Better Know a (Bad) Pretender: the Terrible Three

[chrispedersen]

Hey ya listened on my treelords/vinemen yah!

On a related note QM most of the spells like mother oak, earthblood deep well - thematically make sense, but they unbalance the game.

The game would balance better if there were no same gem globals.
ie., let fire do earth blood deep well.

Yes, its less thematic, but it ends the traditional problem of being very difficult to overcast gem generating globals.

[Pablomatic]

I'm no master at this, but I have found the Freak Lord to be useful. I started taking him with LA Jomon (mainly in vanilla because they need more help there). He is a rainbow pretender, but can be used as a light SC for early expansion once you get alteration 3.

This assumes you give him some air, astral, and earth. He can mistform, invulnerability, etherealness, attack rear. He tramples human sized opponents and spreads fear. Of course he needs a decoy element on the other flank to distract the first wave of melee troops, but even if he ends up attacking them, I have yet to see him come to grief against reasonable indies. He can reliably and safely add to expansion in this way, and then start site-searching when expansion is done. The one blood can be useful, or can be ignored. I like him for the trample, the fear, the cost, and the low cost of adding paths.

Sure a real SC is superior to him, but remember he has the added advantage of being a rainbow.

I guess I find him to be the only hybrid rainbow/SC expander available. He can do both if used properly, and the extra misc. slot can be an advantage as Omnikron pointed out.

[Sombre]

Originally Posted by Pablomatic

This assumes you give him some air, astral, and earth. He can mistform, invulnerability, etherealness, attack rear. He tramples human sized opponents and spreads fear. Of course he needs a decoy element on the other flank to distract the first wave of melee troops, but even if he ends up attacking them, I have yet to see him come to grief against reasonable indies.

I am very surprised he doesn't die a horrible fatigue death about a round after he starts doing that.

[Pablomatic]

Originally Posted by Sombre

I am very surprised he doesn't die a horrible fatigue death about a round after he starts doing that.

Well, if I remember, I went Alt-3, Conj-3 for summon earthpower. This is also a legitimate research strategy to benefit your national mages: aim, protection, eagle eyes, earth might, summon power spells, etc.

Yes this delays his expansion timing, but he's researching in the interim. As I said, you pick reasonable indies to use him against. He's like a Helkarl used for expansion except no glamour but he tramples+fear.

I consider the Freak Lord a hybrid rainbow/SC. He's not the greatest SC, but he adds just enough oomph to Jomon's expansion that I think he's worth considering. If you're careful that is.