[Keir Maxwell]

I was seeking some good old fashioned rollocking fun after the hard work at Mictlan and blood in general. Remembering how well Centaur Warriors worked I had another look at Jotun Woodsmen. They are relatively cheap (50gps, 11res), fairly staucnh and have strat move 2. Here is what I came up with.

Jotunheim Utgard theme
Green Naga, nature10, Fire4, Dom6
Order3, sloth2, cold2, growth1, misfortune3, drain2.
Castle (could take the fortified city)

Nature 10 only costs 64 more points than 9 and gives you another point of berserk which is big. The fire is for hitting as with all that power but reduced troop density its pays to be able to land the few blows you get in. Sloth3 is an option though its a little annoying early. The drain scale sucks and the low dominon is not good. However the positives are big.

The Woodsmen are excellent as regeneration (4pts a rd) reduces battle inflictions, berserk raises the prot to 13, attack 19, strength 26, and the 50% poison resistance is a big bonus versus Pythium and C'tis.

The Herses and Jarls are also very effective. Build a Gode first turn who becomes the prophet for Divine Blessing and Fanatacism. Early-ish you should build one Seithkona for Pendants of Luck, build Jarls and Godes as needed to keep the troops blessed and Herses the rest of the time. Once things are going well throw in a Norna for searching and use extra gold along the way for Spearmen.

The Naga researches construction to 4, with a little help, and then you have the option of alt1 for eagle eyes, evoction1 for star fires, perhaps enchantment 3 for raise dead. Panic would be nice as its a nature spell whose affect grows with your power. Still not planing on rushing into anything with the Naga as don't want to lose it before it gets to play with some high lavel magic.

Later targets are thaumaturgy 6 for Beckoning - must be awesome with nature10 - and Conjuration 6 for summon Lamia's. I'm hoping summon Lamia's will be very impressive with the high nature and the Naga's special ability of getting more. Are Lamia's sacred or is that just my memory being hopeful?

Armies are organised with a few heavily armoured spear or axe in the centre and Woodsmen on the flanks. If you only have one Spearman/Axemen then put it on "hold and attack" to keep the enemy archers busy. Make sure you get all the Woodsmen blessed. Casualties are 0-2 a battle vs indies and you only need about 10-15 for an early conquering army.

Here is how it is going on Desert Eye, no wrap around, indies 6, 11 impossible ai's.

Its turn 14 and borders are firming up (though there is still some room to grow vs indies). 18 provinces, income 936, 5 giants on the hall of fame and more coming soon.

Units are 40 Woodsmen, 9 Axe/Spear, 2 Jarls, 3 Gode's, 4 Herses plus 1 Norna, one Enchantress (yay!), and two Seithkonas at home making amulet and now researching as I get to con4 and look forward to making some research skulls.

In the first try I used up the death gems on Helmets of Fear but while thats cool you need the death gems for research unless you can find plenty extra quick. I have also built the odd Totem shields for a Gode, very vindictive, and will be building rainbow armour for any mages who go to battle. In the previous go I built some enchanted swords for my first war to get the attack stats up but having taken fire4 in this one I haven't bothered. I used the Earth Mother first time but I prefer the naga with it sasbiltiy to take other paths (fire in this case) as I found hitting reliably a real issue. Damn gladiators proved hard as to break through.

One of the big questions is what to mix in to the giants as small creatures can occupy the same space as a giant making up for reduced number of attacks per square. Winter wolves were great for this in Dom1 but not so easy to get with this race early. Skratti are cute but that means giving up on the Seithkona's who are awesome item forges and decent researchers even in a drain race

The other question is fortified city or not. Probably the answer is yes due to the extra supply and the Woodsmen being capital only.

I like this race. Its fun equiping a whole bag of semi-SC's and knowing you are going to be churning out 1 or more a turn by the time you get your first extra castle built - I have just started mine. And its nice to have a whole army of large Giants to (hopefully) mess up the targeting on nasty spells - or if that fails be tough enough to do the job themselves. In one big battle vs Pythium in my first run I only had 3 berserk Woodsmen and a Jarl left at the end but I still won.

cheers

Keir

[ January 07, 2004, 11:26: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]