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[Dariush]

Brutal Raid 90
Conquer 92
Conquer 79

[monk12]

Babe stood over the situation map in his war room, surrounded by his advisers. When word had come that the Council of Trees had moved into the neutral zone, they had feared the worst; however, the Ents did not come as friends to the Djinn, but as competitors and scavengers, opportunistic growths on the failing body of Babelon.

Babe snorted. Babelon was not done yet. The Djinn had recoiled from the Ent expansion, choosing to make their fight in the Southern Stone Wall, no doubt planning to use it as a buffer against the Council of Trees. A cautious move, and a prudent move, but one that gave the initiative back to the Republic. With luck, it would be enough to see them through the winter.

"We will halt the Ents here." Babe said, tapping hex 50 on the map. "We must dislodge them before their roots take hold. Burn every building, tear up every road, poison every well and spring and cistern. Lay the land to waste, and then withdraw before their counterstrike. They will not be able to press us before the next growing season."

Nodding firmly, Babe pounded the table. "The tide turns this day. Send every pike south. Death to Djinn!"

Action Pool: 9

Conquer 50 [AP:8]
Abandon 50 [AP:7]
Conquer 79 [AP:4]
Conquer 92 [AP:1]
Tower 11 [AP:0]


An open letter to the Free Nations of the West:

GreatWyrmGold of the Merfolk Lakers, NQT of The Accord, a1s of the Pearly Swine, hear my words. The sleeping giant has awoken; the Council of Trees marches to war. Their numbers have swollen to dwarf the mightiest civilization, and they will swell again next summer if left unchecked. Though you are the smallest of nations, if you stand united you can slay the giant. I urge you to form a Union and to begin planning for the coming war. Do not fool yourselves; war is coming. If you are not in position to combat this threat in the Fourth Year, then the Ents shall surely prevail.

Let us build a strong bond today for the trials of tomorrow.

~Babe, First Speaker of the Republic of Babelon

[cerapa]

Does abandoning take place during the turn, or after, like razing?

[notquitethere]

Like the other Dismantling actions, it happens during your turn.

[monk12]

Swine blood will be spilled this year, but not by Ents!

[cerapa]

So you can dismantle the entire border if you go first?

Okay then. That certainly changes strategy a lot. By which I mean it's literally impossible to attack anyone first in the turn order. They can always just enforce the neutral zone in the way monk12 did it.

I guess not literally impossible, you just need to expand to so many places that the opponent simply doesn't have enough actions to deal with it.

Seems I have exactly 0 things to do if GWG abandons 86 though.

[notquitethere]

That's as may be, but in the long term, abandoning your land just allows the more dominant player to expand more.

[monk12]

Yes, it's very much a short term fix, and it only works if you've got/can create a small contact area. I don't think I can juggle you very long, sooner or later your population advantage will get you a nice hug on somebody. Hence the rallying call to oppose your expansion.

HoH3 might benefit from a Forced March action, though, which gives you temporary (end of own turn) control of a hex in the off season so you can attack through it. I'm generally trying to save my observations until the end of the game, though, since I want to see how the rules as written play out before I go assuming things.

[Dariush]

Sooner or later

We only get five cycles of expansion and conquest, total. If the defending player is being really defensive, he can give away exactly one tile-wide border per year. The first two years went by without conquest. Thus even the biggest and baddest empire can hope to get a thin three-tile-wide strip from any enemy who can afford to abandon his stuff.

In short, the whole 'neutral territories being an impenetrable wall for half a year' is utter, utter bullshit that is quite high on the list of other bullshits.

[notquitethere]

Yeah I get it big D--if I run HoH3, I'll consider allowing out of season actions at a penalty.

[monk12]

Sooner or later

We only get five cycles of expansion and conquest, total. If the defending player is being really defensive, he can give away exactly one tile-wide border per year. The first two years went by without conquest. Thus even the biggest and baddest empire can hope to get a thin three-tile-wide strip from any enemy who can afford to abandon his stuff.

In short, the whole 'neutral territories being an impenetrable wall for half a year' is utter, utter bullshit that is quite high on the list of other bullshits.

Yes, but if the biggest baddest empire is doing this to all its neighbors, it's going to wind up with more territory VP than its opponents, and it's also going to be using its other actions to boost heresy-specific victory points. If I count right, cerapa has 23 Victory points on the board. I have 21. That deficit only widens if I keep pulling back on my borders. In addition, it costs me most of my turn to juggle him; cerapa has his whole action pool to play with, letting him expand to places I can no longer contest and build forests. cerapa wins a stalemate.

tl;dr Playing like a coward will lose the game just about every time.


I actually really like the seasonal action system as it stands. It requires you to plan ahead well, and because the actions you take are made with the rest of the year in mind it's possible to deduce and counter your opponent's moves while they're being set up. The game has a really neat, unique rhythm that I quite enjoy, and a really deep tactical element. If you can do anything whenever, it's just a "hurr I got most pop fastest so I beat you now hurr" kind of rush that I've played a million times before. Just because people haven't been playing the mechanics well doesn't mean that the mechanics themselves are bad.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Indeed. After all, it's a pretty new game.

Harvest and Harvest and Harvest again!

[a1s]

harvest 29,30.
make paint out of the straw. Watch it dry.

[notquitethere]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Monk.

This season, as some of you may have guessed, I'm going to:

Co-opt the swine
Harvest 112
Harvest 138
Harvest 153
Harvest 131

[cerapa]

Since GreatWyrmGold and NQT didn't abandon their borders...

Conquer 86 (2)
Conquer 100 (2)
Raze 86, 100 (-2)
Conquer 113 (2)
Conquer 112 (2)
Raze 112 (-1)
Conquer 125 (3?)
Conquer 111, 124, 97, 110, 137 (5)
Conquer 138 (2)

Total 15 actions

11 tiles conquered, 3 burned. No borders for the winter. Free to improve everything. All burned tiles irrigateable. Remaining pop at minimum of 8 or 9.

My suggestion is that everyone immediately drop all hostilities and attack me together. Dariush can fill the entire desert with cities, Monk12 is already on par with me except during my growth periods, a1s is a fellow abundant, with very similar terrain(exactly 8 forests like my core, if improved and fecunded) to mine before this conquest, and NQT can just steal every good ability you have. It's still very much possible to challenge me, but you aren't gonna do it by fighting amongst yourselves.

I suggest you all make plans for the next fall. I will have the most pop most likely, so I can't close my borders before an attack.