[Dragar]

In a current MP game as EA Abysia I recently fought Sauro and androphags, and they were very troublesome, and that was against my E9W9 burning ones, who didn't feel much of the normal damage and could close into combat much faster than normal. Basically it was a question of how much damage he could do before my troops closed in, as once they were in melee it was over very quickly. Even when I won the battles I often lost more than he did in cost terms, and abysian troops are very slow to reinforce. You need to have enough firepower in each battle relative to his army to do heavy damage before he arrives. If you can only kill a small portion of his force before he closes you are in trouble.

I've often considered playing EA abysia with E9A9 to handle range threats and lightning spam, but it doesn't give you enough benefit against other opponents for the cost, which is why I went with water - useful for closing quickly and for dishing out melee damage faster.

I ended up prevailing but that was largely due to an ally who was very effective against the sauromatian armies, I don't think I would have gotten there alone.

The abysian will be trying to get into close combat before his top troops are decimated by the androphags, so be wary of chaff screens and the like. If he has a means of casting storm or arrow fend start to be worried, otherwise just make sure you have some kind of decent physical barrier to protect your androphags for long enough if the infantry manage to close in. Skelly spam could potentially do the job nicely.

Also if you happen to be approaching high research be wary of fire storm, it’s the kind of spell that will take out your archers very quickly.


Oh, and obviously look for fire resistance wherever possible, it really takes the heat out of EA abysia in particular. I forget if its Alt or Ench that has the good nature magic area effect elemental resistance spells?