TVK 77 Ear Candy

EAR CANDY

The Virtual Kingdom ~ Age 77

*8-track

Avian War Hero ~*Turntablism
Elf Heretic ~*Reggaeton
Elf Sage ~ Deep House
Faery Rogue ~*Electric Blues
Dwarf Undead ~ Crust Punk

CD

Elf Mystic ~*Baroque
Faery Heretic ~ Lo-fi
Halfling Rogue ~ Salsa
Human Warrior ~*Renaissance
Orc Tactician ~ Bubblegum Pop

Cassette

Avian Tactician ~ Acid Jazz
Dwarf Undead ~ Honky Tonk
Faery Paladin ~*Qawwali
Halfling Paladin ~ Jingles
Orc Paladin ~ Opera

Vinyl

Elf Mystic ~ Chillwave
Faery Heretic ~ Ska
Halfling Rogue ~ Trance
Human Warrior ~*Avant-Garde
Orc Tactician ~ Doo Wop

Streaming

Avian War Hero ~ Dirty South
Dwarf Undead ~ Goth
Dwarf Sage ~ Bebop
Halfling Mystic ~ Ambient*
Human Sage ~ Shoegaze

Edit 1: dwarf and faery switch paladin and sage roles

Hello.

Welcome to age 77, The Virtual Kingdom. To start off, I didn't try to get groovy with elf tac or other life saving measures since Clear Sight is categorically stymied this age. What I did do was balance core speed and reassert *middle(nw)* control by way of 3 dwarf undead. I had contemplated their utility last age, but this age the undead get parity in offensive and defensive losses. One reason for this decision was to have a combative elite type province that was somewhat resistant to Nightmare and an elite that's more difficult to ambush. It's not that I feel I've discovered anything remarkable, but was done to create a greater number of problems for the enemy.

I'm not enamored by elves as much as there's a need to present capability in a plethora of spell casting fields. Spec defense on t/ms doesn't inspire my confidence, so my sober reasoning is based in top feed pragmatism. Without abduction to babysit armies there's a narrower venue to operating outside of war. The solution is to take land; you know what I mean? We have to think "up".

The 3 paladin distribution is center mass in regard to GMT swing. The racial shared spells are Greater Protection, Town Watch and Reflect Magic.

Now this *middle* I'm referring is simple, but represents a transcendence in meaning that probably comes off confusing. Allow a moment to digress; I've often found congruence of factors that interrelate across supposedly unrelated factors. To point, we might be able to figure out what flavors someone prefer in food by the gun they use and ammunition they prefer,.. by the music they enjoy both in tempo and tone and the devices they prefer to listen, including speaker size and composition. Harmonics. If any of you are familiar with target shooting, there's some level of consideration to barrel harmonics.

So it is in Utopia that I'll refer to the "middle" in a multitude of phases. What I'm looking at is the duality of dwarf and halfling in functional congruence, or victory algorithm. On the surface we have a 7/5 and 5/7 elite which is 1 point above total elite points(defense + offense/elite) in all races. Now nw gurus may laugh at this point, but this simply represents the "tide" effect of flat mechanics. Anything that passes through the elite gauntlet of 4 dwarves and 4 halflings will likely exert more resources combatively to overcome this logistic. This is where we establish strategic foundation. We should lean toward pragmatism, but the dwarf and halfling offer us the fundamental.

In TVK I expressed my admiration for a kingdom called A Mothers Advice/Polar Bears. One of their signature kingdom designs was a breadth of nw center elves, with cows and killers above and "name-your-race" core below, depending on age mechanics. If you hit the nw tab you'd see this daunting belt of elves across the mid nw that was like a gate to crash if you wanted to defeat AMA. I'd imagine the duality of this middle lay anchors on the enemy cows with high penetration ops, and presented a defensive barrier to the enemy core.

Duality exists not just in how the dwarf and halfling work together but what the kingdom defends through aggressive doctrine. We're in an age with limited Clear Sight availability and plague immunity is exclusive to the undead. We know our halfers will be targets just as we must target halfers for t/m survivability. This is that defensive/offensive miasma we employ to focus on military objectives. If we ideally have dwarves and halfers center nw then the wider strategic idiom is to make every action the enemy attempts against this center a stretch. Make it logistically costly to engage the center and the center will engage the enemy that works against our flanks. We want to hammer out venues where the 7/5 elite can break all enemies and sabotage raceways for low resistance.

The Circle of GMT

We use a progressive wave in TVK called the elliptical wave. Each division of 5 provinces represents a time zone. When we look at the 8-track division we may think t/m heavy and the Streaming division as attacker heavy, but these divisions coalesce to the same degree as they do with the CD and Vinyl divisions.

Several of the characteristics of TVK were developed to address what ails many lower tier kingdoms. The elliptical wave was designed first to offer agreeable prime activity to players around the world. The elliptical wave also avoids the critical failure of the Oops! bug by elective dispersion. We operate 24/7. There is no wave time. Our actions begins at beginning of age and ends at the first eowcf. In each instance the GMT inertia will evolve into a natural form as the kingdom exits eowcf. Strategic posture exiting eowcf is based in resource distribution and threat level in accordance with collective Snatch News to assess the prevailing environment.

The division system was based in experience with full wave kingdoms of the highest order being dissected by kingdoms that used superior micro. The order of battle is immediate and opportunistic. Divisions are encouraged to take the initiative, using their unique blend of capabilities to achieve objectives.
The divisions are a representation of not just players from around the world but specifically players from fragmented kingdoms. Over the ages I've witnessed the retirement or dissolution of enough kingdoms that I feel we have a silent core of players left astray. They join new kingdoms and adopt new culture with no respect or regard for their heritage. My solution was to create a template that mimics the working ethnic Burroughs of the largest and most prominent metropolises in our world. This cultural retention is intended to enhance friendly competition within the kingdom and a way to learn alternative strategies and tactics.

The personality and racial spread is specifically The Virtual Kingdom cultural template. It is both an act of pageantry to celebrate the balance in Utopia, and a learning tool. The template allows us to see the entire spread of capability and offers the player to work with chemistry they've never experienced before. Like The Faery Circle was an all faery kingdom, TVK is maximum breadth of race and personality.

The Working Model

Strategic influence can come from many sources. If we understand the use of tanks in WW2 we see the best use was not to engage in tank to tank battle but to encircle, with artillery and infantry used to destroy enemy tanks. Interpreting what a tank equals in Utopia is not as simple as heavy attackers, but a concept of resource expenditure. Still, we know there were tank aces responsible for besting a great number of opposition tanks and we can interpret these in game as rovers. But I digress. The better way to approach this is to look at the actual generals available, army available, ops, sabotage and regard the occupying force of your enemy nw/acres/capability/resources as the encirclement objective. Thus, when you see an enemy t/m array you can't bite off more than you can chew and expect victory. You operate within these sectors with deliberate goals and exploit weaknesses to bring alternative logistics to engage.

I've learned to leave no one alone. As a heavy attacker I've dropped potshots on enemy faeries like Lightning Strike and time to time it gets through. If it gets through I follow up with selective ops and sabotage to probe for weakness.

3 Avian - 1 Paladin, 1 War Hero, 1 Undead
4 Dwarf - 2 Tactician, 1 Heretic, 1 Mystic
4 Elf - 2 Sage, 1 Mystic, 1 Heretic
4 Faery - 2 Rogue, 1 Heretic, 1 Mystic
3 Halfling - 1 Rogue, 1 Paladin, 1 Undead
4 Human - 1 Sage, 2 Warrior, 1 Undead
3 Orc - 1 Paladin, 1 War Hero, 1 Warrior

Heretic 3/3 - 1 each of Dwarf, Elf, Fae... The latter two seem more obvious, but Dwarf BE bonus can come in handy with a high wizard population, although its generally nicer for thieves, Heretic perk kind of dims the value of the BE bonus for TDs, though their value still cannot be overstated
Mystic 3/3 - see above
Paladin 3/3 - get all 3 of the 'fancy' Racial spells; TW, RM, Fanat
Rogue 3/3 - Halfling gotta do, and same with Faery tbh... if I could do 4x fae rogue I would :D
Sage 3/3 - Human Sage is clear choice, Elf is anti-Sage... need Sage to have Amnesia, need Elf to cast it on a Sage
Tactician 2/2 - Dwarf saving rax acres... orrr using them to great effect! Plus, you gotta have the intels
Undead 3/3 - Halfer will get some extra juice out of Animate, Avian is always natural fit for me, and Human because I wanted my 3rd Orc to have Bloodlust
War Hero 2/2 - 1 Orc, 1 Avian... I feel like spreading these around, along with the Paladin(ie; the 'support' casters), can enhance the 'whack-a-mole' effect for my opponents :)
Warrior 3/3 - Humans become the apex predator as Warrior, since my Avian and Orc are kinda tied up in support roles(Orc still gets a nod)


TM HQ
Faery Rogue
Faery Rogue
Halfling Rogue
Faery Mystic
Elf Mystic
Faery Heretic
Elf Heretic

Support Attackers - WH/PFs to pave the way on chains, Paladins keep protections up on TMs, Halfling focuses on TW during war
Avian Paladin
Halfling Paladin
Orc Paladin
Orc War Hero
Avian War Hero

Spearhead Attackers - who gets to go first? one of these guys.
Orc Warrior
Human Warrior
Human Warrior
Human Sage

Assault Attackers - Amnesia enemy attackers and Rogues, combine with NMs and then NS run ... feast on scraps from chains to preserve tpa/wpa, but have enough practical offence to hit other attackers your size
Elf Sage
Elf Sage
Dwarf Heretic
Dwarf Mystic

Forlorn Hope - Often used to open relations, sacrificial lambs that will kick and scream if someone takes the bait
Human Undead
Avian Undead
Dwarf Tactician
Dwarf Tactician
Halfling Undead

I bow to you RattleHead. Comprehensive and well thought out. ~ You did the halfer undead :) this is one I would play and certainly contemplated for TVK. The dwarf tac to, but I've played it before. Wonderful province strat.

@ All - RattleHead should be considered a superior kingdom builder to yours truly and he offers what I encourage all players to do: expression of ideals, so we can share and learn.

This brings me to the virtue of initiative.

I'm a Dio fan and if you listen to his music you know there are common themes. There are riddles in the rhyme, sometimes with shared meanings. Let's look at one.

While singing for Black Sabbath the group released Heaven & Hell. There are lines addressing the problems with idolatry which speak to me, but here we're concerned with the proverbial canary in the coal mine.

"Love can be seen as the answer
But nobody bleeds for the dancer"

To task is when we choose to bleed. "The dancer" ideally can be understood as the arts; expression of beauty and truth. It can also literally refer to the least of our brethren in club dancers; prostitutes that suffer as the undertow of society dredges beneath their feet. Oftentimes these people say they only feel free when dancing, btw.

"And they'll tell you black is really white
The moon is just the sun at night
And when you walk in golden halls
You get to keep the gold that falls
It's Heaven and Hell

No no fool, fool!
You got to bleed for the dancer!
Fool, fool, look for the answer!
Fool, fool, fool!"

Now that we can back off the serious-pedal, let's apply the concept of initiative to Utopia. The lines above referring "golden halls" is the cowards life granted by kingdoms who bully their way around the server, securing other kingdoms resources. They might get bent out of shape when you retaliate, as if you've no right. Other are as stoic as robots. This is immaterial to me because my entire playing doctrine is based in retal. There is no kingdom in the game of any higher power level that I haven't retaliated. Your capitulation is service to their phenomenal strength. My purpose in TVK template is to guide players to embrace these challenges as the reason to play Utopia.

It begins with the first indication that intel is taken from our kingdom. You should initiate yellow alert. Basically I was on red alert the entire age, but we can't expect everyone to be in perpetual readiness. My motto is "never ready, always ready to go". That meant I'd go to war regardless of my raggedy condition. As you can imagine, running a province on pure retal as locomotion involves lots of conflict with superior opposition.

We should react to what threatens kingdom culture.

To be continued... ;) and back.

I may've mentioned that TVK wasn't intended as my kingdom. I'd probably not be fit since I'm not one to use bots or com systems, I never attack unprovoked, I try to grow through pure retal and I'd rather war than CF. For me, it's not the kill, it's the thrill of the chase. That said, my effort is to express the value of making compromises only in rare circumstances. I don't have all the answers, but I've learned the most facing competition I've had no chance in defeating. My opinion is you push great kingdoms until they're forced to show you why they're great. This isn't a matter of disrespect: I know a great kingdom when we engage. My mission is to see them shine and the best way to do that is to concentrate on winning.

Great kingdoms often have impressive diplomacy and can lull you into a false sense of respect by CF negotiations, or try enducing fear with multi-age threats. They might even be capable, but this shouldn't deter your resolve. To compete in a vacuum of non-competitiveness at the behest of a few great kingdoms is to deprive oneself from playing at the highest levels. If you're going to compete for crowns you have to see the best kingdoms at their most vicious.

Elliptical Wave Pattern

The elliptical wave pattern, based on a 12 hour sequence, is roughly 4.8 hours apart/division:



*1. 8-track - combat group option v
2.*
3. Vinyl - combat group focus point >
4.
5. CD - combat group option ^
6.
7.*
8. Streaming - combat group option v
9. combat group focus point >
10. Cassette - combat group option ^
11.
12.*
13. 8-track - combat group option v
14.
15. Vinyl - combat group focus point >
16.*
17. CD - combat group option ^
18.
19.
20. Streaming - combat group option v
21. combat group focus point >
22. Cassette - combat group option ^
23.
24.

As expected, the wave pattern can tighten through war stance, attack type, ritual and player attack +/-.

You can visualize how the wave appears fixed, but will drift and coagulate in action. Each division has a member of council; one of which(one of the 5) is the wave coordinator. While each division is an entity unto itself, the wave coordinator can organize a combat group in the 1st, 3rd and 5th focused on the 3rd; the 8th and 10th focused on the 9th; the 13th, 15th and 17th focused on the 15th; and the 20th and 22nd focused on the 21st. These groups do not have to include the entire division, but the elements deemed necessary to achieve an objective. This also allows players with flexible schedules to partake in combined strategies. Groups can be partitioned down to individual generals and troop counts as well as ops/sabotage and logistical backing.

StratOLab

Despite retirement I've created a province to run one of the builds through its paces. Yes, dwarf undead is easy, but I'm retired. I'd like to remind the reader that a dwarf out of beginning of age protection could have change build 3 times. Most importantly, the dwarf is producing off it's first build in 8 ticks. Therefor, if you're offered war by a dwarf kingdom OOP you might consider the resouce yield they've accumulated.

Kingdom Council

Ambassador
Chief of Staff
Director of Intelligence
Economic Chair
Supreme Allied Commander

Ambassador - The meta potential of diplomacy makes ambassador a very important role in kingdom. Responsibilities include securing both mechanical and figurative CFs. Advanced options include alliance negotiations and tutoring players on inter-kingdom conduct and communications.

Chief of Staff - The overall moral compass and general of "keeping up with the Jones's". Knowing how the kingdom matches up with the competition and assessing danger potential is just part of the job. Everybody should be concerned with keeping the kingdom glue fresh and tight, but the chief of staff also oversees council to assure constructive, fair and hospitable interaction in session.

Director of Intelligence - Every province in kingdom is expected to Snatch News from a particular kingdom throughout the age. The director of intelligence can look forward to researching intel to see trends and movements through the eyes of kingdoms across the server. While all council members can use a helping hand, the director of intelligence will require a staff of willing participants to compartmentalize relevant information. The ability to interpret SN is both art and skill. It's my personal hope to nurture more players into this skill set for the quality of the game. SN is an essential tool in micro.

Economic Chair - The economic chair doesn't just assess kingdom resources, but also helps in recommending superior build strategies and ritual and dragon funding. Advanced options include honor and science navigation.

Supreme Allied Commander - This is the elliptical wave engineer. The supreme allied commander secures divisions to objective commitments through strategic correspondence. The work includes direct leadership in splinter and combat groups, recommendations for campers and rovers and modifying objectives based in divisional success and failure.

In conclusion, these departments work together to achieve kingdom goals through a shared and pragmatic vision quest.

Undefined

For those of us that've ventured far and wide in Utopia, we would all agree that there are differences in build strat from top tier to war tier to bottom. These are generalizations yet with absolute consequences insofar as organization. In the bottom tier there's much more debate about what a correct defense is and how things work.

In the top or whoring tier the understanding is pretty uniform on pump itinerary. "Most" players know what they're supposed to do mechanically and then require leadership to navigate the time table or unforeseen circumstances, like heavy retal from a random. When I say "most" there are some top entities that struggle with securing an experienced roster. It's here where you'll see some fairly big mistakes happen. In my top visits I was far from mathematically literate enough to interpret the pump math, but comprehended the potential and thus eyeballed my way to some formidability. Characteristically I was deemed as fat, which is my utopian safe place, but my resource yield was very high. So much so I was sending millions of gold to t/ms to secure dragon launching and more gold to core attackers who fell short. The experienced top players didn't interact much with the core and I noticed a number of core players really lacked initiative. We all ran pretty much the same build in the core.

War tier(competitive) has a pump, but more so a wait for the right war. They aren't all looking for easy wars, and many false tag for safety and opportunity. Many of them know each other by build pattern and this coincides with their campaign. Taking every hard war is fine if you're not focused on charting. The war tier wasn't doing home pumps like whoring kingdoms, but I'd imagine they've included this in their arsenal by now. War tier is a bit varied in build, but generally conservative. In other words, you might see some hybrids.

The lower tier is where you see unique designs in build for good and bad reasons. Some good players know how to build for the environment and some don't. This is deeper than poor build strats. In fact, many poor performers are brilliant mechanical builders that suffer from the idealic haze of organized kingdoms in a tier of pragmatism. Simply put, they are Spartan with no one to phalanx.

In The Virtual Kingdom we can envision a necessary blend of tier and types because of the diversified template. What does that mean?

It means we can top pump certain provinces while preserving a functional reserve of provinces for the accidents that happen. I've warred in all tiers and learned that being uniform isn't all it's cracked up to be,.. but there's an impenetrable mental wall that prevents some kingdoms from progressing. Some have, but they have honed their craft to a zenith that makes alternatives superfluous.

Specific to The Virtual Kingdom is the idea of mainline full powered forces backed by pockets of resistance. See, I'm a pockets of resistance player. If we look at our world and the main battle forces we all secretly know they've no intention of facing each other, and for good reason. Full on mechanized conventional war in a first world scenario would be horrific. In Utopia it is common. The problem in the real world is once these highly organized mechanized units win the war of machines they must face the grueling house to house guerilla war. In Utopia this is uncommon.

If we rewind the clock to ww2 France we have an engagement where once the mechanized army was bypassed the enemy won in shocking fashion. We can parallel this in Utopia where the initial wave or solid hostile wins the war.
Later on at the Eastern Front and battles in the Pacific we see the grueling battles that take a long time. We have several examples in the nuclear age of pure guerilla nations doing alright, if at massive human cost.

Now you might be thinking I'm applying this in a wait and see strategic mode, but that's not what I'm saying. The Virtual Kingdom is by happenstance of diversity prone to multilayered approaches to conflict. We can't pull the number of heavy attackers or wall of faeries as others so the strategy is integral. To encourage the reader you'll note that supply logistics are the lifeblood of mechanized warfare. Where we might have fewer machines we can potentially have deeper reserves.

My build patterns are slop but they work. It's that I aim toward resource replenishment rather than monolithic strats. I'm familiar with heavy attacker types and feel experienced enough to take on full blown attackers as a hybrid type myself. In my age 77 build I've been attacked by a human, avian and orc thus far. So I'm seeing the breadth of challenges from speed to damage to science effect. One of my kingdom mates is going a completely different direction and this is a gift to my sensibilities. We're simply playing, but the experiments help in distilling The Virtual Kingdom characteristics. Friends in higher places keep us informed of maximums that help us gauge formidability.

An Experimental Note

One of my kingdom mates is an ace at build strats, combat IQ and has good monarch experience both in full and micro-kingdoms. I'd never come close to his expertise in province management, or otherwise, but I also do things for a reason. One characteristic is, I don't push defense very high and I do this in the interest of retal. Though retired, I'm driven by experimentation regarding The Virtual Kingdom. Since leaving protection I've seen a few attacks and the logic of the aggressors. These are nicely built war tier combatants who've boosted their capability in a focal and effective manner. I'm running an overall strat that covers all bases if not spectacularly. I'm not recommending balance because some can get carried away with strats that don't apply to their circumstance. Retaliating heavy attackers with a decided hybrid isn't a practice for the weak of heart. To have experimental freedom one has to occupy rather unorganized and low activity kingdoms. This means the weight of coordinated reprisals are a constant threat that are often realized and no help can be expected.

Since I've run high octane builds I use my experiences with those and project from the meager build I'm running experimentally. When I've stumbled onto a fantastic build like undead sage, human and elf cleric I'm well aware of the potential based in top kingdom pump and diplomacy. Diplomacy is essential for homes pump and rising above the fray of the constant slog in the lower tier.

As of today I'm running 1 of the 18 undead dwarves so the evidence base isn't forthcoming on overall performance. This is common in off kilter builds, but it'd be nice to receive input if any are reading TVK.

In a kingdom strat like TVK the lessons of the past influence the province choices, along with age changes and how they materialized through the campaign. Human sages have been a standard in top kingdoms when appropriate. In war kingdoms they were rare with the exception of the notable Rusty; though I'm not sure of personality. The reason I've chosen dwarf undead as the center is the low losses, build speed at zero cost, plague distribution, relative defense to elite in the interest of ops and sabotage resistance. The undead spell array is ergo to dwarf since both spells are not redundant in dwarf. The dwarf makes raze tactics by enemies in war a more focal tactic since dwarves can build faster than most kingdoms wave rotation. Thus, you can't just raze dwarves and expect them to languish as other races with the high cost of buildings and porous defenses vs sabotage. So while human sages will have sterling overall capability, as evidence from the past, they won't be immune to plague, won't suffer lower losses, won't build as fast(though credits may help), and are more susceptible by elite balance and spec mechanics to Nightmare. It's not that human sage(or other personalities not dependent on casting) isn't a fantastic build, and I'm a fan, but that they make better peripheral builds to the multilayered core of TVK.

IMHO for ages humans were considered irrelevant, yet the comparative science yield would still fall in the human favor through attrition. If it were that the community was under the impression that an abducting orc was better than an abducting human, I'm not sure I'd agree with that. I think orc is conventionally what kingdoms want in a core and human requires a different approach. The odd part is that when I've run a human I've felt very well equipped, yet when facing humans I've not felt very threatened. But this goes for most core interactions I've been part. I'd say that undead war hero was consistently the toughest opponents I've squared off against. Oddly, undead war hero didn't appear to be an exceptional blend but results wise I've been defeated by them enough to notice. It's possible undead war hero attracts the type of player that's enthusiastic about the build which is one reason TVK offers a plethora of choices.

The HQ

In this version of TVK the headquarters is the cassette division which occupies relative GMT center. Generally, this will be a European division, but that's because my experience dictates they are decidedly the most active. Suffice to say, the center division should be the most active based in historical activity potential, or whichever division is the most active based in the 9 box activity indicator on the recruitment page.

The cassette division includes all available paladins, one undead dwarf for plague distribution and camping potential, plus the lone avian tac for additional intel updates and rover objectives. The cassette division occupies GMT in close proximity to the CD and Vinyl spearhead divisions to offer timely support for likely the most violent interactions. These elements operate like most in TVK, with avian tac and dwarf undead probably running interference for the orc paladin.

The Objectives Approach

Unlike chain waves which most of us are familiar with, the approach is defensive for offensive purposes. While chain waves can be logistically similar, they're often like a locomotive in that once they start they're hard to adjust on the fly. Great kingdoms can, good kingdoms bake it into the wave and average kingdoms oftentimes can't adapt.

Objectives per division are devised on the premise of "mine sweeping" for kingdom, with objectives being divisional goals. The analogy of mine sweeping involves defending kingdom integrity. I've already reflected on the importance of the dwarf/halfer core and the paladin array, but we apply a mine sweeping mentality to all elements of the kingdom. While objectives refer to the offensive approach, mine sweeping refers to the defensive. Both can occupy the same space as achieving an offensive goal can at times achieve defensive leverage. For instance, let's say an enemy rogue or rogues begin a concerted effort to Assassinate Wizards; a likely enemy action; we may already have the rogues as targeted objectives. The division in question can act with discrimination on that target with peripheral support from other divisions.

While the example above displays a reaction we are about initiative. We already know what rogues, heretics, etc can do, so the offensive objective is to dismantle these enemy capabilities as our ability dictates. The attacker base initiative is cross-chain max with t/m support to control the objective. Rovers and campers are here to work targets of unusual resistance or those that may present a flanking threat, including enemy campers and rovers.

For those unfamiliar with cross-chaining, it can be used in waves to great effect. TVK divisional GMT limits can use cross-chaining to maximize what we're working with. In this example we'll use the streaming division because of the glut of attacker types on tap:

Avian War Hero ~ Dirty South - assuming 2nd highest offense to nw
Dwarf Undead ~ Goth - keys off micro
Dwarf Sage ~ Bebop - assuming 3rd highest offense to nw
Halfling Mystic ~ Ambient* - trash hits if deemed beneficial
Human Sage ~ Shoegaze - assuming highest offense to nw

Cross-Chain Itinerary: EDIT! - oops, I shouldn't be watching Bloomberg while writing.

Credit ~ CRAZY PETE FOR THE CROSS-CHAINING PRINCIPAL

Human Sage - attacks 1st at max gains, 1st tap, highest gains
Avian War Hero - attacks 2nd, 1st tap, 2nd highest gains
Dwarf Sage - attacks 3rd, 1st tap, 3rd highest gains
Dwarf Sage - attacks 4th, 2nd tap, 4th highest gains
Avian War Hero - attacks 5th, 2nd tap, 5th highest gains
Human Sage - attacks 6th, 2nd tap, 6th highest gains
Dwarf Undead - can attack other or target, plague caution

As demonstrated, the Human Sage has 1st attack and highest gains, then the 6th attack at lowest. The Avian War Hero has the 2nd attack and gains, then the 5th next to lowest. Then the Dwarf Sage attacks twice in succession for the 3rd and 4th attack for near comparable gains per tap. For simplicity, think of the attack alignment as mirrored: highest first, highest last. Next highest 2nd and so forth.

At this point, if the dwarf undead target is stricken with plague and is also the cross-chain target the decision to proceed with further attacks is decided. Obviously, if the target in question is undead or already stricken with plague the dwarf undead participates in the cross-chain in offense/nw order in accordance with summation of acre yield. At no point is any province obligated to retain army home under fire, ideally. Pragmatically, there may be instances where taking fire is necessary to achieve objectives. Generally, we error to province safety. Additionally, the halfling mystic can simultaneously cast ops and invoke sabotage upon the target and/or peripheral threats.

The reason cross-chaining is effective sans Anonymity is because the target is likely left with poor ambush acreage and our chain alignment is congruent by comparable gains per attacker province. By finding ways to avoid using Anon we retain higher province honor, mana and runes so resources can be more liberally used toward Amnesia and other debilitating ops to absorb and mute enemy counter measures. Ops can be used prelude to attacks as usual and if prudent.

The decision to continue chaining despite plague is a simple YES. The plan is to fully chain with the option to engage other targets if the environment dictates. The cross-chain would then continue on the basis of breakable defense and available generals. Massacre and raze are on the table.

Please observe the edit to cross-chaining. I was preoccupied and made a critical error in the initial alignment. Fixed.

And I apologize for not crediting Crazy Pete of 'A Mothers Advice' for showing me the cross-chain principal. Fixed.

Experimental Note

We're experiencing some solid flack and found the first integrated kingdom strat of the age. It's hard to break with thieves and ops so I decided to look under the hood of one of their pumped provinces by spying science. I'm not here to give away specifically how the enemy operates because observers might take advantage. However, I can tell you coordinated waves are one thing and integrated strats are something else.

These are purpose built kingdoms with focal builds and science, unlike my ghetto independent strat. Now I'll have you know I've faced these strats before and have defeated them with a ghetto strat, individually. It's a no-brainer they have a massive advantage in kingdom-to-kingdom conflict. Basically I'm looking at nwpa and where the concentration of these characteristics are arranged. The strat has the weight of nwpa in a linear gauntlet with low nw t/ms above. This is a prelude to CF position where the t/ms will pump with a proposed ritual. Good assumption on their part since we aren't high activity. Still, I'm pushing for scrimmage to get a closer look at the entire operation.

Additionally, this kingdom was quick to act after a CF was accepted by another kingdom; thus displaying organization. I'm favorably impressed. I've sustained 2 marches from the kingdom we CFd and 2 more from the current wave. I mention this to convey the value of Snatch News and/or friends in your tier.

When we look at kingdoms with integrated strats you may wonder what that means. It's a kingdom that builds and arranges sciences toward the strengths of a province, but each province is part of the whole. In this you'll see high concentrations in a given province with anemic ability elsewhere. It's like a phalanx. The anemic areas of one province are overstated in another. While many kingdoms do this to some degree, total kingdom strats are essentially built to the inth degree in their narrow field. As an example my province has science spread across all disciplines and built to cast and commit sabotage, while a narrow field province will have no science in certain areas and stacked in their strengths.

One of the difficulties in running experimentally is lack of cooperation. The tactics I'll use are both to affect the enemy and see how they're put together. Yesterday I cast Mystic Vortex on a pumped province not just to rid them of advantages, I also wanted to see what spells were in use. Sadly, I'm simply not deep enough across all fields to study all aspects of formidable enemies. I knew I could break them but no one in my kingdom was gathering intel or casting ops to offer a perspective.

The total disinterest in engaging a formidable enemy leaves us with too many mysteries. Sure, the monarch might be aware of the builds but the kingdom doesn't understand that we should be looking at exactly what it is that intimidates them. I'm simply not afraid of pumped enemies because I've engaged so many. What we want is information to give us understanding.

To be continued...

Even if we have mechanical knowledge, we shouldn't rest on that. What I mean is, you observe a kingdom that is superior to yours on the kingdom page. You know how they got there. Distilled into pure essence, the kingdom you're observing has more resources than yours. Are we satisfied with that for the continuing age? Is it that we're worried about losing even more resources in a world of keeping up with the Jones's?

You've got to have more than healthy respect for your competitors to not compete with them. Again, I come from a Dungeons & Dragons fundamental with many more years in paper & pencil gaming. We don't continue killing tribes of orcs at 5th level, we're ready to go after the dragon. And nobody ever asked us at 3rd level, but the answer is yes. Let's go after the dragon treasure.

They're suppose to be tough and these are our fellow players. Behind each legal province is a mind that we should always respect. We should also challenge them. For players and kingdoms we deem below our skill set we can tutor them through gentle example. When I've been engaged by enemies that attempt to push a military advantage I'll land ops and sabotage to demonstrate why you should be conscious of peripheral defense. Still, we can't do much experimenting with opponents we know we can defeat. In order to experiment we require information based on the superior advantage of the opponent.

To be continued again....

In conclusion I'm left with no choice but to seek a vacuum, possibly a kingdom shell to experiment unfettered.

The Little Decisions

The Virtual Kingdom template has limits that lead to decisions based in esoteric differences, yet I still ponder. One of these decisions was to double faery heretic and halfling rogue for spearhead assignments. With the mechanical changes to paladin the kingdom benefit weighed heavy on which races should carry the lamp of shared spells. What we end up with is an old school halfling mystic fresh from the factory. Hmm.

I'd have loved to put the durability of heretic on the halfer, but we required an elf at the frontier capable of Nightmare casting, complimenting the work of the faery rogue and elf sage in the 8-track division. The halfling mystic falls into one of the durability category of builds; not spectacular, but a good mudder. And so it goes that I've traditionally had a "mudder" division since evolving the idea in TVK.

Thus the streaming division is loaded with peripheral strengths, free building and credit bonuses, including our halfling mystic. If any division was closest to my style it's here. Being in many long wars I've always cherished the never-ending-rain type of builds.

Insofar as paladin spread I'd have liked to have assigned an avian. They have 2 very useful racial spells and their speed compliments their potential stability. The decision to go with faery was roundabout, but ultimately based in who benefits the most from guild efficiency. The same logic applies to the halfling paladin, but the benefits are much more inline with paladin ethos. Town Watch is a really solid tool to share, and soldier to dragon slaying strength is ergo. I have experience here and the halfer 2/2 soldier will be a workhorse. I'd like to have access to Fanaticism via avian paladin to share wherever necessary, but my awareness of the acre bias in age 77 mechanics makes t/m balance a higher priority. Paladins can use a lot of mana and runes so there is a hidden economy, a level of complexity, in paladin strategy.

Concerning the play testing I was doing with dwarf undead, I'm apparently forced to shelve the plan till I'm contacted by support. The fact that I'd like to join certain kingdoms with lax requirements is immaterial. The problem is in their connections. If the best kingdoms come knocking, there can't be diplomatic interference. This is why I'm out of the game currently.

My challenge is to experiment with dwarf undead vs raw unadulterated kingdom protocol. Regardless of a player/kingdom knowing who I am or what I'm doing, there can't be artificial competition provided or excluded by CFs, with rare exceptions. Certainly no CFs for kingdoms of reputable prowess; that's exactly the mission. Kingdoms of no consequence or small friendlies can be CFd.

A Funny Thing Called Strategy

There are plenty of known players who can tell you I'm not only mechanically inept, but that upon observation, I barely pay attention to them. The way I play is to get the gist of whatever and employ it to my satisfaction. I've no idea what the power charts tell me or suggested build strats.

Analogy time. - I drive an underpowered 4 cylinder nondescript sedan to work everyday. In order to get into traffic flow I generally need to come off the ramp between 75-80 mph. I don't require a Ferrari of any measure to accomplish the task, but it helps not to have a phone-zombie in a narcissistic haze plodding on at 35 mph in front of me.

The fact is that a lot of what makes sense in Utopia never occurs to many who play. For someone to "not care" but then desire CFs to protect them speaks to a deficit that can't be qualified as anything but poor strategy. To not care but additionally not be hurt? It is occupational slavery. The point being, if everyone else has to share a kingdom with a player who won't defend themselves but also want to be protected then they diminish the whole. These are tantamount to multis who would see the kingdom languish in the interest of their actual kingdom well being. At least we could respect them as goal seeking cheaters if they were multis. What if they're not? And what if there are a lot of them? What if there are so many that there's a defined barrier between top warring and whoring kingdoms? Rhetorical...
(As a note to my former kingdom, this isn't critical of the monarchy; he waited to see if anyone would retaliate and they did not. And so...)

What am I trying to say? Look for yourself.

And it's not just here. In our world I can be critical, but being fair let's just be observant. Today at the grocery store a store clerk is helping a guy look through his cart in the 3-way aisle entry/exit to the business. At no point did either suggest they move their operation to a low traffic area.

At the light of the intersection I had to honk to get the driver before me to abide the green arrow. This happens a lot and I mean several times per day.

At work I'm in charge of inventory auditing, but had to cover other areas for those vacationing last week. Inventory should maintain itself by observing the fundamentals of the work environment. You guessed it; it does not. The work habits of the common laborer goes sideways, like taking your hands off the steering wheel of a poorly aligned car.

Suffice to say, I've gathered evidence that poor workmanship and apathy are rampant. It's here where any mechanical deficits I have lay at the feet of superfluous gaming. It's not that I don't realize my weaknesses, but that employing mechanical prowess is overkill. It is a Ferrari behind a 35 mph phone-zombie on the on-ramp.

Any player can, at their whim, train thieves and study great kingdoms from stem to stern. You can look at builds, snatch news, ask them about their diplo or assume it based on relative peace. You can watch the homes pump progression and science banking navigation, how to random, who to random etc. Even munkbot provides the tools to figure out tpa/wpa.

Strategy for me has been a discipline of sympathy and empathy. I can't block the rest of humanity for my petty need for personal interaction in a metropolitan traffic situation. I can't spend my time impressing a boss with speed while screwing the customer. Strategy is sensing the bottlenecks and understanding alternatives. It's about knowing you are always taking the initiative even when you appear to be reacting. Knowing reacting isn't a sin if you get the results you want. Strategy is showing mercy to an enemy that can one day be a friend. And it's just good character.

Comfort Builds

Things are a bit different age to age so what's comfortable one age might be bothersome the next. In TVK I like to at least try to accommodate some comfort builds, at least to my mind.

I use to not be a fan of avian war hero, but I've noticed some of the basic virtues have some warm amber glow. let's get to War Spoils right off the bat. Since avian can now be ambushed this is nice from a casual observation. More from a logistical-tactical point of view, avians can navigate to be virtually unambushable...but, they have to wait for acres to begin building. Now as an avian paladin, after running an orc paladin, I realized that self casting all those great spells depended on guild percentage. It's very obvious, duh, but now we're talking about a personality in full play rather than some marginal doppleganger of a paladin.

As an orc paladin, once the enemy began to raze, my abilities were no longer magnificent. When I applied the same personality to avian I began to create that levy effect I've mentioned. My buildings were coming in more often despite the same build time because my returns(army in/out) were in a compacted time window. So applied logic dictates, an observant avian war hero using War Spoils can begin building before an avian paladin. We always have to be environmentally aware when we use War Spoils, but avian provides the shortest window unmodified.

The question was, should it be humans or avians? Warriors or war heroes? Though humans have tremendous science, they still have a magic deficit. We still want to give good things for comfort and Pitfalls is a nice offensive weapon for avians. They can use it when ambushing much more often, and unlike humans which might benefit from guilds to cast Quick Feet, avians are fundamentally faster.

For me, the dwarf undead fits into these comfort builds. It's not going to compete in science, but there are some basic abilities that I'm fond of. Reduced losses and plague immunity will always get my attention, particularly reduced defensive losses. Free building in 6-8 ticks is significant in the field. Some people underestimate buildings or use opposite logic and build nothing. I'm well aware of aid/trade and I'll bite if I'm aware of attackers on full life support. So will others.

Now let's get to where the rubber meets the road and the 7/5 elite at 30% offensive/defensive losses. Brushing aside sciences and bonuses, this is the premier offensive elite if rendered to zero spec status. When we're talking about Night Strike, Nightmares, Propaganda and ambushes the elite status and 5 defense points become invaluable. Sure it's not a great opener, but you talk about the one elite that hangs in there vs all 3 types of Utopian pressure and you see why the dwarf race augmented by undead personality makes me comfortable.

So you can raze a dwarf, but they can rebuild for free. You can cast Nightmares at a dwarf and they have a 7/5 elite when the smoke clears. It's not miracles, but these are the tools a veteran like myself desires over kingdom synergy.

When I started my dwarf undead experimentally, I knew certain people in kingdom were running a different strat. Now the thing is, I could've run the same strat and still be playing. This is no boast: the strat was tried and true, used by Emeriti in their crowning. It would've been exceptional for dwarf; again you can start the age exploring, and dwarves build for free and can cast Builders Boon for 6 day turnaround. Remember, that's 6 to 10 more days of productivity over other builds at 20% higher yield. The more I grew the faster, and outpacing everything but the kingdoms who mind. I never had to take a hit by random.

When I experiment it's to learn more than what I think I need to learn. There are surprises along the way and the struggle is paramount. This may seem an unhinged point of view, but I already never attack unprovoked. It's necessary to see Utopia through each tier under duress to truly gauge the strength of the field. The best will be up top by most measures, but the outstanding individuals can be hidden anywhere.

A Sober Perspective

Railing against chain wave concepts isn't my intent. It's that chain waves can be a major symptom of kingdoms lacking perception and combat IQ. The reason I noticed this flaw in many kingdoms strategic makeup? D&D. I know, it's always D&D. But really, let's talk.

Besides being in the Utopian world out of war, there's a simple connection in war to D&D: There are multiple opponents on each side with differing abilities.

In D&D we might attack 3 guys as the center of interest, but we sure wouldn't ignore the rest. In our last campaign I played a dwarf earth warden; a defender class. Essentially I'd engage as many enemies as possible to keep them away from our mages(controllers) and healers(leaders). Doesn't this parallel paladins and t/ms? Besides controllers, defenders and leaders there were strikers. That'd be campers, killers and rovers in Utopia.

Utopia is one long major encounter for an age. We aren't forgetting chain waves, but we have to keep their utility in perspective. Many kingdoms exert themselves wave after wave, at predictable intervals, leaving themselves open to crippling counter measures. We should be aware of the field, how it's laid out and what true threats the enemy presents.

EAR CANDY

The Virtual Kingdom ~ Age 77 slight mod

*8-track

Avian War Hero ~*Turntablism
Elf Heretic ~*Reggaeton
Elf Sage ~ Deep House
Faery Rogue ~*Electric Blues
Dwarf Undead ~ Crust Punk

CD

Elf Mystic ~*Baroque
Faery Heretic ~ Lo-fi
Halfling Rogue ~ Salsa
Human Warrior ~*Renaissance
Orc Tactician ~ Bubblegum Pop

Cassette

Avian Paladin ~ Acid Jazz
Dwarf Tactician ~ Honky Tonk
Dwarf Undead ~*Qawwali
Halfling Paladin ~ Jingles
Orc Paladin ~ Opera

Vinyl

Elf Mystic ~ Chillwave
Faery Heretic ~ Ska
Halfling Rogue ~ Trance
Human Warrior ~*Avant-Garde
Orc Tactician ~ Doo Wop

Streaming

Avian War Hero ~ Dirty South
Dwarf Undead ~ Goth
Faery Sage ~ Bebop
Halfling Mystic ~ Ambient*
Human Sage ~ Shoegaze

The modified version here is a spell efficiency strat.
The moves include:

Avian Tactician to Paladin to reap Fanaticism and Greater Protection shared spells.

Dwarf Sage to Tactician to grant Fanaticism, Clear Sight and overall speed to the core.

Faery Paladin to Sage which has both marginal benefits and deficits.

We could switch the halfer mystic to sage and faery sage to mystic, depending on who benefits the most from various building efficiencies and overall performance. My instincts tell me the builds are in better defensive position as it stands. The faery +1 stealth/tick leads me to believe it's better served with overall science vs narrow capability. Besides which I've run a very successful faery sage attacker so I'm not worried about the backup plan should things go sideways. I know faery mystic rolls off the tongue rather easily, so it's really just a matter of player enthusiasm here.

While I'm not completely optimistic about avian paladin, the ability to spread Fanaticism and Greater Protection to anyone in kingdom is of notable value. By moving tactician to a race other than avian we reduce the number of potential casts the avian paladin may have for Fanaticism.

This version has a paladin racial spell array including:

Aggression
Fanaticism
Greater Protection
Reflect Magic
Town Watch

Philosophical Weight

When it comes to decisions like how many and what race of paladin, TVK faces the question with defined limits. In most any other kingdom the decisions, not just on paladin, but the entire field up to 25 is wide open. If you belong to a lawful alliance you can push these boundaries further.

Let's start with a philosophy of reliability, using the paladin as a centering point. In all honesty the dwarf is the best platform for paladin. If I wasn't attempting to gather as many useful racial spells then the dwarf makes the most sense. Dwarves are the most durable in the characteristics which make a good paladin.

Ironically, you'll see the majority of Strategy Forum post are questions about build. Sure these could all be naive players, but the bulk of those answering and debating these questions means that build counts. So far so good. It's when we see players trivialize being razed or having unbuilt acres that makes this a swamp of jabbering nonsense. - It's really that no one wants to fund rebuilding. - And that equals dwarf, when we have a build that benefits greatly from its own health to the health of others.

Here's the scenario. The paladin is casting spells on itself and sharing spells with kingdom. The enemy sees this and razes the paladin, eliminating some towers and guilds, watch towers etc. In most cases this will hobble the paladin for some time if the kingdom doesn't appreciate the value a paladin brings to the kingdom. The duration of paladins casts will be shorter, the rune cache lower and will have higher vulnerability to theft. Funding rebuilds is expensive and harder to cast Builders Boon if the guild percentage is low. You're now looking at 16 ticks to rebuild at a cost. The dwarf is looking at 8 for free at the worst.

That's when we focus on paladin. What we should understand is where dwarf has value. Undead is one of the personalities that has obvious benefits for heavy hitters and frequent hitters like orc and avian. The premise in using dwarf as an undead platform has to do with the combination of free building and military sustain. Push comes to shove, dwarves can operate an elite army sans specs. Where the other races will sustain offense, the dwarf sustains both offense and defense. The basic resistances of elites to Night Strikes and Nightmares begs the residual troop type have both decent offense and defense, because your acres are likely in jeopardy. Free building, even when fat, allows dwarves to keep up with their acres without extraneous use of theft or aid. Preserving tpa for the right moves and defenses should be accounted. What we have in dwarf undead is the most complete system of overall sustain in a build that will take punishment. The basic defense figures to reduce enemy taps as well by absorbing higher troop counts to break.

What the philosophy in TVK does is demonstrate the importance of kingdom components; it justifies the zone by administering purpose. There's interlocking objectives like the dwarf undead defending the paladin and the greater core defending the dwarf undead. Because when we set the enemy at less than ideal proximity to dwarf undead we create a serious problem that mechanically is a basic truth.

In the short time I experimented with dwarf undead my province was struck several times. Waved by 3 different kingdoms in the spans of a day, my province was hit 6 times by separate provinces incapable of double tapping. The damage never caused a hiccup as I continued 200% wages and making gold, training and casting self spells. Now my monarch had to CF these waves because our prevailing kingdom was getting crushed. However, my point is that this quick succession of attacks by different kingdoms each exhibited a recognition of threat yet my province was fully capable of going to war. I only got to retaliate one of the six because of the CF dilemma.

I'd imagine the majority of attacks against me were undead, but my retaliation could include anyone from the opposing kingdom. This is when I was looking for human sages. You could see them, bristling in high nwpa, yet breakable. My smaller yet more durable army vs the human ideal. From a campaign perspective I seek them out. Not because I'm mean, but because we know their value per acre and capability.

CHAINING ERRORS

In many a war I've run into the odd instruction that we need to beat some guy down to said number of acres. We all try to obey orders while our provinces squander offense vs a wholly breakable and wilting enemy out of nw range. We squander time in the ticks our armies are wasted avoiding Meteors while enemy t/ms stride to total unbreakability.

These ridiculous focuses almost never, and I mean never, pan out. I'm sure there's a reason and we never talk about it. Wave captains and their "offense reducing brilliance" actually reduce our kingdoms total offense rather than reduce the offense of 1 enemy. This is truly lack of prep and a disaster in t/m control measures. The t/ms are to assure the prospective enemy will have one foot on a banana peel while the attackers make sure the other foot's in the grave. You might begin to understand my grip on Amnesia if you're really going to control an enemy core, reduce them to resource and consume them to fuel the battle vs enemy t/ms. If you face the likes of Freeakstyle and don't undertake a complete dismantling of pillboxed provinces, you'll simply be worn down in predictable fashion. Again, this isn't me saying this is how you beat who, it's about what will cause you to lose a war guaranteed.

Amnesia isn't an obvious tool because everyone has a notion of science depth. For the progressive thinker I'm looking at provinces that move scientists. Amnesia is more about petrification, stagnation and making malleable builds brittle. It lingers and it can't be sloughed by Mystic Vortex. Some say yada spell is more valuable, but that's contextual to the aim. How many times have I seen mana/rune exhaustion vs the fireball target who only requires meager gold to continue attacking? Plus, it's usually an attacker/nuisance that could've been zone fed before all our relevant attackers were reduced to smithereens. These aren't really threats in the basic sense, but are akin to cargo cult targets: we waste resources trying to contain a myth of a threat, when the actual threat is the ever strengthening t/ms.

Meanwhile this infuriating adherence to chain waving continues without targeting the economic heart of the enemy. There has to be some balance,.. but to look at a faery with 400k runes and simply quip "we can't break them". We can't break them anymore, because we were trying to get the much more dangerous glass jawed orc down to 60 acres on 50% wages.

Micro Knots

The Micronarch:

One of my greatest learning moments in an epic war was my monarch, of a formidable kingdom, trying to navigate my armies through his micro. It was a disaster and a turning point in a long war. What this monarch wasn't perceiving was the telegraphing of his every move. While he was checking nw and range and computation rabbit holes, the enemy was razing and Night Striking my army. This was my second army, as my first was sent out vs some forgettable target.

Suddenly I was in the critical position of needing to attack some t/m who was eating our lunch.

- Now, my back story is that I was a core attacker who joined this kingdom because they needed players. They felt they couldn't compete for a crown that age so made some poor diplomatic decisions. They shared no details, including intel, with the core. -

I was running a little bit of relay taps because we were facing a notoriously good war kingdom. Well, when the smoke cleared the "kingdom wave faithful" were grounded and essentially rendered ineffective.( I just so happen to have been hitting the targets, just in relay using stored intel. Yeah, I followed orders.) Our t/ms didn't establish unbreakable despite a great size advantage, and the enemy did. Long story short, the attack bounced and then the monarch said I didn't send enough, which was everything I had left and based on the intel he provided.

The perplexing part of this is that I had the offense well within reach of the enemy with my previous army. The attack would've been fully effective and immediate so the enemy counter micro would be negligible. Had our kingdom health status been revealed I could have exerted pressure on their secondary strength: their chained attackers.

I could go conspiracy theory and write this off as savvy fake warring, but we still have all the characteristics of how not to micro. Micromanaging by a single entity, like a monarch, is ok out of war. In war, micro should be allocated in the name of timing and initiative. This is addressed in TVK because I've suffered more bounces and poor field management by wave captains and monarchs with logistical OCD. Politics play here to, which shortens kingdom lifespan. The division system, obvious statement here.

Given the freedom to target and gather my own intel I could've made a significant difference in what ultimately was an embarrassing loss. It'd be nice to know how our t/ms failed to establish UB and do so silently while the rest of us(me) were grinding on with less than 20% built acres on a 5500 acre frontier.

So this gets us to...

Dealing With Aces - Acing Is Microing

It's kind of funny because you run into province-aces at some inopportune times; which they've surmised to wreak havoc. Province-Aces tend to be players who've planned their encounters or have exceptional instincts for gang bang protection, meter control, gains formula, activity surveillance, offense/defense balance, and think more than one move ahead.

Even I've been caught off guard by a province-ace, when I go to counter and find the enemy's been running circles around some kingdom mates after I do a mundane retal. Anyways, at this point you let aces handle aces. Call the boys off and let the games begin. As long as I'm around I'll be happy to match blades with the aces. An ace once faced will attempt to widen the conflict by hitting off target. I like to hold them to the fire, even when they phone-a-friend.

In war, the quality of a province-ace can be hidden by strict orders in their kingdom. Often they're stymied by helicopter monarchs, but they still show signs we should account. Build savvy will be higher than the common attacker, and they'll casually ambush and grab intel outside the standard intel run. This is stuff guys are supposed to share in kingdom: you tell people when and who took your intel. You tell people your ops, even if nobody can MV, and let them know who cast.

Many times at the end of lost wars I'll see in the war forum, "your t/ms were better than ours". Yeah. So why weren't you feeding the core this information when the moment was upon you? Making good players better by silent shame in the crappy job you've done isn't the answer. Look, I build garbage and apparently shouldn't do good. You can turn that stoic self mutilation into relaxed bedlam. Did you know I can bounce a guy with leftover troops? What if all of us did? You sometimes have to be forthcoming so that brutal people can do what must be done.

Province-Aces can come in many forms, just like the destructor.

To summarize, it's not my intention to make life harder for monarchs or leaders. You have followers so give them what they want. If you have players that take initiative and know what they're doing, allow them to lead small contingents to achieve goals. If they aren't leaders let them be rovers and campers by giving them a piece of the yard to watch. Bottom line, most of your players want to be huddled into waves and be told what to do. They will be as effective as you expect and everybody is happy.

Amnesia

If you don't know how to use Amnesia then let me explain my philosophy on the use of force overall. Killer instinct aside, you don't stretch or overuse your strength. When you use ops or sabotage or march you'll notice diminishing gains. You don't want to squander resources for little gain or strategic traction. You might not always max gain, but you should consider the logistics when you have the power. You'll likely regret it when you don't.

Back in the 70s the Dallas Cowboys use to run what was called the Flex Defense. It was developed to counter option blocking(google it). In Utopia players have learned to move scientists for various offensive, defensive and nw advantages. Amnesia is best used when players "flex" their scientists. In pro football, teams learned to hike the ball while the Cowboys defense was flexing. They evolved, we can to.

PS I hate to overexplain stuff like spell usage, but the dark history of the Nightmares spell forces me to. A scientific flex isn't the only time you use Amnesia, it's a spell you use to keep the enemy from progressing in science. And I'm not talking about when the flex is in motion, but anytime within reason to create scientific setbacks.

Nightmares

Nightmares have been smeared tactically into some chain psychosis to the point kingdoms would eschew the use unless it was a wave session: basically every organized kingdom I've ever been in :D. Thank goodness I've operated independently enough to see this staggering fallacy. The detractors will cry about having to check defense all the time or we only wave twice a day. And this is exactly why I know when to steal your runes and Lightning Strike when I'm out of stealth. Yes, with the runes I just stole. Your defense is calculable by the returns and announced via the magic of communication.

You can use Nightmares to crap on tpa, and/or army home. You don't have to full scale invade anyone. You can take what sculpts the kingdom best. You might've cast Nightmares to reduce an enemies offense so they can't break a t/m. You don't need 10 attackers to jump the guy after the fact. Confusing opportunity with need, or overusing the product when you have maximum alternatives can limit your effectiveness.

I've used Nightmares as an individual, as a type of hybrid attacker. My best iteration of this practice was as an elf cleric, but there's plenty of flexibility in the heretic build to serve a number of races. And I learned it from someone else. I marveled at the effectiveness of this lone province in Aggression Is The Liquor; he was a crabby, quiet kingdom mate. Otherwise known as an Ace.

Guard Stations

Phew, I almost forgot; guard station(GS) logic is from the same school of thought as Nightmares waving. I've had fellow players actually get angry because I've had GS in my build strat. Why?

Because without a real notion for strategy the angry person will recite that "GS is a kingdom strat! If you build GS the enemy will avoid you and concentrate elsewhere!"

They think I'm greedy.

For someone like myself, who never attacks unprovoked, I think it's fair to say I don't approach the game for pure self preservation. I might be nonconformist but let's get to the little things nobody talks about again.

Remember when I said I run fat provinces, and that I'll engage pumped provinces without blinking? And how I'll run zone-relay to establish a nw salient/buffer zone? When these prolific attackers with their awesome offenses get chained, who do you think offers them life support in a timely manner? Yes. Time after time, war after war, all day and night because I'll maintain furious activity and acre fluidity I distribute a great deal of aid to our chained provinces, thus sparing our t/ms resources so they can concentrate on winning the top.

By the way; when I have run heavy attackers in the tradition of killers(high offense TG) I was expected to break the big targets, yet the proverbial 7 tacticians in kingdom weren't forthcoming with intel, and when I was chained and economically pulverized there were no support members. Basically we have to face the fact that a lot of Utopia is occupied by people who aren't self aware. I'm sorry, but this is your wakeup call.

These chained provinces are victims of the chain-wave, yet fingers get pointed at the guy who's holding the center. And the fundemental knowledge that being victim to a classic pincer never sinks in. These are people who drive cars, probably make more money than me and have otherwise sophisticated lives..yet, they can't turn numbers into shapes: they aren't intuitive thinkers, but mechanical. The machine has to exist for them to perfect it, but who builds the original? The intuitive thinker with fat provinces that don't worry about the mechanics builds the machine. Pardon my ego.

Yet it's not that intuitive thinking is about being original as much as interpreting design from an unrelated source and applying that design to a relatable source. Consider Steve Jobs, starting with what's intuitive and engineering towards that, rather than engineering and trying to figure out how to make it intuitive.

The majority of players are mathematically biased because Utopia is a math based game. The intuitive players, like myself, don't delve into the dizzying world of numerical alchemy; I play test with my limited grasp. If it works then I know that all you mechanical thinkers can perfect the design. But I digress...

The point of GS is 'pockets of resistance' on the individual scale and 'funneling' on a sub-core scale. If you're a student of war you'll know that minefield and artillery batteries are used in concert. One compliments the other. It's hard to clear a minefield while being shelled and it's hard to overrun an artillery battery going through a minefield.

Interpreting this in Utopia, we can have attackers of prolific offense loaded with Training Grounds and science biased towards gains and breaking stuff. We can also have attackers who run interference for those loaded with offense by creating zones, being hard to displace and having residual economy.

Let's be real. If these heavy attackers were properly dispatched by leadership, they would be max gaining the enemy t/ms en masse and practically ignore the enemy attacking core. There would be no chaining because targeting would be self evident: the hardest to break is the target within max plus offensive wherewithal. Sure they'd still end up in the gutter, but the enemies potential unbreakables would be shattered. Most guys can't stomach the mutilation this would incur, unless the enemy was naive enough to chain instead of counter max. And this is semi-joking. We all have some game sense to understand that progression is more palatable than rash charges into glass doors.

GS are there for splendid uses of strategy, not bad province-good province idolatry. The Japanese Zero was a magnificent fighter that pilots loved, but it was so lightly armored it was prone to explode when hit. We humble pilots with our boring armor are here to protect your interests, not argue about how we should all be puffs of smoke.

Combat Group

In mentioning combat groups and not clarifying objectives, there may be a tendency for the reader to forget that the division system flexibility can constitute real initiative. It should come as no surprise that an enemy will clock return times and activity regardless 24/7 overall activity.

The combat group can be used to target areas of resistance. Coordination is essential, but can be masked as a mundane operation to achieve top anchoring points. We've yet to talk about liberal use of Nightmares and Night Strikes, but I'll present a scenario here:

*1. 8-track - combat group option v
2.*
3. Vinyl - combat group focus point >
4.
5. CD - combat group option ^

In this combat group we want heretics, rogues, human warriors and orc tacs. The remaining sage, mystics, war heroes and undead in these 3 divisions can carry on with assaults on an objective basis in their given GMT.

The heretics and rogues concentrate fire on particular enemy targets that are vulnerable to Nightmares and Night Strikes. We want the defenses as low as sensibly achievable without squandering resources.

What we're really doing is lowering vulnerable defenses for acreage yield because our orcs and humans are targeting t/ms for massacre or raze with their 1st general. We require an acre yield from the Nightmares/Night Strike targets to offer acre stability and zone integrity with the remaining 3 generals.

All attacks can be timed +/- to return each province to their designated division GMT.

So for example:

CD
Orc Tactician: massacre t/m #1
Human Warrior: raze t/m #1

Remaining 3 generals trad march, max gains Nightmares/Night Strike targets

Vinyl
Orc Tactician: massacre t/m #2
Human Warrior: raze t/m #2

Remaining 3 generals trad march, max gains Nightmares/Night Strike targets

The avian war heroes, dwarf undead will be in the process of clearing the zone per division objectives, which should but not always coincide with the actions of the temporary combat group. Ergo, massacre and raze vs targets of the mystics and the sage which may've already been laying the groundwork vs enemy core/vulnerable t/ms.

The reason we max gains vs the Nightmares/Night Strike targets vs cross-chaining is to address the likelihood of enemy resistance. If enemy resistance is poor due to surprise etc, then cross-chaining can be most beneficial in uniform zone establishment. We don't want our heavy attackers overshooting the nw zone, but definitely require them to protect their interests in continuing as healthy provinces.

Obviously, we can double massacre or raze. Much depends on the defense of the t/m and residual defense of the enemy core in nw vicinity. The human warrior offers the flexibility of Conquest if the t/m targets defense is higher than reasonable. Night Strikes vs t/ms is also an option. It's why we micro. Don't forget paladin support in Fanaticism and Scientific Insight and avian war hero Pitfalls.

These are examples, as your directory of generals may be weighted on level of breakability; targets may be unusual due to enemy kingdom strat, etc. We shouldn't forget our openers:

Mystic Vortex: can be cast from divisions not just combat group

Tornadoes/Blizzard//Arson/Greater Arson

Lightning Strike//Assassinate Wizards

And other ops/sabotage. Depending on ease of breaking and ability to replenish, mana/runes//thieves/stealth can be exerted by attackers to augment a complete objective.

Divisional forces can prioritize to defend our longest army out and/or nearest enemy army in. Classically, the avian war heroes would be rovers and dwarf undead campers to strike armies home or bust up coordinating efforts based in enemy nw alignments.

Good Players

One reason I play independently most ages is because my personality is biased toward downhill running. The stifling wave system drives me up the wall when I recognize a solid enemy player being let off the hook by actually ineffective warring.

When I'm in a free-for-all kingdom then we can get down to business. In premium kingdoms, which are few to none, you can be a rover or camper and lock up with the difference makers. Trying to explain to me that rigidity in a chain wave against an also-ran enemy is the best doesn't cut it based on years of witnessing the failures over and over.

You really need to let your players that can read the field off the chain. Mistrust that the player in question is going to act in ways that don't serve the whole means you're either paranoid or they aren't that good. Fact is, somebody has to do it till the kingdom is so refined it's hard to tell who's better than who. This ain't cocky me, it's that I'm wired to engage.

Simply, you use average enemy players for resources and you get brutal with good players. Now don't get me wrong: good players like the action and feel they can prevail. But you see, just like combat aces, we have to get naive players in the pipe so they can gain the experience necessary. You deal with bloody noses and bounce back from chaining.

When I present any of these starry eyed methods to you, understand that I'm in flack as a way of being. When you establish a zone and the enemy knows it, or senses the bullets are bouncing off of you, they bring their lunch to take you down. This is what I'm building for. And I want the flack to free up ailing kingdom mates. Sadly, many times kingdom mates don't dig out while the getting's good.

All you can do is light the spark. You can't give the oxygen of epiphany to light the flame.

The divisions were designed for micro to allow these type of enemy operatives to be dealt with sternly. You get a look at what makes them good. You might lose, but the knowledge potential is game changing. In great kingdoms they'll not be apparent but you can, by divining, narrow it down. This means taking offensive initiative. If they show themselves it'll be at your flank; your vulnerability. If you mimic flypaper like I do, this is what you're looking for. It's a radar ping ~ you've found the sub.

The reason weight of numbers is often less than effective goes to why most players are average, no offense. But let's cut to the chase. Say the kingdom targets some avian with a good nwpa and hard to break. Basically we never Snatch News to see the t/ms pumping this fella. And when the offensive begins, everybody is coming out with peanuts. - Maybe one player will mention the enemy player is online, but a much rarer player will notice the enemy faery paladin is also online. Wonder what that aid to the avian was for right after I set off Shadow Light? Average players might MV, but might not. And they always forget to Lightning Strike the faery paladin, if they notice the activity asterisk at all.

This is why you require experience, but more importantly, curiosity. It's hard to invent. The hope is that losing is a motivator to get better and not an excuse to cry for CFs during utopia school, er, being aggressed by superior opposition.

Not CFing

I'm generally an attacker, and I'll be the first to admit your best and most active players should be t/ms. I'd even go so far as saying I've seen best results from this: #1 best player as rogue in war kingdoms. If that player also enjoys rogue then what's not to love? If the best player has to be something else, hopefully it's a t/m. Why not me? I'm a slob at building. I can ham-hand a t/m or supermage build, but my nuances are in mixed operations. If I'm effective it's because I probe the enemy for weakness.

You require excellent t/m play and the first iteration of this isn't in build, but in action. Particularly when you go unfriendly up to hostile from enemy randoms/reprisals/waves you customarily should probe 1st. I'll reemphasize the use of Mystic Vortex as an intel tool. You'll want to know "why so serious?" and it's usually because they've got confidence in their pocket. Before grabbing mass intel and setting off alarms you'll want to MV to see what spells they're using. Narrow your initial intel to one province, preferably offline, but online if necessary. Choose a good example based in outward appearance: good attacker type, nwpa, chain placement.

The meter is a Utopian system of law and we sacrifice humbly with wisdom and intellect to that system, even when we are better than the waving kingdom. Mystic Vortex is your first move. Once you've learned what you need to learn you pour on the ops and sabotage. We're also looking for resource depletion: stealing and destroying.

Fading ops are fine before war because the enemy expenditure in defensive Mystic Vortex is desirable. Still, the assault on science and troops can commence. Attacking by way of heavy attacker is done in the interest of hurting enemy near unbreakables. For this you'll want the orcs to get the highest meter efficiency possible. Cast Nightmares at enemy core to lower their tpa so our common attackers can rob resources.

But you'll know the drill based in our use of resource spread to minimize mass theft. You don't Lightning Strike the enemy, who might have Reflect Magic up, when you have 300k runes stocked. As a division we magazine feed the caster. Reminding you our orc tacticians have RM and CS, so rune distribution can be risk management on a bell curve.

Lots of ops/sabotage are available in unfriendly. If we go unfriendly we do it against the enemy at hand, even if they phone-a-friend. Optional targeting remains. For instance, the phone-a-friend might be rich in easily stolen resources we can expend against the primary.

Fools Gold
Amnesia
Riots
Greed

Grab full intel to see their science distribution, build, news etc. Do not offer CF. If our attacking core need to train thieves then hop to. And as a reminder, do not offer CF. Allow your enemy to contact you and politely come to an agreement. Offer them to stop attacking and you will stop ops, but don't offer CF. If the enemy wants a CF then they most often should offer it to us. Why? Because if they can't just walk away and require a mechanical crutch, be assured another kingdom will wave immediately. They are untrustworthy based in their predation. Doesn't mean they aren't nice people, but they play for position. We do our part to assure they and their friends are aware that we won't accept CF unless their baby alliance also offer CF.

Does that sound like paranoia or experience? Regardless, the meter is the gold standard of diplomacy. Let the enemy linger in hostile until we can conclude the relationship through cool off or war. If it goes to war and we are hopelessly overmatched, tear off a portion of their kingdom and utterly destroy them. 5 to 1 is generally a good account. We want the highest reliably breakable, preferencing t/ms and gut their wpa. I don't practice province killing, but I've no problem with leaving them a decrepit shell worthy of heart wrenching pity. If you don't feel guilty when it's done, you're doing it wrong. - that's a joke :) it's funny because it's true.

All is fair, in and out of war. The reputation of TVK isn't in size or honor charts, but in the willingness to go as deep as rules allow. If they choose to exercise multis or allies then let the record show what it takes to get TVK to unlock its grip. And always be friendly. Don't argue. Let them know we mean no harm and they can GTOW if they cease aggession.

This is how we carry on as a new kingdom. As we become refined enough to earn respect or fear we can be more diplomatic. The first lessons are about seeing formidable kingdoms at full strength so we can observe their tactics for posterity.

Diplomacy

I'm not going to reflect on diplomacy as much as the reality of environment. People think in twisted ways that don't correlate to common sense.

I'm talking about the things enemy kingdoms say that actually only occur to someone who talks to themselves.
Like this:

"If you don't want war, you don't retaliate."

See, this personality doesn't deserve a sane response. If those war leaders are reading this, let me address your sanity. It bewilders me why such leaders believe a pumped province is in any shape to attack my army at home. It's a long list of pumped attackers bleeding nw when they screw around with my fat province. I'm not expecting players to figure out it's me, but to understand retaliation is the standard by which survival of the fittest is arranged. I'm not a herd animal, I'm a predator and my play style is flypaper.

War begins when the final changes are out every age. We're already at war, lol.

And the next are kingdoms that claim:

"We don't care. We'll farm you all age."

If you didn't care, then you wouldn't run arranged kingdom strats and wave precisely at 9am. They care. And the "I don't care" thing doesn't win points because I do care and those words have power. When someone says they don't care they are planting their flag in apathy which is the abyss. They have no foundation. Thus, I wouldn't accept CF from a kingdom that doesn't care.

How about kingdoms that send messages about our leader being an idiot? It's our idiot, and you can't have 'm.

~ These are all terms of disrespect. Now I'm going to leapfrog traditional righteousness and suggest to you that you earn fear. If disrespect is the starting point of our relationship then fear is the logical conclusion. This is why some people I know have abandoned kingdoms to go guerilla on such aggressors. Respect is not an alternative, so we have to invoke fear. Abandoning a kingdom to go on tunnel vision missions against an enemy may seem extreme. At the end of the reprisals there was indeed a truce. ~

It's just a game, but remember this:

"And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought, my God... the genius of that! The genius! The will to do that! Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we, because they could stand that these were not monsters, these were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men, our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment! Because it's judgment that defeats us."

Love that quote.

Oftentimes I've been in retaliatory exchanges with other kingdoms for competitive fun. As soon as they require war prep, all they have to do is ask for a mutual stop. I never hit unprovoked and I don't hold grudges. Did you know I've never asked someone to spare my province while I prepare for war? Because it's not how I'm wired. It doesn't even occur to me. Personally, I think we should grant each other the curtesy of respite, so if someone asks me to stop retal that's enough. No need for CFs. The opponent may need to hold army home and switch builds for waving. I respect that requirement.

It's good to leave diplomacy to diplomats, I think you've gathered. For me, CFs have no utility. I see nothing gained unless a friendly wants to prevent accidental randoming. Even here, I've had friends random my province and consider it fun.

The intuitive leap lesson of the day: I use a lot of "me" and "I" in these posts. And I remind you: "If I had ten divisions of those men, our troubles here would be over very quickly." The leap is 'we'. If you apply 'we' and amplify to 25 provinces.

Metropolis

The cultural vision of of The Virtual Kingdom is of metropolitan persuasion. The GMT ellipse evokes a city that never sleeps. The infrastructure is refined and kingdom behavior is economically biased rather than aggressive. While the game itself is driven by war culturally, The Virtual Kingdom is ultimately aimed at players who desire a rich interactive experience. While it may seem I come off as aggressive, it's because establishing a sustaining culture requires a foundation of toughness. There's a buy in period to achieve the level of trust and mutual respect in kingdom unity.

Amen, to the buy-in period.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RattleHead

Amen, to the buy-in period.

---

Yes, it takes time for all parties involved to learn each others tendencies.

Created my new test province today. I'll be back in the field shortly.

oo i thought i felt a disturbance

War Testing

Unlike most ages in micro-kingdoms, we were fortunate in finding a war. War is a great environment for battle testing since every ability is in play by both sides. These micro-kingdom match ups allow us to see race and personality in full regalia; it was my pleasure to see opposition in the guise of another virtual kingdom build; the avian war hero.

Now I've already tested the dwarf undead to some degree, so there was nothing learned as much as confirmed: durability allows us to concentrate elsewhere. What I did enjoy seeing, at my own detriment, was the avian war hero utility. Dragon immunity was in play since my kingdom sent 3 gold during the war.

My impression was that the avian war hero player was experienced. While most of us understand the prime directive of training thieves, it becomes a little more of a prismatic dimension when applied to war hero and almost particular to avian. Long ago, flogger explained the idea behind halfling war hero to me and the effects of honor and dragon immunity: when 2 kingdoms war and they both send sapphire. Things have changed, but the remnants of old mechanics still linger.

If we apply part of that logic to an attacker and express that difference through sabotage we create a duel threat, which this player accomplished. Consider the war hero spells in Pitfalls and War Spoils. By casting Pitfalls the war hero drew down my undead advantage and using War Spoils prevented me using my durability to ambush his offense. This guy was using his thieves liberally and effectively. Our gold dragons had no effect so I pondered his effectiveness had his kingdom sent a gold or sapphire.

The opposition had some rather dormant provinces, which is to be expected in retirement micro-kingdoms. We can apply things we know to allow you to see the entire kata, as it were. The avian war hero was stealing my food but the opposing halfling never cast Gluttony. This can be seen as mercy, an unnecessary demonstration of power, or inactivity.
None the less, we all understand the ramifications. This threat level was realized because the avian war hero player understood that dragon immunity and dragon attrition favored the dual threat.

I'm not trying to convince others that they need to build dual thread avian war heroes. The abilities in attacking and sabotage unfettered by opposition dragons, and bolstered by their kingdoms dragons can be accomplished by specialists,..but they have to work together. I think it's important to shine a light on the player because it required a combined effort by my kingdom to get him under control.

To give you an idea of the avian war hero formidability, he was able to double tap and ambush my province at the start of war and had a dominating sabotage advantage. By the end of war he was just below the ability to double tap, but was able to tap and ambush. His sabotage ability was rendered comparable to mine. Casting was a stalemate, but he had the ability to cast Pitfalls(offense) on me and War Spoils(defense/economy) on himself, while I had Animate Dead(defense). ~ At the beginning of war I could barely single tap the avian WH and just getting SoMs was difficult. By end of war, due to dragon effect, dragon slaying, multiple hits besides my own and plague, I was able to double tap his army home and triple his army out.

Admittedly I just started this new build, but in war we can't match our adversaries to a vacuum of fair practices. Such advantages and disadvantages can be had at any level. play testing isn't about finding a nw match, but to see how the province handles adversity within my grasp of mechanics and tactics.

Observing the A-Team

For the newer players it's good to take a tour of the kingdoms by ranking. Number 2 in land, nw and honor with a 3-0 war record; let's look at the A-Team. If you press the nw tab you'll see an advanced clamp triad formation. From the center there's a nw spread of 811k to 968k where the entire battery of elf and faery form the belt. Attention to detail shows that the humans are roughly 50k apart through this center belt, which should indicate what in essence is the max gain firing arc. Since this is consistent with stand alone marching kinetics we can draw certain conclusions.

The belt is capable of inexhaustible offense, but is in a characteristically defensive nw posture. One reason could be that the number one kingdom, Emeriti, taxes number 2 and it's best to have a land yielding top of dwarves and humans to surrender tax limited gains. The other reason is to have Emeriti well within nw/acre reach if they decide to take land from t/ms. It's more complicated than that but the fact is that the closer kingdoms are in nw the more efficient gains. Therefor we might be wise to first look at the A-Team as an acre digestion system for Emeriti.

Acre digestion system? For the uninformed, we should regard the Utopian server as an African ecosystem; predators, omnivores, stuff that makes things harder like honey badgers and porcupines...

I'll share an example. I'm in a very small kingdom so we have a reasonable nw advantage vs large kingdoms. A very large kingdom struck our king, but in retaliation my king brought back a much higher yield of acres. What happens is the very large kingdom learns that these are difficult acres, like trying to eat raw horse meat with a human digestion system. It's a factor they the huge kingdom understand, it simply depends if the target is or isn't intimidated. By proxy or coincidence, larger kingdoms than ours begin hitting our monarch but far smaller than the original perpetrator. Thus, the very large kingdom, can by proxy or dumb luck, gain acres by the predatory ecosystem. This is why guys like me account acres going up with greater scrutiny than acres going down.

That wasn't a digression because it's important to understand the probability of linked destinies when you tangle with refined kingdoms.

But yes, look at the nw alignment and observe the dwarves on top with human meat shields as the top clamp, t/m center hinge, with human bottom clamp. In a classic Freeakstyle formation we have a war simplified clamp with no center hinge. The entire attacker core is the bottom clamp and the t/m array are the top. Freeakstyle has proven the simplified clamp is superior in the war tier, but the triad has great function in whoring. The triad, in my observation of AMA and Cromulent Republic, shows these formations are idealized toward land whoring kingdoms that see more war than classically built whoring, augmented by diplomacy. This makes sense since AMAs heyday was in the throes of the Absalom alliance.

Triads work based in center nw accumulations and has it's own acre/honor digestion system built into the kingdom itself. These accumulations and functional prowess seem complicated in architecture but are almost naturally occurring in practice.

Essentially the lower clamp is on a yo-yo diet of acres and honor. These generally consist of attacker types who grind defenses to palatable levels so the center can feed leisurely. (Now none of these 3 elements are simply one function designs; I'm simplifying.)

If we regard top killers as fangs then we can conceive the center t/m belt as the poison injected into the wound. In the A-Teams case the human meat shields are the killers and the dwarves are frustrated cows. How do we know this? It's mechanics, but even if you don't understand the mechanics observe the Emeriti top 3 provinces: build free in 6 ticks, great elite ratio, and a bunch of stuff I barely pay attention to.

Again, things are multifunctional. The center belt isn't just capable of launching ops and sabotage, they have relative defense advantages that create difficulty for the enemy. You can't really massacre them from the top and expect to survive a chaining attempt. And from the lower levels you jeopardize the bulk of your army. Additionally the belt is center to the conflict as interpreted by nw which is kind of a bulk packaging of t/m firing arcs. In most kingdoms the t/ms occupy the top making them less effective vs the enemy bottom. In Freeakstyles case this is a no-brainer since any enemy that could survive the gauntlet of half a kingdom of t/ms might as well break the server.

The center belt in top kingdoms is the stopgap when facing homogenous cores like that of Emeriti this age. What's interesting is that the Emeriti kingdom of this age is a flogger signature. Yet I remember flogger mentioning to them the idea of whoring vs winning wars. So the Emeriti design is pure flogger, whereas the A-Team design was A Mothers Advice design. And I repeat, the triad I observed was prominent in the ages when AMA was outnumbered by Absalom interested: a design that was built for top warring vs pure whoring kingdoms. While I mentioned this before, we have 2 specimens before us that hail to the ages of land crown prestige. The pure whoring kingdom is designed to yield maximum acres, while the triad is a slower whoring construct but superior in war vs a pure whoring set.

Experimental Update

I'm glad to be seeing this dwarf undead in action. I've been experiencing a brutal concentration of attacks mostly by humans. This is good because the impact of science can be monitored. My losses have been relatively heavy, as my enrmies are faster and scientifically superior. The good news is the dwarf undead build has sustained.

So far, no CF has been offered. I'm reminded of one of my favorite scenes in cinematic history ~

The Humungus: There has been too much violence. Too much pain. But I have an honorable compromise. Just walk away. Give me your pump, the oil, the gasoline, and the whole compound, and I'll spare your lives. Just walk away and we'll give you a safe passageway in the wastelands. Just walk away and there will be an end to the horror.

The Next Day.

My tally is roughly 4000 elites and 3000 mixed spec losses. I'm counting 23 attacks since May 21 YR 6 including several ops and sabotage.

Losses on my part are generally high because most encounters begin with my full army home.

Edit Today:

Things are more interesting as we've been engaged by 2 kingdoms and some concerted orc participation from both sides against yours truly. I've not yet had the opportunity to march on the orcs, but look forward to the exchanges. One is a larger tac province that seems to be an enforcer. We've offered CF but my hope is they attempt to continue farming. Not many of us retal, which is inherent in ramshackle retirement ghettos.

While I expect kingdoms to act in their best interests - meaning, I'm expecting more reprisals than I can retal with equal force - the experimentation can continue so long as they ignore the CF. Neither kingdom has a war win or any honor(game honor; I'm sure they're honorable people) to speak of, but they are a worthwhile step up, if only for their size advantage. I struck a dwarf mystic that attacked me first, but he's not showing a willingness to bang heads. Thus, I will honor his apparent decision to pass and let the orc take over.

( It's important to remind the reader that the kingdom I'm part in has no rules other than activity. While I'm still concerned about the welfare of my teammates, the premise of these experiments is to confirm that dwarf undead is capable of anchoring center nw. So far the build has proven itself despite a science deficit. The experiments have to be thorough in microcosm so they can be applied to TVKs greater strategic theater. If the dwarf undead can hold ground against all comers then the valance core has a reliable zone constable to rely on.)

New Edit:

We have an ongoing conflict and I'm absorbing my fair share of damage. Humans certainly can dish out punishment and can bottle obscene nwpa. Still, I was able to both cast and steal vs a human sage today with admirable reliability.

This is far from a conclusion as I'd imagine the player is highly concentrated in particular sciences. Additionally, the honor gains are not even scraps. There are no barons to attack and lots and lots of knights.

Kingdoms are settling into stratas with less intermingling between skill levels and organization. The ghettos should note this because honor gains will yield a wackamole mindset from higher stratas. Yes this always goes on, but seems more linear this age. I'm afraid this offers us little choice but to crush one of the transgressing ghettos or be crushed. We both require a head to step on to move forward.

TLDR, my dwarf undead was able to steal gold and runes and cast tornadoes with the stolen runes on a human sage. - oh, and my full army was hit at home and I countered him with trad and ambush. My target countered with an ambush of my ambush and his kingdom mate trad marched my province.

After some 3 on 1 action we offered CF and our enemy accepted. I'm showing a loss of 3000 elites and an odd number of specs. The enemy launched a dragon so a correct fount of spec losses would be skewed. It was an honorable exchange and I got to see one of their players use some savvy tactics.

A Day in the Life ~ retal prices

Meteors rain across the lands and kill 18 peasants, 1 soldier, 44 Axemen and 33 Berserkers!
February 1 of YR9 We have received a shipment of 78,111 gold coins from Troster (7:4).
February 2 of YR9 Meteors rain across the lands and kill 4 peasants, 27 Axemen and 20 Berserkers!
February 4 of YR9 A new scientist, Novice Vinven (Crime), has emerged and has joined our academic ranks.
February 6 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Choong (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 6 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Choong (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 7 of YR9 Your people appreciate the impressive dedication and time devoted to them in the last month and have worked harder to generate 17,968 gold coins.
February 7 of YR9 Our people decided to explore new territories and have settled 5 acres of new land.
February 7 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Choong (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 7 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Choong (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 7 of YR9 9,636 gold coins were stolen from our coffers!
February 7 of YR9 We have found thieves from Choong (1:10) causing trouble within our lands!
February 7 of YR9 We have found thieves from Blackheart (1:10) causing trouble within our lands!
February 7 of YR9 Forces from Blackheart (1:10) came through and ravaged our lands! They captured 1 acre! We lost 37 Axemen and 28 Berserkers in this battle. We reawakened 32 of our dead troops into soldiers.
February 7 of YR9 Forces from Blackheart (1:10) came through and ravaged our lands! Their armies killed 296 of our peasants, thieves, and wizards! We lost 38 Axemen and 28 Berserkers in this battle.
February 7 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Oshin (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 166 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 124 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 124 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 141 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 135 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Oshin (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 7 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Oshin (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 90 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 125 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 91 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Oshin (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 95 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 87 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 89 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 74 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 80 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 67 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 81 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 76 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 74 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 53 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 68 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 57 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 51 peasants!
February 7 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Oshin (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 7 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Oshin (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 7 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Oshin (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 7 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 60 peasants!
February 9 of YR9 6,550 gold coins were stolen from our coffers!
February 9 of YR9 78 horses have been stolen!
February 9 of YR9 We have found thieves causing trouble within our lands. Unfortunately, we know not where they came from.
February 9 of YR9 43 of our troops were found dead today!
February 9 of YR9 We have found thieves causing trouble within our lands. Unfortunately, we know not where they came from.
February 9 of YR9 Forces from Our Cartoon President (1:10) came through and ravaged our lands! Their armies killed 333 of our peasants, thieves, and wizards! We lost 89 Axemen and 67 Berserkers in this battle. We reawakened 78 of our dead troops into soldiers.
February 14 of YR9 Rioting has started amongst our people. Our tax collection efforts will be hampered for 1 day!
February 14 of YR9 36 of our troops were found dead today!
February 14 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Axeion Province (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 14 of YR9 Meteors rain across our lands, and are not expected to stop for 6 days.
February 14 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 80 peasants!
February 14 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 84 peasants!
February 14 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 62 peasants!
February 14 of YR9 42,406 bushels were stolen from our granaries!
February 14 of YR9 28,075 bushels were stolen from our granaries!
February 14 of YR9 18,587 bushels were stolen from our granaries!
February 14 of YR9 12,305 bushels were stolen from our granaries!
February 14 of YR9 8,146 bushels were stolen from our granaries!
February 14 of YR9 5,393 bushels were stolen from our granaries!
February 14 of YR9 3,570 bushels were stolen from our granaries!
February 14 of YR9 2,364 bushels were stolen from our granaries!
February 14 of YR9 A magic vortex encircled our lands, and rendered 6 of our spells (Greater Protection, Magic Shield, Nature's Blessing, Minor Protection, Inspire Army and Love and Peace) inactive!
February 14 of YR9 Storms are ravaging our lands! This will last for 11 days.
February 14 of YR9 Droughts are reducing our daily harvests and slowing our soldier draft! This will last for 14 days. 313 horses also died from starvation.
February 14 of YR9 Enemies have convinced our soldiers to demand more money for upkeep for 12 days.
February 14 of YR9 The womenfolk's vow of chastity is preventing any population growth for 3 days!
February 14 of YR9 Explosions are hampering aid shipments from other provinces for 11 days.
February 14 of YR9 Tornadoes scour the lands, causing the destruction of 38 acres of buildings!
February 14 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 72 peasants!
February 14 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 58 peasants!
February 14 of YR9 1,577 bushels were stolen from our granaries!
February 14 of YR9 166 horses have been stolen!
February 14 of YR9 166 horses have been stolen!
February 14 of YR9 We have found thieves causing trouble within our lands. Unfortunately, we know not where they came from.
February 14 of YR9 We have found thieves causing trouble within our lands. Unfortunately, we know not where they came from.
February 14 of YR9 165 horses have been stolen!
February 14 of YR9 165 horses have been stolen!
February 14 of YR9 We have found thieves causing trouble within our lands. Unfortunately, we know not where they came from.
February 14 of YR9 We have found thieves from Axeion Province (1:10) causing trouble within our lands!
February 14 of YR9 36 of our troops were found dead today!
February 14 of YR9 36 of our troops were found dead today!
February 14 of YR9 36 of our troops were found dead today!
February 14 of YR9 36 of our troops were found dead today!
February 14 of YR9 36 of our troops were found dead today!
February 14 of YR9 Tornadoes scour the lands, causing the destruction of 48 acres of buildings!
February 14 of YR9 Tornadoes scour the lands, causing the destruction of 33 acres of buildings!
February 14 of YR9 Tornadoes scour the lands, causing the destruction of 41 acres of buildings!
February 14 of YR9 Tornadoes scour the lands, causing the destruction of 11 acres of buildings!
February 15 of YR9 A new scientist, Novice Vinron (Crime), has emerged and has joined our academic ranks.
February 15 of YR9 Meteors rain across the lands and kill 10 peasants, 21 Warriors, 24 Axemen and 58 Berserkers!
February 15 of YR9 We have discovered a turncoat general leading our military. He has been executed for treason!
February 16 of YR9 Meteors rain across the lands and kill 14 peasants, 2 Axemen and 1 Berserker!
February 16 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Injacar (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 16 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Injacar (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 17 of YR9 Meteors rain across the lands and kill 3 peasants, 15 Axemen and 6 Berserkers!
February 18 of YR9 Meteors rain across the lands and kill 8 peasants, 9 Axemen and 4 Berserkers!
February 19 of YR9 Meteors rain across the lands and kill 1 peasant, 15 Axemen and 7 Berserkers!
February 20 of YR9 Meteors rain across the lands and kill 1 peasant, 14 Axemen and 6 Berserkers!
February 22 of YR9 We have found thieves from Wolfenstein (1:10) causing trouble within our lands!
February 22 of YR9 We have found thieves causing trouble within our lands. Unfortunately, we know not where they came from.
February 22 of YR9 Forces from Wolfenstein (1:10) came through and ravaged our lands! They captured 144 acres! We lost 148 Axemen and 66 Berserkers in this battle. We reawakened 107 of our dead troops into soldiers.
February 22 of YR9 Forces from Wolfenstein (1:10) came through and ravaged our lands! They captured 90 acres! We lost 2 soldiers, 90 Axemen and 40 Berserkers in this battle.
February 22 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Wolfenstein (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 22 of YR9 A massive fireball crashed into our lands and killed 40 peasants!
February 22 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Wolfenstein (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 22 of YR9 Our mages noticed a possible spell attempt by Wolfenstein (1:10) causing trouble on our lands!
February 22 of YR9 We have found thieves causing trouble within our lands. Unfortunately, we know not where they came from.
February 22 of YR9 We have found thieves from Summer at the south pole (1:10) causing trouble within our lands!
February 22 of YR9 We have found thieves from Summer at the south pole (1:10) causing trouble within our lands!
February 22 of YR9 Forces from Summer at the south pole (1:10) came through and ravaged our lands! Their armies killed 148 of our peasants, thieves, and wizards! We lost 32 Axemen and 14 Berserkers in this battle.