Name that nation!
 

I want to start a game tonight, but I don't want to put a lot of thought into design work because I tend to obsess and I'm too tired from work to obsess well. :-)

So, I'm looking for suggestions for a nation race that meets the following and is reasonably viable (just trying to avoid extreme silliness):

1) No death or blood. I don't intend to use either, but if a mage happens to have 1 death that won't stop me. Just don't want nations where I'll summon undead or blood monsters, that sorta thing.

2) No Atlantis/R'lyah. I don't want to do water right now.

3) No Marignon. I just played a game with them.

This is for single-player.

-Jeff

Re: Name that nation!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I'd say either Man theme, either Arcosephale theme, or base Pangaea would be a great next game for you.

Re: Name that nation!
 

If you are the "attack with tanks" type of commander you might take Ulm

If you are the "leave me alone while I research spells to wipe you out" type the take Arcos

If you are the "I snuck an army up to you, SURPRISE!" you might take Pangaea default, or Man Tuatha, or even Man default depending on how much sneak to normal type troops you want.

If you like knowing where everyone is and what they are doing then I find Caelum good for that.
Pangaea too to a certain extent

If you want to stay at home and harrasse people by dropping summoned armys onto them then Man default can be fun.

[ March 25, 2004, 21:08: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Re: Name that nation!
 

Good thoughts, probably go with Pangaea.

I'd actually like to try Caelum one day, but I don't have a good picture in my head of how to play them. I'm also not sure what they would do against Ermor.

-Jeff

Re: Name that nation!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">One of the bad things about Ermor is if it gets a grip on a bunch of provinces. It automatically creates armys in each one and depopulates it to 0 supplies. Even if someone does start taking it, they have to battle starvation.

Caelum has flying scouts AND a flying, sneaky priest. It can find ermor quickly and start fighting its domain-push. If Ermor seems to be more of a problem for someone else than it is for you, you can trade your information on Ermors location for gold and gems. Maybe even hire your priests out to give the other nation time to build up defenses.

Of course Pangaea also has a sneaking priest but not as mobile.

Re: Name that nation!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Pangaea is really fun! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

If you're intimidated by Caelum, as I was when I first started trying them, I'll recommend a thread which contains my early Caelum questions and some fantastic answers and info from the Dom II geniuses on this forum:

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...4;t=001749;p=6

The link goes to the earliest (i.e. "Last", on these crazy backward Boards http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ) page in the thread.

[ March 26, 2004, 01:58: Message edited by: fahdiz ]

Re: Name that nation!
 

Yeah, I read that thread - it was full of good stuff.

I think I'm going to go to Ulm. I'm find that when I come home from work these days that I'm too braindead to be tricky. With Ulm I can bash away.

I'm thinking of an alchimist pretender with Earth, Air, Fire, Nature all 3; basically enough to start construction of a wide variety of stuff, and if necessary enough to build items that will increase any one of those stats as needed.

-Jeff

Re: Name that nation!
 

You've mentioned both Pangaea and Ulm as being possible contenders for your nation. Why not try 'New Era' Pangaea - Not as boring as straight Ulm (in that you have more of a variety of units & magiks) and a bit beefier than regular Pangaea. Perfect for a rainbow pretender, since the sacred troops aren't worth much.

Re: Name that nation!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Or, "leave me alone while I build enough hoplites to attack with them" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Name that nation!
 

If you want to play Pangaea take Carrion Woods.
Okay, it is really bad compared to Ashen empire, but you always have surprise on your side (wtfomg he is CW) and your enemies will focus on ermor first so you get time to get some carrion lords for heavy unit summoning

Re: Name that nation!
 

I checked out new age pangaea like you suggested. They seem kinda borked. Well, the upgraded armor on the minos and centaurs is nice, but no harpies? The dryad hoplites don't seem worth it, and thematically why not make dryads scouts/spies and make the basic minos sacred? That way your naked minos are sacred and the others are armored.

Also, is it my imagination that the Pan is the same guy, same 350 price tag, but no free maeneds?

Re: Name that nation!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I dont know about that. Im into all into role playing and "feels right" (my biggest problem is that I pass up on some great pretenders because they are female). I also dislike the feel of playing undead swarms of sword-fodder but I can get into carrion woods. Almost the same automatic-armys/swarming feel but having units of living vines feels better somehow.

Re: Name that nation!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yeah you definitely have less troops to play with than standard Pangaea. On the other hand, the troops you do have are pretty good - the Grove Guards are great, for example.

The dryad hoplites aren't worth it - you're right - which is a shame.

The Pan is the same as standard Pangaea, except that he doesn't summon Maeneds, and has one less Earth. So he's not as good, but that's what you pay for better satyrs, better minotaurs, and more heavily armoured cataphracts - for the same cost as regular Pangaea.

The reason I suggested New Era Pangaea is because they have tough troops, so you can play kinda like Ulm, depending on your troops to do most of the work, and at the same time they have more versatile magic than Ulm (having a 3 in nature and a random pick [also 1 in earth]), so you can more easily get some fun spells to throw in the mix later in the game

However, if it's not to your taste, that's cool.

(BTW I do agree that the theme could use tweaking)

Re: Name that nation!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I dont know about that. Im into all into role playing and "feels right" (my biggest problem is that I pass up on some great pretenders because they are female). I also dislike the feel of playing undead swarms of sword-fodder but I can get into carrion woods. Almost the same automatic-armys/swarming feel but having units of living vines feels better somehow. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Interesting. To me Carrion Woods signify something as obscene as Undead Ermor, a perVersion of the natural order, the transformation of what was once sacred life into unlife, be it as Undead or Carrion creatures.

Re: Name that nation!
 

Your guesses are right. I don't want to play undead because they feel icky. I also think undead is way too easy against the AI.

Btw, I played a teeny, teeny bit with New Age Pangaea, and I do like them. I really wish there was a scout unit, and I stand by my thought that the dryad should be a scout and that they should make one of the mino units sacred. The only question I have is balance, but frankly after using the sacred cav of Marignon I don't think that sacred Minos are going to be that out-of-whack, as long as their price is in-line.

-Jeff

P.S. I also think there should be one armored unit of Minos, and one sacred, naked unit of minos. This would be inline with the idea that the sacred guys are throwbacks to the old days, while the non-sacred guys don't care about that stuff and just pile on the plate.

Re: Name that nation!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Let me guess the main reason why you like New Era; . . . Grove Guards. That's why I like it. First time I played New Era, I went for a Great Black Bull (very good super combatant).

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It wouldn't be difficult to add that, using a small mod. Just a slight edit to each unit is really easy.

Re: Name that nation!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">He is playing single-player as stated in the first post, so this advice is useless.

Additionally, jaif did not want hordes of undead, so I really doubt Carrion Woods is to his taste http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Name that nation!
 

I'm really liking new age. I restarted on the ME map (had to try an ME map) and started in Mordor. The income from the wasteland sucks, but there's a lot of choke points that the AI loves to batter itself against.

I finally broke out and found Abyssia's home, which I stormed thanks to the minos. I'm going to have to spend a bit of time consolidating and building magic items - my guys are feeling rather nekkid right now. :-)

I got one great hero as a random event - the harpy queen. She comes with a supply of harpies that seems to keep growing most of the time (though not when she moves, I think). Basically, I have a flying spellcaster with a move of three, 2 nature and 2 air. Once I build some items, that should be 3 air and 4 nature, but either way she's one of the best support units I've seen in the game.

-Jeff