Trying to improve my MA Abyssia Pretender Design

[Squirrelloid]

Ok, 2nd run, turn 11:
-12 RP short of Const 5
-a little tighter on blood slaves due to a really lackluster turn of hunting, and i think i got started a turn late.
-only 1 B4 warlock means it'll take me until turn 13 to start contract forging. (Need to forge one booster and empower in F).
-No windfall gold until turn 11, but it was a 3k event, so no castles actually in progress, but capable of starting a bunch.
-14 provinces
-starting assassin got unlucky and had a province with *5* commanders in it, one of which had bodyguards, so didn't even get 1 province from indie commander assassinating...

2h file and trn file available upon request. CBM 1.71. Played on map: streamlands (very popular for multiplayer right now).

And you might note the reason I'm doing this on not a FoB is because i want a pretender who is capable of doing other things (site searching, casting GoH, etc...). If i was going to go with a FoB, i'd want dom 9-10 and pursue a blood sacrifice strategy.

[Mardagg]

Originally Posted by Squirrelloid

2h file and trn file available upon request. CBM 1.71. Played on map: streamlands (very popular for multiplayer right now).

And you might note the reason I'm doing this on not a FoB is because i want a pretender who is capable of doing other things (site searching, casting GoH, etc...). If i was going to go with a FoB, i'd want dom 9-10 and pursue a blood sacrifice strategy.

i kindly request the turn file please

Sure,i note the reason.You did already made clear some days ago,you prefer sleeping Fountain with even better scales and/or strong blessings or rainbow pretender cutting the diversity weakness Abysia got,getting a better endgame unless i get lucky with indies.
And I generally prefer setups that try to optimize the strength of a nation.
The fire9 rush start tries to make the early game very strong,and the awake FoB strat tries to optimize Soul contract spamming.Testing it,you will quickly see that i am even able to afford building 2 contracts per turn before end of year 2+since i rush Constr as well,i do get the lanterns as well.

A sleeping /dormant Fountain for better scales/dominiion is clearly worse for Abysia concerning soul contracts,at least i came to that conclusion during test games,because you are slow at research/blood hunting at start.
Also,since i already got pretty good scales,i dont need more points.You can easily make it Dom 8 or 9 with an awake Fountain aswell btw,if you prefer.Just go P1 and L0(or P0 L1) and you got Blood saccing as a side strat going.
The biggest decision though,is : taking F0 or F1 at the start.
F1 allows for even earlier soul contract forging and you save fire gems for the lanterns.Thinking about it now ,i would probably got for slighty worse scales and F1 if i would start a new game with my setup.

[Squirrelloid]

.2h file and .trn file attached (.2h so you can see what I would probably be doing for that turn). I also included the fatherland file, in case you need that. (Never tried to pass a SP turn before). Map is Streamlands, requires CBM 1.71.

As i said, i think this game was a little slow at getting bloodhunting started. I just sort of rush-played through these, so i'm sure the play could be optimized quite a bit more.

[Mardagg]

ty for the file.
I got the map and cbm 1.71 but still cant load up the file:

"CBM kharamdzu.dm is required"

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by Mardagg

ty for the file.
I got the map and cbm 1.71 but still cant load up the file:

"CBM kharamdzu.dm is required"

Whoops, i seem to have used the mods for the Haitian Heaven 2 game, which i didn't notice because Kharam Dzu (mod nation) doesn't have a banner.

The Kharam Dzu mod can be found here: http://www.llamaserver.net/sombre/Dominions3/Mods/

Mod should have absolutely no effect on the particular game.

[Mardagg]

ok, after I finished looking at your turn about 40 minutes ago, i got the idea that i could play a short 12 turns with my own setup(F1 B6 this time) and post it here as well
Normal CBM1.71 and streamlands as well

I had a real bad start though:

only 3 neighbours to capital,2 of which swamp provinces and the last with a whopping 50 Heavy Inf/Heavy Cav garrison.lol.
A perfect example ,why making the starting assassin your prophet is advisable with Abysia.Because that way,i could simply assasinate via Smite the 2 tough commanders and take the huge pop province on turn 4.

-15 provinces
-finished second castle on turn 10
-third castle being built as well
- slow with the contracts,first contract built on turn 10,it basically goes 12,13,15,16,17,... until i get to constr 6 and will be able to build 2 per turn.
-pretty healhy kingdom despite the starting problems.
-got the warlock hero on turn 10 i think,otherwise i would be even worse in research
-basically no events at all,1 ill omen IIRC

Note,that i basically played it like my 6B only setup,so i did blood hunt my cap just 3 times,i think,within the whole first year and did concentrate equally on expanding,building 3 castles and blood hunting.That way i built my first contract on turn 10.Next one now,turn 12 and i got enough for another on turn 13 already.I did alchemize some fire gems to get the castle up 1 turn earlier IIRC.
I could easily skip research a bit more since i just need constr 2 for a start,building even 1 less warlock and/or skip the dragon anthemant for 1 or 2 more Demonbred,giving me a big headstart in blood hunting vs you together with my FoB.
That way i could probably achieve the first contract at turn 8 without doing suicide in the other areas.with a really good start and a bit blood hunt luck even earlier.
I could more concentrate on building a 2nd and 3rd castle with a new a lab as well,if i would blood hunt less while remaining still a slight blood slave income lead vs you simply because u have to focus on research more.

All in all i have to admit,that your setup is faster with the contracts than i thought.But you have difficulties in other areas as well,e.g. you cant plan ahead your 2nd and 3rd castle very well,because you dont know before when you get the event/s.
Furthermore you are much more vulnerable vs Human attacks in the early game,especially if catched off guard being low on resources and money.
I agree though,that your mid game/late mid game rocks.

[SsSam]

I see the infantry does an excellent job expanding.

I can understand how the combination of devils and blood summons will be be very powerful when combined with Abysia's astral mages.

How do you survive if you've made contact with an ubber bless nation and your waiting the 6-8 turns till you have your devil army in place?

Even worse you start to lose blood hunting territory and you are toast.

There seems to be a window of opportunity on a small map where Abysia is horribly exposed to a rush.