Re: War of the Dark God: choosing a nation

From: lademark@get2net.dk (Niels Lademark)

Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2002 14:35:12 +0000

"Jon Steer" <jon@da-group.co.uk> wrote in message news:<1015328200.2736.0@iapetus.uk.clara.net>...

Hi Jon

I've also signed up and wondered about the preferences. I've played
about half nations in the game with the notable exceptions of Vampire
Lord, Beastmaster, Druids, Queen of Wey, Gnomes and Caliphate.

> I signed up for the latest game of War of the Dark God a couple of weeks ago
> and thought I'd take a look at which nations are the most/least popular
> while I was waiting for the game to fill up.
>
> I expected the preferences to be fairly evenly split between the nations but
> this doesn't seem to be the case. (The details can be found by going to
> http://www,pbem.dk/game_signup.html and clicking on the details link.)
>
> The most popular nations so far are the Vampire Lord and the Beast Master,
> both of which are in my choices I must admit, mainly because they have a bit
> more to them than just military might and because I haven't played them
> before.

Nor have I and VL is also among my priorities.

> The next most popular are the High Elves, the Queen of Wey, the Caliphate
> and the Eastern Kingdom which with the exception of the High Elves are
> almost completely military based. One reason for this could be that the
> military nations do have an advantage when it comes to victory points (and
> hence final positions) in that a lot of vp are gained from battles.

These are also nations that tend to see a lot of (early) action.
Nothern Isles, Pirates, even snakemen does no always have/choose to
involve them selves early on (first 4-5 turns).

> At the other end of the range lie the Gnomes, with nobody choosing them as
> their preferred nation although some rate them as acceptable. Which seems a
> little odd, I haven't played them myself but they seem to have a lot going
> for them - great magic, plenty of (fairly weak) troops, good movement, easy
> controlling...

I for one have argumented against the heavy influence of (off the
board) firestrikes on game balance and the Gnomes are heavily
dependent upon those strikes to complement their weak troops.

I disfavoured the Gnomes because I fear that the latest adjustments to
the strikes fail to compensate the gnomes. As much as I dislike
strikes I acknowlegde their value to individual positions and when
this value is diminished the nation is weakened.

> I wouldn't mind hearing from other about how they chose their nation or
> thoughts on the relative popularities. Its something to do while waiting for
> the last 3 positions to be taken....

Well I have choosen the following:

Northern Isles (De-selected because I've played it earlier on)

Order of Quama (Selected becase I've got some strategies I would like
to pit against the Sorcerer and because it is a strong questing
nation)

Druids (Selected because it can tip the balance in the northern
hemisphere by itself, lots of powers, hight mobility)

Elves of Windwood (De-selected beacause I've played it before)

Snakemen (The first nation I played, neither selected or deselected,
I've got  some ideas I would like to put to the test).

Beastmaster (selected. Fun nation, big potential, lots of powers and
tactically tricky)

Gnomes (De-selected. Probably to weak..now..dunno)

Trolls (De-selected. I've played the nation before (fun though...I won
:-)

Caliphate (Selected. I love a challange...:-) and this nation is fun
and challanged by three of four simultanious foes. I would like to
test a strategy)

Queen of Wey (Selected. I've never played the QoW before, the lure of
fun powers are also significant)

Pirates (De-selected. I've played the nation before (fun though, lots
of action and powers if you are up to it :-)

Dwarves (De-selected. To slow for my taste)

East Kingdom (Neither selected or deselected, I've played it before
(and lost) but I've got some new ideas I would like to put to the
test).

High Elves (De-selected Played them by proxy, fun action and power
packed, though).

Sorcerer (De-selected, played the nation before, I liked the mobility
and powers however)

Vampire Lord (selected, I,ve never sunk my fangs into human flesh
before...)

> Cheers
>
> Jon

See you around Grancor
Niels

References

War of the Dark God: choosing a nation
"Jon Steer" <jon@da-group.co.uk>
Tue, 05 Mar 2002 11:36:37 +0000