Re: Nations with weakest troops
 

Goku: Ah, right, LA gets the Crossbows. That's what scares me about MA Agartha. They more or less have to rush to get their Statues to be competitive, and with really bad research...

And yeah, the Yakshas are really nice for buffing... but 25 Nature gems and Conjuration-4 is... rough.

Re: Nations with weakest troops
 

The Winged Rats of Caelum are not going to win a stand up fight against anyone who can stop elephants, but their mobility and utility make up for it.

C'tis' troops are just awful in all three eras. Ulm's army, though nice on parade, is functionally pretty weak. Arco has elephants, but past that is completely inferior.

Re: Nations with weakest troops
 

C'tis: Desert Rangers aren't bad in the least. Of course, LA C'tis generally has the best troops anyway. I've had good success with Elite Slave massing for them.

Ulm: MA, you're pretty much on. LA and EA are very different animals.

Re: Nations with weakest troops
 

As for C'tis, their infantry is awful in late era - all but desert rangers who are pretty good guys. In general, herbivore lizards are all bad troops but in EA and MA they have slave lizards which are very good and fast units and in LA - desert rangers and tomb chariots. So their troops cannot be called bad.
C'tis is quite good and balanced in all three eras, IMO.

Re: Nations with weakest troops
 

Bandar Log really must research Thaum to -some- degree to be competitive where it matters most.

So you are talking about a bare minimum of Thaum2, Conj4, and Ench3. Sure, that's not a lot in the "grand scheme", but with Very Hard (or he said modding it to some sort of Even Harder, or Plaid Research), that is a LONG ways off, before you can even hope to start dropping Strength of Giants on anything. Now if he also reduces Magic Site Frequency to further impede magic as a factor, then who knows how tough it will be.

Point being, he described a scenario where buffs are not really a part of the early stages of the game, and maybe are hard to really saturate even in the mid-game.

Re: Nations with weakest troops
 

MA Ulm troops not functional, I have to disagree, strongly! But you all knew I would. :)

Re: Nations with weakest troops
 

Well, besides the Tower Shields, Pikemen, Flails, Sappers, and Cavalry, what does MA Ulm troops have going for it? Oh yeah, the Guardians, well, that's a given. But besides the Tower Shields, Pikemen, Flails, Sappers, Cavalry and the Guardians, what has Ulm got for troops? NOTHING!

MA Ulm will never win because of the PD^H^H troops.