0. 2 Description 3 Credits
Download 5.74 Mb.
|
| That was just the opening act, my friend. All those Oreiads are stealthy and can cloud trapeze. That in and of itself is a strategy (check out my Eriu guide for details), but lets examine how this looks in light of the other things we¿ve got set up and in light of another of the Oreiad¿s abilities. Seduction. So, you¿ve got forts packed shoulder to shoulder in most of your provinces. You¿ve got dozens of cloud trapeze capable SCs. You can seduce from inside a sieged fort. Tell me again how you plan on ever losing a fort? Think about it, those Oreiads are army clearers, how many bodyguards does it take to stop them? They¿re immune to everything, so how many mages survive the assassination? Then again there¿s the successful seductions. It¿s got a low success rate, but it¿ll happen often enough to make you gleeful as you round our your national magic with death, blood, or whatever else seems tasty. Plus, you know, that near 100% success rate of killing the guys who don¿t join you, that¿s a plus to. Now, of course you¿ll need to use your head and adjust the equipment/scripting you use based on what your opponent is using, but from spamming endless false horrors to orb lighting to frozen heart to swarm there¿s not many opponents who don¿t have something deadly to fear. It¿s too bad there¿s no way you can get Mage Engineers, they would fit fabulously with this strategy.
Now, the obvious counter to this sort of thing is anti-SCs equipped with magic items to pop the mistform. So, why not have some of your lovely ladies equipped with a rune smasher and void eye spamming charm at the same time? Who wants to run their thugs into that? As you start getting into the part of the game where anti-thugs are likely to be used you¿ll not want to use Oreiads unsupported except in hit and run operations using their stealth and mobility. Their hitpoints are low enough that there¿s not really any way to reliably target them when they¿ve got wyvern bodyguards - who make nice anti-anti-thugs with their paralyzing poison while ignoring the shockwaves. Not invincible, but darn hard to get to. These lovely ladies aren¿t done yet by a long stretch. Whenever I see an A/E combo I immediately think stone rain. Every single one of your Oreiads can cast it - 1 gem for summon earthpower, two for casting it. Even better, stick earth boots on an earth random Oreiad and drop it first turn (give her plenty of protection). You also, of course, can drop all those big nature spells from mass regeneration to mass protection and relief. Those Myrmidons start looking pretty darn vicious, particularly when you stack on all those earth buffs as well. Crystal shields are your friend, with one wrathful skies opens up, and any of your water random ones can drop foul vapors. Too bad we don¿t have any lighting and poison immune troops. Dragon master and you¿re summoning wyverns for 1 gem apiece. Unlike other drakes, wyverns have a fairly decent MR (12). True, they¿re not as physically tough as the better known drakes, but they¿re decent enough meat shields for the price, they fly, oh, and they¿re lighting and poison immune. They¿ll provide some nice bulk to your sloth-stunted armies and compare very favorably to the vine ogres you might otherwise be inclined to build up (who have a MR of 5, don¿t fly, and aren¿t lighting immune). The wyverns also lay down a paralyzing poison which is very useful against super giants common in EA as it attacks their fatigue rather than their strongly regenerating hitpoints (make sure you drop strength of giants to help that stinger punch through giant strength armor). All in all, EA Arco should be a pretty significant flying nation. A couple other summons bear special consideration. Sleepers make decent thugs when kitted out. Gargoyles make a solid addition to your air force. Sirrush benefit from your nature blessing and can be pretty impressive when buffed similarly to what I suggested for your pretender. They¿re also poison immune so work well with that angle. Kithaironic Lions are not only incredibly thematic, they¿re also work very well with some buffing from your ubiquitous astral mages (sense a pattern here?). Remember, you¿re going light on the troops so you¿ll need to have some summons to make up the difference and buffing them is often a great job for those mystics who were unfortunate in the randoms they got. Now, you don¿t have the same astral strength that the later Arcos do, but you¿d be leaving money on the table to ignore what you do have. Part of your strong gem income should be put to forging a steady stream of starshine caps and crystal coins, along with rune smashers and void eyes. Over time you should be able to build up quite a stash of these items (all forgable with mystics) which you¿ll stick on double astral mystics which you¿ll collect in one big stack in one of your forts. You¿ll also build up (over time) 20 or so priestesses in the same block. What¿s magic about that? You can now mind hunt with no fear of going feebleminded, that stack of priestesses will heal the feeblemind the same turn it happens. Heck, feel free to shoot at armies with S1-2 mages you¿re only out a couple pearls for failed attempts. You¿ll have plenty of seeking arrow casters to, which is a nasty one-two punch taking out the astral mage cover while laying down a devastating barrage. Finally, all those castles spitting out all those mystics leads to truly really the best communion potential in the game. Read my guide to communions for suggestions, it really is a whole discussion unto itself. 8.12.1.3.2 Comments -> chrispedersen A few things: I think having a *pile* of priestesses is a bit of a waste- 1-2 has always been sufficient for me. Additionally, under all flavors of CBM, seduction got a hefty boost; to the tune that it now *often* works. Under CBM cat charm is con-4; under vanilla and ChrisCBM its Con-2. Well worth the investment. Scout as fast as you can: Finding a blood druid site is gold for Arco - it comes with 5 fairly easily seducible blood druids. Don't neglect charm, as a weapon. Sooner or later one of your mystics will allow you to runesmash. Eye of aiming,shield of valor - minimal investment then considering storm/lightning spam. On the subject of the flying troops; flyers get fatigue from flying as well as combat. And their base encumbrance is like 10! So you will take appreciable fatigue just by flying up and whacking the opponents. So, while I like the units, you will have appreciable attrition, especially in the early game if you use them unbuffed. Strongly consider reinvigoration - just to cut down on the number of hits bypassing armor. -> Redeyes Quote:
Originally Posted by Baalz Now, the obvious counter to this sort of thing is anti-SCs equipped with magic items to pop the mistform. So, why not have some of your lovely ladies Swarm Dragonflies mess Oreiads up if they can get in close, cutting through protection, awe & mistform, all the three common defenses of the Oreiad.
....and back onto EA Arco. I fully concede that the white bull is not as versatile late game as some other chasises, but for this build you want three things: 1) An awake expansion pretender 2) Very good scales 3) A minor E/N blessing
8.12.1.4 8.12.2 MA Arcoscephale 8.12.2.1 A few thoughts on MA Arcoscephale Hi there, So I've been playing MA Arco almost to exclusion in about 4 MP and a few SP games here and there. *DISCLAIMER* This is a light heated guide and by no means have I explored all the strategies and possibilities with this race and I'm pretty much useless at crunching numbers etc. But I'll share a few things that have worked for me and what I think might be MA Arco's prime strengths and weaknesses. Pretender selection - Right now I'm favouring two distinct types of pretender - Dragons or even a wyrm simply because they allow for quick expansion in the early game, your neighbours who don't have early game SC pretenders tend to be quick to offer/accept NAP's but more importantly that quick expansion allows you to develop a strong economy for Arco's greatest unit...but we'll come to that soon. Your Dragon/Wyrm will probably gain quite a few afflictions the more fights they get into ...try to keep them away from Heavy Cavalry...pick and choose your indy fights, anything to tough bypass and hit with your ele*cough...mumble* legions later on. The Rainbow guy, yeah grab a sage or other low cost pretender....this guy does one thing...follow your early armies around and site search, try to give him at least one path preferably two paths in all magic discliplines except blood. Gives you those magical gems you'll need in the mid-late game, which you'll be in desperate need of if you want to remain competitive when Summoned SC's start appearing. Dominion selection Your going to need cash and resources.....So....how about - Order +3 Plenty of gold, Negates misfortune scale a little Prod +1 Extra resources and supply help with you ele*cough* legions. Heat 0
Growth 0 Misfortune -3 The odd curse and barbarian invasion, annoying but manageable Magic +1 Gives your Astrologers a bit more of a research lead....they'll need it Mid - Late game.
Commanders I only bother with Strategos...120 Leadership and a morale boosting standard..good command unit...I don't normally kit them out, rather save the gems for mid-late game summons/globals etc. Casters Priestess....Great unit....you want at least 2 or 3 to heal all your mind hunters from feeblemind..its remarkable how quickly they do it too if they are scripted to heal every turn. Oh these are your only priest types too....so don't forget to build the odd temple here and there too. Nice to have following your elephant leigons around too....as the trunked ones tend to accumulate afflictions via combat but also starvation tends to rear its ugly head often too. Can be empowered to cast high end nature spells etc. Astrologers Powerful capital only astral mages....you really want to research soul slay and mind burn...then mind hunt ASAP. Probably 1/3 tp 1/2 your astrologers will be A4 right off the bat meaning you can be doing a lot of mind hunting in the right circumstances (ie. enemy doesn't also have astral mages) as mentioned above keep some priestesses handy to heal the feebleminded ones ASAP. I like to slowly upgrade one or even better two up to A8 or A9 so that spells like Arcane Nexus and Wish are able to cast....mmmm....Wish = SC of your choice. I like Seraphs with nice gear....others like Doom horrors (can backfire though....not nice) Another tactic that works is while your elephant legions are off conquering....or whatever and need some magical backup, teleport as many of these guys as you can spare...20 is nice....sit them at the edge of the battlefield and script them to soul slay. It whittles down the enemy nicely. In a big fight, casting Doom ( curse the entire enemy army) followed by Will of the fates (Luck for your whole army)...nice when you have a giant elephant legion with luck. Mystics Recruitable from any city, they also give more magical diversity if needed. I tend to use them where needed...I like Astrologers better. Other Units Well the other units are okay....they really are just fodder compared to the ELELPHANTS PHWAHAHER! ahem...anyway use them where needed to fill out your armies etc but they ain't that special. I've never used the chariots, I figure why bother with a size 4 trampler when I can have more ELEPHANTSS!!!! One parting thought... I've heard people say the sound of a 300 Maenads in battle can set your teeth on edge after a 50 turn SP session.....you ain't heard nothin yet....100 elephants is a sound for sore ears indeed. 8.12.2.1.1 Some comments -> How do you deal with terror/frighten/panic spell spam? Elephants have poor morale and low magic resistance. Not a good combination... Multiple Strategos seem to work wonders their Morale boosting banners are worth (10) though I've got no idea how much the mechanics of that figure work. Another thing you can do is add some Cardaces or hoplites to the unit to boost the avg morale value up. But I tend too avoid that as although the elephants are twice as quick if its a good stand up fight the cardaces and hoplites start to drop like flies causing more morale checks. But yes the morale and low MR is an inherent weakness. Though not everyone seems to take advantage of this for whatever reason e.g. nation choice, circumstance, experience etc. Another thought....say for example you know you are about to face a large enemy army that has a fair number of death mages....hopefully you can scout the army before it gets to you....I don't see why not as Arcoscephale gets the scry ability which allows for accurate intelligence reports inside your dominion. But anyway if the enemy army is free of astral mages you can pretty ,much go to town on them with your A4 mindhunting astrologers. Try and take them down before they hurtesses your precious elephantses. -> FWIW, I find Mystics to be quite underrated. They're recruitable anywhere and communions of them can rain down falling frost/fire, gifts from heaven, magma eruption, blade wind, astral fires, enslave mind, and cleansing water depending on what the situation merits plus most any buff (legions of steel/strength of giants/weapons of sharpness turn their quite respectable heavy infantry into a major threat). You can also use them to forge slave matrixes for thugs, then buff them with every earth/fire/water/astral buff through a communion (invulnerability, fire shield & breath of winter turns most anybody into a thug, toss in quicken self, personal luck, and ). They make an awesome defensive force while you're building up your research base and a damn effective offensive force when you collect critical mass. 8.12.2.2 ME Arcocephale Strategy Guide 8.12.2.2.1. The troops Slingers... militia level slingers with mapmove 1 and low morale, you may eventually build some in cases of extreme emergency, if you have low ressources and need a good number of patrollers ; can be usefull in early game if you can't find indie archers to take barbarians provinces Peltast... shielded light infantry with javelins. As all other infantries have spears only, the javelins make the peltast the most offensive type. Their defence is rather good (13 with the shield) ; it's the best light infantry to recruit when you are low in ressources. They may be usefull both in very early game (when you are limited in both ressources and gold, and want some extra fire power) and in mid-late game (when you need to build a lot of meatshields and protection doesn't matter anymore as your ennemies use AP/AN dammages or thugs). Cardaces... Light infantry with a little better protection but costing 2 more ressources and without javelins. Body protection 7 rarely allows them to survive longer than peltasts (protection 6) even if they have a far better helmet (head 14). The two units having a shield and same defence, I prefer the ones with javelins. Hoplite... The main heavy soldier. 17+ protection, above average morale (12), a length 5 spear for repells. Their high encumbrance (9), and weak weapon (like for all Arco infantries only 3 dmg) make them unpopular for some players, but in fact they are just the kind of soldiers Arcocephale needs. They are not supposed to kill the ennemies themselves or fight long battles, they are here to protect the mages who are the main dammage dealers of the nation and should destroy anything in less than 10 rounds (or some communions slaves risk to be lost anyway). They cost 30 ressources but only 11 gold, so you'll never find reasons not to use all your forts ressources. Even if you don't plan to use them fast, hoplites always worth to be built. Many nations only heavy troops have higher upkeep cost, and are not really better considering magic and not weapons dammage decide the outcome of most battles. Hypaspist... These "light" hoplites have an insane morale for a non sacred human troop (14) you can build in any fort. They also have mapmove 2, a lower encumbrance and a good defence/protection combo (13/15+). But they cost far more gold (15) than protection 17 hoplites and so aren't really cost effective as main meatshields. They are better used as morale boosters : having some hyspaspists in each squad make your army less likely to rout. And it's particularly a good idea when you use elephants. In early game a squad of 3 or 4 elephants + 5 or 6 hyspapists is often sufficient to take indies who would repell a force of 5 or 6 elephants only. Later in the game, when elephants become obsolete, hyspapists are still usefull due to their mobility. They often are the best soldiers you can send to reinforce your armies some provinces away from your forts (the others arriving after the battle). Also, for a nation with no cavalry, they can be usefull as flankers. If they are not very fast, their high morale will often allow them march to the real ennemy rear instead of cancelling their "attack:rear" order when they pass the ennemy first squads. Heart Companion... They are just sacred hoplites with a better morale. Not a bad unit with a bless, but as they are capitol only and have mapmove 1 they don't really worth to use a strong one (especially as their encumbrance make earth a mandatory part of any good bless for them, so you can't use the overpowered combos like fire/water). Like hyspapists they are better used as morale boosters, with a benediction in addition of a sermon they reach 18 morale, so 3 heart companions in a squad may be sufficient to protect the same number of elephants from routing (also as heart companions are very slow and well protected, the chances to have some killed, and elephants failing their morale checks as a result are very low). Heart companions are also a good counter if you have to fight an awe/fear based SC in early game. Chariot... Size 4 tramplers with good defence and a far better MR than elephants, but human hp, so they are vulnerable against ranged/AoE dammage. They have mapmove 3 / ap 18 like the elephants, so if you want to send a squad of elephants 3 provinces away (you have a mounted commander for that) and have it ready to fight at destination (with a little better morale than 9, and a sufficient number of units to avoid to check morale for each hit), chariots are the unit to add. They can also find uses alone in early game, if you lack money for elephants (often the case if you use a luck/turmoil build) or plan to attack a province defended by good melee units only (their defense make them better than elephants against troops like barbarians able to deal high amounts of dammage if they hit). In mid/late game, against ennemies using MR spells to neutralize your elephants, they are also the only tramplers you may want to build (but except if you have a too small number of forts and an urgent need of offensive units, money is better used to recruit more mages). Elephants... They are tough and strong size 6 tramplers, out of this they are rather crappy (low morale and defence, very low MR, just average protection, high upkeep). You want a lot of them in early game ; later they are usually better dead than costing money and trampling your own troops (which will happen in any consequent battle against a good player once some magic is researched, elephants can easily be terrorized, enraged or enslaved). But keeping some elephants may have some utilities even after midgame : they force ennemy mages to adapt their script to their possible use (even if your elephants finally "forget" to follow your army for the big battle, the ennemy will have scripted spells like rage, panic, enslave or terror, probably not the best use of their mages against your other troops) , and on the battlefield their size 6 allow you to chose which squad will be targeted by ennemies using fire:large monster (one or two elephants in the middle of your biggest hoplite squad can save the lives of the twenty chariots doing the real trampling, or avoid you to see a valuable thug killed by a lucky ethearal crossbow shot). Download 5.74 Mb. Share with your friends:
|