Re: Help! strats using T\'ien Chi\'s Celestial Mages
 

as expensive as it seems try 30-40 fire demons, if you combine that with a w9 bless they absolutely slaughter enemys

Re: Help! strats using T\'ien Chi\'s Celestial Mages
 

If you could summon them faster than 1 at a time, they'd be great.

Re: Help! strats using T\'ien Chi\'s Celestial Mages
 

I'm not using S&A with a bless strategy. It's simply too expensive and impractical in my opinion since I can do a bless strategy with ANOTHER NATION a lot more effectively. Same goes for massing their military, which brings me back to my other point, why would I do something that I can do better with base theme? The M5E is a good point as well as raiding with Celestial Masters but you're trading off a much better income and losing your entire military as a trade off. Is it really worth it?

Re: Help! strats using T\'ien Chi\'s Celestial Mages
 

For flying mages? Yeah it pretty much is http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif After all S&A military is not terrible. I looked at it the other night - you get those heavy footment and you get archers. What else do you really need, given that your entire military is just like a placeholder to protect your mages? And you get the M5E which can sitesearch like no other as well, so you know your gem income will be good.

Re: Help! strats using T\'ien Chi\'s Celestial Mages
 

But your mages can only fly with demons of holy fire so really they often won't have heavy footies to protect them. Granted the military isn't that bad I suppose, you also lose out on the income to fund anything worthwhile after like turn 5 aside from spamming mages. (Since it really doesn't seem worth building after awhile)

Re: Help! strats using T\'ien Chi\'s Celestial Mages
 

Since you have turmoil forced on you, you also take luck 3, at least with the CB mod that improves luck. Getting 200, 500, 1000, and even 1500 gold from random events goes a long way towards making up the income lost from turmoil. Usually you still wind up a little behind - but sometimes you wind up _way_ ahead.

And eventually, you don't need infantry for protection : you slap a wraith crown on the flying mages, making them ethereal _and_ giving 10-15 undead troops for dead meat shields. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Help! strats using T\'ien Chi\'s Celestial Mages
 

The way to use footmen etc. is to send them off to the front a turn or two early, then zip your mage plus demons in at the last minute (cruising in from another front, or sitesearching, or doing magic stuff back at the capital, or whatever). And you don't really need that much infantry if you've got enough demons.

IS there another summonable arty unit like the demons? Sprites, I guess. Or the cold/fire drakes, which have their own issues.

Re: Help! strats using T\'ien Chi\'s Celestial Mages
 

but the DoHF has a pretty good range aswell iirc and i think the drakes have a low range, and while it can be hard to mass then i usually recruit 'too many(impossible imo)' mages so aslong as i have gems its not a problem