Dec-7 2017 (16 squares):

Jan-26 2018 (17 squares):

Yup, was just showing what things looked like in Dec '17 and Jan '18.

Sept-12, Sept-14, Sept-17, Sept-19, Sept-23

If ever a new episode of HoC beating is coming, just a reminder about the use of  FT visits:

 Or you could just go to this site .  

Whats the plan this time?

I'm pretty sure that is the typical message returned when your party reaches the corrupted temple.

Orcs need to get in on this too!

This dwarf will swap other race tentacles at 1:1

Is it safe to assume that all of those that are in the armies lead by General Swift and Major Ruinous are infantry/sword units?  Similar to those corrupted beasts that return from the temples?  

How best to prepare for this battle?

And when I fail... do those tentacle squares surrounding the cities ever go away?  Do you lose all ability to sov those squares?  Am I looking at relocation as my only alternative to move from those new corrupted squares?

All speculation, new found interest, and rekindled veteran wisdom appreciated... 

I have sent all kinds of things to the temples, like - one of each elemental salt, clay, gold, differant minerals, spies, thieves and more but always the same result. Nill.

I have been tempted to send 2999 Flektrine and 1 desert flame to the centre of the heart.

Something to remember is the distinction between different parts of the heart ie; the right and left tendrils, maybe sending something there may do something? maybe tentacles? or Elemental salts?

 

   I was having a conversation with Lady Amber as she was going over her incoming reports from the battles with the corrupted forces returning to her cities, and she noticed something that we are looking further into, but it may offer a clue. 

   What she noticed was that from some of her cities, the defending troops were being killed in large numbers with very few tentacles to retrieve, while from other cities defending troops were being largely left alive with a larger quantity of tentacles dropped.

   We started going over her numbers and the cities that they were assigned from originally and noticed what may or may not be a correlation. 

   Lady Amber largely sieges her cities, and the we started noticing a trend between what cities had been originally of one race, vs of another race, but results were staggered. with the exception of originally Dwarven cities which across the board (for her cities) were remaining largely left alive by the corrupted forces, with more tentacles being dropped for them as well. 

   So we started hypothesizing about the idea that Dwarven cities (those that share an affinity for Duraz Karag which is mentioned all over the place in relation to the HOC mystery) fare better than those aligned with other races, except under certain circumstances, which led us to a secondary hypothesis that the temples may be racially aligned, each for one of the three remaining races, and if you send troops from a, say for example, Elven city or a city that was originally created by an Elf, to the proper Temple that you will suffer fewer losses, and gain more drops. But it does seem to tie with the cities ORIGINAL owners race. 

I spoke to Valaera about this and she has created a google spreadsheet to track players sends to the different temples and record the drops and defending troop losses to see if there is indeed a correlation. The spreadsheet is editable by anyone, so I am going to put the link here so if you want to be part of this project/test you can be, and maybe we can get another answer. Not quite sure what that answer means yet, but it is possibly a small step forward we didn't have before. 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11K4J8Su4rd6OHwgJ0MC-XUpMJQY_Oq8tgQe6wppOQT4/edit?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11K4J8Su4rd6OHwgJ0MC-XUpMJQY_Oq8tgQe6wppOQT4/edit?usp=sharing

That is the link to the spreadsheet for this project. Feel free to join in. 

Kristaal

Speculations:

(1) Tentacles won't escape when at least one player successfully retains them within their city.  They only escape when all players fail to advance beyond this stage.  While the tentacles escaping are a sure sign of failure you also have to take the lack of action as failure as well.  I think this was added in by the DEVS later due to the 100% failure rate and it is a sign that someone(s) have progressed beyond this point.

(2) Swift and ruinous only comes to those who successfully retain tentacles.  Did those reaching this stage succeed?  I don't have that information and if someone has they haven't shared it with the community.

(3) Words matter.  Read those messages closely from the Old Crone.  As we continue to speculate it would be beneficial if you could quote directly from the Old Crone notes.  I think we are wandering too far off what is "obvious" from the text we are given.

If anybody cares about visiting Fortune Tellers daily changing encampments, here is an improvement on my awk routine:

BEGIN { FS ="|" ; region[1] = "Fremorn" ; region[2]="Kal Tirikan" ; region[3]="Wolgast" ; region[4]="Ursor" ; region[5]="Qarosslan" ; region[6]="Windlost" ; region[7]="Tamarin" ; region[8]="Fremorn" ; region[9]="Norweld" ; region[10]="Laoshin" ; region[11]="Ragallon" ; region[12]="Taomist" ; region[13]="Meilla" ; region[14]="Lucerna" ; region[15]="Middle Kingdom" ; region[16]="Mal Motsha" ; region[17]="Keppen" ; region[18]="Tor Carrock" ; region[19]="The Western Realms" ; region[20]="Keshalia" ; region[21]="Perrigor" ; region[22]="Kul Tar" ; region[23]="Kumala" ; region[24]="Lan Larosh" ; region[25]="Arran" ; region[26]="Turalia" ; region[27]="Zanpur" ; region[28]="Elijal" ; region[29]="Azura" ; region[30]="Keshalia" ; region[31]="OCEAN" ; region[32]="Tallimar" ; region[33]="Larn" ; region[34]="Kem" ; region[35]="Farra Isle" ; region[36]="Trome" ; region[37]="Kumala" ; region[38]="Stormstone Island" ; region[39]="Huronire" ; region[40]="Calumnex" ; region[41]="Puchuallpa" ; region[42]="Pamanyallpa" ; region[43]="Pamanyallpa" ; region[44]="Huronire" ; region[45]="Clarien" ; region[46]="Pawanallpa" ; region[47]="Chulbran" ; region[48]="The Poisoned Isle" ; region[49]="Glanhad" ; region[50]="Northmarch" ; region[51]="High Hills" ; region[52]="Huronire" ; region[53]="Oarnamly" ; region[54]="Oarnamly" ; region[55]="Kingslands" ; region[56]="Gremont" ; region[57]="Coanhara" ; region[58]="Lapo'a Lua" ; region[59]="Newlands" ; region[60]="Fellandire" ; region[61]="Aindara" ; region[62]="The Pirate Isles" ; region[63]="Silbeaur" ; region[64]="Fellandire" ; region[65]="Coanhara" ; region[66]="Vindorel" ; region[67]="Almenly" ; region[68]="Kormandly" ; region[69]="The Orken Coast" ; region[70]="Kingslands" ; region[71]="Farshards" ; region[72]="Shardlands" ; region[73]="Strendur" ; region[74]="Kumala" ; region[75]="Jurgor" ; region[76]="The Long White" ; region[77]="Jurgor" }
$9 == "157" { printf("%s\t%d\t%d",region[$11*1],$2,$3) ; print ""; }
END {  }

It returns a tab separated table of the eight encampments formatted as:

region name, X coord, Y coord

Easy to copy/paste into your fav spreadsheet, and see if any encampment can be visited in due time!