Advice on Machaka appreciated

[En Forcer]

To add a little more here, I had a large engagement with ULM Last night. They had about 100 various units, heavy infantry, longdeads, siege engineers, and priests.

Generally I really fear their hvy inf as my arrows bounce off of them and they cut through a lot of units like butter. But my hoplites really saved the day and held the line against them (the ONLY unit to cause me hoplite casualties by the way).

I also had a screen of 30 vinemen who are good for distracting enemy archers and fast units that go for the closest guys. But the downside (right now) is that I burn those fellas up faster than I can make them. But it's nice to have a little fodder for the first two turns.

So really my focus now is to make my shortbowmen more effective. I'm researching for fire arrows and then wind guide so they will be more dangerous. Because considering how cheap their archers are, I can field a squad of 200 in no time.

[ April 30, 2004, 14:59: Message edited by: En Forcer ]

[PvK]

Originally posted by tinkthank:
OK, thank you. I almost never use my commanders as warriors, so that is my problem. Perhaps they are sexier than I thought. I just hate having my commanders die or get seriously wounded as a tradeoff for killing 2-3 enemy light infantry, and it seems that is what happens when I have commanders fight. That is why I almost invariably purchase mage-type commanders, never the "standard" type of centurion-leader. This, I suppose, is my problem in general.
I'll try your ideas out.
So do you forge them all items, or what?
Thank you.

I think many players don't use many fighter-commanders unless they are going all-out for a supercombatant. I tend to like making thugs, but I think either approach is valid.

When I mention that some of the Machaka priests have good fighting skills, that doesn't mean I send them into hand-to-hand combat often, nor do many of mine have magic items. I was just listing what makes them interesting and versatile. However if for example you had to banish a lot of undead, some of your Eye priests could get a lot of experience. Added on top of level-12 base fighting skills, they could be given some armor and perhaps other toys and suddenly be quite tough, especially if you have some bless effects.

Or, their skills can just be good for self-defense. Ordinary priests die when caught be some pesky unit that snuck into the rear, but an Eye priest may be able to take them out.

The Hoplite Commanders have good equipment already. So do the Hunter Lords, but when you add a few items to your Hunter Lords, possibly combined with bless effects and/or spells, they can start to be very potent melee units. One of mine just did in several Ulm cavalry and Guardians in a massive knock-down drag-out MP battle. The cheap cannon fodder and plant summons did their job of dying and absorbing enemy attacks, occupying and tiring the enemy. The Hoplites held the field, probably thanks to many castings of Fanatacism by my Voice Prophet (who died).

PvK

[Cainehill]

Originally posted by PvK:
Or, their skills can just be good for self-defense. Ordinary priests die when caught be some pesky unit that snuck into the rear, but an Eye priest may be able to take them out.

Heh. In a couple of MP games I have going now, I've had friars make it into the hall of fame. A lucky battle or two, they have kills to their name, and ... they tend to get Heroic Endurance. I suspect the bless effects may've helped : Marignon in both games, one with F9/S9 and the other F9/Air 6 or 7.

Kind of amusing to me, seeing what I know is friars in the HoF post turn 20, with 6-9 human players in the game.

Given Machaka's better combat stats for the priests, it's probably easier and better to try to do the same with them.

[Pirateiam]

Here is my Machaka strategy:

Create a typical Main army just like some of the posters have explained but also creat a 8-10 equipped assassin army also. Keep this group in front of your main army and just before you main army strikes set them to assasinate. The assasinations take place before the armies fight. Even if you are only 50% succesful taking out 4-5 commanders or mages can cripple an army that has to fight right after that.

[tinkthank]

OK thanks, will take a look. I played them and liked them a lot when I first got the demo....

PirateIAm: When you send out 8 equipped assassins in front of your army, and they only succeed say 50% of the time, isnt that like 400 gold + all that time down the drain? Is it worth it for you? Well it may be fun, so that's ok.
I have the worst of luck with Bane Spiders. I hate it when they die to measly little commanders, and they do so quite a bit when I use them. Sure the measly little commander may also die, but he wasnt a 150 gold capital-only unit which took me ages to get out there. Argh I wish I could use them B-Spiders better. Do you all have success with them? I tried the trick of having him take out indies; tried giving him a ring of breathing and going for neihboring water provs, but he gets licked by Tritons and only takes out about 70% of "normal" commanders at most. It seems he only has a great success rate against those 50g priest-types. Or am I doing something wrong?

[NTJedi]

Originally posted by rabelais:

Maybe I'm silly, but I find getting a decent blessing with machaka is way too expensive. Plus the Hunters, as marvelous as they are, are overpriced. (Until they lose their riders, Heh. )

I completely agree... by the time you are able to afford buying 3 or more Hunters its late into the game.

Also would be nice if the machaka militia could be blessed... then the province defense could actually do something.

[Daynarr]

Bless tactic is not a way to go with Machaka, at least not for beginners. Black spiders are powerful but are too expensive and you wont have enough of them to make blessing worthwhile.

Best way to go is good scales and pretender with single magic path that your mages don’t cover (like Air). Virtue, for example, is a good choice.