Well CBM1.9 is nice, but why no buff for Fomoria??

[P3D]

The main thematic problem for Fomoria is the lack of non-sacred giant troops worth recruiting. Give the Militia and the Javelinist a shield, they would be somewhat less vulnerable - the PD would still be worse than Niefel's.
Maybe use the Fomorian Warrior template for slightly fewer afflictions.

Granted, only two prec 8 missile attacks, but with a strength of 20 it would do some damage.

And that precision could be increased from 8 to 9/10, most of them should have both their eyes.

[Samhain]

Actually, I like your modification better than what I proposed. It would be neat to see Fomoria actually field armies of Fomorians besides some Unmarked.

[Warhammer]

I'm shocked to see people complain about Fomoria. Every game I have seen them in, they have kicked butt. In smaller games, unless other players are taking powerful nations themselves, they will stomp on the competition.

The access to both high air and high death is a huge advantage. Plus, their national spells with morrigans and Dance of the Morrigans is another huge advantage. I would easily put them up in the top 5 EA nations.

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by Valerius

F9W9 is not a standard Van bless. It used to be but since the nerf to glamour I've seen it used exactly once. I'm not saying you couldn't stage an early rush with EA Van but it's not worth that bless. CBM makes anti-rush counters available earlier and you're still only dealing with 15 HP units. You'd be better off with a light (thug focused) bless and just try to add more units to your rush attempt. And, you could just as easily pull off a rush with Mictlan or Niefel (both of whom have better late games) so I'm not really sure what makes Van so exceptional in this regard.

Also, that once would be me, and i did it for the lulz

Of course, i also scored a win as Fomoria using a scales + Nemedian Warriors strategy. Clearly Fomoria doesn't have to rely on blessing its giants. (Nemedian warriors are awesome, screw this 'no money' 'big bless' giants nonsense).

[Executor]

Fomoria, the dullest Dominions nation of them all...

Regarding the HoF.
I'd say player skill trumps nation choice, that's why HoF doesn't give any meaningful data regarding nation powers. Simply put, the fact that Fomoria is 3rd is the HoF means nothing really.

[NooBliss]

I beg to differ: top nations in the HoF do show the metagame.
When you (a vet) stomp some newbie, of course natons dont matter much, you're going to win. But when two equally players meet (which is, of course, an assumption) details matter more... such details as your nations power, for example.

Dull Fomoria may be, but it has got brutal power. As long as you can kill stuff, nobody cares if you do it with finesse or just drop tons of SCs and spam Morrigans till you win.

[Executor]

Well many things need to be taken into account there:

- The amount of games the nation has, it's logical to say that a nation that is played more is more likely to win a game.
- Player skill behind the nation. The better the player in control of a nation the better the changes to win.
- Player skill behind other nations. The better the competition the harder to win, or vice versa.
- Amount of nations in the game. The fever nations there are the fever players you have to fight against (fever neighbors that start next to you, lower change of getting dog-pilled, in all less variables) ergo better chances of victory.
- Other nations. A strong nation with a bunch of crappy one is more likely to win. Say Mictlan versus Agartha, Man, Oceania... you get the point.
- Diplomacy. No matter how good you are, or how good a nation you have diplomacy can always bring you down or put you on top, depending just how manipulative and silver tonged you are ( Yes, I mean you WL ) But to be honest diplomacy is usually tied to the player behind the nation not the actual nation (except in cases of Hinnom, Ashdod and such immensely OP nations, and in cases clear graph leader.)
- Etc...

So it's my personal opinion that you can't reliably represent nation winnings to power levels.
Mictlan for example has 3.5 wins while Fomoria has 6.5 I pitty the fool who thinks Mictlan is the lesser nation.
Sauromatia has 9 HoF wins while TC only has a single. Sauro is a better nation but not that better. I'd personally put TC very close to Sauro power vice.
Sure, there are powerful nation in the top of the HoF which ought to represent them accordingly but there are equally powerful nation near the bottom as well.

[Baalz]

While I don't think the HoF is relevant, personally I find Fomoria on the high end of the power scale and have done very well with them in mp. If you ignore the abysmal junk in their roster they still have some very good choices. All your cap only guys are very good (though I prefer the unmarked to the Fomorian giants most of the time). Probably not gonna recruit too many troops out of your secondary castles, but in a pinch mixed size 4 Fomorian warriors and size 2 Firbolgs are quite resilient. What they lack on the offense is more than made up by the real reason you want secondary castles - unmarked champions and druids. Pass out some frost brands and bows of war/thunder to the champions and boosters for your druids and your ouch layout rises considerably while your troops take forever to chop through.

Having 3-4 booster boosted druids summoning Morrigans is more than enough to give you a very considerable force. Every time you mass up 10 recruit a Nemedian champion (use the money you save on kings to put up more castles for unmarked champions), stick some winged boots on him and you've got an awe inspiring raiding force with the stealth + flying to easily combine with other raiding parties for bigger fights. If you've got the gems to kit the champion as an anti-sc they're virtually impossible to stop raiding without an enormous effort and 30 Morrigans showing up to help with the big fight is a serious tide turner. In my mp game my slowly massed morrigans were one of my more terrifying assets as they just really didn't die so I massed up quite a few over a couple game years.

Add in great recruitable SCs with cloud trapeze, thunderstrike, strong D, the best battlefield enchantment in the game, strong amphibians with sailing and virtually everything blessable - a very scary nation in the right hands.

[Scaramuccia]

Baalz, do you think there are nations that need buffs (tier 3 in common terminology). After reading your guides it seems that you could play using independent only troops.

[NooBliss]

Originally Posted by Executor

But to be honest diplomacy is usually tied to the player behind the nation not the actual nation (except in cases of Hinnom, Ashdod and such immensely OP nations, and in cases clear graph leader.)

What about a 600-pound gorilla-style diplomacy? 'Hello, I'm a 600-pound gorilla, and I wanna be your friend while I kick the hell out of your neighbours'.
These who play just for the sake of it will probably agree, I am sure.

Originally Posted by Baalz

While I don't think the HoF is relevant

Well, which nations from the HOF top do you consider weak?