[SPOILERS] PB1- Mardoc buys a can of paint for Thoth and Ellimist

[Mardoc]

Cab held units cast spells?

No.

But...Blinding Light has a 30% base resist chance. Hero gives another +20% resist. There may be other factors, but that's already likely that either Gibbon or one of his puppets resists. It'd be different if we had half a dozen casters with which to keep repeating until they all succumb.

[Thoth]

Huh. I do see a reasonable alternative to striking now. That is, to retreat once more, let them have Napa but not our army. Next turn, our Vicar and Radiant Guard both can be in range of their stack, if it stays put or advances. It would be even more effective to attack with the catapults brought along, and with our first set of Vamps/spectres.

Only trouble is, I don't quite see where to stage. If we empty Napa, they can probably hit our stack after taking it. And if we leave behind enough troops to force them to use snowfall again, then I'm not sure we have the hitters needed to finish them the turn after. And Blinding Light, though good, does have a resist chance - all they'd need is one of Gibbon or his puppets to resist (and survive), and they could nuke us again. Gonna need some thought.

I'm looking at the two MG/Warrior stack that they need to complete the road to Dunkirk t122. We can kill all three and prevent the road to Dunkirk from completing. That means we hold Napa for t122. T123 we'll have a RG and a Vicar available to do their thing. Plus 4 Vamps with more incoming.


In the Westlands, I'd like to complete the road to the Pig and then hit the Fawn/worker stack. We'll lose a chariot maybe two, but we can capture the workers and leave them uncovered as bait. There are 3 Centaurs in Wind Drake and they have no way of bringing more troops to the city. We should be able to burn it t123, especially if they recapture the workers. If they leave the workers and manage to get enough troops into WD, then we take our new workers and GTFO.

[Mardoc]

I'm looking at the two MG/Warrior stack that they need to complete the road to Dunkirk t122. We can kill all three and prevent the road to Dunkirk from completing.

Yes, we can. But..

That means we hold Napa for t122.

I don't see how that follows. Probably need to discuss while we're in the game, though, to point out movement paths and options. But it seems to me that we can't hold Napa, whether or not they get a road built.

In the Westlands, I'd like to complete the road to the Pig and then hit the Fawn/worker stack. We'll lose a chariot maybe two, but we can capture the workers and leave them uncovered as bait. There are 3 Centaurs in Wind Drake and they have no way of bringing more troops to the city. We should be able to burn it t123, especially if they recapture the workers. If they leave the workers and manage to get enough troops into WD, then we take our new workers and GTFO.

This part makes sense. If we don't need to evacuate the troops toward the Clowns, that is .

[Thoth]

I don't see how that follows. Probably need to discuss while we're in the game, though, to point out movement paths and options. But it seems to me that we can't hold Napa, whether or not they get a road built.

Agreed we want more than one set of eyes looking at things. AFAIKT, they can't attack Napa with enough bodies t122 without a road into Napa at the very least. Remember, Dunkirk is on a hill so non-Gnome units pay 2 movement points to enter the city.

At any rate.....I'm home now, so whenever you get a chance we'll see what mischief we can get up to ingame.

[Mardoc]

Hmm, I think I see your point. Even though they can Snowfall us, they don't have enough hitters currently present. Assuming your count is right, which I still want to confirm.

I worry that they can make our stack worthless by Snowfall even if they can't kill it, but I suppose we can expect a lot of healing even if they do hit it, as long as we leave it in place.

At any rate.....I'm home now, so whenever you get a chance we'll see what mischief we can get up to ingame.

Still have 30 minutes of work, then a 30-40min commute, and I need to figure out something for dinner. Feel free to revolt the Orcs, though, and take the shot on the Fawns - I'm certain I agree with that one. Jokes aside, I don't think 4 chariots can possibly make the difference on the Clown front, either Blinding Light and Vamps and Vicars save us, or they don't. And team Wiz reinforced the Malakim cities too much for my taste, better to go for that Kurio one.

[Thoth]

Can't revolt the Orcs until the Elohim end turn and tech Cartography. And the Calabim should end turn and tech MFTD before the Elohim just in case the Zealot spawns outside of Calabimia.

We have a Vampire with a promotion available, in position to move into Napa. I'd like to promote it to Body II and Regenerate our Napa stack.

I'm going to jump in as the Orcs (they've still got some hasting to do in addition to combat duties)


And before I forget again....Plako/DaveV got AL last turn and the Crown was also built last turn. The Gnomes showed a 60 point increase (roughly) last turn, the Illians and Gnomes 30ish. Figure a few points for pop growth ect and 30 points for AL.

Is 30 points enough for just the ToD? or is that ToD + Crown? I suspect the latter, which could be a pain if they equip Gibbon with it and the promo gets passed to puppets.

[Mardoc]

We ended up standing pat in Napa, with the mud golem killing to buy time...I think. Here's hoping, very hard, that that was a correct decision, and we're not overlooking something important. Because we're in the stage of the game where one mistake will probably determine the winner, and we badly need that mistake to be theirs, not ours. Already have one possible candidate - not being paranoid enough about Vicars and depending too much on their Illusionary Djinni.

It looks like they can Snowfall us for sure, and probably hit us with at least 6 Spectres, but not much else can reach us this turn. Well, if they want to attack with Gibbon and Mages directly, they could do that, I guess. If neither me nor Thoth miscounted, though, the most they can do is Snowfall and try to kill the units who take the least damage, and I would guess they don't have very good odds for that, given the size of our stack, variability of collateral amount, and Napa being on a hill with culture. Our stack is Regenerated, in a city, with a Stonewarden, so we can expect each unit to heal up to 45 HP of damage, so it should be pretty much intact for next turn. Honestly, given that, I would expect to see one Snowfall, perhaps a handful of Spectres tossed at us for attrition, and otherwise them consolidating their stack and keeping at least 2 Djinni around.

Next turn should be big. Possibly the biggest of the game, as the Clown strategy of Snowfall and puppets galore meets head on with our strategy of econ first, and swamp them with hammers.

I see three options. Number 1, they have something we didn't notice. Our stack takes mortal wounds IBT as a prelude to our destruction.

Number 2, they have only what we see, and they misinterpret our position, most likely forgetting that Vicars can destroy Illusions. In which case...expect huge amounts of casualties, as we hit them with everything we've got (well over 50 units, including a lot of catapults and the potential for Blitzing Moroi). In addition we'll Blinding Light them, to hopefully give ourselves two turns to get the killing done (with Regen and a Stonewarden still for a minimum of 30hp healed/turn, remember ).

Number 3, they realize their danger, back off, and stalemate resumes along the original front. In which case, we'll resume building up both here and on the flanks, and try to do unto them as we did unto the Malakim.

Speaking of the Malakim... we killed the Malakim Fawns and left the workers dangling in the open in hopes that they use a centaur or two from Wind Drake, rather than forcing us to fight in the city. We split and advanced the stack so that Wind Drake (the Kurio city) ought to die next turn barring a miracle. Then we'll pillage their villages to nothing, and withdraw.

Looking at the graphs, the Malakim have lost about a third of their food, GNP, and hammer production over the past few turns. I don't think two cities burning would hurt them that much, especially when the first one was size 3...best guess is that we set off a major whip/draft spree. Excellent payoff for a relatively small stack! True, they're still alive and still a major threat, but that increase in our relative production potential ought to really help. I look forward, as well, to having some Iron Ogres on the front lines to soak their fireballs, instead of just a huge stack of odds and ends.

Tech wise, we went ahead and picked up Message from the Deep, spawning our Zealot in Riesling. He'll head directly for Clan lands, and in 10 turns we'll have a handful of Cultists on the front. Which front? Depends on how the wars go, but some Tsunamis ought to help break something loose. We also grabbed Cartography, and revolted the Clan into City States. We lost about 50 gpt in the process, but gained a whole bunch of food production. The Clan gained 25 gpt upon ending turn, due to growth and cottage growth, so the lost gold should be made up very soon. Next up is Iron Working - Ogres drafting is likely to be a good use of all that food - either that, or paving over the farms with more cottages and some workshops. Iron Working is currently due in 2 turns; it's possible but not likely that we can get it in one and a half. After that - I don't remember what we agreed. I think it was to head for Engineering next, to have 3-move roads and hopefully a Guild of Hammers as well.

So, to summarize? Interesting times. Here's hoping that Team Clown and Team Wizard play fast enough that we can get the critical turn done over the weekend. You lurkers might even get pictures if that happens .

[Thoth]

Had a look in game....We held Napa


but at a steep price.

Double Snowfall meant lots of dead bodies for the forces of Evil.

We'll be able to Reveal the Illusions and Blind the nearby summons t123, so we may be able to hold Napa for another turn with some summons support of our own.


And the Gnomes built Hemah.

[Mardoc]

Double Snowfall meant lots of dead bodies for the forces of Evil.

9 Moroi, 2 Bloodpets, our Hero chariot, a griffon, and our Radiant Guard died. In retrospect, we were a bit overconfident, they got about a third of our stack. Didn't think they'd attack with Puppets.

We'll be able to Reveal the Illusions and Blind the nearby summons t123, so we may be able to hold Napa for another turn with some summons support of our own.

I don't think we really can. Their only hitters were a puppets and spectres, and they've a lot more of both now, plus a lot of skeletons. And we lost the RG .

But...

Do we want to? I submit this stack for your consideration:

That's 5 chariots, 12 skeletons, Gibbon, a warrior, 11 mages, and 8 adepts. And 11 Puppets, but they barely count. Total of 38 units, most of which are very valuable, and have barely any strength on the defense.

We could bypass the summons, evacuate Napa, and hit it with:
8 chariots
4 Wolf Riders
6 Moroi (if we draft one from Eiswein)
Rantine
2 Soldiers of Kilmorph
1 Vampire
1 Stonewarden
2 Bloodpets
1 Scout
2 Shamans

28 units, all going to be slightly wounded, but they should heal a lot. Maybe a couple more units, not certain what we can scrape up. Sadly I can't see how to use the catapults for this.

If we don't do that, I think we'll lose everything in Napa, and possibly Eiswein as well - they can certainly snowfall Eiswein from their current location if they don't have to snowfall Napa twice. So if we don't want to tip our hand just yet, I think we need to retreat all the way to Champagne. On the bright(ish) side, that would let our stack finish healing and pick up a half-dozen more vamps, at least, and maybe perhaps pick up Iron weapons too.

And the Gnomes built Hemah.

Yeah . More snow. But not just yet!

[Thoth]

We're up.

I've noodled around a bit in game, but haven't done anything on the war fronts.

A Centaur killed the three workers (workers and centaur were deleted). The remaining Centaurs bugged out and there are 3 bronzeless warriors in Wind Drake.

In the east, our remaining troops are still dinged up but most have promos in hand. The roaded hill swapped to Clown control so non-raider/non SoK units have to attack over the river. Rantine can promote to C4/Commando (and get Gifted Vampirism). We'll need to cast Revelation from either the Pig or the Hill tile in order to nail the Djin in Kiev. We'll be able to replace it eot 124. We can Blind the forward stack from Napa with a drafted/hasted RG and put 5 spectres into Napa this turn.

The Eiswine draftee won't have the range to hit Kiev, but it can act as extra boots in Napa if we get lucky.

Gibbon may show up as top defender at some point.....Blurred Rantine with C4/SoF/Vampirism/Commando will be ~9.7 st. Gibbon will be 8 with 39% bonus from hill/city defenses so roughly 11.1 str. I'm not sure how those odds stack up. Around 35%? I'm not sure if it's worth it vs using our C2 Chariot. The Chariot will have slightly worse odds I think, but if Rantine loses we gift Gibbon ~15xp which is not a good idea.