Ashdod is worthless now

[Valerius]

Originally Posted by triqui

I've played in MP against W9 Niefelheim,

I have to admit this build really confuses me. Even with a W9 bless Niefel giants aren't going to be dishing out many attacks but if you really wanted to double your attacks your mages can easily cast quickness on them (and of course all your Jarls can cast personal quickness). So all you get out of this is +4 defense - but as giants they are going to be completely outnumbered so that defense bonus isn't going to help them like it would a smaller unit. The only advantage I can see is if they're facing other giants but even there I'd prefer to take the earth bless as it will prevent them from getting fatigued while your cold aura and possibly your own chaff tire out your opponents (assuming they don't have their own E bless). I honestly can't think of a situation where a W9 bless would be better for Niefel than an E9 bless (even aside from the fact that strong E is a much better addition to your magic diversity than strong W).

Originally Posted by triqui

and against (or, actually, along side) F4W4N4E4 Unmarked fomorians.

This I can see working. The nice thing about rainbow blesses is that you can usually get them just by spending a little more here and there when designing your pretender. TNN's Tuatha warriors work nicely with them as do MA Jotun's woodsmen (F4E4N4 works well though even just N4E4 will get the job done).

Originally Posted by triqui

Those aren't the best blesses for those chasses, but the best blesses for those chasses in a metagame that involve Multiplayer Competitive fights in 10-15 provinces per player in matchs of 8 players that happen in Llamaserver among people who ussually fight using the conventional approach (ie: the "optimal build for chasses").

Well, CBM is going to have to choose something to balance against. What do you think it should be? Personally my guess is that most Dominions players play SP but there balance isn't an issue and it can actually be more interesting to have things imbalanced.

I'm not much of a minmaxer myself and there's nothing wrong with taking a build for the fun of it, but I wouldn't expect CBM to balance itself against my non-optimal builds - otherwise a true minmaxer will be able to abuse the heck out of things.

As far as different game types go, I've played several duels and obviously there you have a different focus as all you need is to defeat one opponent. IMO the main difference large and medium size games (aside from hellish micromanagement ) is that having your best units be cap only is more of a drawback and good scales matter more than ever.