Jotunheim

[Truper]

I always get stuck though with Jotun magic - never know what to aim for, and the mages are so expensive (and poor searchers) that I end up falling behind. Should I focus on Blood, or what?

What I like to do is focus on construction, all the way to level 4. This gets me several great toys for Jotunheim. First, Skull Mentors. I prefer the Iron Woods theme to Neifelheim, and once I can forge Skull Mentors, the cheap Vaetti Hags suddenly become research powerhouses. In fact, I often take drain with Jotun. Once you have the Mentors, you don't notice the research hit, and Jotun doesn't rely on battlefield magic for initial expansion. Second - Wraith Swords. The power of these in the hands of a giant is obvious. Now forging both these things requires death gems, so I horde them until I can spend them on the goodies above.

Next on the program for me is conjuration 2, for Dark Knowledge. I want more death gems so I can make still more mentors, and more swords, and Dark Knowledge is the fastest way to find death sites.

After that... well after that, what I go for will depend alot on the situation. Often more conjuration, to be able to spend nature gems on something like Pride of Lions. Sometimes Blood, if I feel like I have time on my side. I am usually aiming for Ice Devils, and those are a serious investment.

As a tactical tip, try using Herses almost as you would use cavalry - I've had good success with putting 2 - 3 of them way to the side with orders to hold a turn, attack rearmost. They do tend to get into the Hall of Fame, and the one who gets the most interesting HoF bonus gets that 1st Wraith Sword

[Niefelson]

[quote]Originally posted by Truper:

As a tactical tip, try using Herses almost as you would use cavalry - I've had good success with putting 2 - 3 of them way to the side with orders to hold a turn, attack rearmost. They do tend to get into the Hall of Fame, and the one who gets the most interesting HoF bonus gets that 1st Wraith Sword

Heh Heh... I wonder if they could design the game so that we have an interface where we can have a Executive Meeting with all the leaders before they go to war so that we can "incentify" them with Wraith Swords!!!

[Endoperez]

I think the scout is cheaper, stealthy but has worse equipment than Herse. BUT scouts have better stats than Herses... So, if you are putting equipment and remember to not sneak with them, they are better. I'm not sure about the stats part, but I recall something like that when I tried to find a use for them...

[Keir Maxwell]

For Niefel I have used Earth Mother nature9 earth9.

Do a search for "Niefel" or "Niefelheim" for some discussion on this - can't remember the name of the thread.

You can get some very impressive results using Niefel Giants and Herses as your blessed monstrosities but there is not much you can do facing paralysis so you need to develop another string to your bow for figthing astral races. Undead perhaps? I haven't tried the race since the full game came out.

Cheers

Keir

[Truper]

And has anyone successfully pulled off an Illwinter? I'm curious to know do the Rimtursar actually ever arrive, or is it just there for the cold and unrest?

I was curious about the Illwinter spell too, so I finally tried it. I've had it up for about a dozen turns, and no sign of any Rimtursar. I guess the benefit is the cold - but I don't know if the effect is woth the effort...

[Niefelson]

I wonder if we search our homeland, will we find more gems of other types? I tried searching a couple of times with other types of mages, but have always come up with nothing.

[Saulot]

It is my understanding that the home province is already completely searched in regards to magic sites, even though it does not appear so in the searched by a level X mage icons. I imagine it's to balance the nations.