Best sacred units?

[Boron]

I like Mictlan with a dual/triple bless best.
Their sacreds are so cheap that you can still afford them.
Because of their cheapness you can afford 1 bless more than others like Pan or Vanheim.
And Mictlans Sacreds with something like s9f9w9 are very potent. As a plus the formidable Jaguar warriors are one of the few non-capitol only sacreds.

[Gandalf Parker]

I did alot of tests on maximized bless. Such as getting three lvl 9's, or all lvl 4's with one or two lvl 9's. Even though you have to take maximum negative on every other scale it actually turned out to be a playable tactic. Not a win-every-game one but an interesting one. It should be an old thread around here somewhere on it.

Gandalf Parker

[Zooko]

I love bless strategies. In our family vs. family game right now there are two teams, each with two nations. Three of the four nations have strategies involving two level-9 blessings. :-) Marignon -- 9 Fire/9 Astral, Mictlan -- 9 Fire/9 Water, and T'ien Ch'i Spring and Autumn -- 9 Water/9 Earth.

That last one is me. You're probably wondering what the heck I do with *that*... ;-)

[GriffinOfBuerrig]

Yes, i really wonder: Black Spiders are also my Favs with N9 and F9!

[Zooko]

Yeah, those Black Hunters and Black Hunter Lords are sure something. It's hard to afford their gold+resources in addition to getting good blessings though...

[jeffr]

I'ved used Pan's White Centaurs effectively. The only real problems (other than losing in the middle/end game ) I have had are with Machaka's Black Hunters and Mictlan's Jaguars Warriors.

I overcame the Hunters because I could outproduce them. If the Hunters could have been fielded in something approaching similar numbers, I probably would have lost.

I couldn't beat the Jaguars one on one and had to resort to a combined arms approach of softening up the Jaguaur hordes with ranged fire. Preferrable lots of ranged fire. The Jauguars are very tough, I think.

These latest battles were in a Zen modded game using Sabre Cherry's unit mod (which gives the White Centaur the light lance). But the White Centaurs were never defeated by any normal troop (sacred or otherwise) in any unmodded game I've played in the past that I can remember. Summoned troops (Mass Ghost Riders, Mass Devils, etc.) and Super Combatants are another matter entirely

[Zooko]

I think perhaps Flagellants with Fire-9/Astral-9 dual blessing are the best. The reason is that they cost only 10 gold and minimal resources each, and they can be recruited in any fortress. And when you throw them into hand-to-hand combat, they deal out great damage before falling.

You can find evidence of this in Saber Cherry's battle simulator. It appears to me that if you spend X gold and Y resources on Fire-9/Astral-9 flagellants, then the resulting team of flagellants will decisively win in hand-to-hand combat against other national troops that you could have bought for X gold and Y resources, even if you get a dual-blessing of your choice on sacred troops.

Am I wrong?

Note: flagellants are susceptible to missile fire. An Air-4 blessing might be valuable, or else battlefield tactics to protect your flagellants from being decimated by missiles before they get into the fray.

Also note that your supply of Flagellants has to be continually replenished. They aren't like Vans or Daoine Sidhe or Niefel Giants who are intended to slay enemies and keep going. Rather they are intended to slay enemies, then die themselves, and then be replenished by a new wave of even more Flagellants.

[AMF]

Ok, so, new guy here has to confess to something: I'm still not entirely sure what holy/unholy effects are...

I know, this is probably a really lame question, but, really, what is different about a holy/unholy unit, and what do the levels in them really mean? As far as I can tell, unholy commanders can reanimate better/more undead, but other than that, I'm sort of clueless.

Alarik