Extensive Breeding

The other day sadi exchanged 170 mounts for the scrolls. However, today eni, sram, and cra had to thin their flocks — they grew too big and couldn’t be placed in the sheds. What amuses me the most is that we don’t have enough time for breeding or just anything: instead of everyday check all five breeders visit paddocks only once in two-three days.

Sales go slow as neither breeders nor sadi have enough time to watch the markets. This is the main reason almost 95% of rejected birds are exchanged for scrolls — they are easier to store and do not require any attention once placed into a chest. Cra tries to sell these scrolls, but she is too busy with other tasks.

On the other hand such unexpectedly fast breeding yields good results: total number of chameleons and their quality has increased. Sadi is almost ready to start accepting pre-orders for certain breeds. These are not popular emerald and plum stripes breeds, but it’s a beginning. As far as I know at the moment the only chameleon dragoturkeys that can be offered for pre-order are golden and ebony, ebony and orchid, indigo and orchid, and ivory. Four not so popular colours, but the result is guaranteed. I think sadi will start with the minimum of 1 month waiting period as the probability of passing the capacity from parents to chickens is about 10% therefore several matings may be needed to obtain the desired dragoturkey. It doesn’t sound optimistic, I know, but in fact it’s a huge progress. More breeds should be added soon as all of our breeders work hard on purifying lines and multiplying chameleons.

And another good thing: they finally showed me a bird designated for me. It’s a nice, calm dragoturkey, and, of course, it changes colours to match my garments. So pretty!

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

The fourth Goultarminator challenge for teams’ supporters was a treechnid hunt. I genuinely  dislike treechnids, and not without a reason: Nechto was in need of Ancestral set, so we hunted them, Petrovna was in need of Ancestral set, so we hunted them, Kanni was in need of Ancestral set, so we hunted them, Viisas was in need of Ancestral set, so we hunted them. My guildmates, friends, all at some point were in need of Ancestral sets, so we had to go and hunt treechnids again and again… Even old lady was sick of them and suggested to buy two Ancestral sets for pandawa and xelor.

The Goultarminator challenge seemed like a nightmare: hunting treechnids once again. I thought cra would refuse to participate, even she was intended to support our teams. To my surprise she decided to go to the Treechnid dungeon.

“We will kill four birds with one stone” — was her explanation. “First of all, we’ll help our teams, secondly, we’ll get materials for the Ancestral sets, thirdly, we’ll get the Ancestral Treechnid souls someone has promised to bring to Otomai,” — she glanced meaningfully at our younger friends, — “and the last but not the least we’ll show Ki…”

“Ha-ha-ha” — enu said. “Now we all know what’s it all about. You just can’t allow Ki to look better than you. Ok, let’s visit our old woody friends.”

That’s how I found myself in a company with treechnids… However, it wasn’t as bad as it used to be: no transformations, no maze, more, but fast to kill, treechnids, better drops, etc. In fact it felt almost as a beach walk. Still sram managed to shirk one of the dungeon runs. Moreover she was impertinent enough to demand rescue and blame us for “the unfortunate concurrence of circumstances that prevented her from helping Rosal teams”. Well, she didn’t have much time to talk — cra wanted to be done with the trees as soon as possible.

As a result of participation in this event we got enough materials to craft two Ancestral sets. That was really nice, especially considering that we didn’t have to hunt treechnids outside the dungeon as it used to be.

The last thing that should be decided about the panda and xelor’s equipment is the choice of weapon. Xelor is going to opt for the Axel, as it will increase her abilities to restrain the enemies. And panda, probably, will go for the axe. Axes are the favourite weapon of pandas, and they even have inherited predisposition to axes, so they can use them more effectively than others.

Goultarminator: Counting Chickens

It’s said don’t count your chickens before they are hatched. Well, the chickens has been hatched. Rosal lost and lost badly, both in fighting and realm challenges.

Results of the challenges:

• Challenge 2 (Resources Protectors abolishment): 11th place
• Challenge 3 (Fighting Dopples): 42d place
• Challenge 4 (Treechnids hunt): 15th place

Results of the fights:

• Rosal B and C didn’t pass the selection stage
• Rosal A was out in the second round of the tournament.

As it is now Rosal teams are on the 41st (Rosal A), 65th (Rosal B), 73d (Rosal C) places (out of 137). Rosal as a realm is on the 20th place (out of 50).

What Was Done?

The teams were put together without considering the team members opinion. Some of the main fighters got to know the composition of their team only one day prior to the start of the selection stage. I read that it had been done this way because the person in charge of teams composition was kind of strategical genius. But is it a really brilliant idea to place in one team people who has never talked to each other prior to the tournament? Teamwork is essential for the win in team competitions and disregarding this factor is the major mistake.

Another problem with the teams composition, addressed by some of the Rosal fighters I talked to, was the asymmetry of the teams. While one of them had very high tactical potential (Rosal B), the others were significantly weaker.

All of the Rosal representatives I met (except one, who was not willing to answer my questions) mentioned that there was no team training. Ralfeh said he was trying to find a team to train, but he wasn’t dedicated enough. Others were more elusive and excused themselves: they said it was too hard to gather together outside the tournament arena.

The Rosal population inactivity and low support for the teams also dragged the realm down. But was it only the people’s fault? There was no promo campaign, the information support was bad, too. For example, the results of the realm performance in the challenges were not announced officially, moreover the announcements about the current tasks were made too late.

However, probably, the biggest problem this year was the decision to win by any means. As a result potentially the strongest of Rosal teams, Rosal B, didn’t make it through the selection stage. Of course, now they try to come up with the conspiracy theories and blame others for their own ill-conceived behaviour, but it won’t help us this year and next year, probably, too.

What Can Be Done?

Last year Rykke-Errel was very close to the bottom of the tournament ranking. This year they are at the top, both in population support and fights. They may not be able to get the first place, but the changes in their performance are tremendous. Can we do the same?

I believe that the most important thing that should be done in order to win next year is the change of the attitude. Goultarminator is not an event for the most skilled warriors, it is an event for the entire realm, and it is crucial to make everyone understand it. The results of the challenges suggest that Rosal got more or less decent results in the second and forth challenges thanks to a small group of highly dedicated persons — the number of fights with dopples is limited to 1 per day per dopple, so it was not possible for this group to accomplish something. What we need is a realm-wide promotional campaign, and we need to start it now. People should feel they can really help, they are involved in the tournament even if they are not among the fighters.

Another change of attitude should be related to the understanding of the teams. The Rosal team this year consisted of 24 people — 12 main fighters and 12 substitutes — not 4 or 8. The interests, limitations, and strengths of all 24 should be considered, probably, with the stronger accent to the main fighters.

Training is the problem that can be solved. We have one year till the next year — that’s a lot of time. But training is not easy to organise, perhaps, it would be better if big guilds organise a series of tournaments with the prizes, ranking, informational support, and so on, i.e. mini goultarminators. This way people will know better about the fighters, and the fighters will have a chance to polish their battle skills.

A lot more can be done. But can we do it? Can we work together instead of “each man for himself”? Can we put the interests of the realm above personal interests? We will see it next year.

Goultarminator: Change of Role?

Rosal A lost to Brumaire B. It wasn’t unexpected, Brumaire team had very high tactical potential and could heal better than Rosal team. However, what was unexpected is Rosal’s tactics. Honestly, I do not understand what they tried to accomplish, especially Bluczes. It looked like he was ready for defeat and just tried to have some fun, namely to try the new role of Rekop ecaflip. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as lucky as the eca from Kuri A team, who killed Odie. Well, Bluszes managed to deliver some heavy blows to Brumaire’s enutrof, but it wasn’t enough to win.

With this defeat Rosal quits the tournament. Shika lost as well. The situation with Rushu is not clear: the official papers state they lost, and according to Ralfeh their adversaries were disqualified. Anyway, this year Rosal and close to it realms (Zatoishwan, Rushu, Solar, Shika) have shown worse results than on Goultarminator I. Although we can console ourselves with the thought that the last year winner, Jiva, was defeated today, too.

UPDATE: Rushu left the tournament. Raval team was not disqualified and fought today. This means that this year all our realms have performed worse than the last year. Something to think about…

Goultarminator: Free Mistakes and Bad Luck

Normally one has to pay for the mistakes, but in today’s fight Bluczes has managed to avoid the bill. He tried to attack enemies’ sacrier with the sword, but sacrieuse used evasion and dodged the blow. Perhaps Bluczes was too surprised, but he continued to hit the air left in place of fled sacrieuse. Although this mistake didn’t help Nehra to win.

It can be that the unlucky roulette casted by Justitia, a Nehra’s ecaflip, helped Rosal to win: Nehra’s team were totally unable to move and fight for some time. Of course, Rosal couldn’t miss this opportunity to inflict as much damage as possible.

Besides these two episodes the fight was pretty much standard: pandawasta, barrel, cracklers, prespic, ultra-powerful, inflatables, magic, and some high quality close combat.

The next match is scheduled for tomorrow, 25th Fraugtor, 20:20. Rosal A will fight Brumaire B (Enutrof, Sram, Xelor, Eniripsa). Brumaire B has won all the fights except the fight with Jiva C, which ended in a draw. The up-coming fight with Rosal A promises to be very interesting. I wonder what strategy each team will use.

Goultarminator: The Real Competition Has Started

Only 64 teams out of 150 made it through the selection stage. Only one Rosal team, Rosal A, is among those 64.

Can Rosal A win the tournament? No matter how I like that team I wouldn’t bet on it. Especially, when the population of the realm doesn’t really support the team and almost ignores the tournament: out of approximately 150’000 officially counted inhabitants of Rosal only 666 have participated in the Test of Popularity. Well, to be objective I have to mention that in Shika realm, known for high dedication and support of its team by the general population, only 429 voices were counted. However, the registered population of Shika is about 75’000 (twice smaller than Rosal population). Jiva, the oldest realm, has about 200’000 registered citizens, and 1786 of them have voted to choose their representatives. It looks like the tournament is not as popular as it is supposed to be. Or people don’t want to vote for some unknown reason.

Rosal A will fight Nehra B on 24th Fraugtor at 19:30. The outcome of the match decides who will stay or who will leave the tournament.

No Comment

Odie talked to me two days before. He said:

I would never endanger the rosal team, I am very happy and confident with our team and feel we’ll go far with all four members of it, all of which bring much to the tactics, style of play and ability of the team.

Goultarminator: Shame

Rosal B lost against Hel Munster C by default. Odie and Pandurex had cheated.

This announcement was made during the fight:

[19:45] [Thabor]: -Ros-OdieGoodDog and -Ros-Pandurex are the same player. It’s strictly forbidden. Hel Munster C wins bt default, versus Rosal B. 45 points. Congratulations, Hel Munster.

Of course, some people try to dispute the tournament administration decision. But I’m sure they won’t have any luck with it, as administration has all the means to prove that Odie has cheated.

Well, what’s done is done. I wonder what will happen now: will they be disqualified or not?

Goultarminator: Rosal A vs Raval C

Perfect strategy, good teamwork, and all of this while three of four members of the Raval team were substitutes. I wonder how strong is their main team.

Afterthoughts

In his book “Dragoturkey: How to Breed your Mount” Oshar Marif writes:

They [dragoturkeys] usually aren’t very bright. But beware! They’re not as stupid as Iop! [emphasis is mine] They can live in groups, help and protect each other. And they can even think before acting which makes them more intelligent than most modern-day adventurers.

In the N’s Memoirs we can find these words:

The Gods exist, I am in their kingdom: the World of the Twelve gods! They have many disciples – not always all that clever though. Brutes with swords that call themselves Iops. [emphasis is mine] The long-haired ones, the Sadidas. The dwarves whose eyes light up when they see gold, the Enutrofs.

I used to doubt the objectiveness of these and alike words. After all Ki is far from stupid, in fact, he is a kind of genius (hidden, though). And cra’s second husband, even being an iop, was quite promising. Of course, he wasn’t smart enough to keep her from divorce, but he was no idiot. Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of all other iops I’ve ever known fit all the descriptions just perfect. Moreover some of them not only lack intelligence but also think that others have the same deficiency.

The other day one iop unhappy with my personal diary and opinions expressed in it approached me. He is one of those brutes who have no idea about basic politeness and start directly with expressions of their unhappiness. It’s not like I totally can’t stand this style of communication. In fact, it has its own charm: you never feel being caught in the morass of words. Well, back to our iops.

He is not a complete idiot, really. He dodged all inconvenient questions I managed to ask, and he prevented me from asking some more questions switching the topic to the paddocks issue he had had with cra. Every cloud has a silver lining, people say. And true, the iop brought his apologies for being rude and not precise in the story with paddocks. But he had learned nothing.

I tried really hard to persuade myself to believe the tale I was told by iop. But I failed. Not all said was untrue, I believe many things were absolute truth. However, he was extremely elusive. And yes, he lied into my face. And did it poorly. No imagination at all. Why people can’t be more creative?