Re: Beginner's guide to Lanka
 

Ano, thanks for the correction. As for your other points, I think it's down to a difference in play style.

I like Rakshasa Warriors for a series of reasons over Palankasha (when I can summon them). They have an extra point of MR over Palankasha, helping against Banish, and they do fractionally more damage per hit. You can create more than a maximum of 10/turn, and you don't have to pay upkeep on them. This is quite nice, given that 20 Palankasha cost roughly the income provided by a blood-huntable province. As far as Asara go, definitely a matter of personal preference. Javelins with a net precision of 6 at a range of 20 aren't to my taste.

In similar vein, while I certainly summon a lot of Dakini I don't believe they're the only valid use of the hundreds of blood slaves I can pull in per turn. Sure, Samanishada aren't much use but Davana are a very nice SC chassis and possibly on par with Tartarians. They're not insane, for a start. And ignoring Mandaha is bad. A leader who halves the attack and defence scores of most enemy units in the game gets my vote.

As far as bless/scales go, I prefer the benefits of E9W9 over S9W6F4N4. It's a little difficult for me to compare the melee benefits of Twist Fate, +4 def, +2att and 2 hp of regen against those of +4 def, +4 armour, 50% haste and noticeably less fatigue. I think in the late game my choice is better - Lanka's sacred SCs have 18 MR base and you can cast Fog Warriors, which is pretty much Twist Fate but effective against more than one melee hit. OTOH bless haste, armour and extra reinvig are gifts that don't stop giving.

My pretender build was a sleeping Cyclops, E9W9, with Order 3, Sloth 2, Heat 3, Growth 1, Misfortune 3 and Drain 2. I can only blame my newbie status for that, but it worked well enough. The scales are bad, but not quite catastrophic - I should perhaps have taken Sloth3/Misfortune 2 and suffered a few less barbarian attacks early on. Having a mobile sleeping pretender instead of an immobile imprisoned one is yet again a matter of taste - while Lanka may not need an SC god, one who can quickly site search for 2 paths you otherwise lack is a nice bonus.

I think Drain 2 is survivable for a heavy bless nation, because you don't need so much research early on. I trailed badly in research until the late mid-game, at which point I forged research boosters like mad and more than rectified the situation. Drain necessitates a tight focus on achievable goals in research, and having hordes of thug-level sacreds means you don't need quite as much battle magic as other nations in the early and even mid game. Oh yes - a minor perk of Drain 2 is the bonus MR for your troops.

Your experience with Enchantresses matches my own pretty exactly. They seem to provice a huge boost for Lanka, and it seems that they're pretty likely to be available since Whispering Woods isn't a unique site.

Re: Beginner's guide to Lanka
 

Of course. Some people already know my playstyle here;);)...

Absolutely true, they are better in nearly all aspects but shield absence and if I needed troops I would summon them. But my point was that Lanka doesn't need troops in midgame at all. Raksharajas and Dakinis rule nearly everything and by that point you should have enough of your early-game army if you didn't lose it obviously... Once again, I agree that Rakshasa warriors are very good but I can't find much use for them unless some specific situation occurs.
Did you try it? Of course these arrows are not too precise but against non-shielded EA troops each hit with Damage 23 is always a kill. Also, I didn't suggest to recruit Asaras later on, I just said that they have their niche when you have enough resources and can switch to Palankashas. Early on they are quite good especially with S and N bless.

Davanas are good and can make very potent SC's. However, their magic paths are rather limited and they can't be use for magic diversification - the purpose tartarians are very often summoned for. Lanka definitely doesn't need tartarians as sc's.

Did I say I ignore Mandaha? Of course they are very cool and you need one for each big fight but it is also late game. They are very expensive to be used as sc's and have not too good stats.

Did you see how a legion of Palankashas stands against, say, 20 mictlan priests spamming Banishment? I did see, it was miserable. If not my Kala-Mukhas I wouldn't conquer that castle and please note that my troops had +3 MR. Rakshasas without S bless would die very fast there. That's why I prefer to have non-demons in every army.
Once again I say that bless I'm speaking about was aimed manly for sc's and it's hard to underestimate the meaning of these minor bonuses for Raksharaja or Dakini. Your bless is aimed mainly for troops, OTOH.
Enc of Lankan troops is rather low and I don't think they really need that bonus to reinvigoration and they don't need quickness because they don't have too many attacks. In the late game quickness can easily be cast, btw.
One more point here. Of all Lanka summons I find Asrapas the best for the late game. When you can cast some armor-raising spell on them (the best being Army of Gold) combined with Fog warriors they start shining. Their stats are very good, they are not vulnerable to fire and have life drain weapon meaning they don't gather fatigue and berserk. All that being said, they are VERY good troops for battlefield-wide spells.

Yes, a bonus they don't need:). S9 Oracle is one of the best pretenders for the late game, btw.

Of coure it is survivable. Many things are. But why do you need it? Instead of rushing into const for rods, alt for buffs, thau, evo and conj for site searchings and at last blood for dakinis you invest into troops and heavy bless that will definitely leave you behind later on.
Take astral bless instead. Also, you will mainly need bonus to MR in enemy lands and you can't really hope that your rather low dominion will be there to help you.

There's another site that gives N1W1 and Enchantresses. Forest of thousand streams, IIRC.

Re: Beginner's guide to Lanka
 

I decided to attach a turn from the game I mentioned (password: egg). I'd like to note that I had a very hard early-mid game being in simultaneous war with Mictlan, Niefelheim and Tir'nan'og (which was controlled by a very good player and made the most trouble). Near turn 30 I was going to set myself to AI but at that very time Tir'nan'og suggested to end the pointless war and sign eternal peace. That was when I understood I should win the game instead of quitting.
This turn was the beginning of the end and of the total blood festival. End came in 10 turns.

p.s. Also you didn't mention legions of undead chaff lankan priests can and should produce.

Re: Beginner's guide to Lanka
 

Conjuration is not limited with summons. There're some spells there that you won't find in any other school, Earth attack, Manifestation and Ghost riders being the most obvious examples (Mictlan can cast horrors but it is hard to do for Lanka). There're other examples, of course. Probably, you don't want to rush into tartarians with a blood nation but there're very useful spells in each school which you should have in your disposal in the late game. You should never be satisfied with blood only if you're a blood nation. Also, you definitely want those pretty unique artifacts and many, many other things. Of course you can live without them but it is always better to live with them and have your troops in major battle buffed not only with Fog Warriors but also Will of the Fates from the Sword of Aurgelmer. Why not?:)

Re: Beginner's guide to Lanka
 

Good guide, thank you. Actually, my own strategy was somewhat similar in that game. I also thought that another thing which allows Lanka to take drain is that its priests can reanimate, which, together with bless, allows a strong early/mid game without researching many spells. And starting with Const 2-4, you can boost your research enough to overcome this penalty...

Re: Beginner's guide to Lanka
 

Ahhhh memories...

It's cool to see that from the other side.

Re: Beginner's guide to Lanka
 

Yes, that game made me realize that in most cases troops are not what you really need. It is absolutely possible to conquer nearly all the lands of opposing nation on turn 1 of the war with the teleporting thugs (of EA nations Lanka and Fomoria can easily do it) and this automatically means that you win even if your opponent has a great overall army gathered in one place.

Re: Beginner's guide to Lanka
 

As this is a bit of my M.O., gotta point out my favs:

Marverni, Tir Na blah, Vanhiem, Kalaisia, Helheim, Hinnom, and Ry'leh also all have recriutable + teleportable national mages capable of smashing most PD, and several more have good choices with stealth and or flying (mostly with flying boots) who can cover most nations in 2 turns.

Re: Beginner's guide to Lanka
 

Link added to Baalz' BL guide, for extra hints about monkey troops, and notes on undead added (thanks to Ano for the reminder).

Re: Beginner's guide to Lanka
 

Lankas blessed troops are good enough to stay relevent all the way to the end game. There are not many things that can't be solved by throwing an appropriate number of KMacs, Asaras, or Pals.

Try a +3-3+3--3 -2 -3. F9w9s6 or F9W9n4..