Re: Good Pretender design for Marverni?
 

soul vortex + breath of winter results in some sleeping armies around you, which is better armor when you yourself are asleep than any armor in the game

Re: Good Pretender design for Marverni?
 

Each of W4/E4 are worth 122 points for your pretender. Do you really need both? I'd think you could get by with E4 alone, as protection should be worth more against masses of troops, and that those 122 points might be better spent on 3 scales.

I have to admit, though, I'm thinking about him more for MA C'tis, so that might change some of the dynamics.

Re: Good Pretender design for Marverni?
 

every little bit helps. since he isn't really huge on HPs I like to give them some def to avoid as much damage as possible.

Re: Good Pretender design for Marverni?
 

Hmmmm... what about 2 scales and increasing death (which is comparatively quite cheap for him)? That way you end up with more fear, which is what is winning the battles (at least for me) against the indeps anyway.

As a neophyte to this game but an old hand at RPGs like Champions, it just hurts my head to leave death at 3 for him and buying high levels of another path for a pretender who is so poor at learning new paths.

Re: Good Pretender design for Marverni?
 

well clearly the details are up to the player. more death is nice, and it increases the morale drops, but it doesn't help you when they do miraculously make their morale roll.

Re: Good Pretender design for Marverni?
 

Marverni is definately a weak nation that could do with some love by the developers.

What bugs me is why as this nation got no national spells?

This nation could really do with some good national spells to make it worth playing.

Even the magic is pretty pathetic when compared with other EA nations, the troops are rubbish, the sacreds naff, may as well not exist if you ask me...

Re: Good Pretender design for Marverni?
 

well they have the best arcane mages in the early era... thus they are best suited to have late game master enslave squads.

they are well suited to make golem thugs, and their sacreds are bersekers with shields, which makes them rather viable for bless strats.

You are right though, they could do with some nation spells.

Re: Good Pretender design for Marverni?
 

I don't see how you can say that Marverni has pathetic magic. You get Earth 4 and Astral 4 mages before booster items, both good paths, and Druids aren't even capital only.

Re: Good Pretender design for Marverni?
 

So you can recruit the 380gp druid at any fortress? Oh thats interesting...

E4 and S4 is good but 380gp is expansive, so your not going to have many. Also is earth/astral a good mix? What nastiness could you do?

In MP, I believe many consider this nation weak, also I cannot remember a game where they have done well or even figured amongst the top nations.

I suspect because of there poor troops, putting together a reasonable size empire will be difficult and they could be easily overrun early on by nations with better sacreds/national troops.

I will say one good about them, perhaps a good nation to play SP against Helheim, Vanheim, Nielfelheim and Caelum on impossible if you want a challenging game!

Re: Good Pretender design for Marverni?
 

earth/astral gives golems and earth and astral(separate) have some very nice items and artifacts.