Re: LA Man - Death and Taxes
 

I misread. Thanks once again. By all means add your imput. There is so much I wanted to add, but restrained as some of it didn't pretain directly to the strategy, some of it wasn't exclusively about Man, and I suppose the guide was long enough already.

Re: LA Man - Death and Taxes
 

Well, what I want to say is that it's one of the best guides I ever read and I read many.
First, LA Man is an easy nation in no way, moreover, it is considered the weakest in LA by many and that is not far from true. That's why seeing such deep and bright thoughts on such a nation impresses.
Second, I have nearly nothing to add because everything is in the right place. It is rare:). The only thing I probably wouldn't do is taking Prod2 because most of Man national troops will become useless quite soon. But that's only my playstyle.
You are, probably, a very interesting opponent to meet in the game, AoE. I'd really like it one day;).

Re: LA Man - Death and Taxes
 

Thank you for this excellent guide.

Addition: The Forester is an cheap sharpshooter with very good precision, light armor and stealth. On top of that, he has patrol bonus 5, Forest Survival and Ambidextrous 2.
While i'm not sure how to make use of his dual-wield skill (black heart?), i feel that this unit begs for a forged ranged weapon.
Good movement and stealth let you sneak him into important battles and castles to help out with magic bombardment. While not fighting, he can help with patrolling or scouting.

Re: LA Man - Death and Taxes
 

Bow of Botulf + Eye of Aiming is the most obvious solution. Total precision will be 22 in that case or 27 with Aim/Wind Guide. That means he will be a true wyrm killer.

Re: LA Man - Death and Taxes
 

Well, as Wyrms often come without paths, the feebleminding Black Bow of Botulf is more useful against enemies with some magic - like a Cyclops, say :)

Re: LA Man - Death and Taxes
 

I wouldn't call it wise.
Yes, unless he has a decent shield or air magic.

Re: LA Man - Death and Taxes
 

Not wise? The Wyrm comes without paths and adding one costs 50 pts. Taking it up will cost a fortune in pts and not be useful in the early game, when ou don't have proper research but instead you want your Wyrm to shine. If you spend points on Dominion 10 instead, you have the immediate benefit of Awe -2, which synergizes very well with the base Fear, and with makes him, along with the double attack, the strong regen and the high HPs, an excellent early supercombatant which by the way you don't mind too much losing (except for the afflictions of course) because he will not lose any magic power.

Taking paths on a Wyrm would be sacrificing good scales or the optimal dominion for very little gaining IMHO.

Re: LA Man - Death and Taxes
 

Did anyone found a use for the Forester's amidextrous skill ? He wields an axe and a dagger (together with the bow) out of the box; do you think that is just flavor or is there some way to make use of this skill ?

Re: LA Man - Death and Taxes
 

Believe it or not, people still invest magic paths into the wyrm. A little air often goes a long way. So it's still not a bad example.

I would like to thank everyone for the positive responses. Some of your comments are quite flattering and I am honored to receive them. Ano, I would love to play a game with you some time. In the future though, I'm at my limit with three so far.

Re: LA Man - Death and Taxes
 

You will gather a lot of afflictions really fast - that's the price. Take astral and indies will hardly ever strike it both with bows and swords and it will be able to teleport. Take earth and its regen level will allow you to ignore those scrathes while fatigue will never be more than 0. Taking air is also viable. Wyrm without magic will allow you to expand fast but will be killed really easy by a decent opponent while wyrm with magic will be a serious force up to the very late game. So in most cases I wouldn't take wyrm without magic if I don't have healers and\or strong and cheap priests.
And I'm at my limit with one;).