>>477140
Shit yes, that sounds awesome. Let's just ask for 10 volunteers to give their lives to the cause. I don't think we'll have any issues with that. He didn't mention if our dead players would be revived, but... I dunno, sacrificing half our forces might be worth it, considering Sevener will have a bigger advantage the more our forces are reduced. Also, considering this is a fake CAI Fight, the revival thing might not even happen once one side wins.

Plus, I don't think there is any way for us to prepare for the CAI Fight if what Corruptor says is true. If it's a real-life scenario, then to prepare what we need to do is study real life. Study what people are like in the real world, how they handle engagements, what their culture is... HISTORY! The Historian really is important.

>>477147
But the victory condition isn't about seizing land. It's about getting a certain percentage of troops killed. If Sevener front-loads with cannons and ghosts, I don't see how we could make her burn warm bodies faster than us.

>I don't think we have all of them in our absorption chain yet
Don't worry about this. It's been standard operating procedure for a while to get the ghost of every new recruit via a persistence duel. The only person outside the chain are Scholar (because enforcers don't have ghosts) and maybe Chomper, if invincible got in the way.

The thing about seizing castles and lines is that they enable us to mitigate what we have to do to fight. Golems, cannons and traps mean we don't have to potentially lose people battling. The more we have the less we will lose.

Alison 2012/12/07(Fri)23:26 No. 477155 ID: c4e5c2
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Alison is still making a decision, but asks corruptor if people that died here will be resurrected if they are brought out. The answer is yes, so almost no deaths would be had. Except for the 10 or so volunteers, those individuals would have to die, but they will simply retire at Alison's house. It is still not permanent, real death. It does not have to be 10, either, he just recommends more than, say, 1, in case sevener gets a particularly amazing cannon shot.

Corruptor says Glitcher can also just try to reinitiate the cai fight on a whole and try to get it right this time, bypassing the stage events.

>>477155
Lets do that then. We do want to experiance a CAI fight properly.

Alright heres the plan.

Arbiter pulls out now and goes to the admin zone to get those logs. We continue to fight while Glitcher works on making this a proper CAI fight. We play a battle of attrition to thin down her numbers as much as possible and once Glitcher is done we hit the switch to give Sevener a nasty little shock.

If we can bypass the events that would be good. It would also throw Sevener for a loop; not having a reduced force would be weird for her, I think. We're better at handling large numbers of troops, surely.

It would also give us the benefit of taking Sevener out of the equation entirely. She has a vendetta against us, and if we don't eliminate her now she will cause problems for us later, surely.

>>477155
I have half a mind to ask Glitcher to pull out a large chunk of the enemy forces. Say, all of the enforcers. Or maybe even everyone except Sevener.

Turning this into a proper CAI fight sim sounds good, though. Unless Glitcher can make it more like the CAIlympics? You know, since it'd be a shame to let all of those sports boons go to waste...

>just try to reinitiate the cai fight on a whole and try to get it right this time
...the problem with doing this is the system forces here outnumber ours! Any kind of real CAI battle has to e weighted to give the bigger side a significant advantage.

I think the best plan is to evac now, and confound Sevener while we strategically seize system zones and get Arbiter's logs. Then, later, we confront Sevener again, and hit her with a reignited CAI-fight before she can summon massive reinforcements.

>>477159
Well, we COULD let Sevener throw her forces against our castle walls for a little while, making sure to keep our forces out of harm's way, then trigger whatever Glitcher comes up with to skip to the end. Sevener's forces would be depleted but not ours.

>>477170
This. Pick them off at our leisure without putting ourselves at risk, then, when the time is right, initiate a proper CAI fight. Assuming that we can bring our entire team along with us for that. Otherwise, pull everyone out except us and initiate the CAI fight.

>>477170
...assuming reigniting the CAI fight wouldn't revive all the ghosts exactly the same way pulling them out would.

1/2 Alison 2012/12/08(Sat)12:19 No. 477255 ID: c4e5c2
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Alison asks if it wouldn't be possible to take out a chunk of enemy forces, once corruptor and glitcher end up getting a ghost conference party going.

Glitcher says it's much easier with consent, sort of like a ghost, but it might be possible, with unknown ramifications. Plus, they'd be out. Alison notes that she just wanted to know about the possibility, but doesn't think that she'll do that.

After some discussion, Arbiter and, for safety's sake, King, both Chompers, and about 10 others that are currently ghosts in the CAI but otherwise living outside of it will cut out to get his logs.

>Any kind of real CAI battle has to be weighted to give the bigger side a significant advantage.
Corruptor says Alison would think so, but actually, it focuses more on quality of quantity, usually.

>Can the glitcher/corruptor combination send corruptor's houses in as reinforcements?
This might be possible as well, but corruptor does not appear keen on this idea. They are already almost independent as is, and may not feel well about going in to assist Alison.

Lastly, Glitcher can skip this castle event at anytime, so Alison will see if she can't wittle down some of sevener's forces some before skipping to what should be an authentic simulation. Alison asks if she can't choose the sort of simulation it is, such as say, an olympic matchup in which everyone plays against each other.

Corruptor says that for all he knows, there is something like that, but he does not think he has control over that much, not without regaining some more memories. Either way, Glitcher and Corruptor will both ready to perform their skip at any time.

2/2 Alison 2012/12/08(Sat)12:19 No. 477256 ID: c4e5c2
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So Alison doesn't do anything radical yet, and keeps on building cannons and golems while Arbiter is pulled out to get logs. Engineer discovers a method to make a specialized trap spring golem, which is used to withstand traps and break them. However, since Alison is playing almost all defensive, this discovery will go wasted.

At turn 46, Sevener starts getting on the move, Scanner reports from her telescope. It looks like she was hiding her construction so that Alison wouldn't find out. Scanner performs a quick count. Sevener is doing this offensively as expected, but about half of her forces are hanging back. Scanner suspects that she is sending all of her ghosts, somewhere around 2,200, while keeping the her currently living, more effective forces on the defensive.

She sees around 2,000 golems and 700 cannons being mobilized. Alison got a late start, but she has far more architectural talent than the system, and so by the end of 50 turns she will not be terribly behind with 1,706 golems and 568 cannons.

Alison also has 43,199 traps across her territory. By this point, entering a castle seems to be the metaphorical equivalent of jumping in lava. Nevertheless, unless Sevener starts sending her living people, she won't lose forces.

>>477256
Oh, cool. Sevener is playing exactly as I thought she would.

Let's waste Sevener's time, while our allies outside seize their objectives (logs, system zones). We'll man the front lines with ghosts, and have the living fall back.

After Severner starts to grind her way through our trapped castes and ghosts, and we've bought enough time, we'll have Corruptor and Glitcher cheat.

>unless Sevener starts sending her living people, she won't lose forces
That's true... I guess we should send our ghosts into the contested areas and focus on weakening her siege, then. We get back over a fifth of them every turn, so that should be safe to do.

>They are already almost independent as is, and may not feel well about going in to assist Alison.
What about Corruptor's own house? They're loyal to him and Arbiter, so they should be willing to help.

>>477256
Well, if she only sends ghosts and golems, we can assault one of her castles all-out with our cannons and golems and ghosts to see if we can take out some of the forces in it, once her initial resources are spent. A counterattack against less effective defenses...

We could also just remain on the defensive and wait for the Intruder waves to wear her forces down. We can weather their attacks much more efficiently than she can.

I think I favor staying on the defensive for now, and making some trap-spring golems. Spend like 20 turns producing them. When she sends out her forces, see if we can throw our ghosts at them to take out their cannons. Like, order them to just focus on attacking the cannons.

>>477271
He's talking about his own house.

Sending our ghosts to meet theres in the middle is a great tactic to draw their living forces out.

Alison 2012/12/11(Tue)16:44 No. 477908 ID: c4e5c2
File 135527304682.png - (17.89KB , 700x700 , CAI7-47.png )

>They are already almost independent as is, and may not feel well about going in to assist Alison.
>What about Corruptor's own house? They're loyal to him and Arbiter, so they should be willing to help.
That is the case, and Corruptor can send his own, it just won't be overwhelming numbers as would be the case if bones, the council, swordsbane and obliterator were all in as well.

>Make spring trap golems
Alison will make a small amount, however, she only has 3 turns until her available production rate plummets.

Since Alison receives a 10th of her ghosts every turn, she will send a 10th each time to wittle down the ghosts.

As soon as the 50th turn comes, everyone rushes in. Mathematician and Engineer are ready to start jotting down losses and how much a fractional force can do against larger foes.

The answer is not very, but while Alison loses about 200 ghosts, they will all come back next round, which cannot be said for about 30 golems and 25 cannons on Sevener's side. The fight only lasts 1 turn.

It looks as though Sevener is now splitting her force up into two parts, going for castla A and B, the frontmost pair. Due to those being the least priority of castles, Alison only has around 500 total ghosts, golems and cannons protecting each of them, not including the massive amount of traps inside. Corruptor says that if allied troops get to a friendly castle at the same time as an enemy, they will still have time to barricade themselves inside, so Alison will be able to send in reinforcements if she wishes.

Between watching the progress and talking to corruptor, glitcher and arbiter, it is getting difficult for Alison to keep track of all the numbers.

>>477908
Focus on the fight.

Don't reinforce the castles. Let our traps handle them. Immediately send to that center tile our ghosts and any cannons and golems available in the two castles that aren't being attacked. Next turn send them ALL to one enemy castle. One of the rear ones. We attack while Sevener's ghosts are busy in one big wave, to kill whoever we can.

Tell Glitcher and Arbiter to be ready when you call, and to inform you when Arbiter's keycard run and/or the other Lord's system zone attacks are successful. In the meantime, concentrate on managing the battle.

Our current objective is to stall, buying our rebel player allies the time they need. Conserve live players, burn ghosts and traps as necessary. Try and whittle down Sevener's forces, if she ever commits anything living.

>>477912
Heh, you sneaky scoundrel. I like it.

>>477908
>Alison receives a 10th of her ghosts every turn
Correction, we receive a 10th of our total forces' worth of ghosts every turn, which since we won a bit over 50% of the fights last round comes out to a bit over two 10ths of our ghosts, which means we could have sent about 400 last turn.

>>477912
Heh, I like this plan. I'm not so sure we should send all of the canons and golems in those two castles, but aside from that nitpick the plan looks good.

>>477969
That's a good point. If we commit all our cannons to a counteroffensive, then Sevener can pound our forces at range with impunity for the rest of the battle.

>>477971
There won't be a rest of the battle. We're skipping to the end as soon as we kill some of Sevener's living forces.

>>477982
There's somewhat of a rest of the battle. We need to stall long enough for Corruptions' forces to hit the system brackets, and for Arbiter to use his keycard.

>>477982
My concern is mostly how quickly they could get though those two castles with only traps as defenses. I suppose we should have enough traps there that it won't make too much difference, though, so sending all of them is probably best.

>>477989
We're not stalling for the Corruptor anymore, we're trying to eliminate some of Sevener's living forces while losing as few of our own as possible so they'll be weaker when we reinitiate the CAI fight.

Well just keep rough estimates then. You could start pushing, then pulling back a little. The steady progression of your forces could push them back enough to switch the roles for offense in our favor, depending on if we get enough of a winning ratio to continue. Or we could just lean back and draw it out like an anaconda, it's preference.

If they split up their offensive now is a perfect time to hit one side with everything we can. We want to force Sevener to be reduced to her living and what she can build up now. Let them spend a turn losing stuff to the defence while we gather people then hit Castle A with everything.

1/2 Alison 2012/12/12(Wed)11:12 No. 478144 ID: c4e5c2
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Corruptor is asked for advice, and he thinks that Alison's ridiculous amount of traps will slow Sevener down significantly. It will still fall, but Sevener will have to balance her speed in taking over the castle. Go too fast and she'll take immense losses, but the only way she won't take many losses at all is to take many turns.

So Alison gets her series of hand signalers to give orders. Out of the two rear castles, she gets 1/3 to stay, and the other 2/3 to move on to the centermost tile in preparation to make an attack.

Sevener's forces do not back out of attacking Alison's two front castles, and they begin their siege. It appears that they are taking it cautiously to minimize total losses, with the more expendable ghosts being at the forefront for now.

2/2 Alison 2012/12/12(Wed)11:13 No. 478145 ID: c4e5c2
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Alison gets her middle-tile army to move forward to a single castle at the back. When she moves them, sevener reinforces that castle as she can. It is only with her living members, so Alison will get a chance to wittle down their numbers. Alison's attacking numbers are about on par with sevener's defenders, although the living individuals are stronger than Alison's ghosts.

Arbiter has successfully gotten the logs, and is leaving soon. Corruptor says that his houses are making good progress, as the ones with double move are meeting almost no resistance with weaker judges and supervisors and other critical, but small in number, system task forces. It is almost certainly in the clear, as even the other Houses do not wipe out the ones they are attacking during the castle stage, it isn't as though the proper CAI fight will instantly resolve. Corruptor asks if Alison would like to move on after her current attack on Sevener's living forces is finished, as by the time it does, sevener will certainly be close to being able to attack Alison's own living forces. He is also not certain that having more living members will be advantageous, as often the cai fights are about quality more than quantity, but there may be an exception that eludes him.

Yes, that sounds like a good plan.

>>478145
>quality rather than quantity
Still weirds me out that not once has someone won against the CAI then
move on

>Arbiter has successfully gotten the logs
I hope someone's on hand to calm him down if he freaks out. Remember, we are not always the same people, and he shouldn't judge himself or expect to be judged for what other versions of himself might have said or done. Same goes for the Corruptor. Or anyone else. We're not bound by the past- we're who we chose to be- not who we were.

>move on to a (hopefully) real CAI-type fight after done killing these living Sevener forces
Yeah, sounds like a plan. Thank you, Corruptor. Hopefully this goes well.

>quality more than quantity
Well, yes, but the idea is that the dead ones will be of diminished capacity like they are now, so having fewer living people might reduce their quality as a group. I think that makes sense, at least. It's just an extra advantage that we can afford to take the time to grab.

While we're doing this, though, what exactly do Arbiter's logs say?

>>478145
Yep, once we're done with this initial attack, we should move into the final CAI Fight.

1/2 Alison 2012/12/12(Wed)18:00 No. 478274 ID: c4e5c2
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>While we're doing this, though, what exactly do Arbiter's logs say?
Arbiter is currently scrambling to write all of them down so he has a copy. They aren't pretty, not as though they usually are. He says Alison will definitely want to see them, of course, but she should worry about one thing at a time.

So Alison does. The attack goes about as well as can be expected, while Alison's forces are more or less getting wittled away rapidly, Sevener's own living forces are not without their own losses. It takes a few turns of running in for both sides, and it looks like both battles are wrapping up.

She does remind Arbiter that everyone's done things their current selves have regretted in other cycles, but it seems that sometimes, everyone could seem like completely different people based on the short sentences the logs give.

Arbiter knows, and he is alright, but some things still hurt even if he knows it would in advance. All the same, he insists again that Alison focus.

2/2 Alison 2012/12/12(Wed)18:01 No. 478275 ID: c4e5c2
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The word is given after the last turn, and everyone is swept away in a process that is disconcertingly similar to death.

Nevertheless, Alison feels another voting time coming along.

CAI Simulation Initiated: 3 Scenario's available.
A - Belenosian Homeworld, B.W. 9,341 (Historical accuracy: High)
B - Summoner's Island (Historical accuracy: Absolutely none, Pomi mythology.)
C - Neumono Homeworld, Approx. B.W. 300 (Historical accuracy: Questionable)

Alison recalls the historian mentioning that B.W. is before the first warpdrive, when was when the calender was reset to year 0. Therefore, these simulations appear to take place before warpdrive.

It also does not particularly help that there is no indication of what each simulation entails, but Alison is more or less getting used to working blindly.

Well thats not ominois at all. I think we should go as realistically as possible. A.

B!

Ooooo let's do the neumono homeworld.

We already know what the neumono homeworld is like and the Pomi homeworld is inaccurate, let's go with belenosians.

>>478275
>disconcertingly similar to death
Well gee, isn't that pleasant.

>Scenarios
We should probably have the Corruptor bring the Historian into the party line and ask which of these he's probably the most familiar with, but if we can't get him before we make the choice the historically accurate one is probably the safest bet.

>Alison is more or less getting used to working blindly
Actually, by that logic, C is the best choice. We have access to a limited amount of out of character knowledge about conditions on the neumono homeworld. We know nothing about the others.

Also, neumono seem to have some connection to what's going on here. Alison should be most interested in them.

>Belenosian
Huh, you know, Arbiter could pass as one, except his horns go to the side instead of back.

>>478275
I'm going to guess that the setting will limit what abilities we have. A medieval setting will likely limit us to melee attacks unless we have something that makes sense for a ranged attack, like a bow and arrow or throwing daggers, that sort of thing. On the other hand maybe we'll be given equipment for that? On the other other hand, I expect that those without matching weapon types will not be able to use them as well.

I think we should ask Historian if he's familiar with any of these settings or dates. If not, let's go with B since it matches our abilities closely. It's the only one where we are likely to be able to make use of prehensile hair and acid spit!

C. Let's work with what we know.

C

A

A

Might as well go for the real scenario.

Unnatural Selection - Thread 6 End Alison 2012/12/14(Fri)09:38 No. 478708 ID: c4e5c2
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Belenosian Homeworld simulation has been chosen. Alison notes that Arbiter could pass as one of those pretty easily if not for the horns.