Re: Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia
 

They suck.

Capital only sacreds makes a bless strat fail. Sacrificing a mage turn in other capitals is also a waste of time.

You can try and field an army of Spider Warriors now, but again, capital only.

You need to capture decent provinces in order to access decent indies. Not something you can plan for.

You still have spiders, which despite a cheap second shape, require good scales to mass early in a game.

All the issues of pre CBM Machaka, but without the extra incentive to play them.

Re: Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia
 

You seemed to have missed all the CBM buffs to them...

For example their sacreds are much cheaper now, new nation spells were added, and best of all, most of machaka's mages get a magicboost in battle. just to name a few things. machaka is possibly at the most powerful point its ever been

Re: Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia
 

In order to capitalise on their mages, Machaka needs a decent army for expansion.

Mage turn spent expanding, means mage turns lost researching and site searching.

Poor PD means limited turtling capability and makes Machaka a rush target, preventing them from making the most of any research.

No hammer or fever fetishes takes away their ability to create cheap thugs, path and research boosters.

Killing off a witch doctor to create 4 spiders is not a boost.

Free scrying is nice, but I've never really used it.

Their free fear spell has not won me a single battle. It has not even helped.

And the remote assassination spell? In the 4 MP games I have played with CBM, I have never researched it. I've been too busy fending off stronger nations. Unlike other nations with weak armies and good mages, they simply lack attrition capability.

So tell me, how have I missed the point? How has the latest CBM added more to Machaka than it has taken away?

Re: Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia
 

I think what you are saying, and please correct me if I'm wrong on this, is that Machaka will nevur win, because of teh PD.

Is that right?

Re: Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia
 

Oh right. Rather than discuss the actual benefits of the mod changes to the nation, you're going to make PD jokes instead.

Their capital mages are good. But they are capital only.

Their capital sacreds are good. But they are capital only.

Spider warriors are good. But they are capital only.

Spider knights are good, but they are expensive. Their size puts them at a disadvantage in large battles.

Socerers are going to be your standard mage.

Witch doctors are useful only for spamming dark knowledge then Dark Sacrificing.

The rest of their army sucks.

Did I miss anything? Is there any data supporting the claim that CBM makes them better? That it offers them more diverse strategies? Or are you just going to ignore these questions and make PD jokes?

Re: Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia
 

Thanks!

I understand now. Machaka will nevur win, because of teh PD and cap-only. It's like Fomoria and monkeys, all rolled into one!

Re: Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia
 

You missed spider riders.
You missed sage + research start - good research in first year, rainbow site search later.
You missed great patrol 15 eye of the lord.
You missed that 4 spiders from witch doctor that are bad ***.
You missed the whole point pd doesn't matter.

Re: Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia
 

I can't remember offhand all of the buffs that CBM has given to Machaka, but they are significant.

National spells of course, which I agree are (deliberately) situational. Foul Sacrifice offers an alternative strategy at least, and perhaps makes a bless strategy more viable.

Sacreds are cheaper and have improved MR (which makes them much more feasible in the long term).

PD is greatly improved.

Sorceress has magicboost in battle - that's a big deal.

IIRC a number of other costs have been reduced.

I'm sure there's other stuff (most of it done by qm rather than me), but I think Machaka is much more powerful in CBM than in base game.

Re: Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia
 

The sacreds does not really need Bless (maybe E4N4), so points can go into scales, which synergize well with patrolling. And one would be able to buy a lot of sacreds.

The Machaka Hoplites are good as meatshields - you would be destroying enemies with evocations and fire arrows, not with infantry, and they still deal some decent damage.

It would be better if they'd get some D3 access (not 10% Randoms) on the Black Sorcerers for Banefire.

Re: Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia
 

just marking