EA Arco - uncle moneybags

[Verjigorm]

I use an immortal for an early expander, preferring the Phoenix, since I already have good magical diversity. The Master Lich is my #2, but he isn't as capable of early expansion. The first two provinces taken with the Phoenix may take 2-3 turns each until you get Evocation Level 1, but you can expand with chariots anyway, and 1.5 provinces per turn is better than 1 province per turn.


I like the immortals because I don't have to worry about them getting killed, and even if they get horror marked beyond any reason (to the point where they get a horror attack every round), they can still act as a capitol mage (since the perpetual horror attacks generally confine him to center). You can always attack with the Pretender, of course, via Teleport/Trapeze/etc. or within their movement radius (which is why I love the phoenix) but the horror attack will always send them back home. You rarely want to put equipment on an immortal except for ritual magic anyway (Exception: lich), so that's immaterial except that the horror marked pretender can't use boosters without losing them to the horror attacks, so your ritual options become a bit more confined.

[chrispedersen]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

I use an immortal for an early expander, preferring the Phoenix, since I already have good magical diversity. The Master Lich is my #2, but he isn't as capable of early expansion. The first two provinces taken with the Phoenix may take 2-3 turns each until you get Evocation Level 1, but you can expand with chariots anyway, and 1.5 provinces per turn is better than 1 province per turn.


I like the immortals because I don't have to worry about them getting killed, and even if they get horror marked beyond any reason (to the point where they get a horror attack every round), they can still act as a capitol mage (since the perpetual horror attacks generally confine him to center). You can always attack with the Pretender, of course, via Teleport/Trapeze/etc. or within their movement radius (which is why I love the phoenix) but the horror attack will always send them back home. You rarely want to put equipment on an immortal except for ritual magic anyway (Exception: lich), so that's immaterial except that the horror marked pretender can't use boosters without losing them to the horror attacks, so your ritual options become a bit more confined.

The phoenix is one of my favorite pretenders in CBM. However, it is not especially effective for arco. The phoenix does best with a high dominion score - which wastes the effects of skeptics - or at least requires you to spend design points that sceptics otherwise mitigates.

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by chrispedersen

The phoenix is one of my favorite pretenders in CBM. However, it is not especially effective for arco. The phoenix does best with a high dominion score - which wastes the effects of skeptics - or at least requires you to spend design points that sceptics otherwise mitigates.

Well, the strategy for using skeptics is exactly the opposite when using an immortal pretender.

When you use an immortal, you want wide dominion so he can travel, thus you use your Skeptics to collapse dominion walls in advance of preachers and your stealthy flying prophet. You use them to expand rather than contain your dominion. There are two aspects to dominion sculpting: containment and expansion.

When assaulting a castle, I like to collapse dominion in the province and then preach my own into it so that my pretender can participate in the assault. This also has the added benefit of preventing any immortal units inside (vampires) from resurrecting. Skeptics are very powerful heretics (level 3), so they have a 90% base chance of nullifying a candle which means they are effective both at containing bad scales and rapidly enabling the encroachment of your dominion on others. You can work down the candles on a target province long before your preaching force arrives to mop up the mess.


Additionally, when used in this way, skeptics function as a primary scout force rather than hanging about in your own lands.

[chrispedersen]

I don't use skeptics to contain my dominion. Effectiveness of skeptics to remove candles depends on the number of candles in the province.