Hrmmm

[Arker]

Couple of things bugging me.

First off, I was trying to work a bless strategy for the first time. I assumed that I could start with a rainbow mage and then empower him to get the blesses once I had the gem income. Apparently, this does not work? I got air to 4, but my sacred troops still show no air shield, are the bless bonuses based only on what you started with?

Second thing, I lost my pretender in combat. Before, when that's happened, I just deleted the game in disgust. This time I went ahead and called him back. He was a rainbow mage to start with, now he only has 3 paths, and none of them high? Will he recover those with time or are they gone permanently? And did I screw up when I empowered him after calling back?

[NTJedi]

Arker said:
Couple of things bugging me.

First off, I was trying to work a bless strategy for the first time. I assumed that I could start with a rainbow mage and then empower him to get the blesses once I had the gem income. Apparently, this does not work? I got air to 4, but my sacred troops still show no air shield, are the bless bonuses based only on what you started with?

Correct, blessings only work with what paths your pretender starts with during the creation of the pretender. Empowering him does nothing for blessings.

Arker said:
Second thing, I lost my pretender in combat. Before, when that's happened, I just deleted the game in disgust. This time I went ahead and called him back. He was a rainbow mage to start with, now he only has 3 paths, and none of them high? Will he recover those with time or are they gone permanently? And did I screw up when I empowered him after calling back?

Once a pretender dies and is called back he will lose one magic path for each type of magic... which is more painful for a rainbow mage. Those paths are gone forever... so you didn't screw up by empowering him after he was brought back.

[shovah]

yes, death for any non-immortal pretender=premanent -1 to all magic paths and a chance to lose and/or gain afflictions. Yes, blesses are only dependant on what you start with (f9 w9 is good on high attack multiple defence units, f9 n9 is good for pan imo, f9 anything is good for mictlan and f9 e9 can be good for ulm black templars and marignon knights of the chalice, f9 air something is good for marignon flagelants)

[Gandalf Parker]

Here is an interesting thread about blessings (that Im afraid I took to the extreme)
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...1029&Forum=f74
(old thread)

[Wish]

I made a custom pretender with 9 in everything, turned off cheat prevention (it catches that) started to see what it would be like.

I know its not realistic, but with all blesses maxed those jaguars were unstoppable.

[Gandalf Parker]

This was an old design so Im not sure if it still works.

Smoking Mirror pretender
5/5/5/5/9/5/5/5 magics
dominion strength 2
43 research each turn
Watchtower castle
scales all -3 (well heat +3 in my case but either way, I just hate snow)

Generally I put the troops to patrol and crank the taxes to 200% on the first turn which will get me the gold. The concept here would be to gain ground and get beyond your dominion by turn 10 (when the really bad events can kick in). Creating labs outside of the domain, and not pushing domain, would be part of the plan. The biggest problem Im having so far is that the "holy" points keep me from making as many blessed troops as I can.

I figure that after finding the breaking point on this design (looks like it might be late game) I will start trying to reach a balance between alot of blessings chosen for specifically for the nation, and SOME reasonable scales. Its actually not hard to get 44449444, Ive gotten 55559555 and 44449449 depending on the pretender you start with. )Surprisingly 0 cost pretenders and cost 10 to start new magic, arent necessrily the ones that get the farthest).

[Agrajag]

Why 55559555 and not 44449444?
The extra point does not help with the bless, nor with site searching (if you use your pretender for site searching), only with research (and obviously access to more spells.), and the extra point could be well spent on better scales or dominion strength.
And how can you even survive with dominion strength 2? O:

[Endoperez]

Agrajag said:
Why 55559555 and not 44449444?
The extra point does not help with the bless, nor with site searching (if you use your pretender for site searching), only with research (and obviously access to more spells.), and the extra point could be well spent on better scales or dominion strength.
And how can you even survive with dominion strength 2? O:

With Blood Sacrifice (Mictlan, Abysia, Vanheim) he can get more dominion fast - it requires micromanagement, but can work.

Also, when he says he doens't play for winning, he means it.

[Gandalf Parker]

Actually the 55559555 was a proof-of-concept to see how high I could get it.
But your points are all valid (including Endoperez about the way I play)
In the original thread Kristoffer said "It is widely believed that Gandalf is mad "

Here is a slightly less extreme suggestion by an expert player.

Smoking Mirror
dominion 5
Mausoleum (admin 20)
order +3 produc -3 heat 1 growth -1 luck -3 magic -3
give 177 gold at capitol
magic : fire 9, water 4, earth 4, nature 4, death 4, blood 4 (28 RP in drain 3)

[Wish]

tried that out, a wave of jaguars really makes a difference!