Some joy with Mictlan

[PvK]

I started a Mictlani blood game too. Gurgelor the Smoking Mirror is Fire 4, Death 3, Nature 2, Blood 6, and the rest is something like Turmoil 1, Luck 3, Heat 2, Dominion 6, Dark Citadel.

I had never played Mictlan before, and think I would probably not take Nature on the pretender now that I realize there is a Blood 2 / Nature 2 Mictlani priest.

My intention is to try to try to get a fairly large amount of blood income fairly early, and try to make that my mainstay. Seems like one does want to get Construction 4 though as that adds a couple more +1 Blood items, the Sanguine Dousing Rod, and other stuff. At least with Mictlan, there are some premature blood summons available.

The pace at which you decide you've won a game is a bit staggering to me, though. We're essentially playing two different games from each other.

One thing I have had some success with is Eagle Warriors. Get a bunch, bless them, and have them Hold and Attack rearmost, wiping out enemy commanders. Mictlan has heaps of blessable national units, too - makes me think it might be a good choice for a bless bonus strategy.

PvK

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by PvK:

The pace at which you decide you've won a game is a bit staggering to me, though. We're essentially playing two different games from each other.

I'm having a tougher time finishing than I anticipated to be honest. Generally when I get this far ahead of the other races its all over very shortly after but with Mictlan your native troops are so weak this is not proving to be the case.

Caelum has counter attacked with lots of Spring Hawks and it has seesawed back and forth with me happy to hold my lines while finsihing Pythium. Pythium is gone (t.35) but Jotun got some of it and is looking my way now - nowhere else to go. This means I will get to use some serious blood. I'm up to hordes of Hell but I'm a couple of turns from Ice Devils as I need more water gems for empowering.

At this point I'm at least 10-15 turns away from victory (656dom score) and thats only if things go well. With the difficulty I'm finding making any headway with my native troops the demonic ones are going to be needed. Ice Devils work a treat vs Jotun and Caelum.

My next design is looking like.

Fountain of Blood, blood5, dom10
order3, prod1, growth3, heat1, misfortune3, magic3
Castle

This should provide a good start plus the research for getting blood up and running earlier. I'd like to get blood6 for the extra +1 str but i'm struggling to get a good points balence.

Cheers

Keir

[PvK]

Interesting.

Curse Internet Explorer! I posted a nice turn-10 report on my game, but the connection failed and infernal Internet Explorer decided to forget the contents of the form, so it's lost. Excuse me while I cast Send Greater Horror on the Redmond province...



Ok, that's better. The abbreviated Version is I was doing fairly well on turn 10, but on turn 11 my neighbors hit back and I went from 8 (low-quality) provinces to 5. Getting into a two-opponent war (against Pangea and C'tis) by turn 10 is probably going to adversely affect my results.

However, I think the Mictlani Air Force seems to have potential. A bunch of blessed flying Eagle Warriors mixed with Fiends of Darkness (I have 3-4 by turn 12) often can cause havoc on AI armies by using Hold and Attack Rearmost.

I got my main conventional army cut off and starving though. Somehow, my heroic commander became diseased - looks like maybe they are not immune when their army starves. Contagion from hunger-sick troops?

(OT: Re: The Death and Taxes thread:
Since he was cut off next to the C'tis home province, I decided to try setting tax to 200 AND pillaging with his 30 men - they killed over 500 population (about 15%!) and confiscated 26 gold, while the taxes were only going to yield 12. Unrest is up to 99 in one turn. Looks like pillaging is much more effective that just turning up the tax - looks like reasonable effects to me.)

PvK

[PvK]

Turn 15:

Fighting back, forth, and through (my cut-off army managed to fight its way back through C'tis, and half of them even made it back without afflictions), I have been keeping at 5 provinces. I was fortunate that Caelum showed up complete with maticore pretender and started mopping up the desert with Pangea.

I'm now the lowest nation in all the stats except research. I've got four Fiends of Darkness, a Jade Athame, and a Sanguine Dousing Wand, a general, 4 mage/priests, my pretender, 55 troops and 36 slaves. In these wasteland provinces, one must be careful with the slaves or risk starvation - I'd think the slaves would be the Last ones to receive food...

I lucked out and FOUND a soul contract that would ordinarily require 80 blood slaves to create.

I think though that part of the hard time I've been having, is due to the tough start of 12 near-impossible AI enemies on a fairly small map.

PvK

[PvK]

Turn 17:

Doing a lot better. That contract brings one devil per turn - not bad at all. Had a conflict with a major C'tis army of over 50 lizard men and wiped them out with the Air Force. Two castings of Summon Imp hit a side unit, which wouldn't be a big deal except it split their army in half as half of them went to kill imps. Then 6-7 devils & fiends with about 16 Eagle Warriors descended and within a turn or two their whole army broke and ran, without even having killed any commanders. I had a ground force there too which wasn't even needed.

Oh, both "gem" income and research have remained in the running in the stats throughout the game. I think I can get 2-3 demons or fiends per turn at this point, and I don't think I've lost any so far, so I think things are looking up somewhat, as long as no one's uber army shows up too soon.

PvK

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by PvK:
I think though that part of the hard time I've been having, is due to the tough start of 12 near-impossible AI enemies on a fairly small map.

Oh yeah thats tough. I'm being somewhat more cautious and taking on 8 impossible on the Desert Eye which leave a fair amount of room.

A huge part of playing Mictlan seems to be not getting into early wars - they just haven't got the grunt. This is scary for MP when everybody knows it.

cheers

Keir

[ywl]

Mictlan gets some nifty heroes also.

Mictlipoctli the King of Legends: a mummy with Death 3, Blood 3 and Unholy 3.

Quetzalcoatl the Feather Serpent: a couatl who has Astral 3, Nature 3, Blood 2 and Holy 4 and can assume human form.