Machaka-What are they?
 

We have Mictlan, the pseudo-aztecs, we have T'en C'hi, the psedo-chinese and then we have Machaka, the...
Wait, what are they actualy? I know they have a spider in their flag(or that's what i believe), but what they are exactly?

Re: Machaka-What are they?
 

worshippers of a Spider Queen, which have pointy ears and a dark skin, and which use wrist attached poisonous crossbows?

not very original I would say. Hope thats something else? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Machaka-What are they?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">They are not intended to be dark elves, more like pseudo Zulus riding spiders. They are perhaps less identifiable as rooted in a specific mythology than some of the other nations.

I dont think they feel dark elfy at all and they have a decent mix of troops and mages. All in all I think they are a very well rounded and enjoyable nation to play.

Re: Machaka-What are they?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The specific nation themes have new units, the standard themes doesnt for most nations. Ulm and Marignon does not have new units if you play them with the standard themes. A difference between dom 1 and dom 2 is that most nations cannot recruit holy troops outside their home citadel, Marignon has a slight advantage here in that they still can recruit flagellants in all their castles.

Re: Machaka-What are they?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">They are not intended to be dark elves, more like pseudo Zulus riding spiders. They are perhaps less identifiable as rooted in a specific mythology than some of the other nations.

I dont think they feel dark elfy at all and they have a decent mix of troops and mages. All in all I think they are a very well rounded and enjoyable nation to play.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The Machaka cult and priesthood was inspired by the Shona (south of the Zambesi river). Witch-doctors comes from general african anthropology and spider elements from diverse fantasy settings.

They are a very versatile and strong nation.

Re: Machaka-What are they?
 

These nations themes seems really interesting. Just hope that Ulm will not draw the shortest straw once again with theses.

I also really long to see how Caelum has been toned down. For example the Caelian nation is the sole which had all their troops bypassing etheralness. Just one example amongst many of the advantages Caelum have. Well we will see if tweaks were done on that too.

Re: Machaka-What are they?
 

I haven't played as the Machaka, but I played against them (as Caelum, I believe) . . .

They kicked my . . . umm, my you-know-what. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Lot's of fun though. Their spider mounts will continue to fight even if the riders are slain. I'll bet they're expensive, but they put up one MAJOR fight!!! Their webbing is rough on those enemy troop lines too, and they have some powerful magic-Users to back up the spider-cavalry. Cool stuff, and next on my list to play after Mictlan. (I haven't played with the Blood Magic yet; Mictlan seems like a good choice to try that.)

Oh, and about Ulm: I've played twice as Ulm and I really like them. I think they can hold their own against anybody, as long as you don't do what I did and try to push forward on too many fronts at once! I haven't tried Marignon yet, so can't give you any personal feedback on them.

Re: Machaka-What are they?
 

Please tell they didn't nerf Caelum too much!

Re: Machaka-What are they?
 

Of course we nerfed them too much No point in nerfing too little. We like nerfing. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Actually the nerfing is not on Caelum, but on the storm-flight-archer complex.

Re: Machaka-What are they?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Machaka is nothing like Dark elves and no spider queens or such in site. They just use spiders instead of normal horses. And they are very powerful indeed. I played them in Last game and I kicked some serious ... (censored http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif ) with them. They have more then just those spider thingies with them. A large variety of spell casters that cover almost all skill in magic and (I think the only thing missing is blood magic) and special troops that wear spider armor and 2 weapons (spider warriors I think they are called, since they wear some sort of spider armor which is much stronger then normal armor and not as cumbersome as Ulm armor) - something like human Lord Warden commanders but more protection (and they are standard troops). Another thing is that they have access to almost cheapest shortbows in game, which gives them an early edge, and they DO have heavy infantry (protection 19) so they don't suffer from frontal melee attacks like Man does.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Don't know what problems Ulm had in Dominions I (didn’t play a lot of it, unfortunately) but if it's any indication in all games I play, Ulm is usually the strongest power there is. It even kicked the crap out of Ermor in one of those games (they did it alone, and Caelum only arrived at the end to pick the leftovers) and if you play without Ermor they are mostly 1st-2nd place.