Joys of Jotun

[En Forcer]

D'OH!

-and-

D'OH! Again.....

Yeah I picked that up from another thread of hers I read just a bit ago. Well being a guy I pretty much have to be beat over the head with important details to get them. And I'll probably forget anyway.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by LintMan:

quote:

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Originally posted by Norfleet:

quote:

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Originally posted by En Forcer:
So I settled on the Blue Dragon like Arryn uses in his big game.

I'm pretty sure Arryn used a Wyrm.

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And it's her big game.

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Indeed. Thanks Lint. And Norfleet is right, my AAR uses a Wyrm. My thinking is either select a pretender to be a pure SC, or to be a pure mage-researcher, and be the best at that choice that you can be. Rather than play a hybrid pretender and be mediocre at both tasks, or spend way too many DPs and hurt your nation in other ways.

This is very much akin to the nearly 30-year-old debate in D&D regarding playing single-class characters versus playing multiclass ones.

[En Forcer]

AND....

So now my Blue Dragon sits crippled and useless at one of my cities. Licking his wounds (or drooling more like).

Weakened
Limp
Feebleminded
**Unable to change shape! It could kill him!**

And then to add insult to injury my Prophet gets killed in the Arena by a Ghost King Pretender that the AI sent.

My offensive has lost quite a bit of momentum although I am rapidly building up forces again. Even with butt-kicking giants this is no cake walk!

[Arryn]

Originally posted by En Forcer:
[QBAnd then to add insult to injury my Prophet gets killed in the Arena by a Ghost King Pretender that the AI sent.[/QB]

And the lesson there is to never send an important commander into the Arena. The risk is never worth the reward.

[En Forcer]

Well, lesson learned.

He had heroic toughness (about 284 hit points) which made me feel a bit cocky. Heck, I sent him in with no equipment! (It's turn 35 and I haven't been forging anything). And he DID win the first 3 fights so quickly it wasn't even funny.

He was a flippin' Frost Giant for Pete's sake!

[Arryn]

Originally posted by En Forcer:
Heck, I sent him in with no equipment!

That was mistake #2.

(It's turn 35 and I haven't been forging anything).

Mistake #3 ...

[En Forcer]

Well here is what I've been basically been doing with my spell casters.

Everyone has been drafted. I have Gyga, Skratti, as well as Jarls, and the other one (the priest-I can't remember his title) everyone fights. Even my pretender.

Why? Well, it plopped me down in the middle of the map and I have been scrambling on almost 4 fronts to keep my enemies at bay. The spell casters HAVE made a difference. Plus the sacred troops getting blessed by the priestly types (My pretender is W9) really helps in the battle.

As far as researh goes, I found a library around turn 11 or so and am up to about 12-15 sages researching away. By the way I have my settings at Drain 3 and magic research to very difficult (My premise being that the ethereal and astral upheaval caused by the demise/departure of GOD has made magic research difficult and dangerous). Also, indies at 9 (I always do this).

So anyway, I have my sages pecking away at construction and just hit level 4 around turn 40 Last night.

I feel it's important to expand and push my borders out a bit not only for the extra income but also I'm trying to find the bottlenecks (Really powerful indies, mountains, ocean, etc) which I can then plug and let my empire grow for a bit.

I know my overall strategy isn't fine-tuned for maximum magical developement - it's more of a wartime economy type push I go after with magic being of lower priority (not by much - just lower).

I'm just playing around you know? It's a reason I avoid MP games. The talk I see of fine-tuning these strategies to get a specific spell by turn 3 so they can use it turn 5 and have clams being made by turn 11...all that kinda kills the joy for me.

Every time I play I do something completely different. This game was the first time I put my pretender on the front line so much. And it was a riot! Watching the little people fleeing from my dragon. What a hoot!

What do you think?