Pretender Design

[shunwick]

Guys,

Thanks. You've given me much to think about.

Best wishes,
Steve

[Jarkko]

You can design your pretender so that he fills in the weak parts of your nation, or to go for the bless effect, just like suggested above.

Or you can go and boost even further the *strengths* of your nation. This strategy mostly works in single-play or blitz MP games, but can take be quite suprising when your neighbours don't expect it.


For example, lets take EA Pangaea. You get more maenads in high turmoil. You definitively want high luck when having high turmoil. Pans don't cost that much in resources, so sloth is nice. You will spawn maeands like mad, so Growth is needed for more supplies. Magic 1 makes your dryads actually pretty good researchers, and you want to go for the protection spells (Mass Protection being the first immediate goal) to make give your maenads staying power (you'll have *lots* of maenads, you will love Mass Protection).

However, at start you will definitively need a super-combatant to take lands like nobody. Enter the White Bull (or Black Bull, if you want to learn how to use communions via Sabbath Master/Slave), who will love you focusing on Alteration. Baalz have noted one should take E4 to a White Bull, and that is indeed a good point (I wish I had figured that out earlier ), as you can then cast all the nice buffing Earth spells *and* you get a nice +4 to the Protection of the Pretender.

Thus, a White Bull with N4 E4 (so that you can make your Minotaur prophet a super-combatant in own dominion; you'll have two heroes (give the starting army for the minotaur profet, eventually that army will disappear, but you can continue expanding with the prophet alone if you stay in strong own dominion) expanding lands like mad, with the raging trampling bull taking one province each turn and the regenerating trampling raging minotaur taking another; just avoid provinces with lots of cavalry or lizards, also dont send the prophet vs icthyids (as they will net him to death; the bull will just laugh at the puny webs) or opponents with long pointy sticks). Dominion 9 (for Awe to pretender and to spread your dominion so that your two superheroes always fight in own dominion), Turmoil 3, Sloth 3, Luck 3, Heat 0, Growth 1 or 2 (can't remember if you can take E4N4 with Growth 2), Luck 3 and Magic 1. Go for Enchantment 2 (to get personal regeration for your pretender), then go to Alteration until you hit Mass Protection -> Your pretender will get more and better self-buffs along the way, while building up the spell-support for your massed maeanads. Profit.

[dirtywick]

It's pretty dependant on the nation, but here's a few things I always consider when designing a pretender:

The pretender is most likely going to be your most powerful unit for a really long time (unless it's sleeping, even then...), so what use do I want for it?

For magic, do I want it to take provinces and use buff spells, give me access to magic/spells/items I would have a lot of difficulty getting otherwise, a huge early research lead, finding a lot of magic sites, get a good bless for my sacred troops at the expense of a possibly powerful or diverse unit, or some combination?

What kind of scales will compliment my nations troops, or more specifically the troops I'll actually be using? Gold expensive troops benefit from order and growth mostly. Resource needs production. The opposite is also true. If I plan on using a lot of magic items/summons, Luck can give gems as random events as well as gold; some nations benefit from a variety of gem types and will benefit from this more than others who have few paths. Mages with old age benefit from Growth, but if your nation has no old troops Death can be an option. Turmoil causes more random events, and with high luck you'll likely get a lot of positive random events. Magic gives research/penetration bonus, Drain a research penalty and more MR to your units. There's ways around both for some nations, like research bonus items or spells/items to boost MR.

Then I look at what I want, and what kind of "state" I guess I want the pretender in. For instance, a strong bless allows you to expand quickly with sacred troops, so choosing an awake pretender isn't as helpful and will free up points for better use. However, a pretender designed to research/site search benefits from starting early and getting the gems/research done earlier, so having them asleep hampers you for a lot of turns. Additionally, a pretender designed for combat should be awake and put to use as early as possible.

You also have to consider the map size and number of opponents as well; a small map will take a much shorter time, so scales like Growth that grow stronger over time or Luck that benefits from more provinces won't have as big an impact as a larger map, or a pretender that's asleep might never awaken before the game is over. The opposite is also true.

Then you have to find an efficient balance between them, using as many points as you can. You won't be able to get a strong pretender chassis, lots of magic and a good bless, and good scales, and have it awake.

I guess the main thing is to take a look at the nation you're playing, figure out their strengths/weaknesses and play them a bit, then you'll have a lot better idea of what kind of pretender will work for them.

Man, might have more questions now than answers. One thing I'll say for certain is Earth is usually a fair choice for a pretender. Blessing gives sacreds reinvigoration which is never a bad idea, and additional prot on the pretender itself, as well as access to some nice buff spells and hammers.

[chrispedersen]

For easy, try mictlan with a F9W9 Dom7 bless. build only sacred troops and priests to bless them. Conquer everything. Repeat.