Misty Shades of Grey [SPOILERS]

[Aurorarcher]

So why did I even attempted with 3? Well, I thought he had max 2 warriors there. And my super ghost would kill one easily while I lose one normal after that and then clean up with the 3rd. Of course all this is irrelevant as mack was one step ahead of me and saw this all coming. Maybe he spotted my ghosts while they were moving into position and figured my plan that way? Otherwise I see no possible reason why he would've left 4 warriors in his cap.

[Aurorarcher]

Finally mack made an error.

He brought Kithra to Vetus. He used it to pillage my Ivory though.



He maybe didn't understand I have the best item against Hero.

First attacking with Assassin (picked the item from Rathus). Pretty good odds, but I lost.



Kithra down to 66/100.

Now Rathus can take a shot.





. Pretty cool 24 xp, heh.

If I had lost that I could've attacked with one more ghost.

I had to escape (only 0.5 moves left), he has some warriors that can counterattack + 4 mover Satyr in Stakrus. Leaving my units like this:



This was a very big win for me because now (I think) he can't see my invisible Ghosts anymore.

[Aurorarcher]

Mack fired a GA (built the Bone Palace). Demos.



Not bad. He probably just finished a tech though. I wonder what he'll tech next... I think Priesthood is high on the list. Or should be at least.

I just love my cap.



Notice I have one more shade there. More sages to come (meaning 12.25 beaker after modifiers). I also have one other ghost with 20 xp. Really debating whether or not I should shade it. The previous shades have been Divided Souls.

I am killing 2 warriors from Vetus every turn. Killing one with my hero and one with Aero's Chosen. Both get over 95% odds against a warrior. The city has 4 left. He might reinforce it but it's not going to hold forever. I might take my city back soon!

[Aurorarcher]

Mack founded Empyrean. He also has Great Prophet ready for this:



I have had my stack of ghosts + Rathus wandering in mack's land for a while... he has kept every city with more than 7 units. It has felt like he would know where I am every turn. Stacking cities that had only 4 units at the end of turns etc., not sure how.

Anyway, this turn I had no other choices but to attack his Empyrean Holy City or die next turn. Fortunately, I managed to kill 6 units without losing any. I also managed to park my units such that I am on AF hill tile (+75% defense) and he can't hit me back very effectively. He has 5 monks that could hit my stack + one Fawn. His best unit of those would start with odds less that 5%...

[Aurorarcher]

Well, it was the worst misplay for a while...

My army is pretty dead now. Well, the surprise is. Mack attacked and got some very lucky rolls... one particularly annoying was getting 4 hits (EDIT: 3) while attacking at 1,3% odds against my hero... He also got 3 hits at 2,4% odds against Aero's Chosen. Argh. Had he lost 2 or 3 more units he would've risked losing his city where he just built Dies Diei. Not that it all matters much in a long run... unless Bob is close to Mages it's impossible to beat Mack. I'm fairly close to Animal Mastery (Beastmasters) though for what that is worth.

[Aurorarcher]

So there's peace in our time again... I think mack is going to eat someone soon, maybe Bob? Hopefully Bob is close to mages, he has a spare GS at least. I am 7 turns from Animal Mastery. Still plenty fun to play.

[Aurorarcher]

Mack is gathering a decent stack on my doorstep.



I declared, killed 4 of his workers + one catapult. Then I returned my units back to safety with my spell. Not sure he knows I can see through his invisible units (he built Nox Noctis) because Bob gave me metamagic mana. He was planning on hitting my cap sooner or later. I have Beastmasters (2 so far) + Baron and about 7 rangers and 7 ghosts + warriors junk and some decent adepts. Ghosts are good as mack is pushing out cats, if he brings those nearby I can just eat them. He also has a lot of Rathas, almost 10 nearby. Have to be careful, he might try to make my units immobile in a bad spot. Can't leave capital too open. My beastmasters defend the cap at 30 strenght so... yeah.

My cap is just amazing, pushing over 100 hammers per turn while building units. Bob has mages but not sure he has any other decent spells yet than fire, at least no other good manas (and by that I mean something he could use to kill mack).

[Aurorarcher]

Dang. Mack made all of my troops (well almost all). Now he is going to kill all my Ghosts because I had left them open... I didn't expect him to move so far into my territory. So stupid of me, had I left them 1 tile further I would have been safe. DAMN. I was hoping I could still cast spell but nope.

I managed to kill 2 of mack's HA's by attacking from Latito. I got lucky winning 48% and 40% odds combats. I had no other way to go, next turn those units would've been held and or dead.

Here's at the end of turn.



I promoted my ghosts to flanking just in case I might be able to withdraw from the combat (+20% chance). Not sure if one can withdraw while being immobile though... oops.

From now on mack can just make all my troops immobile. He can do it every turn, right? Even though some of my units have 1 turn left of immobility, he can make it 2 turn again before it ends? If so I predict to lose all my other cities than cap very shortly. My cap won't fall though, 4 beastmasters etc. so even if he brings cats I might survive. We shall see...

[RefSteel]

From now on mack can just make all my troops immobile. He can do it every turn, right? Even though some of my units have 1 turn left of immobility, he can make it 2 turn again before it ends?

No, not until after it ends. Status-effect spells in FfH work by adding a "promotion" to a unit. This has no effect on units that already "have that promotion," even if its timer has already started ticking down. Since it would be incredibly broken to be able to perma-freeze units with Light 2, I assume the timer ticks down either at the end of the caster's turn or the beginning of the unit owner's turn, so you should always have a turn to do stuff with your units (those that survive) after the first blinding wears off, before the next one can be cast. [EDIT: Enough stuff is incredibly broken even in EitB that I'm not 100% sure of before or after whose turn the timer ticks down, but I think you get a chance to act. In any case, it can't just be renewed before it expires.]

[Aurorarcher]

You were right. Mack killed my Ghosts and razed 3 of my cities (well they were very marginal cities compared to capital) but I killed 200K worth power of his Rathas, HAs, 1 monk and 1 PoL. That was about 20% of his power but bettet yet is I lost nothing while attacking. Most combats over 90% and I also got my Nether Blade back. I also now have two Blooded werewolves more. I think mack thought my units would be held for one more turn maybe. Why else would he leave so many units vulnerable?

I think if I were after mack in turn order my units could be held (in theory) permanently. But as I am before him the turn order, the first turn of immobility goes away at the end of turn before I even see the turn. Then at the 2nd roll it goes away and I get to act first. So basically I am held just for one turn (on the 1st turn of immibility I was able to do moves before mack used his spell). Were mack playing before me in turn order, I'd be actually unable to do moves during two turns.