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| Key Point: Don¿t worry if your enemy gets deep into your territory provided you are deep in his. You should be able to tear him down faster than he can tear you down. After all he has to worry about an economy and supply.
Late Game Strategy LA Ermor, IMHO, is strongest in the mid game having a successful endgame requires planning. Your biggest hurdle to overcome in the late game is your lack of access to a variety of magical paths. In order to overcome this hurdle you MUST begin to plan how you will deal with this issue in the middle/early game. Without some amount of forethought you will be attempting to bootstrap your mages into other magic paths too little too late. If you are in a decent position it's likely you will be constantly fighting multiple wars on different fronts. This comes with the LA Ermor territory! If it is a large game you should get ready for those 3-4 hour turns! Wheeeee! With normal victory conditions in a medium sized game often LA Ermor will focus on hording death gems setting up a strong defense and then casting a ¿screw you world¿ spell like Utterdark, Burden of Time or Foul Air. Then you try to hold off the onslaught and mop up for the win. With normal victory conditions in a large game the above strategy is much harder as the global slots will fill up and there are more astral gems out in the world to use to bring down your uber-global. In this case you might want to consider going for a standard military victory supplemented by something like Soul Gate if possible. Solar Brilliance The first of three main anti-ermor spells out there, Solar Brilliance will devastate your largest army easily and will dispel (and prevent) Darkness. You deal with this spell by avoiding it and attempting to kill the casters via indirect means (assassination spells). Sending multiple high MR SCs against the offending army might work as well. Standard anti-mage effects like Bone Grinding and Earthquake might also be able to kill the offending mage. As a last resort put all your heavy hitters up front and attempt to blitz them. With enough shadow blasts / firestorms / etc¿ you might be able to reach the caster before your horde completely falls apart. Undead Mastery This is another LA Ermor game breaking spell not only will it destroy your army it will increase the size of the enemy player¿s forces! Luckily this is difficult to pull off¿ it often requires communions. Communion Slave mages are usually easy to kill. Basically avoid these opponents with your large armies if possible and use the same tactics against them as you would solar brilliance. I don¿t recommend the kamikaze attack though¿ Purgatory This is THE global spell you need to plan for. Usually it goes up once there are a few players left in the game and they know you will be their next target but it could happen anytime in the mid-late game. Every undead in enemy dominion has a chance of being the subject of an 18 armor piercing fire attack. The chance of getting hit is 10% per level of enemy dominion. This means that in a 9-10 enemy domain province virtually all of your normal units will be annihilated. Image you have shuffled most of your troops deep into enemy territory when this goes off? You¿re ****ed! Luckily SCs/Thugs/leader should be able to shrug this off but normal units will be obliterated. The best way to defend against this is to overcast it yourself with such a massive investment of fire gems that no one can steal it away. It would only kill enemy undead yours would be safe. I realize this is an extremely expensive defensive move but trust me¿ it¿s worth it. I can¿t stress enough how you need to plan for this spell! Combat Strategy (Late Game) It¿s all about the SC in the late game. In a mid-large sized game it will be hard to get to the unique uber-summons and artifacts before the other players. This is another intrinsic weakness of LA Ermor. Tartarian Gate will be a very handy spell to have to churn out non-unique thugs/SCs. SCs equipped with decent MR are also one of the few universal weapons that are immune to the anti-LA Ermor spells Solar Brilliance, Undead Mastery and Purgatory. If need be they can be ¿massed¿ to take out the armies protecting these casters. You¿ll need to have some sort of anti-SC strategy as you will probably face more SCs initially than you will field (unless you go straight for Tartarian Gates). I¿ve found that even the most bad-ass SC can be stopped by a horde of 3k undead from time to time! Disintegrate spammed by 10+ death mages on a single SC will usually eventually work on all but the highest MR SCs (provided there is enough chaff to keep them busy for awhile). Another suggestion (untried by me) is to use a mass of Wailing Ladies (a potent offensive sacred unit). Worse comes to worse you can fight fire with fire and deploy SCs designed specifically to kill opponent SCs (Armor Negating Weapons/High Attack/Gate Cleavers/etc¿) 8.18 Fomoria 8.18.1 Guide based on RAND MP game (Author note: I had the dobious honor of playing TC in this game and losing to Fomoria led by Micah :) )
(MP), only singleplayer (SP). Most of my strategies are based on reading other peoples' guides. Pashadawg generously gave me some of the saved game files from the recent RAND game which was won by Micah playing Fomoria, so a great deal of this guide comes from examining his moves. The RAND game is here: http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=562845&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&fpart=1&vc=1 1. troops Fomorian Warrior: This is your best soldier, and generally the only non-capital troop that you'll recruit. Unmarked: This is the cheaper of your two sacreds. Most of your armies will be made from these. Try to recruit as many as you can. Fomorian Giant: The more expensive sacred. These guys are super powerful, especially with your bless (more or than later), but at 110gp each, you're not going to be able to afford many. As cash flow allows, try to buy a few of these instead of unmarked. Nemedian Warrior: capital only, stealthy glamour heavy infantry with 16 defense. Clearly has raiding potential. Spare resources at the capitol (after building a king, and all your sacreds) should go to these, when you can afford them. [TODO: more on the other units] 2. commanders Fomorian Druid: your only non-capital mage, and the main commander you'll be recruiting in your non-capitol forts. A cost effective researcher at 150gp,sacred, with 3 research. The druid also has 10 leadership, which is enough to lead ten Fomorian Warriors. Surprisingly (to me anyways), one Druid and ten Formorian Warriors can take out most indy provinces / mild province defense, so that gives you access to lots of small raiding parties.
so they make great combat spellcasters. They also make excellent combat artillery (more on this later). The Formorian Druid comes in 4 variations: A2 can forge thunder bows, can summon storm power/thunderstrike, can cloud trapeze A1W1 can forge ring of water for W2, then forges frost brand, sword of swiftness, boots of quickness, water bottle, etc Or arm with a bow, cast aim, quickness, fire closest You'll also want one (at W2) to cast voice of apsu. A1D1 raise skeletons, cheap blesser if you need it. A1G1 with a bow and boots of quickness, script aim, eagle eye, fire closest One of these should walk around site searching. As soon as you can, You'll want to empower one to 2G, which unlocks thistle maces and haruspex.
outfitted, the Fomorian King isn't just a thug, it really qualifies as a supercombantant (SC). They are also excellent combat spell casters. You should aim to recruit one every turn, after the first few turns.
can forge air boosters, or staff of storms A3D3 as a thug: bless, mistform, soul vortex, attack. Or, traveling with an A4, summon storm power, aim, thunderstrike x3 In the late game, with air boosters & travelling with blesser and staff of storms, consider thunderstike x5 A3W1D2 as a thug, cast quickness, mistform, attack. Or with a water ring and gems, can cast quickening to haste your warriors. Nemedian Sorceress: if you recruit a Sorceress, you aren't recruiting a King. Don't build these; instead, save up for a King. 3. general overview With a decent bless (e.g., E9/N4), you have incredible rush power. At alt-3, a king with 6-8 Unmarked and 1-2 Giants can kill most anything that's around in year one.
Astral indy mages are a high priority for you, and you should probably splash astral on your pretender as well (and possibly fire, too). If your pretender has S3E2 you can construct golems, which have at least S2 (S3 with cap, S4 with crystal coin, which your pretender can forge). This will unlock astral forging (amulets of antimagic and caps for all your kings), althought it takes construction-7, which is pretty late. You have a possible end-game in Death magic - well of misery, tartarians. Don't forget mercenaries! Even an S1 mercenary can cast arcane probing for three rounds, which is three chances at sage, crystal mage, etc.
mistform, which helps your Kings immensely (along with Quicken Self on the W1 kings). Alt-3 also provides Protection, which your A1G1 druids can cast. Along the way you'll pick up Resist Lightning, Cold Resistance, Barkskin, Aim, Eagle Eyes, Quicken Self. Enchantment: take ench-1 for skellispam. Evocation: Your next goal is Evo-5, for storm. Along the way you get summon storm power, thunderstrike, and a handful of other good combat spells. On your way to Evo-5, break for the site searching spells at Thaum-2, Conj-2. Enchantment: Ench-4 has the critial cloud trapeze. Along the way you'll pick up skellispam (ench-1 and ench-3). Also at Ench-4 is twiceborn which all your Kings can cast. I'm not sure if this is a good use of 10 death gems or not, but it's an option. Probably worth it on the rare 1 in 10 kings with an extra magic path. Evo-5 probably marks the transition into mid-game for you, as you change from small stacks of thugs to massive thunderstriking power. At this point, you probably want to take construction to 4 or even 6. Late game options: construction 8 for forge of the ancients and artifacts; or ench-6 and conj-9 for lichcraft-tag-tartarians. 5. tactics 5.1 Thugs Without any equipment but a good bless and alt-3, kings are already pretty excellent thugs. Splash in frost brand or sword of swiftness, shields (vine shield is in reach at N2), boots of quickness, etc, and they're vicious. All your kings can cloud trapeze as well, so large air-raids are easy for you (read Baalz' Eriu guide for details). You desperately want S1 for amulet of antimagic and starshine skullcap to boost your King's magic resistance. 5.2 storms, thunderstrikes, and you All your kings and druids work great with storm, summon storm power, and lightning evocations. With a screen of your incredibly tough of Unmarked, Fomorian Giants, and Fomorian Warriors, your mages can pile on evocations with impunity. 5.3 artillery druids All your Druids can cast aim, and some of them can cast eagle eyes or quicken self, too. Armed with a bow and quickness (either boots or self-cast), they make great artillery commanders. Some decent bows are available at construction-2, which is sooner than evo-5 for storm. A few standout bows are Black Bow of Botulf (cheap at 5 death gems), Thunder Bow (10 air gems, deals *strength* armor negating damage, and your druids have 21 strength), Vision's Foe (5 air, 5 death, arbalest with +10 precision). Add in Eyes of Aiming (all your druids can forge them) for even more precision. I really like the synergy with Thunder Bow and the high strength druids. However, your opponents are probably expecting lightning damage and may prepare with lightning resistance, so use with caution.
6.1 chassis Because you have Formorian Kings, you don't need an SC pretender, and you don't need an awake pretender. All your mages are sacred, and you have fantastic sacred units, so a bless is in order. You lack magical diversity, so splashing a few magic paths your pretender is probably also good idea. So for chassis, your best bet is the cheap rainbow mages. The enchantress is probably the best among them, but tinker and see which fits best for you. 6.2 Magic paths The key bless for you is E9, which helps all your spellcasters with invigoration (thunderstrike is tiring!), as well as a handy +4 prot for your troops. Regeneration from the Nature bless works well for you too, since all your units have high hit points. But avoid N9 -- when your mages catch an arrow (and with 32hp, your druids will survive a few), they'll berserk, rush forward and attack, and you'll be very unhappy.
the forge of the ancients; also, your pretender can make golems which will help you crank out all those amulets of antimagic and starshine skullcaps that your Kings need. You need Astral. S4 gives a little boost to your MR-weak Kings, and unlocks ring of sorcery/ring of wizardry.
Productivity: You need at least enough productivity to recruit a King and 5-6 Unmarked or Giants at your capitol, so I wouldn't take Sloth. But Production isn't really necessary either. Heat/Cold: You will not have large numbers of troops, so the supply reduction from heat/cold doesn't bother you. A point of heat or cold is a cheap way to get a few more design points. Growth: Not sure about this either. Perhaps 0? Luck: This is another place to get some design points. Misfortune-2 is probably safe. Magic: Since you will be using your Kings right from the start, and relying on research-3 druids and indy mages for research, a few scales in Magic are very helpful for you.
Imprisoned Great Enchantress, E9/N4/S4/F1, dominion 5. Order-3, Cold 1, Misfortune 2, Magic 1 or Order-3, Cold 2, Misfortune 2, Magic 2 or Order-3, Cold 2, Misfortune 3, Magic 3
8.18.2.2 Pretender Design First, the basics. Obviously, this is one nation that has no need for an awake SC. In fact, more on that later, but as this nation has decent Bless options (also more on that later), we should not even entertain an Awake pretender at all, and in fact I strongly suggest that you only look at Imprisoned pretenders. Unlike Niefel and Hinnom, these giants prefer neutral temp scales, and again, it's because these guys don't need the 120 design point training wheels that those other nations get. Some might argue that a Rainbow can be useful for Fomoria. I will not deny that the nation can be plenty powerful with just a couple minor blesses, though I found in SP tests that the AI gets too frisky before your late game develops, if you do not have a strong bless to smash them to bits. Also to note, before I get into any specifics - I almost exclusively play with CBM now - so remember that points may not match up exactly. That's more or less fine, as the build is a general guideline, and everyone has a different playstyle - cater to your own by tweaking this build, and you will do much better than if you try to force yourself to play exactly like me (I'm weird, so always bear that in mind! ). In my eyes, there really is no one for Fomoria but the Lady of Springs. Why? Because with a major Water bless, we are going to sail towards victory. This bless certainly has limitations, but understanding of those limitations can lead your foes to their ruination. Let me list 3 viable variants of this build, each will play a bit differently. #1 is the pretender that I won with as Fomoria, #2 is the CBM version of her, and #3 is a powerful variant I have played around with as well: (Vanilla) Imprisoned Lady of Springs - W9/N4, Dom6, O3/S1/L1/M1 (CBM) Imprisoned Lady of Springs - W10/N4, Dom7, O3/S1/M1 (Dropping to W9 and Dom6 gains you 2 scales, but wastes 22 points - though those 102 points could be played with as you desire) (CBM) Imprisoned Lady of Springs - W9/E4/N4, Dom7, T2/S1/L3/M1 (adding E4 offsets the major limitation of Water bless, and these scales have proved quite viable in SP tests, due to the strategies best employed) Let's break it down. Order: As you can see, depending on your bless and how you use it, I don't think Order is an absolute necessity for Fomoria. However, a large portion of my primary strategy will be pretty gold reliant, so bear this in mind. Productivity: You will not make many troops under my strategy in auxilliary castles, but I value Unmarked very highly. I feel the best compromise is exactly S1, S2 can probably be viable, I do not think S3 is competitive, unless in a rare case where those points go directly into Growth to offset income loss. Heat: Gold, gold, gold, I do not recommend ever sacrificing temp scales for points - but to each his own. Growth: If you aren't going for a major Bless, you need to maximize income. Thus if you can find the points, Growth can be good. 1D could potentially be tolerable in the right build, but I don't recommend it. Luck: I like luck. If you feel lucky, Fomoria can function under a Turmoil/Luck strat. Otherwise, I do like a point in Luck at least, as all of your heroes (at least, with Worthy Heroes mod, you have 3 possible) are quite worth having. Again, I suppose I could see saccing Luck and going Misf 2 -only- if those points are rolled into income gaining scales, but it's a hard choice. Magic: This is how you win the game. M1 seems a no-brainer to me. Drain is a bad idea, as your mid-late game will be -highly- dependant on Air and Death gems, and your mages do not qualify for making M3 cost effective enough. Bottom line - you are seeking a certain balance between gold income, and bless viability. For me, major Water bless feels right to achieve this end. The alternative should still involve a couple of minors, probably E4/N4 to give you an edge in Evocation power, rather than melee brute force - however taking a weaker bless means you absolutely need to put those points into high scales. I honestly think in most cases, you are hamstringing yourself if your pretender is not Imprisoned, so build accordingly (as I said, the other giant nations get +120 points on you, even going Dormant pushes that to +220, can you really afford that large a disparity?). 8.18.2.3 recruitables Okay, Volume 1 of the epic "Everything you need to know, everything you want to know, and a lot of things you didn't care to know about Fomoria" is complete. Stretch your legs, grab some lemonade, and let's talk about the recruitables! Firbolg Slingers: Well..... they're better than human Slingers? I guess? Also, significantly more expensive. If you are being rushed by heavily blessed Jaguar Warriors, Hydras, or -a lot- of archers without shields, these guys can come in handy. If not, they won't. Firbolg Warrior (with Axe): Seriously, I would buy Slingers before I buy these guys. A Length 1 weapon with a malus to Attack AND a Malus to Defense? You're kidding me, right? Buy indie Light Infantry before these guys, really. Firbolg Warrior (With Spear and Javelin): I used to think the same of these guys as the axe guys. An early game wrestling match with Eriu set me straight, and made me look at their stats with new eyes. Specifically note 3 things - 13hp, 12 Precision, 15 Defense. These guys are so cost effective, it's not even funny (to have to fight them!). You can chew through indies with these guys alone (average attrition = 2 per fight), as their high Defense even can protect them from Heavy Cav charges often enough, if they aren't caught straggling. I tried a test run expanding almost exclusively with these guys, under a "light bless/high scales" strat. They're good. They'll be your best "damage mitigation per gold" chaff for most of the game. Fomorian Militia: No seriously, go home. These guys are riddled with Afflictions - and their BASE stats are 5Prot, 8Def - no shield. Go hobble around in the fields and make me some money, I'd have to be a fool to pay for the privelige to let you die in combat. These guys are the reason your PD will never amount to anything. Honestly? Worst unit in the game, Markata are more cost effective and versatile, by far. Fomorian Javelinist: These were tauted as awesome, long ago. Why? I honestly can't comprehend. 8 Precision, 9 Defense, no shield, and random Afflictions. These guys can't hit an Elephant at 20 yards with their Javelins, so will probably cause friendly fire casualties, and then they're useless in melee. Do yourself a favor and buy Slingers before these guys, or really, anything else. Fomorian Spearman: Really pretty weak. Think human light infantry, with no Javelins, random Afflictions, and 1 per square. 30hp can't even begin to make up for all of that. Again, train human light infantry before these guys, but better yet, just pump out your Firbolgs, they will actually do something useful. Fomorian Warrior: Your first giant that actually can somewhat compare to other giant units. But at 27 resources, and still with random Afflictions, 3 Firbolgs will be superior in most situations. Of course, there -may- be situations that these guys are useful in, let me know if you figure out what those are. Unmarked: So named because they do not start with Afflictions. These guys are pure gold, especially with a Water bless. Let's look at these numbers - 60g (Sacred! so only 2 upkeep), 27 resources. 35HP, 21Str, 16Prot, 12Att, 14Def, 14Morale, 13MR, Enc6 (their only Achilles Heel). Now, with W9 they are 18Def before they gain exp (and they'll get 1 star almost immediately), or 19Def out of the box with the W10 variant. They do have low-ish MR, but there's a funny thing about that - single target MR check spells, will almost exclusively fall on your Kings, so they're the only ones you have to worry about. I've seen comments that these guys are "vanity items". Call me vain then, because as long as I have Holy and Resources left, I am buying these guys before -anything- else gets money. With the W9/E4/N4 variant, you get a lot of staying power as well, but once you hit critical mass, you don't need it so much. In large battles you can often get a "leapfrog" effect, where the front rank makes kills, and the next rank moves ahead, allowing the first rank a turn to rest. But I'll show you shortly why "stamina" isn't the strength of Fomoria. We are sprinters. We jump in your face, we tear it off, and we feed it to you, and we do it faster than you can cry "OMG HAX". Download 5.74 Mb. Share with your friends:
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