Re: Any Good Non-Bless Strategy Nations
 

Hello, Sokar. Welcome here.

Personnaly, I never play a bless strategy, and my Pretender is often a rainbow mage. Usually, I find the sacred troops too much expensive in money and ressources.
So, I garantee you that you could have fun without this kind of strat !!!

For now, I'm play Abysia with a rainbow mage as Pretender, and lot of basic troops (wich are all very good for Abysia, but expensive too ... Some kind of contradictions with my firsts sayings ??? ;o) supported by fire mages. Then, in late mid-game, I turn usually to blood magic (invocations, never battle blood magic : blood slaves aren't fireproff ;o) to finish the IA.

It is really fun and viable as a whole strategy.

[Note : I only play solo, not MP game. So, I don't know if it could stand against a veteran MP gamer]

Re: Any Good Non-Bless Strategy Nations
 

Add up (only MA SP):

- MA Ulm with a rainbow pretender. This was already mentioned but it's worth repeating. It may be one of the weakest nations around, but it's pretty easy to figure a general strategy for it. And even being one of the weakest you'll mop the floor with the AI's armies http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

- MA Rlyeh. No sacred troops besides the starspawn priests and the void summons (which you cannot count on, because void summoning is iffy). But it is a very powerful nation, magically speaking. And you start underwater, which gives you some leeway for mistakes/learning/turtling. And you have assassins. And you can set up communions easily. And a Visitor with whatever Vastnesses you can gather positively rocks. And you can clam-hoard. And lots more.

- MA Tien Chi. It has the (big) problem of its best mages being vulnerable to magic duel - and since they are expensive you come out losing. But you have nice troops including crossbows and good cavalry, consorts to disrupt an enemy's economy to a crawl and a wide magical flexibility.

- MA Man. Massive armies of longbows backed up by wind guide and mage artillery. Stealth armies of wardens backed up by Call of the wild. Massive seeking arrows to kill enemy leaders. Bards to disrupt the enemy's economy. The very useful Man's songs that mitigate somewhat their weak priests. Stealth monks to preach in enemy territory. Elite cavalry in the knights of Avalon.

Best regards,

Re: Any Good Non-Bless Strategy Nations
 

EA yomi can be played very very well sans bless strat. (especially since most of their sacred troops are summons.)

like nifelhiem they have a purchasable SC chassis, so you can play to the benefit of that over the benefit of sacred troops.

Large map, more players
 

If there are many more opponents (AI or not) and much more space, a bless strategy will likely become less optimal as the game will last long for (a) capital-only sacred units to become a smaller part of your military, and (b) nasty scales like death/misfortune to take effect (while growth and fortune players start accumulating pop and free gems, heroes, et al).

Anything with only slow capital-only sacreds is a particular case of this -- ex. LA Man Rangers are not a particularly great pick in a large map; even though they're stealthy, they're resource-intensive, capital-only, and worst, they're map-move 1, and the Wardens can't bless them unless you make one a prophet. OTOH, your broad selection of well-equipped troops and the fairly wide variety of magic you get (perhaps lessening the need for a rainbow pretender) suggests a scalemonster.

LA Jomon also comes to mind; you have a pretty good selection of skilled, well-equipped troops, and you can go pretty far with a mix of archers, naginatas, cavalry, and some Death summons.

TC... Celestial Soldiers *are* good (I've used them more than I've used the sacred fliers... because I also tend to mass archers whenever possible, and that significantly increases the mortality rate among any fliers), but a scalemonster build seems viable enough if you want to crank out the Imperials.

But there are some nations that seem basically built for bless; so far, I haven't really worked out a good non-bless build for Mictlan. That's a bit of a pity from my perspective as I dislike using ugly scales with living empires for thematic reasons (namely, I -like- prosperity and growth, after I crush the last breath out of all enemies, so I abhor the Order/Misfortune combo and the Death scales).

Re: Large map, more players
 

Mictlan doesn't need a huge bless, just a leg to stand on until the blood starts really flowing. I'll take devils over jaguar warriors any day.

Of course, you'll always want some kind of bless with them, but it doesn't need to be one that leaves you with catastrophic scales.

Re: Large map, more players
 

But then, I'd rather have F9/W9 Jaguar Fiends over both devils and Jaguar Warriors.

Re: Large map, more players
 

That'll work, sure. Probably better than devils. My point was merely that Mictlan can be played without an all-out bless strategy.

Re: Any Good Non-Bless Strategy Nations
 

Pythium. They have very strong non-sacred units, and greater gem income to jump start a magic strategy.

Re: Any Good Non-Bless Strategy Nations
 

Agree with both points. Ulm truly is crap and is in need of more help than just about any other nation.

Re: Any Good Non-Bless Strategy Nations
 

Isnt bless-strategy best as a rush strategy? Small maps?
All the bless troops in the world wont be much good without the priests.
I would think that you could create an anti strategy around Mictlans titan/assassin god.