Brainstorming Nation Strategies

[Jarkko]

The beauty with sleeping maenads is that there does not need to be any commanders present, altough supply may become a problem. But then again, it is just maenads who get diseased, and they still keep on repairing the walls until they starve to death. The maenads just keep on repairing the walls. Of course they will rout the first thing when the castle is stormed (with no commanders present) but who cares?

OTOH, if the opponent is able to take a fort with 400 maenads inside, without having to siege it for 10+ turns, you are screwed anyway And the opponent can't just leave the fort with a screening force, because you might have sneaking pans around (even tough there were none to be found by your assassin last turn, it doesn't mean there are not 15 pans there this turn), and a few hundred berserk maenads with proper buffs will rip apart any unprepared forces (like say, a few dozen indy chaff), and then the opponent has to start the process from start again.

The sleeping maenads are not a winning tool. They are a tool to drive your opponent nuts while also buying you time

And now I think it will be best to stop with this (or start another thread) before derailing this totally to pans Incidently, does anybody have any neat strategies for EA C'tis (in addition to the usual smiters + skelly spammers = profit)? I could use new ideas, and pretty fast too

[Gandalf Parker]

PANGAEA:
Nice thing about Maenads is that it frees you to build stealth armies. Stealth leaders, stealth infantry, stealth archers, stealth priests, stealth mages. Not to mention flying stealth scouts. The ability to place a large army soon in the game at the perimeter of a warzone watching for a weakness. Perferably on the far side away from your real position. Take a province, sink lots of PD into it, start building it up (be sure to re-hide the main force). If he does invest in retaking it then he isnt investing near you. If he doesnt retake it then you can get builders there to create a powerful secondary position. Keep your stealth armies moving, taking, hiding. Never use them in holding. If it looks like it will get retaiken right away then tax it to death while you can. Force him to invest more in PD than he normally would.

Carrion Dragon surrounded by maenads can be powerful. Take at least 2 death and 3 nature to make use the the national spells. Add blood to be able to create Black Hearts for those kickass Pan assassin/converters. Taking 4 death isnt a bad idea since causing 100% afflictions works well with hit-n-run tactics. Not to mention giving your Carrion Dragon Fear+12

Lord of the Wild with same magics. Personally I like 4d/4n/4b. Remember you can get away with going turmoil and sloth. Quickly get to Awaken Sleeper in order to move your huge armies.

Gandalf Parker
--
There once was a cocky guy
thought Pangaea would be fun to try
He amassed quite a force
and marched them all forth
but half of them stealthed and watched the rest die

[chrispedersen]

Gandalf Parker
--
There once was a cocky guy
thought Pangaea would be fun to try
He amassed quite a force
and marched them all forth
but half of them stealthed and watched the rest die

There once was a cockier guy
Who Pangaeia decided to try
He flew them all out
led by Harpy and Scout
but half of them stealthed -- the rest died!

[WraithLord]

Jotunheim:

-> Bless. E10N8, E9N9 or E6N6 if you want a cheaper bless.
-> Skratti rule. With good bless give them the shroud and watch out for low MR - their Achilles heel.
-> Vaettis. Take G3 so that they don't die all over from old age. Very good for various tasks.
-> Gygja thugs.
-> Push strong into blood.
-> Rush. Strong bless advantage diminishes with game progress. Be aggressive early on to utilize it.
As a rule of thumb don't rush strong astral nations. Astral has lot's of counters to small elite armies.
-> cold 3.
-> Communions. Yes, you have both astral and blood and they can be intermixed. Gygja communion masters.
-> Use stealth. You have the Skratti wolf form and all the Vaettis are stealthy. An astral Vaetti can be used to protect from mind hunts.

[WraithLord]

MA Caelum:

-> Flying. Its such a huge strategical advantage. Where to start, scouting the globe, getting there or out of there in time, surprise attacks, traps. You don't have to take to battle unless its in your favor.
Tactically, siege battles, get to mages in the back-line, kill SCs before they buff with:
-> Flying thugsable commanders (couple with forge bonus). Equip them as SC killers or chaff dispersers as needed.
-> S4 and above on pretender for Spentas
-> Strong bless is subpar. At most take a few minor blesses but even these are not required.
-> Build lot's of cheap castles. Caelum is mage centric.
-> Mammoths rush. Don't use them after initial phase.
-> Go for sloth. The high resource units aren't worth it. If anything make them in small numbers.
-> Lean heavily on Evoc. and Alter. for all the A/W goodies
-> Air Queens

[Redeyes]

Originally Posted by WraithLord

-> Flying thugsable commanders (couple with forge bonus). Equip them as SC killers or chaff dispersers as needed.

The Storm General really is one of the best, by having lightning and cold resistance at 75%, protection scaling with cold (8-20), and Storm Iimmunity coupled with his flying.

[Dragar]

Originally Posted by WraithLord

Jotunheim:

-> Skratti rule. With good bless give them the shroud and watch out for low MR - their Achilles heel.

For this reason with Utgard, and presumably for Jot, research Evoc 2 first to get astral searching going. Site searching remotes should be your top priorities, then a bit of Alt and finally construction to 4 to start the skrattis rocking

[Tolkien]

Originally Posted by Jarkko

OTOH, if the opponent is able to take a fort with 400 maenads inside, without having to siege it for 10+ turns, you are screwed anyway

Or they're an Earth Heavy nation and can crumble/siege golem spam.