Newbish question

[Endoperez]

Apologies if other people answered first!

You should also have apologised for people who answered late.


1. Prophet can cast Sermon of Courage and Smite, which are useful in the early game, and prophet also gets boosted hp, str and some other stats in your own dominion, but penalties in enemy dominion. He's also always blessed, but that isn't important with LA Man. Starting commanders make good prophets if you want the spells.


2. Staying in the Hall of fame longer is even better, and if you have Death magic you can recall dead heroes still in Hall of Fame. Unique summons and pretenders don't get heroic abilities.

3. Sitesearching alone is worth a little risk. You don't have to move a mobile pretender into danger. Some pretenders are more about magic and rituals and support, others can fight or cast good battle-spells and are tough enough to stay alive.
You can make your priests recall dead pretender, but he loses 1 point from all of his magic paths.

4.You don't build up provinces, but search for any sites they might have. Those replace buildings you'd build in other games.
Build castles to protect important provinces, such as sites with lots of good sites and recruitable mages. Also near chokepoints and enemies, so that you can build your armies closer to the enemy front.
Recruit PD (provincial defence) instead of patrollers. 1 point everywhere is good, 10 or more in border provinces might catch spies, anything over 15 starts to be quite expensive but LA Man gets very good troops from it. See pg 120 of your manual and compare the units you get to other nations' PD.

5. Only sacred units can be blessed. Bless works until the end of battle. Prophets are always blessed.

6.Items affect only commander unless otherwise stated in the item's description.

7. About wars...

If you attack AI nation, you're in war. It's just like he sending a message about you two being in war, except that the AI can actually attack you. Wars can be declared from the other side of the world...
Wars will eventually end if nothing happens for a time, but AI doesn't tell you this. Another aggression will make it angry again.
If you kill an enemy pretender, AI attacks you more agressively and doesn't forgive as easily, or perhaps at all.
To get an AI leave you alone, don't appear weak. By PD in border provinces and recruit some independent archers to accompany it; they work very well with your PD.

edit: made my post more coherent.

[GrudgeBringer]

Thank you both!!!

I can now take my nightly whoopin but make it last longer (somehow that doesn't sound right).

Seriously, That was a big help and push in the right direction.

I have never really played magic (being the THUG that I am) games so I am a little behind everyone else.

this Forum is every bit as good as Ageod ACW for helping prople and I/we appreciate it!!!

[GrudgeBringer]

OK (sigh) my whoopin came a little quicker than normal so I will ask the one question that has been bugging me every since I started this game.

What spell can I use to check for magic sites without having to travel to each province.

IF I have a pretender (Ghost King) who is 5 death 4 earth 2 air and have him search for sites....shouldn't he find ANY of the above type sites if he travels there (i'm talking about sites that have a white sunburst and say they have stuff? (cause mine does not find anything....I think hes Drunk half the time anyway)

BTW Is that a good spread for my pretender in the 'magic' paths? Or should I have like a death 3 Earth 9 ect?

Thanks agian

[Master_Li]

Hope this helps

What spell can I use to check for magic sites without having to travel to each province.

Fire - Augury
Water - Voice of Aspu
Air - Auspex
Earth - Gnome Lore
Astral - Arcane Probing
Nature - Haruspex
Death - Dark Knowledge
Blood - Blood Bowl

Some are Thaumaturgy (Level 2), Evocation (Level 2), Conjuration (Level 3). If you order a mage to cast one of those spells with the monthly casting command (shift+m) he will do this every turn for another province.

There are 3 special Spells for Site Searching:
Voice of Tiamat - Detects all Elemntal Sites in a Water Province (Conj 4)
Acashic Records - Detects all Sites in a Province
Arcane Strands (hope I remmebered right) - The Caster detects Magic Sites in your dominion randomly, up to his paths

The sites have different Levels (0-4), If you use the command "Search for magic sites" your mage can only find sites up to his levels in magic paths. I.e. a Nature 3 mage can find only up to Nature 3 sites. If you searched a province, you can always check at the upper screen or the overview (F1), what level and paths already have been searched for - small colored icons with numbers in them. Maximum needed mage level is 4 to find everything of that path. The spells above all do a "9" search.

IF I have a pretender (Ghost King) who is 5 death 4 earth 2 air and have him search for sites....shouldn't he find ANY of the above type sites if he travels there (i'm talking about sites that have a white sunburst and say they have stuff? (cause mine does not find anything....I think hes Drunk half the time anyway)

First, did you instruct him to "Search for magic Sites"? You do have to do this every time you want him to search a province.
There is just a probability for magic sites. So it is possible to have no magic sites in a province. The Sun Symbol normally shows an increased chance, but still there is the possibility of no sites. Even, if there were 4 (the maximum) sites in that province, those can be sites from magic paths not available to you.

BTW Is that a good spread for my pretender in the 'magic' paths? Or should I have like a death 3 Earth 9 ect?

There are some strategies picking paths:

You pick your paths for bless effects. These are good for any sacred units. Those can be blessed by priests in battle. If your nation has strong (either in number or raw power) sacred units, then this is commonly used Strategy. Bless effects start at 4 in any path and a second effect comes with 9.
Bless strategies commonly use 2 or 3 blesses at 9. This is very expensive, because you get only those bless effects, your pretender starts with (no booster increases bless effects). So a pretender wit 3 paths all at 9 is cost intensive.

rainbow
you give your pretender as many paths at levels 1-4 as you can afford, so he can site search for a lot of sites. Level 2 is often enough, because most sites are 2 or lower.

caster
you have some casting strategy. You want some spells available to your pretender. Then you can pick your paths accordingly. Often used for special spells not avalable to your nation.

SC (Super Combatant)
A martial pretender. You pick the paths to be able to cast effective combat spells.
Or sometimes you don't pick any paths and invest in good scales (order, luck etc.)
An example for the later is the Great Wyrm. He is quite effective even without speels. If you choose dominion 9(10) your pretender gets Awe(+4), a very effective defensive power.

Any combination of the above.

[Tuidjy]

> Arcane Strands (hope I remmebered right) - The Caster detects Magic Sites in your
> dominion randomly, up to his paths

Strands of Arcane Power doesn't detect up to the full value of the caster's paths.
I think it's up to at most half his magic levels, and boosters don't seem to count.

[Agrajag]

Fire - Augury
Water - Voice of Aspu
Air - Auspex
Earth - Gnome Lore
Astral - Arcane Probing
Nature - Haruspex
Death - Dark Knowledge
Blood - Blood Bowl

Some are Enchantment (Level 2), Evocation (Level 2), Conjuration (Level 3). If you order a mage to cast one of those spells with the monthly casting command (shift+m) he will do this every turn for another province.

Fire,Air,Earth and Nature are in Thaumaturgy 2, Astral in Evocation 2, Death in Conjuration 2, Water in Conjuration 3, Blood in Blood 2.
There's nothing in Enchantment.

[Endoperez]

If you want to try just magic, Ghost King with few picks in paths your nation doesn't get is a good pick. As LA Man, Death, Fire, Water and Nature would fit well.

You could also choose a pretender that helps your national mages by forging path boosters. Page 282 of your manual lists various items that boost magical powers of a mage, and both non-unique Air boosters require Air 4. Your national mages won't get that good without help, so having Air 4 on your pretender would really help them.

[Master_Li]

Agrajag said:
There's nothing in Enchantment.

Yes, you're absolutely right, shame on me I edited it accordingly.