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Thread: HatWalk ~ The Virtual Kingdom, Age 76 ~

  1. #46
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    Spearhead Bias


    Avian: war hero
    Avian: war hero

    Dryad: tactician*
    Dryad: tactician

    Dwarf: paladin
    Dwarf: paladin

    Human: warrior
    Human: warrior

    Orc: undead
    Orc: undead

    Bocan: heretic
    Bocan: heretic
    Bocan: heretic

    Dark Elf: sage
    Dark Elf: sage
    Dark Elf: sage

    Elf: mystic
    Elf: mystic
    Elf: mystic

    Faery: paladin
    Faery: tactician
    Faery: war hero

    Halfling: rogue
    Halfling: rogue
    Halfling: rogue

    In this iteration I wanted to exhibit more of a spearhead bias while retaining some overall ubreakable capability. We lose the ability to push Chastity across a broad scope for the depth of hard casting with the elves. There's still biddable damage spread with bocan heretic, dark elf sage and elf mystic.

    The faery array is designed to cast defensive spells across the kingdom with the addition of war hero for War Spoils on our attackers. War Spoils can be cast, prelude to war, for high offense/low defense elites when engaging enemy near unbreakables.

    The core was designed to offer liberal speed with the dark elf and dwarf as unbreakable threats. The dwarves work behind the orcs, and humans work behind the avians. The war hero array covers likely enemy dragon launches so the avian can operate more freely. The faery war hero is a slight nod to ops/sabotage.

    By no means is this a complete vision. I'm offering the options to play muse to ideas that might be vacillating in the minds of those imagining their own virtual kingdom.

    PS

    The decision for avian war hero was based in "tide effect" because of the basic speed. We could easily switch out dryad tac, but I was looking at relative honor utility. Attackers lose the virtue of honor quickly and I felt avian could bring those attributes steadily whereas the dryad wouldn't enjoy them between lengthy uniques.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 22-06-2018 at 22:35.
    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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  2. #47
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    Spearhead Bias Battle Order

    Priorities can change, but the base strategy is defense of the faery trio. Because the faery array consists of a valuable cache of self spells castable on others, TVK could benefit in all phases of the game. Spells like Paladins Inspiration, Invisibility, Town Watch and Wrathful Smite en masse can be beneficial to kingdom position. Scientific Insight can slightly boost attacks, if you hadn't seen it in use.

    The reason the heavy attacker compliment wasn't expanded is because the speed of the game, insofar as island based encounters, puts a damper on relatively exposed provinces. My endeavor was also motivated in reducing meter accidents.

    Common Thread of Failure

    In my studies I've only recently crystalized certain aspects that can result in failure. This isn't just relatable in game, but life and history. When our tactics don't meld with our strategy we tend to fail. When we don't apply tactics that fit the strategy, that's a situation that may be possible to remedy. The problem that exacerbates theatrical cohesion is lack of communication.

    So let's say that one of our divisions is appropriated to engage an enemy t/m with the objective to diminish their ops/sabotage virtues to negligible. While this is well and good let's say instead of immediately running sabotage on the t/m our rogue decides he need to shore up on honor to do his job better. Unless this is communicated up the strategic ladder this delay might cause undue harm.

    We aren't looking at player objectives as greed, unless it simply is. We need to communicate readiness or distractions before the time table is set. The player or players might have good reason to use alternative tactics, but communicating that fact is imperative. The t/ms have to be mindful of the offensive shelf life of attackers when making the perfect plan.

    And so we get to "how" to answer the "why":

    (The Kampfgruppe was an ad hoc combined arms formation, usually employing combination of tanks, infantry, and artillery (including anti-tank) elements, generally organised for a particular task or operation.[1])

    If our rogue thinks they need more honor to succeed in the task of crushing an enemy t/m then we can explore alternatives, or, things that act like honor. The search for unappropriated resources is explored. Do we have attackers that can engage the target from any division? Is there a supermage who can crack the enemy t/m? Is there a heretic who can do an arson run on the enemy? And finally, is a time delay beneficial or harmful based in attacker arrivals, economic breadth, subsequent time sensitive objectives? If all resources are locked up then the rogue is advised to do their best at the allotted time.

    When you are looking for help during war just remember the scene at the impound lot in The Big Labowski ~ Leads?
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 23-06-2018 at 20:33.
    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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  3. #48
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    Spearhead Limitations of TVK

    While I'll adress the limits within TVK, remind yourself to apply the same critical view when assessing your kingdom and potential enemies.

    We already mentioned the focal limits of Chastity when elves have both the only race and personality with the spell. This isn't so bad since elves offer the greatest success rate insofar as casting. These types of setups require an attention to the cascade effect of follow up spell casters in that there will be a notable drop off in cast reliability. Elf mystics don't really have the ability to drop enemy tpa/wpa resistances, so we're putting more pressure on the sabotage aspects of the kingdom.

    As you can imagine, to actually dig into enemies to get them reliably breakable we need healthy rogues. The best way to ensure healthy rogues is through faery self spells and interference tactics by the core to clear out enemy preemptive tactics. We will probably want the heretics to do some work prelude to rogue sabotage, but it depends on the environment.

    The dryads may have the greatest breaking potential in the kingdom, but the enemy knows this. Besides dryads garnering attention we've not only invested in speed by designating them tac, but we also have the lions share of zero loss intel gathering. In the event of hard chaining, the dryad tacs intel gathering feature may be rendered inoperable.
    Just so we're on the same page, we don't want to squander tpa. To defend this aspect we stretch the interference or assualt capability of the kingdom a bit thin. But this is why, in many cases, spearhead characteristic include a brittleness.
    In the kingdoms I mentioned earlier, purpose built for war/whoring, you see they multilayer certain features like lots of elves or lots of avian.

    This is an excercise in understanding what you are actually capable of and how we should first consider what we have in our wheelhouse. TVK trying to be something it isn't can lead to a sudden crash that maybe a few didn't see coming. If we are paying attention then we know our rogues, heretics, sages and paladins are the guts of the system. We don't regard breaking a hard target as defeating them, we are processing a series of disarmament tactics.
    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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  4. #49
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    Because Mechanics

    The leverage point in mechanics the last couple ages has been faery sharable self spells. This is a spillover from paladin that reintroduced sharables. Now this doesn't mean that builds like faery tac weren't part of the landscape previously. Ever since faery lost Clear Sight as a racial spell there were smatterings of faery tac where unbreakable status was paramount. This, along with halfer being shelved for a couple of ages, kept the unbreakable imperative to a low hum.

    These mechanics in and of themselves create domino effects in that elf suddenly became relevant to top warring/whoring. So long as Clear Sight can create a circle of unbreakability the spell wil be a priority. And the reintroduction of halfling makes Clear Sight not just a virtue but a necessity.

    So long as players enjoy playing the roll of faery utilitarian we should simply embrace the idea. In TVK I initially didn't bother with this aspect because the priority was instead aimed to crush rogues. This has the disadvantage in that faery can cast Reflect Magic and several other spells on halfers.

    The wrong way to look at mechanics is an "all or none" perspective. It's not about being naive, but to recognize that any combination is playable in game so long as you're determined. This goes back to my challenge idioms: I've survived and even thrived being at a total disadvantage. So when you hear things like "the halfers will just assassinate all your wizards" and that might be true, but not world ending. Why not? Well when I faced a halfer in war with an undead sage I harassed him relentlessly and at leisure. "At leisure" is important to note as to understand the use of mechanics. Remember, I'm not looking for bad players to engage, my philosophy is to lock horns with the best I can find. I'd like you to observe that undead sage is no longer an option, that elf cleric with Nightmare* is no longer an option. Thus, I've seen my share of mechanical favorites slip away.

    * the mechanic * elf cleric was my intention to go head to head with core heavy attackers and that worked just fine. I found myself dominant in core exchanges. What Nightmare does with elves groovy magic bonus is put a damper on halfer rogue hyjinx. Before one war I was being bothered by a faery rogue from War Monkeys because my wonderful kingdom had committed UF on 2 kingdoms and Hostile on one. I was fighting an attacker in Ascension(the other UF) when the war began against the Hostile kingdom(can't recall their name). While I respect the faery rogue and deemed it a worthy adversary, it was too small for me to unleash reprisals; plus, I wasn't wanting to get us into 2 Hostiles.

    When war began with the Hostile kingdom I was crashed by some heavy attacker. When I opened with Nightmare against him I noticed the attacker went offline. I offered a fellow kingdom attacker to do the honors and collect the acres: he was grateful. I was well within my ability against attackers I didn't Nightmare so the mechanical leverage should be apparent. This was the elf cleric that I had created with 5 weeks left in the age. Consider the deficits in honor and science and the kingdoms we were mixing it up with: War Monkeys, Ascension.

    Good kingdoms will always be aware of your macro weaknesses but may not react to them if they feel they can reap more from protecting your ego. This is what we mean by "walking down" your opponent. A war kingdom, who could care a less about acres, may allow you to run bloated attackers through the war while devouring your honor. A war kingdom wants the win though, more so than an honor or whoring kingdom. Poke a solid war kingdom who's walking you down in the wrong place and watch the violent reaction. I've tried to teach these lessons for years. This is one of the reasons I grab zones like a crocodile. Once you establish leverage on your terms the violence will come, but will be blunted via mechanical balance.

    Diplomatically, a solid kingdom might tell you "you really gave us a fight" and that they'd like to war you again because they like good wars. Not always, but what this really means is; we have a kingdom that doesn't understand bottom line mechanics and will grab a win when we need one.

    Unless you evolve you'll have good kingdoms you "almost beat" and not good kingdoms that avoid you like the plague ;)
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 25-06-2018 at 20:29.
    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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  5. #50
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    Why Seek the Violence?

    Rhetorical, since we've already established the asset of challenge. I'm just defining things further. When the game gets violent, cruel and grueling we know we're where the fun is.

    When you're chained and just get mobbed with abduction, razes and massacres. When your wizards are getting assassinated and attackers are camping your attackers when they arrive home. When a kingdom jams your wave with "oops!" through spamming. We can consider these things lame, but all out war is war. Some kingdoms war with a diplomatic curtesy and I honor those situations happily. For others, war is as much psychological as mechanical. You might have kingdoms that seem to drag wars for a long, long time. I'm of the mind that an invitation to war through Agreed War mechanics or meter-beater is an invitation to no-holds-barred. However, I'm nice and only match my opponent unless a lesson in violence is necessary. No, I'm not saying I'm so good that I'm never on my heels, I'm saying we all have exploitable weaknesses that we can grind into each other. I never try to PK but may make the point clear by brutalizing a hapless opponent to near restart. This is rare and only an earned response, say if one of our guys is PKd. Accidents happen, but again, this is war.

    When you're grabbing center nw a good kingdom will see it and attempt a real response. In these cases your ruthless initiative is simply a matter of survival. Thus, I'm looking to push my opponents off their time synch, soldier block and honor zap. I'll go on NS runs and bomb enemies with whatever spells I can land...and I stay active. Even when I go down I'm trying to buy time and space for my kingdom to recover. Being a turd magnet counts so long as the enemy must use extraneous resources to eviscerate you. If you're just a pinatta, surrendering gobs of honor and resources, you may've wasted your time. Remember to inform your kingdom mates where your honor and resources moved to in the enemy kingdom so they may be able to recover those assets and more.

    The nw zone requires a sympathetic eye in that we don't want to push an enemy into max range of one of our own unless our kingdom mate is prepared to knock the enemy into Sunday. So we time our aggression tactics to synchronize with our strategy. This doesn't mean I'm hanging onto vulnerable resources either. If I'm swimming in runes and mana that through damage ops might push an enemy attacker into max with a kingdom mate, I'll redirect my damage ops to another key opponent.

    For our organized province array we can imagine the nw zone offensive can be shaped in
    Cross-Chain formation with War Spoils options. The rovers/campers, or non organized provinces, can fixate on zone "strays" or targets that resisted the Cross-Chain. The zones can exist on their own as just a shaping tool or they can be fixed in the event we're protecting t/ms. Since rogues operate in a narrow nw field we might let the rogue do their thing, then run over the victim with nw zone tactics.

    War Spoils in war? Yes, with the qualification that the zone is cleared. That is, you might want to be sure you can achieve zone supremacy via Cross-Chain and the rovers/campers clearing so that attempts to reaquire the acres taken can't be realistically challenged. This means you've assessed top enemy attackers who might raze their own land/aid soldiers etc. to drop into max range. The enemy t/ms no doubt would throw gold to these attackers to rebuild quickly. This is why avians make great rovers; they can counter such devious plots before acres are built.

    We're doing 3 sided breakdowns in that we want Nightmare/Amnesia, Assassinate Wizards and Arson with attacks to render enemies to digestible levels for hybrids and t/ms. The poke around system, in finding enemy weaknesses, means we land ops like Nightmmare to reduce enemy thieves and/or NS/Assassinte Wizards to achieve higher reliability. And we aren't concentrating these in the traditional chain manner, we're doing an overall breakdown to clear a nw zone. Hopefully this forces another zone and looks a lot like a max gains wave. Amnesia is more effective as the war goes on. We gain in science while stalling Amnesia victims AND reap honor as Amnesia lands on target.

    The only reason I'm not mentioning enemy t/ms is that we wouldn't have war unless the enemy had some confidence in the top control game. It's a no-brainer to crush t/ms as opportunity arises. If we find the enemy t/m array breakable then we apply similar tactics. Even if it requires a shift to more traditional chains, the opportunity to gain top control is a game changer. A kingdom built like TVK relies on logistical swamping of top enemy t/ms so generally core digestion will be the norm. Remember that a purpose built kingdom will usually be comprised of a single race heavy attacker core and a t/m racial trio(elf, faery,halfer). We on the other hand have a mid-bulk of hybrids that require more offense to break with a quintet of provinces that convert specs to elites. These yield less taps/enemy heavy attacker to break which should result in a sort of zone when the smoke clears.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 25-06-2018 at 22:20.
    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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  6. #51
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    Where's The Spear?

    We aren't avoiding enemy t/ms as some of the above text might lead some to think. It's that the explanation for how we operate the spearhead requires an understanding of what the core and hybrids are doing.

    The spearhead consists of: 10 Provinces

    Dryad
    Elf
    Halfling
    Orc

    These are the provinces that spend the beginning of hostilities and war attempting to break as many t/ms as possible. We anticipate hard opposition so the lifeline associated with how well the core operations go influences the duration of the spearhead.

    It's important to refer back to the faery contingent in that they can provide say, dark elf sages and bocan heretics, with Mages Fury. The spearhead provinces work toward breakability on the weakest front obtainable on enemy t/ms to get those defenses within reach of the next tier of penetration. So, if by miracle an enemy elf t/m is subject to enough Assassinated Wizards we can sort them out with our hybrids. Be it tpa, wpa or attack defense, we're looking to get the enemy t/ms into breakable range. One reason we micro is to find a path for the halfers to exert the most pressure possible. Faery casting Invisibility on halfers to maximize this aspect.

    The question in controlling enemy cores is as important as breaking t/ms in that the enemy core is fuel. If the enemy core is overtly dangerous then we need to concentrate more energy to control tactics. Regardless, enemies will attempt to cover the halfers with Expose Thieves so you can understand why pressure is roundly leveraged. Support is deceptively important because survivability is the keystone to victory.

    Support: 6 Province

    Bocan
    Faery

    Assault: 9 Province

    Avian
    Dark Elf
    Dwarf
    Human

    And you can play with these depending on environment. The fact is, elves can march for the enemy so you don't look at a kingdom and assume elves will only pick up trash hits on the chains. I've run effective faery attackers and I mean against real core heavies like orcs and undead. A whoring kingdom would most certainly attack with t/ms because it's only about the acres in the campaign ideal; they play for the age, not the war.

    But I digress. You can move your orcs and dryad to core suppression, or run your humans and dwarves as killers. We all know it depends how you come out on the other side of conflicts. Your dwarves might be massive and well able to break competitors in the t/m ranges. Human warriors might be consider pincushions and that's fine if it frees up another aspect of breaking and enemy flanks. I've seen gigantic avians that have some real capability to break hard targets. The bocans support roll covers firepower, while the faery spread offers a plethora of defenses to the kingdom.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 28-06-2018 at 00:26.
    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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  7. #52
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    Influences

    The Virtual Kingdom has a signature spread of both race and personality. Those are the cultural rules and interest in the ghetto appearance. In D&D we had a bunch of different races and personalities, but it was Palems 'The Faery Circle' that sparked the idea from an opposite perspective. At first I thought to just do a full racial spread, but decided to go with personalities as well; it's sort of a pageantry or celebration of the game balance age to age.

    Strategically, I'm forced to go it alone because top kingdoms like to keep their goodies on the down low. Most of my experience comes from being in casual kingdoms or serious kingdom in an "age off" and facing powerful opposition. I went up top to learn pump, but they shared very little with newer core attackers.

    What I did see was Freeakstyle in war enough to understand their methods. Suffice to say, others have tried to copy what they do but few can beat them at their game. This takes us to the classic attacker-t/m balance you see in many charting war kingdoms. This is what I've called a clamp formation.

    Top kingdoms are more about their styles in whoring. So I've been fascinated in how Elit and 'A Mothers Advice/Polar Bears' did things. The influences there are how TVK is arranged within the limits of TVKs strat. But to elaborate, I noticed AMA ran triads(core, center belt, killers/cows). To me the center belt was most interesting; usually elves. And if you watched their wars you'd see these huge nw gaps centered as they picked apart enemy cows.

    Flogger ran polar opposite to Elit; I thought they were allied in that a top kingdom that could beat the AMA formation couldn't beat Floggers BeastBlood formations and vice versa. While Flogger says he just ran what's effective, I couldn't help but notice him running the kingdom with like 23 orcs and 2 faeries. This is very whorey and the kingdom page was blunt reality.

    In conventional circles I chatted with Madi who use to run the war kingdom, 'Rusty'. They ran the most consistent bone crushing chains and I'd witness victim after victim run to over 1k nwpa. I mentioned this to the kingdoms I occupied, that if they didn't want to get beat down so relentlessly to kind of avoid Rusty. I've already mentioned 'Noobies Don't Bite' as one of the most brutal warring kingdoms in the decidedly casual sense. I really liked their aggressiveness and their charming halfers and avians. I also followed 'Roughknecks' who seemed to win about every war vs bigger opponents.

    I'm a theme guy so my heart really belongs to the kingdoms that occupy the mid to lower nw territory.

    The Wishmasters
    Metallic Symphony
    Colours
    The Core
    Pladovia - probably the most consistently heavy casual kingdom
    Aggression is the Liquor
    Miracle Illusions
    Empyreans
    Dungeon Dwellers
    The Nobles
    Villains
    Endurance War Specialists
    Wolfpack
    Monsters
    And even the long lost Crayons
    And on and on...

    The Virtual Kingdom was never intended to dissolve any of the heritage kingdoms. I'm fond of the manner in which these kingdoms play, which in actuality is how you play Utopia. The Virtual Kingdom is intended as a haven for the kingdoms that break up and to aim those players as a team toward the upper echelons.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 07-07-2018 at 23:06.
    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 !
    ________
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  8. #53
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    Considerations

    Many of my endeavors, as mentioned before, were ability spread. Still, I'm hard pressed not to include a halfling paladin. While this may seem a bit of a yawnfest for halfers I'm intrigued with their 2/2 soldiers for dragon slaying. As an avian paladin my experience was more provinces were able to aid soldiers, and that encouraged slaying over tanking.

    I'll probably come up with a variation of TVK that includes a halfing paladin because it ergo has 10% population bonus, like a soldier battery. It synergizes inexpensive thieves and Fools Gold. The paladin personality has a wealth of capability. The only feature holding me back was that TownWatch is redundant in halfling paladin. While this may seem inconsequential, my sympathy went with the idea of having TownWatch spread as wide as possible in kingdom. A faery paladin solves part of the problem but also reduces the number of provinces that can cast Fools Gold.

    When I've spent a little time talking about trade balance being important, it became particularly so when I ran avian paladin. The kingdom I was in was not a high order kingdom in that they weren't competing for crowns. Our t/ms got caught prior to wars and these things are typical in the lower tier. When it came to slaying dragons the paladin virtue came into play particularly for soldiers. My trade balance would be critical to this tactic.

    Consider most troops used to slay dragons are either merit based credits(only obtainable through accomplishments) or earned through lots of gold expenditure. The soldier conduit can flow more freely in this hybridized kingdom strat because the builds are less vulnerable to ops/sabotage overall. Additionally, soldier generation is economically feasible without gold squandering or violent adventurous marching for specs.

    I'm sure large paladin cores have reasoned this out, but I'm not sure their enemies have.

    Pillz(steel) had mentioned running a dark elf warrior. This creates some interesting core dynamics in that warrior grants a conquest advantage useable at varying nw ranges. This can also be construed as an advantage vs enemy t/ms, as dark elves should be able to achieve reasonable defense. Chaining a dark elf can create serious problems in the chain pool. I myself have witnessed the disparity they cause in elite conversion vs dwindling offenses. As acres get compacted the dark elf can decimate defenses with Nightmare. They become unwieldy as trash targets and thus are often found creeping out of the chain ranks back to nw bottom-center. This is a danger zone, having an elite converter with warrior gains finishing chains.

    Going the opposite direction, I'd like to address the withdrawals associated with anyone running a dwarf paladin this age. When you're coming down from free building in 6 ticks, plague immunity and relative sustain with a luxury of ergo spells, it can be deflating if your next role is narrow in scope. The malady of dwarf withdrawals hit you right at beginning of age when you run out of build credits. As mentioned before, paladin is best run with relative guild strength. When you can no longer keep guilds going for razes/build time you'll notice that golden cast reliability falls away. This in itself is why I switched from an orc paladin one age to an avian paladin the next. Avian works quiet a bit differently than dwarf in that you can ape dwarf build solidity through attack swamping. You get land fat, but that's the best way to achieve guild percentages. Just know that the raze game is the vulnerability of a fully functioning paladin, and it's hard for me to see a better race than dwarf for the role.

    For the spearhead bias, we can water down focus on breaker offense for other trade offs. We could take the battery of dark elf sages and elves to swap personalities. This yield of 3 dark elf mystics, 3 elf sages opens Chastity casters to 6 and direct fire Amnesa/Nightmares casters to 9 with the bocan as the 3 additional provinces. These are simplified kingdom arrays we can sub down as I've done with the original age 76 Virtual Kingdom. We always have Fireball, Tornadoes etc. like anyone else, but like previously stated, Amnesia/Nightmares lingering effects aren't subject to Mystic Vortex. These spells again aren't used just for simplistic chaining, but for suppression. Consider nominal use of Nightmares to disperse an enemies dragon slaying capability, with the option to attack as opportunity presents itself.

    The reason you'll notice I'm not moving bocan heretic and halfer rogue is based in experience: most wars are ultimately won through sabotage. Magic use, like Meteor Showers, can win wars in the long run but this is based in the futility of sabotage for/against. Wizard depletion is key in war. And don't forget: top kingdoms, whoring kingdoms, are aiming for acres and thus "winning" is quantitative in regards to the full age campaign. The problem with the above alternative to the spearhead bias is the slow wizard generation of the elf sage. Thus, this strat is even more war biased than whore. And still, the kingdom will be dealing with purpose based war kingdoms with higher mystic counts and thus hard to break top core. I've no doubt this alternative could readily dominate enemy attacker cores. Therefor, the strategy of the alternative bias would involve a complete enemy attacker core supremacy objective. You're using the enemy attacker core as fuel in acres, credits, science to then face the upper t/m core with a decidedly logistical push.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 06-07-2018 at 21:50.
    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

  9. #54
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    Learning Curve on the Clock

    When we're talking about top kingdoms or charting war types we can imagine they've run sims to figure out certain strats. It's no great leap to then figure, while many might be experienced and not feel a need to sim, there's always an OCD player who wants the sim to satiate their tremors. These are the bot freaks and yada, yada... Anywho, they aren't wrong, but safety is a margins doctrine.

    Let's look at one build that I can unequivocally behold as an "edge of control" combination that apparently was discarded from competitive circles. Forgive me, since this is from memory and I'm not a recorder type; I'm a gist type.

    There was an age not too long ago when humans had reduced losses to troops at home, and cleric was still available as a personality. Common wisdom is these overtly high survival rates are bad for defense because of overpopulation. Early on I learned that this was true as my attempt to stay within the kingdom strat for sizes was like one of those volcano experiments. Luckily I was in a kingdom where war was common and chaos within war.

    I've mentioned I run fat province strats, but it was here that the fundemental took shape rather than the blob mentality I usually attend. I'm not a numbers guy, but I know when I'm seeing a numbers scenario. Once I'd figured out my acre lead angle: the number of acres to function in strife/being attacked I attained what by Utopian standards was virtual invincibility. I had long experimented with chain stalling through relay/zone tactics, but usually the tipping point was within enemy logistical reach. I'm saying that, in other build experiments a reasonable if extraneous amount of enemy effort could overcome my tactics. It was with this human cleric that repeated efforts to chain my province were ineffective and it was a true effort. I was hurt, but recovered each time within ticks and before the enemy could remarshal the effort. I exited the last war so huge that I destroyed the build and restarted as an orc mystic to stay within kingdom friendly limits.

    The motor on that build required a level of maintenance but it was so torque heavy I regret not running it in a micro-kingdom. To understand this, I mean top kingdoms go on about elite nw and some intricate gains math, but these are contextual to the game they play. For instance, I'm familiar with top kingdom pump and I had toyed with these mechanics early on because the human had bonuses that made going deep that age an interesting prospect. Since I was playing in the lower tier the randoms cause some serious hemorrhaging to homes pumped provinces you would rarely experience in the top. Remember that I don't attack unprovoked either so this was full army home.

    Now see, I've been out in the field as a province in a micro-kingdom and the one thing for sure is constant randoming by enemy kingdoms. The other factor is my non belief in CF culture; it's there but it's immaterial to the business at hand. This was a perpetual build that begged to be in constant motion and thus unacceptable for top play from that perspective. The question is if it was nw appropriate and I'm sure they'd say it wasn't which gets me to the point of action. What if you don't stop? You know, like what if you go where the acres lead you? Since I've tangled up top I have a feel for their brute mechanics. This was certainly in that discussion but I think it was dismissed too early as it sim'd an overpopulation/nw disadvantage. My findings were that the build required an instinctive juxtaposition in that your function was perpetual fat building with no static pump. In other words it was whoring as a way of being, not a strategic decision. Sure, it might've been clunky in the seamless fit of nw range exploitation, but you must remind yourself I didn't come at the build with whoring in mind. The build just wanted to whore so eagerly, I couldn't disrespect it by razing acres after the last war. I have a personal thing about surrendering resources(acres)and prefer to start over than lose resources(acres) through negotiaion.

    The bottom line was that those who tried very hard to take my acres were pushed aside. It was creepily easy once I'd formulated my sloppy math which is to say a "feel" for the build. It reminds me we sometimes have to run these things to see their actual capability. The human cleric required a different pump strategy rather than a standard system applied to nw efficiency at negative peasant load.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 07-07-2018 at 14:14.
    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

  10. #55
    Needs to get out more
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    Aug 2012
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    Oh
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    Make it a Mistake

    I know. You're sick of hearing how I never attacked unprovoked of my own volition since age 60 something. I also explained how this idiom of challenge developed my ability to face tough opposition.

    I never explained why: Because the hunter is my prey. That seems cocky, right? It's not something I've thought much about, but I'm simply unmotivated to strike down enemies I'm well able to handle. My competitive spirit is pretty heavy, but it's built quiet differently because I could never stand being in top kingdoms or competitive warring circles. I really respect them, but they require a good deal of feeding off the weak. I'm not saying they don't have the moxie, as most are really just preparing to compete against the best kingdoms. For me it's every encounter, every time, there is no letting go... unless I perceive them as making a naive error in judgement. It's not even that I feel delusions-of-grandeur, it's that years of gaming have made me treasure these moments.

    By surrendering the first move I'm absolutely granting my enemy a superior position, and I mean anyone from the highest ranking kingdoms. That's what I want; an encounter with the best, perpetually. I'll admit that I'm not fit to serve in my own virtual kingdom because my competitive drive is insatiable. My only sanctuary is to be left alone where I'm happy to grow and develop my province and kingdom unfettered. It's a trigger I freely admit.

    There were times a top kingdom would go through the rounds farming my kingdom and I would not react so long as they didn't include me. I'd watch my kingdom mates eating attack after attack. Let me express to you that I don't consider eating waves as a kingdom to be the epitome of kingdom behavior. I find it pitiful and thus I'm not in the right kingdom, but then I'm retired because we as a community had no place for the likes of me. Say I'm not a team player, but I'm much more willing to be razed than accepting defeat without resistance. They say you "need" to compromise and I say you "want" to compromise. I'd rather my enemy force my resources from me and push me and kingdom down the chart wherever we belong. And what if we prevail? What if we do fight back and find out we belong where we are? That's what I've been saying. If I'm offering my enemies to hit my full army home and end up getting the better of them, you have to consider the alternative known as winning.

    It's not magic. You have to make it their mistake. It's obviously not easy to get more out of superior opposition than what they take. "Making it" is an act of construction, creativity and work. Forging positive gains through a position of weakness is difficult, but it's what I'm about as a Utopian. It's how I honed my craft.

    The Virtual Kingdom wasn't designed necessarily in my likeness. There might be features that reflect my vision, like my regard for sages. It's not for me to expect a kingdom full of like minded self mutilating challenge drones marauding the charts. I do want you to know that it's built from the perspective of someone who wouldn't be afraid to run any of the provinces in The Virtual Kingdom. Yes, I've run dryad in a micro-kingdom. Yes, I've run a human war hero, solo in a kingdom shell. Yes, I've chosen race and personality combinations that zero players chose certain ages, like orc mystic. They all offer the impression of weakness, and I actually came at these builds in these situations simply to see if I could overcome.

    The Virtual Kingdom design isn't about building the kingdom with a few pro's and filled out with strays. The design is for 5 willing and able players that have put time together and developed teamwork. Each set of 5 are a team unto themselves. The goal is to mesh those teams into a self propelled hydra; each division with independent thought that serves the whole.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 09-07-2018 at 22:21.
    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

  11. #56
    Needs to get out more
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
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    Oh
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    Division Size

    It's my practice already to talk too much, so cut to the chase, the intricacies of division size aren't a hardened discipline.
    We aren't recruiting perfect 5s, as if you can't muster 5 wonderfully active and agreeable players at a time. Now for me, representing The Virtual Kingdom, we draft for culture so the divisions would be arranged that way. You might draft relative GMT, relative activity, player expertise, etc.

    If I can motivate myself I'll do an 8 division kingdom strat with 3 provinces per division with a monarch single province. We'll call Operation Octopus. Isn't that clever?

    Since we're looking as revised proposed I'll present an all purpose trio capable of camping, roving and self support:

    Dwarf Paladin
    Faery Heretic
    Orc Tactician

    And here's some screwing around with distribution:


    *Avian*
    *Avian
    *Avian

    Human sage
    Human warrior
    Human tactician

    *Orc *
    *Orc*
    *Orc*

    *Dwarf paladin
    *Dwarf paladin
    *Dwarf war hero
    *Dwarf war hero

    *Elf mystic
    *Elf mystic
    *Elf mystic
    *Elf*

    *Faery heretic*
    *Faery heretic
    *Faery heretic
    *Faery rogue*

    *Halfling paladin
    *Halfling rogue
    *Halfling rogue
    *Halfling sage

    Right now I'm just processing what the benefits spread will look like. Seems paladin may get some good dispersion among races.
    Last edited by StratOcastle; 12-07-2018 at 20:59.
    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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