MP Game - Pandemonium (noob/int game) - running

[Boron]

with scs i have done a lot of thinking in the Last days which summonable ones are my favourite lategame scs .
unfortunately i have come to no favourite yet

with your moloch :
sure you can bring him up to higher protection with items .
BUT not for indy conquering .
and i talked about that
as abysia with only starting fire gem income you can't forge a jade armor for indy conquering e.g.

if you would be ulm you could always forge the 19 protection trinklet black steel full plate e.g.

but as abysia this is not possible .
IF you take an immortal/recuperation pretender you don't need to worry about afflictions at all .
these are rare though :
the only real immortal sc is the vq .
most , perhaps all recuperation scs are reserved for pangenea .

with empowering : it always costs 50 gems for the first path , i think 15 for lvl 2 , 30 for lvl 3 ...
so this is until very late in the game too expensive .
if you want get e.g. air 3 you have to pay 95 airgems .
for 100 airgems you get 2 airqueens .
i would chose the airqueens

the only path in which i empower my pretenders maybe is in astral until astral 9.
then you can wish for magic power and get +1 in each path even those who don't have .
but this is VERY VERY VERY lategame

so if you intend to use a path for something highlevel like level 5+ you should at least take lvl 3 in most pathes because most items to empower need lvl 3 .

if i plan to e.g. to summon a airqueen i need at least air 3 on my pretender if my national mages can't do that ( caelum could e.g.).
with air 3 then i can e.g. forge a bag of winds and a winged helmet : both give air +1 which results in the needed air 5


for earlygame combat stone/ironskin , quickness , fire shield , breath of winter shield , mistform , mirror image and personal regeneration are the most important buffs .

midgame invulnerability , phönix pyre , soul vortex become available which are really good .
when they are available you have normally forged already e.g. boots of quickness so that you can still do 5 good buffs .


with SC you have to differ between the 2 following :
early game indy conquering sc
late game fully equipped sc

most earlygame indy conquer scs can be turned into lategame fully equipped scs .
but there are exeptions , e.g. wyrm/carrion dragon
and some really good lategame equipped scs are poor indy conquering scs : e.g. nataraja


the only absolutely riskless indy conquering sc is the vq .

a pod / moloch with greames mod is a really good indy conquering sc too .
if he gets afflicted it is for many nations not bad because they can heal him midgame by either the chalice or a summoned fairy queen (5N).
and tien chi / arco are special .
arco has the priestesses .
tien chi gets at least 1 hero who can heal .

the chalice needs 3N2S to forge .
the Last possibility to heal afflictions is the global Gift of Health (5N).



the problem is abysia has no nature magic .
so with abysia the only safe indy conquering sc is the vq .

you can turn your pod / virtue / moloch etc. with equippment in a good lategame sc .
but you can't solo indies absolutely sure .
but you can take with you a small army and use your pretender as artillery .



for abysia though i think the vq just fits extremely well .
the only other choice of pretender i would use for abysia is the in a few days old suggested f9e9 scorpion king from somebody else which is very impressive too

the moloch fits thematically well with abysia but not gameplay wise .
the moloch fits well for those nations where i take him often :
vanheim , mictlan , marignon .

there i take f9 primary for the bless effect and with my above described fire darts strat he is a good helper for expanding too but not a sc

from the 3 mentioned nations mictlan is my absolute favourite because they are so magically flexible .

marignon + vanheim are quite narrow there




my favourite nations are at the moment :
mictlan
abysia
arco
ermor
pan cw

now i will try caelum and i guess they will probably become a favourite nation for me too

pythium , ryleh and ulm i like too but not as much as the above mentioned

the only nations which i strongly dislike are :
machaka , marignon and atlantis