Favorite Evil theme.
 

Hey, I was just wondering what everyone's favorite evil themed army is...
I've always been a neutral Arco player with lots of order and productivity and I want to mix things up and play as a nation that has some hardcore badness going around, but so far, I just suck at doing all that... hehe, so I'm looking for ideas. THanks

Re: Favorite Evil theme.
 

I think that Miasma C'tis is the strongest of the 'nasty' themes. Maybe the only theme that can really stand its ground against the astral/air powerhouses.

The two Dead Ermor themes can be devastating against the AI, but in MP, things are stacked against them. The Ashen Empire is decent, and with it, diplomacy is an option. Pangea Carrion Wood... not too many good players have looked hard enough at that theme.

Now, note that I do not include Abysia among the 'evil' themes. Enslaving the humans and keeping them down does not make them anymore evil than the Vanir, Jotun, etc...

Re: Favorite Evil theme.
 

I like Pangaea so Pangaea Carrion-Woods theme is probably my "evil" nation.

Re: Favorite Evil theme.
 

Carrion Woods is certainly my favorite "dark" theme - it isn't a magical powerhouse like, mmm, Pythium and Caelum, but it's actually quite solid - it just takes some creativity with the pretender setup, which really makes or breaks CW, since there's no randoms on national mages, and the population dies off too quickly to make positive scales much good. ( If the black centaurs weren't capitol only, it'd be more viable to take positive scales and have a multipronged threat. )

And with some luck (which most nations & themes can really use) I've had CW be at least a top-3 nation in several 10+ player games.

Re: Favorite Evil theme.
 

I second that. It is really quite powerfull when you consider how reliant most players are on SCs.

Re: Favorite Evil theme.
 

I believe you could actually recruit the Black Dryads for a long while; what if you put an Idol or three in your capital city? This should drop your Dominion to 0, hence resulting in no population loss, while possibly allowing your scales to remain in the capital.

Resources require 10 population per resource, or 1,000 inhabitants to use all your resources (I believe it is the latter, but cannot swear it is so), so you would only need to preserve a small part of your population to produce units in the capital. Gold would, of course, be another matter.

I have been intrigued by Carrion Woods, but do not know what sort of Pretender to pick. What would be your rough advice on the matter? (Either I end up with a Pretender too focused, or one unable to do anything well)

Re: Favorite Evil theme.
 

My vote goes to recuperating (or immortal) hyper-combattants.

Re: Favorite Evil theme.
 

I personally prefer the Carrion Dragon. It's thematic and still a great combatant.

But then again, I've never done well with CW, so what do I know? ^^;

Re: Favorite Evil theme.
 

The carrion dragon is indeed very thematic for CW and is also a top tier SC pretender - definately one of the best for CW. With Zen's pretender mod, I'd include a couple of others as distinct possibilities - the lichs and PoD, for example.

Re: Favorite Evil theme.
 

Carrion Dragon but be sure to put the magics on him equal to the Pan-looking guy so you can create carrion leaders without having to buy a mage. OR I take Lord of the Wild to get the Maenads back that I lost by taking the theme. I also love making an assassin out of him later.

Re: Favorite Evil theme.
 

Sure - I think _any_ CW pretender you probably want N3 and D4 (at least D2) on. Even if you plan to recruit a Panic Apostate right away (and prophetize to reduce upkeep), it's handy being able to conjure up a carrion lord on the front lines with your pretender, not to mention finding magic sites to boost the nature and death income. Then add paths (since you have plenty of points) for forging, summonings, searching, and let's not forget, Super-combatanting.

Re: Favorite Evil theme.
 

I was wondering what would you guys think about CW if the Carrion lords would be able to summon each other, just like Dusk Elders do for AE?
Its very easy to do in a mod, and could lead to a lot of fun, but would it be balanced?

Re: Favorite Evil theme.
 

Well, you guys convinced me to play as the Carrion Wood theme. Its quite a change from my Arco style, I was wondering, how do I maximize carrion and manikin production? Also, I've never been big on buying expensive holy troops, but I'm testing out those dark centaur... are they really worth it?
Also, my pretender has 3 N, and 4 D, 1 B... any spell research\casting advice?

OH, and how many commanders should I have re-animating? or does it matter, i have 3 summoned undead Pans currently workin it.

thaaaaaaaaank. you

Re: Favorite Evil theme.
 

I'm all about Ermor Broken Empire and C'tis Desert Tombs.

Re: Favorite Evil theme.
 

Yea, I like C'tis DT. The only reason I don't play it more is because of that hefty price tag...