Yes, of course it's been asked before, but...

[aldin]

Since I'm pretty sure players' opinions change with the cycles of the moon or somesuch, what three themes or base set-ups do you currently perceive as the hardest to triumph with vs non-Ermorian/Atlantean/R'lyehian AIs?

~Aldin

[Norfleet]

Hmm. I'd probably say that the mandatory turmoil themes, particularly in quantity, are likely the hardest: Tien Chi BK, Tien Chi S&A.

The other noteworthy hard theme is probably Carrion Woods Pangaea, a much maligned theme noted for both its reliance on capitol-only living troops....it's killer dominion....and its completely useless growth scale in light of the above.

[PvK]

Never considered it. Hag with dominion 1, no magic skills, all negative scales, and er... someone who likes heat or cold, with the opposite heat/cold scales, maybe.

PvK

[aldin]

Originally posted by PvK:
Never considered it. Hag with dominion 1, no magic skills, all negative scales, and er... someone who likes heat or cold, with the opposite heat/cold scales, maybe.

PvK

You missed 0 point castle

Thanks for the useful input Norfleet

~Aldin

[Norfleet]

Well, PvK's option is obviously into the "perversity" level of difficulty. I sort of expected that you wanted something that was actually meant to be played, though, and would attempt to pick a pretender choice that was appropriate. If you want something insanely hard, you could try combining PvK's "worst possible god choice" with my "inherently weaker nation/theme combos".

Or just play something like Ashen Empire with 1 dominion and no death magic. Try summoning more units with that!

Originally posted by PvK:
Never considered it. Hag with dominion 1, no magic skills, all negative scales, and er... someone who likes heat or cold, with the opposite heat/cold scales, maybe.

PvK

Actually, I think you may need more than just 1 dominion. Otherwise, you will have difficulty pushing your highly counterproductive scales. In this case, buying more dominion to enhance your ability to cripple yourself might make the game a bit harder.

[ February 14, 2004, 23:59: Message edited by: Norfleet ]

[PvK]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
... Actually, I think you may need more than just 1 dominion. Otherwise, you will have difficulty pushing your highly counterproductive scales. In this case, buying more dominion to enhance your ability to cripple yourself might make the game a bit harder.

LOL! Ya, good point. That and the zero castle thing.

Seriously though, it can be an interesting challenge when you want to play a situation but know it'll be easy, to just use fewer points or intentionally pick things that seem disadvantageous. It can also lead you to discover alternate tactics which you wouldn't otherwise have considered, which may be useful in some other scenarios.

PvK

[Norfleet]

Giving your Crone a single Astral rank might weaken it some more, too: It won't really let you cast any useful spells, but you can now be magic-duelled....and lose.

On the other hand, losing your god may actually be a blessing: It's not as if it was doing anything useful, other than spreading your undesirable dominion. Maybe if you had an immortal pretender chassis with no magic, so you wouldn't even be able to easily get killed, one that is weak and useless in combat...

[ February 15, 2004, 17:38: Message edited by: Norfleet ]

[PvK]

Mmm, yes, good point. An immobile pretender with death/sloth/misfortune/weather aura stuck on your capital, perhaps, although I don't know of any that come with zero magic.

PvK

[Norfleet]

Oh, I have it. This has to be the most awful thing ever:

Take a crone. Dominion 1. No magic. Take all of the crappy scales.

Be Ermor. Take Ashen Empire. You have no death ranks, so you can never raise any more priests or elders. All of your people will die. You can't produce any normal units. You can't search for sites, because you start with no mages, can't produce any mages, and can't summon any. You're never going to get any national hero ones at misfortune 3. In fact, nothing good will ever happen to you. Your temple and lab will probably be burned down in a random event in a few turns due to turmoil + misfortune. You don't have any priests, so you can't produce a new temple. You don't have any mages, so you can't produce a new lab. On independent-9, your starting army probably won't even succeed in conquering a province.....and the only commander you'll ever have anyway is that starting Censor. At Dominion 1, you're not going to get very many undead spawning to join you.

Now try and win.

[ February 16, 2004, 00:22: Message edited by: Norfleet ]

[PvK]

Oh gosh, that one cracked me up! Thanks!

Ok, I see a challenge here. Actually sounds fun to try to win that... or, to even get anywhere.

PvK