Man: A Bless nation in CBM 1.92?

[rdonj]

You would need a LOT of indy slingers to get anywhere against mictlan, especially assuming there's remotely competent archer decoying going on.

Originally Posted by BewareTheBarnacleGoose

Why do you say that coutal's are easier to take out than priest kings? Large size? But you can summon jade serpents (good hitpoints, so well suited to this purpose) or monster toads as decoys. Magic being? Opposition and Control are only range 20, and the coutals are hanging out in the back dropping buffs and evocations. Other than that, I don't see why they would be more vulnerable than priest kings.

Magic duel.

[BewareTheBarnacleGoose]

That's true, I hadn't thought of that. But they aren't SO vulnerable that Mictlan shouldn't use them; they are its best mages, after all.

On a related note, does Magic Duel always target the strongest astral mage?

[Shardphoenix]

But they aren't SO vulnerable

They are cold-blooded, right? Cold scales (from Wolven Winter or cold dominion) should seriously hurt them.

On a related note, does Magic Duel always target the strongest astral mage?

Single-target spells usually target biggest/highest HP suitable target.

[Corinthian]

Magic duel is completely random in its targeting I believe. Unlike other single target spells. Or atleast it did not target the golems when I used it in another game. It targeted the normal mages. And Mictlan have plenty of turkey duelers.

Ehh, give me a moment and I will test this....

Edit: Yep, completely random. This is why people send things like turkey mages and other cheap astral mages along to protect important astral casters.

[Shardphoenix]

Edit: Yep, completely random.

Completely - or by unit`s ID?

[Corinthian]

Hmm. Thats hard to test. But anyway, how is MA Man or all nations supposed to magic duel the turkey nations anyway?

[Shardphoenix]

We are comparing them not in duel against each other, but how well do they fare in game overall.

[Shangrila00]

Originally Posted by Nightfall

The slight points advantage doesn't even make up for the inferior choice of pretender chassis.

And you don't need flying H3's to run bless strategies, it just makes things a little easier if your lazy.

Those Couatl's that your relying on to bless by the way can and will be taken out by a decent player. Possibly before they get divine blessing off; you should be using priest kings.

Couatls are H2. It's the High Priest of the Sky that's flying H3. And having access to H3s is hardly just something for lazy players. Look at Man, only priest is H1 nonmage. It needs to recruit indy priests just to start up a second expansion party if it's leaning heavily on Wardens. Admittedly, Bandar Log has the same problem.

And what inferior bless chasis? The only thing Man has that Mictlan might want is a good Water bless chasis.

Getting much mileage out of the Mictlan, Ashdod or Bandar Log summons without an awake blood pretender or clams in CBM is a pipe dream; your not going to get them in numbers or early enough.

Ashdod has recruitable SCs and thugs. It doesn't begin to need its summons to leverage its bless.

Mictlan can get into blood pretty easily without a blood pretender. Those cheap recruit anywhere turkey mages have a 2.5% chance of blood, and 2 out of 4 heros have blood. The big advantage though, is a B2 summon that can summon itself. CBM has significantly nerfed it, but still, all it takes is a single B2 caster and 35 slaves to get the ball rolling. Even without luck in randoms or heros, that's achieveable with scouts reasonably early.

Bandar Log admittedly is much harder to get into blood with the massive nerf of Dakini, but they're still good enough to invest in. You do have to make a solid commitment with pretender design to summon one, but once you do, they can summon themselves and blood hunt. That's a late game thing, but it's a late game option that Man doesn't have.

It's worth noting that of those only Vanheim has definitively better access to magic; with both wider and higher paths than Man.

That's a pretty nutty claim right there. Barring rare randoms or empowerment, Man has up to A3/W1/E1/N4 in cap, and A2/N3 everywhere. Notice how hard it is to get battlemagic out of its recruit anywheres. It can naturally only forge 2 boosters, W+1/N+1 out of the 9 total in its 4 paths.

Bandar Log is pretty bad diversity wise, but compare it to Man. Also only 4 paths, up to W1/E1/S4/N3 in cap, S2/N1 everywhere. Its natural booster access gives W+1/S+2/N+2, and all that S means communions. So better than Man.

Ashdod has F3/S3 in cap, and F2/E3/S2/D4 everywhere, and it can boost F+2/E+2/S+2/D+2. How is that not better in both breadth and depth than Man?

Eriu is the easiest, since it has exactly the same paths as Man. With the exception that it naturally gets A4, W2, and E2.

[Mightypeon]

Man is in competition for having some of the worst mages of the game, one should however not underestimate having excellent spies.

[Shardphoenix]

Bandar Log is pretty bad diversity wise, but compare it to Man. Also only 4 paths, up to W1/E1/S4/N3

Its natural booster access gives W+1/S+2/N+2

You`ve missed something really important. Notice this S4. S4+Starshine cap gives you RoS, and then RoW. And those two rings open up big E, big N, big W...
Also, E1S1 means crystal shields for combat mages, and couple Gifts from Heaven can really ruin your opponent`s day... Especially when one of them hits his fully-kitted titan-sized pretender while he is outside of his own dominion. And Gifts, unlike Thunderstrikes, can`t be countered by simple ring.