Various Mictil questions

[Freyland]

Originally posted by Argitoth:
If you edit the first post, you can also edit the subject. Fix the spelling.

Ooh, ooh! An ORDER! Let me see..... no.

Originally posted by Argitoth:

I have memorized the spelling of every nation. This is from Memory.

I am truly speechless. My jaw is agape. Not because I am impressed, but because the implications on your social life and priorities (that you felt compelled to share that) simply overwhelm me. Oh, and btw..."memory" isn't capitalized in that setting. You should probably edit that.


Moving on, lets get past spelling semantics and stay with the topic. I sincerely appreciate the members of this board who take the time to help those of us in need.

Thank you

Jonathan

[PvK]

Originally posted by Freyland:
@PvK

Agreed with the crossbreeding! I have used that extensively this game, with some neat effects, but it really eats away at that high BS need. Those Mictlan priests are the way to go for research, its just that you have to blow 80 gold every turn for just 3 research, and you can't recruit another commander from the province that turn. I have not had the research to devote to construction yet, emphasizing the Blood school for my Pretender. I have been experimenting with demons (that just sounds wrong) but again, the BS supply/demand.....
...

Since Fiend of Darkness is available from the start, it makes some sense to hit Construction first to get a research booster and maybe some blood power boosters or whatever fun toys you like, while building up a Fiend force. Construction can also allow Soul Contracts, which can be very very potent to have. I got one by finding it with Luck-3, and it broke a stalemate and got me hundreds of blood slaves' worth of potent devils. Quite worth making an effort to forge, especially if you can also get a dwarven hammer first to cut the cost. Then once you can put some research items on priest-researchers, switch to learning blood while Fiends and Eagle Warriors do the conquering. Hopefully you will be able to summon nastier demons by the time the fiends are wearing thin. Often, fiends are tough enough when used in large enough numbers, that they don't take many losses anyway.

PvK

[Argitoth]

Originally posted by Freyland:
I am truly speechless. My jaw is agape. Not because I am impressed, but because the implications on your social life and priorities (that you felt compelled to share that) simply overwhelm me. Oh, and btw..."memory" isn't capitalized in that setting. You should probably edit that.

Oooh, thank you for noting my ingenious!

Edit: I had to type out every nation a buncha times so I naturally remembered them. Not because I sat at my computer quizzing myself.

[ March 28, 2004, 06:15: Message edited by: Argitoth ]

[SelfishGene]

One of the secrets of Mictlan lies locked away in the otherwise nondescipt unit called the "Tribal King".

Otherwise unremarkable he has the Capture Slaves ability, as does the Priest King - but the latter costs 250/4, while he costs only 40/15 - and both are sacred, halving upkeep. This is one of Mictlan's most helpful abilities. Every turn you gather about 2-3 slave warriors, which while dubiously known as perhaps the single worst unit in the game, is completely free to raise. I'm just about certain Slave warriors have no upkeep cost either, though ill have to check.

You can make 'Tribal King' factories fairly early on and have them reliably churn out these crap troops by the dozen, greatly enhancing your armies' ability to soak up damage. Should you really like them, later on add a +1 Nature item to the Priest King and have him cast Mass Protection, which is just about the same as the Mass Maenad start for Pangaea, although slaves are way weaker.

Remember to add slave warriors to every major battle, arrange them at the front of your army, and let them take all the initial damage, saving your sacred troops. Add Feathered Warriors to slave armies if morale is a problem.

[PrinzMegaherz]

Every turn you gather about 2-3 slave warriors, which while dubiously known as perhaps the single worst unit in the game, is completely free to raise. I'm just about certain Slave warriors have no upkeep cost either, though ill have to check.

Hm, they are for free? I always thought they reduce population like blood hunting. But maybe I'm wrong about that

[GavinWheeler]

I'd definitely reconsider your pretender. Mictlan has a cool variety of sacred mages, so you can rely on them to allow you to cast lots of funky spells.

Mictlipoctli, for example, is a very accomplished necromancer, and can summon more, so why have a pretender with death magic?

Personally, I like a pretender with Earth and Blood magic. Earth is one school missing from those normally available to Mictlan, and the ability to (eventually) summon demon knights plugs the lack of heavy cavalry in a nicely thematic manner. Additionally, the reinvigoration blessing from Earth magic is far more useful to your sacred mage than Death's fear aura effect. If you want fearful troops, just summon them.

Edit: I forgot your other questions, and I thought I'd add that even if your starting fortress sucks badly, you can save up to cast "Three Red Seconds" or "Wizard Tower" to get another kind of fortress on a particularly juicy or vulnerable province.

When sacrificing, the level of your priest limits the number of slaves you can sacrifice. Each slave sacrificed spreads Dominion like a temple, so sacrificing two slaves is twice as effective as sacrificing one. The priest will sacrifice as many slaves as he has in his inventory, up to his maximum level - so a level 4 priest will sacrifice 4 slaves if he has at least 4 slaves in his personal magic gem supply. If he only has 3, he will only sacrifice 3. The nice thing is that if he is in a province with a laboratory, he will then replenish his supply of slaves from the ones stored in the laboratory. So a level 4 priest who is started off sacrificing with three slaves in his inventory will continue to sacrifice three slaves every round until you tell him otherewise or he runs out of slaves (there are none in the lab, or you use the 'pool' facility to pool all bloodslaves, including his).

Dominion will spread symmetrically (more or less) out from where the sacrificing is taking place. So if you want to push dominion into a particular area, sacrifice in or near that area.

Search on this bulletin board and you should find a very informative document about how dominion and dominion spreading works.

[ March 28, 2004, 16:30: Message edited by: GavinWheeler ]

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by GavinWheeler:
Mictlipoctli, for example, is a very accomplished necromancer, and can summon more, so why have a pretender with death magic?

What if Mictlipoctli doesn't show up in your game? I wouldn't advise someone to not pick a particular magic school for his pretender if it's available only on heroes. I like to pick death, air and earth on my Mictlan pretenders for this reason.

[GavinWheeler]

Well, I tend to go for Turmoil and Luck with nations where I really really want the Heroes to show up. Also, a (reasonably good)chance of getting a hero with Death magic, or even independant death mages, is still better than (as far as I recall) no chance of getting a hero or recruitable unit with blood and earth.

Nor is the availability of Death magic elsewhere the only reason I like Earth magic on a Mictlan pretender. The reinvigoration of my sacred mages is probably the biggest bonus.

[SelfishGene]

Originally posted by PrinzMegaherz:
Hm, they are for free? I always thought they reduce population like blood hunting. But maybe I'm wrong about that

Just checked - they do take 5 pop for every slave. Since i always max growth with Mictlan i didn't notice. It does mean though, even if you take growth, to focus slave raids on high pop provinces. Levying slaves causes no unrest and densely settled provinces can recover pop faster.

[SelfishGene]

Originally posted by Freyland:

Ooh, ooh! An ORDER! Let me see..... no.

...

I am truly speechless. My jaw is agape. Not because I am impressed, but because the implications on your social life and priorities (that you felt compelled to share that) simply overwhelm me.

BTW original poster. Come on a forum asking for help than personally insulting a respondent for having more knowledge than you is, as the Koreans say, "bad manner". If you went on a political forum writing Bush as "Busch" and refused to edit it (which only takes 5 seconds) you'd get called on it i think. Manner plz.

[ March 28, 2004, 20:44: Message edited by: SelfishGene ]