A quick question about Man
 

So in Dom I Man is infamous for having a record number of troops only buildable in their home province - daughter, mother, and crone of Avalon, as well as Knights of Avalon, Wardens, and Lord Wardens - a total of 6, including all the nation's mages! This is way more than any other nation (at least in Dom I).

So this is my question: Is this the same in Dom II? Or can you recruit some of these units outside the home province? Or are other nations also having to build more units in home province only (to make it more even)?

Honestly I'd probably settle for Knights of Avalon alone being able to be built anywhere. It makes sense (though it is a pain) that the witches are centred in the home province, since their magical power comes from the secret Forest of Avalon. And it kinda makes sense to have Wardens built there, since they are described as protecting the crones, and are sacred. But as it is you can't build wardens and knights of Avalon to any significant degree, which kinda sucks. Also as has been pointed out many times, having all your mages recruitable only in your home province is a real handicap.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

a brief addendum - another nation I think suffers in the same way is C'Tis - mainly because their heaviest infantry, the Swamp Guard, and their best (read "only worthwhile") ranged troops, the Poison Slingers, can both only be built in their home province.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

Ctis is very disadvantaged compared to other nations. I could list several things which show that, if you compare them with another race, they are at disadvantage. I hope they have a small boost in power in doms II.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">BTW, playing a solo game with Arco I just managed to take their Home province, along with the sites allowing recruitment of those troops. I stormed the castle, so totally control the province.
But I can't build the special troops, looks like they onmly "work" with Ctis owners http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif
Is that normal ?

Re: A quick question about Man
 

C'tis can now play as Ermor with their new theme "Desert Tombs" (actually in my current game I'm facing 2000 of their troops in their capital alone). Also they have additional theme "Miasma" that makes your domain very inhospitable to all non-cold blooded creatures (it diseases them) and thus making offensive against them very difficult. Not sure if units are different in default theme since I didn't ever play them in Dom I demo.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes. It's same as in DomII, however there are some sites that will allow you to recruit some of special troops available to other nations (not many and they are there).

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">agreed Daynarr, they are cool (even cold) and have nice themes, but these themes render them differents, not a bit more powerful. If they still have so much crappy units, they are still behind other nations.
I like them anyway, I played a full pbem with them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">agreed Daynarr, they are cool (even cold) and have nice themes, but these themes render them differents, not a bit more powerful. If they still have so much crappy units, they are still behind other nations.
I like them anyway, I played a full pbem with them http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">They have a new holy troop serpent dancers. And all their units are 50% poison resistent, ie half poison damage. The posion resistance is stackable with battlefield enchantments meaning that they unlike most troops can get 100% poison resistance from battlefield enchantments. The new holy troop the serpent dancers are 100% poison resistant, so they might be useful in comboes with the poison slingers.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">wow, thats really interesting. I always wondered why poor C'tis was not poison resistant in doms I. Now with this change they will fare much better. And the Poison slingers will be very easy to use. Great game balance idea thanks!

If I understand you well, battlefield enchantments only give a 50% (the area Version, I recall you said the personal Version was an immunity). So this means that you cant protect your troops from fire or poison totally? Or perhaps ward can be accumulated to reach 100 % ? (I hope not).

Re: A quick question about Man
 

Right, unless a unit has inherent partial resistance or carries an item with partial resistance,those will stack with the enchantments.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

He is only death 1. Try to play it and you will see that he dont performs that well. each spell cast fatigue him, and he wont be able to raise many deads anyway (or you have to give him gems and or skull staff, which rise the cost drastically).

There is another magic user assassin, the star spawn (Rlyeh).

I find Ctis weak because it was easy to ward against poison in dominions I, and because except the swamp guards, which is only capitol based, their infantry are seriously behind the others.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Period.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Period.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">but in fact not only for that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
in case somebody is still not convinced :

- their sauromancers cost 180 gp (normal cost of many 'big' national mages), *but* they are only 3-1-? where as the others are 3-2-?

- they are all cold blooded, and it is nearly impossible for Ctis to warm up the battlefield (heat from hell : forget about it), or even worse a province (you need a global to do that!), whereas it is rather easy to winterize a province with wolven winter. Result : you have no counter against the big fatigue hit you will take when fighting in cold, like against Ermor, Caelum, etc.

- their priests are perhaps powerful, but as costly as others. The 30 gp one isnt worthy of anything because he is mainly an indep priest *without* any leadership http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif The Serpent King has a description which doesnt fit with what he does : would you really invest 280 gp into a 17 hp combatting leader? So he will only be used as priest. For 100 gp more I get an Arch Theurg with 7 (or is it 8) levels of magic!

the list can goes one. These lizards desserve a big boost in doms II http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Seems that they are helped a bit, so we will see how it turns.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

Erm, the info on themes for C'Tis was interesting - it sounds cool - but could anyone answer my original question? Does Man still have as many unit types only recruitable in their home province as in Dom I?

Re: A quick question about Man
 

I think you are overstating your case, Sauromancers are not as expensive as mages with 3 2 1 magic. Crone of Avalon 230, Skratti 250 (2 2 1), Granmdaster 250, Abysian warlock 270. Pandemoniac 3 2 320. Now some of these have special abilities or more hitpoints then your average mage, but still I think their costs show that the sauromancer has a competetive price, and unlike the warlock or the crone sauromancer are recruitable outside your home province.

The national mages with comparable skill and cost are Caelian high seraphs with 3 2 1 for 175gp and deep seers with 3 2 for 180. The caelian high seraph is the most cost effective purchasable mage there is, so as long as you do not compare the Sauromancers cost with the high seraph, I think he holds his own.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">As far as I recall the basic theme is unchanged. You requested knights of avalon recruitable outside Man, but the knights of Man are more costeffective in most if not all circumstances.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes you are right, in the sense that I had mainly in mind High Seraph of uber Caelum, or more costlier mages but with special abilities (Grand Master are priests, Pandemoniac & Skratti are very tough) when I compared the Sauromancer.

I suppose it means that you are balancing units costs not on a one to one basis, but overall to a nation, as there is no arguments why a warlock would cost 270 gp and a high seraph only 175.

I will stop arguing because game balancing always lead to endless debates. (for example what is so weak in Caelum that they need to have cheap mages to balance things out?).

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I find Ctis weak because it was easy to ward against poison in dominions I, and because except the swamp guards, which is only capitol based, their infantry are seriously behind the others.

Elite warriors are pretty good IMO, can be raised in masses because of their low resource cost, and can be produced everywhere.

- their sauromancers cost 180 gp (normal cost of many 'big' national mages), *but* they are only 3-1-? where as the others are 3-2-?

I fully agree with JO's analysis on this.

- they are all cold blooded, and it is nearly impossible for Ctis to warm up the battlefield (heat from hell : forget about it), or even worse a province (you need a global to do that!), whereas it is rather easy to winterize a province with wolven winter. Result : you have no counter against the big fatigue hit you will take when fighting in cold, like against Ermor, Caelum, etc.

You mean, no counter *early* - Enchantment research is a big priority for C'tis, because of all these reanimation spells, ant it gives you Relief as well (better used by communion-leading shamen - with 2 masters and 4 slaves, fatigue isn't a concern anymore).

And even if their masters do suffer from cold, don't forget their undead creatures are immune to cold effects. If Caelum is a problem, retaliate with spectres, ghosts, behemoths, and hordes of lesser undeads ;-)

- their priests are perhaps powerful, but as costly as others. The 30 gp one isnt worthy of anything because he is mainly an indep priest *without* any leadership http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif The Serpent King has a description which doesnt fit with what he does : would you really invest 280 gp into a 17 hp combatting leader?

I do. 17 hp isn't much, but at least that's enough to survive a Seeking Arrow or FFTS or MW, in my experience anyway. And they have an impressive leadership rating, which is good to keep the low morale lizards in line.

So he will only be used as priest. For 100 gp more I get an Arch Theurg with 7 (or is it 8) levels of magic!

I don't like the priest-mages much anyway. I want my big priests to stick to Fanaticism (especially with C'tis ;-)

the list can goes one. These lizards desserve a big boost in doms II http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I'd say they're slightly below average. Ermor is much weaker in MP IMO.

[ October 02, 2003, 15:06: Message edited by: Nagot Gick Fel ]

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">As far as I recall the basic theme is unchanged. You requested knights of avalon recruitable outside Man, but the knights of Man are more costeffective in most if not all circumstances.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I have not found Man's capital-only problem too serious though it's probably because I've played mostly on smaller map. One castle to produce national mages, and occasional a few others for some indie mages, is usually enough.

One quick and thematic fix for this complaint would be to let Man recruit Druids (in additional to Bards) everywhere. I know that Druids are very versatile and useful units - not sure how it will affect game balance though.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">They are costly, and suffer from a very low protection. Sure they pack quite some punch, and have good morale, but they are very frail. If you have no gold problem, then I understand that they are better than any other troops that Ctis can field, with perhaps swamp guards with reliefs from time to time.
Anyway, I dont like them much, because when I play C'tis, it bother me to recruit only savage lizards, whereas you are supposed to reign over a nation of Lizardmen. See you have 4 (or is 5) subtypes of lizardmen troops, and you would rely mostly, if not exclusively on the elite warriors? It talks about how the lizardmen are under balanced.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Ok, they are average and not particularly bad. I must have the bad habit to compare things to Caelum, which generally add insult to injury with his better troops.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">How you goes to discard that easily the problem! For relief you need nature 3. Simple, I *just* have to field 5 shamen. So fool I'm to not have my bag of dessicated shamen with me, everywhere I go, with any forces, even medium to small ones. Promised, I wont do twice the error http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Ok granted, for big battles you have the shamen. Just check what will happen after the fifth round? Last time I checked, AI seldomly if never cast relief, and revert to howl. Then the fatigue hit, and starting with round 8, the penalties on your units are pretty severe.

My point is the battle of cold versus heat is largely dominated by cold, because of this handy wolven winter. And with Cold blood, C'tis is even in worse shape than any other nation. Even if you manage to have an ample suply of death gems, I dont think that all your units will be summoned ones. You will have Ctissian mages and lizardmen, and they will be crap soon in cold.

{lizard king}
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I reckon that the 17 hp are handy for those arrows. Aside that you pay a level 4 priest for 280 gold. Seems overpriced to me. Can I remind you that Marignon has a level 4 priest, fire 1 magic user for 210 gold?

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I agree with you that priest mages always seem to cast the wrong spell http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Still I find the Ctissian priest costly for a nation which is supposed to be very good at that.
I notice that the Hierodule did not appeal comments from you.

You just have to admit that more than half of the units or leaders are underpowered, and I promise that we will find some time for this Marignon/Arco duel http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

oops sniped the Ermorian part... Have you played against Ermor commanded by Wendigo (Pepe M.). I think you would change your mind about Ermor.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

So it's the same in Dom II - ok. But could you tell us why Man has so many units only recruitable in their capital? And is that fact open to re-consideration?

I think the main problem (for Man & perhaps C'Tis) is that if you want to use your home province troops you are forced into taking a high administration castle. That's the cost here. Your pretender's abilities and dominion are limited because of what seems to me to be a somewhat random decision to make not one, but two of your best troop types in your home province, not to mention mages for Man.

I think it's totally reasonable to have a high-end unit type and or an elite mage built only in your capital - just like Abysia, Pythium, Ulm, Arco, Pangaea, Vanheim, Jotunheim, and Marignon. All of these have maybe one unit type and or one or two elite mages limited to their home province. C'Tis seems excessive, having 2 elite troop types, and Man seems even more excessive, having 2 elite troop types and all their mages.

So is there a reason for this? Is there a corresponding advantage to the disadvantage of having to take an (expensive in design points) high admin. castle in order to field your best army? If so, what is it? And finally, is there a chance this will change?

p.s. BTW I agree that Knights are more cost effective than Knights of Avalon, which makes large-scale production of the latter redundant. In that case, could Wardens be produced outside of the capital? There's no redundancy with an existing unit there - Man's Infantry (aside from Wardens) isn't very good.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I heard of the legend, just wondering what kinds of maps when that happened? Large vs small? Crowded vs spacious? Magically and economically rich vs poor?

The reason is no matter what parameters I tried, Ermor always lagged behind except for a large number of useless undeads.

The only *possible* exception that it has a chance is when the map is large enough and people leave Ermor alone for a long enough time.

Ermor's pretender would be a very good mage but they have slow research. Consequently, it takes a longer time than usual for them to create your usual Uber-combatants. There are cheap way to crank out budget super-combatant, e.g. Gargoyle, but you might not have the right gems. The only fail-safe cheap combatant is the Ice-Devil but you'll need to depend on blood hunt.

With more experienced players in a MP game, people would be happily crave you up for your gem income way before you can defense yourself (e.g. turn 20 to 25). Your undeads are not enough to be a deterent. You could in theory avoid that by not finding out the gem sites, but then half of the advantages of your pretender would be gone.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">There isn't allways an easy explanation for all features, sometimes forgotten features are rediscoverd, in the case of Man the reasons the troops that are recruitable only in Man is so is probably because it seemed to fit the descriptions. That said I do not think that Man is as disadvantaged as you seem to think. Their tower Guuards are decent heavy infantry, if you test them in the dom 1 battle simulator they will hold their own fairly effectively costeffective wise, they just aren't as spectacular as some other troops. The cost of their mages are ok, and they are fairly powerful, they have access to arguably the best heavy infantry in the game, they have spies´, they have extra good longbows that are a boon in the early game. I agree though that Man isn't the strongest nation in the game, but I think they are strong enough to still be competetive.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

Ermor sucks in multi. It's very easy to annihilate them with the right tactics, since they are a unique nation.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Man's tower guards have 13 protection, lower than your usual heavy infantries. However, I don't think they're as handicapped as they look.

The problem is if you have a bard among them, they'll usually cast "Protection" (Alteration 3). The spell has low fatique and give Bark Skin to a few of your units, raising their protection by 7 (to 20). Or they might cast "Tangle Vine" and lower the defense of their opponents to 3. They can also cast spell songs to remove fatique, restore some hitpoints.

Of course, it would be nice if the protection of Tower Guards is increased to 15, corresponding to Man-at-Arm of Marignon. But then, Man-at-Arm does not have a defense bonus. And Marignon can't easily boost the protection of their as easily ("Body Ethereal" has a shorter range, and Bard is a very cheap unit). I don't really know where the balance lies.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yep, I met him twice, and yep, I admit he's a good player. And nope, I won't change my mind ;-).

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">There isn't allways an easy explanation for all features, sometimes forgotten features are rediscoverd, in the case of Man the reasons the troops that are recruitable only in Man is so is probably because it seemed to fit the descriptions. That said I do not think that Man is as disadvantaged as you seem to think. Their tower Guuards are decent heavy infantry, if you test them in the dom 1 battle simulator they will hold their own fairly effectively costeffective wise, they just aren't as spectacular as some other troops. The cost of their mages are ok, and they are fairly powerful, they have access to arguably the best heavy infantry in the game, they have spies´, they have extra good longbows that are a boon in the early game. I agree though that Man isn't the strongest nation in the game, but I think they are strong enough to still be competetive.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Johan, thanks for the reply. I don't think that Man are disadvantaged in general - that's not what I was trying to say. Cost/effectiveness I think Man do ok - for sure they are competitive. What I was trying to say is that in design points they have a disadvantage, if they want to be able to field the best army their nation would allow, because of the need to take a high admin castle.

Maybe you think that the armies of Man would be stronger than most other nations, were it not for the fact that their elite troops were only recruitable in their home province (and so come in small numbers). In which case, that would be a (cumulative) advantage to balance out the disadvantage of having to take a high-admin castle. I'm not sure that I think that is the case however, and so I think Man has something of an unequalled disadvantage (except by C'Tis, which has much the same problem).

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">On this cold/heat balance issue I agree completely.

Anyway, unless you're really unlucky with death sites, C'tis can build up an impressive undead army in just a couple turns or 2 (See what a dozen sauromancers can do when you hold them on Carrion Reanimation).

Oh, BTW, Cloud of Death costs only 10 fatigue if I remember well. Quite handy when fighting in the snow, and the good news is Sauromancers like to cast it as their 6th spell too ;-).

About the Relief/Howl issue, one Last tip: when fighting one of the "cold" races, send Sauromancers with astral magic as their random pick. With a handful of Shamen, of course. The communion masters won't suffer from fatigue, and one Relief every other round is all you need to prevent your slaves to pass out. If you script at least 2 Shamen to cast 'Relief' in rounds 3-5, your casters and slaves should be fine in round 8.

About the "I can't have Shamen in every army" complaint: small battles are often decided (even if not finished) before this 8th round begins. Therefore keep your "communion teams" in your big armies, where they're really useful. And if you have 3 big lizard armies engaged in cold provinces at the same time, you'd better pause and rethink your strategy ;-)

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">At the risk of looking sarcastic, I'd say I'm glad to pay 70 extra to get rid of that annoying fire-1 magic ;-) I bet you don't often use inquisitors to summon Will-o-Wispes, and I bet you like them better when they stick to priestly spells rather than cast those annoying Fire Flies, right? Indeed, I prefer Lizard Kings to High Inquisitors.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I usually recruit one to build my first temple in a province that let me recruit regular priests, then I have her hatch eggs until the game's over ;-)

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The leaders are OK. About troops, I could say the same about almost every other nation. How many flier types do you use when you play Caelum? Arco has 3 IIRC cavalry types, did you ever see one of them? What about all these Ulmish infantry variants?

At least C'tis has 2 different mages they can recruit everywhere, and both are cheap and useful.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Duel? If you mean Magic Duel, you've lost already ;-)

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I heard of the legend, just wondering what kinds of maps when that happened? Large vs small? Crowded vs spacious? Magically and economically rich vs poor?
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">First time I met Pepe was on Urgaia (the tiniest map of all), average site frequency (40-50), standard richness, 6 players, none underwater. Pepe started with a disadvantage as underwater expansion was forbidden. He would have destroyed his closest neighbor (Pythium) as soon as turn ~15, but at this point Pythium received heavy help from Caelum and survived for another 20-25 turns. Because of that Pepe's expansion stalled, but he was one of the 2 surviving players in the end.

Second time was on a modified Hiperia, with some seas split in two, 9 players, site frequency was average, normal richness. Pepe started in a crowded area, made deals with most of his neighbors, and stayed relatively quiet for ~30 turns. At this point he managed to destroy Pythium (again!) in a few turns, with Arco's help. Then he attacked Ulm and conquered about half his provinces. Eventually he ran short of troops to fuel his expansion, as he mainly reanimated ghouls for defense, so he couldn't hold all his conquests. At this point the game was stopped because of RL reasons.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

From my experience C'tis doesn't seem to be overly weak nation at all.

Poison Slingers mixed with Shade Beasts, Manikins and Behemots is pain.

Shamans can make your big units ethereal.

Empoisoner is one **** of an assasin.

My friend plays C'tis more than me, in fact he hardly plays any other nation than C'tis, but he usualy completely neglets Sacred Serpent, wich are IMO quite good units.

[ October 02, 2003, 12:35: Message edited by: Nerfix ]

Re: A quick question about Man
 

IMHO empoisoner looks like best assassin in game since it’s the only assassin that is spellcaster (death and nature). Since he’s nature, he can cast all neat protections on himself and, since he’s death as well, he can overpower victim raising undead.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

Yes, instead of a single assasin you'll have a single assasin and something like 20 Longdead against a single commander.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

A side-note for the lizard-debate: the new theme Desert Sun is available to all nations, including C'tis. It spreads heat even beyond your Dominion, meaning that map will warm up like Atlanta in July. Those poor Caelum are left just standing around with their armor and weaponry dripping all over the furniture.

Well, unles they counter with the Heart of Winter dominion, which has the effect of spreading cold instead of heat . . . http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: A quick question about Man
 

Legend? lol, no labels pls. Besides, many players can kick my arse, Jacques included.

I remember Arhyper & Jacqnew fondly, they were my two first games (they were simultaneous). My Ermorian design proved to be non optimal at that time (or at least I have done better afterwards with some changes in scales & candles as discussed in the newsgroup).

That was like 2 years ago. Funny that at the time Caelum was considered the weakest nation. Then Jacques published his Jacqstorm tactics in the CGOnline forum (no longer existing) and proceeded to nail us with them in the Jacqnew game. Perception of Caelum changed a bit after that.

Arthyper was also a pretty interesting game. My initial expansion sucked horribly but a pact with Arco allowed me to make up for it in the long term, the close quarters however limited my reanimation a lot, as I could not push up my Dominion without hurting my ally.
Dealing with Jacques soul slaying Squigheads was a headache for half the players in this game. Eventually I cast GoR on a unholy Knight & got a mindless (!) commander supposedly immune to Soul Slay (and with 25 undead leadership because of being undead, so he could supposedly hold an horde of skeletons if every other commander perished), but I never got to field him as the game was declared over before that as Jacques had some RL trouble to keep playing & it made little sense to go on without him at that stage.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">we will just say then that you have an optimized set of opening moves for Ermor, to the point that the nation move as a well greased doom machine...

By the way Pepe, my profound apologies to have acted as a bad a... in this Cimmeria game (I was Abysia, you were Ermor). Hope you wont mind playing with me, if it happens we play in the same pbem in the future.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

Is Jaques still playing PBEM games?

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">As often as I can, but free time seems to be an increasingly rarer resource.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No worries, I also said some words I am not particularly proud of. RL stress & a short temper sometimes combine awfully.

I will gladly join you in a future game if our respective schedules allow it.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Sorry Pepe. Legend in your reputation associated with Ermor. I have always been curious in how Ermor can become playable and I have never met a vet being able to claim proficiency with the Ashen Empire, except for you http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif .

I heard of the blood-summon tricks but I can't figured out how to maintain a robust supply of Blood Slaves and keep up the research speed.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

Legend...lol http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
Its kinda funny, since the playerbase of Doms I. is very small.

Hopefully Doms II. will have a lot bigger playerbase, with lot more good players.

Re: A quick question about Man
 

i think that Pepe posted many articles on Ermor on the NG. True, even if you read them, you'll only get a glimpse of what should be done. Play in a PBEM against an Ermorian 'profesionnal' and you will believe in the power of the Unholy Sepulchre http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: A quick question about Man
 

Man - does suffer from issues with getting so many things from the capital only, however the tower guard, longbow, and knights are available everywhere and are plenty fine. Furthermore while the crone is capital only, it is a very good mage. Man has always been strong even with the capital clog.

C'tis - is a shard weak and I'm glad that they are getting a boost from Dom II. The "disease" dominion sounds very promising. Please keep in mind though, that while a bit weak they were not crazy weak. The elite/slave warriors are very good troops. C'tis can get into the water fast with undead. The reason the Lizard King is worth the cost is the high level of command combined with the ability to cast fanaticism. Also remember that C'tissian forts fire stones that create poison clouds... much better defense than most forts. C'tis really doesn't need too much to be completely competitive.

I'm looking forward to playing with the new themes in Dom II. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: A quick question about Man
 

The Ctis AI was pretty dangerous in my latest Doms I game with its poison gas units. They would've been more so if my Dragon hadn't devoured their goddess a couple of times, and/or if they hadn't been overwhelmed by Ermor.

PvK