A_Hamster
Small Furry Animal
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2007
- Messages
- 627
Finished a game as Keelyn of the Balseraphs Saturday night. Going for Tower of Mastery but won by Domination since Hannah/Basium and Dain declared on me when I started building the final tower. That was fun, even though I suspect I wasn't using the psycho clowns optimally. What strats I did use from this forum were the Mokka's Cauldron + Arena with cheap mutated Warriors, and Druids promoted up from Harlequins so they have Chaos & Mind spheres with Channeling III in addition to the Nature sphere. Since the Harlequins to Druids was one my main reasons for giving the Balseraphs a try, I founded RoK to become neutral, and the monetary boost certainly helped. Unfortunately, I couldn't get Gems until very late, so no Stonewardens for some mutation cures. Pool of Tears was probably better anyway. (Yes, I was very lucky to get the Pool and the Pyre close to my starting position.)
Eventually, I founded OO even though I read Keelyn's Summoner trait is best leveraged with AV. My take on the Balseraphs is not that they want to destroy the world or even control it, but it is going to be their plaything. Tower of Mastery is for them a huge and elaborate practical joke on the rest of the world, who treat magic seriously (especially those stuffy Amurites!) Thus I went with OO for the odd units. Didn't get to use the Krakens though. As for divine spells, now that I see how potent Tsunami is, when I next play with conquest in mind I damn well will be prepping the landing zone with them!
Another thing I will do again is making Stygian Guard marines. Start with a Warrior at 25 hammers. Give him any buffing spells like Courage and Loyalty which can only be given to living units. Mutate him. If good enough, Drown him, then upgrade to Stygian Guard. The Stygian Guard (who normally does not have Water Walking) retains all the other promos including the Water Walking. If not good enough, then off to the Arena in the Mokka's Cauldron city until the Warrior is worth Drowning/Upgrading despite drawbacks. You'll still get a Flesh Golem for fodder purposes even if the Arena kills the Warrior. But as it was, I got five lvl 3 Stygian Guard with CR II or CR III to assault Hannah's cities and open the way for the Druids, Speakers, Harlequins and Mimics (And Immortals and War Chariots soon after.)
Since my primary military production city could pop out a Harlequin every other turn, and since it had the Tower of Eyes I did the mutate+Arena trick on them too. My luck wasn't as good with them as the Warriors. (Most of the survivors had Enraged and deserted. Gave other units exp hunting them down though.) However, I did get a few with decent mutations and exp. Two became Druids, if a bit quirky. (My other Druids were combat druids, from L6 Harlequins that started as Hunters. My best Harlequins became Beastmasters.)
To use Summoner, I went with Necromancy. Wraiths were good scouts and flank guards, since I did not want to risk quality units on detached duty. Of course, they also did the suicide charges. Also, from my previous games I've come to like Fire Elementals for the collateral damage, and now all the summons stick around longer.
Taskmasters and Courtesans were fun too, although the Courtesans were the best, being Invisible and able to explore rival territory and cities.
Some of you are probably familiar with the old saying, "God protects small children and fools." It certainly was the case in this game: the RND number generator was never so generous to me before, in any computer game I've ever played! From the Pyre and Pool near my start position, to mana nodes all over the place, to early barbarian battles I should have lost (Hill Giant attacks Warrior in desert -- Warrior wins!), life was good.
A question. Does an Asylum give Enraged promotions to all units built in the city? I was getting a lot of units with Enraged, even before I mutated them. (Okay, I guess the RND generator wasn't being nice to me in that area!)
Eventually, I founded OO even though I read Keelyn's Summoner trait is best leveraged with AV. My take on the Balseraphs is not that they want to destroy the world or even control it, but it is going to be their plaything. Tower of Mastery is for them a huge and elaborate practical joke on the rest of the world, who treat magic seriously (especially those stuffy Amurites!) Thus I went with OO for the odd units. Didn't get to use the Krakens though. As for divine spells, now that I see how potent Tsunami is, when I next play with conquest in mind I damn well will be prepping the landing zone with them!
Another thing I will do again is making Stygian Guard marines. Start with a Warrior at 25 hammers. Give him any buffing spells like Courage and Loyalty which can only be given to living units. Mutate him. If good enough, Drown him, then upgrade to Stygian Guard. The Stygian Guard (who normally does not have Water Walking) retains all the other promos including the Water Walking. If not good enough, then off to the Arena in the Mokka's Cauldron city until the Warrior is worth Drowning/Upgrading despite drawbacks. You'll still get a Flesh Golem for fodder purposes even if the Arena kills the Warrior. But as it was, I got five lvl 3 Stygian Guard with CR II or CR III to assault Hannah's cities and open the way for the Druids, Speakers, Harlequins and Mimics (And Immortals and War Chariots soon after.)
Since my primary military production city could pop out a Harlequin every other turn, and since it had the Tower of Eyes I did the mutate+Arena trick on them too. My luck wasn't as good with them as the Warriors. (Most of the survivors had Enraged and deserted. Gave other units exp hunting them down though.) However, I did get a few with decent mutations and exp. Two became Druids, if a bit quirky. (My other Druids were combat druids, from L6 Harlequins that started as Hunters. My best Harlequins became Beastmasters.)
To use Summoner, I went with Necromancy. Wraiths were good scouts and flank guards, since I did not want to risk quality units on detached duty. Of course, they also did the suicide charges. Also, from my previous games I've come to like Fire Elementals for the collateral damage, and now all the summons stick around longer.
Taskmasters and Courtesans were fun too, although the Courtesans were the best, being Invisible and able to explore rival territory and cities.
Some of you are probably familiar with the old saying, "God protects small children and fools." It certainly was the case in this game: the RND number generator was never so generous to me before, in any computer game I've ever played! From the Pyre and Pool near my start position, to mana nodes all over the place, to early barbarian battles I should have lost (Hill Giant attacks Warrior in desert -- Warrior wins!), life was good.
A question. Does an Asylum give Enraged promotions to all units built in the city? I was getting a lot of units with Enraged, even before I mutated them. (Okay, I guess the RND generator wasn't being nice to me in that area!)
the war is over (I often use units dominated to burn a city because they come with moves). 
