Artifact Game - ready!!

[Ironhawk]

OK, after musing on the artifacts for some time, here is the preliminary list that I have come up with. I tried to assign artifacts thematically where I could, but reassigned some of them away from thier "natural" nations to spread the power around more equally. Additionally, I attempted to give each nation artifacts that would help them from turn 1 and also others that would be more useful later on. Two artifacts: Gift of Kurgi and The Magic Lamp were not assigned because I felt they were simply too powerful for any nation to own on turn 1. Lastly, both water nations got poor selections as almost nothing fit them thematically and water nations get a pretty easy start anyway.


Abysia
-----------------------
Unquenched Sword
O'al Kan's Sceptre
Aseftik's Armor

Atlantis
-----------------------
Orb of Atlantis
Mage Bane

Pythium
-----------------------
The Sword of Aurgelmer
Tome of High Power
The Sharpest Tooth

Man
-----------------------
Crown of the Ivy King
Robe of Calius the Druid
The Boots of Calius the Druid
Boots of Antaeus
Percival the Pocket Knight

Ulm
-----------------------
Crown of Overmight
Gate Stone
Alchemist's Stone
The Summit

Ctis
-----------------------
The Jade Mask
The Ankh
Amon Hotep

Arcoscephale
-----------------------
Boots of the Planes
Forbidden Light
The Sword of many Colors
The Aegis

Caelum
-----------------------
Tempest

Ermor
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The Sickle whose Crop is Pain
Sceptre of Dark Regency
Sword of Injustice
Twin Spear - SD

Marignon
-----------------------
Sword of Justice
The Ark
The Chalice
Sun Sword

Pangaea
-----------------------
The Stone Sword
The Tome of Gaia
Soulstone of the Wolves

Vanheim
-----------------------
The Flying Ship
Oath Rod of Kurgi
Twin Spear - SB
Fenris Pelt

Jotunheim
-----------------------
Winter Bringer
Monolith Armor
The Black Book of Secrets

R'lyeh
-----------------------
Nethgul
Trident from Beyond

Mictlan
-----------------------
Sceptre of Corruption
Procas's Axe of Rulership
Harvest Blade
Barrier

T'ien Ch'i
-----------------------
Ember
Robe of the Sorceress
Hammer of the Forge Lord
The Ruby Eye
Sandals of the Crane

Machaka
-----------------------
The Tartarian Chains
Rod of Death
The Flailing Hands
Picus's Axe of Rulership
Sun Slayer
Carcator the Pocket Lich

[Wish]

what about the kurgi thing, that would totally be a rlyeh thing

[Ironhawk]

Are you suggesting I move the Oath Rod from Vanhiem to Ryleh? Or that I assign the Gift of Kurgi? As for the later, I'm not assigning the Gift because its simply too powerful. Throw it on even a junk SC and it suddenly becomes extremely powerful.

[Ironhawk]

I've worked out all the details with modding and now am almost ready to start the Artifact Game. Before I did so I reviewed the artifact list once more and noticed that some nations were (relatively speaking) weak in the early game due to thier alloted artifacts. In particular, Man, Pan, TC, and Machaka. Can people who are interested in this game look over the

Revised Artifact List (v2)

and make suggestions on how to strengthen the early game of these nations or others (if you notice any other weakness)?

[shovah]

pangea could do ok if their pretender could put on the boots and spam something, machaka could stick chains on a survivable pretender and enslave armies, TC may have a little trouble and man could basically do the same as pan or rush for vine men/ogres. im still for my idea of trinkets aswell but thats just me. im guessing when your ready you will be putting a thread in multiplayer? and personally i think atlantis is a little weak (not to mention i thought ryleh had the orb because i got an even as ryleh which mentioned some guys coming to find it)

[archaeolept]

just checked to make sure you had gotten rid of the soulstone ;P

looks intriguing

[Ironhawk]

shovah said:
pangea could do ok if their pretender could put on the boots and spam something, machaka could stick chains on a survivable pretender and enslave armies, TC may have a little trouble and man could basically do the same as pan or rush for vine men/ogres. im still for my idea of trinkets aswell but thats just me. im guessing when your ready you will be putting a thread in multiplayer? and personally i think atlantis is a little weak (not to mention i thought ryleh had the orb because i got an even as ryleh which mentioned some guys coming to find it)

Yeah, good points shovah. Tho I have been toying around with the idea of having human-only pretenders. It fits in with the theme of the passing of the Old Gods, you know? Cause all that are left now are thier human servants and the new batch of pretenders are the most powerful of the lot who are now fighting for dominance. Plus, going human-only sidesteps the issue of mega pretender-SCs from turn 1, which could potentially be unbalancing.

I like your idea about trinkets too. I actually considered it myself - thought about giving Man a Staff of Storms, for example. And TC a Wand of Wild Fire or Phoenix Rod or something. Do you all have any feelings on what would be good trinkets for the weaker nations? Stuff to help thier starting armies take off?

[Turin]

TC is weak with the Hammer of the forge lord and ember? And they get two very useful boosters too? I´d say they get top of the line stuff.

In fact I´d rate the way you have given artifacts to the nations as follows:

1) arcoscephale:
boots of the planes and the aegis are both among the most powerful artifacts, the forbidden light is very powerful too and a free improved staff of elemental mastery is very nice.


2) ermor:
They are amazingly unbalanced with the sickle at the start. Just load SG ermor, prophetize your wraith centurion and channel the 30 gems he gets each battle to your home province with scouts. sceptre of dark regency is great as well

3) tien´chi:
hotfl and ember are top tier and the other items are nice boosters.

4) ulm:
they get the gate stone, the gate stone rocks! The summit and alchemists stone are quite nice too.

5) pythium:
They get the sword of augelmer, another top tier item. The tome of high power is nice too

6) marignon:
The chalice and the ark are both very nice, but not too gamebreaking.

7-9) mictlan, atlantis and vanheim each get a very good item, but not much else.

10-16) the rest, not much very useful stuff there.

[archaeolept]

I'd agree ermor's selection is a bit scary; the others are not really unbalanced w/ human pretenders, though arcos and tien chi are pretty heavy duty if the normal gamut of SC pretenders is allowed.

[Truper]

I won't offer an opinion on who should get which artifacts and why, since I haven't played with them often enough to know what all of them do

But I would say that if you're going to do this, why not allow any and all pretenders, and get the full flavor?

Oh, and I want a spot