Most powerful nation

[Kuritza]

LA Rlyeh, without any real competition.
MA Ermor - cheap and evil sacreds for fast expansion and possibly raiding, mages spawning undead cavalry, astral + death (netherdarts, bugged vengeance of the dead).
EA and LA Mictlans.

[Xietor]

Limiting my discussion to MA only, MA Ermor is definitely of the MA "powers." A very tough race. Likely has the best pd of any MA race with nether dart mage and good units.

[Evilhomer]

in MA i belive pythium, rlyeh, ermor and caelum deserves to be mentioned.

[Xietor]

Agree with EH.

But do not sleep on Arcos and Vanheim. They are up there as well.

Arcos has elephants which allow for rapid expansion. Few MA races can withstand elephants when their morale is boosted until they fight to the death. Arcos also has cheap powerful astral mages.

Vanheim-despite the mini-nerf to glamour, double 9 blessed vans are sill almost thugs. The strong air magic, cheap resource skin shifters, with the double 9 blessed vans make Vanheim the single most feared MA race to start next to in a MP game.

[Endoperez]

Well, things change. Here are some of the bigger changes from the ulm.illwinter.com/dom3/dom3progress.html :



MA Vanheim
* MA van home only. Gold cost increase.

Mictlan
* Jaguar warrior 25 gold.
* All Mictlan troops forest survival.
* Mictlan MA priest added air random to reflect the arrival of the sky priests.
* Jade Serpent Mictlan summon.
* Mictlan MA sky priest.
* Mictlan moon warrior (nonsacred elite).


MA Ermor
* Shadow vestal cost increase


LA C'tis
* Keeper of tombs slightly less expensive, LA sauromancer slightly more expensive.
* Unholy bless fix.
* Tomb chariot reanimation enabled.
* Tombwyrm & chariot works

T'ien Chi (at least MA, perhaps EA/LA as well)
* Ministry Guardsman.
* Minister of Magic.
* Ministry of Rituals and ceremonial master made fortune tellers.
* Slightly altered descr for ministers etc.
* New spells for TC: Thousand Year Ginseng, Inner Alchemy.
* Conscription made more viable.
* Apothecary, Alchemist of the Five Elements, Imperial Alchemist, Imperial Geomancer.

Abysia
* Demonbreds not truly demons to disable their unthematic reanimation.
* LA Anathemant Salamander not only home anymore.


Bless rushes are going down (Van, Ermor, Mictlan) while at least LA C'tis, perhaps Tien Chi are going up. LA Abysia is going to be much better (F2 non-capital mage!), but the loss of demonbred reanimation hurts MA.

[WraithLord]

I assume from all the reports here that Lanka is indeed a very good nation. Although my small experience with Lanka in the Boil the Ocean game (which has ended prematurely due to technical issues) showed it to be eliminated early on in the game. Admittedly, this could very well have resulted from the fact that Lanka is perceived as a strong nation which caused two of its neighbors to rush it early on. But then again this in itself is a weakness (as was said here before).

I think MA Pythium is being underestimated here and in general. I would assume that this may relate to the fact that its not straightforward to get the best performance out of this nation. I have used it very successfully in MP games with very good results (Jinxed Frechdachs comes to mind and also the current Dagur game). It has one of the strongest astral mages in the game (astral I believe is the strongest magic path), Hydras, access to angels and communion. All of which are not straightforward to use and may even backfire or be exploited against you if used wrongly.

I would place EA and MA Caelum high on the list of best nations for three reasons. Mammoths, Flight, cloud trapeze. Mammoths is for early game. Flight gives extreme strategic and tactical options. While cloud trapeze is an end game finishing move. Just imagine huge armies of seraphs popping out of thin air, pumping out air elementals, storm and wrathful skies. All of those factors I can attest from my experience are extremely effective. I have used them against unlikely odds in MP games (WOOF comes to mind here) and I think in general Caelum is doing quite well in the winning nations thread.

All the above represents my opinion based on my experience. In truth I think only statistics can be a real indication of a nation's strength because the factors are so many.

[Xietor]

"I think MA Pythium is being underestimated here and in general."

How so? I ranked them 1 in power in the ma.

And yes if you got eliminated early in the game as lanka you likely did not have a double 9 bless and likely did not maximize their abilities.

K should write a guide for EA Lanka.

[Valandil]

And how on earth can Angels backfire?

[Frostmourne27]

Thinking the angels of the heavenly choir are useful and sending them in solo vs an army? I dunno - pythium seems like a pretty easy bet for top spot in ME. Only a few nations - possibly man or R'yleh, maybe Vanheim on small maps - can compete with them.

[K]

Removed.