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Alright, time to talk about overall strategy. Some of this I briefly touched on in the first section, but I'd like to weave this into a more cohesive tapestry. Scales Most nations have one or two scales which they really should always take, Sauromatia can do most anything so long as you play your strategy to match. Order/Turmoil Gold is always good and Sauromatia has no lack of great stuff to spend it on and lots of players will take Order-3 all the time for any nation. However, depending on what your other choices are it may make sense to go with Luck/Turmoil Luck/Misfortune Obviously this is tied to your order scales for synergistic reasons. Again, plenty people stick with misfortune for all their games, but Sauromatia benefits more than average from luck. For one their national heroes are very nice and help with magic diversity. For another, despite their many astral mages they have no native astral income so bootstrapping into astral site searching can be expensive if your only option is to alchemize those death gems you were hoping to use for skull mentors/staffs. Random gem types are either useful explicitly (if you've got a E/W pretender you've got a pretty good spread) or at the very least to power your initial arcane probing. On the other hand your main research mages have a chance of preventing bad events, so you can mitigate misfortune scales by having your research centers on your best provinces. Productivity/Sloth Again, two ways to play this. You've got very good national troops and you can obviously crank out more of them with points in productivity. This is a very reasonable choice. You've also got very good low resource troops (archers) and powerful thugs/sacreds who you can use without resources. This is also a reasonable choice. Going with sloth scales gains you a lot of design points but it removes some of your flexibility sometimes what you really want is an overwhelming heavy cavalry charge. On the other hand, without sacrificing productivity you're gonna have a hard time landing a nice bless. Choices, choices¿. Death/Growth General wisdom is it's bad to have death scales if you want to blood hunt. It's (relatively) ok to have death scales if none of the guys you're using are old. Well, both are true, take your pick. Magic no special considerations here, consider mostly how important research is to your strategy Heat/cold Sauromatia likes it neutral
It's a bit hard to talk about your overall strategy given the variety of ways you can play this nation. As I mentioned earlier one big risk is that you do a little bit of everything and not do anything well. There is a delicate balancing act you must perform between focusing and specializing, and being flexible and adjusting to what your opponent is doing. So, rather than trying to discuss strategy in a point A to point Z way I'm going to discuss little mini strategies to give you an idea of some effective things you can do and leave it as an exercise for the student to weave these into an overall tapestry. I don't really want to rehash what I've already discussed above, but there are a few more points to consider as far as how your units interact and overall strategy. Androphag archers They work very well as support for Warrior Sorceress - so long as the WS script resist poison and have a shield the WS are immune to the very effective arrows raining down around them. If you're short on water gems for frost brands, you can send WSes out with just their default gear and some backup Androphags it's surely enough to kill most PD. Also, if you do have a nature bless your sacred cavalry will be almost immune to the arrows and can be effectively used in close combat. As I touched on before these guys work stunningly well in combination with your PD set them in the back row and they'll provide just as much PD backbone as having a mage back there. Have their leader retreat and they'll flee when your PD breaks having rained poison and death onto the advancing army. Very effective hit and run. One more dirty little trick you shouldn't forget is the linebacker communion in combination with Sabbath and reinvigoration (see my communion guide). All those WSes you've got sitting around blood hunting can be pressed into service, blessed, and buffed with luck, astral shield, resist magic, soul vortex, barkskin, resist elements, blood vengeance, regeneration, quickness, breath of winter (maybe more depending on what non-national mages you've managed to get)¿and then charge forward with 0 fatigue, a dual bless and a frostbrand. Ouch. So, what to do with those blood slaves you've got flowing in? Lots of options obviously, but Sauromatia is rather uniquely in a position to easily summon something I think is very underrated - the vampire count. Invest in 4 or 5 of them and you've got a ridiculously effective in-dominion defense force. Leave them making vampires when not otherwise occupied and you'll build up a little posse of stealthy, flying immortals who will make anyone trying to move into your dominion rue the day they did. But Baalz, vampires are teh suck! You will never make me fear them! Ah, my friend, you haven't had the joy of fighting a cleverly crafted vampire resistance. Scenario 1: Large enemy army invades. 4 vampire counts and a couple dozen vampires stealthily fly into the path of the army so they will be the defenders and get the first move. Meanwhile vampire count 5 (or anybody really) outfitted as a thug flies into the province the enemy army is moving from. Opening turn the 4 counts cast - rush of strength, blood rain, shadow blast, shadow blast, all the vampires stand around and take an archer volley. Turn 2 (you¿ve empowered one of your counts in blood) bloodletting + your choice of harm or shadow blast. Enemy army, -4 moral from blood rain, -1 from hostile dominion, (dare we hope you timed this as they moved from a wasteland and some of them are starving?) has just taken significant AN/AP damage across most of their ranks and now your vamps fall on them for 17 armor piercing damage all over them. If they break, they all die. If they kill you¿.you're back the very next turn with more experienced vampires. Scenario 2: Enemy army invades, but it's an elite small army with a bunch of thugs/tough guys and the above strategy seems unlikely to work. Stick black hearts on your counts and have them fly into army's path. Assassinate enemy leaders and cast raise skeletons (to keep them busy), hellbind heart X4 or leech/life for a life if they've got too high MR. This should be very effective even with most bodyguards, and again, if you fail you're out just a couple blood slaves and an easily replacable black heart. Scenario 3: Enemy is raiding with stealthy/teleporting thugs/SCs. Sprinkle your counts around into likely raiding targets and leave them creating more vampires don't even need a lab so they're being productive while hanging around. They're stealthy so your opponent won't know where they are. Turn 1 bad guy appears and vampires surround him before he can cast any buffs, while the count, positioned all the way forward, depending on your mood casts hellbind heart, leech, life for a life, or disintegrate. If you get some bad rolls, well you just deploy your now more experience vamps someplace new next turn. *note: this will work even if the raiders are stealthy/flying groups rather than thugs, you just need to tweak your scripting a bit depending on what you're facing. All in all, there are worse ways to invest a few hundred blood slaves while the rest of your troops quite capably carry on without needing them. Several stealthy life for a life casters can really make your opponent reconsider the wisdom of dropping tartarians all over you, particularly when he¿can't¿kill¿them!!!!! Foul vapors can be a great support spell to cast after your WS frontline casts resist poison on itself. It can also be great to have Enaries cast resist poison before starting the skellispam factory¿a page right out of C'tis' book. Laugh as your opponent tries to claw his way past your undead chaff getting progressively more poisoned with each step. Warrior Sorceress with a nature pick + a thistle mace makes a tough and cheap enough charm spammer to place near the front lines, perfect for it's short range. Stick an eye of the void and spell focus on her if you're feeling generous. 8.31.2 Sauromatia: Lawful Evil [ Note: First, I just gotta gush that I enjoyed Baalz's guide a whole bunch. Therefore I'm skipping over some of the more obvious things that he brought to light, and concentrating a bit more on some subtleties, niceties, and details that may not be apparent from your first glance at Sauromatia. Somewhere in between I end up challenging some of his tenets. Oh, the humanity! My credentials: I have played Sauromatia twice, in Ascendant and Peccary, 15 and 8 players respectively, and imo I would have handily won Ascendant had the server not gone down at turn 45. It was my first game, a noob game, but I really dominated it, even with some what seemed to be well-skilled players - in part to a good starting position, in part to a trustworthy co-non-belligerent I met in the game, and in part to Sauromatia's strengths. I was fighting 5 and 6 nations at a time by the time Gandalf's server died. I am leading going into turn 41 in Peccary in provinces, income, gem income, forts, research, and dominion, but by a lesser margin, because this was after getting attacked by 3 nations from turns 15 to 26... three nations that did not have any other enemies to worry about during that whole time except me, myself, and Gazebo. ]
8.31.2.1.1 ANDROPHAG ARCHERS The Androphag Archers are a fantastic unit for expansion and really hit their stride in early game defense. You can even make them a main strategy and recruit 40+ per turn for a long, long time, foregoing a Sloth scale just for them. They can also stop most of what other nations can throw at you in the dangerous early game, which means you don't have to have an awake pretender, something I will get into later. The usefulness of this strategy can be hampered by an unlucky random starting location with few resources.
You MUST have a Gorgon pretender in my opinion, for SC value, for a very needed Earth bless, for Earth variety, and for pure goddamn terror factor. I use her sleeping, because the design points are highly valuable, because you just can't afford to lose her early, with Sauromatia's very weak priests, and because you are not vulnerable in early game. In the interim you can start ramping up to Construction-4 which definitely has got the goods she craves. The highest Earth bless you can manage is vital for your high-encumbrance mage commanders but also adds nicely to their survivability and the strength of your Oriopatias. You are also going to want Nature 4, to keep your middling mage thugs out of affliction danger. Nature 4 is also necessary for Nature globals like Gift of Health and Mother Oak. A couple of points of Air rounds her out very nicely... a path that Sauromatia lacks completely, barring Delgnat the Sorceress hero (W2 A3 D4) and gives her access to the highly effective Mistform, as well as the devastating spells Cloud Trapeze and Rain of Stones. Resist Lightning is nothing to sneeze at either, with her high Protection, covering her main elemental vulnerability. Use Air Shield when you have the slightest doubt. Use her aggressively, but use her wisely, because she's likely going to be your main deterrent as well as a very versatile and powerful aggressor. It is necessary to remember that she is awfully fragile in hostile dominion, which you will often be operating in. Her gear should be an assortment of Construction 4 items. Pendant of Luck and Amulet of Antimagic are a mainstay of the SC profession and should never leave her possession. Hydra Armor saves her from having to cast Personal Regeneration, but use Rainbow Armor if you can possibly get it; the MR will save her against Astral nations. Boots of the Messenger is a wonderful piece of cheap gear to help her get her buffing in without crippling or at least disadvantageous Fatigue. A Vine Shield will save her life, and give her time to work against tougher opponents with her... Snake Bladder Stick! Yes, this always-overlooked piece of crap will turn your Gorgon into a veritable titan of terror. Imagine the looks of complete non-horror on your opponents' faces as they scan this ghettofabulous accessory. Really, it's extremely synergistic with Fear, has a very large AOE for maximum damage, is the easiest thing in the world for you to craft, is thematic as anything, and is just plain ubergeek cool. A Horror Helment rounds out the head slot and your color scheme with a little electric purple. It also gives her a very respectable +10 Fear, which is just absolutely perfect for use with the Snake Bladder Stick. At 50 design points, it pretty much goes without saying that she is bargain-basement dirt cheap. If you are fighting multiple nations at once, and you will likely have to after everyone reads this guide - ha! - you will live or die by your Gorgon. 8.31.2.3 COMMANDERS: I've found that one weakness of Sauromatia is that contrary to popular opinion, their commanders actually make quite poor thugs until well into midgame and closer to late. The reason for this is that they are mounted. High Casting Encumbrance + no feet slot = high Fatigue, even with a good Earth bless, which you will have. Their Casting Encumbrance is 10. 10!! TEN!!11one!eleven Some commander errata: -Assassins have a very hard time against you. -Your MR is sturdy. -HPs are low to middling. -High Defense with mediocre Protection. -Extremely high Casting Encumbrance. -Excellent buff paths with Nature and Water. -All potentially poison-immune. -Sabbath-capable.
The thing about Sauromatia is that your expansion is going to be top notch with the archers, even with Sloth 3... and that causes people to gang up on you early. So it is not necessary to take your Gorgon awake, and that may even be a detriment in the long run. You are not a Mictlan, or Neifelheim, or Helheim, or even Abysia or Vanheim, and people will correctly not see you as a threat early on, unless you have an explosive early expansion. Use this to make a friend... or to skelly your way to the front door of your nearest neighbor. 8.31.2.5 PROVINCE DEFENSE: You have a very powerful province defense. Every one of the units you get up to 20 PD has a composite bow. And after 20, you get LANCES. Your 1-20 PD horsebowmen in front have 15 defense and will stymie a wide range of melee attackers, while the rest lay down the composite law. You should buy a very good amount of Province Defense wherever applicable. It's also very prudent to do with the Misfortune-2 scale that you'll be taking... Sauromatia PD utterly annihilates Barbarians. 8.31.2.6 SCALES: You don't need high Dominion, because you can Blood Sacrifice, and you are not making use of an immortal pretender. Nor are your units particularly vulnerable to having bad morale. Nor will you be using a (non-commander) bless strategy. Oriopatias are good, but they are far from the best, and are capital-only. Order. Sloth is easy to take, because you will have skellyspam armies, because your archers and sacreds don't take many resources, and because you need the points. The gold hit hurts a lot, but if you have any extra points, (you probably won't) spend them on -- Growth helps significantly with your blood hunting, and it lends itself to more strategies than Death. You can be defensive with Growth, and outlast brightly-burning bless nations. It's also a huge boon for your income elegantly combined with Order, and keeps you much safer from some deadly random events that you might otherwise be pummeled with with your Misfortune scales. Heat is good with Blood, because most demons like it. It's also good because Neifelheim can give you a ton of trouble. Abysia will give you trouble regardless. The income hit is brutal, but you really have to get the points from somewhere, and this is usually it. You can safely go with Cold, as well, because your skeletons can usually keep Neifel giants at bay, and have much more trouble with Abysians. It's pretty much a preference. All other things being equal, balance this according to whether C'tis, Neifelheim, or Abysia is in the game... because C'tis can usually out-skellyspam you due to their lower Encumbrance. Misfortune is synergistic with Order AND the Enaries' Fortune Telling, so I always take 2. In Ascendant I took Luck-1 which was very nice and all, getting some good boosts in gold, but more importantly, not getting any bad events in my capital or random attacks. If you're not unlucky early on with Misfortune though, you can power through it handily. And 120 points is a hell of a lot. Magic is a toss-up. You can safely take Drain-2 if you find yourself needing the points, because Sauromatia has what is quite possibly the best Death magic in the game, allowing you to forge Skull Mentors. With the help of some Dwarven Hammers (yay for Gorgon Earth diversity), you should be making 2 per turn, blowing all your death gems. This is important and drastically powerful because it gives you the equivalent of 3 mage/forts worth of research, with no upkeep. If you take Magic-1, however, you will probably be ahead of any other nation in EA in research. But 120 points is a hell of a lot. 8.31.2.7 RESEARCH I always research Enchantment 3 first off with Sauromatia. Raise Skeletons will allow you to defend against basically anything in early game that your archers cannot. The sheer stopping and overwhelming power of 5 longdead skeletons per caster per turn is the true definition of relentless. With that safely in hand, you can be free to get Thaumaturgy-1 for Communions, and then Construction 4 for items. Evocation is an important school for Sauromatia; Shadow Blast is devastating when used properly. Enaries are terrifying and accurate Shadow Blasters with Eagle Eyes, Communion, Eye of the Void, and a Spell Focus, all of which you will have very quickly and easily. Nether Darts can be powerful using this forumla as well. Storm of Thorns is a real pain to fight against; imagine how nice it would be in your arsenal instead! Alteration is another mainstay of Sauromatia. Between the immensely useful and cheap Alteration 1 school, and the Soul Vortex and Darkness ride of the Witch Kings, there lies... SWARM. Swarm will hold your opponents down for your Androphag archers. Swarm will kill poorly-placed enemy commanders. Swarm will harry and kill 95% of assassins. Swarm will hold enemies back from their fortification's bottleneck during fort storming. Swarm will terrify and confuse your enemies, make them waste valuable rounds of archery, and in general make them a very miserable and frustrated enemy. You can easily mass 10 N1 casters, all of your mages have it, for a vast metaswarm that the opposing army just - can't - get - past. Download 5.74 Mb. Share with your friends:
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