Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia

[MaxWilson]

I agree with #2, which actually makes #1 less of a problem for me. Since I play SP, even when I clam I usually stop when I hit 50 clams or so. With fever fetishing, it will be nice to have an additional source of fire gem income, but if I can get my net fire gem income up to +50 per turn I will probably stop--and once you find enchantresses, it probably takes less than a year to pop out 30 fever fetishes. Starting earlier and netting a couple of hundred extra fire gems is thus not going to be a huge priority, for me.

After all, even with Meglobob's trick, scanning hundreds (vs. dozens) of fetish holders for their expirations dates could get to be quite a chore.

-Max

[Sombre]

Yeah I have to say any strat which involves a lot micro I'm just not interested in. I have used fever fetishes when I have access to units with high hp, but I'd never do it with a load of scouts. Plus I play NI exclusively, so it isn't an option anyway.

[Kadelake]

Originally Posted by Baalz

The thing is, you're also going to want to be diversifying so that you're not completely screwed when your opponent starts spamming dust to dust (or other strong anti-undead spells). I'd almost always recommend nature and fire gems get funneled into dragon master and fire drakes, or vine ogres, or fire boosters for combat mages, or something else clever rather than making your banes more efficient.

I tried out the strat in SP and had horrible luck finding death gems (but I was lucky enough to find garnet amazons next to my capital, fetish spam + bloodstone spam = fun ). I had a great number of fire drakes soon and they worked very well but even with heavy armour and 50%FR the banes took noticeable friendly fire. Either a lycanthrope amulet or fire plate would take care of that. But as stated it all depends on what gems you find.

I was a little annoyed by the banes slow speed. Other units tend to pass them by (and get hit by their cold aura) and they are slow to help other parts of your army after they've killed the bad guys next to them.

Have you tried the stat against a heavy air nation? How does it stand up to thunder strike spam?

[vfb]

Originally Posted by MaxWilson

I don't think fever fetishing is moot, it's just not something you can plan on in every game. From now on every time I find e.g. a Forest of a Thousand Streams, my first thought will still be "Oooh! I can clam now," but the second thought will be "And fever fetish!" Note that fever fetishing and then alchemizing the fire gems to pearls is slightly more nature-gem-intensive than clamming (4:1 instead of 3:1), but you're also not water-limited.

-Max

Yeah, but you can't base a strategy on finding a particular magic site recruitable. Oh geez ... sorry to have gone OT with this Arco discussion, everyone. I'll refuse to discuss it in this thread anymore .

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by vfb

Yeah, but you can't base a strategy on finding a particular magic site recruitable.

I never said you could. Or should. My idea of "strategy" says that you should have an early game mapped out, and know what you're capable of in the late game, but what you do in between and which late-game you aim for depends upon what happens early on. I'd rather know what it *means* to find an Enchantress site (clams!), or find garnet amazons (bloodstones!), or to find the Library of Time (Shadow Seers, teleporting Will of the Fates!), or to locate Caelum's capital (air gems!), or to start next to Niefelheim (research Ench-3 immediately!). Rigid nations are no fun IMHO.

-Max

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by vfb

Arco has priestess healers, so they don't have to keep hiring new fetish holders.

It's got nothing at all to do with dominion though, and Arco does not have FN mages anyway, so it's all kind of moot unless you're doing some weird nature-forge-lord thing.

I tried out a FWEN Forge Lord once and it's actually a doable strategy, pumping out cheap fetishes and clams. 2F2N for a fetish, 7W2N for a clam. Not a whole lot of fun though.

Under CBM 50 pts for a forge lord. Plus 4F4W is reasonable bless for WindLords.

Regarding Arco and fetishes.. Once upon a time I did a test for 10 or 20 turns comparing recuperation in dominion and out of dominion - and as I recall I got 30% more recuperation in dominion.

Now, it could have been statistical variance. I didn't adjust for difficulty of affliction, I didn't only look at disease... - but ever since that I've always just jumped in and out of dominion when I want to recuperate.

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

Now, it could have been statistical variance. I didn't adjust for difficulty of affliction, I didn't only look at disease... - but ever since that I've always just jumped in and out of dominion when I want to recuperate.

Heh. There are so many little hunches like that that I have about this game, and just play along with without ever really being able to verify for sure. It really is an amazingly complex game.

(And I should probably read the debug logs more thoroughly.)

-Max

[Sombre]

Which arco units with recup were these?

[fantasma]

Put the fetish on a black sorcerer, when dying it switches to spider and is back full hit points the next turn. I accidentially noticed that when one was supposed to die from old age.

That saves a lot of micro.

What else do you do besides playing and writing guides, Baalz, I wonder. Do you even sleep? Very interesting reading, all of them.

[JimMorrison]

Well that was the old trick, and it worked decently. However, every Sorceror with a Fetish, becomes highly unreliable in combat, due to mounting Afflictions, and can spend significant amounts of time Mute or Feebleminded, not even contributing to Research. To top that off, you are limited to 1/turn ever.

With this guide, the intent is to do 2-3 or more per turn, until you are swimming in Fire gems. Once you've already begun to employ the cheaper Fetish carriers, it just seems best to put all of your Fetishes onto them, and allow your Sorcerors to remain pristine for other uses.