Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

Heh. Then there's Vision's Foe... I wonder whether this is an artifact, or very powerful item, or whatnot. In the right hands (Firbolg, with Eye of Aiming, Boots of Speed...) sounds like a Cyclop's nightmare.

The Eye Shield requires that the Cyclops hit the shield carrier. The arbalest only needs to get in range. Get him an air-shield item, I guess, in addition to the regeneration, and avoid those lizard shamans or anybody else with Curse/Doom.

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

I was able to make a few Vision's Foe in the demo so it's not an artifact; though I can't remember offhand the exact sphere(s) you needed in order to create it. Probably Air/Earth.

It and the other crossbows with a high precision works almost too well with attack orders of "large monster" to waste those precious Ice Devils and Behemoths.

I don't know if it's too well for the cost or not; since my only MP experiance with it are on my end using it against others.

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

Can't a blinded Cyclops replace his lost eye with a "Vision" artifact ? Then you've got a kind'o Terminator-Cyclops.. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It worked well. He got 350 kills and 300 experience by turn 40, and only started attacking on turn 10. Half the kills were tramples / melee, and half were blade winds. Maybe Cyclops is OK after all! =) He never got any wounds. Oh, I gave him Air for air shield, mirror image, and mistform.

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It worked well. He got 350 kills and 300 experience by turn 40, and only started attacking on turn 10. Half the kills were tramples / melee, and half were blade winds. Maybe Cyclops is OK after all! =) He never got any wounds. Oh, I gave him Air for air shield, mirror image, and mistform. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Nice! Was that a Cyclops with Earth9 Air4 and Nature2? What nation and what scales?

I assume you rushed to construction 4... then spent a turn making his kit.

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

Well, I played kind of sillilly. I went Machaka because they have virtually every path, and put Earth 6 Air 4 Nature 4 on my cyclops. And first I researched Alteration and Enchantment for personal regeneration, air shield, mirror image, and stoneskin (which I later found is not useful). I gave him a Black Iron Shield, Black Iron Plate, Thorn Spear, Boots of Behemoth, Burning Pearl, and Cat Charm.

Then, with my cyclops running around, I researched construction and eventually (by turn 20 or so) gave him a Shield of Valor (for Air Shield), Ring of Regeneration, Pendant of Luck, Battle Shroud (5 prot, no encumbrance, and I wrongly thught it would make him blessed - also, I had no astral-2 mages for robe of shadows), Horror Helm, and he kept the boots and spear.

With this combo, he started with regeneration, protection 30, air shield, luck, and had a length-4 poisonous weapon. So in battle he cast Mirror Image and Mistform and then just ran around trampling things=) The only time he ever got hurt was from a hydra poison cloud or bite (and only survived by casting heal on himself a lot - the poison did about 15 damage per turn), but he could wade through scores of knights, heavy cavs, heavy infantry, longbows, and take out 150+ size javelin-tossing LI/MI armies with no problem. Even when he passed out from fatigue, nothing could hurt him.

Eventually, I got Summon Earthpower (good for reinvigoration) and Blade Wind, and Strength of Gaia (reduces encumbrance, I think, and also increases HP regeneration speed - maybe). So, once I got blade wind he was already 4-star with 200+ kills, but it was still fun to watch him annihilate armies much faster. And if they got too close, he cast shock wave and everything near him just vaporized=) With Eagle Eyes his precision went to 20 so blade wind was awesome at long range, but at close range, it only lands on a single square (there should be a minimum spread for spells).

If I had it to do over, I'd give him a robe of shadows, and give him fire instead of nature or air, to get Fire Shield. Not that he needed any improvements... the main problems were fatigue and elemental/poison resistances, but against AI weaknessess aren't as critical. It was quite funny to watch him pass out from fatigue, and have that never be any sort of problem... except he had to pause in his slaughter until he dropped to 99 or 98 fatigue again=)

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

It's surprising how well any mage that can cast blade wind several times with good accuracy does against indys. Put them in back and cast it. You can rack up 200 kills really really easy with such a pretender. In fact if indys are high enough you could probably get 200 after 5 fights. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">This is the only thing what I HATE in Dominions. The UBER supercombattants. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

Mythologically speaking, a gigantic Cyclops is supposed to be that effective. You have to have a hero, a god, or an item of great magical power to destroy them (in mythology).

In competitive MP play, my plan would have been pretty bad since I didn't start expanding until turn 10, all my money went to mages rather than armies, and I didn't do any site-searching until late. Furthermore, the Cyclops would've been toasted by Smite, Paralyze, Blind, Black Bows of Beotulf, Spring Hawks, any Lightning spell, or any number of other magical attacks.

As it was, I still had a pretty hard time because I could destroy any enemy army, but there were more enemy armies than I had Cyclopses... and Machaka defense is WORTHLESS. That's another thing - I think Machaka defense should either get more militia, or warriors instead of militia, or militia and archers. A big group of naked Machaka militia is just free experience=)

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

I also thought the Mach militia to be pretty worthless, until I saw them reliably disease virtually every enemy heavy hitter they attacked. Of course, they have to live/'not route' long enough to make a couple of attacks, but it can be real nice when they do. The province will be lost but it can be real easy to retake in a few turns and a further enemy offensive can be severely hindered.