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newbie questions and comments
Hey,
Played the demo and loved it. Got a copy of the game and am now pushing it at other folks around here. I'll probaly look for a PBEM sometime soon. Until then ... I'm trying to figure out Mictlan. Other pretenders, I can get started and do well against the AI until at least mid-game. Mictlan falls apart early on. I'm not sure how to cope with combination of weak infantry and weak magic. The plentiful sacred troops seem nice though. How do you keep Communion Slaves alive in Pythium? I'll take 4-8 slaves and 1-3 masters. The slaves are pushing 200 fatigue when the enemy routes and the masters keep casting spells. Result: they're gone or wounded after a single combat. ----- This is a deep and rewarding game. But I would like some more information in some of the Messages. First, in combat resolutions I'd like a breakdown of units lost -- not by squad, just by type. I think: 4 Machacka (sp) infantry 3 Hopolites Bob the Black Sorceror is more useful then units killed: 7 commanders killed: 1 and it reminds me what was there in the first place without having to run the combat. Second, after capturing a fortress, some battle information would be welcome. ----- Last, is the most recent topic post on the top of the page? I'm used to seeing things the other way round. Any way I can change how that displays? ---- Thanks for the answers. Rylen [ July 25, 2004, 18:36: Message edited by: rylen ] |
Re: newbie questions and comments
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I also found as Pythium that my Theurgs would randomly cast communion slave/master in a rather disconcerting fashion. If you always script through turn 5 does this prevent mages from casting c slave/master on their own? And while we're on the subject of noob questions: I'm often at a loss as to how best to script combat oriented leaders (e.g. Tsien Chi noble or Pythium Serpent Lord), in the opening game. It seems that these leader types should be getting into the fray, but at least in the opening game I find them getting killed (or at least afflicted) altogether too quickly. This seems to be true even if I hold for 5 turns before attacking. Is it necessary to wait for mid-game (when I can start equipping them with items), before I let these types of leaders into direct attack? Or is there a method to have them be more useful before I can afford to equip them? One thing I have done is to supply them with a cheap bow or misc item (l bow of accuracy or skull talisman), that gives them *something* to do, but it seems like there should be a better option than that... |
Re: newbie questions and comments
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I simply don't use communicants until I get some access to releif. Every time I try ( like in the current game i am playing I tried it ... again ) I get burned. Every freaking time. |
Re: newbie questions and comments
ehh, so you lose a few communicants. there are more where those came from.
but really there are only two things to do: 1. as huzurdaddi said, get mages capable of casting relief (lizards are best, but druids w/ a nature staff work just fine) 2. up your ratio of communicants to theurgs, and go in w/ a stronger army (thus a shorter combat). for mictlan, one word only: Devils. |
Re: newbie questions and comments
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The nature-blood mages give you easy access to crossbreeding, which means loads of cheap fodder. The fire-blood mages give you devils for elite troops. If you invest a little in magic-boosting items you can even start using the horror-sending spells with the astral-blood mages and summon ice devils for SCs with the blood-water mages. [ July 25, 2004, 20:46: Message edited by: Sindai ] |
Re: newbie questions and comments
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Yes, your troops suck, and your battle magic is unimpressive, but you have the BLOOD. Forget about the troops entirely, they're not much more than crappy fodder at best. Fill your missing magics in with your pretender, make sure the blood flows, and mob your opponents in devils and/or vampires. Mictlan's REAL national troops aren't the ones you recruit, they're the ones you can summon: You get spine devils and fiends of darkness as starting national spells, and can quickly move into devils. [ July 25, 2004, 21:16: Message edited by: Norfleet ] |
Re: newbie questions and comments
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but serving as leaders is almost their single purpose . a bane lord ( conjuration 5 , only 10 death gems ) does much better when decent equipped as almost all national leaders as meelee sc . only exeptions that come to my mind are especially : jotun niefel giants , the more expensive vanheim heroes and the 390 gold man tuatha heros . and ermor sg heros like wraith consul and wraith centurion . really worth equipping are some of the special national heros like the ettin mandragora or the wraith lord for ermor if you get them early. your pretender should be equipped and really worth equipping late game are : vampire lords , wraith lords and tartarians |
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Re: newbie questions and comments
is the general strategy for recruiting tons of blood slaves to pick poor provinces with little income and just ignore the unrest that builds up?
and how useful are blood sacrafices (is it a necessity for those races that have it or just an advantage in spreading dominion faster) |
Re: newbie questions and comments
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Blood Hunting Mechanics You'll need to deal with unrest some way. Whether this is through lowering taxes to 0 in a province and only putting 2-4 hunters in it, or patrolling a province and killing the population, then moving on is up to you. Quote:
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Re: newbie questions and comments
has anyone ever tried, or calculated the benefit of doing 200 tax on your capital for the first 10 turns and patrolling heavily (with your starting troops plus a few extras) to keep unrest at 0... In games where expansion is slow at the start, isn't having double the income worth the loss of population at the start of the game?
i've also tried patroling my capital up till turn 40 and the pop drops to about 13.5k from 30.3k, which halves the income, and neutralizes any benefit of having 200 taxes (since you're making the same as if you had 100 tax at the begin). But at that point to stop the patroling+taxing would create a loss in income. And to continue would just kill off everyone in the capital. So, there must be an optimal time to stop patroling+taxing your capital (if you even believe its a good idea in the first place, but truth is, because of its high population, its the ideal, if not only, place to tax+patrol) To do the math I would need to graph out where the income with 200tax becomes less beneficial then income with 100tax (and would need to include future tax revenues as well, since after heavy taxing, normal 100tax drops). The real important factor is how long the game will Last. In short games, heavy taxing might work because the real damage is only felt much later. What I did figure out is that in 40 turns, if i start with a nice 177 income in my capital, i'll make a total 11636 gold from my capital in 40 turns (taking into account the compounded loss of 1.55 income per turn due to population loss of 0.42k per turn. Without population loss (ie, if you have Growth+3, you'd probably make 14160 in total (probably less though). Without 200tax, i would have only made a total 7080 in gold from my capital. So in 40 turns, there was a huge benefit to doing 200 tax the entire time. (although I didn't record the drop in production, although I don't think that gets affected by population drop *as much* as income) Also, I'm not including the upkeep for the starting units+commander, since I consider them a write-off (in a game with indep lvl 6+ they are pretty much useless, so rather then slaughtering them, might as well put them to good use) Anyways, I've only been playing SP, and look forward to some MP action, so please do correct me if I'm heading for trouble with all this. |
Re: newbie questions and comments
Thanks for the replies. I wasn't joking about Mictlan magic -- I just wasn't thinking in the right terms. I'd been trying them on tight maps like Desert Eye and Reemergence where you've got to carve something out or get eaten. I ran them with more emphasis on the summons (and some luck) on Aran to considerable effect. I have not yet tried all the communion reccomendations. For a while, I gave them nature 9 for regeneration, but that didn't help. Some earth and (eventually) high level nature spells.
Thanks. Rylen |
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