Enlightenment of a SP Addict

[Caseus]

I have had abysmal success killing VQs with Earth Attack. My record is 0 kills for 20+ attempts. I've never seen so many experience stars on a Pretender before....

After checking the manual I will concede that Ghost Riders are pretty damn disgusting. 5 death gems gets you 33 longdead horseman and a FREAKING WRAITH LORD??? Who cares that they're not under your control. For 30 death gems you can have 198 horsemen and 6 wraith lords running amuck in some schmuck's home province.

That VQ sounds pretty terrifying. What's soul vortex?

RP is rainbow pretender. As Gandalf said, they work great on huge maps.

[Caseus]

Vynd said:
This is why most people who are building a Pretender for early game expansion give him/her air magic to cast mistform and mirror image. High protection or Earth magic to cast Ironskin is also important. Etherealness helps a lot too.

Well, I've used Body Ethereal. That works great. Mistform? Mirror Image? Umm...used those all the time! Yeah! *coughs*


Caseus

[Gandalf Parker]

Caseus said:
Abysia I’ve tried, but I haven’t found anything that works particularly well, especially versus high strength Indies. Ctis I’m determined to master, somehow. Both those races rate highly on this board and it annoys me I can’t make them work.

One of the big advantages of Abysia is the heat scale. If you can push strong dominion ahead of you then it will drastically fatigue high strength (usually hvy armor) indies. Capitalize on it by not charging them. Stand firm and let them charge you.

Ctis has mage/assassins which can be useful. Strong dominion can help them also.

I get the impression that in MP it really helps to have a SC pretender. I have yet to be really successful with any SC pretender, excluding Arco/Nataraja. They invariably get horrible afflictions or die. I give them decent items, especially defensive ones. My failing here is likely not building them to take advantage of key defensive spells. Or maybe I just suck.

I find SC gods to be handy in small crowded maps. It takes a larger map with more space between opponents to make a rainbow pretenders work well.

I like RPs. Great site searching, great research to start, and the ability to cast key spells or build key items. Without a RP, site searching becomes slow and painful. You don’t want to lose your RP, but against the AI you shouldn’t. I am finally beginning to think that a more focused approach to Pretender design is better. Going from Death 2 to Death 5 is not fun.

My problem with RPs is that I tend to search too long and too far away from the castle. Learning when to switch from site-search to home/summon/contruct is important.

[Thufir]

Caseus said:
Time for some random thoughts.

I play Dominions 2 exclusively in single player mode. Reading this board makes me realize how much I’m missing in my approach to the game.

Exactly! So, does this mean that you're ready to step up to the plate and start playing MP?

[Caseus]

Thufir said:
Exactly! So, does this mean that you're ready to step up to the plate and start playing MP?

Sure! But I'm a complete newbie. I can barely find the research screen. Can I play the first 10 turns by myself, and then everyone else can start on turn 11? Or better yet, let me design my own race!

*smiles innocently*

[Taqwus]

Soul Vortex gives the caster a life-draining aura for the duration of the battle; every turn it tries to drain life from those in nearby randomly-chosen squares, including friendlies.

Ghost Riders is pretty brutal; it's a good argument for building castles to protect your temples. Conj 9 is strong for death nations, with both Ghost Riders and Tartarian Gate.

If you want to try an assassin pretender right out of the gate, try Mictlan's Lord of the Night. He also starts battles with a couple of Fiends of Darkness, which helps make things even more unfair.

Regarding searching, I suggest using the path-specific searching spells as soon as you can; it takes one mage turn instead of two (one to arrive, one to search) and can be easier than getting a level-four mage. For certain paths this is easier than others, e.g. Astral Probing, Dark Knowledge require only one level of astral or death respectively.

For something different, try R'lyeh. The Void Gate is like a wacky slot machine that can feeblemind or kill you, but also might give you Vastnesses, Greater Othernesses, and Things that Should Not Be. For observing the joy of Orb Lightning spamming, try Pythium with a large communion...