Machaka screwed more than ever ?

Xietor · #1 June 10th, 2008, 10:53 PM

Machaka is heads and shoulders above Man.

Black Hunters are size 6-they eat elephants. They are actually worthy of a decent bless.

Do not underestimate the spiders. The PD is awful, which is a huge drawback. And I never understood why Bane Spiders are capital only, when the only thing I would ever buy there are Black Hunters.

So there is some room for improvement as they are not the best race in the MA, but they are certainly viable. And the Black Hunters with a nice bless can kill thugs.

Omnirizon · #2 June 10th, 2008, 11:15 PM

is it just me, or has there been a rash of thread resurrection lately?

Resurrect Thread
Conj6
D3

A thread is resurrected from the ancient past.

I can't think of any good flavor text; maybe I'll edit when I do.

Ballbarian · #3 June 10th, 2008, 11:31 PM

I submit this possible flavor text for your review Omnirizon:

From the deepest, darkest depths of the long forgotten reaches of the forums, the dust stirs and the ashes blow aside as a thread is called and it's undying text claws it's way back to the light of the first page. It must answer the call of it's master. Only the bravest souls will cast this unholy spell.

secretperson · #4 June 10th, 2008, 11:44 PM

In regards to my last post, I'd like to add somewhat of a warning about the semi-immortal Black Sorcerers- when they "die" (change into spider form) their slots will also change temporarily. The spider seems to have both misc slots but you will lose the other items in the other slots. So just remember to swap them out when they are at 1 hp and put them back on next turn.

As a side note- I'd suspect this 2 form behavior also protects against seeking arrows and various other spells like that. However, I am only speculating and have not tested this.

dirtywick · #5 June 11th, 2008, 12:14 AM

Quote:

secretperson said:
In regards to my last post, I'd like to add somewhat of a warning about the semi-immortal Black Sorcerers- when they "die" (change into spider form) their slots will also change temporarily. The spider seems to have both misc slots but you will lose the other items in the other slots. So just remember to swap them out when they are at 1 hp and put them back on next turn.

As a side note- I'd suspect this 2 form behavior also protects against seeking arrows and various other spells like that. However, I am only speculating and have not tested this.

Sounds like a bug to me.

Not that I'm saying you shouldn't take advantage of it, but if it's fixed I'd probably have a back up plan. Just saying.

JimMorrison · #6 June 11th, 2008, 12:20 AM

Well if you're fetishing, you're not too likely to have other gear sitting around on them, I wouldn't put a fetish on someone I was going to boost for forging/summons/globals.

And I don't think I'd take them to combat.....

I was just checking them out, they have no national spells at all? That's a bummer.

secretperson · #7 June 11th, 2008, 12:26 AM

Sorceresses would work as well since they have spider form too.

Yeah, the no national summons is kinda a bummer. But they have super easy access to fire arrows plus with the fetish trick it makes having those gems available even that much easier.

Lazy_Perfectionist · #8 June 11th, 2008, 02:08 AM

Well.... the Spider Lord has a second form and is available everywhere. For 100 gold, you have nearly forty hitpoints of fever fetish.

The fact that you've got the ear of the lord for spying (with a secondary effect of stealth preaching), the ear of the lord who can patrol as well as 15 humans for a third of the cost, and a pretty well equipped although capital only assasin doesn't hurt.

And with access to the Mother of Serpents, healing, I suppose you could rescue your investment if you really wanted to, but I'm not sure this nation really cries for healing.

These ape heroes are kinda lame. Are they multi-heros at least, of do they have any use aside from free monkey-spawn chaff?

Abasi? I don't see his use as a hero, but his description is very amusing.

edit: and on the spider kings... It's entirely possible to not expand outside of your starting province and end year three with 115 fire gems. With some actual effort, a cheap fort, and some witch-doctor manual site searching... Hell. If 100 gold really matter, you can heal the spiders with the Mother of Serpents. You only have to check once a year to keep the spider alive.

edit: and ears of the lord causing unrest while carrying bane venom charms in an enemy fortress might be fun and hard to counter. Especially with a couple assasins to move in later. Though of course, death isn't specially easy for this nation to bring in gems for. Not impossible..

edit: and I just realized what to do with my wasted earth gem income: forge dwarven hammer or two, really churn out fever fetish.

Tyrant · #9 June 11th, 2008, 02:19 AM

Do not underestimate spider knights. I faced Machaka under the command of the redoubtable Hadrian II awhile back and he fielded them in large numbers- like 60-120 at a time IIRC, and they were pretty awesome. Webs are a one-size-fits-all answer to a great many tactical problems. I was playing MA Man and it might have been easier if i'd have had astral mages or Charm i admit, but i was still very very impressed.

My Machaka pet peeves are low stealth on the assassin, death too low to make a skull hat, and no blood. It seems like blood goes with the spider/jungle theme.

I agree that the lack of death income is a pain and that the transforming mages should have long lifespans.