Can someone tell me about Machaka?

[Belac]

Machaka works like the Air Force. It is weak in hand-to-hand combat but has great artillery power.

Its strength is:

Recruitable-anywhere mages with potential for F2, D2, and N3
Cheap researchers who become very efficient with Magic 1 scale (in a recruitable-anywhere and cap-only flavor), but whose absolute research level is low (so you need a lot from different forts)

If you fear a rush, either get a SC pretender or rush to magic research your mages can spam (I have actually had luck with hoplites in front of mages casting Sleep Cloud--the hoplites force the enemy to stand in the cloud, and often don't die until the enemy fatigues out). Once the rush danger period is over, spam forts and build enough sorcerers to get several of each useful random, then start summoning your armies. If you're not in CBM, fire fetish-->fire drakes is a good way to go.

You also have good access to remote-attack spells. Empower a couple F2 sorcerers, or take a F4 pretender and build fire helmets, to add Flames from Afar to your arsenal to even the score for the big battles. You also have Blight, Locust Swarms, Iron Walls, and a few good Death spells.

With your powerful research, nature, and death magic, you're good in the late game with Tarts too.

[thejeff]

Who are your cheap researchers?

In CBM, Dragon Master gives you easy cheap Fire and Cave drakes. Banes with cheap gear make good heavy front line thugs. Your spiders and undead are poison immune. Webs slow the enemy down. Nature, earth & Fire also have good tangling spells.

[Illuminated One]

Originally Posted by Jarkko

However, Machaka is a one trick pony. When your opponent notices you are all about fire fire fire and some more fire wether it is CBM or vanilla, you are doomed (there are so many ways to make even full armies fire resistant); in CBM this happens quite a bit sooner though, in vanilla you might have a chance to stick around slightly longer. Machaka has no proper tools for endgame, sadly. You have to rush the map when you are at your strongest, in middle game, and hope the others fold over. Also, a lot depends on your pretender, as you have to choose your pretender to either boost your strengths (but you already are so very strong in fire, so it is hard to come up with something that would make it even more stronger) or to compensate your weaknesses (but there are so many weaknesses Machaka has, that it will be very difficult).

Well, you have access to bane fire, magma erruption and the various death spells, which are all not subject to fire resistance. I don't know how good your death is atm but there are much worse nations when it comes to magic.

[thejeff]

Yeah, I'm not sure why Machaka would be all about Fire. Fire's easy to rely on early on, but Machaka's got strong Nature, Death and Earth as well. Some of that's capital only, but that's not uncommon.

The late game weakness is mobility. No native teleporters. Tartarians will help, but abundant mobile thugs will be missed.
Machaka does seem to cry out for national spells. Lots of flavor and a unique culture. It should have magic the more European oriented nations don't.

[Jarkko]

Bane Fire (excellent against giant type targets, sadly the AI likes to target the spell on things like Dragonflies, Imps and such) and Magma Eruption (nice against massed low- or un-armoured targets, and thus excellent against those very feared human wave militia attacks, but totally useless against heavy armoured troops or Fog Warriors) are mid-game spells. I still believe midgame is where Machaka is strong, in the end-game it has very few options.

[Torin]

Combination
Pretender with FWSN - +2 pen rods - Eye of the void - (+4 pen)

N3 mage + thristle mace + moonvine bracelet (N5)
or replace with N2 E1 + Strength of gaea casting. (N5)

Charm with +5 penetration / 12 fatigue cost

7F7W18N3S gems with hammer.

Not cheap but...
SC and Thugs costs as much gems if not more.

[thejeff]

Magma Eruption is useless against Fog Warriors? Doesn't it break the mistform at least? So the second cast does damage?
Sure those examples are midgame spells, though still useful.

Lategame, they'll have Army of Gold/Lead, Petrify, Relief, Mass Regen/Protection, Charm, Earthquake, Tartarians and all the Death magic/summons.

[Torin]

Black Sorcerer F3

+2 pen rod+flaming helm+eyeof the void+spell focus

Phoenix power + Blindness ( pen + 7)

This looks better and research lower.

[Jarkko]

Originally Posted by thejeff

Magma Eruption is useless against Fog Warriors? Doesn't it break the mistform at least?

Not automatically. Sometimes it breaks, sometimes not. Just ran a ten tests with an Ulm smith scripted Hold, Magma Bolt, Retreat (as I think Magma bolts are basically same things as Magma eruption just on a smaller scale; if I am wrong I am certain somebody will correct me) on a titan (as I wanted to repeat the test a few times, I guess it basic HP does not make any difference to mistform breaking or not) who was defending and did cast mistform (hard to tell with magma bolts though, not sure if one or more bolts do hit) Hold x 4, and in five tests mistform didn't break. I guess the magma bolt (and magma eruption) damage is not magical damage?

[Jarkko]

Originally Posted by Torin

Black Sorcerer F3

+2 pen rod+flaming helm+eyeof the void+spell focus

Phoenix power + Blindness ( pen + 7)

This looks better and research lower.

Torin, excuse me, but looks better for what? As far as I know just Rage and Hydrophobia are the only fire spell requiring a MR check, so I think you are not refering to them. I must be missing something obvious here but I don't understand what