T'ien Ch'i, and how they rule!

[Saber Cherry]

What's up with the love of Crystal Shields? They're terrible! Way too much encumbrance. I prefer shields of valor, or lucky coins. Am I missing something? Or are these just used to enable a specific spell that would normally be uncastable? Or do people always use them with reinvig items?

On a Celestial Master it's like a free Power of the Spheres during battle. Which is very nice unless you like casting Geyser or Acid Bolt his entire career.

A Power of the Spheres and a Crystal Shield on a Master makes him able to cast nifty spells like Falling Fires, Falling Frost, Orb Lightning (effectively), and when he gets low on fatigue, Smite a billion times.

Unfortunately, the Computer doesn't say "Look we're at 99 Fatigue, I am only going to cast Holy spells" it says "Lets cast the most fatiguing spell I have"

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Zen:
A Power of the Spheres and a Crystal Shield on a Master makes him able to cast nifty spells like Falling Fires, Falling Frost, Orb Lightning (effectively), and when he gets low on fatigue, Smite a billion times.

Ah! There we go=) I didn't know it raised divine as well. Hmmm... time to give one to my prophet=)

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Keir Maxwell:
The one thing I do get is lots of astral gems from all those temples.

Huh? Is this some special I don't know about? Or do you mean holy sites that give astral gems?

I was thinking a bit about a lack of xbows being a weakness for Tien Chi themes. But... indy xbows are pretty common, and I like them better... cheaper, lower resources. Assuming you find indy xbows (a good assumption) the TC non-default themes shouldn't be hindered.

Well every X-bow out there except the Hoburg is pricy in resources; thus you must build a Castle on it to be useful; while your main castles are left to build either Glaive, Spear/Shield Infantry, Compositebowmen, or Horsemen (bleh).

The Glaives are okay; but they get mowed down quite fast. I wish they would strap on a little more armor to them. An added bonus is they get torn up by your own missle fire; so once someone routs, your Glaive squad(s) are mincemeat.

I think the main fault is not having a cavalry to speak of. If they had more than a mediocre cavalry (like Barbarian Kings) they would at least have a shot at throwing back a heavy wave, or tearing up an enemy xbow core.

I think that is the main problem, because even the summons you get from using a Celestial Master (Wyverns) that you would use for Cavalry purposes get chewed up by your forced use of arrowfire.

Arrow Fend is out of reach of most Celestial Masters or Mot5E, but with a Power of the Spheres and a Shield they can do it. But I don't feel using 1 spell is the answer to a race/theme. At least unless they start with it .

I'm probably just playing them wrong ;/ I do have a fast start for S&A though, not as fast as a true quick race, but enough I wouldn't feel crippled. It's the midgame that really is cruel on S&A, with not enough Demons to make a heavy core, and no units to bolster those that you have.

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:

quote:

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Originally posted by Keir Maxwell:
The one thing I do get is lots of astral gems from all those temples.

Huh? Is this some special I don't know about? Or do you mean holy sites that give astral gems?

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Thats the one - sorry for the confusion.

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by Zen:
Crystal Shields ... Sigh. They are expensive, Cost something like 20 Astral 20 Earth gems to forge

20 Earth - bugger. I didn't realise they had gone up so much in cost. I guess I won't bother trying so hard to get them then.

Where I seem to be falling, is really penetrating those heavy troops of the enemy.

This is certainly an issue for S&A lacking the Lancers of BK. I find mages the only answer and as you say they have a tendency to go to sleep on the job. Still a few well placed fireballs and those indie Knights are fleeing.

In the long term missiles (Xbow or Comp) are not adequate so you need to transition to something else but what? BK can go HC but S&A only really has its mages and they will only do so much. My response to my first attempts at S&A is that they suck and that seems fairly close - give them more quality chariots and all that changes.

BK is better, playable, but deeply flawed due to the odd behaviour of the multi-armed cavalry. In practice you need to rely on Comp bow and HI to expand. The LC that should define the race end up optional and need higher precision to reflect their exceptional skills as horse archers (like maybe 10). Khans could do with an extra role and I still like the recruiting LC through conquest idea. At present the Generals are more rewarding as they have a bow to keep themselves busy while the standard affect of the Khan is hard to make use of.

Haven't played Main Theme Tien Chi much but they seem the strongest and more comparable to main stream Dom races.

Cheers

Keir