Average Manatee
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2012
- Messages
- 15,272
Playing now, I think keeping Hag Graef is the better option.
Reasoning:
- NAPs seem obtainable.
-Trade is a big bonus. If your capital moves to the islands you are never getting to trade with anyone. Naggarond alone is worth ~350 gp/turn
- Hag Graef is 4 settlements while the islands are 3. This makes Hag Graef a far better place to send all of your slaves... which then cause more revolts for more slaves.
- You get a bonus to public order for the first few turns that basically makes it easy to go grab all of the settlements in the province.
Money is very tight in the beginning if you aren't getting the payout from Malekith. I had to disband 1 unit on my way to the capital of the islands with an almost-full stack to avoid bankruptcy, but managed to capture it on turn 5. Make sure to "hide" Malus's army in the black ark for the massive upkeep bonus whenever you can. One of the strongest economic games I've ever had past the first few turns. Ironically enough milking the -50% construction cost bonus interferes with your rebel farming since it gives such a huge public order bonus. There's some serious theoretical optimization possible here by making sure that +10 PO only happens when both regions are in revolt and get +20 per turn automatically.
Other general thoughts:
- Malus himself is kind of shit imo. His powers that cause damage to him seem to cost 10% of his HP, which is just too much. Its very unlikely that giving the enemy a temporary -24 melee defense debuff is going to recoup that HP lost IMO, same for a temporary melee damage buff. Using either of these abilities decreases his staying power, which is sort of the best part of lords (send them into melee to tie up 2-3 enemy units->spam arrows that have a 99% chance of hitting the enemy and a 1% chance of hitting your lord, also spam dark ark abilities). With some good equipment I can see him doing well based on pure stat power but by default he's just not that amazing.
- Tz'arkan is pretty badass... but seems balanced for MP rather than SP. In SP that degeneration is just too awful. Its only going to be useful in short battles... like the starting battle, ironically enough. That battle is very difficult on legendary.
- Scourgerunner chariots are surprisingly great. Always kind of found chariots to be shit in TWWH but their extra speed and range over cold one chariots make them quite useful for skirmishing and wearing down enemy units while avoiding damage (cold ones are just too slow and always get caught up in melee by something and destroyed), while still being "good enough" to charge through wavering infantry and run down fleeing units.
- Medusae are pretty OK. Pulls its weight on ranged duty and when it runs out of ammo does decently in melee.
- High Beastmasters look like they will be pretty good for Beast doomstacks.
Also turn times are amazing now.
Reasoning:
- NAPs seem obtainable.
-Trade is a big bonus. If your capital moves to the islands you are never getting to trade with anyone. Naggarond alone is worth ~350 gp/turn
- Hag Graef is 4 settlements while the islands are 3. This makes Hag Graef a far better place to send all of your slaves... which then cause more revolts for more slaves.
- You get a bonus to public order for the first few turns that basically makes it easy to go grab all of the settlements in the province.
Money is very tight in the beginning if you aren't getting the payout from Malekith. I had to disband 1 unit on my way to the capital of the islands with an almost-full stack to avoid bankruptcy, but managed to capture it on turn 5. Make sure to "hide" Malus's army in the black ark for the massive upkeep bonus whenever you can. One of the strongest economic games I've ever had past the first few turns. Ironically enough milking the -50% construction cost bonus interferes with your rebel farming since it gives such a huge public order bonus. There's some serious theoretical optimization possible here by making sure that +10 PO only happens when both regions are in revolt and get +20 per turn automatically.
Other general thoughts:
- Malus himself is kind of shit imo. His powers that cause damage to him seem to cost 10% of his HP, which is just too much. Its very unlikely that giving the enemy a temporary -24 melee defense debuff is going to recoup that HP lost IMO, same for a temporary melee damage buff. Using either of these abilities decreases his staying power, which is sort of the best part of lords (send them into melee to tie up 2-3 enemy units->spam arrows that have a 99% chance of hitting the enemy and a 1% chance of hitting your lord, also spam dark ark abilities). With some good equipment I can see him doing well based on pure stat power but by default he's just not that amazing.
- Tz'arkan is pretty badass... but seems balanced for MP rather than SP. In SP that degeneration is just too awful. Its only going to be useful in short battles... like the starting battle, ironically enough. That battle is very difficult on legendary.
- Scourgerunner chariots are surprisingly great. Always kind of found chariots to be shit in TWWH but their extra speed and range over cold one chariots make them quite useful for skirmishing and wearing down enemy units while avoiding damage (cold ones are just too slow and always get caught up in melee by something and destroyed), while still being "good enough" to charge through wavering infantry and run down fleeing units.
- Medusae are pretty OK. Pulls its weight on ranged duty and when it runs out of ammo does decently in melee.
- High Beastmasters look like they will be pretty good for Beast doomstacks.
Also turn times are amazing now.
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