Post by samt on Oct 21, 2015 0:53:27 GMT
To minimize the damage resets, sudden refreshes, etc. do to these long articles I will now write them in parts and save them frequently and leave the phrase "in progress" in the subject till it is done. This will also be more in the form of a guide folllowing the current poll results
You've come to the wrong neighborhood
Nation Overview
Niefelheim is a cold frigid land of the Rimtursar and their descendents the Jotun. The Rimtursar were frost giants that once ruled the land but now the strongest lay dormant while the weakest and the Jotun plot their reawakening with the use of dark magics in an event known as Illwinter which appears to be a homage to Fibulwinter, an event that marks the beginning of the end of the world in Norse Paganism. The nation's dominion is also unique in that it automatically spreads cold to nearby provinces regardless of dominion.
Why play Niefelheim
Niefelheim is one of the most powerful nations of its era and arguably the most powerful giant nation of its era. If you want to play a nation that is a powerhouse late game with a wide diversity of tactics and magics, Niefelheim is likely up your alley.
They think I'm stupid but they never outsmart axe
Army
Niefelheim's troops are underwhelming in most regards with a few exceptions. The reason being that most giants have one attack a turn with a large size that forces them to fight three human sized enemies alone. They do however have a few advantages. For one they are tough with high hitpoints and decent armor. Second they hit hard so any enemy that gets hit will feel it. Third, they are big enough that chariots can not trample them although elephants still can.
Jotun Militia
Awful just awful. Unless you need a cheap unit to die, don't recruit these. Just like the description says they are untrained giants sent to battle with decent equipment. They combine a giant's size problem with a militia trooper's inability to hit, resulting in a unit with a good chance dying without taking a single enemy with him. Leave him for province defense and recruit real warriors for your armies instead.
Jotun Spearmen
Cheap infantry wielding a spear the length of a two handed pike and shield. If you need lots of infantry to hold the line recruited in a short time get these instead of Militia. With a spear they will likely never get repelled and their own spear and shield at to their life expectancy tremendously.
Jotun Javelinist
Do you like having your own portable ballista that can injure heavy cavalry and fight well as light infantry in melee? If so then this unit is for you. They can throw their javelins at two thirds the range of bows and they're almost as tough as several legionnaires at a lower resource cost to boot.
Jotun Hurler
Imagine the terror of a 2 meter wide rock flying towards you at high speed, that's the hurler's only job. Its lower resource cost helps its case as it can be easily massed as does its siege bonus and the damage a falling boulder a meter in radius does to a man and the horse he is riding. However it's range is one third that of the Javelinist and it is absolutely awful in melee making it a situational choice rather than a core one.
Jotun Huskarl
The household troops of a Herse and your first solid melee infantry. These guys are tough and durable but lacking in killing power due to one attack per turn. The axe variety is better for cavalry and other larger than human enemies, while the spearmen are best used against humans to take advantage of the superior weapon length.
Jotun Hirdman
Household troop of the Jarl and your toughest non capital soldiers. A cut above with better defensive skills and equipment. They are more will hold the line longer and bring down more foes with them. Ideally you would always want to recruit them but attrition and sudden losses will often force you to use Huskarls instead since they cost 30% less resources and are therefore easier to train en masse.
Jotun Skinshifter
Capitol only spearmen with less armor than your Huskarls and average stats in defensive skill. You also can only recruit five a turn. They make up for this by transforming into Giant Freaking Werewolves when badly injured which have three attacks each turn as well as regeneration. As they have three attacks they do not have the weakness many other giants have. Their attrition rates are rather bad however, which makes their value to any long campaign questionable.
Niefel Giant
The symbol of Niefelheim's early game power. These are the lesser frost giants not worthy of being leaders. This does not mean they lack in power. They are sacred and have stat lines that make Hirdmen look fragile. Add to that a chill aura that slows down and fatigues enemies near them and you have a unit that can deal with foes of all sizes readily. Their main weaknesses are their prohibitive cost (the cost to train four of them is the same as a Pallisade fort), the fact they can only be recruited from the capital, and that they get less durable and weaker in warmer climates.
Jotun Wolf
Giant wolves that are more terrifying in person than the Jotuns. A conjuration 4 summon that costs two nature gems for each one. Sacred, beserking, and fear causing these wolves are your equivalent to cavalry for your nation and are excellent flanking units that can turn the tide of battle. Sacred allows them to benefit from the same bless you put on Niefel Giants, while Berserking means they are tougher and harder hitting when hit with the added benefit of being unbreakable, fear is the cherry on top making enemies rout more quickly when fighting them.
Draug
Undead elves that get bigger when badly hurt. These are conjuration 4 summons as well requiring four death gems each. Tough along with having a chill aura like Niefel Giants and fear like Jotun wolves. They also have the added benefit of being small enough at first to run between your Jotun's legs making them excellent troops to support your them.
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?
Commanders
Niefelheim's commanders are tough and durable as a rule and their mages are some of the most versatile in the game. They are the center for your strategies and careful attention needs to be paid to them
Jotun Skratti
Let's get the big one out of the way. Skratti are badasses that still follow the old ways of blood sacrifices to the Rimtursar and eagerly work to make Illwinter a reality. Everyone's scared of them but no one actually goes after the Skratti because the least terrifying thing a Skratti can do to you is turn into a Werewolf and eat you. They can be recruited in any fort with a lab and take two turns to recruit. Skratti have three forms: the caster form with the strongest magic, the werewolf form that is the strongest and toughest physically with regeneration to boot, and the Jotun wolf form that moves the fastest across the map and is stealthy at the cost of being the weakest in magic. The caster form can most importantly blood hunt, summon frost fiend/ice devils, cast Illwinter, cast A Life for a Life and cast Claws of Kokytos which sends their foe demigod or not to a frozen over hell where they will remain until they die or find a way out. They can also forge various items of use such as clam of pearls, blood thorns and various water items and boosters. The werewolf form is your battle form meant to wreck armies, what is often needed the most is a method to keep your Skratti from routing such as a flesh eater axe and an item to cure fatigue such as a heart of life or a blood thorn. Other than that a Skratti can cast quicken self to double the amount of attacks each turn and liquid body to reduce damage from researching up to Alteration 4. The Jotun wolf form makes it easier for Skratti to get where they need to be as well as allow them to sneak into enemy territory to assassinate or if you have a scout to hold equipment attack a distant province behind enemy lines. Assassinations require a construction 6 item called a Black Heart so keep that in mind. Overall a very powerful and versatile mage that's main weakness is the two turns for recruitment as opposed to one.
Gyja
Old Jotun hags that have a massive level of magic diversity and curse those who kill them. These are your bread and butter mages as their diversity of blood, death, nature, and astral magic incredibly useful for many mage related activities. They are especially better at many tasks other than killing things when compared to Skratti. They can buff armies, search for magic sites, blood hunt, forge items, cast useful battle magic to win battles and to top it off they are good researchers as well. These should be your default mage recruits unless if your aiming for something specific with Skratti.
Jotun Scout
The toughest national scout around. Too bad that's near meaningless as a scout's whole job is not to be seen. Compounded with the fact that he is sacred makes him difficult to recruit as he requires a fort and temple. The first one you get at the start of the game can become near and dear to you but recruiting more is usually inefficient.
Niefel Jarl
Leaders of the Niefel Giants. There is not a lot to say about him other than his ability to murder anything in your dominion. He gets access to all sorts of self buff spells from alteration that makes him even more of a pain to deal with. A strong SC for guarding your own territories, he can be worth including in your strategy as long as you plan around his weakening in hotter climates.
Jotun Jarl
Leaders of the Jotun with some religious authority as well as being sacred. These guys are fantastic commanders that can actually fight in battles themselves with much less risk of dying compared to human commanders. They can lead 80 men at the start making them much better than independent commanders.
Jotun Gode
Religious authorities for the Jotun. Warriors under their leadership are generally more willing to fight longer due to their sermons. Not much to say about these other than their troops will have slightly higher morale compared to Jarls due to the ability to cast sermon of courage. They are however competing with Jarls for recruitment and with the same leadership of a independent commander they aren't that appealing. As Niefelheim you generally want as many giants as you can have in an army to make up for their poor offensive capabilities and these commanders simply can not give you that. The best use for them would just to preach and spread dominion.
Jotun Herse
A local chief of the Jotun. These are your least valuable commanders and one you'll have trouble justifying. The biggest problem being their sacred status requiring a fort and temple to recruit. They compete with Jarls in this area and lack the ability to bless troops or lead more of them. The only real benefit to recruit these guys is the fact that they are the second cheapest commander you have with the first being the Jotun scout.
He just saw the Marvel Thor movie. He was not amused!
General Strategy
Niefelheim is a nation that relies on its capital only troops for quick expansion at the beginning and an ever growing offensive expansion afterwards. Both Niefel Giants and Skinshifters have methods to crush tightly packed infantry. Keep in mind that your bless for Niefel Giants affects your commanders and your Jotun wolves as they can now be blessed as well. After early expansion you need to start building your second fort quickly so as to increase the amount of research mages you can recruit a turn. Capital Only troops should be used to scare and ward off enemies that want to take away your territory. Be very careful about going on the offense as a bad encounter with hot weather could lead to a disastrous defeat. Thaumaturgy 4 is a good milestone in research as it allows your Gyjas with nature 2 or death 3 to cast morale lowering spells. These will be the cornerstone of your armies as it plays to Niefelheim's strength. Your giants while not so good at attacking groups of enemies are often faster on the move than your foes. This means you can inflict very high casualties on a routing army to the point it was like you fought and beat them the more normal way. Thaumaturgy also opens up Haruspex which allows you to find all nature sites in province which is key in the next steps. Another big goal should be Conjuration 4 as it allows you to cast Dark Knowledge to increase your site searching abilities for death gems. Both death and nature gems are needed for summoning Draugs and Jotun Wolves that become available at Conjuration 4.
After Conjuration and Thaumaturgy 4 your early combined arms composition should be done and now you'll probably want to get your Skratti ready for the fight. The first area to invest in is Construction up to level 4 to get access to various blood items such as sanguine dowsing rods, flesh eater axes (berserk), and hearts of life (reinvigoration). Sanguine dowsing rods let you blood hunt more efficiently so if you haven't started bloodhunting yet you should do so now even if it is a little inefficient. With the blood slaves you collect you can make more blood items for your Skratti or your blood hunters. You can even use surplus blood income on Frost Fiends.
After Construction you should consider Alteration 4 as Quicken self and Liquid body are too good for your Skratti to pass up. By this time your war efforts should be rather frustrating for your opponent as well equipped Skratti are costly to deal with, and armies are scattered and weakened if not destroyed by your Gyja Jotun Armies. This is to say nothing of your Niefel Giant home defense. With this comes your late game goals of 6 in Construction and Blood. With these your Skratti get access to Blood thorns and really good armor, making them really hard to deal with. It also gives you access to Illwinter and Ice devils to lead your gradually growing horde of frost fiends or become strong SC's. Illwinter also lets you send your Niefel Giants and Jarls on the offensive, meaning you should hold nothing back and send in all the reserves at this point.
Other goals you could pick up according to the situation are Evocation 2 for rain against abysians, Thaumaturgy 6 for wither bones, Alteration 6 for invulnerability and soul vortex, Evocation 5+ for the many, many deadly spells that becomes available to your Gyja and Niefel Jarls, and Construction 8 for the magic artifacts that you can make from your diverse paths. Don't take this guide as law since Niefelheim is a very diverse nation in terms of magic, so it can do a lot more than what I've said here. This guide was simply made to teach you the basics.
P.S. I'm not going to cover Pretender Design for most nations as it varies wildly depending on your preferences and niche strategies you want to employ against your enemy. Other people do like to cover it but the way I see it is that most nations can win without their pretender doing anything other than scales while a pretender relies on its nation quite heavily to win the game.
You've come to the wrong neighborhood
Nation Overview
Niefelheim is a cold frigid land of the Rimtursar and their descendents the Jotun. The Rimtursar were frost giants that once ruled the land but now the strongest lay dormant while the weakest and the Jotun plot their reawakening with the use of dark magics in an event known as Illwinter which appears to be a homage to Fibulwinter, an event that marks the beginning of the end of the world in Norse Paganism. The nation's dominion is also unique in that it automatically spreads cold to nearby provinces regardless of dominion.
Why play Niefelheim
Niefelheim is one of the most powerful nations of its era and arguably the most powerful giant nation of its era. If you want to play a nation that is a powerhouse late game with a wide diversity of tactics and magics, Niefelheim is likely up your alley.
They think I'm stupid but they never outsmart axe
Army
Niefelheim's troops are underwhelming in most regards with a few exceptions. The reason being that most giants have one attack a turn with a large size that forces them to fight three human sized enemies alone. They do however have a few advantages. For one they are tough with high hitpoints and decent armor. Second they hit hard so any enemy that gets hit will feel it. Third, they are big enough that chariots can not trample them although elephants still can.
Jotun Militia
Awful just awful. Unless you need a cheap unit to die, don't recruit these. Just like the description says they are untrained giants sent to battle with decent equipment. They combine a giant's size problem with a militia trooper's inability to hit, resulting in a unit with a good chance dying without taking a single enemy with him. Leave him for province defense and recruit real warriors for your armies instead.
Jotun Spearmen
Cheap infantry wielding a spear the length of a two handed pike and shield. If you need lots of infantry to hold the line recruited in a short time get these instead of Militia. With a spear they will likely never get repelled and their own spear and shield at to their life expectancy tremendously.
Jotun Javelinist
Do you like having your own portable ballista that can injure heavy cavalry and fight well as light infantry in melee? If so then this unit is for you. They can throw their javelins at two thirds the range of bows and they're almost as tough as several legionnaires at a lower resource cost to boot.
Jotun Hurler
Imagine the terror of a 2 meter wide rock flying towards you at high speed, that's the hurler's only job. Its lower resource cost helps its case as it can be easily massed as does its siege bonus and the damage a falling boulder a meter in radius does to a man and the horse he is riding. However it's range is one third that of the Javelinist and it is absolutely awful in melee making it a situational choice rather than a core one.
Jotun Huskarl
The household troops of a Herse and your first solid melee infantry. These guys are tough and durable but lacking in killing power due to one attack per turn. The axe variety is better for cavalry and other larger than human enemies, while the spearmen are best used against humans to take advantage of the superior weapon length.
Jotun Hirdman
Household troop of the Jarl and your toughest non capital soldiers. A cut above with better defensive skills and equipment. They are more will hold the line longer and bring down more foes with them. Ideally you would always want to recruit them but attrition and sudden losses will often force you to use Huskarls instead since they cost 30% less resources and are therefore easier to train en masse.
Jotun Skinshifter
Capitol only spearmen with less armor than your Huskarls and average stats in defensive skill. You also can only recruit five a turn. They make up for this by transforming into Giant Freaking Werewolves when badly injured which have three attacks each turn as well as regeneration. As they have three attacks they do not have the weakness many other giants have. Their attrition rates are rather bad however, which makes their value to any long campaign questionable.
Niefel Giant
The symbol of Niefelheim's early game power. These are the lesser frost giants not worthy of being leaders. This does not mean they lack in power. They are sacred and have stat lines that make Hirdmen look fragile. Add to that a chill aura that slows down and fatigues enemies near them and you have a unit that can deal with foes of all sizes readily. Their main weaknesses are their prohibitive cost (the cost to train four of them is the same as a Pallisade fort), the fact they can only be recruited from the capital, and that they get less durable and weaker in warmer climates.
Jotun Wolf
Giant wolves that are more terrifying in person than the Jotuns. A conjuration 4 summon that costs two nature gems for each one. Sacred, beserking, and fear causing these wolves are your equivalent to cavalry for your nation and are excellent flanking units that can turn the tide of battle. Sacred allows them to benefit from the same bless you put on Niefel Giants, while Berserking means they are tougher and harder hitting when hit with the added benefit of being unbreakable, fear is the cherry on top making enemies rout more quickly when fighting them.
Draug
Undead elves that get bigger when badly hurt. These are conjuration 4 summons as well requiring four death gems each. Tough along with having a chill aura like Niefel Giants and fear like Jotun wolves. They also have the added benefit of being small enough at first to run between your Jotun's legs making them excellent troops to support your them.
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?
Commanders
Niefelheim's commanders are tough and durable as a rule and their mages are some of the most versatile in the game. They are the center for your strategies and careful attention needs to be paid to them
Jotun Skratti
Let's get the big one out of the way. Skratti are badasses that still follow the old ways of blood sacrifices to the Rimtursar and eagerly work to make Illwinter a reality. Everyone's scared of them but no one actually goes after the Skratti because the least terrifying thing a Skratti can do to you is turn into a Werewolf and eat you. They can be recruited in any fort with a lab and take two turns to recruit. Skratti have three forms: the caster form with the strongest magic, the werewolf form that is the strongest and toughest physically with regeneration to boot, and the Jotun wolf form that moves the fastest across the map and is stealthy at the cost of being the weakest in magic. The caster form can most importantly blood hunt, summon frost fiend/ice devils, cast Illwinter, cast A Life for a Life and cast Claws of Kokytos which sends their foe demigod or not to a frozen over hell where they will remain until they die or find a way out. They can also forge various items of use such as clam of pearls, blood thorns and various water items and boosters. The werewolf form is your battle form meant to wreck armies, what is often needed the most is a method to keep your Skratti from routing such as a flesh eater axe and an item to cure fatigue such as a heart of life or a blood thorn. Other than that a Skratti can cast quicken self to double the amount of attacks each turn and liquid body to reduce damage from researching up to Alteration 4. The Jotun wolf form makes it easier for Skratti to get where they need to be as well as allow them to sneak into enemy territory to assassinate or if you have a scout to hold equipment attack a distant province behind enemy lines. Assassinations require a construction 6 item called a Black Heart so keep that in mind. Overall a very powerful and versatile mage that's main weakness is the two turns for recruitment as opposed to one.
Gyja
Old Jotun hags that have a massive level of magic diversity and curse those who kill them. These are your bread and butter mages as their diversity of blood, death, nature, and astral magic incredibly useful for many mage related activities. They are especially better at many tasks other than killing things when compared to Skratti. They can buff armies, search for magic sites, blood hunt, forge items, cast useful battle magic to win battles and to top it off they are good researchers as well. These should be your default mage recruits unless if your aiming for something specific with Skratti.
Jotun Scout
The toughest national scout around. Too bad that's near meaningless as a scout's whole job is not to be seen. Compounded with the fact that he is sacred makes him difficult to recruit as he requires a fort and temple. The first one you get at the start of the game can become near and dear to you but recruiting more is usually inefficient.
Niefel Jarl
Leaders of the Niefel Giants. There is not a lot to say about him other than his ability to murder anything in your dominion. He gets access to all sorts of self buff spells from alteration that makes him even more of a pain to deal with. A strong SC for guarding your own territories, he can be worth including in your strategy as long as you plan around his weakening in hotter climates.
Jotun Jarl
Leaders of the Jotun with some religious authority as well as being sacred. These guys are fantastic commanders that can actually fight in battles themselves with much less risk of dying compared to human commanders. They can lead 80 men at the start making them much better than independent commanders.
Jotun Gode
Religious authorities for the Jotun. Warriors under their leadership are generally more willing to fight longer due to their sermons. Not much to say about these other than their troops will have slightly higher morale compared to Jarls due to the ability to cast sermon of courage. They are however competing with Jarls for recruitment and with the same leadership of a independent commander they aren't that appealing. As Niefelheim you generally want as many giants as you can have in an army to make up for their poor offensive capabilities and these commanders simply can not give you that. The best use for them would just to preach and spread dominion.
Jotun Herse
A local chief of the Jotun. These are your least valuable commanders and one you'll have trouble justifying. The biggest problem being their sacred status requiring a fort and temple to recruit. They compete with Jarls in this area and lack the ability to bless troops or lead more of them. The only real benefit to recruit these guys is the fact that they are the second cheapest commander you have with the first being the Jotun scout.
He just saw the Marvel Thor movie. He was not amused!
General Strategy
Niefelheim is a nation that relies on its capital only troops for quick expansion at the beginning and an ever growing offensive expansion afterwards. Both Niefel Giants and Skinshifters have methods to crush tightly packed infantry. Keep in mind that your bless for Niefel Giants affects your commanders and your Jotun wolves as they can now be blessed as well. After early expansion you need to start building your second fort quickly so as to increase the amount of research mages you can recruit a turn. Capital Only troops should be used to scare and ward off enemies that want to take away your territory. Be very careful about going on the offense as a bad encounter with hot weather could lead to a disastrous defeat. Thaumaturgy 4 is a good milestone in research as it allows your Gyjas with nature 2 or death 3 to cast morale lowering spells. These will be the cornerstone of your armies as it plays to Niefelheim's strength. Your giants while not so good at attacking groups of enemies are often faster on the move than your foes. This means you can inflict very high casualties on a routing army to the point it was like you fought and beat them the more normal way. Thaumaturgy also opens up Haruspex which allows you to find all nature sites in province which is key in the next steps. Another big goal should be Conjuration 4 as it allows you to cast Dark Knowledge to increase your site searching abilities for death gems. Both death and nature gems are needed for summoning Draugs and Jotun Wolves that become available at Conjuration 4.
After Conjuration and Thaumaturgy 4 your early combined arms composition should be done and now you'll probably want to get your Skratti ready for the fight. The first area to invest in is Construction up to level 4 to get access to various blood items such as sanguine dowsing rods, flesh eater axes (berserk), and hearts of life (reinvigoration). Sanguine dowsing rods let you blood hunt more efficiently so if you haven't started bloodhunting yet you should do so now even if it is a little inefficient. With the blood slaves you collect you can make more blood items for your Skratti or your blood hunters. You can even use surplus blood income on Frost Fiends.
After Construction you should consider Alteration 4 as Quicken self and Liquid body are too good for your Skratti to pass up. By this time your war efforts should be rather frustrating for your opponent as well equipped Skratti are costly to deal with, and armies are scattered and weakened if not destroyed by your Gyja Jotun Armies. This is to say nothing of your Niefel Giant home defense. With this comes your late game goals of 6 in Construction and Blood. With these your Skratti get access to Blood thorns and really good armor, making them really hard to deal with. It also gives you access to Illwinter and Ice devils to lead your gradually growing horde of frost fiends or become strong SC's. Illwinter also lets you send your Niefel Giants and Jarls on the offensive, meaning you should hold nothing back and send in all the reserves at this point.
Other goals you could pick up according to the situation are Evocation 2 for rain against abysians, Thaumaturgy 6 for wither bones, Alteration 6 for invulnerability and soul vortex, Evocation 5+ for the many, many deadly spells that becomes available to your Gyja and Niefel Jarls, and Construction 8 for the magic artifacts that you can make from your diverse paths. Don't take this guide as law since Niefelheim is a very diverse nation in terms of magic, so it can do a lot more than what I've said here. This guide was simply made to teach you the basics.
P.S. I'm not going to cover Pretender Design for most nations as it varies wildly depending on your preferences and niche strategies you want to employ against your enemy. Other people do like to cover it but the way I see it is that most nations can win without their pretender doing anything other than scales while a pretender relies on its nation quite heavily to win the game.