Mictlan , how to play it effectively

[jarenko]

Earlier, I gave Mictlan a shot.

It was a fun experience, and different.

Dominion is hard to keep up, what with all the sacrifices needed.

What I am not understanding is blood magic. I researched it, and cast out some spells, but none seem very effective, and I don't see the lure of Mictlan.

The troops are weak, the priests are expensive(but powerful).

With blood magic, I tried using send horror, but it doesnt seem to have any effect.


What tactics are usable with this great country, and what am I doing wrong?

[archaeolept]

researched it, and cast out some spells, but none seem very effective, and I don't see the lure of Mictlan.

lol

the battlefield magic is difficult to use, and the remote summons are only somewhat useful. but the ritual summons, otoh,...

ie. bust out dah debbil bomb!

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon33.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon33.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon33.gif[/img]
[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon30.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon30.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon30.gif[/img]

we have a winnah111

(for instance, mictlan can cast summon fiend from the very beginning. blood hunt blood hunt and try out a small army of them set on hold and attack)

[Cheezeninja]

Mictlan starts out with the eminently useful spell bind fiend, so you really want to get your blood economy going fast because once you get about 10-12 of these babies you can mop the floor with indeps. Mictlan has the best blood hunter available in the mictlan priest. The fact that he's sacred (reducing upkeep) and recruitable everywhere can make mictlan a real blood powerhouse. Plus the tribal kings can create and lead slaves which are low upkeep patrollers for provinces where you blood hunt. I try to get a castle/lab/temple, 2 priests hunting with SDR, 1 priest sacrificing 2 per turn, and a tribal king patrolling in every province with >5000 population. With its rainbow mages mictlan can puruse almost any blood strategy you would like to try.

The real downside to mictlan is that it requires incredible micromanagement once you get larger, having to constantly balance taxes/unrest and constantly keep putting slaves on your sacrificers to spread your dominion.

[jarenko]

I didn't get a chance to try one. I was going to try to summon an arch devil or one of those other ones. I forget the name..it needs 150 slaves, I think and its like level 8 or so.

My dominion was destroyed before I got the chance.

[Sheap]

Blood magic is all about the summons. The combat spells of blood, while decent, have a lot of overhead in the form of the blood slaves, who are often killed by enemy action (sometimes without even trying), and even if not killed, get in the way.

Blood summons, however, are extremely strong. Ice Devils, Arch Devils, and Demon Lords are very powerful units who are better SCs than many pretenders, and often require minimal equipment to do their job. And, they are unique. All the blood nations need to race to get the powerful blood summons, and the limiting factor for this is usually blood slave income, rather than research. Mictlan's enormous bloodhunting capacity is a big advantage here.

Mictlan dominion, while micromanagement-intensive, has a lot of advantages. You can "aim" your dominion very precisely with Mictlan. If you take a hostile dominion, such as drain scale, you can simply avoid putting your dominion in certain provinces, for instance, carving out a low dominion area to do your research in. You can also push your dominion, suddenly and effectively, into enemy territories. This makes vampires (another blood summon) extremely effective. The ability to move your dominion (combined with low cost temples) also allows you to get away with slightly lower base dominion than you otherwise could. Mictlan is also highly resistant to being dominion-killed.

Send Horror is a powerful artillery spell, with an extremely low cost for what you get. It's not quite as popular as Ghost Riders, but this may be due to the difficulty of casting it. Horrors are extremely powerful against some types of armies and extremly weak against others. If you saw no effect at all, you must have done something wrong, as you do get to see the battle.

The in-combat Call Horror spells aren't quite as good, because whoever conjures the horror up is likely to be killed by it.

[jarenko]

That's odd.

It would say:

<priest> has cast Send Horror.

But nothing after that.

[archaeolept]

though I should say that in the only Mictlan game i've ever played, currently underway, I've used mostly troops and have only a minor blood income. As always, there are a lot of possibilities, but just pumping out a couple armies of fiends will do you well.

research construction 4 for the sanguine dousing rods.

mictlan troops are only good, however, w/ a significant bless effect.

t would say:

<priest> has cast Send Horror.

But nothing after that

perhaps the province was empty even of PD.

[jarenko]

I do not think it was, i was sending those little devil armies in, and it had some PD and some sages. Thats why I was trying to destroy his army there.

He had sages there conducting research. [or does having only leaders not count as an army?]

[Thufir]

Sheap said:
The in-combat Call Horror spells aren't quite as good, because whoever conjures the horror up is likely to be killed by it.

I have a slightly OT question, but one I've been wondering about for a while. That is, in SP play I've got an SC pretender who is using a "Shield of the Accursed" and when using this, everything in sight seems to get horror marked. Would it work as a tactic, to take an SC attacking the rear, armed with this shield while a mage in your own rear is casting the Call Horror spell? And/or is it helpful to have this shield in play while casting any of those spell that incur a risk of horror attack?

I guess I should test this on my own, but it would take me a while to setup a gamere where I have the in-combat Call Horror spell.

[Graeme Dice]

jarenko said:
That's odd.

It would say:

<priest> has cast Send Horror.

But nothing after that.

This is because you have either not patched the game yet, or you are casting it on a province with a castle and no patrolling troops.