Guide: MA Pangaea strategies

[CUnknown]

Damn you, QM, for being (I believe) correct.

[Gregstrom]

Notes added on Fever Fetishes and stealth.

[ComTrav]

Slightly off-topic, but LA Ulm's vampire counts have the same problem as Pans: although they're stealthy, they can generate unstealthy troops.

[kasnavada]

I was messing around with Pangaea commanders in order to find out what possible thugs to make with them. And testing them against PD only (not other SC or thugs).

All tests I made failed but one : the only commander i found capable of taking PD by herself (by now, you might have guessed), is the wonderful dryad. Well, I'm probably bad at making thugs anyway... so if you guys have any idea for other build, let me know.

Ok, here is the build :
Frost brand : Obviously other weapons might work just as well.
Eye shield. Cheap, and easy to make since you have loads of nature mage running around.
Horned Helmet. I had nothing better to use... yeah I know.
Robe of shadows. Being ethereal works wonders against PD...
Boots of the messenger. Because fatigues is bad.
Regen ring.
Luck amulet.

This dryad can take most indy province on her own. However, a single shot can take her out, so it's probably not so great. I had trouble only with heavy cavalry provinces though, everything else is fair game. Using more or less the same items I tried with the other non-mage units, and it failed. The thing is the dryad is sacred and has awe, and that's the reason she lives after most fight. She can self-bless, so with another pretender you can probably drop the regen ring and possibly the boots to use something more useful.

PS : this was with construction 4.

[Natpy]

@kasnavada: In my last game, it was core of my early strategy.
Dryad with any weapon + Eye shield + Luck amulet buff herself with NE-minor bless + barkskin + Holy Avenger + Elemental fortitude. This girl easy take even Pithium PD. Try to build as many as possible and raid like crazy...

PS : this was with construction 2

[chrispedersen]

I am away from Dominions computer but one of my favorite pretenders is an carrion dragon with awe (Dom 10).

I distinctly remember a breath weapon AoE that drops morale... So the combination of Fear +5, Awe +2 and the breath weapon

EASILY takes all indies.

Additionally, it dovetails nicely with other Pan strategy.
Use stealthy embedded in enemy territories - or harpies.. to cut off retreat.

March your Pretender - armed with Pan standards, horror helmets and the like.

Its been very effective in 2-3 player games anyway...

[Endoperez]

chrispedersen said:
I am away from Dominions computer but one of my favorite pretenders is an carrion dragon...
I distinctly remember a breath weapon AoE that drops morale...

Carrion Dragon has no breath weapon in the vanilla. Perhaps it has been added in some mod?

[Renojustin]

Buffed. Minotaur. Warriors.

[Gregstrom]

Already covered

[edit] Also added notes on Dryad thugging, as that's a rather nice idea. Many thanks to kasnavada.

[kasnavada]

Another possible thugging possibility is by using Pans (why the hall do I find mages better thugs than the regular commander is beyond me). However, a bit (lot) more research is required. The base for this one would be earth spells, for example : invulnerability, which gives your pan 27 (or more) protection. Iron skin (did I get the name right? I'm at work now) also works. With a weapon, eye shield, messenger boots and luck amulet, it is pretty effective.

It does have drawbacks however : having little defense, I got 2 of them killed by indy carrions, due to fatigue (yeah, on that test game, I got 5 provinces taken over by independants in about 4 turns...). Most attack hit the pan, but the pan is protected and doesn't take 'regular' damage. However, fatigue attack hit, and result in death for the pan. The second problem is that pans are your main mages, so using them as thugs is probably not as effective as using them as mages.