Quote:
Originally Posted by FAJ
Indies may be gone, but after early expansion, he is still a rainbow and is useful in the late game with his paths/slots.
He doesn't have to earn his keep all upfront.
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I agree. Yes, he's not an SC right out of the box. Yes, a better SC could expand earlier, and yes, after the research needed, the expansion phase is well underway/winding down, but...
He moves 3 provinces a turn so as soon as the research is there he can quickly switch to offense. Jomon and other nations that need a 40+ soldier army to reliably expand spend tons of money on expansion teams, but the Freak Lord will give you one cheap expansion team for the mid-late expansion phase. He's cheap to design too, so good scales.
I have also taken him asleep in SP for more paths/better scales, but to get his full benefit you need him awake. He speeds research, then speeds expansion, then speeds sight searching, then becomes an astral master with three misc slots.
For a long time I was obsessed with unlocking Jomon's seemingly great potential in Dom vanilla. Jomon has trouble expanding, and trouble funding large expansion parties (because I take disorder and production scales). The freak lord is the solution in that situation for Jomon in my opinion. He even gets Jomon into death magic for Oni Generals and Dai Oni's, and blood for potential bloodstones for your dragon mages (assuming you get into the water).
In CBM Jomon is much easier to play, and should probably take the Celestial General (with auto-spawn shield bearing troops to complement the samurai archers, and mounted archers to complement samurai cavalry).
BTW, after struggling with vanilla Jomon for so long, CBM Jomon feels like I'm cheating!
Keep in mind, I'm new to MP games, so I certainly respect/take seriously OmniKron Warrior's assessment of the Freak Lord's flaws. I disagree with him, but that may be because I have a SP perspective and he a MP one.
I am waiting for an LA game I can get into as Jomon to implement some of these ideas. If it's a vanilla game, and I'm playing Jomon, you can *almost* bet your life that I'm taking the Freak Lord.