Unrestricted AI -- Most ridiculous combo you can think of

[Calbrenar]

My friend wants to play a game with unrestricted AI to take advantage of a combo that I came up with (that's pretty obvious really) IE Philsophy w/ Sidar and going for Luonnotar.

What other great combo's can you think of? I'm tempted to let him try it but only if I can come up with something better lol.

The only things I've really come up with so far are using Tebryn (Arc/Sum) with Amurites or possibly Cardith with Calabim (since I believe sprawling is a trait and thus would count). We typically play large maps with tons of AI 18+ or so) and not a lot of room to expand so it seems to me that Cardith could be an enormous advantage since your cities would get so large and then feasting + Tower of Complacency + 3 Law Arch Mages + Hemah Lich Law 5 cities with no unhappiness would be pretty large I'd think.

Or would this ruin the synergy with the Calbim UB and the +1 hammer per unhappy? Seems to me that's a small benefit getting 10-15 hammers (probably less) vs third ring no unhappy.

Comments? Other synergyies/ideas?

 

[Ekolite]

Cardith Lorda of the Sidar is meant to be pretty deadly. Combine with law archmages and you can have litterally hundreds of specialists, which get bonuses from the sidar.

A ridiculous, but non-exploitive combo, would be hyborem + any other civ. With no manes his cities never get above size 1.

 

[Ur_Vile_Wedge]

Also, riduculous for plot reasons, if not exploitative, would be Cassiel playing either the Infernals or Mercurians. (And quite probably the Sheiam as well)

 

[DharmaMcLaren]

I played a game as Cairdith Lorda of the Ljosalfar one time, under FoL. That was pretty fun - sprawling elven FoL cities reached easily sustainable populations of about 38-46.
Note that this was on an Arboria map with Blessings of Amathaon. ^^
I had more than 30 deer, I think.

 

[Demus]

cardith lorda is exploitive with almost any civ out there, simply because of his 3rd ring. Exeption to this are the bannor, which need their massive amount of cities to be THE MOST effective (0% maintenance ftw). For enormous production, try cardith of the khazad (or possibly sidar founding guild of hammers).

 

[Mesix]

I believe that one of the Amurite leaders is both philosophical and arcane. This would be doubly exploitative as the Sidar, because while waiting for the GP to pop to build the six levels of the Altar, you could produce dozens of adepts that are quick to reach 26 exp required to wane.

 

[Kael]

I believe that one of the Amurite leaders is both philosophical and arcane. This would be doubly exploitative as the Sidar, because while waiting for the GP to pop to build the six levels of the Altar, you could produce dozens of adepts that are quick to reach 26 exp required to wane.

Ouch, Dain of the Sidar for the win.

 

[Mazarin]

Cardith Lorda of the Sidar is meant to be pretty deadly. Combine with law archmages and you can have litterally hundreds of specialists, which get bonuses from the sidar.

A ridiculous, but non-exploitive combo, would be hyborem + any other civ. With no manes his cities never get above size 1.

why would you want to use law archmages when law shades work just as well and save you your archmage spots for combat mages. I think that pretty every arcane leader would be extremely overpowered with sidar in the mid to late game because they could easily run a super specialist economy under sacrifice the weak: turn all tiles to grass and have your 50+ population cities be completely happy with vaned law archmages.

 

[mtagge]

Ouch, Dain of the Sidar for the win.

I actually thought that Sabathiel was better, the Charismatic trait lets them wane at 20XP. Organized let them build the command post for +2XP. I guess any adaptive leader could do it (or get a GC by being the first to get the tech that pops one) if they sat on Charismatic once things got rolling.
+12 for Altar, +2 for Deis, +2 for Command Post, +2 Theocracy, +2 Apprenticeship = 20XP for disciple units, a shade every turn with gross overflow when you actually want to build something. Tower of Complacency for no unhappiness and every three shades as a Great Merchant equals another population acting as a priest, two if using Sacrifice the Weak.

I never before had a city with pop exceeding 100 even with the Infernals.