Guide MA Mictlan - An Introduction

Rytek · #1 May 29th, 2008, 04:25 PM

Oops, that must have been an earlier patch then. My opponrnt in one MA game definetly had a moloch, although that was a few patches ago. He did use the ethereal and luck to good use though.

Horst F. JENS · #2 June 27th, 2008, 05:47 AM

just discovered that nearly all MA Mictlan Mages are sacred. So i wonder, is there good battlefield spell that would profit from the extra 2 AN Damage of a D9-blessed mage ?

llamabeast · #3 June 27th, 2008, 06:05 AM

D9 doesn't give extra damage to spells. However, the affliction chance increase does apply, so if a death-blessed mage can cast earthquake or something it can seriously mess up the enemy army.

sum1lost · #4 June 28th, 2008, 08:26 PM

Astral tempest+doom seems like it has potential to screw up a large army.

AreaOfEffect · #5 June 29th, 2008, 01:01 AM

Indeed it does, and is not entirely outside the realm of what MA Mictlan can do all on it's own.

Revised Opinion: Eh, not so much. It seems that astral tempest hits a percentage of the battlefield every round. This leaves large gaps that I don't really enjoy. Something like earthquake or rain of stones would be my preference as they are sure to hit every unit, or at least attempt to. This however is not something Mictlan can do without help from the pretender or without a lot of empowerment/luck.

Ming · #6 July 11th, 2008, 06:38 AM

AreaOfEffect,

I forgot to add: Good guide. Sorry.

AreaOfEffect · #7 July 11th, 2008, 08:45 PM

Well thank you and don't be sorry. As for a rainbow god, I'm not about to dismiss the usefulness of such a god. Magic diversity of the such always keeps your god busy doing something and can really open up doors. I would never tell you not to do such a thing. I would however tell you what I think and why I choose to do what I do.

I personally don't play with such diverse gods for a couple of basic reasons. The first has already been pointed out, which is that such a god can't help but consume a lot of design points while giving you no early game advantage, either with good scales or a good bless.

The other basic reason is that your god is too busy. Such gods often find themselves doing all the work, and when they need to do work on a secondary task the primary tasks don't get done. An example would be the fetish and clam forging. Turning your god into a factory has a serious draw back. Ideally you would want to be churning out a fetish and clam every turn at some point. Yet your god can't make both clams and a fetishes at the same time. Also, if he has something better to do, such as cast wish, make a hammer, ect. ect., then you're not producing the items you expected him to. It gets even worse when you want to take your god out on the warpath.

My preference is to build a god who elevates your other units so that they can do the grunt work instead. For example, I'm in a game where I went for a 4E4S5D master lich (same as the example). One purpose in choosing earth and astral is to allow me to make crystal coins. The crystal coins so far have allowed me to spam more then one mind hunt a turn with only construction 4. Later on my Couatls will move armies around via Astral Travel thanks to crsyal coins plus stashine caps. The point is that after my god has made the coins he doesn't have to mind hunt or move armies around himself leaving him free to do a other things, such as exercise that death magic. Diversity is good, but it should still have a focus somewhere. If you really want to make a gem factory then I suggest you choose one gem type only. In your example I would drop the fire magic completely as clams are more useful to an astral 6 god (and it also requires less micro-management then fetishes).

Either way, I bid you good luck in your games.

archaeolept · #8 August 21st, 2008, 01:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rytek

Oops, that must have been an earlier patch then. My opponrnt in one MA game definetly had a moloch, although that was a few patches ago. He did use the ethereal and luck to good use though.

I believe that was me

I had the last MA Mictlan Moloch ever... the patch that deleted him from the list came out just after the game started... I was a little bit worried i'd suddenly have him transform into a magicless arch-mage

also, of about 40-50 turkeys, i got 4 or 5 with a blood random

I figured it was in keeping with my god's plan to bring mictlan back to the true path...

chrispedersen · #9 February 10th, 2009, 03:18 AM

Pretender: Imprisoned Oracle. T3S3H3D3L3M3. F9W9S4 Dom 7

There are some days, JK/KO do a really great job of giving a race a really good look and feel. MA Mictlan is one of those times.

Okay, you're probably already protesting at the *horrible* scales. So how on earth can it work? Well just like in EA/LA it all boils down to the Mictlan Priest.

Your basic unit of conquest will be a MP, hanging all the way in the corner, with 7 jags a tad to the south. Bless, bless, bless hold hold... and your choice after that. Just keep him out of harms way.

This basic unit of conquest will work for almost anything except heavy cav, and deer archers. For cav, throw in a screen of slaves. For really heavy provinces - hit em with two groups.

First turn: If mountains are close, jack up taxes to 200%.
Prophetize your scout. Have your commander patrol. Leave him there, patroling. Build your first researcher. Yep, a Mictlan priest.

You'll be building your first castle on turn 3.
Your basic unit of conquest 7*25 gp +60 = 235 gp. Whenever someone takes a hit, and loses some troops, either build a fort, or bring him back to research.

That same mictlan priest- 60 gp buys ..... 5 research points. Sacred research points. Or 12/gp per rp. The cheapest research in the game, afaik.

And it has one cute little aside... If you were so lucky as to build your second castle next to your first... (Sacrilege, for most races - but perfect for mictlan.. I mean - your whole buildout takes 22 resources.).... you don't even have to build a lab. Just build a temple, and crank out your researchers. Now thats cost efficient! Run them over to your capital to research. Sure sure, someday when you have money you don't know what to do with.. build a second lab.. just not.. now.

So what do you do with those researchers. Construction-2. Somewhere in your first few turns, build a sky priest or 4. See, Mictlan loves animals. Toads, oscelots, jaguars, blood bats... Oops sorry reverted to an earlier age... oh yes.. Owl quills.

Sure, sure, everyone is going to say I've got better use for my air gems than quills. Maybe they do... but 5 research points, and 5 air gems buys you 3 rp. If you can finagle a dwarven hammer you're a better player than I..

By rapidly building a fort, (and keeping up that fort construction rate) you are essentially doubling your research rate. Sometime around turn 12 you should be around 150 rp.

So, sometime around turn 9, I like to build my first nature, fire, priests. Although if you get lucky with getting the Mictlan National dead guy, you might want to consider conjuration. I switch over to thaum for the site searching spells. Dead guy will also give you a convenient entry into blood.

It really is best to play with graphs off. You have good prospects at being tops in provinces & forts - and research will be top third. But if you are playing with graphs on - you might want to hopskotch a few territories so you can take them at your leisure.

A few other notes: Taking S5 on your pretender allows eventual rings o sorcery, rings o wizardry.