Nation/Race Guide

Aetius,

The best would be to discover for yourself, as it opens your eyes to different possibilities with all the other races. But in the spirit of help and friendliness there are a few points I'd hope to help you with.

A good number of the "Human" races are among the most powerful. Man, Pithium and Arco are all among the top all around contenders, though they don't all play the same.

Most of what I'll be saying are some tips to utilize in your own personal playstyle and game situation.

Man:

Knights and KoA. Pricy, strong troops that move fast and can be used to break an enemy or hold back a line or fight those summons along with their Longbow backup.

Longbows. Cheap, effective, good precision, fast to build. Longbows also make very effective Indy killers and sacrificial troops. Also forces opponents to use counters (Storm spell effects, Arrow Fend, etc) for them, otherwise they will be at a disadvantage. Able to pierce heavy armor fairly well especially with the number of troops you can produce.

Crones. A cheap way to make a disposable army. Crones have access to Air and Nature magic. Nature 3 in Fact, which will allow them to summon Vine Ogres (3 Nature, 1 Nature Gem). Equip 4 or 5 crones (Or more!) with Ivy Crowns, and later, Treelord Staff's and set them to monthly ritual of Vine Ogres and you have yourself the heavy disposable troops to use in tandem with your longbowmen. You can field incredible, mobile armies with Vine Ogres with minimal gem usage. Very valuable. Then for combat they have access to Air and Nature making them highly precise (Eagle Eyes) have good spells like River of Life, Orb Lightning, Regeneration, Haste, etc. For a variety of uses to cripple and kill your opponent while buffing your own troops.

Wardens, Monks, Bards, Mothers of Avalon. Ever wanted a stealth army? Covert ops and behind the line fighting more your style? Welcome to Man, only matched by Pangaea for the availiability of good stealth units and commanders. Proper use of these types of troops are invaluable and can turn the tide of a war easily.

Last but not least, Bards (again). Bards are highly stealthy, can instill uprising, have valuable songs, cheap (75 Gold), research, 1 Nature, can move 2 and are buildable outside of the capital. These guys are great for support and intel.

That is just Man, and that is only in one playstyle, there are a variety that work and one of the best things, is the ability to adapt.

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by Aetius:

So if anyone out there wants to advice me on how to set up a winning Pythium, Marignon, or Man I am ready to listen.

Ignoring Marignon the answer is something like order3, misfortune3, prod3, +growth as much as you can afford, castle or wizards tower and build lots of HI and more castles/towers for more HI. With Pythium some of your HI even gets a strat move of 2. With Arco you get Hopilites and Elephants can gobble up your spare gold and be fun to learn to use - as long as you don't mind getting trampled a bit along the way.

Don't forget sermons of courage and when you can get it Fanatacism as morale decides battles - all my armies have a morale booster along and if its a big one they better be able to do Fanatacism or I better have a few.

Magic is really cool and dandy and you can do wonderful things with but its actually somewhat optional until the mid-to-late game. It can be a distraction from getting out there and conquering. I say this partly as both Arco and Pythiums magic, while v.powerfil is fairly diverse and/or complicated so you may not want to pay it to much mind initially. Drain scales can work fine and both races are so strong that they should be able to out-Ulm Ulm early plus get magic later.

Marignon is another matter and more complicated an answer. Similar sort of scales to above. I would suggest for the start trying defensive army deployments using alot of Xbow, some men-at-arms a bit to the fore on hold-and-atack as pin cushions, Greatswords (H-a-A)if you want strike infantry and Knights etc when you can afford. You can build some GM's early and use them for holy pyre and morale boosting and they will get on the hall of fame. All in all very shooty early on and can be fun.

Enjoy,

Keir

[ December 02, 2003, 05:15: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]

[Keir Maxwell]

If you are feeling inspired Aetius you might want to try Pythium with the Prince of Death with death9. Build up you mage force and then send it into a insignificant battle, blessed, deployed beside a Hydra hatchling which moves off leaving the poisononed mages to die and return as soulless mages with no upkeep.

And the PoD is great for fast expansion.



Keir

[ December 02, 2003, 05:14: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]

[J Stanley]

I've only played the demo so far (come on xmas), but why should you start with your pretender as a level 9 in any magic? by the time the magic level maters, wouldn't you have the gem income to empower? wouldn't those points be better spent on the dominion scales?

[Nerfix]

Bless effects.

And you get one nasty support mage too!

[J Stanley]

But as a support mage, you are still limited to spells you have researched. By the time you have gotten those upper level spells researched, you should have enough gems coming in to empower your pretender high enough to cast them.

(I am looking at it as you can not affect the way your scales are set once the game begins but you can change the level of magic for your pretender, or anyone else for that matter)

Are bless effects really that good?

[Keir Maxwell]

The death 9 bless effect means that when you are blessed and die you come back as Soulless - not much use for a warrior but handy for a mage as undead have no upkeep.

The Prince of Death is primarily deadly for his fear effect which increases with his level in death magic - both in area of effect and in nastiness.

If you are playing Ctis you start with the spell Terror whihc goes up in strength based on Death power. Its worthwhile making up a PoD death9 Ctis race just to watch those clouds of billowing black terror driving the enemy from the field.

Cheers

Keir

[ December 02, 2003, 07:52: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]