Is Cyclops worth it as a pretender god?

[-Storm-]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Well, I played kind of sillilly. I went Machaka because they have virtually every path, and put Earth 6 Air 4 Nature 4 on my cyclops. And first I researched Alteration and Enchantment for personal regeneration, air shield, mirror image, and stoneskin (which I later found is not useful). I gave him a Black Iron Shield, Black Iron Plate, Thorn Spear, Boots of Behemoth, Burning Pearl, and Cat Charm.

Then, with my cyclops running around, I researched construction and eventually (by turn 20 or so) gave him a Shield of Valor (for Air Shield), Ring of Regeneration, Pendant of Luck, Battle Shroud (5 prot, no encumbrance, and I wrongly thught it would make him blessed - also, I had no astral-2 mages for robe of shadows), Horror Helm, and he kept the boots and spear.

With this combo, he started with regeneration, protection 30, air shield, luck, and had a length-4 poisonous weapon. So in battle he cast Mirror Image and Mistform and then just ran around trampling things=) The only time he ever got hurt was from a hydra poison cloud or bite (and only survived by casting heal on himself a lot - the poison did about 15 damage per turn), but he could wade through scores of knights, heavy cavs, heavy infantry, longbows, and take out 150+ size javelin-tossing LI/MI armies with no problem. Even when he passed out from fatigue, nothing could hurt him.

Eventually, I got Summon Earthpower (good for reinvigoration) and Blade Wind, and Strength of Gaia (reduces encumbrance, I think, and also increases HP regeneration speed - maybe). So, once I got blade wind he was already 4-star with 200+ kills, but it was still fun to watch him annihilate armies much faster. And if they got too close, he cast shock wave and everything near him just vaporized=) With Eagle Eyes his precision went to 20 so blade wind was awesome at long range, but at close range, it only lands on a single square (there should be a minimum spread for spells).

If I had it to do over, I'd give him a robe of shadows, and give him fire instead of nature or air, to get Fire Shield. Not that he needed any improvements... the main problems were fatigue and elemental/poison resistances, but against AI weaknessess aren't as critical. It was quite funny to watch him pass out from fatigue, and have that never be any sort of problem... except he had to pause in his slaughter until he dropped to 99 or 98 fatigue again=)

This is the only thing what I HATE in Dominions. The UBER supercombattants.

[Saber Cherry]

Mythologically speaking, a gigantic Cyclops is supposed to be that effective. You have to have a hero, a god, or an item of great magical power to destroy them (in mythology).

In competitive MP play, my plan would have been pretty bad since I didn't start expanding until turn 10, all my money went to mages rather than armies, and I didn't do any site-searching until late. Furthermore, the Cyclops would've been toasted by Smite, Paralyze, Blind, Black Bows of Beotulf, Spring Hawks, any Lightning spell, or any number of other magical attacks.

As it was, I still had a pretty hard time because I could destroy any enemy army, but there were more enemy armies than I had Cyclopses... and Machaka defense is WORTHLESS. That's another thing - I think Machaka defense should either get more militia, or warriors instead of militia, or militia and archers. A big group of naked Machaka militia is just free experience=)

[Altus]

I also thought the Mach militia to be pretty worthless, until I saw them reliably disease virtually every enemy heavy hitter they attacked. Of course, they have to live/'not route' long enough to make a couple of attacks, but it can be real nice when they do. The province will be lost but it can be real easy to retake in a few turns and a further enemy offensive can be severely hindered.

[Saber Cherry]

What, do Machaka militia all have Ebola, or were you just lucky with your battle afflictions? Militia is good against Jotuns, but not against heavy cavs, archers, or normal infantry... in my experience. And since warriors cost barely more money and negligible resources, and archers are virtually the same cost-wise... I can't imagine making militia. Until my mod comes out and they drop to 4 gold apiece.

Was the disease thing luck, or is that supposed to happen?

[ November 15, 2003, 17:39: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

[Nerfix]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Well, I played kind of sillilly.

Yeah rigth...

Not that he needed any improvements... the main problems were fatigue and elemental/poison resistances, but against AI weaknessess aren't as critical.

Yeah(unless you stumble to an indy with that auto-curse shield or a shaman). However, against a human opponent...

[ November 15, 2003, 17:39: Message edited by: Nerfix ]

[Vger]

Saber,

What was your script like for your Cyclops? I see you talking about him casting a couple of spells, attacking for a while and then casting some more on his own. I'm still new to the game and didn't think you could have such flexibility. Especially having your commander attack, then cast spells, then attack some more.

Thanks,
V'ger gone

[Saber Cherry]

The script was at:
(Air Shield), (Personal Regeneration), (Stoneskin), (Mirror Image), attack closest

at first.

Later, it was:
(Summon Earthpower), (Mirror Image), (Mistform), attack closest

Eventually, it became:
(Summon Earthpower), (Mirror Image), (Mistform), (Eagle Eyes), (Blade Wind), cast spells

But you can also do things like this:

(Mistform), (attack one round), (Shock Wave), (attack one round), (Shock Wave), attack closest

Or, you can leave the final orders blank, and leave it to the AI to decided whether to attack or cast. But even if you tell the unit just to cast spells, he can still trample until he uses his AP up, then cast a spell. Specific scripting cannot go past the first 5 rounds, unfortunately - though I'm hoping we get the "Cast Attack Spells", "Cast Support Spells", and "Cast Summon Spells" orders=)

-Cherry

P.S.

I always put my Cyclops at the way back so he could cast all his spells before being attacked, and at least cast Air Shield and Regeneration before arrows started hitting him.

[ November 15, 2003, 18:32: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]