In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

You are playing 1 human, all other races are in the game on a 275 province map, AI is difficult, random events rare, rest default settings. Of the 275 provinces, 25 are water.

What is your race, god, and exact set up?

I think i have to go with acrosphale. Solar disk as my god for f9 n4 bless on the heart companions. Priests can heal, heart companions with f9 n4 bless rock, and they are low gold cost.

You can also use elephants to rout tough enemies, and if the elephants are stacked with hyperasts, they will fight almost to the bitter end.

You have good astral magic, good mages to cast paralyze. I imprison the solar disk to get max order/prod scales, and take dominion 6.

you get healing of afflictions, and decent priests. commanders can lead a lot troops and have battle standard, not that infantry rout much anyway with their uber morale.

the pretender here is not really a combat god, just used to give a great bless to the heart companions.

While this set up is one i would take if winning was the only goal, i do not really enjoy playing this race for some reason, and do not like the god.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

I also like organized thoughts.

I wish I was better at Dominions so I wouldn't have to play with setups I don't like.

I never understood poetry.

I would use an Oracle because then I wouldn't have to think about moving it.

I like one-sentence paragraphs.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

Which arco? EA? MA? LA?

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

You need to list more information in order to get solid responses. The most key bit of information being: What era??

That said, you are putting a lot of points into a bless on a unit that is not considered a particularly good chasis for blessing. If you are set on going with a bless strategy you should consider another nation.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

Sorry MA.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

I took it for granted it was all eras (altho age still matters in what indepts you see).

Hmmm 275 isnt big enough for me to take my usual favorites. 13 provinces each? And winning the only goal? Id probably take Tien Chi and build it into a super-luck powerhouse.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

This is actually going to happen, but the loser has to buy pizza for a week. Not a $ 1,000, but pride is on the line.

This particular friend always plays Ermor or Abysya, with either the POD or the Moloch.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

Well keep mine in mind then. If you cant beat them, then coin them. (flip of the coin, go with luck and prepare to make use of the quirks of the game).

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

Are you playing vs. AI or humans?

It's hard to lose with a water nation vs. the AI.

Although, with 3 water nations and only 25 water provinces, it's going to be a tough early game.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

Do you want to win without effort and remain fairly safe?

Pick a 9w/9f bless nation with Dom 10; Vanheim, Mictlan, Pangaea, Marignon (unlikely to build 10 knights a turn), ect.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

No Gorgon Tactic?

Why just MA?

Usually play LA a lot.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

Middle or late Age R'Lyeh. Order 3, cold 3, luck 2, magic 3, dominion 10. Take an imprisoned void lord with no extra magic. Research to voice of tiamat, then to construction 6 and start making clams till you have at least a hundred. You now have an almost unlimited gem supply.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

To win, you have to kill the other human. The other races are in the game you only to act as a buffer, and allow the game to develop a bit before the 2 humans lock horns.

Since abysia can be annoying with fire generating troops, I think trampling them with elephants may be the best way to break up his front wall quickly.

And if he plays ermor, there will be a ton of ethereal units, so i want the fire bless. Plus those ma ermor sacred units have a very high defense, so f9 could be real useful.

We do have a couple of "house" rules. No immortal gods, and no burden of time.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

Selfish, what pretender could you use to get f9, w9, dominion 10 pretender for Pangaea or vanaheim?

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

If you really want to irritate the Abysians, why not take a nation with strong cold dominion? They will all keel over from exhaustion halfway through a cold battle.

Using a fire bless vs. ermor is not efficient. You are better off just using the standard tactic of mass-producing priests and Herald Lances.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

The delay due to the other AIs is why I picked a nation that has water/nature mages. If you think you can hold out for 50 or so turns before having to deal with your human opponent, then building Clams of Pearls is probably one of the best strategies.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

Interesting thought on MA ryleh,

Since I have seldom played Ryleh, a couple of questions:

Why take cold 3, they have no cold protection? Cold 3 adds extra encumbrance when casting and cold 2 does not?

Why take order 3 and luck 2? The random events will be set on rare, and with order 3, do you think there will be enough random events to spend 80 points on luck?

Given that there are only 25 water squares, I will have to dispose of the other 2 water races in short order. What is a good Ryleh MA strategy early in the game with your SC imprisoned? What troops do you crank out? One of the other water races has a very good mr, will this make them rough to mind blast?

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

Cold scale does not have any effect underwater, so it will onlybecome anissue when he goes on land, in which case the armies should be on the leading edge of the dominion anyway. Order 3 because R'lyeh really needs the cash.

Luck 2 will help some, especially to get the heroes, in which case send Cthugul the Stargazer to the Void Gate to get a surfeit of void monsters. Though I'm not sure if this is the motive for it.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

I often play Ryleh as i like Lovecraft.

I would take sloth3, order3, cold3, and positive luck.

Take ghost king, if master lich is not allowed as immortal pretender, and use his diverse magic paths to find lots of magic sites and get a gem income very quickly.

Research Thaumaturgy5 quickly and use Gateway in lab near you in a water province, with a lot of Ilithids set to fire closest and fire archers from back row and additional cast darkness with Ghost king. Maybe additional starspawns will join the party casting Soul Slay and Enslave Mind.
Ghost king will also have nature to forge some bags of wine after constr.4 is researched.

Usually do like a bit smaller maps, i would take then a SC Kraken with some air, water and astral.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

I think either way is a valid choice; although, be careful if you choose a water nation that he isn't thinking to do the same thing!

I don't know which map you'll be playing on though.

Basically it's taking an Uber-bless strat to kill the AI faster than your friend, so you can have a much larger nation when you bump heads, vs. taking a water nation and camping the depths until you have enough magical resources to crush everyone with "tech". Either way should work alright as long as your friend is not too clever or does something really off-the-wall

I'll need to get home to remember which Pretender to use with Vanheim; you can pick the Father of Winter i believe... Take 3 Cold, 2-Drain, 3-Sloth, Imprisoned, and that should get you to 9f/9w. Yea, +3,-3,-3,0,-2,-2, will get you Dominion 9 and 9w/9f with a Father of Winter. Although this sucks a bit because you have 32 points unspent, and no way to spend them... but you get the idea.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

If you use the kraken, why take astral and water?

Do you not want nature to try and get gift of health to cure your summoners?

If you use him as a sc, would you need some earth for protection?

He seems like he has a weak attack with -5 damage on his tentacles. Not sure why they would cripple him like that, since he is stuck in water anyway(without item). And he poisons himself?

A pretender with a poison attack should have 100 percent poison immunity. What is up with that developers?

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

Tentacles are armour piercing, so they are still good weapons even with the damage malus.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

Well, kraken is excellent played him often, but he requires an amulet of the fish later and has not all item slots like humanoid pretenders.

Gift of health is not needed for Ryleh, kraken has recuperation.

Astral is good for many things, but mainly for body ethereal in the first few turns, he cannot wear the ethereal robe so its required, there is mistform too though, but astral makes him also teleport around on the map, kraken can only move 1 hex on the global map.

Water is very important for the kraken, to cast quicken self, it makes the kraken really powerful with his many tentacles, never use a kraken without quickness...

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

I was thinking gift of health for the summoners. Don't they get feeble minded and are basically useless after a few summons? I remember they can't summon and you lose your best summoners because they get that affliction.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

If that's all that was bad that happened to them, maybe it would be worth it.

If your using a Starspawn (not an Illithid), though, you're guy is far more likely to die from a random void monster than get feebleminded.

Don't worry about losing a couple Starspawns, it's just part of the theme.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

well there is no need to lose them to summoned monsters, just script them to retreat from battle.

Re: In a death match, with $1000.00 on the line
 

Retreat from battle does not work when attacked at the void gate i tried that of course, the starspawn still fights...

Starspawns rarely get feebleminded, but they get quite often attacked by void creatures. Ritual of returning or a good combat script can help. If multiple creature attack in a combat he is usually wasted.

I make plenty of Starspawns and do not hesitate to waste them for a good summon, sometimes you get a void hero out of the gate, those heroes are unlike all other heroes with really high magic path and unique ablities. I got one who had 20 movement on the global map! He could move on Big Maps in a few turns and make labs everywhere for Gateways.I think he was called Astral or Star Traveller, and he had very high Astral Magic path too. But getting him is extremely rare...