Bless nation recommendation, please

[BigDaddy]

If you have a sacred mages its nice to have even a little E4.

[Sombre]

Originally Posted by ebenweb

I'm a NOOB

I actually find this offensive. Please edit it out of your post, or change it to 'newbie'.

Unless you really expect us to believe you are oblivious to the difference between the two terms?

[LumenPlacidum]

If you're just doing single-player, then a lot of sacreds are worth using. MA Marignon's knights of the chalice are pretty hardcore. I really like E4W9N4 on them. Then, a paladin and 3 of those can take pretty much every indie province forever. The bless is also very useful later on on your summoned angels.

LA Tien Chi has awesome sacred cavalry.

[ebenweb]

Originally Posted by Sombre

I actually find this offensive. Please edit it out of your post, or change it to 'newbie'.

Unless you really expect us to believe you are oblivious to the difference between the two terms?

Yep, oblivious. I think I saw a sticky on it--I'll go read up.

[ebenweb]

Originally Posted by ebenweb

Yep, oblivious. I think I saw a sticky on it--I'll go read up.

So I found a pretty lengthy thread here debating this topic. My experience of "NOOB" (at work, mostly) is as a slightly derogatory term for someone who doesn't know what they're doing and new to a particular field or endeavour, mostly related to IT.

To be frank, I find it pretty funny that this should be so hotly debated or found offensive by anyone. This is the Internet, after all.

I won't be editing my original post, mainly because I refer to myself as a NOOB, not anyone else. It's humour, and self-deprecating.

[Gregstrom]

Originally Posted by ebenweb

So I found a pretty lengthy thread here debating this topic. My experience of "NOOB" (at work, mostly) is as a slightly derogatory term for someone who doesn't know what they're doing and new to a particular field or endeavour, mostly related to IT.

To be frank, I find it pretty funny that this should be so hotly debated or found offensive by anyone. This is the Internet, after all.

Did you accidentally type 'funny' instead of 'normal', perhaps?

[MaxWilson]

Originally Posted by Sombre

Unless you really expect us to believe you are oblivious to the difference between the two terms?

Uh, I'm oblivious to the difference except inasmuch as one of them is t crippled haxor spk tht u see poepl use on tHe internet bcuz they cant type. Is the short version more offensive, or is it because it's capitalized?

-Max

[Jarkko]

LA Pan has nice bless strategy for SP in E9N4. Early on a dryad (or indy priest) with with 4 dryad hoplites will take any indy province (pool up two or three such forces to take out knights though, if the knights get lucky with their morale check they might destroy the dryad hoplites on the charge), later on (when you have more income) Black Centaurs will see you through the whole game (and they have the mobility to be brought to frontlines fast); Black Centaurs need a critical mass to be hugelsy succesfull, but once you have a couple dozen on the field, most AI nations will crumble against them (and if you have time to drag some dryad hoplites to the field, so much better, as they are absolutely great heavy infantry to hold the center).

Doesn't work in MP though, as such at least (at the very least needs some serious magical back-up, preferably with some Sleeper and Bane thugs to get you through mid-game until you get the tartarians rolling out). Relying only on capital-only sacreds is not going to see you do that well in a MP, but doesn't make it less fun to see a few ladies absolutely destroy any opposition in the early turns

[LDiCesare]

To use a bless nation, you need sacreds that you can mass, so capital-only sacreds are usually a bad idea.
Which is why, contrary to what my opening sentence may lead you to believe, I suggest trying EA T'ien Chi with a W9 or W9/S9 bless (minor earth and nature blesses can be useful too).
T'ien Chi has recruitable sacreds, warriors of the 5 elements, who are capital only, look like crap at first glance and always dealt tremendous damage to everything that was thrown at me in all games I played (except Ashdod but then...).
Once you have built enough forts that your capital only sacreds look like they're no longer massable enough, you start summoning your national sacreds: Demons of heavenly rivers, fires, and celestial warriors. Sped up celestial warriors and, even better, fast berserking demons of heavenly rivers that you can summon in every fort (since one out of 5 of your base mages can recruit them) make up for the capital-onliness of your human warriors.

[13lackGu4rd]

in your first post you wanted a bless nation that isn't a blood nation. that pretty much excludes all the classic EA bless rushes and their successors: Niefelheim, Vanheim, Helheim, Sauromatia, Lanka and Mictlan. thus for EA you don't have much left, unless you agree to be at least a partial blood nation(which is very good cause you get access to the awsome blood items and some summons too) you should aim at MA/LA instead. MA Mictlan, unlike the other Mictlans is not a blood nation, however its Jaguar Warriors are cap only, unlike the others, so it's weaker for a bless nation but still solid. Marigonon's Knights of the Chalice as mentioned above are a good choice, LA Tien Ch'is Ancestor Vessels are considered to be the best heavy cavalry in the game, so certainly worth a bless as well. there are a few, but a bit weaker alternatives such as Kailasa(EA) or Machaka(MA).

but in all honesty, if you want a bless strategy you should go for EA and at least a partial blood nation...