Uses for Skratti?

Aleph · #1 February 21st, 2007, 10:43 AM

As the only constant mage choice through all three ages of giant nations, I'm betting many people have thoughts on how best to use these bad boys. I'm kind of overwhelmed by the number of options they have - you could use them for artillery support with Falling Frost or blood magics, thug them up and let them go to town as werewolves (which is what I've been doing), blood hunt, push into the water with robes of the sea... I see too many options, and I'm looking to narrow them down a bit.

Actuarian · #2 February 21st, 2007, 11:33 AM

I'm not sure why you would want to narrow your options. I like their versatility. I've even used them in werewolf or wolf form as troop couriers to get Niefel giants to the front more quickly.

This is probably a bug, but I did find a creative use for the Werewolf (or wolf?) aspect of Skrattis. My mage form of Skratti was marked with old age. I noticed that he wasn't 'old' in the other two forms. Every year I changed his form the turn before the age afflictions kicked in and he never sufferred any old age afflictions.

lch · #3 February 21st, 2007, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Actuarian said:
Every year I changed his form the turn before the age afflictions kicked in and he never sufferred any old age afflictions.

When do old age afflictions kick in, exactly?

I got a sage province and recruited one sage every month there. When I had three of them, suddenly two of them got diseased, although I don't have Death dominion. Needless to say, I was pissed. Your shape shifting workaround might work for Mictlan, too.

thejeff · #4 February 21st, 2007, 12:57 PM

Late winter?

Aleph · #5 February 21st, 2007, 01:24 PM

I like that they have all these options, I just wanted to know what people's basic builds are for different ones. When I thug them, for example, it's usually just a pendant of luck, a reinvigoration amulet, and Chill of Winter + Quicken Self. It works okay, but there's probably better builds out there. I pretty much only use them for arty once I have falling frost. I'm thinking of trying out Jotunheim as a blood / scales build, and it looks like skratti are their big guns (unlike Niefel, which with the right blesses you pretty much only need your capital sacreds).

And can anyone tell me how to use leeching touch effectively? The computer occasionally uses it extremely well (Father Illearth survived some doom horror attacks with it + invulnerability), but I can't get my guys to use it by planning for it.

Ironhawk · #6 February 21st, 2007, 02:08 PM

Quote:

thejeff said:
Late winter?

Yes, late winter. Nice trick - dodging old age like that!

Probably is a bug tho...

Morkilus · #7 February 21st, 2007, 03:35 PM

It's not a bug, it's an exploit. Random birthdays in Dominioins 4!

Aleph · #8 February 22nd, 2007, 12:14 PM

So... Skratti? Or we could just start another topic in here, like, what do Niefel Jarls like to eat for their birthday meals?

Vicious Love · #9 February 22nd, 2007, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Morkilus said:
It's not a bug, it's an exploit. Random birthdays in Dominioins 4!

Tremendously thematic exploit, isn't it? I'm all for keeping it in.

NTJedi · #10 February 22nd, 2007, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Actuarian said:
I did find a creative use for the Werewolf (or wolf?) aspect of Skrattis. My mage form of Skratti was marked with old age. I noticed that he wasn't 'old' in the other two forms. Every year I changed his form the turn before the age afflictions kicked in and he never sufferred any old age afflictions.

Well if you're doing a change form back and forth every year that's two turns of research for one unit. So if you're doing change form for 20 of these back and forth that's 20 units not researching for two turns... thus if one provides 7 research then you're losing 140 research points each year.
It's probably better to take a growth scale then to do the micro_management of changing forms and losing research.