Choosing a Country: Adventures of a N00b

[ComTrav]

So i got the game about two weeks ago, and I have to say I'm amazed by its depth and variety. I played the demo a lot, enough to convince me I wanted the full version, and so far I couldn't be happier. I'd love to try multiplayer but I'm not sure how to find a server.

The sheer number of nations in the game makes it hard to settle on one nation (or even 3-4). Although being able to play the gajillions of different nations is certainly a huge part of the appeal of the game, I personally can't imagine playing a multiplayer game with a country whose units I've never seen before. (I always screw up the first time I play a country and lose to some weak independants, lol.) Glancing the forums it seems Ermor, Pythium, and Ri'Leh seem popular, but I'm sort of wondering how people figured out what country they'd like to play.

(Wall of text ahead)

Most of my games have been on Medium maps with 3-4 opponents, although I'm thinking of moving towards larger maps because often times it seems I've already basically one once I start getting into the niftier aspects of the game. Either that, or increase difficulty level (played normal so far.)

The first big game I played after getting the full version was EA Abysia. Because of fire. I get a good bless for Burning Ones (like the manual thoughtfully suggests), kill everything. Late game my fire mages are so effective the enemy is dead before I even close with them. I don't actually finish this game because I didn't have the patience to invade Atlantis. Next big game I played was MA Ulm, because forging items is cool. One of the hero knights gets hall of fame heroic quickness and smashes things. My strong national troops make this pretty easy; Machaka and Mictlan can't scratch black steel. Late game I do some global enchantments, because they're cool (Earthblood well, the bonus resources one, and Gift of Health, because afflictions make me a sad panda). Then I play Tien'Chi EA with magic and growth scales (because old age, like afflictions, make me a sad panda.) I probably could've won this faster than I did if I didn't spend so many turns working my way up almost every different elemental path. I manage to summon all four elemental kings and feel pretty pleased with myself; I start (sorta) using them as scs to try to get a feel for it. (Wow, queen of air can kill 20 militia? OMG!) Then I try LA Ulm, and it took me a couple of tries to get the Vampire Queen scales right. (End up with something like sleeping, 2E 5D 4B with a little magic; I tried drain at first but my research is already so lolterrible I decided I needed the boost. Still working on refining this; would life to add a touch of fire for blood summons, and/or air for windguide). I get to summon vampires. I use BLOOD MAGIC, experiment with stealth armies (they take massive casualties at first before I put everyone on the far far far left side of the square. Which was a pain, because I had about 80-100 rangers and wolves led by a dozen different guys.) And I use SCs more; the Blood Marshal random hero shows up and kicks *** wherever I have dominion. I'm not sure if I should use my VQ pretender as more of a caster or melee. Also, I have to fight LA Ermor, and I see why it gets so much attention on this boards; fighting hordes of undead is bad enough, and when you finally capture territory you get no income from it and your army starts to starve. Father Illearth with wraith blade opens this up for me; he's effectively unkillable, though sometimes I can't kill the enemies fast enough to avoid automatically routing after 50 turns. I do bother to invade Atlantis, here, as I luck out with a coastal province that can recruit water commanders and get a sea king's goblet after a drop. Now I'm playing MA Agartha, and I really am wondering why I took 2 luck instead of 2 growth; my golem crafters JUST get enough experience to boost precision to be decent battlemages when they die to disease. My national troops are miserable, but I don't think I've lost a single stone sentinel yet. I don't have enough earth gems. I don't think it's possible to have enough. Other nations I've played around with are MA C'Tis (poison dominion ftw!), MA Marignon (heavy troops, stealth priests, angels, FIRE? how could I pass this up? Yes, old age ftl...) Bogarus (because it's new...even though I h've had the game only two weeks and everything is new...) and a couple of the 'heims' (I mean, I can't pass up a Norse-themed nation. Do any of them NOT lend themselves to a dual-bless strategy? Something about taking awful scales rubs me thr wrong way...)

So, what nation do you play, why do you play it, how'd you figure that out?

[llamabeast]

Nice post, but I only have time to respond to a couple of things (I'm meant to be working!).

As regards multiplayer, if you take a look in the multiplayer forum regularly, there are often games recruiting players. Also I host games for newbies quite often. You shouldn't feel obliged to play a newbie game though, it's fine to jump in at the deep end (although you will probably get pasted by experienced players it's still fun). Anyway if you're interested in playing in the next newbie game PM me and I'll let you know when I start it up.

Also, "makes me a sad panda" - I've not heard that before, it's brilliant!

[Yrkoon]

I have tried several nations (bless and not bless) in different eras. Dual bless is always powerful but to really benefit from it you need to be able to recruit lots of sacreds, so non-capital only sacreds are best (EA Agartha, EA and MA Mictlan, EA and MA Bandar and so on). Capital only troops that cost not too much resources are OK, because you can produce then in decent numbers. Capital only troops that cost a lot of resources are not good : you end up with bad scales for the whole nation, and can only recruit a handful of sacreds from one single province.

I am currently in a game with MA Bandar Log and I have to say they are one of the best nations I played in SP because they have so many possibilities. They are a bless nation without strong recruitable priests which makes it a challenge at first, then with enough research they can summon troops.

And then the fun begins... Sooooo many different national summons: astral, nature, water, blood. Many of them are sacred commanders, strong mage priests able to bless the sacred troops. Others summons are shape changing seducers (and mage priests too). Some demon assassins in national blood summons, as well as national demons troops. And you can summon national amphibian troops too. All these summons diversify the magic of the nation, from initially astral and nature (a very little bit of earth and water), to very strong air, water, earth and blood. Even strong fire and death when you hit conjuration 8 and gain access to the Rudras (brutal 4 armed SCs, very powerful mage priest, sacred, flying, immunities to some elements ... and looking sooooo cool)

The sheer variety of the summons makes it really a great nation to play. You don't get bored with the nation at all even in a long game (which is something I have experienced with other nations; they suffer from the "more of the same thing" syndrome in long games). With Bandar Log, I just can't wait to see what next they can do. I still haven't seen all their national blood summons and from what I have seen so far, it's going to be good.

EA Mictlan is also very nice. The were-jaguars are awesome, and dirt cheap. And Mictlan has lots of blood summons. Bandar logs has fewer blood summons, but more summons overall - and they are distinctly different, so the nation has more "flavour".

[Yrkoon]

Regarding the bad scales, it is a necessary evil to get a stronger bless. As is taking an imprisoned pretender. But you can't have it all ...

Mind you, many bless nations can take some bad scales without problem (sloth, heat/cold, misfortune if combined with order ...). I never take death because I see myself as a benevolent god. But death does make sense sometimes (EA Agartha for ex.)

[Tyrant]

I would suggest picking either early or mid era and concentrating on that. Late era is less frequently played and Ashen Empire and Dreamlands make it a bit weird.

[capnq]

I like variety. I never play the same Age and nation in two consecutive solo games. (I also tend to start new games before finishing earlier ones.)

For Ages, I just cycle through them. Once I've picked an Age, I decide what magic path(s) I want to specialize in, then pick a nation to fit that. Since getting the full version, I've started games as EA Marverni (nature), MA T'ien Ch'i (air), and LA Agartha (earth), and have plans for EA fire (probably Abysia) and MA water (almost certainly R'lyeh).

I want to finish at least one single-player game before I attempt multiplayer.

[LDiCesare]

I tend to cycle through nations at random. I dislike water nations so rarely play them, but the result is I'm not really good with any nation and tend to get trashed in mp games for lack of knowledge of any particular nation.
I like AE Agartha (nice summons) and T'ien Ch'i (nice summons and sacreds), all ages C'tis (as sauromancers = skeleton spam are hard to get wrong), and LE Arcoscephale (armored elephants!). I think of trying to get good with one or two nations in each era only in order to be able to play them in mp without looking clueless or realising after a few turns that I miss astral and death or did something silly like not using the drain immunity of LE Man or ME Ulm.

[Stryke11]

Bit off topic but for the first responder the phrase "x makes me a sad panda" is from the South Park episode, "Sexual Harrassment Panda" which basically was about some of the complexities of the sexual harrassment issue and had a side story of random mascots (hence a panda, which has nothing to do with SH).

PS. I love late age, so I just wanted to throw that in since the consensus seems to be that it sucks. I love the vamps with Ulm, the Mictlantlantis, spooky Marignon, Man meets Heavy Steel & Crossbows, cult Pythium, and now Bogarus. Yeah, jotun, vanheim, tien chi, and a few others are almost exactly the same as other eras with like one different unit (my main criticism of the 'heims in general) but overall I'd say late age is my favorite.