Alexander's Ever-Expanding Tome of Knowledge, pt 2

[Endoperez]

First, the original is well worth reading.

Does anyone have any additions?


To stop the world
Spies. They are annoying little buggers that can hamper your enemy's economy. They can be much more, though! Imagine a group of 6 spies. They stealth through enemy lands, find his capital - and in one turn, cause over 100 points of unrest. No more sacred troops for you! No more capital-only mages for you! No more income for you! Even better, to catch the spies, the target of this strategy has to patrol, which reduces unrest, and as long as the unrest stays high, it's hard to catch any stealthy units, and he it will often take a turn or two to bring suitable patrollers. Once he has brought the patrollers in, you can move your spies out and wait until the capital is empty again.

Fearful Symmetry
Fear directly lowers enemy morale, as is easily noticed if you click on enemy units surrounding your Prince of Death. Heavy Cavalry with morale 4 are rather absurd sight... But, besides making it easy to rout them, low morale is also very effective protection if you happen to have Awe. Dominion values of 9 and 10 gives Awe, and I'm sure you all see where I'm going... Fear and Awe alone won't keep a unit alive, but you'll be fine if you add in some protection. Prince of Death can wear Black Plate armor without being fatigued by its encumberance. There are many, many ways to build an effective early expander around this idea, from Gorgon (med-to-high Earth for extra protection) to more monstrous creatures like Wyrms.

[incognito]

Rain from Hell

Works well with either a VQ pretender or a Tartarian Cyclops - both can get Earth & Air combination. Suit up the SC with reasonable protection gear/good shields/resistances and cloud trapeze into an enemy army.

Immediately cast rain of stones, which does the equivalent of blade wind to all units on the field. Normally, this is a double edged sword causing as much damage to your own units as to your opponents. With a high protection SC, however, you're insulated from this effect. In cases of mass undead, the damage is staggering. Have some extra air gems to cloud trapeze out again when the opponent retreats.

In my test case, the opponent had cast multiple pheonix pyre buffs on his mages in the midst of his troops - they all exploded for even more damage to his army.

[Ironhawk]

incognito said:
Have some extra air gems to cloud trapeze out again when the opponent retreats.

Cant cast cloud trapezee without a lab. Better to give your SC boots of flying or some other means of flying and just fly them out after the battle.

[Meglobob]

A small tip.

Research comes 2nd in the order of events. This means that spells researched at the beginning of the turn can be cast in that same turn. Just script cast spells and hope the computer AI selects the new available spells.

[TruePurple]

How do generic spies cause unrest or hamper economy Endoperez? Or do you mean something with stealthing that has a secondary effect of unrest by its presense?

[Endoperez]

Spy is different from Scout. Any unit that is stealthy can gather basic information, but some nations also have Spies. Spies have a special "Instill Unrest" order, and they also see the details of enemy lands in much greater detail that ordinary scouts (the spesific income, unrest, resource, PD etc numbers as well as the number of magic sites).

[HoneyBadger]

The Ancient Kraken is a really fun Pretender to play if you're a water-loving nation, but he needs some help.
One consideration is the fact that his poison cloud also poisons him. Accessorize your Ancient Kraken for less! Give him a snake ring and he'll not only be protected, he'll poison his enemies. That's 4-18 hp armor piercing attacks that now do poison damage as well. Doesn't suck. Cost: 5 nature gems, 1 level of nature magic, and 0 levels of Construction. Other good, and cheap, magic items for your Kraken-on-the-go are the ring of regeneration-I've had Ancient Kraken pretenders with 690 pre-Wish hp before (see below), and throwing regeneration onto that is a beautiful thing. It also helps avoid those nasty afflictions. Sure your kraken heals them eventually, but why suffer with a limp for any amount of time if you don't have to? Ok, it's not THAT cheap at 6 const and 10 nature gems, but it's dirt-cheap when you consider your Ancient Kraken will be regenerating 65 HP+ per round. That's one whole entire Niefel Giant,
every
single
round.
An Amulet of Antimagic is a real bargain for the Ancient Kraken, not only because it protects him from spells, but because the worst thing that can happen to him (besides death, and a well-played Kraken doesn't die very often) is Curse or Horror Mark. Even those aren't really that bad, but still, better to avoid. When you have an Ancient Kraken, Dom 10 is worth the cost. Not only will you get Awe +2 in addition to your Kraken's natural Fear +0, but your Kraken's stats will JUMP! Don't ask me why [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Bug.gif[/img] but I've had over 550 HP in mediochre Dom provinces with a 10 Dom Ancient Kraken. A 10 Dom province will give you 690 HP, around 28 str, MR of 25 with an amulet, and greatly improved attack and defense. It's hard to improve on immortality, but what if your Pretender...

just...won't...die?!?!?

Good magic paths for your Ancient Kraken include Water-just one level and your Kraken can cast quicken self-remember those 4 attacks at 18 points AP damage each? well now make that 8 attacks etc etc etc yadda yadda yadda. Earth-stoneskin and ironskin are fun, but the real beauty is Invulnerability. Cost is a little higher at 3 levels of Earth magic, but the payoff is 25 points protection, and if you're still wearing that snake ring, there's no downside! The real treat though is Astral magic. Just 1 point allows you to cast both Body Etherial and Personal Luck. Another truly beautiful spell for an Ancient Kraken is Mossbody. Finally, 3 Death will enable you to cast Soul-Vortex, and 4 Death will allow Darkness (and did I mention Ancient Krakens have 100% Darkvision?).
Not too many armies-let alone SCs-have what it takes to tackle a 690 hp etherial, lucky, invulnerable, magic-resistant, quick, poisonous and poison immune soul-sucking Ancient Kracken of Fear and Awe, especially in the dark.

'Nuff said.

[PDF]

Just beware of Magic Duels though !

[alexti]

Magic Duels are not elegant

Consider somebody parking well-armoured ghost king with a good defense near that Ancient Kraken and just waiting for Kraken to die from hypothermia

[Ygorl]

Magic Resistance doesn't help against Curse or Horror Mark, does it?