SuperVans!

[Cheezeninja]

I happen to be very fond of the earth 9/ water 9 blessing. Earth seems much preferable to fire to me... built in reinvigoration for mages, a crapload of protection. With earth and water it boosts both and defense and protection wonderfully, leaving you primarily vulnerable to arrows....which air is uniquely suited to deal with.

[ May 19, 2004, 03:05: Message edited by: Cheezeninja ]

[Blitz]

If you want to overcome base Van's research problems, why not just play Midgaard (or whatever the alternate is). The astral mages cancel bad events if you are taking misfortune, the Galderman is a cheaper quill forger, not to mention you start with 4 Air gems/turn. Your pretender should have the research clout to power up to construction 2 regardless of scales and then you pay 5 air gems/turn to cancel your drain.

You lose dwarves, valkries, boars and the most expensive van... in return you get a killer communion slave/fortune teller/mind deuler that can be pretty impressive in numbers. Add a Banner of the Northern Star and a big fat communion and yer in business. Not only that, but the Galderman is the cheapest 2-random mage you can buy, regenerates, can cast triple storm powered orb lightnings, and 1/4 can forge both Boots of the Messenger and rainbow armor to get around the drain scale. 1/4 of them are cheaper blood hunters for that nice storm demon/storm power combo.

Take 9/9 Vans, Storm Demons, a big fat (cheap) communion, a couple of Galdermen, a staff of storms, and a few SC Vans and it's good night Irene.

[Norfleet]

The one drawback of Midgard is that your Vans also become capitol only troops, which severely limits their deployment, especially with cruddy scales paying for a super bless. With stock Van, this isn't so much of a problem because you can build them at any fort, making Vans by far the most ubiquitous sacred troop. Midgard loses this advantage.

[Blitz]

Good point... forgot about that.