[Huzurdaddi]

Huzurdaddi - you mentioned a reluctance to taking Astral on an SC, probably due to Mind Duel...but I think you might reconsider and stick Astral 5 on a Wyrm. Talk about an SC! Research up to Astral Shield and let him rip through the indies. It's really amazing...

Actually my 1st SC was a wyrm with astral. I was shocked to see how well he did in combat. I actually thought that something was wrong with the game

However after reading how Zen is so afraid of astral on SC's I decided I should try something else.

And all I'm doing is recruiting mages, researching, and patrolling with the starting army to combat raised taxes.

Hmmm ... increasing taxes and patrolling on the 1st few turns. That may in fact be a good idea! I've never done it since I thought that the population loss from higher taxes would make it not worth it ... I'll have to try it out! Good tip!

With that combo: etherealness, luck, 14+ protection, 20+ defense, regeneration... I think it might actually be numerically impossible to get afflictions from standard troops. It's at least very improbable.

Well My VQ gets them all of the time (weirdly) and she has protection in the 30's, is etherial, and regenerates. However her defence is no where near 20. Oh and silly me I don't give her a coin of luck most of the time (cuz I'm a tard).

3 Water, 7 Astral, 3 Nature

Nice astral! If Mind Duel is not open eneded (and I think it's not ... I hope it's not) then you are safe from those cheap level 1 dudes. Good decision!

with a mausoleum if you beuild a fortress above the waves

Is that right? Wow, that's a pain for those aquatic races. I suppose that means that you have to forge sacks of wine quite commonly!

There is no doubt that the VQ is the fastest out of the gate... most definately with Ulm.

Yes ULM would be turn 3. That would be nice. Pythium (my current fav!) is turn 5. No idea on the other races, I figure they will take a touch longer.

You forgot the regeneration, which lowers the chances further, right?

I think it reduces it by 90%, actually so yes indeeeddy!

No, I do not. It was a super-boosted Moloch in all respects.

Sucks to be him then!! But that follows from my experience with my VQ (note: I do not have astral shield).

If you've got the path high enough for it - Fire Darts.

B
leech whenever I use these all I see is them raining everywhere but on the enemy

With fire9 as an added bonus: flaming weapons bless effect.

Now you are talking this is a great bless effect!

And the Void Lord can't go blind, so he's at least immune to that particular ticket to the SC retirement home.

Really? it says that he starts of "blind" but I thought that was just window dressing and for flavour.

Anyway to summarize what we have so far:

The VQ is an excellent combat pretender by turn 3 (if ulm) or turn 5 for many other races. She can fly which gives strategic options. However she is not the most uber of all pretenders in 1v1 combat.

The Void Lord is an excellent combat pretender who takes about 7 turns to take off (if you research hard). He also requires pretty harsh scales to be truely excellent (due to cost of magic paths) however he will obliterate any independent, and will do well in 1v1 combat later in the game.

Anymore good SC's to add? With accompaning magic paths, items, and turn by which he/she becomes Ub3r.

[ March 31, 2004, 01:52: Message edited by: Huzurdaddi ]