Machaka – a sorcerer’s fevered arachnophobia

[Baalz]

To be honest, there are two critical factors that makes Machaka the fever fetish king for me.

1) You can start cranking them out reliably early in year one. The amount of gems you get is cumulative, so making a dozen fetishes in year one lands you hundreds of extra gems, and they're flowing in during the early part of the game when gem incomes are much lower and thus gems are more valuable. Starting just 6 turns earlier really makes a significant difference.

2) To be honest, for me the real draw of the spider lords is the lack of micro. My number one goal of playing is not to win, it's to have fun. I won't play a strategy that's not fun even if (or especially because actually) it's guaranteed to win. I don't really care if units have recuperation or I can heal them - at the point I've get to look forward to shuffling dozens of fetishes around every turn I'm dreading my turn rather than looking forward to it, and the number of fetishes you're shuffling adds up real fast on 10 hp units if you're cranking out 3 fetishes per turn - basically every 8 or 9 turns you've got another 3 fetishes to juggle every turn. With spider lords - just stop juggling as soon as it gets to be a pain, the strategy is more than justified with no juggling at all.

[MaxWilson]

I agree with #2, which actually makes #1 less of a problem for me. Since I play SP, even when I clam I usually stop when I hit 50 clams or so. With fever fetishing, it will be nice to have an additional source of fire gem income, but if I can get my net fire gem income up to +50 per turn I will probably stop--and once you find enchantresses, it probably takes less than a year to pop out 30 fever fetishes. Starting earlier and netting a couple of hundred extra fire gems is thus not going to be a huge priority, for me.

After all, even with Meglobob's trick, scanning hundreds (vs. dozens) of fetish holders for their expirations dates could get to be quite a chore.

-Max

[Sombre]

Yeah I have to say any strat which involves a lot micro I'm just not interested in. I have used fever fetishes when I have access to units with high hp, but I'd never do it with a load of scouts. Plus I play NI exclusively, so it isn't an option anyway.

[Sombre]

Which arco units with recup were these?

[fantasma]

Put the fetish on a black sorcerer, when dying it switches to spider and is back full hit points the next turn. I accidentially noticed that when one was supposed to die from old age.

That saves a lot of micro.

What else do you do besides playing and writing guides, Baalz, I wonder. Do you even sleep? Very interesting reading, all of them.

[JimMorrison]

Well that was the old trick, and it worked decently. However, every Sorceror with a Fetish, becomes highly unreliable in combat, due to mounting Afflictions, and can spend significant amounts of time Mute or Feebleminded, not even contributing to Research. To top that off, you are limited to 1/turn ever.

With this guide, the intent is to do 2-3 or more per turn, until you are swimming in Fire gems. Once you've already begun to employ the cheaper Fetish carriers, it just seems best to put all of your Fetishes onto them, and allow your Sorcerors to remain pristine for other uses.

[lch]

I'd say that this is a broken mechanic. It's easy to see that it's WAD, but I'm not happy with it.

[cleveland]

I told you not to seek the treasure...

IW is aware of this. Unfortunately it seems fixing it will break a lot of other things.

[rdonj]

Originally Posted by cleveland

I told you not to seek the treasure...

IW is aware of this. Unfortunately it seems fixing it will break a lot of other things.

I was waiting for this

[legowarrior]

I can't help but feel that there is just no point to the Hunters, which is such as waste. What is a good late game strategy for the Machaka, if they make it?