Golden Age Arcoscephale

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by PvK:
As I just wrote, blessing is optional. But Shedu's Earth and Astral are both reasonable blessings. Every point of Earth magic will give your Shedu +1 DR, so maybe consider a 9 Earth blessing, giving the Shedu 16 base protection, your blessed troops (and Priestesses) +4 protection and +4 reinvigoration.

A Shedu pretty much asks to be played as a bless....since it sure as hell isn't any good for anything else: You can't slap on gear to turn into mean wafflestomper at all, due to lack of slottage, and it's not really serviceable as an SC due to his severe and incurable encumberance problems.

8 + Earth protection and 230 base hit points counts as pretty formidable "resistances" to almost everything.

You'll be surprised how little this matters when the Shedu has no regenerative ability, and spends the battle passed out on the floor.

Trampling and 30-damage hoof are not bad.

If he USED his 30-damage hoof attack, that would be great. He doesn't, because he fancies trampling instead. This vastly bumps his his reinvigoration needs....but he has no slottage to spend on it. If you're really fond of the entire trample-fu, the Fat Momma does a better job of this: Same lousy encumberance, same trample-fu problems, but she has humanoid slottage, is quite tough, AND has regeneration. Also, no astral weakness, and is 50 points cheaper! While her encumberance cannot be considered an asset, at least with humanoid slots, it can be compensated for. The Shedu gets benched fairly early.

Yes he often gets killed if sent against a group all alone. Combined with a flying force that is formidable by itself, though, it's two deadly forces that go great together.

This is serviceable. I didn't pay 125 points for that, though.

He won'd get swarmed while there are enough fliers swarming around him with Guard Commander orders. Again, adding multiple fliers with different strengths and weaknesses together, can let them cover for each others' weaknesses.

Wind Riders are outlandishly expensive in both resources and gold...difficult to afford under Sloth. Also, if everyone is set to guard commander, the entire group routs the moment somebody bites it. And somebody will probably bite it that way. You can partially offset this by towing around a groundpounder team in the back, but then you've shot your flying army in the foot: It's no longer a flying army.

I say all this not to assert he's the "best" choice, but to point out that he's far from weak or "most useless" (tm, pet peeve).

I'd have to say that yes, he is definitely weak. Useless, though...well, technically, useless is an absolute term. You don't get more useless, you're just useless. The Shedu manages to avoid being "most useless", though, only by edging out a few even crappier pretender choices, like the "nerfed into oblivion" Sphinx, who is completely overshadowed by otherwise similar and cheaper options like the Oracle or Statue, which can actually still be teleported. The Sphinx, being devoid of teleportation, manages to land the prize here because his physical toughness is meaningless if he can never bring it to bear. Thus, the Sphinx still holds the crown for "crappiest", in my book.

[Blitz]

A Shedu pretty much asks to be played as a bless....since it sure as hell isn't any good for anything else: You can't slap on gear to turn into mean wafflestomper at all, due to lack of slottage, and it's not really serviceable as an SC due to his severe and incurable encumberance problems.

Let's try to make UberShedu shall we?

Here's the BEST Shedu I can manage.

Shedu
SSSSSS EEEE DDDD
Dominion 5

Amulet of Resiliance
Starshine Skullcap
Pendant of Luck

Summon Earthpower, Invulnerability, Astral Shield, Soul Vortex, Erthrealness, attack rear.

Yours for only 466 points!

By comparison:

Ghost King
AA WW EEE DDDD
Dominion 5

Sword of Quickness
Charcoal Shield
Starshine Skullcap
Elemental Armor
Boots of Quickness
Amulet of Spell Resistance
Pendant of Luck

Mirror Image, Soul Vortex, Invulnerability, Breath of Winter, Mistform, attack rear

291 points.

Which would you rather have?

[ June 20, 2004, 21:35: Message edited by: Blitz ]

[Norfleet]

Certainly the GK.

However, the GK really doesn't play to Arco's strengths, as the priestesses can no longer heal your GK. Plus I'd buy more magic.

[Blitz]

Certainly the GK.

However, the GK really doesn't play to Arco's strengths, as the priestesses can no longer heal your GK. Plus I'd buy more magic.

You could take SSSSSS in addition and the GK would still be cheaper. Although that gets me thinking...

What if the Shedu had 20-point paths like the GK? Would he be really so bad then? In fact he'd be pretty damn good. He'd still have hella limited slots, but he might just be the king of the caster SC's. High hit points, lots of magic, but with limited slots.

Hrmmmm.

Lemme see (gets out mod tools)

Nooshedu w/ 20 point paths
FF AA WW EEE SSSSS DDD NNN
Dominion 5
Fortress
Order 1
Sloth 1
Misfortune 1

Still damn expensive to make a rainbow out of, but that's a lot better value for a 125 point chassis. He's still limited in the endgame because of no slots, but at least he's a workable rainbow with high hit points and nice magical diversity. He's STILL no ghost king, but I'd use him.

I can't wait for the Posts about how overpowered a 20-point path Shedu is. Bring it on.

[ June 20, 2004, 21:59: Message edited by: Blitz ]

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Blitz:
It has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Of course it has redeeming qualities. It has earthpower, invulnerability, luck, body ethereal, and astral shield. It's also a flying trampler, which allows it to smash normal armies.

Myrmidons cannot go toe to toe with either Einheres or temple guards... let alone mammoths.

No infantry can go toe to toe with mammoths and expect to not take severe losses. There are virtually no infantry that can fight very well against Einheres, and temple guards are even more resource limited than Myrmidons.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Blitz:
Here's the BEST Shedu I can manage.

Shedu
SSSSSS EEEE DDDD
Dominion 5

You wasted a huge number of points on the death magic, since it is totally unnecessary for fatigue purposes.

Which would you rather have?

I can't tell you the answer to that without knowing the parameters of the game.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
Of course it has redeeming qualities. It has earthpower, invulnerability, luck, body ethereal, and astral shield. It's also a flying trampler, which allows it to smash normal armies.

Well, yeah, as long as said normal army can be broken in less than 10-15 tramples. Even Earthpower can't compensate for the enormous fatigue of trampling: I had messenger boots, a resilience amulet, and earthpower all running at once on a Fat Momma. She still fatigued out. Not cool.

Soul Vortex is definitely a solution, but the Shedu does not come with any death, nor a body slot to enable the wearing of bone armor. At 80 points a path, this is probably not something you wish to add yourself, either.