Mictlan, Cross Breeding and Luck

The reason I like Crossbreeding for Mictlan is because of their fragile units. Even with masses of slaves, your units will take an unhealthy amout of loss. So swarming your opponent is the only real option you have to remain competitive. FoD are your anti-mage power (like devils). I would reserve them only for fights you want to capitalize on killing mages, as they too are fragile.

The core of my armies late game tend to be HfH Imps and Devils, since you can summon so many of them and they do work in greater numbers with Blood Lust. The main issue is trying to keep your domain strong enough so you don't get dominioned out while at the same time producing masses of the 'single cast' blood summons. Personally when the Mod tools are released in full I'll be changing some of all the summons to double the number and cost (Thus Bind Serpent Fiend will cost 10 Slaves, and get you 2 Fiends) to counter the huge amount of mages you need to use blood nations. (This will be true for a few other spells too)

[moodgiesanta]

Ah, yes, I downloaded the Cold Caelum mod and now they don't suck anymore.

Anyhow, I burned the midnight oils until 4:00 AM Last night playing away at my plan. It was going well, and I started next to a (then unmodded) Caelum, so I had a wimp to beat up on. It was going well, until Jotenheim cast Burden of Time or whatever that spell is. I only picked a single growth bump, as I really wanted fire magic. Soon, however, my provinces declined. Then the Ermor, Soul Gate Flavor, came through and literally ripped up my empire. My dominion dropped like mad, and my priests got slaughtered before they could get banish all those baddies. I'd relied mostly on the cheap ones and the Priest Kings. My hordes of cross-breeds, with the occasional big one, did very well, but they eventually lost out to the hundreds of shadow thingies that are completely immune to the primary weapon of the weak hordes, that is, the plague/disease stuff. The very thing that let me whip the independants around me cost me, and on top of all that, I'd focused so much on priests that I forgot to invest in archers. With Jotenheim on the right and Ermor on the left, and the rest of the world conquered, my little empire grew smaller until it was just me, my capital, and a couple of sattelite provinces that I had saved by summoning massive amounts of devils and imps. (I stopped the cross-breeding as soon as I got that spell, as it was more cost effective and I had a ton of blood slaves.) I then realized that with all the death world enchantments my Ermor and Jotunheim, my population was shrinking bigtime. So I really raised the blood hunting to cash in as soon as possible.

I'm not sure if it could ever work, but I had no choice, so I summoned a couple Heliophagus, after the first one could summon, and set them to auto-summon a horde of demons and summoned up Fallen Angels to summon up imps. I had no choice, as I was running out of people. After making some noise several turns later, I realized I wasn't going to win, what with zero people in my capital. So

Anyhow, I'm going at it again during the Super Bowl. I'll take what y'all you are saying into serious consideration.

[General Tacticus]

Originally posted by Chris Byler:

Do you find Mictlan too dependent on the Fountain's blood hunt bonus? Has anyone had any luck with other gods for them?

I am doing quite well with the Smoking Mirror, a good pretender for blessings. Cheap priests in numbers will do all the blood hunting you'll ever need.

In my Mictlan game, I am currently switching to all summons army : Improved cross breeding for arrow fodder and the occasional goody, devils for heavy hitters, whatever summons the site I found give me, and to lead all that a mix of Arch-devils, Ice Devils, Fallen Angels, Succubus for fun, and I'll have to try the Heliophagus and Demon Lord sometime.

[Vger]

Hi,

The Heliophagus makes a pretty good SC with decent equipment. I haven't played a blood nation yet, but I've piddled with blood magic and called one up, once.


Ciao,
V'ger gone

[Ragnarok-X]

to General Tacticus:

With the improves crossbreeding, how many commanders are usually leading one of your main armys ? because just a few breeds usually come with MANY lesser breeds you must have several commanders. Or are you using a experienced leader with 2+ exp levels ? Because i cant figure out how to lead those bloody breeds, they allways seem to end up guarding my capital..
ty

[DLC]

you need a crown of command

[Bowlingballhead]

Dear Moodgiesanta:

Welcome to the agony of Burden of Time, one of the few spells I think should be removed from the game. Unless you're Ermor or Desert Tombs C'tis (I guess Carrion Woods might be okay, too. Then again, Pangaea does heal.) it rips the snot out of you, and does it so fast that if you can't destroy the enchantment in short order you're just... lost. Wounds compound upon wounds and your units crumble to dust in a matter of a few turns. It's gruesome!

Jotunheim probably paid dearly for being stupid enough to cast that spell, but with Ermor tromping through your backyard it didn't make much difference to you.

I really, really hate that spell. Any spell that all by itself can leave an opponent helpless and beaten I have grave reservations about.

Of course, in a multiplayer game, you've just got to be ready to dispell it if you're playing against an undead-user. But if you guess wrong and haven't researched enchantment yet, or don't have the astral...