shepherd-Yes, shepherd

[gwalchmai]

I cant help but notice that just over 1/4 provinces are undead atm.
I also notice roughly 250 shepherds out of 6k or so provinces.
I would not exactly call shepherd overpowered but at a glance, for a warring kingdom especially,
wouldnt it be nice not to have to worry about getting the plague or the effects of those pesky dragons?
I am in a ghetto this age, fittingly as I have been away for a bit, but we plan to war.
Despite the several other good choices for an attacker, I have gone shepherd simply for the
immunities.
From the few days I spent in this kingdom last age, I expect it to end up @3-4millionish or so.
If I am going to stay the same size as the rest of them, rapid growth is not my biggest concern.
I am still torn between this choice and warrior/tactician/cleric/sage but I think despite some real advantages I will give up. with the #of undead and our warring orientation, I can make this one work.
I would be very interested to see if there is a warring shepherd kingdom out there, it would be fun to see.
Comments are very welcome, after all, I still have time to reset;).

[nipster]

no warring shepard KD's out there that I know of, I don't think Shepard is worth it just for the immunities, True they are immune to dragons, but if your KD isn't all shepard you're still going to want to slay the dragon and you should still send troops at the dragon to help your KD out. You didn't really say your race choice so it will be hard for us to suggest a personality without knowing your race choice and KD makeup/strategy.

[Backspin]

and if its full shepherd-KD the opponents wont waste their money on a dragon but instead pump with it.

[DDodge]

We warred a full shepherd kd last age. They really weren't an issue. All the immunities don't change the fact that you bring no warring bonuses to the fight.

[gwalchmai]

avian, and i think for this kingdom other choices would work well for me too, in particular tactician or sage.
again, I dont think this kingdom will be very big.
therefore, I could see sage being good with having lots of science and having it protected.
tactician seems to build on racial strengths and would work ok too.
cleric/warrior are both good also.
for me its not about the best growth personality, its which one will be more durable esp given a projected small size.

[DDodge]

Cleric is the weiner then if were talking durability

[gwalchmai]

ya, cleric and tactician are both very close for me.
I notice no one has commented on plague though.
the huge #of undead is the biggest reason to consider shep for me.

[marve]

i dont feel plague is as big of a threat for an active player as people think. if its someone who logs on once a day or so then yeah, plague sucks for them. but if you are active and can be rid of it quickly, its not a big deal. sheppard isnt really worth going. of all the non combat personalities, both sage and merchant are better than sheppard imo.

[DDodge]

Ooooo ahhhh well lets see you can just run tactician and throw down 20% hospitals and ur make the plague ur *****.

[scorpio86]

Shepherd is crap and selfish. That is what i have been told.

[Fungi]

I remember an age, a long way back, when Orc Shepherd was the way to go. Less Farms means more Training Grounds. Not sure how it measures up this age though.

[Topsy]

I didn't really consider Shepard for this age once undead got nerfed in between second proposed changes and final changes. But one thing I realized they do have going for them in war is that they can get buildings in before your army comes back. Not only does this mean that the acres coming in from one attack are actually in place by the time you send out again, but also that if you wanted to(especially with dwarf where you're only dealing with a .7 raze cost) you could just raze all buildings necessary only for attacking(rax/TG) and rebuild so that when your troops come home, not only are all acres built, but you also have a higher BE than you would have otherwise. When your exchanging 1/3 of your acres in between every wave, having 1/3 buildings actually built is actually kinda decent.

Thoughts?

[Topsy]

Sorry for double post, but I just got home and looked at my BE calculator. If a prov(say dwarf) went Shepard and razed 15% rax and 15% tg inbetween every attack(while running 6 pes/acre), it is an effective increase of 7.676BE. If you are running 20% rax, 20%TG, and 8%guilds(only tearing down guilds after you have succeeded in casting the necessary duration spells for until your guilds come in) then you have an effective increase in BE of 19.4! Keeping the guilds(say you are facing undead or fear MV) its still an increase in BE of 11.94.

These are pretty sizeable increases in BE, to go along with the fact that you are always at 100% constructed.

So, is shepard undervalued as a war pers?

edit: obviously this is really a dwarf strat, and dwarf isn't worth taking this age. But say with last ages dwarf numbers.

[DDodge]

i was doing something similiar last age with the razing and rebuilding in order to "time my buildings arrival" for when army returned. It was running a 133% BE as halfling because of it, and about 8 hour attack times, and after losing the buildings (via a combo of attacks and intra-raze) i would speed build them so they came in right as my army did.

of course i was just dicking around for the last war of the age trying to stay small and farm honor, but i shared because your thinking about dwarf/shepherd is actually quite clever, and you could probably keep your BE permanently around 130% if you were doing that raze/rebuild method.

you might need a bank or merchant to fund you large chunks of cash every now and then........

[Palem]

I remember an age, a long way back, when Orc Shepherd was the way to go. Less Farms means more Training Grounds. Not sure how it measures up this age though.

Reminded me of this...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=18e1KeOsKwI