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Gibbor - 75g/39r sacred giant. 38HP size 4, so you should try mix them with size 2 troops, especially if they are on 'Hold/attack'. Magic sword to damage enemy SCs who thought etherealness had been a good idea - attack of 13 and 27 damage is good to finish heavy infantry with one blow. And has 2.5gold maintenace vs. 2 of a Gittite. Their price seems high, but actually they can be recruited in numbers if you did not take sloth scales. Their main disadvantage is mediocre protection (13). I recruit them in the capital until I have resources are out, then switch to levites. Will accumulate 2 stars in no time. Has Gluttony so prepare to buy Bags of Wine, Cauldrons and Summer Swords if you have a lot of them. COMMANDERS Iassacharite scout -Has a shortbow. The only such unit of yours would be the one you start with. Iassacharite sage - One of the main strength of Gath if played correctly. 50GP for 3RP (plus 10% FES) would not be bad if the unit would not be sacred to top it. Granted, you need an overpriced 800GP temple to recruit them, but the reduced army maintenance from your sacred army leaves you some gold. Can be recruited without a lab if you are content to walk them 2-3 provinces to start researching. With Magic-1 you get 2.4RP for 1 gold maintenance. Perfect option to spend your leftover money at the end of turn. 10%FES. They are also of old age. Sybil - S1N1 with some fortune telling (5) for 80gold, not sacred. 2 mapmove as all of your units (save one). Buy them if you need a guaranteed S1 caster in the next turn for arcane probing or to throw curses. You have other S1N2 mages available so most probably you won't buy much. Gittite Commander - 27hp, 12MR, 12 precision and 40 leadership - the most you could get outside of your capital on a national recruit. Buy them if you haven't built a lab/temple yet in the castle. Abba - A giant N2+100%FES mage for 120gp. Decent stealth (10), heretic - the latter is a small annoyance if you keep them in your own domain to remove afflictions (heal 30) from your sacred troops. Unfortunately has no leadership to lead stealthy troops without items, might want to kit them up and send deep into the enemy provinces to raid weak PD. Recruit some early for manual site-searching and Haruspex, and to heal the afflictions accumulated by your Gibbors. S1N2 can make moonvine bracelets and provide access to higher level nature spells. Yeddeoni - 1D1E+100%FESD in four flavors, your general battle mage. Your main commander to lead your undeads and demons into combat (undead leadership 30 or 60). With Twiceborn you could make them undead. All can cast Dark Knowledge. E1D2: skullstaff, skull mentor, Dust-to-Dust, Shadow Bolt, Soul Vortex (with booster), Summon Earthpower with boots), skellispam, so could make a decent thug and great undead counter. Besides starting point on the Death Magic ladder. E2D1: the usual earth battlefield (esp. with boots and bloodstone) boosts and evocations, plus Dust-to-Dust, Gnome Lore. Blade Wind and Earthquake against chaff. FED: Dust-to-Dust, Magma bolts, Magma Eruption (boots, bloodstone, Earthpower) ESD: Dust-to-Dust, Nether Bolt, communion with their kind or Kohen Gadols Kohen - B1H2+100%FES for 150g. Better researchers than the sage, less upkeep than your other cheap mages, and later you can use them for several purposes. They benefit from bless, the F randoms are blood hunters, the E and S ones have limited self-bluffing capacity (Stone/Iron Skin or Body ethereal/luck/twist fate). In CBM, the SB ones can call lesser horror. Also sabbath slaves to Kohen Gadols. Seren - 200gp equipped sacred thug (100gp in CBM), 42HP, 18 defence and 17 protection with magic sword, unfortunately 73resources. However, you are better buying Gibbors for expansion, and you need to recruit mages early to start research as your pretender is dormant. You might buy them if you have no money left for a Kohen Gadol to get a ready-to-use thug. Kohen Gadols - B2H3+210%FES for 400g and 31r. You only commander with decent leadership, they will lead your armies and cast Divine Blessing on your sacreds. Cross-path randoms allow to forge some crucial items without expensive empowering. Three misc slots which comes handy for boosters. S2B2 ones can Call Lesser Horror to clean up indies and weak PD on their own, and make skullcaps to Send Lesser Horror. E2B2 would make blood stones after B empowerment/boost. Might want to empower one to Astral if you did not get a cross-path random for Crystal Coins. Earth battlespells with sabbath/communion. F2B2 ones can build up your devil armies. Two blood empowerment for 105 slaves to forge Brazen Vessel/Armor of Souls/Soul contract for freespawn devils. Also, a recruitable thug/SC chassis if you have a lot of gems/items.
Some national summons have the great disadvantage of being castable only in wastelands. So counting them on before game start might not work well. Se'irim - 28HP sacred demons with 3 natural attacks for 16 damage each, 8 for 33 slaves, Blood 3. All your Gadols can cast it. They definitely deserve bless and boosts to unleash havoc on the unsuspecting. No wonder Baalz loves them. Wasteland summon so might not want to build your strategy on them. Shedim - lighting-trwoing flying non-sacred demons, 3 for 24. Needs B3A1, thus empowerment if you find enough air gems or air indies/illusionists, or a pretender built such. Wasteland summon. Fossil Warriors - Memories of Stone, E2D1 Ench-5 so any Yeddeoni can cast it with Boots. Wasteland summon, 5+ for 10 gems. 17HP giant longdeads with MR 15, attack 12, and damage 26.
Mazzikim
Malik Lilot
Hashmal - Needs either a lucky Gadol or empowerment (+booster) for S3F1, Conj-6, 25 gem. Flying H2 inquisitor, ethereal, awe +4 thug Arel - needs 3 Astral boosters on a S1N2 Abba (or nature empowerment on a S2 Kohen Gadol) 39 astral gem.N3H3 caster, thug, healer, awe. Ophan - 5S2F, so your F1S2B2 Kohen Gadol can cast it with rings of Wizardry, skullcap and a crystal coin. Chayot - 7S3F, so if you do not have an Astral-Fire pretender you need further empowerments to cast it. HEROES Sybil - S3N4 mage Nabi - H2 human priest, superfluous with all your Kohen masses
You have anti-SC giants, curse-spamming sibyls for deterrence, H3 priests and sacred troops. You do not need much help in research either. So the obvious choice is an imprisoned pretender with some bless and good scales. Scales Order: obvious for the gold. T1 is a possibility, though, if you take H1-L3. Sloth - S1, neutral or P1. If you take more than one slot, you will have difficulties recruiting both a Kohen Gadol (31r) and more that two Gibbors each turn. If you take neutral scale or even P1, however, you could mass Gibbors from turn-4 onward. With your generally high scales you should be able to afford it. Also, you would be able to recruit 5-6 of them AND a Kohen Gadol later. Heat: H1 is preferable, you should take H3 for points . Save the levites, the troops you'd be recruiting have fire resistance, so do the Seren and Kohen Gadols Growth: G3 is good for gold later (even if only comes with O1 or O2), and it is needed to balance the supply loss from heat scale - Gibbors are gluttons. Also good for your old-age Sages. Luck: I'd prefer L1, combined with M1 for the random gems. Magic: with cheap sacred researchers it is either M1 or M3 (you can afford both).
You can blood sacrifice and have H3 priests so a low-to-medium-strength dominion (5-7) should be fine, you won't have resources for more Gibbors anyways. Magic Paths and Blesses Now depending on the mods and whatever chassis you choose, you have several bless options. I'd pick N4 for regen and reduced affliction chance, E4 for small reinvig (although with E2 casters one might drop it) the rest is IMHO optional - whatever you want or the pretender chassis has for cheap. A rainbow would allow four or five minor blesses. Optional minor blesses: F4 for the Levites and She'ir, A4 for boosters and air access, W4 for water access and defense, S4 for MR (as you have magic scales) and late-game summons, B4 for extra damage. With rainbow pick A and W 1-2 to get some limited water access. Possible Major blesses with moderate scales: E9N4 with the cyclops, will give your recruitable sacreds a protection of 17, but the She'irim won't benefit from the protection bonus of the Earth bless. F9 is great for the She'irim to hit ethereal, but IMHO a minor blood/fire bless is better - your Gibbors can hit Ethereals anyways. With the single attack of your recruitables it is not optimal. W9 is IMHO too expensive due to the lack of suitable pretender chassis - only the Rainbow Frost Father has it. A9 if you are facing several archers/air nations S9 for MR and twist fate, less than optimal for your giant troops, but good for endgame summons, and the extra Magic Resistance benefits everyone Pretender Examples: Sphynx F3E4S9N4, 5 dominion, O1P0H3G3L1M1, that could cast the high-end national summons without empowerment. In CBM the same chassis allows F4E4S9N4 and 6 dominion. Imprisoned Lord of Rebirth with E4D3N4, one additional minor bless and great scales. In CBM comes with 2N2D gem income to balance the lack of gems in Late Age.
8.40.2
8.41 9. Hotkeys 9.1 MISC SHORTCUTS a select/deselect all commanders b bid for mercenaries d recruit province defense e end turn f fortress info h hide/show right-side menu l enter arcane laboratory m read messages n next commander without orders o temple and dominion stats r recruit units s send messages t army setup v view battles in current province x change tax rate y shows army setup screen for commanders moving to the selected province. Good for planning attacks. +,- scroll commanders Enter deselect all commanders >,< grow or shrink commander icons Esc Options menu or return to previous menu 9.2 STATISTICS SCREENS F1 nation overview F2 score graphs F3 Hall of Fame F4 pretenders of the world 9.3 MAGIC l enter arcane laboratory F5 research F6 global enchantments F7 magic resource treasury F8 magic item treasury
Arrows scroll map Home goto capital End zoom x ½ scale Insert zoom to cover the whole screen Delete zoom to view entire map Page Up zoom in Page Down zoom out # goto province number Note, date can be found from the main UI in the upper-right. 9.5 MAP FILTERS 1 flags and forts 2 armies 3 dominion 4 income and resources 5 temples and misc symbols 8 neighbors 9 province names 9.6 UNIT ORDERS (capital letters indicate Shift + key) Space choose order from menu A reanimate, call spirits B blood hunt C cast ritual spell D defend E break siege F forge magic item G call god H heal M monthly ritual P preach the Word of God R research S search for magic sites T storm castle W capture slaves X patrol
Z pool all blood slaves to laboratory 9.7 UNIT SELECTION Double-click select all units of same type Shift-click select multiple units (click and) w select all units with afflictions (click and) e select all units with 2+ experience stars Enter deselect all currently selected units
Space pause w toggle map grid f fast-forward the battle movie n advance battle movie to next round
10.1 Lies My Rulebook Told Me Lies My Rulebook Told Me, or The Unofficial Rulebook Errata Thread 10.1.1 Major issues -> Call god is a 50 priest-turn process, not 40. p52 -> If forces from different nations attack the same province on the same turn the order that the battles resolve in is deterministic based on nation number. It is NOT random as described in the rulebook. p66 -> Blood hunt income is affected by the master site setting of the game. This is not reflected in the formula given for slave income. p69 -> Units retreating from a fort or break siege attempt flee as usual as opposed to dying. p69 -> Global enchantments take effect when cast, not as described in the turn order. p72 -> Critical hits hurt a heck of a lot more (and may be more frequent) than the formula given would indicate. p76 -> The stated attack penalty for multiple repel attempts in the same turn is not actually applied. p76 -> The formula for missiles landing against shielded units overstates the protection that shields provide. p77 -> The description of how morale checks works does not seem to be accurate. High morale units don't seem to be hit by unlucky rolls as often as they should be with the formula as stated. p80 -> Similarly, fear does not seem to function exactly as described, since units never seem to run away on the first turn they engage, which should be possible. p56 -> A mindless leader that is given retreat orders or is autorouted on turn 50 of a battle will dissolve, even though it should be able to command itself. p81 -> Path boosting spells are compared to gem expenditure, this is not accurate, as path boost spells in combat function like having the path innately, increasing max gem use and allowing gems to further boost the path. p89 10.1.2 Moderate issues -> Mercs don't mention that they vanish when they flee. p45 -> Immobile pretenders can only teleport, not cloud Trapeze or Gate, as the book says. p47 -> Chill and heat effects are variable, not a flat 5. p57 -> Research does not grant experience (beyond the base 1 that everyone gets). p58 -> No mention of needing a lab to equip items to commanders. p63 -> Move and patrol doesn't patrol for hidden units or unrest, it just defends outside the fort. p69 -> The attack current province command on a hidden unit will join any magical attack made on the province as opposed to moving during normal unit movement. p71 -> Animals have a siege penalty which is not stated. p81 -> Extra paths due to boosters are not included as extra gems for a global, though they don't count as negative levels if the caster is under the minimum. (Not tested by me) p88 -> Effective dominion score for temple (and possibly other forms of) spread does not increase with temples built, it is set by starting dom. p93 10.1.3 Typos/Minor Issues/Clarifications -> The scale chart on p39 is just wrong. Look at p51 for more correct values. -> The scale chart on 51 has incorrect values listed for random event frequency modifiers for the order and luck scales, and the resource values given for the production scale. (Inclusive of negative versions of each scale.) p51 -> SR from A9 bless is 75, not 70. p49 -> Magic resistance should be compare to defense value, not protection. p55 -> Glamour does not always come with stealth. p56 -> Diseased units only have a chance of gaining additional afflictions, it's not for sure. p58 -> The stealth formula and example don't use the same values. p67 -> Clams can't make pearls when unequipped, example is incorrect. p72 -> Morningstars and flails get bonuses against shields instead of ignoring them (slight uncertainty on this one). p75 -> The numbers given in the poison example are mathematically incorrect. p78 -> Prophetizing a high-level priest is not actually a good idea. p95 -> Death magic grants 30 undead leadership, not 20 as the manual says. 10.2 Countering Master Enslave -> When someone is casting Master Enslave, they use either a Pretender or a communion. If they use a Pretender, your best best is to kill that unit before it casts. The AI likes targeting high HP and large units, so it's not hard for a defender to kill that guy dead before he can cast on round one if you use the good attacking spells. If they are using a communion, killing off the communion members with area spells works. Otherwise, sending thugs and SCs with high MR is a fine way to kill a Master Enslave Army. The spell is MR+, so some Banelords with a few MR boosting items basically means they can't be affected. -> Antimagic is an obvious, if not 100% effective, response. Army of Lead as well. Master enslave back if you can (meaning let him master enslave and then cast master ensalve last)
In my last game, I was casting it (among others) with an Astral 12 (native) Seraph, with an effective astral of 18 (boosters, banner, and shield) and penetration + 4. Most of the enemy's heavy hitters would resist it, and we would have our little battle afterwards... make sure that the enslave casts before your army-wide buffs, so that your new converts do not die from the battlefield-wide enchantments. Of course, against one of my opponents, who was relying on troops to breach my castles, Master Enslave + Vortex of Returning by patrolling mages did wonders. He never stormed a single castle.
That's actually not true. Several nations get access to S4 mages (Marverni, Arcoscephale, R'yleh off the top of my head) S4 + cap + coin + crystal shield + ring of sorcery = S8 Heck, even cheaper is to drop the ring and have a second mage carrying the light of the northern star - bonus he can cast vortex of returning after the master enslave if you want. Slap an eye of the void and rune smasher onto your main caster for +4 penetration. Drop those two where you expect an enemy army to move and they'll act first so no anti-magic and no retaliation at all. Yoink! Counters: One seeking arrow (or possibly a couple) will sink a lot of your enemies gems. Most assassin spells will work well if you can outguess where he'll be dropping in. If they're dropping in on you a dome of flaming death will also ruin his day. If he's not using vortex of returning using SCs/combat summoning spells (elementals, etc) should work pretty good. -> Cast a couple Ghost riders on the army. That will trigger the mages to use gems. -> master enslave is nothing special, it's just one of the spells of this problematic category. Rain of stones and bone grinding (combined with fog warriors or high hp mages) are worse for me, as some nations can easily cast them 3 or 4 times in round one (if you can cast it 4 times bone grinding is the nastier spell against human nations, as it kills even the mages who had an armor to survive rains of stones). Undead mastery and arcane domination are more niche, but being lower level can be cast with better penetration bonus (and considering late game troops often include some feebleminded tartarians, undead mastery may give excellent returns for its price). 10.3 Cost efficient blood hunting -> When you don't have recruitable cheap blood hunters you can always use scouts or indy commanders. Don't give them SDRs since they only work on blood mages! That makes even B1 mages with the rod 90% chance of catching slaves compared to the 10% chance of scouts.
The Mictlan Priest. The most efficient independent Blood Hunter is the Garnet Priestess. Mictlan also has the most effective summoned blood hunter in the Tlehpuchi. 25 blood slaves to summon, a B2 (flying, stealthy, assassin) who can summon themselves and don't even need a sanguine rod. They can be used to get MA Mictlan into blood in a huge way. 10.4 refuting common wisdom on scales everybody knows -> I thought I¿d take a moment to refute some of the conventional wisdom that everybody knows. Let me preface this by making it clear that I¿m in no way saying that the conventional wisdom is always wrong, just that it¿s not always right. Gold is king. You¿re foolish if you don¿t take order-3 with almost any nation, and turmoil is practically unplayable competitively. This is not true. Gold is a means, not an end. It is often the case that making other choices will allow you to spend less gold on expanding at the same rate. Production allows you to use more heavily armored troops, so you can use less of them. Taking an awake pretender allows you to use less troops for expansion. Taking a better bless allows you to split your sacreds into smaller armies for more rapid expansion. All of these can very well end you with a stronger position than if you took in more gold but also spent more gold. Order/turmoil scale is a balancing act which must be planned for in the context of your nation and your strategy for optimal return. Expansion is queen to gold¿s king. In order to have a competitive build you must be able to expand very rapidly. If you can¿t grab about 20 provinces by the end of the first year you need to go back to the drawing board. False. Provinces are a means, not an end. Namely, provinces are a way to get more gold and gems. Of course, all other things being equal the more provinces you can get the better, but you must consider the opportunity cost. The first obvious one is that scales are often sacrificed to optimize expansion. A swing from order-3, prod-3, growth -3 (+ 39% income) to turmoil-3, sloth-3, death -3 (-39% income) means you have to expand more than twice as fast merely to break even. This is an extreme example to illustrate the point, but the concept holds on any smaller variation every tick down in your scales is more you have to work just to break even for gold. In addition, extra provinces have a downside - you¿ve got more area to defend, more money dumped into PD, more upkeep in troops to defend it, and of course more troops and casualties to conquer it in the first place. This is another consideration that most people don¿t consider, the opportunity cost of dumping gold into troops as fast as you can to fuel a fast expansion. If you stop and think about it, it is often a stronger position to have 12 provinces with 3 castles than 24 provinces with just your capital castle at the end of year one. With extra labs, mages & research, triple the troop production (even without accounting for production scale differences) and superior defensive options you stand a very good chance of clobbering the guy who¿s grabbing provinces as fast as he can (and probably making enemies along the way). At some point, obviously, it¿s a good idea to devote resources to things other than expansion. This point can be quite a bit earlier than many people realize. Sloth is almost always great dumping grounds to get design points. False. As I illustrate above production can often lead to more economic power than order whether from more efficient use of your troops or faster expansion. Doesn¿t take a rocket scientist to figure out that triple the troops (-45% to +45% resources) can often translate into double the gold income which trounces the 30% swing in income from order-3/sloth-3 to turmoil-3/production-3. Again, the same is true in smaller increments. Download 5.74 Mb. Share with your friends:
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