How do you use the Prince of Death for very early game expansion?

[tinkthank]

I have read many Posts singing the praises of a PoD as an SC and as an early-game expander. I would like to know how. Isn't he a little fragile to risk letting loose naked on Indy 6+? Even with backup?

Let's say you get two turns of research in and can have a level-1 path researched by turn 3, but not construction-2. So he gets trinkets. And the backing army of whatever nation. What do you do with him?

I am toying with the idea of a death4 air4 PoD, but only under the premise that he can dish out sufficient quantities of naughtiness very early game (

[Kel]

Originally posted by tinkthank:
I have read many Posts singing the praises of a PoD as an SC and as an early-game expander. I would like to know how.

I am not a veteran by any means but I use the PoD a fair amount. He isn't that 'tough', hp wise, in low dominion but his natural +10 fear aura (which is actually 13, due to the 3 death he starts with) is extremely effective against indies.

He also has a high defensive skill at 15 and, for a pretender, a decent starting protection of 12.

If you find him too fragile for your liking, you may want to give him combat spell paths that will help. There are other threads on how to build an SC but the short answer is that you can find a lot of early, useful spells packed into alt-2/3.

- Kel

[Cohen]

1 lvl in Fire (for fire shield) or/and 1 lvl in Water (for the awesome quickness) will help a lot in early conquest.

Air too is useful due to mirror images and mistform.

Astral has body ethereal.

Yes you can send out him buffend and killing every indep.
I did that with an Arch-Mage ... a far more weaker chassis ... indep str 6.

[Demosthenes]

Surely he can be used very effectively without rainbow-ing his paths? I too have wondered how to use him effectively within his theme.

[Endoperez]

Terror (with his aura if they get close) will help. Raise Skeletons/Dead could work. He has encumberance value of 0, so you can just give him the Black Full Plate. Plate will help him survive, and the Aura will hopefully make the independants to retreat. These are my guesses, I'm not very experienced with PoD.

Also, small theory I cooked up while writing:
Fear aura is most effective when he has many troops around him, so Boots of Behemoth with reinvigoration and dual-wielded Main Gauhces (def +6 each) would do wonders. That will take too much to help during the first turns, but it might be possible to dish him items in the field... All that is needed is low Earth, although lots of gems would be needed.

[Taqwus]

Yeah, Ulm can just forge the black steel full plate, perhaps a flaming one-handed sword, a bit later a charcoal shield, perhaps bracers, flaming helmet or whatever. It probably won't single-handly conquer the Jungle Temple, but it's pretty decent for not needing many paths.

[Cainehill]

Originally posted by Demosthenes:
Surely he can be used very effectively without rainbow-ing his paths? I too have wondered how to use him effectively within his theme.

Sure. For one thing, you could forge him some armor and items, to make him more survivable. Toss on some black plate armor, maybe a shield and a helm (easily doable early game if you have the gems / mages).

Or - only use him against provinces with militia, light infantry, archers, etc, and set him to hold, hold, attack rear. Doing this in conjunction with a squad or two of regular troops helps ensure minimal casualties in your troops, while minimizing the likelihood of the PoD dying / getting maimed.

Or, research Enchantment 3 and use him to spam skeletons.

Otherwise - just like most pretenders, you have to add at least a path or two to really mazimize his combat use (and even forging / summoning abilities). Add a little Earth magic - his base armor improves, and he can cast Ironskin / Invulnerability. Add a little Water - Quickness and Breath of Winter, making him a much better killing machine. Air? Mirror Images and Mistform, not to mention the ability to later Cloud Trapeze to where he's needed. Fire - Fire Shield, and summoning skeleton archers later.

And I'm not sure it's "rainbowing" him to add a path or two. It certainly isn't as expensive to add paths to the PoD as it is some others such as Virtues and Dragons.

[Kel]

Originally posted by Demosthenes:
Surely he can be used very effectively without rainbow-ing his paths?

There are other, better pretenders (with more hp) if you want an early game, no magic pretender (Wyrm, for example). Every pretender does not surely have to fit every role.

- Kel

[Demosthenes]

Originally posted by Kel:
Every pretender does not surely have to fit every role.

Surely.

In fact this was really my point. I play mostly SP these days and I like to have each game be distinctly different thematically, since the opponents certainly won't be pulling out many surprises or interesting variations.

I can't really get excited about a PoD w/ AAAEEWDDD who I'd use basically the same as a Cyclops for instance, albeit a flying undead summoning cyclops . Its way more fun for me to try and use each pretender thematically in their own context.

So, despite my odd way of asking, my question was really....

How can you use a PoD effectively as an early combatant taking only Death? Or Maybe with One auxillary path. But staying within the roleplay/theme of the character and not just trying to amalgamize him into the archetypal SC. You know stuff that's fun and has flavor.

Thanks. I love this forum.

[Cainehill]

Originally posted by Kel:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Demosthenes:
Surely he can be used very effectively without rainbow-ing his paths?

There are other, better pretenders (with more hp) if you want an early game, no magic pretender (Wyrm, for example). Every pretender does not surely have to fit every role.

---

Definately - but he wasn't asking about a no-magic pretender, but only about not having to rainbow the PoD. Starting with Death Magic skill of 3 is hardly no-magic.

And of course, adding to the Death, taking it up to 5 or 6 or 9 is certainly an option for being able to use the more powerful death magics, with much less fatigue in combat.

But in my experience, I found that a PoD who sticks solely to death magic has to be used very carefully in the early game, else you wind up with a crippled PoD, which isn't much fun at all.