Whosit Clowns Around in EitB PBEM XXVI [SPOILERS!]

[Whosit]

Once again, allow me to welcome you to this Freak Show! Hosted by me, Whosit, and Starring:



However, I will not be going it alone. For I have you, dear voices in my head. Now, as they say, send in the clowns!

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?



And now that the first post has returned to its glory....

[Whosit]

I did want to wait until the picks were confirmed, but there were a couple other considerations: 1) I didn't want to let Sian and Primepolar dominate the Lurker market before the game even began! 2) It wouldn't hurt if I had a place to ask some mechanics questions/muse about possible plans before things kicked off 3) It seemed like a few people wanted me to make this! Well, maybe one person did, but that's like several in dog years.

Obviously, I requested Perpentach of the Balseraphs. I've played around in SP a bit, and have been reading some other EitB PBEM threads, plus I read the lovely Q&A thread in the main discussion area, so I'm slowly starting to piece some things together, but believe me, I still have no idea what I'm doing! Hopefully that will make things exciting (if slapping your forehead is something you consider exciting, anyway). As I've implied, I'm also planning to, gasp, roleplay as Perpentach in my diplomatic correspondence! We'll see how long I do that, as I can only come up with so many rhymes! I am definitely considering changing up my character with each trait switch. Seems appropriate!

Something from the wiki:

Yet the Laughing Man is not a mere menace to be feared and destroyed. Mad, capricious, and deadly being that he is, he also possesses a certain gallows humor, a fondness for bravery and honesty, and a seemingly insuperable compulsion to keep his word (though he is fond of using tricks and the subtleties of language to keep from being locked into any agreements).

This is something I intend to follow to the best of my abilities: I will not lie, but I tell you, I will certainly try to parse my words! I'm sadly not the best at guile, mainly because I'm often too impulsive to plan that far ahead, but I do have a trick or two up my sleeve that will probably be more amusing than effective, but so it goes.

So, I humbly welcome you all to this crazy carnival. I hope it turns out to be a wild ride!

[Qgqqqqq]

This is a little awkward, but you clashed with everyones first picks, so I decided to just roll you a pick and you got Capria of the Bannor.







You should check out mardocs thread in eitbxxv BTW.

[Whosit]

Drat! Everyone wanted Perpentach? Well, that's what I get for getting ahead of myself. Time to find out what the Bannor are all about.

Edit: I just realized that means I didn't get my 2nd or 3rd pick either! I hope my luck in the actual game is more positive.

[Whosit]

Oh my gosh. Did you prank me?? Man, and I already removed my 1st post!

Okay, getting fooled like this is also a poor way to start things. :|

[Qgqqqqq]

Oh...I kinda thought the wink was enough
I chose capria because she is literally the most boring combo I could think of.
Oh f**k if you didn't have it saved...

[Whosit]

I interpreted that wink completely differently than you intended. Y'know, like a "sucks to be you" kind of wink. And yes, Capria looked horrendously boring when I looked her up.

No, I didn't have that post saved, so I'll have to see if I'll bother reconstructing it or not. However, I did write some stanzas:

To fool the Fool what a cur are you!
Yet admiration can't help but forth flow
Some day this debt shall surely come due
But whether fact or merely fancy surely none know!

In more game-related news, I think that Primepolar became the favorite to win as soon as gtAngel decided to ded-lurk, considering that gtAngel wrote the guide for green EitB players.

[Qgqqqqq]

Really, really sorry

Hmm I disagree with a lot of things in it tbh.
Feel free to ask any questions you have - I'll be sure to lurk for mechanics, and it sounds like you have a flock of dedlurkers for the rest.

[Whosit]

Oh, yes, I suppose it was you bringing up a few points in that thread, though from the sound of it you agreed with most of the main points, but perhaps you were being reserved?

As for the joke, don't feel bad--it's my fault for falling for it in the first place, and for immediately jumping to the conclusion that I needed to clean up my thread. I still have all the pictures so I'll probably reproduce it sooner or later.

Mechanics questions, though, I do have one: Adepts/Mages. I've been playing around with Arcane units in my SP game and for the life of me I don't quite understand them. How does their XP gain work? Most of my adepts have been gaining XP but none have actually fought (I can tell you don't want them fighting since their strength is so low). Additionally, is it possible to upgrade an Adept to a Mage while the Adept still has available promotions? Either you can't do it, or I just couldn't find the upgrade option under all the promotions that were available. I ask because I wonder if it's possible to "save" a 5th level promotion for after they are upgraded.

Speaking of that, is there any reason to have more than one type of a mana node if you're not summoning units with an affinity for that type of Mana?

Something I am glad that I realized is that Balseraphs starts with Air, which means I will have access to a 2nd Tier Collateral magic, so I do not need to invest in Catapults (though I may still want to, EitB Catapults are hilarious). I also learned that Maelstrom will hurt ANY unit in a 2 tile radius, even friendly ones. But, yeah, figuring out the right balance between guys with swords and guys with magic will be tricky. And because there's someone playing Sheaim, I wonder if it's worth investing in Life magic to deal with the undead summons I may face.

[Qgqqqqq]

Sorry saw this earlier but was working on the map.
Anyway adepts gain xp passively because they have a the channeling 1 promo.
I don't know the exact formula, but its something like [20(?) -current xp of adept]x a percentage.
This means as the adepts xp goes up its passive increase is reduced.
This also improves with the further channeling promos (which come with mates and archmages respectively) channeling 2&3 adding 20&30 to that value respectively.
This also massively boosted with arcane, as it means all adepts start with the potency promo, adding 30 to the max xp value.
[This also means you should focus on building adepts when you have the arcane trait]

You raise an important point there - all requirements in ffh are determined by the level of the unit, not its xp, meaning that promos must be taken until the effect is granted (this applies for everything BTW - from shades to Brigit).

Having more then one node grants promotions in that sephere for units - for example if you have two death nodes all adepts will start with death 1, if 3 then all mages will get death 2 and so on.
(This allows a powerful tactic of doubling up BTW, giving adepts one sephere and then switching nodes for when you promote them to mages.
Remember that mates take a while to get, you may well end up needing cats for a while.

I'm too tired to explain my misgivings with gtangels guide, ill do it in the morning.