Re: Elli (Closed, Readying)
 

Well, they have relics from Dominions 1 as their orders. Namely commands like "Attack Commander/Mage" and "Fire Mage". If you charm them you can steal them and put them on other commanders.

Most people don't like it if someone does that.

Re: Elli (Closed, Readying)
 

heh the new dirty tricks thread...

agree with both house rules, using the commands with bogu & co is ok, but not to copy the commands

Re: Elli (Closed, Readying)
 

Flaming Bag of Poop!

Sorry, Tharsonius, but mentioning the dirty tricks thread has given me a new forge item idea.

Re: Elli (Closed, Readying)
 

hmm, F1N2?

Re: Elli (Closed, Readying)
 

Hrmf. Pretender (finally!) submitted.

Sorry for the delay; I've been having a helluva time settling on one concept. I'm not entirely happy with what I did settle for, but *shrug* let's see how it pans out.

Re: Elli (Closed, Readying)
 

Heh. I'm not happy with what I'm settling for, either, but it's more related to the nation I chose rather than the pretender itself. There's no way around Atlantis sucking.

Only things going for it is the amphibiousness and the Basalt Kings. The units that I can use, however, are subpar... 20 Admin makes sure I can't use Coral Guards or Living Pillars.

"Yay"

Oh yeah, and we're still missing Vanheim.

Re: Elli (Closed, Readying)
 

Without R'lyeh in the equation, what's so subpar? I've never played EA Atlantis.

On a side note, if you build in a Sea (not deep) province, you get the Kelp Fortress (40 admin). If you find and capture the right bit of shoreline, you can be adjacent to a lot of provinces. They're not gonna be built deep sea or in your capital, though. One of the advantages to being able to build forts underwater. Though not such a big advantage with the way Aran is laid out and its high land connections.

All Shamblers have a basic protection of 7 or 9, so the incomplete armor on the War Shambler isn't an instant death sentence. Have you tried using those? How did it work? Still bad?

Re: Elli (Closed, Readying)
 

Yes, I have come to the conclusion from test games that War Shamblers are the only way to go. I also tried the Warriors of the Deep. Both die about as much and work about just as well when killing indies. Problem is, they just die a lot, which means constant reinforcement is required. Atlantis has no good units it can easily mass, and the mediocre ones that it does get are hard to mass when you NEED them (early game). And compared to sacreds or regular elite units fielded by other races, they are horrible.

And you mean with R'lyeh *and* Oceania out of the equation, things should be different. Yeah. Now, in this situation, I'd say Atlantis is just subpar compared to many of the land nations instead of being a tasty snack for the other water nations. It's weak, but thanks to it being a water nation, it has a strength which comes into play. I think I'll actually survive long enough to field Basalt Kings.

Re: Elli (Closed, Readying)
 

My only experience in MP w/Atlantis is in the Armadillo game which just ended. It was MA, but I suspect some of the difficulties are the same; if not greater since EA is (arguably) a weaker version.

I had fun playing w/Atlantis as they have some of the best battle mages in the game. I think that they can be played competively, but will tend to falter in the late/mid to late game. The biggest drawback IMO is that you cannot build (at least im MA) mages in any of the land provinces you capture.

I intend to play as Atlantis again (mainly because I love being the under-dog http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif). When I do, I'm convinced that a rainbow Master Lich is the way to go.

Re: Elli (Closed, Readying)
 

Heh. Not really relevent to this game, but thought I'd share:

In one of my own test games I've been running for this, to help me try to decide what pretender to play, I managed to push a Mighty-AI Atlantis all the way back to his home castle, with only Shipwreckers and spammed mermen from two magic sites. (Granted, the sites allowed me roughly 50 mermen a turn, but still... ; )

Currently, he keeps sending out his 8-Candle, 400-hp, 55-regen-each-turn Wyrm to break my sieges, and I don't have the magic to go down there and nuke his butt. The last battle, that wyrm *single-handedly* routed a 300-merman army of mine without casting a single (useful) spell. I was hoping to turn-50 win the battle; no luck.

I'm sort of having a blast trying to contain the bugger, but I'm beginning to think I'll have to research water-breathers and either Dominion kill him or move some of Caelum's 'overpowered' *cough, hack* regular forces to take him out. My next strategy is to keep the wyrm busy with mermen for some more turns while I try Corpse Construct hordes.

The only good news about the whole thing is that the hordes (and hordes and hordes and hordes...) of cheap mermen I've been creating has me showing second-highest on the army graph, so none of the other AI's want to go to war with me...; )