Do most players hunt by going to lots of hexes and hope? Or do most use mages to hunt by Research and Locate spells?
Also, if you purchase 2-3 artifacts at game start, can they possibly be wrongly aligned? Is purchasing at game start worth it?
I have run a weakness nation in my last 4th age game, and naturally had a lot of mages which did research as they prenticed up their mage skill. It is wortwhile to do that if you run over a decent agent arty etc. , but let it be known that there are NO SPIRIT MASTERY ARTEFACTS in 4th age. So no use hoping for curse squads.
The artefacts you purchase will be your aligment, but don’t expect anything better than a small combat item or a little skill increaser.
RE: buying artifacts at setup, yes they definitely will be your alignment. One thing worth noting: the DS have a greater chance of getting a skill item than FP, due to the mix of weapons vs skill artys. I haven’t looked at it recently, but as I recall, DS have a 40-something percent chance of getting a non-weapon skill item, quite a bit better chance than FP do.
Nice tips.
My rule book is kinda old. It shows that Sickness and Curses are still in the book. Have they been removed?
Does anyone know any of the powers of the new artifacts? There are 11 new ones, I think.
Sickness and Curses continue in the game. There are some encounters that give lost spells or if you are very luck your mage can start with it as a special ability.
The secundary powers of the artifact in 4th age are lame. They only allow you you cast minor spells like heal or perceive relations.
In a recent FA game we saw one player start with the Ring of Wind and Pectoral as starting artifacts. But that is very rare.
Frequently you’ll start with just +500 point weapons though, so don’t be disappointed if that’s what you start with.
I did the artifact thing in a 4th age game… unless your part of a team or plan to join one from a neutral standpoint I wouldn’t suggest arty hunting. I didn’t realize just how lame the 4th age secondary powers were, it is truly sad, heck I was just trying to find a conjure ways… no luck.
Just an update, I am in a recent game where one player started with pectoral and ring of wind, but that was a bug, and middle earth games did remove the itens and placed them around the map (and warned both allegiance their IDs/numbers)
Been away for about 5 years but ran mage nation with a friend running a 2nd mage nation. RA’ed everything in game, nothing worth having – Artifacts are nearly worthless in FA unless like to build beefy characters and/or defeat encounters. IMO
RoW and Tinculin can still be +45 in FA and this is a big edge for characters so worthless is a little strong!
It looks like they Refs made it MUCH harder to build curse squads. That might not be such a bad thing. It makes the game play differently when you can’t just poof an army away from another hex.
Artifacts are still super powerful. It is just far harder to locate the really potent ones. That is, unless you get a little lucky!
They could have at least allowed weakness. Truly you can have an agent who is an army killer turn one, but you can’t do much with mages. I don’t see why it should be a problem. At least sickness.
But not to hijack the thread. There is no point to spending time on artifacts as a main point of your nation when you can be building the characters you need in fourth age.