[johan osterman]

Originally posted by Zen:
I'm sorry Johan. I was being sarcastic. Ah, so much is lost on the internet.

I meant the requirement for the Carrion to have at least Growth 1 for the theme, so you don't get too many points .

Part of the reason that the Carrion Woods theme is strong is because it is like Ermor; you can just pillage and tax to death everyone in your lands and let the Carrion Lords mop up while you make scads of Minos, Harpies and Pans.

My feeling is that Carrion wood is not particularily strong, if anything I would say it is a weak theme. While it has a strenghts it also have weaknesses. To mention a few:

You do not get as much free summons as Ashen empire, nor do you get the boosted gem income.

Your home province will eventually loose all its pop which will hit your resources severely and keep you from utilising the normal resource heavy troops recruitable in the capital, amongst them the sacred black centaurs. IIRC you cannot build harpies, you just start with one, and can recieve a Arcopythera. Your Panic Apostates are only 30 cheaper than ordinary Pani and have one random less, and do not recieve Meanads.

The effects of the dominion will eventually significantly reduce your income. As long as you manage to keep expanding the theme should do ok, but if you slow down the free summons you get will not offset the income loss.

You will also in multiplayer recieve the same reaction as Ermor, making you a likely target for alliances.