[Mardagg]

Originally posted by Boron:

edit : if i take at least air 2 for my vq i have a nice advantage in early - midgame defense though because per cloud trapeze she can pick her battles so no need to guess moves .

your ghostking is really nice but he lacks fly + regeneration + immortality 3 abilities i love with the vq . your ghostking shares 0 basic protection .

so earlygame after buffresearch i can use my vq against every indeps even if she dies not too much is lost while you always have to either worry a bit with about 20% of the indy provinces .
e.g. knights may be lucky and give you a nasty early game affliction . he could become feeble minded and your healing hero doesn't show up too .

especially in these dangerous provinces though are often strong magic sites which tien chi needs so urgent .

a Last thought : although my scales are so economic hostile i will have in defending battles some advantages :
-cold 3 works in favour of my undead hordes
-in low population provinces enemies with lots of troops are forced to either fight with starving or forge supply items


your strat allows better bloodhunting though with some lucky randoms because the population slowly regrows .

Lots of right thoughts from you here.

-cloud trapeze:
you are right.
In early game I use him only for expansion and site searching.Later on,I dont plan to use him for battles.After all,your pretender cant do everything at once...so I just hide somewhere,forging items and casting rituals by midgame..maybe conquering a water province from time to time.I dont need teleporting abilities that much therefore...I therefore rather take the scales than Air magic.

-Ghost King as SC
I think the Ghost King is a little bit underestimated.
IMO,its the perfect mixture of SC and rainbow pretender.
He has more base HP`s than the VQ and its extremely easy to get a defensive Skill of +30 quite fast.
Of course he needs some items(boots of flying,pendant of luck,and such),before attacking really difficult indies...but against most the standard buffing spells are enough.
Most battle afflictions arent that bad,especially since I only use him as SC for early expansion.
I agree though,that I could always have really ,really bad luck and getting feeble minded early on...thats the price I pay for better scales.

-your scales:
Cold 3 is indeed nice for undead troops,but means another severe income hit.
I agree,that cold3/death 3 combo means big supply problems for enemy armies,whereas my Growth scale is inviting them

-better blood hunting because of growth:
Not only this,I can use my starting troops to patrol my home provinces and set taxes to 120 or 130,without losing too much population on the longterm