MA Marignon

[Warhammer]

I'm not too worried about rushes. Rushes are going to be fended off with our troops. I think I made some errors in judgement with the standard Marignon forces.

I think Marignon IS a bless nation. I just need to figure out the best way to do that. Flagellants and your old mages are very good candidates for a N4+ bless. The Knights of the Chalice and the mages are good candidates for an Earth bless. The Knights of the Chalice can also readily accept both a Fire and a Water bless. Flagellants can benefit greatly from an Air bless, but I'm not sure that taking an Air bless specifically for that is a good idea.

The only downside to a Fire bless is the lack of magic diversity that Marignon has. Therefore, my pretender should have at least Water, Death, Nature, Air, and Earth magic.

So the question comes down to what is the best major bless for Marignon?

[Huzurdaddi]

I think that marignon is best served by focusing on it's most potent offensive weapons: Crossbows and Flaming Arrows. The crossbows are recruitable everwhere and do heavy damage. The Grand Masters are only recruitable in the home province, but you only need 1 per army.

By focusing on crossbows this leaves you free to go for an SC pretender that you can use from turn 1, like the Wyrm. This allows you to get a good jump in provinces which allows you to make more crossbows.

Yes, you sacrifice magical diversity for the long term. This is a problem. Lucikly you can use Astral gems as a substitute for death gems for you Thugs/SC's. Angels are simply not as efficient as Banelords as when used as thugs but hey, at least you have something.

Anyway, give me LA Marignon any day of the week over MA Marignon, what a nation!

[thejeff]

Why a Nature bless for Flagellants?

Flagellants die. In masses. That's what they do. I see blesses for flagellants as a way of keeping them alive long enough to reach the enemy (Air, Astral9) and doing more damage when they do (W9/F9). What does Nature get them? Regen on their low hps won't help much. It'll keep them from getting more afflictions, but they start with afflictions and often die on the first hit anyway?
For the ones who start with disease? Throw them into battle and let them die.

Fire doesn't help with diversity, but it is thematic.
Maybe W9,A4? Water helps both sacreds, even the small Air bless helps Flags. A minor Earth bless is nice but not very helpful even for the mages.
A minor Death bless might be good, but it's so unthematic for Marignon, I don't use it.

[Warhammer]

I noticed with the nature bless that not all flagellants had afflictions. The affliction "bonus" also helps your old mages from getting any as well. That is a great boon in and of itself, even taking flagellants out of the equation.

You're right about the Earth bless. I can change that to an Air bless. That also takes care of the lack of air booster problem. A1 on a mage can't do much, but A2 or A3 is pretty nice.

The problem with water is that it does not help your Knights' or flagellants attack skill. The flagellants are going to get hit even with a good water bless, so the +4 attack seems more appealing to me. But, you are right it is limiting as far as diversity goes.

Now, what might be good is a W9F4A4D4. I need to check chassis and see what will work.

[thejeff]

What the water helps the Flagellants with is the extra AP. Obviously extra attacks, but the movement lets them spend less time crossing the fields getting pelted with arrows.

I didn't know about Nature bless helping with starting afflictions for flagellants. How sure are you of that? Not all flags start with them anyway, just most...

I'm also pretty sure it doesn't help with mages getting old age afflictions. Growth scales help, maybe. Nature magic on mage increases max age, but the bless should only affect them when they're blessed, not with aging checks.

[Warhammer]

If the Nature doesn't help the mages then the points there might be better spent on Growth scales.

[BigDisAwesome]

I still think F9/S9 is where it's at if you want to take a bless with Marignon. The Twist Fate is basically doubling a Flagellant's life span, the flaming weapons are great for their and the Knight's multiple attacks, and the Magic Resist is great for your angels when you start summoning them.

[WraithLord]

I'm playing a MP game with MA Marignon and have done some tests prior to starting it. I have come to consolidate the following opinions about this nation (in no particular order or importance):
1. Its not really a bless nation. The knights of the chalice are nice but capitol only. The falgelants are crap.
2. Mundane armies are xbows, infantry screens ( pick and choose depending on the opposition there's an answer for opposing cavs, archers and infantry). Those should be backed up by mages and inquisitors. Mages mostly spam evoc. fire spells and priests boost moral and possibly banish/smite.
3. Magical diversity is bad (S+F almost exclusively). Rainbow mage is almost a must on this nation. Its possible to use a hybrid SC/Rainbow chassis or a full SC but I dislike those options as both have negative impact on end game.
4. Astral. Surprisingly Marignon is not the king (at least not when nations such as Pythium, Bandar, R'lyeh, MA Ermor are involved). So special care needs to be taken when facing a strong astral nation.
5. Dominion kill is a viable strategy. It takes some managing investment but sneaking preachers and inquisitors may pull this off.
6. Angels are one of this nations prominent powers. Plan to use them often and well. All the angel types have their uses as SCs/ anti SCs/ Raiders.
7. Blessable mages benefit from earth bless.
8. The above makes research order clear. Evoc. 4 (holy pyre, fireball). Summon. 7 (angels). Alt. 3 (SC buffs). Const 4 (SC basic items). Thaum 3 (elemental search, mind burn, teleport).
9. The above makes optimal pretender clear. Cheap rainbow mage (don't worry about high dominion due to good preachers). E4-6, N2-4, A2-4, W2-4, D2-4, the rest are optional. Dominion 5-7.