Great minds think alike?

[The_Duke]

Hey Guys,

I have played the game for about a month now. Really surprised by it. I read about the game and how DEEP it goes and thought I should find out for myself. At first I did not see so much, but as a spent more and more AND MORE time, I was surprised at all the different aspects of the game.

I love Targa’s Karan map. I am closely following the Random map gen. threads and was hoping that they could one day generate maps of that graphic quality.


For my first thread, my question is this:
There are quite a few great walkthroughs now. And any beginner should have no problem getting a hang of the game relatively fast, but one mastering the basics, there are not a whole lot that I could find on becoming a great player.

Although I consider myself a average player No , above average player No , good player Yeah , I was wondering how great players play the game. One of the things that make this game so great is that it is so open ended and depending on your stile, you create the ultimate strategy.

Here are the thoughts that go into my game. I like playing Pangaea. They have good medium costing troops that you can start recruiting from the start and have quite large armies in no time that is not too shabby. For my pretender, I usually go for a rainbow. I usually go with Arch Mage or Great Enchantress pretender. They have cheap magic paths. I give them one of each magic paths, and then concentrate on my scales, boosting almost everything. Hoping that a good empire foundation should give me the needed resources to have large armies. I them search every new province, usually keeping my pretender out of major conflicts, till well in the game once I have empowered him a little more.

I have no idea how to do a melee pretender, very risky.

So, how do you great guys approach your games?

[Saber Cherry]

I see a 1-point-per-path raindow mage to be a complete waste. I like rainbow mages, but usually give them 2-3 points per path. Magic sites go from level 0 to level 4, and searching only to level 1 leaves out most of the gems and all the good sites. 5 paths at level 2 would be better than 8 paths at level 1, and you can search the other 3 paths with national mages.

Once you have lots of gems, a 1 point-per-path mage is too weak to even use them for anything.

Fighting pretenders, OTOH, make the game too easy and less interesting, so I don't use them.

[st.patrik]

I'm kinda entranced with the bless effects, so I usually do a limited rainbow mage type with maybe a strength of 4 in 3 different paths. Or sometimes just 2 paths.

The main thing I try to figure out are what my magic goals are - like I want to research quickly to Mass Protection, getting Wind Guide and Mother Oak along the way, then focus on Construction.

What determines these goals is usually an idea of how to optimise a certain effect for a certain race - e.g. Pangaea with lots of fairly cheap low PROT troops which could use Mass Protection, mixed with summons built on the gems from Mother Oak = swarm kind of attack. Or Man with Wind Guided longbows and artillery in the form of air Evocations = stand back and bLast your enemies from afar.

I agree with Cherry that 1 point RM is pretty useless - you won't find much in the way of valuable sites, and you won't be able to forge magic-enhancing items, and you won't be able to cast global enchantments (or other such fun rituals).

I too have not ever really gone for much of a combat pretender - too afraid of battle afflictions and annoying & stupid deaths. But I know it works from the many people who practice it.

but I'm rambling, so I'll stop now

I'm opposite of Cherry and St. Patrik I use combat pretenders and utilize the strength of a nations mages to utilize the magic. In large games, it really depends on what you plan on doing and how you plan on doing it. I feel the most important step is knowing what you are going to be doing long before you do anything. And leave yourself open to the changes that the game will present. Sometimes you will be afforded unique positions that you are not normally, other times you will be in situations that you could never concievably see when forging your nation and pretender. So the key I feel is versatility and being able to use the psychology of the enemy against themselves. The game is very mutable and you must be mutable to in order to survive, especially with alot of opponents.

It also helps if you carry a big stick.

[ February 27, 2004, 03:53: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Gandalf Parker]

Personally I think the power of Pangaea is in stealth armies. If you arent into using stealth tricks (which I know quite a few of) then Pangaea doesnt tend to hold up well. Just as Ulm is good for the power-army player, Arcos is good for the magic reasearcher, Marignon is good for anti-undead, Joutn for defense. (all my own opinions of course)

I think the many races each have pros and cons, and each player has their own style pros and cons. Finding a good nation to match your style is the absolute best thing I can recommend to being a great player.

[st.patrik]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Personally I think the power of Pangaea is in stealth armies. If you arent into using stealth tricks (which I know quite a few of) then Pangaea doesnt tend to hold up well. Just as Ulm is good for the power-army player, Arcos is good for the magic reasearcher, Marignon is good for anti-undead, Joutn for defense. (all my own opinions of course)

I think the many races each have pros and cons, and each player has their own style pros and cons. Finding a good nation to match your style is the absolute best thing I can recommend to being a great player.

I should have mentioned that I mainly play New Era when I play Pangaea. That changes things a great deal.

Although I think the race for stealth armies is hands down Man - the wardens in vanilla and the Daoine Sidhe in LoT are much more reliable that weak-morale satyrs, expecially since if you rout while attacking a province unconnected to another province you own you lose everyone.


I should say that I agree with Zen 100% about having goals - knowing something about what you want to do rather than aimlessly building various units and researching various paths.

[ February 27, 2004, 13:42: Message edited by: st.patrik ]

[PDF]

Personnally I like RBs but give'em 2 levels in each path, with 3 in Fire and Astral if possible (Fire for the Fire Helmet, Astral cause high Astral is good ).
If you want super-duper scales try an Oracle or Blood Foutain, there're quite good dirt cheap Pretenders
But I don't like Pangea that much, I prefer solid nations like Pythium, Arco or Abysia (oh yes, not that original, these are the strongest nations around )

[Tricon]

All in all Zen paraphrased my opinion, too. Right now(past week), I'm in my "use obscure tactics to win" phase. I select a nation that supports what I want to do in the game, make a pretender accordingly and then go at it.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by PDF:
Personnally I like RBs but give'em 2 levels in each path, with 3 in Fire and Astral if possible (Fire for the Fire Helmet, Astral cause high Astral is good ).

You can go with only 2 in Fire if you also pick some Death (Fire Skull). I prefer to pick 3 in Air since the common +air items and the SoS require that.

Astral I pick either zero or 5+.

Earth 4 for human-sized mages unless I have astral-2+ national mages. Otherwise 2, or 3 for mounted mages.

Blood, zero or 3+.

Other paths at 2, or 0-1 if my national mages already cover them.

[The_Duke]

Thanks for these tips guys,

I modified my Rainbow pretender and rethought my nation.


Keep them coming.....