Sauromatian units

Kristoffer O · #1 July 31st, 2007, 01:15 PM

> Hydra spawn (is this unit worth its points?)

Unlikely. It gets a cost reduction in the patch. Also hydras are made wierd. So I have no clue if they will be more or less effective than before.

Ironhawk · #2 July 31st, 2007, 02:08 PM

I've never played Sauro but just from looking at the description you list, the Soothsayer is valuable in giving you scale points. Don't stop at misfortune 2, push all the way to misfortune 3 and then place the soothsayers in your key provinces. Of course it will not protect you completely, but from what I recall, these misfortune bonuses stack. So you can do a lot to offset a 40 design point gain just by choosing your researchers accordingly.

Baalz · #3 July 31st, 2007, 02:28 PM

The thing is the Enaries get the same feat with regards to preventing bad events, aren't old, and are only slightly less cost effective researchers (depending on your scales), and (assuming you can afford the cost difference) will launch your research faster than the Soothsayers. If you go with Enarie researchers you can take a death scale in addition to your misfortune scale - something I ordinarily avoid like the plague. (sorry, couldn't resist) Plus then you've got really effective fortress defenders, much better forgers, and just a whole lot more utility.

The regular archer is good, one of the better archers cost wise, but I like the lancers a lot better in most cases. They get the same composite bow but pack quite a punch when the enemy manages to get back to your archers. They're every bit as good as LA T'ien Ch'i's cavalry, so you can switch them to a heavy cavalry role as the situation merits. If you do need to mass regular archers it's usually worthwhile to put lancers in front of your regular archers so they'll have to be dealt with first after the enemy has run all the way across the field in withering arrow fire.

RamsHead · #4 July 31st, 2007, 03:04 PM

Soothsayers should be useful for magic dueling, especially against enemy communions.

Ironhawk · #5 July 31st, 2007, 03:04 PM

Ah, I wasnt aware that enaries had the misfortune bonus also - as I said I've never played Sauro. But the advice remains the same with regards to the ability in the general sense. If you have a misfortune prevention unit, thier use is to mine the Misfortune Scale for as much points as possible.

sector24 · #6 July 31st, 2007, 08:29 PM

What are the best non-archer units to produce outside your capital? In general I don't like spending 40+ gold on any unit with 10hp, so the higher end horse units don't appeal to me. The amazons are ok, but I'd much rather produce archers, which is Sauromatia's strength. I feel like I'm doing something wrong using indy infantry in the mid-game.

Someone suggested using the armored horse archers in front of the regular archers, I haven't tried that yet. Is that what most people do?

thejeff · #7 August 1st, 2007, 10:01 AM

I'm not sure the misfortune prevention units are as good as they seem.

The worst consequence of high misfortune (especially with death) is a catastrophic event in the first few turns. You won't have enough Enaries/Soothsayers at that point to have a good chance of stopping it.

Later on, you can protect a few key provinces, but for a lot of events it doesn't really matter where they happen (gold loss/gem loss/etc). And you'll still be losing provinces to indy attacks. Not the important ones, but you'll still have to retake them, and the important ones are fortified/garrisoned anyway.
Since there's a 3 even/turn limit, so events stopped by misfortune preventers count against that limit, or does it just let another event happen elsewhere?

Ironhawk · #8 August 1st, 2007, 01:30 PM

Sure, its a gamble. But misfortune always is. If you lose in the first couple of turns - well, thats that. But as your empire grows the relative effect of Misfortune will lessen anyway. Misfortune-effecting units simply allow you to manipulate the chances more favorably to yourself. Or perhaps more importantly: more favorably than the other competing players can.

HoneyBadger · #9 July 31st, 2007, 02:11 PM

I don't know that the hydra-tamer is really especially useful-in my opinion, he could use a net to go with his trident, and default to hydra-skin armor (someone else's good idea).

BUT-I will say, he *looks* very cool! Enough that I regularly try, and usually fail, to field atleast a small force of these guys.

I kindof visualize him as a Conanish figure (As seen on the cover of the original novel-swarthier than Howard had intended, but a great pic-and definitely not the Gubernator.).