Best Researcher for LA Abysia ?

[JimMorrison]

I always use the Dragons as Abysia. When the going gets rough, the Anathement Dragons get going - spamming Fire Cloud and Falling Fires, that is. Abysia is one of those nations that I feel benefits greatly from rushing towards mass evocations as fast as possible. Apparently with your late game so weak, you need to push your early-mid game strengths as much as possible, so at least by late game you are HUGE, and thus somewhat powerful.

[coobe]

hm i actually used to rush for construction6 asap while keeping me alive with e9s9 blessed guardians of the pyre. what do you think ?

[JimMorrison]

< shrug > I never have seen a big bless to be very great with Abysia, least not a dual bless. I did have a lot of fun with a W9 once, but generally I would think that LA would especially benefit from really strong scales, so you can mass Warbreds (they're so cool).

Of course, you COULD go Warlocks, and go for Thaum, playing them as an Astral nation with Warbred shock brigades looks pretty cool. Or you could save money and go with Salamanders, and rely on Phoenix Power to get your evocations up, but it's a lot more research before you're up to speed.

Of course, there's also Ench for mass Ethereal/Luck spam on your already impressive infantry..... LA Abysia is really interesting, with no real standout focus (other than good national troops) but a lot of feasible options of where to go as things progress. Of course, all of these options start to lose relevance in the later game, other than the heavy Thaum strat, but it is also the weaker option early on, IMO.

Seems to me that you want the good scales, because if you can afford M3, you can push a lot of cheaper researchers and develop all of your options, using versatility as your weapon against foes who have had to specialize more.

Help me, I can't stop typing.

[coobe]

im currently toying around with a s9e9 sphynx....

isnt the 50% fire resistance a downside on the warbreds ?

s9e9 bless is really a boost for your mages also

[HoneyBadger]

I like magic 3 with Abyssia, and then I use the little blood 1 guys-they're cheap, easy to mass, not susceptible to immediate old age, and function well as researchers when I'm not using them all for bloodhunting-which I'm often not.

[Wokeye]

Yeah I favour more cheap mages, as long as you have the castles to warrant it. Recruit Warlocks etc for spellcasting/forging.

Currently I have decided not to play Abysia any more, it is way too frustrating with the old age diseases destroying my researchers and spellcasters, despite Boot of Youth and nice assassins. It has totally destroyed my game a few times now, as my empowered/nice random pick mages drop off the perch.

There should be a bit more earth magic across the ages (demon knights, that scorpion guy), or perhaps some unique mid-late game fire/blood summons IMO.

Alternatively, I wonder about the effect of Boots of Youth taking away the 'old age' (dis)ability entirely, to never have the old age disease.

[dirtywick]

I think Boots of Youth are a little high up the construction tier.

[chrispedersen]

I have no luck with abysia whatsoever. But when I do play abysia I always buy N5 and race for Enchantment, just to deal with the damn age.

I usually imprison, to maximize scales - besides I don't need the nature until late in the chart. +3+3+3+atleast1,X,+3

Then I usually buy cheap mages, later subbing them out for blood searchers.

[HoneyBadger]

One thing I do is to concentrate on the few-but good-Abyssian units that don't have aging problems. It's one way to limit your expenses/resources.

[Chris_Byler]

IMO, old Abysians' afflictions shouldn't depend on the growth scale, but on the heat scale - heat should reduce their affliction chance the way growth does for ordinary units, and cold should increase it.

Then they can take their 240 points and still have reduced afflictions for their old guys - as long as they stay where it's nice and warm, anyway.

It would go a long way toward bringing them back toward where they used to be as a nation, in Dom 1-2.

But it would require recoding of a kind only Illwinter can do.