Dominions 5 - Born to be Van Wilder

[Akaoni]

I must say, I see a distinct lack of aggressiveness and bold decisions on the part of Pan. There was a huge army on Ubars capital just a few turns ago. And now, some naked chicks just ran away from Ubar REASCENDANT.

Why did Manticore happy Pan move away? What strange machinations are in play? Perhaps the heat of the desert addled his brain, or he got distracted by all the nature gems hes got rolling around his cap.

Personally, I think Fomoria is playing everyone the fool from behind the scenes. @Kolbex is secretly funding Ubar in order to drain the funds of Pan, and Pan has just found out ( dryad sex-duction is a wonderful thing…initially).

Or is it @pyrhic ? I haven’t seen an air queen yet… only Sir “I play too much Borderlands” at his capital, so perhaps @pyrhic is playing for time so until his master plan unfurls. And then, everything within 3 provinces of his borders will suddenly be engulfed in wings and a wide variety of magics.

Man, this IPA is tasty.

[pyrhic]

Which ipa?

And I’m pleased that someone understood the reference. I was a little worried naming things after characters in the tea party might go unrecognized…

[Strato]

Dammit, I played too much Borderlands too, but I didn’t get the reference. I feel like I let you down now pyrhic. Of course, it’s impossible for me to scout ANYWHERE when people keep on killing my scouts. Though it was fun to round up the scouts at the Rus capital a turn or so back.

Also @ThornFalconeye Rus is still in the game! But not for much longer. The last fort should fall this turn. After that, who knows. I guess start preparing for the end of the world? Like, what do we do at this point in the game. Full disclosure, I don’t have a late game transition. Tarts? Pah!

There’s a bit of a stalemate between Pan, Caelum, Ermor and Xibalba. Who will blink first? Is Caelum really gonna push that throne which will give a nice little bonus once claimed? There really is a lot of chaff accumulating in the next door province.

And what of Ubar? Like @Akaoni I too am a little mystified. So many nature gems, so little time. Hmmm, you know @Evil_Steve if you gave me a Treelord Staff, I could do you a moonvine bracelet in return. It was a deal I considered a few turns back, but nature? Nature is only for trees, and voiding bladder fluids against when consuming too many IPAs. Death though, death is where the real fun is! (Also one day, I’m going to do a solo MA Ermor game).

Anyway, more a rambling message. Which might hold secrets within. Cue mystery music on fadeaway…

[Evil_Steve]

you want a treelord staff, you contact me though the protected channels (though a moonvine bracelet…no thanks). sheesh, everyone wants a treelord staff these days!

[Kelan]

I had a treelord staff! Got one in a luck event on like turn 10!

[Akaoni]

I note that @Evil_Steve still hasnt answered the question why he left Ubar alone…hes certainly willing to trade for a Treelord Staff though.

(CUE RANDOM PARANOIA)
Perhaps Ubar has convinced Pan its in Pans interest to stay alive? I mean, perhaps having an ally with UB?R thugs to clean out the opposition so you can claim the thrones with your hordes of H3 Minotaurs isnt a bad idea.

Oh, and the IPA Great Lakes, always good

[pyrhic]

man, that barely cracks the top 15000 beer!

lol. What a world…

I’m actually in a bit of a beer funk. I like trying new beer, but just about everything i’ve tried has been somewhere around middling. One was even bad. I’m surprised that rated so highly - i found it disturbingly, even cloyingly, sweet.
This reviewer pretty much inline with my thoughts:

Pale gold with virtually no head. Mango taste is sweet, short of cloying. There’s a refreshing summer-appropriate aspect to this beer, and though I’m a sucker for anything mango, this beer is too thin and devoid of character to revisit anytime soon. RIP to the yellow jacket wasp that dove into the glass with two sips remaining.

I loved golden road before they got bought out, and since, they havent been the same. This was my favorite of theirs, but i havent been able to find that since they sold out…lol.

@akaoni where abouts in the world are you?

[pyrhic]

Oh, and my guess is that steve took his foot off ubar’s throat, and ubar thought that meant he could have his golden province back, but there’s no way steve was letting him have that, thus the confusion…

[Kolbex]

I had a Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout last night and it was delicious.

[Strato]

As armies continue to grow and the expenses add up, I decided that maybe a little more gold was good to share this festive season as the people in your lands, no matter whether they be winged, naked, large or ethereal leave their woes and misery behind. Celebrate and Rejoice!

Message paid for by the ̶C̶a̶e̶l̶u̶m̶ Ermor are the good guys here foundation for truth in advertising

[Akaoni]

What an INTERESTING TURN. I received an item, I think by accident? Ermor continues to clean house, thank you for the extra gold by the way, and Rus is finally dead.
@pyrhic , I think I am close in the world to @Kolbex than you, since I drink Bell’s regularly, and loathe mango beers. Purity laws, and all that, you see.
@Kolbex, my message was about good spells to buff your troops with, and other spells that are good against thugs and supercombatants. Now that I think about it, it is entirely possible I was under the spell of my most beloved beer , so it didnt make any sense.

But then again, apparently my comment about turn 81 didnt make sense. What I am planning on is annulling all agreements, to be effective turn 81 (so a NAP 3 begins to cancel on turn 77, so actions are planned on 80, and happen on 81). This is, of course, if nothing else happens during the intervening turns.

[pyrhic]

I am a fan of dragons milk too, and I’m drinking one right now in fact. I bought a white/dark case - i’m not loving the white as much. It’s not bad, just…different, and i far prefer the dark.

[ThornFalconeye]

If anyone finds a supercombatant that is particularly annoying- please post a screenshot so I can see them! I am still very bad at thugs/SCs

[pyrhic]

I can see some people saying that about Sir Reginald von Bartlesby, and perhaps Felicia Sexapants too. I, however, found both quite charming and highly mannered!

[Strato]

This is a bit of a standard build with my Golems at the moment. I would NOT consider them to be either thug or SC. As a thug, they are too expensive. As an SC, they lack the staying power in terms of HP, combat skills and magic buffs. The items are all about trade-offs, considering relative gem incomes, what I can make and the sort of ‘features’ of the golem such as a high HP magical being who is inanimate with inherent pierce and slash resistance. I could definitely swap out the burning pearl for something else, same with the bottle of living water. What would stay is the flying boots, the armor of knights (maybe) and the shadow brand. In another setting, maybe I’d lose the shadow brand and the vine shield and give him an Implementor Axe to pillage some land that I might not be able to keep. It really depends on gems and function.

Main thing about this guy is I can throw him into chaff and they’ll scatter. Main thing that can destroy this guy is anything that exploits his ‘magical being’ property. There is some re-tooling to do, but form for purpose at the time.

[pyrhic]

Shadow brand hits the wielder too, doesn’t it? But the golem isn’t affected because it’s lifeless? Shadow brands are one of those things I rarely build cause I haven’t taken the time to play with them. Also, dont the brands need to hit to cause their area of effect? If so, and even if not, i wouldn’t lose the pearl (or at least swap it out for something with attack) because otherwise his attack would be like 7 or 8. Hard to kill anything if you dont hit it.

I’ll point out for @ThornFalconeye some other good features of this chassis. He’s an astral caster which allows him to cast astral shield (paralyzes) as well as he’s immune to mind hunt, which is the bane of any thug/SC without astral.

Some of your checkboxes for SCs/thugs:

High HP (check)
High protection (check)
HIgh Defence
High Attack
HIgh strength (check)
high Morale (check)
high Magic resistance
Astral (check)
Fear (check)
awe
High elemental resistances (half-check)
Area attack (check)
area defend (check)
Physical resistances (check)
Ethereal

So, he’s pretty good, checks a lot of the boxes.

[ThornFalconeye]

Awesome! Thanks for the example @Strato. I have been working with prior assumptions of high defense/protection and fear chassis, so knowing more and seeing more of them really helps me out!

[Strato]

@pyrhic

Shadow brand hits the wielder too, doesn’t it?

Not 100% sure there. I’ve generally only built the shadow brand on undead units (eg: Wraith Lords, Spectral Mages). I know the Snake Bladder Stick will poison the user, so it is possible that the Shadow Brand too will affect the user in its AoE.

@pyrhic

Also, dont the brands need to hit to cause their area of effect?

Glad you mentioned that. I still get trapped into thinking that AoE triggers irregardless of successful hit. But it doesn’t, and the Mod Inspector spells that out with it being extra effect on hit. The Shadow Brand does give a +4 to attack skill, on top of the +4 from the burning pearl.

In terms of SC, I like the Melqart which is a special available to both EA Hinnom and Berytos. Hinnom can recruit while Berytos has to summon. Either way, 69HP (haha) isn’t great, but they tick off a number of pyrhic’s features, and what wasn’t mentioned which is some more useful buffs to self-cast. Plus they are sacred which can play into a bless strategy design. It may not be ideal having an SC run around with blood slaves, but having the Melqart buff with other spells then casting reinvigoration to return fatigue to zero is ridiculously useful.

In terms of thugs, I understand the general rule is they have to have good crowd control while being cheap. I already used a few against you @ThornFalconeye with the Spectral mages. They have inherent fear, are ethereal and have magic path access that lets them buff with spells, notably the astral shield already mentioned with astral access, quickness with water access, temper flesh with earth access, are stealthy for those raids behind enemy lines and a neat little cold aura. They come in at 22 death gems, which isn’t cheap (compare with 30 astral gems for the golem), but don’t need much gear equipped to perform their job. Their ethereal nature is also a curse though, any unit with magic weapon will go straight through that, and when the unit has no protection, they will get hammered. These guys are great with the brands or snake bladder stick, a simple shield for protection (eg: vine shield) and can go on their merry way.

If you want Spectral mages on Steroids, then you get the Wraith Lords who are more combat capable, but come later in research and cost a lot more.

Also, fear and awe are great! But be aware that undead, beserked or essentially any unit with morale >30 is unaffected by those modifiers.

[pyrhic]

irregardless isn’t a real word

[Strato]

Well when Brian ascends, he shall make it a real word. In fact, every person in Caelum wielding an Owl Quill will be required to write irregardless in their manuscripts.