[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by cpbeller:
Abysia (default theme)

Moloch (Fire-9, Air-1, Blood-4)

Turmoil - 3
Productivity - 3
Heat - 3
Fortune - 2
Dominion Str. 3

Thanks for messaging me CP - I didn't spot this post.

I haven't tried Main Theme Abyssia much in Dom2 - it was my first and most loved in Dom1 so I've been looking more at new options.

Bits and Bobs:

Order3/misfortune3 is good for Abysia - an overly regimented land where even the cockroaches have bad luck due to all the demons wondering around practising curses. Order3 helps pay for those expensive mages.

High productivity is good.

Death 3 was a serious option in Dom1 and should be tested seriously - though not for a bless effects race as you need your home province. Chris Byler convinced me that death 3 was the way to go with Abysia in Dom1.

Dominion strength has to climb, way, way , up. Nine is good, ten better - your troops need the heat and it sure buggers up the opponent. The extra heat spreading dominion is also well worth trying out and all this increases the speed at which you get maximum income out of conquered provinces due to their scale moving to heat3.

Beware nature sending your mage/priests berserk! As The Lava Warriors are already berserkers I would give nature a miss unless you are planning to not use many sacred mages on the battlefield.

The crucial question?

How are you planning to win? What really defines your race?

At present it seems you are planning to utilise bless effects and Lava Warriors. I have tried this and posted up as in a thread "DomII not to do" on the Goggle group. I think I used the Cyclops with earth9 as this is great for all the sacred mages.

The problem with a Lava Warior based race design is that you are relying on berserk snails - 1mp strategic. I wouldn't recommmend doing this in Multiplayer. Personally I'm going to stay away from basing race designs around 1 move troops that can only be built in my capital - high mobility is important.

If you do a search on the Google Strategy group on Abysia you should find the thread where Chris and I came up with what I named as the "Hell on Earth race." This race is based around killing off everyone and replacing them with demons - hell on earth.

Key features of "Hell on Earth" are high dominion, death3, order3, prod3, and using the HI with 18prot and an axe for a rapid low casualty expansion with either the 40res castle or the wizards tower - you need to expand your production base fast enough that the death doesn't kick in to early. At this point in time my mind is blank regarding pretender options but something the helps the start is good and the other big thing to consider is what other blood summons you want access to. Alternatives to Fire magic is also a biggy.

I would recommmend in general not to build non-Abysian troops, except for specific jobs, as they tend to get burnt up when you make an oversight in deployment. If you really like archers shortbow can work alright as the infantry have good enough armour to be largely immune. I like to keep upkeep costs to the minimum with this race.

Look forward to seeing some more of your Abysian ideas.

Cheers

Keir