Octopus Overlords

tgb wrote: ↑Tue Dec 12, 2017 7:47 pm That was painful. Who knew my war elephants would turn out to be a bunch of pussies?

Ugh, yeah. Looks like you just had a little bad luck with that unit of cavalry killing one of your elephants with lances as they passed. That took out 25% of your elephants which lowered their morale so that when your infantry started dying they broke and ran.

Had they gone on to hit the enemy back line you probably would have still lost your infantry (non-gorilla Bandar infantry are pretty squishy), but your elephants would probably have cleared their rear ranks and charged their cavalry from behind. Still might not have won, but that's why your elephants were so lackluster.

Look at the average stats for different values and the stats of your troops. If you are below average more or less across the board, this is near useless cannon fodder (which can be really bad with the morale breaking rules).

As for what's around you - don't count on number at all or getting a full picture of what's there unless you have a spy there (or, since our dominion provides scrying, we have dominion there).

Heavy Cavalry SUCKS. Light Cavalry is not great. Heavy infantry in any numbers sucks. Barbarians - take these out with range. My starting army had hit the 60 barbarians in one of my neighboring starting territories and I might well have lost my starting army.

Archers only hurt low protection units w/o shields (great for killing barbarians though, as long as they have a meat shield in front of them). Shielded and/or high protection units don't fear regular archers too much. Same for slingers. FEAR THE CROSSBOWS!

As a general rule in the first couple turns, assume enemy mages are probably going to suck.

Tribal units/militias - they can hurt in large numbers, but if you have decent troops, and aren't outnumbered too badly, these are you ideal targets.

Being a noob in general and this obviously being my first co-op game, what is our objective? Is it just to clear the map of independents in the name of the Grand Wazoo?

tgb wrote: ↑Tue Dec 12, 2017 11:13 pm Being a noob in general and this obviously being my first co-op game, what is our objective? Is it just to clear the map of independents in the name of the Grand Wazoo?

Well, sort of. Our end goal is to claim at least 50% of the Thrones of Ascension for our Pretender, or eliminate the other team, whichever comes first. To do that, you need to recruit troops, which requires money and resources. You get money from owning territories (especially closer to one of your castles) and your forts collect resources from adjacent owned provinces to help you build the more resource-heavy troops. Plus, you can't come play with the opponents if you have to march through territories that we don't own, so think of it as pathfinding. Finally, if you own a territory you may have the option to recruit troops there that would fill a particular niche your culture is lacking, or find magic sites there that provide gems and/or other benefits. So yes, you want to spread the dominion of the Great Wazoo, but it's like having a friend with benefits!

War Elephants can be amazing as long as they maintain morale. That is tricky, and they are terrible if you have troops they trample after a rout.

And beware of lizard provinces with your pretender or disciple. Lizard shamans can curse them, which can’t be removed, and it will cause afflictions which will be their end.

Until we get regenerating artifacts.

Zarathud wrote: ↑Tue Dec 12, 2017 11:32 pm War Elephants can be amazing as long as they maintain morale. That is tricky, and they are terrible if you have troops they trample after a rout.

I watched his battle, he set up well to avoid that (troops on the top, elephants on the bottom). But yes, not just elephants, but anything that can trample, will be happy to trample your troops if it routs. Try to make sure you leave a clear path of retreat for them.

Freyland wrote: ↑Tue Dec 12, 2017 11:21 pm

tgb wrote: ↑Tue Dec 12, 2017 11:13 pm Being a noob in general and this obviously being my first co-op game, what is our objective? Is it just to clear the map of independents in the name of the Grand Wazoo?

Well, sort of. Our end goal is to claim at least 50% of the Thrones of Ascension for our Pretender, or eliminate the other team, whichever comes first. To do that, you need to recruit troops, which requires money and resources. You get money from owning territories (especially closer to one of your castles) and your forts collect resources from adjacent owned provinces to help you build the more resource-heavy troops. Plus, you can't come play with the opponents if you have to march through territories that we don't own, so think of it as pathfinding. Finally, if you own a territory you may have the option to recruit troops there that would fill a particular niche your culture is lacking, or find magic sites there that provide gems and/or other benefits. So yes, you want to spread the dominion of the Great Wazoo, but it's like having a friend with benefits!

Like most 4x ish strategy games, it's a land grab right now (this isn't quite a 4x but close enough for the purposes of your question). AI is doing the same thing. We will not likely get every neutral province before the game is over (and certainly not before we end fighting one or more AI nations). But you do not have to attack the AI factions as soon as you border one. They evaluate your defenses (troops stationed there plus the Province Defense (PD)) and decide when they think you are weak enough (or they are strong enough) to start attacking. Once they start, then your defenses will not deter them (there is no diplomacy w/ the AI, you in cold war until it becomes hot and then it's on to the death).

I just got an email from the llamaserver saying the game is about to start. Now I'm totally confused.

tgb wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:09 am I just got an email from the llamaserver saying the game is about to start. Now I'm totally confused.

He wanted to fix the server for team games, so I worked with him to make sure it was fixed.

No need to play, I am just helping him out and testing the server.

Got it

Next turn is up. Argatha and Scelaria continue to expand our glorious empire.

I can't connect to the server. If it's still up, then maybe it's due to the patch that was released today.

T wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2017 4:12 pm I can't connect to the server. If it's still up, then maybe it's due to the patch that was released today.

Yes. LM will have to patch the server before we can connect again.

Will do and post here when I get home. I'm not sure how shutting the server down works. I suppose we'll all find out together.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:30 pm Will do and post here when I get home. I'm not sure how shutting the server down works. I suppose we'll all find out together.

When you restart it, you just create the game again, but call it he same thing, and use the same port and it will load that game back.

RMC wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:25 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:30 pm Will do and post here when I get home. I'm not sure how shutting the server down works. I suppose we'll all find out together.

When you restart it, you just create the game again, but call it he same thing, and use the same port and it will load that game back.

Conveniently enough, that's what I did and I was just coming to post to to everyone that I'm now on 1.07 and try and complain if it doesn't work.

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:50 pm

RMC wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2017 6:25 pm

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2017 5:30 pm Will do and post here when I get home. I'm not sure how shutting the server down works. I suppose we'll all find out together.

When you restart it, you just create the game again, but call it he same thing, and use the same port and it will load that game back.

Conveniently enough, that's what I did and I was just coming to post to to everyone that I'm now on 1.07 and try and complain if it doesn't work.

Works like a charm!

Yup, worked for me.

I lucked out and found a tower that produces sages right next to my capital, so I've got cheap researchers from now on!

Sepiche wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2017 7:41 pm Yup, worked for me.

I lucked out and found a tower that produces sages right next to my capital, so I've got cheap researchers from now on!

Nice. My first 2 provinces are priest provinces, which will allow me to summon undead without tying up my mages.

Another territory for the pale ones (nothing cool like you people, but I have money and resources in my capital at least...).

And what happened to Ulm? Your commander looked very alive to me? Hoping the battle message was just an error and you didn't really lose? Though I did wonder why you had your only commander charging forward to fight?

Ulm's Commander did not die in the combat replay. The enemy retreated. But somehow he died anyway. The only thing that happened was getting stuck in vines. That was bullcrap.

The Commander was on a 3 tick delay. He should have been enough behind the main forces, plus he's very heavily armored. He should be able to tank in the front lines.

Man... I am right next to Areoscale and T'ien Chi. Thankfully, I am a sea civ!

I hopefully will be able to expand next turn. But I already have enemies in range.. I never played Ys before, and umm, they are not very good.

I'm still licking my wounds from the first disastrous battle, but I think next turn I'll be able to make a couple of tentative moves

My troops cost a high resource amount, so I have plenty of gold, but no volume of troops. And they all kind of suck. If I had more water around me, then maybe I could expand. But the only province I had to expand into for water was Triton Knights, a fact I missed when I attacked.

baelthazar wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2017 2:44 am Man... I am right next to Areoscale and T'ien Chi. Thankfully, I am a sea civ!

Oops... I meant Pythium and T'ien Chi - both AI, I think.

RMC, are you Ys? We are not too far apart. I might be able to send some relief your way eventually. I saw that you can relinquish a province to an ally if they have a commander in the territory at the same time.

My troops are low cost, mixed with high cost specialist Starspawn. R'lyeh is interesting because the Starspawn troops use 100 range, 100 precision "Mind Blast" attacks that do 1 armor negating damage but also paralyze the target. So this means, with enough of them, you can make the enemy basically sitting ducks for your lower cost minions to tear apart.

Mindless troops, however, are a huge problem.

tgb wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2017 8:06 am I'm still licking my wounds from the first disastrous battle, but I think next turn I'll be able to make a couple of tentative moves

I thought I'd be adventurous and try attacking again. I want to go home and see how I did.

So, just a fun heads up. In my sp game I just experienced a bug from Dom 3 that still persists. I ended a turn during one game version and then the game updated; this caused the outcome of my battle to be different than what was the outcome when I watched the battle video. I lost (badly) when I should have won.

So do I apparently.

We claimed several more provinces in the name of our glorious god this turn. Couple were kind of expensive though.

(Bandor Log - fyi, think you are that last one left for the next turn - no pressure, just letting you know).

Turn taken. And thanks for the cash, Marignon

Several more territories claimed, though Ys continues to get clobbered .

Anyone need gold? Don't have huge amounts to share, but I can spare 100-200 to help someone out.

Another patch today (fix somethings last patch broke primarily).

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2017 9:06 am Several more territories claimed, though Ys continues to get clobbered .

Anyone need gold? Don't have huge amounts to share, but I can spare 100-200 to help someone out.

I thought with sermon of courage and water strike, I a water nation could actually beat independents. I guess I was wrong on that. I am going to try to invade land. Ugh...

Not sure gold will help me. Maybe if I can get on land, I can get some Merc to bolster my pathetic army.

R'lyeh has more success and is up to 4 territories. The small minded fish people continue to submit to our glorious control. I noticed that Xibalba is between Ys and me. Also, I am basically bordering Pythium and I am very tempted to take on their capital and knock them out as soon as we can. If Arcoscephale and I can pincer Pythium, we can probably end one rival fairly quickly.

RMC wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2017 11:12 am

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2017 9:06 am Several more territories claimed, though Ys continues to get clobbered .

Anyone need gold? Don't have huge amounts to share, but I can spare 100-200 to help someone out.

I thought with sermon of courage and water strike, I a water nation could actually beat independents. I guess I was wrong on that. I am going to try to invade land. Ugh...

Not sure gold will help me. Maybe if I can get on land, I can get some Merc to bolster my pathetic army.

We are close enough together that I could help as well. Tell me what you might have me do.

Quick FYI - I will be away on Monday and back late Tuesday. So I will not likely process a turn tomorrow.

Just a polite ping to TGB, Bandar Log needs its turn, when you get a chance.

Will get on it, although I wish there was a proper notification system.