[Boron]

Originally posted by djtool:
did you post your scales when using that VQ? cause I dunno how you use her. Or was that because your using dominion rating of 3 or 4? I guess with a dominion that low I can understand. I like 8 or more.

oh yeah give me her magic Ratings too please?

the dominion rating of 3-4 was a guess for how gandalf will probably play cw and outrun his dominion then


my vq pan cw build :
scales with explanation :

turmoil 3
sloth 3
cold 3 ( you could take heat 3 too but in cold 3 according to spell description my breath of winter shield does more damage in cold 3 + bane lords have chill aura which is stronger in cold area too iirc )
growth 1 ( forced minimum by cw theme otherwise i would take death 3 there )
fortune/misfortune 0 ( can be modified , for weaker dominion or only magic 2/1 instead of magic 3 you can take luck 2-3 , for more brutal vq misfortune -2/3 )
magic 3 ( pan cw already worst researcher i know )

castle : watchtower ( because of 0 points + cheapest castle )

dominion 8 ( can be modified again , on big maps dominion 6 may be enough , but on standard karan mp you will have small positive dominion in neighbor provinces fast , so you can conquer them without danger by your unequipped vq .)
midgame with dominion 8 you will have 5 temples so dominion 9 you can do some scale wars with neighbor enemy/ies then .

now vq :
my path with the listed settings first :
A3W3E3D5B2 .
this way exactly 4 points are left . so almost perfect efficiency with pretender design .

now the crucial paths of the vq with explanation :
A2
this way you can : mistform + mirrorimage for indykilling
cloud trapeze invaders .
W2
quickness + breath of winter
E3
invulnerability (30 base protection)
once you have this up expect by antivq thugs/sc's the vq is already quite hard to kill
(expect by holy pyre/dust to dust/wither bones , for that no protection exists expect other undeads as fodder)
D1(because with that the vq starts)
but D3 is nice to have , this way you can cast midgame soul vortex + summon bane lords without empowering )
B2(because vq starts with B2 , as pan cw unfortunately no need for B2)

an alternative vq pan cw build could include 1-3F . this way you will find many fire sites when you sitesearch with her , so more income for pan cw ( gold is always short ) and you can cast fire shield . this kills attacking fodder undeads like skelletons and other fodder (maenads , any cheap crap national units like militia , phantasmal warriors etc. quite quick).


finally early game strat :

research enchantment 1 (breath of winter , fire shield ) + alteration 3 first .
this will be finished turn 4-5 on normal research .
then place the vq rearmost on the battle order setup map and script her to the following :

quickness , ironskin , mistform , breath of winter , mirror image , attack enemy archers .

if you have fire replace mirror image with fire shield .

midgame when you research alteration 6 :
-replace ironskin by invulerability
-replace mirror image by soul vortex
new script :
quickness , invulnerability , soul vortex , mistform , breath of winter , a fitting attack order , attack enemy archers / rearmost is in most cases the best because it gives you a slight chance to even kill 1-2 enemy mages and at least kill enemy archers .
if your enemy has e.g. a virtue as pretender , uses that in combat and has no other fliers and you know that then script the vq for that special battle attack enemy fliers .
this way you have a good chance to kill the virtue

with the vq you can either from turn 4-5 on :
-take 1 indep province solely / turn (about 95% win chance , only special indies with fliers e.g. can screw you. but even if that happens the worst which happened you wasted 1 turn but the vq reappears in your capitol ( thnx to immortality ))
-or take 1 indep province and sitesearch it .
with your semirainbowpathes you find about 50% of the sites. ( my above listed personal built at the moment finds about 60% and surely every death site you would find by searching with dark knowlegde )

so either 1 province / turn or 1 searched province / 2 turns .

with the indykilling your vq will have 5 stars xp very quick too. main benefit : +ca 5. att/def .

some tips against enemies :
-beware of caelum . if you attack them with your vq only 5-10 storm guards/ice clads alone are probably enough to kill an unequipped vq .
-any enemy fliers scripted to attack fliers are a problem.
-vanheim with valkiries is the only other nation which has fliers available from start . but normally you don't build valkieries as vanheim .
( at least i wouldn't ).
-wither bones , dust to dust and holy pyre are your WORST enemies because 95% of your army are undead , even your pretender .

so with marignon , caelum , ctis , ermor and abysia you should only go to war once you are sure you are prepared .
you can hurt especially caelum + marignon + abysia great if you can spread your dominion to them . you should always consider pillaging rich farmlands you conquer from your enemy and where you still have no own dominion .

finally : each time you have 400 cash : build a new castle + a temple in the castled province

my main reasons why i take the vq with pan cw are :
-riskless indy expansion
-early - midgame against about 50-60% of the possible nations a unequipped vq is still a threat . especially with the ability to pick the battles you would like via cloud trapeze .
-mid - lategame the vq is a great equipment forger , summoner
-mid - lategame if you equip the vq and give her support (e.g. carrion hordes , bane lord thugs , wraith lords ) she is still a horrible opponent .
-no need to worry about battle afflictions
-if you get killed in friendly dominion the worst that happens is you lose all your items
-with pan cw bad scales don't hurt you so you can afford a quite strong vq


if you have any questions left djtool feel free to ask