Need advice - MA Nation, Strategy and Pretender

[FedSlayer]

Zeldor said:
You will be safe with imprisoned Oracle with 6-9 dominion strength, order 3, luck 2-3, magic 1 or 3, growth 1-2. Use that money to make crazy amount of heavily armoured troops and build forts to recruit a lot of mages that can kill a lot and research like crazy.

Never had an imprisoned pretender, and since this game might last 40-60 turns I don't think imprisonment would work all that well. I don't like immobile pretenders, and the oracle is one of those.

The manual suggests a sleeping Jade Emperor with A4 S4 W3. With that I can get Order 2, Productivity 2, Magic 1 and Dom 7. Maybe Order 3 and Prod 1 is a better way to go, or some negative tile to get another magic level is worth it. S4 isn't very high in case of a magic duel, and W4 gives +2 Defense to blessed troops.

With the same dominion tiles a sleeping Lord of Plenty could have S6 E3. A Celestial General could have A5 E4. A Phoenix could get A5 F4 and a Mother of Rivers could be W6 and 2 of another magic.

A slept Oracle with S9 can have Order 3, Prod 3, Magic 1, Dom 7. It can teleport to get around if needed, but won't ever be a battle mage.

[jimkehn]

I would think an S9 Oracle would be pretty powerful even if immobile!!! And nice Order and Prod scales.

But then.....don't ask me. I always lose.

[KissBlade]

You can safely ignore a bulk of the manual suggestions. Some are more for fun than competitive while other strategies are rather outdated. Tien Chi's suggestion is solid in only offering the consort flooding strat since that was THE TC Strategy at the time. Make sure you have order 3 though and Magic 1 (I take Magic 3 because I like magic). High astral is nice because rings of wizardry are pretty sweet but a simple thug pretender and good scales can make a quick offense and let you toss up forts at key chokes a lot faster. TC's battlemagic isn't too great to be honest, but construction for boosters followed by conjuration for summons are a safe bet. The problem with strategies is Dom III strategies largely revolves around the same concepts, most of the hidden elements are more based off scenarios that you encounter. If you want more help, you'd need to offer us what your opponents are like, what settings, etc.

[vfb]

catgod savedgames/newlords/mid_bandarlog_0.2h

Nix, the God above All, King of the Dawn, God of Flames, Feeder on Impurity, Councilor of Gods
Bandar Log, Middle Era
Great Sage (Body 226, 10 hits) <- catgod is making a joke, it's really a dragon
Magic: Fire 9
Dominion 10
Scales: [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Grenade.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Grenade.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon07.gif[/img]
Awake

Erratic Expansionist

90 provinces, wraparound East-West, 3 AIs, plus an Agarthan human. Or is that a human Argatha? Default settings.

[Sombre]

Order 3, Prod 3, Heat 3, Death 2, Turmoil 2, Magic 1?

[vfb]

Almost. For me, beer == Sloth. I only wish it could provide production!

[Sombre]

Penguins provide you order though?

[Edratman]

vfb said:
Almost. For me, beer == Sloth. I only wish it could provide production!

I wish it could provide health, wealth and happiness. I would settle for one of those TC minus 10 year spells. If beer would remove 10 years per night of consumption (I'm thinking it would be like gems, it takes several to cast the spell) I would currently be -35,678 years old, give or take a week.

[FedSlayer]

Sombre said:
Order 3, Prod 3, Heat 3, Death 2, Turmoil 2, Magic 1?

vfb corrected that Prod to Sloth, but you can't have Order 3 AND Trumoil 2, so I'm guessing the 2 grenades are misfortune making that Order 3, Sloth 3, Heat 3, Death 2, Misfortune 2 and Magic 1

Not good tiles, but he has to pay for Dominion and pretender's magic levels somewhere.

[vfb]

Oops yeah, grenades are Misfortune, not Turmoil. Probably what Sombre meant anyway.

Order 3 - Misfortune 2 is no problem really, especially when Death is only at 2.

Magic 1 is just as good as Magic 2, except actually it's better because it's cheaper .

And bad scales with high dominion are actually good. If I push my dominion into an enemy province, they don't get the good scales (Order). So those provinces end up with Order-0, Sloth-3, Heat-3, Misfortune-2, Death-2, which can give some unpleasant random events.