Some idears
So first off a disclaimer, I'm bad at this game. I've played it for a long time off and on, but I've always been fixated on making EA Abysia work at the expense of learning how to win in a more general sense.
Unfortunately, as everyone has concluded before me, EA Abysia is too much of a one trick pony and they have earned their spot in the cripple fight series.
The basic problem is that Abysia has a lot of strategies they can execute well, but they are all so expensive that you can't do more than one or two things. Even then you're frequently relying on luck scales treating you right and your pretender doing all the heavy lifting.
Obviously the one thing that works very well out of the gate is an E9 or E9N4 bless and a quick rush up the Evo tree.
That said, one of my suggestions is to change the administration on Abysia's home province from 30 to 40. This is because right now you need production 1 to build 2 burning ones on your first turn. That's 40 pretender points that are hard to spend because your pretender is already spread so thin. It is a minor buff to bless rushing, but it won't change the game at all.
My remaining suggestions are meant to increase Abysia's flexibility, without buffing the bless rush.
Make smoulderghosts sacred.
--Smoulderghosts are really cool, but they kind of suck. They take heavy losses against the AI, so I imagine they get cut to pieces in multiplayer. They have 0 protection and 0 encumbrance so they won't be any stronger if you take E9, but they will be a lot stronger if you take S9, and there is good synergy with a minor nature bless.
B9 would also make more sense. Taking Blood on your pretender has a really large opportunity cost, and taking B9 is pretty much out of the question. In vanilla it's always smarter to wait for Malphas to show up, but in CBM you can't do that because of the multi-heroes. Taking B9 would make a little bit more sense with sacred smoulderghosts, because it would benefit burning ones and smoulderghosts.
Additionally it's thematic. Smoulderghosts are the spirit of Abysian infantry that fell in battle. If there's any nation that would glorify honor through death in battle, it's Abysia.
Change Anathement Dragon paths to 2F + 100% FS
--This would provide a way to get astral from non-cap mages, albeit S1 and only 50% of the time. This would allow Abysia to start research farms that don't just get mind hunted to death, and relieve some of the pressure on your capital. Reliable SF also opens up some forging options for Abysia that you frequently need to brute force your way into.
This is a little bit less thematic, but it still makes sense. Annointeds have a chance at a path in astral, but their power in fire magic is derived from their inherent nature as magma beings. Anathemants are degenerates, yet their fire power rivals the Annointeds. It would make sense for the anathemant caste to be less pure. Maybe mix in an earth option to make communions a little harder to throw together.
Both of these changes would make an astral pretender a reasonable option for Abysia. An astral bless really doesn't help out burning ones or Annointeds much, but it's the bees knees on smoulderghosts. Late game Abysia can do a lot with astral, but only if their pretender has enough astral to get the cap and coin ball rolling.
Make warlock apprentices recruitable anywhere.
--Pretty self explanatory. Reduces some of the strain on Abysia's capital. B1 allows for easy access to blood hunting, but the blood hunting is sub-par, which is thematic for EA Abysia. Even with a rod B1 blood hunters make for really expensive blood slaves.
Change warlock's random paths to 20% BS + 10% FE
--Warlocks suck. They're a huge liability for a cap-only mage. This is a minor buff, and tilts them in the direction of S2 or B3, which is what you want in a warlock random anyway.
Nature. Nature magic is really useful for Abysia. It alloys all of their options and turns a brittle nation into a resilient one. You can't just take nature though. An N9 bless would screw you because your annointeds and Anathemants would berserk. You have no nature income and relying on a forest start with decent sites is one more dice roll in the massive gamble that is Abysia.
However N4 on your pretender is huge. N6 would be better but there's never enough points. N8 would be a waste.
You can:
-forge a thistle mace so those N1 indies can site search.
-forge a shroud at const-4 instead of boots of youth at const-6 to stave off old age in your warlocks and dragons. Ring of regen would work just as well, but nature gems are harder to come by than pearls for Abysia.
-jade knives
-Cast gift of reason at thaum-4 to lead the soul contract devils. No demonbred commanders for EA Abysia.
-birch boots are great for Abysian commanders, and there's the always useful regen rings, reinvig amulets, and cauldrons.
-Perhaps most importantly, Burning ones are so expensive you can't really afford attrition. A little bit of regen goes a long way in keeping them alive and kicking.
Every game with Abysia is a huge slog to get some minor nature economy going. In the best case scenario it's slow, in the worst case you can be into year 5 and still alchemizing for nature gems.
So I propose a new multi-hero:
Hedge Warlock (worst name ever, right?)
Basically a warlock that saw the symmetry between blood and nature, and left Abysia to pursue nature magic. It would be a warlock apprentice with N2B1 + 100% NSB instead of B1. Like child of anthrax, this multi-hero would ease some of the pressure on Abysia's cap and pretender, and provide magic diversity.
tl;dr sacred smoulderghosts, astral chance on dragons, non-cap warlock apprentices, better paths on warlocks, new multi-hero
Maybe people more experienced than I disagree with my suggestions, but I think it's obvious that EA Abysia is weak.
|
Linear Mode
