MA Atlantis...am I missing something?

[Velusion]

quantum_mechani said:
Also, the sphinx is absolutely awful. Normally I'd also say the order 0 is a total waste, but given that the scale bug often takes away positive order/growth/prod it is worth considering. If you are betting on this happening, however, you don't want growth either.

?

Looking at the math (for a different race) I found the sphinx to be second only to the fountain in efficiency if you are looking for a S9 X9 imprisoned pretender. And some races don't have the fountain as a choice...

[K]

I've been testing out MA Atlantis and I have to say that a Bless strategy is not the wisest choice. With their very high encumberance(8) and gold and resources costs, they die far too easily for the investment.

Your best unit is the War Shambler.

Go for a Lich Research god (Min of Nature 4, Death 4, Earth 4, Air 4, Astral 4, Fire 1) and get your Water 5 Mages (Water 7 with basic equipment, and 8 with an elemental Staff and 9 with a clam-forged Ring of Wiz) to work dropping Falling Frosts on guys.

Make Consorts into thugs (Frost Brands and some kind of Water or Earth or Fire armor), Mothers into early-game smiters, and use your huge Water income to summon mages like Kolyikthads(sp?) and clam.

[quantum_mechani]

Velusion said:

?

Looking at the math (for a different race) I found the sphinx to be second only to the fountain in efficiency if you are looking for a S9 X9 imprisoned pretender. And some races don't have the fountain as a choice...

The sacred statue is clearly superior as well. Skimming through the nations, the only one I spot with the sphinx and no statue or oracle is Abysia, which seems more the case of a specific nation getting shafted than a real sphinx 'niche' (aside from the fact s9 doesn't seem like one of the better Aby blesses).

[Meglobob]

Another fun build is a awake ancient kraken with E9 bless, dom 6, order-3, prod-1, heat-3, growth-1, misfortune-3, drain-2.

Your ancient kraken gets 17 protection, so attack a indie on the 1st turn and every turn after. You will expand rapidly early on, always important.

The E9 bless is useful early on with the mother guards, on your consorts, cast earth deep blood well and then forge of ancients.

You can concentrate your research on conjuration/construction which is always nice. Voice of Tiamat will probably give you plenty of earth/water gems and some fire. You can have a go at the water queens/earth kings and as many unique artifacts as you can grab.

[Velusion]

quantum_mechani said:

The sacred statue is clearly superior as well. Skimming through the nations, the only one I spot with the sphinx and no statue or oracle is Abysia, which seems more the case of a specific nation getting shafted than a real sphinx 'niche' (aside from the fact s9 doesn't seem like one of the better Aby blesses).

Any Abysia was the one I was looking at . That explains things.

[mathusalem]

Meglobob said:
Another fun build is a awake ancient kraken with E9 bless, dom 6, order-3, prod-1, heat-3, growth-1, misfortune-3, drain-2.

Your ancient kraken gets 17 protection, so attack a indie on the 1st turn and every turn after. You will expand rapidly early on, always important.

The E9 bless is useful early on with the mother guards, on your consorts, cast earth deep blood well and then forge of ancients.

You can concentrate your research on conjuration/construction which is always nice. Voice of Tiamat will probably give you plenty of earth/water gems and some fire. You can have a go at the water queens/earth kings and as many unique artifacts as you can grab.

order -3 and misfortune -3 ???

[Sensori]

Well, considering how oddly he said them...

It could be turmoil 3 (hence order -3), sloth 1 (prod -1), cold 3 (heat -3), death 1 (growth -1), luck 3 (misfortune -3), magic 2 (drain -2) (wtf). ;p Although the magic makes me wonder if he's just using negative and positive scale names in an inconsistent manner here and throwing negative numbers all over the place. That's because Magic 2 and 1 are just as good in vanilla for most things.

[thejeff]

I'd assume that it's order 3 and misfortune 3. A fairly common build.

Dashes, not negatives.

[Sensori]

Uh, but he said Order -3 (which is Turmoil 3, the positive term is combined with a negative number), and Misfortune -3 which could mean Luck 3 or Misfortune 3, difference is that here both the number AND the term are negative (double negative makes for a positive, but it's impossible to say which he meant without him saying it ;p). Both Order 3/Misfortune 3 and Turmoil 3/Luck 3 are fairly common builds.

[thejeff]

Don't think of the "-" as a negative sign, just as a dash. A separator.

It's possible he's being purposefully confusing with double negatives, but it's far more likely he just means:
order 3, prod 1, heat 3, growth 1, misfortune 3, drain 2.