[Verjigorm]

Ok, I just ran two tests, and the spider's riders die very, very easily leaving a much better and no upkeep spider behind afterward, so what you end up with is a bunch of upkeep free spiders and a whole crapload of money to keep hiring them so there is no upkeep curve on spiders as long as you keep them on the offensive. Obviously, though, if you try to save them up it won't do you very much good.

I did find a use for Machaka's infantry, too... It's hard to breach castles with a spider horde, so I hired a ton of the cheap *** infantry and had them sit in the back. That way, when I get to a fortress, I can breach it quickly.

Machaka makes formidable thugs as well having access to Charcoal shields, fire brands, regeneration and rejuvenation items. Only thing they're missing is Boots of Quickness which isn't too difficult to manage and of course items to enter the water. Both tests I got their 2S1N ape commander on hero draw as well giving me access to astral items without using my pretender. Random, I know, but still.

The Colossal Fetish is an excellent pretender chassis as well. I was thinking giving him 2 Air would provide access to both Air magic's lovely Alteration spells and a method to enter the water. However, I wasn't sure what I'd exchange for it because the 6E4N is for blessing the Hunter spiders (and the Bane Spider prophet thug that I tested and was still unsure of). I suppose sacrificing the 3D for 3A would be ok since we can get that on our regular mages and it doesn't affect the bless while making the pretender a significantly stronger SC. His immunity to most astral and death magic is pretty cool, too, btw.

That makes my next pretender:


Colossal Fetish (Body 1346, 120 hits)
Magic: Air 3 Earth 6 Astral 4 Nature 4
Dominion 4
Scales: Order 3 Sloth 3 Heat 3 Growth 3
Dormant

This also means that he'll be able to make Elemental Staves which are of great use to a F/E race.

The Sloth scales did not significantly impact the amount of Spider Riders I could hire, of course, that being limited by my gold supply which allowed for a very high spider production rate. You just have to keep putting them into the mill... Placing the "new" spiders in front of the free ones (despite the fact that they have bows) works nicely, besides, you need Machaka archers to siege castles anyway...

As for castles...

The best spots for castles in Machaka is on a Hill as the Hill Fortress is only 800 gold and you usually get pretty good production as well. The increase cost of the 1000 Fortresses that pop up frequently was insignificant. I was usually able to plop down a castle every couple turns.

Lots of forts, money, free spiders, and good thugs...

Nah, Machaka didn't get screwed...

One weird problem did occur, though. I wasn't really able to use the Colossal Fetish as an SC because he kept getting surrounded by the massive swarm of spiders (I didn't want to send him off on his own for some reason). He ended up being just a buffer--Legions of Steel and Earth Might. It probably would have been more productive to separate him into another group. I sent a little group of Mandragora with him as body guards. He can only lead 10 normal units, but he has a lot of Magical leadership.

I'm also sticking by my opening research paths. They worked out quite well.