Newbish question

[GrudgeBringer]

I am not sure if this is the correct post to ask these questons but I am JUST starting and have 4 or 5 questions that I can not seem to find an answer to (maybe becausr they are too NEW...).

1. I am playing Nielfelheim for my first game and have seem some posts that this really isn't the one to 'get started with' could someone reccomend maybe onr that would be more of a match for a noob?

2. I am not clear on magic 'paths'. I mean when I am creating I used points to get 6 nature Icons so I could get 10% regenerative property. My question is this (in 2 parts)
1. Once you submit the anount of icons in the setup how do I go from 6 to say 10 in the nature path?
Is it experiance or am I stuck with what I set up.

2. How do I get another path AFTER initial setup?
I see that I can do it at a cost of 80 points at setup but I really don't want to spend them at that point (say I want to start an Astral path to go with my Nature Path...

3.When casting spells do they stay in effect until the caster is moved, killed, ot just the turn is over and do I have to recast every turn?

4. I have bben sending out a Priest behind my army to check for 'hidden magic sites' (there HAS to be an easier way) and have found some. However, while they show up in my screen it seems that they dissaper in a turn ot 2. Is that normal or are they supposed to accumulate?

I have noticed that my army gets about 3 to 4 provinces away and they start starving...will building a Fort/Citidel in that province ect help that.

Last question (LOL, for this post anyway)I have been putting my Pretender on the Imprisoned setting to get the extra points and figuring that for the first 30 or so turns I will be ok if I don't get to froggy and attack everything in sight.

I understand there are 1000 ways to play this game but I would like to get off at least to a good understanding as I have started over 12 times because of these questions.

ANY help would be appreciated and I thank you guys (and girls) who take the time to help us Noobs out!!

[Humakty]

1 : I don't play MP

2 : 1 : ????
2 : you have to empower, costs LOTS of gems, you'll find the command in the order menu, with research, defend...

3 : Globals stay in effect till the caster dies or someone dispells/replaces it. Other rituals can be cast monthly (for summons and remote search spells), just click M (shift+m)while selecting a mage.

4 : there are some spells to remotedly search provinces for every magic, you'll find them at conjuration 3, thaumaturgy 2, evocation 2, blood 2.
What does disappear ? gems ? sites ?

In MP, it is dangerous to have an imprisoned pretender if you don't have a strong bless.

[thejeff]

2) There are also items you can forge that will raise your level in a path while you have them equipped.
And, though not to raise personal level, you can get access to higher levels by summoning.

For example: A 2 death mage can forge a Skull Staff, bringing him to Death 3, which lets him summon a Mound Fiend, who has Death 3 already and can use the Staff to reach D4 and forge a Skull Helmet to reach D5 and summon a Lich who has D4 and can reach D6 with those items, etc, etc.
Obviously this requires much research and some planning.


Other note, you say you went to Nature 6 to get 10% regen. This doesn't apply to the pretender, but to blessed sacred troops. (Regen is very good for you Neifel giants, since they have a lot of hp.) These blesses are set at pretender creation. Adding paths/levels to your pretender, by empowering using gems or with items, later does not change them. Nor does losing paths, which happens when you call you r pretender back from death.

[llamabeast]

1. Niefelheim is not a terrible choice, it can be fun stomping things with giants. The most common recommendations are the various Middle Era human nations, particularly Man, Ulm and Marignon. Man is based on England and Arthurian legend - it has knights, longbowmen and witches. It's not too good on magic. Ulm is a germanic nation of super-heavy armour, but has terrible magic. Marignon is probably my favourite - as well as decent troops, their fire mages excel at tossing fireballs around, so they can be good for starting to get a handle on the magic system.

2. The paths of a mage never really increase - this threw me as well when I started. It IS possible, by empowerment, but that is very expensive and only rarely a good idea. However, mages can use magic items to boost their magic skills. You can forge these once you do some research in Construction. Check the manual to find boosters for the paths you're interested in. For nature for example, the easiest booster is a Thistle Mace, for which you need to research Construction 4, and which you can forge with a Nature-2 mage. The Thistle Mace gives +1 nature to whoever holds it.

3. What kind of spell do you mean? Mostly they do what seems reasonable. Spells cast on the battlefield end when the battle ends. Ritual spells (those cast from the main map) just do whatever you'd expect from the description, I guess.

4. The least labour intensive way to search for magic sites is to use spells to do it from afar. Most of these are in Thaumaturgy 2. However, wandering around with mages isn't a bad idea either. Note, though, that mages can only find sites of the paths they have skills in, and some sites require higher levels in a path to find than others. For instance, a fire-4 mage will find all fire sites in a province, while a fire-1 will only find those that are easiest to find.

There are never more than 4 sites in any one province. 2 is probably typical. But to find all of them, of course, you'd need to search with all the different magic paths, which in
general is difficult.

Magic sites don't disappear. I'd suggest that was an interface confusion, e.g. you were clicking on a different province or something.

5. Starvation: Ways to avoid this include sticking near to your forts (they supply nearby armies) and sticking to nice terrain (i.e. farms rather than swamps). Of course neither of these may be practical. The best solution is to forge some Endless Bags of Wine (nature, construction 2 I think) to take with you.

6. Imprisoned pretender: Honestly up to you, all options are viable. You might want an awake Dominion 10 (for awe) Wyrm to go off conquering on turn 1, or you might want an imprisoned oracle to just give you good scales. Or an imprisoned water-9 dragon to give you a powerful bless. Or a dormant prince of death to emerge once you've forged him some items and go conquering. Or any of loads of other possibilities. Have a play and see what works, and what you like.

[Endoperez]

Magic path booster guide should help in finding ways to branch into new paths. It mostly governs multiplayers strategies, and getting as-high-as-possible levels in all paths isn't necessary even in MP, so don't worry about it too much if you're having fun.

[LDiCesare]

1. Niefelheim looks fine to me. But as llamabeast suggested, Marignon are very good to begin with.

2.1. You can increase thanks to items, empowerment or wishes, but this will not have any effect on your bless. So if you picked Nature 6, you'll never get +15% regen on your sacreds even if you empower to nature 8, 10 or whatever.
2.2. Empowerment again, but even more expensive. A cost of 80 points at setup means you took a chassis that's not suited to many magic paths (dragon?). Some chassis are better for having several paths, pretenders like the archmage or great enchantress cost only 10 per additional path for instance.
Considering that empowerment is 1) expensive and 2) only possible if you have gems of the good type (which probably require you to have at least one mage with that path to begin with), it's probably a bad idea to rely on it.

3. For ritual spells, those which are global enchantments last until the caster dies, the spell is dispelled, or someone casts another enchantment that replaces it.
Some spells (domes...) require you to spend 1 additional gem per turn the spell is to last.

[GrudgeBringer]

Thanks to everyone, you are very helpful to a noob that really was pretty lost.

Yes I used a Green Dragon as pretender (I just went by the semi-Stategy guide to nations in the manual).

So If I build a second Fortress/Citidal ect some distance away from my original it will draw supplies from areas surounding my new Fortress just like my original and I can stop my armies from starving if I am in the Fortress?

Thanks agian for EVERYTHING... I look forward to trying MP when I feel I need a whoopin cause I am finally able to beat up on the AI!!

[thejeff]

The fortress will boost supplies in it's own province and too a lesser extent in the provinces around it.
That's not a very effective solution though. You want those troops to be out conquering new lands, not holed up in a fort.

So, a couple of suggestions:
Can you use smaller armies? If you've just got 6N on your pretender that's not a really strong bless for Neifelheim, but it's still effective. A dozen or so Neifel giants, blessed and led by a Neifel Jarl should be able to take any indies and all but the largest AI armies. Keep them in cold provinces, it boosts their chill auras and those do much of the damage. Forge some equipment for the Jarl as well. Frostbrand, a shield, a reinvigoration item, Luck pendant if you can. Have him bless himself, cast any useful buffs and attack.

As suggested above: Bags of Wine. hire some cheap indy nature mages, have them site search a bit and then churn out the bags. Give one to each commander or too scouts with your armies.

While you're building that up, avoid waste and other low supply provinces. Plains, farms should have plenty of supply for most armies.

[Folket]

A dozen or so? Surly five niefel giants and a Jarl can take out the independents.

[capnq]

llamabeast said: Magic sites don't disappear. I'd suggest that was an interface confusion, e.g. you were clicking on a different province or something.

If you lose control of a province, any magic sites you found there stop being displayed until you regain control.