Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

He keeps getting blinded & it's not hard to do since he's only got one eye. Opinions?

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">For a long time he was one of the prime pretenders of choice. And when anything in this game seems to be an obvious choice (either to always use it, or to never use it) then it comes under the attention of the devs for balance. The "number of eyes" thing was added to Dom1 which did downgrade the cyclops abit. I think some new changes in Dom2 might have increased chances of blinding without considering the poor cyclops. He may have fallen far enugh to now get consideration as a "never choose" pretender.

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

perhaps as the Arco pretender then, but you still have the infamous Natajara at 0 design points.

You also have the faery queen which could give him his vision now, and the Queen is open to any proposition (from anybody having nature that is)

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

But isn't there only one Faery Queen? If so, what if the other player summons her first?

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Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

Who said that there is only 1 fairy queen?
You can summon as much as you want, but they are expensive.

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well then you have to hunt her down and kill her to free up another summons.

There are also ways to steal commanders. Thats actually one of my favorite tactics. I love to setup a lab with one 5-air mage and half a dozen 2-blood mages. The air mage does that tornado spell or whatever its called that snags a commander from whatever province you tell it, then the blood mages all have their initial attacks set for that change-sides spell (hellbind?).

I would target whatever province I was about to attack just to weaken it (troops without commanders automatically rout). It was like opening a gift every turn to see what they got me. A useful commander? mage? priest? sometimes even a prophet and once a pretender god. What items did they bring with them that I get to redistribute?

From what I see glancing thru all the new units in the AllView game, there are alot more things that can turn someone to their side. Im not sure how and when those units enter the game but its one of the things I was interested to note.

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

I was always under the impression that a magic item (dont recall its name) thats shaped like an eye can restore (improve) sight when blinded.

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

Well, he's still the cheapest way to get Earth 9 and get all those blessed bonuses - +4 reinvig is great for holy commanders especially holy spellcasters (pythium, Abysia, Vanheim, etc), and the +4 armor will make some nations HI near invulnerable to normal attacks.

If you want to use him as a tank, either get him a ring of regeneration or research regeneration (need to make him a Nature mage though) and then try it. Should make the chance of an affliction low enough to give it a go.

Even blind, he does a great job of holding the line and certain artifacts can make him an effective blind killing machine (Charcoal shield being the most popular).

I'd rate him as a little on the expensive side, but if you want the bonuses it's the way to go. On a tight map he may be a good choice for the great start potential + affordable bless effects

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

I don't believe there's any blindness-curing item. There are so many that I can't be sure, but I don't recall any such thing at the moment.

There is, however, a missile weapon that seeks out the target's eyes. Nasty piece of work!

Re: Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?
 

There's also an "Eye Shield", which is even worse. But I never take a cyclops anymore... I tried one once in Dominions II to see if it was better, but no. Got blinded on the third battle, taking maybe 2 points of damage. Though being blinded wasn't very bad, I mean even with Earth 9 and shooting approximately five hundred million flying shards, the cyclops couldn't hit anything before he lost his eye=)

Still, a blind cyclops is about as useful as a rainbow mage that's died twice... and in Dominions II, even a seeing cyclops is pretty impotent. But if you do use one, give him nature-2 and don't even think about fighting until he gets a ring of regeneration, some armor, and a long weapon. Haha... now that I said that, I'm tempted to go try it=) Bye!

-Cherry