Info: MA Ermor pretender design

[WraithLord]

attackdrone:

“Are you playing with any mods? If you are playing with CBM, the effects of luck/misfortune are increased - making Order 3 / Misfortune 2 less of a clear choice.”
CBM+EDM. Yes, I’m aware of the increased effects. Had it not been CBM I’d have gone with the O3Msft2 w/o a 2nd thought

…

“Also, what would you use the extra 80 points from Misfortune 2 for?”
From L3 to Msft2 it’s more like 200 points , well I’d use them to good effect, like throw more magic on my pretender.


13lackGu4rd

“I'd say definitely O3, as for misf, it depends on how badly you need the points. misf3 is a big no, no in my book, but 0, 1 and 2 are all viable depending on what else you need the points for. keep in mind that you have H3 priests, and in MA only 2 nations can blood sacrifice, so that's as good as it'll get. however your H3 priests will mostly be animating Longdead Horsemen, so ideally they won't do a lot of preaching. still, if fighting against an opponent with a strong dominion, you will have the tools to fight it. another thing is that it will be worth it to get good scales for you, and that will also harm your enemies. so cold3 might be a good option for you, maybe along with Death, to make it a serious pain for enemies to fight inside your dominion.
“
But what about O3 and L3 combined?
Cold 3 is good for the undead but bad to the economy. R U sure it’s worth it?

“as for your actual pretender, MA Ermor has great mages but mostly S+D, only 25% chance to get W1/A1 on your Grand Thaumaturgs and 0.25% to get another level of any of them. so basically you want a rainbow. you have many options for rainbows, but I'd at least consider a few things:
1. at least E3S2 for hammers and coins, might as well go for 4 for the MR bonus to your sacreds, and easier access to RoS+RoW.
2. you have nice sacreds, especially the Shadow Vestals, a minor bless for them would be a great addition to your undead hordes.
3. you have death covered, but you might want a point or 2 of it on your pretender for site searching purposes and later for cross path spells(such as summoning Anthrax, the Banefire King).
“
This is a cover your weakness strat. It’s ok. I like that approach but what about enhance your strengths strat. Like take a s9 + great scales pretender?

[13lackGu4rd]

well, cold3 is worth it if you plan to go with a high dom strategy. otherwise don't bother with it. O3L3 is always nice if you can afford the points, but if you go for a rainbow than you won't have points to spare. if you want a pure scales strat with something like an imprisoned Oracle than I guess it's doable.

as for the rainbow, it's not just a "cover your weakness" strategy. first of all, the minor bless is nice for your sacreds, especially the Shadow Vestals, which will pump up your early game expansion until you get your longdead horsemen factory running. than you can use them as meat shields(being ethereal and carrying shields) for your longdead horsemen in your big armies. also, the magic versatility, while a clear weakness of MA Ermor, does not mean you "cover a weakness", you can also view it as creating new strengths. for example, in mid game you got your massive undead armies, if you add buffs like LoS, SoG, WoS, etc will that be covering a weakness or enhancing a strength?

I guess an imprisoned S9 Oracle with a pure scales strat can work, it's a solid strat for many nations. however MA Ermor's national magic access is very narrow, so as soon as your neighbors come up with the proper undead counters you will have some problems. sure, you can still use your regular Thaumaturgs to spam nether bolt/dart and stuff, but you'll still have some large holes to fill somehow. and as you know, relying on just indies for magic diversity is very risky to say the least.

[WraithLord]

The main problem with the rainbow strat. (as I see it) as the high cost for getting to solid dominion strength.

( That said, the points you make are still valid )

*sigh* choices, choices, it's always about them...