Man: Tuatha questions

[Heironeous]

I've really taken a liking to the Last of Tuatha theme for Man and so I've decided to take them in an upcoming MP game. However, with only SP experience with this nation, I have a few questions about how to get the most out of it in MP:

1. Since most of the good leaders & troops are capitol only, does it make sense to take the fortified city? This works fine in SP (good admin compensates for sloth scale), but I'm concerned the combination of weak PD and few castles will make defense difficult in MP.

2. Are longbows the best option for early expansion? Two Groups of longbows + meat shields seem to do the job in SP, but that delays the build up of the excellent Sidhe troops quite a bit.

3. Are level-9 blessings really cost-effective? I had success in SP with astral-9 using an Oracle, but it seemed like the good scales I could afford with that setup were more important than the bonuses from the blessing. Air, fire and water all look potent, but would come at the expense of scales. I think earth and death would better address the nation's magic gaps, but the corresponding blessings aren't as strong.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

[st.patrik]

Here's my 2¢:

1. I don't know about the fortified city particularly, but I would definitely take a high admin % castle.

2. Longbows are definitely best for the first few turns - I usually build up a nice block of them, and then start recruiting daoine sidhe. But I do start recruiting daoine sidhe as soon as I have a heavy force of LBs (around 50 on a indep str. 6 setting), and thereafter rarely recruit LBs again.

3. No. At least I don't think so. Especially for Man since you don't have a ton of points to play with. You can get far better blessings from 4 or 6 in several fields than 9 in one. One combo that I go with sometimes is water 4, nature 6 - which gives a boost to defense, to make your troops even more untouchable than normal, and means that if they do get hit, then they have some fighting worth left. A blessing like that isn't too expensive, and so leaves you points for a good castle, and decent scales and dominion strength.
Although, Astral is nice to have for Man.

st.patrik

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Heironeous said:
1. Since most of the good leaders & troops are capitol only, does it make sense to take the fortified city?

Not really. Since you're more dependent on indy mages to get the magic research going, I'd advise choosing a cheaper castle (300-450) since you want to protect them more. And if you're using mainly longbows for defence, pick one with walls and a gate. A cheap catle goes well with cheap temples BTW. My favorite with LOTT is the Wizard Tower, but it's expensive.

This works fine in SP (good admin compensates for sloth scale), but I'm concerned the combination of weak PD and few castles will make defense difficult in MP.

Everyone's PD is weak and won't stop an human opponent on its own. In MP PD is just meat shields for your other defending troops - so don't let its quality (or lack of -) worry you too much.

2. Are longbows the best option for early expansion?

Obviously. Daoine Sidhe are one of the top sacred troops IMO, yet longbows are much more important to me.

3. Are level-9 blessings really cost-effective?

No, but they're fun.

I think earth and death would better address the nation's magic gaps, but the corresponding blessings aren't as strong.

Nature magic gives you Lamia Queens, and LQs are your entry ticket into death magic. Picking earth magic on your pretender is much more interesting bet if you want to address your nation's magic weaknesses. And (or) fire, if anything, to boost your longbows with Flaming Arrows.

[Heironeous]

Nagot Gick Fel said:

Since you're more dependent on indy mages to get the magic research going, I'd advise choosing a cheaper castle (300-450) since you want to protect them more. And if you're using mainly longbows for defence, pick one with walls and a gate. A cheap catle goes well with cheap temples BTW. My favorite with LOTT is the Wizard Tower, but it's expensive.

I was originally going to go with the Mausoleum, with that cheap castle + cheap temple concept in mind. However, I got some good advice that warned me off the Mausoleum (too flimsy) so I switched my plan over to a more solid fortification with tower guard/longbowman garrisons. I seriously considered the Hill Fort despite the low admin, as I was under the (incorrect?) impression that its arrow towers would fire as longbows when controlled by Man. I really like the Wizard Tower, but the Tuatha theme is already short on design points. Hmm, decisions, decisions...

Anyway, thanks for the feedback!

[Kuritza_Dru]

I don't have much experience in MP either (just started my first game, heh), but trying different playsyles in SP I have chosen a blood fountain pretender with a good scale. Blood 6 blessing seems to make the daoine sidhe much more effective, try it.
I was discouraged from using a nature blessing because Tuatha mages going berserk at the slightest provocation are really annoying. Glamour or not, they die rather easy when surrounded by the enemy.
On the good side, with such a pretender I have lots of money to raise a force of daoine sidhe. Order 3, productivity 2, growth 1, luck 1, magic 1, a Dark Citadel for a castle if I remember it correctly.
On the bad side, it's really difficult to cast any high-level ritual spells in the lategame this way, especially nature ones.