Re: Pretender, awake, dormant or imprisoned?
 

I prefer Dormant as well... Imprisoned isn't worth the extra points unless you have some special bless strategy planned.

Re: Pretender, awake, dormant or imprisoned?
 

Or if you play long huge games where there is no real rush to get your pretenders. Or you play heavy bless strategy (W9E9N4 pretender for EA Agartha, for example). Or you make pretender who will be all scales and support (research, summoning, forging) and those 100 points mean extra 2 scales and magic level or two.

Re: Pretender, awake, dormant or imprisoned?
 

I play like a turtle, and I prefer imprisoned.

For my R'Lyeh Kraken I can put 6 in air and 5 in water and +3 on luck and magic.

In my extensive experience of 2 games it works pretty well.

Re: Pretender, awake, dormant or imprisoned?
 

(From my impressions from the demo)
Awake is obviously for SC pretenders, or pretenders that are essential early on (Such as what I've been told about LE Ermor).
Dormant is for anything that isn't vital in the very first turns, this probably means you could dormant a rainbow mage, or a mage based SC, it could also be used for balanced pretenders like in Dom2.
Imprisoned is imo mainly for blesses and squizing a bit of extra scales (if those +100 points make the difference between no magic scale and magic-3, you will probably have better research with the scales over those 20 turns than the pretender itself will net you, for example). I think it would work really well with bless pretenders, because by the time the pretender escapes, you will have researched all the way to the sophisticated spells that could use 9 in a single path.

So far in the demo I'm having a lot of fun with Imprisoned pretender with high blesses and great scales and relying mostly on my nationals.

Re: Pretender, awake, dormant or imprisoned?
 

You'd be surprised. The exta boost to resources and income help you crank out troops at a high rate. Combine that with a decent blessing, and you can be on the attack with an elite army by turn 4. Simply head straight for the enemy capital http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

It does depend on the nation though. EA Ulm have great troops already. Combine it with a good blessing strategy and you've got a force that's difficult to overcome so early into the game.

Re: Pretender, awake, dormant or imprisoned?
 

What's an "SC" pretender?

Re: Pretender, awake, dormant or imprisoned?
 

Super combatant, designed to conquer provinces on his own.

Re: Pretender, awake, dormant or imprisoned?
 

Supercombatant pretender. It means, that your pretender is capable to fight in the battles, without the great risk, that he will die. Of course it doesnt mean that he is invulnerable, however SC pretenders always have huge HP, decent attack and defense, protection etc. Also he only counts as an SC, if he is equipped properly. This also doesn't mean that you can attack 200 heavy troops / mage / priest armies with 1 SC pretender, because he can die easily. You must use him to either conquer weak provinces with his bodyguards, or just use him in your main army. That way, there is only a small risk that he will die, and he will kick some *** on the battlefield. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Pretender, awake, dormant or imprisoned?
 

Super-combatant. Refers to a powerful commander designed for crunching through mundane troops with ease, usually through one or more of

* a very strong base unit type
* good equipment (usually including one or more of luck, antimagic, ethereal, reinvigoration, life draining, regeneration, quickness, high damage, high prot, high def)
* buffing magic (ex. casting spells to increase luck, speed, et al before joining the fray)

ex. Son of Niefel is already a formidable giant; given good equipment he's even more brutal. OTOH, a Crone is normally not slaying masses in melee combat.

Re: Pretender, awake, dormant or imprisoned?
 

Oh okay, I've used my Kraken like that. I need that "amulet of the fish" to really see how he does against a serious army on land, but so far he's eating tritons like popcorn.