What Would be an Ideal Pretender for Niefelheim?

[DrPraetorious]

The Niefel Build that I just won with was an imprisoned, E9N9 Cyclops.

A few points in his merit:
1) An E9 pretender will enable you to take, and keep, the Forge.
2) A N9 pretender will enable you to take, and keep, the Gift of Health and the Gift of Nature's Bounty.

The N9 bless means your Giants seldom run - and thus can generally kill fear-causing SC pretenders, otherwise a significant weakness.
The E9N9 bless together also provides 4 points of reinvig and +*6* protection.

Quick strategy advice - recruit a bunch of Niefel Giants. WHenever you have money, recruit a niefel jarl.

Pick two of your weak neighbors, kill them.

Get Wolven Winter as soon as you can. Another key spell is Freezing Mist, which is your most efficient means of popping GLamour.

Make friends with your other neighbors - promise them the world if need be, but you don't want to fight more than 2 players at once, especially strong opponents.

[OmikronWarrior]

My problem with such a build is it means tanking your your economy and most likely relying on a smaller, fewer but more powerful armies. With Big N's incredibly bad PD (I think scouts can win with less than 10) you are incredibly susceptible to economy crushing raids (stealth, flying, etc.). Bum rushing enemy capitals can work rather well, but if they are to distant or your opponent knows what he or she (ok, he) is doing- you can find yourself in a world of hurt unable to afford more sacred units. N. Giants and Jarls are still very effective with a E6N6 blessing, and you save a lot of points that way.

Still, DrP is a much better player than I am, so he knows what he's talking about.

[Jazzepi]

DrPraetorious said:
The Niefel Build that I just won with was an imprisoned, E9N9 Cyclops.

A few points in his merit:
1) An E9 pretender will enable you to take, and keep, the Forge.
2) A N9 pretender will enable you to take, and keep, the Gift of Health and the Gift of Nature's Bounty.

The N9 bless means your Giants seldom run - and thus can generally kill fear-causing SC pretenders, otherwise a significant weakness.
The E9N9 bless together also provides 4 points of reinvig and +*6* protection.

Quick strategy advice - recruit a bunch of Niefel Giants. WHenever you have money, recruit a niefel jarl.

Pick two of your weak neighbors, kill them.

Get Wolven Winter as soon as you can. Another key spell is Freezing Mist, which is your most efficient means of popping GLamour.

Make friends with your other neighbors - promise them the world if need be, but you don't want to fight more than 2 players at once, especially strong opponents.

I've never felt that the extra 9th point was worth it. I think you'd do just fine with N8E8. The difference is 2 points of protection, I believe, which is marginally important compared to the extra points you'll get back from not upgrading those levels.

I almost always pick 8th level blesses.

Jazzepi

[DrPraetorious]

Earth 9 vs Earth 8 is *4* points of protection.

N9 vs N8 is more questionable, since it provides berserk, and since it costs a lot more (given your chassis is a Cyclops.)

It's true that Niefelheim is vulnerable to raiding; but this is true regardless of build. The best way to deal with raiders is to send out single Niefel *jarls*. They only cost money so the key is to cultivate a philosophical attitude about their death.

[Jazzepi]

DrPraetorious said:
Earth 9 vs Earth 8 is *4* points of protection.

N9 vs N8 is more questionable, since it provides berserk, and since it costs a lot more (given your chassis is a Cyclops.)

It's true that Niefelheim is vulnerable to raiding; but this is true regardless of build. The best way to deal with raiders is to send out single Niefel *jarls*. They only cost money so the key is to cultivate a philosophical attitude about their death.

Um, you get the +4 protection from E8 and E9. The only thing you get from E9 is one extra point of reinvigoration. I don't think it's worth it to spend all those points to buy a free single point of reinvig for all your jarls when you already have +4. This is why I argue that it's worthless to spend those extra points on it.

I've always question your need to go to N9. I know you just won the sophistry game with that build, but N9 is very expensive. I'd personally rather just go up to N6 for 10% regen or N8 for 15%. I personally don't even like the beserk as it lowers the defense on your jarls.

When I played EA Neiflhem I went W8E8N6 with a crone. Or maybe it was nature 4 I can't remember. But I was very happy with that build. The quickness, armor, reinvig, and regen were all great. You have relatively small armies of high morale bless soliders, and a bunch of raiding giants.

Correction. This is vaguely like the build I used for the EA game I won with Neiflhem. I can't remember exactly what the scales were, but this leaves you with like 3-4 points leftover.

5 Dom
3 Order
1 Sloth
3 Cold
1 Death
3 Misfortune
2 Drain

imprisoned crone
W8E8N4
+4 defense, quickness, +4 reinvig, +4 protection, +5% regen



Jazzepi

[PyroStock]

Jazzepi said:
Um, you get the +4 protection from E8 and E9. The only thing you get from E9 is one extra point of reinvigoration.

My v3.10 shows all major blesses at *9:

E8 = Reinvigor+4
E9 = Reinvigor+4; Protection+4(major bless)
E10= Reinvigor+5; Protection+4(major bless)

Edit: which matches the list in the FAQ.

[Jazzepi]

Bleh D: I'm sorry. Replace every time I said 8 anything with 9. I was getting the split between 10 and 9 confused.

Jazzepi

[DrPraetorious]

Anyway, here's another build to try, if you love hatred:
Awake, Domstr 9, E9, Cyclops, Order 3, Sloth 1, Cold 3, Growth 2, Misfortune 3, Drain 2.

Your expansion is *insane*.

[AlgaeNymph]

DrPraetorious said:
The Niefel Build that I just won with was an imprisoned, E9N9 Cyclops.

What were the scales?

[Nikolai]

Jazzepi are you sure? You seem to place second, better bless effect at level 8. I am 100% certain that in my games, I get second bless effect at level 9.