Blood of humans theme

[Kristoffer O]

Originally posted by Pocus:

my suggestions, choose some, not necessarly all :
- allow magical scale, so that Newt can be used as good researcher.
- add an astral gem to the 4 fires.
- reduce by 1 or 2 gold the humanbred cost
- give 40 additional DP, or let heat 3 possible.
- give a new unit, a level 1 blood human mage, recruitable everywhere.
- give 1-2 free slaves a turn (the human virgins are more available now)

thank you for your attention. Discussion welcome (but please test the 2 themes before!).

Hmm, I agree. Blood of humans was the Last added and least tested theme. Thus it has not been tweaked to compensate for the thematic losses of the theme.

Of your suggestions I am more in favor of the changes that goes with the theme (more humans, diluted essence of the fire magic). DP i find less attractive as it is a mechanical tweak, the same goes for the HB cost, although this is a more thematic change. Greater focus on blood magic is not bad, as this could be a way to compensate for lost fire magic, but a cheap blood mage is a very powerful thing to add if it is recruitable everywhere.

It takes some pondering.

[Pocus]

Thanks for listening.

About the blood mage, I think Chris Byler suggested he can be blood1/fire1, thus rising his cost to perhaps 110 gp. That would be then more problematic to recruit him en masse (though still possible if the focus of the player is blood at all cost).

Also I think forbbiding the taking of a magic scale (perhaps not to 3, but 1 or 2 would be cool) is not necessary, as it closes the strategy to use newts as fast researchers (the goblin them of Jotun is rather powerful with this setting by the way).

[Pocus]

thinking a bit more on the theme, I think this would not be sufficient to equilibrate it. The problem of assassin only in capital (and thus the only sneak unit with scouting capacity) is also a bit problematic.

some suggestion again :

the aforementioned humanbred blood mage transformed into a 'Blood Cultist', blood 1 with assassination power. Now that would give a very strong distinct flavor to the BoH theme, as this assassin would be rather powerful.

powerful => not cheap, so could fix the problem of having a cheap blood mage too (thinking of the starpawn with some increase in gold cost)

[Mortifer]

BoH is a weak theme, there are lot better themes for various nations.
I guess themes are fun, but sometime the original setup is better.

[johan osterman]

Originally posted by Pocus:
thinking a bit more on the theme, I think this would not be sufficient to equilibrate it. The problem of assassin only in capital (and thus the only sneak unit with scouting capacity) is also a bit problematic.

some suggestion again :

the aforementioned humanbred blood mage transformed into a 'Blood Cultist', blood 1 with assassination power. Now that would give a very strong distinct flavor to the BoH theme, as this assassin would be rather powerful.

powerful => not cheap, so could fix the problem of having a cheap blood mage too (thinking of the starpawn with some increase in gold cost)

Isn't really much of an issue with just having a sneak unit in capital, since indep scouts are plentiful, and if it were an expenisve sneaking mage wouldn't answer the problem anyway.

Not that I am against the idea as such, but for the assasin/bloodmage to use his magic in battle he requires bloodslaves, and it would look a little funny when the assasin mage performs his assasination with his harem of nubile young bloodslaves tagging along.

[ November 07, 2003, 15:01: Message edited by: johan osterman ]

[Gandalf Parker]

[quote]Originally posted by johan osterman:

Not that I am against the idea as such, but for the assasin/bloodmage to use his magic in battle he requires bloodslaves, and it would look a little funny when the assasin mage performs his assasination with his harem of nubile young bloodslaves tagging along.

Ooooh one of my most favorite tactics. I often create assassins (with that heart) out of blood mages that can sneak (pandemoniac, heliophagus). I love them casting Hellbind heart to force the target to change sides, then the next event in that province is a combat between that commander and the troops still in the province. Sometimes he even wins the province for me. Then I collect a few blood slaves and move on.

For non-blood assassins I often give them the skull talisman because the skeletons that show up often distract long enough for the assassin to do its job. Blood slaves serve the same purpose.

I especially love the Helophagus. Flying all over the map doing his assassinantions until the Last commander takes the province (no guessing when to attack). The sneaking demons he creates make a great backup for any time he happens to get spotted and attacked.

[Pocus]

Originally posted by johan osterman:
Isn't really much of an issue with just having a sneak unit in capital, since indep scouts are plentiful, and if it were an expenisve sneaking mage wouldn't answer the problem anyway.

well the main problem is that in BoH Abysia can only produce assassins in the same province as his good mages and priests. I concur that for spying indep scouts would be fine.

Not that I am against the idea as such, but for the assasin/bloodmage to use his magic in battle he requires bloodslaves, and it would look a little funny when the assasin mage performs his assasination with his harem of nubile young bloodslaves tagging along.

I thought of that, and discarded the fact as of few importance. Because in dom1 we have already blood commanders which are used as assassins, and nobody find that they have slaves attached silly (heliophagus as deluxe assassins with black heart), and most importantly because I think that the 'realism' is already detrimental enough in some game features (too low growth rate partly because of realism, just an example)