Picks for the best minimum performance

Most good traits are generally useful. That's why they are good traits. The first 4 races/traits you discuss are my favorites as well, for example.

Some choices I don't really understand, like Armorer or Warlord: I would pick those if I wanted to use large armies. All my other picks would reflect that as well, so I would still be pretty s#d if there's no Iron and/or Crystal.

I tend to think if you can do stuff faster than your opponent you will win. Most of your picks seem fairly sound, but I would have thought Mancers + Master Scouts would give you crazy movement, which should greatly reduce the chance you would be short of resources in the first place. The Decalon would also help you to claim resources with Arcane Monolith.

Have you not chosen Beastlord because it's too obvious? Beastlord is always good, but even more so if you are limited in the troops you can train because of lack of resources. "Brilliant" goes well with that because of the extra spell mastery.

In general I think you want to have some cheap troops to get you going at the start, so if not Beastlord, Binding is good, Slaves are ok, Warlord is ok (support an army twice the size you could otherwise). Procipinee's Crown is also a possibility; make your sovereign a mage and permanently summon as many units as you can, for a zero maintenance army. "Wealthy" is another way of getting a bit of a headstart.

I put both Mancers and Humans in for the races because I am not sure which one of them is objectively the least likely to get screwed, but they should both be above every other race at least.

By short on resources I was mostly meaning they just aren't anywhere on the map.  Decalon definitely helps with sniping resources or getting resources that are a bit farther away from your cities, but if they just aren't there then it doesn't really help much.

Beastlord can have pretty low minimum performance if you can't find any decent beasts to tame with it, which is a possibility at least.  Armorer can't suffer from lack of beasts or whatever.  I know I have played games before where there was nothing to tame or only things that are so bad you might as well not tame them like the tiny bears.

Wealthy is a pretty good pick, I won't argue that, but it doesn't really do as much to limit how screwed you can possibly be compared to the ones I listed, I think.

It's unusual not to have some beasts which are accessible and you can tame. If you have good movement you should be able to find them. The only real exception I can think of is if you're stuck in a bottleneck with no way out, but if that's the case you're probably screwed anyway. Even if you can get a bear cub and a wolf, plus your starting troops that will let you take on enemies you couldn't otherwise take on, and you won't pay maintenance for them. Normally I can find a Cave Bear or Corpse Spider quite early, and one of those will dramatically increase your army's power. Later on you can build an army of Cave Bears, Giant spiders, Umberdroths, maybe a Great Wolf, and that will win you the game without requiring any resources.

N/A

150 Gildar as of latest patch.

EDIT: Not sure where I got that, but it's not the case.

N/A

Aren't quest maps rather late in the tree now?

I would stick with something that applies to the early game too if trying to ensure the best low end performance.

It's not bad, though, I did have some fun with insane quest map stuff a few times back in base FE.

Cautious is good, but I also don't think it does as much to mitigate you being screwed in some way as other things I have listed.

don't forget ironeer blood - that's a pretty failsafe bonus (+1 HP per level and 30 free spell resistance) - your sov (automatically sharing the blood) will be weak for tactical spellcasting, but you can still use him as a great defender or warrior and pick his initial spell schools for the strategic spells/buffs. your troops will always be better quality regardless of available resources.

Krax blood with their defense tile improvement is also underrated. i always found those little forts very useful especially if you don't have tons of resources available to make superpowered killer units. plus they get some extra defense (IIRC) when their health drops low, so even a badly wounded unit sitting in its little fort can survive quite a while.

Fortifying a tile doesn't cause the unit to go into a defensive stance, correct?

I only played Krax blood with the free quest unit, but I seem to remember that unit doesn't go defensive when it fortifies a tile.

If it doesn't, it really should.

I don't mind me some Ironeer Blood, I like the free guard strike ability for all units.  That can be really strong, especially with defender sovereigns and units that have shields.

I generally take anything random that I can. I don't sit there and read every little detail trying to get the optimum set. That's one of the things wrong with players is they want optimum sets everytime they play. They basically can't stand to lose. I on the other hand love the challenge of trying to win with random choices or sets. Anyone can pick a winning combination how many of you can win with any character and any traits? Not many I can say easily because you've been playing god mode so long you don't know how to play any strategy other than some template already made or done before. You rush to strategy sites to find out the best way to win. They never should have ever made game genies or cheat code sites, but the developers wanted some easy money from the millions who would  buy it to cheat the games they got.

Feel free to take your rant somewhere else.  It's disrespectful to my thread and all the participants.

How you prefer to play and what you think about cheat codes doesn't belong here.

Besides the fact that this thread has zero to do with broken combos that trivialize FE/LH.

You should seriously apologize if you have any actual decency.

@Raiddinn,

There are millions like the poster you responded to on the 'net. Best to just smile, say "I admit it, you are better at this game than I am", and move along. That validation is all he's after, not a serious discussion. Once he gets it, he'll move along.

Maybe, just maybe, there is one less.

I see the simpletons responded to my post but nevertheless I am right and I know I am right. Cheaters always cheat and look for easy simple strategies and ways to win. If you want a good game of it and a challenge then 'random' play and picking traits is the way to go. ;l) Don't be a cheater or exploiter you'll always find games unfun or no challenge if you cheat or exploit. :)) Stay away from templates and always choose an alternate character every game. :

One good way to play is roll up your character every game. Use dice and numbers to pick your traits and strengths and even weaknesses. It's a lot of fun at the certain combos that come up. More fun than straight picking one from some template or picking the best traits everytime you play.

Nope, not one less.

N/A

Whoops - my apologies.  I must have dreamed that or something, because I have a clear memory of that in a changelog list - but yet it's not there. 

Sorry to spread misinformation.