Beginner's Guide to Abysia MA

JimMorrison · #1 June 13th, 2008, 12:27 AM

Aye, I thought you were looking more towards an awake expander SC. It would seem that overall the Cyclops is going to be the better choice, since he is FR for the scorching heat of his dominion. Likewise, that's what the Warlock has over the Enchantress. Though with the rainbow chassis, they are less often committed to real combat I suppose, sitting safely back doing summons and globals, rather than risking it all on random luck with 10hp.

But all things considered, like I was saying, I don't think they really -need- an awake SC. I like the Fountain of Blood, as I feel the really strong scales may not have you expanding quite as quickly as a Clops, but that the income and resources will set you up for solid mid game troop and mage recruitment, and then the dousing bonus gives you a solid benefit to your late game position. Obviously Abysian Infantry aren't the optimal fastest expanders available, but they are so survivable that neither are they the slowest. I think for optimization then, the high scales with dousing bonus will add the most power through the duration of the game. Bearing in mind that it seems the general feeling towards Abysia is that they start out "fairly strong" (not exceedingly so), and slowly lose relevance as the game progresses, so I really feel that giving up a little at the start may be the key to a better shot at victory in the end.

Though I have to say, having to choose between 6D/6B or 6E/6B on the Fountain is not an easy task..... For 24 more points (maybe drop to Dom6) the Fountain can go 4E/4D/6B. In this case I'd think that the reinvig would be worth the lower Affliction bonus. Though at that point, might swap it to 4E/4S/6B. If you've Arcane Probed everything by year 3, you could use Acashic Record on your wastes and swamps for bulk gems to alchemize into pearls, if nothing else.

I will admit however, I have a soft spot for the Cyclops, he was my first successful SC.

dirtywick · #2 June 13th, 2008, 12:59 AM

I think the Scorpion King is cool; he's a giant scorpion monster, what's not to like? Mainly Phoenix Pyre and cheap access to the little boost from the fire bless were the driving factors behind that choice. Plus, kind of nice to be able to use those fire gems you'll probably have way, way too many of later.

I don't like an awake pretender with Abysia, mainly because there's just not enough points to get everything I want out of it.

JimMorrison · #3 June 13th, 2008, 01:09 AM

Scorpion King does have some serious coolness factor, that's undeniable.

moderation · #4 June 13th, 2008, 01:13 AM

Quote:

JimMorrison said:
Though I have to say, having to choose between 6D/6B or 6E/6B on the Fountain is not an easy task..... For 24 more points (maybe drop to Dom6) the Fountain can go 4E/4D/6B. In this case I'd think that the reinvig would be worth the lower Affliction bonus. Though at that point, might swap it to 4E/4S/6B. If you've Arcane Probed everything by year 3, you could use Acashic Record on your wastes and swamps for bulk gems to alchemize into pearls, if nothing else.

Acashic Record seems awfully expensive... though it might be worth it in the wastes. But I thought swamps had really poor gem prospects.

By the way, the PoD's 0 encumbrance should mean that he doesn't have to worry much about heat fatigue except when buffing. He does seem slightly less durable than the Clops as the game progresses however...

Edi · #5 June 13th, 2008, 03:18 AM

Swamps and wastes have the best gem potential, followed by mountains and forests. See the site searching threads linked from the strategy index.

JimMorrison · #6 June 13th, 2008, 04:23 AM

Wastes and swamps are supposed to have the overall highest site frequency, IIRC. And yeah, Acashic Record is pretty spendy, but in certain situations can be relatively lucrative.

PoD does have a low (really low

) base Enc, but he needs real armor sooner than the Clops does, in fact an E9 Clops is at 29 base already, and doesn't actually ever "need" armor to still be better protected than almost anyone else. My favorite for the Cyclops is a Robe of Shadows, though upgrade options are fairly limited if all you have is an E9 Clops and then the F/S/B that Abysia gets. It's very complicated really, such limited forging options are going to be a hangup in the late game no matter how you slice it. And taking an awake SC doesn't tend to be the best way to get much diversity, so far we're only talking about adding either E or D, D doesn't give much SC gear, E does but mister Cyclops will have to do some site searching to exploit it. Seems to me having Acashic Record ready is more useful if you hope to get some decent indie mages, and you want to get gems for them to forge with as fast as you can, especially if they don't necessarily get you 2 in a path so they can remote search.

So hard to really expect to make them truly competitive against some of the more well rounded nations out there.

JimMorrison · #7 June 13th, 2008, 04:40 AM

Oh man, I tab away from this window and Edi beats me by an hour.

My system for using Acashic Record at this point (and it's not often I do) is to saturate my territory with Arcane Probe first, to get the pearls rolling in. Then once that's done, I only do AR on swamp and waste that have 0 sites so far. Seems to do fairly alright for itself, usually.