Niefelheim guide - Heroes of Might and Magic

Guide to Niefelheim

The most prominent Niefel features list:

Powerful features:

1. Early game sacred giants.
2. Middle game skelespamming communion using Skratti blood slaves.
3. Middle game cheap as dirt Skratti thugs.
4. Boulder throwers and bears - ideal siege chaff.

Weakness features:

1. Research weakness.

General notes

Niefelheim is a nation built by individual heroes. There are heroes recruitable SCs, heroes mages, heroes slaves, heroes soldiers and heroes scouts. To use them player has to adapt to dealing with heroes:

- As any outstanding individual, heroes of Niefelheim are extremely good in what they do.
- As any northern creatures composed of ice, Niefelheim inhabitats belove cold weather and dislike warm sunny good days.
- As any prominent person, protectors of Niefelheim demand heroic wages, making them heroically expensive.
- As any champion, people of Niefelheim prefer to fight and not study books, resulting in bad.. heroically bad research. Actually this research is the worst in EA: 225 gold for 15 RP non sacred mage.
- Niefelheim has heroic magic diversity. It is 1A 4W 2S 3D 3N 3B without considering 10% chances, sum is heroic 16. Just compare it with 10 for Pangea, 12 forLanka, 12 for Ulm.
- many things heroes of Niefelheim do they do individually, read without army.

Commanders and troops overview:

Scout - heroically overpriced sacred (!) scout. Able to fight some other scouts, but not more.

Jotun Herse - sacred commander with decent stats for cheap price. Can be considered as a Niefel Giant replacement with cheap frostbrand and decent bless. Can’t bless self.

Jotun Jarl - 1H tough warrior. Able to bless, but his most prominent ability is leadership 80, resulting in +1 morale boost.

Jotun Gode - 2H priest. Blesses and seeks for sites. Has forest survival.

Jotun Skratti - it is big gun of Niefelheim. Normally he seeks for Water sites, hunts for blood or calls Frost Fiends. He has second Werewolf form with two attacks, improved stats, larger health pool, 3 map movement, forest survival and built in regeneration, the only weakness of this form is decreased magic resistance. Third form is a plain sneaking wolf. Standard roles of this guy are sabbath slave with incredible regeneration, thug with ability to sneak (need assisting scout to carry items as wolf has misc slots only) and sabbath master with high water path to spam evocations or enchantments.

Gygja - researcher and blood hunter. Expensive as any Niefel unit, it is why she is a bad researcher, but it is strong mage (5 magic paths total) that is not StR recruitable in any fort. Any Gygja is able to spam skeletons in blood sabbath. 2S gygja can Gateway and Mindhunt (need two S boosters), also send Lesser Horrors (need 1S and 1B booster). 3B gygja wielding Thistle mace can forge Armor of Twisting Thorns, then forge Blood Thorn and Brazen Vessel and reach 6B this way. 3D gygja is a great skelespammer, also she has access to medium death rituals, Carrion Reanimation coming in mind. Hint: twiceborn and suicide her for a good chance to get 4D upkeep-free wraith mage. 3N Gygja can reach 5N with Thistle mace and Armor of Twisting Thorns for Mother Oak and other nature stuff.

Niefel Jarl - oh boy. It is super heavy gun. Expensive as palisade, this sacred dude can slay whole armies being equipped properly. In Cold3 he gets 23 protection and 21 defense before any gear is applied. It is standard Niefel’s SC, anyone knows Niefel Jarl, anyone is afraid of him.

Jotun militia - meat fodder. They bring 30 hps for 20 gold cost, making them decent to eat evocations. But usually you do not want to eat evocations. Do not use them.

Jotun spearman - probably good defender due to length 5 spear. Decent protection. Situational.

Jotun javelenist - potentially can hurl javelin far away, but crap otherwise. Do not use him.

Jotun hurler - deceitful unit with heroically bad stats. He has fantastic defense score 5. Still it is pure gold due to Siege Bonus 5 and being disciplined, so he can be set “guard commanders” order. It’s gate break strength 9 while it’s cost is 30, i.e. it is as effective as 9 regular 10-gold 10-strength soldiers. Gold/(siege strength) efficiency is trice as good. Use them to waste no time sieging fortresses and citadels. They are weak? Yes, but who cares, there are giants, werewolves and skeletons to fight. These guys are peaceful backward fort deconstructors.

Jotun Huskarls and Hirdman - more gold and resources for better soldier. Can form core of army that needs to operate in neutral or warm climate.

Niefel Giant - yet another feared big gun of Niefel. Cold addict, has 20 protection 15 attack 16 defense in Cold3 climate, sacred, has Cold aura that renders enemies eternally sleeping if they are not cold-resistant. Demands bless. Has great cost (⅔ of Gygja mage cost), weakness to fire but usually he is used in early game only because standard Niefel thugs (Skrati) and SCs (Niefel Jarls) are better in middle game stage thanks to superior mobility and ability to switch to research/forge/site search when not in war. Cries for regeneration bless.

Jotun Skinshifter - expensive attacking regenerating soldier convert to werewolf when hurt. Replaces Niefel Giant in heat climate, but has no fantastic stats. Very situational.

Nation design obvious solutions:

Heroes are expensive and want money, it’s why take Order3. The larger map the more Sloth it is worth to take: troops loose efficiency relatively quickly. Cold3 is no brainer as military capability depends from Cold scale. Growth, Luck and Magic are varied and used to pay for magic path of pretender.

There are four reasons to take high nature regenerating bless: Niefel giants love it, Niefel Jarls love it, Skratti sabbath slaves love to wear cheap Shrouds of the Saint and Skratti thugs love to wear cheap Shrouds of the Saint. It must be enough to take N9.

While N9 is no brainer, earth and astral blesses are questionable. Minor earth is really good for thugs, SCs and troops, and astral combination with earth grants access to precious Crystal brand items: Crystal Shield, Crystal Matrix and Crystal Coin. Drawback is it comes for expense of scales: cost of 9N4E4S Monolith is almost 200 design points more comparing to plain 9N Irminsul.

The rest of blesses possible are counter-productive except ultra-expensive N9B9 combination (deduct 400 design points from plain 9N).

Nation powers and easy to guess benefits:

Cold resistance: all and every Niefel troop has cold resistance, making abuse of Grip of Winter and frost evocations a good option.

Fatigue option: Skratti slaves are best slaves ever, allowing 18 hps regeneration under Personal regeneration spell and wearing Shroud of Saints. Gygja masters almost never stop casting, exactly spamming skeletons. Also it mean that option of fatigue battles is attractive: massed skeletons drain fatigue. Grip of Winter drains fatigue. Niefel giant’s and Jarl’s cold aura drains fatigue. Rigor Mortis drains fatigue. Cold aura of Draugs drains fatigue. Sum of these options drains fatigue extremely fast.

Poison: high health of Niefels allows use of poison vs human opponents. Foul Vapors.

Fear: Niefel has option of stacking Wailing Winds, Blood Rain, Panics, Terrors, fear aura of Draugs and Jotun Wolves, Fear aura of Horror Helmet wearing thugs and SCs. Use it against medium morale opponents.

Sloth of Bears national spell: 9N god summons 24 bears for 10 nature gems with almost 100 total gatebreaking strength. It is equivalent to 1000 gold investment to regular 10 strength 10 gold cost soldiers. Bears are undisciplined and weak - make sure to keep them out of fight.

Mobility: 2S Gygja with two boosters provides Gateway spell. 3N Gygja with two boosters allows Faerie Trod transportation. 1A random Niefel Jarl wearing Winged Helmet can Cloud Trapeze. A lot of middle game Niefel power hides in Skratti thugs and Niefel SCs who have 3 map movement and wear Boots of Messenger or Flying boots to pass any terrain.

Remote attacks: Gygjas can send horrors and disease demons. Gygjas and Jarls can Arouse Hunger vs undefended provinces. 2A Jarl (empower one!) casts Call of Wind to eat unprepared mages.

Blood ice synergy: Ice demon summons are extremely powerful in Cold3 climate. Frost fiends have 17 attack, 20 defense, magic damage 18, additionally they have amunition of 6 frost blasts similar to fireballs: 10 AP damage , can freeze victim. All the pleasure for just 6 blood slaves. Big Ice Devils have 20+ protection and 20+ defense in Cold climate.

National weaknesses and easy to exploit drawbacks:

- Dependance from climate: Niefel fighting heat-loving nation has to waste tons of Water gems for Wolven Winter spell. Other possibility is Illwinter global, setting climate everywere to Cold3.

- Ultra expensive research: heroical military power and weak research strongly encourage Niefel to be aggressive. If second capital is taken in a few first years, Niefel is fine, otherwise this nation is screwed. Other solution is to reach Construction6 and spend death gems for Skull Mentors. Third solution is utilize independent cheap mages as chassis for Skull Mentors and researchers and to let expensive Gygjas and Skratti to hunt for blood and forge items instead of ineffective research.

- Lack of heroes: Niefel’s doom is to have giants to be constantly swarmed with enemies. There are two ways to mitigate it: first one is to counter-swarm battlefield with skeletons, insects and imps. And another is to buff heroes and debuff enemies: it is very bad idea to try to swarm protected by 22 protection body etherealed enlarged Niefel Giant regenerating 20 hp per round (bless regeneration and buffed Regeneration stack) being under debuff of Grip of Winter and Rigor Mortis spells.

Easy receipts to kill annoying people:

Standard expansion squad: two or three Niefel giants led by Gode or Jarl. Blessed nature-regenerating giants in Cold-3 are unstoppable, at least by independents. Need no research.

Enhanced squad: dozen of Niefel giants in “line” formation led by prophet or some Godes or Jarls. A few plain commanders in rear wearing Construction0 Skull Talismans behind spamming skeletons. Skeletons prevent giants being swarmed and are added up. Need no research but some investment of death gems in Skull talismans production. Advanced tactic of this kind is to cast swarm or summon imps.

Buffed giants squad: a few of Niefel Giants on “hold and attack” order supported by one or two Gygjas (or independent 1N mages for just protection buff). Gygjas cover giants with protection, enlarge, body ethereal, regeneration. Need research of Alteration3+ and Enchantment 2+ magic.

Middle game standard sabbath squad: two Skratti slaves wearing Shroud of Saint, several Gygja masters. One of Gygja casts Personal Regeneration. Skratti slaves regenerate 18 hp per round equal to 180 fatigue. Gygja masters spam skeletons.

Enhanced sabbath squad: add 3W Skratti master casting Grip of Winter and Quaqmire. Add 2W1N Skratti master wielding Thistle mace casting Foul Vapors. Add Gygja 3D or 2D + Skull Staff master casting Rigor Mortis (need to share reinvigoration items for sabbath masters) and Darkness vs non-skelespamming nations.

Standard Niefel Jarl SC: gear Jarl with frostbrand, vine shield, boots of messenger, antimagic amulet and enjoy mobile power able to smash small armies. Order bless, liquid body, invulnerability or soul vortex.

Cheap Skratti thug: Skratti in werewolf form geared with frostbrand, flesheater axe, shroud of Saint. Liquid body, quicken self, hold, attack orders. Best be used with standard army.

Big decisive battle army: all above. Niefel Giants, Skratti and Niefel thugs together with supporting sabbath squad.

Research plan:

Alteration4 for protection, enlarge, body ethereal buffs, swarm anti-swarming preparation, wolven winter to allow Giants walk anywhere and arouse hunger for rare remote attacks.

Blood1 for sabbath, reinvigoration and summon imps.

Enchantment6 for skelespamming, Regeneration and Personal Regeneration, Antimagic, Grip of winter, Rigor Mortis, Foul Vapors, Quaqmire.

Construction6 for Skull Mentors and thugs outfit.

Blood5 for Send Lesser Horror and bind frost fiend.

Blood6 for Infernal Disease and Bind Ice Demon.

Then probably high blood. Or alteration. Conjuration. Evocation for Wailing Winds and Wind of Death. It depends.

Commerce and diplomacy

Usually Niefel has large excess of water gems. They can be traded, spent for frostbrands for cheap Herse commanders or used in some rutuals or globals, Wolven Winter, Vengeful Water or Maelstrom coming in mind.