Re: Sacrifice before battle - what's the point?

From: Bryan Thexton <bethexton_at_...>
Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2002 13:50:10 -0700 (PDT)


In your analysis you forgot the option of you sacrice, and the opponent maneouvres, or skirmishes, or tries to evade.

Personally I usually sacrifice before battle, but it isn't random.

See, my young clans always quickly go after Odayla's Sureshot blessing and Orlanth's Thunderstone blessing. I also maximise my hunters (and I usually choose one of the two larger tula options).

With those choices made I'm generally the best skirmisher in the battle. Further, I know I won't win every battle, but I aim to win the war of attrition so I want to cause more deaths than I take. Therefore I then choose "kill as many as possible" and "skirmish." So my skirmishers will take a nasty toll before the opponent closes with me, and if we win we'll kill more as they flee.

BUT, what if they charge hard at me? I often have no blessings active in the early game that will help in close combat (although having two points of war magic does help). That is where sacrificing to Humakt helps. I probably already have the advantage in the early part of the battle, and the sacrifice to Humakt helps my clan put up a good fight in the melee. Also, I seem to recall that when you sacrifice to Humakt it reduces the ability of the other side's auxilaries to heal their warriors, which will result in more deaths.

My chosen whipping boys are usually quite weak after ten years or so, and the troll and horse nomad attacks seem to be mostly with smaller numbers too.

Of course, this doesn't help much with plundering a foe, but in the early game I seldom attack with any expectations of plundering (unless I just mauled an attack and can counter attack that same season before they've healed up).

I think part of the reason that this works is that charging a skirmishing foe tends to be a poor tactical choice (he just falls back and keeps throwing pointy objects at you), and I think the game reflects that.

Also, almost never do they catch us while we are still sacrificing (unlike if you sacrifice to both--I tried that and was frequently caught out. Usually you should just choose one or the other I think).

--Bryan


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