Some thoughts on Machaka from playing the demo:
1. The first thing I noticed is they don't start with a scout. They don't
have a scout - but they do have a stealthy priest, so why do they start with a nonstealthy priest instead? I think it would be more interesting to start them with an Ears instead of an Eyes (along with the Chief, bunch of troops and the god). The Eyes is kind of useless in the early turns, but an Ears could go out and scout and then later come back to preach, search for sacred sites, or whatever.
2. Speaking of sacred sites - there are more now. Ancient Temple is a sacred site (in Dom I it was astral).
3. Black hunters are very expensive (125/38), but also very powerful. I don't think I've lost one yet - although two of them are now riderless, they're still sacred and they still follow orders.
4. National heroes I've seen so far:
* Yasini the King Triumphant - has level 4 priest powers, but isn't sacred. Is that intentional? Of course, I made him my prophet, so now he has level
5 priest powers and
is sacred.
Divine Blessing goes great with the above-mentioned Black Hunters (and the province of jade amazons I found next to my capitol).
* Ainra the Lady of Spiders - has stronger magic than your normal mages, which is always useful. Also can voluntarily shapechange (normal sorceresses auto-shapechange when wounded like skinshifters; Ainra has the shapechange command like a Dragon).
* Abasi the Hero - one of the better warrior heroes I've seen, with 17 str (on a human!), base att/def of 12 and free plate armor (of course Machaka has earth mages and can probably forge him something better). I'd probably make him my prophet if I didn't have Yasini. Even without any construction research I can give him a Sword of Sharpness so he does 25 armor piercing damage with 13 attack. Ouch.
5. Be careful with the starting troops - it's easy to mangle the Machaka Warriors with friendly fire from the Archers, since they have a measly 2 Protection. Archers mix better with the Machaka Hoplites, Spider Knights or Black Hunters, who have enough armor to shrug off friendly fire. Or with a well-protected combat god, if you have one.
6. Spider Warriors seem quite effective and tough. Too bad they're capitol only and you will probably want to make Black Hunters instead if you have the gold.
7. Bane Spider - an assassin with plate armor and a
bane blade built in. Haven't played around with him much because of the 150 cost, but - a bane blade? One scratch automatically hits them with Decay which is a guaranteed kill on non-inanimate non-undead?
8. National spells include Blindness and Seven Year Fever. Fear the witch doctors.
9. Is there some reason you didn't want to use the term "assegai"? "Machaka spear" just sounds odd to me.
Demo Machaka
Linear Mode
