So far what nations look strong... and weak?

Pythium are the standard.

Low cost Communion slaves, good research, good massive troop armies. Hydra's can be devistating, Theurgs and Arch Theurgs can become tremendously powerful.

Anything with a base mage in the race with Astral 3 can use gateway; which is incredibly strong for quick reinforcement between labs.

[apoger]

>Also what is the case for Pythium being so strong? They don't even have powerful blessable units (unless you go Serpent)!

* Outstanding Infantry
* Gladiators (in multiplayer these guys are very potent defensively)
* Communicants!
* Quickness, Communion, Aim, *Orb Lightning*
* Soul Slay works when Orb Lightning fails
* Hydra are great even when not sacred.
* Arch Theurgs using Communion can lay down almost any battefield spell during the late game
* Arch Theurgs have great mobility from teleport and cloud trapeze [don't underestimate the power of surprise]
* Air and Astral magics simply have a wide scope of usefull spells


You have asked about both Arco and Pythium. I suspect that as a player that is new to the game, you have yet to grasp the awesome potency of Communion. Both Arco And Pythium have great infantry and the potential for outrageous battle magics from abusing Communion. It takes a while with the game before the whole communion thing becomes apparent.

[johan osterman]

Originally posted by Zen:
I'm sorry Johan. I was being sarcastic. Ah, so much is lost on the internet.

I meant the requirement for the Carrion to have at least Growth 1 for the theme, so you don't get too many points .

Part of the reason that the Carrion Woods theme is strong is because it is like Ermor; you can just pillage and tax to death everyone in your lands and let the Carrion Lords mop up while you make scads of Minos, Harpies and Pans.

My feeling is that Carrion wood is not particularily strong, if anything I would say it is a weak theme. While it has a strenghts it also have weaknesses. To mention a few:

You do not get as much free summons as Ashen empire, nor do you get the boosted gem income.

Your home province will eventually loose all its pop which will hit your resources severely and keep you from utilising the normal resource heavy troops recruitable in the capital, amongst them the sacred black centaurs. IIRC you cannot build harpies, you just start with one, and can recieve a Arcopythera. Your Panic Apostates are only 30 cheaper than ordinary Pani and have one random less, and do not recieve Meanads.

The effects of the dominion will eventually significantly reduce your income. As long as you manage to keep expanding the theme should do ok, but if you slow down the free summons you get will not offset the income loss.

You will also in multiplayer recieve the same reaction as Ermor, making you a likely target for alliances.

[Joonie73]

Couls someone briefly explain what communion is & how it works? What makes it so powerful?

[apoger]

>Couls someone briefly explain what communion is & how it works? What makes it so powerful?

In Brief:

Some mages cast Communion Slave while others cast Communion Master.

The Slaves take the fatigue when the Masters cast spells. This allows a great deal of casting by the Masters.

The Masters also get magic skill bonuses from the Slaves. All skills +1 for 2 Slaves, +2 for 4, +3 for 8, +4 for 16.

For example:
An Arch Theurg (air-2 astral-3, lets say the ? comes in as nature-1) goes into battle.
There are 8 Communicants with him.
The Arch Theurg casts Communion Master.
The Communicants are slaves automatically.
The Arch Theurg is now air-5 astral-6 nature-4.
When he casts spells, he does not fatigue, the slaves soak up the efforts of spellcasting, allowing the Arch Thuerg to use his pumped up ranks over and over again.

More Slaves will absorb more fatigue.
More Masters will gain the full benefits of the Slaves. The Slaves are shared.
The only danger is driving the Slaves fatigue beyond 200, at which point they take damage and die. Burning out the slaves is common in long battles, however it gets you a stunning supply of mage power before they drop.

My feeling is that Carrion wood is not particularily strong, if anything I would say it is a weak theme. While it has a strenghts it also have weaknesses. To mention a few:

You do not get as much free summons as Ashen empire, nor do you get the boosted gem income.

Your home province will eventually loose all its pop which will hit your resources severely and keep you from utilising the normal resource heavy troops recruitable in the capital, amongst them the sacred black centaurs. IIRC you cannot build harpies, you just start with one, and can recieve a Arcopythera. Your Panic Apostates are only 30 cheaper than ordinary Pani and have one random less, and do not recieve Meanads.

The effects of the dominion will eventually significantly reduce your income. As long as you manage to keep expanding the theme should do ok, but if you slow down the free summons you get will not offset the income loss.

You will also in multiplayer recieve the same reaction as Ermor, making you a likely target for alliances.

It may be weak compared to the basic Pan theme; but since I haven't played Dom1 I never knew it. I haven't played it in epic, XXXXXL maps with 17 opponents, so I couldn't tell you on that end.

In a certain mindset; not having anything to look back on is a good thing. Especially midsized games, with opponents who sneak attacks and other underhanded ways to cut off supply lines, but your is mobile. Not as good as Ermor; but I wasn't playing it like Ermor, I was playing it like Undead Pangea .

I primarily make Black Harpy flocks (which you can make and I have them in droves cutting supply and starving enemies as well as rearborn mages) and Minos as you lose resources. (Just Mino's, not War Minos since they have 46 Resources)

Also the Black Centaur is a measely 70 Gold, 11 Resource Sacred and with the number of points for a Carrion Wood theme you can make that pretender with good bless effects.

If you are aggressive (Which you should be with this theme) you are overtaking and using new forts to build up your new living troops and throw them in armies with your Manakin's/Mandragora so they never rout and crush through those annoying undead unfriendly units. Also Manikin's regenerate during battle and can tear through provinces quickly when you get started.

Maybe I haven't played enough long games with them or been slowed significantly in order to see that approach. I'll freely admit that I do not know everything; but I would put the theme higher ranking that Alex did simply for the fact of how I have used it.

Maybe I got lucky; and hit quick and fast enough to cause an uproar in my targeted enemies without having a huge domain that caused me to be ganged up on because I was killing others provinces.

War needs no reasons, alliances happen regardless of your actions for the safety blanket. This theme only means you are cut out of most alliances (all except Ermor) unless you have the upper hand.

[Gandalf Parker]

I like Pangaea default. I appreciate the addition of more sneak units such as more centaurs. Still no assassin but I can push for the blood heart to get that. I dont even recruit any of the units that are non-stealth