Turn 2 Pretenders
 

I have been playing around with awake pretenders that can take level 5 independents on turn 2. This is what I have come up with so far:

EA Arco and EA Ermor are especially fun to make awake combat pretenders because of the capability to heal afflictions:

Try an awake Virtue A4,D5, dominion7. Place in the back corner and Script Air shield, hold, attack archers. I was totally amazed with this one. I figured with the low hits and low protection it wouldnt work. But try as I might I couldnt give it any inflictions. Try this with Arco and you can get order 3, sloth 3, growth1,magic1,misfortune2. This was my favorite awake pretender chassis due to the ability to be usefull through the entire game and still have good scales.

Moloch, B3,F4, dominion10. Lacks the airshield spell so is vulnerable to missle fire. script to attack archers at the start. Also, his imps draw alot of archer fire away from him. Seems a little more prone to getting afflictions than the virtue. This pretender ran a close second to the virtue as far as cost and being usefull after initial expansion.

Gorgon, E9N4. dont even need the dominon 9-10 for awe.

Wyrm, dominion 9. works great. Does'nt ramp up as well as the first 3 because of lack slots. The amphibian ability gives great flexibilty. cheap too.

Dragon, dominion 9 prefered, but with carefull target selection can pass without the awe affect. An awake dragon with Dom 9 is expensive though and magic pick will not be as high. Also suffers from the lack of slots in dragon form.

Cyclops, E4(or higher), dominion 9. Although stalling a few more turns to get a weapon and shield helps.

Prince of Death, d3 (or higher), dominion 9. Tried this one out as Arco. Got a few afflictions. I spent over 12 turns with priestesses trying to heal him. never got a heal. not sure if I got real unlucky or if arco priestess cannot heal him due to undead status. All in all still one of the better turn 2 pretenders. high fear routs independants quickly.

White bull/black bull. dominion 9. tried this one without the awe affect it gets killed quite often without the awe. I suppose you could pick earth 9 or death 5 for higher protection/fear, but the Awe is the best/cheapest way to go. having the ability to heal afflictions is nice. try to avoid crossbow/ bow heavy independants until a few spells are researched (regeneration) or a few items are equipped.

Dracolich with dominion 9. expands nicely. Although Pangea has alot of nice affliction healing pretenders.

Those are the ones I have tried so far.

Re: Turn 2 Pretenders
 

Level 5 independants? Most of the tougher combat oriented pretenders can handle that(although a few would struggle with a knight province at that level).

Re: Turn 2 Pretenders
 

It sounds like a good comparison. Level 5 is enough to split up the combatant gods from the non-combatant ones. And your impressions of how well they do will be helpful to people who are considering that as a way to go.
Thanks for posting it.

Re: Turn 2 Pretenders
 

Ancient Kraken is a very good expander right from the box, especially with Dom 10 and a few paths.

Re: Turn 2 Pretenders
 

Ancient Kraken, as honey said, is great. I particularly like him with some earth magic to boost his protection.

Re: Turn 2 Pretenders
 

Whenever I try expansion pretenders they always end up taking some weak hit and getting an affliction. I have pretty bad luck with afflictions, is there a way of reducing the chance of an affliction?

Re: Turn 2 Pretenders
 

Take a tougher pretender or wait until they have some equipment(E9 cyclops, PoD with shield ect).

Re: Turn 2 Pretenders
 

Ways to reduce afflictions:

If you give your pretender dominion 9 or 10 you get Awe ability which is the best defense.

Pretenders with regeneration have less chance of gaining aflictions (Wyrm,great mother)

magic path of Air 1 allows you to cast air shield which is very effective combined with Awe and fear.

High Earth path gives high protection.

Also, makes sure you have at least 1 candle of dominion in the territory you attack to gain extra health effects. The more hits you have, the bigger the hit has to be to cause afflictions.Do not attack territory with negative or severe negative dominion without equipment and or buff spells.

Re: Turn 2 Pretenders
 

Regeneration is the only effect that directly impacts whether you take an affliction or not.

Re: Turn 2 Pretenders
 

It's the territory you're attacking from, not the territory you're attacking, that determines the dominion HP boost/penalty.