Turbocharged AI vs Humanities Last Hope - Running

[Thanatus del Dragos]

Well, I'm worried, becasue they also have those Moose knights? Is that what they are called? the trolls with the heavy armor that ride the mooses. Is mooses the right plural? Anyway, those guys are kinda scary to me, but I think I might just get a few blessed Giants in there and stop their asses in a few turns...what could go wrong?

[Hrum]

Moosen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxenUzZPFiQ
(Moosen bit starts around 1:35)

I think moose is the plural of moose, but thanks to Brian Regan I have trouble resisting saying moosen.

The Troll Moose Knights can do some damage (flail is 2 attacks I think, plus antlers and moose kick, that's 4 attacks from that square), but they aren't that much buffer than the other guys, and there probably aren't that many of them.

Don't go in until you feel you have enough guys, but when you do, you might want to set your line way back on hold and attack. Ideally their fast guys get to early and give you a couple rounds of seriously outnumbering* them to take them down before the rest of their line gets to the fight. You probably will take casualties in this fight (especially if the trolls have stars), but hopefully just a couple guys.

[Edit: And by seriously outnumbering them, I guess I actually mean not being horribly outnumbered yourself. What's your bless again? F4 E4 N6?]

Disclaimer: I've never played Fomoria before, so I'm not the best for gauging the strength of your dudes (your sacreds do not look like crap to me though - they look like they can kick butt actually). What's the prot of your Unmarked?

Are there other weaker provinces you can go for before the troll one?

What's your bless again? F4 E4N6?

[Thanatus del Dragos]

Yea there are two weak provinces next to mine, one was completely empty, took it first. My sacreds, even the size 4 ones, are in fact, bad ***. My Bless is a F4S4E4N6, which makes them even more bad ***. I think they have a prot of 16. A single Unmarked, even unblessed is better than a troll, and a blessed one is at least equal to moosen troll. But, I really want to keep casualties to a minimum.

[Hrum]

That's a pretty nice protection. Sounds like those guys would even warrant an E9 bless, but I guess that probably wouldn't be a huge improvement against these trolls - they do enough damage to get through even a prot 19-20.

I think your guys are going to take that fight, but send more if you're worried. Also, if you're using Unmarked (size 4 looks like), you could include some ablative size 2 dudes (Firbolg?) in the squad to take some hits. It'll lessen the number of attacks against your sacreds (~1/3 of the attacks on that square will go to the shorty), which will keep the def on your Unmarked from dropping down into scary land. The human sized troops are there to die, and if they provide any offensive assistance along the way that's a bonus. If you have some smaller guys with decently high def, they might even manage to duck that moose kick once or twice.

[Thanatus del Dragos]

I could produce some Nemedians, they have a really high def and glamour, along with magic weapons with a solid attack...I'll deal with the trolls later. I need to research what a Draco Lion is.

Edit: Apparently the Draco lion is a big monster that regenerates with a crappy def. I can handle that, but going to send a commander in first.

[endomorphious]

completed turn 4 and posted turn 5...sigh didnt take a province last turn. It wasn't even a tough one, but the woodland archers chased of my supposedly scary PoD...pfaugh. At least he didn't die. I sent out a scouting party as suggested earlier in the thread...Thank goodness..found another HEAVILY npc owned site. A bloody red dragon with a horror helmet a lifelong protection and some other nonsense...I don't expect anyone to be plowing throw those two indies near me anytime soon.

Strategy for me is a skull mentor a turn once I hit con4, two of my good mages site searching instead of wasting gems on it (which is something i nearly ALWAYS do) but i have a feeling gems will be a scarce commodity soon enough. I plan on trying to get into the water soon as possible. Skellispam first and then leviathans. Globals..hmm I may target Well of Misery early on, I just wont get enough of them to do Behemoths, Leviathans, and skull mentors, and all the other goodies I could use.

I need to read up on thugs.

I could use input on taking out the dragon. Do you think 5 indie commanders with Botulf bows could take out that dragon?

[Doo]

Hmmmm.... You risk the time investing in the bows, plus the gems, plus the lost research and its not a certainty.

I'd like to get Con-4, forge some Nature magic boosters and cast Mother Oak or Gift of Health. I'm aware of the need to get some Thunderstrike or Orb Lightning spam action first.

Be aware that the AI could be a serious early game threat, even if its not a rush nation. If they have an awake SC pretender (already decked out in forged items like the Red Dragon in below post), coupled with starting with two forts and the gold bonus of the difficulty level, we will need a counter to that threat.

I'm thinking of aiming for the AI province of 210, Thanatus del Dragos and I could both strike at it. My other AI threat of Abysia on the southeast corner of the map has low strategic movement, I could send in some stealths to harass and delay in support of Mauxe.

I have no idea what Atlantis will do. I kinda think it should be ignored at the moment because it is not allied with the other AI's so we can assume it will drain their resources as much as ours (more so early as it shares closer borders with two other AI's). Those land AI's with two castles and buffed pretenders (and possibly buffed research potential) should be regarded as our main initial threats.

Of course it all depends on how Atlantis plays.

[Doo]

I'm off on the work trip, I've played my turn, see ya all in a couple of days!

[Hrum]

That dragon sounds nasty. In your shoes, I'd probably work around that province until in the course of achieving other objectives in the game I found that I had stuff to use on it. The dragon isn't hemming you in / keeping you from expanding is it?

I have to agree with Doo on the strategy of worrying about the land AIs first. No land nation is likely to perform well against a water nation for ownership of the water early in the game, even a land nation that has easy to come by amphibious units. And it isn't like the land AIs are going to ignore us. Speaking of which...

FYI, All, Niefelheim is the southern continent AI between me (Kailasa) and Endo (C'tis).

If Abysia is the SE AI, that means the Fomorians get to tussle with TC.

[Thanatus del Dragos]

My initial goal is to take the area West of that long river that goes from top down to the Atlantis sea. This area can be easily defended with just 3 more forts While I concentrate on that, I will be stealth preaching and maybe raiding 210/133 and harassing them, scouting them. And when ready, they will be my first target. Now, depending on how strong Atlantis attacks from the south or if 55/22 and Atlantis goes after our friend in 18, I may need to send troops that way.