Tartanians

[B0rsuk]

I would've preferred if Tartarians were simply made less powerful. Dominions3 has enough SC's as it is. Not everyone enjoys playing with dolls.

[Twan]

"Playing with dolls" is a necessity in endgame, you need SCs to carry your artefacts and survive mass destruction spells (or perhaps you may succeed with troops summonable en masse, with more than 20 hp, 20 or more protection, several resist, magical weapons... the problem is... you also need death 7/conjuration 9 to cast legion of wights).

Edit : I wanted to say it's normal that with level 9 research and level 7 skill (tartarians) you beat what other can get with level 8 research and level 5 skill (elemental royalty etc). The less normal thing with death is you also beat anything an elemental/nature only nation can use with level 9 research and level 7+ skill (and you don't fear their mass destruction spells with your SCs).

[lch]

NTJedi said:
Astral Vortex??

Do you mean 'Vortex of Returning' or 'Arcane Nexus' or 'Astral Tempest' or is this a spell from a mod??

Arcane Nexus. My game is broken, don't blame me.

[mathusalem]

I agree with Twan : Level 9 + D7 + 10 Death gems + 40 N Gems + GoR / Chalice is already expensive (I dislike CBM for increasing the cost to 25 gems)

maybe less random (once I got a 7A tartarian...), no affliction or decrease the cost of Iron Dragon / Tarrasque / Abo to 10 gems too is an idea

[AreaOfEffect]

May I suggest another solution:

Limit the number of Tartarians.

This solution is, in my opinion, simple and elegant. It still makes Tartarians something worth striving for, yet it doesn't make it the only thing you need to win. The mechanic for this already exists in the game so this concept isn't going to be alien to anyone. Besides, how many ancient dead gods enslaved to the underworld can there possibly be. Set the limit to between eleven and twenty and I'm sure things will be just peachy.

[Kristoffer O]

> Equally good though is increasing the cost and making all of them come out with no afflictions.

Thematically abhorrent idea Like making knights without horses or armor.

[DonCorazon]

I am still learning the game - several of my MP games are around mid-game stage. I never planned to summon tartartians and have no way to do so.

Am I screwed?

These types of threads that suggest one strategy that everyone is striving for are somewhat disturbing as it suggests that all the time I place into strategizing in the early to mid game is really meaningless.

[Kristoffer O]

Unscrew!

If the early game goes good you can achieve anything.

Tartarians are not imperative for winning.
They definitely are not imperative for having fun, although they can be fun.

Don't worry too much. Start to worry if you reach end game with one player trying a tartarian strategy. Find his weaknesses etc, but until you stumbe across them you should stay calm.

And there is always 'blight'. Most fun spell there is

[Twan]

It's not really hard to developp death 7 with a non death nation if you can have access to a natural death 2 mage (a death amazon with a lucky random or an empowerement) and astral 5 (or astral 3 + earth 2 to make the 2 astral boosters, then the rings of sorcery and wizardry).

(in death you need to make a booster, then summon some spectres to have a D3 one, with the booster he can forge a skullface ; he now have d5, you add the two astral rings and he can summon tartarians ; you may also use a lich for natural d4 and just one ring)

If you play a non death nation without astral it's far harder and you should rather target elemental royalty or blood uniques for SCs.

[RonD]

That depends on how big the game is and how many experienced players are in them. Games on small maps with, say, 5-7 players never reach level 9 spells (or shouldn't, at any rate).

In a big game on a big map - if you really want to win you do need to think about late-game strategy right from the pretender design stage on.

A Tartarian factory is not the only viable late-game strategy, but as you can guess it is one of the strongest.