Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favorite?
 

Or views and favorites, as the case may be.

First off, I apologize if there is a topic about this kind of thing already.(lousy at finding stuff x.x)

Truth be told, I'm fairly new to the game, and I've been wondering what seems to be popular or at least personal favorites in regard to blessings on your stuff.

I'm trying my hand at a Fire, Water and Astral (all 9's) setup for (Early Age) Mictlan at present. First time I've ever given a bit of thought to blessings, but the non sacred stuff in that empire isn't exactly efficient.

Feel free to give feedback on my above setup.
Yes, you may ridicule it or even tear it to pieces, but at least tell me WHY you'd do it differently.

Note that I am NOT looking for JUST Mictlan blessings specificly, I'm more interested in a general view and/or for various empires.

So please, share some of your views and or favorites.
Of course, I can understand if you'd prefer to keep your secret weapons a secret http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favor
 

One of the things I like about Mictlan is you don't seem to need a great bless to make the jaguar warriors formidable. They're so easy to mass that you don't need a crazy 9F/9W bless or anything. This is compounded with the jaguar transformation.

But then again I don't seem to be doing too well in the MP game I'm playing, so I could be off here.

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favorite?
 

Mictlan are one of the only nations that can cope with a triple bless like that, for a whole raft of reasons.

Most nations can only sustain a double bless, and many of those don't have any reason to.

As a general rule, to go for a double bless you want a nation to have very capable sacreds. Lanka's Palankashas and Tir's Tuatha are examples. You can also go for a dual bless if you have sacreds which are of above-average quality and recruitable everywhere.

If a nation has weak sacreds (C'tis' sacred serpents and Marignon's Flagellants are good examples), a strong bless isn't worthwhile.

Paths for blesses vary. Some rules of thumb:

If the sacred has high strength (15+), it's probably not worth going for F9 - the AP damage isn't needed.

If the sacred has high defence already, or other good defensive abilities, W9 is a good way to make them nearly invulnerable. If they're very weak defensively, W9 won't do too much for them and may not be worthwhile. The 50% haste off W9 is a nice perk for most sacreds.

If the sacred has over 30-40 hits, a high N bless will add a lot of staying power to them - N9's berserk can be pretty hard to survive if you don't regenerate a lot of hits per round.

Sacreds with very heavy armour like E9, both for the extra armour and for the reinvigoration that keeps them going longer. Sacred spellcasters love an Earth bless too.

Astral-9 bless is a late-game thing, mostly. The MR boost helps low-MR sacreds in mid to late-game against nasty high power spells. Also, S9 means your pretender is built to cast Wish and Master Enslave.

Death blesses are pretty niche use - if you're sure you'll be facing ethereal hordes it might be worthwhile. Sacred casters who can cast mass damage spells might like a Death bless - it'll boost the effect of something like an Earthquake by giving surviving victims of the spell nasty afflictions.

Don't take Blood 9 for the bless - it's worthless. The extra strength from lower blesses is probably a bit niche too.

Really don't take Air for the bless.

Mictlan
 

I was the first person that used to argue that Mictlan is an incredibly formidle nation, when it was commonly held to be weenie.

You are using one of the top 3 blesses that I like; I also like a F9, A9, N9, and F9 N9, Ax, where x>=4.

Personally, I think bless strategies are unbeatable (and unbalanced) in Dominions. However, I'm playing my first mp with Dominion pros - sooooooo I may be completely wrong.

My favorite nations for bless strategies are
TienChi, Ermor, Marignon, Mictlan, and Lanka, more or less in that order.

Re: Mictlan
 

One thing I like about the bless concept is that the paths with the most powerful magic (Blood, Death, Astral to a point) typically have the worst blesses, and the paths that are great for blesses don't have end game spells. For example, nothing in the Earth, Fire, Nature, or Water path requires higher than 6 to cast or forge. There's only 1 Air spell that requires A7.

Air and Astral are a bit of an anomaly, but it holds true for the elemental magic paths. I actually think the Air bless should be significantly improved for this reason.

I think my favorite bless nation is either EA Niefelheim or EA Lanka. When I don't feel like strategizing or heavy micromanagement, I love wiping out the AI with hordes of Niefel Giants. I like Lanka because the sacred bless extends far beyond the capital troops into regular forts, and blood summons.

Re: Mictlan
 

that's a rather strong claim. Serious bless strats for mictlan date back almost four years. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Mictlan
 

For myself, I seem drawn to high-Earth blesses to use with Sacred Mages or Astral Mages. E.g., an Earth-9 Pretender for any version of Arco is cute since you can manufacture the Shroud of the Battle Saint for all of your Mystics/other mages. Get 12 Prot and 4 Reinvigoration with no encumbrance and 5 astral pearls is a cute trick.

Re: Mictlan
 

Yes, the Niefel Giants are probably the most fun to uber-bless, and then watch them kill entire armies on their own. They are good, quick, easy fun. Bless 'em, buff 'em, and then send them out.

My personal favorite though, is MA Ermor's Shadow Vestals. With the right bless, they are almost unstoppable (there are ways to stop them, but the AI never figures it out, and many players do not either). It's great fun to watch a handful of them take out a strong Indie, and also fun to watch the first time an unsuspecting player attacks them.

True, they are capitol only, but they are cheap, and they hardly ever die, so you can actually build a good bless strategy around them.

Re: Mictlan
 

His first post was on June 16th 2004, suggesting double bless for Mictlan. It was in a thread Tinkthank made about Mictlan being very weak, and in which Graeme Dice, PvK and Norfleet (of posters with 2000+ posts) didn't mention double-bless spesifically. Teraswaerto used a F9 single bless.

It seems he's actually right! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favor
 

My favourite blessed troops are LA Tien'Chis Ancestor Vessels. They are good as-is, but with something like quickness, little defence/protection and offencive (fire/death) they are just lovable.

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favor
 

My favorite bless is EA Agartha, even though this faction seems underused they are my favorite by far. Give the giants, which can be built anywhere, a E9 bless with F4 and at least N4 and you have powerful weapons. Added to this your already great mages just got that much better when it comes to casting. Magma Eruption ad infinitum is pretty amazing to see, even with low precision. That doesnt even count if you add Earth Reinvig items to said mages, it just keeps getting better.

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favor
 

I'm playing EA Agartha in a newbie MP currently with a heavy bless strategy. I don't know you need a huge Nature bless, and I seriously recommend a Fire bless so they can actually hit anything.

One thing I did pass on was the Earth bless, which I'm regretting in cold provinces, seeing how quickly their cold-blooded bodies fatigue when it's not temperate.

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favor
 

I like the Nifel Giants.

The only question for me is: How much nature?

Getting a good Earth/Nature bless with Niefelheim and okay scales is tough. Earth 9 seams like a good idea because reinvigoration and protection are needed.
So is the 4th point of Nature. That regeneration is quite good allready and -iirc- reduces the number of afflictions you suffer. So you have Earth 9, Nature 4 and quite good scales to do some really fast recruiting in the beginning, like:
Round 1: 2 Giants, troops set to patrol, scout is made prophet.
Round 2: 1 Niefel Jarl
Round 3: Jarl and Giants on "Guard commander" and Prophet move out, 2 more Giants
Round 4: 1 Niefel Jarl, 1 Giant
Round 5: Jarl with 3 Giants on Guard commander move out.
...
Every second round another Jarl with 2 or 3 Giant gets ready, what should be enough to fight independants without looses (make sure it's really cold, when you attack Barbariens, though). Against opponents have 2 of your teams join, use mercs or cheap independants to siege the castle.

Your research will start late, focuss on:
Enchantment 1: Breath of Winter
Alteration 4: Wolven Winter, quickness
Construction: Nice stuff
Alteration 6: Sould Vortex

At this point, you should be in the mid-game. Jotun Hirdman make a major part of the troops. Niefel Giants, in bigger packs, run around with much priest and some mage support, Niefel Jarls make thugs in troops of 1 to 4

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favor
 

You want to go E9N9 with Niefel giants I reckon. That way they regenerate insanely fast and never run away.

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favor
 

There was a long post about Niefelheim's ideal bless, I don't think any consensus was reached. Some players love N9+ for the huge regeneration and berserk. Others say if you take E8+ you don't need such high regeneration. Others advocated a Water/Nature bless.

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favor
 

There is the nice Son of Fenrir for a Water/Nature Bless but for Earth/Nature you best take a Master Druid, so you have to buy Dominion from 1.

It's simple: Do you want good scales? With Order 3/Productivity 3 you can still get One and a half Blesses. You will have many Giants fast. However with two full blesses, you will have fewer but definitily more powerful.

I prefer the first variant, becourse in the time, the second version is better the first is still definitly good enough.

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favor
 

My favorite sacred troop is Helheim's valkyrie. Even simple W9 bless makes these chicks ridiculous in combat. The best part, however, is their extreme mobility & stealth ability, which makes it really hard to counter them even if you do have forces capable of fighting them.

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favor
 

When I played Big N. I went with a E6N6W4S4B4 bless... OK, the blood and astral were for paths, not the bless specifically.

Specifically, I felt N6 was the sweet spot. N4 gives you 5% regen, while N6 gives you 10%, or twice as much! However, going N8 (to say nothing of N9) means only an increase of 50% more HP per round for a much higher cost. The law of diminishing returns kicks in and when N6 is plenty of regen for taking on most indies I'd say you're set.

As for the Beserk bonus... Neifel giants have pretty high morale to start with. If they're fleeing, chances are they're getting beat bad and its probably for the best.

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favor
 

I really dislike the beserk, actually. They have something like 17 morale after blessing.

I think that E9N6 is a good enough bless for them. The vast majority of the time they kill mundane troops with their stacked frost aura, anyways, not their attacks.

Jazzepi

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favor
 

I kind of like the berserk. When I have played them in MP, I won many battles because, even though my army routed, the Niefels who had gone berserk stayed and fought, and killed everything attacking them.

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favor
 

The reason I started this topic, is that I couldn't really find too many tactics/suggestions for Blessings.

Neither in General or on a "per nation" basis.

Since it's one of the points in the game you have ALOT of fine control over, it does help if you can find some guidelines and/or suggested approaches to them.

Granted, some blessings are more useful then others, as +2 STR isn't going to help you alot against stuff that stacks miss chances.

Still, +2 STR on units with multiple attacks CAN hurt the opponent quite nasty.

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favorite?
 

Death bless with the increased affliction chance does have a nice role. It is called maiming SC pretenders. Win or lose the battle, you don’t care as long as you leave the pretender a mess. Feeble minded is best, mute is good, but any combination of three or four or those red hearts will really upset your enemy.

Against regular troops, the impact is not as visible. However, each time you hit, you are likely weakening the opponent and increasing the chance of winning. If you lose, well, you leave a little gift. Disease is especially nice, it is the gift that goes on giving.

If you are going for a long term Death spell strategy, you may want the path anyway.

On other paths, do not underestimate the Twist Fate effect for astral. One hit may not seem that much, but for a lot of smaller units, one hit is all they will ever take before dying. The magic resistance could be good if you have undead sacreds, as it makes it harder to banish them, the standard threat you will be facing.

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favorite?
 

Death blessing:

I like it with sacred archers, in combination with the fire and flee option.

Also nice with sacred commanders doing things like.. blade of wind, storm of thorns etc.

1-2 rounds then retreat.

Re: Blessed Sacred Troops: what is YOUR view/favor
 

I love the Death bless with LA Tien Chi.

The enemy reaches your line of sacred heavy cavalry archers already wounded and scared (from the fear effect on the sacreds) and then has to fight solid Heavy cavalry.

With a W9D6 bless they fire more often as well.

Sacred mages, too.

It may not be the most effective strategy, but it seems thematic and plays to their strengths.