Marverni

[Zenzei]

I'm not a fan of double 9 blesses, except for the S9X9 blesses via Oracle, because of the horrible scales that come with them. So with that in mind I used an imprisoned E9N6 great mother in my Marverni test run (first 12 turns). Dominion strength was 7 and scales were order3/sloth2/misfortune1/magic1.

I really liked that particular setup. By the turn 13 I had conquered 22 provinces, had two forts under construction and really nice gold income. My expansion forces, which I recruited every other turn, were made of Gutuater + 6 to 10 Boar Warriors. I didn't recruit any other units because this was a simple test, with additional recruitment I might have been able to snag one or two extra provinces. Indy strenght was 5 and there was plenty of room on the map.

E9N6 bless has great synergy with Boar Warriors because berserk goes very well together with regen and high prot.
E9N6 has also very good synergy with Maverni's mages because it gives reinvigoration and regeneration lessens the effect of old age somewhat.

For some early research I think the best choices are alteration 3 (eagle eyes & protection), evocation 4 (arcane probing & blade wind), thaumaturgy 3 (site searchers & teleport) and construction 4 (clams, hammers, thistle maces & shrouds of the battle saint). The research order depends on game situation but evocation 4 first is probably the safe choice.

EDIT: Looks like my thoughts about Marverni are pretty similar to fantasma's, except for the bless part. I think N9 doesn't give big benefits compared to N6 and berserk is a real liability with sacred human mages. N9 also cost a lot more of design points. Other than that, what was that saying...great minds think alike.

[Forrest]

I did 13 provinces by turn 13 with 2 castle starts. However it was a bad start and I found barbarians eat Blessed Boar Warriors. Strange thing was they seemed to do better against Hirdmen and Huskarls, with a little archer help. Biggest problem with this method is that a lucky arrow at the start of the battle leaves your Boar Warriors with out a commander. Maybe I am just unlucky in this way.

Over all E9N6 worked well. Money was not a issue without over taxing.

While you loose the woodland movement, indie preachers make good commanders for this method which combines with the 200 gp churches. Leaving you mages for better things.

Also Heat 2 does not seem to bother Marverni.

[triqui]

***did 13 provinces by turn 13***

That's pretty low i think.

[Foodstamp]

I am going to try an earth 9 / death 9 PoD next to see how that works out. Should be a solid bless for the boar warriors and the mages. I mainly want to see how it stacks up against the fire/earth bless when it comes to taking indies with less than 5 guys .

[Forrest]

I thought you might feel that way. Reality was they just kept dying. In the end I had 3 armies left. One of which had not seen combat. Better than 60% of the Boar Warriors I built were dead by turn 13. I added 15 of those indie monkey archers to two groups just to keep them alive. I did have several provinces next to my capital that these troops were the wrong troops to attack with which added travel time.

I guess you guys are just better than me cause I usually have trouble keeping up with your numbers.

[Spendios]

Some suggestions for new Maverni units :

chariot : was used a lot by celts noblemen

gaesatae : naked warrior with oval shield, javelins and sword able to go berserk

solduros : armored spearmen

[Zenzei]

Okay, I did my 12 turn test run again just to be sure I didn't get lucky at the first time. This time though I did use indies and mercenaries in addition to national troops.

Here's the setting:
-Map was Aran (comes with the game)
-All settings standard for EA
-I only had one passive human player, Oceania in this case, in addition to myself. I chose this because the idea was to test Marverni expansion capabilities after all.

My pretender was still imprisoned E9N6 great mother with dominion strength 7. Scales were order3/sloth1/cold1/misfortune1/magic1, I made minor change here compared to the first run (sloth->cold).

At the beginning of turn 13 the situation is following:
-28 provinces conquered.
-2 forts built, both have gutuater in place ready to build lab & temple.
-Alteration 3 almost researched. Should have been evocation though because it is nice to have blade wind available by the time you are entering midgame and starting to have real conflicts with other players.
-Very good income & low upkeep.


So with that I can say Marverni really rocks my socks at the moment, the nation is awesome (or at least their early game is with this example setup). In order to convert any non-believers I have added the game file to this post as attachment. It will certainly be interesting to read about Baalz's thoughts regarding mid-late game Marverni when he posts them.

[triqui]

Foodstamp said:
I am going to try an earth 9 / death 9 PoD next to see how that works out. Should be a solid bless for the boar warriors and the mages. I mainly want to see how it stacks up against the fire/earth bless when it comes to taking indies with less than 5 guys .

A nice bless, and a powerful SC none the less...

[triqui]

Forrest said:
I thought you might feel that way. Reality was they just kept dying. In the end I had 3 armies left. One of which had not seen combat. Better than 60% of the Boar Warriors I built were dead by turn 13. I added 15 of those indie monkey archers to two groups just to keep them alive. I did have several provinces next to my capital that these troops were the wrong troops to attack with which added travel time.

I guess you guys are just better than me cause I usually have trouble keeping up with your numbers.

What i mean is 13 province in 13 turns is a 1x ratio. Any nation can do that just using a E9 cyclop or wyrm and not recruiting a single troop ever, so it is the lowest minimun expansion rate possible. Even LA Bogarus can expand at 1x turn just using the SC.

At the beginning of turn 13 the situation is following:
-28 provinces conquered.
-2 forts built, both have gutuater in place ready to build lab & temple.
-Alteration 3 almost researched. Should have been evocation though because it is nice to have blade wind available by the time you are entering midgame and starting to have real conflicts with other players.
-Very good income & low upkeep.

That's a very much better expansion rate, and one that can impress me. Effectively, their sacreds seem to be cheap and, with the right bless, really good for early expansion. The problem i had (and have) with the nation is that i cannot find the "on" button in middle game (other than the obvious "bladewind" one). That's why I'm expecting Baalz point of view about middle/late game hidden cookies in the nation

[Forrest]

Tried it again with with W9N6 bless and a good start. Think it was 6 dom, 1 heat, 1 misfortune, 1 magic, Imprisoned Lady of love.

12 turns. 20 Provinces taken. 3 active armies that have seen battle with none needing to back track and a fourth 8 man army ready to start out. Just under 50% loss rate on Boar Warriors that have seen battle. Lost 2 mages with one being my fault. 2 castles started. 2000 in the bank and 1367 over cost of 119. Evoc 2 and 24 pts short of 3 but 50 RP/trn. I should have gone to druids sooner.

Did no over taxing.

I got lucky and Manhelt the blood henge druid showed up.

Oh yeah, had a group of 8 with 4 deaths take a group of 5 Blood henge druids backed by 2 darkvines, 11 blowpipes, and 44 blood slaves. Which impressed me because of the spell pounding they took. Only lost 1 to the darkvines.