Re: Newbiegame 3 on mosehansen . status : open
 

I think Panther's original point, amplified by Cainehill, is that you are clearly the most experienced player in this group. As such, the sporting thing to do, would be to play a nation that you are uncomfortable with (e.g. Mictlan). Rapidly picking one of the most popular nations, that most people regard as one of most powerful nations, is sort of, well, "unsporting".

Re: Newbiegame 3 on mosehansen . status : open
 

Sure, like I said: decent/good army and blood. There are not many options when you want a serious blood economy you have Mictlain and Abysia ( and I guess Marignon Diabolic Failt, but turmoil ... bleech ). Those are the 1st tier blood nations.

Jotunhiem, Ulm-Black Forest these are the tier 2 blood nations. I suppose I should include vaniheim as a teir 2 .. but really their blood hunters are so expensive and so useful in combat that they are hardly a blood nation.

Pythium is an air nation? Those 2A's are pretty expensive, fragile, and slow. I would really consider them much more of a tier 2 air nation right there with Arco.

Oh and Man LotT is also a tier 1 air nation.

Re: Newbiegame 3 on mosehansen . status : open
 

Abysia is maybe the most powerful race (or second most powerful after Caelum) simply because it can get blood slaves so fast that the arch devils for sure and even the ice devils typically belong to Abysia. It also can easily get hordes of vampires in the late game. Plus the fire 3 (or cold 3 with Caelum) is a free 120 points.

Abysia does miss out on the air queens, which is I think the point from Cohen.

The other thing is that Abysia (along with Caelum) are two of the first races selected in any MP game. Look at Eben Moses and see just how many MP games do not include those two races. The answer? Almost none! Pretty much only the ones where it is prohibited.

I cannot speak with experience, though, for I have played neither of these two races in an MP game. But they sure are quite popular among the better dominions players.

Re: Newbiegame 3 on mosehansen . status : open
 

i've been studying the map, and Faerun is pretty cool. I love how major trading cities have income up to 250 gold!!!

And the map is so huge, its quite likely that many of us will go through the entire game without meeting some of the players (either due to death or geography). I've never played on such a big map, so this should be interesting!

Oh, and how do you spot a "special" province?

Re: Newbiegame 3 on mosehansen . status : open
 

there's also Ermor which is often Banned because its the "most powerful". Truth is, there's at least a half dozen races that are no-brainer-powerhouses. The others require a bit more experience to really kickbutt. But it seems obvious that all the races, when played intelligently and while avoiding their weaknesses and playing to their strengths, can destroy all other races.

if the Devs got a dime for every time people realized how balanced this game is, they'd have enough money to hire some staff and finally improve the interface!

Re: Newbiegame 3 on mosehansen . status : open
 

Panther has agreed to let me play this game instead of him. (We have the same CD key between us so us both being in the same game is, while not undoable, somewhat of a hassle.) I'll be playing man.

Re: Newbiegame 3 on mosehansen . status : open
 

2 air only costs Pythium 250 gold. 1 Theurg and 2 communicants gives you more magical power than a single Arch Theurg. They can cast more spells for less cost. Arch theurgs give you better mobility than theurgs with communicants, but are otherwise only needed for searching for air sites and whatever randoms you may want.

Given enough time, Pythium is probably the most powerful nation available. Arco would come in at a close second, followed by the other strong astral nations. R'lyeh and Atlantis in particular thanks to their long-term survivability. The blood nations can also be very powerful given time thanks to things like the devil commanders and soul contracts, along with the very nice blood items. The death nations get all of the benefits of the various undead troops. The nature nations get wonderful summons like Lamias, great global enchantments, and troop enhancing battlefield enchantments like mass regeneration. Really, the only nation that has a lot of trouble as the game goes on is the two standard themes of Ulm. They very badly need to find useful independent mages to cover their weaknesses.

Re: Newbiegame 3 on mosehansen . status : open
 

hmm.. I was looking at the map some more, and I noticed that Soapyfrog (playing Mictlan) currently has the entire Southern Hemisphere to himself! We definitly need 4 more players! (remaining races are Arco, Atlantis, Pythium, Ulm, Ctis, Marignon, and Machaka)

Re: Newbiegame 3 on mosehansen . status : open
 

Hey, I am Mictlan I need every little advantage I can scrape up! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

I figure if I can make it past turn 30, we'll have a GAME! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Newbiegame 3 on mosehansen . status : open
 

Well I know of only 2 ways:

1) they have freaky troops in the scouting report. That usually means something is up.
2) You can simply look at the map file. That will also tell you exactly what is defending the province.

Oh and I just tried Diabolic Faith Marignon. Not Bad. With a very heavy bless (F9S9) they are not too horrible. Of course this means that you have no SC. And that's really, really bad.