Balseraph Freaks

[MagisterCultuum]

Like Arctem said, there is no problem but clutter. I'm not so sure it would be that big of a deal though, and doubt you would end up changing everything back instead of just a few units that you never build later in the game.

The only problem I can think of is that the AI might build more otherwise obsolete units. They already seem to like warriors, but this is probably just because of the building requirements. I still think that all buildings should provide some bonus (xp, happiness, defense, trade, etc) that would make the AI build them instead of just using the no ai building requirements option.

 

[Roghar]

I agree that having Loki with mutate really makes Freaks pointless. Last time I played balseraph I really couldn’t' justify them, and the GPP pollution makes them doubly discouraging unless you are playing for a culture win.

Either he needs to lose the spell or they need to change somehow.

 

[Ecofarm]

I really dislike the idea of giving them such an interesting UU that they could only get by taking an out of character move in alignment to nuetral.

Perp is insane, what's out of character?

I call it my "Environmentalist Wackos" strategy.

FoL + Commune, with a juant over to Empy to represent our 'holier than thou' attitude and providing our "blindingly" obvious moral superiority. My balseraph -> FoL/Empy/Commune is my favorite strat. Our arguments are so convincing (have you seen the data on biodiversity) that 2-4 enemy units join our forces every turn! (domination) If I do things in the wrong orders, sometimes our new members are blind or charm Pit Beasts = The revenge of nature scorned. They are really good at razing those terrible concrete structures (with city raider 3).

There's a saying of some sort that Mother Nature will have the last laugh. Well, that's us. We're laughing.

Spoiler :

Don't forget to grab bronze for arenas (don't expect a scout to live more than twice ) and warfare for conquest (food from ancients). After you get Yvain and druids, head to beastmasters then precision. The strat has no bombard or arcanes so sometimes it falls flat on its face. Kithra defends too much; he acts like the three stooges - dying while defending injured when other units have not defended yet. I think best to leave him at home with Heroic defense2. He's not strong enough with blitz and having him die in an army with hunters or rangers who have not defended is too annoying.

 

[thewyrm]

I stand by my original claim. I don't care how awesome Balseraph druids are, it just isn't right for Keelyn or Perp to not be evil.

 

[Polycrates]

Back to the matter of the Freaks, I tried a couple of XML changes, to take away Loki's Mutate spell and reduce the cost of Freaks to 30(!) hammers. And I think it works much better. Less powerful than Balseraphs are now, but a lot more fun.
Going for Festivals early is a much more viable tactic, since once you've got the Freak Show up, you can really pump out a lot of Freaks where you might otherwise build Warriors. And really, I think the lower price is justified since you've already paid the 60 hammer building cost, and the majority aren't significantly better than normal warriors anyway (certainly not as good as Swordsmen), plus some are obviously pure rubbish. And I think this actually balances them better, because it now costs a prohibitive 65 gold to upgrade one to a swordsman.
All of which means you actually get to use them as Freaks, and see that fricking cool unit art.