Quote:
Originally Posted by bbz
The thing is nations like T'ir Na N'og are not supposed to be sending mind hunts every where, so while they are brave soldiers I don't really see them as Nation that gazes at the stars to gain power  . Also what about golems? E2S3 You need as little as S2 on your pretender and you are sorted. Heck even S1 works if you can get someone to forge you one astral cap.And voila you get your mind hunter. Also none of the paths doesnt require Death to get them. Yea death can be a way of achieving all of them at once, but as It was said you have high research requirement and its at high risk (not getting the chalice) and nature as cross path.
Also back on T'ir Na N'og, you get a really strong middle game nation, that has decent expansion rate(fir blogs are amazing) so you don't even need an awake pretender, for the 100 extra design points you get from that, you can get f4 e2 s2 d2- those paths are enough for you to get into fire astral and death. While at the moment the fire bless attack +2 is a bit redundant due to the fact that Ri's lances always hit hopefully that will change in the future(cough cough) .
If every single nations was mind hunting, summoning zmeys, and use Fog warriors everywhere, then they wouldn't be different at all. And the diversity is what I love most in Dominions, because every nation has a different way it is played(and heck it even has 20 different ways it can be played). If you give every nation a spell to diversify them into the paths they don't have using as you suggested their natural income. Then you reduce the strategical depth of the game. If everyone could use the best Sc's the best assassination spells, the most cost-effective troops, why bother with other spells? The way it is at the moment: you are not strong in astral but you have strong earth what can you do instead of mind hunt - Earth attack ,sure it takes 5E gems and its less cost effective than mind hunt but to compensate, on the field of battle you get army of lead/gold weapons of sharpness pertrify and loads of other nice buffs. |
Never said that Tir should be spamming mind hunts. Said mind hunt cover, meaning protection from mind hunts. And yes, tir does need this. As tir, or man, or pan, etc. if you're not thinking about how to protect yourself from mind hunts at a very early stage you'll get fried. Unfortunately, as it stands now the only way to reliably get cover (outside or lucky indi mages) is death.
I have no desire to give every nation access to the best spells in the game, and don't want to see everyone spamming mind hunts and banes. Thats sort of my point, and I thought sort of one of the point of CBM, to make thematic national paths viable options, and open up alternative strategies for nations to pursue. I'm saying that I think that one barrier to this goal is the fact that death remains the only path with any sort of magical diversity. Once again, exactly what I don't want is every nation spamming tarts, I don't even want tarts for the other paths. What would be nice however is a summons that got a couple random picks here or there outside of death.
And no I'm not forgetting about the Fairy Queens, Demon lords, and Heliophagi. Heliophagi and Demon lords are both limited in number so not really reliable. Fairy queens actually do provide some diversity and probably should be discussed. But I'd actually say that they're the singular example of what I wish were more common. A way, even if its difficult (and fairy queens are difficult) to diversify in some way using national paths. A nation that summons a fairy queen is never going to be an air power. They'll still play very differently than Caelum or Tir. But the queen at least gives someone the option to get into air using nature, even if its in a very small way and late in the game. Aesir are another good example and a good unit. Just wish this design principal were taken a little further.