Making Hard Choices
 

I have in front of me the hardest choice any one in dominions can make. What nation to play? I've got a game with ME Agatha, and one with ME (CBM) T'ien C'hi, but now I'm about to start a new game with Shatner in order to test out our ME Jomon Mod.

I am leaning to Shinuyama, but we might have one player that really wants to play that side, so I'm stuck.
I know I don't want to play a blood nation, and I'm not to keen on Sneaking (besides laying out a spy network), I don't want a water nation. I like ranged units, and heavy shields, but Man has very limited magic selection. So, I'm a little stuck on where to go.

So, with the little information I've provided, I wanted to see if someone has some insight on how I should go. I should note that my experience with the game is limited.

Thanks for your help in this matter.

Legowarrior.

Re: Making Hard Choices
 

man is an awesome missile nation, esp. if you help out with magic.

personally, i like limited magic, cus the less choices i have to make, the fewer mistakes i am likely to make. of course, that's probably a fairly uncommon viewpoint.

Re: Making Hard Choices
 

Marignon, Fiery Justice. Knights, crossbows, astral for utility magic/antiSC and fire for all your battlefield evocation needs.

Re: Making Hard Choices
 

Biggest problem with Man is their lack of real combat mages, I think. Yes, you can Thunderstrike with old, cap-only, map-move 1 Crones, but that`s about it. To do more, you need Storm, and it hurts your archers tremendously. Not to mention it`s almost impossible to get A4 Crone for boosters, so you have to take Air on your pretender.

Re: Making Hard Choices
 

I haven't played as Eriu with the latest version of CBM but one thing I noticed from an MP game with CBM 1.92 Eriu is that they get the Bean Sidhe as recruit-anywhere instead of capital-only, AND the Bean Sidhe gets a 15% forge bonus. That makes the nation kind of Ulm-y since your primary research mage and support caster also has a forge bonus. Plus, glamour, thugs and air/nature magic galore. Ever since that discovery I've been pretty interested in testing them out... just some food for thought.

EDIT: Marignon is fun, potent, and full of burnination.

Re: Making Hard Choices
 

Pythium. Case-closed.

Re: Making Hard Choices
 

Yeah, the Pythium don't have all that much in the way of ranged units. I might try the Erui though. They lack awesome longbow men, but they do have Firbolg Slingers. Anyone have a guide for the Erui that is up to date?
That being said, the Marignon and man are great as well. Dang, this is hard.

The problem is that the Jomon has spoiled me. Decent to go ranged units, diverse magic and cool summons. The only thing it lacks is fast moving mages or heavy shields.

Re: Making Hard Choices
 

How about T'ien Ch'i? They have cheapish composite longbows as well as expensive MM1 crosbows and even light & medium cavalry archers along with just about 27 different flavors of infantry. (None of them specatularly elite, but not bad either.) Moreover if you've played Jomon you should have a good idea on how to utilise their diverse but quite low-path mages.

Edit: Meh, I'm blind. You already played ME T'ien Ch'i. Disregard. :(

Re: Making Hard Choices
 

Yeah, I love the T'ien Ch'i for the most part.

What are good ways to get into Astral? Any decent summons that would allow a non astral nation (but with an astral pretender if necessary) get some astral access?

Re: Making Hard Choices
 

Not too many options unfortunately. With D magic you can get specters who have 2x 25% of having S. With D and E magic as well as a wasteland province you can cast Hidden in Sand. (excellent spell anyways) wich has a chance of giving you 0, 1 or 2 Dust priests who each have 33% chance of having 2S. And... that's about it really. (There's Golems and Ether Lords too, but they're massively expensive for 'just' breaking into S magic, and they both require S magic to cast.) S is one of the harder paths to break into.