Ghetto Story: Elf/Faery Mystic, and Halfer Rogue numbers

[crease]

If they aren't winning the war, it's not "working"

If theyre winning a war against equally bad players through activity alone is it working then? Do you suggest they carry on because its a smart way to play?

[StratOcastle]

Homes work in the ghetto because counter strategies aren't disciplined. We're in a war with one now and it's working great. The enemy has retained great defense and offense. Same situation I saw when I was with Arktic Fury; the standard population control was exhausted because the strat wasn't recognized.
Once you need to switch spells it generally goes nowhere because the t/ms have never used them before. As a traveller the use of nm and tornados is completely alien to many kingdoms I've visited. In my line of work I've learned to be quiet about these things, and still I sense I'm perceived as cocky. You should've seen me trying to get aid today! LoL! - it really is a game of patience and I'm awful at build strat.
My 'for instance': two wars ago I figured I'd try my own homespump eowcf like I saw CR doing last age preparing for Pyro. I only got the generalities because the script was deleted before I could study. Well, I got stuck. I built all these homes and ran out of gold to switch builds. So I went to the next war in a full homes pump, no rax, no wt, no gs. I must've looked so bad they let me slide.
So finally this war I got most of my buildings switched for war except guilds. I made an impression or my defense was too low. I was up all last night trying to stall being chained and these guys were all over me. I relayed my taps and they were waiting to hit me as my acres came in every 2-3 hours. So they run a homes strat and it looks pretty good to me, even though I know better. ;-)

[noobium]

If theyre winning a war against equally bad players through activity alone is it working then? Do you suggest they carry on because its a smart way to play?

The problem is that some of these plays I'm talking about aren't merely suboptimal province management stuff. Province management is not that hard, and even bad province management or unprepared provinces can perform better than they're given credit for against most kingdoms. Against the really good kingdoms bad province management will kill (can't say I've fought any really good kingdoms in recent memory), but most of the time it's kd-level organization and tactics.

[Palem]

If theyre winning a war against equally bad players through activity alone is it working then? Do you suggest they carry on because its a smart way to play?

No, all I'm saying is you're going to have a hard time convincing them that they aren't playing well if they're winning their wars.

[StratOcastle]

If theyre winning a war against equally bad players through activity alone is it working then? Do you suggest they carry on because its a smart way to play?

There is a real gap between players that frequent forum and irc and those that don't. When I was with Plaidovia we broke into the top 20 and as far as I could see, no one knew any of the top(ish) kingdoms. One guy had a blob concept of ABs and they knew who Shinra was because they'd warred before. They had no idea SWEA crowned the previous age and didn't know them at all. Logged on to see us waving SWEA and my kingdom confused about getting waved by kingdoms using SN with no CF from SWEA. Flypaper.

We are talking about players who've been in the game for over 10 years in many cases; And it's not just Plaidovia <3, it's most of the kingdoms I visit. I think what goes unmentioned is with the limited exposure many of these individuals have is the great way they play the game. Uniformity has it's place and most of you have found it in game efficiencies.

I enjoy the menagerie of exotic builds and odd habits you see in the lower tier. Most often it's not where I land by some fate. There aren't many, but they are out here to marvel. The teamwork is the failure more so, but sometimes the top looks Borg despite the success.

[noobium]

No, all I'm saying is you're going to have a hard time convincing them that they aren't playing well if they're winning their wars.

It's when they lose wars and don't recognize what went wrong that it gets frustrating...

[Persain]

to be serious for a moment, homes-heavy attacker can work on humans, dwarves, and perhaps avians... but mostly humans.

it can work with orc/undead too right now because getting chained means $#%#$ it i'll just send leets at dragon. Things get pretty mean if your an undead on 25% homes and 4 peasents/acre. We had a guy do that this past war and we got declared on while he had zero incoming. Solo dragon kill FTW.

[noobium]

it can work with orc/undead too right now because getting chained means $#%#$ it i'll just send leets at dragon. Things get pretty mean if your an undead on 25% homes and 4 peasents/acre. We had a guy do that this past war and we got declared on while he had zero incoming. Solo dragon kill FTW.

Why put more population on a province that can't hope to retain acres or peasants with any kind of efficiency and gets less money from pezzies, and has a lot of things they would rather build? It is pretty easy to get around chained attackers slaying, just wait to send the dragon until they are forced to release to soldiers. Even if they send to slay, it's still troops that they've lost, it's just less profitable to deep chain people with no incoming now (which is how it should be imo). Better to adapt and no longer rely too heavily on deep chains to take out attackers, if dragons can't be sent at the right time.

[Landro]

No, all I'm saying is you're going to have a hard time convincing them that they aren't playing well if they're winning their wars.

"You know, we could have won that war if you noobs hadn't sucked so hard. You suck because you got chained. Look at me, I gained 500 acres. I'm leet but you guys suck. If you all were as leet as me we would have won."

I really don't envy ghetto monarchs

[noobium]

"You know, we could have won that war if you noobs hadn't sucked so hard. You suck because you got chained. Look at me, I gained 500 acres. I'm leet but you guys suck. If you all were as leet as me we would have won."

I really don't envy ghetto monarchs

That still counts as losing the war. (Not that kingdoms don't misattribute their reasons for loss and learn the wrong lessons frequently.)

Setting up provs for high offense is comparatively easier once an effective high offense is seen in action, or better yet when a weak offense bloats themselves and gets shredded, while training the wrong things with any economic advantage they can hold onto. Many ghettos get the wrong idea when they see a defense-focused kingdom succeed because said ghetto sucks at ops coverage and won't fireball or econ control with anything approaching effectiveness.

An example of what I was talking about from some ages ago in a kingdom far far away; pointing at several people whose papers were filled with fb from core provinces (this after repeated begging and lack of responses from my own kingdom to supply this information), and still getting shrunken provinces on 100% mana who wouldn't lift a finger to control peasants on enemies. It's pretty sad when an avian is doing most of the effective riots. Granted rune supply can be an issue, but I was practically begging people to take the extra rune production I had set up + stolen in order to get the situation under control. It's not even so much that the small provinces weren't opping because rune supply can be problematic, but it was the refusal to even try to comprehend what was happening on a wider scale and the blindness many people have towards what can happen.

[Cry0]

The problem with this thread is there is a right way to go about "helping" people and a bad way. It sounds like the OP opts for the bad way -- infact I know he does because his last thread about how great his dumb ass province is he lambasted me for saying otherwise, responding with a post filled of "noob" this and CAPS COMMENTS WIT MISNG LETRS IN WURDS. Heaven forbid the thought that maybe what works his his "top 60" kd isn't effective elsewhere.

You go join a kd and act like a complete douche and it doesn't matter if you think you are the smartest guy in the room, nobody will respect you, nobody will listen to you. Welcome to how the real world works.

[madtyres]

May I ask when you joined Plaidovia, Stratocastle? I agree that in the Top 20 or so we need to be aware of all these alliances. I personally think it is crappy to have all this politics going on, but it is unavoidable I'm afraid. We haven't been doing too well for past few ages with good players leaving and semi active or inactive replacements coming in, so I guess that is not something to worry about lol.

[StratOcastle]

I was with Plaidovia in 59. I was with HRS(Palem)in 58. Arktic Fury in 57. -These were the main kingdoms I was in, but travelled/kingdom hopped through all of these ages on the side.

Of them, the best effective activity was with Plaidovia. HRS was as active, but we never got in sync for some reason despite the wealth of talent. Arktic Fury had a wealth of knowledgable players rivaling any I've been in, but were very conservative on approaches to war. All had weakness in effective t/m deployment and none used nm as is tradition in the superior war kingdoms I've visited.

The best kingdom I've been in so far as command and control was a kingdom called I Am Alive last age. I served briefly in some highly organized super wave kingdom, but the hierarchy was unsavory and I left immediately.

The best advice I've gotten is from enemy kingdoms after a losing war. One such advised me that you deploy your best players in t/m rolls and use them how you need them; not like dragon-blanket robots. One king had his best players running halfers and they were more about monitoring and acting than just spamming sabotage or stealing. He didn't tell me but I figured out they were ardent SN decipherers and took surveys to note strategic changes.
Another was Toys2 vs Plaidovia. They may not have known gap strategies but they were textbook in practice. They had deceptive activity in that they were limited, but some were campers and very well played I might add. They didn't force deep chaining because we outnumbered them and their bottom was semi-active. But they controlled the nw zone just below their t/ms. I was stuck on the lower rim of the nw zone unable to break through to their fat attackers in the middle. They had an avian warrior guarding that area that forced me back repeatedly. Loved that war from a tactics standpoint. We also warred Shinra that age, but I give the strategic edge to Toys2 for being outnumbered and out activitied and still forcing our withdrawal.

[noobium]

stratocastle is a boss.

[Bukharistan]

Strato would be the perfect match for my KD...