MA Agartha, or Yet another thread fishing for tips

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

You're not coming off as blunt. Rather, I'm looking for more criticism. Sensible experience. And even wild, unfounded speculation. Anything that makes me look at my assumptions, or sparks some stupid-wild germ of an idea for me to look into. Anything, really, even an Agarthan cookie recipe. I'm fumbling in the dark, here (Pun intended).

A bit of advice- don't eat Agarthan cookies if they're called "Rocky Road". The Golem bits have a nasty tendency to attack the eater.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Well... recruiting solely Golem Crafters with Scylla allows me to reach 4th level research by fall first year.

But, recruiting earth readers early on does allow for two advantages. That 110 gold you're saving can help you hire mercenaries, and get a second fortress up quite a bit earlier.

On that matter, I heard somewhere that Cave City and Forts are under the effect of Darkness? Is this true?

Fortress Review:
Capital: Cave City
Default: Fortified City
Mountain: Cave Fort
Swamp: Swamp Fort
Forest: Forest Fortress
Tower weapons: 6x sling

Also worth noting is that with a pair of boots, your Oracles of the Ancients can cast Wizard's Tower for 50 gems- but only at Alt 8.

Your capital is pretty well defended, but rather low on supplies. If you expect a siege, Pale One Soldiers are not a bad choice, as they don't consume supplies. Your admin is a measly 30, which means that it will always be difficult to mass Ancient Ones. Unless you're surrounded by a lot of forests/mountains.

Your Default Fortress of a Fortified City is exceptional. It's defense isn't ideal, but it is well supplied in case of sieges, and most importantly, it has 50% admin. Which means, build one of these in a strategic position to pump out the majority of your national troops. On second thought, your nationals aren't that special- a good independent selection works as well. When you build one of these, consider leaving out a temple and lab to save money.

As to Mountain provinces the Cave Fort is there.It's admin and supply are measly, but its high defense means Pale One Soldiers can hold it for quite a long time against a larger force. Unfortunately, on random maps you will only see border provinces, at least at v. 3.08. It's on the expensive side though. I would NOT recommend making this your first fort. However... there are certain circumstances where its value jumps dramatically. A iron Mine, for instance. Or the Vaults Beneath (150 resources). Or some indies, or special site recruits.

Your Swamp Fort is abysmal- but cheap at 800 and 3 turns. It has absolutely 0 admin value. However, its not a bad place to put a library and temple, pumping out mages. If you want to double up your research early (sacred mages, magic scale 3), this is an option, albeit one that hamstrings troop production and vulnerable to attack. On the plus side, you could put one up next to a better fort, such as your capital, and it will hardly affect production.

Your Forest Fortress is not a bad choice. It's hardly ideal, but considering forests are high in resources and it goes up in four turns and 1000 gold, this is a decent production choice. If you haven't grabbed all the provinces in the area, its superior to a fortified city.

Is there anything special about the Wizard's Tower, or is it simply a magically created fort? Regardless, it does have nice admin.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

National Summons. General Summons will come later.

While its not heavily advertised, your golems get +10% hitpoints per level of dominion. I don't know if the opposite is true in hostile dominion.

Agartha's national summons are an important part of your strategy. With a base income of 5 earth gems, and plenty of mages capable of remote site searching with Gnome Lore, you can easily form the core of your army around your golems.

If you've taken sloth and high magic, then aim to include these in your armies by the start of the second year, or earlier. If you've taken productivity, you can go a bit further with your mundane national troops.

Most of your national golems are sacred. With every mage being a priest, its easy to bless the 5 or 20 you can send out with your Earth Readers and Golem Crafters, respectively. For larger numbers, your Oracle of the Ancients is a level three priest for area blesses. Earth bless, ironically, is useless (for these, but not the mages), and don't be tempted by the nature bless either. Since they're lifeless, 50 morale, regen and beserk is useless. Since they have no armor, all natural protection, they have no encumberance and no armor to get +4.

Also worth noting is patrol bonuses handy for paying for even more Golem Crafters. They need to be repaired in labs, and squash undead statistically and also because there's little point in lifedraining or fear. Lifeless offers several nice benefits. The manual isn't entirely up to date with regards to these, you'll have to take a peek to see all the details. They're also magical beings. Gotta keep your mages alive. Finally, many have map moves of three, but your mages 1. Keep a sharp eye out for any independent mages with decent magic leadership and high map moves, and consider twiceborn-ing an Oracle when the opportunity presents itself. If the Marble Oracle has leadership thats nice- but I don't know yet.

Are they affected by Darkness?
Acronyms
SAR - Standard Aggregate Research
EAR# - Estimated Available Research #
EAR operates under the assumption that each turn your recruit a mage of research ability # and dedicate them to research. Plenty of things can affect this, including early secondary forts, indies... It will be followed by a time.

Standard Golem Crafter RP 6. Magic Scale 3- 8.
Standard Earth Reader RP 3. Magic Scale 3 - 5.

Basic Formula SARx2/RP = t^2 + t
Estimate is sqrt(SARx2/RP). Since it's an estimate, I'm not to worried about rounding up or down. Or whether it starts on turn 1 or two. This is just to give an idea of how quickly one might get to a dedicated research goal.

Attentive Statues - Enchant 3 E2, 8 Gems, SAR 200
EAR3 ~ 11. EAR5 ~ 9 EAR6 ~ 8. EAR8 ~ 7

Compared to your later summons, they don't seem to impressive. However, they are well worth summoning. Consider the typical early expansion army- 10 infantry flanked by two squads of light infantry, ten each. This is sufficent to take down a few indies without many casulties. Now, consider replacing the core of ten infantry with ten Attentive Statues. They lack shields, but at 22 protection, they needn't worry about typical arrows. Even crossbows have to deal with 11 protection minimum, and they're 10 damage strength NOT added. These units are by no means immune to missile fire, but they do nicely. On top of that, all their stats are enough to squash your typical human heavy infantry, and at 50 morale, they'll never break- unless your mage gets squashed. They don't repair outside of a lab though, you'll have to keep an eye on that. Especially worth mentioning is their defense of 14- particularly higher than your later summons. And no encumbrance.

And in funding pinch, they have a patrol bonus, just send them to a farmland, and overtax those stupid abovegrounders.

Enliven Sentinels - Enchant 4 E2, 4 Gems, SAR 360
EAR3 ~ 15 EAR5 ~ 12 EAR6 ~ 11 EAR8 ~ 9.

Sentinels seem more attractive than Attentive Staues. On a one on one basis, they certainly have more hitpoints and strength for the gems, not to mention sacred. On the downside, they have five less defense. Sometimes that means they'll need more repairs at your neighborhood lab. On top of the greater strength, the Granite Sword has been replaced with a Granite Glaive capable of 7 damage, instead of 4, and length 4 causing some possible repels.

In all, they are better than Attentive Statues, but I wouldn't wait for them unless expansion was going very well. If my expansion was going swimmingly, then I'd save my gems for these. In other words, if I went with a high productivity bonus I'd save oup for Sentinels.

Enliven Granite Guard - Enchant 5 E3, 12 Gems, SAR 520
EAR3 ~ 19 EAR5 ~ 15 EAR6 ~ 13 EAR8 ~ 12.

Triple the gem cost, triple the hitpoints, and 22 strength. Throw in a 100% health bonus from a dom10 golem cult and you get 150 astonishing hitpoints. They're mean on the offense, capable of giving Giants a good show (though their 22 prot is matched by 20 strength+weapons). In friendly territory, they'll easily give those giants a good spanking and send them running home to their mommies. If you can afford them.

Enliven Marble Oracle
Haven't tried it yet. Can it lead troops? Any equipment slots? Prophet capable? Anybody have the juicy gossip on el Oracle?

Awaken Cavern Wight - No experience using it yet. What have you got to say?
Chill 3, undead. Available the same time as a a regular Wight, but costs 3 gems instead of five. Loses the bane blade in place of a more mundane glaive. Probably a little inferior, but at 60% cost, who am I to complain.

Summon Umbral - No experience using it yet. What can you say about it?

Stealth, Life Drain, Ethereal, undead. Give a Black Servant a Rod of the Leper King and you've got a raiding force. A lot meaner than shades.

Any juicy gossip on these units?

While your golems are formidable, they don't have any special crowd control properties. Thats why I suggest using them as the core of your force, flanked by mundanes. After all, your mages have much more mundane leadership than magical.

[Shovah32]

Umbra;s are great and extremely powerful, if you have death gems you should summon some.
Tomb oracles are mindless, lifeless magic beings. They are level 2 priests and have full slots. They have 85 health, 22 protection(thats before you put armour on them so you can give them things like robes of shadows), 22 strength, 12 attack and 10 defence. The fact that they are mindless along with their 15 MR makes them pretty magic resistant but being magic beings leaves them slightly vunerable.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Thank you Shovah. Now, bold in the manual means they are a commander, but not all commanders (scouts, for instance) can lead. Do the Marble Oracles get any mundane, undead, or magic leadership?

[Shovah32]

0 leadership all-round.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Poo. Thanks for answering, though. I've looked through the equipment lists, and theirs no serious magical leadership boosters, unfortunately. It would be nice to have a 160 hitpoint leader with 22 protection, but I'll have to settle for an Oracle of the Ancients for meaty magery.

[vfb]

A Const 4 S2 (10 pearls) Crown of Command gives magical leadership+25 (and mundane leadership +50 as a bonus).

[atul]

But does the crown give those bonuses to originally zero leadership unit? I once gave the rod of the leper king to that death summon scout in order for him to lead shade beasts, but his undead leadership didn't rise from zero...

[vfb]

Yes, leadership items work even if the original leadership is zero. I'm not sure what happened with your rod of the leper king, but here's a screenshot of a Black Servant leading some Shade Beasts into battle.



Leadership displays as zero because that's the mundane leadership; undead leadership is 50.