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| Hinnom - Biblical Proportions | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 8 2015, 08:53 AM (4,364 Views) | |
| dyslexicfaser | Sep 8 2015, 08:53 AM Post #1 |
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*Spicy* Crew
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What with desura's issues, I decided it wouldn't be a bad thing to have this mirrored somewhere else. Hope you folks don't mind. So, Hinnom. I’m not exactly breaking new ground by telling you that Hinnom is one of the hallmark giant nations. They’ve got an excellent SC unit that (together with Fomoria and maybe Yomi) stands just behind Niefel Jarls as the biggest, buffest, best damn recruitable monster out there. They’ve got one of nastiest sacred units out there (unfortunately with a price tag to match, which is why even this fact isn’t enough for me to use them regularly). They’ve got some solid if uninspired mages. They’re one of the only nations out there with plentiful healers, which is absolutely lovely when you spend most of your time stomping people to death with expensive giants. They're not Mictlan, but they've got a few exciting summons. You have some different choices for pretenders, but I tend to either default to a B7 Blood Fountain or E4 Golden Calf with excellent scales (Dom8 Order 3 Production 3 Heat 3 Growth 3 Magic 2) and roll out with Dawn Guard and Charioteers, or the Great Bull (Dom6 Order 3 Production 3 Heat 3 Growth 2 Misfortune 1) if I’m feeling sassy and want to eat and/or burn the world down with Rephaite Warriors. I'm not blind to the fact that the nation has problems. The lack of an affordable archer, the random nature of Hinnom's magic paths (and lack of crosspaths), the fact that your armies are almost certainly going to be small (irony) and few, though they will certainly be elite. Nonetheless, Hinnom has been some of the most fun I've had in the game, and is a perfectly serviceable nation with a lot to like about it. THE LINEUP Hinnom is made up of three different types of giants, with a smattering of summons to bolster the ranks in various specializations. The units come in various sizes and flavors of hammer, tending to the well-armored side of the spectrum. The mages have good diversity but, unusually, no crosspaths except Blood (barring the meanest Horite Shaman). An interesting factoid is that most of the units of Hinnom have Move 3, and the entire faction comes with Wasteland Survival; the Horites have Mountain Survival as well. Added to the fact that your capital tends to plant itself in the most inhospitable wasteland it can find, and this makes Hinnom an uncomfortable place to be - for your enemies most of all. The guy Horites bully to feel better about themselves: Enkidu Slave – Better than I first thought for what this unit does, and what it does is absorb lance charges and enemy spells. They’ll rout almost immediately, but they’re also slow - presumably, the crushing ennui of slave life is weighing them down. They’ll hang around long enough to provide their singular service, which is to die for the glory of Hinnom, so your Rephaites or Avvites don’t have to. The Horites: If it weren’t for the Enkidu slave, these guys would be the absolute bottom rung of the ladder. Effectively cavemen, the lowest giants of Hinnom were driven from their cavernous homes by the Pale Ones, telling you exactly how pitiful they are. Horite, Horite Hunter, Horite Champion – The Horites are fairly expensive for what they are, and what they are is unarmored or lightly armored meatshields. The Horite Hunter has a net in addition to his stone spear, while the Champion has somewhat better stats and wears furs. The only use I find for these guys is if I need to pull together a lot of chaff in a hurry, since they cost 1, 4 and 2 resources respectively and can be easily Wooden Warriors’d into something approaching respectability. However, despite their 12 morale, in my experience they break and rout just as often as the Enkidu Slave, which is all the time, so you might as well save money on your chaff and get the Slaves. The Horites do also resist fire and cold and have Darkvision 50%, so I could see mixing them into your defensive line if you expect to be hit by fireballs or undead under the cover of Darkness, but they don’t exactly excel even then. Horite Shaman – The Shaman, despite an Inept Researcher score of -6, does have moderate value throughout the game as unit ferries (particularly your Mazzikim or other summoned demons; they can lead 30, albeit at -1 morale), manual site-searchers, and forgers of some use. They’re the only Hinnom recruitable with crosspaths (EDN1), and your only source of Death gems at all. They can craft Implementor Axes and Cat’s Eye Amulets, and depending on your starting position, Messenger Boots can be absolutely essential for your mages (I’ve found my capital more than once locked deep in the forest and mountains despite Hinnom being a wasteland nation). Skull Standards with a Thistle Mace. If you can trade for a Skull Staff, they can make Shadow Brands, Spirit Masks and/or Horror Helms for your Melqarts/Ba’als, and the lovely Skull Mentor. Their use in battle is limited mostly to Dust to Dust or Frighten. The Avvim: The Avvim are the chosen people, the ones uplifted (that’s what we’re calling it, yes) by the angels. They’re the workhorse of the nation, providing both the front-line non-sacred troops and the lion’s share of non-cap mages. Avvite Scout – Quite strong for a scout, boasting 25hp, 10 protection, and better than average stats. Javelins, too. As always however, you pay for that size and power; once I’ve located an indie scout province, I don’t make another Avvite Scout all game. Avvite Spearman, Light Infantry, Swordsman – Quite pricy at 30g apiece, but they are well armored. The Spearman and Light Infantry have javelins and a pretty good strength score, the Swordsman has a broadsword and better armor (14 protection instead of 10), and both come with iron caps and shields. I tend to hold out for the resource-heavy Dawn Guard, using the lesser Avvim to bulk up defensive lines. When I do use Avvim though, I go for the Spearman. It’s got the better armor of the Swordsman and the Javelin of the Lesser Infantry, and all Avvim come with shields, essentially making the Spearman the best of both worlds. Avvite Horn Blower – Like everything else Hinnom has, Horn Blowers are expensive. But I like to try and mix one into every Chariot group thanks to it’s Standard 1 ability, and when you need to bring down a fort it’s Siege +5 bonus helps bring up Hinnom’s low numbers. They do seem to get themselves killed with unfortunate regularity in that role, however. Avvite Heavy Archer – The only archers around that can win a slugging match with Tien Chi’s. They’re heavily armored (17 prot) and their greatbows have enormous range and a powerful punch. But with 25 resources per archer there’s simply no way to mass them even at Prod 3. I’ll take a cheap indie archer’s shortbow or an Avvite Spearman over these guys every time, sad as it is. Avvite Charioteer – Avvite Charioteers are effectively cheaper elephants with decent morale. And javelins. They are less than half the hp of an elephant, but very well armored; they work well as expanders with a handful of Avvite or Enkidu Slave blockers. They are noticeably slower than other nations’ cavalry, having 3/15 Move. If you do find them contesting full size 6 tramplers, remember to set them to Fire Large Enemies rather than Attack; a few javelins before getting stuck in usually ensure a much more favorable tally of the dead against Machaka’s morale-boosted elephants or Caelum’s mammoths. Dawn Guard – The Dawn Guards are a bit dull compared to some of the monsters on the roster, but solid in every way that matters. Stats, armor, and equipped with the same magic blade your 485g Melqarts come with, I’ve had these guys hold against a charge of viking cavalry without difficulty. The closest thing to a weakness they have (besides being damn expensive to form a defensive line with at 45g 32r) is their Encumbrance 6. If I have a few turns at my forts during a lull, I set them to pumping out Dawn Guard; they have the same resource cost as a Chariot, but only 2/3rds the gold cost, so they’re not quite so ruinously expensive. Qedesim and Qedesot – Neither of the basic priests of Hinnom is a terribly good unit on it’s own merits. They have twice the hp of an indie priest, so they weather Earthquakes and Rain of Stones well enough, but they are a little more expensive and frankly I’d rather just set down a temple and start producing indies. The male Qedesim is immune to Seduction for whatever that’s worth, and the female can lead ten units, making her a decent choice if you go for a bless strategy with Rephaite Warriors. Ammi – The Ammi are a 2 100% random pick from any of Air, Fire, Earth and Astral. There is never any crosspath. They also all have Fortuneteller 10%, which helps ameliorate Misfortune scales. Earth Ammi have access to all the wonders of earth buffing and debuffing, from Maws of Earth through to Weapons of Sharpness. If you’re not packing along indie archers, a Hinnom army weathers an Earthquake quite well, and at the very edge of Earth Ammi ability with Boots, Bloodstone and Earthpower sits Petrify and Army of Gold/Lead (though unfortunately not Earth Attack; that requires Ba'alim). Fire Ammi with a Jar of Fire and 1 gem can hit Flaming Arrows if you’re bringing along indie archers, Warriors of Muspelheim if you went with heavy Alteration, and if not are acceptable battle mages. You’re not going to get as much out of Falling Fires as someone like EA Ermor but it’s not a bad use of your time, and I haven’t yet attempted Heat From Hell/Warriors of Muspelheim but the theory seems sound together with your giants’ Fire Resist 8. The Air Ammi can hit Wind Guide and Arrow Fend easily enough, and that's nice. Thunder Fend and Lightning Bolts have their place, but mostly I just bring one Air Ammi along for Wind Guide or Arrow Fend as necessary, and leave the rest back home researching or forging Owl Quills and thug gear. The Astral Ammi is more situational. Mind Hunting is hard without empowering somebody into earth for Crystal Coins. Power of the Spheres/Light of the Northern Star makes for the head of a Stellar Cascades army if you find Sages, Lizard Shamen, or Amazons. They make (very expensive) communion/sabbath mages with a Ba'al, mostly to hit Big Fire since you can hit E5 with a Ba'al easily. There’s plenty of forging opportunities to be found with any of these mage varieties. Generally speaking, they are serviceable mages that can do a lot for you, although the 25% chance for any given one means you’ll never have as many of a certain type as you would like. Acha – The Acha have a Supply bonus of +20 and Healer 2, meaning you should always pack a couple along with your armies. They can also cast the usual useful nature buffs (Protection, Wooden Warriors, Regeneration) among others you’re unlikely to have until late in the game as Hinnom, if at all (Howl, Charm, Sleep Cloud, Breath of Dragon, Storm of Thorns). They can summon Mazzikim if you’re so inclined, but then so can the humble Horite Shaman. Lilot as well, if you can beg, borrow or steal a Treelord’s Staff, but mostly I don’t bother. The Rephaim: The Rephaim are the direct line descendants of the angelic Watchers, making them the baddest fuckers in the land of Hinnom. They sleep with the priests and priestesses of the Avvim, they devour the local livestock and any peasants that stand still long enough, and are generally feared and revered in equal measure. Rephaite Warrior – Hinnom’s answer to the Niefelheim Giant. 115g 53r for a sacred monster that comes complete with two attacks (one a magic blade), 55hp, well armored and with high magic resistance, as well as excellent stats. They don’t work against everything - barbarians and cavalry charges are the big ones. But against everything else even a couple of these guys with a decent bless secure the victory against indies. When they do work you’ll feel like a biblical king, sending out your warriors on a tide of blood to crush all that oppose you and bringing back hoards of gold. Unfortunately, once the honeymoon is over, Rephaite Warriors don’t stand up to human nations nearly so well. Expect to have to field at least 7 or 8 of them, a thousand gold worth of meat to make a thin, thin line of giants; possibly as many as 15, which kicks the cost of your armies up to 2000 gold. And even then they lack the Niefel Giant aoe ability that slays human units in vast numbers. The Rephaim also have a bad habit of devouring population and causing unrest in whatever province they’re in at the time; 20 population dead and +2 unrest per turn per giant. If your armies are primarily made up of rapacious Rephaite Warriors, you’ll desperately need the early lead they give you during expansion. Kohen – With your giants’ dependence on a bless, you may feel safer sending out your expansion forces with two Rephaite Warriors and a Kohen to lead them. They’re far tankier than the Qedesot at 50hp, though they only have robes providing 7 Protection. They have a gore and an aoe sleep attack, and are B1X1 (Fire, Earth or Astral). However, in my experience the Kohen are unable to survive Tir na n’Og assassins and only sometimes survive Abysian Slayers, and really your leading priest is important enough to your giants’ well being that he shouldn’t be tangling with the enemy at all. In addition, Hinnom’s stores of blood slaves are also fairly anemic, and should be going towards producing Se’irim instead of battle-summoning Imps or using Leeching Touch. The 240g price tag here is simply too expensive for what you’re provided. Stick with Qedesot if you’re moving your giants through wasteland, or indie priests if you’ve moved on to fairer pastures. Ba’al – Now we’re pulling out the big guns. Cap-only StR, and your largest mage (in various senses of the word). Ba’alim are B2X3 (Fire, Earth or Astral). 66hp, and the usual Rephaim model; solid stats, two attacks, fire resistance, and an insatiable hunger (in this case, +5 unrest and 50 population disappears down a Ba’alim’s gullet every turn). They also have +5 fear. You can kit them out and send them to lead from the front if you want, but if that’s the case why didn’t you make a Melqart? These are your battlefield-wide spellcasters for the endgame; your Will of the Fates, Solar Brilliance, and Army of foo casters. Horror senders or Earth Attack if the enemy is feeling shy. Flames From the Sky if you can scrounge enough fire gems to empower once or trade for a Skull of Fire and make the Flame Helmet, but you’ll probably be summoning Flame Spirits for that if you want to make that a part of your strategy. Gateway gets them and their Rephaite contingents to the front lines. They can Mind Hunt if you’re feeling baalsy (I’m sorry). And because they’re goddamn giants, they aren’t subject to the usual mage-killers. I don’t really find Ba’alim necessary until the late game (and even then the correct Ammi can substitute to an extent), preferring Melqarts that can raid jump right into solo raiding when recruited. But make no mistake; these guys can help out in a variety of roles. Melqart – Here be monsters. The Niefel Jarls may reign supreme among recruitable SCs with their cold aoe and water/death magic paths, but the Melqarts jockey for a solid second place with Fomoria, Yomi and Atlantis. The attractive point of the Melqarts isn’t their power or their survivability (though that’s nice), it’s their variety and ease of use. Pop one out and with Alt 4 you have all the self-buffing you really need, and unlike with Jarls you can use them anywhere, without more than the most rudimentary gear. I start sending them out by the time I can afford to make them a pair of air shoes and a vine shield, though if I have plenty of gems I’ll bulk them up with a couple more accessories or a snake bladder stick/brand. Earth Melqarts require a different counter than Astral Melqarts, and throwing a Fire Melqart into the mix now and again when they’re expecting the other two can really shake enemies up. The Earth ones are well-suited to build you a stream of Blood Stones; Hinnom is possibly the only nation that can make those without jumping through a bunch of hoops. And once you have one or two of them working on those any extras can safely raid with Iron Skin, Temper Flesh and/or Summon Earthpower. Astral Melqarts can head out with just Body Ethereal, although if you have Ench4 for Flaming Arrows anyway, I throw on an Astral Shield too. They can be teleported to and magic dueled, however, so in the event of enemy astral nations it's best to leave them at home bloodhunting. Fire Melqarts are less survivable in the short term, and should probably be your blood hunters, although Immolation makes them quite killy if the enemy isn’t expecting fire damage. And if you make it to Alt7, a Phoenix Pyre Melqart with heavy reinvigoration gear is fairly hilarious. THE SUMMONS Mazzikim – I have problems envisioning these guys’ role, honestly. As size 1 they slot nicely into place with size 5 giants… except they’re flying, so it’s hard to coordinate. They’re stealthy flyers, but the only other stealthy unit Hinnom has native access to is the Lilot, who is both more expensive than is worth it to sneak some imps around and has a better niche to fill as a seducer. So all that’s left is… a surprise backrow clawing in an army battle, and the eight-pack summon being worth around 15 men when trying to tear down a fort, which isn’t the worst use of 3 nature gems in the world. When used as part of a battle, a Shaman can cart around 30. Remember to have them hold for a turn to drop a Bloodlust and Wooden/Marble Warriors if you can before they hit the back row. They'll still die, but they will take some archers or mages with them into death if you're lucky. Lilot – Very bothersome to cast if you’re not going N9 bless, requiring an Empowerment and Thistle Mace or a Treelord’s Staff on an Acha. I do often find I have a lot of nature gems though for one reason or another, even after the gems allotted for vine shields and messenger boots, so I sometimes mess around with them anyway. 25 nature gems for a seducer is a significant further expense, but at least they’re a pretty good one; their stats are good, their MR is excellent, they have 22 HP and with flight they can get in and use their life-drain well in the event that a fight breaks out in the course of their seduction duties. They’re basically identical to a Succubus, but Hinnom is going to be blowing its blood slaves for Se’irim or saving for SCs, so nature gems almost seem worth it.You might want to toss a cheap Armor of Knights on them if it’s available though, because they have NO natural armor. Shedim – The cruel joke here is that while the Ammi are A2, none of your Rephaim have the right paths to cast this summon (B3A1); they only get Fire, Astral and Earth. The only guy with the chops is one of the Grigori, and you have better things to do with those than summon units who really need storms to fight at full capacity. I’ve never managed to use these; if you want to try them out, your best bet is likely empowering an Air Ammi into blood and throwing boosters on. I assume they're really just for use by Berytos (who gets an A2B3 Melqart, the bastards). Se’irim – A Blood 3 summon, these guys are either made or broken on if you can find a wasteland province for them. If you can - congratulations! You’re probably going to be summoning Se’irim. 33 blood slaves gets you an eight-pack of sacred berserkers (+4). Add to that 28 HP, some natural protection (7), excellent strength and attack scores. I summon these guys in a supporting role even when I’m not doing a bless, but with an N9 they’re magnificent. I’ve heard it thrown around that they’re the best summon unit for their cost in the game, and while I’m not quite sure enough to make that claim myself (Ozelotl are certainly competitive simply for convenience’s sake with their flight, +5 HP and ease of Mictlan’s blood slave gathering operation over the Se’ir +4 Berserker), they’re definitely in the running. Lords of Civilization – These guys though, I’m quite comfortable labeling as the best SC summon in the game, even over the Chayot, the go-to Wish SC (although admittedly +10 Fear is inferior to the Chayot’s +7 Awe). 66 HP and excellent stats, +30 Invulnerability, +10 Fear, +2 Damage Reversal, +60 Stealth and a suite of resists across the board, not including the personal skills of the various Grigori which usually break down into things like 4 magic in three separate paths + H3, +20% Fortuneteller, Healer 3. The real fun part is the Corrupt Commander ability; every round, every commander on the field faces a morale vs. 1 save or switches sides as the Enslave Mind spell. Versus 1 isn’t a hard save to make… but it adds up. If I manage this, I mostly just play around afterwards. Every Grigori has 4+ in Blood and 4+ in Astral, plus Fire (Shamsiel and Azazel, Archdevil and Infernal Forces summoners), Earth (Arakiel, Father Illearth and Infernal Crusade; Azazel again, also with Infernal Crusade), Air (Ezekiel, Infernal Tempest or even those damned elusive Shedim), and Nature (Semyaza; Dark Vines and Improved Crossbreeding aren’t really worth your time, but what the hell, right?). All of them can pretty easily summon Heliopaths and Demon Lords, too. Elemental Royalty too, if for some reason you want to try for that. The Grigori aren’t really ‘raiding’ SCs, though you can use them for that if you like. You have Melqarts for that. To me, these guys are your army leaders, an insidious force plinking away at your enemies’ minds every turn while they cast whatever their flavor of big battlefield magic is from the rear as those come online (slowly; this is a giant nation). Relief/Mass Regen, Mass Enslavement, Antimagic, Fog Warriors/Storm/Wrathful Skies, Flame Storm, Army of foo, stuff like that. Running low on mooks? Fly back to a lab (did I mention they have Move 5?), throw on some +blood gear and summon up a few tenpacks of whatever your flavor of demonic mook is with Blood 9 summoning. Horror Seeds if you’re bored. This is the final card to play as Hinnom. But at least they’re really, really big cards. THE TWO FACES OF HINNOM: Play strategies. The Rephaim – You’re big, you’re scary, and you’re going to eat the whole goddamn world. This is the N9E4 Great Bull build, no question. That gives you enough for some combination of high Order, Production and Growth, and I toss a Misfortune scale in there since all your Ammi have fortunetelling. Your armies are made up of Rephaite Warriors headed by Qedesot and indie priests, backed up by what Acha and Ammi you can spare. Two Rephaite giants and a priest are sufficient for an expansion party for most purposes, and one can be fielded each turn. Everything from elephants to sorceresses and amazons can be largely ground under by this team, up to armies of 60 indies in most cases. The exceptions are cavalry, barbarians and possibly ichtyids. Cavalry simply necessitates throwing some of your Enkidu Slaves in front to soak up the lance charge; those lances absolutely will kill your expensive giants before they can regen back up. The turtle shell armored ichtyids and barbarians also swarm over your giants and bring them down without heavy losses; indie archers help there, or leave them be until you have magic of your own. By turn 3-5, you should probably have built a temple near the capital so that your capital turns aren’t choked by Qedesot and you can start recruiting Ammi and Acha, your workhorse mages and healers. Your research is likely not terribly good, since the Ammi are expensive and you took an N9(/E4) Bless and can’t afford magic scales. It isn’t unusual for this style of Hinnom to be twice as large and threatening as its next nearest competitor. A Hinnom using Rephaite Warriors is an all or nothing explosion from the word ‘Go’, aiming to establish an empire greater than any other and then scrabbling desperately to hold it with never enough men (expensive giants) and forts (expensive castles) to seal off all avenues of intrusion. Hinnom can put together the mightiest army the world has ever seen - one of them. If score graphs are on you are almost certainly going to become the villain of the piece, but you don’t have a choice; your troops and forts demand blood money from across your empire to build, they eat your own population to the bone, and your problems are made worse by the fact that Hinnom tends to start in the most barren wastelands the map has to offer. Engage your diplomacy muscles swiftly, lest you find yourself under attack from multiple angles which you can’t deal with well. At this moment, you are effectively cut-rate MA Ermor; king of a crumbling empire starved of resources. No one really wants to slog through your endless wastelands filled with a dying population and regenerating giants (if you’re playing with Rephaite Warriors, you almost certainly took an N9 bless, probably N9E4). Ally with someone early; promise to crush his enemies and see them driven before you, to hear their lamentations, etcetera. Ideally you’ll manage to crush at least one nation with a giant rush, taking their fat and wholesome lands for yourself, before the giant killer spells come online. Leverage your oversized nation to turn gold into giants. Your Rephaite Giants have to come from your capital, which means that once your forts are built (or, ideally, stolen from someone else; Rephaite Hinnom does have problems cracking forts without Gate Cleavers, though) you’ll be supplementing your giants with their Avvite lessers. Hordes of the cheapest indie archers you can find can pay dividends with Fire Ammi for Flaming Arrows. Your Warriors do provide an excellent screen for a wing of Hinnom’s slow chariots to run down those human mooks that the Rephaite Warriors can’t kill fast enough, and the Dawn Guard are absolutely worth your gold, being effectively Rephaite Warriors in miniature (without the hunger for human flesh). As you expand, keep an eye out for choke points to place your first castle, but don’t place them too close to the fighting; they take 5 months to build, and I’ve wept bitter tears more than once at enemies slipping around my giant expanders and crushing my expensive castles in their cradles. You’ll also want a lab in a wasteland tile somewhere that you can drop a Melqart or Ba’al to start summoning Se’ir, but you can safely leave that to Year 2 or even 3. Expect to lose territory once you run into other human nations, because you can’t be everywhere. It’s okay; you have territory to burn. In this strategy you can mostly leave your Ammi at home for the first year or two. They’re not the fastest researchers. Sending one Horite and four Ammi out to site search early covers most of your bases; once you have a small steady death gem income, you can switch the Horite over to the site-search spell and send out an Acha to replace him in the sitesearching group. Otherwise I prefer to run up the Alteration tree to level 5 for buffs as fast as possible, then dipping around for Conjuration (3), Evocation (5? Ish?), Enchantment 4 if I find the right archer provinces, and of course, Blood. Once the expansion phase is over and you have gold and gems flooding in from your vast empire, I like to switch the capital over to StR Melqarts. They do okay out of the box, being self-buffing/blessing, heavily armored and wielding a magic blade, but I like to add an Air Pill or Winged Shoes depending on if I want to conquer the seas or raid around. Then you can season to taste with Horror Helms (provided you acquired a Skull Staff from someone), Dancing Tridents and/or Girdles of Might. The one thing you’ll cry for is a decent Brand for these guys, and unfortunately you just can’t get it without a 50 gem empowerment, a lucky indie find, or - at best - a late and somewhat substandard Shadow Brand. Regardless, you can defeat small armies and all but the very hardest PD alone with these guys, and having a couple of Melqarts dropping out of the sky in their backyard nicely distracts most people from all the free, open wasteland there for the taking. You’ll want to set a couple Melqarts up with blood-boosting items and set them free to hunt you up some blood slaves, because you’ll need to empower a Melqart twice and equip him with all the blood boosting items in the book to have a chance at summoning the Lords of Civilization. At 177 blood slaves apiece in addition to all the start-up time, these guys are not cheap, though they are absolutely worth it. That will come on its own time. I like to make the boosted Melqart a Fire or Earth one, just on the extreme off-chance I still have blood slaves left for Devils or Demon Knights after the Grigori get their bloody tithe. In the meantime, any spare blood slaves should go towards summoning Se’ir at the much more humble Blood 3. At 4 blood slaves per goat demon and summoned in packs of 8, these guys shred enemies beautifully with a high strength score (even more so when the +4 berserker kicks in) and 3 attacks, and with 28hp (36 and regenerating, with an N9 bless) they even stick around for a while. The only downside - and it’s not much of one - is that they’re only Move 2, like the Dawn Guard, while your giants and chariots are roaring around at Move 3. At least they also have Wasteland Survival, and they don’t need to eat (sometimes a pertinent problem when your Melqarts are stripping the countryside bare). I summon these guys even in my other, non-bless strategy, wasteland permitting. If none of the giants, huge chariots and goat demons backed up by decent mages and healers are winning the game for you, then your only win condition is to summon the Grigori, equip them with all the best gear you can scrounge up, and send them out to salt the earth in your name. Unfortunately, many games go by without the stars aligning correctly to pull that off. If Hinnom flounders, it tends to be in the middle game when strong EA battle magic reigns supreme and your population is slowly draining away under the weight of all your giants. The Avvites – A more civilized war giant, for a more civilized age. An Avvite gameplan focuses on good scales, either a Blood Fountain with B7 (for summoning the Lords of Civilzation with only a Brazen Vessel, and +3 strength on your Se’irim) or a Golden Calf with E4B1 for as near to perfect scales as Hinnom can achieve: O3P3H3G3M2. Avvite Hinnom expands with 3-5 chariots screened by either a hired mercenary company, Enkidu Slaves (if you’re killing cavalry) or Avvite infantry/spearmen (if ranged attackers/barbarians are on the menu) led by an Acha. Your Chariots have a bad habit of coming down with Battle Fright affliction which the Acha regularly cure, 10 Avvite units is almost always sufficient to deal with indies, and the -1 morale isn’t so bad on units that have morale 12. You can throw in a Horn Blower with the Chariots for extra morale if you find you need it, but in these early turns it seems better to have an extra Avvite or half a Chariot in your party, and the horn blowers manage to get themselves killed fairly often and need replacing. There’s usually a convenient province of indie commanders near your capital you can switch over to after a few turns, leaving your mages free to research. Perhaps send out a few Horite Shamen and Air Ammi to get started on site-searching; the Shamen can sitesearch for nature, death and earth all at once, and you’ll want the air gems early for Quills and later for other things.Your expansion parties often go out every other turn, assuring you a solid rate of expansion; alternate recruiting Ammi and Acha each turn. Expect to lose the occasional Avvite unit or Enkidu Slave pack before the chariots clean up, which means that by the end of the expansion phase these parties should restock. In a perfect world this would be with Dawn Guard in place of their lesser Swordsmen. In fact, Dawn Guard and Chariots - eventually let by Ba’alim and Melqarts, who can lead an absolutely ridiculous number of units (160, plus some undead and magic beings) at +2 or +3 morale - will sustain you through much of the game. Dawn Guard are size 3 and thus fit two to a square, and that’s a lot of protection and defense to pack into one square. I tend to bring out my Ammi earlier than in the Rephaim strategy; you end up with more of them with this strategy (since they aren’t battling for recruitment space with Qedesot). Together with the Magic 2/3 scales this means research goals are hit quicker, and I feel that the Avvites can use the support quicker than regenerating giants. The Avvite strategy tends to have a smaller territory, but holds that territory better than the Rephaim strategy. It focuses on larger armies (relatively speaking; a Dawn Guard or Chariot will still run you 45g or 75g respectively). The Melqarts are still valuable as rampaging raiders, but I find myself transitioning to Ba’alim quicker, once the faster research starts hitting potent Alteration and Evocation milestones. It's a little more complicated than throwing regenerating giants at all your problems, and maybe it's less exciting than going all in on expensive giants with either brilliant success or crushing failure soon to follow. But in the end it is probably the more powerful one, since the giants tend to run out of steam eventually as you get further and further from your capital. BIG MAGIC – What schools are worth Hinnom’s time? Conjuration – Conjuration 3 and then stop, for most purposes. Conj4 if you want Light of the North Star (for lizard shamen or something). It’s pretty niche in this nation. Conj5 if you want Howl to toss another battlefield-wide spell on or Dispossessed Spirits as chaff. Conjuration 3 nets you the mighty Earthpower for Blade Winds, Iron/Marble Warriors, Maws of Earth, etcetera, and the less critical but still useful Phoenix Power for Fireballs, Fire Clouds and Falling Fires. Dark Knowledge also speeds up the acquisition of death gems, and Call of the Winds makes for a serviceable patroller for blood hunting. You also get Summon Mazzikim, for whatever that’s worth. Alteration – Alteration 5 is sufficient, although there are plenty of tasty things further up that may tempt you. Alteration 4 includes everything your Melqarts need to self-buff (with the exception of Alt7 Phoenix Pyre, which is a fun extra) and Wind Guide. Alteration 5 gets you Iron Warriors and Wooden Warriors for defense, and Maws of Earth for offense. Mother Oak if you’re playing an N9 bless. Lightning Resistance, Cold Resistance and Shatter are situational, but you might be glad to have them at some point.Fun but probably unnecessary things include Phoenix Pyre, Marble Warriors and Mass Protection at Alt7, Conflagration and Warriors of Muspelheim at Alt8, and Army of foo at Alt9. Evocation – Probably Evocation 5. Evocation 2-3 gets some use out of your Acha and Ammi, but Evocation 4 (Bladewind, and Breath of the Dragon isn’t too bad) and Evocation 5 (Falling Fires, Orb Lightning, Earthquake, Stellar Cascades, Poison Cloud) gives all of your mages something valuable to do. You can’t really mass enough of any one mage type to be truly deadly, but by that same token your versatility means it’s difficult and not really worth it to develop counters for all your mid-level tricks. Higher levels in Evocation are mostly reserved for making your Fire Ammi more dangerous, and generally isn’t worth it. Construction – Construction 6, ASAP. Con2 gets you Owl Quills and Fire in a Jar, and Amulets of Water Breathing to send your Melqarts down to scour the ocean floor for you. Horror Helms, too, if you can acquire a Skull Staff for your Horite Shamen. Con4 gets you Thistle Maces for your Acha (N3 opens the way to Enormous Cauldrons of Broth), Earth Boots for your Ammi (and to start making Dwarven Hammers). Also most of the gear you may want to outfit your Melqarts with: Amulets of Antimagic, Vine Shields, Girdles of Might, Winged Shoes and Snake Bladder Sticks. But Con6 is where you get Skull Mentors (again, you need that Skull Staff) and Lightless Lanterns which you desperately need to boost your anemic research. Also Shadow Brands (with a Skull Staff) for your Melqarts, Blood Thorns to start getting your blood booster chain going and Skullshine Caps for your Astral Ammi. Enchantment – Enchantment 4-6 depending on what kind of secondary options you like, largely optional. Some skelliespam for your Horites, but lacking D2 naturally they’re always going to be handicapped there. Ench4 gets you Antimagic and Flaming Arrows. Ench5 gets you various magic wards (fire, lightning, poison) and Dispel. Ench6 gets you Heat from Hell, Arrow Fend and (with effort) Relief. Nothing to base a game around, but when you need Antimagic or Arrow Fend, you kind of really need it right then. Ench8 has Mass Regeneration, which is lovely, but Hinnom doesn’t really have the research to get everything it might want. Sacrifices have to be made somewhere. Thaumaturgy – Thaumaturgy 5 if you want to give your Astral Ammi more punch, also optional. Thaum4 gets you Paralyze, Thaum5 gets Soul Slay. Possibly if you find yourself facing a lot of animals (Wildness, Charm Animal) or want to throw in more fear (Panic). Your Astral Ammi can reach Enslave Mind with pearls (Thaum6), Acha can reach Charm with gems or Thistle Mace (Thaum7) and the Grigori with their Astral 4-5 can reach Mass Enslave Mind (Thaum9). Adds nothing for three out of four Ammi or your Shamen except a few sitesearch spells, unfortunately. Blood – Hinnom’s blood game is an uphill struggle, not just due to its expensive unrest-causing blood mages but also because Hinnom has no worthwhile patrollers. You could hire indies to do the job, but I tend to prefer summoned Great Hawks and their accompanying hawk posse if you find yourself with air gems or mazzik if you have an excess of nature, flyers gaining a bonus to patrolling as they do. My group tends to high magic games that support that; your mileage may vary. As discussed earlier in the Rephaim strategy section, Hinnom really only has two worthwhile blood summons unless you’re willing to empower an Air Ammi to produce Shedim, the Se’ir at Blood 3 and the Grigori at Blood 9. If all the stars come into alignment and dread Cthulhu turns in his sleep, you can summon the Grigori and have access to pretty much every other good blood summoning spell out there through them (except Water). It doesn’t really have the blood slave production or the cheap blood mages for combat blood magic until you hit Blood 8 for the potent Rush of Strength, Life for a Life and/or Damage Reversal. Blood Lust at Blood 4 can be worth it if you’re running with Se’irim. |
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1:02 AM Jul 11