Newb+Multiplayer.

[Alneyan]

Heh, for one reason or another, I cannot consider the bards as being actual mages; but they certainly are, game-wise speaking.

I wonder if giving them a random path, in addition to their Nature-1, would be a good idea; that could represent the knowledge they gained while travelling, and give them something more compared to the Daughters of Avalon (one of the best researchers available). Nature-1/Random-1 bards would become a bit like the Masters of the Way, with a different role. Hmm... Oh, got to watch out for those wild tangents.

[RibbonBlue]

What classes of magic should I focus in researching first?
Conjuration+Construction? So I can summon something to build an SC?

It seems to me that an SC unless it relied on the types of magic that hit every one the battle field and deal dmg to them all,unless it had that a SC would have trouble fighting the troops that have high morale enmass. Like vine men. If an Sc was fighting a mass of vine men, it would have trouble killing them because it can only hit a few a turn. If you had like 50+ of em it would seem pretty easy to overwhelm a SC.

Alneyan, a game with only new players sounds great.

What I try to do as man is expand using long bowmen, and then use spells to search the province, then conqure a new one. Then I try to get the vinemen bonus items. Like the staff I think, and the crown that makes additional vine men. And then I start mass producing vine men. I through in a few mages and order then to use random spells, as I do not know many yet. My whole game pretty much revolves around longbowmen and vinemen.

Does man have any good in battle spells? Or only summoning and such?

[Graeme Dice]

RibbonBlue said:
What classes of magic should I focus in researching first?

This is one of the hardest questions to answer, and it really depends on your pretender and nation.

If an Sc was fighting a mass of vine men, it would have trouble killing them because it can only hit a few a turn. If you had like 50+ of em it would seem pretty easy to overwhelm a SC.

This is why breath of winter and fire shield are so useful to SCs. They allow the SC to damage everything that's nearby.

Does man have any good in battle spells? Or only summoning and such?

Man can easily cast the lightning spells, which are very powerful. Man can also fairly easily cast relief (They get a localized version of the spell free at the start), which allows you to cast even more lightning.

[BigDaddy]

Once you go to Vine Ogres you'll never go back. . .

[Zooko]

No, no! Forget this SuperCombatant, Lightning Bolt, Relief, and Vine Ogre stuff! Take the Last of the Tuatha theme and a pretender with 9 Nature and 9 Earth! Then recruit nothing except for Daoine Sidhe.

[quantum_mechani]

Zooko said:
No, no! Forget this SuperCombatant, Lightning Bolt, Relief, and Vine Ogre stuff! Take the Last of the Tuatha theme and a pretender with 9 Nature and 9 Earth! Then recruit nothing except for Daoine Sidhe.

Fire 9 and water 9 work about 5x as well.

[ioticus]

Massed Vine Ogres is the way to go. Get yourself a few Ivy Kings summoning 4 Vine Ogres each for a cost of 1 nature gem each.

[Ironhawk]

RibbonBlue said:
It seems to me that an SC unless it relied on the types of magic that hit every one the battle field and deal dmg to them all,unless it had that a SC would have trouble fighting the troops that have high morale enmass. Like vine men. If an Sc was fighting a mass of vine men, it would have trouble killing them because it can only hit a few a turn. If you had like 50+ of em it would seem pretty easy to overwhelm a SC.

Ribbon the key to army-killer SC's is lifedrain. In dom2 Lifedraining weapons are EXTREMELY powerful becuase they not only drain HP from enemies into the SC (to above thier max hp!) but they also remove fatigue from the SC at the same time. In this fashion, an SC armed with a lifedrain weapon, respectable HP, prot, attack/def skill, can defeat a... basically an unlimited number of normal troops.

Thier effectiveness can be further increased by area of effect items (like horror helmets) and shield items (like charcoal shields). For your own enrichment, test out one of the common SC chasis, like a Bane or an Ice Devil. Give it a lifedrain weapon, maybe a speed item and a shield item. Then send it in against some mortal armies and see the carnage it wrecks.

[Chazar]

How does "Man" summon a suitable SC chassis fast enough with the national mages lacking both Blood & Death? (Let us suppose for the sake of the discussion that there are no suitable Independent Mages (except sages maybe) around and that our pretender does not have any skill in blood nor death either.)

Just stick with a Firbolg (but where do the lifedrain weapons come from then)? Or is summoning Lamia Queens a must-do, then forging death boosters and hoping for a death gem income via castings of dark knowledge to summon death-scs and forging lifedrain weapons? Would that be fast enough? Or rather trying to use scouts and blood-sages for hunting and forging a hellsword after empowering maybe?

[Taqwus]

IronHawk --

Actually, he's right. The turn limit means that you can't kill an unlimited number of troops, barring a nasty battlefield-wide effect -- and if neither side can flee, the SC can be killed through sheer weight of numbers.

Simplest example would be any SC with the Unquenched Sword against a huge non-fireproof army. The heat will probably render the army unconscious, but not kill them, so they'll remain on the battlefield without running into favorite death-shield/area effects like fire shields or Soul Vortex. The SC will be berserked by the sword, so he won't run. If the enemy army goes unconscious, and the SC can't kill them fast enough, he'll be autokilled.