LA Ermor vs. mass priests

[alansmithee]

I'm currently in a multiplayer game as LA Ermor. I have been in a fight against Ctis, and I have no idea what to do to counter his priest spam. I had lost one large army to him earlier, but it was a pyrrhic victory for him (he destroyed my army with his, but I had the immortal hero there, and he ended up killing 6 of his 7 priests in the army). Now, I had his home province sieged (it's still pretty early in the game, late year 2 so it's his only castle), and thought he'd be dropping soon. However, he just fought me off with an army that had 10 priests (mostly lizard kings and the lvl 2 guy, with a couple of the priest/magic users).

I have no idea how to stop an army that has that much banishment. In the last battle, I even had my prophet archbishop there to cast protection, but it didn't matter, My army was decimated by the time the units actually engaged.

How am I supposed to deal with this so early? Ctis has pretty much screwed himself long-term (he has only t provinces including his home fort, and is at the bottom in income, research, etc) and is still just spamming lizard kings. I can hope to get lucky again with my wraith commmander, but otherwise I don't see much I can do. Any suggestions?

[HoneyBadger]

You should be picking up some gems of other than Death? Keep him busy with your undead hordes, while you summon enough living monsters to take him out with combined forces.

[vfb]

If it's just H3's, spam "Protection of the Sepulchre". You need to keep recasting it until all your undead are covered, they don't get protected until they fail their save against it.

Use more battle magic. Wailing Winds will work wonders against C'tis. Combine with Plague, Rigor Mortis, and a few Shadow Blasts.

Cast Wolven Winter on the province you will be fighting in.

[Unoptimized]

A great deal depends on your tactical position, and how much research you have. Decoys can be very helpful. Skelly spam applied by mages put in front of your army is also an excellent counter. As are the classic Ermor battlespells mentioned above.

[alansmithee]

Originally Posted by vfb

If it's just H3's, spam "Protection of the Sepulchre". You need to keep recasting it until all your undead are covered, they don't get protected until they fail their save against it.

Use more battle magic. Wailing Winds will work wonders against C'tis. Combine with Plague, Rigor Mortis, and a few Shadow Blasts.

Cast Wolven Winter on the province you will be fighting in.

Didn't know about protection not sticking, I guess I'll have to change his script.

And my battle magic is very low. So far my research is Tha 2 Const 4 Conj 3 or something similar. Ctis has been recruiting almost exclusively priests.

I'll try to switch up my research a bit, and until then just try to evade his main army. Would repeatedly suiciding my immortal hero into his guys do any good? I don't know if the other battle was a fluke, but he pretty much solohandedly ruined Ctis' last deep foray into my territory.

[Rathar]

It might do some good but remember that immortals are only immortal in provinces with your dominion in them.

[Taqwus]

Etimmu can summon ghosts, if memory serves, which should be decently resistant to banishment. It's only one a turn IIRC. If you do send him into melee, the fear-causing helmet would be a nice touch. If his priests are busy doing Sermon of Courage, they're not busy banishing.

Lizard Kings need a temple and money; if you raid, setting taxes to 200% and pillaging whenever given the chance, they'll contribute less to his economy even if you need to vacate the province. So would infiltrating Black Servants w/ Bane Venom Charms, if you've got the gems.

I'm across the country from my manual right now, so I can't look up the research requirements, but if your Dusk Elders can cast AOE morale-dropping spells, that may help clear a path through whatever screen (predator lizards, say) that he's put up.

[MaxWilson]

I don't think priests respond to Fear by casting Sermon of Courage--at least, I've never seen them do so--and it only takes a couple of turns to Sermon of Courage the whole army anyway.

I do second the call for battlemagic. Depends upon what you've researched, but as time goes on the purpose of Ermorian chaff units is to screen for cavalry and get enemies to clump up so you can hit them with Shadow Blast/Cloud of Death/Banefire/etc.

-Max

[sum1lost]

You should have several armies available to you. Hit him in a lot of places at once- that should put a dent. Push your dominion at him as well- it should be cold and death, which will weaken his lizards. You should have plenty of temples anyways for freespawn- start preaching and raiding.

[chrispedersen]

Ctis is hard with their great priest to defeat via direct battle.

Push life eating dominion on him. Send bane venom charms to eat population. Shades with baneblades. Time is on your side.