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| Your main armies can as well be considered as mobile research centers : if you plan to stay somewhere 2 turns, always build a lab ; and if an interesting new spell is near to be found never hesitate to stop your armies and research it. If you want to keep your rank in the research race and use huge communions with 30+ mages on the field at the same time it's the way to go. Having your battle mages researching 1 turn / 3 (one turn they take an ennemy province, next they build a lab and search sites, the third they research) is an huge advantage when most ennemies waste the research capacity of all the mages they use with their armies. This kind of slow progression also allow you to fight more often in defense, where your mages cast first (so spending one round to launch a communion isn't a problem). And if you happen to lose a battle, the net of labs allow you to recover far more easily, you just have to gateway troops to the previous one (probably where the survivors have retreated). At worse you'll give some labs to your opponents, but if they don't destroy them and forget to cast a dome, it can be an advantage as they make easier to open a second front (as described in 5.3).
8.12.2.2.5.6 Artillery Commanders If Arco don't have a good access to thugs, fire + water allow at construction 6 to use any commander as an artillery unit, casting 2 times more often than mages, with Boots of Quickness and a Wand of Wild Fire. According to my tests such a commander kills about 50% more units per fight (against a big army of protection 14 human heavy infantry) compared to a Bane Lord with Quickness Boots (same gem cost if items are forged with a hammer). Of course the artillery commander need an escort and won't be as usefull against big monsters, ennemy thugs etc... (or fire immune creatures of course) but equiping as many commanders as possible is definitively a good investment as long your ennemies use normal armies (and against bigger or very high protection preys, a Rod of the Phoenix instead of the WoWF allow to kill one troll or jotun giant per round... or a bane lord in two).
Like said above Arcocephale isn't as pretender dependant as most other nations. As you don't need a combat pretender or a bless (but may use them) there is a very large choice of viable builds, from magic-less monsters to rainbows or very-specialized mages. The national pretenders offer a large choice of titans chassis if you want a SC (including many with air or death, if you want to diversify), and you also have access to the classic undead or immortal pretenders, most immobiles types, etc... Anyway, I won't try to list all possibilities, just some interesting choices (my favorites for Arco being in one of these three categories : magical economy pretenders, scales monsters or specialized summoners). For the scales, the only requirement are for me a positive magic scale and no negative production. Sloth is a bad choice, as your best troops cost 24 or 30 ressources, but as initial expansion is done with elephants, gold and not ressources is the limiting factor in early game, so high positive production is not really needed (especially as gateways will allow you to build troops each turn far from the front and teleport them where you want). Mages are not old, so growth isn't a must have, priestesses able to heal troops may even be seen as a good reason to fund your other scales with a death dominion, increased affliction chances handicap others more than you (but on big maps some growth is always good to take for long term income). Order (+Misfortune) or Luck (+Turmoil) look as good. Luck is tempting for the extra gems it provides, and as mages are rather cheap an huge regular income isn't an absolute need, but Order boosts elephant based initial expansion, and later you want a lot of gold to build labs everywhere. The only interest of a very high dominion strength (considering sacred are ressource intensive and you have correct preachers) would be to give awe to an awake SC, and one isn't needed, so all my builds use medium dominion strength. 8.12.2.2.6.1 Magical Economy Pretenders National mages have no way to produce clams or other gem-producing items, and as a mage-dependant nation Arco needs a huge gem income to shine. Magical economy pretenders are IMO the best option for Arco (if you don't play on a small map or with special economy nerfs) if not the most exciting.
* Rainbow Forge Lord Dormant Forge Lord, Fire 3, Water 2, Earth 3, Death 3, Nature 2, Dominion 5, Turmoil 3, Death 1, Luck 3, Magic 3 This build is based on another kind of magical economy : being able to forge most non astral items at extremely reduced costs, when high luck provide extra gem income (and hopefully money). The paths allow the forge lord to make all the boosters your mystics may need (including f/w staves of elemental mastery once other boosters are forged), as well as clams or fetishes, most usefull SC items etc... all at half the cost with a hammer. The death level also allow the lord to summon spectres in midgame (or bane lord once a skull staff is forged), and skullface can be made at -25% cost, making easier to reach the tartarian level. Of course, with such a pretender, it's a good idea to race for construction 8 rather than developping endgame battle magic first. Offering more possibilities in late game, this build is weaker in early game than the Mother of River : -23% money can be a huge handicap if you don't get some income events fast and you don't have a pretender to use on the field in case of early emergency (but once cured by the priestesses, the forge lord is a slightly better combattant). Dominion is also low for a non-awake god, but it's rather an advantage in early game to have some provinces without your bad income scales. * Astral Rainbow Girl Awake Enchantress, Astral 6, Earth 2, Fire 1, Water 1, Death 1, Nature 2, Dominion 5, Heat 1, Death 1, Magic 3 (Luck 3/ Turmoil 3 or Order 3/ Misfortune 3 can be added) Here the idea is to have both an increased astral income and someone able to cast level 9 astral spells without empowerement, when magic 3 + an awake researcher allow you to reach endgame spells before anyone else. Out of astral, paths allow to forge usefull boosters like skull of fire, thistle mace then moonvine bracelet etc. (as well as fetishes, and some clams once 2W boosters are forged), but the enchantress will mostly be used as a researcher in the beginning (with construction 6 as a priority, so lightless lantern make the small early research advantage snowball into a big one). Then alteration 9 (wish) or enchantment 9 (arcane nexus) are the logical priorities. 8.12.2.2.6.2 Scales Monster Dormant Wyrm, no magic, Dominion 6, Luck 3 or Order 3 (but no Turmoil/Misfortune), Productivity 2, Growth 2, Magic 3 (or dormant Dragon with 1 less dominion and just his base magic ; dormant Manticore if you like to use the "call god" order a lot)
8.12.2.2.6.3 Specialized Summoners * Cyclop of the Shroud
(or Awake Cyclop, earth 9, Dominion 6, Order 3*, Heat 1, Death 1, Misfortune 3, Magic 1; or Imprisoned Cyclop, earth 9, air 2, Dominion 6, Order 3*, Growth 1, Misfortune 3, Magic 3) (* or same pretender with Luck/Turmoil scales, or less misfortune and more temperature) . An high level earth god able to create a lot of living statues per cast compensate a weakness of Arcocephale : the lack of good summons (of course you need to adapt your research plan, to developp enchantment 6 in midgame). In addition it provides a very usefull bless to both heart companions and... mages. What..? The mages are not holy ? With a shroud of the battle saint they are ! And Arco has no difficulty to forge a lot of them, giving all equiped mages protection 10 and reinvigoration 4 (if you add the boots of the messenger your priestesses can forge, it means you can use terrible classic communions, with all mages staying at 0 fatigue forever ; or half-reverse with all mages casting 10 rounds or more). Protection 10 is also often sufficient to have astrologers surviving the first hit, so it offers a good synergy with the use of ritual of returning. In battle the cyclop can be used as SC, or a terribly efficient caster of Curse of Stones (+3 penetration not counting items and boosters) or Blade Winds (if you use living statues or other troops with high natural protection as meatshields, Iron Bane + 4 x Blade Wind will humiliate any normal army). An option is to take the cyclops awake and use him as early game SC (as you priestess can cure him when he becomes blind, the main weakness of the chassis is not a problem). Another is to take him imprisoned to give him some air magic, so he is far more mobile (cloud trapeze), and in battle can use rain of stones, an excellent spell considering you have access to an infantry (living statues or blessed heart companion) with 20+ protection, and mages able to cast body ethereal (75% chance to avoid mundane dammage) ; and with a matrix to lead a communion he can also use fog warriors. * Mother of Lamias Dormant Mother of Monsters, nature 8, astral 1, death 2, Dominion 6, Order 3, Misfortune 2, Heat 1, Magic 1 (or very bad scales and Nature 9 or 10, but I don't think such a high nature level worth its cost when you have no recruitable sacred giants) Lamias are another option to give a cost effective troop summon to Arcocephale (here you need to developp conjuration 6 asap). Without body or feet slots, and taking extra fatigue in cold provinces, the mother of monsters is a one trick poney : extremely vulnerable as a supercombattant she should always stay in a fort summoning troops (or forging), but her bonus of +3 lamias per cast, coupled with high level nature, is not negligible (with a ring of sorcery + the treelord staff and moonvine bracelet she can forge, she will summon 15 lamias each turn for only 4 nature gems). In addition the nature 8 bless, not bad for heart companions, is clearly excellent for sirrushes, and as conjuration is a logical priority there is no reason not to use them. In the "specialized summoners" category, the ghost king is also available, but offers no particular synergy with the nation (mages don't have undead leadership, very high dominion has no particular interest, you can cast body ethereal if you need ethereal beings, etc). 8.12.3 LA Arcoscephale 8.12 Atlantis 8.12.1 EA Atlantis 8.12.1.1 EA Atlantis a love/hate relationship
2) Land nations are reluctant to attack you. 3) You can observe the land nations and strike at a time of your choosing. 4) Voice of Tiamat makes site hunting a breeze. 5) The physically HUGE underwater creatures are impressive. 6) You can take cold 3 and it does not have a negative effect on you underwater. I hate it because:- 1) No matter what map movement you have, you can only move 1 sea space a turn. It's soooo slooow. 2) No underwater missile units, if you cannot get a indie land province that produces archers you are at a major disadvantage, having no missile troops. 3) So many spells have NUW (Not Under Water) tag. So you have very few spells to use underwater, especially in combat. 4) If a land nation see's you take a land province near them they view it as a virtual declaration of war, ie...water nations should stay in the sea! 5) No independent underwater scouts, exactly the same as missile troops. If you do not capture a indie then your stuck.
1)Water provinces are generally fewer and larger than land provinces, moving through 1 water province is generally the same as moving multiple land provinces. 2)Strong battlemages, many common indy archers and the fact that only rlyeh has underwater missile units(if illithids can be counted as missile units) makes up for it. Most people dont have underwater missile units. 3)Everyone else suffers from this, why shouldnt you? 4)This is probably just the people your playing with, i havnt noticed any real problems with this. 5)Or you could build more castles which is what you should be doing. Also most maps have few water provinces so this shouldnt really be an issue. So basically yes, apart from mind blasting rlyeh having missile troops(EA mind-blasters are aquatic, MA are quite expensive and LA are the same price but you have a death dominion) other nations have these weaknesses. -> Atlantis EA is great. One of the things that really helps offset lack of archers are the basalt kings, which are able to cast bladewind and other powerful evocations once they do get on land. You are going to move slow though, which by itself is a disadvantage, however your living pillars get a bonus to defending castles, which means you can hold the territory you do grab. Also, just because you're underwater doesn't mean that spending points on a Pretender with high fire magic/flame blade bless is a waste. You can certainly conquer underwater areas better than any land-based nations, and with your living pillars equipped with flame blades, you can trash most land areas too, providing you can get enough living pillars (which isn't easy). It may not be the best bless strategy for Atlantis, but it's worth considering, and bless strategies should be considered for Living Pillars. You may not want to bother with extremely high blesses though, just make sure you can cast a lot of enhancing magic on them, like quicken, regeneration, berserk, luck, armor, etc. Anything that will help 1 living pillar take out about 12 of the enemy. Asp Turtles I believe are amphibious. If they are not, consider summoning them and then casting gift of reason on a bunch of them and equipping them with amulets of the fish. I hate to say it, but if used wrong, Atlantis can be a weak nation. They're the most similar of the three water nations to an "average" land-based nation, only they're slated towards small groups of tough soldiers. This can be a big disadvantage because it's very easy to get over-extended unless you use what resources you have wisely. Avoid attacking-or in general pissing off-land nations without a good reason, until you're firmly in control of the water and have many (atleast a dozen) castles up and running on the shore. You can grab a land-province if it's out of the way and has independent archers, but keep a strong force stationed there and buy troops on it every chance you get, especially archers. You won't have the luxury of province defence, but I think you can buy castles on land. If you can, do so, and keep a crack unit of living pillars and basalt queens on patrol. Buy archers on land provinces like you've never bought archers before. Research flame arrows. Combined with batteries of bladewind basalt kings, you'll be able to hurt the enemy pretty good, and the more you hurt them, the better the rest of your guys can hurt them, because pound for pound, you're going to kick explitive against the average land-based soldier. You can even hold your own against Niefels, Helheim, and Abyssians, although they're still going to maintain an edge. If possible, make sure your living pillars go berserk at the beginning of battle. Equip a small squadron of Basalt Queens. You can use them as heavy shock troops against land-nations and then when you push in to enemy territory, have them all start preaching and watch the enemy's dominion crumble. You want to armor them heavily, with shields, and again, if possible, make sure they're berserk when they enter battle, even before they get hit. Don't throw your shock troops away though, only put them in battles where they'll make a big difference, and where you'll win or atleast cripple the enemy. Your basic troops are going to be the little guys with the coral spears and the little guys with the basalt spears, and you want massive amounts of them. Basalt Kings make fantastic-but expensive-tramplers. They're size 5 so they do lots of damage, their morale is way better than an elephant, you can armor them up, and you can use them as artillery platforms in the beginning of the battle. 5 scripted spell slots plus massive trampling. Just make sure you don't put them in risky situations. I think that's enough for now, I'm trying to cut down on the size of my posts. Hope it helps! -> I prefer to get a hold on land as soon as possible when playing waternations and I have never found that to be a problem. You can start expanding on land long before land nations go down into the waves. But if you have waited to go onto land I think you have put yourself at a dissadvantage unless there is alot of sea provinces. Underwater you have friendly currents which is a powerful spell. -> E9n4 works very well on living pillars, making them a bit tougher and making them get very few afflictions. Ive also had lots of luck with an A3S3D3N3 kraken(sleeping, decent scales, can buff amazingly well) or awake archmage with decent spells(great research and forging). The strategy was to quickly research up to quicken self and ironskin(alt-3) and summon earthpower(conj-x) then a bit of conjuration, construction and evocation as requires. For expansion my starting army(commander prophetised) gets a few deep ones(spear+claw if i have resources, bite+claw if i have gold) and then goes off second turn, heading to land if there are no other sea nations(the army actually does better on land). If i get attacked fairly early, 2 basalt kings with quickness and ironskin equipped with enchanted swords, blacksteel kites and blacksteel plates(the cheaper plate) can take out conventional armies of 60 men and less(not including knights) fairly reliably. Add in a robe of shadows/ring of regen/lucky pendant/boots of the behemoth+summon earthpower and they become very nasty. Making them cast evocations in the time between buffing and attacking(providing they have reinvig) also greatly increases their power. Underwater coral guard possibly supported with living pillars is the way to go otherwise your poorly armoured troops will suffer major losses. Once i get researched up armies of sea trolls and coral guards with basalt kings casting bladewind/magma spells(with asp turtles/monster fish support underwater) are my main armies with smaller groups of basalt kings buffing with strongest prot boosting spell avaliable, quickness and summon earthpower(also fireshield/phoenix pyre if researched) with equipment: 2xswords of swiftness, horror helm, robe of shadows, flying shoes, ring of regen/amulet of resilience and lucky pendant/antimagic amulet/amulet of resilience are sent out to raid enemy provinces, generally buffing, flying in and sending off magma eruptions or immolations/buffing, blasting the enemy with artillery spells then flying in. -> Yeah, I love the Ancient Kraken. Gotta be my favorite SC. If you want to expand onto land really quickly, take a Dom 10 Kraken with earth 3, nature 3, air 1, astral 1, and water 1. Research construction until you can get amulet of the fish and amulet of antimagic, then switch over to alteration until you hit invulnerability, then switch to enchantment and evocation. Forge the amulets and the poison touch/poison resistance ring for your Kraken-you'll want one because otherwise your kraken poisons himself, especially when Invulnerability is in effect. Script him to cast Body Etherial, Invulnerability, Personal Regeneration (never put this one first or second, there's a bug), Personal Luck, Quickness. You'll be able to take out most anything, on land or in the water (as much as 8 units at a time-18 ap damage plus poisonx8, plus area-effect poison cloud, and at Dom10, you'll have 690!!! hp. Regeneration is goooooood), and you'll hardly ever get hit (not that it's going to matter much). On land against archers, trade Personal Luck for Air Shield. [comment: The bug mentioned above is that fact that if you script Personal Regeneration as one of your first few spells, it will be skipped, for no reason whatsoever. ] -> S3 or S1 on non-immortal SC pretender? It's just asking for opportunistic mage to teleport in and challenge him. It's not every day one gets a chance to slay 690hp SC so easy -> I can't see the point in putting any magic on the Ancient Kraken, or going with any bless at all for EA Atlantis. Give the Kraken Dom 10, and let rip. He can take out any underwater indies by himself, and just about anything else he runs into underwater. Equip him later on for tougher opponents, or for going on land (3 misc. slots). You can have great scales this way. Almost all of their units, including the very tough ones, are amphibious. I've taken to the land very easily with them. And the Basalt Kings are extremely good mages. Of course, the living pillars become pretty useless under this strategy, so only build them for defending castles. [comment: Magic can make the kraken much more powerful, particularly earth for boosting protection(25 protection ancient krakens are fun) and nature for regeneration(with the ancient krakens health he heals alot). A bless can be useful on basalt kings; i once tried an E9 bless and ended up with groups of basalt kings with a few defensive items and huge reinvigoration casting summon earthpower and phoenix pyre. They just exploded all over the place and never got tired. A bless isnt the best idea with EA Atlantis but it can be fun. ]
There is one reason to get a solid bless on EA Atlantis: ALL BASALT KINGS, ALL THE TIME. They make fantastic thugs; 16+ protection before armor, 50 HP, 17 MR, and fully equippable. They can cast quicken self, invulnerability, and fire shield. On top of that they're all sacred, and that's where your bless is going to give you truly brutal mileage. Download 5.74 Mb. Share with your friends:
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