Part 2, Specific Civs
Specific Civ’s
Bannor
With the Bannor, the idea of conquest is to have a humongous stack of demagogues when ‘the push’ comes. The Bannor also have one other critical element, that all of their regular units have guardsman! Therefore, your mages will stay alive. They are the ultimate ‘go wide’ civilization. You don’t need to have multiple of types. Therefore, we get demagogues, with morale, iron weapons, and the stack enhancers listed above. Since your adepts won’t be killed by assassins, get one of each for each major stack and two for maelstorm.
The Breunor Bannor strategy is brutally simple – 50 demagogues with a few other guys, with iron weapons, morale from the Flagbearers, dance of blades, blur, enchanted blade, blade, blur, maybe rust, and your priest of order casts bless. If you can hit the enemy with a few maelstorms you will roll over anything.
Amurites
It is likely that you can and will use magic as your weapon of choice to take down the stack, as you won’t have 200 demagogues like the Bannor.
The Amurites will get XP’s fast for their mages with the Arcane characteristic, the cave of ancestors, and a supporting world spell so you start by looking at second level spells. Indeed, with the Amurites try to get Strength of Will fast for archmages.
Here, death mana is a must since you will want liches; even more important, since Govannon can teach first level spells, you can train an army of skeletons even from workers.
With their spellstaffs, they can be very powerful in a fight also. Since Govannon can teach first level spells to everyone, going wide makes sense – but with spellstaffs and a lot of magic, going deep also can make sense.
But we have to protect the mages, so get earth for stoneskin as a high priority. I tend to get a few death nodes, but also try to get an area attack spell. I like fire since the fireballs can take down city defenses and fire elementals can cause collateral damage. Enchantment is good as usual, since you want to build firebows and have enchanted arrows. If you like chanters, and they can be used cleverly, then poisoned blade should be sought.
Note that mind mana works well for the Amurites. Why? That one guy in every city there to defend it can be taught inspiration by Govannon so it is then easy to cast it in every city. So I tend to go earth, death, enchantment, maybe a situational mana (like life), and then a few more deaths.
Ljosalfar
I find the Ljosalfar as possibly the strongest builder, and with terrific defense – a killer world spell, strong archers, special strength in forests. With no catapults, though, and few real tough offensive troops, you have to decide how to use magic.
With Thessa, I use magic as my primary offensive weapon; with Arendal, I use summoned tigers as the source of offense. Amelenchier can probably go either way, probably closer to Thessa.
Fire is especially useful since without catapults, fireballs can take down the defense. I often give them spell extension to use large stacks (the Ljosalfar production is very high) from a distance.
Water is very important – you need to make sure that your forests don’t burn down (especially if you play a human!) Be ready to put out those fires. Since you will likely build a lot of longbowmen, enchantment 2 is very good. Finally, make sure body is a priority, with no catapults to slow you down; it makes your army very fast.
So, with Thessa, it is the usual summoners and stack killers, with Arendal I get support. Amelenchior is in the middle.
Sheaim
I’m horrified to think of what improved AI will do to an AI Sheaim. That is, at high level, the player will build Pyre Zombies, but an AI knowing it is outbuilding you by 50% can pile on the PZ’s and just take anything out.
Anyway, we know the Sheaim are killers with magic. Both leaders are summoners, so death magic presents itself, both to get liches and for its power. Tebryn of course is arcane also so will get its power up and fast. With he PZ’s having the usual are effects spells like Maelstorm isn’t as important as it is for others, but Maelstornm is so good I may want air anyway. As usual, get stone skin to protect the investment, and then get the summons out.
Grigori
I suspect that the Grigori are hard for the AI because their characteristics and strategy are tied. The ‘ideal’ scenario for magic is to take arcane, get everyone up to a high level, and then take summoner once at a high level.
If they want to be, the Grigori can be the best summoners in the game; if they make their adventurers into archmages, they can double summon. I always want to do this; unfortunately, in practice, I find that I need my adventurers in ‘the line’ and other characteristics to pull it off.
So, basically, the Grigori have to decide what they will be when they grow up. If they are using adventurers for melee, using their characteristics for financial or philosophical, then mana should be used for support; if they use their adventurers to get archmages and liches they play the summoner game. If you can get the summoner trait and build 8 guys dual casting over 2 turns, the enemy SoD won’t look too tough!
Malakim
Since the Malakim start with sun mana, and if they play thematically and get Empyrean, they will get another sun, so building your game around sun mana makes sense. After all, sun is the only sphere which gets a double affinity unit for level 3.
However, I’m not sure I really would recommend this. With Varn, as spiritual, you will likely be doing a priest game and the other characteristic likely won’t be arcane or summoner – great if you can pull it off, but it is hard. With a few Luridus’ on the board and Chalid, you have plenty of offensive magic.
But I think the strategy is better for the scorch-sand lion trick, which can be awesome. Sand lions as 5 +1 fire are tough second level units with a 3 movement. But at the end of the day, it is hard to support a priest and mage strategy and with Varn you should probably choose.
Indeed with Decius, as organized/raiders, a more traditional conquest with command posts and fast troops like the camel archers can make sense. Therefore, the sand lions are nice but you get sun from your palace, so traditional support can make sense. Indeed, with Decius you should consider the builder type mana carefully.
Khazad
The Khazad can be outrageously powerful and have some special needs. Enchantment is a must . Since they can heal ships and catapults with it, it gives them tremendous advantages. Because they have such high production, I think of them as similar to the Bannor, but they are limited to first level spells and they are not immune to assassins. They should build a lot of adepts, especially to repair artillery and ships quickly. Since getting gold up is so important here, the economic support mana shoud be considered, alogn side with the ‘large stack’ support spells. I would not go for death mana – they are so strong they hardly need the skeletons.
I’m hoping this gets the main ideas out!
General Comments
Like most people, I’ve given guidelines, not instructions. It is a tribute to Kael and team that the game is well balanced, making these decisions hard. But in wirtiing this large piece, I do think I should give the ‘Breunor’ method.
In general, my approach is for magic to support, so my ‘default’ is to get maelstrom and the support troops mana. I tend to go wide and then use genies for my third level summons on large maps or when ‘Blessing’ is in play. I’ll get mana for economic development, or go deep, in special situations like having summoner or when I’ve had early expansion and need to prop the economy as a first priority.
Best wishes,
Breunor
Specific Civ’s
Bannor
With the Bannor, the idea of conquest is to have a humongous stack of demagogues when ‘the push’ comes. The Bannor also have one other critical element, that all of their regular units have guardsman! Therefore, your mages will stay alive. They are the ultimate ‘go wide’ civilization. You don’t need to have multiple of types. Therefore, we get demagogues, with morale, iron weapons, and the stack enhancers listed above. Since your adepts won’t be killed by assassins, get one of each for each major stack and two for maelstorm.
The Breunor Bannor strategy is brutally simple – 50 demagogues with a few other guys, with iron weapons, morale from the Flagbearers, dance of blades, blur, enchanted blade, blade, blur, maybe rust, and your priest of order casts bless. If you can hit the enemy with a few maelstorms you will roll over anything.
Amurites
It is likely that you can and will use magic as your weapon of choice to take down the stack, as you won’t have 200 demagogues like the Bannor.
The Amurites will get XP’s fast for their mages with the Arcane characteristic, the cave of ancestors, and a supporting world spell so you start by looking at second level spells. Indeed, with the Amurites try to get Strength of Will fast for archmages.
Here, death mana is a must since you will want liches; even more important, since Govannon can teach first level spells, you can train an army of skeletons even from workers.
With their spellstaffs, they can be very powerful in a fight also. Since Govannon can teach first level spells to everyone, going wide makes sense – but with spellstaffs and a lot of magic, going deep also can make sense.
But we have to protect the mages, so get earth for stoneskin as a high priority. I tend to get a few death nodes, but also try to get an area attack spell. I like fire since the fireballs can take down city defenses and fire elementals can cause collateral damage. Enchantment is good as usual, since you want to build firebows and have enchanted arrows. If you like chanters, and they can be used cleverly, then poisoned blade should be sought.
Note that mind mana works well for the Amurites. Why? That one guy in every city there to defend it can be taught inspiration by Govannon so it is then easy to cast it in every city. So I tend to go earth, death, enchantment, maybe a situational mana (like life), and then a few more deaths.
Ljosalfar
I find the Ljosalfar as possibly the strongest builder, and with terrific defense – a killer world spell, strong archers, special strength in forests. With no catapults, though, and few real tough offensive troops, you have to decide how to use magic.
With Thessa, I use magic as my primary offensive weapon; with Arendal, I use summoned tigers as the source of offense. Amelenchier can probably go either way, probably closer to Thessa.
Fire is especially useful since without catapults, fireballs can take down the defense. I often give them spell extension to use large stacks (the Ljosalfar production is very high) from a distance.
Water is very important – you need to make sure that your forests don’t burn down (especially if you play a human!) Be ready to put out those fires. Since you will likely build a lot of longbowmen, enchantment 2 is very good. Finally, make sure body is a priority, with no catapults to slow you down; it makes your army very fast.
So, with Thessa, it is the usual summoners and stack killers, with Arendal I get support. Amelenchior is in the middle.
Sheaim
I’m horrified to think of what improved AI will do to an AI Sheaim. That is, at high level, the player will build Pyre Zombies, but an AI knowing it is outbuilding you by 50% can pile on the PZ’s and just take anything out.
Anyway, we know the Sheaim are killers with magic. Both leaders are summoners, so death magic presents itself, both to get liches and for its power. Tebryn of course is arcane also so will get its power up and fast. With he PZ’s having the usual are effects spells like Maelstorm isn’t as important as it is for others, but Maelstornm is so good I may want air anyway. As usual, get stone skin to protect the investment, and then get the summons out.
Grigori
I suspect that the Grigori are hard for the AI because their characteristics and strategy are tied. The ‘ideal’ scenario for magic is to take arcane, get everyone up to a high level, and then take summoner once at a high level.
If they want to be, the Grigori can be the best summoners in the game; if they make their adventurers into archmages, they can double summon. I always want to do this; unfortunately, in practice, I find that I need my adventurers in ‘the line’ and other characteristics to pull it off.
So, basically, the Grigori have to decide what they will be when they grow up. If they are using adventurers for melee, using their characteristics for financial or philosophical, then mana should be used for support; if they use their adventurers to get archmages and liches they play the summoner game. If you can get the summoner trait and build 8 guys dual casting over 2 turns, the enemy SoD won’t look too tough!
Malakim
Since the Malakim start with sun mana, and if they play thematically and get Empyrean, they will get another sun, so building your game around sun mana makes sense. After all, sun is the only sphere which gets a double affinity unit for level 3.
However, I’m not sure I really would recommend this. With Varn, as spiritual, you will likely be doing a priest game and the other characteristic likely won’t be arcane or summoner – great if you can pull it off, but it is hard. With a few Luridus’ on the board and Chalid, you have plenty of offensive magic.
But I think the strategy is better for the scorch-sand lion trick, which can be awesome. Sand lions as 5 +1 fire are tough second level units with a 3 movement. But at the end of the day, it is hard to support a priest and mage strategy and with Varn you should probably choose.
Indeed with Decius, as organized/raiders, a more traditional conquest with command posts and fast troops like the camel archers can make sense. Therefore, the sand lions are nice but you get sun from your palace, so traditional support can make sense. Indeed, with Decius you should consider the builder type mana carefully.
Khazad
The Khazad can be outrageously powerful and have some special needs. Enchantment is a must . Since they can heal ships and catapults with it, it gives them tremendous advantages. Because they have such high production, I think of them as similar to the Bannor, but they are limited to first level spells and they are not immune to assassins. They should build a lot of adepts, especially to repair artillery and ships quickly. Since getting gold up is so important here, the economic support mana shoud be considered, alogn side with the ‘large stack’ support spells. I would not go for death mana – they are so strong they hardly need the skeletons.
I’m hoping this gets the main ideas out!
General Comments
Like most people, I’ve given guidelines, not instructions. It is a tribute to Kael and team that the game is well balanced, making these decisions hard. But in wirtiing this large piece, I do think I should give the ‘Breunor’ method.
In general, my approach is for magic to support, so my ‘default’ is to get maelstrom and the support troops mana. I tend to go wide and then use genies for my third level summons on large maps or when ‘Blessing’ is in play. I’ll get mana for economic development, or go deep, in special situations like having summoner or when I’ve had early expansion and need to prop the economy as a first priority.
Best wishes,
Breunor
