What are your favourite traits?

Gort11 · May 13, 2012

I usually go for Archmage (-20% casting time) because eventually you're gonna have more mana than you can practically use, and Trader (+20% gold) because I find gold to be a hell of a bottleneck. Then I blow my remaining points on low-level spells. I play human, by the way.

What do you guys do?

unmerged(182689) · May 13, 2012

Archmage and the favor of a god. Lately I've been playing as Humans, starting with favor of Fervus and building my first temple to Lunord. I get a badass temple unit and access to both of their spells, which are each really good.

unmerged(489564) · May 13, 2012

In my latest game I went with Archmage and the favor of Agrela. I'm finding Archmage to be an absolute must. Favor of Agrela is really nice, it gives you a powerful early healing spell. The real kicker though is the Blessing of Life city buff spell. That spell accelerates population growth, and thus empire strength. So far in my impossible difficulty game on a medium map I've wiped out my two neighbors with beefy minotaurs and I'm marching my way towards my last enemy.

unmerged(169594) · May 13, 2012

How does one make the most of Archmage? Whenever I've tried it, it still seems to take a turn to cast some spells and two turns to cast others, without making two-turn spells one-turn or letting me cast more than one spell per round (except Lesser Heal).

BTW, I'd like to second favour of Fervus as a great perk. Those spells make a huge difference throughout the game.

The Apprentice · May 14, 2012

I have the Powerful Lords DLC, and I've tried both of them in different games.

The Blade guy didn't impress me- being melee means he has to spend time resting in the early game when I want to be exploring. The Imp-Advisor is a virtually invincable scout early game, and can remain powerful till the late-mid game. Then he is eclipsed by Temple Units, Elder Vamps, and Mages.

The Favor of the Gods selections are really powerful. Agrela gives you access to the best city buffs in the game as well as a cheap heal. Her temple unit is pretty forgetable if you have been diligent about enhancing your units with other sources of healing.

Archmage isn't as impactful as I'd thought it would be. Early game, you are unlikely to have the mana to make use of it without luck or the mana vault selection. Late game, everyone will have agile mind and counterspell anyway, rendering the increase negligible.

The + gold option enables you to rush catapults as human in the beginning of the game. This enables no loss city conquering in the early game, allowing your other units to scout farther.

Just my experiences- always possible I could be missing things!

Astasia · May 14, 2012

Pax Empyrean said:
Archmage and the favor of a god.

This. Every single game.

Velorien said:
How does one make the most of Archmage? Whenever I've tried it, it still seems to take a turn to cast some spells and two turns to cast others, without making two-turn spells one-turn or letting me cast more than one spell per round (except Lesser Heal).

Some spells have a base cast time of like 1.2 or .6 which means with archmage you can cast them in one turn or twice per turn. You can also use remaining cast time on your next turn by queuing a spell, say you use 75% of your cast bar, you can pick another spell that uses 75% and next turn it will use 25% of last turn's bar and 50% of the current turn's bar, leaving you another 50% left over, so that +20% speed is always useful. As long as nobody is in the mood to counterspell you that is.

Sifer2 · May 14, 2012

The AI can use counter spell? I didn't know they could since they just let me get away with casting Unity in a 200 turn plus game. Which I figured they should definitely have counter spell an the mana to use it.

unmerged(487513) · May 14, 2012

AI can counterspell. In my last game, each AI leader counterspell-ed me at least twice! (I was playing Continent map, Normal difficulty, with 6 other AIs)

unmerged(485924) · May 14, 2012

AI definitely can use counterspell, very obnoxious having my spells countered over and over.

Imp Advisor is nice but not nice enough to forego a favor of a god. The other one not so great, I actually think he should cost 4 instead of 5 (the imp is tough to value, 5 makes him too expensive cause you can't get favor, while 4 I think would be too cheap).

I have not found Archmage to be must-have, but then I tend to not stack mana so much.

unmerged(489564) · May 14, 2012

So what good spells does fervus give? What other favor perks are fun to start with?

Astasia · May 14, 2012

Fervus is pretty much the best god. You get some great summons (Bear and Bearman), a +60 elemental resist buff, a +15 per turn regen buff (it combos on Bears and Bearmen for +30), a +100% mana buff for cities, and a 30 spirit damage spell, among others.

The Apprentice · May 14, 2012

15 regen per turn! How much does he have to like you for that one? Also, do you know what causes the divine spells to pop in the research screen? Favor levels, sheer chance... 'Cause it is not just building their temple.

Edit: Err... scratch that last bit. It seems the game just takes a turn AFTER you complete the temple to update the spell research list. The following turn after I completed a temple and hit reputation 10, 4 spells appeared.

unmerged(182689) · May 14, 2012

The Apprentice said:
15 regen per turn! How much does he have to like you for that one?

Standing has to be 25 or more. Fervus gives out badass spells like candy at a parade. Spells show up randomly once you have high enough standing to cast them.

unmerged(489564) · May 14, 2012

So basically worshipping fervus allows you to be as OP as the monster faction while playing humans?

unmerged(182689) · May 14, 2012

Ashnal said:
So basically worshipping fervus allows you to be as OP as the monster faction while playing humans?

More or less, yeah.

Astasia · May 14, 2012

Ashnal said:
So basically worshipping fervus allows you to be as OP as the monster faction while playing humans?

And allows you to earn almost as much mana as undead.

unmerged(182689) · May 14, 2012

Yeah. If you can get a town near a Magic Field and set up a Magic Farm for +10 Mana per turn, then build up to a Magic Bazaar with Dark Ritual cast, you'll pull in 45 mana per turn, minus one for maintenance on Dark Ritual. That's from just one city, but it requires a little growth to get all the buildings. If you just get the Magic Field and Dark Ritual, you net 19 mana per turn, which is still a ton in the early game.

This also works with Mana Pumps, but they don't give you +10 Food on top of that.

unmerged(488504) · May 14, 2012

Astasia said:
Fervus is pretty much the best god. You get some great summons (Bear and Bearman), a +60 elemental resist buff, a +15 per turn regen buff (it combos on Bears and Bearmen for +30), a +100% mana buff for cities, and a 30 spirit damage spell, among others.

Ehhh, I dunno, I'd argue that Lunord is better, at least as your starting God. He has competitive buffs AND you can summon those Strong Rats right off the bat. At first I scoffed at the strong rats, thinking "Why would I ever fight a war with rats?!?" But then I managed to clear out an entire Alternate World with only 1 zombies, 1 skeleton sniper, and 1 elemental, and just spammed friggin' RATS all over the place, destroying all the monster spawns while my 3 main guys picked off the pre-existing ones. Oh, and thanks to that rat-rush strategy, I ended up looting TWO of those "Shade of Valde-something-or-other" dragons. Y'know, the two headed ones that look like a still living version of the dracoliches except stronger in almost every way. Which only sped up my ability to clear out the alternate world as fast as possible. By turn 90 I had the ability to make gold dragons (But not the economy to support one or afford it) and a CRAP ton of mana pumps, gold mines and gem mines.

Friggin' RATS man, I tell ya!

Astasia · May 14, 2012

You can summon the rats with Fervus, as Grom-Gog isn't that opposed and rats only need 10 rep to summon. Bears work almost as good as rats for scouting with the added advantage of actually being able to survive an attack from most planar creatures.

unmerged(169594) · May 14, 2012

One thing: Fervus's regeneration spell only lasts for 3 turns, unlike Elemental Regeneration which is permanent.

What are your favourite traits?

Field Marshal

Second Lieutenant

Corporal

Corporal

Major

First Lieutenant

Major

Sergeant

Sergeant

Corporal

First Lieutenant

Major

Second Lieutenant

Corporal

Second Lieutenant

First Lieutenant

Second Lieutenant

Private

First Lieutenant

Corporal