So far what nations look strong... and weak?

[apoger]

The only thing mentioned that would concern me is the Illithids. So I would ease up if I anticipated conflict with R'lyeh.

Otherwise I find the Elephants/Mammoths to be essential for fast expansion. In fact, more than in Dom1.

Everyone has a different style.

[Nerfix]

Originally posted by apoger:
The only thing mentioned that would concern me is the Illithids. So I would ease up if I anticipated conflict with R'lyeh.

Otherwise I find the Elephants/Mammoths to be essential for fast expansion. In fact, more than in Dom1.

Everyone has a different style.

I got frustraded with the Elephants/Mammoths in Dom I when every time i met a mage with 1 death he bLasted my 'Phants/'Moths with Decay.

I find them to be unreliable(weak morale, almost every indy mage can screw them) and too expensive(with the Dom II economy).

But hey, everyone has their own style...

[ November 18, 2003, 06:53: Message edited by: Nerfix ]

You can have a leader hold for a number of turns then retreat. Just (No army) Elephants geared towards the rearmost will run for the back of the army trampling; then when their morale fails, run backwards through the middle of the enemy trampling more. You rarely lose an elephant unless he gets caught by webs or vines.

If that commander is a Priestess of Arco you can have her cast sermon of courage to get another round or two out of your elephant or you have one sitting in your retreat province they can heal them and have them do another go next turn. Free attrition.

At least thats how I've tried to get my mammoths to work.

[apoger]

Just keep all your elephants in one unit and add in some hoplites. The numbers plus the hoplite morale will bolster the elephants. Throw in a priestess to cast sermon of courage (and heal afflictions if they get bad). Works like a charm.

You can also put a non routing scripted commander in the top left or bottom left corner or your position screen and have him hold/cast spells (if it's not a priest(ess) and if/when the mammoths/elephants rout they won't run him over since they run in a straight line.

Also what Alex said . High numbers of hard to kill units will make the unit have a greater moral. Then of course Sermon of Courage/Fanatism... Also nature Users have a spell called "Berserkers" which works like a charm for Elephant/Mammoth patrols.

Not to step on your toes Alex

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by apoger:
I don't like the mashmaster.

Can't understand why you don't like him. 40 more gold for the extra magic seems correctly priced to me. He's much more flexible than the Sauromancer, who's basically a one-trick pony (although a good one at it, I admit). The MM doesn't raise skels as effectively, but at least you don't need communion anymore to use effective nature magic on the battlefield. Low-level nature spells like Touch of Madness are great on Elite Warriors or Falchioners.

IMO, the real downside of Miasma is the inability to recruit independent mages, and (to a lesser extent) the limited choices of pretenders (have to pick a cold-blooded, undead or immortal one).

[Mortifer]

Originally posted by Potatoman:
I just finished a game playing R'leyh and it seemed like they were UNBELIVEABLY powerful. Illithids are vastly improved- I destroyed Mictlan's pretender titan (gold shield male Version), a priest king, 10 slaves and 13 warriors with a force of just 5 illithids and 17 hybrid troopers (the smaller ones with high morale and really low resource cost)! Each turn mictlan basicly lost 5 of its highest hp warriors until only slaves were left, which promptly routed. Possibly the ultimate counter to early game SCs.

Also, has anyone checked out some of the INSANE monsters they can summon using void gate? I just popped out a Vastness on turn 40... Good lord. It's a freaking monster! It moves anywhere it wants, is pretty much impossible to kill and causes enemy troops to die merely by being near them. AWESOME!

To be fair, there are a lot of junk monsters that your mages can summon as well (those immobile tentacle plants, for example). But the Vastness is just... WOW. It's like a demon lord, but free, and faster. To be fair, my dominion was luck 3 and the hero void searching was exp. level 9, so its not probable that you'd turn up a Vastness early in the game and cruise to a cinch victory.

Still, R'leyh seems amazing.

Yeap, awesome nation.

Abysia kicks some *** too.