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owl-guide-ma-agartha [2022/10/23 08:40] cactusowl [Living Mercuries] |
owl-guide-ma-agartha [2022/11/15 05:26] cactusowl [Pretender Design] |
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* Diverse threat vectors that all demand specialized responses make their forces hard to prepare for | * Diverse threat vectors that all demand specialized responses make their forces hard to prepare for | ||
* Efficient and diverse national troop summons let you turn gems into midgame power very well | * Efficient and diverse national troop summons let you turn gems into midgame power very well | ||
- | * Strong ability to win pitched | + | * Strong ability to win large battles |
* Exceptional siege ability | * Exceptional siege ability | ||
==== National weaknesses: ==== | ==== National weaknesses: ==== | ||
- | * Poor default access to mobility tools (fast movement, stealth, magic-phase attacks) | + | * Poor default access to mobility tools (fast movement, stealth, magic-phase attacks) |
+ | * Summons compete with generic uses for gems | ||
* Extremely limited magic diversity (national E4 D2 W2 F1) means you will need to find critical path access from indies/god | * Extremely limited magic diversity (national E4 D2 W2 F1) means you will need to find critical path access from indies/god | ||
* Weak-ish research compared to other human nations | * Weak-ish research compared to other human nations | ||
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as force multipliers, | as force multipliers, | ||
and win wars through efficiency, adaptability, | and win wars through efficiency, adaptability, | ||
+ | |||
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* are your best troop leaders (80 leadership, inspirational +1) | * are your best troop leaders (80 leadership, inspirational +1) | ||
* are Holy 3, giving you easy access to Divine Blessing and throne claiming | * are Holy 3, giving you easy access to Divine Blessing and throne claiming | ||
- | * are beefy enough (40 hp, prot 6) to not die from stray arrow fire, so they can be positioned aggressively | + | * are beefy enough (40 hp, prot 6) to not die from stray arrow fire, so they can be positioned aggressively, and do not die to remotes easily later in the game |
* are mapmove 16, your fastest commander, capable of leading your statues and umbrals around quickly | * are mapmove 16, your fastest commander, capable of leading your statues and umbrals around quickly | ||
* are amphibious, and so will provide a critical part of your mage support underwater | * are amphibious, and so will provide a critical part of your mage support underwater | ||
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you have to go kill them, and then wind up with thug gear you don't have a use for. You could sell it, or you could make a Marble Oracle to | you have to go kill them, and then wind up with thug gear you don't have a use for. You could sell it, or you could make a Marble Oracle to | ||
put it on. In the game that inspired this guide, I've fought Ys and Vanheim frequently, and have a golf bag of gear they made and delivered to | put it on. In the game that inspired this guide, I've fought Ys and Vanheim frequently, and have a golf bag of gear they made and delivered to | ||
- | me on their thugs. | + | me on their thugs that I murdered. |
These things can be used as heavy army support thugs. Maybe you really need someone to carry a Greatsword of Sharpness or a Holy Scourge or even a Gate Cleaver that won't die easily and will hit like a truck. Maybe you are entering or creating a toxic battlefield (Rigor Mortis, Wailing Winds) and need to make sure | These things can be used as heavy army support thugs. Maybe you really need someone to carry a Greatsword of Sharpness or a Holy Scourge or even a Gate Cleaver that won't die easily and will hit like a truck. Maybe you are entering or creating a toxic battlefield (Rigor Mortis, Wailing Winds) and need to make sure | ||
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Note that allied mages are allergic to buffing them if other targets are around, even though they take buffs incredibly well. | Note that allied mages are allergic to buffing them if other targets are around, even though they take buffs incredibly well. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Pretender Design ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | While Dominions 5 is notorious for stat-resist rainbows, MA Agartha loves omniresist blesses on wide rainbow pretenders even more than most. There are two reasons: | ||
+ | |||
+ | 1. Your chosen method of fighting is to put your slow sacred infantry into blocks, paint them with buffs, and grind forward hacking your opponents into bits. On the way in you will be battered by everything your opponents' | ||
+ | |||
+ | 2. You have limited magic diversity and really appreciate a pretender with wide magic to break you into paths. | ||
+ | |||
+ | What you *don' | ||
+ | |||
+ | If you are going to take a rainbow, taking it imprisoned makes a lot of sense: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * You will mostly be taking non-incarnate blesses | ||
+ | * You don't have a combat chassis, nor do you really need one | ||
+ | * Diversity paths are not as useful until year 3 anyway when you get access to things to do with them | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Blesses ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | So, what do you need from a bless? Everything needs resistance against magic and your Shard Guard and Sentinels like just a little help killing things. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * **Fire**: FR and +attack are obvious. You need to hit things and Attack 11 could use some improvement. Good attack also gives you more repels, since you have long weapons. The extra FR makes your stuff not get set on fire by Magma Children, not die to Heat from Hell, and helps deal with fire elementals and fire evocations. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * **Air**: Shock resistance, swiftness, and precision all have merits. Swiftness lets your slow infantry close faster, and precision lets your mages land long-range ??Maws of the Earth?? which can be decisive. However, shock resistance is absolutely critical -- otherwise you will get battered by ??Wrathful Skies?? and ??Thunder Strike??. Major shock resistance is significantly better than minor -- it lets you shrug off Wrathful much better and takes a lot of the edge off of direct hits from lightning evocations. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * **Water**: Cold resistance seems unnecessary since your Shard Guard already resist cold. But CR5 will let your statues and mages not die to Grip of Winter, and will stop random things with cold auras from fatiguing out your statues. The other interesting blesses are +defense and swamp survival. Swamp survival seems odd -- but it lets you cast Quagmire and ignore the penalties, which is a substantial boost to your relative effectiveness. Defense is less effective than on sacred cavalry nations -- your primary defenses are protection and hp -- but your Shard Guard and Sentinels can still dodge attacks especially when quickened. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * **Earth**: You have +1 national earth bless point; what to spend it on? The contenders for earth blesses are strength, reinvigoration, | ||
+ | |||
+ | * **Astral**: The main contenders are MR and Magic Weapons. MR is useful for the obvious reasons. Magic Weapons seems silly since Shard Guard have magic glaives. However, Magic Weapons comes into its own in the lategame, when all your enemies will have ??Fog Warriors?? and you'll be proportionally relying more on Shard Guard. Another possibility is Far Caster, allowing you to drop ??Maws of the Earth?? and ??Frozen Heart?? on enemy formations on turn 1. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * **Death**: At least one rank of Undead Leadership will let all your mages lead umbrals and is a no-brainer. Beyond that, take Undying. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * **Nature**: Your Shard Guard and Sentinels already have poison resistance, but your mages would really appreciate it. Foul Vapors is oppressive. PR10 is not overkill. Beyond that, +hp and Swamp Survival (for Quagmire) are nice. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * **Blood**: The obvious contenders are +Strength and Blood Surge. I feel Blood Surge is a bit of a trap. Yes, once you kill something, it's better than +Strength, but you have to get that first kill. Strength lets you do that -- slicing through shields matters a lot. Surge is great for expanding, but you don't need help expanding. | ||
+ | |||
+ | You can take as much or as little of a bless as you like. With little bless, you'll be relying more on nonsacred summons and national troops (which you'll have more of); with more bless, your shard guard and sentinels will be doing more of the work. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In my tournament game, I went for a fairly heavy bless: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * F5: +2 attack, fire resistance 5 | ||
+ | * A3: Shock resistance 10 | ||
+ | * W4: +2 defense, cold resistance 5 | ||
+ | * E3: +2 strength, mountain survival | ||
+ | * S3: +3 magic resistance | ||
+ | * D3: 20 undead leadership, undying 4 | ||
+ | * N3: 10 poison resistance, +1 hp | ||
+ | * B3: +2 strength | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Scales and Dominion ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Order/ | ||
+ | * Productivity/ | ||
+ | * Heat/Cold: Heat 3 is nearly mandatory. Magma Children love it, and your pale ones are cold blooded. | ||
+ | * Growth/ | ||
+ | * Luck/ | ||
+ | * Magic/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Agartha actually likes a fairly high dominion strength. This isn't just for the golem hp bonus; since shard guard are so cheap in recpoints, you can get quite a few of them out of your cap. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | {{tag> |