Machaka game set up

[tinkthank]

Originally posted by Borg:
Thanks very much Thank for digging up that very helpful article.

I know now that I don't have a fixed Dominion lvl from the start but that I can increase it by building multiples of 5 Temples.

Because of the small success rates of preaching in high-black-candle-dominions I can also see the success of Prophet Assassins being reduced.

It seems to me now that the best choice for a Machaka Prophet(for my strategy at least)is the Lvl 3 priest.
Making him a prophet makes him a Lvl 4 priest
With Ceremonial Faith, effectively allowing him to preach a province up to Lvl 8

I reckon a starting Dominion lvl of 7 is good my strategy as such as I'll likely build 5 temples within reasonable time.

One thing the article didn't mention.
Do odds increase when multiple preachers at the same time at the same place ?
Can you confirm / deny that ?

I mean, maybe the chances of increasing a dominion (from lvl 1 to lvl 2 for example) are ((20% times priest Lvl) times number of preachers )
with their priest lvl still being the cap of course.

So, one lvl 2 priest has a 40% chance
2 lvl 2 priests would have 80% chance to increase the Dominion from 1 to 2 (but even together they would not be able to raise the dominion above 2)

Is that correct or am I just making this up for myself ?


And maybe one more question about Magic, Thank.
What would you suggest for Machaka to research first ?
With all the Gems you get from the start (2Nature/2Earth/1Fire) does it make sense to concentrate on summonings or is there a better/more usefull/needed path to consider ?

Thanks very much for your help btw.

You may want to check out a couple of those threads on this board as to spells to research, they were helpful to me. But I still like:
- Flaming Arrows (Enchant 4): *great* support spell
- Construction 6 (most nice path boosting items, including the cheapo skull of fire)
- Evocation 3> -- once you get fireball, you're happy, and once you get magma eruption, you are laying down the smackdown
- Gift of Health (Enchant 5): you'll need some +nature boosting items
Of course, summons are always nice, but Machaka has a nice range of troops and isn't really "lacking" anything; still, upkeep-free and/or un-hungry troops are always nice to have.

Don't worry *toooo* much about preaching yet; it is great to preach, and fun to eliminate opponents without ever battling them by preaching them out; but you may not be doing it all *that* often.

I think that additional priests each get a chance of increasing the dominion, but someone else I am sure will know the real answer to this.

You may enjoy making a stealthy unit a priest, such as a Bane Spider -- start em off preaching in -2 or -1 dominion areas, he might get it up to 0, and from then on, it is easy.

Archeolept gave some nice ideas on why and how one could invest in points, scales, and magic -- that all makes sense. (But I find growth to be quite ok with Machaka btw., since I do a lot of patrolling for extra cash with my Eyes of the Lord, and that kills pop. Not a lot of growth, but maybe a point.)

Enjoy!

[Endoperez]

If you want to keep your original idea - high scales and dominion with no magic - you could lower your dominion and growth a bit and take atleast neutral magic as well. If you need, you could take unluck, as all your other scales are positive. Well, Heat might give droughts, but negative luck is not as bad for you as for most others.

Machaka has access to so many different magics even without randoms that it is a shame to not use them, even if it would work. And they have some cheap mages that are really boosted with magic scale.

[Heironeous]

One of the really nice things about Machaka is that you have a lot of flexibility in terms of magic. I'd have to second tinkthank's recommendation of magma eruption - it can really put enemies in a world of hurt.

However, I also like the Conjuration path for Machaka. Conj 3 gives you summon earthpower and phoenix power (+1 earth and fire respectively), and higher levels provide lots of nasty summons to strengthen your armies. I particularly like the commander summons, e.g. bane lord, as Machakan mages can forge all sorts of gear to turn them into killing machines.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Borg:
So, one lvl 2 priest has a 40% chance
2 lvl 2 priests would have 80% chance to increase the Dominion from 1 to 2 (but even together they would not be able to raise the dominion above 2)

Each priest still has only a 40% chance to raise dominion. Two priests will give you two independent priest checks. This means that the overall chance to increase your dominion will be 1-((1-0.4)^2) or 64%.