Losing is Fun: Kandros Fir Dwarf Fortress [Khazad Spoiler Thread]

[Ichabod]

Well, computer came back from maintenance with bad news: most of my screenshots from the previous turns were gone...

So my report will have to be mostly by memory and glimpses at past saves.

Anyway, there's a big war going on and I'll make some nice updates (Ravus' Style :neenernee) this weekend.

By the way, before I forget: thanks, Dantski, you are a very good war ally!

[Ichabod]

[SIZE="3"]Turn 130-134: The end of Sciz, Blight and the Rise of the Ultimate threat[/SIZE]

*Disclaimer: I lost the screenshots of these turns, so I opened the saves again to retake some of them and try to figure out what I did in them. Some build orders might be inconsistent with what really happened. I didn't move any troops in these replays. I only did it with my stack moving in the direction of Sciz last city (a move I was certain I did) and the attack on the city (probably made the wrong unit orders). I didn't get any extra info by doing it, so I think there's nothing wrong.


Turn 130 was a fairly uneventful turn. I was still oblivious of the menaces surrounding my empire and I was very happy with my strong research due to aristocracy. I was teching fast and I thought I could reach Iron Working before Selrahc decided to attack me. I had a 10t cooldown after all!


When I received turn 131, Selrahc sent me a quick teaser that I should have fun with blight. When I opened the save the AC was, in fact, 30, but the blight wouldn't hit until next turn. That was helpful, since it made possible for me to cash rush herbalists in Boatmurdered and Hindenburg.

The turn opened with an incredible blessing in disguise. Trade! This tech saved my life later. To think that I teched it to get the extra trade route and see Selrahc research progress is pretty ironic in hindsight.

In the Sciz front, I lost the only unit of the war in the interturn. Sciz attacked my stack with a Orthus-Axe wielding, heavily promoted warrior after casting Warcry and managed to kill my highest promoted axeman in defendive terrain. The stack kept moving to Omtose Phelack despite of the loss.

Here you can see my building list in antecipation of blight. I actually cash rushed the herbalists in Boatmurdered and Hindenburg (and Kurald Galain was started on a chariot, not a herbalist).

Why herbalists, you ask? Well, let's analyse blight a bit in this game:

*The map is incredibly harsh - no food (which means less hammers and commerce) makes everything slower. I was not near some useful blight-countering techs and every building took a while to build.

*No resources! Seriously, the map had 4 (!), 4 non-water health resources. Wheat, deer, cows and sheep. That's it. The water resources were stucked in the iceball water part of the map, where no city is profitable. Notice the lack of the doubled resources.

*No grasslands...

So, at least a herbalist would give +1 health, another +1 with reagents (that I have) and would reduce the blight hit due to the blight mechanics. Since I already had smokehouses on both cities, it seemed to be a good idea. By the way, I only realized later that I needed KotE to enable reagents... That meant I went KotE after Trade (which also save me afterwards for a different reason).


Turn 132 wasn't so forgiving as turn 130...

[SIZE="4"]Blight![/SIZE]

AAAAAAAAARRGHHHHHHH!!!!

Seriously... This map is HARSH! Man... Of course, I changed some tiles to help things, but my cities were mostly working farms... There wasn't many ways for me to improve the situation... At least I learned a lot about city starving mechanics.

Blight was the first reality hit - "you are going to lose" - that hit me and I got fairly disheartened with the game then. The slow turn pace didn't help any too...

At least things went pretty well in the war front. Sciz attacked from his city and lost most of his army:

There was almost no units left in his city and I had a fair stack of trebs and some heavy promoted axemen. So...

The capture of Sciz last city meant I had a relief of my unhappy ex-Sciz cities. It also meant I could do this:

Yeah, help me a bit, Mrs. AI.


And some mechanics thing. I thought my cities would starve one size when the food box hit zero. But that's not true. It only decreases a size if the food box hit a negative number. So this city here:

Which is losing 10f per turn and has 10 food in the food box didn't starve at the EoT. This was a big boost, since it meant I could heavily starve the city later, when the starving would be impossible to counter.

Before the end of turn 132, here's what my cities sort of looked like (I can't be sure):

Still very bad, but not horrible like it was before!


Turn 133 was mostly building farms where possible and trying to manage blight in the best way I could...

Turn 134 was the turn that I teched KotE. By the way, here's an interesting thing: If KotE finishes at the EoT 133, you get the health from the reagents due to the herbalist in the city applied to the production of turn 133. That's how it works, even if you needed the research from turn 133 to tech KotE. You also get the hammers from copper in the same EoT you discover mining. That's something I didn't know before this game.

Since I knew I couldn't avoid Hindenburg starving from size 11 to 8, I did this:

FotT is incredibly useful. I wasn't aware of that, but it is... Experience is key in FfH, especially due to the mighty strong counter promotions. You'll understand what I mean in my next updates (if you already don't know)...

[Ichabod]

Here's what Selrahc sent together with the turn 134 save:

Ten turn NAP cooldown activated.

It was about to begin then...


Ah, it was clarified (after an exchange of emails) that we would be able to attack each other in the begining of turn 144. Since I'd play it first, i'd have the first strike. This is an important thing to know for later.

[Ravus Sol]

Yowch that sort of Blight damage is world ending. No wonder you started thinking it might be over. And with poor food you can't hope to regrow quickly

[Ellimist]

But the game will finish, anyway. My daily civ needs are fulfilled by PBEM XIV, so I don't bother that much. Crazy good pace in there for a 6 players game, I must say.

Indeed. The pace we're maintaining in 14 has been impressive.

[Ravus Sol]

Hope you are still having fun in this game! Good luck in the big Finale!

[Tasunke]

All's quiet on the Eastern front ... but srsly I'd like some screenshots xD

[Ichabod]

Well, this was a long ride, with a few speed bumps, but overall a very good game. I certainly learned a lot by playing it and it was very fun. In the end, this thread lived up to its name: Losing was fun. It was an uphill battle from the start and I'm pleased with how I performed.

I'm sorry for the lack of updates in the end game. A little summary of what happened was:

1. Blight owned me, but I managed to revive.

2. I revolted back to war civs and used my world spell to get like 500 gold. I drafted and upgraded my way to a chariot + treb army that managed to defeat a powerful Selrahc stack made of Hyborem, Rosier, iron diseased corpses and ritualists (Dantski helped me too - thanks, man, you were a very good ally).

I made some nice tactic movements in this war, of which I'm proud off. By the way, I also killed the first horseman while Selrahc attacked me!

3. I decided to try and win by ToM, after I realized I can't capture any Selrahc city due to Obsidian Gates.

4. I got a source of Nightmares and Iron (from the Mines), so my chariots were 8/6 ones!

5. I managed to get the Bone Palace, the CoE holy city and a Great Merchant all in one turn. The plan was use the shrine for defense, revolt to CoE and get Gibbon to have a mage capable of doing a "dispel magic".

But, in the end, I coudln't defeat Selrahc. It would be unfair to try for a tie only because we would need to find a sub for Dantski. So, I decided to concede.

Now I'm off to read the other players threads!