Mod: Conceptual Balance Mod 1.6

[Micah]

*eye roll* I used a W9F9 bless on the jags when I did the comparison and the first hit did surprisingly little, since the Warriors have such good defense and the single attack the unhurt jags have isn't enough to hit them.

I can't imagine eagles doing better, but run a test and let me know. The Elemental warriors are only 25g as well, not 35. Luckily they don't HAVE to be non-cap, since they're not a great midgame unit and you want to switch to other stuff, as previously mentioned by other posters. You also have a pretty badass S9 pretender with a lot of dominion power since you start at 3 dom, which is kind of nice. The higher dominion also means you have a high holy limit and can outnumber them early on when raw troop numbers are more important.

As far as the archer comment: I was responding to the assertion that they fold to other sacreds, not that they're uncounterable. To delve into more strategy for a moment though, TC has excellent archers and good shielded infantry, so it shouldn't be too hard to archer screen with a few guys and tear their archers up with a fire archers command to save your sacreds. It's not foolproof, but it's gonna make life hard for your opponent.

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by Micah

*eye roll* I used a W9F9 bless on the jags when I did the comparison and the first hit did surprisingly little, since the Warriors have such good defense and the single attack the unhurt jags have isn't enough to hit them.

I can't imagine eagles doing better, but run a test and let me know. The Elemental warriors are only 25g as well, not 35. Luckily they don't HAVE to be non-cap, since they're not a great midgame unit and you want to switch to other stuff, as previously mentioned by other posters. You also have a pretty badass S9 pretender with a lot of dominion power since you start at 3 dom, which is kind of nice. The higher dominion also means you have a high holy limit and can outnumber them early on when raw troop numbers are more important.

As far as the archer comment: I was responding to the assertion that they fold to other sacreds, not that they're uncounterable. To delve into more strategy for a moment though, TC has excellent archers and good shielded infantry, so it shouldn't be too hard to archer screen with a few guys and tear their archers up with a fire archers command to save your sacreds. It's not foolproof, but it's gonna make life hard for your opponent.

I agree that tc has excellent archers; I agree that an S9 pretender absolutely rocks. I just do not agree that W5E's outclass jags.

I also don't think that you are going to have a higher dominion score than mictlan.

Mictlan can afford to dump resources, heat, and growth/death if need be, and even two points of drain. TC just can't afford to do that - it need resources for archers; doesn't have a heat preference; and needs growth for its old age mages.

Finally, Mictlan can afford drain, by using a dominion pocket strategy, whereas all TC's mages are cap only, with crap outside its capital and hence, should not afford a drain scale.

Mictlans preferred bless chasis long ago was the oracle; since thats now no longer available the blood fountain is probably next best. Sucks on the endgame - but in terms of dominion the fountains Dom 4 under CBM is BETTER than the Dom 3 you're referencing. A typical mictlan starting bless will be an f9w9b4 with Dom7. however you certainly can see dom 8 easily, as well as an 9-9-9 bless.

[Sir_Dr_D]

Could one of the way to balance nations just be to increase the gold and/or resource settings at the beginning of the game. If sacreds are a smaller percentage of armies, it may make the game more balanced.

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by Sir_Dr_D

Could one of the way to balance nations just be to increase the gold and/or resource settings at the beginning of the game. If sacreds are a smaller percentage of armies, it may make the game more balanced.

Yes and no.
At first glance making a 'richer'game seems as if it would mean more normal troops compared to sacreds.

However, it doesn't actually change the equation tooo much. Blesseds expand faster, and so have a steeper ramp up on their incomes. So instead of building a castle on turn 4, they build it on turn 3.

What it does tend to do is compress the game. Expansion against indies tends to happen faster. Armies tend to get larger faster.

There are also other effects. Niefle, hinnom, agartha a few other nations tend to love rich resource and gold games, and it tilts the balance in favor of them, rather than dom limited smaller nations.

Spell research easier is a bigger effect, in my opinion.