Most hated race MA?
 

What race would you prefer not to run into at the start of a game? It may depend on what race you are playing. Typically I play a very crowded map with either 16 or all of the races on the cradles of dominion or a made 275 province map.

When playing Ulm, i hate being near the water and having the ryleh go to war with me early. The low mr of the troops makes them sitting ducks for the mind blasts. Also sucks not being able to go into the water effectively and fight them.

Even as Pangaea, with higher MR, i hate warring early with the ryleh because it takes a while until i can get into the water and hurt them.

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

MP or SP?

In MP Vanheim unless you start in the water...

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

What a fun thread, you should make one for each age. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

If playing MA Ermor avoid MA Marignon at all costs.

If playing MA Ulm avoid MA Bander Log at all costs.

MA Mictlan is always a pain no matter who your playing.

If you come across MA Agartha try to destroy them as early as possible, they are a powerhouse the longer the game goes on.

MA Man struggles against MA Arco especially later on.

Errm that about it for me, I still have lots of races to play and fight...

I believe the game overall in a particular age is balanced, as every nation has at least 1 other nation that can just walk all over it fairly easily. I appear to be in a minority believing this to be true however, virtually everyone else thinks Dom3 is unbalanced in some way.

Velusion for example above mentions MA Vanheim, yet in the very MA game he himself hosts containing every nation, MA Vanheim was one of the first nations destroyed.

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

Since I am not that experienced with Arco, why does Man struggle against it in late game?

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

Man as no astral magic for one. In a MP I was in Arco Mind Hunted my commanders to oblivion, we are talking 6 - 12 commanders/mages dieing per turn here, its only 2S gems to cast.

Also, soul slay in battle (bye bye pretender, bye bye SC's), doom (all my units instantly cursed), will of fates(all his units have luck) and of course teleport hit squads which sooner or later build a lab. Then its gateway a huge army in your rearlines, end of capital, game over man!

As you can see it really spoilt my day...

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

Oh yea another one MA Machaka struggles badly against MA Man, as they have no air magic. Which of course means no lightning/thunderstrike/wraithful skies+staff of storms counters.

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

... I'm really confused. You can easily counter most of these with your pretender build. Not only that, I'm almost certain that MA Machaka does not struggle against MA MAn. Between a solid pretender option (the wood dude), better batle mages and spider knights, I don't see why Man will be able to beat Machaka so easily. You say they have no counters that combo, but not only is wrathfulskies + staff later game, before that, you can just use darkness/raise skeletons to HOSE man.

Also, it's odd that your Man struggles against Arco late game, but then again, the only real experience I've had against Man was playing against qm so I can't really judge that one. I really don't believe in this, "every nation has a counter nation". Maybe a few have weaker game against certain types of troops, but that's pretty much IMO.

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

Any nation with zero astral has an increasing problem as the game goes on.

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

If you start with no astral you should plan to have plenty by midgame.

The race i have played the most especially against human players is ulm. But I use the ghost king pretender, and i give him 4 nature, 3 air, 2 astral, 5 death, 2 water. I also sleep him, and take 2 cold, so i can also take 3 order, prod, and 1 growth.

So even playing ulm i get access to most gems. And, of course, you get gems of people you kill off as well. I typically research 3 enchantment, 6 construction, 5 conjuration. Then i crank out 2-3 bane lords, give them pendant luck, fire brand, charcoal shield, boots quickness, ring regen, marble armor and horror helmet. this makes them
deadly solo, but even more so when mixed in with black knights, and ulm crossbow men, so they will not be sole focus of smites and enemy spells.

I also try have at least 2 troll king courts up, with the troll kings having plus 1 earth boots and 3 revig items, and some zero encumbering chest item.. I script them summon earthpower, invulnerability, cast spells. They can wipe out lightly armored troops with blade wind.

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

Which returns it to game and map size being a big factor when talking absolutes.

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

If you put 2 astral on a pretender in MP some clever so and so will Mind Duel you, dead pretender...

Also in MP you have no idea who you are going to be starting near, so its very difficult to justify designing your pretender to counter 1 nation.

Another problem is are you going to design a pretender to make up for your nations weaknesses or to emphasize its strengths or to help achieve the victory conditions or just to help you expand quickly or to have them blesses on your sacreds?

Theres not enough design points to cover everything.

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

Yeah, fortunately the people i play against play ermor with 10 death, and giants, pretty much exclusively. So they do not really have any high level astral mages to mind duel me.

And the computer rarely does a mind duel. In a multi player game, against unknown opponents, i would likely give him zero astral, and try to dispel using other enchantments.

Most enchantments do not bother me, since we have a "house" rule against burden of time, and any spells that kill population in provinces. That came from dom II when Ermor and vamp queen(prenerf) were very rough to counter, and impossible with burden of time being recast after every dispel. Luckily we never changed the rule even though ma ermor is no that imposing.

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

I usually play man in MA and ermor has molested me early on more then a couple times... Crappy priests and mediocre dominion is a bad combination when faced against hordes of undead. I consider myself lucky if I manage to turn out enough monks to defend against Ermor

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Re: Most hated race MA?
 

Uhh... buh ...? Turn 4 assault doesn't bode well for Pan??? Almost EVERY game I see a pan, I expect an e9n4 or so bless from a gorgon pretender that can kick the as out of anything with her dom 10 petrify of doom ...

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Re: Most hated race MA?
 

LoL -.-.

No comment ...

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

I don't think Pangaea needs any bless, combat pretender or spells for an early war. Centaur warriors are all you need there, though things do depend on who you are facing obviously.

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

See my Pangaea thread. The Gorgon does not need 10 dominion.
She does need air magic to avoid crossbows and for mistform mirror image. I start sleeping gorgon, 5e, 4n, 3a, 6 dominion, with 3 order, 2 prod, 1 growth, 2 heat. That makes for a very strong economy. Gorgon is a super combatant of top rank, but the 30 hps make her, more than other scs, one that you use only inside your own dominion. She flies and can put out fires within Pangaea's own dominion.

She does bring air to the table, and if you get a centaur commander that has a good hall of fame ability, can make him a shield that stops arrow damage, that combined with regen ring can make the centaur a minor sc in his own right.

But I advance and siege castles with my armies, not my Gorgon. I have lost her in enemy domain several times, and I now am patient and advance with armies and use her to control my domain and search for air sites.

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Im curious. Why take earth 5 and air 3? (or any 5 and 3). Sometimes I really need a 5 and for some rare reason I dont want to just make an item (in this case earth boots) or empowerment. I should look but does the Gorgon not wear boots? For a bless strategy, kicking a 3 up to a 4 to get another effect seems a hard to avoid temptation.

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

for about 50 points more you can drop the air3 and boost the earth up to 9. That provides more than adequate missile protection(18 prot unequipped and dosnt require buffs) and in most cases melee protection due to petrification and also gives you a nice bless for your centaurs.

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I may be wrong on this, but I think you are wasting a slot on your Banelord SCs by putting a ring of regeneration on them. If they are Undead, I don't think they get the regeneration effect.

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

Common misconception. Lifeless do not regenerate. Undeads can. However, many of the "chaff" undeads are lifeless as well.

Re: Most hated race MA?
 

Aye mistake on my part. I mistakenly thought a wraithlord SC I had could not get regeneration in a MP game I just wrapped up, and in reality it was a golem. And since I thought the wraithlord could not get it, I thought the banelord could not as well, but I was wrong on both accounts!