Jotunheim giants geared out to brawl?

[Hugh Manatee]

Good idea or bad idea? I got a couple of the warrior priest commanders with swords of swiftness(2 attacks at 9 damage), the trampling boots, lucky coin shields, horror helm, a berserker pelt, and the ring that boost attack(blood magic one, can't recall the name...) and some"thingee" of magic resistance. Gave him hurler ballistics meatshields. They seems to be blazing a nice trail through ulm territory, even though half the meatshields are starving off in the wilderness the commander is still whuppin ***.

Few things, if he's size 4 he'll squash the regular ulm troops and most other human sized things with those boots, right? Anything he's going to get majorly hurt by? I only have about level 4 or 5 construction ATM, but what can I give him in the future(I need to look at that encyclomamual sometime http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif )? If I gave one of them one of the better bows would they make good use of it even though they aren't archers normally? Like say I make a whole squad of cheap commanders with bows backed up by a couple of the jotun mages. And for future reference, the aquatic races can't forge bows?

[Edi]

Aquatics can forge bows, just not use them underwater (with the exception of the ethereal crossbow).

The trampling boots make the giants not use melee attacks, they will just trample. They can be hurt the same as anything else, if they get hit. The sword of swiftness helps boost defense, so that's good. They won't use bows if not set to command 'Fire'.

[Gandalf Parker]

If I remember right, trampling is for things 2 sizes smaller than you? So your giants will stomp into a swarm of things close to their size and have a problem.

[Edi]

No, one size smaller is plenty good. Minotaurs are size 3 and trample infantry just fine.

[Hugh Manatee]

So the stompy boots are negating the advantage of the sword's 2 swings or will he use both if the AI determines it should attack rather then trample? I can forge him the boots that ake him run faster too I suppose, maybe give him hold and attack rear orders.....

[Edi]

What part of "does not use attacks if it can trample" was unclear? Obviously trampling only works against smaller targets, so against equal sized or bigger targets it will use the sword.

[Hugh Manatee]

Actually you'd be surprised whats clear and unclear after spending 9 hours inside an unairconditioned warehouse in texas full of dusty, greasy, sticky, chewing gum covered Wal-Mart guts and fixtures.....

[Edi]

Ouch! I feel for you. Though spending six hours on the phone sorting out the net connection problems of computer illiterate people can have a remarkably similar effect...

Sorry if I came off as too snappish earlier.

[Blitz]

Gearing out giants is a good idea, but imo you are taking it a bit far. Keep in mind the gem investment you are making, as well as the level of research involved. Neifel Jarls are especially nasty with a decent bless and just a pendant of luck, which involves only a small gold and gem investment. 10 lucky jarls can do some serious damage, especially with a light nature bless for a touch of regeneration to keep the afflictions away. 10 Jarls cost you about 1400 gold and 50 astral pearls, and will beat one super-jarl any day of the week.

[Hugh Manatee]

eh, I had a lot of magic sites and a bunch of gems comming in that I alchemized into the gear, nature gems and a bunch of astral pearls I think. Just for this learning experience I turned the magic sites up to 60 and I had turned my nations production way up so gold was rolling in. The Hags were great for getting a wide variety of paths to forge stuff in and early on some ubre hag showed up in my capital so sweeping for sites was easy. I'm used to playing mechwarrior, and I like using all my slots.

I'm trying out the pangaea and the minotaurs now. They get built in freebie meatshields.