So, I thought I would throw to together my thought process to help everyone out.
First, the 2 most important decisions of the game is selecting disciples and pretenders. Not only ones that work well together, but also are usable by the player.
I guess starting with the pretender is most important. The pretender should have 2 or 3 of the following features, in no particular order.
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It should have useful chassis. If the nations everyone wants to play require a certain type of bless or scales, you need something to work with.
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The pretender nation should offer something to the disciples. It could be a domain ability or a bonus to your bless.
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If you decide to take an unmovable pretender, the nation should have a way of getting Holy 3 leaders that isn’t too hard. Otherwise you must rely on your disciples, and that might take some time.
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Have similar scale requirements as the other nations. Not just heat and cold, but order and production.
The pretender is the most important selection and is probably team defining. But, keep in mind, you want a pretender that can work with a variaty of nations, in case you don’t get your first pick of disciple, or need to reevaluate everything.
So, here are some of my thoughts on different nations.
Agartha - Has two major perks. A bonus to your bless, and the ability to recruit Holy 3 Mages. Very limited in chasses
Mictlan - Very different nation but similar bonuses.
Niefelheim - Their domain spreads cold
Ur - Bonus to bless, and their pretender doesn’t lose paths (notes that doesn’t impact disciples).
Kailasa - Bonus to bless and can eventually get Holy 3 summons.
Lanka - Not 100%, but maybe their bonus to blood hunting impacts disiples. I haven’t checked that.
Mekone - Conflict bonus to the spread of domain. But, no sacred units.
Arco - Scrying ability.
Abysia - Bonus to Bless and Holy 3 units
Atlantis - Holy 3 leader
Pelagia - Holy 3 leader
C’tis - Holy 3 leader
Oceania - +1 order in all non coastal terrain (so, saves you 40 points) but +2 turmoil at the coast (which there is a lot of).
Some other thoughts - a Nation that doesn’t require Heat or Cold 3 can score you some points by grabbing it. This is especially useful if your disciples need Heat or Cold 3, or don’t suffer from it much.
Yomi’s domain is limited to them, regardless if they are the disciple or the pretender.
So, now that this is sorted, I do have some recommendation. Everyone should be busy working in the team to come up with a pretender and pretender build. It might not be the end result, but it should be the start. After the team has settled on a pretender build, my suggestion is that everyone sets up a mock game with the mods and maps, with 3 human players in disciple mode. Build the 3 nations and play a good 15 turns with your nation. You can play all three nations, or set the nations that you won’t play to AI. The goal is to test whether the pretender’s scales work with the disciple nation. It is especially important to check if having the pretender dormant or imprisoned is too much of a burden.
My team and I have a pretender worked out. We might not stick to it, but its the first phase. I’m hoping to hear back about what did and didn’t work, whether we need to tweak the scales or the bless or whether the nations just don’t work together. I’m not too interested in the long term, just the first 12 or so turns, for expansion. After we starting hitting human players, all bets are off, but if you can grab and control 12-15 provinces in the first 12 turns (more if you have an awake bruiser), then your team might be set.
Also, let the other players know what you can or can’t do. This is a fun game, but we are talking about 4-5 months of gameplay here. Nothing sucks worse than realizing in the first 5 turns that what you put together won’t work. In this case, it is worse, because you have a team that relies on you.
In any case, I plan to take my time in starting this game. It might be that a nation that you need for your team is taken by someone else. That would require some major changes to your strategy, and I get that, so, take your time.