Turn 20: Walls are down again

Well, C'tis got the walls knocked down more quickly than I thought he would. If someone wants to drop some PR troops on me it would be appreciated. Barring that, I think I can hold again. At least, I'm not going to burn the lab down again. I'll post a pic in a bit. Not much to see though.

pic:
https://i.servimg.com/u/f86/13/76/96/87/ermor-10.jpg

Jotunheim capital walls are down at last, yay.

Pythium didn't advance for some reason, well, I guess it's for better.

More later.

Beat off a few raids and regained some territory. In the northern part of the Machaka front I'm officially on the offensive. Risking a big battle with Machaka this turn. His army will be starving. Given that I am going to kick the shit out of him with some surprise Prison of Fire. But if I win I will certainly be starving as I'm moving into a wasteland.

Airdropping the Harbinger on an Arco army and summoning another.

Pic:


100 supply worth of supply items would be great, but if we can't spare the gems its not a necessity. Atul requested fire so I'm sending him 20.

Next turn I finish Alt 4 and Ench 5 for Wind Guide and Flaming Arrows. Not really sure where to go next. I'd like to pick up Evo 3 for Mist, but it seems more efficient to go up Ench as I get Mists of Deception (which has Mist anyway), Arrow Fend, and Mass Flight. Likely Ench 7 will be my next goal.

Tennative attacks:
103 (Machaka)
66 (Machaka)
22 airdrop (Arco)

my turn was so bad i literally almost lost half of my troops/mages/items (more like 1/3rd i suppose)



I lost EVERYTHING I had in the west against shinyuma... a single pythium mage magic dueled and slayed two of my astral mages then I moved to engage shinyuma's army and was missing a lot of buffs. Then additionally he had added more support evocation mages to his army. Magma eruption, bane fire, and numbess all combined flawlessly to lead to my death...i should've used a rear based holdx5 tactic but after he countered it once i gave up on it... foolish foolish me.. numbess was the mvp i'd say working less well at killing my troops than the other spells but totally debailitating my scs despite in the previous turn in the previous battle doing nothing (more mages casting it this time). I lost 2fairly well geared adons to the battle, 2naked adons to the magic duels, and 16sacred giants it was extremely bad. All told I have 23giant troops left about 150slingers 40milita and actually losing just 4mages was a lot less than 33% of my mages but losing the earth adons really hurts... with all the mind duels and the rarity of recruiting the earth adon's... most of them left are starting to be fire... ugh...

i foolishly didn't even script summon earthpower because I FORGOT!!! numbess might have been totally negated if I had cast summon earthpower and I might not have lost the scs at all (i probably still would've but it's fun to think about how i messed up not how i had no chances) ... it's really funny how adding just 2or3 support mages and scripting a little better allowed him to go from losing the battle badly to winning the battle ENTIRELY (the last time we fought I did almost the same thing but lost almost nothing and eliminated half his troops) ...


The gorgon in lomark is costing me 330gold but this means my adon can teleport in... try to win the battle... if he routs.. he'll live because i'll have a retreat path.



anyone who wants me turn to look it over and provide suggestions feel free.. on turn19(I could send that .trn as well if anyone wants to compare the battle that went well with the battle that went absolutely hideously... suffice it to say numbness either does nothing because you only have one mage doing it against 15targets or WTFpwns because you have 4mages casting it against 15targets? then again the banefire/magmaeruptions were pretty useful i think one hit one of my giants for 55damage at one point) I fought almost the exact same battle with shinyuma only instead of losing everything i had i beat him handily i believe... a) spliting my forces in half was wise b) in the future I need to go back to using rear holdx5 because even the one time it worked poorly it still went a lot better than this turn c) earth adons should cast summon earthpower wtf.. why didn't i do this? I thought about doing it... but only did it in the east not the west d) cold resistance?

I was hoping to win the battle this turn as easily as I won it 2turns ago... the enemies numbers were decreasing so I didn't think any careful attention to detail was even required at all... yet while his troop numbers were decreasing his mage numbers were increasing (2turns ago I killed the only mage with his army I believe... yet this turn he had ~4) friendly map movement to the rescue?


estimated gold lost due to dead troops/commanders for ashdod this turn: 3700 gems lost in the same fashion: 70 (not counting any possible dhammers that were used)

Pythium didn't attack my last province up north, probably now wondering where my pretender is. I'm probably cloud trapezing on the army at 329 unless one of you has other good ideas. (other Ashdod fronts? Eriu fronts?)



Other than that, not much action in south. Abysia failed to kill my PD with his raiding force, Arco moved in to block me giving TheDemon a nice target for his first angel, Jotunheim didn't attack but his capital's walls went down. I'm attacking it straight without scouting, just going to rely on mass of skinshifters to see me through. Caelum has some scattered forces at his disposal, I'm going for him next round onwards.

Storming and attacking indies.

This is just rambling but I tried it on IRC and I got no replies with advice.


If we are literally going to win I am going to need some advice better than my own brain can do.. like some of the gems atul and thedemon have given me earlier



here's the log ... if I am asked to edit it for readability I can ... but I am lazy and perhaps no one wants to read it anyways?

"

01[11:08] <namad4> if i had been smart enough to script summon earthpower like i meant to i think that at least one of the adons would have routed alive or at least had a chance to.. although the biggest thing i could've done right would've been to a) seperate into two squads or have guessed which flank he'd place his units on better (i varied which flank i was planning to appear on but despite my random plan he guessed correctly
01[11:08] <namad4> and c) i could've gone back to a full rear holdx5 setup as after going full frontal once that should've been just enough to discourage him from using attack turn1 followed by scripts
01[11:09] <namad4> d) i could've adapted better to the fact that for each turn a new player was being chosen and instead of assuming things would remain consistant and aware i should've treated each battle like a first battle in a war (this would have led to perhaps several of the first things i could've done better occuring)
01[11:10] <namad4> however now what i am going to need will be a counter strategy
01[11:10] <namad4> without water magic obtaining cold resistance is diffucult and numbness appears to be a favorite tactic of bakemono's even unscripted
01[11:11] <namad4> cr100 would totally invalidate the numbness but my troops could never receive that bonus, holdx5 more well geared adons might theoretically be able to prevail where a combination of troops and lightly geared adons failed
01[11:11] <namad4> as cr100 would stop numbness and holdx5 would stop or migitate the power of magma eruption
01[11:12] <namad4> i have no proposed strategy for obtaining cr100 in an efficent manner, neither do i have sufficent number of earth adons, i've lost ~6or7 astral mages to magic duel already making astral adons not worth gearing at all (except i do still plan to attack the gorgon with one as winged boots form a nearly perfect counter to magic duel but only in raiding roles)
01[11:12] <namad4> i do however still have plenty of fire adons, but it will be ~6-7turns at my current projected research rate before i could cast phx pyre
01[11:13] <namad4> i would probably should've typed what i just typed in a post format... but oh well you are the only ones who ever read or reply to my posts anyways


"

Sorry about the lack of coordination, been doing the family thing lately for the summer and got stung by lack of time to put much into the turn. A bit of a downward spiral for Eriu I fear, but still raiding as best as I'm able. Capital still stands, but threatened by large Ulmish force I don't have much hope of defeating. Attacking: 96, 104, 122, 114, 149, 147, 210, 134.

Probably about time to concede. I know the south is tough, but the north is gone, and the middle is failing.

Dunno. Jotun is going down, Arco and Caelum are soon to follow. Baalz, is the Ulm army threatening you in a single province atm? If that would be the case I could deal with it if you cover namad a bit. I'd loathe to give up just yet, but am I the only one?

I think its still salvageable as well. Or maybe I'm just still enjoying the game a fair ammount and don't want to stop yet.

namad, I don't have much advice for you, numbness is precision 100 AoE 1 so it hits every time, plus he's using it from Ice Pebble Staffs. You need cold immunity (I tested and 50% doesn't do anything). The weakness of bane fire is that it's a D3 spell with terrible precision, and he's using D2 casters with gems to cast it, and they were good for 3 casts before they fatigued out, so decoys will work as long as you use them every battle. Since you can't cold immune your troops deploy them to the pan front instead, except what you need as decoys, and lesser giants will work for that.

Well, the bulk of Ulm's army is in a fort next to my cap (that he captured from me). I'll keep you posted if it sieges my cap.

Well the thing is, I can destroy one army. I'm not sure about namad's situation, the shinuyama looks worrysome, but Pythium's currently wary of putting all his eggs in one basket.

I can air drop somewhere this round, or if I delay one turn I can cast Grip of Winter when I drop so I'd hopefully get the mages in the back too. I'd rather not drop on capital as there won't be an opportunity to build a lab, but beggars can't be choosers.

I'd just need some info where it would be most beneficial to land. If I could free some of your forces to help out other people it would be great.

shinyuma won't reach me for several turns... and if i could get some cr100 gear setups in the next 3-4 turns i could repel them from my capital i imagine...

the hydras aren't next to my capital so you could easily wait one turn before dealing with them... or you could give the pr rings back and i could kill the hydras myself and then later you can help against shinyuma?

this is what i am doing this turn:

Recruiting 2sages 1elder a couple giant troops. Continuing the siege on pangaea's fort (expecting up to 400units to attack me and praying I will win if they attack). Sending two squads of blesser+8sacred giants east now that they are clearly useless in the west. With cr100 setups or pr100 setups I have plenty of adons left alive to attempt battling pythium or shinyuma at my fort when they reach my fort(or capital).

The gorgon will be attacked as shown in the picture via teleport... if my unit starts to lose he has flying and can rout to an adjacent province to try again later... hopefully... (i was getting 340income from the province the gorgon is currently in which is why i lost so much income)

Oh I just noticed that just this very turn the gorgon added personal regeneration to his script on turn2 so I can expect stoneskinturn1 personal regeneration turn2 attack turn3... maybe i should script a third spell... i don't want to attack him before he flies towards me (to avoid barbarians) but i don't expect to get off more than just one buff due to harpies...


maybe i should add be to round3or round2 even if it is unlikely to ever get cast? i think i will do that... resist magic, bless, be

turn edits:

i have swapped a frost brand and fire brand between units because stoneskin gives cold vulnerability