[JimMorrison]

Ahh, another beautiful day on the forums, and another chance for point-by-point multi-quoting. <3

Originally Posted by Aezeal

hmmm and wouldn't the standard giant bless of E9N6 be nice too?

Well there is a reason that it is considered the "standard", and it is easier to use in the early-mid game. It's my personal feeling that with Fomoria, an E9 based bless wanes in overall usefulness as the game progresses, whereas, as Baalz mentions, the W9 gains new usefulness in the late game.

Originally Posted by DonCorazon

I think a national strategy should prepare you for the endgame, not rely on luck or indies to cover a nation's weakness. I think magical diversity is critical as there are so many permutations of who you might end up fighting in the endgame of a competitive MP game, you had better be prepared for anything.

Also, interesting that a big W bless is chosen here. I would have thought an E bless would have been optimal for enhanced evocatory devastation and more late game usage. I'd think having at least E4 would be almost mandatory as otherwise you are really lacking in 2 critical paths. That seems like really rolling the dice on your strategy.

I get so lost in my own train of thought sometimes, I should have mentioned the Specter in my original body (thank you Wrana!). But also, I really have to say, it is exceedingly unlikely that you have to fall back to summons to get into Astral (but if you do, your Death superiority can handle it nicely). As far as Earth, honestly there is nothing that you can't get by without. The only thing you -really- desire from Earth, is Hammers, which you might find a chance to trade for early on, before people are scared of you. Otherwise, Girdles of Might for your casters, and access to the artifacts would be nice, but the nation as a whole can thrive without those things.

Originally Posted by pyg

In SP I usually take a E9/10 bless and sometimes N. Even with an E10 bless unmarked will still accumulate fatigue. Anyway I was wondering how you fight battles w/unmarked when you are vastly outnumbered or will otherwise have a long battle? Isn't the success of the W9 bless dependent on short battles where the numbers are more evenly matched?

Well the key is swift brutality. The combination of Quickened giants, and heavy Air evocation - and the eventual inclusion of Morale damaging spells, and/or a couple Horror Helms if needed, can cause most battles to be far shorter than your opponent would desire. And of course, for the huge late-game army vs army clashes, deploying and scripting as I described will seriously devastate almost anyone. As Baalz (thank you, btw) clarified, Morrigans are Enc0 and have Life Drain anyway, so once they are contributing heavily to your larger battles, your Fatigue issues in melee are largely ameliorated. Also never forget to throw in Firbolgs, when in doubt. They really are surprisingly good at mitigating damage, and boosting the overall staying power of your Blessed troops.


[quote=Baalz]Even if the reinvig doesn't match the encumbrance, you can still comfortably chew up scores of PD singlehandledly and hang in big battles for the first dozen turns. True, you're not going to be able to go into those situations which drag into turn 40 of combat, but this doesn't limit you as much as you might think - you just have to make sure your damage outlay is sufficient to keep things from dragging on.[quote]

I think it's important to note here, that even though you will likely maintain one LARGE army to intimidate the enemy, and to support the use of massive battlefield magics - part of the key is also to have numerous smaller task forces as backup. Do not be afraid to play cat-and-mouse with your main army, while your raiders chop away at your foe's lands, and you organize your reinforcements. Remember, you want a LOT of castles, and of course they are not just for recruiting your cheap Sacred thugs - they are also ubiquitous speed bumps. You can fall back before his main army, and bind him up in your tangled wall of castles, and lose very little of your control over the war. Just as in chess, a war can easily be won by making one option appear to be significantly better to your enemy than all others - and then arranging the rest of your pieces to exploit the inherent weaknesses of that choice. Fomoria has excellent tools for creating just those sorts of situations - and should rarely, if ever, feel forced to engage in "iffy" battles, past the end of the second year. After that, dance around your opponent, and force him to take the risks.

Originally Posted by Wraithlord

My tests and experience indicate that W9 bless on high (say >4) encumb. sacreds is sub optimal at best. Its worse when they auto buff -- even two-three rounds of the usual buffing will have it start the battle at fatigue anywhere between 30-50, and its down hill from there. This means the tougher indies may kill you or afflict you. This means that a human opponent in MP will use the fatigue weakness against you in many a ways.

I have found the W9E4N4 or W9E6 to perform better in cases where high def and double speed on sacred is critical (which is usually not the case for the giant sacreds).

W9 can indeed cause you many problems if misapplied, which is one reason I performed a concerted test of the W9/E4/N4 variant before writing this guide, to offer the option to take the edge off. Bear in mind, you have little that you need your Nature gems for, other than gear. An optimal gearset for a King in the late game can easily contain both a Rainbow Armor, and a Boots of the Messenger. Also, while many prefer Vine Shields, with your incredibly high defense you can just use Weightless shields, for the 0Enc on them. Beyond that, as I pointed out, late game you have 2 basic variants of Kings as SCs, the 3A/1W/2D which you will use as surgical strikers against weak points or anti-thug/SC duty, and the A3/D3 variant who will buff with Soul Vortex, and will laugh at Fatigue issues. Just to clarify, while the W9 is in part chosen specifically for the Morrigans, it merely means adjusting your tactics with your other forces - you build your fights around speed and power, not on endurance - your forte is not outlasting your opponent like Fomoria, it's breaking them in two, and scattering them to the winds before they can effectively blunt your charge. As I stated in the guide, Fomorians are physically the least durable of the 3 real giant races (sorry Agartha, you know I love you <3), so you leverage high Defense, with your capacity to deal damage. Played in this way, I feel it gets you further with Fomoria, than the typical "soak the damage and take your time" strategy of an E9++ Blessing.

Originally Posted by Baalz

I have to say I'm not generally a big fan of a major W bless, but I do think it fits well with this strategy. It's justified in no small part by the Morrigans - high defense, glamour, 0 enc, life drain...they're pretty much the ideal candidate for a W bless (and hella nasty if you haven't seen them in action). In this case you're trying to balance a bless against 3 totally different goals - Morrigans, unmarked, and thugs/casters. Sure an E bless helps the thugs/casters and to a lesser extent the unmarked but it doesn't help the Morrigans at all. W blessing is at the other end of the spectrum, though it's far from useless to anti-thugs. I've no doubt a classic E/N giant bless would also be effective (and probably moreso if you only consider the sacred giants), but wouldn't really do much at all for the Morrigans.

I just have to say, with your eye for synergy, that it pleases me greatly that you can clearly see what I've been aiming for. In the game I won with Fomoria, I had never even experimented with Morrigans, until I summoned my first one during that game (I really love W9 Bless, and I will admit, choosing it without knowledge of the Morrigan's capabilities, was a somewhat newbie move). I was very impressed with their stats, but when I first used Dance of the Morrigans in combat, I seriously nearly fell out of my chair laughing. I had brought 50 Morrigans with the army (I was moving to finally destroy the Niefel army that had devastated many of my unprepared troops - see my notes about NOT engaging in risky combats if you don't absolutely have to ), so I was already prepared to to provide Darkness, and scripted the Divine Bless to go off after the Dance was cast. They will continue to spawn as long as combat continues (I think more spawn the more "blood is shed", it seems to be more than flavor text, but it's hard to say), so they won't all be Blessed, but they are virtually indestructible with a W9 Bless, except -maybe- to Abysia, who in 99% of all cases will simply be obliterated anyway due to sheer numbers, and your heavy Lightning support. Remember, the Morrigans come from all edges of the battlefield, so unprotected mages in the back will just dissolve, and even a few bodyguards are just not likely to be enough to buy more than a couple of rounds of combat.

And I really can't say this enough - 1 Nemedian Champion + Winged Shoes + 10 Morrigans > 5 Nemedian Champions + 50 Nemedians on foot. There simply is no comparison. Sure it costs you some gems, but like I said, you can get by on short (and in some cases, no) supplies of just about anything, except Air and Death. They are your lifeblood.