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Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/Niefelheim: Difference between revisions
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{{Header Nav|game=Dominions 3: The Awakening}} | {{Header Nav|game=Dominions 3: The Awakening}} | ||
{{floatingtoc}} | |||
Niefelheim is the realm of great ice giants. They are enemies of the Vanir. The frost giants are huge and strong and they are surrounded by a great aura of coldness. They also have lesser Jotun giants in their service. The mages of Niefelheim wield powers over Water and Death magic. The Jotun sorcerers know Blood and Water magic and other sorceries. | Niefelheim is the realm of great ice giants. They are enemies of the Vanir. The frost giants are huge and strong and they are surrounded by a great aura of coldness. They also have lesser Jotun giants in their service. The mages of Niefelheim wield powers over Water and Death magic. The Jotun sorcerers know Blood and Water magic and other sorceries. | ||
==Inspiration== | ==Inspiration== | ||
Niefelheim is drawn from the Norse mythologies. | Niefelheim is drawn from the Norse mythologies. While Midgard was the home of Man, and Muspelheim the realm of fire, Niefelheim is the land of ice and darkness, ruled by Hel. | ||
==Overview== | ==Overview== | ||
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:Niefels require some clever tactics and a little luck to combo well with friendly indy troops, who tend to get caught in the chill aura. Cold resistant magic should solve this. | :Niefels require some clever tactics and a little luck to combo well with friendly indy troops, who tend to get caught in the chill aura. Cold resistant magic should solve this. | ||
[[File:Dom3JotunSShifter.jpg|right|thumb|Skin Shifters change to a ferocious werewolf form when injured.]] | |||
;Jotun Skin Shifter: Gold 70, Resources 5 | ;Jotun Skin Shifter: Gold 70, Resources 5 | ||
:Skin Shifters have great morale (15) and MR (14) plus decent combat stats. They regenerate 4 health per round. Oh yeah, ...and they transform into a werewolf if they are wounded. Pretty cool. These guys will often still hold the line when the rest of the Jotuns have run away. Their major downsides are their fairly low protection, no shield (can't block arrows) and high gold cost. SO they benefit from protective spells like Legions of Steel or Arrow Fend. | :Skin Shifters have great morale (15) and MR (14) plus decent combat stats. They regenerate 4 health per round. Oh yeah, ...and they transform into a werewolf if they are wounded. Pretty cool. These guys will often still hold the line when the rest of the Jotuns have run away. Their major downsides are their fairly low protection, no shield (can't block arrows) and high gold cost. SO they benefit from protective spells like Legions of Steel or Arrow Fend. | ||
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''Tjatse is an ancient Niefel Jarl and lord of the icy fortress of Trymheim. He is a powerful sorcerer and owns an eagle cloak that grants him the ability to change shape. In the war with the Aesir in ages past he used this used this power to capture Idun, gaurdian of the Apples of Immortality. Now he follows the awakeneing God, eagerly awaiting the Illwinter and the rise of the Rimtursar. When in eagle shape Tjatse's power in Air Magic is increased, but his other magic skills are lessened.'' | ''Tjatse is an ancient Niefel Jarl and lord of the icy fortress of Trymheim. He is a powerful sorcerer and owns an eagle cloak that grants him the ability to change shape. In the war with the Aesir in ages past he used this used this power to capture Idun, gaurdian of the Apples of Immortality. Now he follows the awakeneing God, eagerly awaiting the Illwinter and the rise of the Rimtursar. When in eagle shape Tjatse's power in Air Magic is increased, but his other magic skills are lessened.'' | ||
A3 W3 D3 H2 HP:58 Prot:17 Mor:15 MR:18 Enc:4 Str:26 Att:14 Def:22 Prec:16 Mov:3/15 Ldr:100 | A3 W3 D3 H2 HP:58 Prot:17 Mor:15 MR:18 Enc:4 Str:26 Att:14 Def:22 Prec:16 Mov:3/15 Ldr:100 Sacred, Susceptible to Fire 50%, Cold Resistant 100%, Chill | ||
Tjatse is basically a Niefel Jarl chassis on steroids and is likewise considered sacred. He is your nation's best means to bootstrap into Air gems, and can cast both powerful rituals and combat magic in that path, so you might want to keep him out of combat till he has secured a steady Air gem economy plus forged some useful items. His eagle form is A4 W2 D2 H1 with slightly less combat stats, Flying, Mountain Survival, Patrol Bonus. | Tjatse is basically a Niefel Jarl chassis on steroids and is likewise considered sacred. He is your nation's best means to bootstrap into Air gems, and can cast both powerful rituals and combat magic in that path, so you might want to keep him out of combat till he has secured a steady Air gem economy plus forged some useful items. His eagle form is A4 W2 D2 H1 with slightly less combat stats, Flying, Mountain Survival, Patrol Bonus. | ||
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''Angerboda, the Great Hag of the Iron Woods, is the oldest and most wicked of all giants. Her evil nature has turned her home into a forest of iron and ice. Her children are monsters born in the dark of the night. Angerboda has performed Blood magic and necromancy for centuries and has taught her evil ways to the Skratti of Jotunheim. The Gygjas are her servants, and they help her divine the past, the present, and the future. She has seen the impending arrival of the Illwinter and has come to aid the awakening God.'' | ''Angerboda, the Great Hag of the Iron Woods, is the oldest and most wicked of all giants. Her evil nature has turned her home into a forest of iron and ice. Her children are monsters born in the dark of the night. Angerboda has performed Blood magic and necromancy for centuries and has taught her evil ways to the Skratti of Jotunheim. The Gygjas are her servants, and they help her divine the past, the present, and the future. She has seen the impending arrival of the Illwinter and has come to aid the awakening God.'' | ||
S3 D3 N2 B3 | S3 D3 N2 B3 Cold Resistant 100%, Poison Resistant 100%, Mountain Survival, Supply Bonus 20 | ||
Angerboda is a souped-up Gygja mage. She has great paths for rituals and forging. As your nation's only Astral mage, you will want to keep her out of trouble till she has secured a steady supply of Astral pearls. If you are using a bless strategy, Empowerment into E1 allows her to forge Crystal Shields so your H2 priests can cast Divine Bless. | Angerboda is a souped-up Gygja mage. She has great paths for rituals and forging. As your nation's only Astral mage, you will want to keep her out of trouble till she has secured a steady supply of Astral pearls. If you are using a bless strategy, Empowerment into E1 allows her to forge Crystal Shields so your H2 priests can cast Divine Bless. | ||
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==Strategies== | ==Strategies== | ||
====Scale Design==== | ====Scale Design==== | ||
Taking Cold is a given (you actually get penalized if you don't have Cold 3). With few exceptions, Niefelheim's troops and commanders generally cost 2x to 3x as much gold per unit as for other nations. It is rarely lack of resources that limit your production, rather lack of cash. So taking both Order and Sloth to pay for it works just fine. Growth or Death really depends on your overall strategy. Your economy | Taking Cold is a given (you actually get penalized if you don't have Cold 3). With few exceptions, Niefelheim's troops and commanders generally cost 2x to 3x as much gold per unit as for other nations. It is rarely lack of resources that limit your production, rather lack of cash. So taking both Order and Sloth to pay for it works just fine. Growth or Death really depends on your overall strategy. Your economy, troop production and supply will benefit from growth, however you do have enough Death mages in your repertoire to make a death-based strategy work. Misfortune can easily wipe out the benefits of Growth, or enhance the carnage of a Death scale. So I take Luck/Misfortune depending upon Growth/Death. Your mages get a guaranteed 5 research each even in a Drain scale. You have the means to forge Skull Mentors for your mages, and your Niefel SCs' worst fear is enemy magic. So at the risk of a slow start, if you concentrate on researching to Construction 4, a Drain scale is viable. Niefelheim's dominion is hard-coded to push into enemy dominion. But you should get high dominion to enhance this, and force the enemy to deal with your adverse scales. | ||
So all told, recommended scales could be: | So all told, recommended scales could be: | ||
*'''Growth Strategy''': Order | *'''Growth Strategy''': Order 2 Sloth 3 Cold 3 Growth 2 Luck 1 Drain 3 | ||
*'''Death Strategy''': Order 3 | *'''Death Strategy''': Order 3 Sloth 3 Cold 3 Death 3 Misfortune 3 Drain 3 | ||
====Pretender Design==== | ====Pretender Design==== | ||
Between them, Niefelheim's national mages and heroes have all magic paths covered accept for Earth. This shuts out some very important magic items: Dwarven Hammer for forging, Crystal Coins, Bloodstones, etc. So Earth is a good path to consider for your pretender. | Between them, Niefelheim's national mages and heroes have all magic paths covered accept for Earth. This shuts out some very important magic items: Dwarven Hammer for forging, Crystal Coins, Bloodstones, etc. So Earth is a good path to consider for your pretender. | ||
Niefel Giants and Jarls are some of the best non-pretender sacred SC chassis in the game, which really screams for your pretender to take magic picks that bestow at least a minor bless buff. With the right major bless and magic, each Niefel can become a SC terror on the battlefield. So unlike some others, your nation can get by just fine without an SC pretender. | Niefel Giants and Jarls are some of the best non-pretender sacred SC chassis in the game, which really screams for your pretender to take magic picks that bestow at least a minor bless buff. With the right major bless and magic, each Niefel can become a SC terror on the battlefield. So unlike some others, your nation can get by just fine without an SC pretender. On the other hand, Niefels are vulnerable to fire and heat scale, so relying too much on a Niefel-bless strategy can backfire in mid-game once your enemies have developed counters. | ||
=====Awake===== | =====Awake===== | ||
Why take an awake Pretender? Mostly to gain a hefty research boost and secure a larger gem income through early site searching, maybe forge a few items you wouldn't otherwise have access to so early. The price you pay, though, is a weaker bless. Niefelheim already has plenty of thuggery potential in its troops, so you don't need to rely on the Pretender to gain territory. Using the scales listed above we can come up with: | Why take an awake Pretender? Mostly to gain a hefty research boost and secure a larger gem income through early site searching, maybe forge a few items you wouldn't otherwise have access to so early. But you might also do an early rush on one of your neighbors, and it is nice to have your pretender in play to cover your vulnerability while your army is thus preoccupied. The price you pay, though, is a weaker bless. Niefelheim already has plenty of thuggery potential in its troops, so you don't need to rely on the Pretender to gain territory. Using the scales listed above we can come up with: | ||
*'''Growth Strategy'''- Monolith F4 W4 E4 S4 N4, Dominion 6 | *'''Growth Strategy'''- Monolith F4 W4 E4 S4 N4, Dominion 6 | ||
*'''Death Strategy'''- | *'''Death Strategy'''- Monolith F4 W4 E4 S4 N6 B4 Dominion 10 | ||
The Monolith comes with some disadvantages: it can forge a Dwarven Hammer, but won't be able to wield it, and you won't be able to site search till you have researched Thaumaturgy 3 (Teleport) and Construction 2 (Astral Clam). But it gives you a powerful rainbow pretender you won't be afraid to take into battle with a minor bless in 5 paths, 20 research and a respectable dominion 6. You can get this same level of bless stats on a smaller more mobile rainbow pretender with full slots (ie. Great Sage, Frost Father) if you are willing to take Dominion 5. | The Monolith comes with some disadvantages: it can forge a Dwarven Hammer, but won't be able to wield it, and you won't be able to site search till you have researched Thaumaturgy 3 (Teleport) and Construction 2 (Astral Clam). But it gives you a powerful rainbow pretender you won't be afraid to take into battle with a minor bless in 5 paths, 20 research and a respectable dominion 6. You can get this same level of bless stats on a smaller more mobile rainbow pretender with full slots (ie. Great Sage, Frost Father) if you are willing to take Dominion 5. | ||
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Under Death scales, we can take it further to improve the minor bless a bit and go up to 10 Dominion, which will not only strongly push our scales into enemy territory (we want our giants to always fight in cold 3), but gives our pretender Awe. The Skratti works similarly with only slightly less magic picks, if you prefer to have a mid-weight combat pretender with full slots who can move around. | Under Death scales, we can take it further to improve the minor bless a bit and go up to 10 Dominion, which will not only strongly push our scales into enemy territory (we want our giants to always fight in cold 3), but gives our pretender Awe. The Skratti works similarly with only slightly less magic picks, if you prefer to have a mid-weight combat pretender with full slots who can move around. | ||
Using only this rainbow bless, our | Using only this rainbow bless, our sacreds won't be SC status, but they damn well will be the best elite thugs on the battlefield. The Niefel Jarls can be further equipped with magic items that will enhance whatever spells buffs you cast to elevate them to SCs. The entire palette of magic items and rituals is open to you. | ||
=====Imprisoned===== | =====Imprisoned===== | ||
You can get a dual-bless E9N9W4 imprisoned Cyclops with Dominion 4 and nearly balanced scales (Order-3 Sloth-3 Cold-3 Drain-3). What this gets you are giant berserking Niefel Jarls who rarely take damage (Defense 14, Prot 17-20) and, even if they do, just go berserk (Prot +2) and regenerate the damage back. Attack 12 isn't stellar against cavalry but as you keep fighting, your opponent's fatigue keeps rising at about 20 points per round because of your chill aura--and every 20 points of fatigue is like -2 to defense, -1 to attack. And the Niefel Jarl is tough enough to survive the pounding until the aura kicks in. This might work with only E9N4 for half the price if you need good scales or an awake pretender. | You can get a dual-bless E9N9W4 imprisoned Cyclops with Dominion 4 and nearly balanced scales (Order-3 Sloth-3 Cold-3 Drain-3). What this gets you are giant berserking Niefel Jarls who rarely take damage (Defense 14, Prot 17-20) and, even if they do, just go berserk (Prot +2) and regenerate the damage back. Attack 12 isn't stellar against cavalry but as you keep fighting, your opponent's fatigue keeps rising at about 20 points per round because of your chill aura--and every 20 points of fatigue is like -2 to defense, -1 to attack. And the Niefel Jarl is tough enough to survive the pounding until the aura kicks in. This might work with only E9N4 for half the price if you need good scales or an awake pretender. | ||
Another alternative is taking N8W8 imprisoned Son of Fenrer with dominion 4, Order 3, Productivity 1 (giants are expensive!). Make one Niefel Jarl your prophet, and recruit about 4-6 Niefel Giants. The key is in their high Hit points, this means they will regenerate at least 10 Hit points per turn, plus the water bless means their defense is in the high 20s (varies due to domain for prophet but normal Niefel Jarl -defense =24), so they hardly get hit anyway. This should be capable of handling most indies level 5. Research construction 2 as soon as possible and equip your Niefel Jarls with luck pedants (50% of attacks that cause damage are negated), and they will even be harder to kill. | Another alternative is taking N8W8 imprisoned Son of Fenrer with dominion 4, Order 3, Productivity 1 (giants are expensive!). Make one Niefel Jarl your prophet, and recruit about 4-6 Niefel Giants. The key is in their high Hit points, this means they will regenerate at least 10 Hit points per turn, plus the water bless means their defense is in the high 20s (varies due to domain for prophet but normal Niefel Jarl -defense =24), so they hardly get hit anyway. This should be capable of handling most indies level 5. Research construction 2 as soon as possible and equip your Niefel Jarls with luck pedants (50% of attacks that cause damage are negated), and they will even be harder to kill. Construction 4 gets you ring of regeneration (10% regeneration) which gives you a total of 25% regeneration (18 hit points per turn). Want more? Forge a Hydra Skin (construction 6) and you get another +10% and regenerate a incredible 25 hit points per turn. But even better is if you are lucky enough to get a Gygja with S2 (about 7% chance),you can forge a Robe of shadows (construction 4) that gives etherealness and ignores 75% of non-magical attacks. | ||
====Expansion==== | ====Expansion==== | ||
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Niefel giants seem to do well in small, tight groups. "Guard commander" on a squad of 3-4 works to keep them in contiguous blocks that stop them from getting surrounded and lets the cold auras stack. | Niefel giants seem to do well in small, tight groups. "Guard commander" on a squad of 3-4 works to keep them in contiguous blocks that stop them from getting surrounded and lets the cold auras stack. | ||
Some Niefel Jarls have a path in air (very rare ones have 2) as well, so you can script them to cast Bless (or divine bless), Air shield (add mirror image and even mist form for tough battles) and attack. Set Niefel Giants to guard commander. | Some Niefel Jarls have a path in air (very rare ones have 2) as well, so you can script them to cast Bless (or divine bless), Air shield (add mirror image and even mist form for tough battles) and attack. Set Niefel Giants to guard commander. This works well in small to medium maps. | ||
Later on, try to forge Bone Armor (40 death gems, Construction-6) with a Death-3 Niefel Jarl, although you'll need to make a Skull Staff and a Skullface first to boost him to Death-5. Bone Armor gives you continuous Soul Vortex, which lets you leach life and fatigue off of adjacent enemy units (as much as 20 hp per turn and 80 fatigue, although if you're surrounded by enemy units and at 80 fatigue you're as good as dead since each one has about a 50% chance of crit-hitting you). Combine this with a cheap Pendant of Luck to effectively double your hit points. Bone Armor certainly doesn't make you invincible, but it suits the Niefel Jarl better than just about any other SC, and it does add a lot to his survivability of he manages to lose his guards. Meanwhile, pelt everybody with Falling Frost. | Later on, try to forge Bone Armor (40 death gems, Construction-6) with a Death-3 Niefel Jarl, although you'll need to make a Skull Staff and a Skullface first to boost him to Death-5. Bone Armor gives you continuous Soul Vortex, which lets you leach life and fatigue off of adjacent enemy units (as much as 20 hp per turn and 80 fatigue, although if you're surrounded by enemy units and at 80 fatigue you're as good as dead since each one has about a 50% chance of crit-hitting you). Combine this with a cheap Pendant of Luck to effectively double your hit points. Bone Armor certainly doesn't make you invincible, but it suits the Niefel Jarl better than just about any other SC, and it does add a lot to his survivability of he manages to lose his guards. Meanwhile, pelt everybody with Falling Frost. | ||
