I’ve found archers pretty useful against them. Combustion also worked out quite well, and it only needs a level 1 fire mage.
I honestly don’t remember how many archers I had, but Ulm has some damn fine archers so I had a mess of them. They didn’t touch them. I’m not sure why. Maybe I’m simply doing something wrong in combat.
This game has so many variables! :)
Also, what’s the key for speeding up a combat replay again?
Just archers is not really enough… you really need flaming arrows. Masses and masses of crossbowmen might do pretty well too.
Speeding up combat replay is ‘F’
Hoplite
Yeah, I jumped on the F9W9 bandwagon since I recieved a random nation and didn’t have time to test anything else out. The hype is pretty much correct, at least against normal troops; I’d lose at most one unit due to a lucky hit when fighting any indies with a group of 8-12 Helhirdings. Against human players, they should be more vulnerable with a bit of planning… I may be shooting myself in the foot, but you really need some battle magic or a horde of accurate archers to be able to break their glamour. Earthquake, perhaps?
I summoned up some Cave Drakes…they can take the hits for awhile due to their high protection, but they don’t deal damage for anything, so all it really does is slow the Heim sacreds down.
I know they’re cute little guys… but seriously, Cave Drakes are awful. If you need a meat shield, your typical heavy infantry should be much more cost-effective. Did you cast Dragon Master to get all of those?
Honestly, though… I was banking on you attacking that turn, as I’d just hooked up with my troglodyte army. They disappointed me. It was quite the exciting battle, though!
My current thought is no recruitable amphib troops. The idea is to get people to promote a magical arms race to get under water via summons or items.
Sailing nations would be allowed but neutered because I plan to make sure there is enough sea between land masses to avoid surprise attacks from island to island.
Undead summoning nations shouldn’t be a problem. That’s an expensive tactic for most nations and they won’t get anything better than longdead cavalry/infantry which are easily handled by priests.
I wasn’t planning on a main continent. Just the islands.
Yeah, I need to look into some way to counter them better. I’ll look at Earthquake, but I thought that was pretty high level.
I know they’re cute little guys… but seriously, Cave Drakes are awful. If you need a meat shield, your typical heavy infantry should be much more cost-effective. Did you cast Dragon Master to get all of those?
When I first went up against your guys, I used my heavy infantry as the shield with a bunch of archers backing them up. I got destroyed. :)
So I turned to cave drakes. Sure, they aren’t cost effective at all (nope, just used a lot of earth gems), but they were able to stand there and take the beating your calvary was giving out.
Honestly, though… I was banking on you attacking that turn, as I’d just hooked up with my troglodyte army. They disappointed me. It was quite the exciting battle, though!
Yeah, the troglodytes sound better than they are, at least in my experience. It was a pretty interesting battle, except that about 30 seconds in I could tell I was going to be slaughtered :P.
Enidigm
2888
I know, that’s why i was suggesting a main continent :).
Rollory
2889
I think a purely islands game would be more interesting. Although having a continent would be an interesting variation on it.
Oh, absolutely, but that took no skill on my part - that was just Helheim >>> C’Tis. On one level, we weren’t even playing the same game. I think you played a strong C’tis, and would have done very well if I hadn’t gone over there. If it’s any consolation, that started me down the path of concentrating my forces in the east, leaving not much at all in the West, and now my current predicament.
And Hetzer - no hard feelings here, it was a perfectly good stab, and that’s totally part of the game. I’m just dismayed that my little guys got so thoroughly outmaneuvered. The air queen, who I had my hopes pinned on, turned out to be pretty useless against your sacreds - (maybe I had her kitted out poorly?). Anyone with some scouts up by Helheim way can verify for themselves if I’m spinning things.
’
What about trying Dawn with Caelum (the Hardest per the map’s guidelines)? It doesn’t give you quite the initial flexibility that Argatha would, but once you get through either Ulm or Kalissa, you could really see some very different outcomes.
wahoo
2892
I’d be interested in that game nick. I’m about 2 steps above apprentice and getting the hang of some aspects of the game. Current games have been dinged by players dropping out.
Androphag: Abyssia suffered a setback to the Ulmish raiders. Sadly, Rob stalled the last two turns and an interesting game has become less so. 3 active players with Agartha running away with it by munching on the inactive oceania.
Enidigm
2893
I thought pretty hard about Caelum, but Agartha is somewhat more flexible and has (imo) a broader range of option that players can use to differentiate themselves.
Caelum is in a more difficult, less flexible position, but is also more prone to being played “wrong”. Since i’m going to be designing the Pretender that everyone has to use, i need to pick something that has multiple options and isn’t optimized for one specific, but unstated, strategy.
I sort of had in mind that this could be a learning experience as well, so that newbie or lesser skilled players, playing the exact same settings, can see what some of the better players did, or at least, how they approached the map.
To be fair, I’m at war with the active Pangaea as well.
It is a pity about all the inactive players. I think it would take an alliance of everyone to beat me at this point.
All very reasonable points - I’ve never played Argatha and it would be fun to try them out.
Nick - the Islands map also sounds great.
Hetzer
2896
Yoo, the only thing that got me worried was that ulm sended some troop north and you asked me if he planned to attack you… imagine suddenly every red light warning lamp going on… Hmm the airqueen was a scary sight… but as she run for closed combat she wasnt that much scary…
wahoo
2897
Androphag:
Things were humming along nicely in the land of Abyssia. Few blood sacrifices here, scorching heat there. Suddenly offshore, A huge, huge, huge wave of Agartha washed ashore and blew through Oceania.
Believe Argatha has this game sewn up unless Jason Lutes/Pangea has anything to oppose Argatha. I don’t think I can hold off Argatha by myself and I’m in a war with Ulm.
What say you Pangea? Anything you can do against Argatha?
Despite having carefully built up my forces over the course of the game, it doesn’t look too good. Agartha is blowing through my provinces like a flambeau through butter. If any of us are going to stand a chance, a concerted campaign is called for.
Paging stormbinder, paging stormbinder, take your darn turn in Lictor! The game won’t host until you do and everyone else has taken their turn.
I did manage to get a pretty favourable position to build up after I took out Marveni early on, and I’ve been doing lots of site-searching to get a good gem income.
At this point I’d enjoy the challenge of me v. the rest. We should probably get a sub for balut as Vanheim as well.
