Warlord, Myrran (Dark Elf), 4 Life (Endurance, Heroism, Just Cause), 2 Nature (Earth Lore)
Having flubbed a previous game with Drow Priests running headlong into Paladins, I wanted to try Adamantium Nightblades. The requirements are Fighter's Guild (for the unit, but at least they come out as Veterans) and Alchemist Guild (for the ore buff). I cranked up the tax rate, set power to all mana, and only explored with 2 spirits. I cast Just Cause ASAP and a Dwarven Engineer offered his services early on!
The spirits scouted just a ton of Mirthil on my continent. After Granary, I popped out a Settler and Spearman. Then again, after Farmer's Market and then Sawmill. Each settled by a Mirthil Ore outcropping. A pair of cities even shared one! Normally, I race my capital to elite production, but this time, I developed it as a purely an economic center. This worked out really well! I researched Prosperity and doubled down on finance in my capital.
I wrestled whether to raze the surrounding neutral tribes. There was a moderate sized town of Beastmen to the south. They were sitting in between what could be two really nice Dark Elf towns... Since it was squandering three of six resources, I put it to the torch. The new settlements were worth it, just by their passive bonuses. However, the Beastmen were now extinct.
Along the same road was a Draconian village surrounded by desert. The only reason I didn't raze it was that it came with a diamond outcropping. I found Gaia's Blessing in a Tower and ran that here, for the duration! It became my breadbasket and unrest was never the issue I'd feared. Who knew dragons had green thumbs?
Military development was slower than it could have been though. With four Adamantium towns, I figured I could stage production, switch from Nightblade spam on my oldest town to build a War Collage when the next got ready to produce. Now, the Nightblades were awesome at sneaking up on Giants in Nodes and Towers. But much faster would have been to delay Armory and Fighter's Guild and crank out squads of Adamantium Swordsmen. I had Heroism and Warlord after all.
Eventually, I fell into a mix of both. A single Nightblade with Endurance could mow through anything less than Pikemen. Opening a side wall with Crack's Call, would let these terrors loose in the streets. Tougher wall defenders would get magical ranged barrages from Swordmen phalanxes, again with the gate cracked.
My lone engineer built the longest, loneliest road to S'ssra, while the Nightblades inflitrated by sea. Mana use was economical, since I could invest in unit enchantments rather than expensive battle casting. I grinded S'ssra down a long isthimus with my engineer building a road to the front the entire time. And yet, it was S'ssra that the survived the longest!
My heros were Sage, Beastmaster, and Witch. All named for assassins. This gave me a wide spectrum of spells. The Sage counter spelled almost exclusively against enemy wizards. The Witch had the super valuable Black Prayer to drop resistance into a range where the Beastmaster might Dispel Evil successfully. Flame Drakes outside of nodes and Demon Kings fell easily to them.
A Magician was rescued by troops later. He cleaned up encounters on Myrror with an occasional Nightblade in support. Mostly his mana pool helped cast Altar of Battle at my Adamantium towns.
I Plane Shifted my heroes to Arcanus. My goal was to have them flit from dungeon to dungeon, but as soon as I made contact with Tauron, grasslands around one of my cities was corrupted. I immediate took the nearest town of his. Clever S'ssra dragged me into the unending wars of Arcanus. I have never seen a continent with five colors all tangled up. Ariel held a beachhead, but came from an small island packed with three huge cities.
The Arcanian wizards made it very perilous for my heroes, so they eventually did just go around picking up encounters. I lost cities defended by local troops, so I decided to target enemy nodes instead. The Nightblades would clear and hold until a Guardian Spirit could get there. Jafar was obsessed with sending a hurricane of Storm Giants to one nature node in particular, even though he wouldn't be able to meld with it. A lone Nightblade held him off as his once massive mana stores depleted. The Storm Giants eventually deserted.
With a choke hold on the continent's mana supply, the enemy wizard's offenses stalled out. Their cities fell all around. I made short work of Ariel by plane shifting from S'ssra's old territory. Her island was a nightmare packed with giant roaches crawling all over the place. I sent saboteurs in one at a time to Holy Word her Angels away. Swordsmen or Nightblades didn't matter, since the Angels red eyes pierced the Nightblades' deceptions. Ariel unleashed full strength fireballs at each one. Drained of mana, she fell to a row of lumbering Earth Elementals stepping on swarms of bugs underfoot.
S'ssra returned into an outpost. I couldn't take it without crashing the game. So I decided to win by casting the Spell of Mastery. My heroes cleared every encounter zone and returned to the capital to help great castings of Holy Arms, Crusade, and Charm of Life. I set about the wait to research the Spell by clearing the strongest stronghold nodes, home to fearsome Sky Drakes. Legions of Adamantium Swordsmen and Nightblades took volcanoes from Flame Drakes, but were helpless here. With no Web (an iffy proposition in a sorcery node), I drafted legions of Griffons from Arcanus. They stole piles Spellbooks, as long as they hit first.
And so, victory had come to pass. It's fascinating that I can still find nuance and novelty in a game I've played for twenty-five years!
Having flubbed a previous game with Drow Priests running headlong into Paladins, I wanted to try Adamantium Nightblades. The requirements are Fighter's Guild (for the unit, but at least they come out as Veterans) and Alchemist Guild (for the ore buff). I cranked up the tax rate, set power to all mana, and only explored with 2 spirits. I cast Just Cause ASAP and a Dwarven Engineer offered his services early on!
The spirits scouted just a ton of Mirthil on my continent. After Granary, I popped out a Settler and Spearman. Then again, after Farmer's Market and then Sawmill. Each settled by a Mirthil Ore outcropping. A pair of cities even shared one! Normally, I race my capital to elite production, but this time, I developed it as a purely an economic center. This worked out really well! I researched Prosperity and doubled down on finance in my capital.
I wrestled whether to raze the surrounding neutral tribes. There was a moderate sized town of Beastmen to the south. They were sitting in between what could be two really nice Dark Elf towns... Since it was squandering three of six resources, I put it to the torch. The new settlements were worth it, just by their passive bonuses. However, the Beastmen were now extinct.
Along the same road was a Draconian village surrounded by desert. The only reason I didn't raze it was that it came with a diamond outcropping. I found Gaia's Blessing in a Tower and ran that here, for the duration! It became my breadbasket and unrest was never the issue I'd feared. Who knew dragons had green thumbs?
Military development was slower than it could have been though. With four Adamantium towns, I figured I could stage production, switch from Nightblade spam on my oldest town to build a War Collage when the next got ready to produce. Now, the Nightblades were awesome at sneaking up on Giants in Nodes and Towers. But much faster would have been to delay Armory and Fighter's Guild and crank out squads of Adamantium Swordsmen. I had Heroism and Warlord after all.
Eventually, I fell into a mix of both. A single Nightblade with Endurance could mow through anything less than Pikemen. Opening a side wall with Crack's Call, would let these terrors loose in the streets. Tougher wall defenders would get magical ranged barrages from Swordmen phalanxes, again with the gate cracked.
My lone engineer built the longest, loneliest road to S'ssra, while the Nightblades inflitrated by sea. Mana use was economical, since I could invest in unit enchantments rather than expensive battle casting. I grinded S'ssra down a long isthimus with my engineer building a road to the front the entire time. And yet, it was S'ssra that the survived the longest!
My heros were Sage, Beastmaster, and Witch. All named for assassins. This gave me a wide spectrum of spells. The Sage counter spelled almost exclusively against enemy wizards. The Witch had the super valuable Black Prayer to drop resistance into a range where the Beastmaster might Dispel Evil successfully. Flame Drakes outside of nodes and Demon Kings fell easily to them.
A Magician was rescued by troops later. He cleaned up encounters on Myrror with an occasional Nightblade in support. Mostly his mana pool helped cast Altar of Battle at my Adamantium towns.
I Plane Shifted my heroes to Arcanus. My goal was to have them flit from dungeon to dungeon, but as soon as I made contact with Tauron, grasslands around one of my cities was corrupted. I immediate took the nearest town of his. Clever S'ssra dragged me into the unending wars of Arcanus. I have never seen a continent with five colors all tangled up. Ariel held a beachhead, but came from an small island packed with three huge cities.
The Arcanian wizards made it very perilous for my heroes, so they eventually did just go around picking up encounters. I lost cities defended by local troops, so I decided to target enemy nodes instead. The Nightblades would clear and hold until a Guardian Spirit could get there. Jafar was obsessed with sending a hurricane of Storm Giants to one nature node in particular, even though he wouldn't be able to meld with it. A lone Nightblade held him off as his once massive mana stores depleted. The Storm Giants eventually deserted.
With a choke hold on the continent's mana supply, the enemy wizard's offenses stalled out. Their cities fell all around. I made short work of Ariel by plane shifting from S'ssra's old territory. Her island was a nightmare packed with giant roaches crawling all over the place. I sent saboteurs in one at a time to Holy Word her Angels away. Swordsmen or Nightblades didn't matter, since the Angels red eyes pierced the Nightblades' deceptions. Ariel unleashed full strength fireballs at each one. Drained of mana, she fell to a row of lumbering Earth Elementals stepping on swarms of bugs underfoot.
S'ssra returned into an outpost. I couldn't take it without crashing the game. So I decided to win by casting the Spell of Mastery. My heroes cleared every encounter zone and returned to the capital to help great castings of Holy Arms, Crusade, and Charm of Life. I set about the wait to research the Spell by clearing the strongest stronghold nodes, home to fearsome Sky Drakes. Legions of Adamantium Swordsmen and Nightblades took volcanoes from Flame Drakes, but were helpless here. With no Web (an iffy proposition in a sorcery node), I drafted legions of Griffons from Arcanus. They stole piles Spellbooks, as long as they hit first.
And so, victory had come to pass. It's fascinating that I can still find nuance and novelty in a game I've played for twenty-five years!