Vellon's Dom3Blog

[Mozkito]

Although a bit off topic,I would appreciate if you answered this question for me. Its a 1v1 and a small random map, and I am MA Marignon. Was it a mistake to go Order/Misfortune over turmoil/luck?

Although a short game, the income has really turned things over in my favor!
Although those damn hurricanes...

[Endoperez]

Order is always good. Luck is sometimes very good, but sometimes just decent. Order provides steady income, especially in the beginning; luck can provide gems, perhaps even items you couldn't have gotten that early without it, or even a fort or a mage you couldn't have otherwise (e.g. a necromancer). Luck could only give you little gold, wrong gems and flagellants, and a couple of bad events as well, if you get unlucky.

It's mostly up to whichever you prefer, and on your nation. Tien Chi generally can use gems of ALL types, and most of their good mages are sacred in all eras, so they can survive with less money and really benefit from the gems alone.

[Aezeal]

elephants to trample?

[CUnknown]

About your EA Arco design, I don't think that Drain is a good choice. Your philosophers are the one of the best researchers in the game, but you are handicapping them with this choice.

Additionally, you really don't need Productivity for EA Arco, I don't think.. the only troops that really call for it are Myrmidons and Wind Riders. Wind riders are amazing (esp. with your bless), but they are really expensive -- how many could you build each turn anyway? Wind Riders don't require production. Myrmidons are fairly weak heavy inf, imo, and just plain aren't worth a Production scale. I would still build them, of course, but putting Pretender design points towards building them is not a good plan, imo.

So, I'd take at least Sloth-1 (to pay to remove Drain-2), and all of a sudden, you've got +2 research on your philosophers with no ill effects to speak of. I'd actually go all the way and take Sloth-3, but that's just me.

Also, going 1 off on your temp scale (to pay for Order-3) is a good idea, since the temp scale is -5% gold and the Order scale is +7%. That is +2% free gold as well as less bad events.

[Vellon]

re: CUnknown and my pretender design

I realized very quickly that I gimped my philosophers into near uselessness, but I want to stick the game out to the end. I agree with your conclusions about my scales. In a small game like this I am rarely recruiting more than three or four wind riders a turn, never limited by resources only gold.

I also haven't been using my pretender nearly as much as I would like, for the next game I am considering putting him to sleep to improve my scales for maximum gold.

EA Arco is a bit overwhelming with the variety of magic I have access to, any recommendations on where I should be applying my research at this point in the game? I'm thinking Construction to create a few Thug Wind Lords to travel with my wind riders.

[Zenzei]

I advice against equipping wind lords as thugs because they have low hp and they don't have any magic power to mitigate this(unlike vanjarl for example), which means they more or less go down from one real hit. So your gem investment becomes wasted far too easily. A super cheap boost like giving them a few frostbrands is acceptable though.

I've not played Arco myself but I believe Oreiads can create gargoyles, requires E3A1, quite easily. So do that and cast Gift of Reason on them. Voila, now you got some seriously tough thug chassis just add in the equipment.