I have never won a sp game...

[BigJMoney]

Here is my newbie story. I had only played one game until I read this thread. It was Caelum as my first Empire (suggestions? good/bad choice for newbs?) I got hammered into dust. Reading this thread, I decided to play on that downloadable "Talis" map. As a side note -- THAT MAP ROCKS FOR NEWBIES! Ehem. Okay, so I went with Machaka, because everyone is saying Carrion Forest is pretty easy, etc. Also, I kept all the game options default; no easy research or ANYTHING to handicap the AI. I set up one opponent, an EASY AI Mictlan. I probably could have made it one or two levels higher, though. I used this Lamia Queen/Lamia strategy and I crushed them. They didn't even have a chance.

I was using a level 10 Nature only Dragon (50pts, woot!), so I could use my pretender to help in an emergency. I also took adv of his holy blessings, and started a 10 dark hunter army with my prophet. This was my main attack force for most of the game. At the end of the game (and only then!) did I build two forts near my enemy's front door and start pumping out troops to absorb casualties so my Lamias and Blessed Hunter Spiders could get their job done. Mainly armies made of light inf
(I think), but also Spider knights for a little more staying power.

From day 1 I was hiring Sorceresses for research purposes. I also had a Magic 3 dominion to help with this. Later in the game, this map had some sages I made use of, but I don't think it did anything because I had all my Lamias and Gift of Health already going. I did very, very little army recruiting in the beginning game, other than my holy regenerating, berserking spiders! I think I sent my starting troops to go with them, and maybe buffed them a tad. I know many of them ended up being 2 star grunts at some point in the game. I used no heroes effectively. I tried to; I even equipped them, but their attack AI along with soldiers was really crappy.

Naresh, the real trick for me was definitely playing on Talis. If it weren't such a boring strategy, I'd do it again against a HARD AI and see if I can do it. I think I'm going to diss Machaka for a while, though. I don't really like them :-P. From what I hear about Carrion Woods, I'd like Pangea even less. My next several games will probably be astonishing losses, but hey. Anyway, if you ever want someone to MP, I'd love to. Maybe even a co-op scenario! That would be cool.

=$= Big J Money =$=

[High_Priest_Naresh]

bigjmoney try the thread calling all players were missing a player

[Endoperez]

Congratulations about the victory, and some points:

10 Nature Dragon isn't as good at summoning Lamias as 9 Nature (green) Naga. That one gets a Lamia summoning bonus, can use more items in battle and still has pretty good stats. The 10th pick of magic costs a lot, so Nature 9 would probably been enough. You would have gotten 1 lamia less pre summoning, and you units would have only lost the last point of berserk from their blessing.
Machaka Hoplites are very good infantry, and Machaka Archers are very cheap. You can make lots and lots of them, and your Black Sorcerors can cast Flaming Arrows... You researched Enchantment any way for Gift of Health, and it would have only taken some extra gems, or casting Phoenix Power first, or lucky Black Sorcerer with his random in Fire, or research in construction and Flaming Skull (1Fire 1Death miscellanous item, boosts Fire by 1) to be able to cast it in all major battles.

[High_Priest_Naresh]

I like!!!

[sushiboat]

BigJMoney said:
Reading this thread, I decided to play on that downloadable "Talis" map. As a side note -- THAT MAP ROCKS FOR NEWBIES!

I always use Talis when I play a new land nation or try out a Pretender very different from ones I have played before. I often don't finish the game. I play long enough to see where I have made major mistakes and then start over. (See Ten Turn Challenge! for ideas about playing a strong early game.) When I have mastered a particular setup on Talis, I move on to Aran with three opponents -- which is fewer than recommended, but it works well in terms of how much time you have to develop before your first war. Also, Inland is a great wraparound map that is smaller than Orania. The problem with big maps for playtesting is that you can play a lot of bad turns before getting feedback.