[SPOILERS] Balseraphs: A Guide to Mis-Management (by Kyan and TT)

[Krill]

That is one of most useless Heroes I've ever seen. So basically he costs 120 hammers and is good for scouting, entertain, and inspiration? He is basically a 120 hammer moving temple.

OK, I'm going to rephrase the turn report. [strike]That leaves Loki as the only reasonable build[/strike] There are no reasonable builds.

[Krill]

Actually, I've figured out a decent use for Loki. Animal bait, so lizards get better odds.

*grumble* still a shit hero.

[Krill]

Bob, Dave, just checking, but what do you think the needs are after CoL? By my reckoning that is about 35 turns away. Maybe Mining? KotE? Writing for GL/libraries? WotWicked for Slavery/on the way to Gibbon?

[Mist]

Aw, damnit, no fair. How the hell does Loki get any XP?

You can get XP from popping lairs. Which is still useless as Loki does not have an unit type and can't take ANY promotions at all. Think glorified workboat.

[Ravus Sol]

Well Loki does have that fun "flip a city if it has no culture" ability. Which is awesome. But due to people being smarter then AI and just instant War-Dec-ing when they see the bugger it does limit his use.

[Bobchillingworth]

Loki totally tears up the AI, who are too stupid to declare on you before you run in and raze all their cities with him. Even the most heavily buffed deity AI empires will crumble to him, provided that they aren't getting free culture from something.



Against humans, he's pretty weak. A great scout, but you've got several already here. He can still raze cities if your opponents aren't doing a good job of keeping a sentry net up to see him approaching, but that's a "fool-me-once" bridge-burning type of deal. He can also annoy the hell out of people, since he retreats from any losing combat unless surrounded or caught in a city, and since his puppets *can* attack & kill stuff, he's a menace to workers and other civilian units.


His main use if you don't need to scout with him is to just get three inspirations going at once (possible with proper city & puppet placement), or use Entertain to get +1 happy in one of your cities. Then get him killed off somehow once you have enough hammers to build the Shrine of the Champion national wonder, which gives a free promo to any unit built in the city where it was constructed, and can only be created when your national hero has died.



Regarding tech path, mining is usually pretty key. Gotta know where that copper is, after all. Plus production. Also need Festivals for Freaks, 1/2 price Carnivals, and most importantly Markets.

[Krill]

Actually, I'm wondering if research shouldn't just head to Festivals now, after education, or after CoL? It'll give +2 happy in the capital, and maybe more if we capture a lion. As it is we are paying to hold onto a gorilla which I just found out we can't cage until we have a carnival...

[darrelljs]

Festivals is a good tech, Markets are good buildings.

Darrell

[Krill]

Screw markets! But yeah, another point in favour of just heading straight to Festivals.

[Krill]

So, let's see what the positives of researching Festivals first are:

1. Carnival for +1 happy for 40 hammers.
   
   
   
2. Gorilla cage for +1 happy in HJ
   
   
   
3. Freaks: we owe 2 freaks to BS, so we want to see what good ones we get to hold back, the useless ones become freaks shows, and the decent ones we can give over. On that note...
   
   
   
4. Freak Show for 40 hammers per Freak, giving +1 happy and +2cpt and +1gppt

I think Festivals was the right call. I'm just annoyed I didn't do it earlier. However, it isn't 10 turns away, but more like 8 turns as a new city gets settled next turn, and I move a labourer from ivory to farm.