I genuinely didn't know that the Black Sorcerer turned into a Hunter Spider on death! Since they can't voluntarily shapeshift, that implies that the Spider is actually their true form...
@Sassy_Witch6 ай бұрын
the lore running deep
@praeceps99886 ай бұрын
You have to admire illwinter for giving the Hunter Spider both the smart mount and the stupid tags
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Are the summoned spiders smarter or dumber since they have neither of those tags?
@qwertystop6 ай бұрын
Smarter. The mount tag would be meaningless on them.
@moleman76326 ай бұрын
A couple of things to mention: 1) your black sorcerers and sorceress's are tougher than they look, both have wounded shapeshift and turn into higher HP spiders. This makes the units far more resistant to disease than they appear, which is handy because they are both typically old. D3E3 at const7 give you Eye pendants for disease healing in the later game and is easily achievable, as is the disease grinder artefact and combos with the fever fetish to create a nice gem generation site in the late game for Fire and Death gems. 2) Your sacred black spider rider can no longer successfully repel, the mount-rider size change and the new falchion weapon makes repel pretty much useless. 3) Summoning elephants is fairly good, they cant trample your spider riders, and can act as a big force to push the enemy line into disarray and allow your spiders to engage favourably as otherwise you tend to have surrounded spiders. 4) Anasi are heretics, so you can experiment with some hellbless and rely on them to manage your candles, but their heretic score is lower than EA bouda's and the unit is fairly expensive. It is a good glamour mage, and is a path to fairy queens for late game magic diversity (water and Air access specifically) 5) Sorcerer's are good research slaves, especially with a research booster. They can use the Nature (+11RP for 10gems, cursed) and Glamour (+9RP for 5 Gems,-2MR) boosters and can also make lanterns or skulls if you have extra death gems. For this reason I personally like Drain scales, which also helps a bit with your lack of astral magic early-mid game.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
I'm trying not to mention items for brevity, but Eye Pendants are 100% the solution. It's also not too tough to hit N4 with the out of cap sorcerers and just cast cure disease too! I think losing repel is fine considering how much harder it is to hit the rider, and how beefy the spider itself is. Fair tradeoff for spider tank, and the falchion is a good weapon imo. Idk about the elephants, N gems compete with more sacred spiders now in 6! I like your point on #5. With how expensive research is on the nation investing gems on tall researchers does make a lot of sense. Holy cow you are right that the nation gets access to boosters from 4 paths! The research rush potential is real, if expensive! Outside of lanterns, I think the other 3 are available at const5? Thats pretty damn strong...
@moleman76326 ай бұрын
@@ZanGames yeah they are all Const5 items, hitting that early can get your research skyrocketing.
@CantusTropus6 ай бұрын
Given this, I think you either go for a super early war OR Fort up and tech rush using the money from your strong expansion.
@MogFlintlock6 ай бұрын
Being a nation that excels so comprehensively, I think MA Machaka might be the new best nation to give to new players. They're maybe a little more cap reliant than one might like, but between Hoplites/Archers/Spider Knights (maybe also Spider Riders if they're as good in MA as they are in EA) for scales troops (yeah, there's some real stinkers on the roster, but I think the overall strength of MA Machaka's scales troops is actually quite high), exceptionally powerful sacreds (that proliferate beyond just cap recruitment) and a properly realised mage roster that doesn't rely on communions or weird low paths, you don't end up with quite the same issue as Ulm/Marignon where you're kinda quarantining off a large portion of the game to just focus on 'make guys and then red arrows'.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
You may be on to something. I think the important thing of the black hunters vs marignese knights is that hunters are silly with anybless, cant go wrong. Marignese need something. I think, haven't used them in 6yet. In my head I'm thinking of MA Aby for my "first time player game" guide/series. One because they were the first on my channel, two because Abysians go brrr and have small path diversity, and three cause I can break people's fear of blood early(at the end of the series ofc). Maybe.
@jambondepays19696 ай бұрын
@@ZanGames imho there's fear of blood and there's not wanting to deal with the tediousness of blood. having to recruit patrollers and two scouts to ferry to and from a fort to get your slaves is beyond annoying, even with the shortcuts. they should change it so you blood search directly on forts and it pulls pop from the adjacent provinces like resources or something, and it puts the slaves directly in your stock i love dominions and 6 is a godsend in some places but it still needs a lot more qol upgrades lol
@jambondepays19696 ай бұрын
@@ZanGames also, andramania might be a good beginner nation as well. good troops and simple easy to use mages that don't really require communions to perform, and can make a small one to cast high path spells. communions are less scary than blood, especially small ones, and its often one of the things that new players are interested in dominions for. if all else fails, a bunch of mages casting body eth on the senatorial guards is all it takes against the AI and it teaches the importance that a aoe1 buff can have. also dogs, people like dogs
@DemonsthenesDominions6 ай бұрын
Other buff spells to recommend for this nation include the Temper Armors line (gets your Hoplites up to 20 protection with wide AOE and no gem use) and Group Regeneration; not many nations get enough nature access to do that one, but this nation does get enough N3 access that you can realistically paint it on a couple dozen squares of troops (An N3 can do 6 squares before sleeping). And Web is the other stand out combat spell; sorcerers can spam it quite a bit, and it amplifies the overall national approach of entangling the enemy army.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
The nation has solid access to so many good paths it was hard to choose buffs. I think I'd swap out the furious warriors one if any, but I want to include it to get some vision on new spells in old paths. I don't think any two players would play Machaka the same, which is pretty cool. Other than super spiders of course. Spooder stronk.
@xeroprotagonist6 ай бұрын
Something I noticed when trying to come up with a strategy for Machaka is that the one unusually good thing about their basic troops is that they have 2 encumbrance, which is lower than basically any other recruitable human troops in the game. They'll fatigue very slowly in combat compared to most infantry. I feel like they could exploit this by casting spells that make combats drag out and lower hit chances, like darkness and blur. Also, they'll be able to repel most kinds of units with their 4-length spears, which could waste opposing units' stamina even more. With some of the new buff spells in Machaka's paths, they might be worth a second look now. Especially as a first line to tire enemy units before your hoplites come in, since their encumbrance is much more severe, you don't want them to be in the fight as long.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Great catch, didn't realize they had such low natural encumbrance.
@praiseHashut6 ай бұрын
as a bit of an amateur entomologist, I have been meaning to try out Machaka for years, hope the mount “bug” gets fixed soon! plenty of time to wait, so many cool changes to nations I love, so no rush! haha!
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Oooh that is pretty cool. I saw some insect related mod nations starting to float around the steam workshop! Haven't looked further than the surface, but those may interest you?
@MajesticSundew6 ай бұрын
I think a contributing factor to the spider knights not webbing much is that they can now displace human-sized units, meaning that when before they would be stuck behind a line of human units for a time spitting webs, they now just push through into melee ASAP.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
That is also very true. The displacement mechanic is SOOOOOO good tho.
@TheMelnTeam6 ай бұрын
I didn't realize they got glamour in addition to the buffs to spiders and all the incidental buffs. Pretty legit nation now!
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Very legit nation now, strong as heck. Once they bring the mundane spider knights up to par...top tier MA I'm sure.
@CantusTropus6 ай бұрын
Oh man, I was waiting for this, MAchaka is a much improved nation. Two small recommendations for lategame magic: G random Anansi can use two gems to overcast Spirit Masks (AoE 5 Fear buff) and G3 Sorcerors can do the same to overcast Warriors of the Dawn (AoE 20 Awe). This should help make your high density Hoplites much more dangerous lategame.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Yeah this is a really cool combo I'm looking forward to seeing!
@tjeisenman44396 ай бұрын
Love these videos wish they were longer haha I know your trying to keep them short:)
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
I actually realized this one got TOO long, but was too tired to make more cuts. I think I spent too much time often referring to dominions 5... What's worse is the next one I have written down in my notebook is LA Pythium. How will I NOT spend half the video on their commanders...Oh boy...
@flamingcatofdeath16056 ай бұрын
Any dominions videos that are 15 minutes or less feels blessedly short so I don’t think that the length is a problem with the video.
@KermodeBear6 ай бұрын
All spider units should have at least FEAR: 100. Because let's face it, out of all the stuff in this game, gigantic spiders that shoot webs to entrap you while they bitey bite is the most terrifying.
@joshuawallace16896 ай бұрын
Loving these, good stuff.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Glad to hear it!
@DemonsthenesDominions6 ай бұрын
The reason spider knights are bad now is that they used to get 14 piercing damage bites, but now it's only 9 due to getting 11 strength. I complained about it as a possible bug on Steam forums as it seems weird for a size 7 unit.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Oh wow thats significant. I remember them absolutely trashing indie heavy cav in 5. Between the aoe1 ranged web, and their bites. Now...they are awful.
@sesleri64576 ай бұрын
This kind of video soooo helpful thanks. Need MA Abysia and MA C'tis :)
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
MA Abysia on the horizon, Ctis a little further back but has now been added to the list.
@DemonsthenesDominions6 ай бұрын
A fun fact is that every Sorcerer, ideally with a couple XP stars (for morale) can be a pretty solid PD raider thug with enchantment 3 and a Lion pelt... And a couple Glamour gems. Death randoms can be much heavier thugs with Soul Vortex. EA Machaka can do the same with their 140 gold witch doctors, BTW; one can defeat 19 PD with those with at least some poptypes. But only Machaka has plentiful access to the GDFN path combination needed to do all 3 of the Fear/Awe/Confusion buffs, plus personal Regeneration.
@daral92176 ай бұрын
The God Spider with Fear and Awe is a very funny expansion, a monster with high enough protection and a bless that turns all of your Voice of the Hunters into cut rate versions of the same. You tank the heck out of your scales but Monster plus a couple of Voice of the Hunters in pairs means you can get outsized expansion. After a bit I was trying to get my god killed just to see what would take it.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Bonus points for being very thematic
@Rakykia6 ай бұрын
Fun vid. New matchaka's spider sacred commanders are also fun if you give their spider blacksteel barding with a dmg resistance bless. Their size means humans almost never hit the commanders on top, so they can be kinda nasty prot-tanks without fluffing if you figure out reinv situation.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
How much prot does that put them too? Like 30? That's insane.
@EvilTwinn6 ай бұрын
One thing to think about is the difficulty in blessing all of your spider sacreds. It's just kinda difficult to get them all blessed, so having blesses which don't require them to be blessed, such as Larger, is a pretty reasonable option overall.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Outside of the prophet, even with h2s, it can be tough cause big. Definitely why I think Larger is nearly an essential bless for them.
@Cuvvie6 ай бұрын
I've not watched the video yet, but did read the video description. I chose an imprisoned pretender with, with non-incarnate blesses for black hunters, as well as bumping order and production scales. This allows you very strong mid game black hunter armies, but you can spam out Spider Riders for expansion. With Spider Rider, force them into melee and they make competent expanders. P.S I am a massive noob!
@Cuvvie6 ай бұрын
(unsurroundable bless for black hunters proved to be a very effective defensive bless)
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Yeah that is a great build! You're on the right track!The black hunters are so crazy strong they don't need much! The only concern I have about hellblessing them is how expensive the rest of the nation is, so imprisoned something sounds really good!
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Also, thank you for mentioning you read the description. I've just been kind of adding that there and not sure if anyone was actually reading... Those are the notes I handwrite while bored at work // use as a semi-script for the video.
@Cuvvie6 ай бұрын
@@ZanGames Oh! I found the notes amazing! Not many people put effort into good video descriptions - I expect people that read the description are in the minority.
@fishbones13976 ай бұрын
There's something very funny about the hunter spider having the stupid tag while also having smart mount (100). It'll find its way home but Pantokrator help you if you get in its way.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Are the summoned spiders smarter or dumber since they have neither of those tags?
@fishbones13976 ай бұрын
I'm no mathemagician but I say smarter since hitting your friends is pretty dumb.
@ivan-to2zy4 ай бұрын
Playing MA Machaka right now and either spiders were fixed or you were off about the web spit, but they definitely use it and a decent amount of time too
@ZanGames4 ай бұрын
The spider knights? I couldnt get them to do it reliably, how are you using them? What commands / formations? Are they sharing the group with other units?
@thedistanthorizon6 ай бұрын
Truly terrifying.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
♫ Spooky scary spooders send shivers down your spine silky webs will shock your soul seal your doom tonight ♫
@thedistanthorizon6 ай бұрын
@@ZanGames That's pretty good. Definitely get points for that one.
@Isvoor6 ай бұрын
They have a national province enchantment now too (weavers of the wood) for buffing pd with spiders and catching invisible stealthers. You also skipped the eye of the lord! They're a useful utility commander for collecting taxes from provinces you take with stealth, and also just the cheapest commander for leading expansion parties or blessing your sacreds.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
I did skip them, and I used them a bunch in my dom5 game. They were some of the early cuts in the video before I gave up and sent it as is (and longer than I wanted). I do feel AI is a bit better at sneaking past your army for commander snipes, so beware!
@Madhattersinjeans6 ай бұрын
I like these quick overviews. They seem like a good nation to try transformation shenanigans with, i think that might help break into astral and other magic paths too. twiceborn + transformation if you feel like spending extra gems for insurance. And gift of health seems a great choice with those beefy sacred spiders to synergise with that. I'd love to hear what you have to say on Therodos and if their old strats from dom 5 are still viable given all the changes from that game. With the addition of caves they're a little bit stronger and the higher income means they might get their forts up a bit more easily. But i've only had a short amount of time to play around with them.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Therodos was my first MP win! I honestly haven't even looked at them since then. If I had to guess, ghosts alone may start getting outnumbered if the numbers weren't tweaked. Melia thugs took a bit of a hit with the mossbody/prot nerfs too. Theoretically off the top of my head it doesn't sound good... Although the Telkhine should still be a major menace, and more gold gets you building forts sooner as you say... Hmmm.
@CantusTropus6 ай бұрын
Therodos' biggest weakness is that most multiplayer lobbies hate Underwater nations and popkill nations, so Therodos is almost certain to be banned.
@mekosmowski6 ай бұрын
I mostly do SP, but am trying Weaver of Tales dread/awe rainbow with not-trashed scales.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Great synergy between the two! Beware nations with berserkers and skeletons!
@CantusTropus6 ай бұрын
EA Machaka also got a major facelift.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
I've heard crazy expansion stories with the lion warrior guys. Invuln strong early.
@dp1016 ай бұрын
How do you avoid taking too much friendly fire from banefire/shadowblast? Banefire in particular seems worrying since decay seems to generally be a death sentence. You've got decent MR, but not incredible, idk if it's just not actually a problem or something though.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
A few different ways, none perfect. The first is that the best turn for evocations to hit is turn 1. The second best turn is turn 2. And so on. Aka, the sooner the hit the less prepared your opponent is AND the less likely it is for friendly fire! A common script could look like: Evo1, Evo2, self buff, buff others advance and cast. Second is a weird concept I at least play with where I am OKAY doing some damage to myself, as long as it hurts the enemy much more. In Dominions its a case of I can prepare for a spell better than they can since I know its coming. What means in practice is casting fire resistance on my units if I plan on fireballs hitting near them, likely its not enough...but thats okay. Some of my soldiers my day, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make. No one said I was a benevolent pantokrator :)
@CantusTropus6 ай бұрын
I personally don't think Black Hunters need a big bless. Larger is enough for them to crush expansion, throw some attack skill or whatever on them if you're taking the paths anyway and have spare points.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
The spooders scale so well with hp / str. I don't know if they need too much attack skill due to the web attack. Unless that needs attack skill too since its not aoe1...i should have tested that.
@CantusTropus6 ай бұрын
@ZanGames Now I want to try a mass resilience Bless...
@scages1014 ай бұрын
If only Machaka had decent +20 non fort PD, I never pay much attention to it in multiplayer games but against the AI... With the exclusion of the Pigmy. All other non armored units I don't think I have ever seen used. Even as siege chaff, maybe that's why Machaka died in the Middle Ages.
@ZanGames4 ай бұрын
Yeah their province defense is really depressing. I wouldn't mind a minor rework on the MA *unit* roster. The commander roster is great.
@scages1014 ай бұрын
@@ZanGames hell even if the shielded ones had furs and a leather cap I’d consider using them as siege chaff and arrow catchers but currently…. Waste of gold
@andrewcole48436 ай бұрын
I think that the 2nd pretender design has magic path values inconsistent with the blesses and not enough bless points at least for a vanilla game. Not sure which actual magic paths intended e.g. Earth 3 and larger. You probably edited the paths after assigning blesses?
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
The second pretender gets a -1 to all paths in the spider form that it shows. I editted in the human form above. Its the...weaver of tales? I think was the name...
@Unahim6 ай бұрын
No, it loses some paths in its spider shape and that ends up the one being shown on the preview.
@andrewcole48436 ай бұрын
Ok thanks to both explaining that.
@Logidrake136 ай бұрын
Is there special rules in multiplayer games? liek faster reaserch or such?
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
If you dont rename your prophet you live with eternal shame. I think loose diplo will be a thing in regards to the NAP system. Otherwise the biggest difference is that there are a lot more fatal threats early that need to be accounted for. Like if youre playing MA Pythium, and someone is playing MA Machaka. We need a plan for what happens if hardskin+larger+regen black hunters beeline your capital on turn 10.
@Logidrake136 ай бұрын
Also, I can't find the pretender "the great spider" physical form in my game. did you use a mod? Plus you put "Larger' bless with N3 E3 wich is impossible afaik
@MogFlintlock6 ай бұрын
The pretender is 'Weaver of Tales'. The pretender has a -1 path penalty in spider form which manifests on the summary screen. The pretender's paths are actually A2E4D4N4G6.
@Logidrake136 ай бұрын
thx@@MogFlintlock
@yugonostalgia89616 ай бұрын
I was just thinking how they haven't changed all that much but shit - they can cast luck on their superior hoptlites now?? damn that's gamechanging
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Huge! Big facelift!
@kirbyone6 ай бұрын
Can confirm: hunter spooder > black centaur
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Spooder stronk
@Logidrake136 ай бұрын
And here, I was thinking "Damn i've been asking so many guides to Zan but what I REALLY need RN is a deep guide about mutltiplayer game and how make most use of mages cause I rly feel like I never use my mages before lvl8 spells, but i've been spaming him too much lately so i'm gonna wait for his next video to ask that" *Sees Zan uploaded a video 17 min ago*
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
I feel like dominions 6 really encourages using mages earlier once you get to the midgame buff spells. Once you start getting the Group X spells it really starts going, but you need a lot of mages out on the field. I know Dom5 was kinda "keep your mages at home until you get battlefield wide spells", but at a glance dom6 looks different. Which is good! I wish I had more time to make stuff too :(
@Logidrake136 ай бұрын
Yeah i'd like very much seeing more full blitz video from you to see how you actually use midgame mages with factions that depend on it (Feminie for exemple)@@ZanGames
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
I've been trying to find time to play the MA Pyrene SP game I did some time ago again. That should have some midgame magic in it. Just haven't been able to find a good 2-3hour window of inspiration. I have a Feminie sample expansion written down for a quick video to do, but I don't think it will include big magic.@@Logidrake13 Edit: The LA Phlegra one too, that one was cool and was actually using magic! Most midgame magic is just a handful of mages casting the group spells, or advance and cast with some evocations(make sure to cast some protection first!)
@JOnatanKERtis4 ай бұрын
Obfuscate need 6 Glamour and LARGER also need 4 So Weatherr of Tales build as you showed is not real.
@ZanGames4 ай бұрын
Weaver gets a negative to all paths when in spider form versus human form. Display issue
@JOnatanKERtis4 ай бұрын
@@ZanGames Here's the thing. Didn't take it into account. By the way, the idea of Obfuscate would look good on knights and crones with MAN.
@ZanGames4 ай бұрын
@@JOnatanKERtis no worries! Im glad people check what i say, makes sure that whoever is watching / reading gets the best info. Obfuscate on man sounds oppressive. I havent fought them yet, but ive seen what those knights can do!
@randoljr236 ай бұрын
Please do Phaeacia
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
Added to the list, its getting kind of long... but up there! A quick tldr to hold you over: The giants are good, I feel like larger battles favor the armored ones more. Air magic feels really strong now. Losing fire path is unfortunate, but now have access to wailing winds which is really strong. Pretender design depends if you are island start or not.
@randoljr236 ай бұрын
@ZanGames having tested a bit I feel like glamour is a reasonable replacement, and I agree that the heavy infantry are better with the possible exception of repel. As far as I can tell you still want to expand with the light infantry. I have yet to test thunderstrike vs the glamour sleep cloud as a base evocation however.
@ZanGames6 ай бұрын
@@randoljr23 yes, still expand with the lights! Javelins are invaluable, as is repel and lower resource cost. Honestly i forgot sleepcloud got moved to A-G. As someone who got wrecked by it in Lucid's finals, super strong!