Editing Round 23

{{Round_finish
 | round = 23
 | round_id = 33

 | winner_player = Slater
 | winner_dominion = Pro Gloria et Patria
 | winner_race = Merfolk

 | second_player = Robert
 | second_dominion = Pearl Smash
 | second_race = Troll

 | third_player = Asanka456
 | third_dominion = Valar Morghulis
 | third_race = Goblin
}}

__TOC__

== Round Win Story ==

=== Pre-Round ===

After taking it easy for a round we decided to get the pack back together for round 23 and I once again joined forces with Ed, Neophyte and Pasi. 
I originally planned on going Goblin fast converter but after checking the growing bots in test round we quickly agreed that the bots would help slow/tech attacking strategies the most. 
We considered between the full-on efficient approach (WE & Gnome mostly, totally overlooking Troll) and races with lower maximum potential but that could threaten to take over earlier (Merfolk, Nox, Sylvan). 
After some simming and mapping out of growth/tech acquisition I decided on Merfolk for a variety of reasons: 
* Easiest race to run 20% schools on out of our considerations (no docks & OM)
* Leviathan efficiency allows to maintain a good economy in the bot hitting/teching stage
* I personally just love Kraken as a unit and the prospect of training them on full smithy + tech reduction 

The plan was to keep attacking with 20% schools for somewhere between 30-35 techs until day25 and r/r schools to enough DMs so that masons would be worth it. Pasi decided to go for the same style of strategy with Nox. Ed and Neophyte did not have the time to commit to all-round attacking and chose low-tech Human converter (Ed) and no-tech Icekin converter (Neophyte) instead. We landed in realm #4 with Craghack (low-tech Merfolk explorer) and a bunch of inactives who never showed up in discord before Jam Peons (Undead converter) joined late during week 1. 

=== Early Round ===

Early round went as expected - I came OOP on 650a with just enough offense to hit twice followed by mostly bot hits unless other/better prestige options presented themself:
:2021-03-20 18:04:34	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 28 land from Support is not requested! (#0).
:2021-03-20 18:09:34	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 31 land from Sneakzy troll Silhouette (#0).
:2021-03-21 06:02:37	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 36 land from Bone Collector (#0).
:2021-03-21 18:25:00	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 40 land from I lick doorknobs (#13).
:2021-03-22 14:28:45	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 40 land from The Icy Volcano (#0).
:2021-03-23 22:55:18	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 46 land from Does This Smell Funny to You? (#2).
:2021-03-25 00:59:10	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 49 land from Chateau dYquem 1988 (#0).
:2021-03-25 15:59:37	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 52 land from Party @ Ground Zero (#0).
:2021-03-27 05:59:36	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 59 land from the happy treeparty (#0).
:2021-03-28 12:59:33	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 64 land from Lord Ians Return (#0).

For techs I focused on getting the 2 bonus prestige techs as quickly as possible and aimed for population/training cost reduction after that. Whenever possible I saved up RP to take the 2.5% OP techs if needed to make a hit, spending them on economy techs when I was able to hit without the additional offense.
I kept schools around 20% and smithies maxed, most of the time prebuilding both and managed to still squeeze in 100 GT which helped a lot to keep hitting regularly compared to Pasi who had to deal with the Nox swamp requirement. 
After my 10th hit the bot defense formula was changed resulting in them not growing for 2 days while only training defense. Luckily I had hit just before the change was made and was looking to transition towards regular hits anyway. Pasi got hit much harder by the change being left without a chance to hit for a few days and falling even further behind. 

In terms of how the round was going I think it was already clear by this time that #12 and mris/Cat Lady Barbie in particular were in a good spot. Because he had opted to delay DMs for very long and was heavy on offensive specs we were most afraid of his Icekin and Orc packmates growing under his protection. 
We kept tabs on #3 and #9 techers (missing out on RVV completely :)) as they could potentially become threatening later on. They were teching quicker than me but we were confident that the land advantage would ultimately allow me to stay ahead of them. 

After the changes to the bots I took some time to train offense for hits on non-bot dominions. None of them were great prestige hits, but just growing at a steady pace while gaining RP was the priority here. I reached 350 schools around 1.7k acres and started to let them fade from there while picking up the final techs towards Master of Efficiency and Field Surgery. 
:2021-03-30 09:14:04	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 71 land from I lick doorknobs (#13).
:2021-04-01 14:59:53	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 82 land from Wrestle Humania 37 (#18).
:2021-04-02 22:58:08	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 98 land from The Undertaker (#14).
:2021-04-05 17:59:19	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 99 land from Sea-man (#11).
:2021-04-07 04:59:16	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 117 land from The Undertaker (#14).
:2021-04-09 22:07:06	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 118 land from Sea-man (#11).
:2021-04-12 13:59:11	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 123 land from By Fire Be Purged (#17).
:2021-04-14 20:59:39	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 139 land from Ice ice baby (#1).

=== Mid Round ===

Teching concluded around day23 when I picked up WaveHack's Expertise to help with rebuilding the schools and pretty much as planned the r/r part was done by day25. DMs were up to 700 by this point, just enough to end up with 75m total investments at the end of week6, which was the minimum amount I wanted to reach before even considering masons. I added a few more DMs for a total production of 800 DMs worth (including the one 2.5% gem production tech), but in retrospect I should have either commited to the improvements/mason plan harder (by going more DMs and pick up the Midas Fountain tech instead of Field Surgery) or go the GT/GN route. 
The way it worked out is that we ended up picking up GM for the 100 prestige at almost no cost and I started trading gems for plat or lumber much earlier than week7 with the 35% trade bonus from tech and wonder. 

:2021-04-16 15:59:50	Royal Pond (#4) has declared WAR on Let the games begin! (#10).
:2021-04-17 16:59:55	The Great Market has been destroyed and rebuilt by Royal Pond (#4).

By this time I had closed in on Cat Lady Barbie's bottom range, skipping a land DB here and there to linger just outside and be able to keep hitting, while upping my all-in DP. People started to be aware of the strength of my dominion resulting in a large uptick of ops caught while SP was up. In the top things started to really stall out, but I was lucky enough to still have Neophyte in range and be super vigilant about getting ops on mris and every other possible threat and converter despite how demotivating it must have been to see his main competitor (mdk/Vegan Crypto Barbie/#12 Icekin) be able to convert on a much better economy due to lower defense requirements. 
The downside of the great stall was that all of the fast attackers I had planned to feed prestige of just didn't send anymore leaving me to train up to hit explorers instead:

:2021-04-18 14:03:22	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 149 land from Enders (#8).
:2021-04-21 00:59:40	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 175 land from Frodo’s Sword Doesn’t Always Glow Around Orcs (#13).
:2021-04-21 14:00:07	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 175 land from IRON MAN on fire (#6).

Very disappointed about a war hit denying me double HotD for maximum Rio-Points, but things were looking very good now nonetheless. Cat Lady Barbie had gone for a double bottom-feed after his last real hit to solidify a large land-lead but would ultimately take too much time to build the land and up his defense with a lot of potential threats now in his range. Neophyte had converted and kept up rather well with Vegan Crypto Barbie who was also facing the issue of having to up his defense. 
Their Orc had fallen behind under the threat of suicides by Smokey the Bear/Sly (#5) and The Grande Jezalinho/Kenshiro (#1) and we were looking to double hit him all-in despite Ares Call, when I drunkenly overslept my spec drop hour. I was pretty mad at myself because I really didn't want to let Neophyte down after the huge amount of help he provided throughout the round. Luckily for me Vegan Crypto Barbie decided to start the action before my slip-up really mattered allowing me an easy hit on a converter WE, with Neophyte still getting the Orc when Ares dropped: 

:2021-04-24 08:12:18	Victorious on the battlefield, Vegan Crypto Barbie (#12) conquered 204 land from Dark Shadow (#19).
:2021-04-24 10:59:54	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 221 land from Wall Maria (#11).
:2021-04-24 12:00:08	Victorious on the battlefield, Ice (#4) conquered 258 land from Underboob Bikini Barbie (#12).

With a lot of people sending in the wake of those hits I got to follow it up with a hit on the FW converter in #6 12hrs later to put me in a great position: 
:2021-04-24 22:53:33	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 245 land from Twelve ANTgry MAN (#6).

=== Late Round ===

In a bit of a debatable decision #19 decided to declare war on us to take GM for their two large explorers, which we immediately answered with a declaration of our own for the additional offense, land gain and prestige bonuses. I was a bit worried about the threat of fireballs and upped my WPA to just below 1 while keeping up EM, but ops did not reveal any incoming towers or large stacks of mana. Their Icekin explorer was also not very far ahead on his defense and potentially hitable without blizzard, so we decided to try and snare him. All 5 people in range upped their SPA while I pushed as much offense as possible. We ended up taking barely enough wizard strength with the info we had granting me the biggest hit of the round:
:2021-04-27 15:06:17	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 406 land from Ice to meet you! (#19).

Due to the pressure that hit put on them Vegan Crypto Barbie decided that they could not just sit and went for a hit of their own, but got hit by The Thing/The People's Elbow (#15) on a big r/r:
:2021-04-27 21:00:15	Victorious on the battlefield, Vegan Crypto Barbie (#12) conquered 338 land from The Colour of Envy (#8).
:2021-04-28 01:18:56	Victorious on the battlefield, The People's Elbow (#15) conquered 399 land from Vegan Crypto Barbie (#12).

With how annoying the WE r/r potential is this was about as good as it gets for me, because it basically took out 2 threats at the same time. Mdk abandoned his dominion shortly after and The Thing messed up the rebuilding of his land to end up with rather low income despite his size and would not get into a threatening position anymore for the remainder of the round. 

Meanwhile I had to sit through some retaliatory fireballs from #19 and trained up to hit #8 sylvan a few days later: 
:2021-04-30 16:59:58	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 311 land from The Colour of Envy (#8).

We kept an eye on the other techers and only now realized that RVV/Pearl Smash (#18) had been growing at an incredible pace and (at least to us) kind of out of nowhere was the biggest threat. He managed to take advantage of being able to hit all the dead fast attackers for enormous prestige gains, while pushing 4/0 specs compared to my 3-pointers. 

Thanks to Craghack getting ops on all his fellow Merfolk explorers we had realized that Killron/Boromir (#13) had less defense than who I was looking to hit (Templeman/Aquaman #11) as well as being down a lot of peasants due to #14's fireballs. Once he spent a large amount of his plat to drop spies/wiz I took the opportunity to train up enough offense to hit:
:2021-05-02 00:57:02	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 374 land from Boromir (#13).

While I was mostly happy with my play up until this point the final days marked some of the worst decisions I have made playing this game. I attribute this in equal parts to the unexpected pressure put on by RVV and the lack of sleep trying to not miss any hours while as well as show up for work every day. 
Following the hit on the Boromir SP caught #19 getting my rev, so I decided to build some of the barren acres I had left over from the sylvan to FH. I planned to build some more acres anyway so I felt the additional lumber would help too, but in reality the 50 LY were a complete waste of resources and even the FH were questionable at best. I decided against rezoning any of the Merfolks acres, just building the good land types (homes, GT, farms) and to release around 3-4k draftees while building the acres. Releasing here was just awful and made the race a lot tighter than it had to be, because RVV's numbers were quickly getting out of hand and he found #8 Sylvan without Ares:
:2021-05-02 21:00:15	Victorious on the battlefield, Pearl Smash (#18) conquered 304 land from The Colour of Envy (#8).

Seeing that another 75% hit was very unlikely to happen under the threat of the WEs r/r'ing to 100% forests and since I had planned to BF on the Sylvan even before that hit I dropped guard and followed:
:2021-05-02 21:05:34	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 187 land from The Colour of Envy (#8).

At this point RVV and me engaged in pushing war, which ended up favoring him dude to smasher flexibility, 4/0 specs and the bigger dedication to push specs. We still felt I was comfortably ahead by just limiting his ability to send enough offense to find hits big enough to catch me until we realized Craghack had underestimated RVV's potential through pushing specs and mods. I can't really blame him as it was his first time playing near the top during the final days of a round. The real issue was that we had not shared advisors until now and we weren't aware that he cut it so close. He invested everything into walls and released his wiz/spies to try and defend RVV which left him open to assassination and snares the day after, when we really should have stopped him from releasing the spies: 
:2021-05-04 19:59:59	Victorious on the battlefield, Pearl Smash (#18) conquered 387 land from The swimming pool (#4).
:2021-05-05 14:59:48	Victorious on the battlefield, Pearl Smash (#18) conquered 319 land from The swimming pool (#4).

With the final hit putting RVV ahead of me I was forced to act and talked through all the options with Neophyte ultimately agreeing that the best course of action would be to just go for a super safe BF that put me ahead again and way out of range of a 100% r/r and getting hit by RVV:
:2021-05-05 15:54:57	Victorious on the battlefield, Pro Gloria et Patria (#4) conquered 134 land from Ranger Pete (#5).

With the timing of the attacks there was a 42.9% chance for attacks to be disabled by the time RVV's troops returned. I explored for the final hours of the round and was very relieved to see offensive actions being disabled an hour earlier than I needed them to. 

All in all I feel like I made it closer than it had to be in the end, but it was a super exciting finish and the final days were still great fun, despite being on the losing end of the pushing war :)

=== Shoutouts & Final Stats ===
* My pack mates Ed, Neophyte and Pasi for returning to play with me after abandoning round 21. Special thanks to Neophyte for all the ops/keeping track of the top when nobody else was in range and always being ready to talk through strategy/decisions!
* Craghack for the huge amount of ops help throughout the round. Sorry for letting you down in the end, but I'm sure you'll get that 6k finish to beat your brother in one of the upcoming rounds :)
* Jam Peons for finding targets and helping with ops early in the round as well as your help in snaring 
* InternetFett for his dedication to keep the game running and bug free - especially the discussion around the bug that occurred during mris' bounce made me realize how unenviable your position is sometimes. 
* You for reading this far and every player that puts their time into the game; it would be nothing without the competition.


:Status Screen - Pro Gloria et Patria (#4)
:Overview
:Ruler:	God-Emperor Friedrich Wilhelm I.
:Race:	Merfolk
:Land:	7,693 (100%)
:Networth:	1,545,775
:Peasants:	36,021
:Employment:	100.00%
:Prestige:	1,582
:Infamy:	0
:Spy Mastery:	41
:Wizard Mastery:	0
:Resources
:Platinum:	1,236,109
:Food:	123,418
:Lumber:	117,273
:Mana:	111,121
:Ore:	0
:Gems:	147,600
:Research Points:	2,348
:Boats:	0
:Spy Resilience:	0
:Wizard Resilience:	0
:Military
:Morale:	100%
:Draftees:	3,406
:Merman:	42,570
:Siren:	7,483
:Leviathan:	56,311
:Kraken:	58,674
:Spies:	1,569
:Wizards:	0
:Archmages:	1,000

:Improvements
:Part	Rating	Invested
:Science 	+5.65% platinum production	8,347,746
:Keep 	+19.90% max population	25,116,120
:Towers 	+0.00% wizard power, mana production, spell damage reduction	0
:Forges 	+9.98% offensive power	18,945,534
:Walls 	+10.18% defensive power	19,386,516
:Harbor 	+2.06% food production, +4.12% boat production & protection	1,127,942

:Constructed BuildingsBarren Land: 859 (11.17%)
:Building Type	Constructed	With incoming
:Home	2,364	(30.73%)	2,373	(30.85%)
:Alchemy	200	(2.60%)	200	(2.60%)
:Farm	396	(5.15%)	396	(5.15%)
:Smithy	785	(10.20%)	785	(10.20%)
:Masonry	529	(6.88%)	529	(6.88%)
:Ore Mine	0	(0.00%)	0	(0.00%)
:Gryphon Nest	570	(7.41%)	570	(7.41%)
:Tower	260	(3.38%)	260	(3.38%)
:Wizard Guild	0	(0.00%)	0	(0.00%)
:Temple	111	(1.44%)	111	(1.44%)
:Diamond Mine	781	(10.15%)	781	(10.15%)
:School	0	(0.00%)	0	(0.00%)
:Lumberyard	150	(1.95%)	150	(1.95%)
:Forest Haven	150	(1.95%)	150	(1.95%)
:Factory	0	(0.00%)	0	(0.00%)
:Guard Tower	529	(6.88%)	529	(6.88%)
:Shrine	0	(0.00%)	0	(0.00%)
:Barracks	0	(0.00%)	0	(0.00%)
:Dock	0	(0.00%)	0	(0.00%)
:Total	6,825	(88.72%)	6,834	(88.83%)

:Technological Advancements
:Tech	Description
:Granaries	+2.5% food production
:Planar Emissaries	+7.5% mana production
:Green Thumb	+5% lumber production
:Aquaponics	+7.5% food production, -10% enemy fireball damage
:Midas's Bargain	+2.5% platinum production
:Banker's Friend	+15% better exchange rates
:Sleeper Agents	+1% maximum population, -7.5% spy losses on failed operations
:Explorer's Instinct	-2.5% construction platinum cost, -2.5% exploring platinum cost
:Ancient Mines	+2.5% gem production
:Master of Efficiency	-1.75% military training cost
:Weather Manipulation	-12.5% enemy lightning bolt damage, +2.5% food production
:Lumberjack's Devotion	-10% construction lumber cost, -20% lumber rot
:Master of Resources	-1.75% military training cost
:Avatar of Ares	+2.5% offensive power, +7.5% wizard power
:Master of Discipline	-1.75% military training cost
:Ross' Benevolence	-1% platinum tax from Royal Guard
:Urban Planner	+1.5% maximum population
:Jeweller's Delight	+2.5% gem production, -5% cost of self spells
:WaveHack's Expertise	-5% construction platinum cost, -5% construction lumber cost, +3 boat capacity
:Surveyor's Sense	-12.5% rezoning platinum cost
:Visionary Expansionist	+1% maximum population, +15% population growth
:Survivalist Mentality	+5% fewer casualties, +7.5% increased prestige gains
:Reinforced Bulwarks	+30% bonus to harbor investment, +30% bonus to towers investment
:Spy Network	+1 spy strength per hour
:Field Surgery	+7.5% fewer casualties, +0.75% maximum population
:Ares' Favor	+2.5% offensive power
:Rations	+2 population from barren land, -2.5% food consumption
:Tributary System	+60% food production from prestige
:Public Baths	+30% population growth
:Centralized Intelligence	-15% cost of spies, -5% cost of wizards
:Ancestral Knowledge	-25% cost of racial spells
:Military Culture	+5% increased prestige gains
:Surveyor's Insight	-7.5% rezoning platinum cost
:Battle Tactics	+5% fewer casualties
:Total Unlocked	34

== Rounds ==

{{Round_nav
 | round = 23
 | previous_round = 22
 | next_round = 24
}}