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Post by celebaglar on May 25, 2004 20:41:20 GMT
True enough, which is why I try to stick to citadels with goodsized garrisons. No point in makeing it easy for you, is there? I never expected you to really, but this is turning into hard labour. Notch one for the dumbstick. I actually considered the two main ways to make Evasta bait, and then went and chose the wrong one. The other choice would have been to put her just out of your reach, but still visible. That would certainly have fitted in with her beating a hasty retreat, but I was afraid you'd give up and return to Marakith. I got it Wrong! Drat. I never imagined you were unaware of where I was in general terms. Had I realised that I would have crossed the mountains further west and while technically still visible, there's a good chance the distance and the terrain would have camouflaged me. Oh well... I thought you knew where I was and I had to cross quickly to prevent you being rested when I came out of the mountains. Well, either you didn't look in their direction, or the clump of trees managed to hide them - which I hoped they would but wasn't certain. cavalry alone would have been no good as I don't have enough to take on 14 armies + a garrison. Yes, dammit. Quite certain. I have maybe two or three armies more at most, and many are tired since they had to take Marakith in one night. There's no way I could possibly win in a citadel with a garrison, the defensive bonus and the ability to rest on your side, even with the dragons accounting for maybe two armies in a pitched battle with so many. Unless I am mistaken, you still have garrisons at Ithrorn and Grarg, besides the one at Kumar. Nope, a pitched battle at Kumar is out of the question. Yes, but that's a very thin advantage to hold. All you'd need is one roaming army - such as Dregrim, whom I need to have a few words with - and my time advantage could disappear into a puff of smoke. Argh! I hate making bad mistakes. It plays merry hell with my composure. Now I'm trying to figure out just how tired your cavalry must be after four days hard riding and a battle...
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Post by celebaglar on May 26, 2004 12:26:49 GMT
So, you have chosen the keep. Now it's my turn to consider my options again. Believe it or not my push east was just a fishing expedition, to see what happens. I have not made up my mind on whether to enage at this time or not.
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Post by celebaglar on May 26, 2004 14:56:18 GMT
The energy levels decided it. Your cavalry was less tired than I had hoped, and your infantry was UI. None of my armies were better than HI, and some were close to very tired. Since the only sensible attack option was to go for the citadel and remove the garrison, that would have damaged the energy levels even more. Some of my lords would have been UE after one night of fighting against your armies. Tired armies inflict no casualties, so that was a non-starter. Even with the dragons, I would have lost. So, we're back to the mexican stand-off. However, Evasta's loss notwithstanding (I'm still kicking myself for that!) I still have some roaming armies that give me a slight edge, as do my citadels. Time is still on my side, and the longer it goes on, the more desperate your need to do something will become. (More so when I get have that overdue chat with Dregrim ) However, I fear that unless we get through the turns quickly, J-Y's impending wipe-out will render the whole game meaningless. And no, I don't plan an immediate assault on your stonghold. Now that you are safely behind it's walls, I'll need a bigger force than I had last time before I try and shift you. Actually, what made the difference was that you had the Citadel of Marakith to recover in after your trip south, whereas I had to make do with the Keep of Marakith. A few of my armies were not fully recovered from that when the need arose to move on Marakith itself. At least now everyone is in a citadel, so energy won't be a problem.
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Post by celebaglar on May 26, 2004 15:55:50 GMT
I'll just sit it out at Kumar (I actually remember when I had Ithrorn by it waaay back to strip it and gain an army, since then it has grown an entire new army), and wait for you to get ready. Actually, I was pretty certain Kumar was not your last stronghold. I thought Ithrorn would have a decent garrison, and I know Grarg does. I suspect that Dregrim and Dawn are pretty much stripped of theirs at this time. The trouble is that every time you leave a stronghold to move to another one, you leave a garrison behind, and every garrison I wipe out only enhances my position. I hold him personally responsible for the Evasta incident. If he hadn't been loitering around outside Dawn when she went to capture the citadel, she would still be around to tell the tale.
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Post by celebaglar on May 27, 2004 10:51:17 GMT
Heh, no worries. Rl must take precedence, however heretical that may sound around here. As for the theoretical discussion regarding an attack outside the keep, it would have depended on how the first night went. I had two dragons and a Wise to throw at you, which could have accounted for between 5000-6000 men given your number of lords. I also could have brought in two more armies, albeit a bit tired. Alternatively, and the most likely outcome, I would have retreated to Marakith, which is garrisoned. Even if you had followed (unlikely as that is given your by then very tired or even exhausted riders) the citadel was garrisoned and the advantage would have been with me. The reality is that neither of us could really bet on a better than 50% chance of winning had we chosen to enter battle at the time, so we didn't.
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Post by celebaglar on May 27, 2004 20:11:00 GMT
Hehe, sounds like a positively awful evening. ;D
As for your assessment of the situation, you are quite correct. I always had retreat to Marakith as a fall-back option.
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Post by celebaglar on May 30, 2004 18:10:34 GMT
Are we getting there, Bill? I certainly am, anyway. But I crave just a little more patience. I will shortly be knocking on the gates of Kumar and inviting you to a party to end all parties. The trouble with having more citadels to fill up the ranks is that someone has to go fetch the troops, and since I can't afford to send too many in case of counter-attack, it's been a laborious process. But it's coming to an end soon, and then we can decide this once and for all. (Of course, I could sit back and wait until all my citadels and keeps are filled to capacity, but you needn't worry. That much patience is beyond even me.)
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Post by celebaglar on May 31, 2004 0:11:29 GMT
Let me assure you it is not a question of arrogance, nor do I regard it as a waste. Korinel and his full army are needed, as is everyone else.
And that's the point: I can't have your lords running around for replacements as soon as I attack Kumar. I can't afford anyone to block them, and I can't afford anyone to chase them down. Therefore I have to deal with those reserves prior to the big showdown so I don't have to worry about them afterwards - however unlikely it is that you'd be able to make them count. And yes, I can afford Korinel's losses. He has a replacement army nearby as the north has been riddled with Fey citadels, so he'll be joining my main army shortly with a full compliment. It's Korkith I've been waiting on, and he's not far off battle numbers now either. Once that happens, we party!
As for you leaving Kumar, I doubt you're ready to lose that garrison, and I doubt that you're prepared to send any armies too far from your main force, lest they find themselves unable to return when they're needed.
After so many days of conflict, I'm not willing to take any unnecessary chances, that's all. ;D
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Post by celebaglar on May 31, 2004 13:38:01 GMT
Well, look at it this way: I was waiting for Korkith to top up his forces. He has nearly done so and only needs one more run to an outlying citadel, after which he'll be heading for Kumarland. In the meanwhile I could have sent Korinel south and had him waiting with the others, or I could make use of the time to tighten the noose, particularly since he had spare men nearby. It won't add anything to the time I need to attack Kumar anyway, as Korinel and Korkith will be reaching the rest of my guys at about the same time, and they'll both need rest when they get there. As for the reinforcements, I didn't assume you'd bring them back to Kumar. That would take way too long. However, the option of you retreating towards Grarg after a day or two of fighting at Kumar is not so far-fetched. The map shows a large distance, but quite a lot of forest in the way, and guess who has a very large Fey contingent? So I'm just doing my homework. I didn't at Korkith and failed to make that count. I was sloppy with Evasta and lost her as a result. Who knows how many games it will take before I have a chance to beat you again?
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Post by celebaglar on Jun 3, 2004 16:55:25 GMT
Bloody overkill, if you ask me. Which, I guess, you don't For the keep, sure, but what could I do? Splitting people up at that point wouldn't be very smart. For the big battle, I'm not sure a three army advantage is that huge for a battle inside your citadel. That's what, 15% extra men? I normally like to have at least 50% extra, and that's for fighing in the open. TEXT
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Post by celebaglar on Jun 3, 2004 18:54:04 GMT
200 would be too darned close for comfort. ;D As it is, I've decided to throw my dragons and geezer in at the very start, because unless I misunderstood how they work in battle, they'll be mosr effective against the maximum number of your armies gathered together. After the first round, you certainly won't have the maximum number any more... Neither will I, of course, so the dice is thrown, the biggest battle Midnight has ever seen is joined. I doubt there will be any more 49-almost full army battle any time soon. Or any more 160+ day campaigns either, for that matter.
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Post by celebaglar on Jun 3, 2004 19:38:24 GMT
Well, the dragon/geezer combo accounted for 6,488 of the enemy, although all three perished on the first night as expected.
One other thing: in big battles, mixed armies fare very badly indeed, and take twice the losses of specialist infantry/cavalry armies when attacked by single characters.
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Post by celebaglar on Jun 3, 2004 19:56:14 GMT
YES!! I was just figuring out the exact same thing, as I wondered why for example my Utarg with roughly half-and-half was killed off far easier than Tujarg with only riders. First I thought that Targ infantry by some mistake was weaker than everybody else, then I noticed that all mixed armies were getting killed off first, while pure infantry or rider armies wee the ones remaining. Agreed. For example, my three mixed armies (Ishmalay, Korkith and Korinel) fared quite badly, with Korkith down to 170 warriors only after one round of fighting! Cavalry armies had roughly 1300 men left, warrior armies about 1000. However, it's when you look at the casualties inflicted by Farflame and Martolax that the flaw shows most clearly. I've taken screenshots, and will post this in the "bugs" section. Absolutely. Giving specialist armies an advantage is one thing, but making twice as effective is unrealistic.
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Post by celebaglar on Jun 3, 2004 20:39:36 GMT
Well, the end was a bit anti-climactic. I was hoping you'd get another turn, if only to gauge your reaction when you saw Gard and his 800 warriors having descended on the watching posse at the keep. I suspect the killing blow was Ishmalay returning to the battle after she picked up another full army from the Keep of Kumar. But you know, I think with 24 armies and the extras it would have been darned close, so it's a good job I did recruit as much as I could. Still, an even and challenging game until the latter stages there. A very tough encounter indeed.
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Post by celebaglar on Jun 3, 2004 21:44:34 GMT
Well, they were without armies, so I simply had them attack your garrison to keep them busy untill the end. Nothing more. Still, they took out a garrison, woo-hoo Well, I wasn't sure if you had some fancy move up your sleeve, so I sent Gard to deal with them before they could do any mischief. I think it depends a lot on the circumstances. I remember in the game where you attacked me at Kor in order to allow Dai to win, the citadel bonus there made a huge difference IIRC, allowing me to keep enough survivors to eventually survive Dai's attack. But you're right, it's not 25% in the sense you described. I struck hard early on with everything I had, precisely to accentuate the difference in troops. Once a decisive lead is established, the citadel bonus becomes irrelevant. Also, on that first night I would have had an initiative bonus too, right? This is true. Well, I don't know. Certainly after Marakith it was all over. In fact, I'd say you probably lost your capacity to maneouver once you left Dreams, but you might have caused me some trouble if you had known I had followed you south, and moved back north as soon as your people had recovered from the trip south. It sounds silly, but I would not have been able to follow because my armies would not have recovered enough being stuck and the Keep of Marakith as they were, and having travelled further to boot. Before that, my greatest fear was that you'd employ your two Targ cavalries to wreak havoc amongst my recruiters by either attacking them or taking the poorly defended citadels and therefore stopping them from generating badly needed recruits. Since my armies would not be able to keep up with them, this would have caused me some difficulty. You came close to doing something like that when you caught Corleth outside Dawn. P.S. I did give the game the right name, after all.
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