Misty Shades of Grey [SPOILERS]

[Aurorarcher]

Well, I'd imagine mack is close to me (my bpt was without modifiers though)... let's see if I can estimate his bpt somehow:

His GNP was around 100 at one point. He has 10 cities + Religion so that'll give him ~30 GNP from culture. So that leaves about 70 bpt at max. Right now he has about 60 GNP after he finished a tech and is saving gold so while he is not teching he is making about ~30 gpt.

Others: well, Dave is around 65 GNP. He doesn't have very much culture though. Bob and Cairo are both around 30 GNP... Not sure what's going on with Bob, that's super low. He has 8 cities (2nd best).

I can't get shades very easily from the war. I have one Divided Soul with 9 xp, I'll try to farm on some of the animals/barb warriors nearby to get another shade. As of now on the war front mack is just sitting back waiting behind those lovely walls of his WS.



Kithra is in Vetus. C4 with 5 moves, nasty.

That works for me, I can build up, so can he, but after T105 I'll do all I can to take my cities back. I hope to give some pics once I get Poisons and can play some fun with my spell. I should even be able to get behind his stacks quite easily if he doesn't pay attention... he can see my Ghosts with Kithra but not with others.

And yeah, indeed, my cap is pretty good. Making 34 beakers, 32 gold and 40 hammers every turn. That's not too bad.

[Aurorarcher]

Mack has put a decent stack in Vetus. This pic shows the situation.



If he were to move in he should move to that purple star. Of course he can't know what I have behind. His units are strong but only 9 units, that could get risky. If he really moved in though I'd have a problem. More on that if it really happens...

[Aurorarcher]

Well, he moved to the purple start and then I had a dilemma. How many units should I leave in the cap because if I want to protect the west I need to keep that hill SW of Celo closed. Well, I did some sims and found that mack won't attack the cap unless he feels like rolling the dice (even Kithra only get 83% odds, other around 10% max). I could've left 4 warriors + 3 DS on the hill to make mack fight for it and only 6 units in cap. But in the end I suddenly decided to only left one warrior and one Divided soul on that hill... He just killed my warrior (lost one of his warriors) and DS with Kithra. Oh well...



Now he has his stack on the hill ready to take Zarlra next turn. I have 5 warriors there but it'll surely fall. Latito will be next, I have my 20 xp Divided Soul there which I must get to cap. When he takes Zarlra he will likely use Kithra (Commando) to check Latito as well. I hope mack leaves the door open next turn for me to get into cap. If not I'll try to escape from the north. Poisons in 1 turn, I will get it even when Zarlra falls because I only need 55 beakers.

Oh yeah, when he takes the city (presumably with his Shock warriors) I might have a chance to hit him back. I have 6 DS in the cap ready for leftovers...

Soon down to 2 cities... but only 4 more turns and I can give mack some trouble. Not sure how he will hold all these cities. His power is still fairly low. We shall see...

[shallow_thought]

It's perhaps no solace, but this thread took me to a Ichabod's earlier EitB Sidar thread, and Iskender's even earlier vanilla FFH one, and made me dig out the game to try Sidar for myself (I'd somehow avoided them for years while mucking about). So, at least one of us is having fun.

[Aurorarcher]

Glad to hear that.

Well, I for one (despite obviously losing) am still enjoying the game. This turn T101 mack razed Zarlra (not sure why he razed though).



I had my 23 xp warrior in Latito. Time to escape.

From here to...



... here.



I also killed one of mack's warrior on hill 1SW of my cap. I sacrificed one of my warriors to damage it to gain some xp on my Divided Soul.

Also, Poisons is in! I can get almost 60 gpt when saving gold. The question now though is... save the Divided Soul and upgrade it to Ghost and gain Aero's chosen (+2 unholy combat +20% healing after combat, very good!) or settle is a GM. I could also settle GE but... I am mostly playing with cash anyway. I can revolt to Undercouncil to use cash to hurry production. I think I'll upgrade it to ghost.

[Aurorarcher]

Hmm... mack offered peace. Interesting. I guess he sees this a bit as a waste because he simply can't take much more. Well, he could've taken Latito had he offered peace 1 turn later but not my cap. So I still have 3 cities. So I think he sees this is hurting him more because others can slowly grow be in front. Bob for example. Oh yeah, I took the peace obviously, I couldn't do too much immediately anyway. The peace treaty ends in 10 turns so I can attack mack on T112. Now this is odd, I am on 3 cities, what should I do? Usually at this point the game is over. Should I try to build some settlers and get back to planting cities or just mass produce units and try to hurt mack later? I think I'll do the units but I think I'm not quite out of the game anyway. While saving cash my cap is making 85 gpt! I am getting another shade soon too (not counting my super Divided Soul) and I just revolted to Undercouncil. There are couple barb cities nearby that I could grab for more xp as well.

Getting a bit excited here. There's still plenty to play.

Oh yeah, the friendship between the duo of losers (me and dave) has been great. He is still giving me his fur, copper and also sugar. That's +3 happiness in my cap. I am giving him Ale. I don't mind if he takes sugar back but fur would be nice to keep as it gives +2 happy in cap. Also, sooner or later he probably wants to use his Copper again. Dave just made peace with Cairo too so there's no more wars going at the moment.

Cairo has been offering OB. I've been rejecting because he is the enemy of Dave. He is getting TRs from Bob so I might just accept it soon. He is probably trying to just signal friendship. Hopeful that others (bob, cairo) also see that mack is the one to beat...

[Mardoc]

Now this is odd, I am on 3 cities, what should I do? Usually at this point the game is over.

....

Getting a bit excited here. There's still plenty to play.

That's the best part of Sidar in my opinion. So much potential from non-standard sources, you don't need to own a lot of cities or work a lot of tiles to be relevant. And it gives you another huge set of decisions - managing your units both for cash and...well, Split Soul gives you a lot more flexibility than someone like the Bannor who just wants to make a big stack.

[Aurorarcher]

Just showing off my super ghost...





I will save promotion for Mobility.

T105 I spotted mack's super scout. He had apparently captured an elephant.



I figured if he forgets to remove hidden nationality next turn I could kill it.

T106 opened with two proposals from Mack.

First he offered Corn for Corn. Then this:



He is of course saying, can we remain in peace for longer than the peace treaty. I declined, if wants to keep me out, he better give me something more. It's a shame city trades are forbidden (or are they? I forgot what AI diplo stands for actually) or I'd ask for my cities back. Now thinking back again on the other hand... maybe I should've accepted his offer, just to make mack believe I will leave him alone. Maybe I'll re-offer later, we'll see.

Anyway, I think he knows I am not happy to cooperate with him in any way at the moment. He is leading by a mile.

On the other hand, the map has plenty of room for expansion.

Oh yeah, I also did this:



Thanks for 1 xp.

One idea how to hit mack from the fog is here.



I can't show the details from mack's map because I don't have his map. So let's take a look at Cairo's map from the same tile.



From this tile I can hit mack's cap. Spell + 3 moves into cap. Of course he has massive culture so the tile will be visible... or will it? Nope, if I use only Ghosts that are hidden. Only his Kithra can see my hidden units. Problems: Ghosts have -50% city attack (which means it gives bronze warriors defending extra 2.00 strength). But I don't think he'll have more than 2 units in his cap. So I need at least 4 Ghosts. That might not do it though. Ghosts without any combat promotions only gets about 6% odds against a warrior fortified on a hill with 30% culture bonus. I probably need more like 6. Of course I could use my super ghost too or potentially my hero which is ready eot110. It's possible that he only has just one warrior too because usually in games like this people tend to leave cities lightly guarded which are not in any sort of danger (AI never does this!). If his cap had only one warrior that'd be just golden. I could use my hidden units in other ways as well, this is just one idea.

[Aurorarcher]

Okay, so considering the plan again. How fast could I do it?

Suppose I need 6 ghosts. I got 2 now, I could upgrade Divided Souls but if I just build them, it takes about 6-7 turns to get 4 more Ghosts if I build them in my cap. It'll finish one on T107. Then moving them to the position... with spells + mobility not very long. But I have to hide them before. So say I'll get my last Ghost out T114 I could be in position on T118 and hit the cap on T119. Hmm... with upgrades I could really be a lot faster or if I trust he only has one warrior in his cap. Then I could probably hit him like T111 or T112. Hmm.... need to think.

[Aurorarcher]

Well, I declared. I had only 3 Ghosts, one of them my super ghost... but eh, mack saw me coming somehow. I can't think of anything else than he using Kithra to scout the area.



I captured a worker and parked 1NW of the cap. I expect to lose it to his Kithra next turn. I could've deleted the Ghost but I figured it's only worth 1 xp anyway max.

So what now? The #1 plan failed. I think I am going to feed my Ghosts with his warriors on Vetus (the closest city to me, my old 2nd city). I also scouted some of his other cities. They're also well defended for surprise attacks.



I don't think mack can do anything to me as on flat ground I have stronger units. So I expect him to just sit back. He must've some Satyrs but while they're on defense I can just eat them.