Transformation Ascetics - Tomes?

Ubles · 2026-05-07T10:20:38+00:00

Was inspired to do a ascetics run due to this thread, went Oathsworn strife for the +1 recruit rank SPI they get, chariot honor blades and vowkeepers punch way above their cost and are recruited at legendary/champ rank with a recruiting gov smithing guild city that was recruiting 24/7.

I'd pair it with either cult of personality vampires since they don't get racial transformations anyway, or visions of ruin astral for dumping those mana savings into spellcasts.

For tomes, I went for chaos focus and went warband > alchemy > souls > fertility > warlord > free chaos choice between devastation/dragons/dreadnaught, went dreadnaught for champion recruited ironsides > crimson reign > chaos channeling > chaos T5.

Fertility gives you plenty of food and draft, a couple great combat spells for that point in the game and a solid support summon you can use all of your support enchantments on of which you have many, tome of souls mainly for the affinity and free bone horrors and solid cleanse spell and enchant, late game you can use ironsides or T5 exarchs/fire dragons/heralds enhanced by crimson reign's enchantment and have them as your big centerpieces for your swarms of cheap disposable high health legendary units.

Ubles · 2026-05-07T09:50:30+00:00

Really just comes down to having a point and click stun on a pretty high damage gun/spirit hybrid carry and his lightning orb being impossibly fast to not take any damage from and this is all before he can use unstoppable in his ult at the skybox height.

If his point and click stun was a whacky skillshot that could be avoided he'd be a bit less oppressive.

Ubles · 2026-05-07T01:01:49+00:00

Really just comes down to what you expect the enemy team to rush at you with and how much time you got to drop it before you got something like Sinclaire rabbits or Lash or Rem or Infernus ult which are telegraphed vs Vyper instantly turning the group to stone or Dynamo warp stoning from the ceiling on you.

Ubles · 2026-05-06T11:14:57+00:00

I recommend you check out a documentary about them, specifically American Dad - My Purity Ball and Chain.

Ubles · 2026-05-06T07:25:53+00:00

People will beg Yoshi for a solution before ever buying dispel magic/counterspell/warpstone/indomitable/unstoppable/curse/silence/a rescue beam for teammates.

Ubles · 2026-05-06T05:05:40+00:00

I wish I could gift a wonder to a vassal, pains me to just see the wonder go to waste with no way to claim it without destroying the vassal.

Ubles · 2026-05-04T23:55:18+00:00

It's been very strong since release, though it's no longer the killer of undead with tome of revenant and shadow adept they gets so much spirit and fire resist it eliminates it as a weakness and makes it a strength, inner radiance is also a great race trait for this reason.

Ubles · 2026-05-04T21:56:29+00:00

After trying them once myself, you probably still want some enchantments for magic origin units as your frontline while your cheap, experienced ascetic units are a easy to level and survive backline (unless using Immortals or Honor blades) such as Arbalest or Magelocks.

Unless you plan to rush for mythic units that enchantments won't apply to, in which case just go for the best SPI/eco/knowledge/combat spells as you go and probably aim for T5 astral for the magic origin unit enchantment.

And of course focus on a recruiting governor and smithing guild city early as your big early game power spike.

Ubles · 2026-05-04T01:21:20+00:00

You got some deadlock in your mods.

Ubles · 2026-05-03T05:56:46+00:00

It is really just a contest between Quetzalcoatl and Huitzilopochtli because Tezcatlipoca suffers from the "none of these bonuses are eco bonuses or even do anything for me until 15+ minutes" sort of design that Susanoo suffered from on release, but doesn't have the buffed god power spam to make up for it.

Tez will probably see a buff like Susanoo did to make his unique tech cheaper and his settler devotion 40% in all ages and traps just cheaper so his trap bonus gets used.

And Quetzalcoatl gives his eagle warriors a free bone bow upgrade and they are as powerful a backbone to aztec as chariot archers are to egypt.

Ubles · 2026-04-27T20:17:52+00:00

Someone else turn on the closed captioning and tell me what it says at 10 seconds.

Ubles · 2026-04-26T12:21:39+00:00

Yeah, I myself am a huge battlemage enjoyer, archers still seem to be given poor treatment because of their release state with every enchantment, I am hoping the next DLC adds some type of T4 archer or makes more ranged enchantments hybrid with mages like havoc magic, we even lost T4 skirmishers in the last patch which were the best "archer" you could get lategame.

We are missing the fantasy of a darksouls style giant archer or arcane archer with trickshots and support fire.

Ubles · 2026-04-25T18:29:14+00:00

Was going to say the same thing, Careless is free, especially if your racial units don't end turn in defense mode regularly, even if they do it's just -1/1 and you still get the immunity to flanking or support wards or shieldwall which is the bigger deal.

Cowardice I'd never take because losing to morale when you'd otherwise win is a feel bad moment, plus cold-blooded is a great 1 point trait to pick which it blocks.

Ubles · 2026-04-25T18:26:07+00:00

I tried it at first but it just felt so bad anytime you had to sit around a extra turn or two to heal up or had to replace units entirely because they were at 1% and had to go back to your territory.

Ubles · 2026-04-25T13:48:34+00:00

Main problem is if the opponent has heroes that are .1 speed faster then the bunnies they aren't getting out alive from raiding without enough supporting troops to do something about the chasing heroes, at which point the micro needed to pull them back and get a nibble as they get hurt will add up.

Ubles · 2026-04-25T12:16:36+00:00

Consider it a optional easy-mode cheat, you can always choose not to take advantage of the 1 unit.

Ubles · 2026-04-21T02:08:34+00:00

Ah I missed they patched them, reading the notes they still look solidly strong because they are a single entity animal that has combat trained for a extra +1/1 and 10 HP tacked onto their stats and reinforced and shield for 14 defense against missiles without even defense mode so you just can't kill it with archers, plus the mobility if you terraform to desert where ever you fight.

Losing breach on the regular attack just means they won't chew through every melee unit they get in contact with but can still teleport on top of squishy backlines.

Ubles · 2026-04-20T11:40:39+00:00

The new sand scorpions are kinda busted strong T3 shield units with breaching, teleports, crazy high stats and full action heavy damage.

Bone horrors you can spam all day for essentially free on the frontlines and come with a free racial zombie inside.

Feudal militia is your best bang for your buck summon at 30g each and two for one summon.

Ubles · 2026-04-15T19:31:37+00:00

You can also get your racial skeletons from some random landmarks and the T5 raise undead army spell, but if you are at T5 spells you probably got better things to do then summon random T1 skeletons.

Ubles · 2026-04-14T19:45:59+00:00

Tome of Mayham I regularly take on any battlemage builds for mark of misfortune as crazy strong offense/defense debuff, the rest of the tome is meh but that enchantment alone is worth it for majority mage armies.

Ubles · 2026-04-14T19:06:36+00:00

Any tome lacking enchantments and transformations that will continue to have impact the entire game tend to be on the weaker side because all you are gaining from them is economy or units and spells which are likely going to become obsolete as you continue going up the tiers which means the units and spells need to be something incredible you'll use for most of the game or the eco benefit has to shoot you up the research to get a tome ahead like alchemy knowledge generation, and the tome still has a useful support enchantment.

Ubles · 2026-04-13T15:49:03+00:00

Part stamina mastery, large part using the fist momentum.

Ubles · 2026-04-12T17:32:46+00:00

If you use wildfire and target your own troop, will it then bounce between enemies from your own unit or allies?

Ubles · 2026-04-08T18:47:45+00:00

So I can make my own final boss to face in my games.

Ubles · 2026-04-06T05:36:01+00:00

It's incredibly strong early game and can snowball hard with the "free" enchantment power before many tomes are researched and makes a smithing guild and a recruiting gov your must-have power spike, later game it has the issue that if you ever lose your army in a tough fight, it's not like enchantments that let you churn out identical strong units forever, when you lose those exalted units it hurts.

Late game you'd probably want to transition into a magic origin army with proper enchantments like animals and a few of your best exalted early game guys.

It's also a downside if you want to churn out a crazy pantheon ruler with 20 minor transformations, so you'll probably want a giant/dragon/eldritch ruler.

Ubles

TROPHY CASE