The 9 Nature 9 Earth is nice for Niefel Jotun, but probably too costly. If you stop at Earth 4, you save a lot of points so you can have an economy but still get the important regen/beserk combo (and a little reinvig too).
My fav so far:
Jotun
Niefel
Great Mother
Nature 9
Earth 4
Ord 3
Sloth -3
Cold 3
Growth 2
Magic -1
Luck 0
Dominion 5
40 Admin 80point castle
The loss of the +4 armor and extra reinvog is sad, but after getting Beserk+3 in the cold their armor is already 20 (15 base, +1 per cold scale, + 3 beserk (of which 2 count)). The Herse are only 60 gold and can be blessed, so you want to make one of them a turn and try and get some good HoF specials on them. Skip the indie Lizards (curse), knights/calvary, large barbs, and those fishmen (cause of those nets), but everything else is pretty viable with just flanking 2 NGs and a couple of Herse, and a handful of Spearmen to soak up the inital charge. The cold effect of the NGs go a long way in preventing damage - enemies freeze and lose attack/defense, and seem to only attack every other round (confirm on that?). You can crank out a new army by turn 5, and build a temple with 40GP priests to get some temple makers going asap.
I don't wait for a NJ leader - just take a Gode for holy +4, and you can always kill him off if you want an NJ prophet later. 500 GP is almost a new town/temple combo! And a new town means more blessed Herse.
Clear provinces around your capitol to allow recruiting 2-4 NGs a turn (probably can't afford that many anyway, which is why I traded sloth 3 for growth). You can get decent economy, and then you can throw up castles quick and flood the world with Herse.
You don't have cheap mages, but Skratti are only 250GP now and make great blood hunters and battle commanders. Gygja are ok researchers, and thanks to the random 2 sorcery picks you want to make lots of them to get the cool combos (the death/nature +3, or Astral +2 in particular). NJs I avoid since I don't want them going beserk, but since they have water 3 they are good for Winter Wolves and the Robe of the Sea (Ice Devils are Cold 3 Blood 3, so you can summon them with Construction 4 now with no pretender help) Mentors would probably be a good investment shortly too.
Research Conjuration 2 quickly - Neifel Jotun gets great water gem income, and having a couple of ice drakes behind the cold immune NGs and you can rack up the kills to win quickly enough to even take out larger battles. Ice Demons would be nice later too - again cold attacks and the option for some flying commander killing.
The luck is kind of risky - I still hate the flood in your capitol on turn #3 and you lose 1/4 of your population
But with Order +3, you should only rarely get events. (Sidenote: it would be nice if castles protected your population from these effects - they do have a safe haven to go to!)
You can really get a good start with this, and have a decent late game too. Neifel starts off with the Illwinter spell too, so you can try that. And of course Ice Devils - as I mentioned elsewhere giving them a Shroud of the Battle Saint and they get the bless effects.
The main reason I take the GM and not the Green Dragon is so the IDs get the +2 reinvig - it really will help in longer battles with them. The big bonus is the regeneration and poison res, and at 5 gems is too cheap (and you get +5 armor too).
Taking a Dragon instead saves a lot of points and gives you a nice poison range attack early. Your blessed NGs/Herse resist 50% of poison, so would probably give a quicker start so that might be nicer.
Either way. late game your pretender will want to cast Gift of Health (100+ HP NGs!), Gift of Nature's Bounty (doubles income, so you can really crank out the expensive Neifel troops) and awaken Tarrasques (lordy they are nasty!).
Another nice combo:
Pythium
Serpent Cult
Great Mother
Earth 9
Nature 4
Order 3
Sloth -3
Cold 0
Growth 1
Luck 0
Magic -1
Dominion 4
50 Admin City
Serpent Cult means you get Holy Hydras! The +4 Armor here is very nice, and the reinvig gravy. The Nature 4 gives Beserk +1, so after the first hit they won't rout.
A Serpent Priest (their picture is too funny!) and a single Blessed Hydra can take out most 5th level indepents. The Hydra starts with 12 protection, and gets 16 after blessing, 17 after beserk, and regenerates 15 HP a turn. With the reinvig, it can take getting ganged up on without fatigue worries, and the poison effect will cause the enemy to rout all the faster. These Hydras also would be a prime candidate for Gift of Reason.
An army is just a Serpent Priest and a single Hydra, and they just destroy most indies. Serpent Cult mages kind of suck, but they will get the +4 reinvig and quickness. Without Howl being a viable option (it costs 2 gems each summoning now), they can do minor spells like vine arrow, sleep, heal, etc. Their magic is pretty limited compared to Arch Theurgs, but oh well.
Some armored Legion troops with flanking Serpent Cataphract (also blessed for the benefits, so they are pretty fierce) is a great army to build with unused resource points, for indies that can't be taken with Hydras.
Magically, this race seems a little less impressive in the long run, but Nature is a lot more useful than Dom 1. Lamia Queens will be helpful to get to the other paths (sorcery anyway). I haven't seen the heroes yet - if you get Bart the Arch Theurg that would be very nice! I suppose heroes are dependent on themes, however, so probably not.
Any other race suggestions?
[ November 02, 2003, 19:32: Message edited by: geo981010 ]
Re: Niefelheim, bless and the outrageous
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Hybrid Mode
