Any Good Non-Bless Strategy Nations

Sokar · #1 January 8th, 2007, 04:30 AM

Hi everyone, I've beening playing this great game for about a week now, and browsed the boards a bit and saw a lot of bless strats and tried them out with a couple of nations. They are so good that they really turned me off. I'm wondering if there are any good nations that are non-bless based, as it seems that most nations work much better with a bless strat, even with horrible scales. I already tried MA Ulm, which sucked due to its lack of magic. Is there any other good non-bless nations? I usually play random large maps, with 4 AI or less, everything default, if that makes any difference. Also, is F9W9 the holy grail of bless combos? Thanks for your help.

Teraswaerto · #2 January 8th, 2007, 05:34 AM

MA Ulm is probably the weakest nation of the game.

A few that come to mind:

Pythium is good. Great national troops, powerful mages with Astral and Air, and easy access to communion.

C'tis (particularly EA) is also good. Cheap, powerful death mages recruitable everywhere, and slave lizards are great against indies.

They wont be able to defend against an early rush of heavily blessed Vanir, but no one can really.

Ironhawk · #3 January 8th, 2007, 05:43 AM

There are plenty of non-bless strat nations. Particularly in your game, with such large maps, bless strats are overall weaker anyway. Except that I guess you are playing AI which cant compensate for that at all.

Why dont you try a really strong magic nation and try that out? Play Arco, Caelum, Pythium, or even Tien Chi. All of them have very good magic and not very good sacreds. See how the game plays when you are dependent on your mages for domination.

PvK · #4 January 8th, 2007, 05:56 AM

Hey, I like MA Ulm... but then, I like a challenge... and if you think MA Ulm stinks, you might not agree with my other opinions.

I agree with the previous two though, and would add that if you're trying to have fun against the AI, maybe just look for nations that look like you'd enjoy playing or trying their style, and focus on that.

PvK

PDF · #5 January 8th, 2007, 07:00 AM

The various Shinuyama eras are also good for non-bless strats. And there's still Caelum, even if they're less powerful than in Dom2.
In fact 60%+ of the nations don't benefit much from a dual bless, either because of weak or capitol-only sacred (or both !).

Sokar · #6 January 8th, 2007, 07:03 AM

Thanks for the responses. I tried EA Tien Chi and EA Arco, I thought they had good bless troops, maybe you are talking about different era? I distinctly remember EA Arco having godly bless troops, or maybe I'm just off with my memory. And doesn't Tien Chi have good sacred summons? Anyways, I'll try C'Tis and Pythium.

Also, yeah, I don't play multi-player at all. I'm more of a single player person. I'v been playing mostly city builders, got bored and wanted to try something new. I'm Chinese so I like Tien Chi a lot, I like the Journey to the West summons, though I don't get why Sandy is a higher level summon than Pigsy. Pigsy should be higher! And where is my Monkey King!

Shovah32 · #7 January 8th, 2007, 01:02 PM

Even the nations who work well with blesses can be fun without them, the added bonus is that by playing them you stop someone else bless-rushing you with them

Gandalf Parker · #8 January 8th, 2007, 01:24 PM

They all have something that can be built into a strategy but it might not appeal to you. Arcos for magic research, Ermor for pushing harmful dominion, Jotunheim for defensive strategy, Pangaea for stealth.

Presently Im having alot of fun with Pangaea
-3 order
-3 production
+3 luck
+3 magic
lots of dominion

Agrajag · #9 January 8th, 2007, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Gandalf Parker said:
Presently Im having alot of fun with Pangaea
-3 order
-3 production
+3 luck
+3 magic
lots of dominion

Aren't you always having fun with Pangaea?

Personally, I'd add in +3 growth to your stew, or atleast +1.
1) To slightly counteract the -income
2) I think some (most? all?) events that affect your population are affected by Growth, so more growth keeps your population safe, and works well with +3 Luck and -3 Order
3) Growth is, in the long run, the best scale for increasing cash-flow, especially so in your gigantic-normous-huge-mungous-colossus-al maps
4) It works well with Pangaea's 2B (though you'd probably only go "that path" in really long games)

Twan · #10 January 8th, 2007, 01:43 PM

1/ Man. Man is an air nation and has longbowmen, you don't need bless, just take a fire 3 prentender, learn "flaming arrow" and you are playing in easy mode.

2/ Abysia can be a very good nation with or without bless. You have fire immune troops with fire shield, you eat vanirs for breakfast.

3/ Machaka is a very good choice for magic oriented strategies, it's not "the reign of sorcerors" for nothing, Machaka mages really rock, you have choice and power, with 5 kinds of mages including non capitol only able to reach 3 in nature, and capitol only with very good survivability (they take spider form if heavily wounded).

4/ EA Ct'is (warning MA C'Tis is bugged and near to be unplayable, and LA C'tis weak without its missing sacred - LA C'Tis is actually a bless nation without sacred troops -)

5/ Pythium, if you like using the very strangely working (bugged?) communion system.

6/ Dom2 Arco was so good that the non-capitol mages were nerfed a lot. You can try MA Arco if you want a non bless nation with lots of useless 1/1 or 1/1/1 non-capitol mages payed as much as the 2/2/1 you try to get (Arco will make you hate the new magic randoms system).... And a nation described as mastering "the elements" but in fact knowing nothing about air. You still have good capitol only mages and priestesses able to heal, but Arco is no longer an above average nation.

edit : Caelum is good too