Fomoria

[Trumanator]

On a somewhat related note, what kind of equipment is good for your kings at cons 2. I've been making them Horror Helms since it synergizes well with their high D magic, but I just leave the rest as is. It did lead to the hilarious event of 3 of them routing ~90 barbarians after killing only about 4. In retrospect sending them against barbarians was probably dumb, but it worked this time.

[TheMenacer]

I like sending in teams of one druid set to bless a group of ten unmarked, with an E9N8 it kicks at least as much *** as you paid for the group. On top of that, I love love love gift of reasoning Morrigans. Morrigans are nasty, nasty units and everyone should use them. On that note, Dance of the Morrigans is a fantastic spell, so use that.

[Hoplosternum]

The Kings are really great and while I am sure they are worthy of a big bless personally I like a Rainbow with a multiple minor bless which will fill in some gaps in your magic. You can get better scales that way too.

You will want order and some magic. As I think Fomoria are a Thug/SC nation I don't see Production as a priority. The sacreds are good but pricy and capital only. After buying a King there is not always the money to max out on sacreds. And I certainly would not want to buy sacreds before Kings once I had Mistform and probably not before either!

Earth is a must whether its big or small one, at least E4. It opens up a lot of forging with the hammers and you will want a lot of those to cut down the cost of equiping all your Kings. Plus the Kings worst enemy is fatigue with all that fighting and casting potential. You can't really have enough earth, but whether more than E4 is worth it I'm not sure. There are plenty of reinvigoration items (and all Kings want them) plus the E9+ bonus is nice but not essential with a King who has access to many buffs, inc. mistform and has lots of hp (and regeneration).

And some nature to for some regeneration to limit afflictions, at least N4. I like Hydra skin armour for the Kings as it adds Poison immunity and Mistform is the main protection so I am not sure a heavy regeneration is necessary rather than just desirable.

S4 will allow you to forge all the Astral boosters. Plus it opens up the communion matrixes but I am not sure this is a worthy use of your pretenders time. But it can help your Kings caste the bigger battle spells if you have access to Shamans/Amazons/Sages etc. for slaves.

I like F4 which gives your kings a minor attack boost but also opens up more forging potential especially the Charcoal shields which go well with the Kings. But you could go with air, water or death instead.

The Rainbow mage can be sleeping and will forge / caste globals for most of the game. You need a huge gem income to equip the number of Kings you will have so any of the gem producing globals are worth it. There is no point in having the forge as the main goal in mp as everyone wants it. But it is a game winner for Fomoria.

Early on before you can recruit a King each turn I would build Nemedian Champions NOT Druids. Although Druids are in some ways better they can be built at any fort so you will end up with lots. The NCs are capital only and do (with stealth and decent command) fill nieche rolls. You won't want to build one instead of a King but if you can't buy a King having a few later on will be appreciated.

I think Fomoria is very powerful. It is also a great beginner power as the Kings (whatever you do) are tough and fun to play around with.

[Adept]

Playing fomori in a 6 player multiplay at the moment. The game is on a 10 day hiatus, as one player got a case of real life and is abroad visiting Holland (and probably out of his gourd on pot-muffins). :

Anyway, here's a few observations from turn 40.

Very easy access to Thunder Strike. Cloud bungee get's the casters where you need them, and TS brings the artillery, mix with Shadow Blast as strikes your fancy.

Hunting for magic sites is a total bastard. Death and Air are the only easy paths. I traded for gems and empowered a lot of people.

No reason to go for a big fighting pretender. You have the kings for that... and especially the heroes. Balor is just about the scariest national hero I've ever seen! I got an imprisoned fomorian sorcerer with Death 9, nature 6 and earth 4. The point was to get good value for those sacreds. Death weapons, regeneration and reinvigoration, and those size 6 giants are kicking *** and taking names. Remember to make good use of the javelins they throw like siege engines. I made one of the Kings my prophet as soon as I could, and he's been all the fighting SC pretender I need.

I've actually brought very little of the smaller giants... the reason for that are the unbelievable good Nemedians. Golden, magical weapons and shields, rediculously good fighting skills, glamour and good armour for the age. These guys feel like seriously blessed elites, even though they aren't even sacred.

Mass 10+ of the big guys and you can take sea provinces against fairly serious resistance. Also don't forget to make good use of the sailing ability.

I feel like I should go easy on some of my opponents with all this going for me.