Re: Most difficult nation
 

Ermor gets killed not because they are the whipping boy. But because you have less to gain by taking their territories, which are more of a pain to take. An intelligent Ermor player won't make his provinces a target by oversearching ones too near enemies as Gem Income is the only real factor.

Other than that, it's very easy to deal with Ermor, but if you let them grow they can get out of control if you don't know how to fight them with a human mind behind it.

Edit: Or if the Ermor player is really stupid and casts Burden of Time or Utterdark without being ready for the consequences.

[ February 19, 2004, 09:36: Message edited by: Zen ]

Re: Most difficult nation
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hmm, is R'lyeh fast enough in MP ? Actually in SP I already have a lot of trouble cutting through indies (tritons that is) at all since they tend to swarm and cut down my fodder fairly fast and my Illithids can't survive for long if they are attacked by lots of "fliers" at once.

Due to this I mainly try to head for the land as fast as possible in SP, but in MP this would negate R'lyeh's advantage of "invulnerability" (except to Atlantis/Undead).

What are you doing to be able to expand fast vs. tritons ? Unless we are talking indies at 5 or lower that is http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

CharonJr

Re: Most difficult nation
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Tritons, like all enemy fliers, are a real pain in the ***. In the VERY early game, it's probably best to sidestep these provinces: You need a bit of cash to take these out. Illithids are a very poor choice to use against these provinces: As you noticed, the Tritons quickly dogpile onto them and kill them. Illithids are expensive. Since the setup doesn't exactly give them an opportunity to effective employ their mind bLasting powers, it's best to just leave them at home for this. Instead, I find that Tritons can be taken on most effectively by a combination of Crab Hybrids and Shamblers. A block of Crab Hybrids, with their improved protection of 14, can absorb the initial shock of the Triton attack, while the Shamblers can then trample the Tritons while they're locked in combat with the crabs.

Casualties among the crab hybrids should not be of overly great concern, as they won't be much use once you finish taking over the ocean anyway, as long as you don't lose so many that you can't finish the job. Tritons are just going to melee you regardless of how you try to prevent it, so you may as well simply deal with them head on.

Re: Most difficult nation
 

Ulm is strong, it is the only nation i've managed to slaughter ermor with, after 50 played turns.

Re: Most difficult nation
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hum, popular opinion would rather be the contrary .. Marignon IS Ermor's Bane, Ulm with its limited magic, weak priests and mostly-human troops is fodder for ghosts ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
Against BE or AR Ermor AI I admit Ulm can fare well facing hordes of crap Longdead/Soulless, but against SG Ermor Ulm is maybe the weakest nation of all...

Re: Most difficult nation
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hum, popular opinion would rather be the contrary .. Marignon IS Ermor's Bane, Ulm with its limited magic, weak priests and mostly-human troops is fodder for ghosts ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
Against BE or AR Ermor AI I admit Ulm can fare well facing hordes of crap Longdead/Soulless, but against SG Ermor Ulm is maybe the weakest nation of all... </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Not necessary.

Constructs and Fall Bears don't rout. To banish the undeads, even Ulm's cheap priests are more than adequate. For the rest, Blade Wind can take care of them.

I would think Abysia being weaker versus Ermor. Their priests might be strong but too expensive to field many. And their regular units are in general too expensive to be expendible.

Re: Most difficult nation
 

It's always seemed to me ctis is best as ermor's bane. Admittedly it's hard to keep the troops from routing, but you get wither bones, raise skeletons to make undead fodder of your own, and priests ranging from level 2 to 4. Of course other nations can do a decent job too, such as man (30! gold priests and accurate longbows to mow down the masses of weak slow moving undead)

Re: Most difficult nation
 

ulm needs no supplies with their favourite summons, this in SP thought.

i have yet to try my strategy in MP, i beat marignon, ermor and abysia in a SP game(all on impossible ai) just now with ulm on a kinda large random map with 90 land territories and 10 water ones.

Setting were the ones i always use in SP.
9 indie
everything normal
50 magic sites
victory condition 50 points ala 20 1 point 15 2 point ones.


the marignon pretender was a bit weird,i took over his imprisonment from ermor who had taken all his lands & forts, he stayed around until i outpreachedd him in the end, he was using a phoenix pretender and couldn't be killed weirdly enough o.O he had a elixir of life and had died about 300 times.

Re: Most difficult nation
 

Black Forest can be good vs Ermor. Ghoul Guardians cannot be banished by Ermorian priests.

Re: Most difficult nation
 

Good point. The ghoul guardians can't be banished, wont starve, wont get tired, and have the armor and weapon to hack through hordes of soulless or longdead. I can see them being very useful against ermor...however the vampires won't be so great and the wolves are only really moderately useful, despite being free.