TVK 77 Ear Candy

[StratOcastle]

Comfort Builds

Things are a bit different age to age so what's comfortable one age might be bothersome the next. In TVK I like to at least try to accommodate some comfort builds, at least to my mind.

I use to not be a fan of avian war hero, but I've noticed some of the basic virtues have some warm amber glow. let's get to War Spoils right off the bat. Since avian can now be ambushed this is nice from a casual observation. More from a logistical-tactical point of view, avians can navigate to be virtually unambushable...but, they have to wait for acres to begin building. Now as an avian paladin, after running an orc paladin, I realized that self casting all those great spells depended on guild percentage. It's very obvious, duh, but now we're talking about a personality in full play rather than some marginal doppleganger of a paladin.

As an orc paladin, once the enemy began to raze, my abilities were no longer magnificent. When I applied the same personality to avian I began to create that levy effect I've mentioned. My buildings were coming in more often despite the same build time because my returns(army in/out) were in a compacted time window. So applied logic dictates, an observant avian war hero using War Spoils can begin building before an avian paladin. We always have to be environmentally aware when we use War Spoils, but avian provides the shortest window unmodified.

The question was, should it be humans or avians? Warriors or war heroes? Though humans have tremendous science, they still have a magic deficit. We still want to give good things for comfort and Pitfalls is a nice offensive weapon for avians. They can use it when ambushing much more often, and unlike humans which might benefit from guilds to cast Quick Feet, avians are fundamentally faster.

For me, the dwarf undead fits into these comfort builds. It's not going to compete in science, but there are some basic abilities that I'm fond of. Reduced losses and plague immunity will always get my attention, particularly reduced defensive losses. Free building in 6-8 ticks is significant in the field. Some people underestimate buildings or use opposite logic and build nothing. I'm well aware of aid/trade and I'll bite if I'm aware of attackers on full life support. So will others.

Now let's get to where the rubber meets the road and the 7/5 elite at 30% offensive/defensive losses. Brushing aside sciences and bonuses, this is the premier offensive elite if rendered to zero spec status. When we're talking about Night Strike, Nightmares, Propaganda and ambushes the elite status and 5 defense points become invaluable. Sure it's not a great opener, but you talk about the one elite that hangs in there vs all 3 types of Utopian pressure and you see why the dwarf race augmented by undead personality makes me comfortable.

So you can raze a dwarf, but they can rebuild for free. You can cast Nightmares at a dwarf and they have a 7/5 elite when the smoke clears. It's not miracles, but these are the tools a veteran like myself desires over kingdom synergy.

When I started my dwarf undead experimentally, I knew certain people in kingdom were running a different strat. Now the thing is, I could've run the same strat and still be playing. This is no boast: the strat was tried and true, used by Emeriti in their crowning. It would've been exceptional for dwarf; again you can start the age exploring, and dwarves build for free and can cast Builders Boon for 6 day turnaround. Remember, that's 6 to 10 more days of productivity over other builds at 20% higher yield. The more I grew the faster, and outpacing everything but the kingdoms who mind. I never had to take a hit by random.

When I experiment it's to learn more than what I think I need to learn. There are surprises along the way and the struggle is paramount. This may seem an unhinged point of view, but I already never attack unprovoked. It's necessary to see Utopia through each tier under duress to truly gauge the strength of the field. The best will be up top by most measures, but the outstanding individuals can be hidden anywhere.