Re: Earth and Magic Item strategy?
 

take out mictlan asap, the are tough late game.

Re: Earth and Magic Item strategy?
 

Arco leaders arent traditionally thought of as "durable". Basically all human commanders, no matter how good they are, are vulnerable to a one-hit-kill. If you want tough commanders that can actually survive a fight, you have to go with Jotunheim giants or Pangea centaurs. Man-Last Of Tuatha and Vanhiem also have glamoured commanders which can work (and buff themselves too). If not those, then perhaps Man (lord warden), Abysia (warlord) or Ulm (black knights).

Re: Earth and Magic Item strategy?
 

Best trinket weapon: "Stinger"
Ulms Black Knights can make good use of "Girdle of Might".
Shambler Chiefs are nice, too, with Black Steel Tower Shield. But do not add BS Full Plate, it's too heavy.

Re: Earth and Magic Item strategy?
 

Ironhawk,

That is a good way of looking at it. Pangaea could end up with some rather powerful centaurs now that you mention it. Throw in Gift of Health for a few extra hp, their good starting stats and some decent magic items …

For Arco, I am going to try the gift of health, if I can get a decent nature mage. As I am trying to get lots of gems, a Thistle Mace and an empowerment should not be too hard. I will beef up commanders, but use them as part of larger units of heavy infantry. I don’t expect them to win battles by themselves, but to stiffen the units they will fight with. It is a big investment, so I don’t know if it would work in a highly competitive game where every gem counts, but in SP, I am hopeful. Some should get into the hall of fame, which provides some random boosts as well.

I am also thinking some Horror Helms with the leaders in my Blood Companions unit, as they already have lesser fear. Boost that with the Horror Helms and I should be able to rout enemy units quickly.

Shovah, thanks for the idea of taking out Mictalan early. Combined with the map placement, focusing on them will save me problems later. I hate the casualties usually associated with a siege relatively early in a game, but taking the player out of the picture early usually pays good rewards later. Hopefully I can get some mercenary cavalry to race through the gate: that has shortened many castle battles for me.

Re: Earth and Magic Item strategy?
 

I think that early Mictlan, especially if played by a computer, is a paper jaguar. Their troops are weak (let's not talk about dualbless Jag Warriors, the chance of seeing those W9F9 monstrosities from comp is a small one) and you might even be able to out-dominion them.

And their castle towers use slings. IIRC.

Using cavalry sound good, and I *think* tramplers could be useful. But getting them is hard.

Re: Earth and Magic Item strategy?
 

Paper Jaguar, I like that. They were rather weak at first, but have toughened up recently. It is too late, as I am now seiging the capital and took out their nasty national hero prophet with a lucky arrow that sent him berserk. I am glad I did not wait any longer! Your comment on out dominioning them is also on target. I am going for a fairly strong dominion push, as Arco gets good scouting reports in areas with dominion. I have been able to generally roll them back. I assume that if they spend lots of slaves on dominion, they are not spending it on summoning.

On the magic item front, all my talk of boosting commanders to go into the front line has gone nowhere. I have instead been handing out a lot of missile weapons, be they fire bolts or bows. Getting your god killed in the death match leads to you recruiting priests instead of front line commanders… At least both of the gods died in the battle, I got some benefit from it.

Re: Earth and Magic Item strategy?
 

Forge of the Ancients! Oh my, I had forgotten about it. Any mage can forge any item you have researched at a reduced price. I am using summoned 1 Death Revenants to forge anything I fancy! This was the spell I wanted for this game, I can try out any and every magic item I want! Throw in that forging bonus weapon and things are dirty cheap as well. Gems will eventually be a problem, but right now I don’t have enough mages to forge everything I want. Ok, I could, but I don’t want to reduce research, as Mechanical Militia is really going to help me. I have too long of a front with three angry neighbors…

Re: Earth and Magic Item strategy?
 

It doesn't allow you to forge every item, but the effect is pretty close to it. All your mages get +1 to every path when forging requirements are considered.

Re: Earth and Magic Item strategy?
 

Ah, that is good to know. With Arco, I have so many mages with different paths that it really feels like I can do everything. And with the ability to get the path boosting items (Thistle mace, ect) I am sure I could pretty quickly get the needed levels in any path I wanted.

Re: Earth and Magic Item strategy?
 

It allows for all the low-level items, especially when your mages have randoms in all paths. Nornas of Jotunheim only have sorcery randoms, though, and can't e.g. forge Earth Boots. Your Mystics can't forge the Thistle Mace, either. And to forge Ring of Sorcery, even with Forge of the Ancients up, you need either S2 mage or S1E1. S1 allows Starshine Skullcap, but you'd need S1E1 mage to forge Crystal Coin... So S2, 3 with Skullcap, which becomes 4 with the Forge.

It is still frighteningly powerful spell.