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] -> You forgot phoenix pyre, possibly the best buff these guys can cast. With it cast(and sufficent reinvigoration) their battles should go like this. 1)Buff 2)Kick several kinds of ass 3)Eventually get killed 4)Explode upon death, killing many enemies 5)Reappear on battlefield with full health and some fatigue 6)Let reinvigoration remove fatigue 7)Repeat steps 2-6 as required
their units have low Magic Resistance. They however have the most armored recruitable unit of Early Era, acces to some great battle magic and possibly very advantageous start underwater.
- Underwater start is beneficial, especially if Agartha, R'lyeh or Oceania aren't around - Good priestly power from inexpensive Holy 1 Coral Priests to Holy 3 Basalt Queens - Basalt Kings are wonderful battlemages who are Sacred and have acces to various Acid spells and Blade Wind - Deep One units are 50% Resistant to Fire and Cold and most of them have magic Basalt Spears which allow them to damage Ethereal and Mistformed units - You get units who have poisoned weapons and armors. Okay, they are weapons and armor made from poisonous coral - Living Pillars are the most armored unit Early Age offers - Basalt Kings have amazing ease in making powerful supercombatant boosting items - Reduced effects of taking Cold or Heat because of Fire/Cold resistant units and Heat/Cold doesn't affect money generation in the seas - Partial or full Darkvision on all units Cons of Atlantis - Vulnerable to missile weapons - No inexpensive research mages. Mages of the Deep cost 250 gold. - Low Magic Resistance on the Deep One units muddle their advantage against elemental magic and ethereal enemies - If all three underwater nations are present it will become very crowded and inevitably a war will break out and you might be at disadvantage - No easy way to Earth bless which would be a great boon to Atlantis - Your stronger units are costly in money and Living Pillars cost 56 Resources which is an obscene amount - Somewhat low precision of the units makes spell aiming harder Scale and Pretender Design This is a quite tricky part for Atlantis because you must make a choice if you want to aim for a bless. Be prepared to pay through your nose for any other bless than Water 9 which isn't so hugely useful for Atlantis (and it's an underwater nation!). If you want to use the Living Pillars you must also take high amounts of Productivity because they cost humongous amounts of resources.
Taking Growth could also work if you want to turtle in the seas. Not necessarily a good plan though, but Growth can be helpful. However it might be that you can't afford it.
though. Taking Cold works against Agarthan attempts to invade the seas. Noteworthy pretenders for Atlantis are: - Dagon. He is a superb supercombatant and with some luck you can slap a Black Steel armor, an Ice Sword and a shield on him before turn three. Then he is free to rampage! He starts with only 2 Water picks. - Monolith. You could try a bless strategy with an Imprisoned monolith. Don't except to get much done with the pretender itself though. - Arch Mage. He is 0 points and Aquatic, but you can give him a pick of Air and he can forge Amulet of the Fish when you hit Construction 4. You can take some low-level mixed blessings him like 4 Earth 4 Air 4 Water or even more if you make him Dormant or Imprisoned. - Ancient Kraken. In my opinion one of the funniest pretenders around, he is quite customizable but he is also locked to the watery realms unless you give him some Air and make him forge Amulet of the Fish. You can try a low-level multi bless strategy with him such as 4 Water 4 Air 4 Earth and even more if you use some of the Awakening options. The longer he stays in sleepy lands the less supercombatant potential he has though. His only slots are three Misc. slots. - Wyrm. An undying favorite of Dominions players, the Wyrm starts with no magic but you can give him some magic at the cost of 50 points for every new pick. I'd focus on only one path. He regenerates and gets two attack per round with a highly venomous bite. He hasn't got much slots, but he can wear two helmets.
excluded. He is very cost effective for what he does and his Coral Spear poisons enemies! His Coral Cuirass will also enemies who use Lenght 0 attacks on him. A superb unit in the start. I like to buy them in batches of 10 when I hit 100+ resources in my capital. They can also be recruited in costal forts.
The Reef Dweller's dark blue skinned colleague who totes around a regular Spear and wears a chic Sharkskin Armor. Very similiar to Reef Dwellers but they don't posion stuff. They do have marginaly higher protection. They also cost way less resources and you can get 2.5 Spearmen for the resource price of a Reef Dweller, so you might be better off building these to inflate your numbers in the first turns before you capture some surrounding provinces. I like to buy them in batches of 10 for the first two turns. Shambler: An older, larger Atlantian who is hardcore enough to go literaly buck naked to combat and demand 30 gold for it. He gets two attacks with his Claws and he has good stats. He has poor protection and is larger than a human and can get ganged on. They only cost 1 resource though. I don't myself use them much because they are so vulnerable.
35 Gold and 7 resources and coming with good HP and decent other stats the War Shamblers make good units unless you are in dire need of money. Coral Guard: A Shambler wearing Coral armor which looks a bit silly, being pink and all. However their weapon of choice is the high-damage, one-handed (!) Coral Glaive which poisons enemies on the top. They have protection of 14 and good stats but their encumberance is somewhat high and they can pass out in prolonged battles. They cost 40 gold and 26 resources and you might have hard time wielding them in number.
resistance which is VERY useful in some situations as natural resistances and resistances from spells stack! They also get 100% Darkvision. This particular Deep One unit uses only his natural weapons, claw and bite and no armor. He isn't a very useful unit if you ask me and I practicaly never buy them. Deep One Warrior: A Deep One armed with a magic Basalt Spear that can pierce some protection spells and a Bite from his gaping maw. They are inexpensive and could be used as emerengy troops against ethereal targets. Unfortunately ethereal units tend to have something that does nasty stuff that can be resisted by MR. And the Deep Ones have magic resistance of 8. Which isn't good. They can be useful against Seasonal Spirits and the like though.
three attacks though, Claw, Claw and Bite so he could be used as a shock troop of sorts against low protection targets. Like those silly mermen without armor.
and drawback of the deep fishies I mentioned on the previous Deep One units. Use accordingly. Costs 40 gold and only 11 resources. Living Pillar: A Sacred Warrior of the Deep with a Castle Defence bonus and great protection...but he has an obscene encumberance and resource cost. 56 resources is a very large amount and these guys just cry out for an Earth bless which is hard to get. They are slow in combat and have use mostly as tanks. They do get protection value of 20 though, and that is nothing to sneer at. The cost at it comes is huge though and you should think if you even want to use these units at all. They also have poor magic resistance. He has the same magical 4 damage Basalt Spear and Bite. Living Pillars are Capital Only. National summons: Giant Fish (not avaitable in the demo) Atlantian Commanders: Scout: An Atlantian scout with all the advantages they posses. The only scouts recruitable underwater are your national ones, but you're better off buying others units in most of the cases. Coral Priest: A cheap Atlantian Holy 1 priest who can also be recruited in coastal forts. Shambler Chief: A Shambler that has some position of authority. He totes around a Coral Club and can lead 40 units. You are better off recruiting Coral Commanders even if they cost a bit more. Coral Commander: Somewhat expensive for a normal commander but they have the equipment of the Coral Guards and they get 80 leadership which is double what Shambler Chiefs get.
A Shambler priestess with 2 Holy and 40 Leadership. She costs 130 gold and unless you have some specific need for priests other than temply building I'd rather buy Coral Priests. Can be useful against undead hordes before you research Blade Wind though. Mage of the Deep: A Shambler mage with 2 Water, one random which is either Fire, Water, Earth or Astral and another random which is either Fire, Water or Earth. Mages of the Deep have somewhat varying use depending on what randoms they get. All Mages of the Deep can cast some simple Water spells and higher level will be more efficient at it. Fire/Earth ones can cast Magma Bolts and forge some very useful magic items that can be used on an early supercombatant pretender or your commanders. 2 Earth ones who are rare could even forge Black Steel Full Plates and use Blade Wind after casting Summon Earthpower. 2 Water 2 Fire ones can cast Acid Bolt once you research enough conjuration. 3 Water 1 Fire ones can cast Acid Rain. Those Mages of the Deep can be used to search for Astral sites and the rare ones who get 1 Astral 1 Earh can forge the Communion Matrix items which can be very useful as they have the effect of casting Communion Master or Communion Slave depending on the type of the Matrix item. If my memory serves right they can also forge Crystal Coins which increase their, or anyone else's Astral skill when worn.
She costs 350 gold but has good stats Defence excluded, I've seen a Basalt Queen rout a Merman force of roughly 25 Mermen by casting Holy Avenger, Smite and whacking couple of the Mermen down with her Basalt Club. But I wouldn't use them as thugs because their Defence is low even if their HP is great. They are great priests and commanders and totally worth buying nevertheless. They are Capital Only. Basalt King: An old Deep One mage, the Basalt King is a Sacred mage with 1 Fire, 2 Water and 3 Earth picks with a 100% chance to get either a pick of Fire, Water or Earth magic and a slim 10% chance of getting another pick of Fire, Water or Earth. Since Basalt Kings start with 3 Earth they are quite obviously suited for Blade Wind casting, but this spell can also hurt your own troops. But since Basalt Kings are exceptionaly tough and can cast buff spells like Quicken Self, Fireshield and various protection spells from Earth they can make good mage-thugs as long as you don't slap a too heavy armor on them. Even if you don't use them as thugs they are exceptionaly tough battlemages.
them with fatigue. They also benefit from all bless effects and Earth bless is very good for them. They can also cast Claymen and Fire Ward which can be used to make the already resistant Deep One units immune to fire. Yes, immune. You can then use Fire path spells without worries with your Deep Ones! Basalt Kings can also forge some very useful items such as Fire Brands and Charcoal Shields. Basalt Kings cost 500 gold and are Capital Only. Bless Benefits: The tanky Living Pillars and the magey Basalt Kings benefit from the following blesses: Earth: Your Living Pillars will have huge fatigue problems in battles longer than 9 rounds and reinvigoration never harms mages, so Earth blessing will be very beneficial for you. Too bad there's no easy way to it for Atlantis. Nature: Your sacred units have 30-40 HP and Regeneration given by Nature bless can give them some more staying power. Water: Somewhat debatable because the Quickness given by 9 Water won't help Living Pillars that much...and it might even make them pass out even faster! Extra defence is always helpful though. Astral: Your Living Pillars have Magic Resistance of 8 which is low, too low. Astral bless gives you more Magic Resistance. 8.12.2 MA Atlantis 8.12.2.1 Nation guide: MA Atlantis Article Author: Baalz MA Atlantis Kings of the Deep. An apt name as the Kings of the Deep are exactly where you need to be thinking with this nation. Ok, before I get into specifics I want to set you into the right mindset for playing this generally considered weak nation. There are two major driving forces which are going to dictate your game as MA Atlantis. The first is that you¿re underwater. The second is that the other two underwater races are a whole lot faster out of the gate than you are. This is critical to keep in mind, you will always be rushed as MA Atlantis - you have to start planning for it even before turn one. Assuming you can live long enough its equally important you also have to have a plan for taking the war onto land. Now, onto your troops. Atlantean infantry Various flavors, not good for too much other than being rather blah meatshields. The one good thing is their weapons and (mostly) armor is weakly poisonous, so this can be effective in certain situations. That¿s what your PD is made of so it can be enough to convince high cost elite troops (Vans, etc) that there are less expensive targets to steamroll. They can also be an effective deterrent to a small subset of thugs which are not poison immune. Shamblers nothing too special but the best you¿ve got for general purpose troops. The unarmored shamblers only cost one resource and are a reasonable choice for levying emergency troops on short notice. War shamblers aren¿t so much bad as they¿re definitely subpar for being the best thing you can recruit. War lobsters Expensive, aquatic only, and disposable¿yet surprisingly effective. These guys have fragile riders who quickly die under most any attack leaving a high hit point, hi protection trampling critter of questionable loyalty (they¿ll randomly attack friendlies as well). Think of them kinda like a cross between elephants and gladiators devastatingly effective when massed (unless a counter is present) but disposable (you don¿t keep the lobster after the fight if the rider dies). These guys are most useful for sticking in the front lines to soften up the bad guys after breaking their initial charge. Mother guards again, these guys aren¿t so much bad as that they don¿t compare well to other nation¿s super elite holy units. They¿re too expensive to be worthwhile without a bless and not good enough to justify the points of getting a good bless, being capital only. Commanders all are amphibious: Scout He scouts. Shambler chief General troop herder Consort a reasonable good blessable early thug chasis except you¿re unlikely to have a good bless. High encumbrance is another pain, but he can be useful if you¿re clever. Coral queen H3 priests are generally pretty useful and she¿s no exception. She¿s also got enough hit points to ignore a stray arrow or two (including the seeking kind) and has poison barbed armor. A tad on the expensive side for not being a mage, but she¿s recruitable everywhere and for priesting she¿s top shelf. Initiate of the Deep Your cheap mage, capital only. You won¿t really want to get these guys, get the much better and only a little more expensive Seers of the Deep. Seers of the Deep By the time you get your second castle up your capital should basically be making one of these guys every turn mostly because your capital is the only place you can get them. They¿re really good for the price, the only downside being that they¿re capital only and old. These guys give you reliable access to astral magic. Kings of the Deep The centerpiece of the Atlantean nation, these guys just about have it all. Enough hitpoints to make them an effort to kill and astounding magic diversity. These are your ready made thugs, your powerful artillery, and your uber troop buffers all rolled into one¿and they¿re recruitable everyone. See section below for more details. The thing to keep in mind is your troops are just straight up subpar. They all have their niche uses, but they definitely are not going to win the game for you against the best stuff most any other nation can bring. Specifically, the two other water nations are going to beat the snot out of you at anything resembling an even fight. So, as I mentioned before you have to play MA Atlantis with the mindset of starting turn one as the underdog. Every gold R¿yleh or Oceana spends on recruiting troops you¿ll need to spend 1.5 or 2 if you try to fight them straight up. With that in mind you don¿t want to do that. You want to minimize how much of your gold you spend on subpar troops, and since that¿s all you¿ve got you want minimize how many national troops you get. You¿ve got a lot of options once your research starts ramping up, but (IMO) Atlantis absolutely needs an awake combat pretender to stand any chance at making it that far. There are a couple reasonable options, but keeping in mind that the primary role you need your pretender to fill is to be your backbone until your Kings of the Deep can take that role, my favorite by far is the Ancient Kraken. With a 10 dominion and the accompanying awe this guy will handily take out any independents, and recuperates those unlucky afflictions everybody gets. With such a high dominion he¿ll be useful defensively all the way through mid game as your national mages can buff him. To those saying he becomes useless pretty fast due to lack of slots I say try this : Ancient Kraken inside a 10 dominion outfitted with an antimagic amulet, ring of regen and a lycanthrop¿s amulet. Turn one you have a handful of mages cast (and then retreat) body ethereal, iron warriors, luck, quickness, iron will. That bad boy is now protection 20, with 690 hitpoints (regenerating 130 something per turn), lucky, ethereal, and a MR pushing 30 (depending on your magic scale) with 8 armor piercing attacks around 35 damage and an AOE poison attack¿.oh yeah and +3 awe. Change out your equipment depending on what you¿re actually fighting and I guarantee nobody is going to call you useless. Bonus, this requires no magic paths on your pretender, so even if he does manage to go down to a lucky soul slay leverage those H3 priests and he¿s quickly back for more at just the price of those cheap items you put on him. This touches on my next point, Atlantis needs gold like it¿s going out of style to get up a second and third castle as fast as possible and start cranking out the Kings of the Deep (who are not the cheapest things in the world). Again, there are certainly other viable strategies but with your great national magic diversity I see no need to put any magic on your pretender at all. If your pretender is ¿naked¿ then once you get several Coral Queens to call him you can use him exactly like an immortal he¿s back in action a couple turns after dying. A pretty nice bonus for pumping all your design points into excellent scales. Scales you¿ll want Order, Sloth and Cold (cold dominion doesn¿t negatively effect underwater income, though hot does). The other three you can put to whatever your personal preference is. Your Kraken can attack indies on turn one and should take one province every turn until you run out. At that point when he¿s not fighting move him to wherever you want your dominion pushed. You¿ll want to push your dominion as far as you can, not only is it a very beneficial dominion, it¿s also directly part of your defense so long as you¿re counting on your Kraken to defend you dominion strength strongly effects how powerful he is. For this reason it¿s important to push your dominion early, investments in temples pay off in several different types of dividends. For this, as well as being able to call back your Kraken quickly it¿s a good idea to build up a couple Coral Queens even though they don¿t initially seem like they¿re helping much. Depending on what you¿re fighting a half dozen smite spammers can be a pretty good deal. Now, outside of indies your Kraken is mostly going to be a defensive tool because he¿ll be fairly puny inside enemy dominions. You¿re never gonna win fighting a purely defensive fight, so what to do? First off, as I said before you want to severely limit how much money you put into recruiting national troops. It¿s probably worthwhile to make a lobster expansion party or two to supercharge your initial expansion. Once you get critical mass they¿re not nearly so disposable against indies. Outside of that though, save your gold and focus on getting castles 2 and 3 up as soon as possible. When you do meet a hostile nation you¿re going to try to sucker them in to fighting in your dominion so your Kraken can molest them (trust me, it¿s not hard to make Atlantis look like a good target). In the early parts of the game if you can crush your opponent¿s primary army you secure a very big leg up. If you can get such a leg up, you follow up by leveraging your superior gold (because you haven¿t been pumping out troops and have an awesome dominion) to take advantage of another feature of the big blue ocean, lots of low resource indie troops. Specifically shamblers (same as your national troop) are all over the place and you can easily recruit 30 per turn out of several provinces right along your border assuming you have the gold. As I said before, these guys are not going to win you a fair fight, but if you¿re pressing an advantage gained by a decisive victory and superior economy you can compound the advantage rather rapidly by snatching several border provinces as your opponent most likely sticks to much more slowly recruiting his superior castle troops. You¿ll take losses, but you¿ll also compound your gold lead with every province you take. Drowning your opponent in flesh is a good way to counter mindblasters, while against Oceana you¿re going to want to use war lobsters against the heavier armies while using your shambler hoards to raid and avoid real confrontations. You have to always keep in mind that you¿re the underdog and you have to fight just like the scrawny guy set upon by a burly thug hit him hard with everything you¿ve got and for the love of god don¿t try to straight up mach strength with him in a direct contest. Download 5.74 Mb. Share with your friends:
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