Another Rookie Q? Two buildings in a province (Amazons/Griffin)

[Hector, tamer of horses]

Experts

As I am new I really don't understand how all of this works.

I just conquered a province that had Amazons and Griffins on the build list. The resources available were small and a temple was required to build the Griffins.

So I built a Temple and could build a single Griffin and a single Amazon with the available resources. I wanted to see how good these troops were en masse, so I built a fort to try and jam up the resource count. Well that worked well enough, but in the process my temple was deleted when the fort was built(hence no more Griffins).

1) Is that supposed to happen? Is only one structure per province allowed (my capital has many) or did I break some rule?

2) My first combat with Amazons and Griffins resulted my sustaining very high casualties. I am wondering if I am using them right. My massed TC bowmen, fronted by heavy infantry, seem to do far more damage to my enemies without nearly the damage to my own guys. Am I using the Amazons and Griffins wrong? What is the correct way to use them? Are they a waste of money and effort? Do they have any advantages?

Thanks

[Illuminated One]

Did you get random events?
There are some events that can destroy labs, probably temples, too.

[Tolkien]

Temples and Labs can be destroyed by random events: fire, earthquakes, etc.

Amazons and Griffons...can you give us a better explanation as to how you set the army up?

[Sombre]

If you look at their stats you can probably see their advantages over other units. High attack, high mobility, being sacred,...

[thejeff]

Amazons are decent troops, but nothing special. Gryphons are flying sacreds. Not too great, unless you have a good bless, or a need for fliers.

[Hector, tamer of horses]

Thanks for your comments

I did not see any random events to destroy the fort and I don't think I accidently razed it.

As for the use of the Amazons and Griffins, I did not bless them (indeed, I don't know how, do you just keep them close to a "priest/mage" and then script a bless).

But, I used the Amazons just like line infantry and I sent them in with heavy infantry on either side. They just got nailed with some barbarians. The griffins broke very quickly as well. Truth be told, I did not really know how to work them so I just sent them in to see what they would do?

[Ironhawk]

To bless units, put them near a priest scripted to cast one or more Blessing. Once this spell hits them, the bless of your pretender will conferred onto them. You only get bless effects when the natural magic level of your pretender is 4 or above in a certain path. Very powerful bonuses are conferred at the level 9s. Alternatively to Blessing you can cast Divine Blessing which effects every friendly unit in one go.

Amazons as fighters are fairly ordinary. I would rate them as good light infantry but nothing more. Definitely dont use them as your front line shock troops. Griffons are pretty good fliers but as others have pointed out, you need a good bless to really get your money's worth out of them. Assuming you had a half-decent bless, a commonly accepted use of fliers is Attack Archers. This works well as archers are usually lightly armored and bad fighters. Plus, they are usually located in the enemy's rear so if you are lucky perhaps you can kill a mage or two as well.

[Gregstrom]

The Garnet Amazons have 12 attack and 14 defence, which puts them at the level of elite light infantry. With a strength buff, I'd say they could beat most medium infantry.

Gryphon riders have even better stats and 3 attacks, but suffer an unfortunate lack of armour which renders them horribly vulnerable in melee. Their steeds fight on after the rider dies, which gives them a little more staying power, but they're definitely best off against archers. If you had a high Water bless, they'd last quite a bit better in a stand-up fight.

The big bonus of finding Garnet Amazons is their access to Blood magic if you don't have it otherwise.

[Fantomen]

Garnet amazons?

Garnet amazons have 100% fire resistance, so you can spam fire evocations without risk of friendly fire, also *great* frontline chaff against fire nations. The Gryphons Are kind of niche, but not bad in the right situation. Garnet sorceress/priestess gets you into blood if you don´t have native access. A priceless find for earth based nations like Agartha (blood stones)

Barbarians may beat amazons, but amazons can handle archers well, and archers in turn routs barabarians...

To bless your Gryphons put them behind other troops on hold and attack rear/archers near a priest scripted to blessing. Since they are so expensive, try to buff them a bit too. For example with wooden/marble warriors.

[Gregstrom]

Oh yes, I forgot the FR. That is a big boost to their utility.