Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia

[BigDaddy]

WITH CBM:

Machacka is the kind of nation that will take your provinces and stand on your forts, even if it doesn't care to take them quickly in the early game. Especially if they take scales. Machaka can get so big so fast in the early game, it should seriously consider taking scales and pilfering a couple other players early, very early, in the game, especially if they have gems that pretender can use.

I've played them twice in 2player to victory using scales. They are seriously too dangerous early game, and having them next to you would suck worse than any cyclops.

That is too many spiders!

I could almost call them overpowered, but if you just take a more sparley populated map, make research faster, or hold out to the end game, they aren't all that bad. Their combat mages are excellent, but they just don't deploy like a warlock or an arch theurg, for instance. With these you can even save a turn by having them come back after casting four spells.

People come and talk about Machaka, I would blah blah blah... Maybe you would, but you shouldn't underestimate how bad it is to get rushed by spiders.

Just try it. Take scales and some sleeping astral rainbow. Up want money more than protection, but you want both, and 7 holy doesn't hurt, but the sacred spiders are cap only, so don't be -wasteful-.

You want 10+ spiders per group. Take a province the second round with the initial force plus whatever spider riders you could make. Look, you're going to lose some spiders, I'm not going to lie to you, if you aren't careful, you might even lose an army, BUT AT THESE PRICES (YOU'LL SEE I PROMISE)!!

Hire a commander there if possible. Keep filling your queue with spiders, you want 10+, but you want as many as possible of them to be the hunter spiders and spider knights... they really are better, you should get them when possible. Eventually you should be able to get multiple indy kill forces a day... by like day 4 or so... really. You need to have indy commanders pouring in to take them out, and you by turn 5 or 6 you should be able to hire a mage (just get the expensive ones). Repeat. Your research will be super fast, because you only hire expensive mages, this will pay off later too, when you need to have them kill stuff.

Make sure you do some site searching (it's easy to get carried away with the conquest!), because eventually someone will have some evo and you'll start to take losses. You should be truly huge at that time. Keep pumping out spiders, or change to hopelites, or get a mix.

You find some gems sites by searching a few turns, and then go home and research site searching spells to use the gems with. Also, priests find pearls so have a priest or two search.

Plan to start a fort the 4-5th turn a couple provinces away from you main. I know you won't -need- it, but build it anyway, it helps you get more priest and mages going and gives you a forward location.

This nation PKs.

I don't reccomend getting a blessing just for the spiders. Incidental is fine, I reccomend astral. Or maybe you want to be permi-scary to invade and want to try and afford a pheonix with high paths in one or both of his specialties.