Feelings ~ TVK 70

Big Trouble in Little China

Western

Faery - heretic ~ Ching Dai*
Faery - rogue ~ Gracie Law
Orc - cleric ~ Thunder
Undead - warrior ~ One Ear
Undead - war hero ~ Call The President*

Northern

Avian - warrior ~ Wang Chi
Elf - sage ~ Hell of Boiling Oil
Halfling - rogue ~ Miao Yin*
Human - tactician ~ Crackerjack Timing
Orc - tactician ~ Born Ready

Central HQ

Dwarf - heretic ~ Eddie Lee
Dwarf - sage ~ Uncle Chu*
Faery - mystic ~ Lo Pan
Faery - sage ~ Egg Shen*
Human - sage ~ Jack Burton

Southern

Dwarf - war hero ~ Rain
Elf - mystic ~ White Tiger
Halfling - rogue ~ Monumentally Naive*
Human - tactician ~ Wing Kong
Orc - warrior ~ Chang Sing

Eastern

Avian - cleric ~ Lightning
Avian - cleric ~ Henry Swanson
Elf - heretic ~ Margo
Halfling - mystic ~ What the Hell
Undead - war hero ~ Bog of the Dead Trees
*

Hello and welcome to The Virtual Kingdom Age 70

~ Big Trouble in Little China ~

My apologies for taking so long to post this ages version of TVK. Work is work.

This age we pay tribute to one of my favorite movies and explore a new division system in eleptical waving.
The sage biased kingdom array is based in my experiences with meter navigation and conflicts from top to competitive war kingdoms.

The purpose built divisions are designed as an alternative to the traditional wave system. The emphasis is toward prime activity and teamwork in a perpetual wave formation. My endeavor was to reduce prime activity to four 6 hour periods with the Central HQ division reserve for players who are conditioned to hyperactivity.

One of my encounters this age was with a kingdom that was combined from 3 fragmented kingdoms from age 69. This convinced me that the possibility to work a 5 division kingdom was viable.

As always, you're comments are welcome and thank you for stopping by.

Divisions & Teamwork

The allure around Utopia often focuses on the wave. Kingdoms in the upper echelons often benefit from well coordinated waves with all provinces online. Many mechanical efficiencies are apparent, with few exceptions.

My focus here, in The Virtual kingdom 70, is to explore alternatives to waving. Taking seemingly disorganized efforts and combining their objectives into one effective goal oriented strategy. This isn't new to some of the most polished kingdoms. It is in warring these accomplished kingdoms that these ideas emerged. While these ideas may be lost on those who have proven track records, this is aimed at kingdoms seeking a system more inline with their style of play; specifically, lower tier kingdoms.

There are certain characteristics of lower tier kingdoms that I've witnessed countless times: namely the relationship between thief/mage operations, hybrids and attackers. Communication and activity tend to be poorly matched. Even so, most orders are given to the thieves and mages and other orders given to attackers. But what if we integrate like activity sphere provinces into action committees or as I call them, divisions?

What we're doing here is putting a microscope on how things are done in polished kingdoms and compacting those practices into manageable accounts of 5 provinces. One practice I believe in is touching each and every enemy province so that none can go through their day without seeing something in their news.

The first thing we do with a division is we match our 5 against 5 of our enemies. We see logistically how we match up. Where are we weak, where are we strong, how can we defeat an equal number of provinces and serve the greater good of the kingdom? Will we need reinforcements? The enemy isn't attacking us in divisions, how do we react to their global strategy? - These questions can be answered in first seeing how the team reacts to adversity. The success or failure of your reaction is based in teamwork.

Since I'm an analogy expert, I think the best way to evaluate oneself is through similarity:

SWAT teams
Special ops mercenaries
Mechanized warfare
Rock & Roll bands
Sports like basketball, football, soccer
Cheerleading
Work
Hi-fi audio
Astronomy

A look at the divisions can help. I'm not saying these are perfect, but that they're oriented toward an engagement structure. So, the northern and southern divisions consist of the highest attack/ops/sabotage landing percentages. The northern division is consistent with engaging enemy rogues and similarly built provinces. The southern division is more closely designed to engage enemy mystics. Each of the northern and southern divisions carry a duo of attacker escorts.
The northern division has the avian warrior and human sage. The southern division has a dwarf war hero and human tactician. The primary provinces; elf, halfling and orc, in each division, directly engage enemy t/ms while the escorts run interference to help keep enemy counter attacks at arms length.

The eastern division is designed for heavy core engagements, generally in the heart of the kingdom at the lower nw ranges. The western division is designed to engage higher nw core and hybrid provinces. These roles will obviously coalesce as chaining and shelling proceed on both sides.

The central HQ division is a jack-of-all-trades. It is to be defended, it is to reinforce, it is to push where the enemy hasn't been pushed and provide a nucleus to the orbital divisions. This division is envisioned as the Winston Wolf(Pulp Fiction) of the kingdom and should be home to the most active players. The avian tactician can move from assignment to assignment faster than any other province in the kingdom. The faery and dwarf compliment provide the versatility to adapt to a plethora of climates.

All things being equal, I'm not ready to call this a war kingdom or a frustrated top kingdom. The setup may seem wanting in certain regards but this isn't all about meta.

The Virtual Kingdom is a celebration of Utopia and offers every advantage and disadvantage. It is a pageantry of the developers work and central to the most important structure of the game: culture.

the little things

1. Snatch News - This is a way to get every province thinking globally and develop a skill paramount to kingdom success. Each province is assigned to SN on a particular kingdom once/day. Generally the choice should be up to the player, but one can be assigned if the player is reluctant to chose.

By observing the daily routine, waves and trade routs a player may begin to develop a sense for where everyone is in this game. The differences in how other kingdoms do their business can help a player realize her own potential. How? They see that great kingdoms aren't magically great. They see that challenged kingdoms have similar difficulties. Best of all, each player begins to have a passive tactical sense about the daily grind and can compare notes with other provinces. Overall the kingdom gain is invaluable. It can lead to players snooping just a little bit more on ace provinces, watching their movements and target selection. It helps to see how accomplished kingdoms focus their resolve into dramatic victories.

2. My hope is that each division be a fragment from a different kingdom. I know this seems a stretch but I encountered a kingdom this age combined from 3. I've not seen many merged kingdoms do well and part of this is the refusal of one to recognize the culture of the other. Instead of learning the best attributes of each other, one was quashed in the name of superiority by an unrecognized authority called "willingness to play". I don't believe in cultural suppression. We should be at one with the growing pains of what works, what doesn't and what sometimes does.

My most lofty of hopes is that each of these divisions come from a different time zone. The reason being that it would invoke the elliptical wave; a 24/7 pressure system that the divisional array would most benefit. Cultural and thematic. A strategy of provincial ownership in a game of drone laden kingdoms.

3. Everyone gets to shine. While the entire kingdom is one I'm not about vanilla unless it's the best vanilla going. When the teams are small the emphasis on personal greatness reaps rewards for all. The attackers aren't just plug-ins, but carry the weight to spearhead the work of the t/ms and hybrids. There's a sense of healthy competition from one division to the next. If my division clears its board we can chalk one up toward victory. Others may watch to see what makes you the team that gets things done. Influence, push, motivate until it's as smooth as a rainy night at a jazz club. Jazz is a great influence for playing your best in Utopia. Let everyone have their moment and when their done, meet at the bridge.

Edit: While ^2 and ^3 might seem irrelevant I'd like to point out the question of longevity and wherewithal in kingdom philosophy. Many wouldn't even consider a kingdom philosophy or know that they have one. Let's take the LC that Empyreans are part in. These kingdoms have an underlying way of being and it's the most valuable resource in the game. I'm not saying 2 and 3 makes The Virtual Kingdom the same; on the contrary, I'm sure these kingdoms are quite different.

I'm saying that to uphold particular values in kingdom offers the compass for all to follow. Kingdoms like Empyreans are honorable and are known to be so. Is honor a weakness or a strength? To me, it's a great strength. To be honorable isn't just to hold yourself to certain standards, you're even expected to adhere to those standards against your enemies. This is forged maturity.

My point in 2 is for the few to have a home among the many. Welcome them to embrace their culture as we hope they embrace ours.

My point in 3 may seem controversial and irrelevant to kingdom posture, but it's about "home". This is part of the difference. You can be yourself here. No I don't mean griefing havoc worshipers, I mean this kingdom takes a step toward belonging. The invitation to show off is as important as the invitation to blend in. Look at LeBron...and then the entire Cleveland team...and this is what I'm talking about.

Inside a Division Inside a Kingdom

Organizationally I'm a firm believer in council. Each division will have 1 member of council. The central division will include the monarch. In our case the monarch is not the primary theater strategist but a player with strong leadership ability. Council discussions can be regarded as short and long term navigation of the kingdom.

In division the council member can be the strategic leader, but I'm not about absolutes. Division business includes daily summary of snatched news, diplomacy, kingdom engagements, stance, meter, recruitment and schedules. Council members can pursue ambassador duties to help determine the environment surrounding the kingdom. This isn't about taking lots of time but to make all parties aware of key points.

Within the division there will be ways to look at your world, both peaceful and in war.

Tactically we can look at our enemies in nw, subjective strengths and a combination of both. To envision how a division works is to look at how, for instance, a football defense functions.

1- zone defense: In this case we are covering net worth zones and both dictating and reacting to the nw environment.

2- subjective strength/man-to-man: Here we're looking at the enemy threat level and addressing it with discrimination.

3- both: This blends threat recognition with nw perception to yield an efficient use of force within the scope of the division.

If you'll note, there are places where the nw scope may intersect to impose concentrated pressure on enemy forces in a particular zone. One example is the northern division avian warrior and western division undead warrior. If you recall, the avian warrior runs interference for the anti-rogue spearhead and the undead warrior for higher nw enemy grunts. The avian may make the initial hit to force the enemy into a western cross-chain. We'd like to avoid friendly plague spread wherever possible and conserve the avian warrior offense to carry out the mission of running interference.

Let's say the western division has it's hands full and can't pick up after the avian warrior. In this instance we can call upon the central division avian tactician and cross-chain the enemy in question. We can't forget we also have a northern division human sage who can also participate if additional support is necessary.

Both eastern and western divisions are designed to be able to engage undead without suffering plague by the attackers. The western division is a harder hitting version backed by faery ops damage to quickly force enemies out of nw range. The eastern division is more about sustain and handling the slog of high offense/low defense enemies. The eastern division elf heretic can continue to land offensive spells against enemy provinces with higher wpa concentrations due to relative chain effect.

Classic Strats

It has not gotten by me that some efficiencies may not be fully realized in this version of TVK. We could go 3 deep in each race/persona with the usual suspects. One might ask if faery heretic is indeed the most efficient use of race and personality. Many find the undead tactician the most efficient combination for undead limits. Orc warrior?

Augments for and against each combination exist. Let's try one...or maybe more.

3 x avian cleric
3 x dwarf war hero
3 x elf mystic
3 x faery heretic
3 x halfling rogue
3 x human sage
3 x orc warrior
3 x undead tactician
1 x feary rogue(orc cleric, orc tactician, undead warrior etc)

My problem with this strat has more to do with it's defensive shortcomings than an actual dislike. Critical areas have no backup and these builds are readily known. There are some great offensive advantages whichi think is their appeal.

As you can see in the original TVK, I've divided the faery into each of the common t/m personalities. This is a defensive measure, as is the orc tactician, dwarf sage and heretic. The decision to go 4 deep with sage has proven to be worthwhile this age, as the rule of abduction has come full force in the warring tier.

Strategic Switch to TVK

After some considerable playtime with human cleric I deem the build too difficult to function seamlessly with its intended role. So, I switched human cleric and avian tactician to human tactician and avian to cleric.

Where did I go wrong? I've played elf cleric when elf had damage reduction, and it worked great. The problems are in the defensive and subsequent meter attributes. The human cleric is vulnerable to poor meter use and the defenses are too low in the field to prevent multitaps. Because there is no natural population dispersion available, humans can become overpopulated rather quickly. Additionally, the old elf cleric held a meter advantage due to its spell casting prowess. Elves naturally higher defense and ability to run full elites kept multitapping enemies at bay.

Another problem is spell reliability. To use quick feet, and with current rune mechanics, the requirement to cast several spells to garner this advantage is resourcefully expensive in core dynamics.

I've been working with build and movement to prevent overpopulation. The province requires a lot of fat to function at full strength, as it were. This makes it unsuited to size stagnant core exchanges.

Thus I've moved the human tactician into the northern division, doubled avian cleric in the eastern division, and moved human sage to HQ.

Variations in the Pipe

For style points I've contemplated moving the undead war hero from the eastern to the western division, and the orc cleric to the eastern division.

I can't say this is strategically motivated as much as the undead core would be reminiscent of Freeakstyle and a few other prominent war kingdoms. This idea is multipurpose. It offers familiarity to players use to the faery~undead rudiments. It looks like a cute little war kingdom. There are some spell advantages here.

The eastern division would then have 3 clerics. Orc free draft and avian birthrate make for some interesting balance. One of the least often seen tactics that avian clerics can use is a sort of counter camping. There are times they can leave army home, cast minor and greater protection, and force enemy attackers to hit a higher defense. All the while the intent is to ambush and return for a trad before the enemy gets home.

What keeps me from actually just switching is that the quality undead war heroes I've encountered were solitary to their kingdom. This could simply be a matter of player choice by good players. I also think of these things like trees in the open field vs in the forest. It may be these builds flourish from an unusual attacker package.

A bit off topic: the reason I didn't assign avian war heroes was because of the repetition of fanaticism. If the reader will note, I might stack features like speed on speed, but I don't do spell overruns if it deprives another race of value. This is also why you'll see no dwarf tacticians or human war heroes. We certainly want Clear Sight on as many provinces as possible.

Back to Divisions

We haven't talked about some basics that are common to organized kingdoms. In organized kingdoms they may not just wave, but may specialize the wave. Like the Nightmare wave.

When I was part in a large, organized kingdom I played an elf mystic. We waved twice a day and I was first responsible for casting Mystic Vortex on targeted enemies. After certain enemy spells had been removed I was instructed to cast Nightmare until the return on enemy abandonment was 100 troops or less. While I was casting Nightmare so was the kingdoms small array of faery mystics with their higher damage effect. If I had mana left over I was instructed to repeat the actions above; Mystic Vortex followed by Nightmare on a new target.

Following the casting of Nightmare the attackers, arranged in net worth and offensive order, would chain the target until the defense was small enough for me and the other t/ms to march without defensive compromises. A wave manager, usually monarch or steward, would instruct each attacker on how much offense to send each tap. The entire wave was organized on irc(old school chat) in a couple of channels. The first channel was purely for waving. The second channel was for clean up, which often required more esoteric conversation.

This seems an effective system but I immediately saw some tactical shortcomings. Though I had come out of the darkest of ghettos I was aware you could spam Mystic Aura if you encountered a Nightmare or Fireball wave. This is important to note for dwarves. Additionally I knew you could soldier block at critical times because this "super wave" kingdom was not the first I had occupied that instructed the attackers how much offense to send. They always shave it tight because the name of the game is efficiency.

I began casting Explosions on wave targets to minimize aid. I paid attention to the enemy kingdom page to see what race and activity level the enemy was operating. In big organized kingdoms with waves based in a compromise of real life time management, they don't have time to adapt in the moment strategy fails. Now some do, but many can't. don't be surprised by the ones that can. They're the best because they take the time. But basically, anything I wanted for this organized kingdom fell on deaf ears...and I understand why.

~ Introducing Divisions ~

Let's just look at the western division. I'm not saying this is better. What I am saying is we want the agility of individual provinces with the kind of support that seems miles away in most lower tier kingdoms. To understand how the western division works is to first know that your targets have already likely been targeted by the northern or southern divisions.

If the evaluation concludes the targets are breakable by the faery heretic then the Nightmare casting commences followed by faery rogue mayhem. I was once shown cross chaining by a prominent kingdom and recommend it's use here by the 3 attackers; orc cleric, undead war hero and warrior.

If the target is deemed unbreakable by faery ops then it is engaged by the 3 attackers and sent down to the eastern division. These are cases where the central HQ division may take aggressive action: to both finish the target and run interference to protect the 3 western division attackers. Nothing is written in stone, but basic guidelines for engagement should be simple enough so that different divisions can work together while micromanaging inside their own.

The Eastern Front

The eastern division may seem the most thankless but it's integral to some things I see ignored in newer kingdoms. Bottom control is truly important to the health of your shelled giants. Everybody knows the drill, but in this scenario we are specifically taking control of the bottom both militarily and from an ops perspective. We welcome the support of western division chain victims, like the undead warrior.

The eastern division is responsible for creating and maintaining the bottom net worth zone. This job gets harder as war progresses unless the top has totally lost contain on the enemy. The elf heretic and halfling mystic aren't just here to offend enemy core, but may engage aid providers in order to isolate the bottom. They may also engage enemy t/ms offending the 2 avian clerics and undead war hero.

Suffice to say, just as in full wave systems, certain responsibilities will fall on all divisions. One such responsibility is vigilance in recognizing the enemy ace or aces. I mention this because I personally enjoy war, when out of the smoke emerges your nemesis. As much as I believe in the efficiency of unitary forces, there are times to let planets collide. This may separate us from crowning kingdoms but it is something of an experience to fight in isolation against a formidable mortal enemy. They come in many forms ;-)

Respecting Oneself

I was going to call this Respecting Your Spell Array, but as I thought about this it encompasses much more. While I intended certain strengths in each division I also achieved certain strengths I hadn't noticed at first. One aspect is that all divisions have the ability to cast Pitfalls. This is stronger in the east and west division which happen to be those that are more engaged with multiple targets.

Though common in many organized kingdom, the casual kingdom often doesn't think about the sheer weight of effective tactics. Avian clerics can ambush undead, whittling down their infamous sustain. Avians can't be ambushed. The undead war heroes won't suffer by sapphire dragons, retaining full ability to cast pitfalls.

If you haven't thought about maximum gains, where they matter, think about this: the avian cleric speed can be of great utility in sculpting maximum gain opportunities for the undead war hero. Doubtless the undead war hero will be a target due to it's ability to grow offense and therefor might require a helping hand. The elf heretic and halfling mystic can help attackers by reducing enemy troops through Nightmare and Nightstrikes, Blizzards and Meteors.

But what about the respect? Well this is a thread aimed at those who tend to underachieve. I'm attempting to show the many ways a small group can, by teamwork, be better than they might be just slogging alone and hoping. Oh you might build a fine province or do some nifty time management with your taps, but having boosters to make the most of your actions is what separates winning and losing kingdoms.

By setting up The Virtual Kingdom, I force myself to be familiar with not just my full build capabilities, but the various builds I don't even play. I know what everybody can do. I know what I can do for them.

Jawbreaker

Of the available schemes most reputable war kingdoms follow is something of a vise: t/m top and core. These tend to be the most efficient by virtue of their success and logistical clarity. We'll use the Freeakstyle design since this is familiar. For those who aren't aware, Freeakstyle tends to run a near balance of faery to undead provinces.

The premise is based in a defensive field of faery with the sustainable high octane offense of undead. As you can imagine, an old war kingdom can passively observe if say an undead province requires Mystic Vortex. But I digress. Let's deepen this so casual players understand. Let's assume an undead province has cast TownWatch to reduce enemy(you) taps. The enemy(you) opens with its own Mystic Vortex to remove defensive spells on the undead and casts Blizzard, Chastity, Explosions, Greed, Pitfalls and Meteor Swarm. Before the totality of the offensive begins, you might be inclined to cast instant spells like Nightmare and Tornadoes. It's at this instance that the faery wing of the undeads kingdom might be inclined to cast Mystic Vortex to rid the undead of long term spells. The undead can recast TownWatch to force a bounce, reducing chain effectiveness. Good kingdoms are active when they have to be. As the chain continues the undead is granted a relative soft landing with an increase in wizards per acre and reduction of net worth. This makes follow up spells difficult and sets the pace for the undead to use their classic offense. TownWatch causes a great rise in peasant casualty rate and contributes to lower overpopulation effect. It's not always the correct procedure, but works against the classic chain-wave.

To be continued...

One design element I've used in division array is to specify which are used to march against undead: the east and west division.

This as any rule is not absolute. My intent is to not invite harm where harm is unnecessary. We don't want to invite plague on a plague susceptible province. We don't want to launch spell ops on orcs with Reflect Magic.

In these cases we can see how the divisions flexibility can offer a fundamental guide in the basics of winning war. Minimize self induced harm, but don't let it control the theater of war.

Against the undead we outnumber them through ops/sabotage with attacker support. Against orcs we crank up the sabotage and march liberally. Part of the flexibility in The Virtual Kingdom is in available speed, so we can realize actual victory vs orc core by utilizing the available strengths. This same strength is necessary when facing dwarf core with an even higher emphasis on the march. Dwarves must be engaged regularly to keep their builds in the pipe and not producing on the ground. Do you know what I mean? You don't have to decimate dwarves, but you must crash them at a higher tempo. Whatever a dwarf is building you don't want to see it in full operation.

Besides what is integral to division strength we must understand kingdom strength and what this flexibility brings to the table. If you're familiar with certain basic armed strategies you'll understand flanking and covering flanks. War often depends on geographical obstacles and optimum weapon range to determine a sector of influence. In sports you have offenses and defenses that are determined based in where the boundary lies. In Utopia we have land, net worth and personality/race.

Whoever figured out cross-chaining must've had an inkling of modern field warfare. But what we're doing here is sweeping a net worth sector and eliminating pockets of resistance as the sweeping angle of each division intersects. To understand this you look at the enemy net worth group and determine the borders by your individual division capability or sweep. Simultaneously, your adjoining divisions are evaluating their landscape and determining their sectors as well. As you sweep your nw sector so to are the divisions surrounding you. If your division begins to get choked by an insurmountable number of nw viable targets the whole of the 5 divisions can collapse on the area of concentration.

The reason we use net worth and acres as the first impression guide to enemy engagement is because the chain progression will occur naturally through the division system. Obviously we need to disrupt enemy t/ms so we have the north and south divisions. This isn't an afterthought insofar as net worth concerns, it's that in the t/m battle we often experience victory or defeat: so goes the head. - It's important to note, while many polished kingdoms will see beating down t/ms as the path to victory, many casual to unorganized kingdom almost never approach the game in this way. By creating specific divisions for taking on enemy t/ms I'm attempting to impress the importance of this factor both in and out of war.

You may be thinking 'why change philosophy from net worth to danger scale when dealing with t/ms?'

In actuality we're doing both at the same time for all enemy provinces and their adjoining threats. For example, if you compact a mystics acreage you're boosting her wpa(wizards per acre). This isn't a concern for core since they're generally op/sabotage breakable, but it is a concern for your fellow t/m kingdom mates. Therefor the engagement of enemy t/ms is done with an eye toward rendering them inert or as close as possible. We must also understand the available offense vs near unbreakable provinces is a fading strength. To ensure the longevity of the attacking core I've designated those who run interference. While they may be running interference for the t/ms the t/ms are attempting to dismantle the enemy t/ms that harass attackers.

What you're looking at here is a corrosponding counter to each enemy threat. Most of what I've covered here is based in counter striking, but we don't have to follow that as a kingdom. We can run spearhead with 2 divisions while running suppression with the other 3. The more you look and realize each division can micro itself, the more clarity will come to the theater of war.

If you want to know where the counter game stems from, you need only evaluate the north and south division. Focus on the purpose of the elf, halfling and orc. Their job is to take down enemy t/ms. The entire kingdom behind these 6 provinces is ensuring they operate with as little interference as possible. Even if they go down we have plenty of firepower and I can assure you the enemy will have payed a steep price to eliminate these 6 provinces as a practical threat. Just go through the nw progressions to see where the hard work hits trails end.

All too often the attacker core is lost on how to deal with enemy chained provinces razing larger opponents. This is something I've used and obviously been victim to. What really went wrong is the razing provinces aren't being properly suppressed. This isn't something easily done, but what we are looking for is making it difficult to do regularly. This is essentially a trade/economy factor.

Many of my contemporaries will forgo development of wizards or thieves to maximize offense. While this has merit it also deprives the core of flexibility when chained. Don't take my words that every core province should sacrifice offense for paripheral operations; I'm saying there should be stalwarts in the battery that can facilitate double-chaining of enemy chained provinces.

Remember, our enemy is operating a massive pincer, or clamp, and we are breaking the mechanism that connects the jaws, thus "jawbreakers". The most prominent anchoring point is trade. Deprive undead of economic support and you can render them nearly inert. This takes the ability to recognize what you see when you Snatch News and shutting down these routs. Consider this blowing up railroad tracks or cratering landing strips.

In this you can see the logistics of Utopia and begin to understand how small organized kingdoms defeat larger unorganized kingdoms that operate from a central command center. These divisions were developed to cut down on the slow and predictable order of the unorganized kingdom. We keep it small so that we can be aware of each arm of the objective. Each division has a magically biased province, a sabotage biased province and 3 attacker types of varying capability. This offers flexibility in exploiting an enemy weakness.

So let's look at one -

Faery - heretic ~ Ching Dai*
Faery - rogue ~ Gracie Law
Orc - cleric ~ Thunder
Undead - warrior ~ One Ear
Undead - war hero ~ Call The President*

The faery contingent in this division are present to open hard ops/sabotage on undead provinces. Undead have no natural magical defense so logic would dictate we start there. You might start with Nightmare/Blizzard/Tornadoes with Nightmare knocking out some of the theft defense. Follow this with Nightstrike/Greater Arson. Subsequent marches begin with the highest max nw hitting first then last. Let's say our undead warrior, One Ear has the highest equivilent nw max. He will hit first in the chain, then last in the chain, depending on available taps. To clarify, let's designate the nw value of the 3 attackers and I'll demonstrate order of engagement. We will use 6 attacks, 2 marches each, as an example.

Undead Warrior - 1: will attack 1st and 6th
Undead War Hero -2: will attack 2nd and 5th
Orc Cleric -3: will attack 3rd and 4th

The objective here is to offer the opponent as little gains as possible on ambush and equivilent gains by each of our 3 provinces. This keeps our chain alignment as tight as possible within our control of the field. While we might have enough runes to anon certain attacks we should always think of efficient use of resources. The runes may be of better use by the faeries. The endeavor is to make the best decisions based in the situation. War can be chaotic, but by following guidelines to beneficial degree we can minimize self harm through bloating and misuse of precious resources. Remember, we are trying to win logistically as well as militarily vs an opponent bent on a clamp system that must meet it's own logistical and military goals.

Something that hasn't been mentioned but should occur to players is, enthusiasm fuels effect.

In my example, facing a clamp style kingdom, these are simply guidelines. I can tell you, when you face really good kingdoms they might be dictating the pace whereas all you're doing is reacting. You have to give yourself a chance and think aggressively at times, defensively and globally.

Let's take my example of the division above, in post #14. It may be your plan but your enemy might be inclined to stop it. You can't let this be where they dictate the pace. You can turn to alternate aggression to exploit another weakness. If you have to defend yourself, do so, but don't forget that it's the drive to win that bonds the kingdom.

You don't win by crying about not wanting to fight these guys or that you're over/outmatched. These are learning experiences and you must take advantage of these opportunities. The reasons are simply that the harder a kingdom has to work to defeat you the more mechanical knowledge is bestowed upon you. If you can envision winning in the extremes you are more likely to force your opposition to show their best.

So we aren't saying the faery must open with Nightmares; this is an example. Your faery might be more useful sideswiping an attacker that is in another divisions sector. When you see your opponent sagging it's no time to think about victory. This is when you turn the crank. Perhaps the attackers don't wish to render acres from the opponent but crush him at his current acreage, opening him up to ops from all provinces and not just t/ms.

You know how it works. I've been around some brilliant t/ms who synergized their work against the opponent while helping their kingdom. If one of these great players walks among us it's wise to allow them to operate freely. You might argue that they should focus on some particulars but that's another reason to have backups and flexible planning. Let the champions be the heroes when the notion is there, and the rest of us workaday brutes can keep the fundamentals inline.

Good read! I love this "theater of war"

Thank you, Mr. Baggins.

You guys have a fine kingdom. Hoping you're having a fun age.

What Else?

It would occur to those accustomed to multiple engagements in war/hostile/waving how certain types of distribution work. If you're from a disorganized kingdom then perhaps the stage 2 process hasn't been realized.

When I mention how we engage undead core: by heavier ops and sabotage with lower reliance on attackers. The obvious question is, where does the bulk of the attacker distribution migrate? It goes toward the upper echelon. In the example case, the enemy faeries. This is no small task. Large numbers of faeries are daunting and I'm not saying this is the winning formula, but it is founded in simple logic. The faery don't carry plague and they are the conduit for which the undead have their offensive lifeblood. In other words, you gotta take your medicine.

When I mention how we engage orc core: by heavier sabotage and higher reliance on attackers. The obvious question is, where does the bulk of the magic and ops migrate? Again, it goes toward the upper echelon, but in this case, toward the enemy rogues specifically and ToG, etc. So while these are guidelines the ideas are based in fundamental truths. We don't want to beat our heads against the wall when we can cleanly, quickly and efficiently rid ourselves of credibly breakable enemies. We aren't ignoring mystics, sages and heretics as much as eliminating threats that will creep up later. Meanwhile we can capitalize on economy, reinforcements and isolating enemy t/ms.

I'm tired and may edit later. To be continued...

Top Strats to the Naked Eye

I'm not here to bash war kingdom accomplishments or effectiveness in their wheelhouse. I've been in some and their dedication, research and fundamental strategy are sound.

What's lacking is forethought and projected obstacle preparedness.

You notice certain things lacking in top kingdoms? From the kingdom page you should. You'll notice largely a plague free environment. Undead aren't commonly in the top circles with a few exceptions. When you look at top kingdoms you should think in terms of drag coefficiency. The exception? CR going full faery is what we should see as the challenge idiom. Both a seasonal theme and the willingness to try and crown with a relatively poor whoring setup.

But it's important to know why or why not. Let's look at orc warrior. Why? Meter efficient. When you random for acres you want the most with the least use of the meter. Warrior has significant reach so the top kingdom can take acres from safe nw range. Orcs are nw efficient enough that they can hit higher value targets for longer as the top kingdom separates from the herd. Longevity isn't a plus, but whoring kingdoms are concerned with the acre race, not the winning of wars.

This system serves itself in that because you gain acres faster to reach a diplo vacuum you are passively rewarded by not facing contemporary whoring kingdoms that can inflict plague. Undead sustain is irrelevant to the whoring doctrine.

You'll notice very few rogues and halfers, but if you do you'll see them in a nw shelf. That shelf is absolutely by design. Several top kingdoms will have nw bulges just above the core and includes calves/killers. A Mothers Advice(kingdom) had a very pronounced and specific mid nw shelf and they were the best warring whoring kingdom I'd seen. But why here? Many of you must've guessed, but the point is to be effective in preventing concerted efforts against your cows while inflicting relative damage on the enemy cows when possible. These are nw stories in a nw game. If enemy attackers etc. are in the nw max of a t/m then the effectiveness will be most efficient. The reason you see so few halfer rogues is because the effective range is narrow and the design can be disabled rather easily. When you do see them it's normally because the kingdom strat is designed to key off this weakness, like a counter strategy. Like any strategic array the purpose will vary but the ability is sought after architecturally.

Humans have been part of whoring circles for many ages and their basic design is why. Before the current income bonus and Revelations, humans had Tree Of Gold(ToG) and Fountain Of Knowledge(FoK). These may not be nw efficient like orcs but a human sage is a nw monster at the whoring level. This design assumes the expertise of the kingdom will ascend to the whoring tier based in solid whoring fundamentals. With stacks of scientific capability and unheard of gold reserves, a fully developed human sage is a load. To understand these mechanics, a human will reach a science max sooner and operate at a higher level longer. Thus, their military efficiency will be very high despite a nw value that would otherwise be a hindrance. Additionally this creates a vast nw chasm from traditional war kingdoms making top feeding arduous. Low loss defenses are the cherry on top.

The 4 Faeries of TVK

I chose faery based in personal experience. While many players can speak to faery capability as a t/m I can endorse faery as an attacker. Now I didn't role them in TVK as attackers, but I've run faery enough to be a comfortable mid core attacker, exchanging attacks as any other attacker race.

Faery is a capable race in raw state but the addition of the defensive spells alone make them a rock. The addition of the offensive spells and bonus damage seals it. This doesn't mean I think faery is better, but that their versatility allows them to cover a lot of ground.

The array of faeries in TVK includes Heretic, Mystic, Rogue and Sage. The idea was to put them in roles that could put enemies in a crossfire. The true aim is to have the faery backing the elf and halfer who do the high penetration work. Once the heaviest obstacles are removed the faery can unleash their high damage specialty. This is why you won't see the faery grouped with the elf and halfer who are more fragile and require judicious care.

Divisional Layout

You can array divisions into smaller units, larger units or reconstitute the system by which they function.

In real war there are combat engineers that clear mine fields etc. So let's truncate one division and call it a bunker buster.

Elf mystic
Halfling rogue
Orc warrior

While I prefer to match targets man-to-man the imperative to control certain t/ms may be an urgent objective. Assume our target is faery with any variety of personality. Now I'm not saying this will get you there, but by applying pressure on all 3 defenses we can give ourselves the best chance from an aggressive approach.

The reason I place interference running attackers in these types of division is because the needs to defend/offend are immediate for elves, halfers and orcs. While they all share in the highest penetration attributes they also all have exploitable defenses. We could mute these builds by making them sages or tacticians but the crux of their purpose is to break the tough ones. This personality array offers the deepest possible capability at a raw level. Later in the age the faeries may surpass or the the various sages. For the 1st two thirds of the age we would likely rely on these three builds.

Perhaps a universal zone control squad would look like so:

Faery heretic
Undead tactician
Avian cleric

Knowing your Game

My history is in pencil & paper games, long before computers were the norm. By 1981, the players of our current gaming sessions began. We played strategic war games like Starfleet Battles, superhero games like Champions, adventure games from Bushido! to D&D, spy games like Top Secret and finally a snail-mail game called Feudal Lords.

I'd imagine the reason I find Utopia an instinctive game to play is because I can draw from many mechanical variations that apply to the roles we play. What I find most lacking is the team locomotion I was use to.
Many of you are young and may not believe the narcissistic rhetoric aimed at your generation, but it is actually true. It's not something that defines you as individuals, but it makes finding a team and understanding the strength of a team rare. Can you see how narcissism implodes and results in hierarchy? You only have belonging at the cost of servitude and it's not founded in your intangible value. Your leadership is quantified by your followers, not based in the depth of your commanding qualities.

This division system is a tutorial in the development of teamwork. It has to be framed to initialize impact; to start the wheels turning. I'm not a deeper soul or a more intelligent person than any of you. I'm offering what I can from what I've learned.
The greatest players in this game predate the narcissism migration and therefor we see the innovations applied and executed at the top. I for one can attest to only seeing staid and trite movements in the Utopian kingdom core. There is a lack of innovation blunted by false reliance on organizational philosophy. You must understand this. If you are building the race and personality dictated by few and following those orders you can only learn by doing what you're told. Not only that, most everything learnable is only quantitative.

Quality of experience is transcendent. This is the organic connection that purifies our depths spiritually and intellectually. That a person requires a digital replay to reinforce the impact of a life moment, when the moment has passed...if there is a God he grows lonelier.

But I digress.

Lets get to the cogs and cranks of how I see Utopia through different games.

Starfleet Battles offer an array of ships and legendary crew members. One ship for example, the Kzinti Super Space Control Ship, was a dreadnought class with fighter bays and classic Kzinti drone armament. The intended purpose was to occupy hostile environments to anchor invasion force after invasion force.

In D&D there were 4 broad personality types that were further enhanced by player choice: controller, defender, leader, striker. Controller varies, but classically renders the entirety of the battlefield in favor of her allies. This would be wizards laying a sheet of ice or a firewall to constrict enemy movement. The impact is soft but cumulative.

Chess offers assigned movement in most pieces and then truly amps this with the queen.

In Utopia the faery is your Kzinti SSCS/wizard/queen. Though Captain Obvious might realize this in it's engineering he might not be privy to the intent. I'm saying this because I've run faery attackers who are more focal and less influential on the theater. This is where many "controllers" fail. They may cast Meteors on as many provinces as they can. That's not control that's generalized logistical leverage. It's still good, but it's not control.

What about tornadoes? I'm not saying it's the best spell(by far), but let's consider the impact. As a mystic controller I want to bring in my fellow attackers and rogues/thieves. By impacting the build of the target I can knockdown Guard Stations for the attackers or Watchtowers for the rogues. We're now creating the conduit for high penetration by the team. Oh sure, slow melting of defense is nice but it doesn't help with overpopulation,..and the possibility of a friendly Mystic Vortex means someone turned off the heat for your stew.

Who needs Meteors? The hardest to hit, and this is why teamwork is about perseverance and respecting ones wheelhouse. If my rogue can Assassinate Wizards it still isn't enough for my faery to reliably land Meteors. But what about my elf? See, now we begin to see the point. The elf can't defend himself from rogues but the faery can stick it to the rogue and get attackers in on the pile-driver. You can't let a dwarf sit at home camping out your best attackers. You need to push that dwarf. We win more wars when we think about the team.

Become One

~ * The doomsday machine is a robot from another galaxy, several miles long, with a conical shape; the wider end consists of a huge glowing maw, large enough to swallow a dozen starships. Its bluish-white hull is composed of solid neutronium, and phaser blasts just bounce off. The machine is propelled by a total conversion drive. It's essentially self-sustaining, acquiring energy by smashing planets to rubble and converting the debris into fuel. The machine uses a pure antiproton beam to carve up a planet, and it has an energy-dampening field that can "deactivate" antimatter and which generates heavy subspace interference. It possesses a program-defensive sphere that attacks any energy source entering that sphere. Kirk theorizes that the machine was a doomsday device used in a war "uncounted years ago."** ~

Analogies are the byproduct of a mental state. In my case, being left handed and right brain, I'm wired for qualitative interpretation and not for mathematical inference. Wondering why and asking why is also a right brain bias, whereas asking how is more a left brain function.

In many martial arts, cars and motorcycles we often name these after animals. This is specific to The Virtual Kingdom because this is a stylized kingdom: the strat is dictated by a central interest. Do you understand this?
When you see the kingdom made entirely of undead or entirely of faery, these are stylized. They celebrate a pageantry in gaming and sacrifice a degree of utility. This doesn't effect the seriousness of play but crystalizes the interpretation of its niche.

Analogy: The all faery kingdom is akin to a Mopar club, even specific to a particular model like a Challenger. While they may all look the same from where we're standing there would be significant differences to the trained eye.

When I ran a faery sage in TFC I was an assigned attacker and it became stronger than I had anticipated. Before this I had no confidence a faery built as an attacker could pose significant resistance to bottom feeders. I was wrong. It was sloppy and flawed but quite capable and I was willing to defend myself. - how does this apply to the subject?

I wanted to be an attacker and I became one, within the discipline of faery.

And why is that important; the pageantry of idealized confinement? Isn't MMA for example proving mixed non-traditional fighting is superior? Aren't new cars faster and more maneuverable than old ones.

Yes, if you're just kicking asses. But I began to notice that some of these fighters proudest moments were in achieving belts in the antiquated arts. Cars speak for themselves. This is heritage and tradition.

You see, what happens is we begin to believe what we hear without investigating it ourselves. "All old fighting styles will lose terribly to mixed martial arts". Let's turn that around and remember the initial generation of stylized fighters had never faced mixed styles. We have that advantage now, and you can face a non-traditional style with a traditional one fully aware of the disciplines at odds. How does this apply?

Because not 1 person in the Utopian community took a halfling cleric or an orc mystic, but I did. About mid-age I looked at the race/persona combinations and reset my human cleric for an orc mystic because nobody was playing one...and we have too many t/m races in kingdom. Personally I think halfling cleric has better traction but in an offense starved kingdom the choice was clearly orc. Based on player choice, this combination shouldn't work or compete. We can at least say, no one thinks there is as much value here as with warrior or even sage.

This seems juxtaposition to my tradition rant but it's because I'm making a point about inefficiencies. Is the orc mystic inefficient? Is the halfling cleric inefficient? Actually there's nothing going wrong here. The question is in the practice of the arts we've chosen. I know I'm facing a world of hyper pumped undead warrior and orc tacticians and I've done it every age. I'm aware of my competition and their forward prowess.

Do you know why I eliminated my human cleric? Because he was deemed oversized and a land drop was recommended. I can't do that in good conscience so I reset to meet the demand of my challenge idioms and kingdom. That challenge idiom includes not attacking unprovoked. I need you the reader to understand this because I'm no mechanical genius in Utopia. In fact I barely use math at all in Utopia, yet I'm achieving viable and dangerous position. This could be interpreted as a brag, but my intentions are to show you that anyone can do it.

If anyone can do what I'm doing then you shouldn't be afraid pursuing top kingdom status. I've been up there and yeah it's more competitive but I was still able to follow my challenge idioms once I learned how things worked. They can step on their own toes with micromanaging to a fault. Nobody is perfect and nobody is twice as smart as anyone else here. They are organized in ways most of us can't. And this is why I moved division array from 8 down to 5 provinces. The acceptability level that 5 people can work together should be achievable. I can even envision smaller divisions but we should aim for 5 if we consider ourselves competitive.

Thank you.

Hello...Hello...Hello

Communication is a biggie and it can effect all levels, including top kingdoms. So let's share.

I've been in several long wars where the t/ms aren't communicating their inability to remain unbreakable or their inability to land ops/sabotage on enemy t/ms. Some might think it's none of a core players business, but apparently leadership never reached a solution or an alternative. Seems like the type of thing that'd only happen once, but it's not unique. I've seen this reaction high and low. My guess is that we as humans have repeatable tendencies; instincts we don't believe in that can save us or instincts that can betray. So how do we navigate? With wisdom.

We need to understand shame, arrogance and elitism. We need to understand the patterns of failure.

Many of us have seen our fellow players assume a war is won based in nw/acres. We've seen them scoff at our enemies refusal to withdraw, only to be forced to eat their words later. I'm mildly astonished to see players 10 years in have never been in a back and forth war. Or did they just forget? Just like some forget very basic tactics, like engaging t/ms or proper chaining techniques.

You don't have to be in an organized kingdom to learn fundementals but the narsisism I spoke to earlier(post #22) may be creeping into unlikely places.

- If you're a tactician you only need use 1 thief for 100% accurate intel.

- If you want to reduce your trade balance you send dragon gold to a bank/t/m with a massive positive balance.

- You do most aid while the recipient is online, and if you don't have the amount necessary, send what you can. I've noticed a decline across the board of players not mentally registering the idea of aid and chipping in.

- Many players use old intel and don't understand that the 10% thieves for accurate intel by non-tacticians auto loads provided you refresh the screen. They bounce attacks unnecessarily.

- See if your target is online. Particularly if you're going for a chain target. Predictability can be your enemy.

- Ask for aid well in advance of your need, including intel. Consistently request help when necessary and pay attention to basic province maintenance.

- Train thieves so you don't have to ask for intel or resources that drain teammates.

- Let other ailing provinces know about easy theft targets. Don't be greedy.

- On a general scale. I don't random attack, but if you do, Snatch News from a likely target kingdom. Review the kingdoms that random the hapless target and random the predators. They have all the resources.

Another Look

Part of the make of The Virtual Kingdom involves compromise, but I tried to work with the idea of effectiveness.

Avian cleric
Avian cleric
Avian warrior

Dwarf heretic
Dwarf sage
Dwarf war hero

Elf heretic
Elf mystic
Elf sage

Faery heretic
Faery mystic
Faery rogue
Faery sage

Halfling mystic
Halfling rogue
Halfling rogue

Human sage
Human tactician
Human tactician

Orc cleric
Orc tactician
Orc warrior

Undead war hero
Undead war hero
Undead warrior

The way I want t/ms to operate has to do with caliber of opposition.

The elves were dispersed in order to grant high penetration with the variety of spells available: heretic - blizzard, nightmare; mystic - chastity, meteor swarm; sage - amnesia. Elves self spells are also valuable in consideration to their intended targets.

Faery was set up in a full t/m quadrilateral to provide the higher damage on lower defenses( or defenses lowered ) by the elves and halfling rogues. Faery has superior defense and thus can be expected to take up where the others left off.
So the spell array is equal to the elves plus rogue.

Two halflings were set to provide the high penetration at rogue: assassinate wizards, propaganda, greater arson. One was set as a third mystic. I had toyed with the idea of using heretic on the third halfling but wanted to give the province it's best chance at landing spells along with space efficiency and considerable theft capability.

Dwarves make up the last line of t/m capable races based in their decent defensive spells, well balanced elite, free build and building efficiency bonus. Because dwarves can switch builds rather easily they are incredibly versatile if not completely durable. Again, this is projected to take shape later in war.

We can guess the enemy will look to knock out the halfling rogues, elves and high offense attackers. This is why the default strategy is to run interference. It's not necessarily the survival of these provinces that we are concentrating on, but the target rich environment provided by the enemy effort. This is where the avian warrior and human tacticians start making sense. So the off color builds like the dwarves, humans, faery etc and personalities like sage and war hero provide economic strength if the high performance provinces are tackled. The turn of war has to be considered to offer a mechanical explanation for adaptation.

And Bottom Feeders

There is a level of fragile-to-effectiveness balance in running the elf, halfer and high offense attackers. The idea is to be able to reach deeper and further into large kingdoms that will inevitably target The Virtual Kingdom. Perhaps all the high penetration provinces are targeted, but this provides the valued meter.

We rewind to the division system because we want to be able to answer threats quickly, before all hardened capability is diminished. We want the ability to strike from magic, theft and marching at maximum range; not maximum gains, with some authority to position ourselves between ceasefire and declare: amnesia, fools gold, assassinating wizards.

Violence is not always the answer. The point is that you are capable and willing to force some decision making from larger kingdoms. You don't want to have resources worth the punishment, you want to be able to inflict punishment above the worth. You should endeavor to have a reputation of measured retaliation and telling effect. This will provide a much more hospitable diplomacy environment.

I would venture to say The Virtual Kingdom isn't ideal to war crown focus, but is overall able to deal with a variety of threats that many war kingdoms must accept for their inability to effectively retaliate. The option to hybridize The Virtual Kingdom into a more effective war kingdom is there, but I find the ability to consider land charting as a truer course. It has nothing to do with not wanting to war, but more to be able to define a position. Predation increases as one moves up the charts, particulary unfamiliar kingdoms with low CF totals. Being able to answer multiple threats is something I have experience with. The division system allows that all provinces are within arms length of communication, which is important when monitoring the meter on multiple fronts. You have to be weary of enemy allies who may bait a reaction while another kingdom waits for your commitment to a particular battle front.

Triangulation: understanding unbreakable

There are 3 ways of getting things done in the mechanics of Utopia. You can cast spells, you can use thieves and you can march with your armies. These again, seem very basic, but based in my observations I see it doesn't transmit in some circles.

Think of it as a triangle. If you can establish only one plane then you might consider using that plane until you can establish the second and thus the third. The inability to establish a plane equals unbreakability or as some call it, virtual unbreakability. Just because you can defeat a defense doesn't necessarily equate to success. You may only be succeeding in the narrow window of closing door.

Consider a human cleric with their damage resistance. If the human cleric can resist casting and theft effectively enough then his march resistance can slowly overtake. Most offense will die faster than a human defense. This is why we raze, massacre, etc.

That is where I'm trying to take you: the tactics you use are applicable to each plane of an encircling triangle. A triangle is a simple shape, a simple idea. It's in the details of how we establish and maintain each plane that separates strategy.
My kingdom is currently in a war where the enemy has a large halfling rogue. Apparently unbreakable by theft and marching, I managed to cast a short meteor swarm on him. This was not followed up, either by desire or capability. Maybe we can't break him. This is unbreakable.

What your doing is surrendering a certain fundamental in that your enemy can attack and not be attacked. While there may be bigger fish to fry you have to be aware of the economic impact this has in war. Without needing to repair damage and having a size, thus army advantage, the enemy can force repairs on you that you can't force on him.

A Simple Method ~

Not many players are like me in how my brain is wired. I'm referring to people who think in shapes and what ifs. So if intel by numbers looks as rediculous to you as it does to me, then we can umbrella these things under a color code triangulation system.

Sides of the Triangle - blue for breakable, yellow for iffy, red for unbreakable
Magic
March
Theft

We had guys in The Faery Circle who could illustrate charts and it'd be nice to have one of those guys in your kingdom. You can chart this by degree of breakability cross referenced by province name. You can do one for you and the enemy.

This doesn't mean that my mind doesn't accept the numbers, but that the initial idea be shaped in a system that serves at a glance. The way it works is I need to see the big picture to see the small picture. Many left brain thinkers are lost on this and they only see accomplishments in their microcosm. They want execution and speed in a caveat that has no meaning. This in itself explains the system of waving without a global view of the theater of war. You can add the theater of war as a byproduct of being a smart person or someone who gets the prefix numerical world of Utopia.

I'll tell you because you're still with me here. Hypothetically the mystics are having a hard time casting meteor swarms on core enemy provinces. Hypothetically you have rogues in your kingdom that can assassinate wizards or attackers with plenty of raw offense to massacre with one tap out of a multitap. Well geez...I mean you want to hit the enemy with meteors. Ok, so we're assuming now that the rogues have bigger fish to fry but this decision process renders your mystic array useless. You have to get your team involved. If it's a race between t/ms then sure, you do what is right. Again, no absolutes. But it is perplexing to me that a global conquering of the enemy can't be realized because our expectations aren't being met by typical trite methods.

This has a vibe of coming off in a harsh manner, but my intention is to invoke realization.
What happens is instead of thinking about how to correct a correctable situation, we point fingers.

I'll have you know the work world is no different. We have people at the top that make money off of certain results and at the bottom we have people only delivering in that single aspect. It is of the essence that we realize quality of life as our obligation. I'm not talking about screwing off, but many negative minds would go there. I'm talking about respecting our ethics, delivering quality and doing it safely. In our world there are plenty of real life examples of idiocracy. We should be adamant in defending our culture, even from the most mundane work environments.

Kingdoms that are doing well aren't necessarily the Mecca of culture. There are still numerous examples of totalitarianism. Sure they can be friends. That doesn't address the game and the way it's played. What am I going on about?

The cultural aspect of the game. The individual ownership of provinces. Philosophically I've seen guys explain away everything. The philosophy here is pragmatic freedom. That includes mutual respect as a core value. My gauge is based in where individualism becomes greed or griefing. When we prescribe to a kingdom philosophy of totalitarianism we are but sheep riding the coattails of a winner, as it were. My choice has been pragmatic freedom.

You are in a game world but it takes real time to play. In that time I don't spend it capitulating, being afraid, or griefing the downtrodden. I simply can't reason with doing what Joe says if Joe is wrong. Its not for me to disrespect but to attempt to privately guide a leader toward the good.

Triangulated Details

Once you have an understanding of breakability in a given field you can then grade the quality of that capability.

How reliable is it to cast meteors and chastity?
How reliable is nightsriking up to propaganda?
How many taps can an attacker safely land on a target?

And the reverse for your province and kingdom provinces.

Being aware of your kingdom is equally important. If you have a t/m that must be offline for said number of hours, what tactics will you implement to prevent enemy theft or assassination of wizards? This is why we can't be focused totally on offense for offense sake. Sure we think about it, but we should be taking action and not hoping.

A good practice is to feed runes, in cast quantity, to a t/m who's casting lightning strikes on an enemy that has reflect magic. By getting use to doing a conservative thing you can start thinking about doing other things that minimize self harm.

Sculpting Tools

I've been using what most believe are wave based tools as an individual for some time. Oftentimes I've seen individual use of particular game powers discouraged. The idea that spells like nightmare or personalities like war hero are only effective en masse is not true.

I'll reflect on my exposure to the truth from many ages ago. Back when I was with Aggression is the Liquor we were simply barbarians trying to outdo each other. We never really fought as a team and some of us were off on our own. One such individual was known as a grumpy old man who played an elf mystic. He barely chatted a word, but to complain. He was incredibly adept as a self propelled province and I can't recall the guy being in trouble or requesting aid. What struck me was the gains he made marching by himself against formidable targets. Enemies couldn't handle him. I did manage to get him to mention he used nightmare once.

Several ages later, with 5 weeks left in the age I get recruited by Jerks in an age off for them. I started a new elf cleric and developed it as hybrid. By the 3rd war I moved with complete confidence among the strongest provinces and the strongest kingdoms in my vicinity. We entered war where my province was being attacked from both the declaring kingdom, a random kingdom(Ascension) and sabotage from War Monkeys who we also had relations. When a kingdom declares they tend to unload on you and these guys did...but it didn't matter.

Prelude to my army return I opened with nightmares on the attacker that'd moved against me. As the spells landed and the damage mounted my nemesis went afk. So here's what I did: I opened with nightmare to reduce troop counts including thieves. That's important. I cast faders, greed, explosions and pitfalls. I mixed in a couple of tornadoes to loosen up his war strat. After I used up most of my mana and the nightmare effect was in full bloom I began Nightstrike, arson - a little, riots and bribe general.

You see that I was hybrid and completely comfortable in core exchanges in and around the top 10 vs known high powered kingdoms with players who know exactly what they're doing. The Virtual Kingdom system will work. Why? Because in an age off Jerks weren't super waving or conducting war in the fashion that our enemies were. This means my capabilities weren't part of a nightmare network or universal hybrid kingdom strat. I was just me in bigger acres than usual.

If I had 4 other player to coordinate ops and stack sabotage then I would be quite confident. I like to see how we match up one-on-one, and if I'm successful, spread the love amongst additional enemy provinces. This goes to the root and reason to recruit solid, active players. You want guys that are confident 1vs1. You won't always win, but there's no fear in the isolation of 1vs1 combat. From this wellspring is where teamwork flows.

You can wave just like a super wave kingdom, but you can most efficiently operate solo; effectively. Here is where the reality of elliptical waves comes into play. The positive side effect is reduced exposure to Oops! messages. This is corrective meta, but not over the top. It takes a common ghetto slop wave and gives it focused, organized execution.

Here I've only reflected on the sculpting power of elf, but every race and persona has its own sculpting ability. In the confines of the divisions these should become second nature and congruent to division objectives. As you achieve objectives your victories drive the kingdom to overall success.

The elf need only cast enough nightmare to allow attackers additional taps. My hybrid was going alone, but not in this scenario. Each province offers the nudge to triangulate the effort of the others.

To continue...

In age 63 I went solo in a kingdom shell as a human war hero. Granted, things have changed but certain fundamentals remain with alternative benefits. Plague immunity is gone but fanaticism and pitfalls are welcome additions to the spell array. War spoils is an excellent spells if largely misunderstood.

Many hold the idea that war hero is a kingdom strat. I think this is as flawed as any other unproven notion. Their logic dictates something along the lines of dragon usage. This is missing the point. What this really does is force a question of efficiency. If it's obvious to the enemy that sending a dragon is useless they'll spend their gold elsewhere.

The question is about where war hero fits best. Avian has redundant spells, humans have redundant resistance and neither can protect their honor. The two races that come to mind are dwarf and undead: both have 14 total combat points per elite. It's how I measure the worthiness of conversions.

Dwarf is good for war hero for several reasons.
- First, immunity to gold dragons is good for dwarves. Very good.
- Dwarves have a nicely balanced elite that can be a great benefit to reduced army sizes in war.
- They can build acres in 6 ticks which is well under most kingdoms wave times.
- Among the best pure marching races that can cast spells.
- Racial spells make honor retention highly probable.

Undead benefit as well.
- War spoils allow the undead to random in normal without being ambushed.
- This in turn makes elite conversions more efficient.
- Income protection helps a race that can't steal.
- Honor bonus/war spoils make for good flypaper.
- Spell array makes for mismatches in troop losses.

One of the things The Virtual Kingdom offers is different types of problems for enemies to solve. This also offers The Virtual Kingdom more creative ways to engage the enemy.