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I've played a fair amount of crawl in my day (and sent in a few patches). I played some mpa-sil about a year ago and splatted a variety of Fingolfin and Feanor fighters. Started playing again recently with a bit more care and have posted two one-sil wins in the past week.
The first was a Finarfin stealthy singer, starting with Listen and following approximately the suggestions in the build ideas thread. More a sneaker than a singer, using song sparingly and situationally. Getting Barahir was tricky, it was guarded by a young cold-drake as their roost, and I couldn't get them to fall asleep not on it. So I took quickness and gambled on luring them off, smash and grab style. Very good plan, I got webbed shortly thereafter and Este I think saved me until I was able to break out. I also at one point got surrounded by gwarthrauko with one of them on the stair (one had noticed me and I didn't see or hear the other coming down the hall) Thankfully I had Glamdring by then and landed a critical on the one on the stairs which scared it off and made my escape. Diciest moment in the game, and on the next floor two Feanorian lamps! Was able to steal Aredhel from the Chambers of Thu which was an exciting sneak dance. Took the points of melee in the throne room, still had to take several whacks to get a sil.
The second was a Nogrod master smith axe murderer. I've seen some things on the forums about smithing builds spending a lot of time building smithing gear and then making an all out masterpiece. Instead I went for Enchantment and Artistry and tried to make incrementally above-average items. Lucked out with an early enchanted forge which gave me a bit of an edge. The fine boots of speed carried me through many escapes and I kept them the whole game. Had some lucky finds (Celebrimor, some Vanyar spears) which got me the rings of +3 accuracy despite 2 starting Grace. Heavy armor use turned out to be not so useful; shortly after taking it I found the mithril corslet. Oh well. While I carried the bow it was a stat stick for perception, I didn't fire a single arrow. Speed+Charge+momentum kicked ass. A much slower game than the singer (which probably didn't need to chill at 950ft as long as I did but I was spooked), running just barely ahead of the turn clock and running out of time before finding a sharpie, but got a sil out with Dramborleg. Angrist appeared on the ascent, go figure. Horns of blasting make for amusing escapes, and you don't provoke attacks of opportunity like you do when digging. I got cornered by V twice on the ascent; both times he helped with some earthquakes but getting out the other side was much easier with the horn.
I must commend half and Scatha on an amazingly loreful work. Both characters were simultaneously exciting and reasonable to play from a gameplay point of view and from a lore point of view.
Compare the experience of a weak but graceful member of the house of Finarfin taking a sil with guile and song (a child of a bard, I definitely re-rolled my history to fit the build I had in mind!) to a hardy and strong willed dwarf (descendent from craftdwarfs and a credit to the family) smashing through Angband in resplendent mithril of their own make with a legendary axe.
Comments remarks feedback &c welcome. Maybe I'll share intermediate dumps along the way in the future.
The first was a Finarfin stealthy singer, starting with Listen and following approximately the suggestions in the build ideas thread. More a sneaker than a singer, using song sparingly and situationally. Getting Barahir was tricky, it was guarded by a young cold-drake as their roost, and I couldn't get them to fall asleep not on it. So I took quickness and gambled on luring them off, smash and grab style. Very good plan, I got webbed shortly thereafter and Este I think saved me until I was able to break out. I also at one point got surrounded by gwarthrauko with one of them on the stair (one had noticed me and I didn't see or hear the other coming down the hall) Thankfully I had Glamdring by then and landed a critical on the one on the stairs which scared it off and made my escape. Diciest moment in the game, and on the next floor two Feanorian lamps! Was able to steal Aredhel from the Chambers of Thu which was an exciting sneak dance. Took the points of melee in the throne room, still had to take several whacks to get a sil.
The second was a Nogrod master smith axe murderer. I've seen some things on the forums about smithing builds spending a lot of time building smithing gear and then making an all out masterpiece. Instead I went for Enchantment and Artistry and tried to make incrementally above-average items. Lucked out with an early enchanted forge which gave me a bit of an edge. The fine boots of speed carried me through many escapes and I kept them the whole game. Had some lucky finds (Celebrimor, some Vanyar spears) which got me the rings of +3 accuracy despite 2 starting Grace. Heavy armor use turned out to be not so useful; shortly after taking it I found the mithril corslet. Oh well. While I carried the bow it was a stat stick for perception, I didn't fire a single arrow. Speed+Charge+momentum kicked ass. A much slower game than the singer (which probably didn't need to chill at 950ft as long as I did but I was spooked), running just barely ahead of the turn clock and running out of time before finding a sharpie, but got a sil out with Dramborleg. Angrist appeared on the ascent, go figure. Horns of blasting make for amusing escapes, and you don't provoke attacks of opportunity like you do when digging. I got cornered by V twice on the ascent; both times he helped with some earthquakes but getting out the other side was much easier with the horn.
I must commend half and Scatha on an amazingly loreful work. Both characters were simultaneously exciting and reasonable to play from a gameplay point of view and from a lore point of view.
Compare the experience of a weak but graceful member of the house of Finarfin taking a sil with guile and song (a child of a bard, I definitely re-rolled my history to fit the build I had in mind!) to a hardy and strong willed dwarf (descendent from craftdwarfs and a credit to the family) smashing through Angband in resplendent mithril of their own make with a legendary axe.
Comments remarks feedback &c welcome. Maybe I'll share intermediate dumps along the way in the future.
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