Quote:
Originally Posted by vfb
With the default sites in the game, you just need to search these paths underwater:
F1A3E3W3S3D2N2H1. You might want to adjust your Kraken's paths to take this into account, if you can afford it. It's better to wait for a W3S3 rather than manually search with a W2, because then you can skip casting Tiamat on the province later.
The advantages of conquer/search/conquer/search are (1) it's more efficient than conquer/conquer/.../conquer/search/move/search/move/search, because you skip the 'moves'; (2) you find your UW forts much earlier; (3) you can get earlier gem income; (4) you buff your HP by sitting in higher dominion before venturing off; (5) your newly taken provinces have your positive luck scales. With horrible scales, most of your income will be from your capitol in any case.
edit: In an amusing turn of events, my Kraken got an amulet of the fish off a dead enemy. I kept him in the water to keep the test results sound, but it entertained me to no end.
I don't like Shambler Thralls much because I think you need a critical mass to steamroll opponents or they take too many losses, and you're not going to be able to take Shambler or Sea Troll provinces with them.
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Duly noted on the underwater paths. That means you can put everything but astral on your pretender and remote search that with your starting astral income.
Conquer/search/conquer/search is certainly more efficient in the long run, but it limits you in the crucial early stages. The trade off is less early gem income vs. nearly doubling your early expansion rate. It's my opinion that the latter is the better option.
As for the shambler mass, you're right there as well. You'll find that the necessary mass is lessened considerably when the enemy AI is focused on whacking away at your Meteorites and chaff. As to the trolls in sea provinces, that's what you've got a Kraken for.
I just ran a 1 year trial with Chris's settings and results are as follows: 20 (7 land, 13 water) provinces, 18 gems per turn, 134 gems stored. Research is slow at Thau 1 and Evo 2, Conj 1 with 55 RP generated. I did manage to make 2 castle/lab/temples through, bringing my total to 3 at the end of the year.
Expansion was firing off the Kraken at a province a turn. First turn was Meteorite guards and Shamblers - no commander. Subsequent recruitment was guards and shamblers with a starspawn mage per turn until Thau 1 was reached, at which point I recruited priests until I got a 2S. (I agree that void summoning without returning is a waste of resources). I ferried recruits from the cap out to my prophetized starting commander once to replace the inevitable shambler losses.
I've got a hunch that this was a lucky test and I'll see if I can run a few more in the near future to normalize the numbers a little.