AAR: Multi-Player After Action Report (Now Discussing Turns up to 13-16)

[Immaculate]

Welcome to the first, as far as i am aware, Shrapnel Forums, multi-player after action report.

This thread will be used to detail the adventures, victories, and mishaps of the players involved in the shared after action reporting.

For those not familiar with the concept, i encourage you to check out Doomed to Fail and to a more limited extent Dominions 3 Newbie Game.

Briefly, each player will provide a write-up of the game, as it progresses, from their distinct vantage point. To avoid revealing too many secrets to the other players, these write-ups will be written and published only twenty turns after the actual game-play takes place.

I encourage anyone who wants to to chime in with advice, predictions, or mean-spirited name-calling.

And now, an introduction to the players:

Corinthian: Formoria- "I have an interesting build in mind"
LdiCesare: Pangea- "Pangaea could be funny, but the maenad micromanagement may well be a pain. I think I'd go with Pangaea"
Jotwebe: R'lyeh- "prepare to be probed by your new tentacled overlord"
Roland Jones: Helheim- "Because why not"
Bluemage142: Maverni- "Try Something Different"
Warhammer: Caelum- "Cue up Ride of the Valkyries, ah... er... Helheim's in the game... right... OK, let's go with Thunderstruck instead then"
Excist: Abyssia
Immaculate: Acrospehalae- because i suck at sauromatia and i never played acro before. "I see you misspelled Arco" (seon)


A pre-thread can be found here.

also:
Game Link

Map Link

original shadowshore map link

This experiment is now officially underway.

[Bluemage142]

So I was going to write up a short bit of fluff- a paragraph or two of flavor text, just to give new players an idea of what Marverni is all about. I managed everything but the 'short' part. >_>

If excessive RP/fiction bothers you, read the tl;dr at the end.

**********

Listen well, and remember my words. I am Ulrak, servant to the great King Roland, and I speak of our history.

In times past, there was but one tribe. The oldest songs of our people speak of a Great Sundering, the time when the Carnutes and the Sequani and the Ambibates went forth and found their own lands, leaving only a few of us to carry the ancient name of Marverni, but not even the wisest of the Sequani can sing of why it happened.

Tribe warred against tribe for generations beyond counting. Much of what we once were was lost in those times- indeed, many songs have faded from this world, for there are none who live who know them. Even the Eponi, the Horse Lords, only bear fragments of what our people once had. The tapestry of sound that was Marverni- who we are- grew dull and threadbare.

Even in the darkest times, there was always hope. All of Marverni remembered the legends of the High King- the King Under The Mountain. It came to be said that once the Five Great Tribes lived as one- once Carnute and Eponi, Ambibate and Marverni and Sequani, became one people once more- the King would rise again, and lead his children to greatness.

It was because of that legend that one young man rose to become King of the Marverni. His followers girded themselves with chainmail, the blessing of the sleeping High King, against which the fury of the wild Carnutes broke. Their numbers overwhelmed the fearsome Ambibates, for even the greatest of warriors cannot fight forever. Only the mighty Eponi stood between the young King and his goal.

The war dragged on for many years, each side waxing and waning in turn. In time, the Sequani, wisest of the tribes, returned to the Marverni. Though few in number, their druids turned the tide against the Horse Lords, and the people were once again one.

I was once Ulrak, son of Uther of the Marverni. I became Ulrak Swiftblade in the Carnute War, and grew to be called Ulrak Strongarm by the Ambibates. The Eponi King made me Ulrak One-Eye, before I tore his head from his shoulders. Now, I am Ulrak the Mind-Hunter, King of all the Marverni. The time of High King Roland's coming draws near. Be ready.

**********

tl;dr: Marverni- bunch of tribes, based on Gaul (Caesar's time). Some horses, druids, and berserkers. Oh, and my pretender's name is King Roland.

[Roland Jones]

Hello. I am Roland and I am the godking of two nations-

Okay, yeah, not really. I'm Roland Jones, one of the Something Awful players in this game. Unrelated to Bluemage's god. Probably.

Anyway, I figure that I should introduce myself, and also my nation. I am a moderately-experienced player; I don't claim to be an expert, but I am not terrible, apart from my habit of taking inefficient pretenders because it fits the nation better/I think it's funny. A good example of this is my pretender for this game, who is so inefficient it's funny; I knew full-well how to get the same effect for far fewer points, I just thought that it was boring and instead... Well, you'll see.

Meanwhile, the nation I am playing is Helheim. Normally I play nations that can sit around and research a lot and don't necessarily have to get into an early war, like non-LA Caelum and MA R'lyeh when it has the ocean to itself (although it'll likely win an ocean war anyway). Helheim, on the other hand, is a highly-aggressive nation that wants to expand, expand, and expand some more, crushing everyone in its path. It's one of the three Norse-themed nations in the game; while Vanheim/Midgard is generic Norse myth and Niefelheim/Jotunheim/Utgard is Norse giants, Helheim, as you may have guessed from the name, is based on the Norse afterlife.

(The following this is a long summary of the nation and its units, so if you're not interested in that stuff, you can stop reading now.)



Helheim, like Vanheim and Tir na n'Org (nation based upon the Tuatha and Sidhe), is a "ponyman" nation, to use the Dom3 slang. What this means is that it is a nation that fields a lot of sacred, glamour-shrouded units, who happen to be mounted on horses, and blesses them so that they are absurdly strong and capable of taking on a lot of enemies on their own or with little backup, and are generally very dangerous early and mid-game but lose steam in the late game when people start to catch up to their might. They can also blood sacrifice, which creates a lot more dominion for them and can suffocate enemies as you stamp out all belief in their gods. In other words, if I do well, this is going to be a short Let's Play.



Above is a picture of a typical Helheim recruitment screen. See those guys on the top? We don't care about any of them except the last two. While all of them (except the first, being a pathetic, ordinary human) possess both stealth and glamour, two very useful traits, the Valkyrie and the Helhirding are where it's at.



This is a valkyrie. As you can see, she is a warrior who flies. Her stats are all above-average (10 is average for a human, except encumbrance, which is how much fatigue you take from actions, and move, the first number of which is how many provinces the unit can move in a turn), which is nice, but the really important bits are those icons below all the numbers. From left to right:

The candelabra means that she is a sacred unit. Sacred units can be blessed, gaining various combat bonuses depending on the magic paths of your pretender god, and also cost less upkeep, which is a nice bonus.

The wings indicate that the unit can fly. Out of combat, this basically means that it isn't affected by terrain and thus can always move up to its maximum move amount, and that they can attack non-adjacent provinces, something grounded units cannot do. In battle, flying units can move right to what they are attacking, instead of having to run across the battlefield, which can really mess up enemy plans, but since Dom3 AI is kind of screwy sometimes backfires horribly.

The cloak and dagger means that the unit is stealthy; stealthy units can move through enemy territory undetected, and can't be found unless the enemy happens to be patrolling the province they're in, which, depending on how stealthy the unit in question is, may require a lot of manpower. Stealthy commanders usually take a penalty if they're leading troops while sneaking, unless the units are also stealthy, like this valkyrie.

Lastly, the weird illusion-man indicates that this unit possesses glamour. Out of battle, this means that the units cannot be detected in their own territory (so, an enemy looking into my land could think that a province is empty, but I could have an army of units with glamour there), and are almost impossible to patrol out in enemy territory. In-battle, this gives them the effects of the spell Mirror Image, making duplicates of them that cut the chance of them being hit to a fraction of what it normally would be. For units without Air magic, it's just one extra image, but those with Air magic get two images per level, which can result in some ridiculously hard to hit units. Glamour fades after the first successful hit, though, so a lucky shot can ruin things for you.



This, meanwhile, is a Helhirding. He is about equal to or stronger than the valkyrie in everything, and, as he is on a horse, has a lot more AP (action points, the second number in move, determines how much you can move and attack and such in a round) than her. However, he cannot fly. Despite this, I will be using these guys more than the valkyries as their increased combat ability makes them generally better for my particular expansion strategy. These guys are pretty awesome.

The rest of the units in the top row, who I didn't cover, aren't particularly interesting. While all of them (except the first one, who is again an ordinary human) possess stealth and glamour, making them far better than the average unit, they are not sacred, and since my strategy here is based on blessed troops, they don't help me much. There are, however, some situations where they may see use; if they come up, I'll include their stats and such in the post. As the Valkyrie and Helhirding can only be recruited at Helheim's capital, I may have to settle for lesser units when recruiting them elsewhere.


Now, that second row of people. Those are commanders. The top row, which we've covered, is of units. Units make up most of your army, but have to be lead by a commander. They also have more limited scripting options. Commanders, meanwhile, lead units, and also do other things like cast spells and stuff. They're more interesting generally, but most need troop support or they'll be overrun by the enemy army in battle. There are, of course, some exceptions. They can also use equipment; in the following images you'll see a row of hand, head, chest, and so on images below the unit stats. This is where equipment is shown when, well, equipped. Equipment can do a lot of things, so I'm just telling you the basics there.



This is a scout. Pretty much every nation gets a scout (except a few, like Jomon, who get ninjas, basically scouts that can assassinate people), although most don't get scouts with glamour. Useful for reconnaissance, although since all of my commanders, except one, are stealthy and glamour'd, I don't have much reason to recruit these guys over them. He is, however, objectively better than the scouts of pretty much every other nation in this game, so I'm showing him off anyway. Eat it *****es.



Here is the Vanherse. See the above about stealth, glamour, horses, and so on. However, you may notice the little row of symbols below his equipment row. The little cloud with a lightning bolt represents Air magic, which this guy has one level of. As you may expect, it allows him to cast Air magic; it also, as stated above, improves his glamour, so he's even harder to hit. The tiny candelabra, meanwhile, is Holy magic. Most nations only get Holy magic on their priests, although this doesn't affect them too much. Holy magic is mainly for banishing demons and undead, and for improving unit morale. However, it is also for blessing sacred units. So, basically, these guys have better glamour, good combat stats, can cast Air Shield (a spell that makes most arrows miss, which is useful as projectiles aren't affected by glamour), and can bless themselves and their underlings before charging in to murder people. They're awesome. These guys will be my main early-game commanders.

(The little stack of books, meanwhile, is their research ability. Research is # of spell levels + experience +- bonus/penalty +2. Research is needed for discovering new spells and such. These guys won't be spending much time in a lab, though.)



This is a Vanjarl. He's basically a better Vanherse, and the only thing that keeps me from using them over the latter in every case is that they cost more. He has two levels of Air magic instead of one, giving him even more mirror images from glamour, and allowing him to cast Mistform (a spell that dramatically lowers the amount of damage he takes) in addition to Air Shield, plus extra Holy, which won't do much really, although it allows him to sacrifice twice as many blood slaves a turn as an H1 commander, should I decide to do that stuff. He also has a level of Blood magic, indicated by that red pool after the Air. There are some useful Blood spells, but these guys probably won't be making much use of them, at least for their early battles. The question mark, meanwhile, indicates that this guy has a random chance of getting more magic; in this case, a 50% of another level of Blood. As these guys are basically better Vanherses, who are awesome, Vanjarls are even more awesome.



This is a Helkarl. Basically a Vanherse, except with Death magic instead of Air, and better stats. While Death is an awesome path, at level 1 it can't do much, so I won't be using these guys as much as the Vans. They're still awesome, though. Just less so.



Here is the first of Helheim's capital-only commanders, the Dis. She and the following commanders can only be recruited at Helheim's capital, due to the unique magic sites there; the other commanders can be recruited at any Helheim fort, meanwhile. The Dis possesses Air, Death, and Holy magic, and can also fly. This makes her ideal for leading Valkyries, as her description suggests. A Dis and Valkyrie attack squad makes for an awesome raiding party. Like every other Helheim commander, she is awesome.



This is a Hangadrott, a Hanged King. One of the rulers of Helheim, this guy is a badass. Great stats, awesome magic (in addition to what you see there, he also has a 100% chance of getting another level of either Air, Earth, Death, or Blood magic, and a separate 10% chance of another level, same paths). It is really unfortunate that these guys are so expensive and capital-only, because they are possibly the most awesome of all of Helheim's awesome commanders. Which, as you've seen, is saying something.



The last commander of Helheim, these guys are a bit different. The Svartalf are dwarves, and therefore lack the glamour of their Van allies. However, they are far from useless; in addition to good Earth and Death magic (they also have a 100% chance of getting another path, either in Fire, Air, Earth, or Death, making them Helheim's only native access to Fire magic), they have a rather useful ability in CBM, the mod we're using. The mountain goat is Mountain Survival (lets them move through mountains without a penalty and they sufferr less from low supplies there) and the eye is Darkvision (they can see somewhat in situations where other units would be blind), but neither of these are what we care about. The hammer there is a forging bonus of 25, meaning that, when these guys forge magic items, they use 25% fewer gems, rounded favorably. So, forging a 10 gem item would only use 7, as an example. As CBM makes Dwarven Hammers (a piece of equipment that provides such a bonus) into artifacts, meaning that only one person can get it and not until late into the game, this bonus is a godsend for some of the things I'll have these guys doing. They'll never see combat unless things go horribly wrong for me, but they are excellent guys nonetheless. Also, as you might have gathered, they're awesome.

So, there's Helheim and all the units that will matter for the early game. If you read all that, well, good job. Anyway, that's it from me for now, at least until we get twenty turns or so into this game. See you then.

[jotwebe]

It was in one of the most open and least frequented parts of the great encircling ocean that miles beneath the wind-whipped waves a fateful change took place.

Mermen and atlanteans traditionally shunned the region, fearful of what lurked in the lightless depths. For in the ancient aboleth city of R'lyeh vast and ageless fish-creatures move sluggishly on the shores of the benthic brine lakes, served by slaves that their loathsome and mercyless minds have bound in unbreakable fetters.

Beneath the dark and cyclopean towers monstrous polypal growths squat, spewing forth a disgusting stream of writhing, tentacled spawn, eel-like scaled things that burrow into the rotting flesh and decaying bones of whales that the detestable aboleths lured into the abyss, that perished singing mindless ditties, alone in the cold and crushing deep.



Since long before man has stared in slack-jawed wonder at his first flaming torch or raised his dull gaze to the uncaring stars the aboleths have lived in their unbreathing city, disdaining the lesser godlings of the sea and land and even the Pantokrator Himself.

Yet now a terrible emptyness yawns in the heavens, and even as the aurora proclaims the Pantokrators disappearance in sickly colours, dancing mockingly over the northern sky, a chill wind blows from the gaps between the constellations. And in the deepest recesses of the hadopelagic zone, something vast and monstrous stirs.

The reign of the aboleths is at an end, yet perhaps their time has just begun...

[LDiCesare]

Thorion woke up. He had refused to worship the Pantocrator, and the mad women had killed him for that. But he had known it all along. Hiding his heart in a jar, his kidneys in a box, his lungs in a chest and his liver in a crate, Thorion had made sure he would be safe from harm. And now, the Pantocrator was dead, while he survived. The raving women would have to worship someone else now. Once Thorion had persuaded the Pans, they would forget their dead god and worship him instead. In fact, once the bullmen were his, all the females would follow: Maenads, harpies, dryads, would all obey the bullmen, and the bullmen would obey Thorion.
Convincing the Pans wouldn't be difficult. They shunned humans, they feared the iron weapons that men started forging. They wanted a leader to unite Pangaea against the outer world. Thorion would be that leader.

[Immaculate]

Play this song while you read this post.


The nation of acrosephalae heard the call as one,

There is nothin' fair in this world
There is nothin' safe in this world
And there's nothin' sure in this world
And there's nothin' pure in this world
Look for something left in this world

And they had found it! Something left- well, the song itself of course. As one the sons of acrosephalae bent a knee to the awesome might of "White Weddding" by Billy Idol. They had found a new god.




(note that in the original the barbwire ring cuts her finger but MTV took it out of the video ‘cause of the blood)

(Why can’t I see images on the shrapnel forum?)

” The kingdom of Arcoscephale is yet to be founded. Bronze is more common than iron and hoplites have yet to see the dawn of day. Instead, myrmidons and chariots compose the core of the armies. In this time, slaves are commonly used and most free men have plenty of time to spend on fine arts and good living. Philosophers gather in the cities to discuss esoteric truths and engineers manufacture clever contraptions for civil or military use. At the heart of Arcoscephale lies Mount Cephalos, abode of the Awakening God. At the foot of the mountain is a great temple where sacred Wind Riders are trained. Icarids, men with mechanical wings, are also used in warfare. The philosophers are better at magical research in a slothful Dominion.”

Also, unmentioned, are the ubiquitous mystics and the powerful oreids. Mystics are recruit-anywhere mages with one point of astral and two or more other paths while the oreids are powerful air and nature mages with some earth access too. Both these units are impressive when applied properly (ie- by someone other than myself).

This is my first time running any acrosephalae nation. My usual nations for the early era are helheim, yomi, and sauromatia, with my preference falling in that order also. I’ve decided to play acrosephalae because I’ve played helheim and yomi in recent games and I got frustrated with myself during play-testing with sauromatia and threw a huge tantrum, sweeping my computer off my desk and onto my floor in the process and vowed never to play sauro again. None of that last part is true except the tantrum.

Anyway, from what I can tell from play-testing acrosephalae is that you have two ways to play- either take some production and expand using the “not horrible” conventional army available to you or sack your production scales and take sloth three, making use of the philosopher unit and expand with an awake pretender. If you take the production scales you get to use a lot more of your resource-intensive troops like the myrmidons and chariots but if you take the sloth your 50g philosophers generate 9rp per turn. Wow. So anyone playing acrosephalae is faced with a huge choice right away. I don’t want to give away what I choose right now.

As for leadership, the golden age Acrosephalae nation is led by the (semi-) anthropomorphic embodiment of Billy Idol’s song “White Wedding”. I don’t want to say much more than that about my pretender but it should be obvious that acrosephalae under the leadership of a 80s Billy Idol song is gonna rock so hard!

Anyway, that’s all for now- I’ll post more when the game hosts and we progress a bit.

[Warhammer]

My bonds have loosened... My pain has subsided... Something has happened. I must contact my priests. The fact I am still here means they have not lost faith.

I sense great death. Is it the future? No, the Pantokrator must have died! Great times are afoot. I must not loose a minute, I must break these bonds!

I am Warhammer. I have played Dominions 3 for years, actually won a newbie game (well a 3 way draw actually) way back when. But, my MP experience since then has been poor. While I am not a great player, I don't think I am a schlub either. This is my first game with CBM 1.6+ so most of the new spells are new to me as well.

My full write up on Caelum will be discussed in my first turn AAR in about 20 turns, but suffice to say that they have been one of my favorite nations from the start. I wrote/started an early strategy thread regarding them. I love these guys because they have several viable ways to play, although most wind up at the same end point.

[jotwebe]

CHAPTER 0: Time of the Abowhatsits

So this is my 3rd real MP game, and I'll be playing... R'lyeh?
I'm pretty sure I picked Oceania -- how weird. I don't
remember... Oh, whatever, too late to back out now. Still, this
is going to take some thought.

We're playing CBM 1.92, which means there's a lot of changes from
vanilla, not only the general ones, but also specific to EA
R'lyeh. Mainly in vanilla the freespawn and better mages are
aquatic, while in CBM they're all amphibious, but slightly nerfed
path-wise in the case of the mages. Still a positive change all
in all. Let's look at what we've got more closely... and if you're already familiar with EA R'lyeh you will probably want to skip this. Except perhaps to gloat at my missing the totally obvious strengths of this or that super unit...



COMMANDERS

* an amphibious Scout: Well, it would suck if they weren't. Amphibious, that is. This gives them a lot of mobility (apart from making them usable under water in the first place).



* Slave Priest: It's an enslaved merman that prays to the god so his masters don't have to. Genius! I'll get one to search the seafloor for holy sites and build temples.



* Slave Prince: In case I need someone with regular leadership that can also go under the sea.



* Polypal Mother: Immobile. This would suck on a priest, but the map will be really hard on my dominion, since every one of the water provinces borders a ton of land provinces, so I'll get a bunch for preaching anyway. Also they freespawn polypal spawn and gibodai. Once the mothers have preached dominion as high as they can, they're available to Call God. This may come in handy. So 50 gold for a H2 priest is a steal. The most important thing is of course that they're female, so they can't be seduced.



* Slave Mage: I have tons of magical units that need magic leadership. These guys are my cheapest option. They have a WESN random: the earth picks can wear Boots of the Earth on land, the nature picks will be sitesearching and later summon naiads, a W3N3 mage. I need at least one of the nature guys.



* Aboleth: CBM makes them amphibious, they have 2W2S + 1*WESD. More durable than slave mages, but only 2 misc slots. So they have the problem that they can't wear a lot of the path booster items.



* Mind Lord: an aboleth that's all growed up: 2W3S + 2*WESD and 3 misc slots. A lot tougher and gets 2 enslave mind attacks per round which is even better with quicken self, so Alt 2 could be an early research target. Stunningly expensive and not holy, so the upkeep will be painful. Won't recruit a lot. Not all that many. Not-- THE MIND LORDS DEMAND TO BE RECRUITED. They are cap-only.



TROOPS

* several types of enslaved sea people: fast aquatic tritons, fast amphibious mermen and slow amphibious atlanteans. They all have really bad morale and generally suck. The amphibious ones I'll maybe recruit -- one flavor of merman has nets.

* Lobo Guard: they are the definition of chaff. There is a little picture of them right there, that's the definition. They're mindless, so they don't rout. They're magical, so they require magical instead of the regular kind of leadership. At 1 resources they are easy to mass.



* Shambler Thrall: the lobo guards' big brothers. They are size 3 however, and can trample human-sized infantry. If they don't rout the target squad in the first round of they're attack, they're large low-def low-prot units surrounded by the enemy, so will tend to take a lot of losses. On the other hand, they'll inflict them, too. Situational.



* Slave Troll: recruitable Sea Trolls! Thank you, CBM. While regenerating poison-immune bags of hitpoints are awesome, they do have some weaknesses. They get hit a lot, and if they get swarmed, that regen won't help them much. Then I'm out of 70 gold per pop. And while they have good morale, I still want at least 5 of them in a squad so they don't have to roll morale every round. Preferably a few more. That's expensive.



* Giboleth/Gibodai: the mindblasters. Gibodai are holy and cap only, Giboleth are recruit anywhere and not. However, the former also freespawn from polypal mothers sometimes. What is a mindblast, you ask? (probably not, but in case you do It's a can't-miss long-range paralyzation attack (may also do some real damage) that's resistable by MR. It helps those clumsy slave trolls hit things.




* Polypal Spawn: this one you can't recruit. Baby aboleths. Yes, I will be using child soldiers. They're aged one out of an old age limit of three milliennia. I wonder if they'll turn into an aboleth if they're hit with a couple of decays? Size one, low HP, low strength, but reasonable protection and MR. The picture doesn't show it, but their base morale is actually 8. Now if only R'lyeh had a highly thematic “lobotomize” buff to turn stuff mindless. Oh well. Their tentacle attack has a damage of -5 but is armor piercing. Magical, so my mages can, and will have to, lead ****tons of them.



So boys and girls, that's it for now. Next time there'll be either more derivative lovecraftian tentacle-fiction or a discussion of my pretender design. It may also have tentacles.

[Bluemage142]

If any of you bothered to read my fluff post, you probably have a good idea what Marverni is like. If you didn't read it, you probably don't. Most people really don't know much about the Gauls, except that Julius Caesar beat them, and wrote a book about it. Hopefully, I can clear that up with a look at how the nation plays.

First, though, me. I am a new player. I've owned Dominions 3 for a year or two, and played maybe fifteen games against the AI. As I type this, I'm in my first four multiplayer games, all of them using different mods. Like Roland_Jones, I'm from SA, and no, my god isn't related to him. Unless he looks Druish.

Speaking of Druidia, that brings me right back to Marverni. Marverni is all about druids- well, druids, screaming barbarians, and guys in chainmail. Here's a look at their unit list.



12 different units, and 10 different commanders. Sort of big, isn't it? Thankfully, most of them are basically the same thing, so we can really cut that down to a few. Figure that those 12 units come from four different tribes, each of which has its own spin on the same few units.

The Tribes:

Marverni: Have access to all five types of infantry, no special abilities.
Ambibates: Cost more gold and less resources, have +1 morale/attack/defense over Marv, limited units
Carnutes: More morale and HP than Marv, axes, berserk (+2), forest survival, but less defense, cost less res and more gold than Ambis
Eponi: Have cavalry, and nothing else.

Horn Blowers:




These guys are weaker than normal infantry, but have Standards. Basically, each horn blower raises the morale of the units around it, making them far less likely to run away when, say, they see a giant caveman splatter three of their friends across the countryside. My soldiers are a lot of things, but they're only human- having these guys along can make them a good bit more effective, especially the way I intend to use them. The Carnute version is slightly better in battle, has a small amount of armor, and is slightly tougher, for a bit more gold (and less resources, oddly enough.)

Barechests:





These guys are your basic barbarian fighters. If you look at their stats, you'll see that they are actually barechested- their only defenses are their helmets and their shields. On the upside, this makes them dirt cheap. The downside is that a good sneeze will kill a barechest. These guys are more expendable than TIE fighters, and anybody who plans to use them would do well to toss hundreds of them into the fight at a time.

Some differences between the three types. Marv BCs get two javelins and a sword, which they'll throw before moving into melee. Ambis lose the javelins, but gain some morale and combat skill. Carnutes are stronger, tougher, and have higher morale, but use axes instead of swords.

Nobles:





Elite fighters. These guys are tougher, stronger, more skillful, and more motivated than the BCs are. More than that, they wear armor- a Noble has Protection 12, FOUR TIMES what a BC has. The downside of the Noble is that you can get 2-3 BCs, depending on the situation, for the cost of one Noble.

Marv and Ambi Nobles are basically the same thing- the Ambi costs 2 gold more, and has the usual skill and morale bump, but is otherwise identical. The Carnute trades 3 defense for 3 morale and 1 HP.

Ranged Units:




Marverni has precisely two options here. The Javelineer is basically a cheaper, weaker BC- less armor and defense, a spear instead of a sword, and slightly more likely to run in battle. The Slinger, on the other hand, is a proper ranged unit- even more likely to run and less armored, but able to hit from longer distances and do more damage for less cost.

NEITHER of these guys has the accuracy to match a real archer in ranged combat. They won't be hitting small groups all that hard, but get enough of them, and armies can be whittled down well enough.

Eponi Knight:



This is my only cavalry unit, and I don't really know if it's all that good. It's basically a supersized Noble on a sugar rush- same weapons, same basic stats, but bigger, faster, and a good bit harder to hit.

Boar Warrior:



WTF. Really? The Boar Warrior is Marverni's sacred unit- basically, it costs much less to maintain, and can be given a bless (which somebody else will probably explain soon enough) to make itself stronger. Unfortunately for me, it's a gigantic waste of time. For one, it's a Carnute Noble with the serial number filed off. One more HP, one more point of morale, one more point of strength, one more point of attack, and a slightly better special ability. For another, it costs 7 more gold than the Noble- I could have another Marv BC for that. Third, since it's sacred, I can only recruit a number equal to my Holy (starting dominion score + number of temples you have/5) each turn from each fort I have. Oh, wait, I can't even do that much, since the Boar Warrior can only be recruited in my capital province. Too limited, too expensive, and not good enough to be worth getting.

Commanders:

Like my units, my list of commanders is bigger than it looks. Here's how it breaks down.

Scout:



This guy is horrible in combat. He MIGHT be able to beat a chimpanzee... if he's lucky. He's also a horrible leader, since he can't lead any troops. What he is is relatively good at not being seen, which makes him perfect for seeing where (and how many) troops my enemies have. The Marverni scout has Stealth +20, making him better than the normal Scout (which has +10) at not being seen. Still not going to build any, since I have better things for my forts to be doing.

Chieftains:





These are the tribal leaders. They're basically Nobles with a bit more training, some extra morale, a relatively small Standard, and the ability to drag 40 men around. I don't plan to build any of them, for two very good reasons.

Eponi Chieftain:


This is the first reason why I'm not going to build the last three guys. He's about half again the cost of the other leaders, but is based on my (higher-stat) cavalry, gains more stats from being a commander, and can lead twice as many men. DEFINITELY worth the extra cost. Still not planning to build many, but I'll make some.

Vergobret:



Yeah, no. This guy is a bottom-level priest, and nothing else. He's cheaper than buying a priest from some random province, but a turn spent buying one of these guys is a turn that could've been spent buying a mage (who is also a priest) AND a normal priest. Thank you, no.

Sequani Stargazer:



Just looking at this guy, you wouldn't see much. He's barely a mage- only one level of Astral- not sacred, and a terrible researcher, not to mention useless in melee combat. Still, I'll be buying dozens of these guys over the game (assuming I survive). Why? Because they're dirt cheap, can search for Astral sites, can cast a few useful battle spells, and are one of the most effective force multipliers I get. More on that later.

Gutuater:



This is more like it. Half again the cost of the Stargazer, tougher in battle, better at research, a priest (making those Vegemite-guys obsolete), and access to another type of magic. Nature magic will give me a few more tricks to use- oh, and these guys also get one random level of magic. Gutuaters can give me a bit of Water, Astral, or Earth, and have a chance of reaching level 2 in Nature. I like all of this.

Druid:



This is where it's at. Let me say that again. THIS IS WHERE IT'S AT.

The Druid is my best priest. The Druid gives me two levels of both Earth and Astral magic- enough to search for Earth sites, forge a lot of good items, and cast some good spells. Druids research like two Gutuaters duct-taped to each other, and get the same W/S/E/N guaranteed random pick the Gut-eaters do. Then, for good measure, they get ANOTHER one. As if that wasn't enough, they have a 10% chance of getting a THIRD one. I could potentially get Water 3, Astral FIVE, Earth FIVE, or Nature 3 out of one of these wonderful, wonderful chaps. With enough items, I can get to half the top-end summons in the game, or turn them into absolute MONSTERS with the help of a couple dozen Stargazers.

Sure, they cost almost as much as three Gutuaters, but the value of all that magic CANNOT be underestimated. Once I have a proper economy, I would be a FOOL not to get at least one Druid a turn. Yes, I know I'm a fool, but I'm not the sort of foolish fool who foolishly fools around instead of recruiting Druids. There's a reason Marverni's tagline is "Time of Druids".

Boar Lord:



This is the commander version of the Boar Warrior, and it lost a LOT of suck along the way. It gains more strength and attack than the other commanders did, with a light sprinkling of extra HP and morale on top. If that's all it got, it'd be decent, but this guy is actually good.

Remember how the Boar Warrior was basically a Carnute Noble? Low defense, better attack? The Boar Lord has the attack of a Boar Warrior commander... and the defense skill of an Ambi commander. Four defense skill goes a long way. It also gets bigger berserk bonuses (more on that later) than anything else I have, leads as many men as the Eponi Chieftain, and is a basic priest ON TOP OF THAT.

The Boar Lord has one more advantage over the entire rest of my troop list. Reinvigoration. Figure that a Boar Warrior racks up 5 points of fatigue for every turn it's fighting. You go unconscious at 100 fatigue, so it can only fight 20 turns straight before it collapses. The Boar Lord does the exact same thing, and then loses 4 of that fatigue every turn. Theoretically, it could fight for 100 turns straight before tiring out, if such a thing were possible. With the proper equipment, this guy could become a thug- a single unit capable of taking lightly-defended provinces on its own.

Strategy:

If you look at my unit list, you'll notice a few things. I can either get a horde of cheap, weak units, or a smaller number of tougher ones. Marverni can be played either way, or even switch between the two as needed.

The Carnute versions of my units can go berserk, though, which adds another option to my list. Berserk units gain strength, protection, morale, and attack, at the expense of defenses- they hit harder, more of the time, take a hit better, and NEVER break, but get hit more often. I can go cheap horde, tough mob, or tough mob o' berserkers, and even tailor my mobs to the enemy- Carnute axes against giants, Marv swords and javelins against the undead- that sort of thing.

The addition of mages has a truly marvelous effect on this, which this post is too short to contain.

[LDiCesare]

A few words about me.

I'm playing Pangaea, which I never used in MP.
I've been playing since dom2, and have lost several dom3 games since.
Interestingly, I won one with Helheim and totally disagree with the statement of the Helheim player in this game: "nations that can sit around and research a lot and don't necessarily have to get into an early war( ...) Helheim, on the other hand, is a highly-aggressive nation that wants to expand, expand, and expand some more, crushing everyone in its path". Just like, no. That's the reason why they get 25% forge bonus on their svartalfar in CBM 1.92 by the way. I complained in order to allow them to forge skull mentors, because that's the way Helheim got the best research in game before CBM -provided you boostrapped construction-.

I'd also like to add something to the description of Marverni units, the berserker ones.
Several Pangaea units, namely minotaurs, minotaur soldiers and maenads, also have berserking ability, so this is important for my nation too.
These units "gain strength, protection, morale, and attack, at the expense of defenses- they hit harder, more of the time, take a hit better, and NEVER break, but get hit more often.". But they also get an encumbrance penalty, so they tire faster. Which is why the carnute gets reinvig, by the way.

A few words about Pangaea now.

As I said, it's got berserking units.
Maenads.
All its other units are stealthy.
Not the naked madwomen though.
Its Pans have the special ability of being stealthy and generating unstealthy berserking naked women wherever they go provided the province has some turmoil.
Naked women = maenads.
The other special points of Pangaea include:
Maenads.
Carrion Woods. This is a high level N/D enchantment that kills everyone in my dominion to turn them into plant undead. It's really an either/or choice. Either I kill my own people to turn them into plant zombies, or I use more conventional ways to win. Heavy Death and Nature are required for this.
Maenads.
Cheap temples. 200 gold apiece only.
Micromanagement of hundreds of hundry naked women.
Blood sacrifice.
Maenad freespawn.

Also, either cheap ineffective researchers or expensive non sacred average researchers.
Finally, I may not have mentioned that Pans attract tons of naked berserking mad women that eat all the food in the land without requiring any upkeep.
Maenads.