MA Agartha, or Yet another thread fishing for tips

[tibbs]

Here's my build for MA argatha I pieced together from the advice in this thread.

Oracle Dominion 9
death4, earth 2
order 3, misfortune 2, magic 1, heat 1

I tested the oracle and with the awe and fear effect I can take even the toughest provinces like knights. On first turn I build the black plate armor and next turn I equip him and send him by himself into enemy provinces. I then build him a helm and shield before sending him into the really tough provinces. He doesn't kill much but they always seem to route before he dies.

I research enchantment first to get the statues unless I think I am by an aggressive or blessed nation. If I am, I then go evocation and use the spells other people have mentioned.

The dom 9 also provides more HP for the golems.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Sounds decent.

I've confirmed Llamabeasts opinion on Golems not dissolving when a spare mage is available. This'll be quite important for my guide. Thanks for mentioning it.

[llamabeast]

No probs

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Here's a question for you.

If a Golem Crafter leading 15 golems is accompanied by an Ancient Lord carrying a Bottle of Living Water (+1 magic leadership) and the Golem Crafter dies, do the golems dissolve as usual?

I believe the answer is no. It's pretty easy to lab, but I lack the time to get my available games up to that research and gem level.

[HoneyBadger]

I set up a game so that I could follow along with this thread, and in the process, I equipped several ancient lords with a bunch of low-level protection enhancing gear-basically to get the maximum prot possible with Const 2.

I also gave them an Earth bless of 9 and I noticed, when I equipped them with a lead shield, black steel helmet, black steel armor (the suit, not the breastplate), a star of heroes, bracers of protection, boots of giant strength, and a luck amulet, they had a Prot of 27, but when I *blessed* them, Prot went up to 33, instead of 31-is there any accounting for this?

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

I've no idea. What happens if you take off the bracers?

Anyways, I hadn't thought of that, but it sounds very interesting- That's cyclops level protection. Tell us how it turned out, please. Why'd you take the Star of Heroes, by the way? I've always passed that artifact by without trying it out. Because, you know, I really need to hit a tiny human with forty points of damage.

Good grief, I experimented with the Forge Lord, but I simply have to go back and give it a second go, with that setup you outlined.

[HoneyBadger]

Yeah, it's tasty stuff, but ultimately, I didn't find it worth the trouble. Yes, you can churn out items cheaply, but not much more cheaply than simply equipping dwarven hammers on your other mages, and it's a lot faster that way. Also, boots of strength weren't worth bothering with, ideally, I'd replace them with marble boots, for ultimate protective qualities.

Right now I'm trying out Fountain of Blood-5 blood slaves equals Att+5 and a morale boost. Not bad.

I took Star of Heroes because it gives Att +4-that's huge, especially tied to a 12 point damage weapon that destroys armor.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Well, if you're trying a blood path, let me know if the Boots of Youth help your Golem Crafters. With the blood stone, I expect you'll turn into a regular mass manufacturing plant.

If you don't have access to the luck pendant, consider the burning pearl, for another +4 attack. It's a big help when your weapon only strikes one unit a turn.

Though if I were dedicated to a thug strategy, I might need to check out EA Agartha instead. I think they can recruit Ancient Lords everywhere, leaving my capital free to do other things, though I'm far from certain. And the Troglodyte captain may offer some opportunities.

[Burnsaber]

HoneyBadger said:
Prot went up to 33, instead of 31-is there any accounting for this?

IMHO, the earth bless boosts protection of every piece of armor the unit wears. So Helmet gives +4 prot, armor gives +4 prot, and braces of protection give +4 prot.

[thejeff]

But the helmet and armor are correctly averaged together, so you get a +4 to total protection from them. The bracers are added in separately though.

I think that qualifies as a bug. Or at least an unintended side effect.