[SPOILERS] Alignment unknown

[plako]

T160

It has started. DaveV captured Gaudium where his main stacks are and some other minor city in the north. I used dispel magic and Maelstorm 1st. Then taunted as many units I could (I couldn't upgrade all the units I would have liked) and used Blinding Light, Rust and Charm. Not totally sure which effects can be dispanded using dispel magic, but many of his units are now charmed and immobile and I killed about 25 units that were inside Gaudium.

He also has 2 Mary Morbuses.

Biggest stacks in the scene are here:


Almost forget. Yersinia also appeared. Killed him with Earth Elemental.

[plako]

Demographics after ending turn:


I've a feeling that DaveV made a mistake here, but there are so many variables in this game, so can't say for certain. He needs to get his units out from their current positions and fast.

I miscounted the turns needed for Tower of Mastery. It takes ~11T.

[plako]

One thing I forget to mention. Dave apparently is planning to Culture bomb Gaudium. I suspect he isn't getting that many tiles out of it. Gaudium has been my core city for a long time and most of the tiles around here has got lot of culture from couple of other cities. On the other hand he probably doesn't have that many ways to take advantage of that Artist before the game is over so this still might be best way to use it.

edit. btw. someone's GPT is a bit weak -8 . Had to be Basium getting Angels out of this fight.

[plako]

Finally decided to run couple of tests . Charm can be dispelled. However it seems that Blinding Light can't be countered. Even Taunt doesn't work for immobilized units. So it seems DaveV can probably spare most of his units, but he can't move them for 2T that I can use to build more units and arrange my defenses.

[DaveV]

Then taunted as many units I could (I couldn't upgrade all the units I would have liked)

So, does this mean you promoted units into Harlequins? That would actually make me feel a little bit better about not spotting them.

One thing I forget to mention. Dave apparently is planning to Culture bomb Gaudium.

No, I was moving the great bard into the area but planning to save him for later. I've never had much luck gaining any cultural ground against core cities with great bards.

[plako]

So, does this mean you promoted units into Harlequins? That would actually make me feel a little bit better about not spotting them.

I just got the tech last turn so there weren't any . I luckily had a handful of Freaks around that make excellent upgrade targets. I could get them moving only with Haste so I couldn't reach your Mary Morbus stack.

btw. Not culture bombing would have costed you your immomobilized stack. I had a settler and Acolyte ready to settle west from Gaudium and would definately had got the control over the tile where they were standing. Didn't mention it because I thought you definately would have done it.

[Mardoc]

First, congratulations on your win, plako. I was downright amazed at what's possible with even Perpentach's puppets. Team Kurio definitely put too much focus on getting high strength units, and not enough on getting long range/collateral, and you punished us for that.

But that leads into my primary question - why did you do so little with your military lead? From at least T120, there was nothing on Erebus that could stand up to your Earth Elementals except Sanctuary, and yet you used your power only to maintain status quo. You could easily have conquered enough for Domination, or at least brought the game to a true duel between you and a Sanctuary Ilios, but instead you spent your time giving cities back to Bob and Thoth, or pillaging. We were very confused.