Winning with blood! (finally) +a wish tidbit

[Cheezeninja]

well for the first time i finally have a game going where i major in blood magic and feel reasonably confident about the game. Im using abysia instead of mictlan (too much micromanagement...)

All those trying to figure out how to get blood working take note! An assassin with lifelong protection is a wonderful thing!! It doesnt take too long to get a few, and they can take down most enemy commanders... and when a province loses all its commanders they auto-rout when you send your army in... its simply wonderful. And then later on when the commanders get harder, just dump them in your main army for extra imp-generators. I'm starting to really like blood magic. A little more complexity than the ermor kill-em-all or marignon ultra-faith strategies (my main successes so far).


Does anyone have a strategy for just getting wish as a gamewinner? Because that spell is a doozy...
you can actually wish for a Death Match (with the space) and it happens the next turn. Its kinda fun once you have control to just keep wishing them up. i really wish there was a wish database.
(hah! pun NOT intended. im too tired for this...)

[ March 29, 2004, 09:43: Message edited by: Cheezeninja ]

[Tuna-Fish]

So, doing imps and lifelong protections? Next game try starting with a pretender that has e3 and b5, research con4 first and forge a dwarven hammer asap (you can alchemize, no use for fire gems in this strat..) Then use the dwarven hammer on the pretender to forge soul contracts. Give the contracts to scouts that hang out in a safe place. Every contract gives one free devil every turn... Fly them out with demonbreds and watch enemy get decimated.

Also, there are plenty of wish strategies, most centered around clam of pearls. When you finally do get wish, dont waste it on death matches however, but wish for doom horrors, cast gift of reason on them, give them ring of regen and anti-magic amulet and just watch as a single doom horror wipes out entire armies. I know at least 8 pbem games outhand that were won with wish.

[DLC]

doom horrors are wussy

i think i killed about 20+ of them or so in a game when i cast the global spell which causes each non blood spell/item casted/forged attract a horror(i had a +3 magic domain).
Everytime i wanted to forge or cast a spell that wasn't related to my bloodfactory i had to fight of alot of horror to keep my commanders.

[Tuna-Fish]

Note, the difference of doom horrors and horrors is huge.

Now, if you have a cheap method to kill them I would very much like to hear it...

Also, doom horror without items is not THAT buff, but the ring of regen alone does a lot and the amulet of magic resistance does even more.

Also, if you really think about spending, empower one in water (quickness) and nature (the spell that gives elemental resistances) and you got an unit that can only be killed easily by Mage Bane (or something, the artifact)

[Cheezeninja]

I wasnt promoting using Death matches as a strategy
just saying that it could be done, and its pretty fun. If you do it enough eventually most of the AI's will send their pretenders and you can kill them off with a good champion.

Also getting a few assassins with lifelong protection is seems more cost effective for AI taking out. I havn't failed an assassination against the AI yet, the worst ive gone up against so far would be a jade sorceress with 4 amazon bodyguards or a priest with a heavy cav bodyguard.

[ March 29, 2004, 23:52: Message edited by: Cheezeninja ]

[SelfishGene]

Devils are probably the single best value summons in the game. Throw an Arch-Devil in later to lead them, buff him up with ethereal and damage items, and you have a flying, 3 map move, monster army. Devils have about 35 hp, 15+ attack AND defence, and still decent protection. Very good damage. They just about wipe out anything that isn't top drawer in power.

I'm not all THAT fond of soul contracts. Eventually, yes, they do pay for themselves but at 12 turns its not terribly fast. Contract a strong commander and hope he can defend himself but this often means placing an important hero in great jeopardy. Contract some crap hero and he may well die before the time when the contract pays for itself with devils.

Infernal Forces is WAY better than a Soul Contract, especially if you have a high blood caster. I think its 7 Devils free +1 for each Blood magic above five. I was getting 14 Devils plus the 20 gImps for only 50 slaves. That is nice , but its at the top of the research tree and so only for the late game.

Also as an aside, does Marignon have the best blood hunter in the game? The Goetic Master isn't cheap but with 2 blood and being sacred he seems to really rake in blood slaves on hunts. So even if in theory 4 scouts could hunt as well as he could per turn (4 scouts about equal in upkeep cost), he has 2 Fire, 2 Blood, can build temples and labs, and basically just kicks more *** for only 90~ish more. With 10 Goetics i was taking 50-100 slaves a turn. PLUS, Goetics can easily summon Devils.

After testing Marignon Diabolic Faith im might be convicned that theme is the best blood nation in the game. Mictlan is just too much pain. Blood Sacrifice needing temples? Bah!

[ March 30, 2004, 01:11: Message edited by: SelfishGene ]