Warp creature + life drain OP

[ksasaki]

I know Sapher had mentioned it but I finally tried it out last night and it was very satisfying!  Undead great lizard really stood out to me because it eliminates confusion as a weakness.  Got all sorts of good stuff, unicorns stone giants gargoyles, it you can get a stack of efreets you can have a 300+ mp extra casting pool for warp creature, not to mention warp lightning and all the other destructive fire stuff.  Here’s a build I’ve been having fun with:

2 nature
3 chaos
2 death

Sprites, warp creature, life drain fire bolt

Alchemy, conjurer, channeler, astrologer

Get a couple Nodes early and pump up magic power.  Channeler really helps as your conjured / undead army gets large and you get far away from home.

Gargoyles are fantastic for surviving and doing your warp creature thing, efreets absolutely outstanding.

[MrBiscuits]

I finally got the strategy working with apprentices and really enjoyed it as the game is different every time due to all the different monsters you can create undead with, so it would be a shame if it is nerfed further (after the black sleep nerf).

[ksasaki]

What’s your wizard build?  I considered dark elves too, but it sounds early resource intensive to rush apprentices vs building up your infrastructure.

Yeah I’d never realized how strong raising undead is, by the mid game you are basically raising one or two units per battle, and they cost no food so especially for me playing klackons you can get some super economic powerhouses.

[MrBiscuits]

Are apprentices resource intensive? You just need a library to build them.

I only play on expert level, so maybe not the best person to ask, but I've tried a few builds that normally containing the following:

2 nature for web
3 sorcery for confusion and focus magic
2 chaos for warp creature
2 death for life drain 

Spellweaver might be good to have cheap focus magic, although annoyingly it only brings apprentice SP to 29, so not enough for 3 warp creature and drain life spells, although enough for one web spell.
Sadly specialist doesn't help reduce the cost for your unit spells, only your own.

It's good for when you get magicians though as it brings their SP to 40, so enough for black prayer or syphon life if you can manage to find it.

[ksasaki]

It’s not that they are themselves resource intensive, but my idea was that you are delaying building your economy up (ie mechanicians guilds, banks etc) in favor of an early start, whereas with my build I can mostly focus on economy and let my fantastic creatures do the work.  However, I am guilty of criminally under defending my cities at times and get wiped by rampaging monsters

I think magicians would be 35 with focus magic, but still enough for prayer and syphon.

I like barbarian spellzerkers because they are not so squishy like most magicians and can take a hit or two and even fight back if necessary.

I think focus magic is nice but I would prefer 3 chaos books for fire bolt, a kind of universally useful direct damage spell that you lack in your current build, and nature I’d get sprites as the only early summoned flying unit they are a boon for early treasure hunting.  Otherwise, the picks are solid!

Since I prioritize economy and like max tax rates at all times I inevitably choose klackons always since every else builds so slowly by comparison (except dwarves) but I hate sacrificing picks for myrran so I never choose it.