Octopi are extremely stealthy creatures. Not only can they camouflage themselves in seconds like a turbo chameleon but there are species that mimic other animals to further their disguise, Just upscale it. the "trees" come alive as tentacles as the giant octopus springs its trap, An army marches by, unaware that the hill theyre currently cresting is is simply waiting for their commander. Now also imagine this creature swinging giant swords with a fabulous fish amulet. Dominions.
Just lettting any new viewers know, Therodos was updated and taking the death scale is essential for your spectral free spawn. Taking death increases the amount of freespawn you will get, and any province that has a fort will keep some of your population alive, so you won't be too starved for gold late game. I'd also recommend taking an awake god with death. It is possible to get lucky with a daktyloi and get 1D, but if not, you're going to be waiting quite a bit just to sitesearch, and summon some ephors, and philosophers, which could spell the doom for you if you have UW competition. Either way you're better off just getting D on your God so you can have a good start in the early phase, since you really don't want to be stuck UW.
If you give the octopus an assassin item, the kraken can not only siege your enemy's capital, but can also scale the walls and assassinate (since it has the scale walls ability). You're welcome for imaging a stealthy climbing giant octopus assassinating mages and escaping notice.
What's even more hilarious is giving your kraken a few levels of blood, forging an Black Heart, and equipping it with the Black Heart, four Swords of Swiftness, and an amulet of the fish. Very surprising. Utterly pointless, but very surprising. You didn't mention this, but I believe Stygian Rain works on Ghosts - it doesn't work on units with the Inanimate tag, not the Undead tag, meaning that the Stygian Rains give all your ghosts Invulnerability 10 - it gives the enemy army Invulnerability 10 too, but that doesn't matter for you at all because all your weapons are magical.
Ancient krakens are stealthy? O_O I...guess...one explaination for it would be that real octopuses are actually quite good at camouflage, as they are able to not only change colour like (or even better than) something like a chameleon but they can also change the texture of their skin to make it look more like rocks/plants/etc. Not entirely sure that would be enough for a gigantic mega-kraken to sneak about on land but hey, it's something.
Playing as Therodos in my current game. This has been the best guide for them that I have watched. Pop kill nations do not get picked much in tournaments so never get to see them played.
Therodos are such an interesting nation, having recruitable units and popkill dominion with special ghost sacreds. It seems as though you want to be careful with your expansion. I think In a more recent update the forts prevent the death of the entire population of a given province. But even so you're still looking at reduced income and a more limited recruitment pool. And they gained the bronze colosus pretender. Their mages are pretty cool honestly I really like their aesthetic but i've never got around to playing as them. And given they can tank a ton of their scales I think it would be a lot of fun to get some crazy bless going on them.
This was a really helpful guide! The amount of percentages you talked about and the comparisons while not grand to someone else, to someone like me who really wants to make Therodos casually work without too much pains is really beneficial. Thanks for the great content man, now I'll know how to spam ghost archers better next time I play Therodos :P
What's weird about Therodos is that they have so few native death mages for a ghost popkill nation. Their native death access is basically limited to the Daktyloi's randoms which means that your research kinda sucks early game if the rng isn't in your favor. So I'd say taking an awake pretender is near vital for this nation, especially if their are other underwater nations.
It is doable to take dormant (Telkine/Father of monsters). Therodian ghost are great expanders, and can carry 1st year expansion. Dormant thelkine will have more magic paths which will be amazing for site searching. Therodos will never have enough money, so gems are crucial. Globals for nature, fire, water are possible to get early.
Also, comment: doesn't luck not work on units that are already dead (IE your freespawn sacreds)? And it's worth noting the non-freespawn sacreds you have do not have magic weapons, so you could use that with the bless... it's tricky.
Also Spectral Archers (and peltasts) are among the few ranged Amphibic/underwater units, so they are very valueable against other underwater nations that don't normally have to deal with missile weapons and thus have neglected to invest in shields.
Did I actually miss seeing 15 CR? Damn. Well, regardless, it doesn't change the basic point; Brass Bulls are just too expensive for what they give you, which is an inflexible mediocre thug. If it was 15 gems at Construction 5 I'd consider it.
Would Therodos be decent enough with it recruitables to be a disciple in a disciple game, giving up their freespawn? They could forge items for their pretender like Ulm would do in the MA and give the team power in the water. On the other end. How hillarious would it be for Therodos to be the pretender and have ghost rise up in the disciples nation :P, some nations may be able to deal with this.
@@theral056 If I were to take this guy I might take something like 3f3a3w6e4s4d4n bless: resist, resist, resist, hard skin, resist+resist, undead command x2 + half dead, resist+resist. scales: 7,-3,-3,+3,-3,+3,-1 Having all resists at or above 25, with 36 natural protection he is really a monster. I really like awake pretenders, shame he cant be one.
@@Ragatokk interesting take, all those resistances! I'm curious about your drain 1 scale here. Wouldn't it be beneficial to double down and take drain 2 for the extra magic resistance, which makes your already high MR ghosts even more resilient vs banish? Him not being awake is actually quite awkward, seeing as therodos really could you some help with early expansion!
You honestly missed Therodos's best pretender chassis. Ghost King. You can rainbow it because you tank all the scales, its nearly invincible to neutral troops so it can expand like an SC, and it gives access to deep death magic which is what Therodos needs the most anyways, giving you another endgame win condition.
I just test gamed Therodos with growth 3 and did not get any free spawn. I think it counters the dominion effect. Unless you want to play with the recruitables you should not take growth with Therodos. Edit: Therodos Dominion kills 0.5% pop per candle. But growth only add 0.2% pop per scale. Something else must be going on as well. In summary: You lose both pop and freespawn if you take growth with therodos.
Too bad this didn't come out a day later. Update to Thero just released.... Also I would prefer you did the pop kill nations in their nation tree. IE asphodel with pangea, ermor and lemuria with ermor, and ryleah with ryleah
Octopi are extremely stealthy creatures. Not only can they camouflage themselves in seconds like a turbo chameleon but there are species that mimic other animals to further their disguise, Just upscale it. the "trees" come alive as tentacles as the giant octopus springs its trap, An army marches by, unaware that the hill theyre currently cresting is is simply waiting for their commander. Now also imagine this creature swinging giant swords with a fabulous fish amulet. Dominions.
"These are Telkines. They kill 5% of your population... BUT LOOK HOW CUTE THEIR FLIPPERS ARE!!! CUTE LITTLE FLIPPERS! THEY LOOK SO HAPPY!!!" :)
Just lettting any new viewers know, Therodos was updated and taking the death scale is essential for your spectral free spawn.
Taking death increases the amount of freespawn you will get, and any province that has a fort will keep some of your population alive, so you won't be too starved for gold late game.
I'd also recommend taking an awake god with death. It is possible to get lucky with a daktyloi and get 1D, but if not, you're going to be waiting quite a bit just to sitesearch, and summon some ephors, and philosophers, which could spell the doom for you if you have UW competition. Either way you're better off just getting D on your God so you can have a good start in the early phase, since you really don't want to be stuck UW.
Thanks for this I was looking for confirmation of this
They should do that with most popkill nations.
If you give the octopus an assassin item, the kraken can not only siege your enemy's capital, but can also scale the walls and assassinate (since it has the scale walls ability).
You're welcome for imaging a stealthy climbing giant octopus assassinating mages and escaping notice.
"Hans, did we have a fifth tower over there yesterday?"
"Uh, don't remember but surely we did?"
*Tower stabs both guards and slithers away*
What's even more hilarious is giving your kraken a few levels of blood, forging an Black Heart, and equipping it with the Black Heart, four Swords of Swiftness, and an amulet of the fish. Very surprising. Utterly pointless, but very surprising.
You didn't mention this, but I believe Stygian Rain works on Ghosts - it doesn't work on units with the Inanimate tag, not the Undead tag, meaning that the Stygian Rains give all your ghosts Invulnerability 10 - it gives the enemy army Invulnerability 10 too, but that doesn't matter for you at all because all your weapons are magical.
Ancient krakens are stealthy? O_O
I...guess...one explaination for it would be that real octopuses are actually quite good at camouflage, as they are able to not only change colour like (or even better than) something like a chameleon but they can also change the texture of their skin to make it look more like rocks/plants/etc. Not entirely sure that would be enough for a gigantic mega-kraken to sneak about on land but hey, it's something.
The image of a house-sized octopus wielding three flaming sword and a golden, glowing shield just... sneaking up on someone is hilarious :)
Playing as Therodos in my current game. This has been the best guide for them that I have watched. Pop kill nations do not get picked much in tournaments so never get to see them played.
Therodos are such an interesting nation, having recruitable units and popkill dominion with special ghost sacreds. It seems as though you want to be careful with your expansion.
I think In a more recent update the forts prevent the death of the entire population of a given province. But even so you're still looking at reduced income and a more limited recruitment pool.
And they gained the bronze colosus pretender.
Their mages are pretty cool honestly I really like their aesthetic but i've never got around to playing as them. And given they can tank a ton of their scales I think it would be a lot of fun to get some crazy bless going on them.
This was a really helpful guide! The amount of percentages you talked about and the comparisons while not grand to someone else, to someone like me who really wants to make Therodos casually work without too much pains is really beneficial. Thanks for the great content man, now I'll know how to spam ghost archers better next time I play Therodos :P
What's weird about Therodos is that they have so few native death mages for a ghost popkill nation. Their native death access is basically limited to the Daktyloi's randoms which means that your research kinda sucks early game if the rng isn't in your favor. So I'd say taking an awake pretender is near vital for this nation, especially if their are other underwater nations.
for these types of nation you pretender basically need to start with death and be awaken
It is doable to take dormant (Telkine/Father of monsters). Therodian ghost are great expanders, and can carry 1st year expansion. Dormant thelkine will have more magic paths which will be amazing for site searching. Therodos will never have enough money, so gems are crucial. Globals for nature, fire, water are possible to get early.
I hope we get more videos like this. The analysis videos are my favourite!
Also, comment: doesn't luck not work on units that are already dead (IE your freespawn sacreds)? And it's worth noting the non-freespawn sacreds you have do not have magic weapons, so you could use that with the bless... it's tricky.
Also Spectral Archers (and peltasts) are among the few ranged Amphibic/underwater units, so they are very valueable against other underwater nations that don't normally have to deal with missile weapons and thus have neglected to invest in shields.
Frozen Heart can't be used against lifeless units, and even if it could it would do very little against the 15 cold resist of Khalkotauros
Did I actually miss seeing 15 CR? Damn. Well, regardless, it doesn't change the basic point; Brass Bulls are just too expensive for what they give you, which is an inflexible mediocre thug. If it was 15 gems at Construction 5 I'd consider it.
Would Therodos be decent enough with it recruitables to be a disciple in a disciple game, giving up their freespawn?
They could forge items for their pretender like Ulm would do in the MA and give the team power in the water.
On the other end. How hillarious would it be for Therodos to be the pretender and have ghost rise up in the disciples nation :P,
some nations may be able to deal with this.
Something new since you made this video: Bronze colossus seems really nice, it is also discounted by 40 points.
What bless would you get with a bronze colossus? And scales? I'm curious ;)
@@theral056 If I were to take this guy I might take something like 3f3a3w6e4s4d4n bless: resist, resist, resist, hard skin, resist+resist, undead command x2 + half dead, resist+resist. scales: 7,-3,-3,+3,-3,+3,-1
Having all resists at or above 25, with 36 natural protection he is really a monster.
I really like awake pretenders, shame he cant be one.
@@Ragatokk interesting take, all those resistances! I'm curious about your drain 1 scale here. Wouldn't it be beneficial to double down and take drain 2 for the extra magic resistance, which makes your already high MR ghosts even more resilient vs banish?
Him not being awake is actually quite awkward, seeing as therodos really could you some help with early expansion!
@@theral056 Allready got +2 and +1 from s4, they cost 3 and 1.
Pythium When?
After popkill nations and probably Agartha.
That's good, I'd like to see your evaluation of both MA and LA Pythium
You honestly missed Therodos's best pretender chassis. Ghost King. You can rainbow it because you tank all the scales, its nearly invincible to neutral troops so it can expand like an SC, and it gives access to deep death magic which is what Therodos needs the most anyways, giving you another endgame win condition.
Ghostking really suit this nation well. I also like father of monsters as it fits nation lore.
LA Hinnom anytime soon? I saw them in the modplayer, and it baffles me looking at it...
One of these days, yeah! I haven't played much of Gath myself, but they are definitely an interesting one.
I just test gamed Therodos with growth 3 and did not get any free spawn. I think it counters the dominion effect.
Unless you want to play with the recruitables you should not take growth with Therodos.
Edit: Therodos Dominion kills 0.5% pop per candle. But growth only add 0.2% pop per scale. Something else must be going on as well. In summary: You lose both pop and freespawn if you take growth with therodos.
Interesting strat is to take them as a disciple and growth as their human infantry has the highest proc in the early age
Too bad this didn't come out a day later. Update to Thero just released....
Also I would prefer you did the pop kill nations in their nation tree. IE asphodel with pangea, ermor and lemuria with ermor, and ryleah with ryleah
I'd like Asphodel. Ernor should be done as a early, mid, late series. Same with R'lyeh.
How should you fight therados? I'm a beginner and fighting therados effectively sounds quite difficult
Anything with magic weapons will destroy their ghosts then you need anti thugs to kill their scs
Well, well, you actually did it.
you really know your dominions
Also Keres are invisible
Ghost Atlantis
Soooo... if I'm reading the Telkine lore right... the Pantocrator destroyed their empire because they invented the world's deadliest farts?
The Pantokrator really, really dislikes farting.
Given the various fates of the Pretender Chassis, we can infer that the Pantokrator in fact hates everything, and everyone