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A Grey Guards Guide to Filthy Neutrals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxK_nA2iVXw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpaQpyU_QiM Ah, the Grey Guard. From a flavor standpoint, my favorite of the three factions, and they have some incredible skills as well. There is no getting around the fact that staying neutral is at least twice as hard as going good or evil, however. You will be forced to constantly monitor your own alignment to make sure your Karma balance is as close to zero as possible and aggressive diplomacy is just a thing you do not do. In times of great need, you can balance out a Peace Treaty with one player by declaring war on someone else in the same turn, but in general you'll be telling a lot of people to just gently caress off with their binding agreements and urgent matters of state. You are Grey Guard, and you've never received an offer you couldn't waffle on indefinitely. Sure, the odd atrocity or war crime is necessary, to make sure the world doesn't think you're going soft, but those indies had it coming and you all know it. The essence of Grey Guard is being sort of a noncommittal dick at all times, and it's glorious. Aside from overzealous neutrality, the Grey Guard also have a thing for "purging" unnatural creatures like Fey, Undead, and Summons. Which doesn't stop you for a second from being a Sorcerer or Necromancer Grey Guard master but that doesn't count because shut up. Unlike the other two specs, Grey Guard Adept is generally preferable over Master (Master is good, though) and it works equally well with any class. Grey Guard Adept Flourishing Balance Gives all of your cities +50 pop growth as long as you are neutral, +25 for Necromancers. Your starting passive. Kinda eh, but again, it's free and fairly helpful at the start. Scales of Fortune 140 Knowledge 60 CP 5 Upkeep Your basic alignment changing spell, and also gives neutral units a doubled chance to crit. Absolutely fabulous for Halflings, but really an awesome buff in general. Out of all of these spells Scales of Fortune edges out Life Stealing as my favorite, especially as it works equally well with both melee and ranged units. Essence Harvest 160 Knowledge. All enemy Fey, Undead, Magical Origin creatures gives +5 CP when slain. There is not a single Grey Guard Adept skill that is not loving amazing, and this is one of them. This ability both works immediately (So you can keep casting spells as the battle goes on) but also lasts after the battle and can exceed your normal CP cap. Against the right opponents it's like having a built in battery charger for your CP useage. So good. Shield of Dispassion 400 Knowledge 100 Mana 20 Upkeep All Friendly units +1 Resist when not flanked, Neutral Units also get effectively an invisible shield granting +2 Def to non-flanking attacks. I'm not sure why Shield of Dispassion is the only strategic buff that is granted at Adept instead of Master, but it is arguably the weakest of the three. Quite interesting though, with half of the ability applied to all units and with the requirement to avoid flanking attacks to benefit. Requires a bit of finesse but a really nice buff all the same. Again, goes very well with Halflings, who can always use a bit of extra physical defense. (Halfling Dreadnaught with Grey Guard is my jam. Shield of Dispassion on Golems is also great) Cardinal Culling 400 Knowledge, 20 CP Gives all identical units 40% Physical Weakness and -5 Physical Damage. BEST. SPELL. BEST Note that the damage penalty only applies to melee attacks. This is primarily a spell to counter melee beat stick spam and is less useful against mass supports and such. Still this is probably my favorite new spell in the game, because it's not just cool or good, but metagame shifting. Having this spell in your deck allows you to scan the battlefield, say "Hmm, I see you've brought 6 Manticores. Your loss" Picking out which unit you want to cripple next is a fun little mini-game that never gets old. All of my love, Cardinal Culling. All of it. Grey Guard Master Golden Balance As with Flourishing Balance, except this gives +5 Gold per city. Neither bonus is that hot by itself, but taken together it's +50 Pop and +5 GP for every city you have, which is honestly not bad at all considering you get it right from the start of the game. Healing Essence 280 Knowledge 25 Casting Points Destroys all corpses on the battlefield, heals all friendly units for +10 HP and gives +100 Morale. AKA the "gently caress you Necromancers" spell. I don't remember off-hand if this spell still works on resurgence or not, but if it does then there is finally one thing that can bring Necromancers and Theocrats together in hate. Still, corpse destroying is something of a secondary effect. People tend to overlook that this is a battlefield wide heal for 25 CP, which is not exactly a bad thing by itself. Purging Burst 400 Knowledge, 25 CP All Fey, Summoned, Undead, Magical Origin Creatures must resist or take 10 Fire/10 Spirit damage, 5/5 on a successful resist. It's interesting that Grey Guard Adept is fantastic for spellcasting classes while Mastery actively hates them, their families, and where they work. Another rather specialized spell, but for a Warlord or Dreadnaught fighting a Sorcerer or Necromancer this spell is again pretty fantastic. Keep in mind that with Essence Harvesting you actively feed yourself CP for anything killed by this spell, giving you fuel to keep casting it...The Grey Guards hatred of the unnatural is not just for political posturing. Voluntary Union 350 Knowledge Reduces City Absorb time by 50%. Every bit as good as it sounds, and works for Necromancers too. Especially useful for Grey Guard as you rarely have the luxury of using any button other then absorb. Summon Cthonic Guardian 1600 Knowledge, 280 CP, 36 Upkeep. 88 HP 30 MP (Flying) 15 Def 11 Res Melee Damage 18 Physical Rallying Cry (All units in a 3 Hex radius are inspired for 4 turns and Vigilant for one. Once per battle) Defensive Strike Defender Pikeman/Pike Square/Pole Arm/1st Strike Armored/Shield Good/Evil Slayer The Cthonic Guardian has a rather interesting gimmick compared to the other angels, or even other T4s. It's a good rule of thumb that any T4 can be killed off without too much trouble by mobbing it with weak units and flanking attacks. The Cthonic Guardian on the other hand, is a T4 unit specifically designed to simply crush infinite chaff. When used correctly it literally cannot be mobbed by weaker units unless you've got a Guard Breaker unit, and even then... It's a flying T4 Crusader with a Polearm basically, and it gets even more hilarious with medals. At Elite it has Total Awareness and Instant Wrath, because hahahaha. The vigilant ability granted by Rallying Cry basically lets units guard that turn even after attacking or running out of Action Points, it's uniquely powerful even lasting one round. Don't underestimate the Morale bonus from inspired stacked with Scales of Fortune, either. Obviously, the Cthonic Guardian is far less powerful at fighting other T4 units, but it's not useless necessarily. You don't want to put it up against Incorporeal Units like the Reaper and it is vulnerable to mind control abilities so in general it's not your go-to for T4 dueling. It's the ultimate defender, but very limited outside that role. Like all the Angels it's weaknesses are pronounced enough to make it something you use to back up your existing T4s rather then replacing them. And that's Grey Guard! The remaining stuff is a lot more work to write up, so I'll have the next guide done whenever, I guess. madmac fucked around with this message at 03:38 on Apr 9, 2015 |
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Apr 8, 2015 13:30
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8ws_APXilE Because someone's going to link it, and it might as well be me.  Great write-up, your enthusiasm for grey guard is wonderful.
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Apr 8, 2015 15:01
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Greyguard Halfling Necromancer is the best build in the game and anyone who disagrees is going to get stabbed to death by super cheerful zombie hobbits
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Apr 8, 2015 15:58
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Does any healing that doesn't explicitly heal undead heal undead, like Healing Essence? Could a necro sac the corpses on the field for a heal?
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Apr 8, 2015 16:09
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Somehow I missed a skill there. I'll edit it in tonight.
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Apr 8, 2015 16:13
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Malachamavet posted:Does any healing that doesn't explicitly heal undead heal undead, like Healing Essence? Could a necro sac the corpses on the field for a heal? Yeah, I just checked. Healing Essence heals literally everything, including machines. Mark Blood Sacrifice will also heal the undead (but not machines)
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Apr 8, 2015 16:14
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You know the goodie huts that show a city, but aren't terribly useful in explored maps, would it be a game changer to have it so they also count as contacting the city? Just throwing that out there. Also the RNG mapgen makes for some lovely setpeices:  Or as another goon put it: "There was a city here once, its gone now."
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Apr 8, 2015 16:20
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Gerblyn posted:Greyguard Halfling Necromancer is the best build in the game and anyone who disagrees is going to get stabbed to death by super cheerful zombie hobbits Ah yes, my favorite part of the hobbit was where they raised the dead, danced with them, and summoned Cthulu.
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Apr 8, 2015 16:25
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Nasgate posted:Ah yes, my favorite part of the hobbit was where they raised the dead, danced with them, and summoned Cthulu. You say that like it's not everyones favorite part of the Hobbit.
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Apr 8, 2015 17:01
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I'm pretty sure if I keep f5ing the steam page hard enough it will produce a purchase option.
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Apr 8, 2015 17:15
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Nasgate posted:Ah yes, my favorite part of the hobbit was where they raised the dead, danced with them, and summoned Cthulu. Wrong book; That describes the barrow-wight and Bombadil mess pretty well.(With a few embellishments, yes...)
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Apr 8, 2015 17:43
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Have any of the preview videos gone into all of the stuff in the new Dwelling yet? I know that we've seen the Lord of the Deep tier 4 in a few videos, and the Drowned Sailors (who look cool as heck) in the dev preview, but I'm curious about the other units and buildings.
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Apr 8, 2015 19:31
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Zore posted:Have any of the preview videos gone into all of the stuff in the new Dwelling yet? I know that we've seen the Lord of the Deep tier 4 in a few videos, and the Drowned Sailors (who look cool as heck) in the dev preview, but I'm curious about the other units and buildings. Well, you've seen the most important bits. The only reason I haven't said anything about the dwelling yet is that I don't know if it's going to be the last Dev journal or something. Here, have a preview vid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC_mV1IpjWA
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Apr 8, 2015 19:39
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madmac posted:Well, you've seen the most important bits. The only reason I haven't said anything about the dwelling yet is that I don't know if it's going to be the last Dev journal or something. Here, have a preview vid. How do we get the upgrade to walk mermaids on land?
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Apr 8, 2015 19:41
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Nasgate posted:Ah yes, my favorite part of the hobbit was where they raised the dead, danced with them, and summoned Cthulu. The Hobbit, Part 2: Dead and Back Again.
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Apr 8, 2015 19:48
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I said 'holy poo poo' out loud when I got to Essence Harvest, then felt silly for the over-reaction. Then felt even sillier when I got to Cardinal Culling and I'd already shot my bolt on conspicuous out-loud surprise. I can't wait to try out Grey Guard. There's so much good stuff coming in this expansion, good grief.
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Apr 8, 2015 19:49
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bamhand posted:How do we get the upgrade to walk mermaids on land?
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Apr 8, 2015 20:03
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Clearly we need covered wagons for moving sea units across land like land units get transports for moving across water
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Apr 8, 2015 20:05
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bamhand posted:How do we get the upgrade to walk mermaids on land? I asked! Posted extensive video evidence of this happening in beloved Childrens classics and everything. I got no support. 
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Apr 8, 2015 20:05
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So i'm wondering- what happened when you pick an alignment specialization and then stray outside of that alignment. I'm mostly wondering because of the Grey Guard spec- what will happen when I become slightly good or slightly evil?
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Apr 8, 2015 20:14
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Dedicated to good/evil units get massive morale penalties if you don't follow their alignments. When the specialization gives you more of those units and focuses its bonuses on them, I don't think you need any other incentives. Like how there's no point to trying to use Archons if you're good; they'll fumble all the time and then desert. I'm assuming Dedicated to Neutrality units work the same way, morale penalties.
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Apr 8, 2015 20:20
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Splicer posted:Serious post: I got a krakem out if a sunken city and was super excited, until I realised there was no water connection to any contested water bodies. Anyone feel like spitballing ideas for moving water units to other water masses on land maps? Either general strategic level teleport spell or a water-to-water teleport spell would do it.
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Apr 8, 2015 20:29
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Gerblyn posted:The Hobbit, Part 2: Dead and Back Again. Well, i know what im calling the AOW3 channel on teamspeak. 
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Apr 8, 2015 20:30
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Splicer posted:Serious post: I got a krakem out if a sunken city and was super excited, until I realised there was no water connection to any contested water bodies. Anyone feel like spitballing ideas for moving water units to other water masses on land maps? I want to hire a team of hobbits to carry my krakens on palanquins. They deserve to ride in style.
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Apr 8, 2015 20:47
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Hm? Aren't there any spells/equips/whatever that grant Flying? Or maybe the 'Water Walking' effect could allow a sea-based creature to go on land. It is, after all, 'walking'.
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Apr 8, 2015 21:10
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DatonKallandor posted:Either general strategic level teleport spell or a water-to-water teleport spell would do it.
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Apr 8, 2015 21:12
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Bloodly posted:Hm? Aren't there any spells/equips/whatever that grant Flying?
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Apr 8, 2015 21:14
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Splicer posted:What about being able to move a water unit from any owned harbour to any other owned harbour using item delivery style turn durations and handwaved logic? Make it a freebie attached to the second marine tech or something. This is a really good idea.
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Apr 8, 2015 21:14
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Seriously though, the new dwelling is one of my favorites and I usually make a beeline for it whenever possible. As far as I've seen the RNG always places it in large bodies of water so there's plenty of breathing room. Even aside from the units, which are great, and the relatively easy clearing of otherwise pain-in-the-arse water sites, it generates a lot of income and is exceptionally difficult to ninja cap so really, having one even as a vassal is all upside.
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Apr 8, 2015 21:29
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Bloodly posted:Hm? Aren't there any spells/equips/whatever that grant Flying? You used to be able to get flying Krakens with the Archdruid's ultimate spell. Then they removed it in patch... 1,2 or 1.3 because it looked silly or something. It was rad as hell and I'm still kinda annoyed it was removed.
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Apr 8, 2015 22:01
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Just played a multiplayer game on the beta that had all the expansion stuff turned on, tigrans frostlings new items dwellings racial bonuses cosmic events the works. Dwarven axemen get even stronger in the expansion, second racial upgrade about 10 turns in is +2 damage, brings them to the same damage as berserkers, but with a shield and defensive strike.
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Apr 8, 2015 22:05
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I always felt dwarves were kind of lame. Their archers are meh, their cavalry is slow. I suppose I really have to give axemen a go.
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Apr 8, 2015 22:43
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Axemen are an incredibly hardy front line.
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Apr 8, 2015 22:50
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Dwarves get upgrades for +2 Damage on their Crossbows and Pikes, too. I know people in the beta who swear by just massing Dwarf T1 units for a good chunk of the game.
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Apr 8, 2015 23:02
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Zore posted:You used to be able to get flying Krakens with the Archdruid's ultimate spell. They're waiting until you get cross-specialization masteries like if you have air and water adept you get air-water mastery and the Flying Krakens spell
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Apr 8, 2015 23:48
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Splicer's harbor-to-harbor portage sounds really excellent, perhaps moving slowly so you couldn't gain ground with it, and would only use it if you really needed to. Also gives a potential reason to build a harbor even if you have non-boat water units.
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Apr 9, 2015 00:58
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I had my first ever win on an 8 player Lord AI random map tonight. It was good fun, but I was puzzled as to why one AI would never ally with me. We had 1750 relations and he would send me gofts of gold to keep me sweet but never ever accept alliances - Allied Victory was on, but even with only me and him left on the map he was stubbornly refusing to ally. I had to decap-strike his throne then he surrendered and I won, but seems like the AI should have agreed there. No reason not to.
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Apr 9, 2015 01:56
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Yeah..part of the diplomacy AI improvement was to not have them blindly accept alliances all the time and just get backstabbed but now they blindly refuse them. We could really use a reasonable threshold for which they will accept. Relation modifiers for things like being at war with someone else they are also at war with, or allied with someone they are allied with, and improve relations over time for each friendly treaty you have (open borders, peace, alliance) would be good too. Also a big diplomacy malus for every AI in the whole game if you break treaties scaling with how long the treaty has been active (can use the same counter as positive treaties improving relations) to prevent the ease of backstabbing friendly AIs. Even evil superhitler despots aren't fans of traitors after all. Some of these diplomacy modifiers might already be in the game? I know there are a bunch now. Diplomacy seems like it is just on the edge of surpassing other 4xs if it takes some of this sort of stuff into account. There still aren't a lot of non military diplomacy trade/research/etc treaties or espionage stuff like other 4x have, but military is the focus of the game and that is fine. On that note, being able to point out a target for an ally to prioritize for defense or attack would be really useful and military focused. Other games have had this and it is really useful, not to mention fits in really well with the new puppetmaster diplomacy good guy playstyle the expansion offers. Also maybe it's just me, but has anyone gotten the "equalize this deal" diplomacy button to function lately? I feel like it just stopped working. Hitting it never does anything. Assuming the issue is that AI is just going to accept or refuse the offer anyway no matter how much I sweeten it, might as well say so in the menu when you hit that button if it isn't going to adjust the deal, right? Carnalfex fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Apr 9, 2015 |
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Apr 9, 2015 02:21
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Greblyn the game says the expansion is out and there's even a store page now but I can't throw money at you, why are you doing this to me???
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Apr 9, 2015 04:11
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Added Voluntary Union to the Grey Guard list. Good skill, very good skill. More importantly, I've decided that the only realistic way to tackle Necromancer is to break it up a bit, so tonight we'll talk about some basic city and unit mechanics. Necromancy 101, A Ghouls Guide to Night Life in the Big Rotten Apple We'll start with city mechanics, you will always start with a Undead City of your starting race. Every city you take or joins you willingly will also be ghouled. The only escape from the sucking pit of unlife that expands everywhere you set foot is Vassals, who remain living until/unless they join you, and Dwellings, which are never ghouled. Now for the most part Undead towns aren't that different from normal towns. You have 90% of the same buildings, the same units (Only Ghouls) and you still accrue Racial XP for each town normally, just without any happiness modifiers. That said, there are some vast and important differences: 1) City Happiness does not exist for you, and neither does Race Happiness. You do not care what your legions of undead serfs think of you personally and you don't ask zombies for political advice, period. In place of the normal city production/income modifiers for happiness you have a flat 15% bonus that never changes. Yes, that means your economy sucks balls. Ghouls are terrible entrepreneurs and also miserly spenders. You don't even want to know how much effort it takes to get them to open shop every morning. On the very, very small plus side, your economy is also difficult to disrupt, especially since you can instantly rebuild even razed cities with a quick spell. Not having Racial Happiness just means you can be a total dick to any race you want without repercussions other then what evil alignment normally gets you, and not having the XP bonuses from Racial Happiness means you unlock new RG tiers slower then other classes. Basically everything you do with cities as a Necromancer is slow as poo poo. 2) Absorbing (Ghouling) a city always takes 4 turns, unless you have Voluntary Union. You can still migrate to speed things up, just mind that the loss of population hits you harder then other classes. Also, given the existence of your Animate Ruins spell, Razing (or Looting) a city and then instantly rebuilding it is often the fastest and most profitable option, though you'll get evil points obviously and already ghouled cities can't be looted. Destruction Adept is a really tempting Spec for Necromancers just for that combo alone. 3) Your Cities have no inherent Population Growth! None! Now, you do get free population for killing units, which helps a bit. Every fight you win as a Necromancer will give you a small amount of undead population that will automatically dump itself in your closest undead town. Still, this will be a major limitation for you. Undead Cities lose the Storehouse Chain, and replace it with their own class chain that is utterly and completely non-optional, at least up to embalmers guild. The current line and prices go like so: Harvesters Guild 40 Gold 10 Mana Gives your city +200 Undead Population growth. Yes you have to build a thing just to achieve lovely baseline growth any living city has for free. Embalmers Guild 125 Gold 25 Mana Adds +50 Population, Heals garrisoned Undead for 50% HP per turn, and Ghouls trained in this city get +7 HP and +40% Fire Protection. This is the single most important building you have as a Necromancer. It makes your growth suck slightly less, it's your only source of healing outside of Reanimators and a mid-game empire tech, and it makes your Racial Ghouls not loving garbage. You are basically required to throw up this and the Harvesters guild up ASAP in any city you are planning to build anything, about the only thing I would put higher in priority generally is a Builders Hall. This is a good transition point to talk about Ghouls, lets do that. As a Necromancer, all your produced racial units are ghouls, as are all your starting units and any units you pick up using ghoul curse or living units converted with Lich Aura. Ghouls are, first of all, Undead. Undead all have +40% Cold Protection, +100% Blight Protection, 40% Spirit Weakness, 20% Fire Weakness, and a grab bag of things they are immune to. Most morale effects, positive or negative don't work on Ghouls. Backstabs, Charm, Seduce, do not work. Some other stuff won't work on them either but I don't have a complete list. Now ghouls are, basically, an inferior form of Undead, at least to start with. Ghouls have -1 Def, and an extra 20% Spirit weakness on top of all the other undead traits. Ghouls are not very good starting out, eventually you will get some Empire Upgrades to help them out, and most importantly embalming. Embalming Gives them enough extra HPs to offset the defense penalty, and enough Fire Protection to turn that 20% Weakness into 20% Protection. This is vital, especially for Frostling Necromancers. Eventually it means your produced ghouls will be stronger vs fire but weaker against spirit then your class units and summoned undead, and vice-versa. It also means that your embalmed ghouls that you paid cold hard cash for will be solid, while the ghouls you, uh, procure in the field will be a fair bit weaker. Anyway, two more buildings in the chain. Cathedral of Bones 150 Gold 100 Mana. All Undead units +1 medal and +50 Pop. Three expensive buildings in, your city has 300 Undead Population, which is roughly like a normal town+storehouse. Yeah. You won't be able to throw this up just anywhere for a while, but that flat medal bonus is hella useful for obvious reasons. While your economy is slow and Ghouls are initially frail, but late game you'll be able to produce some pretty solid units to form the core of your army. Palace of the Perished 350 Gold, requires all the normal Grand Palace stuff in addition to the Cathedral of Bones. Instead of a Happiness bonus, the Undead Palace gives you +10 Gold +10 mana +5 Research in addition to the usual +10 CP and +1 domain radius. Hey, it's something. Oh, one last note. When someone else takes over an undead city, they will be forced to Purge the City to restore it to a living city of whatever. It's effectively a mix between absorbing and migrating as the city will lose population and you can choose what race you want to purge it to. Purging is not an evil act, but migrating in a different race will have the normal effects on race happiness. Now, I realize I'm making it sound like the Necromancer blows, but trust me, outside his lovely economy there are many wonderful and magical things. Which we'll talk about next time, possibly. Edit: Actually, one more small thing. Since Undead cities don't have happiness, rushing production costs population instead. madmac fucked around with this message at 05:40 on Apr 9, 2015 |
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Apr 9, 2015 04:24
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