Ermor LA Start
 

Should have dusk elder to start with....or else other pretenders with different path as 2-3+ death and "awake" are most useless. i think it would help out ashen empire a lot in some of its shortcomings too...

Re: Ermor LA Start
 

Yes you are forced to take an awake pretender with some death magic.

On the other side you get massive points from the scales. Which is a very good compensation.

Re: Ermor LA Start
 

but you could have more points if you could have a dormant or imprisoned pretender. and other paths than death with a dusk elder to start with. you get massive point fromt he scales to just investin 1 unit, not that good as it sounds http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Ermor LA Start
 

Actually, in SP, it's an interesting challenge to start with an imprisoned pretender and rely on freespawns and your starting commanders...

You'd get rolled over in MP, of course, but the AI handles undead hordes so badly it's doable in SP.

Re: Ermor LA Start
 

while i play mostly mp, i thought about taking an imprisoned pretender like sphinx with good astral path and other paths but no death. adding death magic is easy enough due to the huge gem income. and its possible to spread wide without any magics too you pillage own home province and wait some turns to get more commanders and undead then attack. usually play with indie strenght8 so only with mercenarys its a good idea to attack turn2. anyways, since i saw some guys posting ermor in la is a lot nerfed compared to dom2 and their national summons are so expansive either its fair to start with a dusk elder, it would beef up ermor a lot. and no other changes are needed, it would make this nation more diverse. never really played ermor with SC only rainbow mage with very high death and astral magic, as i think their econeomy is gems in the first place.

plus, not really an advantage to start later with your god as ashen empire, as he is better of to research or search for magic sites early on or they have some problems. so starting with dusk elder first is just for the good of it.

Re: Ermor LA Start
 

Considering that Turmoil-3, Cold-3, Sloth-3, Death-3 and Luck-3 are essentially "normal" for a net 360-point bonus, and that you don't really benefit much from uberblesses, what else would you spend the points on from dormant/imprisoned? You can already easily afford high dominion and plenty of low-level magic on an immortal Master Lich.

Re: Ermor LA Start
 

well in my current mp game i play allready an immortal master lich, with very high death, high astral and 2 in all other magic paths except blood. as for your question: diversity is the answer.

Re: Ermor LA Start
 

The master lich is a strictly inferior choice to the Lich Queen. His base cost is 10 less than the Lich Queen, he has only 5 hitpoints compared to her 18, her attack and defense stats are superior, and his base dominion is 3 compared to her 4. It costs 296 points to bring him to Dominion 10, while the Lich Queen only costs 257 points to bring to dominion 10. (You want dominion 10 with LA Ermor since everybody is going to ally against you no matter what dominion you take, and because of the bug that caps temple effectiveness at the level of your initial dominion no matter how many you have built.) I cannot think of any comparison where the master lich comes out ahead of the lich queen.

Re: Ermor LA Start
 

By picking him over the Queen your opponent may be forced to conclude you are unfamiliar with Ermor LA and rate you as less of a threat.

-straw grasped-

Re: Ermor LA Start
 

lich queen is not as good as you guys think, that was in dom2 age. master lich is vastly improved in dom3. look his magic path cost, he makes for a perfect immortal rainbow mages. if you use him as rainbow mage with high death and good astral magic he is cheaper as the lich queen. i do not care about his attack or defense stats he is immortal and can be protected by his troops when in battle casting spells. using lichqueen as rainbow mage costs much more than master lich even if both are raised to dominion10. just try it. if you want no additional non-undead summons its your choice, but all that lichqueen empahsis won't help when it comes to wither bones and dust to dust. and ermor really needs an rainbow mages as spectators and dusk elders are more needed to cast rituals and for research.i playe thousand of ermor games. lol your only hope is a good gem income!

Re: Ermor LA Start
 

The master liche also has an additional misc magic item slot. It's a modest bonus, to be sure, but can save you a lot of points on the right build - if nothing else, it's notably cheaper to buy the earth levels needed for a crystal coin than it is to buy astral 6 up from 5 (since rings, skullcap give +3) and then you have earth magic to boot.

I'm willing to believe that Graeme's little finger knows more about Dominions than I do, but that at least is one possible case where master liche comes out ahead. If you want an SC chassis, the queen is obviously better (although I'd guess the Prince, though not immortal, is a much better choice than either for initial expansion needs).

Re: Ermor LA Start
 

well, PoD's only problems are afflictions he cannot be healed as undead so he needs always the chalice or gift of health. Risking him in big battles is......well too risky http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I tend to rather use hordes of undead troops and the pretender cast rituals and search for magic sites, SC is not really needed with ermor, you win by numbers and you can create enough thugs by summoning wraith lords and maybe even using the Tartarian Gate, if the map is big. Try make a Tatarian Monstra your prophet, it starts with flying and 300hp! if its dead its not that bad you lost 10 death gems. Your God on the other site better should be protected as he can do quite a lot each turn with high magic paths.

While Lich Queen is a good choice i am not fully convienced she is the best choice as i do not see why fighting with Pretender is the best solution when you have thousands of other units doing exactly that, certainly not a no brainer... if we would talk about dom2 i would agree, not here though as things on Master Lich have changed quite a lot.

And as said before, if Ermor LA would start with a Dusk Elder it would allow for much more Pretender customization, it would not be very effective, but players would have a choice, that would not totally cripple them. Anyways, i try now some impossible AI's with imprisoned Ermor Pretender http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Fair enough against the AI.

Just weird, that only Ermor really requires an awake Pretender with death magic path of at least 2, why force it?

Re: Ermor LA Start
 

In my game with imprisioned pretender and ashen empire i did well enough luck3 gave me 2 heroes, unfortantely it seems most heroes do have just priest lvls but no death magic paths, i only know that wraith lord has death3 at least. With him the whole issue having no pretender early would be no more. Some more heroes with at least death path +2 could work too.