Balance without a Mod? A Discussion (Long)

[KissBlade]

Velusion said:


Well to address these doubts:

KissBlade's assumption I think is founded on the fact that there is an exact perfect number of points needed to supply a dual bless strategy (F9/W9 I assume). There is more than a simple bless stratgey that goes into a pretender. Other things you need to factor in:

Pretender Form
Dominion Strength
6 Different Scales
Extra Magic
Awake/Dorment/Imprisoned

Kissblade's assumption doesn't factor these in at all. It assumes that there is a nation out there that is worth dual bless with the very worst scales, the worst pretender, no extra magic with a 1 Domain. Are we saying that Helheim with ONLY a W9/F9 and the very worst in everything else can beat a Vanheim in a better position?

When did I assume this?

Regarding Frank's post.

You do not get higher than dom 5 for a dual bless. Dual bless requires scales that cannot pay for more than 4 hel/van/niefel's per recruit, effectively nulling your point about pretender chassis being diverse based on dominion

Using your case of Helheim.
There are only two valid dual blesses for Helheim. F9/w9 and E9/w9. The rest are all inferior to the former. Abysia stands as an /ok/ counter against Hel troops to troops wise but can't match the raiding ability. There is a minimal difference of 10 points between cyclops and father of winters, but suffice to say you will probably go with the e9/w9 chassis. The Order scale is DEFINITELY a no brainer. There is no way you should not take Order 3 in base unless you are LA Ermor. There has never been a worthy Luck vs Order test because Luck does NOT factor in that Order is reliably providing a constant stream of income, allowing for constant stream of units.

Honestly, this is simply a case of opportunity cost. You're really just adding extra costs to a chassis. And you can't tell me that there isn't an agreed upon point where a chassis becomes sub optimal. But hey, there are people who think that master lich is good base game so *shrugs*, who am I to argue.

Bottom line: This is not a good system for stopping imbalanced tactics or builds. It's a system for pretty much saying, "you can't play nations with the POSSIBILITY of imbalanced builds without taking those imbalanced builds itself".