Best setup for Acro-Multiplayer

[Glock30]

Your best setup for standard Arco (sp?) Indie 7/Rich/3 starting prov./5 other players/Karan map.
Tried something like this, seems ok:
2 Order/1 prod/1 heat/1growth/2luck/2magic
6 Dominion
watchtower
Took Great Sage (whatever he is called)good at research.(cost 25 pts)
4Earth/4Death as all other paths are covered by purchased leaders. Base troops w/elephants and chariots run most indies over w/ minor losses.

any suggestions for improvement?

[Truper]

I think you have a number of issues here. Taking order and luck is less than optimal, as order supresses luck. You might try taking order 3, misfortune 2, thereby increasing your income, and freeing up 120 design points you can spend elsewhere.

Why heat? You lose income, and it doesn't seem like you're desperate for the points.

The watchtower is also suspect to my mind, since many Arco troops are resource-intensive.

Arco is a great nation to take a combat pretender with, since the priestesses can heal afflictions. That Great Sage is not someone you want to use in combat.

I'm also unclear on the rationale for taking earth, as your Mystics cover the elemental magics. Nature might make more sense, even though the priestesses have it, they only have it at level 1.

[Alneyan]

On another note, the human Pretenders are best avoided, unless you are planning on getting a rainbow Pretender. More specifically, you should pick at least four paths (the figure is pretty much random) to warrant the use of a human Pretender; otherwise, you should have a look at more formidable Pretenders, like a Cyclops for Earth, or a Prince of Death for... you guess it. Even if you do want the rainbow Pretender, you might give at look at more sturdy Pretenders, since dying makes you lose one level in all your magic paths.

The reason is, human Pretenders (all the Pretenders with only Dominion 1, and regular stats) are very weak indeed, and can be taken down by weak rituals. If you are unlucky, a single Seeking Arrow could even kill your Great Sage. The asset of human Pretenders is their cheapness, especially to get new paths, but raising paths to high levels is very expensive with them: if the Cyclops has 3 Earth, it will only cost you 8 points to get a Cyclops to Earth 4, while it will cost a Great Sage 82(10+16+24+32) points to get him to that level. If you want further increases in Earth magic, it will only be worse, especially as the Cyclops has a higher base Dominion value.

Still on the topic of magic, what will be your need of magic? If you are fine with using low-level spells, 4 should be enough, but if you want to research the high-end stuff, an increase in your magic paths may be considered. For Earth, level 5 will give you nearly all spells, and while it is possible to go from level 4 to level 5, it requires having a foot slot on your Pretender (mounted Pretenders, Dragons and their ilk do not have such a slot). The other solution is to forge more expensive artifacts, like a Staff of Elemental Mastery (+1 to all four elements), or a Ring of Wizardry (+1 to all magic paths), but those are harder to get. The last way is starting up a blood economy, as there is one blood artifact that gives a +1 bonus to earth. Lastly, Earth has two battle rituals requiring more than level 5, "Army of Gold" and "Army of Lead". If you are aiming for those, you should get at least level 6 in Earth magic, and more if possible: Army of Lead requires level 7, and will knock your Pretender inconscious for the remainder of the battle. Those two battle enchantments mainly give a bonus to protection (total protection perhaps, or natural protection), as their other effect can be obtained much more easily.

As for Death, the same question rises: what level are the spells you wish to cast? 4 will be fine to cast virtually everything if you can snatch the +3 death artifact however, but there will only be one such artifact in the game. Still, even without it, it shouldn't be too expensive to research level 7 in Death magic, with two path boosters and a Ring of Sorcery (+1 to all sorcery paths).

Your Priestesses should be able to get relatively high in Nature magic without any help from your Pretender, thanks to the Ring of Sorcery: if you have a forge hammer, it will only cost 30 astral pearls, *fairly* cheap. With it, a Priestess reaches level 2 in Nature, allowing her to forge another item to get to level 3. If you have an Astrologer with a Nature random, you can give him all those items, and he can forge another item to reach level 4. If you really need more Nature magic, the Ring of Wizardry will allow you to get a single mage to level 5 in Nature, but I do not think there is much of interest at that level. Nature 4 will allow you to summon Lamia Queens, powerful mages in Sorcery paths, and a great complement to your own native mages (more focused on elemental magic, with astral everywhere).

Lastly, the Watchtower is good, if you intend to build several castles in the game: it may take you three towers to recruit as many troops as two castles, but they will cost exactly the same, and three towers allow you to recruit three commanders a turn (mages included), while only two castles limit your recruitment of commanders. That, and fortified provinces are much harder to take down, and will protect your magic sites from enemy raiders.

[PDF]

I'm not even sure "human" pretenders are good as Rainbows, a GK is quite better for a very few more points.

For example, to get a good base A3 E2 F3 W2 S3 D2 N2, and dom 6, scales at 0, you have :
Human mages cost 385 to 400
GK costs 428
Nagas cost 480
Master Lich costs 540 (with D3) and is immortal
PoD is at 560
Oracle is at 400, but is immobile and has very few slots so should have more paths.

The difference is thus in the 30-160 range (1 to 4 scales), and I'd rather have 3 scales less and a PoD than an Archmage...

[Alneyan]

Agreed; human Pretenders really shine if you prefer cheapness over quality, or if you need those extra points badly. The big problem is the Ghost King here: it costs almost the same as a human Pretender, but has much better stats and abilities (Ethereal, Amphibian, two elemental resistances, Stealthy, Chill, 35 hitpoints and 18 defence), *and* a base Dominion value of 3. The other Pretenders you mention seem more or less fine: they are more powerful, but cost more.

Some human Pretenders do have "perks" however, and those might be of interest... though opinions will vary.
- The Great Enchantress gives Astral pearls, and that may be helpful to get an Astral economy up and running, especially if there are few sites. Having Astral will compel her to reach at least level 5 or 6 in Astral however, and that won't come cheap.
- The Crone lacks a body slot, but comes with *four* miscellaneous slots, as many as the immobiles. That might be interesting if you need as many miscellaneous items as possible, for your spellcasting: for example, the Crone can carry the Rune Smasher, a Crystal Shield, a Starshine Cap, a Ring of Sorcery/Wizardry, the Green Eye and a Spell Focus, resulting in a +8 penetration bonus and +4 astral in battle (effectively +10 penetration). Whether this is of any interest is another matter. Nations that have the ***** Queen should forget about the Hag however.
- The Arch Druid is the only Pretender for Man having Recuperation and having cheap paths; it also comes with Stealth, making it possibly easier to protect. Hmm.
- The Master Alchemist for Ulm, if you want gold. Lots of it.
- The ***** Queen, besides making your opponents smirk, has some of the best stats of all human Pretenders, while still being cheap. Problem is, her Precision is of 5, so she won't be able to hit the broadside of a barn with a Lightning Bolt. Besides, she can Shapechange into a Hag, whose uses have been described above, without losing her magic (unlike the Dragons).

I cannot say I am all too interested in the other human Pretenders, like the Great Sage or the Frost Father. My own favourite in the above list is the ***** Queen, apparently the most sturdy of all human Pretenders, and yet able to shapechange into one of the best "hulls" for spellcasting. Not bad for a mere 40 points, I would say, but few nations have access to the ***** Queen.

[Ironhawk]

Glock30 said:
...Base troops w/elephants and chariots run most indies over w/ minor losses.

any suggestions for improvement?

I've never heard of anyone successfully using chariots. In my own experience, they get killed too easily and often rout. Just use the standard Elephant/Hypaptist combo and you will be fine.

That combo is only for use vs indy's tho. Human players will target your elephants (attack/fire largest) and cause a great deal of havoc. Be extremely careful if you use elephants against humans players.

[WraithLord]

Alneyan said:
I cannot say I am all too interested in the other human Pretenders, like the Great Sage or the Frost Father. My own favourite in the above list is the ***** Queen, apparently the most sturdy of all human Pretenders, and yet able to shapechange into one of the best "hulls" for spellcasting. Not bad for a mere 40 points, I would say, but few nations have access to the ***** Queen.

What is your opinion on the serpent king for ctis? - can also change shape, has poison immunity. how does he compare to other human pretenders?

[Alneyan]

I hate C'tis with a passion, so I have no opinion on their Pretender. The serpent form seems adequate, but it has very few item slots under this form (and a strategic move of 1 only).

Still, I would say it is better than something like the Archmage (and the other human Pretenders not starting with any magic path); it will be more expensive than those Pretenders starting with one path, however. I guess that would make the Serpent King a better choice than the other human Pretenders for C'tis. Keep in mind I have never played C'tis however, so that's only speculation.

[Glock30]

I agree with the routing comment Ironhawk. My rookie solution is to use the Preistesses (often more than 1) and have them cast Serm. of Courage on turn 3. This seems to work well for both Elephants and Chairiots. I keep regular troops way off to the side of the battlefield to avoid being trampled by any Ele. or Chair. that might be fleeing the scene.

Your thoughts?