Machaka
 

Thank you to everyone for your suggestions on Arco, I had a great deal of fun. I did not have a great deal of success with human commanders with magic items, with a couple of exceptions. The powering up of mages was a huge success, no surprise there. Putting ranged weapons or spells in the hands of generals was worthwhile, over time. Aside from a few routs caused by a bow of accuracy killing a commander, they rarely turned battles. However, the kill rate eventually pushed them into the hall of fame, suggesting that they added a bit to each battle. Finally, when I stated summoning some of the high level units and then dumped tons of magic items on them, the game was over.

Now, for the next project! Machaka. I have never played them before, even though I do live in Africa. What do you all suggest? I see the witch doctors have poor research and there are several kinds of priests? Should I take a bless/dominion strategy? Is finding a library critical? Can the spiders make credible knights for a more military strategy? Please, let me know your ideas!

Re: Machaka
 

the females are better for cheap researchers. I always found machaka was best for making early black servents into something between an SC and a thug, at least until they lose life drain in the next CB mod.

Re: Machaka
 

Machaka is quite well balanced nation. It has no weaknesses, but its strengths aren't very visible either.

The Hunter Spiders, which are sacred, stay even after their rider dies. Their magic resistance drops into "too low", but AI doesn't know how to use that, so you can try a bless strategy. Fire 9 will make the spiders deadly, and that should be enough for a first try.

Machaka Archers can be massed in insane numbers. Flaming Arrows at Enchantment 4 is deadly. Enchantment also has: Fire Shield, Reanimation, Raise Dead/Skeletons, etc. You might want to try how to make a Fire 9 Moloch into an early-game combatant, OR how to make him early-game magic killer (hint: you get more Fire Darts if you are more powerful caster), and reanimation battle tactics. I'm not sure if your Black Sorcerers are sacred or not. If they are, you might want to try to get Earth 4 into the bless somehow. Earth Power would also give them reinvigoration, so that they can cast Raise Dead a bit longer. The idea is to have many of them and let them raise enough undead that the enemy army routs. When you get Relief, this becomes even more powerful.

As for infantry, Machaka Hoplites are good, but the LI is even worse than usually.

Spider Archers and Knights are a bit hard to use, but they can fire webs, and can be useful in many ways even if they are more expensive than normal cavalry.

Re: Machaka
 

I would not recommend a bless strat with Machaka. The hunter spiders are good, but expensive and capitol only.

I tend to make an SC pretender with air magic (as well as other paths) -- air a path that machaka lacks, it works well for SCs (mistform, mirror image, air shield), and you can cast wind guide along with flaming arrows for even more fun.

Re: Machaka
 

The other fun thing to do with with the Black sorcerers is to have them cast fire shield and invulnerability and attack. When they turn into Spiders they make respectable thugs. Throw a ring of regeneration and luck pendant on them. I sent them out in pairs and they could handle most Indies and fairly large swarms of AI troops. Worked better if one had an Astral random and cast Body Ethereal.

The Black sorcerors are not sacred, but their spider forms are. I was never able to time the change and the blessing well enough to take advantage of this.

Re: Machaka
 

One of the strangest sentenences about Dominions I have read in a long time, and one that fits the gameplay perfectly. Even if you caught my mistake.

Re: Machaka
 

It does have one weakness... it's province defense.

Hopefully some of the suggestions to improve province defense from the wishlist will exist in Dominions_3.

Re: Machaka
 

Now, I'm not very good at this game, so feel free to ignore me.

I have found machaka spider riders to be insanely powerful in large groups. With web/poison they can be a threat to thugs, and they are cheap enough that one can field a sizeable army of them.
The black servant mini-sc idea works rather well, but I find that they need rime hauberks to kill anything (another interesting sentance).
It seems to me that machaka is very good at killing off scs. In one game I lost almost twenty well-equipped golems (don't ask) to the despicable strategy of spamming blindness and curse.

Re: Machaka
 

That's odd, cause I do recommend a bless strat with Machaka. Nature 9 and one of E4 or E9 or W9 or F4 or F9 or S4. Nature 9 also allows Mass Protection, Relief, and Mass Regeneration... while E* allows Legions of Steel. The combination of super-high protection, regeneration, and reinvigoration make Black Hunters very survivable, and the mounts almost invincible to anything save lightning and MR-save spells. You only need a few.

Re: Machaka
 

Summon some ivy kings and you get all the same spells, no need for a dual 9 bless.

Although, you can beat the AI regardless http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif