Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

You usually get astral gems from astral and nature sites, both of which can be found by shamans. Not all, true, but it's worth sending them out. Still, it depends on luck, and you may end up getting most of your astral gems in some games by finding a good supply of water gems (with your Sauromancers or mercenaries or indy mages) and banging out clams of pearls.

You know, I've never been all that good at expanding into the sea, in spite of the fact that sea provinces tend to be fairly rich. I'll do water as LA Agartha because umbrals rock, but as C'tis I would miss my Cloud of Death underwater. In the past I've typically waited to expand into the sea until I find a province of ickies or kappas. Report on whether your zombie strategy works well; I suppose C'tis is also well-suited to skelly spamming underwater. My problem with underwater zombies is that they've got an attack of 3 and a defense of 1 or something.

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Shamans can cast Arcane probing and it only takes 4 non-astral gems to cast. I'd do that until I found some astral income and then it's self-sustaining.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

True, but shamans are also cheap, so manual searching doesn't hurt much. As always, manual searching vs. spells depends on tradeoffs between gold (mage-time) and gems.

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

"I avoided hiring mercenaries even though that speeds up expansion because I get the idea you don't do that (and it's kind of a cheap tactic vs. the AI)."

Actually, I do tend to hire mercs (not at the start, unless they're an unexpensive mage) but because I'm curious whats available. I don't hire most until my second year.

"Set taxes to 130% in home province," Why 130%? Why not 200%?

"I really have no idea what to do with an awake pretender, since he doesn't have magic yet and I don't think he can solo indies.)" I go with 10 city guards, 30 light infantry, and my SK. Until he got lizard shaman cursed, he wasn't in much danger (I am careful around cavalry and archers, though). He's not too impressive in combat yet (though his protection and attack is nice). But what's really a big help is his fear. Even at +0, it cuts down on friendly casualties quite a bit, in a fair fight.

"Turn 3: Buy 1 PD in newly-conquered province." Only one? So, is it just for the pd commander then?

"Turn 4: Newly-conquered province had gold and silver mines (+160 gold), plus 67 resources. Very strange for a swamp, but lucky."

Nice. More comments later.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

I find mercs are most useful at the start. 150 gp Brave Breakers can take 3-4 indy provinces before they fall apart, for instance, although you might get more or less depending on luck. Combine them with 30 gp Victor's Villains to extend their lifespan. Usually at the very beginning I'm production-limited more than gold-limited, and a merc company can make the difference between taking 4 turns to conquer all the provinces adjacent to my capital and doing it in 2 turns.

130% instead of 200% because I couldn't remember how good C'tis was at patrolling. My goal is to increase income for a turn without building up any residual unrest that will tie up the patrolling army for the next turn, when I'll need it for expansion. That is, either I'd have to accept the income hit from higher unrest, keep my army on patrolling, or else lower taxes. None of those is desirable, but if I set taxes at 130% or 140% (more for some nations, e.g. Caelum) I can get a turn of "free" income and still have my army usable for expansion on turn 2. Technically I *could* expand on turn 1, but I'd be doing it blindly, so I want my army to be doing something useful while it's hanging out waiting for the initial scouting reports.

I'm surprised the fear helps, since you have to be fairly close for it to work. I guess you're sending him into melee, which I tend to avoid because I hate getting afflictions on a non-recuperating/non-immortal pretender. Just a quirk of mine.

Yeah, 1 PD for the commander. Basically, if someone/something conquers a province I just want to be able to watch the battle. It's generally not worth it to me to buy a bunch of PD early on just in case a random barbarian horde drops on me; just take it back with an army. It does, however, help to know exactly how big the horde is and that's what the 1 PD gets me.

One thing that I didn't do in that test game that I should have done, is to built a High Priest instead of a Lizard Heir to lead my third army (IIRC on turn 7). C'tis has relatively low morale, and so having an extra caster for Sermon of Courage never hurts. Especially with chariots, because even though they don't usually break, when they do they trample your own forces. If I had extra gold I might buy a Lizard King instead of a High Priest, because Smiting can make a surprising amount of difference in combat vs. indies.

-Max

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

I find I disagree on a few points.

Scales

Prod/Sloth.....There is a swing of 12% inc and 60% Resources from one end to the other. This strongly affects buy numbers.

Growth/Death.....There is a swing of 12% inc, 90% supply and 1.2% pop swing. The pop does add up after awhile.

Heat 3....A must but you start down -5% inc and -10% supply

So S1/D1/H3 starts you at -9% inc, -10% resources, -25% supply and -0.2 pop and it only gets worse.

Does the bless really offset the loss in troops? I am sure there is a undead strat I don't see, but why bother?

A P3/G3/H3 starts you at +7% inc, +30% resource, +35% supply, and +0.6 pop. A 16% swing in income.

Thats a 24% swing in inc from S3/D3/H3 toP3/G3/H3.

EA C'tis has the kind of troops that you can insta army a very mean fighting force. Your losses are the flanking lizards so your core infantry just keeps getting bigger.

Yes, you have to go Mis1/Drain2 to have anything to spend on your Pretender and he is still weak. However a +28% inc buys alot of troops and you need the Resources/supplies to carry this off. In a long game the pop growth will pay off.

I guess it is a question of style and game length.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Forrest... I'm missing the context of you post somewhat.

Anyways, I won my first game on easy. I've finally managed to avoid defeating myself, so the next task is to up the difficulty level. Give myself an opponent who may defeat me.

So fear (0) isn't much, but it does have a range of six squares, I believe. I may adjust my earliest exp. strat, but currently, it consists of 10 city guards, and two squads of 15 light infantry on the flank. Given three to a square, the fear effect can reach to the other side of the squad even before it squashes itself in melee. If a hole opens in the line, my scorpion king is there to plug it, possibly breaking the attackers.

I haven't tried it yet, since I just won that game, but it may be worth giving him two thorny spears. With his high attack, ambidextrous, and low defense, he strikes me as the perfect opportunity to try repelling opponents.

I will try it soon though, since my next game is a couple of hours away, and I can easily afford a thorny spear from the start.

Skelies were handy in taking the four water provinces. They aren't great, mind you, but by choosing your target carefully after letting your dominion scout for you for several turns, you can gain entry even without a coastal province and amphibious units. I made entry with fifty skeletons and a Revenant leader(25+9=34 death gems, ench 3). I had about 30 left afterwards. The next raid, they all died. However, while I can't build forts or temples underwater, I can build labs w/ my Revenant. Is there any way I can access undead priests as EA C'tis?

Because C'tis starts with four or five death gems a turn, they can easily afford a skeleton army, and while puny, the undead skeletons are still useful in underwater combat. Specifically, it helps you get around the huge recruitment issues you'll have in your underwater provinces, and give you underwater death mages to help in battle.

Certainly, there are other routes to the sea, but you're likely to have trouble digging up the water gems for most of them.

And, while I wasn't able to threaten Ulm from the water, the mermen were a help, even with the only one province that could produce amphibious units. It gave me a place to raid from, originally, and prevent Ulm from concentrating their forces at the two crucial chokepoints. And, once I began my main assault up north, it also allowed me to mount more aggressive and successful assaults against their rear provinces. If the AI had ever gotten around to building another fortress, I could have used them to cut off some additional reinforcements.

Even if indie mermen don't bring much to land-based combat, even two sea-based provinces near an enemy coast can give you a lot of targets to threaten. If there's also a way to make sure its your dominion so they can't see the disposition of your forces, that would be great.

Any ideas on how C'tis can boost dominion underwater? Is the mound fiend an undead preist who can preach? Are there any earlier options available to me?

Also, slave warriors are an excellent option for ending a prolonged siege. Certainly, they aren't particularly durable in a melee. But sieging isn't such a situation. Instead, all that counts is strength. And since most C'tis troops are the same strength, body count is more important. If you can't summon undead to help you, you can easily recruit fifty slave warriors in a turn in most provinces. You might be able to get enough to force hiring a Lizard Lord instead of a taskmaster. And, they're not entirely useless in the fight either. Given their strategic map speed, you can bring them there before taking down the PD, during the siege, and when storming the castle. They can help you protect your less replacable soldiers.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

Isnt fear +0 6 squares around the fear causing unit rather than a 6 square radius?

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

C'tis gets water randoms on their Sauromancers, so you could forge rings of water breathing for their priests.

Re: Guide to EA C\'tis
 

You're probably right, Shovah.

"The base area of effect (Fear +0) is 6 squares).

Doh. Thanks for pointing that out, Sandman.

It turns out, I really should have been using more elite warriors early on. I've taken 13 provinces by the end of my first year.