Making Hard Choices

[legowarrior]

I have in front of me the hardest choice any one in dominions can make. What nation to play? I've got a game with ME Agatha, and one with ME (CBM) T'ien C'hi, but now I'm about to start a new game with Shatner in order to test out our ME Jomon Mod.

I am leaning to Shinuyama, but we might have one player that really wants to play that side, so I'm stuck.
I know I don't want to play a blood nation, and I'm not to keen on Sneaking (besides laying out a spy network), I don't want a water nation. I like ranged units, and heavy shields, but Man has very limited magic selection. So, I'm a little stuck on where to go.

So, with the little information I've provided, I wanted to see if someone has some insight on how I should go. I should note that my experience with the game is limited.

Thanks for your help in this matter.

Legowarrior.

[parone]

man is an awesome missile nation, esp. if you help out with magic.

personally, i like limited magic, cus the less choices i have to make, the fewer mistakes i am likely to make. of course, that's probably a fairly uncommon viewpoint.

[Shardphoenix]

I like ranged units, and heavy shields

Marignon, Fiery Justice. Knights, crossbows, astral for utility magic/antiSC and fire for all your battlefield evocation needs.

[Shardphoenix]

man is an awesome missile nation, esp. if you help out with magic.

Biggest problem with Man is their lack of real combat mages, I think. Yes, you can Thunderstrike with old, cap-only, map-move 1 Crones, but that`s about it. To do more, you need Storm, and it hurts your archers tremendously. Not to mention it`s almost impossible to get A4 Crone for boosters, so you have to take Air on your pretender.

[shatner]

I haven't played as Eriu with the latest version of CBM but one thing I noticed from an MP game with CBM 1.92 Eriu is that they get the Bean Sidhe as recruit-anywhere instead of capital-only, AND the Bean Sidhe gets a 15% forge bonus. That makes the nation kind of Ulm-y since your primary research mage and support caster also has a forge bonus. Plus, glamour, thugs and air/nature magic galore. Ever since that discovery I've been pretty interested in testing them out... just some food for thought.

EDIT: Marignon is fun, potent, and full of burnination.

[Immaculate]

Pythium. Case-closed.

[legowarrior]

Yeah, the Pythium don't have all that much in the way of ranged units. I might try the Erui though. They lack awesome longbow men, but they do have Firbolg Slingers. Anyone have a guide for the Erui that is up to date?
That being said, the Marignon and man are great as well. Dang, this is hard.

The problem is that the Jomon has spoiled me. Decent to go ranged units, diverse magic and cool summons. The only thing it lacks is fast moving mages or heavy shields.

[Legendary League]

Originally Posted by legowarrior

Yeah, the Pythium don't have all that much in the way of ranged units. I might try the Erui though. They lack awesome longbow men, but they do have Firbolg Slingers. Anyone have a guide for the Erui that is up to date?
That being said, the Marignon and man are great as well. Dang, this is hard.

The problem is that the Jomon has spoiled me. Decent to go ranged units, diverse magic and cool summons. The only thing it lacks is fast moving mages or heavy shields.

I was trying out Eriu in SP for an ME MP game (which I ended up ceding to someone else who really wanted to play a water nation). I think Baalz's guide to Eriu is still quite applicable, esp. in regards to the thugging of Sidhe Lords (And Tuatha are even better for thugging, with Air, Nature, and Earth). Their bog standard weapon (Golden Lance) also has false fetters as an effect (not sure if added in CBM or not), which also makes them surprisingly good anti-thugs out of the can. Plus the Tuatha can all cast thunderstrike out of the can (Sidhe Lords with Storm can too, since you aren't as reliant on missiles), and have great strategic mobility (cloud trapeze+mm3+forest survival).

What has me stumped though is how you diversify them, with W/N/E/A. It's a great spread of magics for the midgame, but it doesn't seem to lend itself to breaking into either death or astral (death seems best, since you have such good nature access already). The answer normally would be a rainbow pretender, but you're pressed for points if you go with the E9N4 bless for Sidhe/Tuatha (which is just tremendously good for them). Also, Fir Bolg are awesome, and the army buffs you can put on them are even more awesome (Earth, Air, Nature, hello!). The answer would be drown them in thugged out Sidhe Lords/Tuatha, and pummel them with Fir Bolg backed with major army buffs and thunderstrikes before Tarts and Zmeys and the like come online in numbers, I guess.

Just random musings of mine.

[Amhazair]

How about T'ien Ch'i? They have cheapish composite longbows as well as expensive MM1 crosbows and even light & medium cavalry archers along with just about 27 different flavors of infantry. (None of them specatularly elite, but not bad either.) Moreover if you've played Jomon you should have a good idea on how to utilise their diverse but quite low-path mages.

Edit: Meh, I'm blind. You already played ME T'ien Ch'i. Disregard.

[legowarrior]

Yeah, I love the T'ien Ch'i for the most part.

What are good ways to get into Astral? Any decent summons that would allow a non astral nation (but with an astral pretender if necessary) get some astral access?