Man: A Bless nation in CBM 1.92?

[Torgon]

Originally Posted by Nightfall

To be fair my original statement was that MA Man is, at present, easily the best nation to play a bless strategy with in CBM 1.92 MA.

That has kind of gotten lost by the fact that it hasn't been addressed in that context; being that none of the bless nations in MA are considered top tier.

True. So the other bless nations might be:

Mictlan (while good is not EA or LA mictlan)
Bandar Log
Vanhiem
Ashdod
Eriu (commanders only)

Am I missing any? So is Man a better bless nation than these guys? None are as limited magically as Man so they don't have that handicap. I think it may be somewhat questionable to claim that man is a "better" bless nation than these guys.

[Nightfall]

Originally Posted by Shangrila00

F4W4 works because Man has little use for fire gems and no critical uses for water.

That is a decent option, as long as you plan to leverage it in other ways; and there are a few good ones.

[Shardphoenix]

Man has no native astral access

I was super-lucky to get Brangwen The Blind One (S3 hero) both times I was trying to make high-bless Man work. It still didn`t save me from massed Iron Angels first time and communioned Pythian magic second time. Well, the second time i probably was just not agressive enough.

[Torgon]

Originally Posted by Shardphoenix

I was super-lucky to get Brangwen The Blind One (S3 hero) both times I was trying to make high-bless Man work. It still didn`t save me from massed Iron Angels first time and communioned Pythian magic second time. Well, the second time i probably was just not agressive enough.

But would have a rainbow pretender really have saved you from these either? The bottom line is that Pythium is still pythium and ulm in 1.92 is super powerful. Traditional man with a rainbow would have lost to these guys as well unless you were off to a spectacular lead.

[Shardphoenix]

Except what earth mothers? More 50 gem empowerments? Presumably what he actually means are troll kings summoned either by one of the extremely rare E2 crones or a E1 crone after another 30 gem empowerment.

What paths does Ancient Kraken summon have in CBM? Maybe, it can help with diversity? Mother of Rivers even provides you with gems for it.

[Shardphoenix]

But they aren't SO vulnerable

They are cold-blooded, right? Cold scales (from Wolven Winter or cold dominion) should seriously hurt them.

On a related note, does Magic Duel always target the strongest astral mage?

Single-target spells usually target biggest/highest HP suitable target.

[Corinthian]

Magic duel is completely random in its targeting I believe. Unlike other single target spells. Or atleast it did not target the golems when I used it in another game. It targeted the normal mages. And Mictlan have plenty of turkey duelers.

Ehh, give me a moment and I will test this....

Edit: Yep, completely random. This is why people send things like turkey mages and other cheap astral mages along to protect important astral casters.

[Shardphoenix]

Edit: Yep, completely random.

Completely - or by unit`s ID?

[Corinthian]

Hmm. Thats hard to test. But anyway, how is MA Man or all nations supposed to magic duel the turkey nations anyway?

[Shardphoenix]

We are comparing them not in duel against each other, but how well do they fare in game overall.