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| Priest King: This is my personal favorite among the priests. The priest king can lead a massive number of troops, is a holy 3 and nature 2 caster, and can summon free chaff. Many times I've used this commander to drop a divine blessing while another casts wooden warriors on a batch of eagle warriors, all while the cheap chaff take the initial arrow fire. I probably only like them more then the Sky Priest because I've been playing Mictlan before the sky priest was even around. Still a good buy in my opinion, but limit your investment.
Couatl: This is the most powerful caster Mictlan has. It's a lizard that flies, has only a head slot and two miscellaneous slots. It has Astral 3 and nature 1 as a given and can potentially get to astral 4. I think people dislike them because they lack the slots to make them effective super combatants. I've tried never to see them as combatants and that's probably why I'm okay with them. The truth is that as an astral mage, it has all the slots it really needs. Sure I can think of a dozen uses for the missing slots, but if your goal is to boost an astral mage in the cheapest way possible, then you only need a head slot for a starshine skullcap, and miscellaneous slots for penetration items or the other astral boosters. The only astral boosters that don't fall under head or miscellaneous slots are unique and belong on something better, like your heroes or pretender. Still 400 gold for this unit is a lot, even if you factor in that it's holy. Still, it's worth the investment, and they have considerable access to nature and air magic as well. A couple of coualt's and a team of turkey mages can fly into any province and dominate a battle field when done right. Magic: Mictlan has the advantage of having access to a lot of magic paths. They have reliable access to fire, water, air, nature, and astral magic. They can site search for all these paths and have the starting gem income to support such searching. In regards to death and blood, thenahualli have a slight chance at either and they have an undead hero with 3 death, 3 blood, and 3 holy. Also, water magic will lead to blood magic if you summon the Tlaloque, a Mictlan national demon summon (Conjuration 7). Each of the four has strong magic paths, including 3 blood and 4 water each. Earth is really the only magic completely unavailable to them. Strategies: Here is a small list of tactics you can employ as MA Mictlan. Teleportation: One advantage Mictlan has is that, with a little luck or preparation, you can instantly send your best priest, your best mage, and whole armies to locations far away and before the enemy can move. The high priest of the sky can naturally use Cloud Trapeze (Enchantment 4). Thecouatl can naturally use Teleport (Thaumaturgy 3). If you get a Priest King or a Nahualli with nature 3, or if you manage to get a couatl with nature 4 then using non-unique nature boosters, the Thistle Mace (Construction 4) and the Moonvine Bracelet (Construction 6), will allow you to use Faery Trod (Enchantment 5). If you equip a couatl with a Starshine Skullcap (Construction 6) then you can use Gateway (Thaumaturgy 5). Also, if you manage a couatl with astral 4 then you can equip him with a Starshine Skullcap and cast Astral Travel (Thaumaturgy 9). If you have an astral five mage , ether with luck or with a pretender, then you can exclude further reliance on luck and forge Rings of Sorcery, however, I'm opposed to this as it isn't an economical use of gems, even with a forge bonus. If you would rather prepare then rely on luck (or drop an additional 30-40 astral gems on a commander before you even move) then I would suggest putting astral and earth on a pretender to forge Crystal Coins and/or nature and blood to forge Armors of Twisting Thorns (both Construction 4). Using non-unique boosters allows you to, theoretically, make an endless supply of teleporting armies. I'm also particular to the earth and astral solution as that allows your to make Dwarven Hammers (Construction 2), which will economize your gem usage even further. Flaming Arrows (Enchantment 5): Sun Priest + 2 fire gems + Phyinox Power (Conjuration 3) + cheap national slingers and lion tribe independents = barbecue. You can boost the effectiveness of this strategy by casting Wind Guide as well (Alteration 4). This is a strategy is better employed by a non-bless Mictlan, as it works better with larger armies. Acquiring a more powerful fire mage or finding a way to make Fever Fetishes (read below) makes this a more viable tactic. Using Negative Precision Spells: Mictlan can benefit from the use of spells that decrease the effectiveness of precision or of projectiles. The Moon Warriors and Jaguar Warriors deal a good amount of damage at the cost of not wielding a shield. (Their shields aren't that great anyhow.) The moon warriors are also your most elite non-sacred unit, and most would argue that the jaguar warrior is their best unit period. By using spells like Mist (Evocation 3), Storm (Evocation 5), and Arrow Fend (Enchantment 6) you can eliminate their greatest weakness. Eagle warriors also benefit greatly from these spells, with exception to storm as that prohibits their ability to fly. The storm spell is more difficult to cast, but isn't out of Mictlan's reach. A High Priest of the Sky with Astral can commune or you can be lucky enough to get a high priest of the sky or a couatl with air 3. The best approach in my opinion is to create a Staff of Storms (Construction 6). However, you can't do so without an air 4mage, which Mictlan doesn't naturally have access to. Air 4 is also the requirement for the the two common air boosters, the Winged Helmet and the Bag of Winds(both Construction 4). Having a pretender or some other caster with air 4 will open up the world of air magic to Mictlan. Alternating Recruitment: If you decide to take advantage of Mictlan's spear chucking units and in doing so use the standard bearers, then I find it most effective to alternate your recruitment. So buying 2 mace and javelin warriors followed by a feathered warrior will keep a standard bearer in each square. This is more important with Mictlan then it is with Ermor or Pythium as their standard is weaker. Buying one feathered warrior for every 2 warriors isn't all that bad as the feathered warrior is also an experienced soldier. The cheap cost of Mictlan's troops also helps. The real drawback is that this can become a tedious recruitment process. Things to look for: Here is a list of things you don't want to miss as Mictlan. Most of these include a curtain combination of random magic levels or independent provinces to look out for. A High Priest of the Sky with Fire and Nature or a Priest King with Fire: If you manage one of these two then keep them by your side and use them to forge Fever Fetishes (Construction 2). A Priest King with Water: Water is the easiest thing to boost. Once boosted to 3 with a Water Bracelet (Construction 6) and a Robe of the Sea (Construction 4) this priest can start making Clams of Pearls (Construction 2). I would also argue that middle-age Mictlan needs astral gems a little more then it needs nature or water. Independents with flying units: Middle-age Mictlan has a wide variety of flying commanders but doesn't have any flying units that it can recruit to back them up. (The eagle warriors fly, but only in battle, which isn't helpful on the map.) I tend to see middle-age as the Mictlan with more finesse. Combining instantaneous travel via teleportation spells and flying armies will keep Mictlan competitive. The most useful flying units are of course those from amazon independents, the griffin and pegasus riders, as they are also sacred. A Priest King or Nahualli with Nature 3, a Couatl with Nature 4, or a Couatl with Astral 4. Read Teleportation in the above strategies for details. 8.26.3 LA Mictlan 8.26.3.1 Assortment of tips -> Mictlan is all about the blessing. Their national conjurations and blood summonings are all sacred, so your bless is still valuable even in the late game when your national troops are only useful in a support role. Jaguar Warriors are really good. I play EA Mictlan more then LA, but my standard bless is w9n6b6 this coupled with a high base dominion allows for cheap effective expansion armies. Jags get good mileage out of regeneration because of their thirty hit points over two forms, but the nature bless is largely to benefit my later, high hit point, super combatant, demonic sacreds. Transformed Jaguar Warriors, Jaguars, and Ozelotls all have three attacks so a fire bless is very strong for them.
8.27.1 EA Oceania 8.27.1.1 Tips -> You have no midgame because you can't use your mages on land, just accept it and skip straight from early game (getting the seas) to late game (clams and huge summons). You need astral magic late game, so if you don't have astral mages your first 50 clammed pearls get to go the empowerment. And yes, they take a while to pay themselves back, but outside of the queens most of the stuff you can get with water gems isn't that impressive, and it's only 3 nature gems per clam with a hammer. Or, you could burn a few hundred of them on sea king's courts, those little naid warrior things and winter wolves, take a few provinces on the land, and then get smacked back into the ocean once whoever you're attacking actually bothers to get together a force to take out your army of chaff. That's an investment that will never pay off. Be smart, build clams. Oh, one more bit of advice: grab a few nice-looking land provinces from indies if you can at the beginning of the game...while your land troops aren't much threat it's a safe bet that your land-neighbors will leave you a few provinces to ensure that they don't have to deal with being raided. Just a good way to leverage a bit more territory. Don't go crazy topside though, the more land you have the more worthwhile it becomes to attack you, since the reward goes up while the threat of retaliation remains relatively flat. -> Sea trolls are excellent, no fire weakness like normal trolls, higher HPs, just as good on land as well as sea, 1 sea troll for 1W gem is excellent value. Also sea trolls court is good, did you know the sea troll king produces 1W gem per month? So eventually he repays the 55W gem cost, also what else are you going to use those water gems for? -> Yes, I second that EA Oceania is not at all weak, in SP as well as apparently MP. Hippocampi sacred calvalry are atleast as good as Helheim sacred calvalry, possibly better, since you can compare rejuvenation to glamour, and glamour may come out a little ahead, but then add on that you get the hippocampus back if your sacred rider gets killed-plus in the water you're not competing nearly as much sacred-to-sacred. I had half a dozen medium-blessed hippocampi calvalry annhilate atleast 12 independent provinces without any of them ever taking an affliction, let alone losing a rider. Even if one of them had, the affliction would quickly be healed, which enabled me to build them up to 3 stars with 0 afflictions very quickly. If Hippocampi-riders were amphibious, EA Oceanea would dominate the entire game since you'd have more time to build up a powerful sacred force and the enemy would have a lot harder time destroying your economy or raiding you. Even so, you can equip your triton kings with air-breathing which gives you a minimum 4 water caster with lots of land-based spells, and you'll have lots and lots of them, because you've destroyed all independents everywhere, including the sea-trolls and the amber-clan guards and the krackens and the leviathons and the dragon-turtles, and everything else you might or might not encounter, independent-wise, and R'lyeh and Atlantis won't even look at you funny, they're too busy outfitting the cave-fortresses they have to live in now because you're out there and only getting closer. And your triton kings are going to be hella-tough when they get on land because you've got a bless strategy going for them as well. And that's when you start making amulets of air-breathing for your hippocampi-rider CAPTAINS. -> Step 1: Dominate the seas. Unless the map is cradle or full of sea squares there are likely to be at most one other sea nation. I believe Oceania has an edge vs either of the other two sea nations. So dominating the seas should not be too challenging. Step 2: Cast Maelstrom. You should be ahead in both gems and gold even before the spell as the land nations busy themself fighting each other. Step 3: cast Sea King's Court. With Maelstrom and the Troll Kings' gem production it takes relatively little time to gather a large Sea Troll army. Step 4: Land. In MA the sacred troops are quite tough on land too. -> Kydnides are great. Also my Oceania has managed to get (I think more or less as an eventual result of native casters and forging boost items): Naiads, death Naiads, Vine Men & Ogres & Kings, Ether Warriors, Firbolg, Spectres, Faerie Queens, Water & Air (& Earth via pretender) elemental royalty, Djinn... and even without the unique summons I could have several other types but I'm doing fine with these. Wave Warriors and Kydnides make a good army center at least against general foes who don't have too much artillery - human opponents could hurt them easier than the AI. I think it's a bit challenging because one needs to get more creative and mix/match with indies, expensive summons, etc. -> 1. Call Wraith Lord, which in turn generates ghosts. They compliment the Sea Trolls very well. 2. If in war raid coastal provinces with temples to destroy them. 3. Take coastal provinces with longbowmen or xbowmen and fortify them against all but large invading armies. Use the likes of murdering winter against large invading armies. Use these as your base for land conquest.
8.27.2 MA Oceania, OMG, I think I've done it 8.27.2.1 Basic Guide
I have only played one multiplayer game with MA oceania (slow 10 Player) so my experience is a bit limited. I did however end up winning that game, defeating Amhazair in a spectacular end game with seraphs and other nastiness =). As to pretender I went with an immortal master lich with some magic in all the paths the nation lacked for a stronger end game. This is not a must, but I do strongly recommend you to have high astral access on your pretender (Reason: strong clam nation with no astral mages). MA oceania measures up very well against the other 2 water nations. I never had the opportunity to fight atlantis in game I played, I did get to fight R'lyeh however. The key to winning that fight is to get access on the spell antimagic (my teleporting immortal pretender helped with that). As always various underwater buff spells like shark attack, friendly currents etc are important as well. Your first research goal should without a doubt be thaum 2 (haruspex). The reason is that the ocean floor has a lot of kelp fortresses that you want to get for free. In my game I found about 6-8 early fortresses as well as securing a healthy nature income by turn 15-20. Not having to shelf out the gold to build these forts are obviously one great early advantage (resulting in more early mages and high resource troops). After this I would go conjuration for shark attack and voice of tiamat (you want lots of water income). One thing that is something to keep in mind from the start is the fact that MA oceania mages sucks when they go ashore (getting penalties in their magic paths). In fact I cannot think of any nation that has worse mages above water. Any good dominion player is going to tell you that magic is vital in winning the end game. So in the late game "land" fighting you are going to need a good gem income so you can summon mages to help your national armies. The path to victory if you are playing for one is in my opinion easiest achieved by these four guide line steps: 1. Secure the water (eliminate Rlyeh/atlantis) 2. Establish a strong clam economy 3. Put up the nexus 4. Summon a lot of mages to help you (including seraphs through wish) as well as tartarians and other good summons. (of course you need to do alot else, these are just the rough frame of your strategy) Tip for pretender design/scales: Go with enough astral so that with booster items you can cast wish/nexus. You can expand fast without an early SC so make it sleepy or imprissoned. scales: dom 5+ high order productivity, good if you can afford it, not vital by all means. pick a heat or cold scale since income is not affected. growth: I like growth, guess it's not vital however misfortune: usually my pick with most nations magic: I recommend getting +1 on research.
8.27.2.2 MA Oceana - OMG, I think I've done it 8.27.2.2.1 Original Guide Article Author: Baalz [This is a CBM guide] MA Oceana has a lot of stuff working against it. By any measure it is one of the weakest nations in the game, but for those wanting a challenge (or perhaps playing against opponents significantly less experienced) this does provide an opportunity to play a handicap match. Let¿s see what kind of clever nastiness we can pull with both hands tied behind our back. And no, I¿m not forging a single clam. On first glance the Trident Knight looks like a halfway decent sacred unit. He¿s not, he¿s bait and a big money sink. He¿s got two big problems, his encumbrance and his cost. He¿s got a whopping 8 encumbrance which means even with a strong earth bless this is not a long haul fighter. He¿s got a single moderately good trident attack (with no first strike bonus), so he is not a big damage output. Though he¿s tough enough you can¿t kill stuff fast enough to stay ahead of encumbrance unless you field him in numbers which aren¿t feasible at 100 gold a pop. Totally not worth investing in a blessing. Fortunately, his cheaper cousin the ichtycentaur is actually pretty darn good, arguably the best thing about MA Oceana. Good defense, hitpoints, speed, a shield and first strike lance, this guy gives you the first part of your ability for a blistering initial expansion. He¿s got a low resource cost and can be pumped out basically limited only by gold as long as you don¿t go crazy with the sloth scales. Now, his one weakness is that light lance doesn¿t deal very high damage after the first strike which is compounded by his size so you¿re gonna struggle against very tough opponents or when heavily outnumbered. This is actually MA Oceana¿s Achilles heel, the lack of serious damage output is something you¿re going to struggle with all game (not to worry, I¿m an evil bastard and have you covered). Against indies though you can almost universally run them over by just sending in enough ichtycentaurs they do hit hard on their first strike and have enough defense to outlast mediocre opposition. Using a pair of sirens works well for large, juicy farmlands with hoards of heavy cavalry along the coast as well. The siren song is actually a pretty descent deterrent you¿ll want to sprinkle in the path of anybody fighting on your coast, it¿s basically like casing mind hunt which can be extremely effective in the beginning of the game when MR isn¿t buffed much. Astral mages don¿t provide cover and unlike most assassins bodyguards don¿t help so there¿s not much that can be done to counter during the early parts of the game other than staying away from the coast. Domes also don¿t help, you can pretty effectively harass capitals or research centers along the coast. If there¿s friendly water adjacent just set the sirens to retreat and there¿s really no risk even if they¿re patrolling for you. Two other units bear mentioning though they¿re not going to play central roles in your indy expansion. You¿ve got several flavors of heavy infantry, but I look at it this way the thing you¿re struggling with is damage output. This means you really only want to recruit the trident infantry which come in two flavors. You pay a steep premium for the mermidon over the wave warrior, but I think he¿s well worth it with 40% more hitpoints, 18 vs 14 protection, a shield, and 2 more strength (this is a big deal for damage output). Basically, whenever you don¿t have enough money to spit out ichtycentaurs or are in peacetime and not clearing indies, recruit as many mermidons as resources allow. They do decent damage and will carry you through most things not requiring a serous punch, and with the high resource cost you¿ll want to slowly build them up. Once you start slapping wooden warriors on them they get up into the ¿requiring a serous punch¿ range themselves. One thing to keep in mind if you do find yourself in an early war with some heavy guys (Abysia, Ulm, etc) with an earth gem one of the earth random mermages can drop rust mist which can be the best gem you ever spent in some circumstances and is an easy research detour if you need it. You can also, in a pinch, use a gem to summon earthpower, and another gem to lay down giant strength. Expensive and annoying micro, but it can sometimes be the extra punch you need to put you over the top. Finally rounding out your starting lineup is a unit that will probably slip under your radar on first glance, and probably your second glance as well. It¿s the cheapest chaff on your roster, the Oceanian Triton. Before your eyes glass over realize this is not the same unit as the indy tritons you can recruit. This guy has 50% more hitpoints, 20% more strength and 1 more MR plus higher attack and morale. That¿s a pretty steep increase for a chaff unit at the same price. Now one of our first goto spells with MA Oceana is barkskin/wooden warriors/mass protection, and with that buff these guys start looking like real good chaff. This is the unit which is going to be your goto for fighting R¿yleh with your buffs your chaff is much stronger than theirs and fielded in large numbers with a 12 MR. Download 5.74 Mb. Share with your friends:
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