So far what nations look strong... and weak?

Joonie73 · #1 November 18th, 2003, 05:47 AM

When I 1st got the demo and played, I thought Ulm and Jotunheim were powerful because of their powerful melee units. A dozen Niefel Giants or Templars could run over conventional armies 7-8 times their size.

But I am finding that both nations have troubles in the real game in the late game stage. When you get to 80-100 plus turns, magic begins to really rule the game, and Ulm seems to start to lag really badly. I have also played Jotunheim a lot, and they also seem to be having problems v. nations with lots of magic (and Ermor) due to the fact that you can't field that many magical or priestly commanders due to their cost.

I've been playing with Marignon the Last few hours, and they seem a bit more balanced.

What are people finding so far in terms of nation balances? Has any nation been found to be particularly strong, weak, or well-rounded?

[ November 18, 2003, 03:53: Message edited by: Joonie73 ]

Joonie73 · #2 November 18th, 2003, 06:36 AM

Hmmm. I really like Man in early game. Mass longbows, and then a few nights to clean up. But I suspect they will become weaker as the game goes on due to their weak magic and weak priests.

Potatoman · #3 November 18th, 2003, 06:54 AM

I just finished a game playing R'leyh and it seemed like they were UNBELIVEABLY powerful. Illithids are vastly improved- I destroyed Mictlan's pretender titan (gold shield male Version), a priest king, 10 slaves and 13 warriors with a force of just 5 illithids and 17 hybrid troopers (the smaller ones with high morale and really low resource cost)! Each turn mictlan basicly lost 5 of its highest hp warriors until only slaves were left, which promptly routed. Possibly the ultimate counter to early game SCs.

Also, has anyone checked out some of the INSANE monsters they can summon using void gate? I just popped out a Vastness on turn 40... Good lord. It's a freaking monster! It moves anywhere it wants, is pretty much impossible to kill and causes enemy troops to die merely by being near them. AWESOME!

To be fair, there are a lot of junk monsters that your mages can summon as well (those immobile tentacle plants, for example). But the Vastness is just... WOW. It's like a demon lord, but free, and faster. To be fair, my dominion was luck 3 and the hero void searching was exp. level 9, so its not probable that you'd turn up a Vastness early in the game and cruise to a cinch victory.

Still, R'leyh seems amazing.

Joonie73 · #4 November 18th, 2003, 07:08 AM

But they are still ugly squid-looking thingies, LOL.

I met Illithids with Ulm and got my templars wasted as well. But I re-designed my pretender to go up to 6 astral (giving my templars +2 magic resistance) and then there the Illithids were less of a problem. But mass mind bLast could still be problematic.

Quote:

Originally posted by Potatoman:
I just finished a game playing R'leyh and it seemed like they were UNBELIVEABLY powerful. Illithids are vastly improved- I destroyed Mictlan's pretender titan (gold shield male Version), a priest king, 10 slaves and 13 warriors with a force of just 5 illithids and 17 hybrid troopers (the smaller ones with high morale and really low resource cost)! Each turn mictlan basicly lost 5 of its highest hp warriors until only slaves were left, which promptly routed. Possibly the ultimate counter to early game SCs.

Also, has anyone checked out some of the INSANE monsters they can summon using void gate? I just popped out a Vastness on turn 40... Good lord. It's a freaking monster! It moves anywhere it wants, is pretty much impossible to kill and causes enemy troops to die merely by being near them. AWESOME!

To be fair, there are a lot of junk monsters that your mages can summon as well (those immobile tentacle plants, for example). But the Vastness is just... WOW. It's like a demon lord, but free, and faster. To be fair, my dominion was luck 3 and the hero void searching was exp. level 9, so its not probable that you'd turn up a Vastness early in the game and cruise to a cinch victory.

Still, R'leyh seems amazing.

Nerfix · #5 November 18th, 2003, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Potatoman:
I just finished a game playing R'leyh and it seemed like they were UNBELIVEABLY powerful.

>happily snippin' some text<

Still, R'leyh seems amazing.

So they no longer get owned by Atlantis?

PvK · #6 November 18th, 2003, 08:00 AM

I have a demo game as Arco where I started out weak on purpose, and have been slowly losing to Marignon AI. My pretender died trying to trample a squad of a dozen crossbowmen who wouldn't rout, and he was sort of a rainbow pretender, who now has essentially zero magic. Is there a strength to Arco that I might not have noticed? I'm planning to continue the game in the full Version once it arrives (should be later this week), but as it is, I'm starting to consider building a fortress to block Marignon and then trying to expand under water to avoid having to fight them until I can come up with something better than Arco units to fight with. I'm also considering empowering an Astrologer or some such instead of my pretender, since they now have more magic than my pretender. It should be challenging, anyway, but any Arco hints would be appreciated. Arco seems to have trouble with an enemy who, like Marignon, fields crossbows and heavy cavalry on the flanks (which steamroller chariots or light cav that might go for their crossbowmen).

PvK