purist game

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Lupinedreams
Posts: 83
Joined: Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:40 pm

purist game

Post by Lupinedreams »

one game style I've done is only allow those of your species in your empire - exterminate the rest of the races you find. this is both a blessing and a curse - it limits your diversity, but you have to worry less about unrest (especially as dark elves, the race I was using) it seemed fitting for dark elves as well. it really limited expansion, since dark elves reproduce *slowly* and also have a relatively low city population limit compared to other races - but it meant a hefty amount of power, since all my cities were dark elves, all my population was producing power for me. that being said, it was mostly a self imposed disadvantage - dark elves can make some great military units, but they don't make exceptionally good support cities since they grow so slowly and have a relatively lower population limit, you need more cities in order to support your empire's finances and food requirements
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Implode
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Dark elves

Post by Implode »

I've come to the conclusion that dark elves suck :cry:

I was trying to get a game with a really high score, by having a massive population - so wanted to try casting Stream of Life on every single city... problem is, that requires massive amounts of mana, so decided to do it with dark elves, which easily produce enough mana per city to support one Stream of Life spell per city.

8 book + Myrran dark elf starts take way too long to get a units capable of attacking anything, so instead I picked 11 life books, Altar of Battle, High Elves. I summoned a Magic Spirit, cast Endurance on it, Plane Shifted it to Myrror to scout for Dark Elf cities, found one right next to some adamantium. In the meantime, used Altar of Battle to get a small army of elite Longbowmen, Plane Shifted them across and took the Dark Elf city... and tried to expand from there.

Although it took a while, I eventually got the Dark Elf city built up a bit so they could start churning out Elite Halbardiers... and then found they were still mostly incapable of attacking anything. Their ranged attack (which is the main point of dark elves) was only strength 3 - the Adamantium doesn't improve it (which I did know) but what really surprised me is I managed to research Lionheart, and even that doesn't improve it.

I was already sceptical about Dark Elves, since their ranged attack is magical I don't see how they're going to take down Sorcery nodes full of Sky Drakes. But I can't even find a way to make their ranged attack any good! So that leads me to think that the only decent Dark Elf units are Warlocks.

I'd have been better to burn down the Dark Elf city and plane jump some High Elf settlers across, at least Longbowmen get +2 from Adamantium and +3 from Lionheart (see my avatar :D ). But High Elves are slow growing populations. So might try Orcs next time, plane jumping some across early on to try to find Adamantium deposits, and burning down cities for any races who cannot build Cathedrals.

Implode.
HeymlicH
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Joined: Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:37 am

Post by HeymlicH »

Dark elfs are fun. They are played best with chaos or life books. If you are life, Warlord may be an option. You only need to build two unit types: First, a stack of Spearmen, to get most out of the ranged attack. These spearmen provide some limited military power, early. Later you need Nightmares. Forget about the warlocks. Alchemy helps a lot to work around the slow growth (transmute mana to gold and buy a farmers market in each city, in the beginning)

If you are chaos, don't expand much. found two cities, go for Vortex and nightblades as fast as possible. If you don't have Vortex in your spellbook you will lose the game :)
gejsiv
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 9:12 pm

Re: purist game

Post by gejsiv »

I think dark elves are more fun as slave races than as starting races. I love the unique units they have, because night blades are perfect for defending nodes or choke points on roads (just keep hitting done so the enemy gives up and leaves) and I love the warlocks and priests for more serious defense. At the same time, they cause so much unrest, either in their slave races or when they are the slave race, that its impractical to use them sometimes. I prefer to have as little unrest as possible, which means all their delicious power increase is being alchmied into the money I'm not making from their taxes. Combine with their low growth rate and max population, and I much prefer to start as something else and then conquer them.
Virm
Posts: 63
Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 3:54 pm

Re: purist game

Post by Virm »

Y'know, after reading everything in the forums again, I get the impression that by almost everyone's standards, I've been playing this wrong for years.

My favorite races are Dark Elves and Klackons. And I haven't used life magic for a long time, I use mostly nature and normally don't even touch life or death. The dark elves are best used by making settlers whenever possible and making as many cities in the available area as you can. You're half right about the warlocks being the only viable unit, but the nightmares and nightblades are great for their purposes. Warlocks are best used in groups of 3+, because then practically nothing can withstand the potential barrage of doom bolts.
Iluvalar
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:57 pm

Re: purist game

Post by Iluvalar »

Virm wrote:Warlocks are best used in groups of 3+, because then practically nothing can withstand the potential barrage of doom bolts.
Until a single Paladin crush them all for breakfast. :D
Virm
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Joined: Sat Sep 23, 2006 3:54 pm

Re: purist game

Post by Virm »

Iluvalar wrote:
Virm wrote:Warlocks are best used in groups of 3+, because then practically nothing can withstand the potential barrage of doom bolts.
Until a single Paladin crush them all for breakfast. :D
There was that qualifier of "practically nothing".
Iluvalar
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:57 pm

Re: purist game

Post by Iluvalar »

Virm wrote:
Iluvalar wrote:
Virm wrote:Warlocks are best used in groups of 3+, because then practically nothing can withstand the potential barrage of doom bolts.
Until a single Paladin crush them all for breakfast. :D
There was that qualifier of "practically nothing".
The fact is, I really LOVE those warlocks and the doom bolt spell. But there is always a big risk when they attack something else, they have to withstand the first attack and unfortunately they don't resist so good to missile attacks. Also there are spells like flame strike that can make them cry. That's why I'm a little doubious about the strenght of the warlocks : their weak points are WAY too weak. You build all your game around getting up to the wizard tower, building slowly your warlocks. And finally when you have them, you deal lot of damage but you always end up by encuntering a invisible/magic immune/slingers (defending) or a wizard with a good spell and then *woosh* no more warlocks ^^ . But I admit, they are incredibly fun to play :D .
Darkpriest667
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2009 10:22 am

Re: purist game

Post by Darkpriest667 »

3 warlocks 3 priests 2 cav and 1 hero was my standard army in original MOM

the 2 penalties i dislike about darkelves are this

1- slow growth

2- inability to make engineers


Other than that.. this is my favorite race to play by far... 8 chaos Myrran and darkelf was my favorite combo and i still use it regularly


Im excited to see the game finalized.... However

What happened to fame? It attracted mercs and heroes is it just not implemented yet?
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