Re: Good Troop Summons
 

Yes it is scaling, as you after research the items, lightning rod construction 2, staff of storms lvl 6 and Igor Konhelms Tome lvl 8. You would probably start casting corpse man when you get lightning rod.

Corpse Man Construction does require some effort to set up but once you get it going, it runs automatically, auto monthly summons.

I am not a fan of drakes summons myself, I never cast those spells, not efficient use of gems. So I agree with you drakes are not very useful at present.

Re: Good Troop Summons
 

How big a problem is the abysmal MR on corpse men? I have visions of the other guy showing up with a stack of priests, or just Undead Mastery. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Good Troop Summons
 

I disagree that summon drakes is useless without dragonmaster. In fact, I'd say the reverse: once you have dragonmaster, you invariably have something better to do.

Now, if you fight with people who agree never to have any wars before turn 20, drakes are usless. OTH, for a turn 9 army of 110 guys, three drakes can make a *big* difference. Potentially a much bigger difference than five people who know fireball instead of fire flies, which would be the other option for your early research.

Dominions 3 has a lot of tactics that you wouldn't use if given the choice in the matter. But if you don't have a choice, you use them, and if you don't get demoralized, it's entirely possible to come from behind and win.

Re: Good Troop Summons
 

Sorry but if you're summoning drakes for the vanilla gemcost without dragon master (they're pretty useless even with dragonmaster, because dragonmaster is such an abysmal spell) then you must be completely boned anyway. You'd be better off alchemising the gems for gold to buy more troops imo.

Re: Good Troop Summons
 

I have to agree with Dr. P on this one. Drakes can e very effective early, and under the right circumstances much later in the game...

Re: Good Troop Summons
 

Other good summons, which are probably mentioned already, are anything EA Agartha gets nationally. The Umbrals are nuts, but my favorite gems are the Earth Elementals and the Lava Children (right name?). The Earth Elementals can overrun lots of stuff, and the Lava Children are a good (great, imo) answer to glamored troops. Massing enough of them is the key, but once you have a good line of them, fwackooming entire ranks of Glamored guys is wonderful. They aren't as mobile as the Spring Hawks, but they hit a whole square at a time. Also, Van/Helheim are less likely to be able to get FR than SR, which may make a difference. Also, they don't have to make a to-hit roll. All good things to hose the glamorheims with.

Wyatt Hebert

Re: Good Troop Summons
 

Mind Elemental, Shovah32

How do you go about using Lamias effectively, and, more to the point, do you have any suggestions for using them with EA Ctis?

Re: Good Troop Summons
 

I like Kithaironic Lions in EA if you have the right mages.

Re: Good Troop Summons
 

Sorry for the belated reply!

Honestly, I'm mostly going more by their reputation -- I never had more than a few running around, so I don't have that much to offer from firsthand experience.

However, a glance at them reveals they have, in addition to their excellent regen and poison immunity, an AN and (IIRC) magical weapon. This suggests possible synergy with armour buffs (Nature or Earth, though if you use the barkskin line of spells, watch out for opponents with fire magic!), poison cloud spam, being used to bodyguard thugs with Snake Bladder Sticks, and use against ethereal enemies...

Re: Good Troop Summons
 

I don't think the Ivy King has a head.