SantoriniPowerGaea

Introduction

As the goddess of the earth, Gaea can give birth to two extra workers to help her with her duty. Having 4 workers is very powerful, since they can cover a lot of area. However, making them work requires doming…

God Power

Twice per game when building, when a worker builds a dome, you may immediately place a worker onto a ground-level space neighbouring the dome.

Category

Player move

Explanation

This power activates after building. If a new tower is completed, Gaia can immediately use her power, even out of turn. If there are no ground level spaces available, a worker is not used.

Game Strategies

Early Game

This is usually the most important phase in a matchup concerning Gaea. Many times, one of these happens: either the opponent makes a strong initial attack and quickly wins (even if Gaea gets an extra worker) or they play slowly, giving time for Gaea to collect enough workers to cover the whole board and making life very difficult for the opponent.

The initial thought when playing with Gaea is just to immediately complete a tower (without making any progress) and get a new worker. The problem of doing this, is that it might give time for your opponent to create a deadly attack. Imagine that Gaea goes for this. If the opponent moves to level 2, then getting a ground level worker won’t be much useful to defend and Gaea could be doomed. In general, much better is to stay close to the opponent and play defensively and when the opportunity comes, you will create a level 3 and then dome it to get a new worker.

Gaea can still go for another strategy. She can try to move up “far away” from the opponent. Once she is on a level 1 with an adjacent level 1, she can try to move up to the level 2. If the opponent blocks this by creating a level 3, in the next turn she can dome that square and get a new worker. If the opponent lets ur move up, she will be on top of a level 2 with an adjacent level 2. From here, Gaea has two options: either she “wastes” the level 2 by creating a defendable level 3 threat (the point of this is force the opponent to complete a tower and make her gain a new worker) or she waits for her threat to be deadly. The ideal is of course the latter but that will most likely never happen as Gaea is just playing with no power and the opponent will most likely create some threat first.

Mid Game

Gaea needs to slowly improve the position of all of her workers. What I mean by this is that having three or four workers on the ground level isn’t that good. She needs at least one (or two) workers in a good position, otherwise she will not make any progress. Remember that Gaea’s new workers are born on the ground, so it might take one or two turns for it to get into a better position.

Late Game

I’m assuming that at this stage Gaea already has her four workers and thus she will be very strong. Unless her workers are mostly on the ground level or the opposing god is very powerful, she will most likely win.

Specific Matchup

Aphrodite

It will be “easy” for Gaea to get 4 workers and then, it will be hard for Aphrodite to keep an eye on everyone. This said, Gaea should convert this into a victory.

Bia

Even playing with four workers, it is possible to dodge Bia. Gaea must be especially careful when she has more than two workers. If one worker dies, she won’t be able to have four workers and might become a mortal if another one dies. However, if Gaea is a good player, this combination provides a balanced game.

Charybdis

Believe it or not, Gaea holds the upper hand in this matchup. If Charybdis isn’t able to win with an early attack, things will become very difficult for her. This is because when Gaeae collects four workers (which shouldn’t be that hard against Charybdis), she will cover the whole board and it will be hard for Charybdis to create any real threats using the whirlpools. Furthermore, if Gaea ever has the possibility to enter a whirlpool (even if she gets flushed to a corner), I would recommend that she takes it. If Gaea enters a whirlpool and stays there for the rest of the game, Charybdis will be playing with no power. This means that if Gaea “sacrifices” a worker by letting it be in a whirlpool for the rest of the game, Gaea will be playing a game with no powers with a 3 vs 2 majority. This will most likely be a win.

Chronus

I guess you were expecting Chronus to have a chance in this matchup. If Gaea is clumsy, that could happen. But most likely what will happen is that Gaea will win one or two workers and then she will be able to win easily. Chronus should try to complete towers in spaces whose adjacent squares are not ground levels (so that Gaea cannot get an extra worker).

Double builders

Gaea doesn’t really stand a chance against double builders.

Graeae

This matchup is tricky and although it seems that Gaeae has everything to be better (once she gets a new worker, she should be better, right?), Graeae will be the one to create any real danger. Gaea may be able to move up and get a new worker, but at what cost. While she does this, Graeae can move up in a corner and it will be impossible for Gaea to defend. So Gaea must not go right away for a new worker and should try to keep up with Graeae. This will provide an interesting matchup.

Harpies

Playing as a mortal against Harpies is never easy. But Gaea gets new workers to compensate for that fact. More workers means more “domes”, which will make it easier to play against Harpies. Still, it won’t be easy and Gaea needs to be a very experienced player.

Hera

This a very interesting game and although Gaea will easily get to play with four workers, the fact that she cannot win outside of the perimeter will make things much more difficult. Still, having four workers covers a lot of the board and sometimes Hera might not be able to play what she wants since Gaea is in the way. This means that Gaea might not win by moving to a level 3 but by trapping Hera somehow, as long as she doesn’t let Hera move to a level 2 in C3.

Hippolyta

The problem here for Gaea is the same as every other matchup. It takes some turns to get a new worker and then, that worker is placed on the ground level. Anyway, this matchup isn’t that bad for Gaea if she is able to get a new worker while creating a winning threat.

Hydra

An interesting balanced matchup which can go to any side. Anyway, I would say it is less scary to play on Gaea’s side.

Maenads

Is getting more workers good or bad here? This might not be obvious and may depend very much on the position. If Gaea collects more workers, she should separate them as much as possible or Maenads will deliver some deadly double attacks. It can be an interesting challenge to play this matchup on Gaea’s side.

Persephone

Having more workers means that Gaea will have to “waste” more moves moving up and this can be a problem if she wants to defend on another part of the board. Still, Gaea should actually be better here.

Proteus

Just like against Graeae, this matchup will provide an interesting matchup if Gaea doesn’t go right away for a new worker. Otherwise, Proteus might create a position which will be impossible to defend.

Tartarus

Keep in mind that if Gaea places a new worker in the abyss, she loses.

Zeus

Another interesting combination which can go to either side.

Conclusion

Although Gaea can play with up to four workers, this comes with a cost. She needs to play some moves and then, the workers are born on the ground level. If Gaea’s goal is just to get a new worker (without any other plan), she will probably lose as then she will not be able to defend. However, there are a lot of opponents against which Gaea can play slowly and hope for a better endgame making use of her worker’s majority.

Tier ranking: C