Fisticuffs with TBS

[The Black Sword]

So, a FFH duel league is going to be ... interesting. Honestly, the game isn't really balanced for duels, you can already see 1 power pairing in the Mahala vs Auric match. I'm sure we'll see at least 1 game with an early Wild Hunt knockout. I figure most the games will be reasonably short for this reason, and there will probably be lots of times you need to find a creative solution to a problem. So it sounded fun to participate.

That said, I went and chose Beeri Bawl(Ind/Fin) of the Luchuirp for my game with Tasunke. He chose the size to be small, which actually means really freaking big for a duel. So I thought it was an opportunity to play something a bit different. With mud golems and the early worldspell, I should be able to snowball well.

I think I'd probably be the favourite for this thing, so I sort of expect all my opponents to pick power combinations against me. Hopefully me not picking a power-combo will discourage this a bit and leave my hand a bit more open for the future games. I'm thinking my other choices might be;

Kandros of the Khazad - seems like the Khazad should be pretty good in a duel.
Auric of the Illians - PoW rush
Alexis of the Calabim - Rivers of Blood, Aggressive Moroi, Governors Manors.
Cassiel of the Grigori - again, seems well suited for a duel. Also, I can name my Adventurers after Supernatural characters!

They all sound fun. I don't want to pick the Doviello or Kurios, since I've already played them. That does mean I'll always have them in my back pocket as a counter-pick if necessary though. Clan, Hippus or Averax all seem like powerful choices for the final game. But they don't excite me much for some reason. Maybe, Volanna, playing around the with Sidar worldspell or a a March of the Trees rush Ljos could also be considered.

[The Black Sword]

First two games against Tasunke of the Hippus!

I'm not too worried about the second game where I have the Luchuirp on a big map. I reckon I have enough time to outbuild him there. But let's talk about the game that has started:




I'm Cassiel of the Grigori here. Instead of building a worker for our double wet corn sources, Auro has grown to size two and built another warrior. Warcry rush incoming!

I had foreseen the possibility of an early warcry and didn't send my initial warrior exploring. He fortified in the capital instead so he should get odds on a warcry warrior. The new warrior hopefully won't have time to travel over to me(find me too) before I get a new one out after the worker. I get my first Adventurer at turn 14 too. If possible, I'd like to build a second worker at size 2 and then resuming to grow on warriors after I've revolted into Agrarianism/out of Pacifism. I think I'll send my scout back home now too, scouting will be a tricky procedure with barbs and Hippus out there.

[The Black Sword]

After growing to size 2 before a worker, Auro then appears to have stopped for a settler at size 3. I went all the way to size 7 first, and I'm now getting a settler for the corn/silk spot. I'm feeling pretty good about it atm.




Tasunke wanted to get started in the other duel, so I played the first save but I'm not going to be playing this at the same pace.



I settled on the blue circle and I'm growing to size 2 before building a food neutral mud golem. Without any 3h tile in the BFC, it only loses 1t and I get to size 2 much quicker.

[The Black Sword]

I just met Auro a few turns ago in game. Just researched BW and mobility too:




I deleted the workers just in case, though I could use them.

Auro had a weak opening, with the size 2 worker followed by a size 3 settler, whereas I grew to size 7 first. He's pretty much been playing catch up since then, though doing it pretty well. That gryph in the picture and a bear elsewhere ambushed me quite a few times in the early game. I was on defensive terrain and had odds but I lost a few warriors, including my first adventurer.

Overview:


Awesome GK capital:


Demos:


His still disconnected copper:


I got a GS EOT, and will be using Ardour to get 2 more GP in quick succession. I have a tech lead from earlier in the game before Auro got into Aristo. He's missing one of BW or HBR, maybe both. He has festivals, so I just decided to leave him the Drama route and I'll go around the bottom of the tree. I'm probably just going to chain some golden ages together to try finish Auro off. Bulb Alteration or Academy in the capital(will be worth it with 2-3 GAs coming) are also good candidates. I picked Aggressive on my trait change.

[Qgqqqqq]

So what are your plans with that warrior stack?

[The Black Sword]

Well, he doesn't have any real economic counter to the stack. He doesn't have copper connected, so if he spams warriors, they're S3. He might have the ability to build horsemen, but even then, he needs a stable in each city that does. So, I want him to be building sub-optimal stuff with sub-optimal tiles. If possible, I'd like to burn some cities and force out his worldspell now.

The gryphon is his now btw, he killed my scout. Murousbane burned still though and I'm probing toward his capital. His GNP and Food dropped a lot, so it looks like he's not working the aristo-farms right now.

[The Black Sword]

Or maybe I'll really underestimate those S3 warriors.

[Ranamar]

Or maybe I'll really underestimate those S3 warriors.

S3 warriors on defense in a city are already S4. With fortification it's a bit more... actually, yeah, that doesn't sound *that* intimidating.

What happened?

[The Black Sword]

I left them on a forest in his capital's 3rd ring. My plan was to stick to defensive terrain and fork cities. He had more numbers in range than I expected however and I must have underestimated the promotion advantage. I lost most of the stack for 3 warriors IIRC. Then I lost two more axes trying to get the rest of the stack out but he killed the axes and the injured units for no losses.

I've consoled myself by casting Ardor and getting 2 GS in 1 turn.

[The Black Sword]

Warcry really hurt:


I was too sloppy earlier, I had quite the economic lead and I let units get picked off all over the place. That exacerbated the promotion advantage he already had. And Warcry Tasunke is already a pain in the ass to deal with it. I was getting really frustrated at one stage, with him sniping stuff and popping back out of range. Eventually I managed to take out some stuff when they got too close from pillaging my improvements. He took out my horse and copper cities though.

Now we're both in a golden age, mine will finish first. It's a big slugfest and I'm not too optimistic about my chances.


But I just connected body mana and I think I have to try get off the backfoot, so let's try this again: