Re: Lanka pretender design/strategy
 

Yogini possibly?

Btw, why spend 90g on the 1B Raktapata as a researcher when you can get a Yogini for 110 with twice the RP?

Looks like my early idea of a F4W4N6 awake pretender isn't quite up there.

Re: Lanka pretender design/strategy
 

Yogini's aren't sacred, so upkeep piles up a bit quicker.

As you move from a primarily gold to a primarily blood economy, each gold piece counts a bit more.

Re: Lanka pretender design/strategy
 

Clearly.

:-p

Re: Lanka pretender design/strategy
 

Thats true, but since you don't get recruitable H3 casters until Mandahas(Blood 8), you'll be using Bless more often than Divine Blessing so you'll be able to keep mages unblessed if you like.

Also, in the late game you need to have your good mages (which are high hp) heavily armored and immune to bunch of things anyway because spells like Frozen Heart and Drain Life will preferentially target high HP units anyway, so worrying about battlefield attacks is a little redundant.

Re: Lanka pretender design/strategy
 

Look at w9, f4, n4. with the high str almost anything your blessed troups hit die in one hit so with quickness your blessed troups will shred anything. The f4 helps make sure they hit and the n4 keeps them from getting afflictions and with their high hit points helps keep them alive.

I personally hate the n9 bless as mage after mage goes berzerk at the wrong times. There really should be a toggle to allow blessed units to go berzerk...

Re: Lanka pretender design/strategy
 

Thinking about it, if the only advantage to Berzerk is the +2 attack, then W9N8F4 is a little more expensive for a better result (no penalty to Defence).

And if 10% regen is an acceptable alternative to 15%, then W9N6F4 gives you rather better scales (or a sleeping rather than imprisoned Pretender, which seems like a good thing for early research).

Re: Lanka pretender design/strategy
 

Actually berserk is more than just an attack bonus. It also boosts their strength(good for taking down tough targets) and protection and makes them unroutable.

Re: Lanka pretender design/strategy
 

The sacreds are pretty hard to rout anyway, with the +2 off Bless making 17 morale. And I'm not sure the +2 strength is much additional bonus with their existing Str of 18-odd and falchions. Most hits Lanka sacreds make are already blasting through all normal armour.

The protection boost is interesting though. What I'd like to know is whether it's worth the drop of 2 points defence (16 with W9 bless going down to 14, and Prot rising from 12 to 14). I'm relatively new to Dominions, but in most combat systems I'm familiar with it's better to avoid damage than absorb it.

As I read the numbers here, 12 and 14 prot are both the strong end of the mid-range, but going from 14 to 16 defence takes it from fairly good to exceptional (off the top end of the normal infantry scale).

Re: Lanka pretender design/strategy
 

Well defence doesn't help against a ranged weapon, and your sacreds are nice enough in combat to not really need the extra defence.
I tend to take E9N9 rather than a bless involving water or fire so their survivability gets quite a big boost with +2 protection from berserk, +4 protection from earth bless, 4 reinvigoration and good regeneration. All of their sacreds are fairly strong offensively(recruitables and summons) and have very good survivability(Palankashas have 60 health per square) so I like to boost their survivability from good to great.

Re: Lanka pretender design/strategy
 

The problem is that you aren't fielding a lot of sacreds, and when a unit gets under five things in it it checks to route every turn.

But, if even one person in a unit is Berserk, then the whole unit is unroutable. The N9 is essential to Lanka's strategy of fielding low numbers of very strong guys.

The Water 9 bless also makes your demons wicked fast, meaning fewer enemies escape battles and the demons spend less time taking ranged fire before they get into melee and that ranged fire starts to get your enemies as well.

It takes only a few minutes to test out a W9N9 bless vs other ones. Try it.