds on an archmage. (Chalid and Eurabatres might change the equation, but that's pretty risky.)
He can hit Amatheon's with 4 earth elementals next turn. So that wall, and magic resistance for Basium, sound like good ideas.
Also, Plako's now in a golden age. And Thoth converted to AV, and has Veil in 3 cities. Which means Cauldron Lake is now producing even more culture. That tile reads as 49% Mercurian this turn, but hasn't flipped yet. If we miss our window because I delayed us for Chalid (who likely won't contribute anyway), I'm going to feel foolish.
Options if that happens?
1) Could we possibly just flip it back next turn, with an acolyte produced in Kilmorph's this turn?
2) Have the Kuriotates tech festivals -> drama, so the Mercurians can run the culture slider up?
Also, I think I'll try offering peace to Ilios. Surely he's worried about Plako too, at this point. And well-positioned to do something about him. I'll bet there are all kinds of angles from which he can't defend, with all his units focused on us.
Another proposal for keeping Plako at bay. See that peak two tiles south of his archmage stack? We could put Eurabatres there. The only thing Plako would be able to hit him with are griffons. We can make Eurabatres a 4-mover right away, so he'll be a definite threat to any units Plako keeps near there.
Of course, by the time we get Eurabatres built and fly him up there, Amatheon's could be a cinder.
HidingKneel Wrote:Another proposal for keeping Plako at bay. See that peak two tiles south of his archmage stack? We could put Eurabatres there. The only thing Plako would be able to hit him with are griffons. We can make Eurabatres a 4-mover right away, so he'll be a definite threat to any units Plako keeps near there.
Of course, by the time we get Eurabatres built and fly him up there, Amatheon's could be a cinder.
I don't want to threaten plako. I want to kill his mages. Which requires pretty much the opposite strategy from threatening him.
I realized recently that he can hit Amatheon's from his current tile after all - move two squares south along the road, summon puppets, move back - meanwhile the puppets advance and attack.
. Okay, this is going to be a rout, Basium or no Basium.
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