HINNOM EATS EVERYTHING

[Executor]

Originally Posted by statttis

What? Fomoria has awesome mages. Fomorian Kings are one of the strongest units in the game, whether for SC duty of casting. Fomorian druids don't have much magic but are still good for so much. Can't get no respect

Yes the Kings are good. But you'll only be using them for heavy lifting due to very limited numbers. And their SC usage is limited too due to morale.

I'm talking about the druids here, their mage majority. They are crap.
A1D1 gives you nothin'
A1W1 gives you nothin'
A1N1 gives you... guess...

A2 is useful, but you still need storm to make use of them.

I don't like Fomoria generally. I feel you have to rely on luck too much to get the magic schools you want.

[Baalz]

Originally Posted by happygeek

Hey this is all fascinating. Sorry for being so new, mind if I ask? I havent played Hinnom more than 3 turns in SP (just started now to see what it's like), what I cant figure out is
- where does it say that population dies because of the units? I cant see that tag on any of the units. Just the gluttony. But I thought that is only for supplies?
- Baalz writes that they have all paths but water, and can site search all but water. I just clicked through all commanders to make sure, and I cant find Death. Am I missing something?
Looks fun, if a bit overpowered in MP, I will try some giant fun in SP!
Thank you for your help

Those little cave man dudes have D1, forget their name.

[Micah]

A1D1 gets you...half a fomorian king. A1W1 gets you lightning or frozen heart damage for versatility via storm power/lightning bolt, orb lightning, or frozen heart, or half a formorian king. A1N1 gets you half a fomorian king...every pair of druids you set to researching covers the RP you lose by sending out a king to do the heavy lifting, and given that you should be getting a king every turn after you can afford it there's plenty of room for your poorly-pathed druids to pick up the research slack. And of course with a storm power buff all of the druids can spam lightning bolts all day long, especially if you have the sense to give them an E bless.

The only time morale really comes into play is if you're facing stacked fear units, which is a fairly uncommon situation...if it does come up you can always throw a berserker item on them if you need to.

Yes, they're not the most stellar battle mages, but when all they have to do is compensate your research so your killer flying SCs can go break some heads they hardly need to be.

[Baalz]

Plus (not sure if this is what Micah meant by half a Formorian King) A1 + an air gem = mist form. Assuming you've got an E/N bless druids can make very decent thugs if you can manage vine or golden shields.

A2 = mistform without a gems, cloud trapeze
W = breath of winter, quicken self - I'm thinking used in small groups, devastating in the right circumstances with that 21 strength and stacking chill aura. Also, can you say 150 gold niefel slayer?
N = resist elements, resist poison, resist lightning combine with frost brand & dragon helm for 100% resistance to whatever it is you're fighting.
D = Not so much a thug, but with a skull staff can drop winds of death & wailing winds which are two very underrated spells IMO. Can also summon Morrigans, which are some of the best things D gems can go to.

Doesn't sound like a useless unit to me...

[Micah]

Baalz - I just meant that sticking 2 druids on research duty covered the RP you lost by sending out a king, so you can actually stick the majority of your kings out in the field once you transition your research onto the backs of your druids instead, and since the kings can teleport it doesn't become a logistical challenge catching them up with your current war front.

Great uses for the druids, but I don't see Fomoria having to resort to using them since they should be fielding a steady supply of kings that would put most of that gear to slightly better use than the druids, but I'm kind of a princess for using the best available units I can get my hands on and not dwelling much on lower-level thugs. =)

[vfb]

Also, AD wielding a skull staff can also cast Wailing Winds in CBM, with 2D gems. Before you get to summoning Morrigans, an AD plus a lightning rod can summon 4 Corpse Men monthly from very early on in the game, which are pretty decent in CBM.

AN = Rainbow Armor forger, and in battle with an N gem can Summon Sprites, which are good against SCs. Ranged 100 AN stun damage! 12 Sprites per cast, 20 shots per sprite, to defeat high MR.

[Baalz]

Hehe, but I think you can make very cost effective thugs with pretty cheap equipment assuming you already sprang for a nice blessing so they make sense if you're running short of kings to equip. I think golden shield + fire plate + horned helm should give you a pretty serviceable thug for 12 gems which can erupt in numbers out of any of your castles. They might even make sense *instead* of Kings in some circumstances as you can field 3+ for the cost of each king, so they'd be a better bet for a broad blitz expecting to encounter mostly PD in dozens of provinces.

[MaxWilson]

A1D1 lets you pull off the same Mirror Image/Mistform/Soul Vortex combo as a Rakshraja. The downside is that 1.) You need gear + gems to do it (1 air gem, 1 death gem, skull staff) and 2.) Fomorian Kings do it better with less gear.

Pathboost gems and SCs actually go together really well, since SCs typically don't have enough paths to blow all their gems uselessly on the first couple of spells like battlemages do, so there's less need for the logistic hassle of a separate gem carrier/scout. Plus, gems stack with path boosters, and they also don't take up any slots.

-Max

[Executor]

I'm talking about Fomorian Druids as battle mages.
There just isn't a whole lot they can do on their own. The enemy is just gonna kick your *** if you don't have any Kings to support your mages since the enemy will have better battle mages most of the time.

[Baalz]

I don't know, I think there's actually a pretty decent range of things you can do if you're thinking boosters and gems. Sure you don't have the obvious goto spells some nations have and some nations will be fielding more directly effective mages, but then again you're fielding giant troops with Morrigan support so your mages don't have to be as directly effective. Sure, you're gonna want Kings where you can, but for smaller raiding/skirmish parties a druid or two can be just perfect. They can also take care of support spells for bigger fights leaving the kings free to be SCs or cast the real big spells (darkness, wrathful skies, etc).

A2 - storm power (or gems) & thunderstrike obviously, also they're tough enough to drop mistform then blast orb lightning from among the front line or even lightning resistance and shock wave.

W - with a water bracelet (or W gems) you can drop freezing mist, which is very, very good in combination with undead troops, skellispam, etc. or even just leveraging your much higher hitpoints and regen. Can also drop quickness & quickening which is iffy for your encumb-5 giants, but very, very nice for Morrigans. If you're in the water (which you should be) you can drop shark attack, friendly currents & grip of winter.

D - With a skull staff already mentioned wailing winds & winds of death. Also, terror, shadow blast, disintegrate, and skellispam (which tends to be a good counter to giant-slaying things).

N - healing mists works well with your giants and VBF mentioned fairies. Swarm is a staple spell, and panic stacks well if you're dropping terror with wailing winds along with something having a fear aura....like Morrigans. With a couple bigger boosters you're looking at mass regeneration and relief - both great spells for your giants.