Picking Avian

[tetley]

Who has the runes to spam mystic aura? :P

[StratOcastle]

Look at the cost of mystic aura vs any offensive spell of measure. Note the heavy dwarf contingent of myLP( I think it's My Les Paul; gotta love a guitar theme. I chose Les Paul Black Beauty gold hardware -w- Bigsby ;-) . My reservations on dwarf are obviously food consumption, but also the inability to accelerate build with war hero War spoils.

Back when avian had mystic aura I would simply switch between news and casting page during a barrage. Don't forget that it's a dwarf with CS and nice BE in this case. The elements in the case are especially effective vs those big robot waves and a core that has a life. I've been in these kingdoms where the 25er activity and mass wave is largely based on the fact they only really log during these times. I was a hyperactive and really had no place in such a kingdom. This is why I'm an advocate of elipsed waves; this'd be like 3 part harmony ' row, row, row your boat ' . ;-)

Evidence by 15% rax and non-tac core, are apex dwarf target. This system is also vulnerable to war spoils and accelerated build if the kingdom in question has economy. Im always looking at how you establish nw gaps to stall chaining which is the only real strat I can fathom for a non-cow kingdom to combat a cow kingdom. I'm a bit dim, but I've played nw gap strats and when the leverage takes it leads to wins.

[tetley]

I'm having a bit of trouble following what you're saying.
Are you advocating dwarf/tact as the best core provs?

Btw I think myLP is my little pony unfortunately, it would be more badass if it were Les Paul though.

[natebane]

I would go as far as advocating dwarf/tac as the best attacking combo. Other races exceed in certain niches, but the dwarf is just imo the most well-rounded in what you want from an attacking core.

[StratOcastle]

I was kidding about myLP. I saw the banner and was disappointed myself ;-)

I never advocate anything as core lol; you can read my nonsense in Virtual Kingdom. All I'm saying is that it compliments your core. IMHO the attacking core should be distributed to exercise leverage on any enemy. The variety become protracted at the top because everyone is using a math based strat with a nod to top strategist tendencies.

What I was saying is that dwarf makes tac ideal for theater control. Whereas in avian guise it's a narrower purpose and in undead again hits an efficiency high, but in a different way.
Let's say you set up orc warriors as essentially killers, dwarves as tacs and undead as clerics the way I run them. You can let guys get chained or you can defend your killers nw zone by pushing away potential chain threats. Obviously someone will get chained. In all likelihood the ones that threaten the enemy top. If you key to open a nw gap to force oor hits from the enemy bottom your killer can maintain a high offense with a nw to gain. The cleric is there to slug in relative nw range, but he reaches limits that the warrior doesn't. The tact is there to tend to the fluctuatiing situation, say if the provinces fed to the cleric are stopping up and need a push to chainsville.
By maintaining a gap by HA supremacy you have a platform to feed enemies down and prevent your top from tumbling to full release. The other benefit of gap control is akin to holding a doorway against superior numbers, so you can fight numerically superior kingdoms IF you establish the gap.

[StratOcastle]

As an example, sadly in a losing war:

the situation - I'm adopted to an orc cleric in post civil war Incarnation. We take war not to win but to see who is left.

The enemy is active and outnumbers us all around, including the top. I'm a higher midrange and immediately get forced down to a lower midrange where I begin to use a revolving relay attack and building my triad of rax, gs and hospitals. Note: some taps are ambush to keep both time and acres fluid; and offense was high but not suicide.
Above me the enemy has a mix of 11 provinces, 7 of which are heavy attackers. In my relay I hit near nw down to feed our chains and let their tops hit me. This established the gap. Now I'm grabbing one heavy attacker at a time and grinding him in 3-4 hr intervals to our chains below. If the chains stall I tap down, but all the while I've got my taps dispersed evenly in 3-4 hour return times. Being cleric I allow ambushes that keep me from getting land fat and my credit pool is equal to my gains.

In the mean time my valiant monarch and Pak(avian sage)were hammering their bottom keeping me safe to operate where I was. We had other attackers begin to rise, but we were lost by shear numbers. I never went below a 1k acre mark after I regained it wave one. The enemy t/ms were attempting to deal with our battered top so I was buffered from concentrated efforts. I was asked if I wanted to be recruited by the enemy after war, but in my mind Pak was clearly the superior player. I just held the gap like I would when I played football.

[natebane]

I like dwarf tac for the fact that they as a core have fluidity in what role they can adapt to as the war evolves. They can play theater control or switch to a tank build mid war and manipulate their nw for gap control. Thief preservation can be exploited situationally to build TD and use them offensively against fat attackers.

[Pillz]

Avian/Merchant

I got raze killed in a hostile, came OOP in 24 hours, and within 72h of OOP I was in war. For almost two weeks.

I think considering the province was 4 days old and had been through two hostiles before entering war, I did alright for myself. I went into war as our smallest province and just traded hits back and forth with chained undeads for 10 days. Only possible because of free credits, tog, and fast attack times.

I agree Cleric is definitely easier to play and probably stronger overall, Merchant is still a good choice for a solo province.

[Bukharistan]

Chiya, check your messages. I'm interested in recruiting you. You can also send me a PM. My KD is looking for willing new players that like to learn the ropes from experienced players.