EA Arco - uncle moneybags

[Mightypeon]

Some points I would like to review:

Under current CBM, a number of pretenders work differently, are costed differently and have slightly different synergies, even though the rough approach is still the same.

Imho, Awake Pseudo SC to kickstart expansion with a minor bless, sloth 3 and ok scales still works nice, but I would like to offer the following thoughts:
Acrosephale has access to Heretics, and, with Sloth 3, still good early research under a moderate drain scale.
Given that Drain 2 instead of Magic 1 saves a lot of points, and can be partly mitigated. Basically, one is getting 120 design points but pays significantly less in opportunity (compared to nations without heretics) for it. It can be very worthwhile to invest those in either even better scales or in an improved Pretender chassis.
Likewise, Acrosephale is quite good at mitigating Death (Healers) or Misfortune (Barbs) too, although it is not neccesarly wise to take both of them together.
In my opinion, the Forge Lord is a quite good choice for this.
In CBM, Forge Lords and White Bulls have the same base cost, but a Forge Lord needs Awe for early expanion. With the Forge Lord itself, there are a number of choices apart from E4 for the obvious bless.
Fire 4 would open Fire quite nicely, and gives a "usefull" bless to your both Oreiads and the Sacred Cavalry, although imho an N bless is neccesary for Oreiad thugging.
Some points in Astral can get very cheap access to Rings of Sorcery/Wizardy /Scullcaps etc. One could also go for 4 points of nature, even though that can get expensive.
I think that either Astral or Air are needed, since Air allows a First turn Midget Masher and Astral allows a First turn enchanted pike. The Repel from the Pike backed by Awe allows the Forge Lord to deal with non scary indies. Although the Midget Masher (+ Air Shield from the Air pick) is better in the short term. Choosing this kind of Forge Lord is not advisable under more than 5 independent Strength, as what he can solo (be aware of Wolf Tribe Warriors in addition to other early game nasty indeps) drastically depends on the indep power. However, one should not hesitate to simply back him up with some Mercs (EA Acro should have a crapton of money, we are still only recruiting Philospohers for most of year 1) or some supporting troops.