newbie questions and comments

[rylen]

Hey,

Played the demo and loved it. Got a copy of the game and am now pushing it at other folks around here. I'll probaly look for a PBEM sometime soon.

Until then ...

I'm trying to figure out Mictlan. Other pretenders, I can get started and do well against the AI until at least mid-game. Mictlan falls apart early on. I'm not sure how to cope with combination of weak infantry and weak magic. The plentiful sacred troops seem nice though.

How do you keep Communion Slaves alive in Pythium? I'll take 4-8 slaves and 1-3 masters. The slaves are pushing 200 fatigue when the enemy routes and the masters keep casting spells. Result: they're gone or wounded after a single combat.

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This is a deep and rewarding game. But I would like some more information in some of the Messages.

First, in combat resolutions I'd like a breakdown of units lost -- not by squad, just by type.

I think:
4 Machacka (sp) infantry
3 Hopolites
Bob the Black Sorceror
is more useful then
units killed: 7
commanders killed: 1
and it reminds me what was there in the first place without having to run the combat.

Second, after capturing a fortress, some battle information would be welcome.

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Last, is the most recent topic post on the top of the page? I'm used to seeing things the other way round. Any way I can change how that displays?


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Thanks for the answers.

Rylen

[ July 25, 2004, 18:36: Message edited by: rylen ]

[Thufir]

Originally posted by rylen:
How do you keep Communion Slaves alive in Pythium? I'll take 4-8 slaves and 1-3 masters. The slaves are pushing 200 fatigue when the enemy routes and the masters keep casting spells. Result: they're gone or wounded after a single combat.

This happens to me as well and I'd love to hear the answer to this, as well.

I also found as Pythium that my Theurgs would randomly cast communion slave/master in a rather disconcerting fashion. If you always script through turn 5 does this prevent mages from casting c slave/master on their own?

And while we're on the subject of noob questions: I'm often at a loss as to how best to script combat oriented leaders (e.g. Tsien Chi noble or Pythium Serpent Lord), in the opening game. It seems that these leader types should be getting into the fray, but at least in the opening game I find them getting killed (or at least afflicted) altogether too quickly. This seems to be true even if I hold for 5 turns before attacking.

Is it necessary to wait for mid-game (when I can start equipping them with items), before I let these types of leaders into direct attack? Or is there a method to have them be more useful before I can afford to equip them? One thing I have done is to supply them with a cheap bow or misc item (l bow of accuracy or skull talisman), that gives them *something* to do, but it seems like there should be a better option than that...

[Huzurdaddi]

How do you keep Communion Slaves alive in Pythium? I'll take 4-8 slaves and 1-3 masters. The slaves are pushing 200 fatigue when the enemy routes and the masters keep casting spells. Result: they're gone or wounded after a single combat.

This is the big mystery! I find that releif in combination with making sure that the combat does not go on for too long tends to do the trick. To get releif going you have to find shaman which is a pain. Or you can do something insanely like empowering a thurg with nature 1. Or you can summon a Coutal.

I simply don't use communicants until I get some access to releif. Every time I try ( like in the current game i am playing I tried it ... again ) I get burned. Every freaking time.

[archaeolept]

ehh, so you lose a few communicants. there are more where those came from.

but really there are only two things to do:
1. as huzurdaddi said, get mages capable of casting relief (lizards are best, but druids w/ a nature staff work just fine)
2. up your ratio of communicants to theurgs, and go in w/ a stronger army (thus a shorter combat).

for mictlan, one word only: Devils.

[Sindai]

Originally posted by rylen:
I'm trying to figure out Mictlan. Other pretenders, I can get started and do well against the AI until at least mid-game. Mictlan falls apart early on. I'm not sure how to cope with combination of weak infantry and weak magic. The plentiful sacred troops seem nice though.

Weak magic? Mictlan has easy access to almost all of the really nasty aspects of blood magic since they have so many blood-something combination mages. It takes a while to get a blood economy up and running, but the process should speed up once you get a second castle up (since acolytes, who make the cheapest blood hunters, are the only mages you can build outside of your capital.)

The nature-blood mages give you easy access to crossbreeding, which means loads of cheap fodder. The fire-blood mages give you devils for elite troops. If you invest a little in magic-boosting items you can even start using the horror-sending spells with the astral-blood mages and summon ice devils for SCs with the blood-water mages.

[ July 25, 2004, 20:46: Message edited by: Sindai ]

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by rylen:
I'm trying to figure out Mictlan. Other pretenders, I can get started and do well against the AI until at least mid-game. Mictlan falls apart early on. I'm not sure how to cope with combination of weak infantry and weak magic. The plentiful sacred troops seem nice though.

Mictlan has weak magic? You're joking, right? Mictlan has access to everything but Earth, if you include their national heroes, and without their national heroes, they still have water, fire, astral, and nature, all combined with blood: Each Mictlan priest has the capability to do some sort of bloodcombo, in addition to the magic. The only drawback is that the priests are capitol only, with the exception of the cheapie priest, who makes a fine blood hunter.

Yes, your troops suck, and your battle magic is unimpressive, but you have the BLOOD. Forget about the troops entirely, they're not much more than crappy fodder at best. Fill your missing magics in with your pretender, make sure the blood flows, and mob your opponents in devils and/or vampires. Mictlan's REAL national troops aren't the ones you recruit, they're the ones you can summon: You get spine devils and fiends of darkness as starting national spells, and can quickly move into devils.

[ July 25, 2004, 21:16: Message edited by: Norfleet ]

[Boron]

Originally posted by Thufir:

And while we're on the subject of noob questions: I'm often at a loss as to how best to script combat oriented leaders (e.g. Tsien Chi noble or Pythium Serpent Lord), in the opening game. It seems that these leader types should be getting into the fray, but at least in the opening game I find them getting killed (or at least afflicted) altogether too quickly. This seems to be true even if I hold for 5 turns before attacking.

Is it necessary to wait for mid-game (when I can start equipping them with items), before I let these types of leaders into direct attack? Or is there a method to have them be more useful before I can afford to equip them? One thing I have done is to supply them with a cheap bow or misc item (l bow of accuracy or skull talisman), that gives them *something* to do, but it seems like there should be a better option than that...

almost every national leader like a tien chi noble is not worth it beeing equipped with items for melee as you did a bow of accuracy or something like this is a good solution if you want to strenghten them.
but serving as leaders is almost their single purpose .
a bane lord ( conjuration 5 , only 10 death gems ) does much better when decent equipped as almost all national leaders as meelee sc .
only exeptions that come to my mind are especially : jotun niefel giants , the more expensive vanheim heroes and the 390 gold man tuatha heros .
and ermor sg heros like wraith consul and wraith centurion .
really worth equipping are some of the special national heros like the ettin mandragora or the wraith lord for ermor if you get them early.
your pretender should be equipped and really worth equipping late game are :
vampire lords , wraith lords and tartarians

[Molog]

Originally posted by rylen:
Hey,How do you keep Communion Slaves alive in Pythium? I'll take 4-8 slaves and 1-3 masters. The slaves are pushing 200 fatigue when the enemy routes and the masters keep casting spells. Result: they're gone or wounded after a single combat.

Taking a high earth magic blessing for the extra reinvogeration. Having one of your masters cast summon earthpower to give him and his slaves extra reinvigoration. Equip your slaves with reinvigoration items. Take a death 9 blessing, if the slaves die, they return as undead zombie slaves.

[Lex]

is the general strategy for recruiting tons of blood slaves to pick poor provinces with little income and just ignore the unrest that builds up?

and how useful are blood sacrafices (is it a necessity for those races that have it or just an advantage in spreading dominion faster)

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by alexi:
is the general strategy for recruiting tons of blood slaves to pick poor provinces with little income and just ignore the unrest that builds up?

You can't ignore unrest, as a 1d400 must be less than the current unrest level for the hunt to be successful. The complete rules for blood hunting are found in this thread:
Blood Hunting Mechanics

You'll need to deal with unrest some way. Whether this is through lowering taxes to 0 in a province and only putting 2-4 hunters in it, or patrolling a province and killing the population, then moving on is up to you.

and how useful are blood sacrafices (is it a necessity for those races that have it or just an advantage in spreading dominion faster)

Mictlan must perform blood sacrifices to spread its dominion at all. The other nations have it as an extra option that they can use when needed.