Niefelheim Strategy for the Early Era

[dirtywick]

The Order scale is really nice early though.

I didn't see it mentioned so if it was my bad, but if you make a Niefel Jarl a prophet he can use Divine Blessing to bless the entire battlefield instead of using many of them, that way you can use other mages to buff your troops or use the Jarls themselves to use other spells.

I just quickly looked at Niefelheim EA and don't know how it would work out, but another possible pretender design is to use the Son of Fennerer for a W9 N7 or something. W9 give you quickness, which is great especially for these guys, and defence skill. Both of which will help you not get hit because you're killing faster and getting hit less, might be worth it not to stock up on nature so high.

The Drain scale might not be too bad, you'll be behind in research even farther but you get increased MR on all troops in exchange and more points to use for other scales or magic for blessing.

Anyway, just a few things to think about.

[Felgar]

Niefel Jarls only have 2 holy, so making them a prophet won't allow the divine blessing (have to wait for the unique swords).

I've seen two of their heroes (the hag and a Jarl that transforms to an eagle) and neither had holy 3, so I'm hoping the last one (if it ever shows up) will have holy 3. Anyone know what the last hero is for the giants in early era?

[Felgar]

Endoperez said:
The shapeshifting Skrattis are a new addition to Dom3.

and perhaps better armor.

Isn't it the armor they wear that allows them to shapeshift? I'll have to test it and see if new armor takes away their ability to shift forms.

[dirtywick]

Felgar said:
Niefel Jarls only have 2 holy, so making them a prophet won't allow the divine blessing (have to wait for the unique swords).

I started a new game in EA Niefelheim, waited a turn, recruited a Niefel Jarl and set him to become a prophet, hit end turn, and Divine Blessing is on list at Holy 3. Try it for yourself, it worked for me.

[Felgar]

Oops ok, I thought you needed holy 4 for that. Been searching for holy sites the entire game with my prophet... D'oh!

[thejeff]

My thought was more to use the Neifels as troops with the full blessing. Godes would bless them and cast spells staying out of the fight, so the lesser hp and regen wouldn't be a drawback.

Since the Godes are much cheaper, you could field more Neifels for the same cost and rough effectiveness.

Essentially it seems a waste of Neifel Jarls to be fighting on the line, and they're not that effective as artillery until you're fairly high up in research. Skratti may still be more effective for that.

In dom2 at least, I'd happily send a Jarl out solo against any indies other than Knights or Heavy Cavalry, even at Indies 9. With a good bless, Luck Pendant, maybe horror Helm? Cast Quickness, Breath of Winter.
Haven't done much with them in Dom3.

[Graeme Dice]

Felgar said:
Niefel Jarls only have 2 holy, so making them a prophet won't allow the divine blessing (have to wait for the unique swords).

Divine blessing is a holy 3 spell. Any prophet is capable of casting it.

[Endoperez]

Felgar said:

Isn't it the armor they wear that allows them to shapeshift? I'll have to test it and see if new armor takes away their ability to shift forms.

First, I haven't tested it but other shape-shifting creatures don't have limits with what armor they can wear. They might lose the armor they have when they change shape, but they won't lose their ability to change just from wearing strange armor. Furthermore, I think it'd have been easier to just have Skrattis not have a body slot than to program a new mechanic that'd be used just for them.


Also, my message had an annoying typo. While I hope Skrattis can make good SCs, I meant Niefel Jarls in my post. They are much tougher, have much better starting equipment, more resistances, and have better magics. Death and Blood are both quite weak in the buff spell department, but Blood Vengeance is harder to get than Soul Vortex.

[alexti]

To Felgar: you're losing Niefel Jarls because you don't have earth bless. After casting quickness and blessing you get around 30 fatigue which gives you -3 defense and as jarls attack it quickly gets worse. Even though they don't fall unconcious they're getting hit so often that you need high regeneration just to survive (and of course, it causes you moral difficulties). With Earth bless you manage your fatigue on somewhat acceptable level which means you maintain good defense and don't get hit often.

So essentially, that's lack of earth bless that causes you to go in massive armies instead of being able to send your jarls alone.

Hey all,
Good to see so many old faces still around. I have been unable to recover my old identity, hope there is np with starting a new one.


Alexti is right, fatigue is a killer for SCs, particularly when quickened.

The worst part is not the penalty to defense, but the fact that it allows for armour piercing hits (IIRC from Dom:PPP & Dom2).
30 fatigue means opponents hitting through your defense have a 30% chance of scoring an armour piercing hit...thus why the Earth bless is even more important for Niefels than the Nature one: better not suffering any damage from mundane troops than trusting your regen to make up for it.

Besides, Niefels cannot trust any longer Breath of Winter to do the killing for them, so battles take longer, and that means still more fatigue.