EA Atlantis a love/hate relationship

Shovah32 · #1 December 31st, 2006, 12:43 PM

E9n4 works very well on living pillars, making them a bit tougher and making them get very few afflictions. Ive also had lots of luck with an A3S3D3N3 kraken(sleeping, decent scales, can buff amazingly well) or awake archmage with decent spells(great research and forging). The strategy was to quickly research up to quicken self and ironskin(alt-3) and summon earthpower(conj-x) then a bit of conjuration, construction and evocation as requires. For expansion my starting army(commander prophetised) gets a few deep ones(spear+claw if i have resources, bite+claw if i have gold) and then goes off second turn, heading to land if there are no other sea nations(the army actually does better on land). If i get attacked fairly early, 2 basalt kings with quickness and ironskin equipped with enchanted swords, blacksteel kites and blacksteel plates(the cheaper plate) can take out conventional armies of 60 men and less(not including knights) fairly reliably. Add in a robe of shadows/ring of regen/lucky pendant/boots of the behemoth+summon earthpower and they become very nasty. Making them cast evocations in the time between buffing and attacking(providing they have reinvig) also greatly increases their power. Underwater coral guard possibly supported with living pillars is the way to go otherwise your poorly armoured troops will suffer major losses. Once i get researched up armies of sea trolls and coral guards with basalt kings casting bladewind/magma spells(with asp turtles/monster fish support underwater) are my main armies with smaller groups of basalt kings buffing with strongest prot boosting spell avaliable, quickness and summon earthpower(also fireshield/phoenix pyre if researched) with equipment: 2xswords of swiftness, horror helm, robe of shadows, flying shoes, ring of regen/amulet of resilience and lucky pendant/antimagic amulet/amulet of resilience are sent out to raid enemy provinces, generally buffing, flying in and sending off magma eruptions or immolations/buffing, blasting the enemy with artillery spells then flying in.

HoneyBadger · #2 December 31st, 2006, 07:48 PM

Yeah, I love the Ancient Kraken. Gotta be my favorite SC. If you want to expand onto land really quickly, take a Dom 10 Kraken with earth 3, nature 3, air 1, astral 1, and water 1. Research construction until you can get amulet of the fish and amulet of antimagic, then switch over to alteration until you hit invulnerability, then switch to enchantment and evocation. Forge the amulets and the poison touch/poison resistance ring for your Kraken-you'll want one because otherwise your kraken poisons himself, especially when Invulnerability is in effect. Script him to cast Body Etherial, Invulnerability, Personal Regeneration (never put this one first or second, there's a bug), Personal Luck, Quickness. You'll be able to take out most anything, on land or in the water (as much as 8 units at a time-18 ap damage plus poisonx8, plus area-effect poison cloud, and at Dom10, you'll have 690!!! hp. Regeneration is goooooood), and you'll hardly ever get hit (not that it's going to matter much). On land against archers, trade Personal Luck for Air Shield.

alexti · #3 December 31st, 2006, 09:18 PM

S3 or S1 on non-immortal SC pretender? It's just asking for opportunistic mage to teleport in and challenge him. It's not every day one gets a chance to slay 690hp SC so easy

RonD · #4 January 2nd, 2007, 12:27 PM

Quote:

HoneyBadger said:
Personal Regeneration (never put this one first or second, there's a bug)

What is the bug? A forum search didn't turn up any mention of this.

Shovah32 · #5 January 2nd, 2007, 01:11 PM

And scripting personal regen as my first or second spell(generally on cyclops or gorgon) has never failed me personally.

Potatoman · #6 January 2nd, 2007, 03:15 PM

You can get around putting astral on your pretender if your nation has astral mages. Just put a slave mage (for instance) behind the Kraken and script him to cast luck, body ethereal, etc. You lose the astral shield, but it's worth it.

You could also use one of those new-fangled communion stones to grant buffs from all your other casters to your magically-challenged SCs (as long as they have at least 1 path).

Lingchih · #7 July 2nd, 2007, 02:09 AM

I can't see the point in putting any magic on the Ancient Kraken, or going with any bless at all for EA Atlantis. Give the Kraken Dom 10, and let rip. He can take out any underwater indies by himself, and just about anything else he runs into underwater. Equip him later on for tougher opponents, or for going on land (3 misc. slots). You can have great scales this way.

Almost all of their units, including the very tough ones, are amphibious. I've taken to the land very easily with them. And the Basalt Kings are extremely good mages. Of course, the living pillars become pretty useless under this strategy, so only build them for defending castles.

HoneyBadger · #8 July 2nd, 2007, 03:13 AM

The bug mentioned above is that fact that if you script Personal Regeneration as one of your first few spells, it will be skipped, for no reason whatsoever.

Shovah32 · #9 July 2nd, 2007, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Lingchih said:
I can't see the point in putting any magic on the Ancient Kraken, or going with any bless at all for EA Atlantis. Give the Kraken Dom 10, and let rip. He can take out any underwater indies by himself, and just about anything else he runs into underwater. Equip him later on for tougher opponents, or for going on land (3 misc. slots). You can have great scales this way.

Almost all of their units, including the very tough ones, are amphibious. I've taken to the land very easily with them. And the Basalt Kings are extremely good mages. Of course, the living pillars become pretty useless under this strategy, so only build them for defending castles.

Magic can make the kraken much more powerful, particularly earth for boosting protection(25 protection ancient krakens are fun) and nature for regeneration(with the ancient krakens health he heals alot).
A bless can be useful on basalt kings; i once tried an E9 bless and ended up with groups of basalt kings with a few defensive items and huge reinvigoration casting summon earthpower and phoenix pyre. They just exploded all over the place and never got tired.
A bless isnt the best idea with EA Atlantis but it can be fun.

Ewierl · #10 July 2nd, 2007, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Lingchih said:
I can't see the point in putting any magic on the Ancient Kraken, or going with any bless at all for EA Atlantis.

There is one reason to get a solid bless on EA Atlantis: ALL BASALT KINGS, ALL THE TIME. They make fantastic thugs; 16+ protection before armor, 50 HP, 17 MR, and fully equippable. They can cast quicken self, invulnerability, and fire shield. On top of that they're all sacred, and that's where your bless is going to give you truly brutal mileage.