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LDiCesare
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La Ferté sous Jouarre France
Jan 2001
time: 05:27
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In a Marignon vs. Ermor match, Marignon are sure to win in my opinion. They have dozens of priests, pikemen to keep the hordes at bay while they are getting banished, cheap crossbowmen that can mow the masses to pieces if the priests aren't enough, and the Knights of the Chalice are just awesome (sacred they are!).
I played a game against myself to check which army was the strongest without magic. I played these:
Ermor (standard version), Pyhtium, Man, Marignon, Tien Chi (Spring & Autumn), Mictlan, Arcoscephale and Ulm.
It's terrible to see how poor Mictlan is. Even with an adbantage of 4 or 5 vs 1 they always lose... Ulm is quite solid but lacks good fire troops and their slow movement and relatively low morale doesn't help them much. Man has very strong knights but lacks good infantry. Marignon is very solid. But Pythium just rocks. Emerald guards are by far the strongest infantry that can be bought. Supplemented with some serpent cataphracts (a bit expensive, but turn into serpent when the rider is killed) or independent knights, they are well-nigh unstoppable. Tien Chi and Arco were a bit disappointing.
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quantum_mechani
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Alaska
Nov 2002
time: 20:27
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quote:
Originally posted by LDiCesare
In a Marignon vs. Ermor match, Marignon are sure to win in my opinion. They have dozens of priests, pikemen to keep the hordes at bay while they are getting banished, cheap crossbowmen that can mow the masses to pieces if the priests aren't enough, and the Knights of the Chalice are just awesome (sacred they are!).
I played a game against myself to check which army was the strongest without magic. I played these:
Ermor (standard version), Pyhtium, Man, Marignon, Tien Chi (Spring & Autumn), Mictlan, Arcoscephale and Ulm.
It's terrible to see how poor Mictlan is. Even with an adbantage of 4 or 5 vs 1 they always lose... Ulm is quite solid but lacks good fire troops and their slow movement and relatively low morale doesn't help them much. Man has very strong knights but lacks good infantry. Marignon is very solid. But Pythium just rocks. Emerald guards are by far the strongest infantry that can be bought. Supplemented with some serpent cataphracts (a bit expensive, but turn into serpent when the rider is killed) or independent knights, they are well-nigh unstoppable. Tien Chi and Arco were a bit disappointing. |
Ermor would have been a pushover for just about any nation in our game, I probably had to kill less than 50 undead total (plus an assortment of starving independents the AI had hired). I much prefer flagellents to knights of the chalice, with a good bless nine flagellents are far better than one knight, not to mention recruitable at every castle and costing less resources.
For the most part I agree with your army comparisons, though Mictlan is not too bad with a good bless (they can recruit Jaguar Warriors at every castle, and the capital only sacreds are good too). Also, arco is not bad at all, the hoplites are great for 11 gold, and the trick to using elephants is grouping them with hypaspist (higher total morale, which should keep the elephants from routing).
Oh, and the inquisition encourages those who question the Holy Empire's power and glory to report to the 'Marignon bureau of tourist information' at the capital. 
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solo
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Lowell, MA USA
Jan 2001
time: 05:27
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quote:
Originally posted by quantum_mechani
Also, arco is not bad at all, the hoplites are great for 11 gold, and the trick to using elephants is grouping them with hypaspist (higher total morale, which should keep the elephants from routing).
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I'm playing Arco, but can not find any elephants or "hypatists". This must mean I'm doing poorly.
You must be swimming in earth gems by now Ludd, my count being about 80 or more by now. Why not share the bounty?
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solo
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Lowell, MA USA
Jan 2001
time: 05:27
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Your task must be to free yourself from this smokey prison by widening your circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures.
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LDiCesare
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La Ferté sous Jouarre France
Jan 2001
time: 05:27
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Arco's hypaspists + elephants works well but emerald guards have even better morale than the hypaspists, so in the long run, they bet Arco. I said I was disappointed by Arco and Tien Chi because they are quite good.
I played magicless, so I didn't use the sacred powers. It's clear that sacred flagellants (probably better played with air bless to avoid them being punctured by arrows from the start) can be effective, but sacred they must be.
Mictlan's armies are useful mostly for patrolling anyway. They patrol, you blood hunt, and you summon demons. Jaguar warriors could be useful when berserk I suppose (because their morale is not that great), but then you can't produce many sacred troops at once, which limits their usefulness - the same goes for flagellants - you need high dominion in order to produce many and for them to be useful you must have a high magic.
Ermor can be very powerful if you let them start. Ermor needs a very big death dominion, so it can kill all the population in the nearby provinces, making enemy troops who would attack them starve.
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quantum_mechani
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Alaska
Nov 2002
time: 20:27
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quote:
Originally posted by LDiCesare
Arco's hypaspists + elephants works well but emerald guards have even better morale than the hypaspists, so in the long run, they bet Arco. I said I was disappointed by Arco and Tien Chi because they are quite good.
I played magicless, so I didn't use the sacred powers. It's clear that sacred flagellants (probably better played with air bless to avoid them being punctured by arrows from the start) can be effective, but sacred they must be.
Mictlan's armies are useful mostly for patrolling anyway. They patrol, you blood hunt, and you summon demons. Jaguar warriors could be useful when berserk I suppose (because their morale is not that great), but then you can't produce many sacred troops at once, which limits their usefulness - the same goes for flagellants - you need high dominion in order to produce many and for them to be useful you must have a high magic.
Ermor can be very powerful if you let them start. Ermor needs a very big death dominion, so it can kill all the population in the nearby provinces, making enemy troops who would attack them starve. |
Pythium's troops are indeed good. It was the first nation Illwinter designed for Dominions, and they decided to use it as the high end marker when balancing other nations (i.e. not give anyone else better troops, for the price). I actually prefer a Fire, Water, Astral or Nature bless for flagellants (or both fire and astral 9 from the baphomet). It is fairly easy to confuse the archer AI by placing some small sqauds of something else at the front set to 'hold and attack' while the flagellants close. Also, putting just 3 air magic on your pretender means they could probably forge a staff of storms (the best archer counter) by turn 20 or so.
Blessing is indeed a balancing act between dominion and magic. It is offset a lot though by taking a castle that can be built for 300 gold. Also, since full order scale is practically a given for most nations, it is easy to scrape up free points with misfortune. I also usually take full sloth and death for whatever pretender design, as the penalties are not very severe. Ermor killing most of it's pop usually happens even with low dominion, I usually wish the pop would die slower so I could get more gold out of them. The real reason for wanting high dominion with Ermor is increasing free troop spawning.
BTW, anyone playing the special multiplayer scenario Illwinter is hosting? It looks great for anyone that ever wanted more storyline in dominions game. You can find info here (the sign up thread is on the offical shrapnel forums).
Lastly, Maringnon Budget Province Defense co. would like to take this opportunity to tell Arco "neener-neener-neener" 
Last edited by quantum_mechani on 26-02-2005 at 23:44
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solo
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Lowell, MA USA
Jan 2001
time: 05:27
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Maybe it's over!
My mail is not working, so I have zipped my #23 turn and have attached it here.
 Attachment: arcos.zip
This has been downloaded 0 time(s).
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20-02-2005 23:36
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No, the only thing of importance are the great forges. "Living creatures" are only important in so far as they are a part of the process - a sort of cog in the machine.
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