Guide: MA Pangaea strategies

[chrispedersen]

I am away from Dominions computer but one of my favorite pretenders is an carrion dragon with awe (Dom 10).

I distinctly remember a breath weapon AoE that drops morale... So the combination of Fear +5, Awe +2 and the breath weapon

EASILY takes all indies.

Additionally, it dovetails nicely with other Pan strategy.
Use stealthy embedded in enemy territories - or harpies.. to cut off retreat.

March your Pretender - armed with Pan standards, horror helmets and the like.

Its been very effective in 2-3 player games anyway...

[Endoperez]

chrispedersen said:
I am away from Dominions computer but one of my favorite pretenders is an carrion dragon...
I distinctly remember a breath weapon AoE that drops morale...

Carrion Dragon has no breath weapon in the vanilla. Perhaps it has been added in some mod?

[vfb]

He's probably getting it confused with the Dracolich, which is not available for Pan.

[Renojustin]

Buffed. Minotaur. Warriors.

[Gregstrom]

Already covered

[edit] Also added notes on Dryad thugging, as that's a rather nice idea. Many thanks to kasnavada.

[kasnavada]

Another possible thugging possibility is by using Pans (why the hall do I find mages better thugs than the regular commander is beyond me). However, a bit (lot) more research is required. The base for this one would be earth spells, for example : invulnerability, which gives your pan 27 (or more) protection. Iron skin (did I get the name right? I'm at work now) also works. With a weapon, eye shield, messenger boots and luck amulet, it is pretty effective.

It does have drawbacks however : having little defense, I got 2 of them killed by indy carrions, due to fatigue (yeah, on that test game, I got 5 provinces taken over by independants in about 4 turns...). Most attack hit the pan, but the pan is protected and doesn't take 'regular' damage. However, fatigue attack hit, and result in death for the pan. The second problem is that pans are your main mages, so using them as thugs is probably not as effective as using them as mages.

[Gregstrom]

Pans really do have a variety of options. I guess you could kit out a Pan so that they could act in either role. If you can get Astral, then Cloak of Shadows plus Earth buffs is pretty great as a thug without impeding spellcasting if you need a battle mage instead. Then it's all down to scripting and the enemy you're facing at the time.

[thejeff]

Pan really aren't bad at it. Good base hp, earth and nature magic, for regen, armor and reinvig. They're not SCs but they can be tough. You just need a weapon and shield. Luck and Ethereal makes them brutal.

[kasnavada]

Pans really do have a variety of options.

I actually think that a lot Pangaea units have multiple options open to them. For example : a dryad can be a thug, anti-undead priest, vine arrow lauching platform, stealth leader, stealth preacher... pans have the same options : they can be thugs, powerful mages, chaff spammers, good leaders (80 base is quite good), they are also stealthy, they have large amount of HP so they are also good for fever fetish...

The centaur archer is the same : it is stealthy but also holds its own in a regular battle, is even quite powerful in melee (for an archer at least), allowing for lots of options. Furthermore it has 3 mapmove, which is a great thing when you need to defend yourself. Harpies can be raiders or scouts...

I do not know other nations very well, but the way I try to play pangaea is as an unpredictable nation, forever changing.

(Right now in MP I've been losing some battles rather badly, but I'm learning).

My next test (tonight) will be about making thugs out of harpies, and trying to use vampires in a defence situation for Pangaea, because I think it is a good idea !

[Gregstrom]

Vampires? They must be a bit of a stretch for MA Pan - you'll recruit just about no Pans with Blood/Death. I'll be interested in seeing the results though.