Dud nations

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Here are some problems I've had with Marverni:

Ambibate Nobles are good warriors. However, they are not sacred, so if you build a ton of them, they will eat up a lot of maintenance. A combo I tried with Ambibate Nobles was to get Legions of Steel. That worked nicely. Except that once you get Legions of Steel, your casters will spam it on every unit you've got, even if it's a single Horn Blower sitting behind the ranks. Ambibate Nobles are expensive in terms of resources too. No way can you take any sloth.

The old age on Druids is a bit of a pain. Since Marverni has no blood/fire, it's difficult to stop them from aging. And they are expensive.

Researchers are weak/expensive. Really you've got to take at least Magic 1 to keep up in the research game. Since you have no Air/Death/Fire, you can't build ANY research items unless you get lucky with an indy.

You have no bows. Sure you can mass slingers or javelins, but then you are even more screwed with upkeep.

You have no national summons. (Devs, how about sending at least some Cu Sith love Marveni's way?)

Nature: It's quick to get a Gutater to N3 but you need Const 6 or empowerment to get him to N4 so you can make Ivy Kings.
A Lamia Queen would be much better but you've got no Death. Even if you could make 1 Lamia Queen with a Pretender, it can't make its own Lamia Queens. Firbolgs are great thugs, especially if you have a druid casting healing light.

Earth: Troll Kings are kind of cool. But you have to summon the whole court, and that's expensive.

Astral: Golems are cool. But they're way up in Const 7. Sorry, no Ether Lords, because you guessed it, no Death. Perhaps an Astal/Death pretender to let you conjure Ether Lords might be a good plan, since Marverni does have a nice Astral base to start. Ether Lords could then make more Ether Lords. But at 90 pearls a pop, I think you'd run out pretty soon.

You have no killer rituals. I suppose Baleful Star is not bad, way over in Alt 5. But Air gets Hurricane in Evo 4 (Evo 4 is killer of course), Blood gets Toads in Blood 3 (duh), and Death gets Burden in Thau 5. Fire gets Raging Hearts at Thau 5 too. If Marveni had Death, it would be cool to cast Blight, but, hey, no Death. Melancholia is a good spell -- for someone to cast on Marverni.

Anyway, I still play Marverni, even in MP, because I like the theme. I'd lose in any case because of my vast noobishness .

Marverni also does just fine in SP, since it's a lot easier to put up another castle and pump out a bunch of stargazers to support your druids, and you probably don't have to worry about getting rushed on turn 9.

[HoneyBadger]

That pretty much sums it up.

Marverni's a lot like my sorta sister-in-law. Marverni's a nice person (to us anyway), and we like Marverni, but Marverni doesn't have a lot of things going for it. Marverni's not real "together" and can't seem to hold down a job. We'd love to help Marverni out, and we do, but we're not giving Marverni any money or anything it could sell for cash, because that would be a mistake at this point. Marverni's got a real sweet kid though, and is an ok mother. Hopefully, someday, Marverni will straighten itself out, atleast for Marverni's kid's sake, but probably not if Marverni stays married to our sorta brother-in-law Ulm-who's even more of-let's face it-a loser than Marverni is.

[Teraswaerto]

I don't see research as Marverni's problem, fairly cheap sacred researchers. Take magic 1 and you're set.

All druids should start with 1 nature, in addition to what they have now, cost stays the same. Not sure if it would really "fix" Marverni but it would be a good change IMO. Druids could then get 3 nature, and they wouldn't have old age.

National spells would be a cool way of helping Marverni.

[Sombre]

If Marverni don't have the early game power they should, one way to fix that is simply to give them a gold boosting site in their capital. It becomes less and less important as the game goes on, but in the initial rush it could help provide a mass of crazed warriors.

[Sandman]

Would it not be better to simply slash the price of the druids? They're hideously overpriced. For the same basic powers (6 magic, 2 holy), Marignon's grand master costs 270 gold, a difference of 110!

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I just noticed this on the 3.07 page

* Marverni & me Man temples cost 200

Well, that's nice for Marverni! It'll give them a little extra cash towards the druids. With a high dom Fountain of Blood and some sacrificing, they could do a nice dominion push too.

[HoneyBadger]

I think it would be cool to give Marverni the ability to National Summon a "Menhir". A Menhir is a standing-stone, and the Druids were famous for them. They'd put them in places of power, kind of like Stonehenge, except just individual standing stones. If you made these immobile, but with a lot of HP and protection, and then gave them say 2 nature, 2 earth, 2 astral, they'd make great support-units and really help out Marverni's PD. It would be very thematic.

Marverni also worships trees, so-alternatively-maybe you could have "Menhirs" with 2 earth, 2 astral, susceptible to cold 25%, and "Rowans" (the Rowan tree was considered sacred and magical by the Celts, and it's a pretty name that balances well with the word "Menhir".) with 2 nature, 2 astral, susceptible to fire 25%, for sake of variety, additional theme, and interest.

The Celts were also a very large people, and had quite a few giants myths about them, so maybe a few of the high druids descended from giants or firbolgs. Maybe they could have a national summons that calls up one of these ancient giant druids with the same magic as a druid, but better stats and extended lifespan. Or maybe they can use astral magic ("using the power of their ancient stone circle to call up the spirit of one of the long dead giant henge-builders")to call up an undead giant warrior-chief with access to death-magic, so they have a death-magic "in".

Another nice national spell that fits in with Celtic myth would be the ability to summon the "Cauldron of Annwn". This is an enormous, iron witch's cauldron which would be immobile but extremely difficult to destroy-infact it could safely be immortal, once summoned-that would produce Banes, 1 per turn. The Cauldrons themselves would be Construction level 5 and require both Death 4 and Blood 4, 80 blood slaves and 80 death gems each. It'd be really difficult for Marverni to make them, but if they did, they'd be quite powerful.

The Head of Bran the Blessed. This is an immobile hero for Marverni. It's an enormous, undead head (size 6) that can't move but can bite. It's got lots of hit points ofcourse, is sacred, and regenerates, but is also a very skilled magic user: Holy 4, Nature 4, Death 4, and Astral 4. 1 head slot, no misc slots. Makes a really interesting and different hero for Marverni.

Druids had the ability to curse people, according to legend, and their personages-aka their bodies and their lives-were considered very sacred-so maybe Druids have the ability to curse by touch alone-as long as they aren't holding any weapons, and also gain the Death Curse automatically? Double effect if you take blood-bless.

And finally, again since Marverni's very Celtic-themed, how about a high level evocation spell "Gae Bolga" that allows the caster to throw a spinning barbed harpoon with his feet (yes, that's right from Cu Chulain)?