Balancing the blesses

[MaxWilson]

Rytek said:
I havent played any multi player games yet. But seems to me Death 9 bless would make for interesting multiplay diplomacy. Do you really want to start a war knowing even if you win your armies may be crippled?

Good point, although you'd want to change your play style to maximize afflictions instead of trying to keep territory. When I was running those tests, it occurred to me that a weak army would fail to take the province vs. 30 PD, and a strong army would get wrecked by the death-blessed Fire Storm. The obvious countermeasure is to send in a tiny little force and try to make Abysia waste gems casting Fire Storm, but it's non-obvious how many men you need to send to make the combat AI still think it's worth casting. Combine the D9 blessing with a "scorched earth" policy of pillaging your own provinces for extra gold vs. an invading army and you could become a really unattractive target.

(Of course the optimal situation is for everyone else to *believe* you'd pillage your own provinces, and thus avoid attacking you, while in reality you leave them intact and thus still have a chance of winning the game.)

-Max