Mictilian Mages

[Treebeard]

Originally posted by apoger:
I use the eagle warriors a lot as well. For expansion I rely heavily on a strong combat pretendr.

Their best sacred unit, imho, followed by the jaguar warriors (for later game, when mass protection spells are available).

1: Strong pretender for expansion. Option available to anyone, but needed by Mictlan since you can't expand well with own troops. I take a dragon with fire-9. This is usually good for fast expansion, and gets me good effect for the eagle warriors.

Hmm, I'll have to check the dragon out, but the low dominion is a problem. Building extra temple is too expensive (I would like to see Mictian as a nation with cheap temples). I use either the Moloch for fire 9/water 9 or the oracle for fire 9/astral 9. The Moloch bless effects are better, but more expensive, leading to a weaker dominion, while the oracle has the upper hand in dominion and in later game. I use them mainly as researchers, so an immobile pretender isn't that bad.

2: Quick building forts. This is needed so I can pump out blood-1 mages and tribal kings.

Agreed. While a wizard's tower would be great, I usually use the mausoleum. Much cheaper, point wise.

3: Blood-1 mages go heavy on hunting.

Good idea, but needing both a temple and a laboratory, they are kinda hard to mass product.

4: Tribal kings make slaves (junk troops). Slaves good for patrols (while hunting) and marginal for a free combat boost. Can't complain too much about "free" troops.

They are great as bait, and they do patrol nicely enough. 50 slaves only demand 6-7 gp as upkeep.

5: I take a high dominion and crank Eagle Warriors. I also take fire-9 on the pretender. Since the Eagle Warriors fly in battle, and now do good damage, they can slam through enemies as long as they have superior numbers. Take care, if you attack enemies that are more numerous that you, it can lead to heavy losses.

What do you call a high dominion? Massed EW work great with fire 9, they can get knights down easily, and when added some water boost they can wipe out a huge army with no losses. Am impressive sight.

6: I make blood-2 mages as needed to summon Fiends of Darkness.

I'll have to check this option out. I usually save my blood slaves to get imps.

7: I try to exlploit troops from captured provinces. Archers and 15-prot HI make passable armies. I look hard for "raptor" provinces so I can get harab seraphs who can command/fly my fiends.

I hear you. Not even Tien Chi depends so much on captured provinces troops and mages.

8: As soon as I can spare it, I put together a squad of each level-2 mage and send them site searching. They cover fire/water/blood/nature/astral/holy. Not bad, just expensive to get started. This will have a good chance of uncovering sites that can expand the nations potential.

Very expensive indeed. And the lack of a random magic pick makes it harder to find magic sites.

9: If I find sages I makes some and research blood magic and thaumaturgy. The blood magic is for Hordes from Hell. The thaumaturgy is for Paralyze.

Both excellent pick. Problematic against astral heavy nations.

10: If there are good mercs available, I hire them. Even if it costs me mages/forts. Mictlan needs the expansion boost.

That's for sure.

So for expansion:

- The dragon takes a province a turn for a while
- Every 4-6 turns I send out an army of Eagle Warriors
- Once the blood magic is in gear, I send out armies of Fiends.
- When possible I mass "conventional" armies from new provinces that I have conquered.
- When possible I hire merc armies.


In total, I have found Mictlan somewhat slow to ramp up. If cultivated with care it can make a showing, but it's hard work that makes other nations look easy. IMHO.

I agree.

[ December 27, 2003, 17:20: Message edited by: Treebeard ]

[Graeme Dice]

They are also quite slow on expansion, rarely I managed to capture another province before turn 5.

What independent setting are you playing on? I rarely have to wait past turn two to take my first province as Mictlan, and that's playing at sloth 3 with a watchtower and a smoking mirror pretender with a large amount of magic. With 4 slaves out front to take the initial arrows of any archers, 6 jaguar warriors on the flanks, and the rest of the units attacking in the middle most light infantry and archer provinces can be captured with little difficulty.

[Treebeard]

I play with level 7 independents. Turn 5 because it's by then that I'll have a large force of eagle warriors and a large slave screen. Depending on the setting I'll have a mage or two casting protection on waiting EW who will attack the archers and the rear of the enemy.

[apoger]

>What do you call a high dominion?

9-10.

I don't take the water/astral-9, so that's where I recover the extra points for dominion.

[Treebeard]

Originally posted by apoger:
>What do you call a high dominion?

9-10.

I don't take the water/astral-9, so that's where I recover the extra points for dominion.

That's a pretty high dominion alright. BTW, with that level you should be able to raise a candle with each blood slave you've sacrified. Are you getting an increase this good?

[apoger]

>with that level you should be able to raise a candle with each blood slave you've sacrified. Are you getting an increase this good?

Possibly a bit faster, as long as the prophet is near.

[Treebeard]

I gotta say I have a harder time pushing my dominion. With a level 8 dominion and sacrificing two slaves I usually get a raise only ever other turn.

BTW, does anybody knows if slave capture is a pure random thing or if it is influenced by scales, and if so, which ones?

I tried the Dragon, and I gotta say it's quite good to have a flying commander. A great mother with fire 9 also helps a lot in initial expansion.