Encumbrance and blessings
 

I've come back to an old favorite recently, Helheim. W9 is of course a classic bless for sacred cavalry, but I've been really impressed with how nice an E10 bless (off a Cyclops) is. Not so much for the Protection, although Prot15 (18 with Legions of Steel) in EA is pretty nice, but because a net encumbrance of 0 makes a huge difference against indies and other hordes of chaff. I'm kind of used to seeing things stack up bodies for 10 rounds or so and then suddenly evaporate when fatigue gets so high that crits start happening, but with an E10 bless those valks and helhirdlings keep going *forever*. Actually I'm using an F4W4E10N4 bless (low dominion and moderately bad scales, in SP). One Dis by herself, no equipment, took out 30 indies, which certainly isn't something I'm used to seeing happen.

So, I'm impressed by the E10 bless. Experience gives you attack and defense, spells can increase your strength or damage dealt, but it's really, really hard to keep fatigue down. You need to either be a thug that can have reinvigoration items, or if you're dealing with non-commander units you need to cast Relief (meh) or start off with 0 encumbrance in the first place. That means Earth blessings are one of the few truly unique blesses. (F9 and Death being the others.)

Disclaimer: yes, often hordes of chaff are going to be as effective or more effective in competitive play than a handful of elite units with a bless. Sometimes elite units are more fun than a scale strategy, and sometimes they're not. (C'tis is lots of fun even with unblessed units.)

-Max

Re: Encumbrance and blessings
 

Is a level 10 bless ever really worth the points in MP? I've never really seen anyone suggest going above a level 9 bless in MP.

Having a net encumbrance of 0 is interesting though.

Re: Encumbrance and blessings
 

People tend to freak out when it comes to design point efficiency in MP. Disregard it and use your nation, diplomacy and a fun pretender to win instead. Earth 10 is good. Perhaps less efficient than some builds, but quite good in some instances, and better than having an imprisoned pretender without magic or dominion, and you can probably win an MP game with these settings anyway.

Re: Encumbrance and blessings
 

It probably depends a lot upon your base chassis. E10 on a Cyclops is, um, 56 points more than E9. I have found that the extra reinvig is quite nice when you wind up fighting in swamp, extreme cold, or both. (You'll have a net encumbrance of 1 or 3 instead of 2 or 4, respectively.) However, I don't play competitive MP so I couldn't say whether it's worth the points in MP--I suspect that E10 would be useful more for its effects on mages than on cavalry.

-Max

Re: Encumbrance and blessings
 

Freak out?! What are you talking about, you crazy nutjob - do you have any idea how many points e10 costs - your 'fun and diplomacy' pretender is doomed... how could you ever come up with such a stupid idea?!?!

Re: Encumbrance and blessings
 

Just put him to sleep and pretend that he only hears peace proposals. Then your empire will be safe and orderly. And fun to boot http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

You will also have a good chance of getting a nice title, such as Creator of the World or some such.

Re: Encumbrance and blessings
 

I'm with you Kristoffer! I'm sick of crazy power gaming. When I play I try to play for the fun of it.

Re: Encumbrance and blessings
 

I actually laughed out loud upon reading this. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Encumbrance and blessings
 

One reason why I enjoy LAN battles with AIs with my friend instead of bigger MP battles is that we have more opportunity to screw around and have fun with odd builds, oddball strategies and the like.

The most effective strategies in hardcore MP games is also usually the least interesting. i.e. the infamous tank rush.

Re: Encumbrance and blessings
 

Earth ten all the way. Whatever makes the game fun for you. Besides, there are more bonuses to be had then just 1 point of reinvigoration. Like having one more point of protection on you nasty pretender, and 5 more gems added to the difficulty to dispel his earth-based world enchantments. And finally a slight increase to your battlefield spells, like the awesome magma eruption.