[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by tinkthank:
I would like to know what you people who enjoy Machaka use for pretender builds.

Usually a tough chassis with 1-3 magic paths (up to level 2-4) I don't get easily on my national mages. Or a tough Astral King. Or a Virtue for her mobility, cheapness, dominion strength and air magic. Or even an Oracle for points.

Since their mages are not holy and their priests are not sexy

Personal preference. I've always preferred plain mages and priests to mage-priests. I rather like the Machakan leaders.

and their only sacred unit is one I have never been able to afford, I have never made a build with bless effects, instead going for some order, production, and magic.

Same here. IMO that's the best way to go.

- what to do with their so-called "warriors". Fodder is nice, but what do I do early game? It seems all I have is fodder. Am I supposed to do lots of blindness/7-year-fever inducing hit-and-run attacks to weaken em up until I get juicier troops?

I completely forget about them. At least until Alteration 6, then with Mass Protection they have a use, since they can be recruited en masse in a inch. For early expansion I use Witch Doctor support who cast Eagle Eyes then Tangle Vines (all level-1 spells). If you research Evocation-1, they can make good use of Fire Darts on distant enemy targets like archers when their script runs out.

- My assassin seems very nice, I'd like to use him, but he's so expensive, capital only, and still dies easily to Indy normalo commanders without decent equipment (and he already starts with *bane blades*). What do I do wrong?

I've had the same experience with unequipped assassins. IMO their cost is high enough to justify at least some basic equipment.

- PD. I know I like nations with stronger PD -- it is fun to see minor incursions / bad luck events stopped completely with PD alone (I have success playing Abysia). Machaka PD I dont understand -- should I just forget it completely? But then I feel so naked. How do you defend? Do you keep troops *everywhere*?

I always build some, up to 5 (costs 15 - cheap). If I want extra defense I bring in some hoplites and archers, or I recruit locals.

- How many spies do you use?

I always try to recruit 1 scout/turn in every indep province where they're available. If you mean the stealthy Ear priest, I recruit them in fortresses with temples and no lab yet. I find them useful, but not enough to recruit one where I could recruit a mage. There are other ways to gather accurate intelligence.

- Im not used to non-priestly mages (also play Tien S&A a lot); any tips?

Huh? They play exactly the same except they can't preach and can't cast priestly spells. That's a strange question.

- Hoplites seem nice, but they slow down my otherwise quick army. Any tips here?

Regular HI with 15+ prot all have a strat move of 1 (Jotuns, Caelians and Hypaspists are the only exceptions I believe), so this isn't a Machaka-only issue. If you need tough fast troops, you could build a castle in a place where HC or knights are available (you've got high Production to help, haven't you?). Or summon a few tough, fast-moving critters (many constructs have a good strat move even if they're slow on the battlefield).

- I love bowmen, but Machakian bowmen are the worst of them all, it seems. With their small range, they cant be all the way in the back, and then they have.... no protection. And 8 gold is not nothing, considering Marignon crossbows only cost 10, for example, ditto for Tien's compound bowmen. It seems I never have enough money for enough to mass a group which wont rout.... What do you do?

They're not worse than any other shortbows. You can give them a bit of punch with Flaming Arrows (easy to get reasonably early with your magic scale), then they're very good to dispatch huge barbarian hordes. One of the best tactics to get rid of the feudals who guard the richest provinces (usually a few knights with some longbows and a horde of militia) is to bring a small squad of hoplites to divert enemy fire, a few Witch Doctors to stop the knights in their tracks with Tangle Vines, and 2 big squads of archers slightly behind on each flank, one set to fire closest (for the militia), the other set to fire archers. Works better if you have Flaming Arrows ready.