Please Help Me Tune My Man

Also remember you can put a Vine Crown (Construction 2) on a Crone and have them chainritual Vine Ogres. This can form up either a flank or the center, leaving your Wardens to be a flanking force. Also Vine Ogres have a Stratic movement of 2, so you can move reinforcements of them and Longbows together fairly quickly.

[Kristoffer O]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:

quote:

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Originally posted by Teleolurian:
My armies were mostly Warden-centric, backed up by frontlines of Vine summons and flanked by longbows.

As an aside - can you make mercs into prophets? That would be interesting to do with Terminus.

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PROPHET FOR SALE, PROPHET FOR SALE! For a meagre 200 gold you will also get this army of fine men! Delivered right on your doorstep. Buy him today, only one remains!

[apoger]

My opinions only, take it for what's it's worth:


I avoid Vine men/ogres as they eat up too much mage-time to cast.


I suggest:

Manticore - 6 astral
Order, prod, growth, misfortune, all +3
Drain +2

Wizards tower

Don't invest in wardens, they are not very worthwhile as "bless effect" troops (IMHO).

Make Crones, they are great mages.

Research:
Alteration - 3
Enchantment - 3

Have the manticore cast body ethereal, luck, astral shield, astral weapon, resist magic, and then attack (rearmost). This should rip up most armies unless they have mage back-up.

Research:
Conj - 3

Summon Wyverns with air gems and Prides of Lions with nature. In multiplayer consider holding nature gems for mass Call of Wilds.

Research:
Evocation-5

If you need mage power in battle bring in crones.
Have them cast eagle eye if they are shooting lightnings. Use Orb Lightning and Poison Clouds on the enemy. Practice with the clouds... don't want to kill your own troops!

Place the crones near each other. Bring in a few bards. Have them sing soothing songs. This will relieve the spell fatigue of the crones.


Research:
Enchantment -4

Now you can use Cloud Trapeze to move Crones fast.

Research:
Thaumatugy -7

Use sleep and charm to round out the crones arsenal.


In addition you can try:
Wrathful Skies (evo-6) with a mage that comes in with air-3, or Foul Vapors (ench-5) with a crone that comes in water-1. These will lightning bolt or poison the battlefield every turn. However to do this in safty you will need to protect your own troops from lightning and poison. The wards are enchantments, but the low level ones only affect a limited number of troops. Take care and practice this sort of thing so you cut back on friendly casulaties.


Beyond this just use a mass of Tower Guard backed up by longbow. It's not flashy, but performs just fine.

If I encounter size 3 tramplers (minotaurs or shamblers) I counter with knights, which are too large for the small tamplers to slam through.


Once you have good income and some crones, don't hesitant to send some out to do site searching. Exploit whatever you find.

Put down a wizards tower on any province that has 20K+ population or is a big resource producer.

If you must use Vine men/ogres then mass a lot of them. Back them up with crones casting sleep clouds and poison clouds, neither or which will affect the vine creatures.

[ December 04, 2003, 19:33: Message edited by: apoger ]

[Gandalf Parker]

A note about wardens. Lord Warden and Wardens are one of the most powerful sneakable forces there is. Crones at home can be ready to rain Call of Wild/Wind onto any province that your sneaking army finds to soften it just before the atack.

Finding a druid province can give you sneakable archers. Or one with villains but thats more difficult. Add to that Bards, Monks, and Mother of Avalon you get the ability to completly and quickly setup shop in any province you take. Once its setup and operating on its own your sneaking army can move on.

OK its a tactic. And one that doesnt appeal to everyone. But it is effective if it fits your style.

[PvK]

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
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PROPHET FOR SALE, PROPHET FOR SALE! For a meagre 200 gold you will also get this army of fine men! Delivered right on your doorstep. Buy him today, only one remains!

I was wondering if you do make a mercenary into a prophet, and let someone else hire it, does it then spread your dominion wherever its new employers send it?

PvK

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by PvK:

quote:

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Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
...
PROPHET FOR SALE, PROPHET FOR SALE! For a meagre 200 gold you will also get this army of fine men! Delivered right on your doorstep. Buy him today, only one remains!

I was wondering if you do make a mercenary into a prophet, and let someone else hire it, does it then spread your dominion wherever its new employers send it?
PvK

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I think we tested that in Dom1 and no, it didnt. It was interesting to get 2 prophets.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by apoger:
I avoid Vine men/ogres as they eat up too much mage-time to cast.

I tend to agree, although with drain I still forge an Ivy Crown or two and use idle bards or druids to summon vine things occasionally. My main use for the low nature mages is still to give relief to my battle mages though.

Don't invest in wardens, they are not very worthwhile as "bless effect" troops (IMHO).

Hmmm, I won't agree with you on this. Warden may have lost their +3 to strength and attack in Doms 2, but I think air shielding and lightning protection would more than make up for this. My air-9 Virtue example (still untested, I admit) should have an econ as strong as yours with the same drain setting, despite having growth+2 only, due to her dominion spreading faster. You could argue that raising Wizard Towers in rich provinces would help you keeping the edge, but I won't buy it - the ROI is way too slow to justify their building as a purely economical decision.

Of course I'd lost the impact of a strong supercombattant, but now the Wardens are worth building (and consequently the Fortified City also is) and an air-9 Virtue isn't useless in the battlefield either. Eek, depending on who you're up against, and with minimal equipment and buff spells, she can even be used as a meleer. Have you ever tried what a lucky/ethereal/air shielded/mistformed/mirrored air-9 Virtue (needs one astral mage obviously, but you'll get one eventually) can do if you have her fly in the rear of the enemy to wreak havoc with showers of shockwaves? I'd say it's as impressive as what an astral Manticore can do.