Guide to playing Patala competitively

[Boron]

Twan said:
... your mages are really unfatiguable with the fatigue reduction of magic 3 + recuperation 4 from the bless + eventually items...

You get another +4 reinvigoration from summon earthpower + 1 additional level of earth magic .

I haven't experimented much with Rust Mist yet, does the trampling from your elephants also destroy enemy armors?

[Twan]

Yes I forgot summon earthpower in addition, so reinvigoration 8 (+30% cost reduction in your dominion) without items.

I think trampling is only size based alas and do nothing if it doesn't succeed, but knights provinces are not really hard to take with rust mist + a bandar first line (or better some expandable troops then a bandar squad) and a horde of little monkeys behind. I prefer not to use the markatas for taking the first strike, as it's better to have them surrounding knights (2 squads on the sides and rear to maximize the number of attackers).

[Nerfix]

Wait wait wait, so Summon Earthpower gives 4 reinvig +1 reinvig per level in Earth magic? O_o

Also, Umor bless Rust Mist. It's a suprisingly good spell and there are more Water/Earth nations around to make use of it. It slows battles down for me though.

[Boron]

Twan said:
I think trampling is only size based alas and do nothing if it doesn't succeed, but knights provinces are not really hard to take with rust mist + a bandar first line (or better some expandable troops then a bandar squad) and a horde of little monkeys behind. I prefer not to use the markatas for taking the first strike, as it's better to have them surrounding knights (2 squads on the sides and rear to maximize the number of attackers).

I am not worried about indies, i wonder if rust mist might be useful in big PVP battles .

Maybe Destruction could used be instead too.

[Manuk]

It's not +1/level reinv. it's +1 earth lvl because casting summon earthpower just like the other summon power of other magiks.

[Twan]

Yes the other +4 is my bless.

[KissBlade]

If you want to bless your mages, I recommend going e8 with your cyclops,dominion 10, order 3, sloth 3, heat 2, death 3, misfortune 2, magic 3 OR take dom 9 and e9. It's definitely a viable alternate opening as you can easily solo with your cyclops turn 2 this way. I can probably add this into the guide as well and update it but you'll also be playing your game slightly different. For one, you can skip the entire alteration tree, which is a plus. You'll have to jump into evocation instead which isn't bad since you have to get it eventually anyway. You'll be relying on nagarishis more whlie using gurus for research instead. You're also trading off by having a weaker position from turn 12-20 roughly but having a much stronger turn 1-12. It's difficult to measure efficiency later game, since VQ SC is always useful but so is e8 or e9 bless. However, relief + summon earthpower does take a lot of burden off any fatigue from battle magic vs. the extra slots you'll be spending to script bless. As I've said, it's definitely a viable alternative but hard to say which one is better. Your strategy with expansion and mercs should still remain relatively the same however.

Edit: Actually in competitive setting the cyclops build will probably be stronger since most current LE games are indie 5 and the stronger early game a cyclops gives you under those settings will most likely be too good an advantage to pass up. A VQ does allow to cover up a bumpy road however since you can avoid tough indies that a cyclops or an army wouldn't normally be able to take and the VQ can wreck them later. Also the cyclops is a somewhat overused chassis while you'll rarely get to use the VQ. =)