Learning From TVK
Kingdom building is an art. Impressive kingdom pages can intimidate some while others are curious to see if it's a paper tiger. You can choose war strats, whoring strats, honor strats and combinations thereof. In most of these the leadership choose racial and personality biases that suit a plethora of their aims.
The Trick of TVK is to bias the template in your wheelhouse. The point is to clarify the strengths and weaknesses so you can then project to actual kingdom building. I often refer to Freeakstyle as the epitome of these aspects:
They carry a reputation which is earned.
They practice diplomacy.
They have a deep understanding of mechanics.
They have a deep understanding of strategy.
They have a strong grasp of what works.
My knowledge on the other hand is rather sporadic. I know what I know by feel. For instance, I'm hard pressed to find an equal who runs an avian tac as I can. My personal depth on the use of avian tac allows me to observe even great kingdoms and note the flaws in how avian tac is used. Great kingdoms may use orcs in ways I'm naive to, but avians and particularly tacs are what I know very well. This knowledge has allowed me to lock horns with avian tacs when I'm playing something else and control them because I know what they can and can't do.
This is the essence of TVK. This is why I spend my time experimenting with different builds. Nuances that are not apparent from the outside come to light when you're doing the driving. It's also why I choose to be in the most chaotic kingdoms I can be recruited to. In order to learn the little secrets in each build I require a lot of freedom. It's here where I can learn what builds are best for certain types of organization.
Last age the kingdoms I occupied were stricken with poor t/m activity. Situations like those offer attackers an approach to the game that differs greatly from having full t/m support. So what was learned?
We can take this knowledge to an organized kingdom with active t/ms and let them know how little or big a push the attacking core requires to achieve objectives. This is about economy of force. If I ask anyone who can FB an avian tac just FB once or twice, I'm offering valuable insight so they can unload the majority of mana/runes in other critical areas. We want to be in a position of mutual feedback rather than one sided complaining.
From a leadership perspective TVK can help expose kingdom strat strengths and weaknesses. We can assess potential threats and targets for war or diplomacy.
I've spent my share of ages in organized to highly organized kingdoms, so I'm aware of some of their tendencies. One important aspect is discipline. Sometimes these kingdoms leadership are use to not being questioned so they don't take to it too well. Often they confuse my economy of utility with a selfish desire to finish well. This is because a lot of core players just want to win and don't ask "why?" or "how?" or "when?"
One of the unwritten rules is: you only run as many avians as you have enthusiasts that want to play them. Most leaders don't fathom this simple rule and have exasperating experiences with what on paper is a dominating core. - This is a matter of ultra-strating in that from understanding strategy and tactics we can apply the same logic to what type of players we're dealing with.
To squeeze this subject dry, a kingdom who understands that avian tac appeals to rovers should also understand dwarves appeal to campers. I've seen great campers and they are among a rare and valued player type. Campers can be just as active as avian tac, but you wouldn't know it unless you spend a lot of time evaluating kingdom pages.
A lot of good kingdom overexert themselves in chain waves because they're appealing to a majority time frame for activity compromises. This makes for a less appealing environment for campers and rovers who are best at proving their value outside of the organizational norms. It's my opinion that these aspects can be integrated to achieve best results from all parties.
There are formulas that work with uniform racial and personality cores. TVK offers a sample size of each to expose the weight of these balances.
Originally Posted by Bishop
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