Astral and Fire and Blood Oh My!

[Spacepain]

Well, I've become a pretty good Ulm player they're very straight forward. Very little magic is really invovlved. Now, I've been looking at other nations that have pretty good heavy infantry like Pythium, Arco, and Marignon, but a much stronger affliation at magic... and I'm swamped. I'd have more success digging a hole through the middle of the Earth with my toenails than I'm having with these nations...

So, what are the do's and don'ts of Pretenders, domain, and magic of the nations with the heavier infantry and decent magic?

I'm going to leave ranting about blood magic to its whole own post...

It's best if you just pick one nation and one theme and ask about them, than a few. They all play differently and have different pretenders that can work to their advantage. I'm sure you'll get more informative responses from the numerous opinionated patrons of the forums to what is good if you go that approach.

[st.patrik]

here's my 2 cents on "How To Use Magic":

that is, have specific goals - magic 'in general' won't do you much good. For this reason I tend to prefer nations which have a somewhat narrow magic, otherwise there are just too many options (for my tastes). So if you're starting out trying to use magic effectively I suggest pick a race which has a dominant path you like the sound of, and then experiment with the spells they have at their disposal. So for example you could choose Pangaea and explore nature magic, or Vanheim and explore air and earth, etc. I would avoid Arco if you're starting out, because they have so many random picks. Become a master of a particular path of magic.

just my 2 cents - hope it's helpful

[fahdiz]

Originally posted by st.patrik:
here's my 2 cents on "How To Use Magic":

that is, have specific goals - magic 'in general' won't do you much good. For this reason I tend to prefer nations which have a somewhat narrow magic, otherwise there are just too many options (for my tastes). So if you're starting out trying to use magic effectively I suggest pick a race which has a dominant path you like the sound of, and then experiment with the spells they have at their disposal. So for example you could choose Pangaea and explore nature magic, or Vanheim and explore air and earth, etc. I would avoid Arco if you're starting out, because they have so many random picks. Become a master of a particular path of magic.

just my 2 cents - hope it's helpful

All of this is a good reason that st.patrik's favorite nation, Man (and especially the Last of the Tuatha theme), is IMO a good one to learn more about magic, as well as bless strategies. They're fairly focused (Air and Nature - only Tuatha get random picks), their infantry is quite straightforward, and longbowmen are really fantastic. Air is also very good for blessings on the great Daoine Sidhe, especially coupled with longbowmen.

[Ctennyson]

Ulm uses Fire and Earth magic, so you ought to be used to those already.

Abyssia plays a lot like Ulm, ignore blood and just go with fire, and maybe death. I like Man with Fire and Air, for Wind Guide/Flaming Arrows combos.

I suck with Arcos, so lets not talk about them, or Pythium.

If you want an intro to magic, try Ashen Empire Ermor, and take a serious Rainbow Ghost King. Ermor is hard to lose to the CPU with, and you ought to have tons of time to see what all the magic does.

[Teraswaerto]

A simple way to use Pythium's magic power is to have lots of Communicants, then have your Theurgs/Arch Theurgs cast Communion Master and Quickness, followed by Thunder Strike or Orb Lightning or Stellar Cascades, or maybe Paralyze, depending who you are facing & what level of research you have.

[ March 14, 2004, 05:53: Message edited by: Teraswaerto ]