Conquerers of the Sea - The new Blood of Humans?

[JaydedOne]

In reviewing Conquerers of the Sea, it seems that, while it's a flavorful theme, it just doesn't come off as a viable choice in 99% of multiplayer games, certainly by comparison to other Marignon options. You might catch somebody by surprise with it, but otherwise it's considerably weaker than its base counterpart.

Does gaining Sailing really make up for the loss of a level of magic (2 Air vs. 3 Fire, rest balances out), two tiers of priestdom (no lvl 3, no lvl 4), the loss of your national spell (Holy Pyre can't be used by any national units), and the loss of your most powerful sacred unit?

Seriously, how does this balance out? What am I missing here and, if I'm not missing anything, what might be done to beef it up a bit?

[Teraswaerto]

2 Air 2 Astral 1 Random at 200 can be better than 3 Fire 2 Astral 1 Random at 270. Chartmakers make good communion slaves.

Air magic with communion is scary.

[ April 22, 2004, 17:52: Message edited by: Teraswaerto ]

[JaydedOne]

But more scary than Fire with Communion on top of a better set of Priests and the other advantages I listed? If so, why?

Again, this isn't a gripe. I'm just not able to see the balance of my own accord. Consider it a cry for help.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Pros:

- the best mage has OK skills and is recruitable everywhere.

- the Chartmaker is more versatile than the Initiate and a better candidate than the Witch Hunter for communions.

- Air magic is better than Fire overall.

- tolerates Drain better than the main theme (Chartmakers can forge Quills early).

- Sailing OFC. Not an earth-shattering ability but very handy on the right map.

Cons:

- the starting spell (Holy Pyre) is useless. At least that should be fixed (a scrying or weather spell would make more sense).

- no KotC, but this isn't a huge drawback IMO.

- not as much early extra income from alchemy.

- Flaming Arrows is harder to get and was a wonderful power-up for crossbows.

- the Missionary is more expensive than the Friar and less useful.

- the 2 mundane leaders are thematic but not very useful.

Overall I think CotS is almost as good as the main theme. I rather like it.

[Teraswaerto]

Originally posted by Nagot Gick Fel:
as much early extra income from alchemy.

- Flaming Arrows is harder to get and was a wonderful power-up for crossbows.

Wind Guide is a nice substitute.

Originally posted by Miguel Duran:
But more scary than Fire with Communion on top of a better set of Priests and the other advantages I listed?

Communion backed Air seems much better than Fire, and base Marignon lacks the 90 gold communion slave that CotS has in the Chartmaker.

[ April 22, 2004, 19:28: Message edited by: Teraswaerto ]

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Teraswaerto:
Wind Guide is a nice substitute.

Nice but not as good.

Communion backed Air seems much better than Fire

I really can't see why. When I use communion with CotS it's rather to boost the other magic paths.