10 Magic Strength Pretenders....

[Tuna]

Earth-10 on a cyplops is also good, esp. for pythium. Good rein for both communicants and mages, +4 armor that can make the mages Last a quite a bit longer, A pretender that can take lots of punches early on and a truly suberb Enliven statues caster. Just slap on earth boots and he makes 26 statues a turn with the price tag of 20E, or 0,75 gems a piece. (usually 2 gems a piece.) The statues augment pythian mages very well, being mindless lifeless 14 def 22 prot 15 hp size 3 troops that can protect your mages against sc's and armies for quite some time while the said mages deal destruction. As a Last bonus, once you reach alt9, that you are going to want for wish anyway, you can cast army of lead that is a battlefield-wide protection/mr spell that turns even militias (or mages, for that matter) into a stone wall...

[Cainehill]

Er - how often does Wish get cast except by Astral Pretenders? A top rank Astral mage is S4. Starshine Skullcap, ring of sorcery, ring of wizardry take that to S7. Replace the ring of sorcery with the Forbidden Light, S8. I guess you could always empower a mage from S4 to S5, and for nations other than Arco, R'lyeh, and Pythium, you have to empower up to S4 and then S5? (And then see your Empowered Wisher get killed by the Horrors the Forbidden Light brings.)

[En Forcer]

well the Fire 10 Moloch is doing well. I've been using him in combat and in joint ops with salamanders (priests) and warlocks.

The sacred lava warriors are carving through enemy ranks like butter. Thats the troops that haven't already fled...

[Nagot Gick Fel]

En Forcer said:
well the Fire 10 Moloch is doing well.

Now ask yourself, does it work that much better than a Fire 9 Moloch to justify the cost? These 56 design points could buy you a better castle, an extra click on the good side of a scale, an extra candle or 2, a special dominion effect like Desert Sun.

[En Forcer]

Oh you are absolutely correct. It is not the most EFFICIENT use of design points.

BUT I wanted to pursue this path to research the FUN factor of having a totally overpowered pretender on the field and what the differences might be between the different paths. See what the bless effects were like.

So you are right. This is not the best way to go. I would even argue that having a 9 anything pretender is not a good idea or worth it.

But it is kinda fun...

[Nagot Gick Fel]

En Forcer said:
But it is kinda fun...

The most fun you can get with a level 10 blessing is equipping a Prince of Death with an Horror Helmet, a Stymphalian Wings armor and the Aegis. That's a grand total of Fear(+35). Even ultra-elite troops won't stay for long on the battlefield when this one starts scattering them around .

[Vicious Love]

Plus the Sceptre of Unholy Regency, that's +3, plus the Book of Profane Secrets, or whatever, that's +7, if I'm not mistaken, plus... any other misc items that cause fear?

Update: Also, would the Armor of Virtue make him more frightful than the Stymphalian Wings? Death 10 blessing on an undead unit, how much is that?

[Gandalf Parker]

En Forcer said:
Oh you are absolutely correct. It is not the most EFFICIENT use of design points.

BUT I wanted to pursue this path to research the FUN factor of having a totally overpowered pretender on the field and what the differences might be between the different paths. See what the bless effects were like.

So you are right. This is not the best way to go. I would even argue that having a 9 anything pretender is not a good idea or worth it.

But it is kinda fun...

I did a series of tests using maximum harsh scales to get maximum blessings. I was able to get all 4's plus a 9 or a couple 9's even. My final judgement was that it could be a viable strategy for the right person. Various nations have immunities (or even preference) for some harsh scales so that only about half of the scales were really affecting them. If you took really low dominion and cheap castles you might even manage to keep your main armies outside of the affect of your scales entirely. For a nation with really good sacred units it could be quite a power punch. Unfortunately it took more careful managment than I can do.

[Jim_Parker]

Gandalf Parker said:I did a series of tests using maximum harsh scales to get maximum blessings. I was able to get all 4's plus a 9 or a couple 9's even. My final judgement was that it could be a viable strategy for the right person. Various nations have immunities (or even preference) for some harsh scales so that only about half of the scales were really affecting them. If you took really low dominion and cheap castles you might even manage to keep your main armies outside of the affect of your scales entirely. For a nation with really good sacred units it could be quite a power punch. Unfortunately it took more careful managment than I can do.

Ermor under Ashen Empire or Soul Gate can pretty much be hammered on the harsh scales. I'd usually take turmoil, sloth, death and misfortune 3. The misfortune 3 sounds like a good idea (ie, you'll get more corpses through random events) but it's not that great because I find you get an awful lot of emigrations instead. That's ok though, as they'll be dying eventually.

I'm still pretty new to the game but I'm finding Ermor's Ashen Empire to be incredibly overpowered (at very difficult AI) using harsh scales, a 9 death magic Prince of Death and a 9 starting dominion.

[magnate]

Anybody ever tried Blood 10? I'd have thought the extra STR would come in handy with large armies, and maybe it would kickstart the blood economy (would you actually get any more slaves per turn than with Blood 9?).