Questions by a MP Newb

[name thief]

Hello, I am planning on joining a multiplayer game soon. I want some advice please.

1) How necessary is it if I have a rainbow mage for a pretender to have them be awake. I have one designed but it currently starts asleep.

2) Any advice for Marignon: Fiery Justice, that is the nation I plan to play. So is their any advice for playing them?

[parone]

i am also very new.

but one of the great things about a rainbow is you can sight search early and really get your gem income going. of course, you can still do this late, but you are going to miss out on a lot of early gems. everyone does it their own way, but i would say an asleep rainbow would be unconventional.

as for marignon, i have no idea. but you should definately check out the wiki on this sight. it will have lots of guides and great tips to help guys like us.

[Knai]

Early site searching is only half of it, early research the other. 150 extra points for scales and similar is a lot (that can buy Magic 3 from a net 0, which will outpace the rainbow over the long term), but early research can count for a lot as well. It really depends on the nation.

As for Marignon - Marignon is wonderful, for a few reasons. Not least of these is that their national summons are generally wonderful, and can benefit from an E-N bless, which also works reasonably well for their national troops (mostly due to the E) aspect, while both nature and earth are fairly valuable for Marignon. That does leave them with no death or blood, which is unfortunate.

Also of note - Mind Hunt. Sure, Marignon isn't exactly a Pythium grade astral nation, nor can they mind hunt at the Arcocephale level, but they aren't bad. Moreover, given the amount of fire Marignon is packing you want to research Evo some anyways.

[Shardphoenix]

That does leave them with no death or blood, which is unfortunate.

Do you really need death/blood when you have harbringers and angels of fury?

[Knai]

Originally Posted by Shardphoenix

Do you really need death/blood when you have harbringers and angels of fury?

You don't necessarily need it, but you want it. It's just that I value nature more highly - CMB dropped the cost of Gift of Reason to 6 N, and Angelic Host brings a lot of troop Harbringers. 6N for a Harbringer is a steal, even in the late game.

[name thief]

What I am thinking of right now for a pretender is a

Great Enchantress
Dominion 6
F1A4E4S3D2
Order 3
Production 3
Heat 2
Growth 0
Misfortune 3
Magic 0

[Knai]

Broadly speaking, I'd be wary of Misfortune 3. Moreover, you probably don't particularly need F1 on the pretender, and I'd hesitate to use a rainbow with Marignon in any case.

[name thief]

What would you use?

[Knai]

E9N6 Imprisoned Cyclops, probably, with fairly high skills and moderate dominion. Inquisitors let you get by with a little less dominion than most, but I wouldn't go below 4, and even 4 is pushing it.

[Corinthian]

MA Marignion is a difficult case. On one hand its a good newbie nation. It has simple solid tactics. Cavalry and crossbows for troops, fire and astral communions for battle magic. Angels for the endgame.

This is great for a noob because its easy to do and not at all complicated. But its not very good in a real game because real games are about outsmarting and outmaneuvering your enemies. And believe me, everyone with just a little experience will see what you are bringing from afar and act to counter it accordingly. And because of the nations limited diversity you will have problems adopting to the enemies changing.

Anyway there are two ways to play MA Marignion. One is to play to its strengths and take a bless for the angels and heavy chavalry. I dont remember their pretender choices of hand, but a Cyclops is a fine bless chassis that work for both angels and cavalry. I would skip the nature and just go with E9, dom 6, Imprisoned. E10 is doable. You dont have any giant though and the massive extra cost of the nature is not worth it just for the angels.

The other idea is to cover for the nations weakness and thus take a rainbow for the diversity. Thus you have more options and are less predictable.

The Cyclops is probably better in Vanilla and the rainbow is more viable in CBM. Because in CBM you can use your non-sacred, Royal Guards instead of your sacred cavalry and thus you dont need a cavalry bless.

I never take less than dom 5 on an awake pretender though. And never less than dom 6 on an asleep or imprisoned. Also you need atleast some growth because of your old mages. Otherwise they will catch disease in the winter and die for you. Misfortune 3 is another terrible idea. For many reasons, misfortune is actually much worse than luck is good. Misfortune 2 is doable with Order 3 in vanilla. Misfortune 1 with O3 is doable in CBM.

Also if you go with heat you might as well go all the way and take heat 3 because you will have heat 3 anyway in the summer and might as well pocket the extra points.