Age 87 VIRTUAL KINGDOM

[StratOcastle]

SPEARHEAD

Dwarf: necromancer
Elf: war hero
Faery: mystic
Gnome: rogue
Orc: warrior

ASSAULT

Dwarf: raider
Faery: heretic
Gnome: heretic
Human: artisan
Orc: tactician

HQ

Elf: war hero
Faery: mystic
Gnome: rogue
Human: artisan
Human: necromancer

ASSAULT

Dwarf: raider
Elf: raider
Faery: heretic
Human: artisan
Orc: tactician

SPEARHEAD

Dwarf: necromancer
Elf: war hero
Faery: mystic
Gnome: rogue
Orc: warrior

[StratOcastle]

Hello.

So I went with 5 faery this age, more because The Virtual Kingdom stylizes a kingdom that counters up rather than cf. Most of these are stack builds, meaning the race and personality virtues compound rather than diversify. The dwarf necromancer is a diversified build that compensates for lower birth rates.

The elf war hero is my solution to honor stacking and shadows the human artisan in a quasi-whoring regime. The human seems to be of land-crowning DNA so I figured I’d play into that and work the kingdom as a tiered plateau with belts of resistance.

For the uninitiated, the separation of the provinces is representative of GMT divisions. The races and personalities are divided as equally as possible to reflect both pageantry(the essence of the virtual kingdom) and critique game balance, good or bad.

The gnomes struck me as the roach infestation builds that keep coming back. I’d be tempted to play a gnome necromancer myself and they might prove superior to dwarf necromancer in actual play. The heretic and raider personalities offer enough threat that I feel we can press gnomes into rogue service and not have them dog piled relentlessly.

[StratOcastle]

The division system is intended to address prime activity around the world for players who have busy lives. With 5 division operating 4.8 hours apart in elliptical cycle there is likelihood of division overlap.

There are several reasons for division planning; the basis being we are not perfect. It occurred to me that certain divisions may operate more smoothly if the players could speak to each other in their native tongue. I’m a big believer in micro and understand some actions of opportunity must be done quickly.

Hyperactive players might enjoy playing in a kingdom that’s operating 24/7 rather than waving twice a day. I know in my playing days it was avian tac I enjoyed quite a bit. We lacked definition at that time, but I now know it’s wise to assign players to where they shine. In my case I could play rover and the patient hyperactives could play camper. There are plenty of players who prefer control and they will fill out the bulk of the execution crowd. Yes, they think, but they think in order rather than chaos.

The reason I post these alternatives isn’t for me to play; I’m retired. I post the virtual kingdom so that otherwise ghetto kingdoms can shape themselves into competitive fun kingdoms that don’t demand more activity, but a higher quality game experience.

[StratOcastle]

There’s great flexibility this age so I had spent some time contemplating a deep investment in elf mystic to create a self spell juggernaut.

Strengthening a kingdom from within can make for a formidable war kingdom but they often lack reach outside their nw wheelhouse. This is no problem for a dedicated war kingdom but can feel stifling for whoring dynamics. I’ve not had interest in competitive whoring, but I do enjoy the ability to gobble and fortify acres.

The honor levy system used in elf war hero is available to orc necromancer in combative circles. Both elf and orc have readily available mismatch templates. I’m a little too tired to dig for more of these types, but you can see module by module how you can apply static logistics. Apply these lopsided advantages in game play and you’ll often find these builds create a transparent phalanx; where one ends another begins like locking scales of armor. What effect tpa falls to what effects wpa, falls to what effects defense.

[StratOcastle]

Esoteric Elf War Hero

When we look at elf war hero in the light of an attacker who retains honor benefits, we are only achieving stage one effects. Please
turn to page two and read into the elves ability to cast support spells. The war inside the war is the theater of honor.

Specifically, the elf offers those who would otherwise surrender more honor the ability to retain it through defensive measure. If we had the elves paying particular attention to the zero sum honor struggle, we can augment strategies that accomplish objectives laterally. Unorganized honor harvesting can be like plinko and organized honor harvesting can be like jingo; a sudden dive in kingdom overall honor due to unforeseen weaknesses mined through good micro.

Experience has taught me to use amnesia and nightmares as utility spells; as an example. These nudges from adverse angles can wear down enemy foundations. These angles can be engineered into total collapse through timing and unconventional target focus. Something as simple as general arson/tornados used on an unsuspecting target can open the flood gates to devour resources.

Think it through. This isn’t stand alone but a cog in the wheel of war.

[StratOcastle]

Human Artisan is Captain Obvious

But I’ll reflect on “campaign why”. From 1st game tick to last, the human builds faster and their building are generally more efficient than anyone else. In war, out of war; if this human builds 20% towers they start producing roughly 6-8 ticks sooner than their rival and produce more runes/tick. The exceptions are the guys who use runes best, but they still need more time.

Consider the shared load in ritual casting. Maybe a t/m can maintain higher defenses because the human is handling more tower duty.

Particularly, the human artisan creates problems for the enemy in war when razing would be the solution. In this virtual kingdom I use elliptical waving based in Global gmt so prime activity is offset from most kingdoms traditional wave schedules. This matters because the rebuild sequence for human artisans in separate divisions is both short and occurs at different ticks. What I’m getting at is enemy rune caches and stealth accumulation can be muted due to prevailing divisional interference. The smaller window can be made yet smaller if we reason why the enemy razed in the first place.

Just consider the amount of production we’re talking about from age beginning to end. War recovery, restart provinces, the economic leverage between war. And there’s that science to shine things up along the way.

[StratOcastle]

The Elliptical Wave

I noticed thejudge post http://forums.utopia-game.com/showth...derous-Changes and immediately thought about sync waves and their vulnerabilities. A lot of players don’t realize a lions share of common strategy is actually common game culture.

Think about why it’s important to sync waves. Yes, if the hammer lands, but all we’re really doing is having an activity contest if we
truly know our targets. This is the walking dead bot effect. Everyone prescribes to surface logistics and determine whole kingdoms based in the numbers they culturally believe are winning logistics: it’s a cargo cult. Top kingdoms have airplanes, ghettos have bamboo effigies.

How can I say that? I’ll make the tired point because some people will miss this. A few ages ago one of the guys reactivated The Faery Circle; a kingdom built exclusively as faery. Anyways, it just so happened that very age the faery got nerfed. We decided to run it anyways. With half apathetic activity we did very well and basically I feared nothing. Now I’m talking about running faery attackers with a -10% population locking horns with orcs, avians, what have you.

I’ve run orc mystics, elf clerics and it doesn’t matter as long as you know how to rock. And I don’t play through the age with builds I proved virtually invincible. If I see I’m operating unopposed/nearly unchainable then I shelf the build. Three of those builds were the aforementioned elf cleric, a human cleric and an undead sage. I don’t compete because I’m not fond of being the 20th pickle in a jar. I respect those who do compete so I try not to build in their way, but I am extremely driven to prevail when challenged. If I build something that can terrorize at any level I implode that build unless my kingdom is ambitious.

So I’ve just pointed out what is possible when an enthusiastic player is off the chain. The secret is nuance and the rule is the exception. Doctrine is the ideal, the perfect storm. The rule is opportunity, adaptation, anticipation and killer instinct. So you go to divisions depending on where people are in this world or how their quality time is allotted. You want micro because you need it more than kingdom syncing. You can always cripple a sync wave if you do quality micro. The division system mirrors the cohesive nature of a jazz quintet. The sync wave mirrors the cohesive nature of an orchestra.

The best kingdoms sync wave because they are built by the most experienced campaigners and command the highest order of recruitment. The wave moves when the conductor says so, and the conductor has great insight.
We don’t all have that luxury, but tight knit players can micro with the best. We want to experience facing the best. From there you can decide if you want the glory of the 20th pickle or enjoy the renegade in you and just make your point when faced by the best.

In divisions you’re still sharing intel kingdom wide and have consensus goals, but your division has objectives. If you’re spearhead you’re going to engage t/ms and if you’re assault you’re engaging the core. And I remind you the rule is the exception. There is “what you were built for” and “what you do”. A faery is supposed to caste spells and pray for unbreakability, but a faery can mull any heavy attacker head to head if you play the game. You’re playing Utopia when you know you’re “in it” with anyone.

Prime activity. Quality activity layered by the hours with no lull is far superior to the painful act of trying to sync wave with players with half a foot at work and the other at home raising kids. We have to find a way to enjoy the moments rather than labor the hours. Everybody suffers the same attack times, so we should be looking at opportunities to make that our favor.

[StratOcastle]

Faery Heretic ~ the magnetic glue screw

The utopian lords drop gems every so often and this is one of them. This is not better; that’s not how I think. This is part of the resource/honor/nw zone digestion system.

I’ve long been an admirer of the amnesia spell and have built what I call amnesia cannons. Amnesia cannons are my least molested builds and I was a ghetto lurker. I love them but I seldom built them because I played for challenge not dominance.

Well now the devs have incorporated the cream of the cream spell batteries in amnesia, fools gold, nightmares AND instant damage bonus. You must imagine my disdain for cf to understand how much of a Hallmark moment I had when I saw that. I believe in agreeing not to hit each other rather than cf. I want my enemy to ask me and I would always humbly comply.

The meat and potatoes are amnesia and fools gold oow(out of war). In war, nightmares, augmented by amnesia opens thief vulnerability to get that Brick Tamland trident effect. You can sculpt targets with nightmares rather than squander mana/runes for inefficient gain effect. It’s not that you only max, it’s that you max till it’s more efficient not to. That’s the nw zone effect.

[StratOcastle]

Recognizing Bottlenecks - As neglected in business so to is the bottleneck effect in Utopia.

Communication is a huge bottleneck in society thus filtering into gameplay. Player action to Command structure execution is pretty sloppy and slow, or doesn’t exist in a practical way. You might notice I said “player action to command structure” because this is the actual crux of bottleneck effects. It’s not that the core player runs the show, but at a skilled zenith the player should be able to execute sans communication and accomplish exactly what is best for the kingdom. The command structure micros efficiently because each player knows the trigger of the objective in question. In military terms this is ground forces calling in air strikes or special forces deploying precision strikes to open enemies to blunt trauma logistics.

When I was clearing a nw zone it was easier to demonstrate the evolution and benefits rather than explain my actions so the leadership could order me to do what I just told them. Mind you, it was my responsibility to establish the nw zone while following orders; which made it more difficult than necessary. I point this out because most players, including leadership, in utopia think in colonial terms and spearhead tactics. I think in flanks because the spearhead is killer instinct. In other words, there’s a time for full chaining, not all the time. Most kingdoms full chain all the time which is akin to leaving your flanks wide open. This is cultural strategy or cargo cult. As one player I could circumvent the entire enemy chain alignment by nw zone tactics which resulted in chain sloughing(poor max ranging made chaining incredibly difficult against my provinces).The result was markedly higher resource retention on my part. Because I could retain resources I could provide aid
to our chained provinces which freed up our t/ms to hopefully achieve unbreakable through focused resource implementation.

Full chaining is a practice in bottleneck risk/reward. If like me, you could stall a war by crashing chain alignment you understand the glass cannon so many have faith in. It’s a risk and requires diplomacy meta to ensure its potency. A player who sees nw and gains just by looking at kingdom pages can yank the plug on war practices common across the game. This is another reason I segmented the virtual kingdom alignment. For those who aren’t involved in top kingdom diplo, you’re running around with your chin
out when you make beautiful nw alignments in your core. It’s on the kingdom page and any player can observe this without intel. So what’s the alternative? Adapt. If your chain alignment is compromised immediately switch to zone. It’s a game so think in game terms, like football.

Same goes for t/ms. When prelude to chaining your t/ms cast nightmares etc. you need to pay attention to the target. I’ve played an avian tac who spammed mystic aura and I’ve seen dwarves do the same when I was an elf mystic anchor on the nightmare chain system. Actions like spamming mystic aura, lightning strikes and stealing runes can stall the chain. They have to reassess defenses and the chain captain has to deliver precise troop ratios to reach chain efficient objectives. This is where casual players begin to freak out because many have set alarms or hide in office bathrooms to make the wave.

Bottlenecks are the stress points you must recognize in your kingdom, your province, your enemies kingdom and their provinces to leverage uncommon logistics. It’s why certain players are underestimated and make a living off retal. It’s not recognized often enough that it’s your province/kingdom in motion that’s dangerous, not a static list of best gains races and personalities.

[StratOcastle]

Relay Taps

Before imagining elliptical waving I experimented with relay tapping for several ages. The background to this; I use to run avian tac in unorganized kingdoms, but was asked to run an undead cleric or warrior in a new kingdom. I loved cleric because I learned the tactics of damage resistance from rpg’s. What the undead cleric lacked was speed.

To truly understand speed in utopia we need to understand economy. What we build, what we train between taps, and what risks arise between taps. It occurred to me that the chain effect was most devastating against provinces with low army return times. To ape avian speed with my undead cleric I began to space my army deployments until I had 4(5 that age)generals, army in tow, returning at equidistant times. I obviously represent the hyperactive player type so this is provincial tactics, not kingdom.

To digress, I will generally present provincial tactics that are meant to be incorporated into total kingdom strategy.

The undead cleric was ideal for relay taps because the durability made for reliable numbers vs continuously dwindling enemy defenses. By having armies return in short bursts I was resistant to hard chaining because I had acre liquidity. Overpopulation was muted and building credits were spent broadly so raze effect would only destroy part of my production. Compound this with nw zone tactics and I could, by percentage, resist more chaining than any player I have personally observed.

Lots of leaders would bemoan relay tapping, but that’s short sighted cargo cult mentality. The flaw of waving is that you take strategy away for logistics. Remember; hard chaining, which is traditional through the game, is a practice in diminishing returns. Nightmare waving is a practice in diminishing returns. These are not absolute no go strategies, but require more thought than chaining the guy with the highest offense down the line. You can tell nobody is thinking in a war when both sides are doing the most predictable thing twice a day kingdom wide and nobody tries to exploit it. This is the fate of the non intuitive: they will perfect a broken machine and execute with razor sharp ineptitude.

My advice to the non intuitive, or sensor, is to listen to the intuitive and perfect their prototypical machines. I was always a slop player who never adapted to bots or com systems, but always reliably got where I wanted to go. Do you know how many monolithic enemy builds I’ve crashed in single combat? With superior numbers from offense, defense, tpa, the one thing they failed in was fuel consumption. They’re brilliant and I marvel at their technical beauty. Never out of hate; I’d love to be as technically sound, but they come from a limited perspective on what a formidable opponent is made of. Oh I’d scan them for intel just to appreciate their pristine builds. I truly come from the position of respect.

So who relay taps? In a kingdom like the virtual kingdom, the rover. This is player synchronized distribution. There will be hyperactives and they are best suited as hunter/killer attackers. They occupy an assault roll, generally drawing a line between our killers and t/ms and the enemy attackers that would chain or massacre our spearhead units. A rover build can be found anywhere but the freedom to rove is best suited from the HQ or Assault divisions. They can even participate in chaining by happenstance. Optimum rover: human necromancer.

[StratOcastle]

Hyperactives & Constant Pressure

One thing you learn as an effective hyperactive is how much enemy kingdoms long for your rest periods. They can’t wait to mv your defenses and throw the kitchen sink into your gearbox. I’ve received broken English messages decrying my activity from enemies wishing to bombard my province. So elliptical waving is how I translate hyperactive play without hyperactivity.

First you can’t be in the mindset that “these builds are gold and these builds are trash”. Trash builds work because the popular logistics don’t account for resourcefulness.

Ok, so I noticed the poetic inclusion of chastity in the gnome spell bank. It’s not reliable, but when it sticks we get gnome population stacking. The secret to things like this isn’t the critical moments, it’s that you land it here and there causing your opponent logistical drag. You could pop it on any number of enemy attackers who aren’t suffering from necromancer effect.

Target through mirroring. The humans have great economies most vulnerable to t/ms. This is why I believe in full lateral pressure. It’s a probe across the entirety of the enemy kingdom. When something goes easy you can dig in, but things like rune caches are zero sum acquisitions. You must stay on t/ms so they are at least forced to use resources for defense.

Nightmare is a great utility spell that’ll help your kingdom yield maximum efficiency in taps. Now generally a nightmare waving kingdom will concentrate on a couple of chain targets and taps will also. This system will demonstrate itself in diminishing returns. It looks cool and the hapless victims don’t like it, but it’s a narrow penetration against a full kingdom. The best general use of nightmare is to sculpt enemy defenses to incoming attacker troop allocations. You can also target an enemies incoming army with nightmares to reduce his offensive potential: you don’t have to wait for one of your attackers to make it optimal. It’s optimal to render kingdom defense higher than to watch an enemy bludgeon one of our own while you sit on your resources and watch an overpopulated kingdom mate lose resources en masse, unopposed.

I submit, if I run the highest offense I’m not doing it to win by glomming troops onto enemies thinking Rambo thoughts, I’m doing it as a meatshield. My job would then be to buy time. You might be surprised how many times I’ve seen players believe all is lost when the biggest attackers are chained. Retained economy is the true measure of attacker formidability. Sure you can proxy economy through t/ms but aren’t they supposed to be securing position themselves? Attacker secured economy is a rampant victory signature. We are talking relative security in utopia. This is a bigger fish game where you have to fight above your pay grade to create inroads. Instead of everybody going lemming every 12 ticks we might try casual suffocation 24/7. You squeeze gently and constantly and bite when you see their eyes turn red. A fools gold here, a tornado there, blizzards...crunch.

[StratOcastle]

Dragons

Who doesn’t like dragons? Who likes paying for them?

This isn’t an absolute, but I’d say you only pay for the dragon after every province in your kingdom is squared away AND you’ve exhausted all reasonable venues of stealing your enemies gold to pay for your dragon. Obviously we’re talking about dragons in war. It is more efficient to pay for a dragon than bolstering your tpa on paper, but in practice/in motion, cultivating a higher kingdom wide tpa and using it on the enemy trying to pay for their dragon results in victory. The last age I played I was out of stealth, mana, gold and runes in a contentious war. Guess what I did? Plundered an enemy province of formidable worth on stale intel and launched our dragon. They surrendered when the news broke.

It was a risk worth taking, I‘d just rather not fly blind when it’s for all the marbles.

Paying for dragons by attacker provinces is old war kingdom Pig Latin for staying small. Your entire core will be emaciated aid reliant beggars, but you got the dragon off.

Train some doggone thieves and leave maximum offense to the meat shields. Yes, train during war. Yes, thieves. You won’t regret it.

[StratOcastle]

Cross Chaining

Taught to me one thousand ages ago by Crazy Pete, cross chaining is distilled sense in chaining. Simply, the highest max hits 1st and last in the chain session. The progression is highest to lowest, then mirrors progression lowest to highest to yield even gains for increased chain integrity and ugly ambush options. So let’s barrow 3 from one of our assault divisions and here’s how it goes, assuming all relevant max factors. Yes, just like the makeup. And you thought they were just words: 2 taps each

Gretchen Carlson ~ Orc: tactician - hits first
Bonnie Schneider ~ Human: artisan - hits second
Jennifer Westhoven ~ Dwarf: raider - hits third
Jennifer Westhoven ~ Dwarf: raider - hits forth
Bonnie Schneider ~ Human: artisan - hits fifth
Gretchen Carlson ~ Orc: tactician - hits sixth

This would essentially be the chain set with opportunity attacks from rovers, campers and parasitical t/ms. In this version it’s quick, and understood without excessive communication. Once everyone knows the max doctrine, players can adjust their max alignment should the enemy attempt to stall the chain through interference. By using divisional micro the t/ms can unleash batteries on typical enemy flack points to shore up chain integrity.

[StratOcastle]

Age 87 VIRTUAL KINGDOM

SPEARHEAD - Australia GMT

Dwarf: necromancer, S
Elf: war hero
Faery: mystic
Gnome: rogue
Orc: warrior, Global Strategic Council

ASSAULT - America GMT

Dwarf: raider
Faery: heretic, Economy Council
Gnome: heretic
Human: artisan
Orc: tactician

HQ - Western Europe GMT

Elf: war hero, Diplomacy Council
Faery: mystic
Gnome: rogue, M
Human: artisan
Human: necromancer

ASSAULT - Eastern Europe GMT

Dwarf: raider
Elf: raider
Faery: heretic
Human: artisan, Intel Council
Orc: tactician

SPEARHEAD - Asia GMT

Dwarf: necromancer
Elf: war hero
Faery: mystic, Internal Affairs Council
Gnome: rogue
Orc: warrior, S

This is to illustrate diversification of credible details to keep leadership sharp. By not overtaxing leaders with gathering information or being experts at everything, this helps develop new leaders and offers less stress for decision making.

For instance, Intel Council might lead the effort for daily news snatching by each province in the kingdom. This amount of information may seem overwhelming, but familiarization will help players recognize trends in the utopian world. Relevant intel can then be relayed to the Global Strategic & Diplomacy Councils. This type of knowledge can also help the Economy Council determine build itinerary or recommendations thereof.

Internal Affairs Council observe province behavior to curtail risk of poor activity, trolling and/or spies.

[StratOcastle]

Virtual Kingdom Manifesto

The idea for the virtual kingdom began when I use to play in The Faery Circle; an all faery kingdom. I thought about what the opposite of TFC would look like. It then occurred to me this would be a nice way to adjust my roll play and strategic perspective. Since I dwelt in the ghetto most ages I noticed the virtual kingdom looked disorganized from the kingdom page and then I said to myself “maybe I can help less experienced players play what they want and how they want through truncating organization.”

The virtual kingdom is a game in itself. You must divide both race and personality as evenly as possible and attempt to build as formidable a kingdom as possible. The virtue is you get every benefit in the game and the liability is you get every weakness as well. You can stylize the kingdom toward honor, whoring or warring.

The role playing aspect of the virtual kingdom comes from my experience seeing solid kingdom forced to dissolve for loss of players. The initial idea of divisions was to offer the few survivors of these kingdoms a place to carry on the culture of their fragmented kingdoms. Not unlike ethnic burrows in large cities, I wanted them to have a chance to preserve what made them unique. I’ve seen too many merged kingdoms fail because one culture wouldn’t accept the other and we end up with even more substandard kingdoms.

I’m a strong believer in delegation to enthusiasts. My vision was to see these divisions in friendly competition with each other. Thus, we might see the division of Modesty compete with the division of Endurance War Specialists for completion of qualitative objectives. Each using their team shorthand and welcome to barrow tactics from each other.

The evolution of the virtual kingdom division system was led by 2 things: 1) monarchs asking for gmt of each player, and 2) my ghetto experiences with players hitting whenever from wherever. The strategy was to use the prime activity variations of the players into concentrated segments designed to achieve pragmatic objectives. Ideally, this is the elliptical wave. It’s a wave that is only interrupted by eowcf and then only the deployments. In most ghettos the attackers are oblivious to the actions of the t/ms. Here these players share objectives like a blitzkrieg in band level numbers so they can micro very quickly and maximize intent.

As stated before, the elliptical wave rolling armies are an extension of relay taps. I’ve had great success relay tapping, in and out of war. While not all individual tactics extend to kingdom level I consider this taking a handmade object and making it an assembly line product.