Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragar
Any chance we can keep pretenders altogether secret from other players? It would keep a nice edge to the game, not having any idea what you're going to run into
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fakeymcfake
Actually yeah, now that you mention it knowing what the other guy has would potentially give people a bit of an edge, unfairly in my opinion. Plus surprises are fun.
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Well, the pretenders will be mostly secret. Because there is no way to make the mod .dm file secret (anyone can just open it and take a look easily), the base modded chassises will be available for all to view. However,
1) You do not know which chassis is for which nation, and
2) You do not know exactly what magic does the chassis possess and with what scales and level on dormancy.
For example, Calahan PM's everyone their choices, waits until he hears back from all of us and presents a mod with 10 modded pretenders are like this:
1. Red Dragon with F2W2D1
2. Great Sage with F3S3A1
3. Manticore with B2W3
4. Cyclops with E3F3
5. Skratti with B2E2N2W2D2
6. Cyclops with E3D3W1
7. Master Druid with B1N1D1W2F3 and domstr 5
8. Blue Dragon with W2, with path cost for additional magic 0
9. Monolith with E1D1N3S3
10. Titan with E3A3 and domstr 5 to begin with
Okay, now tell me which nation has what chassis to begin with? Can you tell if they're going to be awake with horrible scales or dormant? exact domstr?
This might fail a bit if someone uses a clearly nation restricted pretender (like the Son of the Fallen for Hinnom), but still you won't know the level of dormancy, nor any other details about it. Besides, because you are presented with 2 options, you can always opt to choose a "vanilla" pretender for that extra mystique.
What I meant with the gang-bang analogy was the true dom3-way. If some bless-giant nation hits on a imprisoned blesspretender and start taking up territory like madman, the other nations will probably react to the threat.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragar
I'm keenly anticipating my pretender, it's quite exciting not knowing what you are going to get. Hopefully this leads to some strategies not normally employed.
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Yeah, this is what I'm hoping too. With a less than optimal pretender, you might need to look beyond the regular choices and try to devise another way to play the nation.
Perhaps I (EA Hinnom) will end up with 3-sloth in both of my builds and are unable to leverage the chariots/my sacreds for expansion. I'll probably then have to rely on the caveman guys at the beginning of my roster for expansion.
I'd also like to bring up the awake E1D9N9 manticore with somewhat bad scales from the example builds on page 2. It's not SC right from the start, althought it has pretty high fear due to death magic (+14 b*tches!) bonus. You need to leverage options and tinker with early game expansion strats to get the most out of him. It'snot obvious, but that pretender is really versatile and packs a bunch even with low-research. Consider this: Sleep cloud with +4 penetration and AoE 11! Heck, even sleep with +4 penetration right from the start could suprise someone trying to leverage sacred giant rush against you. Or just hit Summon Earthpower + Ironskin + Personal Regeneration + hold +hold + attack rear.