Great minds think alike?

[PDF]

Personnally I like RBs but give'em 2 levels in each path, with 3 in Fire and Astral if possible (Fire for the Fire Helmet, Astral cause high Astral is good ).
If you want super-duper scales try an Oracle or Blood Foutain, there're quite good dirt cheap Pretenders
But I don't like Pangea that much, I prefer solid nations like Pythium, Arco or Abysia (oh yes, not that original, these are the strongest nations around )

[Tricon]

All in all Zen paraphrased my opinion, too. Right now(past week), I'm in my "use obscure tactics to win" phase. I select a nation that supports what I want to do in the game, make a pretender accordingly and then go at it.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by PDF:
Personnally I like RBs but give'em 2 levels in each path, with 3 in Fire and Astral if possible (Fire for the Fire Helmet, Astral cause high Astral is good ).

You can go with only 2 in Fire if you also pick some Death (Fire Skull). I prefer to pick 3 in Air since the common +air items and the SoS require that.

Astral I pick either zero or 5+.

Earth 4 for human-sized mages unless I have astral-2+ national mages. Otherwise 2, or 3 for mounted mages.

Blood, zero or 3+.

Other paths at 2, or 0-1 if my national mages already cover them.

[The_Duke]

Thanks for these tips guys,

I modified my Rainbow pretender and rethought my nation.


Keep them coming.....

[Master Shake]

Everything has it's advantages and disadvantages.

I like my Rainbow mages with 1 in every path, plus 4 in one or two key paths (Nature and Earth for Pangea for example). Someone posted a breakdown of magic sites, and most magic sites can be found with 1 magic skill. You can go higher, but it ends up costing a lot of setup points. Combat pretenders are great as well. So are research pretenders. That's the beauty of the game - there is no one best strategy.

Pangea is a great nation. A couple hundred beserk Maneads (free and little or no upkeep), mass protected, with 15 HP due to Gift-of-Health can beat down most armies. And if they die? So what, you got another 200 in the next province.

The bottom line is that you can find a winning strategy for nearly any nation. The fun part is exploring what works and what doesn't!

[Catquiet]

Originally posted by The_Duke:

For my pretender, I usually go for a rainbow. I usually go with Arch Mage or Great Enchantress pretender. They have cheap magic paths. I give them one of each magic paths, and then concentrate on my scales, boosting almost everything. Hoping that a good empire foundation should give me the needed resources to have large armies. I them search every new province, usually keeping my pretender out of major conflicts, till well in the game once I have empowered him a little more.

I have no idea how to do a melee pretender, very risky.

Try a phoenix with 3/4 Air, 3/4 Fire. It is a good combat mage to help with early expansion and later in the game you can upset your opponents with Wind Ride and Flames from the Sky.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Master Shake:
Pangea is a great nation. A couple hundred beserk Maneads (free and little or no upkeep), mass protected, with 15 HP due to Gift-of-Health can beat down most armies. And if they die? So what, you got another 200 in the next province.

Heehee I love Lord of the Wild. Gives maenads back to the carrion theme. Or multiplys them for standard theme. And he sneaks. Sneak him thru other peoples lands and he drops maenads as he goes. They better have defense on every province or he captures them automatically without even fighting. For more fun give him the Black Heart and have a godly assassin.