[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by Jasper:
I guess what I'm getting at is that IMHO IDs were clearly the most powerfull tactic in Dom 1,

As you never used them competetively this is a strange claim and I think its wrong - Air elementals made ID's look tame. Seasonal spirits could end the game before you could get enough ID's to do much. ID's were only good with magic items and that takes time to get. Seasonal spirits and air elementals were absolute massacre material and affected play far more than ID's in my experiance. Seasonal Spirits defined dom1 play for me.

Alex I have a fairly good idea how to use ID's in dom1 and have used them just as you say (I was following your advice) and early on I followed your and others advice that they were insanely poweful and you only needed one to kill an enemy army/conquer a province - only it didn't work. After losing my first 4 in PBEM I used them in packs and they kicked butt. I think there was a good degree of sensationalism about ID's based on peoples very real and horrible experiances facing 4+ in one army. I have never found single SC's to be a signifcant threat to a main army. They are more use raiding and even then can die to bad luck. Just having two makes it a heap safer.

You posted your ideas on what a killer SC was Alex and people wrote back saying they tried it and did ok for awhile and then got unlucky. I tried your ideas in Dom1 Alex and kept losing the pretender. I remember one idea you had for a quick start using the Earth Mother and some black plate. I tried and and she died relatively early. I have always though you must be a dedicated, and skilled, gambler with your love of SC's. As the game goes on it becomes easier and easier to get unlucky and I'm not prepared to take that risk. I tried and others tried against me and I am convinced its not worth the all your eggs in one basket risk involved. Give your opponent a heap of threats and targets is my approach and was in dom1. Its just alot more flexible.

As for having plenty of mages in armies I generally did this in Dom1 - HI are gold cheap mages are resource cheap. Basis of much dominions play. I remember being told how nasty Lammashta's are just before an opponent tried them on me and guess what - they got bLasted off the battle field and only did damage when he found my scout - damage to him. A well balenced army in Dom1 or 2 is the best thing and ss the game goes on that can include multiple SC's. If you want you can run around with single ultra expensively equipped SC's but opponents I have played doing this have mainly been gifting me magic items though they often take a few provinces before I nail them. I got to kill an equiped Moloch twice in one game and helped equipped my ID's from the loot.

Sure Blood is good in a longer MM intensive game suited to those younger, or with more stamina or whatever it takes, than me. However I miss blood. It used to be useable from very early and I wish it still was. Sure this is my experiance and others playing slower games have a different experiance.

You pay for those blood skills even if you don't get any use out of them. What I want is to be able to get use out of blood playing Dom the way I do. This is a natural enough desire to want to get to make the most of my bag of toys.

Cheers

Keir