I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

I have the least experience, and feel for, the MA game, so lately I've been practicing with a variety of races and approaches. My first game wih Man I had some incredible luck--the first crone I recruit has Air 4, which, according to one of the guides is exceedingly rare.

But I've also had some terrible luck- I wasn't watching the clock, so to speak, and I recruited her in Late Winter of year one, which is an instant affliction.

Oh, but good luck once again- She wasn't hit with disease!

For now I have her out site searching as fast as possible, as she is wasted researching and I have no heavy-hitting spells I need her for.

It's a pity I can't get Gift of Life soon enough to save her!

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

if you have an N4 bless, just give her a shroud. or failing that, a ring of regen. it will save her

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

I'm afraid I didn't go for Nature. I do have Growth-1, but that will only do so much.

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

then yeah, build her the ring of regen

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

Having Growth 1 should slightly lessent the chance to get a disease in late winter.
Having regeneration from a ring or blessing would prevent the crone from losing HP because of a disease, but it wouldn't prevent her from getting more afflictions from the disease or old age.

My advise would be to forge a thristle mace for the crone in order to increase its Nature magic level, as Nature levels increase the old age cap and enough of it might make your crone young again. It wouldn't remove afflictions, but the crone would not gain new ones anymore during winter.

If a thristle mace is not enough, you could maybe empower the crone in Nature. It is usually too costly to be worth the gems, but is you don't have already A4 with your pretender, keepeing the crone alive would allow you to build the Air boosters later (both need A4).

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

It takes something like n4 or n5 to get a crone out of old age territory, so that's not really an ideal method. A ring of regen is the best bet for now, but what it really wants are boots of youth or an elixir of life.

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

In desperation, even Transformation could be used.

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

Do not despair unnecessarily. I have played a lot with Man and as long as crones are kept in growth dominion, afflictions are by no means a sure thing. During my games the crones that actually get really debilitating afflictions are in a clear minority.

But make sure you keep her in growth dominion. Pay attention if you site search with her.

If you do not have access to air boosters without the crone, her ability to craft the first air booster is by far the most important feature, so research up to construction 4 reasonably early. As long as you have one booster, her extra point of air magic is nice, but nothing that earth-shattering.

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

Thanks for the advice, folks. I'm about to enter into the next late winter, and we will see how she fares. Boots of Youth are more or less impossible for me, and any other options are still a ways off with Ring of Regeneration being the closest option to hand.

In the vein of good luck, bad luck, I had the good luck to discover Ulm, my newest enemy, after Asco and Atlantis, has a number of completely undefended territories. I decided to order my Bard prophet, who had been scouting the area out, to capture the provinces.

My bad luck crops up again, though, in that I forgot to update my prophet's battle orders, and he promptly retreated into enemy territory and died!

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

As far as I know, Regeneration doesn't actually help prevent old age disease or other afflictions. It just stops the hp loss once you are diseased.

It's also never been clear to me whether being closer to your max age is better than being much over it. It may be worth giving her a Thistle mace for the turn anyway, if you can get one. At least for next year, if she doesn't get diseased this year.

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

This is the case, yes.

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

It's always appeared to me that my diseased units get far fewer monthly afflictions if they have regeneration. Did you run a test?

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

yeah i'm with vfb here. i've never gotten more afflictions twith a shroud. maybe it add the 90% or whatever less chance of afflictions.

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

I suppose this will be my last update as to the fate of my super-fantastic Crone.

Good news- She survived Late Winter without even a new wound! Thank you to those of you who advised I bring her back into my own growth dominion. She had actually been out in death 2 and three dominion I had conquered from Asco (Who had Turmoil, Sloth, Death, Misfortune, and nuetral Magic. Dangerous choice!)

Bad News- Early Spring of Year 4, Morrigan he Crone of Avalon was killed by an arrow from the sky as she was site searching within securely within my borders. I am, if only slightly, tempted to reload. But I won't, as I have a good feeling about this game, even with her death.

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

lol. that's lame

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

lol at those AI scales

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

You'll get a few 4-5 N Crones with Man, not many though. Those are the ones worth putting a thistle mace on, since it will get them back under Max age.

Growth scales definitely help, and rings of regen will keep the diseased ones alive for quite a while, and seems to lessen their chances for new afflictions.

Of course, casting the Gift of Health is your best friend for helping out the Crones.

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

Beware, even with regen you still loose 1hp each late winter.

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

Regeneration gives you 1/8th of the chance to recieve an affliction compared to non-regenerating charactes. I've always led myself to believe that is also the case with catching old-age disease; at least old characters with regeneration (a ring of regen for example) have seemed to get diseased much less often than those without regeneration. No hard data though, just what I've believed and felt it to be like :)

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

We don't know for sure that this is true, though it is a widely held belief.

KO shed some doubt on the subject, suggesting the affliction reduction was based on regen percentage in some way.

As far as I know no conclusive tests have been conducted.

Re: I'm have the worst, and best, of luck playing Man.
 

The 1/8th chance come from a ingame tip so it is official, but it might be a relic from earlier versions and not be true anymore.