Brainstorming Nation Strategies

[mathusalem]

Ulm Black Forest :
1°) don't focus on vampires to early
2°) with magic +1 fortunes tellers are GREAT ! look for S+D and S+S combinaisons (paralyse and nether darts)
3°) Iron Blizzard is really powerful (summon earth power + Iron Blizzard *4)
4°) use Tempering the will when you have some Demons
5°) Infantery of Ulm and a ton of rangers are effective for expansion
6°) Illuminates One are spy and stealthy, + 1S : can't be mind hunt
7°) Wolfherd for patrolling squad
8°) Vampires and summon lammasthas : good for raiding
9°) the vampire hero with blood 3, flying, with life leech, regenerating and immortal (and prophet !) is a really good SC !
10°) Black priest : (if empower with blood : forge blood stone / bind demon knight), magma eruption, rain of stones, iron blizzard, army of gold / lead, (if empower with 1D, blight), Enliven Gargoyle. They are your main dommage dealer.

[BesucherXia]

EA Pangaea

-living maenads+buff=awesome
-dead maenads+Air=death gems
-sleeping maenads=great castle defenders
-Blood stone
-Pan+vine shield+snake bladder+earth power+iron skin+resistant poison+stregnth of gaia+regen=thug
-Pan+leech/life4life=hunter of sc-raiders
-Pan+penetration items=deadly forests
-Rush:Call of the wild
-Raid:Bless+Sacred centaurs
-Intelligence & gem transporters:Harpy
-mother oak+gift of health+any other nature GEs if slots still available.

[WraithLord]

my comments:

MA Man:
-> Take rainbow mage if you want any chance for end game. Take E4F4D4S4 at the least. It makes for a nice bless and opens up lots of options in end game.
-> Rush to Air Queens

EA mictlan:
-> I say don't trash your scales. Take single major bless and maybe a couple of minors. F9E4S4 can work quite well.

Sauromatia:
-> I tried lot's of variations on blessed WS thugs. I agree E9 helps them considerably but IMO they are still not worth the investment.
I found they were too brittle and had higher than acceptable attrition rate.
It works, but not worth the investment IMO. E6 is good enough for your sacred mages.

MA C'tis:
-> Rush to tartarians (nobrainner)
-> Take E4 and above bless for your communions (helps greatly in cold dominion)
-> Set your assassins to use swarm against light weight targets (not SCs).
-> Cast Life after death (or whatever the name is) and kill your own priests to get free reanimators (thank you ano for reminding me of this old trick)

[WraithLord]

Some more comments:
MA Abysia:
-> Another nations with lots to gain from a rainbow pretender
-> Do take the D3 but don't trash Order

EA Pangaea:
-> What's that about?
"-dead maenads+Air=death gems
-sleeping maenads=great castle defenders
"
-> Gorgon SC
-> Pan+MR penet. => charm traps 4 SCs.
-> Strategy: raid your enemy and never meet his armies on his terms. feign weakness and then bring a ton of unexpected stealthy help.
Don't go for glorious battles. If he is weaker than you swallow him. If he is stronger than you - bleed him to death.


I really like this thread
I'll do Pyth, Patala, Jotun & Caelum if no one beats me to them

[Jarkko]

Originally Posted by WraithLord

-> What's that about?
"-dead maenads+Air=death gems
-sleeping maenads=great castle defenders
"

Dead Maenads:
Get a two indy commanders and pack them full with maenads (110 if they have a star). Position the commanders at back rank. Send in the maenads, preferably against lots of archers. Repeat a few times. Cast raven feast (or what ever it was called again) to the province -> loads of death gems. Works best with an ally who can provide the archers against whome your maenads rush.

Sleeping Maenads:
Have a few pans with a few hundred maenads inside a castle. Will take *ages* for the fort to fall when under siege, and when it is about to fall, sneak the pans out.

[WraithLord]

Originally Posted by Jarkko

Sleeping Maenads:
Have a few pans with a few hundred maenads inside a castle. Will take *ages* for the fort to fall when under siege, and when it is about to fall, sneak the pans out.

: that's one nasty trick.
Watch out for firestorm and all the bad evoc. nasties.

[BesucherXia]

Originally Posted by WraithLord

Some more comments:
MA Abysia:
-> Another nations with lots to gain from a rainbow pretender
-> Do take the D3 but don't trash Order

EA Pangaea:
-> What's that about?
"-dead maenads+Air=death gems
-sleeping maenads=great castle defenders
"
-> Gorgon SC
-> Pan+MR penet. => charm traps 4 SCs.
-> Strategy: raid your enemy and never meet his armies on his terms. feign weakness and then bring a ton of unexpected stealthy help.
Don't go for glorious battles. If he is weaker than you swallow him. If he is stronger than you - bleed him to death.


I really like this thread
I'll do Pyth, Patala, Jotun & Caelum if no one beats me to them

Raiding SCs tend to have very high MR(25+), so charm is not so effecive against them, sometimes even a bad idea because you have to run risk of losing your items. I prefer to use groups of pans using Leech / Life for Life to hunt them down - Blood magic are so good against single target, almost a guaranteed death for him. Charming thugs seem to be an attractive idea anyway.

[Tolkien]

If it's already done, I apologize. I didn't read the thread.

LA Ulm
1) Blood Hunter rankings: Vampire Count-B1 Fortunetellers-Members of the Second Tier.
2) Members of the First and Second Tiers=Stealthy Communionable Death.
3) Communion, Communion, Communion and Communion some more. With communions, you can reach practically any battlefield spell you want (except water or some fusions). Just put a fortuneteller or a crystal-matrixed air/fire black priest (or a fire randomed Second Tier) or an astral random black priest and throw in masses of easily accessible communion slaves.
4) Iron Blizzard Spam is devastating.
5) Villains have +1 MR and are more useful against LA R'lyeh then Rangers (RoF>AP in this case), with Sermons of Courage to bump up that horrid morale.
6) Wolfherds summon wolves: which are much more mobile then mapmove 1 thralls.
6) Halberdiers are great during seiges, and sneak in vampire counts and wolfherds to provide chaff to repair the walls. If need be, sneak them out.
7) Throw vampire hordes at anyone in your dominion; with the proper buffs. Darkness, Rush of Strength, Army of Lead/Gold, Anti-magic, Will of the Fates, etc.
8) Black Heart a Vampire Count/Lord. Voila! A deadly, immortal assassin that can really annoy opponents in your dominion.
9) You have great national troops that can steamroll most indys with decent numbers.
10) Did I mention slapping on a Scepter of Authority and Crown of Command on a Ranger Captain and throwing an army of rangers raiding, with some First Tiers for anti-mindhunt?

[Festin]

Great tread Also, I think there is nothing wrong with having several posts about same nation - after all, everyone has their own ideas.

[mathusalem]

yes, but only 11 HP : He can be one shot : how do you equip them for increase there survibiability ?