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AGE 86 ~*The Virtual Kingdom
ASSAULT*
Avian: artisan
Elf: heretic
Elf: mystic
Elf: sage
Human: war hero
SPEARHEAD
Dark Elf: cleric
Faery: mystic
Halfling: rogue
Orc: warrior
Undead: tactician
HQ
Avian: war hero
Dark Elf: tactician
Dwarf: cleric
Faery: heretic
Halfling: heretic*
SPEARHEAD
Dark Elf: cleric
Faery: mystic
Halfling: rogue
Orc: warrior
Undead: tactician
ASSAULT
Avian: artisan
Dwarf: artisan
Dwarf: sage
Human: rogue
Human: sage
Edit 1
AGE 86 ~*The Virtual Kingdom
ASSAULT- Asian GMT
Avian: artisan
Avian: artisan
Elf: heretic
Elf: mystic
Elf: sage
SPEARHEAD- Australian GMT
Dark Elf: cleric
Faery: mystic
Halfling: rogue
Orc: warrior
Undead: tactician
HQ- American GMT
Avian: war hero
Dark Elf: tactician
Dwarf: cleric
Faery: heretic
Halfling: heretic*
SPEARHEAD- Western Europe GMT
Dark Elf: cleric
Faery: mystic
Halfling: rogue
Orc: warrior
Undead: tactician
ASSAULT- Eastern Europe GMT
Dwarf: artisan
Dwarf: sage
Human: rogue
Human: sage
Human: war hero
In this version I've moved the avian artisans together with the trio of elves for more satisfying damage porn. The human war hero seemed boring in the 1st division, but bolsters the 2nd assault division with their "better than you" swagger. This modification will allow the 1st division to act more decisively against enemy kingdom killers.
In the darker corners of my mind I envision moving the occupation of sage to the two undead tac provinces. There's no misery like being learn plagued and blasted with amnesia when you try to fight back. Undead sage is more comfortable than a Hallmark Christmas marathon out of war.
The Virtual Kingdom Division System
1. Accommodate players from around the world with their work schedule in mind. The ability to play in an organized kingdom without being obligated to wave at alien attack times.
2. Reduces the complexity of full kingdom waving while enhancing micro. Reduces language barriers to increase player initiative and attacks of opportunity. Reduces full train wreck scenarios when waves get stuffed.
3. A 24/7 kingdom that operates on the concept of The Eliptical Wave. If you can't sleep you wake up to an active kingdom. If you're a hyperactive player you will always have action.
SPEARHEAD divisions are self explanatory to some and not to others. The core of the spearhead is the faery mystic/halfling rogue/orc warrior triad. Each of these builds, in a vacuum, are "best in show" regarding their highest defensive breaking ability. The orc offers the additional benefit of staggering damage effect. The objective of the spearhead division is to break the hardest targets in competing kingdoms, and make the enemy resources digestable to the assault and HQ divisions.
Dark Elf: cleric
Faery: mystic
Halfling: rogue
Orc: warrior
Undead: tactician
The DE cleric is obvious support(PF/scientific insight, etc) and the undead tac gathers intel to conserve stealth and tpa for the division. Support is a flexible term in that the undead tac and DE cleric can be added to mini-chain the orc warrior target, or they can run zone interference to blunt near nw killers from engaging the triad. This type of interference is where the spearhead divisions end and the assault divisions begin.
ASSAULT divisions are designed around alternative engagements. In the Edit 1 version, the Asian GMT division is concentrated to engage enemy killers. The underlying strategy to zone nw assault is economic separation. As the elves work the enemy from science to troop to build reduction, the avians draw a nw dmz zone: anything entering that nw zone will be reduced to nw zone parameters. This is done to protect the spearhead divisions.
Avian: artisan
Avian: artisan
Elf: heretic
Elf: mystic
Elf: sage
The Eastern European GMT division understates the mission of the avian artisans. The nw zone dmz is enforced and further, this division is charged with breaking up enemy chain formation to reduce province losses. This is designed to improve chain stalling on this kingdoms behalf. We always want our economy to be integral to victory.
Dwarf: artisan
Dwarf: sage
Human: rogue
Human: sage
Human: war hero
The HQ division is overall support. We use America as the name on the door, but this is where the most active players should gravitate. Even a pro camper has to be active to be most effective. HQ bolsters divisions where opportunity knocks or objectives are at risk. At times this support might seem counterintuitive in that to break an unbreakable the enemy core must be reduced to aid reliant rubble. It will always be to help. Sometimes macro and often times micro.
Avian: war hero
Dark Elf: tactician
Dwarf: cleric
Faery: heretic
Halfling: heretic*
The avian war hero is about training time. The DE tac is about PF, intel and support marches. The faery and halfer heretics are for difficult targets that might need a push to get the Asian assault elves in their wheelhouse. I just like dwarf clerics. His value is more a measure of getting a DE tac in kingdom rather than his individual effectiveness.
What We Know
The Orc Warrior is a crap magnet. This is the hinge by which likely strategies will swing. I'm not saying you depend on them, but that you might find yourself in an embarrassing number of wins by defending Orc Warriors. Things always change, but self preservation by enemy t/ms is often a loud voice in tactical analysis.
This is why you engage the enemy chain alignment with furious resolve. Chopping the link from enemy max gain to max gain creates a natural phalanx. In many years in war I've managed to stall chains and stabilize my province in a nw zone by abiding these tendencies. The advantages of preserving ones own economy offers the attacker(myself included) a chance to make winning decisions in war. Not long ago it was my ability to steal enough gold to launch a dragon that cut short a longer costlier war. Everyone else either had no stealth or had no thieves. You can harness flexibility into power if you understand the flow of war.
When you face thousands of players who've read The Art of War without reading it yourself, you find Sun Tzu ironic. Pardon my gem: I learned to fight by beating enemies with advantages by engaging them at disadvantage. I've countered and defeated larger and higher nw heavy attackers with faery and elf attackers. I did this while letting them hit first: it's my honor to never attack unprovoked. The question is fuel. How much fuel do you have in your tank to maintain the juggernaut you are?
What We Don't Know
The reason the previous statements might come off as arrogance is because there's a herd mentality that permeates the Utopian community. This is tolerable in life, but in a game is nonsense. It's here where we are suppose to stretch our fantastic selves.
Exceptions are the actual rules and the rule is the island of idealism. Pragmatic orbits around sound ideals; that's where this is going, so I don't have to point.
Try to never offer a ceasefire. Try to never attack unprovoked. Try to challenge up instead of hitting down. Make your acres in war. Counter and pay attention to the meter like a Hallmark movie hunk pays attention to what a girl thinks of weddings.
You learn through challenge not through execution. You learn execution through challenge. Here. My feet got wet in D&D where we always challenged up because that's where the adventure lies.
In Utopia, good kingdoms and players know stuff they may not share. You can learn by making them work hard to stop you; even if it's diplomacy. Pay attention to what they do. The more you learn the stronger you get and your chess muscles begin to warm up. Stage 2 thinking, like how an avian sage might be a pain in the a$$, chained or unchained. Stuff like that. And when I say "what they do" I mean everything. Take intel and learn about province building doctrine. Rebuild doctrine. Timing. Watch and don't copy. Apply principles in your realm for your purposes.
Never shut out intuitive thinkers. Every time they aim for a crown they achieve it, despite all the well executing kingdoms around them. But why? Because innovation > execution. To understand this for the masses, you're often tasked with perfecting an imperfect system. You make it as polished and seamless in design, but it's still a dreadnought vs an aircraft carrier.
The Strategy of Thieves
The strategy forum doesn't often talk about strategy. If you want to learn strategy without paying your dues then go to the Technical forum and browse Suggestions.
In war we see the phenomena of poor intel leading to defeat, and most naysayers never identify root causation. This is actually a very reliable source of victory.
When we shuffle our resources to achieve optimum readiness we have made a mistake if we encounter difficulty gathering intel. This is just at the tactical level. Let's try at a strategic level.
When we prepare for war we must be cognizant of the way fluid resources move. Gold, runes, etc, move through aid, plunder and theft. These lines of acquisition require attention and should be acted upon if we suffer the loss of any channel. I train thieves in war, but I could never convince my kingdom to do the same.
The simple answer is a kingdom should apply science, build WT/dens and train thieves as an economic wedge. Remember the rule of exception. Ok, now we continue. Nightmare effects thieves, Amnesia effects science and you go from there. You want your enemy to squander thieves and stealth trying to gather intel. In many cases a kingdom will foolishly attempt to fund a dragon rather than train thieves to stop resource bleed. These are the easy kingdoms to defeat. The tough kingdoms already know about thieves and are actually at the cost/benefits level of play. That's where we can get to just by paying attention to having a better thieving kingdom than our peers.
But keep that in mind. The dragon you fund, the ritual you cast, the balance of buildings, science and troop distribution. While emphasizing your thieves and low loss sabotage, you concentrate on reducing your enemy to requesting intel from their rogues. By depleting core ability they invariably lean on t/ms to do the rudimentary. And this is not the end. As a muse I encourage you to soldier ball during enemy waves, and nightstrike, steal horses etc from provinces in the chain alignment.
Good luck.
PS Never underestimate plunder in war as a source to achieve victory. I've funding the last end of a dragon launch through plunder. My province was forfeit but the dragon caused the enemy to throw in the towel.
Dealing in Crack, Crank, Smack & Spank
Lots of players spend too much time worrying about breakability oow or being outnumbered and outclassed when the kingdom should really be focused on retaliation. Retaliation is the healthiest means of kingdom building. Righteousness triggered, can burn forever. It's when we stand down against aggressors that raunchy warriors lose interest.
Let me say, for myself, I will retaliate a faery against an orc, undead or avian if they invade. If my kingdom won't deploy retal by an appropriate heavy attacker I will go by myself with no regret. It is one thing to protect a kingdom through pragmatic evasion and another to accept victimhood.
This game is rife with proxies and possible multis, and we have to accept that as the trial of playing great. How many times have I gone from countering 4-5 enemies from different kingdom straight into war? So many that it's a seamless transition. What I do is focus on the probable ring leader. Not out of anger, but out of sober resolve. If you're surrounded you attack alpha. Sun Tzu apparently never taught that. This is where my philosophy of attacking strength comes from. I assure you I'm not as strong as 4-5 provinces but that I gained more fighting than I would asking for CF.
You have to go through that gauntlet to reach your potential. Your mission is to play as mistake free as possible while gambling with your resources. It's killer instinct, just not from the standpoint of lording over an insignificant challenge.
Cross Chaining Refreshments
The EE GMT ASSAULT Division, assuming the alignment is nw order for example: 2 hits each to chain target.
Dwarf: artisan ~ whirled world ~ 150k nw hits 1st in chain
Dwarf: sage ~ two handed military spork ~ 140k nw hits 2nd
Human: rogue ~ wonton act of soup ~ 130k nw hits 3rd
Human: sage ~ cinnamon sea anemone ~ 120k nw hits 4th
Human: war hero ~ specific lotion ~ 110k nw hits 5th & 6th
Human: sage ~ cinnamon sea anemone ~ hits 7th
Human: rogue ~ wonton act of soup ~ hits 8th
Dwarf: sage ~ two handed military spork ~ hits 9th
Dwarf: artisan ~ whirled world ~ hits 10th
This was taught to me by the incomparable Crazy Pete. It serves several purposes.
1. We get uniform gains.
2. The target has poor ambush options.
3. We all go by offense/nw, so even in micro combat, directives are clear.
4. None of us stick out as the obvious counter target.
5. Chain integrity remains as solid as possible.
Actual Problem
I worked before computers became mainstream. So I overhear my boss talking to someone who can't figure out how to send an item. Well, in the old days you weighed it, put the address on, payed to mail it and that was it. They were unable to figure out how to send it because they didn't know how to communicate/please the computer.
We use to use paper and pencil and a guy called a checker to fill orders. Now we have an expensive computer, we have an expensive laser gun, and we have an IT department that can't fix things as fast as I can hand write orders. We have buffering problems the IT says we shouldn't have, so they can't fix it.
So they program these systems and they get their information from people who put ambition above integrity. They make this flawed system integral to doing the actual work so if the computer fails it makes the actual work much harder as to please the computer whenever they get it running.
What we get is a sleepy upper middle class with comfort level wages that actually have fake jobs. I'm not questioning their vast knowledge in crunching some numbers, but if they explored the results would the company benefit from their efforts? I overhear a lot of meetings between the shot callers and at the end of the day the shots ring hollow.
I submit to you that computers are wonderful servants and you know the rest of the cliche. They should be tools and should be a luxury apart from the integrity of work. If your island is the Amish and you want to embellish, so be it. I encourage it. But we find ourselves in a world where without the computer people don't know what to do. Nobody knows how to Amish a problem anymore.
When I played utopia I noticed this mentality creeping in. I liked Pimp because it was a useful tool. After Pimp was considered passé we had a slew of over intricate systems that were cold and uninteresting to me. They sure were interesting to conformists. And despite this wonder of information the kingdoms didn't evolve. Why didn't they evolve?
Because you can't replace perception with information.
Perception tells us we must have enough flexibility to take advantage of opportunity. When we get rigid because we think we are enforcing order, we vanquish opportunity. All we have are the perceived logistics, leading to the vulture mentality. The animal mentality of fearing the superior and eating the inferior. As men we have a higher calling. We should not reinforce instinct through technology, but use technology to enhance opportunity.