Pretender, awake, dormant or imprisoned?

[DominionsFan]

Archonsod said:
Use imprisoned, max out the beneficial scales (with possibly a decent bless, depending on nation) and conquer the world with your national troops.

Works quite well as a 'rush' strategy. Twice with EA Ulm I've managed to win the game before my Pretender broke free.

I doubt that it would work too well. I prefer Dormant. Worked like a charm in my MP game today.

[Archonsod]

DominionsFan said:
I doubt that it would work too well. I prefer Dormant. Worked like a charm in my MP game today.

You'd be surprised. The exta boost to resources and income help you crank out troops at a high rate. Combine that with a decent blessing, and you can be on the attack with an elite army by turn 4. Simply head straight for the enemy capital

It does depend on the nation though. EA Ulm have great troops already. Combine it with a good blessing strategy and you've got a force that's difficult to overcome so early into the game.

[Mortibus]

What's an "SC" pretender?

[Meglobob]

Mortibus said:
What's an "SC" pretender?

Super combatant, designed to conquer provinces on his own.

[DominionsFan]

Mortibus said:
What's an "SC" pretender?

Supercombatant pretender. It means, that your pretender is capable to fight in the battles, without the great risk, that he will die. Of course it doesnt mean that he is invulnerable, however SC pretenders always have huge HP, decent attack and defense, protection etc. Also he only counts as an SC, if he is equipped properly. This also doesn't mean that you can attack 200 heavy troops / mage / priest armies with 1 SC pretender, because he can die easily. You must use him to either conquer weak provinces with his bodyguards, or just use him in your main army. That way, there is only a small risk that he will die, and he will kick some *** on the battlefield.

[Taqwus]

Super-combatant. Refers to a powerful commander designed for crunching through mundane troops with ease, usually through one or more of

* a very strong base unit type
* good equipment (usually including one or more of luck, antimagic, ethereal, reinvigoration, life draining, regeneration, quickness, high damage, high prot, high def)
* buffing magic (ex. casting spells to increase luck, speed, et al before joining the fray)

ex. Son of Niefel is already a formidable giant; given good equipment he's even more brutal. OTOH, a Crone is normally not slaying masses in melee combat.

[Mortibus]

Oh okay, I've used my Kraken like that. I need that "amulet of the fish" to really see how he does against a serious army on land, but so far he's eating tritons like popcorn.

[NTJedi]

Mortibus said:
Oh okay, I've used my Kraken like that. I need that "amulet of the fish" to really see how he does against a serious army on land, but so far he's eating tritons like popcorn.

Not sure if you're playing single player games or multiplayer games, but computer opponents have a really tough time expanding into water provinces. If you're finding the game too easy you can switch to one of the land nations.

[Mortibus]

Single player, and I like sitting in the water and hiding, thank you very much!

I'm still figuring the game out... just realized I've wasted my time researching blood magic, for instance. Also, I researched construction to the maximum before learning that all I needed for an Amulet of the Fish was a little air magic and construction 4.

I'm not quite ready to embarrass myself in multiplayer yet, give me a week.

[Boron]

Hm i mainly use 3 kinds of pretenders:

Awake dragon, for speeding up expansion and often with lvl 9 for the bless too if i have useful bless troops.

Works well with nations like mictlan or vanheim.

Imprisioned oracle or fob for uberbless, cool for rushes. E.g. Mictlan f9w9b6 FoB.

Dormant SC god, like the risen oracle. When you have researched your first buffs you have your god then too and the 150 extra points give you 3 more scales .
As SC god i only pick immortals, the other SC gods are imho too fragile now in Dom3.
The immortal SC god dies too, but because he is immortal it is not problematic then. And if he wiped out 50% of the emeny army before dying he did a good job .