When you are sitting, just sit...

rylen · #1 December 1st, 2004, 05:29 PM

The latest in my "how do you use these pretenders" series.

Humans are good for rainbows or cheapness ...
Big guys and monsters are good for early expansion ...
Dragons are good for bless strategies ...

What are immobile pretenders good for? I've been thinking about them lately. And I remember reading about giving one "twiceborn" and getting them back once they're killed as mobile beings. But how do you get good use out of them until then?

The Sphinx and Monolith look pretty durable. The fountains have lots of item slots. (The blood fountain sounds like a great way to start a blood economy.) But how do you use them? If you teleport them somewhere, you've got to build a lab to teleport them out. I can see using them just for research and big spells, but it seems like a waste.

Your thoughts ... and some good pretender / realm combos are appreciated.

Rylen

archaeolept · #2 December 1st, 2004, 05:45 PM

Quote:

If you teleport them somewhere, you've got to build a lab to teleport them out.

they can be good for that. except the sphinx, which can't even teleport.

Endoperez · #3 December 1st, 2004, 05:47 PM

Well, Sphinx used to be real baddie. Imagine getting 500-hp pretender to your citadel on turn 5! Unfortunately, it lost all ways of teleporting when it was balanced, not just the cheapest one that made it ultra-powerful.

Zooko · #4 December 1st, 2004, 05:58 PM

I've been trying this lately. Right now my angle is double-bless effects. I'm in a multi-player game right now with the Flaming Head Baphomet with Astral-9, Fire-9. The nation is Marignon, so the cheap little flagellants can hand out some good damage before dying.

Also the Baphomet can teleport into the fray. That's fun!

In single-player right now I'm experimenting with Jotunheim, Monolith, Astral-9, Nature-9.

Also I like the idea of taking an Oracle, Astral-3, and maximum dominion goodness. That could be fun.

PDF · #5 December 1st, 2004, 06:14 PM

About getting immobiles back home : you've to have Astral-2, and can script "Returning", a battle spell that returns you back home.
Downside is that if the battle does not Last till the end of your script, you're stranded - until the next battle that is !

Chazar · #6 December 1st, 2004, 06:48 PM

I've had great success with a fountain of blood with caelum. I used it exclusively for forging and blood hunting and a spell once in a while. Hunting within the captial isnt as bad as one might think, considering the good scales one can afford with a fountain (order+3,growth+3)...

I imagine that an astral fountain might be beneficial to caelum as well (since they are weak at astral magic, but would benefit form matrices and rings of wizardry, etc.)...

PS: But I would not choose it on small-map-games (i.e. < 15 provinces per player), but on large-map-games like 15-20 provinces per player (yep, i know that other player may have a different scale and understanding of 'large')

Ygorl · #7 December 2nd, 2004, 03:13 AM

I'm a big fan of the guys that just sit there. Keeps me from sending them out into fights they've no business messing with. And, yes, a pair of level 9 blessings is always nice. Zooko, you've named a couple of my Favorites. Get some Niefel giants blessed with a Gift of Health up, every one of them is a 100+ hp regenerating berserking resisting beast.
I actually liked the Knights of the Chalice better than Flagellants with the Baphomet. While the idea of the Flagellants was beautiful, in practice it seemed that four or five flaming never-missing fate-twisted high-protection knights did a much better job mopping up indies without casualties. Unfortunately the game crapped out, so I never actually got to see how they did against other real people...
The other game I'm in with an immobile deity is a F9S9 Flaming Glyph heading up Abysia. The paths might sound redundant, but that blessing on the Lava Warriors was quite handy and it was very nice not to have to work for Wish. That game is pretty much over (my first or second MP game, too) courtesy of the little burning doodle, so it can't be that doomed a strategy.

odd_enuf · #8 December 2nd, 2004, 03:29 AM

I've found immobles work well with blood hunting nations like mictlan, teleport them into a good blood hutning province, send the blood hunters in the same turn, and start the hutning fast, with no micromanagement from scouts.

odd_enuf

Zooko · #9 December 2nd, 2004, 09:20 AM

I love Fire-9, Astral-9 blessed knights and paladins against independents, but so far (in my first multiplayer game ever), they haven't been worth their price went sent against an enemy human.

Actually, there *was* one time that a White Knight got behind the lines and cleaned up half-a-dozen enemy mages. That was worth his price!

rylen · #10 December 3rd, 2004, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Zooko said:

In single-player right now I'm experimenting with Jotunheim, Monolith, Astral-9, Nature-9.

What scales are you using for this? I find a substantial defecit when I put it together. Order 2, Sloth 1, Cold 3 (of course), Growth 0 (These are giants), Luck -2, Magic -2 (I'll get skulls quick enough)

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So, the big use of these guys is a double bless, and keeping out of trouble?

Rylen