[Boron]

Originally posted by tinkthank:
"Worse" national troops (although caveat: uncontextualized superlatives make NO SENSE in dominions 2, I am only doing this because it seems you want to hear something like this!)

1. Mictlan
2. Pangaia
3. Ermor

Like I said in my caveat, I don't really agree to this, because "worst" makes no sense uncontextualized, but there you go. Consider contexts, such as: Atlantis and Abysia have NO missile troops, Ctis troops have low morale, etc.

with 95 gold per turn, you may have better magic, but you have no one to do the research! You have a great vq, but do you want her to research? You can recruit a ModT per turn, as long as nothing burns down, and they are fine researchers to be sure, but that is it.

Like I said in my first post here, it seems that these scales can be applied to any nation with exactly the same degree of success; thus, it seems like
1. an odd idea to want to apply it to S&A.
2. a scary idea, because if it is good for everyone, then it is an "easy one-size-fits-all" solution, and these are notoriously inadmissable in Dom2.
Thus, I doubt its validity.

yeah everybody has his own style

but to your suggestions of worse troops :
pangenea + ermor all themes have at least partially upkeep free freespawns / reanimations .
ok not pangenea new age but pan standard has maenads . and their normal troops are pretty good , e.g. minotaurs , revelrers .
if you mean with ermor be ermor they have principles + a kind of praetorian guard ( can't remember the name ) they have almost the same statistics as the pythium counterparts .

finally mictlan : they seem to have bad troops too but slaves are almost for free and they should seek their glory in demons anyway .
their sacred troops are not too bad .

tien chi s&a has really only the archers + the footmen worth being recruited .
but with their FORCED turmoil 1 if they want to compensate they need to invest 240 points to get the same income as any other nation who has totally flat scales .

any other nation can take order 3 death 2-3 sloth 2-3 and has higher income than tien chi s&a can ever reach .
but they have +40-120 points to spend on pretender while tien chi has to spend -240 points on economy scales .
+ additional -80 points by luck 1 and magic 1 forced by the theme .

so only few points are left for pretender .
if you want the ability to summon your first midgame summons without need for empower you need to take it on your pretender even with tien chi s&a .
the highest you may ever get in fire or air with tien chi is 3 on a celestial master .
but that only with 1/64 probability .

expect coatl all summonable mages need at least 3 more likely 4 or 5 in one path .

furthermore most path increasing items need a forge skill in the path of 3 .


with your economy scales you can only reach a income similiar to flat scales .

if my build is too extreme then take away cold 3 and turmoil 3 but keep sloth 3 and death 3 .

still i have + 240 points from sloth + death this way and only about 20-30% lower income then you with the investment of 240 points for growth 3 + prod 3 .

i have this way +480 points for only 20 - 30 % less income .


s&a is really a special case there because i know no other theme / nation which forces you to take turmoil .

with most other races i of course go too order 3 , death 2-3 and sloth 2-3 .

but because order 3 is impossible with turmoil 1+ and to compensate by growth + productivity is too expensive imho i completely go ermorlike scales with them .


if an early war breaks out i have at least a vq to scare some invaders off and you have no early game combat pretender .

as i showed most other nations have about +400 extra points for sc pretender design compared to your scales rabe and tinktank .

what troops do you use midgame then rabe ?
if you find no independent good mages and because you have a 0 magic nataraja as you said your best bet for midgame is to hope for a air 3 celestial master ( 1/64 probability ) and forge 2 +1 air items for air queens .

if man / vanheim participate they will have them earlier than you .

so you have a really hard time to field any additional sc's .

my vq instead has the ability to summon the whole death spectrum .
if i midgame summon e.g. a wraithlord he can then summon the following bane lords + item forge .

so please tell me rabe what magic troops can you field midgame to strengthen your armies ?

really curious i know i must have overlooked something with my assertions