Quote:
Originally posted by FreeFreddy@Aug 23 2004, 06:29 PM
Btw, my advise is: choose Myrran-ability and take as race the Night Elves, they produce one magic point per population and their ranged units (magicians, clerics etc.) are more powerful than any of the other races.
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Dark elves are great fun. Of particular interest are their night blades. These units cost 2 gold and 1 food to maintain (modest). But have the invisibility ability. Meaning only undead, creatures with true sight spell, (and sky drakes, and (arch?)angels) can see them. They are great for protecting nodes from enemy troops and spirits. They can also make effective "walls" at choke points to prevent enemy troops from freely passing through. And because they are invisible, most enemy troops cannot attack them.
Dark elf priests are powerful to be sure. But one could argue that beastmen priests are better because they have twice as many hit points and only one less magic attack strength. As such they tend to be a little more durable. (enemy wizards tend to target priest/shaman/magician/warlock units with direct damage spells. At only 4 hit points for the typical priest unit, this can mean a short combat career).
When playing dark elves keep in mind that they grow "very slowly" meaning they have a -20 per turn growth rate. If you want to take full advantage of their 1 "magical power" per population point (the highest in the game, followed by draconians, beastmen, and high elves, which all yield 1/2 point per population) be sure to plant your settler units in favorable growth rate areas. Choose areas with rivers if you can. And plains if you can't. Stay away from mountainous areas and deserts if you can. (those towns will grow very slowly). Also spells like "change terrain" (nature; uncommon), "gaia's blessing" (nature; rare) and "stream of life" (life; rare) are all great ways to improve growth rates in towns.
For areas that contain "powerbase" generating minerals (mithril, adamantite, quork and cryx crystals). I like to place dwarven settlers if I can (whether they are my "home" race or not. Dwarven towns grow slowly as well, but a well placed dwarven town can easily generate 10 mana per round as soon as it grows to 1 population. Where it would take a dark elf town many many many turns to reach that mana output. And a miner's guild built in a dwarven town will increase their bonus even more.
(no I can't spell Verbose consistently)