Lab Secrets

[Pickles]

"My "standard" neifel jarl has +2hit and +2 defense bless. "

I have +4 defence quickness & reinvigoration 3
(w9 e6)


"After quickness and bless and breath of winter 1 takes almost any province"

Creeping is not a big issue, it is players I am worried about (and tritons too to be fair)


"assuming good armor..."


What is good armour? I found the black plate too heavy so I guess air armour is good.

I was tempted to use robe of "etherealness" - which leaves low prot but good defence & enc.

Or what - elements/red dragon scale?

Shroud of the battle saint (but they are sacred -this sounds funny on Ice devils)

I have not quite got them figured out yet.

Pickles

[Boron]

Originally posted by Endoperez:
Astral is not recommended for Mind Duel, but it's your sandbox...

If you are for big amounts of armor-negating damage without possiblity to use astral SCs, like fighting versus a 9S sphinx, give your Niefel Jarl Constr. 6 item Gate Cleaver. 29 points of an. damage, plus the strength...

how are the odds of hitting ? 29 AN dam sound really cool but it has att / def -1 .
wraith sword has att +2 def +3 .
a bane lord has basic attack / def 14 / 14
hm a niefel jarl has att 12 def 16 .
hm with water 9 bless you have than the following : i don't take other items than weapons and blessing into considering because a niefel jarl has the same slots as a bane lord so they can both have the same .
bane lord att of 16 vs initial defense of 19 via water bless for the niefels .
other way round att 11 vs 17 def .

the niefel jarl though can cast quickness + gets quickness from bless that stacks up to 150% quickness or ?
so 2,5 attacks per turn .

if the niefel jarl though gets hit first and fatigues his att / def skill decreases .

now scenario 2 : niefel jarl vs wraith lord :
question first : how is soul vortex calculated ? which att / def values does it have because a wraith lord can cast it without buffing .

further the wraith lord has 16/16 att def .
so with same equipment as before :
bane lord vs niefel : 18 att vs 19 def .
niefel vs bane lord : 11 att vs 19 def .

now the niefel has very poor odds of hitting the bane lord . further the wraith lord has a good chance to make a life drain hit in the first combat round already either via soul vortex or via his 1 / 2 combat attacks more likely 2 with boots of quickness .
this further reduces the att value of the niefel and so he has almost no chance to hit the wraith lord .

i didn't like jotun very much but i got an idea now and will try it out :
instead of earth or nature blessing w9 f10 bless : +5 attack that should give wohoo
a duskdagger will work wonders furthermore
+ give room for a shied .
now a niefel jarl has 19 attack vs 19 def of the wraith lord .
as shields following seem very cheap + cool to me :
lucky coin or eye shield
so wraith lord has 18 att vs 23 def .

what do you think ? could this be worth trying out ?
my main concern is though :
how do you deal with afflictions ?
jotun niefels seem to cry after GoH .
in order to get f10w9 you have to take very lousy scales though and you have bad researchers . con 6 seems most urgent early goal . goh is very expensive . costs :
much luck : every 16th gygia will get nature 3 .
if you get such one : 10 gems for thistle mace .
then 40 gems for thorn staff .
goh 40 additional costs .

so minimum gem costs 90 nature gems .
with goh i guess niefel jarls are really frightening sc's and because they only cost money very great .
but how do you get 90+ nature gems as quick as possible and what do you do against dispelling ?

another "solution" might be the chalice : your special hag hero has n2s2 so only 1 nature needed to forge that . but not easy to achieve either . + your niefels need to be all in the same province to get healed from the chalice .

third but not good solution in my eyes : summoning faery queens . 1 faery queen needs unfortunately 90+ death gems to summon as with GoH .

a final question : do you have a mr-resistance throw against the eye shield or not ?
so do you lose an eye every time you hit the wearer or not ?
if you use 2 eye shields do you get immediately blind or do they not stack ?

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Boron:
[QB]now scenario 2 : niefel jarl vs wraith lord :
question first : how is soul vortex calculated ? which att / def values does it have because a wraith lord can cast it without buffing .

Soul vortex is a spell. There's no attack or defense involved.

how do you deal with afflictions?

You don't really need to. Unless it's feeblemind, blindness, or a chest wound they won't have that much effect.

so do you lose an eye every time you hit the wearer or not ?

The eye shield causes damage, not a magical effect.

[Boron]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

thnx for the answers graeme but i am a bit confused now :

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
Soul vortex is a spell. There's no attack or defense involved.

so how many targets are then chosen for the soul vortex effect each round ?
is it then something like randomly select 1-5 targets in soul vortex range each one randomly suffers e.g. 1-10 hp drained x fatigue added for y drained life ?

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
You don't really need to. Unless it's feeblemind, blindness, or a chest wound they won't have that much effect.

almost all afflictions hurt you . losing an arm e.g. means armslot item lost + -2 attack or something like that .
there are plenty of these afflictions .
all greatly decrease your odds to hit other sc's so they are a problem right ?

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
The eye shield causes damage, not a magical effect.

really ? in zens miqr stands : hit by opponent : affliction , lost an eye
an affliction is no damage in my definition .
as far as i would understand it is that you get the affliction lost an eye not more not less . nowhere there is a description about damage .

more questions to eyeshield : so will the eyeshield when you are hit always give the hitter the lost an eye affliction ?
or is there a saving roll ?
furthermore again : can you stack 2 eyeshields and once you are hit 1 time the hitter will be instant blind ? or does he still need to make 2 hits .

furthermore what is hit by opponent :
example 1 : my opponent wins his attackthrow vs my defensethrow .
but my protection is high enough that i suffer no hploss .
is that a hit ?
or is a hit only example 2 :
attackthrow won vs defensethrow and damagethrow greater protectionthrow , result : real hp loss suffered .

thnx for your answers

[Frosted Flake]

I empower astral for humor once in a while maybe 1-2 out of 20+ neifel jarls i hope to have by turn 30. I always have +2 hit and +2 defense bless, its cheap and very effective . While a neifel might lose a one on one to a bane lord, the neifel has better damage and way more useful overall effect with his priest/magic abiliteis. The neifel gets quickness by acsting it the bane lord needs boots which means he goes w/o quickness (bad) or he loses the flying booties that make my paratrooper neifels so much fun.The bane lord being undead is subject to alot of crap that the neifel isnt, also nothing is stopping you from having both. Good armor used to mean elemental armor but since nerf I am not sure. Plate is fine as long as the wraith sword is equipped but I tend to favor jade or hydra skin. I'll use chainmail of displacement if i get the chance (seldom). Nothing is more amusing than a ethereal neifel casting ethereal weapon.

frosted flake

[Kel]

almost all afflictions hurt you . losing an arm e.g. means armslot item lost + -2 attack or something like that .
there are plenty of these afflictions .
all greatly decrease your odds to hit other sc's so they are a problem right ?

Yes, they all hurt, technically, but no, they don't all "greatly" affect you. A Niefel Jarl going from 25 str to 21 str because he has the weakened affliction (for example) is a minor effect. Even had I access to healing, I would not pull him off the lines to heal him, unless I really had nothing to do with him. If he lost both eyes, otoh, he would be practically useless with 0 atk.

Losing an arm is in that moderate area, depending on what you are fighting (and if you need a charc shield real bad)...but a Niefel with a blood thorn, for example, could still be quite formidable against many opponents.

- Kel

[PvK]

Originally posted by Borg:
Fact : we all play in our own distinctive way.
But what is that way ?
How different or how similar do we play compared to the others ?

Let's focus on Research Management as this is obviously one of the more important aspects of the game.

- Is there a certain "Research Rate" that you like to maintain throughout the game ? How many RP's are you gunning for per turn ?

- Do you sometimes interrupt that research ? For shorter or longer periods ? Or do you maintain research at all times ?

- When you forge items. Do you appoint one or several mages to forge continually or do you sometimes forge 4, 5, 6 items at the same time - so you can fully equip one of your Commanders right away ?

- Is there maybe a certain Research level where you stop researching and go on the offensive, because you can cast all the spells you're looking for ?

- Do you have special tips on research which you think other people haven't thought about or might find very usefull ?

In other words, I'd really like to hear how you approach and manage Research.

Thanks very much.

To answer the original questions:

I don't focus on research rate goals. If graphs are on, though, I do keep an eye on others' progress, and sometimes respond to that, one way or another.

I do interrupt research to do things. The point of research is to be able to do things, unless the victory conditions are set to research, which I've never played.

Again with forging, I usually forge things for a reason, and look at what mages can forge what, frequently shuffling around who does what. Rarely do I have people continually forging the same things unless I'm Ulm or hit on something I have a reason to mass-produce. Sometimes I do try to make a full kit for a commander all at once.

Yes, I do sometimes stop researching because I have learned the magic I need to do something, and want to use the mages who were researching, to go do it.

I rarely go all-out for research, and I see there are some people who do and are better at maximizing it than I am. However I do keep my mages busy with other tasks, and it depends which nation I am leading, what's going on, and what I'm trying to do.

Often, particularly as Ulm, I will have cheapo mages doing research (e.g. Revenants), loaded with items. Rule of thumb is that if my mages have something effective they can do, that can't be done by the army or someone else, they're better doing that than just researching. A counterpoint is that sometimes if everyone researches, they can develop some very useful new tricks.

PvK