Re: T\'ien C\'hi help
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">As far as I know, scimitars, falchions and sabre's are all curved swords of various types. Sabre's were mainly used by european cavalry. Scimitars originate (more or less) in arabia/central asia and were the weapon of choice for medieval islamic soldiers. Falchions, on the other hand, are mostly a marine (pirate http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ) weapon, I believe, due to its shape it's more convenient for boarding actions, rolling ships and the rest of it. I'm not sure what they used in china though. Sticks? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: T\'ien C\'hi help
 

Regarding Celestial Soldiers, I found them rather nice -- high hp, strong, decent prot (for a Tien Chi unit...), HEAVY weapon (glaive -- something like 10 dam, -1/-1 att/def, length 4), enough skills to be able to use the glaive well. Makes 'em good at opening up high-prot units. They've pretty good morale as well, IIRC, and don't eat.

On the other hand, the glaive is 2-handed leaving no room for a shield, and with 15 prot and no etherealness or intrinsic air shield crossbows could be a big problem. They're sacred, 'tho, and you do have access to air mages even if you don't go for blessings.

Re: T\'ien C\'hi help
 

What of Celestial Servants? They've got pretty much zero armor and you only get 1 a turn. Are they useless?

Re: T\'ien C\'hi help
 

They eat like no other unit in the game... so out of the box, they're worse than useless.

But if you put armor and flying boots on them, then the huge strength rocks.

Think of them as a overgrown noble with no armor and a can o' whoopass in lieu of trample.


Rabe the Celestial Cheerleader

Re: T\'ien C\'hi help
 

They're not leaders, I can't equip them.

Re: T\'ien C\'hi help
 

Maybe a protective spell would do it... I know nature has Barkskin-for-other in Protection, does earth have any spell that lets you cast Stone-/ Ironskin to other units than the caster.

Re: T\'ien C\'hi help
 

At the low end, there's Legions of Steel, but that's a mere +3 prot. At the high end, there's Army of Gold and Army of Lead, but it'll take some doing (perhaps a lucky CM random, earth boots, Staff of Elemental Mastery, communion, a couple of levels of empowerment, Summon Earth Power?) to cast either.
Marble Warriors might be what you're looking for if you can reach it. Fog Warriors is also nice if you can get it.