C'tis and the Dancers of Death

[PhilD]

OK, it's official, I suck at this game.

I tried copying the exact same setup, and at turn 12, I am now the proud owner of 14 Provinces, with a monthly income of 550 Gold. I am ahead in Provinces and in Income (barely; Arcoscephale is just behind), but my research is way behind everybody else's (I found 2 Libraries for Sages two turns ago, but don't have the cash for Labs).

And I'm being attacked by Pythium (which took two of my Provinces over the Last 2 turns). I seem to have a larger total army, but it's spread all over my empire, and I don't have much to throw in the way of the Legions. For some reason, every indy province seems full of archers, and I have way too many casualties.

Oh, and some of my Sauromancers are rebels; they keep casting Raise Dead instead of the Terrors they've been instructed.

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by PhilD:
Oh, and some of my Sauromancers are rebels; they keep casting Raise Dead instead of the Terrors they've been instructed.

I've had trouble with that sort of thing too. The worst is Fanatacism, which only gets cast when my prophet wants to, regardless of being scripted. And often my stupid prophet casts Sermon of Courage instead. I mean, come on!!! A 4-holy unit should NEVER EVER cast Sermon of Courage.

Your problem COULD be a range limit on Terror; you might want to check that out and move the mages closer to the front. Against the indy archers, just build heavy infantry, or send out a lone heavy infantry up front to draw all the arrows.

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by Wendigo:

Why the 6 death? do you feel the extra Fear from 4->6 is worth the cost (and the sacrifices elsewhere), or are you planing on using your pretender for ritual summoning in the later game?

Its only 48 design points so its not a big cost. I find high level death magic to be one of the most rewarding in terms of spells with which are nastier the higher your magic level - especially as C'tis starts with terror which is much more effective with high death. And as you say Death gets some great high level summonings I want easy access to.

Patrik:

I'm used to high drain scales (like the MR bonus for a race like this) and rapid expansion generally leads to Sages. If not the extra gold from the start will generally make up with quantity for less effective researchers. The Princes ability to research early is another key.

Using the Prince as an SC I mainly go for the fear effects so quickness plus Terror plus fear seems plenty to play with. To be honest I don't like pretender SC's much - too many counters for my liking - but the Prince of Death is one of the best I've used for not getting afflictions due to his ability to scare many things away with casting Terror with high level death.

Cheers

Keir

[ November 19, 2003, 19:14: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]

[Truper]

Any nation with a starting Death gem income can get around drain scales for research purposes through the use of Skull Mentors. They rock!

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by PhilD:
OK, it's official, I suck at this game.

I tried copying the exact same setup, and at turn 12, I am now the proud owner of 14 Provinces, with a monthly income of 550 Gold. I am ahead in Provinces and in Income (barely; Arcoscephale is just behind), but my research is way behind everybody else's (I found 2 Libraries for Sages two turns ago, but don't have the cash for Labs).

That is not actually far from my results and perhaps with a few adjustments in play would be roughly the same. At the start you need to quickly develop a plan for the terrioroy you wish to take not just take whats available. You want the shortest land borders possible and to border as few AI's as possible. Its important to leave the AI with expansion routes early (hopefully straight into monster indies) and to make sure you raise defenses on border provinces to ~11 to discourage the AI from attacking. When tensions are high/peace is important a dross army stationed on the border can be enought to discourage the AI.

Play a bit with the exact positioning of your Groups vs different indies to reduce casualities. Minor deployment differences can make a big difference and nailing the start is well worth it.

Oh, and some of my Sauromancers are rebels; they keep casting Raise Dead instead of the Terrors they've been instructed.

I didn't have much magic by t.12 - just what the Prince got me as Sauromancers are needed at the front, to keep casualties down, or for searching. Being behind in research in this period is generally fine.

Tis a pain how often scripts are overridden. I find it very annoying that Sauromancers with 1 water are not much use as they use their quickness to cast a bunch of stupid spells instead of terrorizing opponnents. I think mages should have a strong bias towards casting the Last spell they were scripted to cast.

To HJ:

Slinger are good but I'm focusing on troops to attract archery and Dancers early. Later Slingers will come into their own.

I have thought about Air but to be honest find the thought of high Astral more appealing for Twist of Fate plus extra magic resist. At this point Air is low on my list of bless effects especially as I can usually trick archers into shooting at the wrong target.

I haven't tried high fire yet Patrik as most of the sacred troops I'm looking at have a good attack but need the extra defensive bonuses to make them almost unkillable when used carefully. Machakan Black Hunters have good enough stats already to look at high fire but a I feel Machaka needs decent dominon scales so I have been cautious so far.

A side point which I haven't posted on this group - try using the Lord of the Desert Sun to cast Eagle Eyes then Fireball. The results are impressive - Nature plus Fire 2 or more is pretty handy.

cheers

Keir

[ November 19, 2003, 19:52: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]

[HJ]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
I've had trouble with that sort of thing too. The worst is Fanatacism, which only gets cast when my prophet wants to, regardless of being scripted. And often my stupid prophet casts Sermon of Courage instead. I mean, come on!!! A 4-holy unit should NEVER EVER cast Sermon of Courage.

They tend not to cast fanaticism if all troops pass the morale check. At least that's how I interpret it, but who knows, maybe I'm giving more credit to the Ai than is due. However, it is possible that fanaticism isn't necessary, even though you took casualties and/or damage, if nobody fails the morale check, especially if LK are quickened and cast it twice. On the other hand, how will holy avenger help is beyond me...

Play a bit with the exact positioning of your Groups vs different indies to reduce casualities. Minor deployment differences can make a big difference and nailing the start is well worth it.

It's become sort of second habit to do this as I play more and more Dominions; but the reason I looked and this and let my befuddled mind kind of slither around the concept is my main issue with the AI.

The AI always starts out slow. I usually attack on Turn 2-3 with most races gearing to that initial rush to get gold/provinces. The AI is usually 2-5 Provinces behind even on Difficult/Impossible and most of the time I noticed their troop placement is less than optimal when I fight against it.

Does the AI have a script do anything in regards to positioning for Army weaknesses, use decoys (Undead/High Defense/Prot) for different types of archer/xbow. Hold and attack behind lines of mages who cast Mass Animates, etc?

This may belong in the AI thread; but it was presented here and is an AI issue.