Newb Q: Pretender options for Machaka?

[Diehard]

After a few warm-up games, I've really enjoyed playing these jungle warriors. However, I haven't quite figured out what pretender chassis works best with them.

I've been using the Desert Sun option with the following scales: order 1-3, heat 2, misfortune 1, magic 1. My main armies have been big hoplite/archer Groups backed up by sorcerors, black sorcerors and voices of the lord.

It seems like a multi-path human pretender (e.g. archmage) might build on the strength of the Machakan mages quite nicely, but then again, choosing a pretender with different strengths (e.g. Wyrm) might be a better combination. All other things being equal, I'd prefer to have a big, nasty monster ruling the jungle tribes... somehow that just seems right.

Any input you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

[Boron]

may i ask how you cope with the bad pd ?
do you take a watchtower and castle all the area which i probably would do ?

but machakas armies aren't very quick or ?
so how do you defend with them best ?

i find the machaka theme nice but it seems that i can't play with them because they are not my playstyle so hopefully i get some advice here together with you

If you want to search for previous Machaka threads it has some suggestions. But my personal favorite is:

Virtue Air 4

Dominion 6

Then Heavy Scales. Good choices are: Order 3, Production 3, Magic 3. Heat 2, Growth 3.

Then you can get a Castle.

[ June 30, 2004, 21:38: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Diehard]

Originally posted by Zen:
Then you can get a Castle.

Hmm, perhaps I've been doing something wrong. I've been taking the Wizard's Tower instead of the Castle. My thinking was that since they're cheaper and faster to build, it would give me more defended provinces and more places to build hoplites (which are the main muscle in my army).

[Norfleet]

Hey, Zen? Didn't you say Growth was crap, and that you always take Death instead, for the points? Is there a specific reason why you've chosen to recommend the exact opposite, in this case?

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
Hey, Zen? Didn't you say Growth was crap, and that you always take Death instead, for the points? Is there a specific reason why you've chosen to recommend the exact opposite, in this case?

Probably for the overall 33% boost to gold that those particular scales give you. I wouldn't personally take more than death 1 in a game that I expected to Last for a long time. For Abysia at least, in my experience, death 2 starts to negatively affect you by around turn 60, and death 3 starts to be noticeable by around turn 30.