Ermor and scales question

[customer717]

So I have the full Version now and I want to play with something new after my several runs with Jotenhiem and the walkthrough. I liked the undead element, so Ermor here I come.

This was my first go at designing a Pretender so I may have screwed it up. I picked the Prince of Death as the form as it seemed like a sensible fit. I then added some death magic, a bit of air and fire for direct damage, and a little bit of thaumaturgy as the description said my mages would use it. Basically I went with more magic lines but less potent hoping this would help me find more sights and I could empower later according to what I found.

I chose the default theme. I can't remember the name, but it was the top one and free.

I also picked the Mauseleum as it seemed like a good death choice. Plus the description I read in the "Online manual" in a link on the newbie post (which I now think is the Dom1 manual) it says that most of my troops will be raised off of corpses so gold and resources are not as much of an issue.

This then lead me to pick all death (+3) scale and one cold scale (as undead guys seem resistant to cold).

So I start the game and to my surprise I can only hire living units that cost gold and resources. Hrm. I start researching enchantment and conjuration to get some undead casting (in and out of battle).

After I win a few battles against indys I see the reanimate option with my casters so I do that. However the reanimated troops are low in number and after awhile and I am losing massive numbers against the winged race (starts with a C I think) guys which I am now at war with. They are bannishing whole legions (roughly 4 priests casting banish non stop each fight). The only thing left at the end of the fight are my living troops. I am taking around 75+ undead casualties per fight which is mostly to banishment.

This is a problem as my income and resources are in the tank because of my scales choices. I got lucky with some real nice random events that got me some cash, but still my troops are starving in low supply provinces and my income/ resources are so pathetic that I cannot buy anything. I have a descent chunk of land which should produce a fair amount, but I think, my scale choices are killing me.

Should I have not gone all death? I was under the impression that it would "kill" my population, but as Ermor that was okay as my nation is undead anyway. It seems that even though my nation is cursed and doomed to live as undead, it still has very living fleshy farmers without which my economy collapses. Furthermore my undead legions require a very much alive military to get the ball rolling and in lots of cases keep them from total destruction at the hands of priests.

Should I restart and redo the scales? Are bad scales always bad regardless of your civilization? Or am I just not to that "critical mass" point where I can summon enough to continue on without the need of living (costly) troops? I know when I played against Ermor he had tons of troops and none of them were alive. However, when I reanimate/ summon I get a mere handful of troops.

Suggestions?

There are 3 varieties of Ermor.

Most of those here who talk about Ermor are talking about Ermor: Ashen Empire (because in Dom1 that was the only Ermor).

But the actual base Ermor is Broken Empire. Broken Empire is also known as Living Ermor, and it has all the frailties of a living nation (supply, gold, resources) while using undead and astral to compliment their living and dead armies.

Traditional Ermor or Ashen Empire is pure undead Ermor. Ashen Empire Ermor dominion kills population at a tremendous rate. There are also no national recruitable troop types, troops are autorecruited in your Dominion and Castles. You must summon most of your commanders, priests, and mages.

Soul Gate Ermor is very much like Ashen Empire, with a killing dominion and no recruitable national troops. Same autorecruit by dominion, just a different take on it along with different commanders and preists (Wraiths).

With Ashen Empire or Soul Gate, you can make super-pretenders. Taking heavy scales, like 3 Turmoil, 3 Sloth, 3 Cold, 3 Death, 3 Luck, 3 Magic (or Drain). This allows you to pump your Dominion very high and make very powerful pretenders. But Broken Empire (Default) cannot do this or it cripples their economy and they have no free autorecruited undead.

[fahdiz]

I've noticed that most people, when they talk about "playing Ermor", are really talking about Ermor's two alternate themes. Broken Empire, the default Ermorian theme, is mostly human troops, some of which have the ability to summon the dead, and so taking 3 Death on the scales will probably hurt you quite a bit in the early game...and come to think of it, it will probably hurt you for the entire game.

If you're looking for the "classic" Ermor experience, try one of the other two Ermor themes. Then you'll see the sort of thing your friend was using when he played as Ermor.

EDIT: And I see Zen has beat me to saying this as I was typing it. Darn it.

[ February 28, 2004, 23:52: Message edited by: fahdiz ]

[customer717]

Okay, I will chalk it up as a learning experience and go for the non default theme. Thank you for the replies.

Originally posted by fahdiz:
EDIT: And I see Zen has beat me to saying this as I was typing it. Darn it.

I'm going to start letting other people answer all the questions