Using Wrathful Skies w/ National Troops

[Thufir]

So does anyone out there have any favorite troop types to go with wrathers then? I know storm demons would be nice, but lets assume you don't have access to blood summons.

[Taqwus]

Mechanical men work, as would spring hawks, but the latter are fairly fragile against magical attacks. Hmmmm, Air-9 blessed units combined with a 50% ward spell should also work. As if Vans, Black Templars or Black Hunters aren't brutal enough...

An Air Queen wielding Tempest and accompanied by air elementals or sylphs is -very- thematic, but that's not a combination that can be fielded in numbers...

[Chazar]

Taqwus said:
An Air Queen wielding Tempest and accompanied by air elementals or sylphs is -very- thematic, but that's not a combination that can be fielded in numbers...

Why not? Add a ring of lightning resistance to any Air4 mage, stir in some air gems and you have all the ingredients for some living clouds. Add some bags of winds just for the looks of it...

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Taqwus said:
Hmmmm, Air-9 blessed units combined with a 50% ward spell should also work. As if Vans, Black Templars or Black Hunters aren't brutal enough...

Pretty nasty with Serpent Dancers too: lightning & poison immune troops -> Wrathful Skies and Foul Vapors at the same time.

[Taqwus]

Welll, regarding AQ + Tempest, there's only 3 AQs and 1 Tempest.

But 3 AQs, two of them using Staff of Storms, would also be quite thematic; since Tempest also acts as Staff of Storms, all three allow the AQ to jump into casting Wrathful Skies instead of casting Storm.

Lightning AND poison? Ouch.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Taqwus said:
Lightning AND poison? Ouch.

Yep, a very powerful combo. I've tried it a couple times with both Serpent Cult and standard C'tis, and I've found it works extremely well with the latter: the Air-9 Titan has become my favorite 'high bless' pretender with the lizards.

Beware though, Thunder Ward/Storm Warriors don't stack with Elemental Fortitude (oversight?), so give your Sauromancers Rings of Tamed Lightning - or Shrouds of the Battle Saint, which is IMO an even better option once you have Storm Warriors researched. Blessed Shamen don't have this problem.

C'tis has a strong focus on Enchantment, and the beauty of this bless strategy is you can get the most out of your research in this field (Raise Dead/Skels, reanimation rituals like Behemoths and Pale Riders, Foul Vapors, Relief, Thunder/Poison Ward, and later their battlefield-wide Version).

[Cainehill]

One unit I haven't seen mentioned yet is Wyverns - both 100% poison and lightning immune, albeit a tad bit overpriced IMO at 8 air gems.

Also, when using WS on the defensive, if you cast Mechanical Militia then you wind up with some lightning immune troops in every province in which you have PD.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Cainehill said:
One unit I haven't seen mentioned yet is Wyverns - both 100% poison and lightning immune, albeit a tad bit overpriced IMO at 8 air gems.

Yup, another problem with them is if you're using Wrathful Skies you're probably using Storm (or Staff of -) as well.