Special Abilities in Middle Earth...One Man's Opinionby Marc Parker
I'd like to present some opinions regarding the current set of special abilities available in both scenarios of Middle Earth PBM. Below are all of the nation special abilities known to me. I will try to rank their effectiveness based on the following criteria:
Each ability below has a letter in behind of it, ranking it on the following scale:
Before beginning discussion, please remember these rankings are based on my experience in play both on my side and against me. Also, it is possible that a specific style of play can help optimize the use of one of the above in conjunction with other abilities, but this discussion is directed toward ranking each of the above separately, and independently of the others.
First, let's cover type I. Naming characters with an extra 10 points of skill is definitely an advantage, but only when naming characters of that certain type. Therefore, this is the limitation preventing an A rating. The addition of stealth, as I understand it, is one of the best abilities, since it counts as agent skill and also on the chance of a character being seen in opposing pop centers and by scouts. One would have to consider downgrading this ability if you had to do a stealth "roll", which added (.01-1.00*stealth) only a part of the stealth rank to agent rank, but personally, I feel stealth is "in use" for a character at all times, even for non-agents. The +20 kidnap/assassinate is also applicable every time these orders are used. Although this is effective only with agents, I feel this is such a destabilizing effect on play that it still merits an A grade. Lastly, in my experience, very few of the characters receiving the challenge bonus actually fight in challenges, with the exception of army commanders in military nations. In that usage, I'd upgrade to a C, since you gain some flexibility (like not having to refuse) for the characters who receive the ability if they are an army commander. Type II looks like this. In my opinion, the bonus to scouting is a very de stabilizing ability. Why? Imagine always being able to see all characters in a hex...none of those annoying "unknown free people male" messages. And of course, the people who show up as "unknown free people male" are the ones whose presence you really need to know about. This order can free up other character orders as well, like mages casting Reveal Character or Locate Artifact to try to track certain powerful characters. How many times did you ask if a Woodmen or Dragon Lord or Quiet Avenger agent was available to support one of your character offensives? If you're smart, many. Granting all characters the ability to scout/recon at 50 is extremely useful, since usually the number of characters able to perform this task are limited, and the ones who do it well are the characters you want in action roles rather than support roles. This allows much more information to be gathered. A great second order for a commander, mage, or emissary training in a pop center. The +20 ability is still great, but not as good as the other two. Analyzing Type III involves first analyzing the effect of morale on combat in the ME-PBM combat engine. As currently set up, the morale modifier, along with command rank of army commander, nation climate modifier, and nation terrain modifier, averaged equally together compose the Average Army Modifier, which is then multiplied as a decimal times the attack strength of the army in calculating the total army troop strength. Basically, the interpretation of this, is each four points of morale results in a one percent gain of your attack maximum army strength. Therefore, if the total MAXIMUM army strength is calculated to be 16,000, the gain for each four morale points is 160, or one percent of the maximum. So in the three type three morale savers, it would take several turns to accumulate a meaningful amount of additional strength. Generally speaking, many, if not most armies, are killed within a relatively short time of creation (perhaps 8-10 turns at most in my experience). Therefore, if say 2 morale points can be saved each turn, a total of 16 to 20 morale points would be added, resulting in a 4 or 5 percent gain of maximum strength for that army, if it lasts that long. As you will find out, this is a best case scenario, especially since this effect is lessened further (in gross terms) by the Average Troop Modifier. In the grand scheme of things, whether you agree or not, mathematically speaking morale in an army is just not that significant a factor unless armies of opposite sides have a tremendous disparity of morale. At least if all new armies start with 40 morale, this allows a 30 point morale boost (resulting in a 7.5% gain)over a normal starting army (10 morale), but only a 10 point morale boost over a normal split army (2.5%). It is not to say these gains are "nothing", but in my opinion, the added value over the long haul is much less than most other starting nation abilities, so I would enjoy virtually every other starting special ability over the morale based ones. This brings us to Type IV abilities, which are really similar to the Type III's since they merely modify a similar Army Troop Strength component, the training rank. This, along with weapons rank, troop terrain modifier, and troop tactic modifier, averaged make up the Average Troop Modifier, which is treated much like the Average army modifier, but used specifically for each troop type. All of the abilities mentioned here, with the exception of hiring armies for free, modify the Army Troop Strength calculation the same as the morale component above, and hold, in my opinion, little value for the same reasons discussed above. The hire armies for free is a pretty nice benefit, especially since this can result in a large number of recruits in a very short period of time, especially if you have several closely packed pop centers. If used in a position like Haradwaith in the 1650 scenario, this can be considered an A ability, for its ability to destabilize, since a large number of troops can be brought to bear much faster than would normally be expected. In addition, regardless of one's gold reserve, an army can always be hired, versus having potentially severe military problems if all one's gold is stolen before being able to hire an army. The only truly useful of the Type IV abilities appears to be the Hire Armies for Free. I assess the Type V in the following way; some of the spells are useful while others are virtually useless. Fanaticism and Fearful Hearts only provide a slight morale boost, and we know from above what that means. The conjure spells can prove useful, since they can provide both military and economic benefit. However, a pretty good mage is required to get the full effect of the spells, and unless your nation is Mage heavy, this cannot be done on a grand enough scale to have a truly devastating impact. The Summon Storms spell is interesting, since it forces any opponent into the standard battle tactic. This at first seems insignificant, but not that the Troop Tactics Modifier is a direct modifier to Army Troop Strength. This means, with adequate knowledge of tactics (like which pummels standard the hardest), a significant military advantage can be achieved (I have heard some predict it to be as high as 40%). This is therefore a much potentially a much greater influence on battle outcome than any of the spells affecting troop skills or army morale. It is not an A due to the amount of time it can be used. Type VI abilities are simple to analyze. Very few nations can compete in a naval buildup due to several factors; nation's location relative to the sea, pop center attributes (like if a port is present), production (what if you make no timber), ship strength, economic standing (1,000 gold per ship to build, and much more if timber must be bought), and opposition (why build warships with no one to kill?). In almost all games which I've seen or heard of, naval tactics have been almost solely limited to having a portable dock cart troops around, and the attempts to sink such by warships. If naval units could, for instance, reduce pop center size by bombardment, the naval option would conjure many more strategies and uses. As it sits, unless a nation REALLY needs portability (Gondors and Corsairs in both scenarios), the navies really do not play as big a part in the war as many other factors. With all this being said, on the rare occasion in which navies must be built, the reduced timber cost is nice, but probably not the difference maker in the entire war, as armies would be on a consistent basis. As you can tell, I don't feel the naval advantages are very significant, but could only be helpful on very rare occasions. The build fortifications at 1/2 timber cost is much more significant, as every nation is likely to use this at some point. In addition, this may actually be a REQUIREMENT for some nations (like the Sinda in both scenarios, having to fortify major pop centers in close proximity to enemy lines), and certainly welcomed in others. Arguably, this is a B attribute, but the extent of use is often a question, since some nations begin with many or all strategic pop centers fortified, or cannot fortify in enough time or size to prevent conquest. Type VII abilities are varied, as they cover the all other abilities not included elsewhere. It contains perhaps the biggest advantage of all, which is the 20% cash adjustment to all buys and sells. Read that again: "A 20 PERCENT CASH ADJUSTMENT TO ALL BUYS AND SELLS". This essentially gives you an extra 20% cash on all non-tax base and gold transactions. This can make a nation very powerful, and can help a nation which may otherwise have trouble support itself. In addition, this nation will gain market manipulation abilities by having its buying power inflated by 20%. Also, if the market spread between buy and sell comes in too close, the nation possessing this may gain instant profit on buys and sells without having to risk broader market factors by waiting a turn to see if manipulation/arbitrage was successful. Many people consider it the single biggest asset in the game, especially since it is an ability which can be used very often with no incremental cost to the nation involved. Hidden pop centers are also a great advantage, and would be an A if they could not be unhidden. As it is, it takes a nation substantial resources to unhide a hidden pop center unless it is very lucky and begins with the reveal pop center spell. All of this assumes the unhiding nation has a decent mage to begin with. Some don't like the Uncover Secrets at 40 or better, but I do. This can be a useful order at times, and especially if your nation is emissary light. An agent in a company could issue this as a second order, and you'd be surprised at what you may find out in some of these excursions. Things like capitols moving, nations dropping, and a potential rival's victory conditions are all potential information points. This is also a great order for that nation who is not in great communication with other nations (not generally recommended), since it could be the only source of information besides the map and nation messages. Ships never suffering storms or being lost at sea really has very little consequence for most nations to start with, and even sea faring nations tend not to stray far from shore, even with this ability. There are still pirates on the seas, as well as sea monsters, so this ability really does very little, considering its specialization and minimal depression of bad circumstances. The views above are really my own, and I am actually open minded to feedback regarding the above, as well as open to being enlightened with some new strategies to take advantage of abilities I may have overlooked above, or even new strategies to take advantage of already beneficial abilities. Which nations are the "winners" and "losers"? Here is a table of all nations in both scenarios. Listed is their abilities, and total points of special abilities (A is 5, B is 3, C is 2, D is 1, and E is 0)
How can this distribution be explained. First, the game must be balanced, or else no one would want to take the side at the disadvantage. The free people have a large advantage in economics and in military force. In order to combat this, GSI has tried to do some things to even the sides. For instance, Dragons help to offset the free army advantage. However, the economic advantage is a long term one, so GSI uses two items to balance this. First, artifacts are used to help balance the game. Almost every DS nation has multiple artifacts; by and large these are powerful. The free have no where near the same number of artifacts. Of course, some of this is historical, but the actual powers of the artifacts are open to some subjective opinion. Secondly, nation abilities are used to help counter the free economic advantage. In looking at the data, you can see specifically individual nations are helped. For instance, the QA and Dragon Lord have some of the best special abilities in the game. This is certainly to offset the large number of foes immediately surrounding these nations. One might respond, "But what about the Witch King; his special abilities stink and he's surrounded." Good point, but keep in mind how good WK starting characters and artifacts are (as well as a sound tax base, relative to other DS). In fact, if you remove the WK and Dark Lts., the average DS nation becomes a 10.4, which is as an average almost as good as the best free nation (Woodmen). If you remove the Woodmen and Northmen, the Free average is only 7.1. This gives, on an adjusted average, an almost 50% advantage to the Dark Servants. Like I said earlier, this is to try to compensate for the enormous free advantage in economics. Neutrals. Why are their abilities so horrid? Well, to combat the biggest advantage in the game; deciding what alliance to join. I'm sure this is why the neutrals have little in the form of artifacts, and on average, poor starting characters. All of these things counter the fact that the neutrals have several turns to farm or just see how things are going before deciding to jump in on the winning side. These neutral disadvantages aren't hurting enough; neutrals have won about 30% of the games to date.
Once again, same result in the 2950 game, and for the same reasons. This is only one man's opinion. Feel free to write a response to this, as I'm sure there are several ways of interpreting this data. As a side note, you may decide to upgrade all of the economic advantages in 2950 (most notably hire armies for free) since GSI decided to use a one sided economic model to determine costs (i.e. less money in 2950, but same hire army cost of 5000, regardless of market in either scenario)
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