New patch

MaxWilson · #1 May 30th, 2008, 11:18 PM

Loren,

It's 222 astral pearls for something that may (or may not) be inferior to a seraph, PLUS 4 super-awesome mini-thugs in their own right. The 4 Ophanim are definitely worth the price--in my test runs I had the Chayot just stand there watching while the Ophanim rolled over hundreds of chaff units everything in sight without taking a single wound as far as I could tell. You have noted that the Chayot has four forms and can survive a Soul Slay? That's not to say that somebody might not Wish for a Chayot directly, but I must say I'd rather have both the Chayot and his bodyguard. Call Merkavah is incredible.

-Max

Omnirizon · #2 May 30th, 2008, 11:33 PM

Damn MaxW!!

that's some impressive research and imagination from KO & JK to include something like that, and a good eye by yourself to catch it.

I'm trying to picture KO/JK reading their bibles while in preparation for making this new nation.

MaxWilson · #3 May 31st, 2008, 02:30 AM

Omnirizon,

Thanks! I can't claim much credit, though, because I've always thought the Benjamites were pretty cool. They slaughtered most of the other Israelites in the war, and it took the combined armies of everyone to fight them off. (Then the others killed off all of the Benjamines except for six hundred men.)

I agree, I'm also impressed. I'm sure KO and JK are always this thorough and I just don't usually catch it because I don't know anything about Japanese/Nordic/Aztec/etc. history.

-Max

Kristoffer O · #4 May 31st, 2008, 03:15 AM

I've probably done more research this time than before. I begun work on it before the 3.15 was released and I didn't want units to appear in sprites and stats before the nation was finished, so I went for descriptions first this time.

Not making graphics and only making descriptions made me read more than usual. Also I'm quite fond of Middle/Near eastern ancient myth and history.

I've used the bible, the Zohar, book of enoch, some modern writhings on Ugaritic religion and the rephaim texts, and of course an osprey book (ancient armies of the middle east)

Since I'm quite fond of the nations I've been afraid that they would be too strong. I hope the drawbacks are enough to make them not overpowered. Since I'm not very used to design thugs/SC, and the nations are based on few mighty men I'm not sure how to properly balance them. There is no real precedent. Niefel giants are more powerful with their cold aura, but the Fomorians are probably inferior.

MaxWilson · #5 May 31st, 2008, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Kristoffer O said:
Since I'm quite fond of the nations I've been afraid that they would be too strong. I hope the drawbacks are enough to make them not overpowered. Since I'm not very used to design thugs/SC, and the nations are based on few mighty men I'm not sure how to properly balance them. There is no real precedent. Niefel giants are more powerful with their cold aura, but the Fomorians are probably inferior.

So far, my impression is that Ashdod is tremendous *fun* because they have so many options, kind of like Lanka. I'm not thinking at this point that they'll be unbalanced. As you say, Niefelheim is better at thugging/SCing because Niefel Jarls have the cold aura and better equipment out of the box, and also Jotun Jarls and Skratti are recruitable everywhere. They have fun battlemages and good, solid troops, but supply is a problem (nice to have a nation where gluttony actually matters because it's not combined with Need Not Eat). The summons provide a great endgame strategy to shoot for, but that just means the endgame will be more thematic instead of generic Seraphs and Tartarians. In terms of thugs and SCs I think the main advantage over Niefelheim is that Adons are not afraid of heat (or cold), but they need a chaff-killer.

-Max

Loren · #6 May 31st, 2008, 12:25 PM

Quote:

MaxWilson said:
Loren,

It's 222 astral pearls for something that may (or may not) be inferior to a seraph, PLUS 4 super-awesome mini-thugs in their own right. The 4 Ophanim are definitely worth the price--in my test runs I had the Chayot just stand there watching while the Ophanim rolled over hundreds of chaff units everything in sight without taking a single wound as far as I could tell. You have noted that the Chayot has four forms and can survive a Soul Slay? That's not to say that somebody might not Wish for a Chayot directly, but I must say I'd rather have both the Chayot and his bodyguard. Call Merkavah is incredible.

-Max

Oh, that's where those came from! I thought they were from another summoning. I hadn't noticed them when they showed up as I wasn't expecting any non-commanders.

Ok, I'll retract my objection.