Jotunheim:Utgard AAR

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Patrik:
Not wanting to start a big argument here (but doing it anyway

It's not an argument, Pat. My purpose for this AAR thread is educational. And that includes myself. Despite any impressions to the contrary, I'm open to differing ideas.

it seems you gave up on an Air Wyrm a little bit to easy (not taking into account the range of BE).

I agree that I did.

The weakness is (as you have pointed out) protecting the Seithkona. I try to do this by having one 'suicide' troop in the other end of the battlefield. If you place your troops right, the enemy won't reach him before the Wyrm starts moving forward (and thus the seithkona will never be targeted).

I may have too much of an aVersion to sacrificing units. It just goes against my grain. Call it a weakness of mine that you can exploit. But this is, indeed, a viable tactic.

Alternatively, you can skip MI (the Wyrm not having very good defense anyway) and go Mistform, Flight, Attack closest instead. In that way, you can start the Wyrm far back and get it to the front in time to take the initial enemy charge. Of course, troop placement will be crucial.

I would prefer to script 'rear' rather than 'closest', to take full advantage of the Flight. The downside is that my troops would have to fend for themselves while I ravaged the enemy commanders and missile troops. IMO, Flight is the primary reason why I would deign to use an Air Wyrm. However, I'm not so sure that giving up Astral Shield (or Weapon) for Flight is wise for an SC. Though I admit that Flight is of immense value in the capture of forts. I look forward to hearing the opinions of others on this.

IMO, an Astral Wyrm is easier to use, but with national Astral mages, an Air Wyrm can be just as good (with careful planning and troop placement).

It may be of interest that when Zen suggested the Astral Wyrm to me, I'd just lost, badly, in a 4-player blitz MP game for VPs, using a dual-bless nature/water Son of Niefel. I'm sure that "easier to use" was on his mind.

As for using a Pretender with the same magic as your national gem income, I agree that it can be important sometimes, but IMO not in your case. Your Wyrm only has Astral 4 and you will get plenty of Nornas with Astral 3.

This is where we fundamentally disagree. Astral Shield, Astral Weapon, Teleport, and Gateway are all caster-only. Flight, like BE, can be cast by someone other than the SC. The real question is trading the two astral enchantments in the early game for flight, with the understanding that the SC will not be able to cast the more powerful, caster-only astral spells later on. Conjuration-6 will get me an air-2 mage, in the form of a Harbinger, for 25 astral gems, which by the time I have Conj-6 should be no problem. So the option of flight (and other nice air spells) is still open, just delayed until the mid-game.

BTW, despite being quite expensive, I would definitely consider a 3 Air, 3 Earth Wyrm. Invulnerability, Mistform and Mirror Image, and BE/Luck from a Seithkona. Try hurting that one.

Now this is an intriguing concept I may have to play around with a bit. Thanks!