4's, 9's and blessings

[Darryl]

Ok, I've been reading some of the strategies posted here for creating pretenders and I have a couple of questions.

Why do people value "4's and 9's" so much? I figure the 9's part is because that is the max for magic, but what about the 4's? What do you get at level 4 that other levels don't? And why does this seem to be such a popular combination?

Also, what does any of that have to do with blessing? To be honest, I don't really understand blessing or what it does. I just saw so many people posting about it that I set my priests to do it. I read the description in the manual and still don't really get it. "Your troops receive additional powers if your god is powerful enough to claim a divine title"? What does that mean?

And should you bless every round? Are they cumulative? I tried checking the manual and Sabers' newbie guide to no avail.

Darryl

[DLC]

sacred troops get increased stats with each lvl of belief in your providences.

althought most of the sacred troops are a pain in the *** to build i think, the bless effect isn't worth it.
I'd rather just summon some monsters instead

[Gandalf Parker]

There are certain benefits for blessings AND then there are bonuses for the types of magic that your pretender starts out with. For example, if he starts out with 4 in water then the "blessings" of that god also grants a +2 to the defense of blessable units (the ones with the candles in their description). If that god started with 9 in water then blessable units get +2 to their defense AND a quickness boost of 50% (usually an extra attack every other round).

Each magic has different bonuses at 4 and 9. By careful consideration of what blessable units you have and where they can stand some boosting you can come up with a very useful tactic. So far I dont think anyone has made it a winning strategy, just a useful tactic.

There is also a "shroud" you can make which will make any commander blessed all the time even if he cant normally be blessed.

So for magic choices on gods its "what would be useful but my mages dont already have it", 1 in a magic to make a few useful items, 2 is good for searching, 3 is better for searching and can usually make items later that can add another magic point to mages (doesnt count toward blessings), 4 for bless bonuses, 5 and 6 for many useful summons, 9 for super blessings. IMHO

[ December 25, 2003, 17:53: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[Vger]

Hello,

Also, the base bless effect you get for having 4 in that magic school rise by an amount for every 2 more picks. (The bless effects are listed in the manual.) So, for example, you get +4 to your magic resistance for your sacreds if your pretender has 8-9 astral. You'd get +5 at 10 astral.


Vaya con Vastness,
V'ger gone

[aldin]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
If that god started with 9 in water then blessable units get +2 to their defense AND a quickness boost of 50% (usually an extra attack every other round).

Actually +4 to Defense as Vger notes Good breakdown on why to grab spheres though, thanks.

~Aldin

[void]

Bless Effects
(From Dominionsx)


None - Morale +3

Fire 4 - Attack Skill +2
Fire 6 - Attack Skill +3
Fire 8 - Attack Skill +4
Fire 9 - Flaming Weapons
Fire 10 - Attack Skill +5

Air 4 - Air Shield (20%)
Air 5 - Air Shield (25%)
Air 6 - Air Shield (30%)
Air 7 - Air Shield (35%)
Air 8 - Air Shield (40%)
Air 9 - Shock resistance (75%)
Air 10 - Air Shield (45%)

Water 4 - Defense Skill +2
Water 6 - Defense Skill +3
Water 8 - Defense Skill +4
Water 9 - Quickness (50%)
Water 10 - Defense Skill +5

Earth 4 - Reinvigoration 2
Earth 6 - Reinvigoration 3
Earth 8 - Reinvigoration 4
Earth 9 - Armor value +4
Earth 10 - Reinvigoration 5

Astral 4 - Magic Resistance +1 (Max 18)
Astral 6 - Magic Resistance +2
Astral 8 - Magic Resistance +3
Astral 9 - Twist Fate (protection from first hit)
Astral 10 - Magic Resistance +4

Death 4 - Lesser Fear
Death 6 - Lesser Fear
Death 8 - Lesser Fear
Death 9 - Life after Death, Fear (Undead beings only)
Death 10 - Lesser Fear

Nature 4 - Berserk +1
Nature 6 - Berserk +2
Nature 8 - Berserk +3
Nature 9 - Regeneration, Poison Resistance (50%)
Nature 10 - Berserk +4

Blood 4 - Strength +2
Blood 6 - Strength +3
Blood 8 - Strength +4
Blood 9 - Death Curse
Blood 10 - Strength +5

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by void:
Bless Effects
(From Dominionsx)

Air 4 - Air Shield (20%)
Air 5 - Air Shield (25%)
Air 6 - Air Shield (30%)
Air 7 - Air Shield (35%)
Air 8 - Air Shield (40%)
Air 9 - Shock resistance (75%)
Air 10 - Air Shield (45%)

This bit is wrong. Not sure the exact details but its significantly better at high levels than shown here.

A couple of example of Bless stratagies are, first and foremost, Jotuns Niefelheim theme Niefel Giants with Nature9/earth/9 and also the Machaka with fire9/nature9 using the sacred spiders. Both approaches basically forgo the mass of the normal troops and build armies centered on blessed uber units. The most successful of the sacrd can be turned into commanders as the game goes on.

There is a whole range of bless races (such as C'ts "Dancers of Death" with water9, Vanheim, Tuatha) which adjust their play significantly to make the best advantage of bless effects and their sacred troops. These races are not made drastically different by the bless approach adopted in the way the Niefelheim and Machaka get defined by their bless effects on their sacred troops.

One interesting bless effects strategy that has so far only been discussed in theory is death9 and turning all your mages into undead. This comb's very nicely with some of the big nasty black enchantments.

For more on bless and its uses do searches on "Dancers of Death" "Niefel Giants" "Bless effects" and so on as there are a number of previous threads on the topic.

cheers

Keir

[Saber Cherry]

Yeah, it goes up 10% per level, so at level 10 (80%) it is incredibly good... if you have mainly holy troops and archers