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Thread: Feelings ~ TVK 70

  1. #1
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    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
    *
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 14-01-2017 at 01:10. Reason: Strategic Switch
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
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    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
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  2. #2
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    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.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
    Correct me then, instead of being a dick about it.
    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
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  3. #3
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    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.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 31-12-2016 at 21:51. Reason: Do, not to
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
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    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
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    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.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 01-01-2017 at 14:03.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
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    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
    ________
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  5. #5
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    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.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 02-01-2017 at 07:52.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
    Correct me then, instead of being a dick about it.
    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
    ________
    Weed bowls

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    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.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
    Correct me then, instead of being a dick about it.
    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
    ________
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    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.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 14-01-2017 at 01:06.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
    Correct me then, instead of being a dick about it.
    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
    ________
    Weed bowls

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    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.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 14-01-2017 at 19:42.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
    Correct me then, instead of being a dick about it.
    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
    ________
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  9. #9
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    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.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
    Correct me then, instead of being a dick about it.
    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
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    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 ;-)
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
    Correct me then, instead of being a dick about it.
    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
    ________
    Weed bowls

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    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.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
    Correct me then, instead of being a dick about it.
    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
    ________
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    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...
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 22-01-2017 at 16:36.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
    Correct me then, instead of being a dick about it.
    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
    ________
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  13. #13
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    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.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 30-01-2017 at 21:46.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
    Correct me then, instead of being a dick about it.
    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
    ________
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  14. #14
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    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.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 30-01-2017 at 22:33.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
    Correct me then, instead of being a dick about it.
    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
    ________
    Weed bowls

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  15. #15
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    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.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bishop View Post
    Correct me then, instead of being a dick about it.
    love that thick mahogany back with no belly carve or anything...pure thick wood ! The thing ROCK is made of !
    ________
    Weed bowls

    http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=...+say&FORM=VDRE

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