Byzantine Pythium - hype/brainstorming thread

[BigDaddy]

Originally Posted by Digress

I was thinking you could keep a generic assassin, gain a generic spy and a cap-only superstar - corruptor/seducer-type that might actually get recruited from time to time.

They already have 2 commanders that aren't mages that are plenty good to hire. The Serpent Catphract (maybe the assassin should be riding a powerful serpent that continues to fight to the death after its rider dies! You lose the unit but almost always win the fight). The Emerald Lord and the Serpent Lord are awesome units. They are quite possibly THE best mounted and infantry human commanders* in the game. They both have mad stats and the Emerald Lord's are silly high. With equipment he's 15(base 15)/17(base 14!) att/def. He has 15hp, 13str, and 17 protection. That's freakin outrageous. I hire this guy because he's so awesome. The Serpent Lord is almost as awesomely skilled, but rides a serpent that is really tough and keeps fighting (but you lose it after the battle), a light lance, and the benefits of being mounted. I already hire assassins to carry bows from time to time, but to give them yet another great commander unit is it getting silly, even w/o the Serpent Lord, the Emerald Lord still rocks hard.

*Yes, the lizard king does rock, but he needs equipment, and, while size 2, he isn't actually human.

[rdonj]

Originally Posted by BigDaddy

They already have 2 commanders that aren't mages that are plenty good to hire. The Serpent Catphract (maybe the assassin should be riding a powerful serpent that continues to fight to the death after its rider dies! You lose the unit but almost always win the fight). The Emerald Lord and the Serpent Lord are awesome units. They are quite possibly THE best mounted and infantry human commanders* in the game. They both have mad stats and the Emerald Lord's are silly high. With equipment he's 15(base 15)/17(base 14!) att/def. He has 15hp, 13str, and 17 protection. That's freakin outrageous.

You know what else is outrageous? The emerald lord's encumbrance. If he has to fight for more than 3 rounds in melee, he is begging to be killed due to crits. You can't use this guy as a thug without giving him gear to try to compensate for the insane encumbrance. And, of course, you have to give up hiring a mage to hire this guy who is functionally no better than a normal emerald guard (unkitted).


Burnsaber - Sounds good I'm not sure that theurgs need to cost more if you're making them weaker, but I'm pretty ambivalent on that issue. So they'll keep battle vestals as their sacred?

[Burnsaber]

Originally Posted by rdonj

Burnsaber - Sounds good I'm not sure that theurgs need to cost more if you're making them weaker, but I'm pretty ambivalent on that issue.

Well, my new randoms give them good access to "Astral Fires", so they'll be better battlemages than in vanilla. Hence, appropiate costing.

Originally Posted by rdonj

So they'll keep battle vestals as their sacred?

Yeah. They're not really "byzantine" but are a cool unit (gameplay-wise) and I really like the conflict between getting a bless for a cap-only light infantry sacred and angel SC's. They've been overshadowed by Hydras since PPP, perhaps now they can see some use.

[rdonj]

Oh, looking at them you actually did make them MUCH better. Yeah, the price hike is definitely warranted.

I'm actually not sure how much different a bless would be for angel SCs and battle vestals. Pythium has solid units to absorb missile fire, and one of the best blesses for battle vestals would be w9... which certainly angels wouldn't mind either. Maybe add on an e4+ bless for the angels and theurgs. Still, I don't think that's a problem, I for one certainly haven't seen battle vestals being used much in the past.

[BigDaddy]

Originally Posted by rdonj

You know what else is outrageous? The emerald lord's encumbrance. If he has to fight for more than 3 rounds in melee, he is begging to be killed due to crits. You can't use this guy as a thug without giving him gear to try to compensate for the insane encumbrance. And, of course, you have to give up hiring a mage to hire this guy who is functionally no better than a normal emerald guard (unkitted).


Burnsaber - Sounds good I'm not sure that theurgs need to cost more if you're making them weaker, but I'm pretty ambivalent on that issue. So they'll keep battle vestals as their sacred?

You're right, they have a weakness, OMG... If you can't spare the nature gems, go with serpent lord. At least he doesn't have trouble hit and defending.

Battle Vestals are a joke stategically. They're fine thematically good, although I don't see why they aren't recruitable everywhere, except that Pythium really doesn't need a 'bless strategy...' other than a nice one for mages.

[rdonj]

*Yes, the lizard king does rock, but he needs equipment, and, while size 2, he isn't actually human.

I took this to be referring to something that is not an emerald lord, and took your overall statement to imply that he could be used without gear. What I was saying, was that there was no way emerald lords could be used without gear. If we are in agreement that they need gear to be useful, then I have no problem with what you said.