Posts: 682
Threads: 44
Joined: Apr 2013
Reputation:
0
04-11-2013, 07:24 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-11-2013, 07:31 AM by Jumbie.)
Reading the old Oracle reports it's common to see players casually say things like, "My prince took control of the city on turn 2."
Now it's a lot harder because cities have to first be prompted to rebel and then usurped or usurped in one double go.
So, what's your experience with cities?
Are they impossible to siege into submission? For sure they can't be attacked outright, not early at any rate.
Is it better to take them early or build up your resources with towns first?
Do you need a city? Is it worth the hassle?
Once you've got a city, how do you keep other people's grubby hands off it?
Posts: 2,252
Threads: 227
Joined: Feb 2012
Reputation:
0
You want the city and you want it early. You can always have a Prince Incite Rebellion and a Duke Usurp Control. You might use your wizardly Diplomacy spell as well. You keep hands off my keeping a group outside the walls and by building up the defenses. There is no fool proof way to hold off a huge horde intent on taking it, but you can make it difficult. The best way to keep someone from taking it is to prevent them from building that huge army in the first place. Attack THEM and let them worry about keeping their own pcs and not so worried about taking yours.
You can siege. It takes a lot of time, and is rarely required early on, but it's possible.,
Lord Diamond
Please do not take any of my comments as a personal insult or as a criticism of the game 'Alamaze', which I very much enjoy. Rather, I hope that my personal insight and unique perspective may, in some way, help make 'Alamaze' more fun, a more successful financial venture, or simply more sustainable as a long-term project. Anyone who reads this post should feel completely free to ignore, disregard, scorn, implement, improve, dispute, or otherwise comment upon its content.
Posts: 25
Threads: 3
Joined: Mar 2013
Reputation:
0
According to the old chart, with influence 13 in a friendly region, your Prince will usurp a controlled city outright 90% of the time. At influence 14, its 100%. You have to understand the "maybe" on the charts, thats the important thing. Each emmisary has a particular power based on his rank and the kings inflluence... plus or minus a 10% random modifier. You will notice that if you look down the chart starting with Envoy and leading to Prince, you will almost always see "no, no, no, maybe, maybe, yes, yes... etc" The first "maybe" (the one next to the "no") only gives a 10% chance. This is because without the random modifier, your emmisary is a "no" but if gets lucky with the random bonus, he has a 10% chance. The second "maybe" is actually a "yes" that got unlucky with the random 10% bonus, knocking him down to 90%. The "no" and "yes" results are decisive enough that the random modifier doesn't affect the outcome. Notice however, that between governor and Baron, there is sometimes only a single "maybe" this is because there is a jump between governor and baron of 20% of the kings influence, rather than 10%. I'll let you figure that out, but follow the same patterns, and it shouldnt be too hard.
By far, the diplomacy spell is the easiest way to get a city (particularly because it occurs before any possible "status quo" orders from emmisaries that arrived there on the same turn as your group), and if you really need to keep a city badly, the easiest way to defend it is to move your capitol there. This adds to the defense immediatly, and prevents all but groups from taking it. Liberal use of the stregthen walls spell, or the defense order, will deter all but the most determined enemy. Of course, if you DO get a determined enemy, you not only lose your city, you get your capitol kicked. Some people like to hide thier capitol, I don't mind sticking mine out there for all to see. Many ESOs and victory conditions require cities, so, do you NEED one? No, not unless your set-up tells you that you do. But they are nice due to thier high gold production and high census.
Maniacal Menace
Posts: 483
Threads: 18
Joined: Feb 2013
Reputation:
0
Minor point, if someone issued a Maintain Status Quo then the NEXT turn you try to Parlay/Diplomacy spell that same pop center the Status Quo is still in effect during those 170-171 order usages.
Posts: 721
Threads: 34
Joined: Feb 2013
Reputation:
0
Yes, the Status Quo is still in effect.
Posts: 682
Threads: 44
Joined: Apr 2013
Reputation:
0
City defense in 2nd cycle is increased from 1st. What's a typical value for 2nd cycle?
Posts: 2,252
Threads: 227
Joined: Feb 2012
Reputation:
0
(04-14-2013, 02:00 AM)Jumbie Wrote: City defense in 2nd cycle is increased from 1st. What's a typical value for 2nd cycle?
It looks like around 20,000 +/-.
Lord Diamond
Please do not take any of my comments as a personal insult or as a criticism of the game 'Alamaze', which I very much enjoy. Rather, I hope that my personal insight and unique perspective may, in some way, help make 'Alamaze' more fun, a more successful financial venture, or simply more sustainable as a long-term project. Anyone who reads this post should feel completely free to ignore, disregard, scorn, implement, improve, dispute, or otherwise comment upon its content.
Posts: 1,574
Threads: 77
Joined: Apr 2014
Reputation:
0
(04-11-2013, 03:55 PM)Maniacal Menace Wrote: According to the old chart, with influence 13 in a friendly region, your Prince will usurp a controlled city outright 90% of the time. At influence 14, its 100%. You have to understand the "maybe" on the charts, thats the important thing. Each emmisary has a particular power based on his rank and the kings inflluence... plus or minus a 10% random modifier. You will notice that if you look down the chart starting with Envoy and leading to Prince, you will almost always see "no, no, no, maybe, maybe, yes, yes... etc" The first "maybe" (the one next to the "no") only gives a 10% chance. This is because without the random modifier, your emmisary is a "no" but if gets lucky with the random bonus, he has a 10% chance. The second "maybe" is actually a "yes" that got unlucky with the random 10% bonus, knocking him down to 90%. The "no" and "yes" results are decisive enough that the random modifier doesn't affect the outcome. Notice however, that between governor and Baron, there is sometimes only a single "maybe" this is because there is a jump between governor and baron of 20% of the kings influence, rather than 10%. I'll let you figure that out, but follow the same patterns, and it shouldnt be too hard.
I'm a newer player wondering if the above is still true. I ask because the post was written some time ago but it would be really helpful to know if its accurate.
Here's the simple rules on getting cities:
1) You want them on turn 2, so move your top two emissaries in on turn 1 and make sure you are friendly in the region (enamor with your King)
2) Recon on turn 1 along with moving in your top 2 (or 2 of the top 3 at count or higher typically) and make sure that no one is going to status quo against you
3) If someone is there negotiate so that you can take the city. If you can't, find a sleep spell and sleep them. Or threaten them.
4) On turn 2 you rebel (320) with one and take with the other (330)
5) On turn 3 you get the production- now you're happier because you have more gold to kill your enemies
6) If you don't have enemies yet, wait a while. You will.
Have fun!
Posts: 2,570
Threads: 39
Joined: Jan 2014
Reputation:
0
Be careful of which city you are going after and who else is in your area. Troops trump Emms on T2 city taking. Warlock and AN are the main two kingdoms that can do this on T2. Another note it is good to have kingdoms declared enemy if you suspect they will be there for your groups to at the very least remove there Emms from the PC when you take control of it.
|
