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The Virtues of Expansion Titans
Oh noble readers, you have gone too long
without seeing the glory of
E X P A N S I O N T I T A N S
Gaze upon my guide, ye mighty, and weep
at how I present this niche strategy as the universal ideal!
By: Mandarbmax
With help from: 7thpath, Bamboo, Ben, Causk, Forest Boy, Naaria, & Zan
Expansion titans are sick as hell but require a lot of micromanagement to reach their full potential and I’m here to tell you how to do that. They expand damn near as well as awake monster pretenders, cost about the same (often less), and then go on to give you a free win in your first war if used well and remain kick ass SCs for the rest of the game instead of just turning into a big dumb pig like monsters do once people research incinterate. Having full slots is super nice.
How to
Ilahats want it, Ilahs want to cast it
Cast Personal Regeneration (Ench 2) and wear some shitty constr 0 armor and you are good to go!
Your first two or so turns will be spent researching away as fast as you can and recruiting some mages to help out. If you can you should recruit at least one Astral (or Earth) mage to forge some Enchanted Ring Mail Armor. Blacksteel Plate is even better but you can’t alchemize to get E gems as easily as you can to get S pearls and you wanna get moving ASAP. No bitching about losing gems to alchemy, you will make them back a dozen times over thanks to your strong start.
Once you have your armor and personal regen scripted you can just throw your Pretender at just about any indies shy of Barbarians and be good to go. While they are out though you should try and research more spells for them to cast! If you have fire magic you want to get Fire Shield online, watching indes blow themselves up is cathartic. Otherwise just run up Alteration for Barkskin, Enlarge, Mossbody, Temper Flesh/Liquid Body, Body ethereal, or whatever else you can cast. This will let your titan ramp up in power without needing to stop expanding though you can run a scout with new gear to them if you really need.
By the time expansion is over you should have enough research done to have quite a SC as long as you took at least a few pertinent magic paths even at a low level. Ethereal regenerating 30 prot physmoss titans are serious threats at any stage of the game but having such a pretender coming right out of expansion is huge. They can waltz up and shit all over an enemy army with all but the most hellish of blesses unless special countermeasures are used to stop your bipedal terror. Your first war is all but guaranteed and even if you are on the receiving end of an early 2v1 you will be fine.
Blood vengeance is the weakest blessing because it only works after the sacred one has been wounded. Conversely the best blessing is one which kills foes before they can do any harm. Tiddy Tyrant is such a blessing for her nation.
As the game moves on your expansion titan will evolve to fit the needs of your growing and advancing nation. In the mid game they will become highly mobile heavy raiders and army escorts and perhaps also cast globals they have the paths for. Late game they will continue casting globals but may also become big battlefield spell casters like master enslave or army of gold and make use of magic boots and teleport spells (up to and including gateway) to secure a throne rush victory. You can’t know how the game will progress and exactly how best to use your titan in 60 turns but devote some thought to it before the game starts and you will thank yourself when you reap the benefits later and bathe in skrub tears.