MA Ermor advice please

Evilhomer · #1 September 16th, 2007, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Sloth may be a bad idea.

We are all entitled to our own opinion I suppose. But ethereal sacreds are very potent, and shadow vestals are very good for early expansion as well as early conflict with neighboring nations. In my opinion you should pump out the maximum number of vestals each turn (determined by how high dom you picked, so you want high dominion). They cost 40 gold 3 resources (thats a gold/resource ratio of 13, which is really high). This clearly suggest that you can get away with alot of sloth if you need the extra points.

When you pick a bless you look at the stats of your units and try to either cover a weakness and/or build on a specific strenght:
Why astral-9/water-9?. Vestals have no armor and low hp, twist fate basically gives them another life. Also the extra mr will make them very hard to use banish on (cover a weakness). They also have very good starting defence so adding more will be very potent, thats why I would go with water-9 as well. Also you can pick this bless with an imprissoned oracle rather cheap (compared to a fire-9/water-9 bless).

As for scale order is critical, you want more gold simply. rest is probably up for personal preference.

You can of course go with some high production build and not build vestals, but it seems like a weaker and less effective build for me (but try some builds out for sure, and pick what you find most fun).

Shovah32 · #2 September 16th, 2007, 05:04 PM

Aren't vestals just 20 gold and 3 resources until the patch when they become 35 gold each? Or are you talking about in CB?

Evilhomer · #3 September 16th, 2007, 05:09 PM

Ah sorry, had the balance mod enabled when I checked

. Still 20 gold and 3 resources seems to work with sloth as well.

Shovah32 · #4 September 16th, 2007, 05:16 PM

From someone currently playing MA Ermor in a multiplayer game sloth 3 isn't too bad - you can still afford nice amounts of legionaires.
I took a F9S9 bless in this game and it served me very well - allowing my vestals to run through my neighbours when I fought them without too much trouble.
The reasons for S9 have already been listed. The F9 was there for a number of reasons including diversifying my magic and giving the vestals some real hitting power - allowing them to punch through enemy lines before priests and mages could pick them off.
My bless was already made known in the forum thread a long time ago and anyone who can see my dominion knows I have sloth 3.

Serenity · #5 September 16th, 2007, 05:29 PM

I dont get it, why ask stuff like that? I've tried every nation atleast a few times, and I think you should go play instead of asking how to play.

Shovah32 · #6 September 16th, 2007, 05:33 PM

Chances are he has played with them. He's just asking for advice to see if he missed anything or if there are ways in which he can improve his build. Alot of players ask for help with nations they have to play(myself included) and several players write guides for various nations.

edit: Order and luck, while nice, is a little bit wasteful as luck reduces how many events you get. Keep it if you want it by all means but you'll be missing out on alot of points. Misfortune 2(or 3, if you feel you can risk it) could buy you up to magic 1 and maybe get you a bit of growth/a bit less sloth(if you want) too.

Meglobob · #7 September 16th, 2007, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Serenity said:
I dont get it, why ask stuff like that? I've tried every nation atleast a few times, and I think you should go play instead of asking how to play.

I think he wants to survive past turn 30!

But seriously, not everyone has the time to play every nation. I still have not played every nation and I have been playing nearly a year now. To really get to 'know' a nation, you after play 50+ turns. As somethngs are not apparent early on.

Aezeal · #8 September 16th, 2007, 06:32 PM

Serenity sure I will play (I just started a game) them but as I said I want to win my first MP game

and I have set my mind on playing with this nation I know nothing about so far.. so since I have no time (at least I hope the game starts this week) for 3-4 SP games to see wether sloth 3 is REALLY a problem etc. (I'll admit that even in my SP game I'd like a decent start cus why learn the basics of a nation in 3-4 games when with a lil asking you can learn a lot in 1-2 (I'm posting and reading here while waiting on the turns.. not like I have something better to do.. I like to see it as MAXIMIZING my learning curve in minimum time

)

I mean if I need to play 3-4 games with ALL RACES just to learn the basics of them then i'd take way more time than I have.. I've got a pretty busy just, and it's taking way more hours than most people spend on their job (here in the netherlands at least) so I just have to take short cuts

and I'm not ashamed of it either. And strat talk in general will improve my game with all nations and I like it.

Jazepi.. that would indeed give me 200 point to spend which could nicely go to growth 3 for a better base late game and .. soemthing else. But the gem/magic item/heroes are always such nice surprises... makes the list worth reading

I still would like more opinions on drain/magic most games I just take drain 2 for just -1 RP and build more mages (which I can afford easily with the + scales I take for those)
what are your thoughts? any other things that you guys think I should take into consideration with magic vs drain in general and for MA Ermor specifically?

Humakty · #9 September 17th, 2007, 12:52 PM

I think that, in SP, you could relly heavily on Death enchantments, like,(an example I've chosen randomly)the marvelous undead elephants(3 to 4 in each main army), who will crush the AI hordes. I also think you should not take sloth, cause basic undeads rarely win battles alone.(1 or 2 prod could help for a beginner, (I often take prod)). The rest as been developped before in this forum.
Ah ! I don't think vestals kick that much, 'cause, if I remember well, they're capital only.( not sure of this one)
Anyway, a zero prot sacred needs lots of buffs before becoming usefull.

Jazzepi · #10 September 17th, 2007, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Aezeal said:
Serenity sure I will play (I just started a game) them but as I said I want to win my first MP game

and I have set my mind on playing with this nation I know nothing about so far.. so since I have no time (at least I hope the game starts this week) for 3-4 SP games to see wether sloth 3 is REALLY a problem etc. (I'll admit that even in my SP game I'd like a decent start cus why learn the basics of a nation in 3-4 games when with a lil asking you can learn a lot in 1-2 (I'm posting and reading here while waiting on the turns.. not like I have something better to do.. I like to see it as MAXIMIZING my learning curve in minimum time

)

I mean if I need to play 3-4 games with ALL RACES just to learn the basics of them then i'd take way more time than I have.. I've got a pretty busy just, and it's taking way more hours than most people spend on their job (here in the netherlands at least) so I just have to take short cuts

and I'm not ashamed of it either. And strat talk in general will improve my game with all nations and I like it.

Jazepi.. that would indeed give me 200 point to spend which could nicely go to growth 3 for a better base late game and .. soemthing else. But the gem/magic item/heroes are always such nice surprises... makes the list worth reading

I still would like more opinions on drain/magic most games I just take drain 2 for just -1 RP and build more mages (which I can afford easily with the + scales I take for those)
what are your thoughts? any other things that you guys think I should take into consideration with magic vs drain in general and for MA Ermor specifically?

I used to do this a lot. What I discovered is that it really depends on your mages. If you have 7-8 research point mages, then you can probably afford to take the -1 research hit and go drain 2 with the intent of spamming forts + mages to catch up with other people who have +1 magic.

If you don't, and a good example would be a nation like EA Abysia, or MA Man, you're locked into having at least magic 1. If you take drain 2, for instance, with EA abysia, your prime researcher only produces 3 points of research per turn. I shouldn't have to explain how abysmal that is.

What's really happening is that the lower research your guys are, the more an improvement percentage wise an increase in the magic scales are. The higher researcher your mages are, the less relative benefit you're getting out of it.

Jazzepi

Jazzepi