The Virtual Kingdom of Age 89 ~ in GMT battle array!

[StratOcastle]

ASSAULT - Asian Division

Avian: war hero
Dark Elf: cleric
Dwarf: rogue
Human: war hero
Undead: raider

SPEARHEAD - Eastern European Division

Dwarf: tactician
Elf: mystic
Faery: rogue
Gnome: cleric
Orc: warrior

HQ - Western European Division

Avian: tactician
Dark Elf: heretic
Elf: heretic
Faery: heretic
Human: raider

SPEARHEAD - American Division

Dwarf: tactician
Elf: mystic
Faery: rogue
Gnome: cleric
Orc: warrior

ASSAULT - Australian Division

Avian: warrior
Dark Elf: mystic
Gnome: cleric
Human: war hero
Undead: raider

[StratOcastle]

Welcome to age 89.

~ THE ELLIPTICAL WAVE ~

Hello. The elliptical wave is a perpetual Greenwich-Mean-Time based system I devised for busy players living in different time zones. The divisions are roughly broken into prime activity for players based around the world. My endeavor is to offer a system that yields some of the benefits of competitive kingdoms without players straining to make waves at inopportune work/sleep hours.

In addition to meeting player activity requirements, the division system truncates the common full kingdom wave strat. In this system provinces are primarily communicating and executing objectives between 5 players. This is meant to promote faster micro and garner healthy competition between divisions.

Some divisions are designated “assault” to indicate the common objective is to engage several enemy provinces at one time and prevent them from engaging our spearhead divisions. This is where we use nw zone as a rule, but there are always exceptions.

“Spearhead” divisions are designed to break enemy hard targets. They include Elf Mystic to break magical defenses, Faery Rogue to break stealth defenses, and Orc Warrior to break physical defenses. Internal support is provided by one Dwarf Tactician (supplying vital intel, build versatility and mini chaining) and a Gnome Cleric (providing support spells and mini chaining).

The “HQ” or headquarters division is designed to provide support to any and all divisions, either to achieve an objective or salvage a faulty mission. This division handles most of the leadership decisions and is equipped to engage enemies in various meter situations.

Each division included one council member.
1. Intel - compiling snatch news and prioritizing
2. Economics - what we can do and how much
3. Diplomacy - sales pitch meta
4. Elliptical Wave Navigator - air traffic control
5. Communications - clarifying objectives

[StratOcastle]

X Chaining ~ a refresher

Cross chaining was a concept explained to me by the incomparable Crazy Pete. The premise is to optimize max gains chaining in acre distribution, ambush resistance and repeatability: chaining provinces remain in phalanx. It lends itself to fast execution and offers a template so repairs on the move are easily diagnosed.

The cross chaining kata, as it were, revolves around the highest max gain province hitting 1st and last in the chain session. The chain session follows highest to least max gains mirrored. For our example we’ll use a spearhead division mini chain to demonstrate. We will have our orc warrior strike for highest gains, followed by the dwarf tactician and tied together at the gnome cleric. The song goes something like this:

Orc Warrior ~ marches 1st, tap one
Dwarf Tactician ~ marches 2nd, tap one
Gnome Cleric ~ marches 3rd, tap one
Gnome cleric ~ marches 4th, tap two
Dwarf Tactician ~ marches 5th, tap two
Orc Warrior ~ marches 6th, tap two

This is a scenario where an enemy with considerable defense needed to be knocked out of the top control threat zone. Obviously the targeting could continue with trash hits from the elf and faery, or this particular enemy could be objectified as a new assault target. The amount of damage inflicted is variable, if we consider the HQ division might lend a hand with nightmare, night strikes and tornadoes to knock down guard stations etc. We could even instruct the HQ avian tac to go drunken master on the guy.

[StratOcastle]

Divisional Overlap

Because the elliptical wave operates 24/7 with 5 divisions, we have prime activity every 4.8 hours. This means there might be some activity overlap.

Activity will vary, player to player. I for one have used relay tapping because I was capable of hyperactivity( the no life advantage ). I digress, but relay tapping is when you array your
marches in timed segments. I adapted the idea when I was slotted to play undead cleric and wanted to ape the speed of my favored avian tac without resorting to high % barracks. Undead cleric had the sustain and offensive might to distribute considerable harm. Relay taps were the genesis of elliptical waving.

Suffice to say, there should be a few players who enjoy higher activity. It’s with these players that divisional collaboration can take place and the ability to mimic full wave doctrine.
Remember that +/- attack times can turn a mini chain into a full chain, or a relay tapping assault province can drop one in at opportunity.

You should view the divisions as arms of the leviathan, not hardened spokes on a wheel.

[StratOcastle]

Tool Box - War Spoil: don’t touch it & tell an adult

War spoils is one of the bad ooga-booga spells so many are afraid to use. Sure, maybe you shouldn’t toy with it, and sometimes examples from the pantheon of top players scare players of a lesser origin(was it worth losing a war to troll Godly?). Truth be told, I’ve used and, to my chagrin, had it successfully used against me by undead war heroes.

To point, the fear is an army coming home with no acres. I always augmented with multi-taps, so the army with no acres blended in.

Let’s talk about the tool and how to use it. Spearhead Division:

Dwarf: tactician
Elf: mystic
Faery: rogue
Gnome: cleric
Orc: warrior

Here we have a dwarf tac with 50% construction cost and war spoils.
We have a faery rogue with tree of gold.
We have a gnome cleric with support spells and renewable soldier production.
We have 2 assault divisions and 1 headquarters division to protect our interests.

The dwarf tac attacks using war spoils and casts love & peace.
The faery sends gold to the dwarf.
The dwarf builds at accelerated cost with builders boon.
The gnome send soldiers and casts support spells.
Let cool for 6 to 7 ticks and serve.

So the whole point of this is that war spoils, in the hands of a dwarf, can yield a marketable surge in kingdom production. Provided the kingdom practice some mild cow building etiquette and teamwork they can say they were part in building a pair of monoliths who’s shadow reached the horizon. Dwarves are hampered by their birth rate but gnomes are gifted. That sort of makes them brothers.

My advice is to treat War Spoils like a kingdom project. We have rituals to familiarize players with the team participation aspect. In this case, many hands make light work. Leadership can oversee it and recommend when to use it and how to solidify the defense around it.

In the broad picture, consider how much production down time there is in return and build time. Consider the difference a kingdom racial triad of dwarf tac core, faeries and gnomes could have. The reason we ponder the virtual kingdom is to clarify the mysteries of interplay. You take return time off a core of dwarf tacs and accelerate construction with BB with just 1 war spoil tap in 4. What are we looking at now?

Augment GS with mist.

We’re looking at buildings in full production before the enemies next wave.

[RattleHead]

dangit i forgot how support spells work these days :P

[StratOcastle]

dangit i forgot how support spells work these days :P

Hey RattleHead!

Don’t fret. I almost had to eat my critique of human clerics because they were the only race with scientific insight. While faery might‘ve been able to cast SI as a cleric it would squander the faery stealth bonus. SI cast on elf mystics is more important than high rune consumption, so I was prepared to apologize to the community.

When Avenger finalized the age changes, SI was nixt off the list of support spells. I realize now that my critique was abrasive and I apologize for being narrow minded.

Overall, with dark elves and elves having great rune economies I think a kingdom build can stomach human rune consumption. Sometimes my ghetto independent mind gets in the way. In some kingdoms when I played cleric it was like pulling teeth to have runes sent so I could cast support. The silver lining is this type of deprivation forced me to always be vigilant about my tpa and my ability to grab runes when necessary.

To the onlooker I want them to know much of the virtual kingdom is based in personal experience. With the final changes the virtual kingdom would have 7 personalities represented 3 times and 1 personality represented 4. I chose 4 clerics, but not that easily.
Mystic and rogue are profoundly important, and tactician is a bit underrated. Some personalities are very race specific for optimum efficiency, like human raider.

Cleric sustain is important in an age where being fireballed by dark elves is a matter of their mana. Attackers won’t have anything to draft. I suppose wars will be shortened, which has some positive effect.

[RattleHead]

yes, at first i was thinking cleric can just cast any self-spell as support, and i figured 2 humans and 2 undead for FoK and GW blankets. oh, what a dream it was!

Assault1
Dark Elf Cleric
Human Heretic
Avian War Hero
Dwarf War Hero
Gnome Raider

Assault2
Dark Elf Cleric
Human Heretic
Avian War Hero
Dwarf War Hero
Gnome Raider

Spear1
Faery Rogue
Orc Warrior
Undead Tactician
Undead Tactician
Human Heretic

Spear2
Faery Rogue
Orc Warrior
Orc Warrior
Undead Tactician
Gnome Raider

HQ
Faery Rogue
Elf Mystic
Elf Mystic
Elf Mystic
Dark Elf Cleric


-I went with DE clerics across the board rather than putting DEs into an offensive casting role- this way they can focus on more military with their balanced elite.
-Stacking Avian speed, or Dwarf Mist+GS with War Hero +gains seemed like a no brainer for me
-Elf and Faery make it easy for me to put them in their 'natural' roles
-Humans science bonus seemed to make them the best fit for a hybrid setup, of my remaining races... Gnome would work but I prefer the Raider Econ books bonus, for leaning into their pop bonus
-After that the rest fall into place, I preferred Warrior on Orc simply because they have greater raw elite power than Undead... + CS seems like a bad joke with Orcs penalties

[StratOcastle]

HQ

The HQ division of the age 89 version of the virtual kingdom is more concentrated than previous iterations. Sometimes things fall into poetic order, so it’s not me being the smartest guy in the room. When I set up the divisions I get the spearheads done first, assault next and wriggle things till HQ doesn’t lack oomph. I’m a little artsy so I attempt to get the divisions to appear balanced and look like a place a player would like to be.

So in Bob Ross fashion the happy accident was having all 3 heretics in the hands of Scandinavia. They’d probably prefer the mystics etc. but I think heretic fits their campaigning ways. The bonus is they get the elf for casting deterrent amnesia and fools gold, and faery to do whatever malarkey a plus 30% sabotage ability brings. For softer targets and sustained oppression they have the dark elf. Bonuses are the avian tac for rover duty and a human raider to carry out Ottoman Dynasty style retribution.

While the HQ division doesn’t have a cleric, every division HQ supports does. Additionally, HQ can break into segments to support 2, 3 or all 4 divisions at the same time. And the HQ can function as a division unto itself; say a hard assault division. Honestly I haven’t even researched what sloth does and haven’t begun to fathom the depths of what their teamwork can achieve. All I know is the heretic bonus and this divisions ability to reliably hit means lots of damage.

Edit for Reader: pay close attention to RattleHeads work ups; I’m as poor at game mechanics and math as you will encounter. My slop works, or worked for me, but I’m a general gamer with my years of experience based in achieving effects. RattleHead on the other hand is aware of the “why”.
The “why” is why I could never lead or computate a wave system mathematically. My play style makes me laugh because even under duress I’m adding war horses here, subtracting specialists there, pooping around with balancing taps. Slow as hell to because I hunt and peck. RattleHead knows stuff and I’m just a product of result.

[StratOcastle]

The Orc Mystic

Playing off of my Edit for Reader notice above, I thought it important to relate where my head is. As one example, I ran a human cleric one age which was obscenely efficient; the build, not me. Anyways, I ran through a long war where the opponent tried to chain me on 3 or 4 occasions and I emerged like one of those pod machines in War of the Worlds each time. By wars end I was quite a bit bigger than my kingdom wanted. We were just a casual war kingdom. The problem is I can’t mentally put myself in a situation where I’m continuously holding back.

Instead of cutting acres, I decided the build was a trophy that I needed to shelve. I found a gem and that’s enough for me. I’ve had my glory, but it’d be too hard to control my competitive urges. So I looked through the race and personality charts and found the only two builds nobody chose was halfling warrior and orc mystic. Well, I’ve run a faery cleric and knew I’d run over people with a halfling warrior so I decided to run an orc mystic.

It’s funny because now I’ve got kingdom mates trying to talk me out of it like I’d be a liability, lol. Believe me; I don’t know my math but I know how to play. It was what I figured. An orc is an attacker is an attacker is an attacker. I don’t need a warrior crutch to beat people’s heads in. It’s a fine logistic and it belongs there. We’re talking about something else here. Can an orc be an effective spell caster? The answer is yeah,..sort of.

Everybody knows if your chained your going to make people pay, but I was still able to land the occasional LS on mystics at full size. And the chaining paradox is there. They have to massacre you, but you can crush someone in your range that has no acres coming. So even if the personality is marginal and the race is marginal, it’s an understanding of the melody of conflict that can result in reliable success. The confidence to run a build no one else will is half the battle. My way of learning is to embrace the challenge. I didn’t know, but I wasn’t afraid. I was motivated.

Why for me and not you? Because I’m 40 years in on gaming. It’s second nature. I’ll stop recommending guys to you like RattleHead when you’re there. ;)

[RattleHead]

great points, brother! my VKs are generally very 'inside the box'. :)

[StratOcastle]

SLOTH

I looked it up and remember it now, but failed to make my “intuitive leap” roll.

Sloth seems like a marginal spell unless what?

Unless you cross swords with a top kingdom in homes pump. Maybe homes pump isn’t a thing for top kingdoms anymore, but it was nearly integral to whoring during my time. The logistics held that a top kingdom waved during homes pump could draft fast enough to win a war against sub top competition reliably.

Almost seems like a developer invite to take a bite out of the big apple. Sloth along with amnesia and fools gold sure could fold some knees. I recommend caution to you. I’d use it, if just to see the top kingdom counter strategy. No harm intended. My only goal is to learn, not divert a kingdom full of dedicated players from crown contention.

[RedPanda]

Um Dark Elves wont have an rune economy... if anything they are more negative runes (for self spells) or just end up stealing runes for it.

Now if the monarch decides they need to build towers, or just having a few to benefit from the Food/Rune sci then ok, but being they almost do not need towers makes it moot for them



If I were to do your battle array, ill prob have 4-5 Heretics in the HQ division, which the spearhead division (both of them) can likely benefit from.
And ill prob change the Undead HW to Undead Raiders (maybe flipping WH and Radiers tbh)

[StratOcastle]

Um Dark Elves wont have an rune economy... if anything they are more negative runes (for self spells) or just end up stealing runes for it.

Now if the monarch decides they need to build towers, or just having a few to benefit from the Food/Rune sci then ok, but being they almost do not need towers makes it moot for them



If I were to do your battle array, ill prob have 4-5 Heretics in the HQ division, which the spearhead division (both of them) can likely benefit from.
And ill prob change the Undead HW to Undead Raiders (maybe flipping WH and Radiers tbh)

Raider is great for undead. In previous ages I made undead raiders. My reasons were along the lines of undead not having homes required a boost. I’m use to running a slipshod top homes pump. Unlike tops I basically let the homes dissolve through conflict and rebuild.

My reason for skipping them this time was that humans fit the role very well. The build is less rune sensitive than other human options, micro is strong and economically multifaceted.

I just noticed the devs reincorporated the undead prisoners to elites dynamic and this is a positive development, particular to raider. Undead also serve a superior roll plundering: I will consider your suggestion.

My choice of words concerning rune economy might be lacking, but I think we’re talking about the same thing. Theoretically, this kingdom shouldn’t run out of runes.

UPDATE: the RedPanda turbo boost is now incorporated in TVK. Kept one human raider in the HQ.

PS I’d like to add another point to praising RedPanda. I’m sure players have discovered; as I’m retired and sometimes the cool stuff takes time to sink in, that undead raider plunder bonus is bananas ergo.
Of the vulnerable races, undead will require a lot of aid. Being able to boost plunder gains allow undead to get deep in the black and makes accepting aid much easier for recovery.

[StratOcastle]

Opinions Matter

They do. It’s a part of communicating and helps us understand other perspectives. And it’s not just a practice in defeating your ego; it might serve as a muse to solve a problem. You can apply nuance to a perspective and draw benefits with less liabilities.

While I’ve done virtual kingdom templates I get suggestions from players who have a passion for certain builds. I’m no mechanic and conclude anything can work, but I still have tendencies that may or may not be universally respected.

Dwarf rogue always seemed like putting a moon roof on a Toyota. In other words, I’m sure it’s the moon roof least likely to leak, but it’s not a feature I’d want. I’m kind of like, t-tops on a Trans Am were renown for leaking, but they look cool enough to live with the misery.
So it’s not a mechanical bias on my part, it’s my intuitive aesthetic sense of harmony.

I remember players requesting avian warrior, and I was like “oh, jeez,....ok.” But in game I took over a dwarf rogue and it was a pretty slick build by Maxin. I’m too much a guard station cleric berserker type to have concluded on Maxin’s brilliant honor whoring strat. I sure didn’t play his province as well as he did.
Now I never played avian warrior, but I did bump into a memorable one in a war several years ago. I was a dwarf cleric(imagine that) in Plaidovia
and I was attempting to break through the enemies top. I tried circumventing the warrior by attacking an avian tac who was apparently run by a less experienced player(dwarves are capable of acre gobble, building and out nw‘ing people). The warrior would have none of it and locked me out of the top the whole war. Fantastic use of the blended tools of avian and warrior.

Now it might seem I consider some player suggestions over others, but this isn’t how I do the virtual kingdom. For instance, RattleHeads virtual strat is a complete strat unto itself. So doctrine plays to the entire organism of a kingdom. Other provincial suggestions that jell with what I’m doing can be incorporated. The biggest doctrine I run in my virtual kingdom is the ability to engage larger enemies. I don’t build for arranged wars, which is a completely different order of life and emphasizes a different order of solutions. The kingdom I envision is one who goes to war based in vulturing meter play by larger opponents. I’m truly in my wheelhouse when countering monolithic colossi.