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Re: C\'Tis - Miasma, Question about cold blodded

Quote:

Kuritza said:
There are not many ties between Pangaea and CTis, in my opinion anyway. Perhaps these summons may be some remnant of Sauromatian past?
CTis was probably contributing to Ermorian campaigns when Pythian swamps were conquered (at least its only logical that Ermor would use its lizard auxilaries in a swampy campaign). And there were these twisted death/nature mages, much like Sauromancers of old, but also skilled in blood. Perhaps their wicked souls still cling to their mortal remains in the swamps, heard by Marchmasters of Ctis.
Something like a Witch King revenant , 1d + 1B + 1?BND
And, well, Conj 4 seems a bit too low. Its comparable to Specter, after all.

I really really like your idea http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I have 0 modding skills though so only devs or CBM may make this happen.

Re: C\'Tis - Miasma, Question about cold blodded

Quote:

Xietor said:
There are no crocs in the Miasma. New orleans is the Miasma if there ever was one. Our swamps have gators, not the wimpy crocs. Crocs are longer, but a Gator is much thicker and broader.

I am pretty sure the C'tis nation is based on Egyptian influences. Miasma /= the bayou, Miasma = Nile flooding. Egypt has Crocodilios, not Alley-gators.

Re: C\'Tis - Miasma, Question about cold blodded

Bah, backgrounds can change! Obviously New Orleans is a superior Miasma to the swamps in the Nile Delta.

Re: C\'Tis - Miasma, Question about cold blodded

If I recall correctly, seas are immune to Miasma. So you can give indie and site-based mages water-breathing items and park them in a sea lab for research/forging. A few will get diseased before they get there, but not too many, I don't think.

Once you have a foothold in the water, you can use your water gems on aquatic summons and not have to worry about them getting diseased either. (Of course, once you've taken over all the available water, that's not so useful anymore.)

Maybe MA C'tis should automatically be placed on a coast like LA Atlantis - it seems appropriate for them (how many landlocked swamps do you know of?), and since they have good options for getting into water (at least if there's no actual water nation right off their coast), it would help a bit.

I forget - are winter wolves immune to miasma? Ethereals probably should be (this would also give C'tis another route for preserving indy/site mages - Robe of Shadows).

Another idea I had to help C'tis deal with their dominion - make an item that turns the wearer undead, or add that effect to one or more existing items (Wraith Crown or Rib Cage seem appropriate). This would allow them to immunize indy/site mages from miasma - even if they got diseased the turn they were recruited, making them undead would halt the progression of the disease. (You can do the same with Twiceborn, but then you have to get killed without getting too many afflictions in the process... unless your Twiceborn rebirth removes them, I don't remember.)

Another possibility would be a version of Twiceborn that works immediately.

Both could also be used *against* Miasma, but being undead isn't all beer and skittles, especially if instead of sitting around researching and not getting diseased you're going to take the field against one of the main Death nations in the game that also has strong priests.

Re: C\'Tis - Miasma, Question about cold blodded

Perhaps 'Hidden in Swamp' could be used to create cheap castles...

Re: C\'Tis - Miasma, Question about cold blodded

Castles? Isn't the "Hidden in..." series a summon of an undead mage, an undead commander and some undead troops? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: C\'Tis - Miasma, Question about cold blodded

Personnally I'd like to see poison immune units also immune to the miasma effects, like they were in dom 2 iirc. It doesn't seem unthematic and would give C'tis a reliable way to protect indies mages (for 5 gems each), and to invaders a way to protect their valuable leaders.

But even in current state, I don't think C'tis to be underpowered. Marshmaster are really excellent for a mage recruitable *in any fort* (and as well C'tis has access to smithing priests everywhere) + don't forget the miasma income bonus.

Re: C\'Tis - Miasma, Question about cold blodded

The smithing is good for early game only.

The marshmasters are great, plus income bonus give two factors in favor of Ctis.

That said, in end game income is less important since the board is controlled by SCs, in this department MA Ctis lacks sorely both in access to SCs and in access to forging in order to equip them.

I don't think MA Ctis is a weak nation, but its certainly not powerful. In the hands of a skilled player with a sound game plan it can achieve solid results. That's it I think.

Re: C\'Tis - Miasma, Question about cold blodded

In late game C'tis can summon hordes of Tartarians. It is a pity that they are nerfed in the latest patch.

Re: C\'Tis - Miasma, Question about cold blodded

It's actually a nice thing IMHO... the Shattered Soul trait is very thematic and everybody was complaining for their complete late-game dominance.

Re: C\'Tis - Miasma, Question about cold blodded

Yeah, the Tartarians are a pain in the *** now... very hard to keep them focused. I still summon them though. They're still too good to pass up.

Re: C\'Tis - Miasma, Question about cold blodded

I agree. Tartarians are the key to Ctis end game strategy.
I think the problem that MA Ctis has is mainly in mid to late game, in that gap between conj6-7 and conj 9 (when struggling with research of:
<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>
const 6-8 for items;
Thaum 5-7 for soul slay, charm
evoc 5-7 for shadow blast or bolt or whatever, stream of life;
Alt 6 for darkness;
Ench 7 for pale riders, rigor mortis, life after death and liches
</pre><hr />
)

But I reiterate my previous assessment which I think is consensus here, MA Ctis is solid but not shinning, amazing powerful nation.

Re: C\'Tis - Miasma, Question about cold blodded

Quote:

Chris_Byler said:
If I recall correctly, seas are immune to Miasma. So you can give indie and site-based mages water-breathing items and park them in a sea lab for research/forging. A few will get diseased before they get there, but not too many, I don't think.

Are you 100% sure about this?

Quote:

Chris_Byler said:
...
Maybe MA C'tis should automatically be placed on a coast like LA Atlantis - it seems appropriate for them (how many landlocked swamps do you know of?), and since they have good options for getting into water (at least if there's no actual water nation right off their coast), it would help a bit.

Great suggestion http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Quote:

Chris_Byler said:
I forget - are winter wolves immune to miasma? Ethereals probably should be (this would also give C'tis another route for preserving indy/site mages - Robe of Shadows).

I don't really like this one, it will make it too easy for other nations to bypass miasma.

Quote:

Chris_Byler said:
Another idea I had to help C'tis deal with their dominion - make an item that turns the wearer undead, or add that effect to one or more existing items (Wraith Crown or Rib Cage seem appropriate). This would allow them to immunize indy/site mages from miasma - even if they got diseased the turn they were recruited, making them undead would halt the progression of the disease. (You can do the same with Twiceborn, but then you have to get killed without getting too many afflictions in the process... unless your Twiceborn rebirth removes them, I don't remember.)

Another possibility would be a version of Twiceborn that works immediately.

Both could also be used *against* Miasma, but being undead isn't all beer and skittles, especially if instead of sitting around researching and not getting diseased you're going to take the field against one of the main Death nations in the game that also has strong priests.

I really like these ideas, but I don't think we'll see any of them added to vanilla game. Mod is the only hope to ever see them.

Its interesting to know whether twice born removes afflictions.

Re: C'Tis - Miasma, Question about cold blodded

A couple ideas I've gotten from reading this thread:

First of all, diseased units ought to have some small chance of infecting other units-maybe by touch attack alone? This could make having undead who are diseased actually slightly beneficial. The reason this would be cool is because you could then use it strategically, by intentionally infecting weaponless undead. Obviously, this would be easy for C'Tis.

Secondly, Miasma should go deeper than just a disease effect. What if it occasionally summoned random attacks on enemy units under C'tis domination? Something like the 'Illwinter' spell, but with crocs/alley-gators, snakes, poison toads, vinemen, etc. Maybe some more interesting units in there too-like a tribe of pygmies with poison arrow archers and big elephant-spitting spears, or the occasional rampaging dinosaur, or swamp witches and their pet swamp demons, undead blood-drinking tree spirits, etc. Maybe also a chance for a random casting of Rain of Toads.

They also might get access to a different version of Fairy Court: the Unseelie Court, which-instead of a healer queen, has a Queen of Air and Darkness with stealth, cause unrest, and ofcourse access to Air and Death.

There could also be swamp trolls, and a swamp troll king.

Does C'Tis have it's full regimen of heroes? If not, how about a heroic man-eating crocodile named 'Gustave'? And maybe some multi-hero blood druids?
They might even reasonably have an undead (fossilized?) Purussaurus (or maybe just an immobile fossilized skull, with some specialized power?) as a Pretender.

Purussaurus was a relative of the modern Caiman that reached 12 meters in length and was enormously broad, with a truly massive skull. It existed only 8 million years ago.

http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzool...er_caimans.php

By the way, the largest known (measured) living crocodile in the world lives in Australia and is over 25 feet long.

The aforementioned 'Gustave' (Spoiler: the basis for the film 'Primeval'), a Nile Crocodile, who lives in Burundi, Africa, is estimated at atleast 20 feet long, as much as 30 feet, weighs atleast a ton, and is believed responsible for over 300 human deaths. I can't find evidence of any alligator exceeding a ton in weight (although the largest captured weren't generally weighed, and may have exceeded a ton in weight), or 20 feet in length. The largest ever recorded was 19 feet, 2 inches long, but wasn't weighed.