MA Shinuyama-MP-boost the Kappas

[Sandman]

I like the fact that Shinyuyama breaks the mold a bit. There should be more nations like it.

[TwoBits]

Shinuyama indeed has a rough time in the early game. Its starting army is pathetic, has no recruitable sacreds, and you noted has no units with shields, and its only really good regular units are somewhat expensive.

But if Shinuyama manages to survive into the mid game, they become damn near juggernauts. Their magic is unparalleled. They can cast site searching spells in 5 magic paths (FEWND). With simple boosters (no unique items or rings of Wizardry, etc.) on their Bakemono sorcerers, they can have mages with F5, W4, E4, or D5 (if you get lucky with your 10% chance, you can even do one better - and also Staffs of Elemental Mastery are also easily within reach).

By late game, they can be spewing out great deals of deadly magic, in combat and ritually. On the battlefield, Fire Arrows is just the tip of the iceberg.

So basically, to pay for all that later game goodness, you have to run the gauntlet in the early game. That's just part of the deal.

So in SP, recruiting indie infantry (w/ shields) ASAP is a good idea. You can do it in MP too, but that wont save you from a nasty rush. Your big tools there will be diplomacy and trade (the wide variety of quality items you can forge should make a nice carrot). That and the realization that sometimes your just screwed

[Xietor]

Agree.

But is there really any downside to giving the Kappa a turtle shield? Even with a shield, MA Shinuyama is not going to jump into the upper pack of MA MP nations. What it will do is give them a viable(though expensive) infantry unit.

Their mages are nice, but at 300 gold expensive. And they start extremely old, demanding 3 growth scale. Though at least they are sacred, so they are not bad to maintain.

[Shovah32]

The downside is that it will move the Kappas, currently a niche unit, into the realm of general infantry unit(high gold cost but 2 attacks, high prot and a shield with low resource cost to boot).

[Xietor]

MA Shin has no infantry, has no mounted units, has no sacred units. Giving them a high cost infantry unit, with a mr of 8!!!, helps in part to restore the vague idea that is named "balance."

And, if their fatigue is left as is, adding the shield helps, but still leaves them as an overpriced, but very vulnerable infantry unit.

I do see the argument for leaving the Kappa as a niche unit. And I am not saying anything anyone said is "wrong."
But I am of the firm belief the race could use an upward tweak, and that was my suggestion.

I would raise their resource cost some, if a shield is added, but not a ton. Perhaps to 10.

[Morkilus]

If you've been around here for a while, you'll know that unless there was a mistake or a general outcry (which could have been the case for the Glamor change) these sort of changes never happen. Your best option if you feel that Shinu are weak is to make the appeal in the CB mod thread.

I'm just kinda shocked that you think the Kappa are weak; I was very impressed by them when I discovered the indie poptype and used them heavily to take several water provinces.

[Kristoffer O]

Kappa will not get shields. Mainly for thematic reasons. They could get a cucumber however

[Foodstamp]

You could give the Kappa a second attack where they suck the organs out of an enemy through their anus. Maybe a drain life ability

[Kristoffer O]

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Or, poison cloud. They do pass gas for fun.