What nation(s) are best for fire? (Besides Abysia)

[B0rsuk]

Another advantage of Fire compared to Blood for Marignon:

Knight of Chalice
Hoof is 'strength not added' weapon.
Lance is 'strength not added' weapon.

These weapons won't benefit from extra strength, but Flaming Weapons will most likely still work.

[llamabeast]

Flaming hooves! Good point, I wouldn't have thought of that.

[OmikronWarrior]

I actually just played a single player game as MA Marigon. I used an imprisoned Baphomat(?) with enough fire and astral magic to get the high blesses from each. I'm still quite new at this game (haven't done multiplayer yet), but I still have a few observations.

1)Flaggalents are difficult to use and are VERY vulnerable to arrow fire. If they get hit, chances are they get wounded if not killed outright. Yes, they are cheap and can be ammassed quickly with high domain and seemed to have good morale, but they are still pretty much fodder even with Twist Fate.

2)Knights of the Chalice are excellent. I was never able to build more then four a turn due to resource limitations and had problems getting from my capital to the front, but I annihilated an army of around 800 miscellaneous Mictlan warriors with about 40 of these mixed in with Mari's other heavy cavalary unit (blessed of course).

3) The Angel of Vegeance (national summon spell Heavenly wrath, I think) seems ideal for a thug. It comes with Fear and Blood Vegeance and can't command any units anyways. With no basic armor though I had to equip it before I could use it to try to rout enemies. I thinks its sacred as well. Any advice on how to make a thug out of this unit would be appreciated.

4) Maybe the Best priests in the game. Beyond High Inquistors which are level 3 with double priest level when preaching to reduce enemy domain and can be built at any fort, most of the angelic summons have priest levels as well, with the Seraph is a Level 4 priest in addition to its formiddible magic (I want to say four of air, fire, and astral). Bottom line is you'll always have somebody to cast Divine Blessings.

[MaxWilson]

Thanks for the observations. I wonder if this is one of those rare situations where an Air bless would be worth the points (for Flagellants). Probably not without some synergies with Air magic.

-Max

[Dedas]

Just a 40% air shield (which is cheap) means roughly that at least 40% of the flagellants will join close combat. It is worth it in my eyes. An air shield of 80% too much, those points can be used on another bless instead, one that makes those 40% that survives the arrows do some damage.

[BigDisAwesome]

I just can't see an air bless worth taking past 6 if at all. It'd be alright for a lot of nations, but it always seems like the points would be better spent somewhere else.

Or you could always just try to scout out enemy armies before they get to you, then decide whether or not to send the flagellants in. maybe do a little scripting magic to try and not get targeted by arrow fire immediatly.

[OmikronWarrior]

Maybe an Air Bless is a better solution then Twist Fate (though that provides some protection for melee), but at the end of the day I think Flaggies need some kind of offensive Bless to really be worth it.

Another possibility that occurs to me is higher income and Dominion Scales, thus making a lot more of them combined with at least some bless. Like I said, when Blessed these guys rarely broke from the battle despite taking heavy damage and casualties from misile fire. So, I'm thinking maybe build enough of them to simply overwhelm enemy defensives. However, you should be thinking in the back of your head about Knights of the Chalice. They are Sacred and can be blessed as well, and in doing so become quite formidible. I should go look up some of the stats from that game.

[DrPraetorious]

You have to balance the benefits of the bless with the benefits of the corresponding magic path.

A4 on your pretender is stone-cold awesome to have - it lets you forge air boost items - 1/4 of those mage guys have A1 - boost that to A2 with an item and they can cast Wind Guide and Arrow Fend. Schweet. The 30% air shield is sheer gravy.

A really effective bless strategy don't just take advantage of the blessing - it ALSO benefits from the magic paths themselves. This is what makes the difference between bless-rushers who merely make their immediate neighbours miserable, and bless rushers who actually win, IMO, in MP.

[Managarm]

I really like the Air Shield idea for Marignon, it's a great addition for the Flagellants and very handy for dodging friendly Fire Arrows too.

Unfortunately it's not easy to build an efficient Pretender supporting both F9 and A5-6 plus good order/production/dominion for recruiting a fair number of Knights Of The Chalice and Flagellants per turn.

The most optimal Pretender build I got supporting this idea, from my humble point of view, is an Imprisoned Baphomet with F9A5S2, Dominion 6, Order & Production 3, Drain 2 and neutral scales for Heat/Luck/Growth.
Death scales are not recommended since our best mages/priests are old and prone to disease.

I found Baphomet surprisingly good for any build requiring F9 and dominion!! Even better than Phoenix who already has A1F1 and no additional paths required!