Alexander's ever-expanding Tome of Knowledge

[apoger]

THE PERFECT STORM


This is one of the most abusive combo's in the game. It takes a bit of effort but it's worth it for the brutal effect.

Research Evocation-6 and Enchantment-4.

Locate and enemy army that you want dead...

Take two Air-3 mages.
Give one 3 air gems and the other 2.
Give both rings of Tamed Lightning.

Cloud Trapeze the mages to the enemy army. They arrive in the magic phase before the army can move.

Mage 1 casts Wrathful Skies.
Mage 2 casts Storm.

With no other nonsense this will often expose the enemy army to 3-4 turns of armor negating lightning strikes. The mages will eventually get smacked, but the damage done will be tremendous.

Afraid of flyers getting to the mages before Storms goes off?
Then get rid of mage 2. Research Construction-4 and make a Staff of Storms.
Send in one mage with the SOS and 3 gems (you can get away with 2 sometimes, but don't risk it).
Have that mage cast Wrathful Skies (then mistform and mirror image if you can).

What's that you say? Don't want to lose mages at all? Ok, just send in more air mages and have them cast air elementals. The air elementals will clog the enemy advance and will expose them to further rounds of lightning strikes.

Unless the enemy army can lightning proof itself, this technique will savage them.


If you don't have air-3 mages you can take a Titan pretender with a bunch of air skill. Pile on some magic items to beef the Titan up into a serious combat threat. Trapeze, Storm, Wrath, [defensive spells], and then either fight or cast orb lightnings. The Titan starts lightning proof, and can easily be cultivated into a instant army buster.


During the days of Dom1 I made quite a fuss about this combo being unfair, and I asked Illwinter to increase costs to fix it. Nothing has changed. I beg you guys to limit the distance on cloud trapeze, or make the SOS unique, and definitely raise the cost of wrathful skies! It's really not fun to be on the recieving end of this technique. Not at all...


PS- How long did you think I could go without complaining about something?

[apoger]

ATTACK OF THE CRONES


This is an expansion of the "Perfect Storm" from the Last post.

Play the nation of Man, and make Crone mages.

Add Snake Rings to all mages.

Wait for a Crone that comes with water skill.

Reserach Enchantment-5.

Do the attack just like "The Perfect Storm" from the Last post.

On entering battle send the the water crone also, and have her cast Foul Vapors.

Now the enemy will have to deal with a battlefield full of poison on top of the lightning.

What do you think the odds are that your enemy will be immune to both?
Probably pretty low.

[apoger]

LIZARDS GONE WILD!


Like C'tis? So do I.

Make lots of Elite Warriors and beat down some enemies.

As you expand research Alteration-6, Enchantment-6, and Thumaturgy-5.
Yes that's mucho magic, but it really sets you up nice.

Make 8+ Shaman (cheap, and make good researchers in a magic dominion).

Upon starting a battle;
Have 4 Shaman cast Communion Slave.
Have 4+ Shaman cast Communion Master.
Now the masters have Nature-3 and Astral-3 (not bad for cheapie lizards!).
Have the masters cast Growing Fury (Lizards Go Wild!) and Mass Protection (Wild Lizards need extra protection).
Have one master cast Relief x5.
Any extra masters can cast Paralyze or Soul Slay.

If you add in many extra masters, make sure you add in another slave (or two) and more Relief casters. Put on an extra Relief caster if fighting in the cold.

The Communion/Relief combo will keep the mages casting and the troops fighting (even in the cold). The beserk/protected warriors will kick butt, and the astral spells can take care of bigger opponents.


Don't like C'tis? You can do the same stunt with the Seithkona of Jotunhiem (Giants Gone wild! Goblins Gone Wild!).

[Wauthan]

Great fun to read and really interesting ideas. You sure seem to know this game well.

Sadly I have little to contribute myself but I've noticed two oddities when playing against some friends.

THE LEFT HAND OF AN EMPEROR HOLDS THE DAGGER UNSEEN

Most people seem to become blinded by the idea of fielding enormous armies. Rows upon rows of warriors in shining armour. Their swords held high in honor of their lord, gleaming in the sun like a bountiful harvest of steel. The strength of an empire made physical form. Impressive yes?

It would be well worth keeping that nice sight intact would it not? Mountains of gold spent. Years of preparation. So why risk it when you do not have to?

Cut of the head and the body dies, as the saying goes. Ten assassins can do more harm than army one thousand strong. Fifty assassins can change the course of the war entirely. One hundred assassins and your enemies will throw themselves at your feet, begging for mercy from your unseen might.

Creating an assassin "guild" in a province that is out of the way and mostly worthless is always a good investment. Add a mage with no other buisness then the steady construction of cheap but dangerous tools like Dragon Helms, Skull Talismans or Snake Rings. Assassins are cheap when compared to most commanders and expendable. It's a lot of micromanagement at times but five Groups of ten assassins can create an endless migraine for your opponent and tie up a lot of resources that would otherwise be used against you.

SUMMONED UNITS DON'T HAVE UNIONS

What's better than a loyal soldier ready to give up his life for your empire? One that doesn't ask for a salary. Summoned units, save Trolls who are all members the Bridge Squatters Union, don't have a gold upkeep. The Monthly Ritual command is not to be ignored. Having a mobile provincial defence is quite worth it's cost in gems. And some summons even summon their own units! Remember that the next time you think about purchasing that new regiment of shiny knights.

[Gandalf Parker]

How about a comment on
THIEVES?

Blood magic 2 allows for Hellbind Heart. Other spells along the same line are possible.

Spells which summon commanders to you exist such as Wind Ride. Or giving the Black Heart to sneaky mages so they can become assassins.

You steal an enemy commander, get commanders you wouldnt normally have access to, get equip that the other guy spent gems on, and you leave large chunks of his army leaderless. Leaderless armys will rout from things like Call of the Wild or Call of the Winds, or even just a lone scout (a really funny sight)

If an assassin uses such a spell the newly converted commander will then attack his own troops in a fresh battle following the successful "assassination". Rinse-and-repeat until you snag the Last commander in a province and you will own that province no matter how large an army was there when the assassin walked in. Pick up some new blood slaves and sneak away to the next target.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by apoger:
DEVILS O' RAMA

For everyone else that wants devils but who don't get Demonbred mages...

You're writing Diabolists and Goetic Masters off too easily. Give them flying boots and you can use exactly the same tactic with Marignon/Diabolical Faith, except you can add some cheap Harlequins to the mix too.

An incentive to pick a Pretender with some air magic on your pretender, besides finding air sites and forging boots of flying, is the dreaded xbows/Flaming Arrows/Wind Guide combo.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by apoger:
LIZARDS GONE WILD!

I've found Falchioneers to be also effective with that kind of berserk strategies, and they're cheaper, do more damage (7+7 vs 8+3), and have better prot and defense. On the minus side, Falchioneers are supposed to be ambidextrous, but their attack rating is only 8x2 with falchions.