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**Jumpingfist** · 03-10-2014, 09:50 PM

I think that one can be chalked up to most teams of no learning the lesson on T1. If it looks like someone will bid high maybe no one will. Getting ready for war I think took the EL/TR and GN/RD out of any kind of maybe orders.

Veltran · 03-14-2014, 03:03 AM

Continuing to communicate with the neighbors...continuing on working to take a region...raising agents and wizards...shooting azimuths for artifacts...learning by leaps and bounds. Looking forward to Turn 3 results.

**Jhereg** · 03-14-2014, 12:49 PM

The beating drums of the voracious Gnome war machine have begun to beat.

The friendly offerings of peace with our northern neighbours the TR and EL have been refused. The TR may call our offer unacceptable and extremely greedy, but we view the price to keep the deep rooted destructive nature of the Red Dragon and the surreptitious Gnomes at bay fair and reasonable. Also who can fault the Gnomes for being a bit greedy, they are Gnomes after all.

Ah but alas the TR and EL did not seem to share our view on these matters. It is interesting how each kingdom views these sort of match ups.

Their view of a conflict had the GN and EL troops basically equal. Elf a bit to get into the fight. So real fight between TR and RD. RD troops are strong but expensive and really those kingdom brigades are fragile if they do not have enough WBs backing them up. Both TR and RD start at same troop strength. RD stronger per brigade. But the real cost of war come during preparation RD must recruit WB. At 12k a pop for 3k strength then pay 2500ish gold and food. TR starting army costs exactly 5600 gold to maintain and much less food than the RD army. The TR recruit orcs at a cost of 10k for 2500 attack strength and only cost 1200 food 0 gold to maintain. And troll troops are not fragile they regenerate. The TR can effectly continue to run the TR full turn for gold orders while maintaining a very large army. This is all the troll does the TR do not breath fire, the TR do not move lots of squares other than planes, the TR do not use magics. The TR wage a ground war like no other.

Time will tell if the ground war of the TR can match up to the arial assault of the RD and will the GN and EL truly neutralise each other or will one kingdom provided an advantage to their respective team.

The RD and I look forward to the coming battle.

**DuPont** · 03-14-2014, 02:01 PM

This is from the last turn, not the turn that will run today. I'm the EL
My turn mostly went as I wished. I had my prince and duke in Lorethane. I had warded my Prince because a nice, nasty trick is to sleep the prince in such a case, so the city doesn't turn neutral and then the other person who tries to 330 it may get incarcerated. Anyway, not sure if anybody tried to sleep my prince, but somebody did sleep my duke, so I only have a neutral city. We'll see if anything else clever happens there.
Because this is a training game, I feel that I should point out that we found the GN's 'diplomacy' to be rather obnoxious. It seemed to me that it was a team looking to pick a fight, but it probably just would have been better to go with the glove slap than to make such ridiculous demands and expect to be taken seriously. And I believe that they may have taken this same approach with other teams.
I had sea patrolled in hopes of sinking some GN ships, but no luck.
Of course, I kicked myself for not bidding on the HC seat.
There's no question we'll be fighting the GN/RD team - how that war will take shape, time will tell.

**kevindusi** · 03-14-2014, 02:48 PM

We're cheering for the Red to beat up on the Troll, to the benefit of our Ranger.

-RA/SO

**Jumpingfist** · 03-14-2014, 03:50 PM

Me Troll do bad math army only cost 5400 gold. Ferengi car sales man in gnome clothing show up. Ask Troll hey we want peace after T1 talks go bad. Troll mis understand at time think peace mean no fight! not piece of Troll land. Gnome tell Troll maybe you feel 35% of Torvale to much. How about significant in both Oakendale and Torvale and we will grant you a NAP. Troll then wonder how him get teeth so white does he not know how to eat. Troll take deal to smart Elf. Troll feel bad elf hurt hand on Troll face. Troll mad to learn that same number before. Troll not want to fight big red bird. To hard catch. Troll hear about game WhackaGnome and Gnome tossing. Thinks these sound fun and should make gnome soft for good meal. Like to thank gnome for playing drum. Makes for easier finding.

**Brogan** · 03-14-2014, 05:37 PM

It seems like the western side of the board is far more hostile than the peace loving easterners. Many regions were taken on turn 3, only three left open. Two due to war and one is Arcania that had no starting king in it.
My apprentice did well and took his region, alas we failed to raise enough gold between us for him to gain the seat. The Elf player bid an amazing 49,700 gold on turn three!

Lord Brogan BL/DA team

**DuPont** · 03-14-2014, 05:46 PM

So - turn having been run - the EL again with some thoughts.
I won the HC seat, thanks to some extra gold provided by the TR. I had a good feeling I would, but I didn't cast a 'no' vote because I really didn't have an order to spare. I had a situation on Lorethane with a lot of unknowns. Let me go into detail.
Turn 1, I had both my prince and duke in there - nobody else. I warded the prince, did 320 with him and used the duke to 330. The duke was slept, though, so the town was neutral.
So on turn 2, I had not reconned the city but now began to worry that there might be more going on. Could the RD have moved in somebody to 310? I even considered the possibility that the 1RD might have shown up to try and 170 the city, but it was a long shot move and it would have been too far away. But moving in somebody was quite possible - so while I warded the prince and 330ed, hoping to take the city, I had to plan for not getting it. I had come across 2 villages in my wanderings so one I moved on with the 1EL and the other I moved an ambassador into. If I didn't get the city, taking both villages would give me enough to gain the region the next turn. I also reconned Lorethane again.
Turns out I didn't need to - I took the city no problem and got the region. Both villages fell into my hands. So, those moves were 'wasted' as was the recon which only showed my people in the city. But hindsight is 20/20 - what if I had not taken the city but also hadn't taken these steps? It would have delayed me getting my region by two turns, not just one. And the value gained by voting down the issue - a 0.3 hit to my ally's influence - would then have seemed a heavy price to pay.
These are the sorts of decisions you have to make. To some extent you can be informed by your opponents playing style if you are familiar enough with it, but lots of people play unpredictably - I sort of 'role play' my kingdoms, so don't always adopt the same tactics from game to game. It's all a matter of balancing risk and reward. One doesn't want to play to conservatively in this game - being defensive is a sure-fire way to lose. But in this case, knowing the RD starts with a village in range of the city and knowing both that he's a good player and that we are going to be fighting, it would have been a brilliant move on his part to move there on turn 2 and block me. I had to take steps just in case, so I feel I did the right thing.
(Actually, looking over my orders, I had an agent training that I probably could have sacrificed, but when I ran down the list, somehow that didn't jump out at me).
Oh, one other thing - not knowing if I would make the HC or not (and I probably did somewhat overpay for the seat), I had set up a 480 order that would only go through if the HC bid did not. Always something I like to do - either that or a wizard training, so if you don't get a seat with your bid, your money can still do something notable that turn.

Veltran · (This post was last modified: 03-17-2014, 03:10 AM by Veltran.)

From the WI...For the most part a good turn. DW and I took our regions. I forgot usurped pop centers don't give production until the next turn, so one order didn't go off. Hey, its been 20 years Smile

It did screw up my 49,800 gold bid for the HC seat. Oh well more available to spend for it this turn!

Spending a lot of time going over rules, commands, and spells, using hypothetical situations to determine best options. Still asking lots of questions of, and getting great feedback from my mentor. The enjoyment of the game came back immediately...all the nuances of the rules and commands coming back a little slower.

**Ry Vor** · (This post was last modified: 03-18-2014, 03:13 AM by Ry Vor.)

Good stuff. A couple questions for both Masters and Apprentices:

1. About how many (if any) recon missions (Agent + Palantir + Raven = total) are you doing? More specifically, after three turns, how many for each turn, T1 - T3?
2. Since all players indicated they are issuing the max orders per turn, if you have to cut from the total you wished to issue when planning your turn, which potential orders are the ones most likely to be cut?
3. Have you used a High Priestess to divine an artifact?