JOTUNHEIM, IRON WOODS

Dominion design:

Giants prefer Cold +2. They are cold resistant and therefore will gain an advantage over non-cold resistant units fighting in very cold climes (especially cold-blooded units).
A positive Growth scale is important (to feed the giants), even if your mages have some basic Nature power.
Jotunheim needs a lot of ressources too, thus high Production.

It is to be noted that a scale of Cold +3 does not affect giants much and that the economic loss (-5% tax) could be negated by Order, Growth or Production (and by the random natural temperature changes in the begining of the game!). To the other hand, the colder weather will cause even more trouble to temperate neighbors, and will strenghten "Chill" creatures like Winter Wolves, Wights, Banes, Ghosts etc. Furthermore, if you do not or can not take a positive Luck scale, some random bad events could make temperature drop anyway...

You are not too dependent on your capital (producing Gygja and Woodsmen), and could build cheap forward fortresses to flood your opponents.

 

Special Pretenders:

- The Son of Niefel brings you free winter wolves (1/turn) in cold provinces, plus the physical strength of a Titan, but narrow magic skills. With Water magic above 4, your blessed units will get an interesting defense bonus, and even quickness if you reach W9. Besides Water you could go for Air magic since Jotunheim noticeably lacks missile troops and Storm will help offset this. Thunder Ward is another spell that Jotunheim would really like to have - armor negating damage is a headache when your troops rely on their armor to keep them alive. And nobody expects fliers from Jotunheim, so a pack of Spring Hawks or Wyverns can come as a nasty surprise.
- The Bog Mummy is more expensive but immortal, and gets more flexible magic skills. Death and Blood magic alone will duplicate Jotun mages' skills however. Earth magic (Invulnerability) can turn her into a good and expendable fighter (into her dominion).
- The Dracolich has much more physical powerful than a lich or a bog mummy, but is cheaper. He is limited to Death magic however, and not immortal, not even when he changes shape (the description of the mummy is misleading).
- The Skratti is a tough rainbow mage. His weak dominion is a problem. Probably a poor choice, unless maybe on large maps with lots of magic sites.
- A Nature pretender brings you Berserk holy troops, and even Regeneration and Poison Resistance at level 9, and this is probably the best Bless effect you could give to your 30 hp giants.

 

Sacred Units:
- Woodsmen are one of the worst units in the game for a cost ratio. Their light armor (prot 9) and average defense make them extremely vulnerable, both in close combat or against archers. The only solution seems to use magic (Body Ethereal, Iron warriors etc), or Bless (with an Earth pretender), but they still die far too easily compared to the Herses you could buy for only 10 more gold. And their production is limited to the capital only.
- Jotun Scouts are very similar to Woodsmen (for the same price), but have some javelins to throw from a safe distance and are stealthy. They, too, are very vulnerable and expensive.
- The Jotun Herses are very interesting. You can make a lot of them, their upkeep cost is the same than base giants. They are much tougher combatants than most other leaders and are worth putting some magic items on them to make early super-combatants against weak independants. Cheap equipment can turn Jotun Herses into fearsome warmachines: Wraith Swords, Lycanthropos Amulets or even Barkskin Amulets are very effective to keep them alive and healthy. And if you have access to earth magic, Boots of the Behemoth on a few size 4 leaders can wreak havoc in the enemy ranks. Be careful though or they will die facing a decent group of high damage dealing creatures unless in numbers.
Of course you can't replace all your Jotuns with Herses but you can often buy 1 Herse+3 Spearmen in castles where you'd otherwise recruit 4 Spearmen and can't or don't recruit a mage. Herses don't have priestly powers and so don't require a temple to be recruited.

 

Strategy

  • Jotunheim has powerful infantry and the resources to mass produce them. Giants are pretty solid and fast, and suffer thus few casualties after a rout.
  • They are hungry however : each giant needs 3 supply points. Jotuns often have a penalised end game due to supply problems.
  • Good first spells : Curse and Reanimation.
  • Jotun militia is probably the best in the game and can make it very hard to raid Jotunheim territory, especially if you combine it with a few patrolling archers. For 15 GP, you get a Jotun Herse and five 30 hp militia. After 20, you get Stone Hurlers, which are not worth it. 19 militia and a Herse is a fairly effective fighting force (for 190 gold), and only large armies will be able to defeat them.
  • Giant are strong and big, and therefore are good pillagers (10 giants will kill and plunder about 15% of the local population every turn) and excellent besiegers/defenders of fortresses (each giant counting as 4 ordinary units).

 

Units:

In general, Jotuns are fast and *really* hard to kill. Even if they face a horde of smallish units and break, most of them will still survive, while the smaller units will take serious casualties even if they win.

One of their issues is that they have fewer but larger troops. Squads that are small in number often have morale issues, and this is a problem that plagues Jotunheim. Players can counter this with priestly morale boosters, or by using high morale troops.

You might want to try adding some vaettir or wolf riders to your order of battle, or local heavy infantry, to help keep your Jotuns from being surrounded. It is like a big rock-paper-scissors: their high hp, good armor and speed allow the giants to easily crush archers, but hordes of light infantry can surround and overwhelm them (surrounded troops have a defense penalty). To the other hand, the giants are so big they can't themselves overwhelm much of anything to get the defense reduction.

Jotun Spearmen are probably the best flat-out infantry in the game. Their armor is quite high (18), and their hp are triple the average troops. Also, while their attack and defence are only average, their strength is so high that they usually kill even well armored troops with one blow. Their weapon length is 5 (behind only Pikeneers), so they are quite good at repelling anyone. Jotun Axemen do slightly more damage, but the negative to attack is painful, the negative to defense is bad too, and their reach is only 2.
1 giant Spearman often beats 4 of the heaviest independant infantry

Jotun Hurlers are expensive second line fighters. With their strength of 20, a boulder do a total of 30 points of damage, which effectively kills any normal troop even with good armor. The short range is actually a bonus: it allows them to hit much more frequently (friendly fire is still a problem however). They have only 2 ammo anyway, so they often enter close combat but their light armor (prot 10) make them very vulnerable . Hurlers are only useful against super-armored troops with high defense, like knights, since ranged attacks ignore defense (and other giants can’t benefit the surround bonus and so tend to have problems hitting high defence units).

Jotun Javelinists are better armored and could fight hand-to-hand but half measure is a poor fit for Jotunheim. They are too expensive and inaccurate (javelins' range is 20) as ranged attack (you can almost buy 4 indy archers for the price of 1 giant javelinist) and Spearmen are much better fighters.

Elite troops like Jotun Huskarls and Hirdmen are more expensive than Spermen. Huskarls are not significantly better (1 more morale does not compensate for the lighter prot 15 armor), but Hirdmen wear chainmail armor and are really good if you can afford them.

Vaettir and Wolf Riders are much weaker. They also have a poor morale and cannot be used as shock units. They are great for stealth raids however, or to support Jotun Spearmen (two size-1 Vaettir can fight with every size-4 giant, in the same square).
Moose Riders are too weak for the price. Buy independant sneak archers or villains if you have a chance.

Keep in mind that Jotun Militia is cheaper than cavalry and wolf riders. They are fast and are much better than human militia (better morale, better armor and they do much more damage), so a small number of them could be useful on a flanking attack against weak independants. Of course you cannot rely on them, they often rout too early even if they could beat the opposition.

 

Magic:

Jotunheim's magic is quite unflexible, since mages have only random sorcery picks. So no Wards and no big air/earth/fire spells even with a Communion (the latter lets you cast Poison Ward and higher sorcery battelfield spells, like Relief, Charm, Polymorph, Mass Regeneration, Battle Fortune, Doom, etc). Skrattis and Gygjas are giants and are able to take a lot of punishment.

Vaetti Hags are cheap and expendable mages. They are good for researching and forging items. They are stealthy too and can lead a small number of hidden vaettir or wolfriders behind the frontlines.
Early on, a Death Hag could cast Dark Knowledge or Reanimation (for Jotunheim mages, half the undeads are giants too, so this is a much better spell for them than for other nations. Longdead Giants are not overwhelmingly powerful, but it's a decent bonus early on). When they cast Raise Skeletons/Deads in combat about 10% of the summons will be giants. It's not amazing... but it's something extra. They also could Revive King to lead the undeads and, later, cast Spirit Mastery.
An Astral Hag could cast Arcane Probing, or support the big fighters with Body Ethereal and Luck, and support other mages with Communion, which can lead to some very impressive spell casting.
A Nature Hag could Awaken Vine Men. In battle, she can cast Tangle Vines or Swarm to slow down opponents, or Protection to harden giants.
Blood Hags are cheap blood hunters and can Bind Serpent Fiends. If necessary, they could be Sabbath Slaves. 3 Blood Hags with Sanguine Dousing Rods will bring you 12-15 slaves every turn in a 8,000+ pop province (reduce taxes to 0 to avoid strong unrest).

Skrattis are expensive, but their skill in water magic is useful: Jotunheim can become a fairly large underwater threat pretty early with a Skatti and a few undead giants. Furthermore, blood magic has some very effective summoning spells in the late game.
In cold provinces, they will summon Ice Elementals instead of (weaker but faster) classic Water Elementals.

Gygjas are expensive too, but have a large sorcery mix. Those who get astral magic are very useful, they can cast the terrific Nether Darts/Bolts or lead a Communion to reach higher spells. Those who get death magic can summon Wights (and a couple of those critters can beat most weaker independants, like militia, LI or tritons).

 

National Heroes:

  • Angerboda the great hag (3 astral, 3 death, 3 blood, 2 nature) : "Angerboda, the Great Hag of the Iron Wood, is the oldest and most wicked of all giants. Her evil nature has turned her home into a forest of iron and ice. Her children are monsters born in the dark of the night. Angerboda has performed Blood magic and necromancy for centuries and has taught her evil ways to the Skrattis of Jotunheim. The Gygjas are her servants, and they help her divine the past, the present, and the future. She has seen the impending arrival of the Illwinter and has come to aid the Great Lord of Jotunheim".

  • Sporsnjall the Wolf Lord (Wolfrider with standard) : "Sporsnjall is a Vaetti. He is skilled and well-known in the halls of the wolfkin, but to the giants he is but another goblin. Sporsnjall has decided to show his allies that small allies are as useful as big ones. Sporsnjall rides a white wolf believed to be the offspring of Angerboda, Mother of Monsters."

    Last update Feb. 20, 2004.

     

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