Caelum and 2 changes to gameplay

[HoneyBadger]

I can sympathise, I've also had trouble with Caelum, but the more I play and learn about the game, the more strategies I find that can either be tailored to fit a nation or that will work for one nation over another. Caelum for instance-if I were to play it right now in MP it would be the weakest nation I could play, but it's considered to be one of the best for MP. Conversely, I'm most confident with R'lyeh, and it's considered really weak (even by me). I really like the flying mammoth idea though.

[Shovah32]

Which rlyeh are we talking about here? Both MA and LA are considered strong and, although EA has trouble getting on land, its massed mind blasters and evil mindlords in the water should give anyone confidence.

[Maltrease]

Caelum is my favorite nation. An effective early expansion strategy is to only buy archers (production scale helps) and use your initial infantry for guard duty. Then spread 4 archers across the front to act as decoys for arrow fire and infantry. This will almost ensure that enemy archers are not a problem and will give you another 2 rounds of shooting (and smiting) on most ground troops.

This will usually allow you to take barbarians, tribes, archer cavalry and light troops (basically anything with low protection). If you combine your profit you can even take on a little heaver stuff (in small numbers) with smiting. 40+ archers are very effective and lets your mages stay in the lab early on. With your mobility and some scouting you can pick out the missile vulnerable provinces.

This works good with getting an awake sage pretender and researching to evo4 (thunder strike) . You can reach this fairly easily on turn 8 or 9. Then with a few eagle kings and archer cover any indy province is yours for the taking. And with your mobility you will rapidly be able to take advantage of this.

So imagine spreading out sucking up weaker province and rapidly “claiming” territory. Then once you have thunder strike you rapidly consume all of the tougher provinces sprinkled in your territory (or leave a couple for defense if the income is not high).

[mathusalem]

and what's about pretendant design ?

What do you think of a master Lich
3 sloths = 2 wing of wizardry (+1 in all) and 1 ring of sorcery (+1 NDBS)

F3 (astral fire, bane fire and fire arrow)
E2 (Hammer & earth boots)
S5 (He is immortal, so no real pb with magic duel)
D5 (good evocation, conjuration, etc.)
N4 (gift of health, Relief, supply, vine ogre)

Dom 8 (frost !)
Order 3 (max money),
Solth 3 (not need, unless in the first turn for the firsts mammouths),
Cold 3 (no comment),
Growth 3 (supply, money and old mages),
misfortune 2 (to get some points),
Magic 1 (for research and more thunder strike / falling frost)

[Sensori]

Whoa mathusalem, you're a master necromancer! The thread had been dead for over eleven months!

[mathusalem]

I found it in the strategy index :$

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

I'll update my index sometime this weekend. I've got a long weekend after all.