Mictlan early age prophet query

[vfb]

The manual, on page 93, give the basic details:

Mictlan's home province, temples, and prophet do not spread dominion. Mictlan's god spreads dominion, but is only half as effective as other gods.

However, if you left-click on your Temple with non-Mictlan, you normally see:

Conversion Rates
God 30
Prophet 10
Home Province 10
Temples 10 (Can be 10 * number of temples)
Victory Points 0 (Can be 5 * number of victory points)

For Mictlan you see:

Conversion Rates
God 10
Prophet 0
Home Province 0
Temples 0 (temples do not spread dominion)
Victory Points 0 (victory points do not spread dominion)

So, Mictlan's God's dominion spread may be 1/3rd as effective, not 1/2, as the manual says.

Also, I ran a test. 2 nations, one Agartha, one Mictlan. Both with a Dom10 god. Mictlan blood sacrificing 3 slaves every month at the temple.

That should be 3 temple checks for Mictlan at Dom10, plus either one automatic increase or one temple check for the god; versus one automatic increase and 5 temples checks for Agartha (5 = god+god+prophet+home+temple).

But Mictlan's dominion spread equaled Agartha's. This was on Glory of the Gods, up to 40 turns.

Conclusion: I don't know the exact details of how it works, Mictlan should have ended up with less dominion than Agartha. But blood sacrificing is a really great way to spread dominion!

Edit: Repeated the test, this time with Dom3 god for both nations. Same result:

Mictlan sacrificing 3 slaves per month with an awake god and alive prophet, equals any other nation with equal dom pretender, one temple, awake god and alive prophet.

[ano]

Actually, Mictlan prophet is nothing more than a level 3 priest. That's why I often make a prophet from the indy commander. Tribal king has better uses (he levies slaves)and making a prophet from level 3 priest to get holy 4 very often seems a waste of power to me (especially for a race that mainly uses high-morale sacreds). For Mictlan prophet is nothing more than smite caster. And that's an important thing to understand.

[vfb]

What are the disadvantages of making the scout your prophet? That's what I usually do, and I'm curious if there's a reason I shouldn't.

[Dedas]

vfb said:
What are the disadvantages of making the scout your prophet? That's what I usually do, and I'm curious if there's a reason I shouldn't.

You might have seen all the other bonuses a prophet gets? For instance greater health and MR etc. all based on dominion.
So if you can recruit a "thuggable" commanders you can make him even better. He also "carries" with him dominion into enemy land making him an ideal conquerer.

[ano]

Dedas said:

You might have seen all the other bonuses a prophet gets? For instance greater health and MR etc. all based on dominion.
So if you can recruit a "thuggable" commanders you can make him even better. He also "carries" with him dominion into enemy land making him an ideal conquerer.

Not with Mictlan))
I generally find a bad idea making a thug from your prophet because thug should normally be used for fighting in enemy dominions.
There's one more pro for making a prophet(upd. was "thug") from national Mictlan commander - they've got forest survival and indy commander hasn't. I played early Mictlan before 3.10 and then indy commander as a prophet seemed to be a good idea.

[Dedas]

I never wrote that you should make a prophet thug from a recruitable Mictlan commander. I just answered his question in general.

Also, having your prophet spearheading an assault into enemy dominion could be advantageous as you get the dominion bonus from the province you attack from. Then you have to withdraw him or start preaching in the newly taken province of course.

[ano]

I didn't say you wrote so)) You wrote about making a thug from prophet in general and I said I find this a rather bad idea. Even if you attack from the friendly province, you will get more hp temporarily but other stats affected by dominion will be lowered (strength and mr) and that's not good at all. Also, regeneration rate will be based on your hp that you SHOULD have in the province and not on the hp you actually have (the difference is considered some leftover bonus). And the same thing with affliction chance.

[ano]

vfb said:
What are the disadvantages of making the scout your prophet? That's what I usually do, and I'm curious if there's a reason I shouldn't.

No disadvantages and almost always I tend to do so. But the reason I don't make scout my prophet with Mictlan is that I can't benefit from stealthy dominion spread, because prophet is nothing more than priest. Also, scouts are rather rare in early era and that's another reason to let scout do his primary job and not support armies.

[spirokeat]

Thanks all,

I hadn't noticed the section in the new manual.