Lanka pretender design/strategy

[jutetrea]

Starting Lanka guide here:

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...=&fpart=1&vc=1

[jutetrea]

I agree with K that the W9N9 bless rocks, especially since berserk stacks. Even the weak asura(?) 5 for 11 slaves, athame and berserk, kick with this bless.

The vast majority of your national summons are sacred, so a bless keeps on giving. Plus, both your cap only and your non-cap only tough sacreds are pretty tough.

The +1 research makes the little 3 research guys you get a lot of for 90g a bit more worth it, drain is obviously less so.

I personally like turmoil/luck (1 or 2 turmoil, 2 or 3 luck) for the extra cash and more importantly the extra gems.

Growth is great for longterm income and slave replacement although IMO its either growth 1 (minimal increase) or growth 3(max increase)...for some reason I never use growth 2.

I'm not sure if you can swing it (haven't tested), but if you can add a minor bless as well its nice.
F4 fixes the lack of fire magic, and allows empowerment in blood later for devils. +atk is always good
E4 is key imo - recup is always good, and means you may only have to empower one level on each blood stone maker. Father Illearth can help out a bunch here, 85 slaves for B4E4 methinks.
S4 - astral is always good, +MR vs banishment
D4 - even D3 is enough to easily bootstrap into a death mage path, revenent, mound(?), etc +affliction might be good with wrathful and such but minor

Even an A4 bless might help - 20% fend and you have someone to build your first air booster for all your 3A mages. The 20% fend might be nice for the demons with no shield.

just thoughts, i've got very little practical experience with Lanka in MP

[Shovah32]

I tend to play Lanka with a E9N9 bless(Imprisoned cyclops, makes a nice SC when he breaks out) but I've also tried and enjoyed W9N9 and W9E9.
I stick with E9N9 because it helps all of your sacreds survive - you get extra protection from both earth and berserk, regeneration from the nature and reinvigoration from the earth.
The berserking mages can be annoying but you can always just keep them away from priests you have scripted to bless so that they don't go berserk at the start(when spells like earthquake/rain of stones ect are most likely to be cast).

The E9N9 is also great on the late game Mandahas and Davanas - units who rely more on their toughness than their defence.

[sum1lost]

Drain has the advantage of increasing your mr and protecting against battlefield spells- one of Lanka's main weaknesses. Your cheap mages will be blood hunters. Gold is vital for Lanka, I think, so definitely order.

Growth is vital. Especially since Lanka's blood and reanimation like population to be high.

E9 is nice for increasing protection and reinvigoration, and a nature bless is nice for regeneration. Water is obviously useful, though fire has its points as well.

Astral bless isn't very appealing, if only because twist fate seems useless for a nation whose sacred troops can take on thugs.

[Shuma]

Yomi?

[Gregstrom]

Yogini possibly?

Btw, why spend 90g on the 1B Raktapata as a researcher when you can get a Yogini for 110 with twice the RP?

Looks like my early idea of a F4W4N6 awake pretender isn't quite up there.

[jutetrea]

Yogini's aren't sacred, so upkeep piles up a bit quicker.

As you move from a primarily gold to a primarily blood economy, each gold piece counts a bit more.

[sum1lost]

Shuma said:
Lanka?

Clearly.

:-p