Grimwulf
Arcane
Forget about Turn 10 for a while. Next two (edited: three) posts are gonna be dedicated to Arena Tournament.
I can hardly wait.
For some reason, Dominions players don’t treat arena event like something special or important. During pbem matches, at least. But I think it’s one of the most epic things you can ever see in this game.
Arena is a randomly occurring event. You receive a message, and have to make a decision immediately. Either you send forth a champion of your nation on the same turn, or you take a sit on Pussy Bench, and watch the show from there.
Every nation can send only one champion. AI doesn’t miss arena event, so this one will (most probably) have 12 matches, filled with epicness.
Early arena events have their specifics. Nobody has serious artifacts or spells yet, so there are usually a lot of prophets and national heroes participating. And 99% of prophets just spam Smite. Having high magic resist is essential when fighting early arena tournaments with AI.
Fighting order is totally random. Sometimes you have to face almost every nation’s champion, and sometimes you only get a couple of matches to win.
You DO NOT have a chance to recover between matches. I can’t remember clearly if this applies to fatigue, but you definitely can’t recover hp.
You CANNOT escape the arena. If you lose a fight – you die.
The winner gets a randomly chosen arena artifact. There is no other way to obtain these. While not being overpowered, all arena prizes are pretty damn good for certain commanders. The only downside is you can’t unequip them. The winner of the arena has to wield his prize proudly and HAS NO CHOICE, but to participate in next arena tournament. Which may or may not occur randomly.
All right, enough rules. Let’s do this shit. If anyone still thinks I take this session too seriously, next statement is for you:
THE READERS CHOOSE THE CHAMPION OF HELHEIM.
I’m not gonna make this decision for you. This LP will not continue, unless you make up your mind. So here is what we’ll do: I will make a list of all available commanders for you, then take a couple days break. Meanwhile, you vote. Whoever receives most votes, fights in the arena.
Since every nation can watch all arena matches, even those that they don’t participate in, the next post will be all about the Tournament.
Time to make dat choice.
1. King Grimwulf
God of the Gallows
King of the Clouds
He who Confuses the Way
Nobody sends Pretenders on the arena. Not even AI is that stupid. It’s not worth the risk; it could lead to Pretender’s death (and months, or even years of resurrecting the Deity); Pretender doesn’t benefit from arena artifacts (on the contrary, they prevent him from equipping necessary pieces); and it’s a total waste of Pretender's turn.
But if you are cruel enough to send that cool guy to fight some casuls, let me tell you about his chances. They are, well, not too great. Magic resistance is decent enough, and spell arsenal is largest among all our candidates (no spells are particulary useful in arena, though).
On the downside: no hp, no armor, no defense. A regular summoned skeleton is able to kill this Pretender in melee combat.
The strategy is this: "Twist Fate; Mind Burn x4; cast spells". And it MAY work only if fatigue will be restored after every fight, of which I’m not sure. If it won’t – then this script is a death sentence.
Without casting Twist Fate, King Grimwulf can be one-shot-killed with lucky Smite. And Mind Burn is pretty much his only bet: long-range, never misses, doesn’t work on mindless (so he won’t aim at summoned undead, and be distracted from main target). Low damage tho, and it has to pass MR check.
All in all, God-King is awesome and everybody loves him, but, err, his left ball is kinda itchy. Maybe next time? Please?
2. Codex Troll
Prophet of King Grimwulf
Messenger of Decline
Glorious Prophet of Helheim. Proved himself as a capable warrior and leader of men.
Magic Resistance is good enough to participate, perma-blessing saves one turn, and high attack and defense skills allow to engage in melee combat. I don’t think Codex Troll should participate in “Smiting duels”, for his MR is not big enough. I’m somewhat concerned about low dmg output too, as well as and non-magic weapons. But still, two attacks per turn (lance+hoof); incredible attack+defense+glamour combo; combined with good MR – all that provides Codex Troll with fair chances of winning.
Strategy is simple: "Holy Avenger; attack". HA will help against smiting prophets – when they hit an illusion, they will receive some damage as well. Maybe even fatal.
3. Penda Pybbing Iceling
Penda the Bloody-Handed
Last Pagan Warrior-King
Legendary and forgotten at the same time, Penda is a fucking badass. Equally good at leading people and killing them. His lineage extends to Woden himself.
I’d say he’s got the same chances as Codex Troll, if not even better. He’ll get higher MR, defense and damage output after casting Blessing. The downside is lower attack skill, and wasting a turn on that Blessing spell.
The script for Penda will be:"Blessing; Holy Avenger; attack".
4. Jarl Balgruuf the Greater
Keeps Things under Control
"I will not sit idly by, while […]”, - says that line, sitting idly by.
Balgruuf is really not that much different from Penda, when it comes to arena. Slightly worse at everything, but much more easy to replace. If it was a serious pbem match, I would either send Balgruuf, or nobody at all.
Script is pretty much the same:"Blessing; Holy Avenger; attack".
5. Selvaria Bles
Weeaboo Valkyrur
Receives a healthy blue glow when angered.
Flying ability allows to cross the whole battlefield in a single turn, when needed. It could win her a spare turn for buffing. Thing is, our research schools don’t provide her with any buffs. And she doesn’t even have H2 for Holy Avenger.
Thus: "Blessing; attack" ftw.
6. Crispy
Sinister
My first investment. First commander I hired in this War. What a waste.
No way he’s gonna win this. And I kinda need him too. Still, can’t say I’ll miss the little piece of evil.
Strategy: "Flying Shards x5; spells". Just to make sure he won’t spam Frighten, which is even more useless in arena than Flying Shards.
7. Lee Everett
Viking Wannabe
Can pwn zombies and protect little girls, among other things.
Doesn’t see much action. Perhaps, now is the time?
"Blessing; attack". Obvious.
8. Jon Snow
9. IFS Zephyr
10. Gordon Cageman
Pick your poison, you bloodthirsty warmongering bastards.
Glory in Death!
I can hardly wait.
ARENA RULES AND PREPARATIONS
For some reason, Dominions players don’t treat arena event like something special or important. During pbem matches, at least. But I think it’s one of the most epic things you can ever see in this game.
Heh, there was one time when I played Arcoscephale and got this early arena event, when you don’t even have artifacts yet. Like in current game session.
But that time I was lucky enough to get national hero Pathos, and decided to risk it. So, he made it to final round without a scratch, and had to fight with this:
No chance in hell Pathos could beat him. Fucking giant severed Pathos’ arm, and left him with 1 hp. And then, THIS happens:
Open-ended dice system is fucking awesome. Sometimes you get UNBELIVABLE shit happening. Pathos rolled absolutely crazy critical strike and killed the giant instantly.
But that wasn’t all. The winner of arena tournament receives random arena artifact. Pathos was SUPPOSED to get Champions Trident. Two-handed weapon. Don’t have two hands? TOO BAD, YOU GET NOTHING.
Maybe I’m a demented autist, but the moment they told Pathos to go fuck himself, I had a mental orgasm.
Unfortunately, I don’t have many screenshots left, due to drowned laptop. Only those uploaded on fileholders. But I assure you: every arena tournament is FUCKING EPIC!
But that time I was lucky enough to get national hero Pathos, and decided to risk it. So, he made it to final round without a scratch, and had to fight with this:
No chance in hell Pathos could beat him. Fucking giant severed Pathos’ arm, and left him with 1 hp. And then, THIS happens:
Open-ended dice system is fucking awesome. Sometimes you get UNBELIVABLE shit happening. Pathos rolled absolutely crazy critical strike and killed the giant instantly.
But that wasn’t all. The winner of arena tournament receives random arena artifact. Pathos was SUPPOSED to get Champions Trident. Two-handed weapon. Don’t have two hands? TOO BAD, YOU GET NOTHING.
Maybe I’m a demented autist, but the moment they told Pathos to go fuck himself, I had a mental orgasm.
Unfortunately, I don’t have many screenshots left, due to drowned laptop. Only those uploaded on fileholders. But I assure you: every arena tournament is FUCKING EPIC!
Arena is a randomly occurring event. You receive a message, and have to make a decision immediately. Either you send forth a champion of your nation on the same turn, or you take a sit on Pussy Bench, and watch the show from there.
Every nation can send only one champion. AI doesn’t miss arena event, so this one will (most probably) have 12 matches, filled with epicness.
Early arena events have their specifics. Nobody has serious artifacts or spells yet, so there are usually a lot of prophets and national heroes participating. And 99% of prophets just spam Smite. Having high magic resist is essential when fighting early arena tournaments with AI.
Fighting order is totally random. Sometimes you have to face almost every nation’s champion, and sometimes you only get a couple of matches to win.
You DO NOT have a chance to recover between matches. I can’t remember clearly if this applies to fatigue, but you definitely can’t recover hp.
You CANNOT escape the arena. If you lose a fight – you die.
The winner gets a randomly chosen arena artifact. There is no other way to obtain these. While not being overpowered, all arena prizes are pretty damn good for certain commanders. The only downside is you can’t unequip them. The winner of the arena has to wield his prize proudly and HAS NO CHOICE, but to participate in next arena tournament. Which may or may not occur randomly.
All right, enough rules. Let’s do this shit. If anyone still thinks I take this session too seriously, next statement is for you:
THE READERS CHOOSE THE CHAMPION OF HELHEIM.
I’m not gonna make this decision for you. This LP will not continue, unless you make up your mind. So here is what we’ll do: I will make a list of all available commanders for you, then take a couple days break. Meanwhile, you vote. Whoever receives most votes, fights in the arena.
Since every nation can watch all arena matches, even those that they don’t participate in, the next post will be all about the Tournament.
Time to make dat choice.
Some commanders are affected by our dominion and/or scales. Arena has neutral dominion and scales, so I’ll mark their “arena stats” on pics
GOD TIER
1. King Grimwulf
God of the Gallows
King of the Clouds
He who Confuses the Way
Nobody sends Pretenders on the arena. Not even AI is that stupid. It’s not worth the risk; it could lead to Pretender’s death (and months, or even years of resurrecting the Deity); Pretender doesn’t benefit from arena artifacts (on the contrary, they prevent him from equipping necessary pieces); and it’s a total waste of Pretender's turn.
But if you are cruel enough to send that cool guy to fight some casuls, let me tell you about his chances. They are, well, not too great. Magic resistance is decent enough, and spell arsenal is largest among all our candidates (no spells are particulary useful in arena, though).
On the downside: no hp, no armor, no defense. A regular summoned skeleton is able to kill this Pretender in melee combat.
The strategy is this: "Twist Fate; Mind Burn x4; cast spells". And it MAY work only if fatigue will be restored after every fight, of which I’m not sure. If it won’t – then this script is a death sentence.
Without casting Twist Fate, King Grimwulf can be one-shot-killed with lucky Smite. And Mind Burn is pretty much his only bet: long-range, never misses, doesn’t work on mindless (so he won’t aim at summoned undead, and be distracted from main target). Low damage tho, and it has to pass MR check.
All in all, God-King is awesome and everybody loves him, but, err, his left ball is kinda itchy. Maybe next time? Please?
TOP TIER
High chances, but incredibly painful to lose.
High chances, but incredibly painful to lose.
2. Codex Troll
Prophet of King Grimwulf
Messenger of Decline
Glorious Prophet of Helheim. Proved himself as a capable warrior and leader of men.
Magic Resistance is good enough to participate, perma-blessing saves one turn, and high attack and defense skills allow to engage in melee combat. I don’t think Codex Troll should participate in “Smiting duels”, for his MR is not big enough. I’m somewhat concerned about low dmg output too, as well as and non-magic weapons. But still, two attacks per turn (lance+hoof); incredible attack+defense+glamour combo; combined with good MR – all that provides Codex Troll with fair chances of winning.
Strategy is simple: "Holy Avenger; attack". HA will help against smiting prophets – when they hit an illusion, they will receive some damage as well. Maybe even fatal.
3. Penda Pybbing Iceling
Penda the Bloody-Handed
Last Pagan Warrior-King
Legendary and forgotten at the same time, Penda is a fucking badass. Equally good at leading people and killing them. His lineage extends to Woden himself.
I’d say he’s got the same chances as Codex Troll, if not even better. He’ll get higher MR, defense and damage output after casting Blessing. The downside is lower attack skill, and wasting a turn on that Blessing spell.
The script for Penda will be:"Blessing; Holy Avenger; attack".
MED TIER
Fair chances, more or less replaceable if lost.
Fair chances, more or less replaceable if lost.
4. Jarl Balgruuf the Greater
Keeps Things under Control
"I will not sit idly by, while […]”, - says that line, sitting idly by.
Balgruuf is really not that much different from Penda, when it comes to arena. Slightly worse at everything, but much more easy to replace. If it was a serious pbem match, I would either send Balgruuf, or nobody at all.
Script is pretty much the same:"Blessing; Holy Avenger; attack".
5. Selvaria Bles
Weeaboo Valkyrur
Receives a healthy blue glow when angered.
Flying ability allows to cross the whole battlefield in a single turn, when needed. It could win her a spare turn for buffing. Thing is, our research schools don’t provide her with any buffs. And she doesn’t even have H2 for Holy Avenger.
Thus: "Blessing; attack" ftw.
6. Crispy
Sinister
My first investment. First commander I hired in this War. What a waste.
No way he’s gonna win this. And I kinda need him too. Still, can’t say I’ll miss the little piece of evil.
Strategy: "Flying Shards x5; spells". Just to make sure he won’t spam Frighten, which is even more useless in arena than Flying Shards.
7. Lee Everett
Viking Wannabe
Can pwn zombies and protect little girls, among other things.
Doesn’t see much action. Perhaps, now is the time?
"Blessing; attack". Obvious.
LOW TIER
Next-to-none chances to win; totally expendable.
No description needed – this guys can only win against severely injured opponents. If they are lucky enough.Next-to-none chances to win; totally expendable.
8. Jon Snow
9. IFS Zephyr
10. Gordon Cageman
Pick your poison, you bloodthirsty warmongering bastards.
Glory in Death!
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