Jotunheim

[Wauthan]

I turned Sporsnjall into an assassin with the Black Heart. His high speed and defence eventually made him the most succesful "problem solver" I ever found in the game. It was well worth putting some higher tier items on this unit and even let him empower once in earth to allow him to cast Steelskin.

My turn. Anyone know of a good way to use the Jotun scouts? Being large burly sacred sneaking troops and all but they seem to go down pretty fast in pitched battle.

[Gandalf Parker]

In both cases (wolf rider and scout) they work better than most nations scouts as being able to take advantage of an opporunity. NO, they dont work well against independents. But if you discover an AI then you might watch for unprotected provinces inside his domain and attack those.

You dont have to keep them. Crank the taxes to max and move on. You get gold, maybe drive the unrest too high fo him to use for gold/units even if he does get it back. Or put some defense into the place and see if you can hold it. 6 points on Jotun defence is worth twice that of any other nation.

Just those units can start a real nice hit-n-run conflict with some nation that doesnt even have a clue yet where you are to hit you back. Of course this works better with AI's than in multiplay since they WILL find you and they will start using defenses more. But pros and cons exist. In multi you seem to find back provinces undefended more often than against AI's. You just have to make use of it quicker since human players tend to learn faster

[ December 30, 2003, 14:04: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[Niefelson]

Great feedback... keep it comin'

Jotun actually has a good number of sacred troops under the Niefelhiem theme. Massing 9N for the beserker and regen on bless works well with Jotun sacreds. But man... Jotun troops are damn expensive to recruit. I've tried building an army which consisted of 80% leaders and a handful of Niefel Giants and have the Godes bless everybody. Worked pretty well except when trying to attack a province, I had to click like 20 times to get everyone to attack . Bummer..

[Windreaper]

Niefelson: You can use ctrl and shift keys to group leaders together in Dom2 (the biggest improvement in addition to pooled research, imo). The Groups created stay over turns and can be activated by clicking on any of the members.

[Teraswaerto]

Spornsjall has a standard, which can be useful, especially early on.

Niefel Jarls are real killing machines with just quickness & breath of winter & wraith sword. Adding other stuff like ring of regen, that amulet that gives luck, etc. makes them even better. Works like a charm, at least until someone paralyzes them.

[Orlanth]

You are right on focusing on the strong, bless-effect troops. If you crank out enough Herses early in the game many will get into the Hall of Fame and become quite legendary over time. At first I was using Water 9 for the defense and quickness, but now I think a Great Mother with Earth 4 Nature 9 really maximizes the units' strengths. Those giants have the hitpoints to get their money's worth from regeneration (especially if they're getting hacked up while berserk and reinvigoration can allow you to get away with Black Steel armor on the commanders (good thing it's one-size-fits-all..) If you can afford it, Earth 9 Nature 9 would be even better and might make those Woodsmen useful for a change. NJ's work great as a prophet - that mass-bless spell is indispensable when you're hauling around umpteen Niefel Giants and Herses. And if you're in a strong dominion he can be a great fighter (with Holy Avenger to boot).

I always get stuck though with Jotun magic - never know what to aim for, and the mages are so expensive (and poor searchers) that I end up falling behind. Should I focus on Blood, or what? And has anyone successfully pulled off an Illwinter? I'm curious to know do the Rimtursar actually ever arrive, or is it just there for the cold and unrest?

[Orlanth]

And another thing - if you can get them, Boots of the Behemoth are fantastic for your heroes!